Should I Be Worried?

Recently there was an exhibit on the Titanic at our local science museum. Cody was fascinated. She walked around the whole place asking question after question and looking at everything. Coincidentally, the movie came on tv that evening and I let her watch it with us (excluding the adult scenes of course). She watched during all four hours and again, she had many questions. She just couldn't get enough.

So here we are 2 months later and she's seen the movie a few times now. She asks about it randomly on a fairly regular basis. When I saw that it was on tv tonight I let her know right away and of course she was immediately glued to the tube. I told her that before she could watch she had to take a bath. While I was washing her hair she said, "Mom? Did the Titanic hit the iceberg yet?" I assured her that it had not and would not for a couple more hours and she said something that made me realize that even a 6 year old can be morbid. She said, "Oh good, that's my favorite part. I want to watch that part over and over." I'm so proud.

Mean, Mean Mommy!

Isn't raising kids fun? Mine are driving me crazy with all the fighting. I swear my name has become "Mooo-oooom!" At first I was attempting to referee every single fight, but all that did was make them come to me even more. So in order to preserve any speck of sanity that may exist in this tired, worn out mom, I have started to tell them to work it out themselves. It's not like they are hurting each other, the fights sound like this:

"I love you, sissy."

"I love you too."

"Can I please be Tinkerbell this time?"

"No, I'm Tinkerbell."

"Mooooo-oooom! She won't let me be Tinkerbell! And she's been Tinkerbell all day! I'll just never get to be Tinkerbell again! Never! Never!"

I absolutely hate it when the word never comes in to play. Cody is a master of this sort of guilt trip.

"I never get to stay up late!"

"I never get to watch what I want to watch!"

"I never realize that pushing you past the point of annoyed only secures my place in bed an hour earlier than normal."

I have begun responding by confirming her ridiculous statements.

"Yep that's right. You never get to and you never will."

I know, not exactly the high road. I just hate this kind of feel-sorry-for-me tactic of trying to get what she wants.

Carson isn't really any better. She has become so emotional lately. If she doesn't get what she wants, she just tears up and sticks that lower lip out like a little orphan child who was just told that there is no more food for her. But, of course, it's never about no more food or anything even remotely as drastic. It's always something like being told she needs to let Cody be Tinkerbell this one time. I know, I know, if someone told me I had to let someone else be Tinkerbell, my whole world would come crashing down around my ears. I just don't think I could go on.

So, is there a point here you ask? No. And if you give me any lip about it, I swear...there will be no dinner for you!

Best of December 2006

Is it January already? Dang, December went quick. Well, as one friend pointed out (thank you Erica), this is late. In my defense, I was in denial about December, period. Memphis had surgery and Cody was gone for two weeks. Not exactly a month to remember. But there were a couple of funny incidents...



I bought Carson some new underwear online and when it came in she said, "Oh, I actually have panties that fit me! It's a dream come true!" Because before then I was making her wear my underwear and they were huge on her let me tell you.


Memphis can now scoot across the room in less than 5 seconds. Don't be misled into thinking that you can leave him 10 feet away from the teeny tiny barbie shoes for 30 seconds to go pee (even if you really, really have to go) and he won't have had time to not only traverse the mountain range of laundry that is the living room floor, but also to use what poor fine motor skills he has to pick up one of those barbie shoes and...NO!!! "Memphis! Do not put that in your mouth!!" His response?

I took the kids' Christmas portraits, these are the best ones of Cody and Carson individually

And this is the best one of them together (Memphis isn't in these because he was still sleeping. If I had known how he was going to respond to having his Christmas picture taken, I would have just photoshopped him in later...also if I had photoshop.)

Memphis got this really cool toy for Christmas, but he has it confused with his mama.

Baby fresh from the bath, nothing better.

Cody's class has one heck of a room mother (not me) who made all of these little gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate. Cody took it very seriously. Can you say interior design?

Wild Man

This is what I'm going to go do now. Although that chair really gives me a stiff neck.

Happy New Year! My resolution? Take more pictures of course!

PS- I know that some of you will be curious to find out if I got a usable Christmas picture, so here it is. Not great, but given the lack of cooperation I experienced that day, just perfect.

Maybe...

Well it seems I may have spoken too soon with my post the other day. The family had pulled the life support and had begun arrangements for organ donation, and here we are 3 days later and that tenacious little boy is holding on. He is still in a coma and in critical condition, but he is alive! What a little fighter. Of course, we are praying for a miracle. That he will wake up and that his brain will not have suffered any irreparible damage. Please add your prayers to ours.

**UPDATE** After a week of holding on, this little boy went to Heaven. I'm not sure I can say any more about how tragic his death was. All I can do now is be vigilant about the safety of my own kids and extend my sympathy to his poor family.

Counting my blessings

I can't help but be sad tonight about a tragedy that happened near here this weekend. A good friend of my brother lost his son today. His 4 year old son. The little boy was in the back seat of a truck buckled into a car seat when it was in an accident. He was on life support for a couple of days and today they let him go.

I am so heartbroken over this. You hear all the time on the news about children who are injured or killed in accidents, but when it happens to someone you know it just hits home. They are my age. Their children are the same ages as my children. I just cannot imagine the horror.

Everyday, I buckle my kids into their own car seats and I don't think twice. I trust that if we were in an accident, those seats would keep my kids safe. I take it for granted. When I heard that the little boy was in critical condition, all I could think was, "...but he was in a car seat, how could this happen?"

I guess it's because all the other accidents that I have heard of recently where a child is killed, the child was either not restrained, or was improperly restrained. I could set my kids apart from it because they are always properly buckled in. This little boy, however, was also. It scares me. I just cannot imagine losing one of my kids.

Even though this boy's car seat did not save him, I have decided to recheck and refit all of the kids' seats. They are just too precious to take any chances. I know my brother's friend and his wife never thought this could happen to them. I intend to make sure that my kids are as safe as I can possibly make them. And then I intend to pray that God will watch over them every minute of every day.