Trapped

We have been experiencing torrential rain at the moment. Nearly every day for over a week, needless to say, the kids and I are basically trapped in the house. We've been making the most of it though. We did finally make those crowns. We also made books, a 'Disney Junior den', had a Lynnea-mummy-brannon- pajama-movie-cuddle day, and stomped in muddy puddles like Peppa Pig when the rain had slowed down a bit. So it hasn't been awful but I think all of us are going a little stir crazy. I really have to give the kids a ton of credit. They're high spirited little ones and they've been much better to each other than I thought they would be. Yes there has been fighting, arguing, hitting, and snatching but not even as much as on an actual school day. I think the morning crafts have really helped them stay happier throughout the day.

Today the weather was nice enough to actually leave the house! I made plans with my sisiter-in-law to meet her and my little niece at the park so the kids could all run around and play. I hadn't really thought this through though. When I go to the big park, it's usually when my husband is home. That way we can each watch one kid. During the week I take the kids to the smaller park nearest our house so it's easy to watch them both by myself and the play area is completely fenced in so they can't go running off when I'm chasing after the other one. This is not the case at the big park. You enter through a gate and the sides are completely fenced in until you get to the other end where it seems they must have run out of fencing materials after deciding to build some picnic tables and put up a giant swinging log. Personally, I think a fence is probably the more practical choice but I am sure the log seemed like a fantastic plan at the time. Hindsight is always 20/20 and all that, you know? Anyway, neither of us were completely tuned into this breach in security when Brannon saw another little boy start to run toward the open gate leading to the parking lot. Being a gloomy, overcast, chilly, windy Monday morning not many other people had the idea to join the park adventure, thank goodness, so it wasn't impossible to see your child if they run more than 5 feet away from you. After catching my tiny son mid-escape I turned around to notice that my daughter was no longer where I left her a second ago. Every parent has had this happen and it is absolutely the worst feeling you could ever experience. You feel like you're going to die from panic. You call the child's name as calmly as you can at first and if they don't respond you get increasingly louder and more panic striken.  Luckily for me, I only had to call once for Lynnea and she had only escaped the fenced area to the big log (ah ha now you see why I went into all of that seemingly useless description of the park's layout). She was wearing the kind of ear-to-ear grin you'd expect to see on the face of an escaped convict when they find out they've not only gotten away with it but they've just stumbled upon a huge pile of cash to boot! This doesn't happen to me often at all but it really got me down. I literally felt like the world's worst parent. Maybe you're reading this agreeing with me or maybe you're breathing a sigh of relief to see you aren't the only one who has temporarily lost track of their child. Either way, when it happens to you just remember you are not alone in this and most likely your child is gleefully smiling at you having a heart attack.

The Realization

At the moment I am taking steps to plan starting online university to finally get my degree in biochemistry. I feel young yet old at the same time. I'm a bit like a spry 80 year old. The young feeling was stronger whilst doing my research until I suddenly came to the realization that I graduated high school 8 years ago and I am just now getting this under way. I could have graduated college twice in this time! Twice!! Don't get me wrong, I am so glad that I took time out to start our family first but holy goodness! And even worse is that it will take me 6 years doing part time online school to graduate.  It's still totally worth it but it just gets me thinking! The only thing to do is getback to my knitting and forget the whole age thing. 

Summertime and the Livin' is Easy

I am a lover of jazz and 'Summertime' is one of my all time favorite songs and . Here's the link if you want to see what i'm talking about Summertime Norah Jones. It's the Norah Jones version because I adore her and, being a pianist myself, have so much respect for her artistry. When I think of or hear this song I disappear into my imagination floating down a slow moving river, cocktail in hand, enjoying some peace and quiet. These are the kind of summers that some people have. My kind of summer is......let's just say.....a bit different now. I am head over heels in love with my kids but as every parent knows, there are times when you kind of start to pull out your hair. Friday was the last day of school for my 4 year old daughter. She loves school and going to see her friends, teachers, and learn new things is the highlight of her week. On her days off she does get into little bits of mischief, of course, but on the whole she is a very well behaved and helpful little girl. There was a shift when I told her that she was done with school for the summer and then she'll start reception inSeptember. having no concept of time yet, I foolishly thought that it would just feel like a long week off to her. A long week off TO HER. But it's me that already feels like the fun will never end. I am a great mom. I'm not being cocky, conceited, or arrogant. It's just the truth. I stay calm and speak to my kids in a respectful tone, I put on puppet shows with them and make huge messes with props in the conservatory, only one dessert type treat per day at the most, and healthy delicious homemade meals are part of our every day routine. I had planned out which crafts we'd do over the weeks and for some reason in my mind everyone was behaving well together at the table nicely using the glitter glue on their princess crown.

I know what you're thinking, "excuse me, have you ever met a 2 and 4 year old before?" Why yes I have, thank you for asking. I also am very aware that my children in particular are high spirited.....to put it mildly. Then why did I have these visions of perfection?Because sadly, I am still a perfectionist at heart trying to remember she lives in a not-so-perfect world. With that being said, I invite you into my house.

The little one wakes me up, look at the time, 6:45 am (great!). I take him downstairs and I give him breakfast which he actually eats! I make my coffee and sit down. Everything is going so smoothly that I refuse to even acknowledge that anything is different today. Even the never ending rain cannot get my spirit down! The little one and I are up for about an hour when the big one walks in smiling!!!! Can anything be more perfect???! It really is like the little one can read my mind because instead of being super excited to see his big sister ( as usual) he gets angry that she might possibly maybe in the future somehow interfere with what he's doing. So *sigh* he tries to push her back to the stairs and now I have my very own MMA match live from my living room. Hair is being pulled (mine included), blankets are being snatched from their owners, and the sound is enough to put fighting cats to shame. This set the tone for the rest of the morning. She builds a tower, he sends it crashing down. He gets on the car, she pulls the car in the opposite direction that he wants to go. I didn't wear black and white stripes today but I am definitely a referee. I am not exactly sure what my neighbors think but I'm pretty confident that one of them thinks I just let them carry on whilst I try to ignore the noise because nothing I try to do makes much of a difference. 

It's 1:15pm and no housework has yet been done. Dishes are still in the sink and I have a load of laurndry to fold. OH! But I did vacuum because they did get into the fridge and spilled carrots all over the floor. Pssst! Remind me to replace the fridge lock! I'm giving the housework one more shot before I say "to hell with it" and make myself a freaking princess crown. 

The Crack Before Dawn

My soon to be 2 year old son has been sleeping through the night (finally!) since a few months ago when we moved him into a toddler bed. At first it was great! He was sleeping until 7am!!! I thought I finally hit the jackpot and had 2 children who were good sleepers. But as we all know, life, and my tiny son had other ideas. Slowly he started waking up earlier. I brushed it off as a one off "He just went to bed late. He has the sniffles...." and so on and so forth. Then it got to the point where a 7 up front was a thing of the past. We were into the 6 o'clock bracket but just barely. It was kind of nice. Those sleepy snuggles on the couch with him while I knitted and watched 'Scandal' were lovely and I looked forward to our one-on-one time. I think he could sense my acceptance and contentment with our new routine and in an eternal experiment to push the limits, he changed his schedule yet again. Now I don't know if it's just me but if I go to bed at 9pm my natural wake up time is not 5am...... But Brannon's is! I made lemonade yet again and used the time to try to get my housework done. Maybe he does have my best interest at heart and wants me to be able to watch 'Penny Dreadful' during his nap (see my post 'Dishes or Penny Dreadful? That is the Question' for the answer).  This past week we hit an all new milestone! He walked into the bedroom and gently tapped my arm whilst quietly calling my name. I opened my eyes to see the red-orange glow of a barely awakened sun. Immediately I felt as if I had been hit by a freight train. I just kind of stayed glued to the spot for a moment, too terrified to see the hour but my resistance couldn't last too long in the event we woke up daddy bear. It was 4:50. Yep that was actually a 4 up front and he was up FOR THE DAY. 

I don't really remember anything from the day after the 5th cup of coffee. It was all a blur and I was transformed into a human-sloth hybrid. By the time my turn to sleep rolled around I felt like it had been an eternity since I last felt the soft embrace of my pillow and the cool crispness of the fitted sheet below me. Then in the blink of an eye, he was tapping my arm once more and I had never been so grateful for the 6 o'clock bracket.

The Point of No Return

Yesterday I was not feeling well AT ALL. I'll spare you the details but I ended up catching the same stomach bug that Lynnea had on Sunday. As I was scrolling through channels almost entirely convinced this would be the last episode of anything I watch before my imminent demise, I realized that there was absolutely nothing good to to view a Tuesday afternoon. And why would there be? Everyone knows that all people everywhere have the exact same 9-5 work schedule. Night-shifts are a myth and stay at home moms are far too busy to ever watch tv. And like my father always said, "If you're too sick to go to school (or work), you're too sick to watch tv".  So why even bother.......*crickets and awkward silence as the television companies turn away slowly pretending they never read this*...... Anyway, I did have the season 2 finale of Penny Dreadful but I was in no condition to give it the attention and enthusiasm it deserves so that was out. I couldn't bring myself to re∞- watch yet another episode of 'Friends' so I found myself pushing the buttons for channel 611 (a.k.a. Disney Junior). This wasn't like those other instances where I find myself quoting along to 'Sofia the First' when Brannon is having a nap or drinking my morning coffee entranced by 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse'. No. This was a conscious decision. I actually said to myself,"I would rather watch anything on Disney Junior (excluding 'Henry Hugglemonster' which I hate with every fiber of my being) than watch any of this other crap. So there I was, barely conscious, watching 'Doc McStuffins'. This is one illness from which I doubt I'll ever recover.

The Fab 4th!

The past week has been crazy! It was spent getting ready for the 4th of July which keeps edging it's way to the spot of my top favorite holiday each year. There's just something nostalgic and wonderful about the unbridled celebration and joy of loving your country even from within the one you worked so hard to become independent from. To prepare for the big day,  I spent too much time watching youtube nail tutorials by @missjenfabulous   https://www.youtube.com/user/MissJenFABULOUS  and she really is fabulous! I even impressed myself with the final product which only took.....oh....about 3 hours (including drying time). I am hopelessly perfectionistic™ (yep, look out Merriam Webster! We'll be using the dictionary of Jenneal from now on) 

Fast forward to the bbq......

Everything went smoothly and we all had a great time. Since we live in the city, we couldn't properly do s'mores over a campfire so I ended up making them in the oven. They lacked that beautiful taste of burning wood and burnt marshmallow that I love ever so much but they were actually pretty delightful. And I finally found some delicious gluten free digestive biscuits (for my fellow Americans, digestive biscuits are a sightly more buttery graham cracker but in cookie form). I felt like I was on my own little patriotic island surrounded by a sea of British-ness. The only thing missing were some awe-inspiring fireworks. I was starting to feel like we were going to actually pull off the entire day without a hitch. Nope! At the end of the evening we found ourselves being attacked by swarms flies who refused to be left out of the celebrations. Then next morning I woke up the next morning to my poor little girl retching. Then my tiny son decided he wasn't going to bed until 9pm after only having a short nap on his Daddy. But I refuse to let it get me down. On the bright side, our house has never been so disinfected! I am even considering renting our house out as a pop up surgery venue. If I would have bothered to buy stock in Dettol, I'd be writing this in the Caribbean just from yesterday's events. These little instances, however heartbreaking, always bring me out of the clouds and remind me that there is a new adventure around the corner.