My Little Picasso's

My Little Picasso's

Sunday, November 27, 2011

I have hickeys on my face.

Charlie is teething, but will he take one of those nice little frozen teething rings?  Hell no ... he prefers my face.  Please refer to exhibit A and exhibit B.

Exhibit A
Exhibit B

He is still so very cute though!  My face just hurts a lot.

November 27th, 2011

Friday, November 25, 2011

Slow down, you're movin' to fast. Got to make the moment last.

Before I had Max and Charlie, I had control.  I ran on a schedule.  I was not a late person.  All my chores were done.  My papers were always graded for my classes.

I am lucky if I get to a doctor's appointment or Sunday services on time now.  And you know what ... I don't really care.  I am on my own majority of the time.  When I enter a doctor's office with a toddler and baby in tow, everyone behind the counter gives you that look of, "It's ok.  Your kids are so gosh darn cute." Ok, maybe not the second part, but the first part.  I will get places, but if Max is telling me he has pooped as I am trying to get in the car, then everything stops to change that diaper and sit on the potty.  My kids are my first concern now.  Do I have diapers, cups, food, snacks, bibs, extra clothes, books, teethers, my sanity?

Guess what moms?????  It is okay.  You will get done what you need to get done when you get it done.  Don't rush.  If your little one wants to dress himself and take ten minutes alone with his shoes ... awesome.  They are learning.  Max entertained Mimi and Papa for minute after minute this morning.  Were they concerned about getting to Uncle Seth and Aunt Laura's by 9am.  Nope.  Did they want to see Max get his shoes on right by himself - sure!

Enjoy the little things with your children because it is the most important thing to them right then, not getting to a doctor's appointment on time.

November 25th, 2011

Thursday, November 10, 2011

A State of Fury

I am a graduate 3 times over of the Pennsylvania State University, so I am taking all of the recent heinous events very personally.  My anger has consumed me.  It has driven me to yell on the phone with my mother-in-law or my own mother as they patiently, with love, listen to me vent my feelings.  The tears have come and gone more than once.

As a student I was consumed with the football team as so many others.  Jerry Sandusky was very well known for his work with The Second Mile.  I heard him speak at my church a number of years ago.  I ran into JoePa at the store once or twice, revered him as a coach and role model, became friends with a few of his players.  When his library was opened, I sent him and Sue a thank you card.  It was a wonderful gift.  Mike McQueary frequented the bar I worked at throughout graduate school in Happy Valley.  Seeing these campus "Gods" was an everyday occurrence for so many of us students.

My disgust and anger with each and every person involved with this scandal is beyond skin deep.    Shame on you Mr. Sandusky.  Your victims were children.  Children are innocent.  They are pure.  You took that from them.  Mr. McQueary, you are a coward.  How could you see something so horrific, so awful, so disgusting and tell Daddy?  Mr. Paterno, how have you slept at night the past ten years?  You have sons.  The Board of Trustees, President Spanier, however many more of you are involved that the public do not know?   Shame on you all.  Your judgment day will come.

What was your cover up for?  For the love of what ... a game, a school, yourselves?  Let me tell you about a love.  A love a parent has for a child, their child.  A love so strong that you as a parent will stop at nothing to protect them.  How helpless must those mothers and fathers have felt when they found out what had happened to their children.  Those boys are broken.  They are scarred for life.  Imagine if one of your children came to you and told you that someone had molested them.  Imagine their fright, their shame, their smallness.  What would you think?  How would you help?  How would you stop it?  Now ask yourselves how you would feel if you found out it could have been stopped years before.

November 10th, 2011

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Struggling

At my church group the other morning a comparison was made between a monarch butterfly trying to hatch itself from its cocoon and the struggles God places in front of us through our lifetime to learn from.  If a monarch butterfly does not go through this struggle, it will die.  I am not saying that you will die if you do not face struggles.  I am saying that our struggles we face on a daily basis are there to teach us something.  To help us learn.

Max and Charlie have presented me with a new struggle and I have not figured out the lesson yet.

They have decided to not sleep through the night or take significant naps during the afternoon.  The wake up calls are relentless because every ounce of sleep during the night is needed considering they rarely nap at the same time.  Max will run his cars and trains across the door, into the door, over the walls, in turn waking up Charlie.  Charlie babbles away as he tries to turn himself over in his crib.  I found him sideways at 5:09 am this morning after Max started at 4:43am.

Now this is where my husband and I lose our team ability.  My husband works and I stay home, so he believes he should sleep.  Well, guess what, my love?  That whole thing "sleep when they sleep" does not happen in this house.  Please get up and help me.  The only thing he cannot do is nurse, everything else he can, which includes getting up with your noisy son.

Naptime is not fun either.  Max, I can shut in his room.  He cannot get out unless he tears off the childproof guard, which has only happened once.  He plays quite happily - so I leave him - until he has  a tantrum.  He is SO LOUD.  I go in, change him, put him back to bed, more screaming ... I normally find him wedged behind the door so I can't get in.  He usually wipes out there from banging on the door.

Charlie has taken to sleeping on the living room floor ... for about forty minutes.  He barely sleeps in the morning then stays awake until bedtime.  How does his little body do it?  Aren't you tired my little man? So then he sleeps ... until 5:09am.

Just keep the coffee going.

November 5th, 2011