the ongoings of my life

the season is upon is.

tonight was the Thanksgiving program at Lindsey's preschool. She was so excited because that meant she would get to be "on stage". She let me blow dry her hair --- after which she thought it had grown because it was so much longer. The boys actually cleaned up on their own and off we went. Grayson was anxious because Shelby (see earlier post) was going to be there. Chase was excited at the chance of getting to see any younger women (my little Romeo), and Lindsey -- she was practicing her curtsies.

The program went off without a hitch - except for the fact that there are 50 children 5 and younger trying to get the attention of their family and friends in the audience. When Lindsey's class finished their songs, she stepped forward and bowed. And then curtsied. No one else, just her. Maybe the blonde hair is actually because she is her daughter and not mine. That would make so much more sense. However, they did have all of the girls in the front row and the boys in the back. Lindsey, my poor little daughter, was a head taller than every girl and probably at least the same height as the tallest boy. She has no chance of being "regular". This is a photo of her before we left. (She was trying out different smiles for me.)

Two other things --- the sweat shop is officially open again. And all of you who attended Silver Bella know what that means. AND...with less than 2 minutes remaining, the University of Arizona Wildcats are up by 10 over the # 2 ranked Oregon Ducks. It's a good night for Wildcat football. Go Wildcats!

Am I pathetic or what?

I am so obsessed with Bachelor Paris that I even have my kids psyched to watch it. First off - is it that Travis is an ER doc just like my hubby? Or that he's tall and definitely cute? And now it's down to four (to be 3 within the next 45 minutes). The four women it's down to are Moanna, Sarah in Canada, Sarah in Tennessee and Susan. For obvious reasons (only girl without a name starting with "S"), Moanna needs to be eliminated. Sarah in Canada is just too young (coming from someone who got married at 21!) Susan has Hollywood ambitions. Is it too obvious who I'm rooting for? Definitley Sarah from Tennessee. She's sooo nice! Let's see if he axes the nice girl...stay tuned! 

Boot camp?

I'm at my wit's end. I know it's my own fault, but how to repair the damage I've caused is beyond me. I've bought books.  The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers, Helping Your Child Sleep through the Night, and Sleeping through the Night: How Infants, Parents and Toddlers can get a Good Night's Sleep. However, all of them have become doorstops. I have 3 problem children.

At 8 years old, Grayson refuses to be in his room without anyone else. He's scared to death of going from one end of our house to the other without a chaperon. He sleepwalks at night and pees wherever the wind blows. I've surrendered the battles and allow him to fall asleep in my room and then carry (with difficulty) him to his room later that night. If I'm lucky - that's the end of the story - he wakes restful the next morning and there have been no issues. If I'm not so lucky - sometime during the night I awake to find a puddle somewhere in my house and my son wandering aimlessly.

At 4 years old, I was finally able to get Chase off of his apple juice addiction. My only problem now is he also refuses to go to bed in his room, so I let him fall asleep in mine. However, after I have transferred him to his room, he inevitably wakes up sometime during the night and comes back to my bed. (EVERY NIGHT.)

At 2 years old, Lindsey is the worst. First - we literally fight - tooth and nail - over which pajamas she will wear to bed. It's not that I care - she asks for pajamas she doesn't own and when I don't come up with them immediately - tempers flare. Then - she asks for a sippy cup before bed - if it's not pink with a pink lid heaven forbid. The heavens will fall and waters will flood if the cup isn't pink. Fine - I give in - pink cup/pink lid. That's not so bad but she insists I lay down with her until she falls asleep. (I still need to clean up after dinner, do laundry, etc.) 3 or 4  apple juices later ("more apple juice NOW!") she may finally fall asleep. I'm so tired I just relent and go to bed as well. That wouldn't be horrible except she wakes up probably 3 or 4 more times during the night (I occasionally try to transfer her - usually it's no use) asking, no demanding more apple juice. Then - flooding happens in the pull-up - my bed is soaked, etc.

So - last night I was going to be strong. All the kids were transferred to their beds. Grayson stays in all night. Chase comes in my room sometime - but he doesn't wake me. 4:30 - Lindsey comes in - "Mom, I'm all wet". I tell her to change her pajamas and put on a new diaper - diaper was no problem - but a YELLING match took place over the pajamas. Then - she wanted more apple juice. I gave her one sippy cup - she wanted another. I said no. Did it flood where you live? All hell broke loose. I locked her in her room. She banged the door until I was worried our house would fall down. I locked her out of my room. She banged until Chase started crying. I'm thinking - the police are going to show up on my doorstep with all the yelling and banging going on.  I finally relent - apple juice - sleeping in my bed. The clock read 5:55. I had 35 minutes of sleep remaining until I had to be up. 

When I do wake up - Grayson was luckily awake already - I was able to quickly get him ready for school - and who walk out of my room? LINDSEY!!!! (She has another hour before she had to get up.) So - rather than catching a few more winks - I argue, I urge, I finally get her ready for school. Then I drop them off at 8:30 - rush home and then sleep until 1:00pm. No laundry done, no dishes washed.

What to do??? Any suggestions? I would attach photos of my laundry pile - but at this point, it's obscene.

Oh no! Not in my house!

On Saturday, January 21, we hosted Grayson's 8th birthday party. 20 little kids between the ages of 2 and 10 were present for not a jumping castle, not a clown, but for this:  a rhinocerous iguana (I think) and 15 of his closest friends. Grayson is so into reptiles - that I found Reptile Adventures, a company that brings reptiles to your home and lets the kids touch and learn about them. Cool (if you are 8 years old)! Yikes (if you're the mom - just waiting for one of them to get loose)! T-Bo here looked prehistoric - the kids were in awe - and the best part was the whole show was educational as well.

Since it was Grayson's birthday - (which earlier in the day had been declared the "worst day of my life!"), he was lucky enough to get to sit next to Rich -  and hold each of the animals as he brought them out. The photo to the left is not a snake - it's a legless lizard - know how you can tell? Snakes don't have chins - lizards do. (See, I told you it was educational!) Surprisingly, even some of the girls got into the whole icky snake/lizard thing.  My goddaughter, Brooke, was more than willing to have a snake wrapped around her neck - as long as we paid her $1 when it was all said and done! See that cooler Grayson is sitting on? Guess what was in that? I'll give you a hint - the longest one recorded is 37 feet long. The one in this box is only 18 months old and measures approximately 12 feet. Want to see it? I want to say it was a reticulated python - but I was so freaked out I may have the name wrong. Grayson was thrilled! He's even asked for this to be his party again next year. Heck! That's easy! When the demonstration was over - Grayson was chomping at the bit to show Rich his own bearded dragon - and I was relieved to hear that we have him set up just right. Rich says he has over 1000 reptiles at his house. Hmmm... I wonder if he's married. I'm thinking ---NOT!

Curls no more...

It's a fine Wednesday evening. By 5:30, the family is fed and I'm getting them ready for the bath. Then - what do I hear? "Lindsey - why do you have scissors?" What? Chase replies - "She's cutting her hair!" NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not my daughter's beautiful blonde curly long hair! But yes, she indeed decided to cut half of her hair short. 

Hanifa was on his way out the door to go to work - I could tell he was upset - but when he came back in the house just to yell at her - I knew she hit a sore spot. (Especially since he has repeatedly told me he dislikes short hair!) Off he stormed to work. Mom - "Lindsey - why did you do this?" Lindsey - "Now it will look pretty like Olivia." (Thank you Miss Kwan!)

Now my options - do I leave it as it is and just hope I can somehow blend it with barrettes and pony tails? Not a chance. Do I wait until tomorrow when we can go together to see how to handle this situation? She has school tomorrow - I didn't want her going to school looking all mullet-ish! So off the kids and I went - to Supercuts. Just remember - long, beautiful, blonde ringlets. People comment on how beautiful her hair is ALL of the time.  We get to Supercuts and the woman says "Umm, yeah - I think I'll have my manager cut her hair - just to make sure it looks ok." (The place is brimming with self-confidence.) As we wait for the manager to come in - Grayson tells me - "Mom, it doesn't matter what her hair looks like - she's still the most beautiful girl in the world." Tears well...but you're going to have longer hair than your sister!!!

Manager arrives - apparently she was too busy to help us right away because she was cleaning the bathroom - - temper flares  - - "yeah - there isn't much we can do with this except give her a boy cut." Where's the emotional support I need? Where is the 'we can blend it here and just clip it back and it will look fine'? Unless I wanted to go with a certified mullet, I was screwed. So - Dorothy Hamill - here we come. Watching those beautiful locks fall to the floor was torture. She was so happy! Mom - I look like Grayson! UGGGHHH!!! What is happening to my daughter? While her hair is being chopped off - I'm asking her - "Would Cinderella have short hair?" "Would Sleeping Beauty have short hair?" She replies - "No - but Dora does!"

So the end result - which has yet to be seen by her father - insert name of good divorce lawyer here - is almost too painful to show, but here it is.  Notice that as soon as we got out to the car - I made her let me put a barrette in. Then - when we got home - we went through all of her barrettes to decide which one's she could wear. I hope, I pray - the curls will return. And as my good friend Natalee said - "her hair will look great for her 4 year old birthday party!"

Edited to add - just look at her hair in the photo below - tears are flowing...

My baby is 8!

Wow! What a weekend! It basically started Thursday afternoon when I took cupcakes and brownies to Grayson's class to celebrate his birthday. No problems, right? EXCEPT - as we are leaving about 200 (probably more like 150) kids run out to the playground for recess and Lindsey and Chase decide they are going to play too. No big deal - EXCEPT - Hanifa's plane had just landed and he was waiting for us to pick him up at the airport! Lindsey was quickly collected and although screaming and kicking in my arms - at least I knew where she was. Chase, on the other hand, was MIA. I had 3 teachers and numerous kids scouring the playground for him to no avail. In the mean time, Hanifa is calling me - "Which door? How long until you get here?" I DON'T KNOW! I CAN'T FIND MY KID!!! Panic was starting to set in when this very nice 3rd grade teacher calmly walks up to me holding Chase's hand. (I'm fuming!) Apparently Chase decided he would meet us at the car when things got so crazy. When he sees how upset I am - the tears start to well up in his eyes. (Lindsey is still screaming bloody murder.) At this point - Grayson says - "Thanks guys for RUINING my birthday!!" After I finally get all the kids to the car - strap Lindsey into her car seat - (karate chop to the gut did it) - we finally head off to the airport.

Normally I'm really excited about picking Hanifa up when he's been away - even if it's for a short trip - but this time he had been gone almost a week with the guys - not having to worry about family/responsibility/the fun stuff that goes along with being a parent. I could tell when I was speaking to him before while searching for our kids - he wasn't happy. Now this just pissed me off. Sure - have your week of fun and relaxation - but don't make me feel bad because our kids have gone off the deep end. Listen hear buddy - I'm barely holding on here and if I get one word of smack from you, you're walking home! (Or so I was thinking.) Instead - the kids react appropriately - "Daddy, Daddy - sit by me, I love you, why were you gone so long, you need to shave" and have their little arms open for their hugs and kisses. (They are totally  playing him!) This lasted the 10 minutes home from the airport - until Grayson starts complaining that he didn't get ANYTHING for his birthday. Duh!! I had the wrapped gifts waiting on the table for him when we got home from the airport. Patience child!

So, Grayson opened his presents. A Sony PSP from his Dad and I, some PSP movies and games from his brother and sister, a surfing shirt from the family and (without Dad's knowledge) and Ipod shuffle from me. Let's just say Grayson was more than pleased and stopped complaining - for a while at least. He even let his siblings help open his gifts - that's a first! Later that evening, he went to a Phoenix Suns game (birthday tradition) with his Dad. Yeah - I was asleep by 8:30!

Friday night - 11 family members went with Grayson to Kyoto Japanese Restaurant in old town Scottsdale for tepan yaki. If you have never been - it's a must for kids. Mine love it! The tepan yaki chefs are always so entertaining! Plus - it doesn't hurt that my kids love sushi - at least I got out of going to Chuck E. Cheese!

Saturday - birthday party for Ben Kirke - Grayson's original swimming buddy. He loved it - they played kick ball, dodge ball, basketball. Plus - Lindsey and Chase had a great time too. Great idea for a birthday party - it totally wore all of them out! Saturday night we had our dear friends, Ed & Kelly (that's them between Hanifa and I) over for dinner. It was so great having some adult conversation - and planning our trip to New York City in March!

Sunday - Hanifa's mom and aunt took the kids to an indoor playground place for a few hours. I lounged at home while Hanifa golfed. (Shh...don't tell him that - I was busy working as far as he knows!)

Monday - Hanifa's mom and aunt took the kids rock climbing in an attempt to meet men. (I don't think it went well. Generally men aren't attracted to women toting 3 young kids around!) I actually got a few things done - cleaned the lizards cage without incident; had the fake nails taken off - I was sick of them; did some internet shopping (shh...don't tell Hanifa this either.)

I'm hoping it will be an easy week - Grayson's "kid" birthday party is this Saturday - yikes - 15  children in my home - oh well.  Hopefully I'll have some intriguing thoughts to blog about - I feel like I'm just rambling......