Today

I had the brilliant idea to stay up till 4:30 am painting Lincoln's-probably a mistake on my part.  I clearly didn't get enough sleep (like 4 hours) which resulted in me having a short fuse.  It wasn't the kids fault it was mine.  I lacked patience.  My children annoyed me today.  I'll admit it. 

And then came the laundry.  Someone left a pack of gum in their pocket...I don't wanna name names but I will tell you that all that was in the wash was Lincoln's bedding and 3 pairs of Kevin's jeans.  Nothing like scrapping gum out of the washing machining, clothes and bedding.  Today I only conquered 1 load of laundry...well 2 if you count the fact that I had to wash the same load twice.

Then I went to go order the photo book I made for London from MyPublisher.  It consisted of 100 pages.  I went through all her photo's and put my heart and soul into that book.  I logged on and it was gone.  Non existent.  I phoned the help line.  Well since someone hacked into our computer and took $5300 from my account we had to get the computer re-formatted.  I backed up all our photos.  I did not back up MyPublisher.  I assumed it was saved through them.  It wasn't.  So all that hard work went down the drain.  I cried.  Then proceed to make her a new book. 

My house is was a mess.  The front door consisted of 6 pairs of shoes, a potty with piss in it, 6 glass milk bottles, my purse, miscellaneous clothing, 2 bags of groceries.  My counters were dirty, my floors had crumbs on it.  Cereal from yesterday's breakfast was still on the table.  FYI we don't normally live like this.  My house was a wreck therefore I felt like a wreck.  And it didn't help when Lincoln and Nathan went upstairs, after I had cleaned up Lincoln's room, and threw all the stuffed animals all over the floor.

I wore this all day.

Dinner tonight consisted of a rotisserie chicken...it was store bought.  I even cracked open a cold one.  It was that type of day.

And then came this moment.  The moment I saw this photo:

I cried again.  He is perfect and precious.  I then smiled and decided to take my baby girl upstairs and have a bath.  It was perfect.  We girl talked and made all sorts of promises to each other until our toes were shrivelled. 

So here I am thinking my night was turned completely around.  I was happy so I told Kev "let's put the kids to bed early and sit on the patio by the fire and drink coffee."  Sounds romantic right?  Well some how Kev ended up outside by himself sitting by the fire drinking coffee while I was inside with an almost 4 year old who was lacking in respect, a screaming baby and a content 2 year old.  No hard feelings Kev:-)

And now to finish this post with the wise words from Kelly Clarkson..."What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!"  Why thanks Kelly for the reminder.

All is good now...the kids are in bed and tomorrow is a new day:-)

Potty Training Clarity!

It's been a week and 4 days since my vent about s-h-i-t!  And boy did I need that vent!  Kev came home a few hours later that day, after not responding to my text, and says, "It smells clean in here!"  Yes, yes it did!  I think I went through a whole bottle of lemon lysol that day!  I love the smell of lemon lysol but it's a bit much when used in excess!  I wish I could say the next day was better...but it wasn't.  We had three more accidents.  But this time was different...this time we laughed.  Yes "we" because Kevin was home so I wasn't the only one cleaning up poop and I realized Nate's poor little tummy wasn't feeling so good so when the accidents happened (and we could hear them happening) we just laughed and cleaned up shit like we enjoyed it!

Venting helped!  And I really appreciated the support!  And I think I have a new moto: vent, reflect and move on.  And that's just what I did that day!  I vented, then reflected on the things in life that really mattered (and shitty on the potty didn't make that list), and then I moved on.  I love the clarity that reflecting gives!  I knew tomorrow was going to be a new day and all though we didn't have great success and I knew cleaning crap out of underwear wasn't the end of the world. 

Mother's Day we had a breakthrough and that is when I saw that light at the end of the tunnel.  We put Nate in a diaper that day because we were heading to Steveston and didn't want to be dealing with any accidents.  He was resistent to the diaper but did really good-no accidents in the diaper at all!  We kept the potty in the back of the SUV just in case and he used it to pee and when we got home he finally pooped on the potty (funny to say but that was the best Mother's Day gift).  And I'm pleased to say he's been doing it every day since then!  That's a week and 2 days of pure pooping success!  I've only been putting a diaper on him at night time (his diaper is abit wet in the morning) and he wears his underwear for nap time and has been waking up dry!  He still calls pee poo which is totally fine with me and I'd have to say we are almost there!

I am so proud of my little boy!  He's been such a trooper through this process (I wish I could say the same about myself)!  As much as I hated getting frustrated I'd have to say I needed that...I needed to regain control of my emotions and see the bigger picture!  Patience is definitely key when it comes to potty training!

5 months

She is 5 months old...5 whole months! 

And she is perfect and healthy and everything I ever wished for.  It's been 5 months of pure awesomeness!  And that smile...oh that smile gets me every time.  I just can't get enough of her:-)

London-5 months

Nathan-5 months

Lincoln-5 months

I need to vent!

WARNING: This blog post will probably contain ALOT of foul language...mostly the word shit because this post is about shit!

I have to vent! 

I have cleaned shit out of underwear 3 times today!  Yes 3 times!  Nathan has received 3 baths and I have run the washing machines 3 times (because you can't wash that shit with your regular laundry)!

Arg!  We have been potty training for...I don't know...2 weeks now and things have been going good.  By day 4 Nate was telling us when he had to pee on the potty, we had a few turds and a real good poop on the potty.  He wakes up dry from his naps and has now been waking up dry in the mornings.  And then this week things have sorta started to slide backwards...in the pooping department (he's still peeing on the potty like a champ)!  I have been cleaning crap out of his underwear for a week now!  And it's so gross!  And once when I was cleaning him up and giving him his "you need to poop on the potty and not in your underwear" speech he laughed at me.  Seriously!  I'm cleaning shit off you and you are going to laugh at me.  Awesome! 

OK so I do my whole..."Nate pooping in your underwear is gross and you need to tell mommy or daddy when you have to go poop on the potty" talk and I've been saying it firmly so he knows I'm serious and that it's not a joke or a funny matter.  I was hoping that would work (you know the firm mom voice) but it's not.  And the last incident may have done it for me.  I know his tummy has been bugging him today so I had  him sit on the potty while I cleaned up the kitchen (he had 2 prior poop accidents today) and he's complaining his tummy hurts and I know he has to poop so I tell to just sit on the potty and wait till the poop comes out and then what happens...he stands up and spray shits all over himself, the floor and the toilet.  And cleaning up your own childs fecal matter isn't any different than cleaning up some strangers...OK maybe it is but it's still not fun!


It's been a shitty day...literally.  And then I snapped at Lincoln when he asked me something but I was mid shit clean up and I got frustrated and sent them all for naps!  And sent the hubby a text that reads: "He just shit all over the bathroom and himself...I'm done."  He hasn't replied yet...I don't blame him!  And now I'm frustrated at myself for getting so frustrated and I'm feeling like an awful parent.  I keep telling myself "he'll get it...he'll eventually get it and this will all be a distant memory."  That time can't come soon enough.  Sigh...One day I will laugh at this...right?  Now time to de-stress and clean...because I haven't already done enough of that today...

TGIF and I don't have to cook:-)

Sorry if I grossed anyone out but I really needed to vent!

Playroom

Our playroom needed some work and I've been searching pinterest and etsy looking for some inspiration!

I had this vision for Nathan's room (I was actually trying to copy one of Sarah Richardsons rooms) and since Kevin never got around to putting up the chair rail I ditched that vision and went with plan B-I painted Nate's room and I am so glad I did!  I was left with vinyl letters I purchased off etsy and I didn't want to throw them away so I decided to use them in the playroom.  I was nervous!  Putting up 26 letters and trying to make sure they were all straight and perfect-yup I was scared.  Iwas going to be a challenge.  And I knew if I didn't do it perfect it could end up looking like "hot DIY mess."

Here is the before picture:

And after:

I was actually surprised at how easy it was to do!  I had to cut out each letter from the vinyl (they are on a sheet of vinyl), then I used painters tape to tape each letter to the wall to see where I wanted them.  I used a little leveler to try to get each letter straight once I took off the backing.  I stuck the letter to the wall and then rubbed each letter on!  I am so happy with how it turned out!  And apparently they come off easy! 



Flying with 3 kids

I've been meaning to write this sooner but I've been so busy since we got home!  So we did it...we flew with 3 kids and that in itself is a small victory (insert pat on the back here)!  Yes I think it's a small victory...3 kids under the age of 4 in one area and no where to escape.  And for the first time Kevin noticed the "random stranger stares."  We got looked at...A LOT.  And I'm not quite sure if they were stares of pity and sympathy or stares of jealousy or maybe we just looked like a hot mess!  I don't know but I'm going to guess they were stares of pity and sympathy.  And really I just wanted to shout "Dudes don't pity us for travelling with 3 kids, heck we're going to Maui for 3 weeks bitches!"  I refrained and simply smiled. (fyi I don't mean bitches in a snotty or arrogant way...just the fun "ya bitches" sorta way if you get my drift...:-)

So how'd it go?

Awesome with a capital A (insert fist pump)!

We survived!  It wasn't hell!  No one shed any major tears!  There weren't any melt downs and most importantly no one wanted to throw themselves out of the plane!  Ya!

We flew with Westjet (we normally fly Hawaiian Air) but the travel times with Westjet were better and we got to leave from Vancouver (double bonus).  Our flight left at 6:30 pm which gave us plenty of time to get something to eat and it was close to the kids bedtime.  We scored big time travelling there-we booked our seats 2 and 2.  Kevin got to fly with Lincoln and I got to fly with Nate and London (how I ended up with the 2 youngest I'll never know but that's not how I planned it in my head).  My genius husband (man that guy is amazing and full of super awesome ideas) thought it would be best if we flew 3 and 1 (westjets seats are 2 rows with 3 seats).  That would mean I would be flying in a row with Lincoln, Nathan and London and Kevin would be sitting in the row next to us...ALONE aka kid free!  Um no!  I didn't let that one slide by me...and he acted surprise when my eyes bulged out of my head and I replied "are you kidding me?" I may have dropped the f bomb in that sentence as well!  We lucked out and we both had empty seats next to us and our rows were right across from each other.  Nathan was able to sleep on two seats and my sweet little girl got to cuddle in my arms for six hours.  Kevin lucked out because not only was the seat next to him and Lincoln empty but he also got to fly with Lincoln-the worlds greatest flyer-he watched a movie on his dvd player and then called it a night and slept the entire way!  Nate was pretty good and I was so thankful for the empty seat!  He watched Caillou and played cars and trains.  We arrived at 12:30 am our time (9:30 pm Maui time) and were greeted by my parents.  My mom bought two carseats so they were able to take Lincoln and Nathan home with them right away while London and I waited at the airport for Kevin to pick up our rental.

Flying home was even better.  Our flight left Maui at 10:40 pm so we were able to still get in a full day of relaxing and hanging out at the beach and our sweet little angels slept the whole way home.  We didn't luck out seat wise on the way home...they sat someone next to both of us and the poor lady that sat in the row with Nate and I kept getting kicked by Nathan when he was sleeping.  And of course Lincoln fell asleep as soon as we left the ground!

Kevin gets abit of anxiety about flying with the kids-you never know how they are going to act.  I, on the other hand, don't (which is funny because I normally have major anxiety).  I think Kevin has flash backs of flying with Lincoln when he was younger...and the reverse affect gravol had on him and that feeling of wanting to jump out of the plain because our 2 year old was going freakin nuts and there was nothing we could do!  Thankfully he out grew that stage!  I don't get anxiety because the way I look at it: we are going on vacation, the flight will not last forever and we are going somewhere hot and beautiful so why fret the plane ride there!  I get that flying with kids can be stressful...there is 2 of us and 3 of them.  We are out numbered.  But Lincoln's 3 (almost 4) and he's content with his dvd player and some snacks-he's also at that age where you can reason with him or worse case scenario...bribe him.  Nathan is at that iffy stage (you know...he's almost 2...need I say more) and he was the one I was most worried about-you can't reason as much with him and bribing can only go so far before he's lying on the floor screaming trying to crawl underneath the seats.  And well then there's London...sweet little London-at 3 months old that is such a good travelling age...all she wanted to do was nurse and cuddle...can't complain about that:-)

And here are a few photo's from our flight there!  Is there anything cuter than a toddler with his suitcase?

Wearing their "flying outfits!"