When ya gotta go ya gotta go.....

After a day of playing in our front yard water park it was time for naps. We got everyone inside and told them to get out of their swimsuits and get ready for nap. Not sure what I was doing when i hear Haylee yell from the bathroom..."he just peed on me!!" My first thought was she got too close to the toilet and got a little splash. Those of you with little boys know, you ALWAYS give a good 4 foot buffer between you and the little man and his little water gun. Or at least i think this happens to everyone. Brayden can be using the bathroom and get distracted and spray the whole room before he realizes it. He just doesn't have time to stand still that long!! Anyhow, Tom and I hurry to the bathroom to find Haylee now standing in front of the toilet dripping with...well pee. Brayden is also standing there looking torn between being proud of himself for his achievement and being worried that he was about to be in trouble. Wisely, he chose the second and immediately started his explanation which went a little something like..."i had to go sooo bad. I couldn't wait. It was an accident. blah blah blah". Turns out Haylee was actually using the bathroom when in comes Brayden with a full tank that just couldn't wait. I have to give her credit for handling the situation with MUCH more grace than i probably would have had i been in her shoes. After Tom finished threatening his life if he ever peed on someone again, we got everyone in bed and we had a nice little laugh about the whole scene! What else can you do???

Accidents Happen

Many of you know my 4 year old Brayden is a wild man. He is FULL of energy, curiosity, and determination. What you may not know is his daddy, the ever cool and calm Tom, was the same way as a child. So Brayden comes by this craziness naturally. Tom's mom fought this energy battle with a diet containing no sugar or red dye. I am told that Tom was so well trained that he would question the preschool as to whether the applesauce contained sugar before he would eat it. Obviously this diet worked for Tom as he is now about as calm as they come. So recently, with Brayden approaching pre-K where he will have to start being able to control all of this energy, we have been talking about going on a "less" sugar diet to see if it will help him. We started cutting way back. We have told Brayden and Haylee that we need to eat less sugar because it is not healthy to have so much. It has been funny to watch Brayden even try and embrace this "new way". He will ask if things have sugar, and even turn things down on his own on occasion. Have we cut it out completely???? Not even close. But we have put a major dent in the sugar consumption in this house. Well, early in this new little reduced sugar venture of ours, Haylee had her first sleepover. The kids stayed up REALLY late and to my surprise were still up by 7am. Everyone wanted something different for breakfast so we decided to go to a place that we knew would have something for everyone....Golden Coral..breakfast buffet. This IS NOT a frequent stop for us for a number of reasons but mainly because my husband HATES buffets unless it is Chinese and the food is really just not all that good. BUT, we decided it was just the ticket for this morning. Tom, took Brayden through the buffet and let him choose what he wanted on his pate. When i got to the table and saw his plate i couldn't help but laugh a little.




When i asked him if he wanted white milk or chocolate milk he answered "white milk. chocolate milk has too much sugar, right mom?" i said yes and gave him white milk. I told him it was a good choice because he already had a lot of sugar on his plate. He then looked at Tom and said..."Nana said not to eat sugar but i accidentally got some." Can't really argue with an accident, now can you?

Wishing On a Star

You know those parents out there that bribe their children to get something done?? Or promise a special treat just to get through a particular event? That's me! I realize that this may not be the best parenting technique out there but it sure does work in a pinch. So today, we put it in to action. Haylee had a little mole removed at the dermatologist today. I promised her a new toy after it was all done for being so brave. So when i got the boys down for nap Haylee and I headed to Toys'R'Us...her pick to find this new toy. I have to say that walking into the store i felt a little dread at the thought of just how many aisles of toys there are in that place and the knowledge that my children generally have to look at each and every one at least 3 times. But today, Toy Story 3 saved the day. She walked right up to the HUGE display of every kind of Toy Story toy you can imagine and picked up a Jesse doll. That was it, she made her decision. We never even got past the first display. As we were headed to the check out she said to me with a big smile on her face.."mommy, i wished on a star that i could have a Jesse doll with a hat that comes off like this"! At that moment she could have probably had anything in the store. Those are the moments that melt your heart. So heres to wishing on stars....it might just work!!!

I'm a blogger now!

So, i have decided i am going to give this whole blogging thing a try. I love reading other peoples blogs and I hope to live up to some of the greats out there! For my very first blog i have to take you back for a moment. As long as i can remember i have dreamed of being a mommy. In this dream i had the perfect kids and we had nothing but fun all day long. Six years ago, little miss Haylee entered our lives. She was, in fact, perfect! We loved her so much and had so much fun with her, we decided we HAD to have another one of these perfect creatures! Along came Brayden who was also perfect! Somehow....all the perfectness with our two precious babies started getting hard. But that didn't stop us. Nope. We decided one more would be just what we needed and perfect little Nathan was born. This is when all heck broke loose! My dreams of "nothing but fun all day long" became temper tantrums, diaper changes, potty training, never ending laundry, never the right food, waking up 14 dozen times a night, hitting, pushing, screaming...i think you get the picture. Hear me now, i love my kids with everything that i am but it is not always....well perfect. It is hard to try and balance the fun with the discipline and responsibility of raising these little people to be happy, healthy, secure people. Those of you who know me are probably very much aware that i am no stranger to Facebook. Yes, i probably spend way too much time on it but that is a blog for another day. Anyhow, I have often read the statuses of people talking about how much fun they had with their kids doing this or that and how great life is and sat thinking...."i barely made it through the day without dropping one of mine off on somebody's doorstep". I am just being real here. Having 3 kids all 2 years apart can be exhausting as i am sure many of you know. The early years demand a lot because these little people that have been entrusted to us are completely reliant on us. I have been thinking lately, though, how unfair of a judgment i have placed on myself because of nothing more than a glimpse into a single moment of someone else's life. I would bet that everyone else has some of the same struggles we just don't always see that side of people making us feel alone in our chaos. I have said all that to say this. We have recently hit an age in our kids where i am starting to see a light at the end of all the chaos. My kids are getting to the age where we can do some of the things i have always envisioned we would do but the reality of baby capabilities has limited for the last several years. They are becoming a little bit more self sufficient making more time for all that fun i was planning on having with them. And they are absolutely hilarious. I couldn't have handpicked their personalities any better. It fills my heart with such joy to watch them play and talk with them and hear the ways their little minds work. It makes all the chaos of "baby days" worth it. I am not saying i didn't have any fun until this point because that would be completely inaccurate. We had fun and love and laughter all mixed in with a bunch of work!! And i am not saying we wont have days ahead that are hard and full of work because i am smart enough to know that we will. Life is full of seasons and right now we have entered a great one where we can sit back and enjoy the ride for a while and that is what i plan to do.