The Joys of Motherhood

I arrived home about 8:30 last night from a meeting to discover Ellie’s pink bowl-chair on the front lawn covered in vomit.  Tom, who was on kid-duty, was having a rough night.  It started with Jack going diarrhea in his pants and all up his shirt.  Tom bathed him and placed the freshly-washed Jack in the play room to watch a movie.  A short time later, Jack started vomiting. So, Tom did the man-thing and dumped the chair outside and the child in the bath. (He also threw the bathmat and clothes in the garage, something I didn’t discover until this morning.)  So, when I arrived home, Jack was in bed, but I had a chair to clean.  After a considerable amount of scraping and scrubbing, I final got the chair clean and decided I needed a shower.  While I was showering, Jack commenced throwing up all over his crib, pillow, stuffed animals, and books.  Tom brought Jack in for his 3^rd bath of the night while I tackled the mess in the bedroom.  I stripped the bed and threw all washables in the washer.  Then, like a dummy, I put fresh sheets and pillow on Jack’s bed and placed him back in there.  After taking care of some things, I finally went to bed myself, thinking that 5:00am was going to come much too quickly.  No sooner had my head hit the pillow when Jack started crying.  I went in to discover another mess.  So, Tom dropped Jack in the tub for the 4^th time and I finally wised up and made Jack a bed of towels on my bedroom floor.  I went to sleep making all sorts of promises to God if He would just make Jack stop throwing up.   I guess it worked because Jack didn’t wake up again until this morning and he promptly demanded I feed him a chocolate cupcake.  He settled for cereal.

Struggling

Tom likes to say that it does no good to complain because 80% of people don't care and 20% are glad you feel that way.  While I don't agree with his negative assessment of the human race, I do agree that it doesn't do any good to complain.  But I am going to go ahead and do it anyway!

When the school year started, I was so nauseous and tired all day.  I thought there couldn't be a more stressful way to start out a new year...until the second week of school when I came down with the worst cold of all time that then turned into bronchitis.  Then, every coughing fit triggered my gag reflex.  So, I was a snot-nosed, hacking, vomiting mess.  I am sure all of my students were completely repulsed.

My house is a disaster.  I can't let anyone in the door because it is THAT BAD.  I feel like I am neglecting my kids and my husband.  And I am disgusting.  Oh yeah, and even though I have been losing weight due to the illness, my belly is sticking out further than ever and I can't button any of my pants.  Instead of three months pregnant, I look six.

Whew!  Glad I got all of that off my chest!  On the bright side, the kids are really excited about this pregnancy.  Jack keeps trying to peer into my belly button to see the baby.  He is adamant that he wants a baby brother.  Ellie wants a baby sister.  So, at least one of them will get their way.

Even though I am a mess, the kids are doing awesome.   Jack has surprised me with how well he is doing at preschool.  He even asks to go on the weekends!  Ms. Yamileth (aka Miss Yummy) is magic when it comes to potty training.  She was the one who trained Ellie practically overnight several years ago.  Now, she is Jack's teacher and she has Jack almost fully trained.  Next week they are taking away his diaper at nap-time so he will be diaper free all day!  Confession...I still put a diaper on him over the weekends if we even step one foot out of the house.  That's completely understandable, right? 

What happens in Vegas does NOT stay in Vegas

Remember a couple of months ago when I took that trip to Vegas?  And I had such an awesome time (aside from the airline losing my luggage)?  Well, I guess I had a little too much fun because two weeks after we got back I discovered that I was pregnant.   I was busy packing for the move to our new house and was already stressed to the max.  So, finding out I was pregnant was not met with a whole lot of excitement.  More like sheer panic.

A few days later, I was talking to my mom on the phone and she mentioned that I seemed a little down and asked if I was stressed about the move.   "No," I replied, "I am just a little bummed because I think I might be pregnant."   She asked what made me think that and I told her "because the pregnancy test came back positive."

Now I am about 11 weeks along and am finally adjusting to the idea of having another baby.  I know this baby was meant to be and I will love him or her like crazy, but sometimes that is hard to remember when you are hunched over the toilet bowl vomiting up dinner.

DIY fireplace

OK, so remember my ugly fireplace?

Well, I painted it.  I ended up having to repaint the mantle, too, because the whites ended up being too different.  It was super easy.  Since I am lazy, I didn't sand it or use a primer first.  I just slapped on some white Rustoleum paint and finished it with a coat of polyurethane to add a little gloss and to protect from scratching.  I am not in love with the outcome, but it is way better than what it was before! 
Luckily, I did it before school started because now I am basically worthless and my list of projects remains untouched.  I haven't even hung up a single picture.  I just come home and collapse on the couch while the kids play in the back yard with the dog.  I even had Ellie make dinner the other night (toaster waffles).  She was super proud of herself.  I wasn't so proud of the fact that my kitchen had syrup on the floor and I didn't notice until Jack tracked it all over the house.  I couldn't even complain because, hello, I just had my 6 year old cook dinner.