Life Lesson #1-Never underestimate the sneakiness of a child

To say that it has been a rough couple of weeks for me would be an understatement. It's difficult enough that I'm a stay at home mom with 3 kids 3 and under. Add to that the fact that the oldest has autism, the middle one is a drama queen, and the youngest is addicted to nursing, and you get a VERY tired, sometimes unaware mommy. This has led to quite a few interesting happenings at my house in the last week.


Sneaky toddler incident #1- As you all know, it's tax season. I choose to do our family's taxes on my own, which is pretty time consuming and confusing (I admit, I'm terrible at with numbers and somewhat disorganized). I decided to take advantage of a small window of opportunity while the kids were quietly playing, to get some work done on the taxes. I figured, "what's 10 minutes?".  A few minutes in, I look around the living room to see what each child is up to. Isaiah is busy lining up trains across the house, Annabeth is rolling around on the floor, and Abigail.....is smearing vaseline all over the dog's face. That's right, vaseline. Apparently, in the few minutes that I hadn't had my eyes on them, Abigail grabbed my diaper bag and took out my tub of vaseline to use for her own entertainment. My dog (Malachi the German Shepherd) laid there as a perfectly willing participant to the antics of the little girl he loves so much. He didn't even try to get up and hide from her. Upon further investigation, I realize Abigail herself is covered in vaseline. This of course, is the funniest thing to her. 


Your lesson to take from this is, keep any smear-able substances well out of reach of children. 


Sneaky toddler incident #2- I started the bedtime routine a couple of nights ago by getting my youngest changed, in to her pjs, and nursed. This usually takes me about 10-15 minutes, depending on how hungry she is. During this time the other kids are usually in the same room playing. Not this night. They had ventured off in to Abigail's bedroom and were playing. They weren't yelling, screaming, crying, or fighting, so I let them be. I finish up with the baby, set her in her bouncy seat, and go to get the others so I can get them ready as well. I walk in to the room and am completely shocked. There was a rocking chair on the opposite side of the room that it should have been, the ottoman was turned upside down, the cushion was off of the rocking chair and in the crib, there was dog food all over the floor, my daughter was naked, and all of the clothes had been taken out of the drawers and strewn about the room. I shook my head, grabbed my kids, and shut the door. This was going to have to be dealt with the next day.


The lesson from this story, quiet=bad.     


Sneaky toddler incident #3-My daughter now knows how to get out of her crib. For parents, this needs no more explanation. This is a terrible thing. Between the time I put her in bed and about midnight, she gets out of her bed about a dozen times, every time thinking she is hilarious. Apparently she thinks I'm having a great time too, because she has the biggest grin on her face, thinking I'm surprised when she walks in to the living room at 11:30. No baby, I heard you open the door and run down the hall squealing because you were so excited. It breaks my heart to have to be stern with her and put her back in bed. It is however, the most frightening thing in the world to wake up at 4 in the morning with a 2 year old staring at you while your sleeping. It's also shocking to walk in to her room and realize that she has built some sort of tower in order to get in and out of her bed without breaking any bones. The predicament now is, do I get a crib tent so she can't get out, or do I just give in and move her to a toddler bed so she doesn't end up cracking her head getting out of her crib one night?? 


Lesson-kids can climb anything, and sometimes they are super creepy too.

A different kind of day

Of course, on the day that I was to start documenting all of the ridiculous and crazy things my kids do, they act sweet and perfect. I'm telling you, they KNEW. I took them out for frozen yogurt, angels. The whole time in the car, quiet. We come home, they actually take naps. All day long, NOTHING. I don't think I've ever had a day without a story to tell. I guess today my story is, my kids are amazing, and they decided to give mommy a much needed break. Thanks babies, mommy appreciates it.

I did however, get to be a part of something great today. I am a member of a few local yardsale pages on facebook (don't judge) and today someone was looking for an old playskool plush bunny. Her friends little girl, who has autism, lost hers and was frantic without it. I really wanted to help, because as a mom with a child with ASD (or a mom in general), I know how terrible it is to lose that favorite toy. I proceeded to look it up on ebay, and found someone selling it for quite a good bit of money. I asked her if she would take half of the price and told her the situation. She was so excited to help, and she even gave free shipping. I was able to help get together money from friends and family in order to get this little girl her toy. I can't tell you how awesome it was to be able to help and to see so many people pull together to do something wonderful for a little girl they hadn't even met. It gives me hope.

And so it begins...

I've decided that I need to keep a written account of the craziness that I call my life. Things included will be real life stories about my amazing children, recipes, crafts, toddler activities, and general ramblings. I hope not only to entertain and give out good information, but to also use this to show my children just how close to the brink of insanity that they drove mommy to when they were young ;)

If you have anything specific you'd like to see me write about, don't hesitate to let me know :)