NOT DIGGIN' THIS WHOLE FOOD THING

When I took Nathan in for his 4 month check a few weeks ago, the last thing on my mind was getting the go ahead to start solids. With all my other monkeys the go date was always 6 months, not 4.

Why the change? They are always changing things.

Messy rice cereal mixed with formula, mashed up peas, sweet potatoes, applesauce, bananas.... The stuff that you put into your darling little babies mouth only to have them blow raspberries moments after and splatter it all over you and any walls in the near vicinity. You know the stuff. Oh the fun of starting solids.

I was told that I could wait until 6 months to start solids if I didn't want to bother with it right now, but for some odd reason I felt an immense sense of guilt for not offering them to my Nathan. Against my better judgment, I ignored my guilt for 2 very long weeks. Every time he cried after having a bottle I imagined him saying "Mom, Dr. Morrissey said I could have food, and you are not giving it to me because you are just plain old lazy and don't want to deal with the mess. You are such a bad Mommy!" I would stare at the food I had bought for him the day after the Dr. gave me the go ahead. The food that had been sitting there ever since then because of my lack of interest in actually feeding it to him. I started convincing myself that maybe Nathan was right, I was a bad mom. [Yes, I let my imagination get away from me from time to time.] So I decided it was time to give in and give my baby what he wanted. So last night I went into that cupboard, dusted off a jar of peas, put Nathan in his highchair and gave him his very first taste of food.

And let me tell you, it turns out that it wasn't what he wanted at all.

Don't get me wrong, he was open minded to the whole idea. I even gave him the spoon. He took some time to check it out, licked it a few times....

But it was definitely a no go. He didn't like it.

At all.

Maybe it was the peas, or maybe it was that he just was not ready to start solids quite yet. I like to think it was the later of those two options, so I am just going to go with it. That makes it a whole lot easier for me to put that baby food back into the cupboard for a month or two without feeling an ounce of guilt.

This makes me happy, and I think it makes Nathan quite happy too.

TOUGH LOVE

These two monkeys really do love each other.

Liv loves giving him all kinds of attention - hugs, sloppy/wet kisses... she hands him toys and shakes them above his head to see if he will grab for them, she gives loving but ever so rough pats on the top of his head, while saying "you are a good boy! Good boy!" You get the idea, it's that all-up-in-your-face kind of attention.

And I have to say, Nathan has been nothing short of tolerant of it. Taking it all in without crying; not even a whimper. That is until recently.

Unfortunately my Miss Liv is not so lucky anymore, as Nathan has learned how to grab at things, and hold on to said things for dear life. Things like toys, nuks, bottles, and hair. Yep, hair.

If you have not experienced the little grip of a baby's hand pulling your hair, then consider yourself lucky. 'Cause it hurts. Bad.

After having 5 kids, I still can't understand how such a small person could wrap their little fingers around a clump of hair and pull with such force. It's not only the strength in which they pull that amazes me -- the inability to get them to loosen their little grip and actually let go is even more amazing.

Liv seems to have tolerated this whole hair pulling thing quite well so far. She has cried on a few occasions, when I have managed to loosen Nathan's grip enough only to find he had pulled out a clump of hair in the process. But she gets over it quickly by scolding him "No, No NATHAN! NO PULL HAIR!!" And then goes right back to getting all up in his face, which results in him once again grabbing for her golden locks and pulling with all his might. I honestly think it may just be his way of saying, "I can't talk yet, but I finally learned how to use these hands of mine and I am going to put them to good use by letting you know when to back the heck off!"

I get what he's "saying", just not sure Miss Liv does quite yet. She will learn.

TOOTHFAIRY

My Lucas has had 4 lose teeth for some time now; two of which have been so very loose that I have tried to convince him to pull them out on his own. I tried explaining that when they are that loose it really doesn't hurt at all to pull them out.I tried explaining to him that if he didn't, they could fall out while he was sleeping or eating and he may not know. I tried explaining that if this did indeed happen, then he would not have the tooth/teeth to give to the tooth fairy. To my dismay, he wanted nothing to do with this whole idea. So when he came running in the door from school yesterday with a look of pure joy on his face, I was sure I was proven wrong - he had lost his tooth/teeth and actually had it/them in his possession.

Before he could get his jacket off and backpack on it's hook, he yelled out, "Mom! I finally lost my tooth!" As he opened his mouth to show me, I noticed things weren't as they should be.

Two teeth were missing. I decided to hope for the best, and believe that maybe in all of his excitement he had forgotten to mention that he had actually lost 2 teeth, not just one.

"Don't you mean you lost two teeth?"

Insert very long pause

"No. I only lost 1 tooth Mom."

CRAP.

"Hmmm. But you have two teeth missing."

"WHAT?"

As he stood there trying to put together how in the heck he could have lost another tooth and not noticed it, Ava walked up to see what all of the commotion was about.

"Open up Lucas. HAH-HAH-HAH!!! You really did lose 2 teeth - how did you NOT know that? HAH-HAH-HAH!!"

I quickly stepped in so as to stop the angry fight between brother and sister before it started, and said, "he probably swallowed it when he was eating lunch and did not even notice. No big deal. It will just come out in his poop later."

Ava found this little tid-bit quite amusing - Lucas, not so much. She laughed and laughed saying "Your tooth is going to come out in the toilet in your poop! EEEEEWWW!!" That's my Ava for you.

After coming to terms with the fact that he indeed would not be putting that second tooth under his pillow that night, he decided to make his way to the bathroom mirror to access the situation. A moment later, he walked out with his head down and very dramatically said, "I did lose two teeth. How will the tooth fairy know that I lost 2 teeth when I only have one of them? I will only get paid for one tooth! That is not fair!"

I came up with a genius idea to write the Tooth Fairy a note in order to fill her in on the situation. What can I say, I am quick on my feet like that.

I had Lucas come up with the content, I wrote it, and we both signed it. You know, to help convince the tooth fairy that we were indeed telling the truth. [Lucas was concerned she may think we were lying.]

Whew. Crisis averted.

Before tucking everyone in for the night, Lucas placed his tooth, along with the all important letter, neatly underneath his pillow and then decided he needed to go to the bathroom. 20 minutes later [the kids takes his time], he came out of the bathroom and said, "Hey Mom, I just pooped and my tooth was in it!"

Lovely.

Hoping against hope that the answer was yes, I said, "did you flush it?"

"Yep. We wrote the tooth fairy a letter, so I didn't think we needed it."

Smart little boy I have; if I do say so myself.

THE GOOD , THE BAD AND THE UGLY

So I am feeling bad about writing pretty much nothing of substance on this blog of mine as of late. But as I have mentioned in the measly 3 posts I have managed to write this month; things have been a special sort of crazy around here.

What has this month consisted of?

Getting the Christmas tree up and decorated, stockings up on the mantle, other Christmas decor out of boxes and strategically placed around the house, shopping for gifts, wrapping gifts, shopping some more, wrapping some more, crying about how much was spent, wrapping some more, going to Holiday parties, keeping the kids from eating every last Christmas cookie and Holiday treat at said parties, finishing up last minute shopping, making sure every child has exactly the same amount of gifts under the tree, as if one child has 4 and the other has 5, there would be hell to pay..... And in the middle of all this there was still the standard getting the kids to and from school, managing after school activities, homework, play dates, and all that other good stuff.... Christmas Eve morning was spent opening presents at our house, and attempting to get the toys they were given out of the boxes [which we all know is next to impossible with all the twisty ties, tape and other crap they use to make certain they are not removed easily.]Christmas Eve afternoon was spent at The Mr's side opening gifts and eating dinner, Christmas Eve evening [sounds weird, but you get what I am saying] was spent at home preparing for Santa, Christmas morning we were up at the crack of dawn with 4 out of 5 of our little monkeys at our bedside begging to go downstairs to see what Santa brought, opening Santa gifts, cleaning up mounds of wrapping paper, bows, tissue paper and boxes, Christmas afternoon was spent at my parents house opening gifts and having dinner while the kids played.

Whew.

And that wasn't the end of it.

After all of this, the kids still had another FULL week off of school. So this week we have been keeping busy building lego castles, meeting friends for play dates, playing new video games, breaking up fights, coloring, crafting, making creations with their new Bendaroo's, managing 4 very overtired kids from all of the holiday festivities, and dealing with their incessant ramblings of, "I am sooo bored! There is nothing to doooo!"

On top of all this I have a baby that will take a nap lasting no longer than 20 minutes during the day - which makes it next to impossible to get anything accomplished. You know, like throw in a load of laundry, make lunch, pry Anthony and Lucas apart after their wrestling turned into an all out brawl, change the sheets on Ava's bed after Liv decided she didn't want to use the toilet and peed all over them...

Wow. Now that was one hell of a tangent. My sincerest apologies for the tremendous amounts of run on sentences and general lack of flow of this here masterpiece. All this stuff is just pouring out faster than my hands can type - forget about it sounding good, right?

So there you have it, a little bit of the bad, a little bit of the ugly.

I must say, not all of it was bad. Actually, I believe the good most definitely outweighed the bad. You are probably thinking, "yah, right lady, you just bitched and moaned for paragraphs on end about how much work was put into it and what a pain in the ass it all was. What could possibly have been good about it for you?" And I would understand this train of thought, but as I have said before, I am all about keeping it real. And the Holiday season is not all about carolers happily knocking on your front door singing beautiful Christmas songs, sipping egg nog at the kitchen table while the kids play peacefully by the tree with their toys, family gathering around the fireplace reminiscing about Christmas' past.... You get what I am saying, it ain't all sunshine and roses all of the time.

With that said, we really did have some great moments. Breakfast with Santa...

As you can probably tell from the pictures, this event was very successful, with everyone enjoying themselves to the full extent. Well, I should say everyone but my Liv Grace. Don't get me wrong, she was a delight the whole time - except when Santa came anywhere near her. When this happened, she went into a sort of panic I have never seen before. Her eyes widened, her legs began to shake and she would cry like she had just seen a horrible goulish monster. Aunt Cindy and I took turns holding her and comforting her whenever the big horrible monster, AKA Santa, came within 20 feet of her. This seemed to keep her panic attacks at bay for the remainder of the Breakfast.

And to think she was the one who could not stop talking about meeting Santa, hugging him and sitting on his lap for days before this event.

As you can imagine, when it came time to take a picture with him she wanted nothing, and I mean nothing to do with him. I tried a few times to get her to go up and sit on the ground next to him, explaining she did not actually need to sit on his lap, and the answer was a firm "no." The grip she had around my neck was a nice reminder as to her seriousness on this whole not wanting to go near Santa thing.

And let me tell you the funniest part of this whole ordeal - as we were on our way home, she started in on wanting to see Santa again. Telling me how much she loved him, and wanted to hug him and sit on his lap. Seriously. That's my Liv Grace.

And Christmas itself was really quite memorable. It is always such a magical time of year for the kids, and I so love that. Watching their faces as they tear open presents in excitement - wondering what they will find, putting out the cookies and milk for Santa to snack on when he arrives[which I admit, we forgot to do this year], staying up late unable to fall asleep in anticipation of his arrival.... all that sort of good stuff. It makes me happy to see them happy, excited and full of the ever so magical Christmas spirit.

On top of all that, time spent with family always seems to be sweeter this time of year. There is always lots of wine to drink, lots of kids running around full of all that Christmas energy, lots of laughing - and I mean the good kind, where you laugh until you cry; until your stomach hurts. Lots of joking around - like when Anna and I sang some Christmas tunes in an ever so serious manner and so very out of tune that Grammy looked at us in disgust, put her hand on her forehead and with a big sigh said, "what happened? I am the only one that was lucky enough to get the gift of a good singing voice? You would never be invited into our church choir." [Anna and I being the ones joking, Grammy, not so much.] And the funny thing about all this is that Grammy, God bless her heart, has a terrible singing voice. And this little tidbit made us laugh that much harder.

Yes, their were infectious amounts of jokes, laughs, drinks, and all that jazz on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. And it was all had with family. So very much of the good.

So there you have it. The Shelton Holiday season, chalk full of the good, the bad and the ugly. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Christmas is sneaking right up on us, isn't it? 3 more days and counting, and I still have some shopping and wrapping to do. As busy as I am, I really do love this time of year.

I was all set to write a longer post, but as I type this Miss Liv Grace is pulling on my arm, crying for a snack. It is slowly turning into a melt down of grand proportions, so I must go.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

[My apologies for the poor quality of this picture. I was having trouble uploading it from the site I made it on.]

HOLY HECK, WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

Not sure what happened, but December has flown by and I have only posted once. Actually, I take that back, I know exactly what happened; the Holidays happened.

I have been busy shopping, wrapping, shopping some more, surfing the net in search of the perfect one of a kind gift for certain someones and of course finding something only to realize it is going to take an act from God in order to get it in time for Christmas because I waited too long to order it.... You know how it goes. On top of all this gift buying/wrapping stress, we have been running from Holiday party, to Holiday party [don't get me wrong, they are fun and all, but too much of anything is never good. Yes, even Holiday parties.] And let's not forget the regular old run of the mill things going on - running to dance, hockey practice for Anthony and Lucas, play dates, and other after school activities. Oh, and the added stress of continuing to try and get Olivia potty trained and off of the Nuk. Both of which I thought I had licked in November, but it turns out Olivia is a smart little girl and understands that if Mom is crazy busy in an attempt to get a million things accomplished in a short period of time, she can grab her nuk and go to town on it all day long, or she can choose to poo in her pants, pee on the wood floor, or sometimes in her potty chair if she feels so inclined. [I know, crazy run on sentence, but it seems fitting, so I will just go with it.]

And top it all off, I received my credit card statement in the mail yesterday, and just about choked on the chips I was eating at the time, when I read the balance. For the love of everything that is good and holy was that out of control. I honestly had to go online and go through my purchases as I was convinced there had to be some mistake. Alas, I found there was no mistake.

And this is when the meltdown began.

It was a meltdown of grand proportions that entailed a phone call to the Mr. in tears, trying to explaining through my sobbing that I wanted nothing, absolutely nothing for Christmas. That I spent way too much money and I don't know how I did it as I thought I had really stayed on a good budget. That I was so upset and felt sick to my stomach as I had received the credit card statement for the month. That I was such a terrible spender and couldn't figure out where I had gone wrong. That it was all my fault the credit card bill was so high and that I was good for nothing except spending money.

Yep, I was upset and a tad bit dramatic about the whole thing. That's the way I roll, like it or not. All this was followed by the Mr. telling me it was alright, and that we would get back on track in January, and telling me to calm down and not worry....

Whew, It was a doozy.

So this is where I have been. Busy doing all the things one does around the Holiday season, trying to keep up with life as I know it, and making an effort to not lose my mind in the process. So please forgive the lack of posts as of late.

All this, and I have to say that I have finally seen the light. It is the Holiday season, and I am supposed to be enjoying this time of year. Not stressing about all of the above. So I am going to forget about it all, sit back, and enjoy it in all it's splendor.

Lord help me.

MOMENTS

3 of my 5 little bugs were watching T.V. together this morning. Lucas and Liv were all snuggled up with their blankets and throw pillows from the couch, with Nathan comfortably sitting in his Bumbo chair.

It's little moments like this that help me forget about all the fighting over toys, name calling, and whining, and help remind me that they really do love each other. And that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.