Family vacay 2013

6 adults and 5 children 4 and under. That may sound like the beginning of a joke. It’s also known as family vacay 2013. We had a lot of celebrating to do over Labor day. My dad turned 66, Kellen turned 1 and my mom was celebrating her 65. So why not embark on a crazy journey to the Texas coast. I told my sister this would either be fun, or a total shit show. turns out, I was wrong. It was both. We headed to Port Aransas, TX. A kitschy little coastal town. We were .5 miles from the beach in this awesome little cottage that also had a pool to which our monitors would reach. Not that our kids were sleeping. It was fun to pretend, though. Each family had their own room, and the bigger kids had a room with bunk beds. Hence the veritable shit show of theatrics anytime they were supposed to be sleeping. Me loudly and firmly telling them to get in bed, stop turning on and off the lights, lay down, etc over the monitor worked for approximately 3 seconds before they were back at it. Crazy. The kids are crazy. It was fun. We ate. We drank. We beached. The boys fished. No one vomited. No child was sunburned. We were attacked by the biggest mosquito’s ever. We photo’d. We didn’t rest. We nearly lost a child at the beach. We had time outs. We had tears. We had sharing. We had sweet moments. We have a lot of laundry. We had a lot of packing up to do. We had a lot of fun. Then we had really long trips home that left everyone exhausted. Prepare for photo overload. this isn't even half. lawsy.

shit I bought tuesday

Does that have a nice ring to it? Trying to be a better blogger (I won't be.) Where do you cool cats find the time? Maybe you stay up past 10:30 and don't have drinks at night? I dunno. I dunno what your thing is. Mine is going to bed early and having drinks. SO I wanna blog. I do. I have cute (and sassy) children. Well, one is sassy (work appropriate term) and one is the sweetest happiest baby ever... who has tubes. And is getting a helmet on Thursday (tube-u-lear/helmet head.) So I can tell you what I online shop for? I bought an awesome cross body bag on etsy. I lurve it. Except that I don't go anywhere that doesn't require a breast pump (aka work) so I don't really use it that much. HOwever, if you want to pimp your ride check out this girl. Super fast. And she hand makes them. Skills I do not have. I can make you a bev. Do they sell those on etsy?

Shit hat.

Griffin loves to change out words to songs and insert other ones.  I do it when I read books just to mix them up a bit.  see if he's paying attention.  he is.

Last night his new word was "shit hat."

I'm a little shit hat shit hat.
Here is my shit hat.  Here is my shit hat.
When I get all shit hat.  shit hat shit hat
tip me shit hat and pour me shit hat.

Buddy... what word are you saying?

SHIT HAT.  (giggles.)

Did you make that up?

Yes.


Oh.............shit hat.  Someone help me!

The g

Griffin is funny.  He makes me laugh.  He actually laughs really hard when I laugh.  which is awesome.  He says a lot of things that I think, I have got to blog about that.  Or, that I'll never forget it because he is SO FUNNY.

Tonight he told me after he had pooped that one of his turdlets looked like a catfish.

And then he was looking at a picture of Ben and I from our wedding day and asked if he was in my tummy then.  Uh, rude.  I didn't look bloated.  I didn't say that, and my immediate thought was "just say something cliche like 'heaven' or 'with God.'  but then if I say that he'll think that God preordaines things and I don't believe in that and I don't want him to either...because, well... for a lot of reasons (hello, crazy.)  so I just told him "no, not yet."  And he wanted to know where he was.  So I told him he was "in my head and in my heart and I could only hope for a baby like Griffin."  To which he asked...

"so where my legs and my feet in your heart?"  logical.  comical.

This same kid has also screamed since I put him to bed an hour and a half ago.  Beat his head against the wall.  yelled MOMMY I NEED TO TELL YOU A QUESTION.  Talked me into watching team oomi zoomi and is now laying in my bed.  Less charming.

That catfish thing, though... sure is funny.

In all seriousness...anyone else have separation anxiety issues at age 3?

8:30 12:30 2:00 4:30 5:30 6:00 6:30 6:45 7:45 8:05

These numbers are not going to get you off of the island.  I think they keep you trapped there.

at 8:30 last night I escorted G out of "mama's bed" and in to his own as he said, "I sink I may have poopy in my pants."  it was a trial of letting him sleep with me while Ben is gone/here.  It's his big sales conference so he is all but gone.  He originally went to bed at 6:40.  HOLY MONSTER BALLS YOU ARE INFRINGING ON MY SYTYCD DRINKING TIME.  It was an event.

12:30 when M woke up the first time

2:00 when Ben came home

4:30 when M woke up

5:30 when M woke up to poop.  Every.  Single.  Day.  And he needs me.

6:00 when I have to get up to get dressed

6:30 M dawg up for the day

6:45 G up

in the middle of there I made some pancakes.

7:45 out the door to work and "school."

8:10 drive through at starbucks.

I need a nap.  And a sister wife.  And a trip to an island that doesn't know those numbers.

EBF

There are a LOT of things I do not know about pregnancy, parenting, etc.  Mostly, acronyms.  EBF. TCC.  DH.  LO... I had to google research to understand the foreign language on babycenter.  that's babycentre if you're british.

I DO know that EBF means exclusively breast feed.  I told Ben I wanted to write a post about how much I love it (because I know someone who is absolutely  and adamantly AGAINST it--which is fine.)  It's something that I knew I wanted to try but didn't know how it would go.  So my response when people would ask would be, "I'm going to try it!"  I figured that way I wouldn't be disappointed if it didn't go well.  This is also how I felt about birthing plans.  Meh?  I figure I'll show up because this baby is going to come out one way or another and I think the dr's (OK NURSES--Cheers to my nurses out there) will have this all covered and tell me what to do.  They did.  It was awesome. 

All this to say, I love nursing my babies.  I also think, at times, it's exhausting.  I love how their little hands hold my necklace (G--from day one) and M hold my hand.  Love their little antics--Meyer does a face scratching thing.  Precious.  More precious if he'd let me cut his nails.  Love that I can quiet them in this way.  LOVE that I don't have to wash many bottles.  Also, love that I love it and that it doesn't (always) feel like a chore.  And I love the love of mama.

Also, it's cheap.  All the better for me to buy diapers with and ruin the environment. (at least I'm saving water during this drought.)

Ben told me that I shouldn't write about that, but what he wished people would write about/talk about is getting preggers.  One of his friends felt very isolated in her difficulty with getting pregnant.  Like everyone BUT her could.  Thankfully, I have enough friends who I (think) are pretty reliable.  So I both felt like everyone could at the drop of a hat, and I couldn't--in my irrational brain AND like I knew it was work and didn't always happen asap--in my real brain.  It's hard to decipher those differences when you have lady parts.  Girls, lock up yo' crazy.  So here's my story/non story.

I lived my life knowing that I wanted to be "mom."   Wanted to be a mommy.  I wanted it all.  I also wanted to live my life.  Get my degrees.  Get married.  Go to Italy.  THEN we could have a baby.  I didn't work like that though.  We did all of those things.  We did the "us" things.  We continued try to "ward off"pregnancy as it wasn't the right time.  After months of trying we realized that we needed help.  Body ready.  Mind ready.  Leads to a crazy ass pee stick obsession.  I also took the ovulation kits--not ovulating.  So a million pee and ovulation sticks later  I took a round of Chlomid after they figured out what was happening--boom pow.  Knocked up.  To a baby who wasn't letting go.  

Second time we just went straight to the Chlomid.  Boom-pow.

So I guesss... I'm not entirely sure that sector of talking about getting preggers is silent.  I think that that sector is hopeful and fearful--all at the same time.  Wanting a baby can be all mind consuming.   SO you know... they don't want to jinx themselves.  And if it happens, they may get even more jinxy so they say nothing because of the fearful and hopeful parts.  The wanting to be a mama more than anything parts.

What I'm saying is that husbands are often right--especially the outside looking in at the world of girl crazy.  So Ben was right.  So I write.  (and note, I'm a good wife for catering to this need.  he thinks I only talk of him poorly on here, but this added one more bonus to my posts of father's day, birthday, and anniversary of talking nice.)

Not having this happen IMMEDIATELY as I had imagined was probably silly.  And stressful.  Made me feel like my body was broken  I think what we learn is how NOT to get pregnant from an early age.  We don't learn the ins and outs.  I think we truly have to learn our own bodies.  

And I've felt that jealousy towards friends.  True EXCITEMENT and joy over their new life expectancy, and simultaneously pretty down trodden about my lack of procreation.  LIke, "How many people are going to tell me they have tried for one month an they are pregs and we've been together forEVER?"  As if that matters.  So here I am to say that it's not as easy as it is for everyone.  You are not a lone--thanks MJ for that lyric.  It may not work out how you have planned (see I'm for NOT having a plan) and something different will come a long.  Maybe it's a baby.  Maybe it's a baby through someone else.  Maybe.  Just maybe.  It's something you can't even plan for. 

Both of the journeys for my boys were great timing in the end.  I wouldn't change it.  It's hard.  Sometimes gut wrenching to buy those over priced pee sticks so I bought in bulk on amazon.  Like a lady.  I think because the time before that I was at walgreens with my preg test and a pint of ice cream and the cashier said "One of those days?"  And I felt embarrassed, like I wanted to punch her in the neck, and say "I hope so."  Instead I just smiled awkwardly.  

I'm in love with my babies.  Glad that Ben and I had an ample amount of non baby time as a married couple. I know that mine isn't the easiest, nor the hardest story.  Just my story.

Now if I could get preggers by accident... lets get a cheers for baby #3.  That last statement is just to see if Ben is reading.  Kidding love.  Just kidding.  ish.