What I want for Mother's Day

I've been a Mom going on 4 years now.  My oldest will be four at the end of the month.  Officially, I've had 3 Mother's Day.  Over my three official Mother's Days, I've learned what it is I really want.
 

1.  A full night's sleep. I don't want to be woken up in the middle of the night by a screaming two year old or a husband snoring.  I want the house to be silent and get at least 6 hours of solid, uninterrupted sleep.  8 hours would be awesome!
 

2.  I want to sleep in past 7am.  I mean sleep in like I used to do before kids when waking up and seeing the numbers 8:00 would make me cringe, turn over, and fall back to sleep.  I don't want to hear my husband trying to keep the kids quiet while they are beating down the door or racing around playing or screaming because their sibling is touching them or screaming "Mommy!"  I want the house the same quiet it was before the kids were ever born.
 

3.  I want my husband to cook me breakfast and dinner.  I don't want to have to think about at least two meals of the day.  I'll even take care of my own lunch.  Takeout here I come!!
 

4.  I feel it is my right on Mother's Day to not have to change one poop diaper, not have to wipe a poop butt, or clean out one pair of dirty underwear.  I deal with enough of it during all the other days of the year when I'm the sole parent at home.  I poop free day would be marvelous!
 

5.  I want all my boys to take a nice long nap and not fight me when its time to go down for a nap.
 

6.  Peace and quiet.  I don't want to hear anyone crying, fighting, screaming or yelling.  If I say be quiet, I magically want my kids to be silent.  And if this could just keep on going for the rest of their natural lifetime, I would be eternally grateful.
 

7.  I want to be able to drink all day.  Mimosas for breakfast, margaritas for lunch, and a nice red wine for dinner.  If I keep drinking all day, I might be able to get #6 by tuning everyone out.
 

8.  Give me a gift I won't end up throwing away a week later.  Give me something worth saving.  The only exception to this rule is flowers.  I love flowers.  Don't give me a plant because it will just end up dead.  I have a black thumb.
 

As Mother's Day approaches, I've seen many postings from Moms about doing something memorable for their first Mother's Day or making it extra special.  I have some advice for you: Lower your expectations.  Yes, you're a new mother, but let's be realistic.  If you have high expectations, you are just going to be disappointed.  That is unless you have told your significant other exactly what you want.  As in, you provided a written list with instructions.  Otherwise, you are more than likely doomed to disappointed. 
 

Men just don't get it.  Sorry, but they don't.  Unless you have a super human man who has the ability to read into your mind or your husband is just perfect.  And if you do, I want to know where exactly you found this person.  I've only known them to exist in literature.  Seriously, where?  I would consider adding a second husband.
 

Happy Mother's Day!

Healthy, I am not.

I've been down and out for a few days.  And I mean out of commission and feeling miserable.

The week Andrew was out of town, Sawyer caught a cold.  Not a serious cold, but a runny nose and sneezing kind of cold.  He was kind enough to sneeze in my mouth.  My kids love to share!

Normally when the kids get sick, I don't get sick.  I'm around them all the time hence have picked up quite a strong immune system.  As my cold was slowly winding, Andrew catches it when he gets home.  Yet again, look at all this sharing!

Last week, Andrew had a minor cold, and mine was practically gone.  Queue a serious cold front which dropped the temperature from 90 degrees to 50 degrees in a matter of hours and was blowing wind 25-45 mph.

All of the sudden, my cold came back with a vengeance.  It could be due to the temperature change or the wind whipping up all the damn allergens in this area.  Who knows?!  I start taking Sudafed again on Thursday.  Friday rolls around, I'm still not feeling better.  In fact, I felt worse.  Friday afternoon, my sinuses started pounding in the side of my face.  I started sipping tea with honey hoping a good night's sleep would put this bad boy virus back down.

Not so much.

A night's sleep alluded me because Cullen kept waking up, and I stayed awake because of the sinus pressure was getting more painful.  Saturday, I felt like someone hit me in the side of the face with a thick hard back book.  I was taking Advil and Sudafed.  Nothing seemed to phase it.  I pushed on thinking it would get better.

Pain woke me up Sunday at 5am.  I was crying in bed; I was so miserable.  I put ice on my face hoping to numb it and bring down the slight swelling.  I made up my mind to go into an urgent care clinic that morning because I knew something was seriously wrong.

I went into an urgent care clinic as soon as it opened saw a doctor within 10 minutes.  I was diagnose with a sinus infection and given two prescriptions to fill with orders to take Mucinex D and Advil/Tylenol as needed.  I had orders to call the doctor if the sinus pressure was not gone by tomorrow morning.  I pretty much stayed seated or in bed the rest of the day.  I was miserable.

And to end all ends, I woke up this morning with pressure and pain still in my sinuses (although significantly less).  I had to call the doctor back up.  I was given another prescription for steroids.

To sum it all up, 1 sinus infection = 3 prescription drugs and 2 over the counter drugs.  At least when I get sick, I make sure I go all out!  Luckily, Andrew told me he was staying home from work on Monday so I could rest.  Yes, I didn't have a choice.  I was told what he was going to do.  Why you may ask?  Because according to him, I wouldn't ask for help and push myself past my breaking point.  This would end up with me getting worse and him getting mad I did it.  I don't know what he's talking about.  I'm the perfect patient!

Stuck Indoors

It was 90 degrees yesterday, sunny and beautiful.  A cold front started blowing in this morning.  It's now in the 50s as the temperature continues to drop with gusty wind, and it'll stay like this all day.  Instead of bringing the boys to a park or riding bikes, we are stuck indoors.  I decided to make the most of it.

Skip, Shape and Hop!  We hopped to the shapes and counted them.  Might as well make some of our games educational.

Pictures in the Bluebonnets

A couple weekends ago Andrew and I took the kids to the park and tried to get some pictures in the bluebonnets.  It was a case of "Who do you have?"  It was like herding cats!

A few pictures in the wildflowers.

 

Sawyer was done by this time.

Bees!

See it!

Of course weird stuff is going to happen when Andrew is out of town on business.  I mean, why would it not?  I've had the A/C go out when its 108 degrees outside.  I've had a stomach virus go through the entire house and hit me hard when I was pregnant.

What is it this time?  Bees.

My boys found a big ass beehive in the smallest tree in our backyard.  I was feeding Sawyer his dinner and letting them play in the backyard to try and get the last of the evenings energy out.  Jackson and Cullen come inside and are telling me to come look at the bees.

"Mom!  There's bees in the tree.  Come look!" Jackson said.

"Bees in the tree!  Come look at bees in the tree!" Cullen said while running up to me.

"I'm feeding Sawyer.  I can't come out right now.  I'll come out later," I said.  Of course, I was assuming a few bees were just flying around outside.

I was wrong. Dead wrong.

I asked Jackson to point out which tree he was talking about.  Our smallest crepe myrtle has a beehive the size of a freaking cantaloupe!

I immediately called our pest control people, but they can't get anyone out until Monday afternoon.  Now, I'm stuck with a gigantic beehive which appeared out of nowhere.  We were just playing in the backyard this weekend.  Sunday, no bees.  Wednesday, bees.  Why me?!?!?!

I despise bees.  I understand they are good for the environment, and we need them around.  However, I would prefer if they stayed the hell away from me for all eternity!  I have been stung several times.  And joy of joys, I'm allergic to them!  I swell, break out in rashes, get red and blotchy, and itch like no other.  I have to down Benadryl immediately and apply ice to ward off my worst symptoms.  And then it takes almost a week for me to look normal around the sting.  No fun.

I think they're honey bees.  It doesn't
matter.  They need to be gone!

On top of all that, I was giving the boys a bath when I noticed a red spot on Jackson.  I got him to stand up in the tub to get a good look at it.  Guess what it was, a bee sting!  He never even told me he got stung on the belly.  Luckily, he's not allergic to them (obviously).  It's just red and swollen.  Thank goodness he's like Andrew and not me!

Baptism Pictures!

It only took me a week and a half, but I finally downloaded Sawyer's Baptism pictures.  In case you are wondering what Sawyer is wearing, it is a baptism gown.  My brother and I wore the same one for our baptisms, and it is from the Philippines.  Jackson and Cullen also wore the same gown.  It is a family tradition.

Sawyer fell asleep on Monique, his godmother.

A family picture cannot be taken without at least one of the boys acting goofy.

Andrew, myself and Sawyer

 

Bottom Right: Monique, Matt and Sawyer

Bottom Left: GiGi and Sawyer

 

Andrew, myself, Matt and Sawyer

The whole Schlumbrecht/Ingalls crew.  I'm pretty sure Jackson was done with pictures.

Underwear?

I am still in the middle of potty training Cullen.  It is going a lot more smoothly than Jackson did, but nonetheless, potty training is hard.  Cullen has peeing in the potty down.  No problems there.  However, he has not quite mastered the other one.  A few successes, but many more underwear changes.

Saturday morning, the whole family was getting ready to go to a my friend's daughter's birthday party at Pump It Up.  I had gotten the boys dressed when Cullen told me he went in his underwear.  I schlep my kid into the bathroom trying to not pull my hair out in frustration, clean him up, and send him back to playing.

I go back to packing up the diaper bag for Sawyer when I hear, "Uh Oh!" and "Mom! Cullen pooped on the carpet!" at the same time.  I take a deep breath, walk into the living room, and see a massive piece of it on the carpet.  Massive to the point I'm wondering, "How the hell does that even fit inside of him?"

I shout to Andrew I need some help and take Cullen to the potty, again.  I'm pulling his shorts off to figure out exactly how that thing fell out of his underwear.  And then I see my answer.

I never put underwear back on Cullen.  He was flying in the wind.  Going commando.  Letting it all hang out.  And he never even told me, so I'm guessing he liked it.  The constant state of doing this everyday finally made me forget to put underwear back on my potty training child.

I shout out to Andrew, "I figured out how that happened!"

"How?"

"I forgot to put underwear back on him from earlier," I say while laughing at myself.

I can hear him snickering and laughing when he says, "Ok.  I've almost done that too, but at least I remembered."

Ever the supportive man, that husband of mine!  This is my life.