Oh boy!

Mother's Day was awesome. I love Mother's Day, I think it's my new favorite holiday. I slept in till 8:30-8:45 and the boys had made me a banner, and they gave me my gifts in bed (flowers, cards, a gift certificate to the spa... this is what Tim gets me for every single holiday) then, I went into the kitchen because Tim said he made coffee... but there was no coffee. Bceause my coffee pot broke. I don't know how or what the hell happened, it was fine on Saturday, then yesterday, it just wouldn't brew. It was turned on, according to the little green light, but it wasn't doing anything. We made 3 trips to Dunkin Donuts and 1 to Starbucks but now it's Monday, and I can't very well be dragging little kids around town just to fulfill my caffine addiction. So. I'm using a coffee press. A fucking coffee press. It makes 2 cups of coffee TOPS (if you use a big mug) and it doesn't keep it warm at ALL. It's bullshit.

I have to go get a new coffee maker. Tonight. I can't live another day like this.

Anyway, we met the in-laws for breakfast for Mom's Day, Tim's brother and his family were there, it was okay. Then we went to the Wildflower Preserve at Bowman's Hill, which was so nice and relaxing, we had lunch there and when we came home, both boys napped and woke up in fantabulous moods before we headed over to my parents for dinner.

And then, last night, Tim even watched The Sound of Music with me. And he let me sing at the top of my lungs without making any rude comments about how I should be in show-biz. Yesterday was a great day.

Tim does good on holidays. He doesn't always do so good on regular days. Maybe that's only because there's a lot more regular days?

Done!

Something unsettling happened this week. I had a period scare; I was over a week late. If anything, it just confirmed the following: We are done having kids. I am done having kids; I’m pretty sure Tim would have been okay if I wanted to just stop at one, but I wanted two and I wanted a brother for my baby boy and I got that, and now… I’m all done! Get me out of the chair and away from the table or I will start screaming and throwing my chicken nuggets and diced banana on the floor.

Needless to say, I was actually giddy when it arrived!

I like things how they are, thankyouverymuch. My boys are easier today than they were yesterday. And they’ve been getting progressively easier as they’re getting older. Maybe the word “easier” is being used a little too loosely here; they give me a hard time and I’m sure those hard times will just keep getting harder as they get older, but they ARE easier than a newborn baby, for crying out loud. Newborns, or infants, or anything younger than one year olds, are SO hard, yo.

They don’t cry when I walk out of a room; actually, I think they might just like it. They very rarely projectile vomit. They walk! Nate walked around his first birthday; Matthew was more like 15-16 months old. And he’s a tank of a child. 30 pounds at almost-2 compared to his brother’s 36 pounds at almost-4. They walk right beside me, they hold each other’s hands nicely, and we just walk like Real People into places. Sure, they might dead weight themselves as we’re walking out because they don’t.want.to.leave, but they still walk.

If Nate would stop coming into our bed in the middle of the night, I would be getting a full night’s sleep. But! Technically speaking, they do “sleep through the night”… which in my book means I don’t have to change or feed or rock them. If I just have to move over a little to let him squeeze in beside me, that’s fine, he can sleep next to me and rub my cheek as long as he wants to as long as he lets me sleep. I can sleep through his many verses of Old MacDonald, but I can’t sleep through a reflux-y baby screaming all night long, while my ‘pretty useless during the day – definitely useless through the night’ husband snores beside me. I like feeling rested when I wake up, even if they drive me so hard into the ground that I’m crashing by 3pm.

We can just get up and go places. We like that. No bottles or worrying about breastfeeding in public, or if we’ll need a blanket in the restaurant, what if it’s cold? No baby food! They can eat anything, anywhere, anytime! No worrying about naptimes, Mattie still takes a nap every day obviously, but he can skip and not be too, too, too out of control.

They have real personalities. They’re fun, and funny, and interesting and just plain ol’ cool little guys. I like hanging out with them all day long. I actually like my “job”. I’ve wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember, and when they were infants, I loved it, I thought it was everything I’d been waiting for, but really, this, right now, is exactly what I’ve been waiting for. School, and all the art projects and birthday parties and sports, and watching my boys be friends, playing together, fighting or sharing, snuggling or smacking, I love their interactions. I’m happy to keep moving forward knowing that we won’t be back in that place of caring for a newborn.

I’m sure that my uterus will still ache just a smidge every time I see or smell or even think of a brand spankin’ new baby, but after this last week, I know for sure that it won’t be mine. Well, not on purpose, anyway.

Nice and Normal

We had a pretty good weekend over here.

My parents took the boys overnight on Saturday night. We dropped them off around 2pm on Saturday, then Tim and I did a little shopping before we came home and did some stuff around the house. I reorganized the kitchen cabinets, Freecycled a lot of junk and ate Jelly Belly’s; Tim worked on the yard and washed our cars. We’d already marinated a couple steaks for dinner, but at the last minute changed our minds and decided to go out instead.

I called PF Chang’s around 7, thinking that an 8:30pm reservation would be just perfect. All I could get was 10pm. Wow. 10 P.M. We hadn’t eaten that late since before we had kids… a period of time that we lovingly refer to as our “Glory Days”.

It was surprisingly… nice… to be out having dinner that late. There wasn’t a single child in the restaurant. In fact, the whole place was full of adults. No crying, no screaming and it’s not the kind of place with balloons, so it was really (here’s that word again)… nice. Calm, relaxing, we ate slowly; we weren’t two steps ahead of the waiter, asking for take out containers during appetizers and requesting the check as he delivered our meals. We ate like normal adults. Isn’t it peculiar that we felt weird acting normal?

By the time we got home and ate the desserts we brought with us, it was close to one in the morning, which was fine because we got to sleep in until around 11am. It was really (here’s that word again, again)… nice. And weird too. Yep, nice and weird, just the way I like it.

We picked the kids up around 2pm on Sunday, and we took them to the lake and then spent a lot of time outside. Later, we grilled the steaks we marinated the night before and it was a nice, relaxing evening, even with the kids. But there was the regular fussing, fighting and "OMG shut up!" moments, but that's our "normal" and, you know what? That's just the way I like it, too.

Yep, pretty good weekend over here.

Maple Syrup... Mmmmmm. Zzzzzzz.

I accidentally overdosed on maple syrup today.

The result of a self-induced sugar coma is laziness. Jot it down.

Things started out okay. We got up, got dressed and out the door in a timely fashion, which never happens, so that was a Bravo for me! We met some friends for breakfast at Cracker Barrel and that’s precisely where my day ended.

I ordered the Momma’s French toast breakfast, because I am, in fact, A Momma, and it does, in fact, include four (count them!) slices of French toast, two eggs (scrambled, for me, with cheese, naturally), and I chose sausage as my obligatory breakfast meat. Why stop there, you’re wondering? I know! I couldn’t either! I also got a side of hash brown casserole.

*insert a variety of barnyard animal noises here*

I did share nicely with Mattie.

Nate had a kid’s meal of two pancakes and a side of bacon.

I doused my French toast in so much of their amazing 100% pure maple syrup and then I had a little dipping pool of the shit on the side, to dip my already too maple-syrup-y French toast in. I actually feel a little sick thinking about it. Then, I had three cups of coffee, trying desperately to give my body energy after I weighed it down with all that food.

Then we left. And I was left feeling very full and sleepy.

And that’s where the day officially ended. I did not lift a finger for housework or cooking or baking or anything that I didn’t HAVE to do. I haven’t even gotten the mail yet. Maybe I’ll live on the edge and leave it there till tomorrow. Ooooh, the mailman will think we’re on vacation!! How exciting!

I set up the sand/water table my kids got for Easter in my kitchen because I’m cool and fun (and plain stupid) like that. Just water, no sand, so I can easily say “It’s just water, people!” except I won’t say that, all that I will say is “It offered hours of fun, people!”. After I got sick of the mess, I put the cover on and they’re still playing with their cars on it. Not that stupid of an idea in the end, people.

What did I do while they enjoyed this wet, indoor fun? I learned a lesson. No, not that I shouldn’t let them play with water inside, that would be too OBVIOUS. Here’s the lesson: I can guiltlessly ignore my kids when I’m on the computer or the phone but if I’m laying on the couch, it just feels wrong. I know this now, because that’s what I did. I curled up on the sofa, under a blanket and everything, and I tried to watch a movie but it... just felt wrong. Too stereotypically lazy, I guess. Jot that one down, too. Mommy guilt can be a bitch.

Just like Mother Nature can be a bitch. The reason my kids were playing with water INSIDE is because it was raining today. After ALL I do for her, she rains when Nate is on school break, can you believe it? So, when Nate threw the banana I handed to him directly into the trash, I left it there. I could have gotten it out and put it in with the composting, the bag was empty, it wasn’t gross or anything, but I’m spiteful like that. No potassium for you, Earth.

Too much sugar makes me lazy and nasty, too, apparently. Yay. Another reason to stick to the diet.

Things You Should Know About Me

You should know that the last birthday I celebrated was my thirtieth. Admittedly, as the months crept closer and closer to B-Day, I was completely, totally, absolutely, certifiably terrified because OMG, 30 is all old and shit. But. If I'm being honest here, I'm really, really, really, truly, madly, deeply loving 30 thus far.

See, here's the thing... the thing is that I know who I am now. That's the thing. Like, I really k-n-o-w and accept who I am, and more importantly, I like who I am. There's always room for improvement, of course, hence Jillian Michaels coming into my life, but, I'm happy 93% of the time, and I'm content 100% of the time. Okay, maybe 99% of the time, but 99 is still a real good number.

I do worry that I'm no longer allowed to think that John Travolta looked good in Grease? High school student? Yes or no?

As I may mention them from time to time, you should note that I am married with two children. I met my husband, Tim, during our senior year of high school and seven short years later, he proposed. We married in 2004; we'll be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary this May. As adorable as that might sound (and as adorable as it sometimes is) we have our marital troubles just like everyone else, but we're still on twelve years strong now. We got pregnant with our first child, a son, just six months after our wedding. Nathan arrived in the summer of 2005, and his brother, Matthew, followed in the summer of 2007. Two cats and a dog complete our little family.

I make up new words, you should know. Well, I don't so much create new words, I more or less combine existing words (synonyms, mostly) to form new words (primarily adjectives). It's so easy and fun! And, beware: they can be catchy.

I LOVE mini's. Like, the miniature version of just about anything --- toiletries, notebooks, candies, juices, spoons, cups, cards, literally anything that is a smaller version of the real thing. The exception here would be diamonds. And um, well... you know. And if you don't know, bless your innocent little heart.

I love music. Classic Rock, Alternative, Blues, Jazz, 80s hair bands. Country. We have music on at our house all.day.long. I prefer music to TV as background noise. I have dinner music, workout music, cleaning music, rainy day music and summertime music... I just love music.

Having said that, you should assume that if it's new, current or "now", I do not know about it. This applies to music, movies, books, fashion... pretty much anything aside from Reality TV. The awesome part? I don't give a tiny rat's ass. I don’t care if I’m “cool”. Because I’m 30 now. And I am sooooo cool.