Doing it the best way I know how

I read this fantastic post this morning over at Buried with Childrenhttp://mimitchells.blogspot.com/, about doing the best we can as moms, the best way we know how. I tell my husband, and my children, many times during the week that I'm doing the best I can, and that needs to be enough.  Yesterday, as Princess cried for 30 minutes and I had no idea why, I did the best I could. When Captain Chaos was throwing apples across the table because he was tired and ready to go take a nap, I did the best I could to stop the behavior. When ICE was having his 3rd meltdown for the day, I did the best I could to make it stop without screaming at the top of my lungs for everyone to just quiet down for 15 minutes. 

You see, as a working mom, I'm gone Monday through Thursday from 6:30 a.m. until 5:15 p.m.  When I get home (and I  know I'm just preaching to the choir here), I have to get dinner ready, feed the baby (who always wants to eat immediately when the boys are hungry), and feed my husband and myself. The dog wants to go outside. Baths are in need, as Captian Chaos can't eat a meal without putting some of it in his hair / on his head / in his ears, and Princess is a pro at spitting up in that crack in her neck, which just grosses me out. Bottles need to be made, and the kitchen cleaned up. And me, I just want to sit at the table, read the mail and perhaps play one (or 10) levels on my really fun Iphone bubble pop game. Is that too much to ask?

I love my family, with everything inside of me, but some days, I just want to scream to the world, I'm not perfect, I do the best I can every single day with what I have, and some days, I just don't care. So there.

Some Uppercase Living photos for you

For those new to Uppercase Living, here are a few things we've done at our house or others have done. Enjoy!

Thousand Word Thursdays

Time out for Theta Mom Thursday

Every mom needs time to herself...and Theta mom said I should spend an hour on myself, so I did! (I love having someone else to 'blame').  How did I spend my hour? Playing with all my new Uppercase Living stuff, of course! I recently got my Photo prints, and some new vehicles for Captain Chaos' room, so I put them up, and they look darn cute if I do say so myself! I also made some really cute coasters for my boss, and the hands board for Captain Chaos to put his cute little handprints on.  Oh how I love making new UL things! If you're curious, would like more info, or want to get your own UL products, visit my website - http://cmartino.uppercaseliving.net/.  It's such a great stress reliever, and an even better way to decorate your home!

Just wondering...Wednesday

Just Wondering…Wednesday


I have to start off by saying I’m in a bad mood. It all centers around my son’s preschool. For the past 2 days, when I’ve dropped him off at school, the school director has been the teacher who is taking kids out of cars, and opening the door, which isn’t unusual for her. However, both days she was so friendly and smiley to the mom / dad / child in front of us, and then so rude and impolite to my son and I, I want to scream! Both days, she looked me straight in the eye, no words were spoken by her, no smile, nothing. I was friendly, smiled at her, but was, and am, seething inside. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what would cause her to be so rude to myself and my son. I’ve paid my full tuition for the whole year, early. We drop him off on time, and pick him up on time. He comes prepared each day. He’s a polite, nice, well-behaved kid, shy even. So what the he** is her problem? I have a suspicion as to what it could possibly be, which is something so stupid and irritating that I just don’t even know what to do.



We had ICE evaluated at 2.5 years old through our school district, because he was hypersensitive to noises. They do free evaluations for all children in the district ages birth through 3, no referral required. My husband and I have always thought he was advanced for his age, what parent doesn’t, but mid-way through the evaluation the teachers told us that he is gifted and referred us to the gifted coordinator for the district. We’ve been working with her ever since, trying to figure out what we should do for him with regards to schooling to offer him the best opportunities possible. Prior to enrolling him in any preschool, I called several places, including his current school. I explained the situation politely, without bragging or saying much more than he’d been identified by our district, and they are working with him and us, and asking what they would do for him at the school if he is ahead of his peers. In conversation with a good friend this morning who has taken her children there for several years, she and I agreed that we think this may be it.



So now what do I do? I’m going to kill her with kindness, every day. But do I confront her as to why she is rude? If I do, I think she’ll be even worse. Honestly, at this point, even though we’ve paid for the full year, I want to pull my son out and put him somewhere else, where the director is kinder. But I won’t do that. Too hard on him, for one. We are debating the decision of early kindergarten versus a 5-day program they have at the preschool that is supposed to be fantastic, to the point that the kids in that program learned more last year than the kindergarteners in our district did. But honestly, right now, I just want to say heck no, we’ll go somewhere else. I’m so torn. So today, I’m just wondering…what the heck did I do to this woman, why she’s being so rude, and what to do from here. Sigh. Happy Wednesday.

Not Me! Monday

It's that time again...time to admit, or not admit, all of the things I didn't do last week, which would be super embarrassing if I DID admit to them.

For example, I most certainly did NOT find Captain Chaos playing on top of the stove as I was helping ICE in the bathroom. I am far too responsible to let my 2 year old play unsupervised (NOTE: the stove hasn't been used in weeks, so it wasn't hot, not even close). 

I also did not buy 5 different dresses for my father in law's wedding, in the hopes that one would WOW my husband.  I'm very frugal, you know, and don't care what others think. Nor do I now need to return 4 of said dresses. That would simply be a waste of my shopping - I mean, lunch - time.

I did not wear high heels last week for the first time in at least 8 years, in preparation for the wedding, and curse every single step I took.  I am a very elegant woman who likes to dress up and wear nice things, and heels are just part of my daily routine having 3 children under 3.

I did not accidentally drop Captain chaos on the floor while dancing with him at the wedding. I'm a very careful mother, and I never would do anything silly like that.

And worst of all, I did not get shampoo directly into Captain Chaos' eyes yesterday when he wanted to take a shower while I was. He got in, I started shampooing my hair, and he looked up at the exact wrong moment, only to get it directly in his eyes. And I did not cry with him, feeling so terrible for the poor little guy. 

Phew, I feel much better getting all of those things that I did not do, off of my chest.

Phew!

The past week has been a whirlwind of activities at our house. Let's summarize, shall we?
- Our nanny, A, who told me just last week that all was well, up and quit - by email, with no reason nonetheless - after leaving our house on the 2nd. So, that left us in a bind of seeking a new nanny to come to our house on Fridays. Sigh. So I've been searching and searching for a new nanny. We have 3 potentials, that we have started interviewing. More on that later.
- My FIL got married this weekend, to a very wonderful woman. However, this left me doing something I haven't had to do in 3 years, buy a dress! The search was long and arduous. After 3 kids, I wanted to buy something that would wow my husband but cover my, um, unflattering baby carrying remants. Finally, Thursday, after shopping every.single.day at lunch, I found one that he liked! The wedding was fantastic, the kids had an absolute blast, and it was really just a fantastic night. 

- The boys have been asking to get pumpkins for several weeks now. Our sitter has them at her house, and every day, Captain Chaos throws a fit when we leave because he wants to 'pet the pumpkins', which isn't slang for anything. He really likes to sit and pet the pumpkins. We decided we would go Saturday morning, since the wedding wasn't until 4:30. Well, ICE woke up at 7:15, which is never good; Captain Chaos woke up with a dirty diaper and terrible diaper rash, crabbier than all get out. Princess was awake from midnight - 1:30 a.m., and from 5 - 7 a.m., just talking to herself. Keep in mind she sleeps in our room and thus I was wide awake listening to her talk. And talk. And talk. She apparently had a lot to catch up on with herself. Thankfully, pumpkin picking went well despite that 45 degree windy morning with bad attitudes all around (DH included), but they had a great time and we came home with 3 pumpkins! Hooray!

- We're now interviewing our 3 nanny choices.  The first interview arrived and shared with us that the drive was longer than she thought and thus it wasn't a good fit. Excellent. The second interview, yesterday, was both good and bad. She wants to do a 'nanny share' with another family, so she will be coming to our house with another little girl, who is 3, and watch all 4 kids. She is a former day care teacher, so she plans lesson plans each week for the kids, teaches them letters / numbers / colors / shapes / reading; brings felt boards and does circle time and lots of other preschool stuff, which sounds great to me. She showed up in her very expensive car...with her lip ring, and told us about her professional dirt bike rider boyfriend who is in Belgium and will be living in China for the next 2 years. Excellent. I was impressed with the activities she does, her assertiveness, the fact that she washed her hands immediately when she walked in. I was not impressed with the lip ring, the boyfriend, the fact that she weighs 100 lbs, as she told us, and her assertiveness (not sure how I feel about it. I didn't know this would be such a hard process. We have one more interview to go, and I am hoping it goes well.
- I have loads of laundry that never seem to go away. Yesterday didn't help, either. My parents were in town from the wedding, and when they left, I showered and got ready for our impending visitors. Captain Chaos decided he wanted to shower too, and I proceeded to get shampoo directly in his eyes almost as soon as he came in the shower. My poor little guy. It truly was 'a one in a million shot, doc, one in a million shot'.  Our next visitors showed up as I was still cleaning him up. They stayed for several hours, and left around 3, at which point I started putting plastic on Princess's windows to try warm up her room from 64 degrees to at least 66. Nanny #2 arrived, and then left, we had dinner, baths, bed, and bedtime for me. So no work got done yesterday, which means even more needs to get done today.

Looking forward to a more relaxing week this week. No need to shop daily for a dress (so instead I shopped for the kiddos today!), no wedding this coming weekend, and no chaos coming...at least until next week!