only backgroundI'm a wife, mother and grandmother. I'm opinionated. I contradict myself frequently. Most of all, I love my kids. I believe in them. I fight for them. They're weird and wonderful. If you want to know more, here's a bunch of other stuff from my old site.
Archive for the ‘Kids’ Category
Do you remember those ads that used to be on TV that said something like, “It’s 10 pm. Do you know where your children are?”
I haven’t seen those PSA’s on TV lately but I keep thinking about them. That’s because for the past 13 years, I’ve had at least one child old enough to drive. At 10 pm, driving children are usually out with my car. After all these years I still can’t sleep until all the kids are home where they belong and the car is parked in front of the house.
My car has to go in to be inspected at the end of the month and I’m seriously considering having it equipped with some kind of vehicle tracking device. I want to be able to know where my car - and therefore, my kid - is at any moment. I want to know if the kid and the car are really three blocks away playing PS3 or if they’re at the movies where they say they’re going. I want to know that when the kid says, “We’re going to the mall” he means the one that’s 15 minutes away, not the one that’s 90 minutes away.
I haven’t decided if I’m going to do this yet. I’m thinking about it. What do you think?
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I never thought much about it back in October when I posted the first picture of Kendyll using a potty. I mean, I know a lot of people sit on the toilet and read. Some people go so far as to call it a library. Yes, it was funny that Kendyll insisted on having her Dora book with her and flipping through the pages, but maybe she saw someone else doing that.
However, it now comes to my attention that Kendyll may have inherited the “reading on the potty” gene from me. Yes, it’s true. My mother has provided the proof of this. And so I give you Kendyll reading on the potty:
And Kendyll’s Grandma reading on the potty:
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Can someone explain children to me? I know, I have six of these creatures and really ought to have it all figured out by now. But I don’t and I doubt I ever will.
About an hour ago, Levi moaned his way into my office to let me know that he is starving. He’s not hungry; he’s starving. Granted, Levi is a slender child but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t eat. He does. He’s eaten twice today. Yet, when he was told that it would be at least 30 minutes until the chicken is done, he just about fell apart before my eyes.
And then, somehow, he mustered the energy (in his starving state) to drag himself up to his bedroom to play his playstation 3. And we haven’t seen him since.
I’ve called to him several times. He answered once. I told him supper is ready. He said he’d be down “in a minute.” Naturally, my concern is that the poor child is so malnourished that he can’t lift his weight the distance from the PS3 to the stairs so he can propel himself to the bottom of the steps and have someone spoon his food into his lifeless body.
And now the real question: Do I march up the stairs and insist that he come down right this minute or do I simply divvy up his portion between those waiting to eat? Evil mom or stern mom? What do you think?
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In less than a year, I’ll have my car paid off. That means that in less than a year, I’ll be able to drop the auto insurance on that vehicle to just liability. YAY!
We saved a fortune when we dropped full coverage from Brian’s truck. We saved even more when we paid off the Honda S2000 and knocked it down to liability. We sold that one to Jesse so now it’s his responsibility to get it insured when he comes home.
Two of my kids are waiting patiently for the Malibu to be paid off so they can get their licenses. I’ve learned from experience that having a brand new cars with full coverage is bad idea while you still have teenaged drivers at home, especially male teenaged drivers!. So it’s used cars for the next 7 years at least.
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Anyone with kids knows that they can do unbelievable damage to a home. Well, at least boys can. I don’t remember ever being as destructive as my boys are and even my mom has said the same thing.
My sisters and I loved baths. We played in the tub just as any kid does. We did not, however, remove the detachable shower head and spray water from the bathroom, down the hall and into the living room. My boys have. That’s when they weren’t splashing most of the water out of the tub, of course.
The boys are older now and take showers. Things are not much better. I have no idea how they manage to get so much water on the floor when there is a very nice shower door surrounding them. I do know that the bathroom floor is going to need replaced soon because of all the water that they’ve splashed out of the tub or shower over the years.
We’re trying to save money to do the floors in the main bathroom as well as the kitchen. When we do, I’m going to look into new bathroom fixtures, too. I’d like a new sink but I don’t think we’ll be able to swing that. I’ll just be happy to get the floor replaced!
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Some of you may remember a post I did back in in July from my son Nick’s birthday. If not, you missed the oddity that is my son. The one picture on that post that you need to see (in case you don’t want to click away right now) is the underoos on the head picture. Just so you know, it wasn’t a one time thing for Nick; he made a habit of wearing his Underoos on his head. Or over his pants. Strange kid.
Turns out that this trait is genetic. Yes, it is. Don’t argue with me on this one. I have proof. I don’t know how it got passed on to Nick but I do know that he passed it on to his own daughter.
As you may recall, we’ve been introducing the potty chair to Kendyll. No pressure or anything, just making it available and letting her use it if she wants. Mostly she likes to put it in front of the TV and sit on it while watching Dora. That’s fine, of course. First step, be comfortable with the potty. Apparently she is.
We left Kendyll sitting on her potty and when we came back into the living room, she’d taken off her Dora underpants and put them…. Well, see for yourself.
Unquestionably genetic. I’m convinced.
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Now before you click away, thinking this is going to be a sappy, emotional post, stick around a minute to read a paragraph or two. Seriously, this is good. I’m about to make fun of myself and expose one of my major flaws so if nothing else, you can laugh at me.
Recently, I confessed in a rather public forum that I have big ears. No, seriously, I have really big ears. Of course, my ears would be fine on someone who stands about 6′5″ or so. According to my kids, I look funny because I also have a big nose, a big mouth, and big eyes all on my little 4′11″ body. Children are excellent at keeping you humble. And insecure.
I’ll also mention that for years I blamed myself for my children’s ears. I thought I was the reason they all had these huge ears that stuck out. It wasn’t until I saw picture of my husband’s grandfather that I realized that while my kids got the size of their ears from me, the “sticking out” part came from their dear old dad. And I have not hesitated to point out that fact every time the opportunity arises.
But back to me. And my ears. Now, I’m one of those people who believe that all babies are just adorable. At least I used to believe that until I saw a picture of myself, at the ripe old age of 5 months, with my ears exposed. Oh.my.goodness.
I give you my word that those ears are not photoshopped. They are real. I was born with ears as large as many adults. Maybe larger.
But wait. I mentioned a mother’s blind love, didn’t I? Ah, yes. My mother….
When my kids discovered that photo in the bottom of one of my dresser drawers, they had quite a good time laughing about it. I admit, I chuckled, too. When I spoke to my mom later that day, I mentioned the picture to her. She was so confused! She insisted that I had perfect, tiny, baby ears. She refused to believe that my ears were exceptionally large. Only a mother could look at those ears and see tiny.
Yes, a mother’s love is truly blind.
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Kendyll turned two at the end of January. She’s been sitting on the potty now and then for about 4 months. When I say I have to go to the potty, Kendyll will stop whatever she’s doing and walk me into my bathroom. She knows “Grammy’s potty” and “Kendyll’s potty” so she’s getting close to that age.
Having raised 6 kids, though, I’m not really in a hurry to get Kendyll potty trained. I know it will happen eventually, when she’s ready. All kids get there on their own, in their own time. It’s all very relaxed and Kendyll-led.
Today, my mom, aka Gramma Kitty (because she has a cat), bought Kendyll two packages of Dora underpants. We gave Kendyll one package of 3 pair of panties as a surprise and her face lit up! Except that Kendyll did something that I’d never seen any child do before. She put on all three pairs of panties. No, she didn’t put a pair on, take them off and put on another pair. She just kept putting them on, one after the other. Three pairs of underpants all at once.
And so, after approximately 5 seconds, the excitement was just too much for her and Kendyll wet all three pairs of panties.
I have such an interesting family, such strange children, and it looks like my granddaughter fits in perfectly. Potty training is going to be so much fun!
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Every so often, my husband and I will get to talking about something from the past and one of us will bring up an old friend or someone we saw quite a bit many years ago. And we’ll wonder what ever happened to them, if they’re still alive, if they moved away. It’s strange how you lose touch with people when your life changes.
Lately, I’ve played that little ‘Where Are They Now’ game with my older kids. They’ve been out of school for a while - my oldest son for almost a decade! - so they’ve lost touch with some friends. My second son is in Hawaii so except for a handful of forever friends, he’s lost touch with many as well. My third son has had to walk away from a number of friends because he can’t be around their drug use. He gave his friend Branson lots of chances but after a while, he just had to turn his back on him.
Anyway, my husband and I got on that wondering thing the other night. I think we discussed every person we’d known together as a couple, from the time we met until now. Afterward, I wondered to myself whether anyone in this great big world ever thinks about us and wonders where we are or if we’re still together, living in the same place, that kind of thing. And I couldn’t help but think that it’s these kinds of thoughts about people from our pasts that keep them alive beyond their time on earth. We live on in the memories of those we have touched.
That seems to be a pretty good reason to leave a positive impact on those around us.
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It’s been a very long time since we’ve gone all out for a child’s birthday party. All the kids had big parties when they were young but as they get older, they mostly want a few good friends to stay over, maybe a special trip to the mall or the bowling alley. Looks like we’re starting all over again, though, with Kendyll.
We did have a small party last weekend, but we’re waiting to have something bigger. Why are we waiting? Well, Kendyll’s uncle Jesse has missed both her first and second birthdays because he’s in Hawaii. Jesse is coming home in March so we’re going to plan a really nice party, with aunts and uncles and cousins, for Kendyll’s birthday. I had planned to leave our Christmas tree up to celebrate with Jesse when I thought he was coming home in January; March is just way too long to keep a Christmas tree in the living room, even an artificial tree. So instead of pretending that Christmas is in January, we’ll pretend that Kendyll’s birthday is in March.
Anyway, I’m looking at birthday invitations at VistaPrint and I’m totally amazed at the great prices. I’m trying to design my own template so these will be really special. Oh, and I even have a coupon code to get 10 free invitations! If you’d like to use it, just enter ‘BlogInvite10′ to receive your 10 free invitations. Great deal!
Now I have to narrow down my choices for the picture I’m putting on the invitations. I think I’ll take a vote here at home or maybe I’ll let Kendyll pick her favorite. I wonder if the end of March will be warm enough for an outdoor theme? Hmmm……
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