Kids Don't Slow Down When You Do

Have you ever noticed that you never really get to take a vacation from your kids? Or that if you are sick or down and out, they don't really understand that? That has been on my mind this week as I have been struck by "the gout". It has been an absolutely awful week for me, as every step I take hurts and I can't get comfortable for anything. But, my kids are SO funny and keep me going. Ben told me that if he gives me a big hug it will make me all better so that I won't have to feel sick anymore. So the other night before he went to bed he came and gave me a big hug and said, now mom, if you need a hug later to feel good just say Ben! I need a hug! and I will come right down. I think that was 50% about me feeling better and 50% about a possible chance to get out of bed, but sweet nonetheless. Maddie just keeps asking about the "bandaid" on my foot, like she can't really understand that there could possibly be anything that would slow her mom or dad down and of course, Zach is oblivious to all of it and is his usual eight-meal-a-day, take no prisoners, I will do what Ben and Maddie do even if I end up in the emergency toom kind of guy.

But, the one bright spot in this week has been how AWESOME my husband has been in stepping in and doing whatever needs to be done without asking, complaining or making me feel guilty for just wanting to sit in the recliner with an ice pack on my foot. I am SO lucky to have him.

On a side note, Ben somehow knows what a smart car is and saw one in the Fareway ad the other day. He told me mom, we need to go to this store, because I need to buy this smart car. It is a car for four year olds, you know. I have to say I kind of agree with him.

And, my sweet little Ben got flip flops this week and it might have changed his whole life. I have been on the hunt for crocs (will, generic crocs) in his size with no luck. So, I thought, I will just see if he is big enough to do flip flops yet. I am not kidding, the kid woke up the next morning at 630 and said, mom! I took my socks off so that I can wear my flip flops now. When I picked him up from school he was running down this list of names from the back seat and I couldn't quite get what he was talking about so, I asked him, who are all of those people? And he was like, MOM! Those are all my friends that have flip flops. He apparently thinks that flip flops have catapaulted him to some upper echelon of society and he could not be happier!

I Want to Be Just Like You!

Okay, we are going to have some serious problems with Zach. This weekend he has tried to ride Ben's bike (he did this by going to get the helmet and actually stepping up onto a pedal of the bike before I grabbed him), tried to climb up the ladder of the swingset and last night brought me all of the pieces to Elefun (which if you are not familiar with the sweet children's game involves a fairly heavy base, an obnoxiously long "trunk", about 50 "butterflies" that might as well be colored tissue paper and a net to catch the things by) and grunted until I would turn it on for him. Which brings me to my second problem with Zach, which is that he seems to be 50% caveman. He doesn't really point, he doesn't say mama or more, he just grunts. A lot. Mostly for donuts. Apparently, the strategy works for him, so why give it up? Now, the positive side of wanting to be just like Ben is that maybe one of these days he will walk into the bathroom and go potty on his own. That would be my kind of imitation!

Ben had his first foot xray after he jumped off some playground equipment with good intentions of grabbing the fireman pole and instead just jumped straight to the ground. His first xray should be followed by his first Emmy nomination. So all night that night he flat out refused to walk on his foot. I couldn't see any swelling or bruising and loathe Urgent Care past 6 pm so decided to wait it out for the morning. He still wouldn't really walk on it and when he did, looked pretty gimpy so I went ahead and called his doctor. I couldn't get him in until 1130, so I left him with the babysitter. When I came to pick him up, he literally ran to me and said excitedly "I'm going to get stickers at the doctor!!" So, I asked him if his foot still hurt and it did, so I took him (and Maddie who refused to be left behind) to the doctor's office. I felt like a moron as I walked in behind my son who ran in in front of me straight to the toys and checked him in for his "sore foot". The doctor went ahead and ordered an xray just to be sure, but as you can likely guess, it was just fine. So, at least we know Ben can act.

Maddie has been entertaining anyone who will listen to her lately with her version of Lady Gaga's Paparazzi. It goes something like this: "I hold a ball and follow you until you love me, papa-papa-razzi." Close sweetheart. But she loves it! She can also do a pretty good version of Poker Face. I guess it beats Ben's version of "Do you know the muffin man" which he swears is: "Do you know the Muffin Man? I'm a Dirty Man".

Sleep

I am reading a new book that lists some spiritual disciplines that you can try and sleep is the first chapter. You have to love a book that tells you to sleep! Anyway, that got me wondering about a lot of things...but in relation to my kids, when exactly do they start to realize that sleep is a GOOD thing! And when do adults start wanting the day to end so that they can just go to sleep? It's a funny dynamic. I mean, I get the kids point of view...you are playing and having so much fun, why would you want to interrupt that with sleep? But honestly, you get to take a two-hour nap every day and no one thinks worse of you, in fact they want you to do it. And on top of that, your parents want you to sleep as long as you can in the morning, NOT wake up. I mean, when does that happen in real life? I set my alarm and TRY to get up (it doesn't happen very often) so that I can do some work before I even go to work. It's sad. Now, if I could just get my kids to appreciate what they have!

This weekend I struggled trying to get Ben and Maddie to lay down for naps. Zach is actually in a stage where he kind of enjoys his bed, which is nice. But on Saturday I tried to lay both Ben and Maddie down at the same time and since they share a room with each other and Zach it is like walking a tightrope to not wake anyone up. And if your two older ones act like they are not remotely tired, it usually doesn't end up well. I probably trekked up and down the stairs ten times threatening that if I had to come up "one more time" something bad was going to happen (I didn't really have anything good to hang over their head, so I think that affected my effectiveness). I came up once and they were both in Ben's bed (which admittedly was pretty cute), another time Maddie had out her doctor's kit and had a little Urgent Care set up right there in her bed and Ben was rearranging the letters on his wall that say "Ben" to read "NEB"... he seems to like his name better that way. Eventually Matt had to go upstairs and lay by them and I heard him snoring while the kids continued to play. I don't know how he does that...I struggle to fall asleep anywhere other then my comfy bed (and sometimes there as well).

Speaking of sleep, Maddie just woke up her normal grumpyself at 7 am on the dot (Ben's been up for about 15 minutes watching Playhouse Disney in my room) so I better go. Happy Easter everyone!

You Stink!

You have to love the brutal honesty of a four-year old. Matt and I made it home from our vacation last Friday at about 2 am. I was so anxious to see my kids (believe it or not) that we both went into their room just to see them while they were sleeping. They looked just a tad bit bigger! We resisted waking them up and hit the sack ourselves. So, at about 530 Ben wakes up saying that his sheets are wet (aka he peed the bed). So, I get up to go help him and instead of greeting me with a sweet "oh mom, you are home, I missed you so much" as I planted a kiss on his cheek he goes "oh mom, that kind of stinks. you stink". Nice. Note to self, apparently I have to start brushing my teeth before greeting my children.

But the kids survived. Grandma Laura and Grandpa Dennis had a rough first morning as Ben woke up, discovered we had "left on an airplane" without him and he still had to go to school. He insisted that he would be staying in bed until we got home from vacation. My dad had to physically put him in his car seat and Ben was screaming and fighting so much that my dad couldn't even get the seat belt buckled and instead drove to daycare holding Ben down. He was convinced that they would be pulled over by a SWAT team before they got there and asked why they were abducting this kid or at the very least why they were being so mean to him. But, when I talked to the daycare he apparently got over it pretty quickly and it was smooth sailing from there. Maddie thought the first morning that we were gone that she would probably just go live at the farm with Grandpa for a while and didn't like it when that plan got foiled, but that was her main meltdown. So lesson learned=take more vacations!

Moustache in the House!

So, over the last few days I have been going over this blog in my head, trying to come up with actors who have awesome moustaches. The only one I could come up with is Tom Selleck. Anybody have any ideas? Why, you may ask? Well, Ben's new favorite thing to do is to take is index finger, put it over his top lip (forming a faux moustache) and say "Moustache in the Ho-use, Moustache in the Ho-use". I have no idea where he came up with this, what it means or whether or not he will grow up to crave a sweet 'stache of his own, but it is pretty freaking funny. So, I was going to try to rank him with all of the other sweet 'stache wearers (i.e. Tom Selleck), but I am drawing blanks, and since Matt and I leave for Vegas tomorrow, I figured I better get this posted.

Yes, Matt and I are taking our first vacation sans kids since having kids (so about 5 years). We are going to Vegas for a week and are both pretty excited. Tons of great people have stepped up to help take care of our kids and although I know that they won't do it as good as we do, I think it will be good for all of us. They know we are going on "vacation" and they don't seem too upset by it, but we shall see. Either way, I am having a rip-roaring/relaxing time in Vegas (those might seem like polar opposites, but trust me, I will do both).

And thank God for a beautiful pre-spring day today. Our kids had a BLAST outside reconnecting with their friends the Jeep, the scooter, and the Big Wheel. It was so great to have some fresh air and I hope it pays off with some kids that sleep in for Grandma in the morning. One thing about living in Iowa is that I think that we just may appreciate spring more than anyone else in the Continental United States. Anyway, Matt and I just finished packing (nothing like waiting till the last minute) and are going to try to grab a couple of hours of sleep before we have to get up uber-early to start our vacation. Have a great week everyone!

Top Ten Things I Love About Zach

Zach turned one yesterday. It is hard to believe. I clearly remember a year (and a day) ago going to the hospital being so ready (okay, way past ready) to meet our not-so-little guy. He has been our sweetest baby to date, but probably the most challenging too. He has been kind of sickly (and trust me, I know we are lucky describing the things he has had to go through as sickly...in the grand scheme of things, it hasn't been anything too terrible) and until the last couple of weeks (knock on wood) not the best sleeper. However, in honor of his birthday, I wanted to write about the top ten things I love about my Tank:

10. He is not afraid to give anyone open-mouth kisses

9. He likes to throw his weight around (just ask the little girl in the church nursery that he took out in one fell swoop in order to get the toy she was playing with)

8. He cracks himself up

7. He can walk (thank god, my lower back was really starting to protest)

6. He his going against tradition by deciding to get his two canine teeth before his front two teeth which makes his smile super cute right now (and a little vampirish)

5. He can't talk back (yet)

4. He is always happy to see me

3. He knows when he is being naughty and waits for you to watch him because he thinks it is hilarious (for instance, he knows he isn't supposed to go up the stairs, so he waits at the bottom until he sees that you are looking and then starts racing up laughing all the way)

2. He still cuddles with me cheek to cheek (who can resist that?)

1. He is all ours (until he's 18 that is and by then, I'll probably be ready to kick him out:)

It's been such a fast year! Another big event in the Brogan household last week was Maddie's first trip to Build-a-Bear where she stuffed a bear with her binkies. I wasn't really sure if she got the concept, because she just stuffed them in there and was like, what's next? And I told her again, you know you don't get those back, right? But she has really been pretty good. She whines at night and Matt and I have had to go in there a couple of times, but she has never asked for them back, so I am pretty proud of her.

Ben started in the 4/5 year old room at his "new school". He is now in the Pooh room (not to be confused with the Poop room...it kind of sounds like that when he says what room he is in). So, just when we were doing great getting dropped off, we switch things up. This will only be his third day in there, so it's not like I'm expecting miracles, but it would be nice to drop a kid off without kicking and screaming and crying. That is just not a great way to start the day. They tell me that it doesn't last long and when I pick him up he talks about all of the fun that he had, so I know he is fine, but it would be a lot better without the theatrics. He is starting to work with a speech pathologist who told me he had a lot of "sound errors", but thinks that with time he should be fine.

Anyway, somehow it is 630 and none of my kids are up yet, so I better finish getting ready before I have three kids in the bathroom with me!

I HATE Monday Mornings

Is it wrong that I would rather take ten minutes to blog then to get my three kids (who are locked in their room by a gate and have been up since 6:20) out of bed? I don't know what it is, but Ben wakes up with his usual "Mom, I waked up" and when it used to be cute (like two years ago) now I just want to take him and explain that beings under the age of 12 should not get up before 7 am. There is just no good reason for it. Of course, his whining then wakes up both Maddie and Zach, but somehow Zach manages to fall back asleep. About 6:45 starts the choruses of "Mom, I have to go potty". So what are you supposed to say to that? What I would like to say is, "Well, just pee your pants, its not 7 yet" but instead I get him up to go potty and as soon as we are in the bathroom, starts Maddie "I have to go potty". AAAARRRGGHHH. And this annoys me the most on Monday mornings. It's just not the way I would like to start a week. I would like to start a week with sleeping until about 10 am, and then my three wonderful kids could bring me breakfast in bed while they get themselves dressed, fed and bundled up for daycare. My husband would then come and shuttle them to daycare and I would have the rest of the day in the house by myself. Now, that would be a Monday.