a day in the life of mom

Tonight the topic at the dinner table was respect. What is it? How do we show it? How do we not show it? (yes, we fully enacted different scenarios of respecting and disrespecting each other...) Following dinner, hubby and I discussed various aspects of our incredible parenting skills that needed some polishing. We agreed that more creativity needed to be used in the area of disciplining rather than our ever so famous...."STOP" cry (actually it's a yell....but who wants to admit that they actually yell at their children.....?) Feeling ever so confident that we were turning the corner on this parenting skill we rewarded our compliant and well adjusted offspring with the treat of sleeping by the Christmas tree in their sleeping bags. They were so delighted!

No sooner had they settled in when all of a sudden I hear a blood curdling scream. As I jumped up to go to the living room I look up to see the youngest stumbling into our room with his hand on his forehead. As he looks up at me I see it......the BLOOD...lots and lots of blood...horror movie type of blood running down his face.

Now my mind is running in a million different directions...emergency room or urgent care?....where are my wallet and keys?....am I in fact wearing a bra? Suddenly I hear myself screaming at the top of my lungs, "J WHAT DID YOU HIT YOUR BROTHER WITH? WHAT DID YOU HIT HIM WITH? COME HERE AND TELL ME RIGHT NOW? WHAT DID YOU HIT HIM WITH?" While I'm yelling this the youngest catches a glimpse of his bloody face in the mirror and loses it.

I now realize I must gain control of the situation. The small voice in the back of my head says, "remember head lacerations bleed quite a bit..." I finally gain composure, take care of the patient and then turn my attention to my oldest. He had in fact explained the entire scenario to me while I was nursing the patient...younger brother was trying to stick his behind in older brother's face, used the rocking chair as his stability bar and landed head first into the fireplace hearth!

The funny thing was, in the midst of the chaos...this 6 year old remained completely calm...even to the point to assisting me with items daddy couldn't find. I looked him right in the eyes and said, "I love you and I am so sorry for yelling at you. I was wrong, will you forgive me?" He looked back at me with his big brown eyes, said, "yes" and then responded, "yelling at me like that was disrespectful wasn't it?"

Touche!

Decorating Can be Dangerous

Okay, I admit it...I am a blog voyeaur...I spend far too much time on the internet looking at inspiring art and decorating blogs. One of my all time faves is A Nesting Place. This is such a fun site and today she is hosting a

So here is my simple addition to the long list of beautiful postings:

(notice the paper in the fireplace...my son's Christmas list to Santa..he thinks since Santa comes down the chimney to drop off the presents that is where he should, in fact, pick up the list!)

(close up of my goo-gaw bow...hmmm what else could I possible stick in here!)

(close up of my joy)

Now you might be wondering about the title of the this post...well unfortunately my sassy garland was not put together without drawing blood. Did I slice my finger whilst cutting out all the cute snowflakes? Did I get a paper cut? what danger could possibly lurk while putting up a holiday garland on the mantel of all places? OOOhhh pretty:


Nice black eye...what you might not be able to see is the dent in my forhead (oh and lovely bruise) at the exact location of the red spot/cut. How did this happen? Let me paint a quick portrait:

Excitement over creating the best ever garland for the mantel drives decorating crazed woman to hunt down every available piece of anything that is not nailed down to use in her holiday extravaganza! Believing that three baskets full of ribbon is not nearly enough she reaches on the shelf above her head for the LARGE GLASS container that holds even MORE of her ribbon collection. (you can never have too much ribbon!) Because of her greed and insanity she is not careful enough to notice the container's LARGE GLASS LID that comes sliding off the container and is launching itself at mach speed toward her head like a flying saucer! At impact with her very hard Polish heritage head the LARGE GLASS LID shatters into 4 equal pieces. She is left grabbing her throbbing noggin trying very hard not to use any despicable language...but oh how it HURTS. She decides to look in the mirror to find a large goose egg appearing in the middle of her forhead. For fear that she will have to attend church the next day looking like a character from Star Trek she lies down, ices her head and calls her mom (states away in Colorado) for a good cry. (Mind you the hubby had just taken the boys out so she would have some "quality"decorating time!!! so much for that!) Thank goodness for trendy bangs that are currently all the rage, for she was, in fact, able to cover the goose egg on said forehead the following morning at church. It was not until three days later did she wake up to notice what she thought was a rash under her eye. But, truth betold, she finally realized that it was a lovely shiner.

Boy howdy next time I'm wearing a hard hat.

boys

What I'm learning about boys:

1. There is adventure in everything (even going to the bathroom)

2. If the possibility of getting dirty does not exist...then it must be boring.

3. A boy is only truly still when he is asleep (and with my younger this can be an arguable point)

4. No decibel is too loud...they can and will find a way to be even LOUDER.
5. Did I mention that dirt is one of the major food groups?

6. When nurtured properly with love, encouragement and safe boundaries boys will flourish and grow into some of the most amazing creatures. Sure I don't always completely understand their ways and/or obsession with dirt but I thoroughly relish the sight of their passion for life and exploration of the world around them.

I encourage all moms of boys to relax a bit more and enjoy the ride...it does get crazy at times...but I guarantee it will be the ride of your life!

LOST

No...not on a deserted island but rather our very first TOOTH! woo hoo! I can hardly believe it! Just last week the dentist pointed out that the tooth was beginning to show some movement. J caught on quickly and began talking about how he was going to eat an apple and the tooth would fall out....well, he's been working this tooth all week. The other night at dinner (mind you he was being quite uncooperative during meal time and very close to being punished) I asked him about his tooth...he wiggled it a bit with wide eyes at how much it was moving...I encouraged, "push it forward as far as you can!"...cautiously he moved it forward and lo and behold it popped right out. With a mixed look of fear, excitement and wonder as to whether or not blood would spew forth, he gently laid it on the dinner table while mommy is screaming..."I've got to get the camera!"



Mind you my poor husband was trying to eat and would have much preferred that I saved this drama for post dinner. (He had earlier admitted that the "loose tooth" thing made him a little squeamish...ooops) Nonetheless, I spent the rest of the meal glancing at my 6 year old and wondering where time flies. I even turned to my husband and asked, "Didn't we just bring him home from the hospital?"

The toothfairy did visit and J was compensated for this momentus occasion. Well, another milestone marked...I'm having one of those out of body experiences where time seems to be flying by at breakneck speed. Christmas in just a few weeks and then the new year is upon us. I'm afraid I'm going to blink and he'll be asking for his driver's liscense...oh boy...