life with WE

Dear Tooth Fairy, I'm a bit of a hoarder...

E is now down her sixth tooth.  And because her top two teeth are missing, it is very fun to ask her to say 'sixth tooth'.  I giggled the first time, asked her to say it again, and she gave me a stern, "Momma!  Quit making fun of me!"

 
This is her moment after her doc popped out that snaggle front tooth that had been hanging on for days driving us insane!

I am sure I've mentioned this before, but E loves the tooth fairy and is terrified of the tooth fairy all at the same time.  So she puts her tooth outside of her door so that she won't have to see him/her.  (I mean, how easy is that for me?)  As the panic and excitement of the upcoming visit sank in last night, she hurriedly penned this letter to put with her tooth in the hallway.

So many things to note on this 'note'.

1.  She knows how to correctly spell many MANY of these words.  But when you're tired, who has time for correct spelling?

2.  I love that she ran out of room for tooth, and opted for toot followed by h.

3.  Keep = cep?  WTF?

4.  Again with her completely ignoring any punctuation.  Her first grade teacher would NOT be pleased.

I translate this note as follows:

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I have a bit of a hoarding problem, and you frighten me, but I'd still like money.

Sincerely,

Elaine

She got to keep her tooth and note and got money.  I should have left no money, taken the tooth and note and wrote her one back.  "Dear Elaine, Until you solve your hoarding problem, you'll get no money from me.  The cute smiley face doesn't cut it.  Also, use your periods and I know you cn spell better than this!  Love, TF"  Of course, that's just mean.  So I didn't do it.  But don't think I didn't want to...

Exactly what am I so busy with? Answer - nothing!

His world is leogs, books, wii, school, sports, friends, his dsi, harry potter.  I am an outsider, generally.  After all, he is nine, and has no need for his mother.  I ask questions and sometimes I get one word answerss, but other times, I get more.  And I yearn for those times.  But often, when he has opened the entrance to his world for me, I'm busy.  I'm decompressing from the day, making dinner, doing laundry, checking homework, prepping for the next day etc, and I don't take the entrance opportunity offered me.  And the door closes again. 

Why am I not taking advantage of the opportunity to get him to talk?

And it's not just with Warren.  It's with Elaine and Mike too.  I realize ocassionally that all I've done is say 'later' or 'in a minute' or 'un huh' without even hearing what's been said.  Then I forget later, and it's over.  Instead of listening or talking with W, E or Mike, I'm instead talking at them.

I do this when I call people too.  Like "let's get down to business".  And then I realize all I've done is call to get my needs addressed - rather if it's firming up plans or asking questions.  I feel like it's me being efficient, but in retrospect?  It's me being a selfish pig!  I'm getting my needs met and not checking on others.

I've got to stop that.  Because I miss people.  And I miss me.  And I want my kids to want to talk to me, especially now because I know in a few years there isn't going to be an chatter.  I mean they'll be teens and totally done with me.  Parents are so last year you know?

I've got to pause.  I've got to ask questions and listen for the answers.  I've got to listen to the long winded stories of the custom built lego heroes, villians and fortresses to appreciate the creativity of my son.  I've got to be my husband's partner.  I've got to be my kids' mother.  I've got to stop worrying about the to do's, and worry about the now.

I'm really not that busy.

 

And the total is now up to 5. 5 lost teeth!

She lost one of the top middle guys last night.  It's been wiggly for MONTHS.  We were eating Subway after a lovely night of gymnastics and baseball practice when, "Oh!  I think my tooth is really going to come out now!"  She pulled it out and started giggling.

And as her little hoarder self would, she requested that the tooth fairy not take her tooth.  Warren wrote the note for her.  Everything was put outside her room because, "if I wake up and see the tooth fairy I'm going to freak out and be scared." 

I said the tooth fairy should have taken that tooth and left a note telling Elaine not to be a hoarder.  But whatever.

She's still cute even toothless!

I get to be the favorite aunt - I called it first!

Today my brother in law and his wife became parents.  Early this morning, two little babies entered this world - Colton and Harper - my newest nephew and niece.

I thought yesterday of the panic and excitement they must be feeling.  Both probably equally strong!  These two desperately wanted to start a family and struggled to conceive as so many do.  Their struggle ended with an awesome result - twins - one boy, one girl - who gave them a couple of scares initially, but thankfully stayed the course.  Through their struggle and this pregnancy, Jon and Kelli found more love in each other and their faith - and the resulting strength they have is phenonemnal.  I admire that about them more than I can put into words.

The journey for Jon and Kelli to become a family has been long and filled with ups and downs.  But now, NOW their real journey begins.  Parenting.  Raising twins.  Becoming a family.

I can't wait to watch!

Congratulations Jon and Kelli!  Welcome Colton and Harper - I'm sure to be your favorite aunt!  (And if Julie or Wendy tell you otherwise, I'll set them straight!)

Another reason as to why soemtimes kids suck. They don't remember the good stuff!

Yesterday over dinner, Mike asked the kids if they remembered what we were doing on Spring Break last year.

Crickets chirped as the kids racked their brains.

"We went to the zoo?" Warren offered hopefully.

"The Magic House!"  Elaine declared.

Mike and I growled in unison.  Mike said, "and that is why we will never go back because you can't even remember it!"  The kids still didn't know, so we had to remind them that a year ago we were shelling out all kinds of dough to have the Disney experience, see their cousins, uncle and Grandma, and attend a Spring Training Cardinals game.

"Oh, but you said in like 10 years we could go back," Warren reminded us. 

Yeah, we'll see.  We'll see about that.  They were 8 and 5 and they can't remember the vacation of a lifetime?  They are so fired!

You won't hear from me much this week...

This is my kids' spring break week.  Posting will be sporadic at best.  But I can begin with telling you this.  It's freaking snowing today.  Yeah, that's right.  It was like 60 degrees Saturday, and it's snowing today.  It should be 77 on Thursday.  WTH?

Also, I've started the south beach diet again today, so I'm likely to be hungry and crabby and beside myself.

I mean, it should be a great week, no?

Maybe it's best if I don't post too often.  :)

Head hurts, can't type, must post picture!

I have a headache so I can't type many words today.  So here, I'll give you a picture of Elaine and her daddy from yesterday's writing celebration.  I think she sort of likes him.

A celebration of writing - periods!

Today Elaine's first grade class is hosting a Writing Celebration.  For one hour, the parents are invited to see two "published" pieces of their child's writing.  And then there are cookies and coffee.

This conversation occurred at our house yesterday...

Me:  Elaine, I'll be up tomorrow for your celebration.

E:  What about daddy?

Me:  Well, he probably has to work, won't I do?

E:  I want you both there!

Me:  I'm not sure that can happen, I'll ask him though.

E:  BUT I USED PERIODS!

Folks, when I told Mike she wanted him there and she had used periods, it was a done deal.  We - me, Mike, E's teacher - are constantly riding her about periods.  Elaine's journaling is a never ending stream of thoughts an entire paragraph long with no periods and random capitalization.  She does however, toss an exclamation point after every 'you' she writes.  It's hilarious.  But not going to work in second grade, you know?  Her stuff resembles this.

I like my mom because she is kind and do you! want to mess with her do not because I will get you! she is nice and funny and I like my Mom and do you! want to have a Sleepover sometime because my mom will Make us some cookies and we Can play do you! want to well do you!  I love my family I love Christmas your friend Elaine

Oh, except she spells kind - cind.  Close enough?  So we cannot wait to see her writing with periods.  It should be awesome!

My dishwasher washeth again!

My dishwasher has been not functioning for days.  Dirty cloudy dishes.

Boo. 

We checked it out, we changed soaps, we ran CLR and then vinegar through it.  Nothing.  We did more investigating and realized that the blade-thingys weren't turning.  I got on the web and researched more about how to solve the problem.  No luck.  So I sucked it up and scheduled a service call.  A service call with a minimum charge of 74.95 for the first hour.

Ouch.

Service tech came yesterday and was very nice.  It took him less than five minutes to tell us the problem and how to solve it.  I can summarize it for you this way.  Jenny bought a fancy pants dishwasher that has this resevoir.  You fill it with liquid detergent and the machine is SOOO smart is dispenses what you need.  The government for years has been trying to remove the phosphates from detergents because they are bad for the envirornment.  (There's a specific clean water act that the service tech told us about but I don't remember the number.)  That's fine I'm all about the environment.  However, said phosphates were pulled out and off the shelves recently and BAM the new junk gums up the works.  Without the phosophates, my hardish water interacts badly with it, making calcium deposits which slow down the blades spinning and clogs up the water holes. 

The fix?  Buy some Lemishine, run it through the empty washer 2-3 times and good to go.  It's a citric acid that breaks down the build up.  Next step?  Give up your resevoir, quit using liquid detergent and move onto the Finish Tabs with the little ball in the middle.

That's all good, but why must I pay $74.95 for this info?  Why not make it available on the web or on the hotline?  Oh because the diswasher people blame the detergent people who blame the government who then nobody fesses up to it.  Ugh.

So there, I just saved you $74.95.  You're welcome.

He put a bucket on his head, for real.

I spent part of Sunday looking for a particular file on our home computer.  You know how that goes, right?  Um yeah, I never found it.  However, I did stumble on some old pictures.  Pictures of my kiddos when they were wittle and cute and ohmyword did it ever make my uterus ache.  I mean, let's be honest folks, I had cute babies!  But then I remembered the crazy times too, took my Zoloft and went on about my bidness.  But becuase of my discoveries, from time to time I'm going to share some old memories.  Sort of like flashback Friday from forever ago.  But more sporadic; because I don't like to be tied to real deadlines.

I begin with Warren, at approximately 2ish years of age.  I think he was younger, but let's go with almost two, therefore 2ish.  At this age, one of his obsessions was buckets.  Or Tupperware shaped like buckets.  And he would put these buckets on his head.  And walk around with them on FOR HOURS.  It was freaking hilarious.  He wasn't pretending to be a spaceman.  He didn't use it as a helmet.  He just wore the bucket.

Sometimes he had to raise the bucket to eat a snack.  The bucket wasn't fully removed, just lifted high enough so that he could eat.  He loved cups with built in straws, because that allowed him to quench his thirst without even raising the bucket.  We didn't have any clear buckets - the closest was the tupperware one, but it was still difficult to see through.  That was no problem, because again, you can just raise the bucket to run, walk, or climb up and down steps!

When I saw these pictures I immediately flashed back to that time.  I was pregnant with Elaine and deliriously tired.  To give myself some down time, I'd find him a bucket and he'd be entertained for at least an hour.  Oh those were simpler times.  Funny funny simpler times.  He was such a cute little buckethead!