| My first video attempt |
I love seeing peoples' videos - I've always wanted to upload some of ours but never have! Well now that I have a kick-butt computer and some awesome programs that I have no clue how to use, here ya go! Here's Tiana using her nightly stall-tactic - she does this EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, usually yelling at the top of her lungs to us while we watch tv. And EVERY SINGLE NIGHT she sits on the toilet and does absolutely nothing. Stinker.
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| The beach |
I'm copying/pasting this over from my MySpace blog (that I never EVER use) b/c I just read it again and it cracked me up and so many of you don't have MySpace. LOL. Enjoy...
Written August 21, 2007:
We used to go to the beach a lot when I was little. Well, maybe my perception of a lot isn't what it is now. But it sure seemed that way. I loved the beach. Still do.
But now I have four kids so it's a new adventure in itself. Some days this summer I thought, "Man, I want to go to the beach!" Well, it's not like I can just drop everything and go. Well, I could but who would keep the kids from killing each other while I was gone? Anyways..... It's not that I couldn't handle myself at the beach alone with them. Heck, I'm alone with them all day long and I haven't lost or maimed one yet. But then I got to thinking about what a day at the beach would be like. "MOoooom, I need to go pee" (while grabbing the crotch and doing the pee-pee dance of course). So what do I do? I'd have to haul ALL the kids to the bathroom with me, thus leaving all of our stuff there unattended. Mmm. Sounds like good times.
So this summer we went to the beach three times. Three times that I convinced other adults that they wanted to spend the day at the beach with my children. HAHAHA.
Beach trip 1:
My oldest 2 have no fear. After getting the obligatory slapping on of the sunscreen, they just run and dive headfirst into the water. I don't have to worry about them for the next 4 hours (joking). The younger two are still trying to figure this beach thing out. Ryan (3.5) looks out at the ocean and says "mom, I want you to carry me to the ocean." Uh, well son, I was actually planning on sitting here on my lazy butt to work on my tan, thank you very much. "Not right now, Ryan - but you can go play in the water if you want!" "I don't like the water. I'm SCARED of the water." sigh. For the next 4 hours, he pretty much sits there pouting. There's the occassional smile, the infrequent venture out to play with a bucket and shovel, but he's mostle just morose about that darn ocean.
Tiana is only 2 so she doesn't remember the beach. She does ok with the sand - she doesn't really have sensory issues. But when she steps in the water and it starts pulling at her feet she FREAKS out. No more water for Tiana.
My sister and my 17 month old niece came too. The boys had a row of buckets filled with sand, water and sandcrabs. Hannah waddled over there, grabbed a shovel, and proceeded to do a little taste test on the water in each bucket. It was hilarious (gross, but hilarious) - we were joking that she was doing a little wine tasting.
So overall, a fun day but good LORD it took more time loading and unloading than we actually spent on the sand. On the drive home I got the worst headache of my life which is always fantastic when you're sitting in So. Cal. traffic and don't pay attention and get on the wrong freeway and have to backtrack 20 minutes to figure out where you are. I got home, put on a movie for the kids, and slept until my headache went away (which it didn't).
Beach trip 2:
Nawnie (SIL) came with us this time.
Older boys - same story.
Ryan - same story.
Tians - something changed from Beach Trip 1 to this one. She somehow decided that the beach is a pretty fun place - that the water is pretty cool. She wanted to go stand in the water. The whole day. We were sitting literally 10 feet from the edge of the water. I told her she could go down by herself. But no. She had to hold someone's hand. First she'd try me. No words - she'd just walk up to me, raise her little hand and just look at me with her puppy dog eyes. I'd take her to the water. We'd splash and have fun. I'd go sit down. Then the waterworks would start "I wanna go in the WATER". cry cry cry. So she'd try Nawnie. Hand raised. No words. Puppy dog eyes. So Nawnie would take her. Then Nawnie would want to sit down. Waterworks. We finally got Eli and Grant to each take her to the water a few times but what fun is it holding your sister's hand when you could be playing Bionicle-Space-Alien-Star-Wars-Army-whatever-the-heck-boys-play? So after feeling rejected by her brothers, she'd come back to me and the cycle would start again. All day. Not to mention that I started getting another splitting headache at the beach. Come to find out it's the knot in the bathing suit around my neck - some weird pressure point. Anyways.
We drive home. Once again, I'm blabbing away and get on the wrong freeway. Another 20 minute treck back to the right one.
Beach Trip 3:
The last beach trip of the summer. My parents and my sister & her family came this time. There were 5 kids. And 5 adults. It was like sheer heaven. I got to sit there and bake while Grandma took Tiana to the water. Eli & Grant were little fishes and built sand castles with Grandpa.
You'd think by the third trip Ryan would have gotten a little better. Nope. He sat and pouted on the blanket for hours. Finally, he asked me again if I would carry him out in the water. I said "no, but I bet Grandpa will!" HAHAHAHA. Pawn him off. Mean mommy. I don't know why and I don't know how but something about Grandpa taking him out in the waves dissolved some fear that Ryan had because when they came back in, all he wanted to do was roll around in the water. He stayed there until it was time to leave (at which point he threw a fit, throwing himself face down onto the sand - yummy.). And this time I learned my lesson and didn't put my bathing suit on until we got there and took it off before we went home and -voila! no headache! And I didn't get on any wrong freeways either. :)
So I have a completely newfound respect for my mom hauling all of us to the beach when we were little. It's some WORK! But really, when all is said and done, it's so much fun and now my kids will have lots of great memories of the times they got to go to the beach when they were little. :)
Moral of the story - there isn't really one. I just felt like writing a blog post because it's been a while. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. |
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| A moment with Ryan. |
At mommy & me the other day, my friend Kerri & I were pushing all the kids on the swings. Kerri told her son "Jacob, we have to leave pretty soon to go to Grandma's house." Ryan craned his head back from his swing, his eyes wide, and said "You know Grandma???" We started cracking up. Kerri just said "Yep, I know Grandma. Do you know Nonnie?" Well her kids call their Grandma Nonnie - but the funny thing is that our kids call my sister-in-law Nawnie so of course Ryan so looked at her in amazement and nodded his head yes. SO funny.
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| Anyone want some kids? They're going cheap. |
So let me preface this by saying that I adore my children. They are my world.
But good lord some days they drive me INSANE. You're about to enter a super-exciting day in my life.
7:25 am
Me: "Eli, it's time to get up."
Eli: (all teary) "I'm too tired to go to school."
Me: "I'm tired to but we all have to do things we don't want to do. Get up."
Me: "Grant, it's time to get up. If you don't hurry and get dressed you won't have time for breakfast." sidebar: this is an ongoing issue for him.
They both get up. Eli is dressed, shoes on, picking his cereal. Where is Grant? you might ask. Sitting on the floor, still in jammies, next to his clothes for school. ARGH.
Grant: "I'm too TIRED to get dressed."
Me: "Well maybe if you'd go right to sleep at bedtime instead of goofing around all night you wouldn't be tired. I have no sympathy. Get dressed."
9:00 am
Ryan: "Mom, can I pick a movie"
Me: "sure. What do you want to watch?"
Ryan: "Star Wars."
Me: "No Star Wars this early in the morning." He then throws himself on the ground in agony and defeat.
Tiana: "Can I pick a movie?"
Ryan (screaming): "NO TIANA IT'S MY TURN TO PICK"
Tiana: "NO IT'S MY TURN!"
Ryan: "NO IT'S NOT!"
Tiana: "losuh" (loser for those who don't know 3 year old speak) Ryan raises his fist in a threat of violence.
ARGH
12:50 pm
Grant is home from school. The kids are watching Blue's Clues.
Me: "As soon as the show is over it's nap time."
All: "Ok"
1:00 pm
Me: "Ok, time for bed."
(in unison)
Grant: "Can't we just watch one more show?"
Ryan: throws himself to the ground with moan and a pout
Tiana: runs away saying "I don't wanna go to bed!"
I'm not even going to discuss naptime.
4:00 pm Grant walks out of the room.
Me: "What are you doing?"
Grant: throws himself to the ground and starts crying "I need to go peeeeeeeeee"
Me: "Get up and stop crying. You know you don't need to ask to go to the bathroom."
Grant goes pee then goes back to bed. A few minutes later he comes out.
Grant in his most whiny of voices: "Mommmeeeeee, can I get up now?"
Me: "Whiny boys have to stay in bed. If you're done whining you can get up."
Grant: throws his head back, starts to cry, slams the door, kicks the dresser, throws himself on his bed, hits his pillow, throws something, and bursts into tears.
Ryan & Tiana both get up. A few minutes later Grant comes out.
Grant: "mom can I get up nooooow?"
Me: "I never said you had to go to bed. I said whiny boys have to stay in bed, so if you're done with your whining, you're more than welcome to get up."
Grant: throws his head back storms back into his room crying "I have to stay in bed ALL DAY!"
Me: "Who said you have to stay in bed all day?"
Grant: "YOU DID!"
ARGH
4:30 pm
Eli: "Mom, can I play the xbox or the wii?"
Me: "No, it's a school day."
Eli: "but moooom, I don't know what to do."
Me: "Me either. Figure something out."
Eli: "But I don't know what to do."
Me: "Go play outside."
Eli: "we ALWAYS play outside." (so not true)
Me: "Fine, don't play outside. Go find some toys."
Eli: "But I don't know what to play with. I just want to play the xbox."
Me: "Well, you might as well get that out of your head right now because it isn't gonna happen."
His eyes well with tears.
Eli: "This is such a horrible day."
Me: "Awww, since you're having such a bad day I guess you should go take a nap then."
Eli: "No."
Me: "Then I guess we better stop having a bad attitude, huh."
He sat there pouting for a good 20 minutes before he finally went outside.
ARGH
7:30 pm - dinner
we're just about done.
Me: "Grant, you need to finish your last few bites then you can be done."
Grant: "But mom it's cold and it tastes gross."
Me: "If you hadn't taken so long to eat it, it wouldn't have gotten cold." (we're talking like 3 peanut-sized bites here)
Grant: "But mom...." and here's where I tune him out. No clue what he went on about.
Me: "It's not up for discussion. Finish your food then you can be done."
Grant: "but mom...." waah-waah-wa-wa-waah (think Charlie Brown's teacher)
Me: "Not another word."
ARGH
Here it is right now - 10:33 pm. Bedtime is 8:00. Ryan just came out saying that he pulled some skin off of his finger (he's still awake - hasn't been to sleep yet). You'll be fine, get back in bed and don't get up again. Grant came out about 10 minutes ago to tell me he was hot under his covers. Fine, then don't put your covers on! Tiana sang and played until at least 9:30. At least Eli crashes without a problem.
And people wonder why I stay up so late. It's not quiet around here until 10:30 at night!
Good grief. |
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Name: Karah
Home: California, United States
About Me: I've been married to my super hot hubby for almost 10 years and I'm a SAHM/WAHM to 4 crazy monkeys :) I love to scrapbook (it's an obsession, really), to take pictures, to play the Wii (it's good exercise - really!), to hang out with good friends & family, & to watch my kids as they grow to be righteous and honorable little men & woman.
See my profile...
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