Happy First Birthday Jackson

I still get a little (okay, A LOT) teary when I think about this baby boy TURNING ONE YEAR OLD!
For all of the whining and sarcasm that is reflected on my blog, I LOVE my babies and I ADORE THIS baby. He's perfect, as you can see.
I think four kids later, I've learned to relish babies. Too bad I don't have as much time as I did when I didn't know how to relish. His birthday fell on the Saturday before the Super Bowl. Like every other Wisconsian, we caught Packer fever. Thus, a Packer cake.
Please baby Jackson, please stop growing...

Incontinence Inconvenience

So, something somewhere got messed up. I placed an order online and it got shipped to my old, old address. (Yes, it's been a huge pain and the only resolution I can think of is to drive up there tonight to Jackson).

I got this response from the The Childrens Place:

February 07, 2011


Dear Mrs. Morton,


I am sorry for your incontinence but because the incorrect address was entered on the order and it was delivered and left at that address we are unable to do anything on our end. We suggest disputing the charges with your credit card.



Sincerely,

Gracie
Customer Care Associate

Not sure if peeing my pants became equated with being inconvenienced because of a bad spell checker or some fabulous customer service rep in another country that doesn't se habla ingles too well. At any rate, I hope that this was a one time error and every customer at Childrens' Place is not being incontinenced. That is not only inconvenient, but an embarrassing mess.

Enough Already

So, we've been battling sickness at our house. I know that I am in good company. "Tis the season" so to speak. But, I just have to say...

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

Last week, it all began. Everyone, including Jake and I, had pink eye. We also had three cases of the stomach flu, one sinus infection, one double ear infection, and one case of croup. Needless to say, no one around here slept much last week and I feel like my life was just a blur of puke and laundry. Ugh.
.
I started off this week feeling GREAT. Yay! We survived! Here's to a healthy week! For the first time in a week, I sent BOTH Ty and Brooklyn to school.

Then, on Monday night, Brooklyn revisited the flu. Yucky. So, she was home on Tuesday recovering. By noon, I realized that Sadie's whining and crying was maybe more than normal and I found that she had a fever.

Round two. Or not. By that night, I had Sadie's fever down and Brooklyn seemed normal again. Yesterday, we honestly enjoyed the snow day and it felt GREAT to get my sickies outside and get some FRESH air.

Feeling good, other than the fact that Jack is getting in FOUR teeth and all that brings (cranky, loss of appetite, cranky, problems sleeping). Oh, and Brooklyn was sick again last night after being healthy for almost 48 hours. I guess I'll be making a trip to the pediatrician.

Maybe we can pick up a new virus there...

Are You Smarter than a Kindergartener?

Apparently, I'm not. (Please, don't tell Brooklyn)

Today, she was working on some schoolwork at home. She has been sick and was getting bored so I picked up some stuff from her teacher. In class, she has been learning about bears. One of her assignments that she brought home was to write "all that she knows about bears". Okay, we can handle that.

She started off with basic stuff, like that bears eat berries, other animals, etc. She elaborated on the fact that they eat a lot during the spring, summer, and fall; as there isn't food in the winter. Then, of course, bears hibernate.

Then, she comes into me and asks:

"Mom, there are eight kinds of bears (proceeds to tell me her list), but I only have six. What are the other two?"

I confidently answered: "How about grizzly bears?"

Brooklyn said: "No Mom, grizzly bears are a type of brown bear. I have brown bears"

Uhhhh...she's gotta be wrong here, right? I mean, eight kinds of bears? Sun bears? What kind of stuff are they teaching my daughter at school?

THANK GOODNESS FOR GOOGLE (and a big dose of humility)

Yes, in fact, there are eight species of bears. Yes, grizzly bears are a type of brown bear.

I saved face because I didn't have to scramble, I was already on my computer. Just confirming what I already know, right? I am a mother. I am an unending fount of knowledge and a college graduate.

Duh. Maybe not.

Athletic Wear Vs. Pajamas

I swore after my last pregnancy that all excuses for going out in public in fleece pants or yoga pants were over.

I kept to it, for awhile.

Then, I did my first triathlon; and my first 10K. At each of these events, I got a cool "hey, look what I did!" T-shirt. They are not special or dressy T-shirts. They just have print that proves that I did something somewhat athletic.

Yesterday, I broke my rule. I went out in public in my beloved fleece pants, while wearing my running shoes and my T from my triathlon. I didn't feel bad. I didn't feel like I was guilty of being the mom who wears sweats in public. I wasn't wearing sweats, I was wearing workout clothes. I'm not lazy, I'm so athletically inclined that I can't even wear jeans.

How hypocritical. I have become "that" mom. The stereotypical mom with disheveled kids and more disheveled self. Shame on me.

Does it help that I was on my way to the doctor? Does it help that I currently have a baby with an ear infection, one with the stomach flu, one with croup, and one with a sinus infection? It probably doesn't help that I wasn't wearing makeup because I have an eye infection that I picked up from one of my kids.

Sigh.

Maybe next week.

The Inevitable

The day that I learned that I was having my first son, was the day that I knew that someday IT would happen.

On Friday, when I picked up Ty from school, I noticed immediately that he had red, puffy eyes and was holding the teachers hand. When I walked up, the teacher asked him: "Ty, would you like to tell your mom what happened today?" Ty muttered, "no". (Oh boy, what did he do?) The teacher then explained that Ty had punched another boy in the nose. This boy (for the security of those involved in the crime, we'll call him "Jack") had pushed Tyler. Ty then, apparently, punched Jack in the nose. Hmmm...on one hand, very upset. On the other hand, good job man, not letting people push you around.

I tried to be calm, yet tried to be a good mom as I told him how unhappy I was about it and walked him to the van. I called Jake on the phone, who was more on the "good job man" side than me, but still stood behind the fact that Ty needed to learn to not punch people as a general rule.

The entire way back home, Ty cried and told me how bad he felt. He kept telling me that he didn't "hit" Jack, he "punched" him. We went back and forth about how it's one and the same and it's not right either way.

Later that night, Jake really went into the play by play of what happened with Ty. In all of their talking, it came out that Ty had not in fact "punched" Jack, but had "pinched" Jack. So Ty claims, Jack pushed Ty. It made Ty upset and he grumbled about it for a few minutes; then he decided to go and pinch Jack's nose. Jack, being a first class tattler, went and ratted out Ty on the teacher. Really kid? What on earth possessed you to think that pinching someones nose was good revenge? Three Stooges? Muppets? C'mon, where do you get this stuff?

However, the story makes sense, if only because Ty honestly isn't clever enough to think of of word that sounds like "punch", that works in the sentence, I ______ed him in the nose. Also, Ty was ADAMANT about having not "hit" Jack. Maybe that's where the confusion was.

Sigh. What to do. We talked about not punching, or pinching. He went to bed early. When he punched, I was thinking of making him write a note of apology to Jack. But a pinch. I dunno. Kid pushed him. He had it coming. What's a mom to do? At this point, it's over and I'm just laughing. Thank goodness for the humor in it all. Thank goodness no one was hurt. Thank goodness I'm not getting sued or having to talk to the principal or the parents of another child. Not yet. Not THIS time.

One of my Favorite Blogs

This is the blog of a friend of my sister-in-law. She lost her husband to cancer last year, and she is so inspiring. I find myself sharing things from her blog often. Lesson from her latest post: I shouldn't have bad days either (compared to her, shouldn't even have bad "moments")

http://dearryno.blogspot.com/2011/01/today-was-great-day.html