I'm in Love with a girl named, Maya.

I am in LOVE with this girl!! She's sassy, she's a diva, she's sweet, she's loving, she's a stinker, she's joyful, she's silly, she's splendid.
There has not been a day that has past in the last 21 (almost, let's not age her) that this little one has not brought a smile to my face. She just has this personality and face that grabs me and others. Not a day goes by someone does not comment on her to me, say something to her or pass by her and comment to whomever someone is with. She says "HI" to anyone, "BYE" when we leave, gives a shy smile at the perfect moments and stares you down if need be.

She dances, sings, babbles, giggles, cries, whines, and mesmorizes. It is so dang hard to be mad at her for some wrongdoing, because she'll give you one of these:

Unless you have sat back and watched her go, it is really hard to paint you a picture. She is one of a kind and she is MINE!!

I am LUCKY!

Okay, so I got a little upset with myself after my post two days ago. But, I've kinda been a single mom for the past few months, I wasn't (and still am not) feeling swell and it was just one of those days. I know everyone has them, just not everyone writes it down.

So here is my reason for thinking of this. I was going through my Facebook homepage and saw that one of my friends had to take her son, 5 months old or so, to Urgent Care and ended up with a diagnosis of a double ear infection. I have seen this on a few other's status updates in previous months and I always feel sorry for the parent and quite relieved as one also.

I have been so fricking lucky to have such seriously healthy kids!! No Urgent Care trips here!! Neither one of them has had an ear infection. I don't remember ever having one as a kid and Buddy doesn't either. I do remember my brother having one or two and drinking the pink medicine that smelled like bubblegum.

Hayden has never had what I would consider the flu, just a little stomach thing twice at night and he was fine the following day. Colds, yes, but never anything serious. I have taken Hayden to the doctor once, that I recall, for something other than the routine checkups. I thought he was getting an ear infection because he tugged on his ear once and was a little more crabby than usual. He was teething. He's never had a prescription, never had any aversion to formula or allergic reaction to food. We think he's allergic to cats though. That will be tested again soon. The kid hasn't had a fever since he was 1.

He has, however, been to the ER twice. Both for the same thing and something completely avoidable. Nursemaids elbow. He slipped in the locker room at the gym when he was 1.5 and he was holding my hand at the time. I pulled up, he went down, screaming from him and panic from me. The second time was from playing in his room. Him and I (of course, the one who's typically NOT rough) were just having fun, he was on one side of the bed, me on the other; I grabbed his hands, pulled and her the pop. Off to the ER. **Please don't pull your kids up by just their hands!! That's how this happens and I kick myself when I catch myself doing it to Maya!! (Which I hardly ever do!)

Miss Maya has had a few more colds in her shorter time. She had the flu once that lastest a few days. I figured out her formula issue myself. And she had a horrible cough that lasted for months last year, but it only affected her at night. Since she was otherwise perfectly healthy, the doc said to watch it, it may be allergies. Sure enough, Springtime came and it got a smidge worse. Got some sample packets of Singular and it was gone. Never a prescription for this girl either!!

Everyone around here (AZ I mean) and many on Facebook have kids that have had ear infections, nebulizers (sp?), pooping issues (with all three kids at some point for one I may add), asthma, other breathing stuff, colic, formula problems, double ear infections and that's what I can think of now.

I am so very thankful for my two extremely healthy, not to mention adorable, kids. I am such a lucky mom. I am so lucky to have both of them here, in my family, my home and my heart.

Lurking

I am sitting on the couch doing my morning thing. It's 6:52 am.

At 6:28 am, Hayden got up. Last night I drilled, I thought, into him that he needs to stay in bed until 7:00. I tell him, seven zero zero.

He went back to his room for approximately 7 minutes.

He's now been sitting at the top of the stairs for around 15 minutes (it's too early for math!) and thinks I don't hear him. I'm playing ignorant.

He just spoke:

"Mom, it keeps not saying seven zero zero."

"Dude, you have to wait. It will take a few more minutes."

"Fine."

He's gone back to his room.

My day...

I got out of bed at 6:24am. Did my business, opened the computer, turned on the news and got my cup of coffee. All that took, what, 5 minutes tops. I had just sat on my keester on the couch and heard the unmistakable footfalls of H. First thoughts in my head? "CRAP!"
Last night, about 2am, Maya started a coughing attack and couldn't get herself back to sleep, so I grabbed her up and plopped her with me. Typically, she will sleep past 7, but I don't know, she heard H or something and I heard her little run across my room and greeted H at the stairs. "DOUBLE CRAP!"
Seriously, my only "me" time is in the morning with my coffee, computer and news and I wasn't getting that this morning. Nighttime I am ready to sleep at 8:30/9. And, typically, when I am greeted this early by these two, it's not going to be a good day.
And it wasn't.
Getting H dressed was a fight. He has this thing about matching and it wasn't working this morning. Just because there is a speck of the color in the shirt that goes with a stripe on the shorts does not make it a matching combination. Maya would not sit still to comb her hair (have you seen it?!). I have been fighting some kind of cold/allergy crud the last few days; plugged ears, nose and itchy throat, yuck. Somehow we managed breakfast, a ride to the gym/daycare and home again. And that's when the &%^$ hit the fan. Hard.
Maya has this unbelievable capability of getting in the way of me or getting into something in the kitchen whenever I am cooking. She puts herself between me and the cupboard and latches. So annoying, seriously. It's never a playful thing, it's a crying because she's hungry and nothing is going to stop her until her dinner is served. Lunch ended up being frozen cheese pizza, black olives and oranges. While "making" it, she moves the kitchen chairs to any countertop I am not occupying and discovers every single thing withing reach. She does this all day, everyday. My table looks like a cafeteria during the mopping process. Chairs turned up onto the table with legs sticking up to keep her from making that obnoxious noise of moving the chairs across the tile. Man, does that tick her off!
Later in the day, while Maya was sleeping, I needed a nap. This cold thing is kicking my tush. I couldn't keep my eyes open and H is totally fine playing in the living room while I have a rest. He played with LEGOS with the "understanding" they needed to be picked up when I said so, "you should only take out what you need", I say. They are dumped on the coffee table and floor. LEGOS everywhere and it took him 2 hours of me (45 minutes of it in and out sleep) for them all to be put in the bucket. It's not that big of a bucket!!
Then another hour was wasted yelling to get the playroom upstairs cleaned up and things put away. Plus, he was a complete butt to Maya today. Takes/slaps the NUK out of her mouth, sits on her cuz she's in "his" spot, slaps her highchair tray while she eating and really just finds any way to piss her off; just a brat to her. She wasn't the super gem she could have been, but I give her a little break since her understanding of things isn't at H's level.
Throw in a tantrum by H about eating his peas, spilling milk and saying he didn't and him getting so mad that my birthday is now taken away and my day is complete.
Now: Glass two of Little Black Dress Chardonney and happiness has filled me again, except I can't hear, breath and my throat is a bit dry.

Super H

It's tough being a 4 year old boy at home with a sister and mom. I have been sewing skirts and doing hair bows and bracelets for Maya. It was very obvious that Hayden felt a little left out. He asked for a bracelet, but Swarovski crystals are just not masculine. I did make him a necklace, but he seems less than impressed with it.

I follow a sewing blog whose author makes superhero capes. I figured I could find a pattern somewhere and make that for H. He was very excited about it.

With a little research, I came up with a pattern. I figured reversible was doable. He told me what he wanted on it and voila!

He really is excited about it! I got lots of Thanks, Mom's. :)

And, later that day...

I couldn't help myself. I had some leftover trim from her lamp in her room and a crown template....

Settling...

Last week was, well in a word, a bitch. Looking back, I think I blew a lot of things out of proportion and my stress level was probably a little higher than normal considering Buddy hasn't be able to be home as much as we are used to.

Maya has learned every button to push and pushes them repeatedly. I thank myself for not putting wood floors in the kitchen because of the amount the chairs have been pushed from cupboard to cupboard and room to room. The noise itself is enough to drive someone crazy.

Hayden was actually pretty dang good. It was just the question after question after question and the comment after comment after comment. I just have to remind myself that this is the way 4 year olds are.

My cousin, whom I babysat as an infant and is now a mom herself which I still cannot get over, remembers me asking her why she had to ask so many questions when she was around 4/5 and now has a 4 year old herself doing the same thing. (That was a sentence no English teacher would approve) I completely remember her repeatedly asking "Why?" to everything. So, it either happens to every child or it just runs in my family.

Anyway, this week has been better. Maya is still a little diva, Hayden is still asking questions and tells me which numbers are bigger than other numbers hourly, but it's better. We've settled back into a routine and have cold pizza for snacks and popcorn for dinner. Sometimes.

Hey, if you didn't always have to make a meal, you'd do it too!

Fill it up

Hayden went to the dentist a couple weeks ago for his 6 month check-up and ended up with a cavitiy. Uck. Hayden seemed extremely proud of himself for some reason. He talked about it like it was the coolest thing he has accomplished. I don't know how many times I had to tell him that they are not good and that it's a big bummer he has one.

So, today he got it filled. I wasn't allowed in to sit by his side and hold his hand. Not that I would have been able to. I get faint pretty darn easy. Anyway, I sat close to the door and could hear the dentist talking to him, the drills and other equipment running, but not a peep from Hayden. Not one yell out for me, not on cry of pain (not that I wanted that), not one little miniscule sound from my little man. Nope.

20 minutes later, he comes walking out of there with a smile that matched his Paul Frank monkey shirt. I got a nice, "Hi, Mom!" The dentist said he did wonderfully. He laid perfectly still, didn't make a sound, didn't shed one tear. Oh, he got gassed, not injected, just in case you were curious.

"Hey, Bud. How you doing? Does your mouth hurt?"

"No. I liked getting my cavity. See, I got a Transformer sticker for me and a sticker for Maya and I got this dinosaur."

Alright then. Off to Target for an Icee. As we are driving there, I asked him if his mouth hurt, again. He said no, he was fine.

Me: "So you liked getting your cavity filled?"

H: "Yep."

M: "It wasn't scary? Mommy doesn't like getting cavities filled. It's okay if you didn't like it."

H: "No, it wasn't scary. It was fine."

M: "What was your favorite part?"

H: "Getting the Transformer sticker."

Ah.

I'm Cooked

I'm burned out. I'm crabby. I'm tired. I'm simply just not a happy person right now.
Buddy's been working out of town for the past couple months and as thankful as we are that he has a job, it sucks that he's gone throughout the week.
I feel like I'm constantly yelling. I don't mean too, it's just repeating myself isn't working. At all.
I have a two and a half foot shadow following me. All the time. She gets between me and the counter. Grabs my legs for me to pick her up. Just follows me. Everywhere. She's lovely, adorable, sweet, but geez!!
The boy is driving me crazy with questions! I know he's at the age of curiosity and all, but it's never ending.
I have a little diva. A cute diva, but a diva.
I rarely get a potty break to myself.
I can't go to the grocery store because Maya won't stay seated in the cart and Hayden gets crabby cuz he can't get everything he sees. So food gets slim by the end of the week. I seriously dread having to take them both. It's not a happy experience.
So, I am done with my crabby rant. Sometimes things just need to get out. It may not have made much sense and I'm good with that. I'm just tired, just burned out and still crabby. Hopefully the dark cloud lifts soon and I improve my mood. Right now, I'm a big gloom.
Don't get me wrong, I love my kids dearly. They do make me smile and laugh everyday. I am just in desperate need of a break. I don't want to sound like the total bitch mom who doesn't appreciate her family, I just needed a rant.

Bah Humbunny

I feel the the Grinch of Easter. I didn't hype up the Bunny, but Hayden knew something "Santaish" was coming. We did baskets, but I hid them pretty simply. I was lazy and didn't feel like attending church. Buddy is not a church-goer and I really don't like going by myself. My dad pointed out I could have just gone with Hayden (he does like to go), but Hayden was glued to Buddy's side for the weekend and I didn't want him to miss out on Daddytime since Buddy is gone throughout the week.
I didn't put Miss Maya in her Easter dress that her Grandma B. got for her. (Don't worry, she'll wear it!!) I was just in no mood to bathe anyone in the morning, prep them for pics, only to have them want to play in the sandbox or grass within two seconds.

So, our day was filled with: Buddy and Hayden heading to the pool store to get a remedy for our swamp. The kids helping wash Bud's truck, me doing laundry. I did bake a ham, but moreso for Bud to be able to make sandwiches for work. I made a run to the grocery store for fruit, popcorn and beer. Ya, you read right. Then, while the kids slept, Bud watched some car show or Van Dame movie and I caught an episode of Lost in season 5. We ordered pizza, said goodbye for the week to Bud and finally all bathed and kids in bed.

So, that was our Easter Sunday in a nutshell. I have no adorable pics of the kids happily searching for their baskets, no festive pics in their Sunday best and nada on the "never forgotten memory" chart in my head.

But, we were together as a family and I think that's just as it should have been.