Asking for It

As a mom, I'm always needing a break. I am at people's beck and call 24/7...so it gets overwhelming at times, even as much as I love it. I really feel like there are days when I think if I deal with one more whiner, one more tattler, one more mess-maker, one more pouter, one more awake in the middle of the nighter...I'm just gonna lose it. Some days I do lose it. But everyday I wouldn't trade it for anything. That said, I'm kinda tired. Like I say with working out: "it's a good hurt". Being a mom is "a good tired", but tired nonetheless.

That break I'm always asking for is actually happening this week. I'm headed to the beach for a week with some long time best pals of mine. We did this three years ago, and have since added several more babies/job changes/moves to that "we need a break". We have all been looking forward to this, and counting down the days, for a long time now. But now that it's here...I, of course, find myself missing the kids within seconds of pulling out of the driveway. I know, I've been asking for it...but it's never easy to be away from them even though I know it's needed for my sake and theirs.

When you find your life's calling, it's not something that is always puppies and butterflies and 1950's sitcoms. Raising a family is hard, messy, chaotic work. With any job you still feel the weight of that responsibility even when you're not in the office. I know that I'll be thinking of the kids the entire time I'm away, hoping they are safe and happy and behaving themselves. I'll be so ready to get back to them, but not the piles of laundry and messes that come with them, by the end of the week. But I hope to come back to the "office" refreshed and ready to hustle. These guys deserve my best, and I'm so blessed to be able to do the work that I love. But for now, mama is outta here. Catch you guys next week! ;)

I do what I want.

Amaryllis is a fairly stubborn individual. By "fairly", I mean...she will fight you to the death. She is strong physically as well, so when she decides she doesn't want you to hold her, or that she wants something a sibling has, or that she has somewhere she wants to go...well good luck stopping her. I have started lifting weights recently, but I'm not sure it's necessary as I could just wrestle with Amaryllis a bit and accomplish the same thing.

She has recently started climbing up the stairs. She got all the way to the top once before I realized where she was. This was before I realized she even knew HOW to climb stairs. I've since started making the kids close the door at ALL times, because while I usually advocate for letting my kids climb and use their muscles that way...these steps are steep and wooden and have no padding for if she were to fall. No bueno. Our last house was carpeted stairs, and while many a hooligan rolled down they were never hurt. These wouldn't have the same outcome. Sorry, Fancy Pants. You'll have to climb something else.

I was watching her in the living room the other day, and she kept looking over her shoulder at me like, "you gonna stop me? you better be fast, mama." I let her climb up a step or two, but that really just made her more eager to keep climbing. (I'm not sure where these monkeys I have for children came from. All of them but Jericho love to climb, and I think he just doesn't climb because he's so heavy. I've found Amaryllis up on the top of the TV stand before as well. She is such a busy body.) She was so mad at me when I kept getting her back down from the stairs. She would smack at me and screech, which is where the stubborn starts showing.

Billy and I always joke, when talking about her stubbornness, and say "I do what I want." She does, for sure. She is the second strong-willed baby girl in my life, as her sister before her is probably just as headstrong. I'm not complaining, though. While it makes for many a battle of wills over wooden stairs, I can't wait to see the determined, strong women they grow into. If I manage to survive their teen years, that is.

Babies in the Summer

There are a few things that I love quite as much as the summertime. I love everything about it: the sun, the warm temperatures, not having to do school, spending time outside with my kiddos, and going to the beach.

That said, there really is nothing quite like taking a one-year-old baby to the pool. In a lot of cases, they can't really walk yet. The pool is not a good place to crawl. They can't swim. So what's a baby to do? Well, if your Amaryllis, you will spend most of your time at the pool trying to crawl away across the concrete, trying to crawl into the pool, or trying to get away from your mama while she holds you in the pool because you're so independent and must do everything by yourself.

When that doesn't work you can always try a little bit of gymnastics while your mommy tries to feed you a snack. So yeah, I love summer, but I cannot wait until miss independent is independent enough to walk so that my lap gets a little break here and there.

Groceries

I know we've all seen the meme's going around about how people always try to bring in all the groceries in one trip. Something about going back and forth, back and forth, is just not fun. (Not like anything about grocery shopping is fun.) But no one wants to make more trips than absolutely necessary.

Recently the hooligans daddy was away on a business trip for 5 days. I had taken them to see my youngest sister, their auntie Ali, play softball in the state championships. (They did SO awesome...they missed going to the World Series by one game. So proud!) The hooligans did really well too...only nearly getting hit with one foul ball. Getting them out of the van when we got home was a different story, though.

I got home, and they were ALL passed out. No way I was getting those groceries in the house in one trip. I ended up carrying all of them but one in, one at a time. I'm not going to complain too much though, since the ride home was so peaceful with four snoring babies in the back of the van.

Wolverine goes Streaking

It's pretty typical around here to see someone who has lost a few articles of clothing. It's usually Jericho at this point. He likes the shock factor and making his sibling scream. It's not every day though, that Wolverine is running around without his pants on. Jericho spent a good 30 minutes running around like this, because he didnt want to go downstairs to find his underwear.

It's kind of an after bath tradition to make crazy hairdos with the kids wet hair. There have been a few times where the hairdos didnt get straightened out before their hair dried, and they ended up looking like they needed another bath. (Dont' worry...I fixed this one before he went to bed.) I do think if I had left it though, he might have helped keep bats away. I'm sure bats are scared of Wolverine, right?