Tag Archives: kids

My Kindly Torturer

Early in the morning my kindly torturer sneaks into my bed and snuggles in beside me as I drift back to sleep.

Then she rolls over, and sighs.

Then she kindly covers me with half of her nasty, soggy, stinky, chewed on blanket.

Then she wiggles.

Then she gently rubs my back.

Then she sighs and traces the line of my pajama top ever so gently.

Then she rubs my foot.

Then she traces the letters on my pajamas with her finger.

Then she cuddles in next to me.

She never says a word, she’s very quite, very gentle, very kind.

When I give in and open my eyes and say good morning she gives me a hug and says she loves me,  I return the sentiment.

But the kind, gentle, loss of that last hour of sleep is so painful.

Keeping my mouth shut so as not to scream:  “STOP TOUCHING ME! GET OUT OF MY BED! I’M SLEEPING!” requires so much will power.

Not crushing her spirit as I throw her from the room requires so much effort from my sleepy brain.

Then I start the day swinging between guilty feelings about my decidedly unkind thoughts about my kind daughter and feeling completly justified in my irritation that my day started out with a bit of torture.

There is something magic about that last hour of sleep. Go ahead interrupt me every hour all night, pee in your bed causing me to change it at three AM, cry, whine, throw up, anything, all night, whatever, whenever.

Just please, please let me sleep that last hour.

Please?!?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sun

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sun

I love looking around at life through the “lens” of the week’s theme.

I love that I’m taking more pictures, playing with my camera settings and challenging myself to do it all without Photoshop (at least for that one picture!). Life is always full of obligatory challenges and  it’s been nice to be able to choose a challenge for a change! But, life being what it is there are also nights, like tonight, where there are unexpected challenges with the photos.

When you try to take a picture while simultaneously attempting to calm down the baby you’ve upset by the sudden change of position and arguing with the two year old over who gets the one particular dandelion amongst the hundred or so available, the challenge part of the photo challenge takes on a whole new meaning.

But, after I snapped my picture and Clara picked the contested flower for her bouquet I watched her blow her dandelion seed heads and remembered another challenge of mine.

To slow down.

To remember that even though the kids might make things take a little bit longer, make life a little bit messier and a bit more frustrating, that I need to take a deep breath, slow down and let them in.

Because when I do, it’s always just a little bit better.

And if it takes looking at life through a camera lens to remember that, I guess I’ll just have to keep snapping photos!

T is For Toad

Ivy went looking for bugs under logs and found this toad.

Note: My daughter's not jaundiced, she just likes to be a dandelion fairy!

Shortly after the big discovery Ivy ran for the house to show Clara. When I walked in Ivy was headed up the stairs, toad in hand.

Me: “Whatcha’ doin’ Ivy?”

Ivy: “I’m going to play with my toad!!!”

By the time my camera and I wandered upstairs to see what was happening the toad had peed on Ivy and the carpet.

This didn’t surprise me because not only is pee a toads M.O., the play room is the only room left in the house with carpet. Murphy’s law strikes again!

After the toad met a few of the locals…… and was completely unimpressed… …Ivy brought him back to his little toady hideout.

Toads, cameras and kids it makes for a hoppin’ good time!

A Clara Moment

The scene: It is late morning, I am in my bedroom rocking and burping a very sleepy Jane while reading my book with the door closed.

Clara enters: “I come say goodnight Jane.”

Clara puts her nose on Jane’s nose and says: “Goodnight Jane! Goodnight Jane!”

Clara looks up and points at two Diet Coke cans sitting near me: “What those doing there?”

Me: “I’m drinking them.”

Clara stalks over to inspect cans: “Oh, this one nothin’ in it. Just tiny sip for me.”

Clara walks out attempting to suck the last drops out of my Caffeine Free Diet Coke and slams the door behind her.

Jane and I return to quiet rocking.

Speech Therapy

As a mother I worry. While I like to think that my worry levels rate pretty low on the scale of mother worrying I still do it. I can’t help it. John, he’s the Dad, worry is not in his job description, so as the Mom I’ve got to pick up a bit of the slack.

Currently I’m worried that Ivy may have a speech problem.

She seems to add this superfluous  “mmmm” sound to the beginning of everything and let me tell you, in addition to worrying that her new speech issue will affect her fluency and general communication, it’s beginning to drive me crazy.

We tried working on it today:

Ivy: “Mom, can I…”

Me: ” You already have my attention just say can I, you don’t have to say Mom.”

Ivy: ” Mom, OK but…”

Me: “No, don’t say Mom, just say OK.”

Ivy: “Mom, OK, Mom can I…”

Me: “No, hear the “mmm” don’t make the “mmm” sound.”

Ivy: Mom, can I…

A speech therapist I am not.

Then we went to Farm and Fleet and she continued to make that awful “mmm” noise. Except the “mmm” had evolved into a full fledged “MMMMMOOOOOMMMM!!!!!” complete with lots of tears eliciting quite a few looks of pity from other shoppers.

I think they must have been worried about her speech problem too.