In case you’ve forgotten…
…here’s our fairy tale.
October 3, 2011
October 2, 2011
Maternal Adrenaline
I recently read an article about a woman whose body was found in the rubble of the hurricane destruction (maybe it was an earthquake or tsunami or some other natural disaster, but I think it was hurricane). When they uncovered her, they saw something moving and they found her baby, sleeping peacefully in her mothers arms. The mother had used her body to shield the baby and while the mother had perished, the baby had survived.
I remember reading that and thinking “Wow, I hope I would do something like that. I hope I would have the presence of mind to protect my monkeys, should we ever been in a situation like this.”
I have also read other stories about mother’s adrenaline kicking in during times of extreme danger for children and women lifting entire cars off of their children. I’ve read these stories with a bit of skepticism, because, seriously? A car? But, I know how I feel about my babies and how I feel when they are in small amounts of danger. Perhaps I, too, could lift a car off of them.
So, I was able to test myself a bit, this morning, without meaning to, on where exactly I’d fall on the chart of utilizing my mother’s adrenaline, quick thinking and motherly reflex.
I didn’t sleep well last night, and so was pretty tired when everyone started moving around this morning. Tiny was calling, and so I got him, fed him, and then came downstairs to be with the rest of the monkeys.
Except I missed a few stairs on my way down and fell the rest of the way, hurtling toward the stone foyer floor, baby in my arms.
It all happened so quickly, I have no idea exactly what happened. I do know that I wasn’t making any conscious decisions and that instinct just took over.
Somehow, I managed to avoid the stone floor by twisting my body as my ankle hit the stone. I twisted toward the living room, smashing my elbow into the door frame of the living room. My arms were up, around the baby, as we fell, and Tiny’s head was nestled in the crook of my elbow.
I’m not sure exactly what else happened or what part of my body hit what, but I landed, somehow, not on the stone tile floor, but instead on the wooden living room floor, right on top of Tiny Monkey.
I lay there, pretty sure my leg was broken, although I had no idea what I hit it on, and looked down at the baby in my arms.
He smiled.
Somehow, I had created a cage with my body and kept him safe inside.
He thought it was a great adventure.
The other monkeys had come running and I had Monkey Girl get Real Man who came down and extricated Tiny from my arms and checked him out. Absolutely perfect.
Turns out nothing is broken, and I have a few bruises in places you can and can’t see, but I’m just so grateful that all that mother’s adrenaline I had read about was real and that instinct does, in fact, take over when you can’t possibly make decisions quickly enough.
Here’s the video. (Not sure why it’s sideways…can’t seem to fix that)
September 30, 2011
The Dentist
The monkeys had their dentist appointments yesterday.
I dread the dentist.
Not for myself. I actually find it to be quite a relaxing experience.
But, for the monkeys.
Monkey Girl does just fine at the dentist, but Monkey in the Middle suffers from an overproduction of saliva, (inherited from me…sorry, buddy) and the result is that plaque and tartar build up on the back of his bottom front teeth faster than he can possibly brush it away.
No one can see it, but it’s there, and at the dentist, you know what that means…
The Scraper.
So, you’ll have to forgive me for keeping visits to the dentist a secret until we are pulling into the parking lot.
Otherwise, the anxiety is through the roof leading up to the appointment and he cannot control his behavior.
Baby Monkey also has a fear of the dentist.
He’s only been once.
They weren’t able to pry his mouth open to even count his teeth.
Why?
He’s afraid of loud noises, and despite the fact that I told them NOT to turn on the tooth polisher to polish their finger before putting it in his mouth, they did it anyway.
He heard the noise and lost his mind.
And, please know that the phrase “lost his mind” is in no way, shape or form an exaggeration.
So, as you can imagine, my anxiety starts to rise when I know we have to head to the dentist.
However, you gotta take your kids to the dentist.
It’s, like, a rule or something.
So, I made their latest appointment for Thursday at 3:30.
I had forgotten we didn’t have school due to Rosh Hashana, and if I had remembered, I would have done it first thing in the morning.
But, I didn’t.
Monkey in the Middle has been a bit less anxious these days, about life in general, so I decided that I would give it a try, letting him know ahead of time that we were headed to the dentist.
Appointment at 3:30, I told him at 12.
There were no tears, but there were a lot of questions and I tried to keep it low key by whispering, “Please don’t scare your brother,” which was instantly thwarted with a loud, “But it’s gonna hurt!!!”
I was able to distract with a trip to the library and we came home with a bag laden with 13 books and 7 movies.
We spent an hour watching the Arthur DVD’s, cuddling together, and I was feeling pretty good about the fact that the anxiety seemed to be dying down.
However, as soon as I sent them up to brush their teeth (I know, I know…dentists aren’t fooled by that pre-visit brush, but we do it anyway) the frowns began to appear, once again.
Now, the plan was that Baby Monkey would go first. That way, he wouldn’t hear the polisher and Mr. Thirsty being used on his siblings and we could, hopefully, use the element of surprise to get, at least, a few teeth clean.
So, I leave the other two big kids in the waiting room and head back with Baby Monkey.
When I’m wrong, I admit it, and let me tell you, I was wrong about this trip to the dentist.
One after the other, they all went back and had their teeth cleaned and treated with fluoride.
They smiled, they chatted, they talked about school.
Monkey in the Middle was anxious…
…but even the scraper didn’t scare him and by the time Mr. Thirsty came out, he was all smiles.
Monkey Girl got the news that we need to head over to the orthodontist and get some braces, and she handled it beautifully.
I can’t tell you how proud I was of those kids and so very glad to have been wrong. There were lots of smushy hugs and kisses and I’ve never been so happy to be wrong in my life. Should have given those babies more credit.
They are pretty darn awesome.
September 28, 2011
Life on a Train
My friend, Tara, shared this with me and I thought it was definitely something I wanted to share with all of you.
Glad to share my train ride with you all.
September 26, 2011
Why I Love Him
It’s important to be married to someone who gets you.
Someone who not only knows your strange, little quirks, but embraces them.
When we moved into this house, the downstairs bathroom was broken. Not the whole bathroom…just the toilet.
We tried to fix it, but it turned out the problem was bigger than we originally thought, and so it’s taken some time.
On Sunday, Real Man went to Sears Hardware to pick up the last (hopefully) part to make it right.
Now, over the summer, I started picking up a few items here and there to decorate said bathroom in a beach theme.
Real Man thought I was a little silly with the beach theme and registered his…concerns…however, he let me run with it.
So, imagine my surprise when, on Sunday, Real Man came home and called out, “Aim? Can you come here for a minute?”
I followed him out to the garage where he was standing behind his Jeep, opening the trunk.
“I made an impulse buy today, and I can return it if you don’t like it, but I think you will.”
It’s the most godawful, cheesiest thing I have ever seen in my entire life and I love it more than I can say.
Does that guy know me, or what?
September 18, 2011
Success
We are puzzle people.
We love crossword puzzles, word search puzzles, mystery puzzles, logic puzzles.
Basically, if it’s a puzzle, we are in.
We particularly love jigsaw puzzles.
We all will work on them, but Monkey in the Middle is really the puzzler, out of the kids. He can focus on a puzzle for hours if an adult is working with him. Not sure if it’s the puzzle he loves or the adult one-to-one interaction that keeps him there, but the puzzle stamina is impressive.
When we are on vacation at the beach, we usually have a puzzle going on. we arrive with about five for the week and buy more while we are there.
This past summer, toward the end of our last beach week, I went to the Ben Franklin and picked up n awesome looking, 750 piece puzzle.
However, time got away from us and we only got to start it. So, we broke it down and brought or home.
We were still moving in and unpacking, so we didn’t open it ip again for about a week.
It’s been almost a month now and yesterday morning, we finished it. The two of us were so happy, we were jumping up and giving each other hugs and high fives.
It was tricky, but we stuck with it and were successful and learned some lessons along the way.
1. You cannot work a jigsaw puzzle while holding a baby.
2. It is impossible to not lose pieces to a 750 piece jigsaw puzzle when you have four children. it’s complete, but there are three holes where the missing pieces belong.
3. Completing a project with one of your children is a great, great feeling.
4. Monkey in the Middle is a freaking spacial relations phenom. He can pick up any random piece and see exactly where it goes.
5. I need a jigsaw puzzle table.
6. I need a new prescription for my glasses.
September 17, 2011
Deep Peace
Jeff, a friend of mine, signs off many of his posts on Facebook with the words “Deep Peace.”
I think about that phrase, often, and try to associate it with certain moments in my life.
Two nights ago, I went looking for the monkeys.
It was close to bedtime and I couldn’t hear them, so I wondered what they were “right in the middle of, Mom!” so that bedtime would have to be postponed by 15 minutes.
I walked into Monkey Girl’s room and found this scene.
Deep Peace.
September 13, 2011
September 12, 2011
Threats and Promises
My cardinal rule of parenting (other than love the heck outta your babies) is “Never make a threat or a promise you don’t intend to keep.”
This means that I work very hard at holding my tongue when I’m angry before I ground someone for a week or take away the xBox for 5 months.
Because once I say it, I hold to it, no matter how hard it is.
So, there’s a lotta tongue biting around here.
However, I believe it is just as important to keep your promises to your kids.
They need to know that they can count on you to do what you say you will do.
So, imagine my moment of panic when Monkey in the Middle reminded me two days before school started that, back in late June when school first got out, I promised to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese before school started again in the fall.
As soon as he said it, I remembered saying it, and in this house, a promise is a promise.
So, on Labor Day, Real Man and I loaded those monkeys up in the car and headed out to Chuck E. Cheese.
And. We. Had. Fun.
Like, serious fun.
I say it twice because CEC is not known for being fun for parents.
For kids, yes.
For parents, it’s more like a nuclear stress test.
This time, not so bad.
Not everyone was totally into it…
But most of us were.
This was one promise I was happy to keep.
September 9, 2011
Rise Up
Spending my weekend holding family and friends close to my heart.
Never forget.
