The Day Just Didn't Start Off Right

Sickness is lurking in the house. Both the kids are stuffy and coughing and the bug has finally bitten me. I haven't been sleeping well since Adam left for Georgia on Saturday night, and I think my immune system has suffered. Anyway, I awoke, as usual, to the kids at 7 AM sharp begging for food. There is no food in the house. I have some cereal and milk, a half a loaf of bread, and a handful of past due clementines. I was feeling quite awful. I didn't fall asleep till around 3 AM, I had a splitting headache, my nose was stuffy, and my throat had a small fire in it. I gave the kids some cereal and headed back to bed.

I did not want to get out of bed. Synnove has had a ravenous appetite lately, and kept coming in to ask for more food. Usually, there is some granola bars or crackers or SOMEthing that the kids can get themselves to eat...but like I said before, the cupboards are empty. I allow her some fruit snacks. A bit later she comes in again begging for food. She eats what's left of the clementines. I'm tapped out. I need to make the trip to Longview to go to Winco, but the car is not sounding so good. I wish I had a better car...I'm really wishing that today. I'm wishing HARD. I'm wishing $10,000 will fall down from heaven. I wish I would have won that beautiful white Camry at the fair last year! *sigh*....I digress. By now it's 10:30 and I finally decide that I can no longer stay in my bed. I know...I'm a terrible and neglectful mother.

My head is aching pretty badly. I make some eggs so that I don't have to take medicine on an empty stomach. Synnove devours half of them and asks for more. It's almost lunch...she'll have to wait.

I head downstairs to get some clothes for Soren. I check out Synnove's room first...still a mess after her so-called cleaning yesterday. I hate a dirty room....but I guess the time is coming that I just have to let it go. It's her responsibility now. I can nit-pick till I'm hoarse, or I can accept that her version of clean is not mine. ANYway, back to Soren's room. I walk in to find the entire contents of his closet on the floor. In a somewhat ticked, yet exhausted voice, I ask Synnove..."what happened here?" Synnove replies, before even entering his room, "Soren did it." Oh really? Right. Anyway, I call down Soren who is 99% honest 99% of the time and ask him what happened. He says, "I didn't do it, Synnove did." Then, the blame game continues for a minute or two. I've caught Synnove lying quite a few times in the past several months, and it's so disappointing and frustrating. I'm trying not to sound too angry (not really working), and ask Synnove SEVERAL times not to lie to me and to tell me if she did it or not. She eventually says "Soren and I did it." Oh really? Right. Either way, Synnove lied, so she had to get punished. I won't go into detail...but disciplining Synnove always ends worse than it begins. And that is always more frustrating than the original offense.

I'm just too tired and in too much pain to try to get the kids to participate in cleaning up the mess, so I clean it up myself. Under the mountain of clothes I find one of Soren's favorite Christmas gifts crushed. That only adds to my building emotion. What next?

When the closet is finally clean, I calmly call the kids down to complete some simple clean-up tasks. I find that Soren has put on plastic underwear (he's been wearing them over a diaper at night lately) inside out (plastic side to the skin) under his pull-up. Uhh...ok? Goodness. So, I tell him to take them off and put only his pull-up on. This is something he is quite capable of doing, so I go into the other room to do a bit of clean-up. Not even a minute later, Soren comes up to me and says "I peed." I say "what do you mean, you peed?" He says, "I'm sorry mommy." I say, "what do you mean you peed??" He goes in and points to his closet. Let me just tell you that his closet doesn't go to the floor...the bottom of it hits my thigh...so it's kind of high up. ANYway, I say "you peed in your pants? or you peed somewhere else?" He says "I'm sorry." and points to the inside of the closet. There is pee all over the inside of his closet, on some of his clothes, and some of his stuffed animals. I cracked. I was done.

I could not help myself. Soren was covered in pee because his plastic pants were inside out, yet there was a huge puddle in the closet. How on earth did this happen? I angrily send him upstairs to the tub. I'm already frustrated with Soren, as he has been peeing his pants several times a day, every day for the last month. I'm wanting to scream. Instead, I sob. I sob hard.

When I'm done with my little breakdown, I decide to write a blog about it (this blog). The kids are upstairs watching a movie. I'm almost finished when I hear them venture downstairs. I go into the bathroom to see what they are doing. Soren is naked, and Synnove has no pants on. Both of them have just gone to the bathroom and I notice that the training potty is smeared with poop and they are attempting to wipe Soren's bum. POOP! Back to the tub they both went. While in the tub I notice that Synnove's leg has a bunch of black marks all over it. I ask her if it's marker. She says "no." I try to wipe it off thinking it's dirt, or heaven forbid, poop! It doesn't wipe off, and I say..."what is this?" Synnove replies sheepishly..."marker." Lie #2 for the day. My kids are on a roll.

The day has only just begun. It's Winco or bust....busted car, busted head, busted bottoms!! I'm praying it's not "bust."

The Wild Blackberry Pirate...

...pillaged our field last weekend. I caught him "red-handed" but he destroyed the evidence with the hose.

(Suspect: "Soren P. Brown")

However, he was unaware of what was all over his face.

"Arrrr Matey!"

Sibling Rivalry, and a Little Bit of Heaven

Lately, the kids have been getting on each other's nerves. They fight a LOT, scream at each other, and say mean things. I suppose it's a phase that siblings go through from time to time. But, it's been no fun for me, as I'm constantly breaking up ridiculous squabbles about who's looking at who, and who's touching who, etc. When all of this escalated about a week ago, I usually handled the situation by breaking them up and explaining how they were being hurtful/ridiculous/loud/inappropriate...whatever...then they would have to apologize and hug (very reluctantly). The tediousness of it all was making me crazy, as it was happening over and over and OVER again! Just as soon as I would walk away, they were already in each other's faces again.

This morning started off like most mornings have in the last week...with a series of fights. I was lying in bed trying to drag myself out, while the kids were playing in the other room. I was listening intently and all of a sudden Synnove decided to say something really hurtful to Soren for no reason whatsoever. That was the last straw of the morning, as I had already broken up a handful of squabbles already. I called Synnove into my room so that I could talk to her. She's in that lovely "I don't want to" phase where EVERYthing is a horrible inconvenience and she'll stand there in front of me with an awful look on her face, whining and contorting her body in all different directions...like talking to her is inflicting some sort of pain on her. I find it very disrespectful, so about 5 different times during our little 3 minute talk, I ask her to stand up straight and wipe the yucky look off her face. Anyway, I begin to talk to her about what the Bible says about loving one another and treating others as Jesus treats us, blah, blah blah. I tarried a bit in my lecture and also spoke a little bit about Heaven and living forever with Jesus. I was hoping that what I said would give her a bit of perspective.

After that, I went on to make some breakfast. Synnove wanted to help, so she was in the kitchen as well. She then went on to ask me some things about heaven. I can't remember everything she said, but she was obviously very interested in what it would be like to live there forever. She knows that Heaven is a place unlike anything she can imagine...but that doesn't stop her from imagining. Here are a few of the things that she said...

"but there won't be any restaurants there!"
"how will we eat, there won't be any food?"
"how will I get my bed there...how will I sleep if I don't have my bed?"
"Jesus isn't big enough to carry my bed to heaven!"

Synnove's 1st Dentist Visit...and More

So, Synnove went to the dentist today. I had slacked in making an appointment for her, as I hadn't been in a couple of years and hadn't established myself with a dentist in the area yet. Back when I was in college, the dentist that I had had since I was 5 decided to take an early retirement. I was pretty bummed cause he always made my dental visits painless and fairly enjoyable. Yes, I actually liked going to the dentist! It wasn't until I went to the dentist a couple of years ago in Hillsboro that I became quite afraid of the dentist. Granted, I wasn't up on my cleanings/check-ups...it had been a handful of years...so, I was prepared to get some fillings and expected some discomfort. Anyway, I ended up with a crown (long story on that one...has to do with the braces I had for 9 years) and had a horribly painful experience that lasted for weeks. I recall the dentist and his assistant basically telling me I was a wimp and that I must have extremely sensitive teeth....all as tears are streaming down my face. This is all after he ground my tooth to a tiny nub and placed a permanent crown without any Novocaine. ANYway, my crown started to hurt a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to make an appointment with a dentist.

When I moved back into town I had heard that Dr. Smith (my childhood dentist) had returned from his retirement and set up shop back in Astoria! Hooray! He's kind of a goofy guy, but always takes great care in making sure his patients are comfortable and pain-free. I made an appointment for myself, and also for Synnove. I went a couple of weeks ago and told Synnove that she was gonna go too. She was so excited to get a bag of goodies (floss, toothbrush, etc.). Last night, however, she had a hard time getting to sleep as she was a little nervous for her upcoming appointment.

This morning, even though her appointment wasn't till noon, she had her toothbrush all ready and couldn't wait to go. I took my time getting ready this morning and did a few chores. It was 10 minutes before we were to leave and I went downstairs to gather the kids from playing. Both Soren's and Synnove's mouths were covered in marker!!! I couldn't believe it! Just before going to the dentist, of all places, the kids decide to paint their mouths...inside and out! The marker was semi-washable and I tried to get the remaining with a bit of rubbing alcohol with no luck. So, she went to the dentist with remnants of red marker on her lips.

Dad watched Soren and Synnove and I headed to see Dr. Smith. The hygienist was awesome (same one I had)...so gentle and sweet with Synnove. Synnove was a bit shy and non-responsive (as I expected), but there were no freak-outs and she did very well! The only difficulty she had was that she kept scooting off the side of the chair (moving away from the "scary" tools) and the hygienist had to ask her to scoot back probably 4 different times.

Synnove and Sandy, the hygienist

When we got home, she was so excited to start using her bag of goodies. I let her go in the bathroom and use the different things. As she did that, I went downstairs to write an email. I then went upstairs to find that both of the kids had painted their fingernails! Ugh! I don't know how many times I have told Synnove that she is not allowed to paint her own nails. First, marker lipstick, then gobbed-up fingernails. Oh, toddlerhood...

Soren's freshly manicured hands