A step in the right direction

The past two months have been hard on us.  Who am I kidding – the past two years have been hard!  My mom has been through the ringer and come out the other side only to be knocked down again by shingles and then bronchitis.  Let me tell you – Shingles is no joke.  If you are 60+ and are able to do so, please, please, PLEASE get the Singles Vaccination!  I didn’t know much about shingles before this, but watching my mom be in such pain has been so difficult.  There is little we can do to help her.  We try to use the kids as a distraction and help her focus on other stuff.  We’ve gotten her a variety of different things that could possibly ease the pain, but these have been mostly ineffective.  We’ve tried to be there to support her as best we can, but we all feel helpless. 

I took the picture below on Christmas Eve.  Evelyn just wanted to sit near Kiki...

I called her after work on Wednesday, two months to the day since she was diagnosed with shingles.  She answered the phone soundly more happy and upbeat than she had in a while.  Holly and Asa were visiting so I thought maybe Asa was working her baby magic. 😊  But then my mom said she had gotten out of the house that day.  She went to breakfast with Holly and did a little furniture shopping.  It was the first time she had really been out of the house since Dec. for anything other than a doctor’s appt..  She sounded so happy and I was thrilled.  She said that she’s still in pain, but she just decided enough was enough.  She was going to have to find a way to function around the pain because she wants to live her life.  She talked about making dinner for my dad’s birthday over the weekend and celebrating Avi and Cal’s birthday the following weekend.   She is finally looking forward to stuff again and it felt like a weight was lifted.

Her struggle isn’t over and there will be good days and bad days.  But yesterday was a good day and step in the right direction.  My mom is the strongest person that I know.  If anyone had a reason to be mean and miserable, it would be her after everything she’s been though.  But she doesn’t want to be that way.  She wants to be happy.

Tuesday is our night

Mitchell has grown out of taking regular naps for the most part.  There are definitely days when he needs them and he’s infinitely more pleasant when he’s caught a few 😴💤.  But, if he can handle it (and we can stand it), he doesn’t nap because it tends to really interfere with bedtime.  That’s all well and good except for one small detail...Daycare.  Mitch still takes a nap when he’s at Titi’s house.  I’m not sure how she does it, but she manages to get all the kids to nap at the same time.  No easy feat when you’ve got an infant and a handful of 2-3 year olds. She’s some kind of miracle worker.  Seriously - she’s my idol.  😯 I’ve thought about asking her to keep Mitch awake, but to be honest, I’m hesitant to mess up her system.  The kids all love her and respect her rules.  I don’t want to mess things up for all of them.  Because let’s face it - Mitch is a 3.5 year old boy and he’s LOUD.  If he didn’t nap, he’d keep all the kids awake.  So right now, we just deal with it.  I like for the kids to be in bed between 8:00 and 8:30, but that doesn’t work well when Mitch doesn’t wake up from his nap until 4.  When the weather is warmer, I wear him out at the park or the pool or just playing outside.  It’s more difficult this time of year since our outdoor time is more limited.  Bedtime can be a fight sometimes.  My rule of thumb is, if he’s been in bed for at least 45 minutes and is still wide awake, he can come downstairs.  Usually, he falls asleep.  But Tuesday seems to be an issue.  So it sort of became our night.  It’s not every Tuesday, but more often than not, Mitch comes and snuggles with me for a little while.  And while it messes up my TV night a little (hello - This is Us), I can’t bring myself to really mind.  Mitch is my baby boy and these moments won’t last forever.  So I’m going to enjoy every last snuggle.  

P.S - he took these pictures.  😂

Breakfast

Let me start out by saying that I’m pretty sure I survived on cereal for breakfast as a kid.  Especially the sugary ones (although to my bafflement my parents always seems to buy more cornflakes 😜). My tastes have evolved a little as an adult, but I still love cereal.  Who am I kidding - I’m fairly certain I could happily survive on it now! But neither of my kids are big cereal fans.  They’ll eat it once in awhile, but their taste is a little more refined. Take this morning for instance.  I offered a variety of delicious breakfast choices - mini donuts, waffles, cereal, French toast with maple syrup.  And you know what they wanted?  Avocado toast with a little sea salt.  Evelyn requested a little bit of minced garlic on hers as well.  Sure.  Ok.  I’m not even sure I knew what an avocado was at 5 years old and I sure as heck didn’t want it on toast.  I was more of a butter, cinnamon and sugar girl.  But when given the choice between that or avocado, avocado wins every time.  🥑🥑🍞

The storm before the calm

Why is it that my kids pick worst times lose their minds and act like they have no sense?  I mean, it’s one thing when they do it when we are by ourselves, alone in our house.  But lately, they haven’t been a bit shy about losing it in public places.  Like the grocery store check out.  The bathroom at Michaels.  The LIBRARY.  Yeah...that was fun.  I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to take them back there for a very long time.  Tonight, they let loose in front of Grandma Rita.  It’s not the first time, but tonight was particularly exhausting for me.  I know we are all feeling a little anxious because Pat and I are going out of town for several days.  I don’t leave the kids often overnight.  Maybe that’s why it felt like they went manic.  Our house was loud.  They wouldn’t stop screaming, running, yelling or fighting with each other.  I was trying not to yell. To be patient and understanding.  But my patience wore thin very quickly.  I was tired.  I’d been up since 5 am., but ended up taking the morning off because of the snow.  I used my ‘time off’ wisely - I did three loads of laundry, cleaned, changed sheets, shoveled 5-6 inches of snow off of our driveway and then worked 4.5 hours.  I was pretty tired after work.  By the time the kids had eaten dinner and gotten a bath, I was pretty much done in.  And I hadn’t even packed for my trip yet.  Bedtime came and all hell seemed to break loose.   Mitch wouldn’t sleep.  Evie wouldn’t sleep.  They both started screaming and crying.  All the while, Grandma Rita was trying to sleep in the next room.  It was bad.  And pretty darn embarrassing.  I’m sure didn’t handle it the best was that I could have. 

I try so hard to be a good mom.  But sometimes it feels like the hardest job in the world.

My kids are good kids.  They really are.  They are kind and sensitive.  They love hard and play hard.  They are smart and funny and they fill my life with joy most days.  

But some days are harder than others. 

I guess should probably go pack.  Our flight leaves at 9.  

Even after all this, I’m going to miss these two kids like crazy. 

Family resemblance

Most of the time, I think Evelyn looks a lot like Pat.  She’s got his eyes and his smile.  But the other day, I saw a lot of Pops in her.  Not sure why that was.... 

Sweet treats

Saturday was National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day.  When I told the kids that, they laughed, but I don’t think they believed me.  We just so happened to be visiting Pops and Kiki.  If you know my parents, you know that they ALWAYS have ice cream in their house.  Saturday morning dawned and Pops got donuts.  Busken.  Can you say YUM!   The kids were excited about that and I thought maybe they’d forget about ice cream.   They didn’t.  🤪  So they had donuts 🍩 with a side of rocky road  🍨.  I felt a little guilty since it was so unhealthy, but if you can’t have ice cream for breakfast when you’re a kid, when can you?!