Wow... Is it really already the end of the day? I can't really believe it, but alas the clock on my computer does state something past 11:30 p.m. which means its gearing to my bedtime... Ahhh... Bedtime... How I love and anticipate thee...

Had a normal day. The Little Gentleman and I woke up (or rather, he woke me up) and we spent 10 minutes snuggling and giggling while I did my best to finish waking up. Never said I woke up easily. Not the point. Anyway. We did some stuff this morning. I can't really remember. Not of importance. I know I kept pushing the liquids on him as I didn't want him dehydrated due to illness, and therefore we had first undies accident in like 3 weeks. Ah well... My fault as I didn't push the potty time while I pushed the liquids.

Took the Little Gentleman to his dad's house and went home. Had work an hour later and as I was waiting for The Ballerina to get out of school, my car started an annoying buzz. A buzz I had never heard. A buzz I hope to never hear again. The Buzz that I was low on gas. CRAP! I hate that! I literally came up with 24 cents towards gas until I got paid later that day. Thankfully I made it to work, to bank (with a minute to spare) and to gas station without running out.

At work I was suprised by The Boss Man pulling into the driveway just after us. He was there to pick up The Pre-Teen for an orthodontist appointment I was unaware of. Homework and piano practice later, The Pre-Teen was back and I had to manipulate her to getting to homework. Quite easy as she was up just last week until 10:30p.m. working on homework she never got finished. Remind her of that and she's running. The Ballerina then decided to draw and I read a bit of a book. While I was sitting on the couch, I thought I heard something. "Was that the garage door?" I pondered aloud. "Nope," The Pre-Teen responded. "I didn't hear anything." 5 minutes later. "Are you SURE that wasn't the garage door?" "Yup. I'm positive." 10 minutes later, The Ballerina and The Pre-Teen were singing when I said, "I know that's the garage door." The Pre-Teen started laughing and said, "You hear the strangest things." A second later, the lock on the door creaked and The Pre-Teen screamed. I busted out laughing. "I TOLD you I heard the garage door!" Their grandmother walked in calling greetings. "Sorry about that," she said. "I pulled into the garage about 15 minutes ago before realizing I forgot to pick something up at the pharmacy. I hope I didn't startle you too much." Laughing, I said, "I'm just glad I wasn't really hearing things!"

The grandmother informed me that she wasn't planning on coming until Wednesday (she lives 2 hours away) but because of other circumstances she was there early, giving The Ballerina a little stare. Confused, I asked if it was because of snow and she said, "Oh, didn't The Ballerina tell you?" "Tell me what?" I asked the 7 year old. Her response was to come over to me and bare her top two teeth - one of which had a significant chip in it. "My word, what happened?" I asked.

The Ballerina, with a sheepish grin on her face, said, "I was crawling face first down the stairs when I slid and hit my face on the tile before doing a somersault and landing on my back." Unable to contain my smile and giggles, I said, "Wow, you sure finished with a flourish." The grandmother arrived to bring her to the dentist tomorrow to see what needs to be done. Which means, I don't have to officially go to work until 5:45 p.m. The grandmother will take care of The Ballerina for the day and I would only be needed to get The Pre-Teen to her own ballet rehersal (The Nutcracker is coming up soon and they both have significant parts - well, as far as the general kids go, neither is the main lead or anything) which starts at 6:30 p.m. and is 20 minutes away. In addition to that, because Thursday is Thanksgiving, she will just hang out until she was originally going to go home which means that on Wednesday, if anything I will be responsible for just getting The Ballerina home from school. Whoo-hoo.

Today I am thankful for grandparents arriving early and giving me a few suprise hours off work.

And now, my back is killing me due to something going on (I think we're going on 8 days with back pain - somethings going on with a muscle)... which actually reminds me... a lesser thankful is for 7 year old toes who dig into knotted muscles and relieve some pain. I was in tears, but good tears. I showed my gratitute by winning a game of SORRY. : ) I'm that nice. And on that note...

~Peace

Thank God for Monday's

Wow... anyone ever believe they would actually her someone say that? Well, there you have it I just did. I enjoy Mondays. Mondays are the start of my work week, when I have something structured to do. As I have mentioned before, its difficult for me to make decisions there for trying to figure out what to do on the weekends is sometimes beyond me. In addition to that, The Little Gentleman only goes to see his dad on the weekends when it was been prearranged. My "weekend" without my son is Tuesday and Wednesday night. That was for a reason. I used to be busy on Tuesday night until 7:00 p.m. and when he would go to bed around 8:00 - 8:30 p.m., it wasn't fair to him that we wouldn't even get home until 7:30 p.m. and then he would have to turn around and go to bed without spending time with me. In addition to that, I work split shift on Wednesdays and work until 9:00 p.m. Again, it would have kept The Little Gentleman up past his bedtime, and I'm a mom who rather enjoys bedtime. I enjoy routines, especially ones that involve my child and his sleep. He's a little man who needs his rest. Therefore, it seemed appropriate to me that The Ex keep our son overnight those two nights. It also ensured that as I was working during the week that The Little Gentleman and I got to spend that extra time together. This weekend however, I am rather looking forward to dropping him off with his dad and spending an hour without him before heading to work.

This weekend has been a rough weekend due to him having a slight case of croup. The Little Gentleman was born at the beginning of August and two weeks later spent a week in the hospital with a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). I believe I speak briefly on it in a previous post, and I would be willing to speak more on it later in its own topic, but for now, I'm just referencing. That winter we spent the majority of the winter feeling pretty o.k. - aside from him starting to teeth at 4 months and not cutting a tooth til six months. Then we got two rounds of rotovirus within a six week period. That was NOT FUN, however, that was the only illness until he was just over a year. (We did have one more trip ito the hospital in that time, in July on one of the hottest days of the summer, but again, that is DEFINATELY it's own topic of its self and would be wisely entitled, It Happened To Me). I can still remember the night. It was beginning of winter and The Little Gentleman had been running a slight fever all day. I put him down to sleep and an hour later, he was awake, coughing and crying. I was able to sooth him and get him to drink some water (thank goodness he loved his cups) and he went back to sleep. This was around 10:00 p.m. An hour later, he was awake again doing the same, this time with more bite to his cough. I got him back to sleep again and when he woke up a third time, around midnight, he was having trouble catching his breath as he was coughing and I was beside myself. I called his dad, who I knew was awake, and he came to get me and we got to the hospital. By now, I knew that he had croup for he had the tell tale "barking" cough. We went back to a room and people passing by would stop in for a moment and say, "Oh, poor baby has croup." He got medicine, a steroid, and we went home. It was around 4:30 a.m. or 5 a.m. when we got home and The Little Gentleman and I snuggled on the couch with him watching Thomas on repeat while I dozed and he did his best to work off the ephedrine the medicine had in it. It was early Christmas time, for I just had a memory of the Christmas Tree being lit while we watched Thomas. Less than 2 months later, we were going through croup again and his dad and I discussed and decided that we didn't want to risk damaging our son in any way by giving him a 2nd dose of strong steroids within a short period of time. We determined that we would wait it out and take it only if it got terribly worse. Last winter we had two cases and already, just before Thanksgiving, we have our first case of the winter. I do hope that he feels better before Thanksgiving as I would hate for him to follow my pattern of always being sick at one holiday or another. Anyway. When The Little Gentleman is sick, there is little to console him and he is very clingy.

Take the consoling issue. My mom and I went fabric shopping for I am determined to sew my son, neice, nephew and god daughters pajamas for Christmas. While at the store, my mom took The Little Gentleman to the toy area where he found a pirate hat and a foamy like guitar. I can't describe it. Don't ask. Anyway. He decided that he was going to use the guitar as a sword (as Grandma wouldn't let him have the sword) and proceeded to hit me multiple times with the guitar. I told him that it would be a wise choice to stop hitting me, for the next time that he hit me, I was going to put the guitar back. In his 3 year old glory, he swung the guitar and purposefully hit me to see what I would do. I looked at him, took the guitar, and returned it, with him screaming behind me the whole way. I asked him to please calm down and his responce was to bite me. I took the pirate hat off his head, put it where ever I was standing, picked him up and left the store. He screamed the entire way, and tried to get down, "I want GRANDMA! I want GRANDMA!" continuing when he was in the car and then trying to get out. A dad commended me for letting him scream it out as I waited by the rear of the car. I gave The Little Gentleman 5 minutes to scream and then told him that if he could stop throwing his tantrum we could go back in and find Grandma. We were three cars farther than our own when the kicking and screaming started again because he informed me he was going to get the pirate hat AND sword and I told him he had lost those toys. This time, after letting him cry, we made it back into the store.

Two minutes later we were on our way back out the store, on our way two stores over to a pet store to get cat food. The Little Gentleman was delighted and I let him linger and look at all the animals on the way back to the food. We had just gotten the food when Grandma caught up with us (after having driven over). We headed to lunch and then were side tracked when we saw my sister and followed her to her lunch destination and intruded on her lunch. Yup. that was fun. While we were about to be shown our booth, we saw some friends of ours. We stopped to chat and we laughed about how we all ended up in the same place. The Little Gentleman heard me say "McDonald's" which is his favorite place and where we had originally been headed.

The Little Gentleman started causing a ruckus saying he wanted McDonald's and my mom and I immediately said, "O.k. we will go to McDonald's. Tell Auntie good-bye." A heartbeat later, The Little Gentleman was in hysterics because he wanted to stay where we were. Classic 3 year old moment. I love it. On top of it all, he went without a nap today. Needless to say, today was a somewhat intense day and I'm ready to hand the intensity off to The Ex for a few hours while I go tend to two other children. I'll still miss The Little Gentleman while I am at work, but its a nice break.

Today I am thankful that even though The Little Gentleman has croup, that it is only a slight case.

He's still keeping me on my toes. Has the energy of a bulldozer (when he has had medicine, which he doesn't always accept so I don't force) and his eating, drinking and sleeping have only been affected minimally. We shall hope for a speedy recovery and that he will be well to gorge on Thanksgiving as it is intended.

~Peace

Yes, Yes, I know...

The blog is new and its been over a month since I've been here. Truth be told, I hadn't quite decided if I was going to really continue to blog. I was never going to be a blogger anyway. I enjoy reading other people's blogs... but really, up until recently, I hadn't given coming back here another try.


And then I read a comic in the paper the other day... I can't tell you what comic, or what day, but I can tell you the jist. Two women sitting at a table. A tells B "We're going to have a 5 minute conversation with no complaining." The second frame they two are staring at one another. Holy Moly did that strike home.


I am 28 years old, and I have realized that I spend most of my life complaining. This person cut me off when I was driving, so I'll spend 10 minutes being angry about it and letting it spill into my work. The 7 year old that I nanny always has some comment to make towards me that directly implies that I might be an uneducated waif, so I'm crabby as I make dinner. I text or call my friends and its "venting" about this or that. All in all, it all comes down to complaining and finding fault in all situations...


So, in light of the upcoming holiday season and being inspired by someone I know, I am going to try to blog each night before going to bed. Each post will be dedicated to what I am most THANKFUL for that day. More and more I hope that this will turn into a real blog with real people who read it (because, let's be honest, at this point in my blogging adventure, no one but me is reading these posts...).


Today I am thankful for the creativity of my son and my enjoyment of creating new things with him.


After a rough morning, following a rough bedtime, The Little Gentleman and I were at odds. We had been battling eachother all morning, mainly over his wanting to watch a movie and me holding strong to the fact that his unacceptable bedtime behavior lost him a morning movie and he could have another chance after dinner. To ease his frustration, I asked him to suggest something we could do instead of watching a movie. He asked for art and was at the table waiting before I could take the three steps to get his art supplies.


Having worked for 5 years at a day care, I was able to aquire a massive number of art patterns - all arranged according to subject and holiday. We had already made turkeys,

and a cornocopia was primed and ready for The Little Gentleman to make. As he glued his fruit on, I sifted looking for the Boy and Girl Pilgrim that I thought I had. Instead, I found a Native American Girl and it was claimed quickly to color.


Still wanting to do art, I asked if we should "write a book". Page 1: Buddy (his favorite and only male cousin) had a little lamb - to which The Little Gentleman turned to me, giggled and said, "Get it Momma? He had a little lamb?" Peals of giggles. Much better than the screams from 15 minutes ago. So I drew his cousin and The Little Gentleman started coloring. Then I asked what the second page was. He told me I could write it, so I decided that my goddaughter (and potential future niece) would be a princess, and I drew her picture. Naturally, because there was a princess, the cousin was converted to a prince and they needed a horse to ride.

Can I interject for a moment? I can't draw. Never could. But how do you explain that to a 3 year old?

Back to the horse. Attempt #1 - horse nose looks like a duck-billed platypus. Destroy. Attempt #2 - horse looks nothing like a horse. Destroy. Attempt #3 - The Little Gentleman proclaims that he wants a horse not that. Destroy. Attempt #4 - I have brought one of the horses in from his pile and am using it as a reference. The Little Gentleman decides that The Prince should ride the horse that I am using for reference. Picture worthy, so picture I took. : ) Managed to finish the horse well enough that The Little Gentleman saw it was infact, a horse.

Content with drawing a corral for the horse (a big circle), I asked what else he wanted. He told me a dinosaur, and I about gave up when I started. Instead, I went directly for one of the dinosaurs that was in previously mentioned pile, and used it as a reference. Incase you are curious, and I know you are, it was an apatasaurus. I think. I'm 98% positive. I'll inquire tomorrow, The Little Gentleman will be glad to set me straight.

With the dinosaur drawn to a decent liking on the first try, I asked what else needed to be done. The Little Gentleman told me the dinosaur was a Christmas Dinosaur. He should wear a Santa suit. Man Alive. How was I going to pull that off? Within an instant, however, the vision was there and suddenly the dinosaur was all mine. I informed The Little Gentleman, who graciously accepted that I would share but it belonged to me. I LOVE my Santa Dinosaur. I am so proud of it that I could faint.

And that 30 - 45 minutes sitting down, distraction from everything, was enough for The Little Gentleman to forget he had even wanted to watch a movie and out came his dinosaur floor puzzle with matching his plastic play dinosaurs to the ones on the picture.

On a sillier note, I'm also thankful for the pigs in a blanket and baked beans for dinner tonight. They were so good, so easy and filled me to the brim! I love meals like that. : )

So, It's 1:30 a.m. 2 hours past my bedtime, but an hour less than I usually have between The Little Gentleman going to sleep and my own bedtime (his is 9:00 - 9:30, mine is 11:30 - 12:00a.m.). We won't discuss how he was up until 11:30 tonight. I hope the croupy undertones I heard this morning and my dad and I heard this late eve were due to his over tiredness and not to actual croup. If he has it again, it will be time #5. So, I'm off to bed to hopefully sleep in a little bit tomorrow morning... I have to prepare for a potential napless day... no way is he getting away with 11:30 p.m. a second night in a row!!!

~Peace.