Just one moment

I have to share just one moment of my day yesterday...Wednesday 25th. I woke up very sick with a sore throat, glands the size of baseballs, cold sweats, mucus filled nose and chest, just feeling TERRIBLE. I tried to sleep as much as possible (with two kids). Caleb was awesome. He watched movies and played most of the day by himself. When Riley and I were sleeping, he was cautious to be quiet. GREAT KID!!

Okay, here's the moment.....

Caleb goes running into the bathroom and I hear, "Mom I poop mess". You never want to hear the words "poop" and "mess" in the same sentence. I go in there to find that he's had some diarrhea and it's splashed out of the toilet onto the floor (and he may have missed the potty because it was also on his undies). I run into the kitchen to get paper towels and cleaning spray. I'm wiping up the bathroom floor, cold sweats dripping down my face, feeling like I'm going to pass out from either bending over or the smell, and I hear Riley give out this scream. I go running into the kitchen with poop covered paper towels in my hand and find Riley crawling out from under the little kitchen set Caleb has. He was trying to pull the water facet off and the whole thing came down on top of him. (thankfully it's very lite) He was so mad, once I gave him the water facet (which is meant to come off of the kitchen set), he went off on his merry way. At that point I forgot that Caleb was still in the bathroom, until I hear "Mom, is Riley okay?" only it's not coming from the bathroom, it's coming from right behind me!! Caleb has come out to see what had happened and with him, poop drips....... from the bathroom, down the hallway, into the kitchen.

That's my moment. I think everyday an award should go out to moms who have made it through another day with their sanity in tact and the kids snuggled safely into bed.

Fun in the sun (kinda)

We took advantage of some good weather over the weekend. The sun was out momentarily, but then disappeared quickly behind the clouds that came in and produced heavy rains today.

Riley was not happy about sitting on the ground, but he soon got over it and joined in with Caleb and Zachary (Amy's son) digging in the leaves and drooling on the shovel.

One of Caleb's favorite things to do in the yard is hide in the shed. This time he was playing with Zachary who did not like hiding in the shed....poor Zachary, Caleb scared him to death closing the door and holding it shut while Zachary cried. Sorry Zachary...Caleb thought you were having as much fun as he was.

The boys had an awesome time. They raked the leaves and then decided to turn on the water hose and spray water on the the pile of leaves. Caleb swears that he was cleaning the leaves.....likely story.

Self feeder

Riley is learning to self feed. Today was a strawberry breakfast bar. I'm not sure how much of it got into his belly, but he had lots of fun trying.

And I had lots of fun watching him try. I didn't however have lots of fun cleaning up the mess!!!

Check out the teeth...

Valentine's Day

We had a nice Valentine's Day. The FRG party went really well. Caleb had an awesome time. He colored, played muscial chairs, played bean bag toss, and ate lots of candy.

My Valentine's Present

This is what I got for Valentine's Day from my WONDERFUL husband!! I actually got it before he left, which was 11 days ago (seems like it's been a month already). Thank you honey, I love it!!

We have a fun filled day planned, starting with some laundry and then helping set-up the FRG Valentine's Kids Party and then attending the actual party at 2pm. And to finish off the day, we're going to babysit so some of the Blue Ridge mommies can go out together for some Valentine's Day dinner. Yes, it will be a day full of romance and love.....of course don't forget that I have two men as my dates today!!!! Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. I hope that you are feeling the love.

Organized sports

Caleb is finally old enough to join an organized youth sport, BASKETBALL. Today was the first day of practice. There was probably about thirty-five 3-4 year olds running into each other, throwing balls at each other, and yelling, "my ball!". It was great. Caleb did really well for the first 40 minutes, but when they asked the kids to dribble the ball across the court, Caleb fell apart. He's never held a basketball much less dribbled a basketball, so he lost all confidence and broke down into a pouting fit on the floor. When we got home, he told me that a boy laughed at him....I don't think that was the case, but that was his perception and his feelings were hurt.

There are so many life lessons that he will begin to learn now, aside from how to dribble a basketball. And I get to learn how to explain those lessons appropriately to a 3 yr. old. I'm not sure I'm ready.

What I hope Caleb learns in the next 6 weeks:

1. How to listen and take directions,

2. Self confidence,

3. and that you don't have to be great at something in order to enjoy it.

If he learns to dribble a ball in the process, wonderful, but not necessary.

Overwhelmed

Yesterday, the boys and I went out in town to buy some produce. It has been awhile since we've been out just the three of us and now I remember why. Anyway, walking into the market this older Japanese man (he said he was 81) came up to me and started talking to me. He had no personal space and invaded mine very closely to my face. His teeth were rotted and his breath was awful. I found myself leaning backwards to the point of falling trying to give myself some breathing room. The boys were strapped into the stroller and the stroller was pressed up against a box of lettuce. There isn't room to walk with a stroller to begin with, but I wasnt' going to leave the boys out in the main isle (like many of the Japanese women do). Other people were trying to pass by us (pushing and forcing they're way through) and this man just kept talking to me. I was very nervous and Caleb was starting to get upset. Caleb is trying to pull himself out of the stroller and yelling at me, "Let's go home mommy". I literally wanted to come out of my skin. I tried several times to relieve myself from this man's conversation to no avail. He was telling me that he was in the Navy during WWII (I think, his English was very elementary) and he kept hitting his hands together saying, "Imperial Staff! Imperial Staff!!" I still have no idea if he was in the Japanese Navy or if he was in the US Navy...His physical stance made me think that he was in the Japanese Navy and that he was upset with me being there, but that could just be based on my anxiety during the situation. Anyway, I had to be very rude and walk away, which is difficult for me to do with old people. (I have this thing about old people, they make me sad) At that point, I wanted to leave and go home, but we had walked out there and by Gosh we were going home with produce!! So we continued with our shopping until this American woman came up to us in the checkout line and started asking a million questions....where are you from? How long have you been here?? In a 2 minute span, I knew everything about this woman and her husband. She just kept talking! And then she tells me, I can walk and talk if you have somewhere to go. URG!!!! I just wanted to have a nice walk and buy some produce. So much for that. My last mistake was going to GAP where we had another situation....

Then, we went home. I was so exhausted from being so OVERWHELMED! People just suck the life right out of me. Am I just losing my patience with age???

Learnin to Scoot

Caleb got this scooter for Christmas and Shawn and I have both tried showing him how to use it, but he doesn't like to take instruction from us. However, he does listen to his favorite "bud" John. Of course, John has a "big boy" scooter which goes much faster than Caleb's little Radio Flyer, 3 wheel scooter, but Caleb tried very hard to keep up and finally got tired and decided to just chase John on foot. In the process, it was decided that Caleb needs a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads and if they make them, ankle pads....

Our Super Bowl "Monday"

It is beyond WEIRD to watch the super bowl on a Monday morning.

9:00 in the a.m. is a bit early to munch on chips and salsa and down a cold beer while cursing out a quarterback for not getting rid of the ball soon enough. So we skipped the chips and dip and the cold beer, but enjoyed cursing out the quarterback and celebrating touchdowns. Caleb learned to yell, "Go Steelers" and the arm gesture for "touchdown". Thankfully the game kept us interested because watching the game on AFN (Armed Forces Network) we missed seeing all the cool commercials that you lucky folks in the states will be talking about for the next month.

I have to say that this game was the best super bowl we have watched in some time. Of course, we love Pittsburgh (thanks to my dad) and the last half of the game had us sitting on the edge of our seats and screaming (ok, so I screamed the most). At one point, Caleb put his hands over his ears and shhhh Shawn and I. My kid, the loudest kid on the block, shhhhhed me....that's just embarrassing!

"TOUCHDOWN"