Coffee and the Keyboard and Other Adventures

Blogging is so hard now because if I want to do it in the morning (my least bitchy time) then I've got to hold someone on my lap while I type. "Someone" is always wanting to help by typing too or poking other buttons. The twins are fascinated with the top of the kitchen table (where the laptop is usually) and if I take my eye off them for a second I find them up there. Last week I ran upstairs to get clothes for them and Charles found Kenna sitting on the keyboard where she had poured an entire cup of coffee. Both of them stealthed up there yesterday and I found them playing with my cell phone and the home phone while sitting on the computer. Kenna also knocked another coffee into it yesterday. I had to do a system restore Saturday because my letter keys were typing numbers (?!).
We are done with swimming. Whoohoo!!!! Though I'll miss my daily chat with Pam. I'm not sure what I will do with my free afternoons. In other news, I did have a talk with the preschool teacher about Z the biting/hitting boy. She's got a somewhat more laissez-faire idea of things than I do--which is really saying something since I feel like sometimes I'm approaching the Lord of the Flies method of parenting. I guess the kid is up to two bitings now and they "watch" him. She says that it is all just part of preschool. I'm not so sure, but at least I brought it up. Of course that same day I picked Laney up and she said he hit her in the face.
Friday Laney stole cereal out of the pantry to put in her shopping cart. About 20 minutes later it was really really quiet in my house so I got suspicious. I found Delaney and Griffin behind the couch. She'd opened the cereal and was feeding him cereal and reading him a story. It was the cutest thing!! So I told Charles about it and he went down to have a look. When he checked they both had shoes and were taking turns hitting each other--in a friendly way, but still.
We went to the Greek festival Friday night as part of a sorority thing. But only Jan and I went (we were expecting others...) It was really crowded and we sat at an end of a table at the edge of the patio so for some reason that meant we needed to sit with the smokers. Bleh. I was going to say something to them about maybe not smoking next to my children, but then realized that one of the smokers was pregnant so that probably wasn't going to work. Regardless, we still had a good time. Jan played with the kids and another older couple congratulated her on her beautiful grandchildren (she went along, what the heck right?). The food was awesome. I think I must have been Greek in a past life. Opa!!
Saturday I went out for the morning and met friends for our book group. We had breakfast at Torino's and it was yummy. I had to be home by noon though so C could leave for Phoenix.

Mom-up

We're so close to being done with swimming lessons and I'm so excited. We should finish up by Friday. We're all sitting around the kitchen table right now watching Handy Manny and eating bagels. Kenna is sporting a fu manchu of cream cheese and I must say she does look dashing. K and G are starting to talk a lot more, though it's still sort of an interpretive thing. G says cracker and it sounds a lot like ca ca. Yesterday at dance class we had a first. I told G to not to play with a blanket on the toy table. He was entertaining someone's grandpa and was across the room from me. For some reason, saying no to the blanket caused him major emotional upset. He turned to look at me and did this lip quivering thing and started to cry. He had to sit on my lap the rest of the time.
We were supposed to go to dance and then go to the park for a play group thing where I needed to return a baby bouncer. We got to dance but on the way to the park I realized that a) I was out of gas and b) I forgot the bouncer. So I went all the way home and got the bouncer and went to the park and unloaded everyone only to discover it was the wrong park. Missed my bouncer meetup since I was late. Then we coasted to a gas station and went to Target. I used to have this view of myself as being an organized person. In reality, I'm a complete dork.
This morning I have to have a talk with the preschool teacher about the dreaded Z (the biter, now hitter). Both Laney and Ella find him fascinating, but he hits them. I'm also wondering if the super sassy behavior that happens after preschool (sticking tongue out and spitting for example) is related to this boy. So, I need to have a chat with Ms Barbara. I would rather not, but I guess I need to Mom-up and do what needs to be done.

Beta'd out and Bitchy

Back from convention and tired tired tired. We had a good time this weekend, but a relaxing weekend away it was not. I'll have to get the pictures downloaded tomorrow. I worked like a dog last week trying to get everywhere and get stuff ready to go for the weekend and then came home to a big mess. I always come home and get cranky and then fight with Charles. One of these days I'll just learn to expect it and let it go, but until then I still get really annoyed that every time I come home everything looks like crap. I suppose I should be clearer about my expectations prior to leaving or something. Laney had a good time when Vovo stayed the night. I guess they slept together. Poor Olive ;-) She must have mopped my kitchen floor for me too (so sweet). I need to hit the hay and make up for lack of sleep since I have a mountain of work to do tomorrow.

Pictures

Hey, by the way, I've added more picts to the slideshow but haven't got all fiddly and reordered it so they are somewhere in the back. I've also posted them on Facebook. I don't know if you can click the slideshow and see the Picasa folder. Give it a try and let me know.

Swingin' in the Rain

We had a great Sunday this week (even though Charles had to leave at 4 in the morning). The kids and I went to the craft store and book store, to McDonald's for lunch and then in the afternoon we went outside to paint with our new paints and brushes. While we were out there, a freak little rainstorm started. We just kept playing. Here's some picts:

The girls were running in the rain and having a good time. Griffin mostly hung out at the table and ate his snack. He was in a more pensive mood I guess.

It's been a busy week. I feel like I've just been running everywhere. Tomorrow night I'm heading off for a weekend away for a sorority conference. I have about seven thousand things to do before then and a major sinus headache and a lack of will to do them.

This week has been a big guilt week for me. Last Thursday night Griffin was up for hours crying and I thought he was teething. I took his pjs off in the morning and discovered that the elastic had wrapped around his little toe. The doctor said that it was dislocated and possibly broken (though it doesn't seem to be causing him pain now). I felt like crap. His toe was blistered all the way around and it's peeled off now so it is red and crusty. Poor thing. In general though I've been feeling like the not-so-good mom. My children keep getting saved from imminent injury when crawling out of the stroller behind my back (or in front of me as was the case today when K slipped out the front of the stroller without me realizing it and I started to run her over). Kenna has been having screeching tantrums in public, both climb everything in sight and it is definitely hard to keep track of all three at once. Let's just say I rely on the kindness of strangers. I also don't put on enough sunscreen, pack enough snacks, run out of wipes, fail to brush their teeth often enough and a multitude of other parental sins. I signed up for a parenting class (what the heck) and the first thing they talked about was childproofing the home. The list of things "nonchildproofed" in my house is a long one. Failure already. I was just hoping they would have some ideas on how to stay calm with a toddler who can push my buttons like she's been taking a Mavis Beacon Teaches Annoyance class.

All that whining and self pity/flagellation aside, I do want to point out that I adore my children, even in quantity. And a good portion of the time I love my life and "work". I just feel like sometimes I owe it to them to be better.

[this is why I haven't been blogging as much lately. I'm tired and stressed and it makes me a whiny poster. sorry]

In other news, the twins got their shots Wednesday and got weighed. Kenna is an even 20 lbs and Griffin was 23 lb 6 oz. He is about an inch and a half taller than she is. We'll go back for flu shots in a couple weeks. I'm terrified that they will get the flu or that I'll get the flu. If I get sick we are seriously hosed since Charles will be travelling through to November, including a lot of weekend days. Though I guess he doesn't have to go to Oklahoma next week because they chose a different product, so I'll see him for a few days.

We're almost potty trained now and Laney has been working on night time stuff. It started well but I think we're rushing it a little. I bought some more princess pull ups today and we'll back track a little on the project. She was pleased to use the princess pull up. She just doesn't wake up when she has to pee. We've got to wait for the biology to catch up with us I guess.

Tortilla in my Crack Butt

So tonight Laney got on my chair with me during dinner and shoved tortilla down my pants. Putting it in my "crack butt" as she calls it. The joy. The joy.
We went to school today and Laney just left me behind. Plopped herself down and didn't even look up to say goodbye. Sigh. The twins and I went for coffee (since I was out of coffee this morning. tragic!) and went to see Alycia at Dr. S's office where I bought a sun hat for Kenna. The embarassment of taking my tan children to the dermatologist. They were being beastly too. I'll be better about sunscreen, I swear!
We finally got serious ran today. This has been the weirdest monsoon ever. Luckily we were done with swimming and just finished bbqing before it started to pour.
I'm going to watch Young Frankenstein now.

Fire Starter

We took at trip to the fire station on Monday with our playgroup and had a relatively good time. I didn't have a camera since I still didn't have a charged battery. I do now though, so tomorrow I will take dance pictures. I've been unreasonably grumpy for two days, I have no idea why. But I am. The kids are literally climbing the walls and Laney has been unusually sassy.
We had school today, which I was looking forward to. Last Thursday Laney came home with a bite mark on her arm that showed each tooth quite clearly. My first thought was "what was she doing to that kid?". I got her all dropped off and was going to get coffee and do a couple things when I realized that I forgot the cell phone at home so I had to make a trek back. Then the twins and I went to Costco where Kenna was super cranky the whole time. We picked Laney up and headed home--no biting today, but three kids were out sick including Ella. Richelle told me that the urgent care place she took Ella to for an ear infection said that there have already been 10 cases of swine flu downtown at the U hospital. Swell. By the time we were all lunched, I was definitely ready to be without them for a little while. Laney was bouncing off the walls but I sent her to bed anyway. Things seemed to be going well at first but then she was up and down. I came downstairs to try to figure out a medical bill issue and she went in to the babies room and woke them up and I was PISSED. So the twins got up and Laney got spanked and sent back to bed. Things were quiet (eventually) and I went to check on her. Thankfully. I found her with her lamp on and two stuffed bears shoved in to the top of it. They were at the scorch stage. So no more lamp for Laney since she tries to burn the house down.
Twins and I went to swimming following the mad dash to look for their stuff, which I found wet and mildewy under a pile of toys behind the couch. So I had to come up with alternate wear quickly and then grabbed Kenna on the way out the door only to discover that she was poopy. Strapped her in anyway to change at the pool. Got to the pool and discovered that it was swim meet day and there were no parking spaces at all in the entire parking lot (since the two school buses didn't pull next door to the high school but parked lengthwise through 16 spaces). Monsoon storms were darkening the sky and I had to park in the high school lot and push the twins (after changing the diaper in the car) uphill along the street and into the park. Grrr (fyi the temperature was about 101 at that point). I almost went home instead. Anyway, we got them swam without a pool closure from lightening. I have a feeling that they will end up taking an extra week and I'm not too jazzed about it.
So here I am. My house looks like it got bombed. I have seven million things to do and I'm sitting here blogging. What the heck. Maybe tomorrow I'll be less grouchy and more motivated. On the bright side, our house didn't burn down.