Why I Will Not Win Mom of the Year

Over the weekend, the boys, their Nonna and Pop, and I went the the Elmwood Park Zoo. We had a wonderful time! And we spent Sunday morning at an amazing castle playground in North Wales, with a Single Parents Group we are a part of. It was so much fun! But what brought me here this evening was a magazine that my mama picked up from the zoo. It was one of those free ones they give out and the topic was moms. I was actually really impressed! The articles were great, they even had information aimed towards single mamas, which I appreciated! The section I liked best was 'Why I Will Not Win Mom of the Year." Moms wrote in stories that I found hilarious, but maybe others would find horrifying, and I could relate. So, here is my own:

Why I Will Not Win Mom of the Year :

Many months ago when I was trying to figure out how to get out out of the house on time (which I still don't manage to do on a regular basis, by the way), I found that if I dressed my kids in their clothes for the next day instead of PJs, it cut out many minutes every morning. I am not sure my kids know what pajamas are anymore.





As you can see, once I just skipped the clothes all together! Just kidding...at least for this week! :)

• I let my kids eat food off of the floor after it falls. I rationalize it by saying I am building their immune systems and have faith when I tell them to kiss it up to God, that God will bless the food and remove anything that could harm them from it.
  
  
• I told Nick if he ever touched the window in his room ever, ever again, the police would come and give him a ticket and probably take him to jail...although it HAS been effective.
  

I guess most people bathe their kids every night. I find that to be very impressive due to the amount of time it takes and the mess bathing 2 wiggly, soggy, splashy children make. I bathe my kids if they start smelling weird or if there is something I can't identify stuck on their hair or body. Other than that, I figure if they smell clean, it's good enough for me.

Example of when I might bathe one of my kids.

• I am months behind on Michael's immunizations. I attempted to take him many months ago but ironically missed the appointment because the kids were sick and I was so distracted that I forgot. A sweet little girl that the kids play with was exposed to whooping cough at school which is one of those things that immunizations provide protection from. We have an appointment on Friday and I am just praying we don't contract any weird diseases or illnesses between now or then.
  

Nick thinks when he is acting up, I am going to eat him. Really. I used to tell him I was going to beat him if he didn't behave. Because I never have, he doesn't know what the word means and just assumed I was saying I was going to eat him. Instead of explaining that I would never, under circumstance, eat him. I still tell him I'll beat him, he still thinks I am saying I am going to eat him, and his eyes get wide and he settles down pretty much every time.

• Sometimes I feed my kids ice cream for dinner.




• I still lock Nick's door to his room every night so he can't escape. That just sounds like bad parenting, but really, I am more scared of what will happen if I don't and he conducts another experiment at 2 AM.



• When Nick whines, I pretend that he is speaking a foreign language that I can't understand so I don't have to respond. I wish his whining was a foreign language that I couldn't understand...or hear at all. Or maybe that it could translate into some sort of silent language, like Braille. On the positive side, he then eventually stops.



• Michael calls every animal a dog. Cows, elephants, birds...all of them are dogs. I used to try to tell him the correct names for things, but having a world filled with dogs makes him happy, so now I point to birds and say, 'dog...woof, woof' and he is ecstatic. I know it's wrong, but if something that little gives him so much happiness, I certainly don't want to be the one to break the news to him.

And here I took a picture instead of intervening when Nick tried to feed Michael to a hippo at the aquarium. :) Actually he was trying to show Michael the hippo, but Michael was too impressed and distracted by the winged "dogs" flying through the air.

And I am realizing I could probably go on indefinitely here, but I am hearing some very loud thumping from upstairs and should probably go and investigate. Especially because now it is being followed by giggling. That can't be good!

Have a happy evening!

Happy Spring

I am not sure how it got to be April from January so quickly. But somehow it has.

Nick is potty trained now, except for overnights, which has been wonderful. The great thing about him taking so long is that once he decided he was ready, he had all of one accident and he was pretty much instantly trained. :) Nick loves pretending to be different things...lately it's been firemen. He and Michael fight when we're at home, but when we are outside the house, Nick is super protective and sweet to Michael, and they are learning that they can team up and get into even more mischief that way and I can only really catch one of them at a time. Nick is super active and likes to be busy. It will be good when we can play outside every day after work. When we get home, I give him jobs or have an art or science project ready for him so he doesn't come up with one of his own creative experiments. :) He knows his letters, but will pretend not to so people stop asking him. I actually didn't even know he knew them until last week when we were at the grocery store and he was reading letters off of packages. He likes learning, but doesn't like to be quizzed, and likes to figure out things on his own. He'll start preschool a few days a week next year with the babysitter's 4 year old son and they are both very excited.

Michael is still his sweet self, but has lots of opinions on things now and is starting to throw baby tantrums. He calms down really quickly though, and he actually responds when you tell him no, which I find amazing. Michael knows lots of words now, but his favorite is 'dog'. He has a couple of dog stuffed animals and LOVES real dogs and is really gentle with them. The babysitter just got a tiny little dog and the dog and Michael are best friends. :) The boys really want a dog, but we are waiting until we get a house, hopefully in a year and a half. Michael's other favorite thing is balls. He loves playing catch and has amazingly good aim when he throws things at Nick. :) I took him to the playground a week ago, and he actually fell asleep on a swing cuddling a ball. He is really friendly and social with everyone...babies, kids, adults. He just seems to like people a lot. Now that Mike has walking and running figured out, he is bored with it and prefers to climb up things. So I will walk into a room and find him on top of tables or whatever else he managed to climb up. We're working on that. :)

As for me, I just started in a new position at work, which is fun, challenging and interesting. I get to investigate and follow up on customer complaints and figure out a way to make things better. I feel really lucky to have been given a new opportunity so quickly but am still figuring out how to balance work, the kids, and life. I'm still running, but barely. I am determined to make it more of a priority to fit it in though as when I run I am a much happpier mama. :)

We celebrated Easter morning at home together and then went visiting and had Easter dinner with Mom, Dad, Sari, Emma, and Mom Mom Windle. It was really nice and the kids had a great time finding eggs there. And we all enjoyed the delicious dinner.

Things are still getting better, but I am still struggling with the challenges of being a single mom. I feel like each day gets better, and although we have some regressions, overall, things continue to steadily improve. And I am very determined to get the hang of it, so I know I will. I apologize for not posting more and for missing birthdays and not staying in better contact with all of you. I aspire to do better and one of these days Ill get the hang of it. :)

I hope you're all doing well and wish each of you a happy spring from myself and the boys!