Coversations with my 3 year old.

 So I started this blog post as conversations with Ava. I left the blog open so I could run to the computer and type them right after they happened so that I wouldn't forget the awesomeness. But then something truly blog worthy commenced. Which I will expound upon after I make you read the three covos I did record before I lost my mind!

• In the car after going through the drive thru:

"Mom, I can't drink this milk!"
"Oh no! Why, is it bad?"
"Yes, there are sharks in it!"
"Sharks?!" (Thinking I misunderstood her)
"Yes, there are two sharks in it, I can't drink it, sharks hurt my tummy."
(After a through inspection there were no sharks in the milk, but I told her I got rid of them, and there were no further issues)

• Getting Dressed

"Ava, those aren't your pants."
"They ARE my pants."
"Those are your brother's pants"
"No they are my pants!"
"Fine, wear the pants... but they aren't yours."
 "Yes, they are."
Fast Foward 2 hrs, she has spilled an entire glass of water on herself and made a swimming pool in the living room.
"Come on we need to go change your pants."
"These aren't MY pants!"

• In the middle of everything.

"Mom, Mikah is spraying me!"
(Mikah is suppose to be cleaning the bathrooms and has the vinegar/water spray bottle.)
"Mikah, STOP SPRAYING YOUR SISTER!"
"Ok."
"Hey, Mikah! Spray me!"

So let's stop there a min... and go back up to the pants conversation. I was trying desperately to get her older sister's birthday shirt made today. Can I just take a moment and get off topic to say how much I HATE making character shirts! I hate them in general because there are always 15 fabric pieces and half a billion color changes. I hate this one in particular due to the fact that I bought this poorly executed design from a digitizer that I hadn't used before. Giant mistake, this design was so haphazardly digitized that I believe that I, on my crappy little $65 software, could have done a better job. Once again I digress. I was trying to get this shirt made.....

To get this shirt done I had to leave Ava unattended... scary I know. But I haven't written a blog in a while and this was sure to give me some fodder right? So, Titus was asleep, Mikah was at school, and Ava was coloring nicely... time to run! 

Well the first time I came to check on her she had gone from coloring on her books to painting her nails, not too bad right?

The second time I came out was when I found Little Lake Ramey in the living room. She had poured herself a giant cup of water and then proceeded to dump it everywhere. We retrieved a few towels and sopped up the lake. This is also when the last half of the pants convo happened.

The Third time I came to check on her, she was chewing something. I had not given her a snack... However; I had left a bakers chocolate bar within reach. If you count in the cabinet, in its wrapper within reach. Miss Ava and her handy dandy pink stepping stool do. (That bad boy is going to the dumpster! Then let's see her climb on stuff.) "Ava, what's in your mouth?" I ask sternly. "Chokwet."

(There use to be 6 squares...)

This is when I learned my lesson. Also Titus was awake from his nap and I needed to feed them, so I decided to wait to finish until Mikah was home from school and could keep an eye on them.

So you would think this would be the end of my story, but no. Because it was Mikah's birthday they sent her home (I don't know who exactly so I will just use they) with a giant 2 foot long pixie stick. Thanks to whomever had that brilliant idea. She asked if she could open it, and to my everlasting regret I consented. That's when she discovered that pixie sticks are sour and she does not like them. I told her to throw it away, straighten up the font bathroom and keep an eye on her sister. I was gonna finish her party shirt. And I did! Whooo hooooo.

 (See how it kinda looks like crap? Yeah I'm going to have to go back and hand stitch it in areas, the design was so poorly done)

I come out of my sewing room exhausted but excited, I had won my fight with this stupid My Little Pony applique, and I was proud and excited to show the new owner. This is when I saw it.... Liquid all over the entire floor, kitchen, dining room, living room, entrance, front bathroom and I knew, this was not water. After some quick Mommy PI work I found a lime juice carton, that I had recently purchased, lying on it's side, now completely empty. As I'm stepping around the puddles I realize my feet are stepping in something else too... granulated sugar. My mind starts spinning what could it be? Pixie Stick Dust! They had a Lime Juice VS Pixie Dust war in my house! Perhaps instead of yelling out the door at Mikah to stop spraying her sister I should have gotten up to investigate? ARGH! Rookie mistake!

I am sorry to tell you that there are no pictures of this event, you couldn't really see it on the floor, just feel the gritty sticky presence in between your toes.

This is when I lost my mind. I'm not sure but I think I started crying. It was time for me to start dinner, and then Mikah had to go to TKD, we are on a tight schedule Tue nights. To top it off Titus decided he needed to eat right then and was going to constantly wail until he got the milk he was demanding. No, snacks would not do, no, toys would not distract, he will attain what he so desperately desires! I didn't have time for this! So I let him cry in his pack n play, while I stacked all the furniture up on top of each other and used the wet towel in the laundry room from our previous lake clean up, to do a quick once over and then I ran the vacuum. The girls had brilliantly ran off to their room to play nicely. After everything was vacuumed, I called them out of the bedroom and they each received a soapy wash cloths, and I stood over them feeding Titus, and made them scrub every inch of the floors, Cinderella style. At first Ava thought this was fun, but by the end she was crying too. Mission accomplished.

Dinner did not get cooked in time, but hopefully the girls learned a lesson, and now I have another reason to not reopen my embroidery business... Ava.

A Few Pictures of an Average Day with Ava

 

Waking up.... It's jump on mom in bed time! But mom gets boring and the girls want to hold the baby. Who is currently to big to "hold" nor does he have the desire to be held by them, but this does not off put them, or their baby holding agenda.

 

Then it's time to ride our bikes inside!  (Mom hates the cold and playgrounds...) But we HAVE to walk the dog out side, so We take our trusty butterfly net to catch dragonflies. Look she caught one!

Then some more cuddle time!

What would our day be without a few messes? We emptied Daddy's hair gel down the sink. (It was a good day this was our only distructor moment.)

 Then we had to change clothes and no one could convince her that these where not pants...

Finally put some regular pants on and shared her new coloring books with her sister :)

This was a wonderful day!

Just trying to be thankful...

Once upon a time, almost 12 years ago, we decided maybe we really did want kids. And so we started planning and praying and trying. Six months later still no pregnancy, One year not pregnant. Lots of friends with new bundles me still not pregnant. Two years no baby, Three years. Maybe this wasn't meant to be. But I didn't stop praying, I prayed, and prayed, and cried, and prayed, and begged, and bartered and most of all I prayed.

Then after we sold our house, put our belongings in storage, both quit our jobs, Dave left to go Active Duty and I moved in with my parents until we found out where our first duty station would be. I found out I was expecting! After 10 excruciating months of non stop all day and night sickness, our little red headed bundle arrived. She was everything I dreamed of and prayed for.

We knew we wanted more than one child, and since it took forever to get pregnant the first time, we thought maybe we should keep trying. Months and years passed, but I had Mikah to keep me occupied and even though it hurt and was my hearts desire, waiting was not nearly as hard with a toddler running you ragged.

After Four long years, of more tear, prayers, pleading, Dr. apts, prayers, invasive surgeries, we became pregnant with Ava, who has kept me on my toes since the very beginning. She decided to hang out for 42 and a half weeks and continued to kick and punch the entire birth process.... that was my sign. This little spit fire is one of the most adorable creatures I could ever imagine.

 We were not, not trying when we found out we were pregnant with Titus. He did come as a complete shock, because I really didn't think we were capable of having children without help, but apparently my body just needed to mature to 30 before it got it?I prayed for each of my children every singe day I was pregnant, I prayed for their health, for their strength and mainly for God's will in their lives. I prayed that we would be God honoring parents and examples to our children and in general I prayed as every parent expecting does.

In morning bible study today we were covering Sarah laughing at the LORD when he told her she would have a son. Even after she was done menstruating and well into menopause. Her response? "After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?" (Gen 18:12)

I say all this to say this... My day has sucked! Ava has been whiny and clingy, she woke up from her nap a veritable toddler monster. Titus is cutting a bunch of teeth and is a drooly, vomiting, generally unhappy baby today. (He's normally awesome) Ava has played with toothpaste, scissors, shaving cream, hand lotion, fed Titus plastic, got into the dog food, been ask multiple time "WHERE ARE YOUR PANTS!?" and in general tried her hardest to drive me to drink. Mikah came home from school, and does not remember if she has home work. She asks me the same questions over and over and is slightly annoying the tar out of me. We have an open house to meet Mikah's new teacher tonight and Sesame Street LIVE to attend, so I'm slightly stressing about that, especially since my husband is off saving the world and not answering his phone.

But thankfully this morning's topic sticks with me, because not only are these bugger filled gnomes one of the greatest blessings of my life, they are my pleasure. If I relax, calm down and stop thinking of them as getting in my way and think of them as what they are, Answered Prayers. I can remember that I once asked, begged, pleaded and bartered with God for them, and He decided in His sovereignty to allow me (and Dave) to raise and teach these little prayer requests. Sometimes a clean house can wait and dishes can be dirty another day, so I can just hold them, or play with them, or color with them, and appreciate them.

Powdered

What a better way to start my blog that telling the wonderful story of my avarage day on Tuesday. (Yes, I know avarage is spelled wrong, I'm doing it on purpose... you'll see why in a minute)

So I had a Cookie Lee event on Monday night (Yes, I sell Cookie Lee and will pimp it out whenever possible) I was out late, if you count 10:30 late, which you probably don't if you are under 25 sans children, but I am not and so I do. More importantly my husband does since he was home alone (gasp) with all three angels while I was gone. I came home and nursed the baby and put him down for the night, we are sleep training him so sleep is sparatic at best already....

Fast forward to 6:30 am Tuesday morning, Mikah comes in to wake me, which is already a bad sign as I typically get up at 6:00 to wake her for school every morning, to tell me that Ava has the baby powder (Get the name now?) I in my sleepy stupor roll back over and catch another 30 min of sleep. In retrospect this was a horrible decision. As I stumble out of bed and into the hallway, this is what I see.

Well not this specifically there was also a naked two year old covered completely in baby powder, and slightly to the right a 5 month old laughing also covered in baby powder, and a 7 year old skating through the "snow" I manage to yell "OH MY!" And hear my equally sleepy husband stumbling out of bed to find out why I yelled. The unclothed powder covered toddler looks innocently up at me and sweetly smiles, then she notices the flames dancing in my eyes and her sweet face turns worried, and says "It's ok mommy." Dave stumbles to my side and she repeats "Daddy, tell Mommy it's ok." Daddy without a word snatches up the clothe-less albino and tosses her into the shower. I slept in too long and need to leave immediately to get the older powder skater to school on time.I fight my way through the cloud of talc and head to the school.

I come home and my wonderful husband has swept up the piles on the floor. As I returned he gave me a sneaky kiss and escaped to enjoy his day of solving the worlds problems, leaving me near tears in a house completely covered in a layer of baby powder. At least the two small goblins have been cleaned off. So I set them up with the television (Thank you PBS! It almost made me want to make a donation, but then I remembered you are a government indoctrination program and I left my wallet in my purse.) I re sweep, then I pull out my rainbow vacuum, and praise the Lord for that thing! Seriously how I would have ever gotten it all clean with a normal vacuum is beyond me. I moved all the furniture and vacuumed, then I pulled out the steam mop (shout out to shark!) . You would think I was done then but no. Then I had to take everything off every counter, shelf and ledge in the living room dining room and kitchen, dust each item and then clean the counters too. This put more powder on the ground so I had to repeat the sweep, vacuum, mop, formula. Ugh so that's not too bad right? I had it all cleaned up by 9am, whew I got this! Let's go outside and play, get this energy out!

Oh, wait the boy has pooped. I change him (which after two girls is a blog all onto itself) and can hear Ava giggling and hear water running, ugh what now? As I sit on the floor I think do I really want to even know what is going on? So I struggle to get up because my knee still isn't working, but we have government health care, yay! And I find Ava washing all her mermaids hair, oh and her own. She is covered in shampoo.

So into the tub we go, and why not throw Titus in there too and get everyone clean!

Ok now everyone is clean again, the house is clean, but we have missed outside play time. But they had bath time play time so that's ok. It's Titus' nap time whew one kid down. Ava and I cuddle up on the recliner and I put Phineas and Ferb on wrap her up in my arms and start to pass out. Then the doorbell rings. Dang it I completely forgot that housing is suppose to come today and fix our floors. How do they propose to fix them? With an extremely loud nail gun. Waking the sleeping baby...

Praise the Lord for my bestie Meg, who rescued my day by taking me to Happy Quilt and McDonalds!

My Happy Place!