Peas

Adam has figured out a new manipulation tactic. It's his new word.."Peas!" For example, when I am reading stories to him and announce that I am done he says, "Peas!" And it gets him another story..every time. Right now I am laying with him while he watches a movie at his request. He brought me a movie and when I said no, he said the magical word, "peas." So here we are. One day I will learn to say no to his "peas" and it won't be nearly as cute when he starts saying it correctly. But until then, he has me wrapped around his little finger.

Desperate Times...

Is it completely unheard of to ground your child from cereal? Maybe. That's just the sort of unheard of punishment you'll find here at our house when I am at my wit's end with one of my children. Specifically when Hunter is having a meltdown because I won't allow him to have cereal for lunch when he just had a bowl not even 2 hours ago for breakfast, that is the first threat that happened to spill out of my mouth. "If you mention cereal one more time..." What was his response? "CCEERRREEAAALLL!!!!!"
Did I regret it as soon as it was said? Of course. They eat cereal and only cereal every morning for breakfast. I knew that Hunter wouldn't suddenly become logical and avoid further mention of the subject. Self-control has never been one of Hunter's strengths (note he is still having meltdowns at age 5 in 3 weeks.) So the punishment had been dealt. This meant I had to figure out something else to feed my picky eater for the duration of the sentence..2 days. This morning when he asked for cereal, I reminded him of his restriction. He immediately crumpled into a heap of sobbing mess on the floor. I sent him to his bed. Trevor instinctively knew there would be trouble this morning when Hunter emerged from his room before 6 a.m. After some screaming, yelling and crying about cereal he finally calmed down. I went in to give him his breakfast options. He started to crack when I mentioned the first few but when I got to Pop-tart, he happily selected that and hopped off his bed. Was it the best breakfast choice? Definitely not. But what's a harried mom to do? She does whatever she can to survive all the challenges the kids throw at her multiple times daily. At least that's how this mom handles things! Someday my kids will do the same irrational things to their kids. And then I will giggle in a sinister way and know that justice has been served! Just kidding!

Yellow Belt

Jacob earned his yellow belt in karate today. We are so proud of his hard work and dedication. He LOVES karate. He begged to start attending lessons. His favorite cousin started the whole infatuation since he takes karate. I found a wonderful deal on classes for a month on a daily deal site so we decided to let him try it out, all the while, secretly hoping he would grow tired of it quickly as he had with t-ball. We weren't too excited to pay full price for future lessons. Well he wasn't interested in giving it up, so we decided to suck it up and let him continue. It has been really good for him and it is so exciting to watch him learn and improve. It is also enjoyable to watch him do something he absolutely loves.

Aunt Sabrina

Every time my sister, Sabrina, babysits my kids, Adam has a meltdown when its time to go home. When I pick him up to carry him out of her house, I feel like a kidnapper ripping a child away from his mother. He LOVES Sabrina. He even cries when she leaves our house to go home. He reaches out his arms for her while I am holding him when we say goodbye to her at the door. It's like he's saying, "Take me with you!" I assume it's because she lets him do whatever he wants. He doesn't enjoy being told no, which happens frequently when he is in my care. Trevor asked me, "Do you think Adam thinks Sabrina is his mom?" I'm not worried he thinks Sabrina is his mom, only that he wishes she was!

Handful

This little guy has been a huge handful lately. I am constantly finding him on top of tables & counters getting into things I thought were safely out of reach. I am also constantly cleaning up
after him from food he spits out onto the floor or his new favorite hobby, dipping wipes into the toilet and squeezing the water all over the floor. I feel like I'm running around in circles all day chasing this little Tasmanian devil. Yesterday he called 911. What are the chances that a 17 month old would dial 911 and push talk to make the call go through? Better than I assumed. While he was playing with it, it started ringing. I told him to bring it to me and he complied. The caller ID showed Mesa Government. I was surprised and answered. It was a 911 operator asking me if I had an emergency. I told her no and that my son had been playing with the phone. After she verified some info she let me go but not before informing me the police might still show up to make sure all was well. After about 10 minutes I assumed they weren't coming. Then Hunter came running out if his room yelling "A police officer is here!" (He was very excited.) I opened the door and greeted a Mesa police officer. I let him know that we were all safe and assured him I wouldn't let my baby play with the phone anymore. So if you live nearby and had an actual emergency on Friday afternoon, I apologize for monopolizing the system. I have noticed my kids get more and more difficult with each one. They also get louder. I didn't think any child could ever be as loud as Hunter. Boy was I wrong. I'm really wondering if I'll ever feel brave enough to allow #4 to make it here!

Monday

It's been a hard day for all of us so far. It started with me waking up 20 minutes late. Hunter came running in to tell me it was past 7. I flew out of bed and ran to get Jacob up. Apparently he had already been up for about a half hour thanks to his alarm clock. Unfortunately he had done nothing to get ready for school. I found him hanging out in his room still in his pajamas. I quickly helped him get dressed and upstairs to eat breakfast. We rushed out the door about 10 minutes later and surprisingly made it to school on time. (The crossing guard informed me there are only 9 days of school left. Hooray!) When I got home Adam was on a mess rampage. Within an hour, I cleaned up a bag of candy he spilled all over the floor, the slobber that dribbled out of his mouth while eating said candy, cereal & milk that spilled out of his bowl when he reached up and tipped it while it was on the counter, some dry cereal he spilled when he knocked the box over and some peanut butter on the counter that he got into sometime after I made Jacob's lunch. That was my morning in a nutshell. After things calmed down, I made some cookies. Hunter went to grab one straight out of the oven. I intercepted and warned him they were hot so don't touch. 2 minutes later he was screaming. I didn't realize a separate warning for the hot pan was required. He had some nice blisters as a result. I gave him an ice pack for his sore fingers. Later he came into the kitchen with a disgusted look on his face. He handed me the ice pack and mumbled something about it tasting yucky. Apparently he was trying to cool off his teeth for some reason and bit a hole in the ice pack. This is not the first time he has done this. I assumed that my almost 5 year old knew better by now. He ended up crying himself to sleep on the couch The rest of the day was calm until Jacob yelled from downstairs after taking his shower that water was coming out of the cupboards. The sub pump was overflowing. We had trouble with it a few weeks ago and it was acting up again. Trevor got it taken care of pretty easily, but we were all glad to see this crappy day end. Here's hoping for a better tomorrow!

Happy Mother's Day!

You never really understand all that your own mother has done for you until you become one yourself. It is HARD work! I still can't believe my mom did this 13 times or that Trevor's mom did it 6 times when we are struggling to make it to the #4 mark. I am so grateful for all our mothers have done and continue to do for us. We are so blessed to have wonderful examples of what being a mother means. Happy Mother's Day to our beloved mothers and to all the other mothers out there!

Gross

I'm not sure why Adam was prompted to stick his pretzel sticks in between his toes before eating them but it was all I could do to just turn away and let him. We were driving to Pinetop and let's just say the car is not Adam's favorite place..ever. Even on short 5 minute trips he gets upset. I have resorted to let him have his binky, which is usually strictly reserved for bedtime, in hope of preserving the peace. It barely helps. He screamed at least every minute for the first 2 hours. Then we had the brilliant idea to turn off Jacob & Hunter's movie off and let Adam have a turn with his Baby Einstein dvd. He only screamed about every 5 minutes afterward. I told him he must really not want a younger sibling. He screamed at me in reply. Heaven help us and our sore ears.

Newest Hell's Angel?

Adam LOVES the new motorcycle we just got for the kids. Every time he sees it he says 'gah gah' (which is his word for lots of things). He screams if there is anyone else riding it. We are still trying to teach him how to take turns. I think we should be nervous.