Band of Mothers

 As if I need anything else on plate, but I am happy to announce the newest edition to the Motherhood and Me family.

Band of Mothers the Blog!

This is still a work in progress, but my dear friend Jessica and I from Mommas Gone City and I thought of this together (she came up with the fabulous name).

Again, this is still in the early stages of development, but we wanted to make a collaborative blog where moms could come together to share their stories, experiences, advice, etc.

Support, I am finding, is key to surviving this thing called Motherhood.

Enjoy and let us know what you think!

Thanks!

The Dark Cloud That Is My Life

So I have been MIA for what feels like months now. 

Things were fine and dandy until Lil' Miss B started acting under the weather about 10 days ago.

I trusted my gut and called the pediatrician's office to see if I could squeeze her in after my doctor's appointment. I was having crazy sinus pain ever since I flew home from MI and finally decided to suck it up and go get some medicine.

Let's just say going to the doctor is not my cup of tea and going with both of my kids is even less appealing. This appointment in particular, turned out to be one of the most difficult ones I have ever had to endure.

I stroll in with the kiddos in their beast of a stroller and get called right away, which was nice.

We are walked down the hall to our room all while Misa Misa is whining about how he doesn't want to get a shot. I kept trying to tell him that we were at my doctor and not his and that he was perfectly safe.

We get to our room and I have to keep apologizing to the nurse who couldn't keep from laughing the whole time Misa Misa is interrupting our every breath. 

At this time, Barrett starts to whimper as if she wants to get in on the action too. I let her out of the stroller to cruise a bit and suddenly the doctor walks in and startles her. She trips and falls on the floor. She always falls so I thought it was no big deal until I picked her up to find a pool of blood.

Awesome.

She cut the inside of her top lip on who knows what and proceeds to bleed continuously for what felt like forever. My poor doctor was all frazzled and never even looked in my nose! He was too concerned with making sure her teeth were still intact. He wrote me a script and tried to get the bleeding to stop. 

Misa Misa was in the stroller, white as a ghost and started to wail once he saw the blood.

There I was, sinus pain, blood all over me, two screaming kids and a poor panicked looking doctor. I told him to just let me get her to her pediatrician's appointment and made my way out of their office with what dignity I had left. I rushed out while all the nurses looked at me like I was a crazy person.

I made it to her pediatrician's appointment and seriously shocked all the people when I walked in. They gasped when they saw me and asked where the blood was coming from. I told them that we were just there for a cough and that the blood was just a long story.

Argh!

Once we were there, we found out that poor Lil' Miss B had a double ear infection and now a busted lip. We got her some medicine and went on our way until the next morning when Misa Misa woke up like this...

He spiked a fever and started hacking away like an 80 year old smoker. I called the pediatrician's office and asked to sneak in AGAIN. This time we found that he had an ear infection in one ear and...


Pneumonia.


Awesome.


What's even more awesome than that, is the fact that this is the SECOND time he has had pneumonia. The first time he had it was a year and half ago and he ended up in the hospital.


Awesome.


So...my week and our weekend thus far has looked like this...

I wish I could say that my sinus pain is gone, the house is back to normal and the kids are well, but that is not the case. We are not there yet, and I stress yet. 

The kids are still on antibiotics, not sleeping very well and Misa Misa need his breathing treatments and steroids every couple of hours. 

Sleep is for the weak right? Or is it, you can sleep when you are dead? Either way, sleep is not something we are getting around here...yet.

Sorry to have dropped off the face of the planet and here too, but this dark cloud has been lingering much too long and has been raining much to hard on my poor family.

Thanks for not giving up on me and not deleting me from your readers!

15 Cookie Friday

Today was a strange day. 

We were stuck in the house because my poor little Queen B has a nasty cough, a busted lip from a bad fall and a double ear infection. As you can imagine, she is NOT a happy little girl.

Luckily she slept most of the day and even more lucky, so did Misa Misa. 

However, when Misa Misa was awake I needed an activity to keep him happy. I asked, "What do you want to do?"

He grinned and said, "Make cookies."

"Okay" was all I had to say to put a big smile on his face.

We happily made my favorite cookie, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip.

We had a blast! 

This was the first time that he actually made an effort to help and be apart of the whole baking process. It was so amazing to see him enjoy and take part in something so close to my heart.

We laughed, made two big plates of cookies, took pictures, and talked about what baking was and why I loved it. It was really a special day, until...

THIS happened.

Let me explain...

This is the result of what happened when he should have been napping. 

I put him down for his nap and went to lie down with Queen B, who was having a rough time. I feel asleep the moment her sweaty little face hit my chest. 

I woke up about and hour later with Misa Misa standing in front of me with no clothes on, again, whining, "I don't feel good Mommy." Two seconds later he puts his hands up to his mouth and barfs.

I sit up and of course Queen B wakes up and is just as confused as I am. It takes me all of one second to see that he face is covered with chocolate.

"What are you doing? Were you eating cookies? Where are your clothes?" (Why are the words, where are you clothes, always coming out of my mouth with this kid?)

I get up to find the two plate of cookies we made are now ONE plate of cookies. 

Yes, folks, that's right, he snuck out of his room at naptime, ate an entire plate of cookies and then barfed. (Not sure when his clothes came off.)

Ladies and Gentlemen, my son.

Happiness is Chasing Chickens

Weight Watchers. Wait? What?

Still no call from the doctor's office about what my numbers were from my tests last week. I am thinking the "no news is good news" policy is applying to me right now. Well, I am hoping for that. 

Called and left a message yesterday, but no call back yet. 

Even if the numbers come out alright, which I am hoping for, there still needs to be some changes around here and changes there are.


Last Sunday night, my husband and I joined Weight Watchers online. I would love to tell you that I am super excited about this, but alas, I am not. I wish I could be Evie Garland and just "gleep" myself back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I mean, come on, I won't get greedy, just my pre-pregnancy weight will be fine with me!


Well, my first week on WW was not as great as I hoped. I am still trying to learn the ropes of these points and remember to think before I eat. Then once I do all that, I always forget to log my points online. I know it will get easier with time and there is an adjustment period with new routines, but I am doing it with a smile smirk on my face.


I will tell you this, I am learning that although the foods I regularly eat are not unhealthy, they are high in points. For example, I usually have whole wheat toast with peanut butter and a banana for breakfast. While not unhealthy, this I learned quickly, gobbled up most of my daily points right then and there. I think by dinner that night I only had two points left!


The next day I chose something different and I guess that is the whole idea behind WW. Learning to make better choices one step at a time.


I am slowly but surely doing it and still anxious to find out what my numbers look like from my doctor. Thanks for your well wishes and good vibes. Keep them coming and I will keep you updated.

Margaritas

I had the pleasure of grabbing margaritas with some girlfriends the other night and the topics of discussion were about the same as they always are when we get together. 

We catch up, tell each other about what recent events may be going on in our lives and with our families. We talk about our kids, compare stories and ask for advice. We then move on to current events and things of that nature, but the conversation always rounds it’s way over to husbands. 

This evening the common theme to the husband topic was equality. Each and everyone of us discussed how we felt care giving equality fell short. 

Now don’t get me wrong, don’t get the idea that we get together to bash our husbands. I was just surprised at how each one of us were bothered or annoyed by the same exact things. 

Our husbands range in age, height, weight, race, educational background, you name it, but it was surprising to me that all of our stories sounded identical. 

Each one of us felt like we were left to carry the weight of care giving. Working mom or stay at home mom, the complaints were the same. 

Examples: 

"I take care of the kids all day and all week by myself, but when he does it for a couple of hours, I feel like he is acting like he deserves a medal!" 

"I love when he wants to spend time with the kids and let me relax, but coming home to a house that has exploded and having to be the one to clean it up is not my idea of relaxing. Why can’t he take care of the kids and pick up after himself at the same time. I am not asking him to clean the whole house, just pick up after lunch, block time, etc." 

"I work too, but how come the majority of the house and child care falls on me?" 

Sound familiar? 

This left me thinking, are we asking for too much or not giving our husbands the benefit of the doubt? Not exactly, but I do think we can cut them some slack. This, especially for me, is easier said than done. 

I think we need to realize that the majority of care giving falls into our laps because we (as stay at home moms at least) do it 99.9% of the time already. It comes easily to us and we are used to doing it. When we ask them or they want to do a majority of the tasks we do on a daily basis, it isn’t going to come as easily to them, mainly because they don’t have that much practice time. 

I see this in my house a lot. It is a piece of cake for me to wrangle the kids, make dinner, clean up the playroom, fold laundry, and talk on the phone at the same time because that is what I do all day everyday. I am trying to learn to cut my husband some slack when it comes to multitasking at this magnitude. 

The only time I have a problem is when a time comes that requires him to do everything, it leaves him stressed, resentful and ill-equipped. 

This conversation with my girlfriends stayed with me, because I think this is an argument that will never be resolved. It will never be equal, or at least it will never feel equal. 

Our husbands most likely feel the same way as we do. Do we understand what it feels like to have the stress of the family’s financial well being fall solely onto us? (Now, I am not a working mom, so I can only tell my side of the story. Working moms, chime in and give me your side!) I know I think I do, but in reality I don’t. 

I believe it all comes down to balance and I am finding that balance is not so easily accomplished. I personally find it difficult to find balance between being a mother, a wife, a friend and then squeezing in time for just me. 

Balance is what we all strive for, because when we are balanced we feel that things run smoothly, our lives are less stressful and we are in a mindset to really enjoy those around us. 

One of my many goals for 2010 is to take steps towards feeling and being more balanced. 

What do you think? 

Will this argument ever be resolved? 

We will ever really be equal? What is it like for all the working moms out there that have to balance even more than I do?

 

"Suuuuuueeeee!"

Just a little peek into my morning to make you laugh as we roll into the weekend...

Slept in the guest room last night because I couldn't tune out my husband's delightful sleep noises beastly snores and somehow didn't realize my 3 year old son woke up before I did.

I sat straight up in bed because I heard someone screaming my name, "Sue! Sue! SSSUUUUUUEEEE!" I walked out into the hallway and saw that both of the kids bedroom doors were closed, a sign that they are sleeping, and all is still silent.

I make my way to the bathroom when I hear the screams again, "Sue! Sue! Sue!" This time realizing it is my 3 year old son and yes, he calls me by my first name when he wants to get my attention.

I go into his room to find his bed empty and his jammies on the floor. Hmmmm?

I make my way downstairs, to find my son, naked screaming my name.

"What are you doing?"

"It's awake time and I naky!" 

"Yes, I see that you are awake and naked, but why?"

"Because I a boy and I have a penis and you have a BA-GINA!!!!"

He then starts laughing and runs around repeating "BA-GINA!"

I am just standing there, like, what the hell and who is this kid? This was way too much action and information before coffee was in my system.

I just let him do his thing, grabbed a cup of java, sat at the kitchen table and watch all that is Misa Misa.

This lead to uncontrolable laughter from me and eventually my 11 month old daughter. When he has an audience, he really goes for it.

So, needless to say, today will be a good day no matter what happens because it started off with a laugh.

If life gets you down today, just do what my son does to make himself happy, rip your clothes off and scream VAGINA!