Month: April 2009

Let’s Paint!

On By LynnIn TurtleHead12 Comments

I feel like I’ve been ignoring my poor little blog lately, because I’ve had a few other projects on the go. First of all, I’ve been developing a brand new website for our PTA from scratch. It’s been a lot of work but I am very happy with the results. It looks great and the coding underneath that dynamically generates much of the content is GORGEOUS, if I do say so myself.

You know what that means? MAMA STILL GOT IT.

I really wish I could show it to everyone but privacy considerations mean I probably shouldn’t share the name of my kids’ school with the entire internet. So you’ll just have to take my word for it that it is rockin’ awesome.

In other news, I have a bit of spring cleaning fever, and I’ve been spending my weekends and other free time cleaning stuff out. It feels so amazing to pare down, doesn’t it? Even in these times of recession, I find we just have way too much stuff to hang on to. Every time a bag or box leaves the house, I feel a wee bit of joy.

Here’s what I did last weekend to our art cabinet (click to see the enlarged photo):

Art Cabinet

It used to be three shelves full of stuff just jammed in there. Every time we wanted to paint or do PlayDoh, I’d have to try to get one or two things from the bottom of the pile, and inevitably everything would fall out, leading to yet another conversation between me and the kids about words we shouldn’t say. So last weekend I snapped, took everything out, tossed a bunch of stuff, and then put everything back in in a lovely, organized fashion. I think Sir Monkeypants had a small heart attack when he saw how much I spent on storage-type containers, but man, it was so worth it.

And the labelling, do you see the labelling? I LOVE MY LABELLER.

Oh, and not shown in the photo is two large, flat bins that were created to hold all the PlayDoh stuff, and finished artwork that we don’t have room to hang up that might get sent to a grandmother someday. Those are under the couch in the office.

I’ve also had a go at the kids’ dresser tops (total sinkhole for questionable treasures of all kinds), our side table drawers (ditto) and the junk drawer in the kitchen. I’m itching to get at the pantry and the CD cabinet and the playroom (oh, the playroom — McDonalds toys, YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED).

Whee! It’s good to be free.

Happy Easter, Little Miss

On By LynnIn TurtleHead4 Comments

On Saturday morning, we took our annual Easter weekend trip to the Agriculture Museum. It’s my favourite museum in town, especially at this time of year when there are new lambs and wee chicks and baby bunnies and newborn calves to see.

I’ve forced this tradition on my kids because I am absolutely determined to make them love the farm, too. But so far, I must say, they are doing a bang up job of resisting the love.

They actually really hate the farm.

So this year, as with all previous years, it was a festival of “I’m soooo tired, it’s soooo much walking, when are we going to sit down?” from the Captain, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” screamed over and over from the Gal, who is absolutely terrified of all animals, including chicks that are the size of her hand, and “I neeeeeed a snaaaaack, when are we going to eeeeeeat?” from both of them at periodic intervals. They whined all the way through the barns, weren’t interested in seeing or touching any animals, and only got excited when they saw the play structure, which is exactly the same as the one we have in our local park that they see almost EVERY DAY.

Sigh.

So since the kids hate the Agriculture Museum so much, I can only get away with convincing Sir Monkeypants to suffer though a visit once a year, but dammit, WE ARE GOING, because the kids will love it someday, SO HELP ME GOD.

At the very least, it will provide them with fodder for therapy someday. Or maybe just a funny mug on my 65th birthday.

Anyway, this year there was a small, happy ray of hope. As it turns out, Little Miss Sunshine loves the farm! She is completely unafraid of animals five times her size. She went right up to the cows to say, “Hi!” to each one in a most adorable way. She muscled right in there to pet the baby lambs. She picked up stray pieces of hay on the floor of the barn and offered them to the calves to eat. She petted the bunnies, made snorting noises at the horses, and adored the baby chicks.

One out of three ain’t bad!

I’m going to take the Little Miss back again in a week or so, when it’s hopefully a little warmer, and when the older two Scrooges are in school. I imagine we’ll have the fun farm visit I’ve always envisioned.

I knew having that third kid was a good idea!

The Original Jelly Belly

On By LynnIn TurtleHead6 Comments

This past year I’ve been trying to lose the extra weight brought on by three pregnancies, and I’m very happy to say that I’m only two pounds away from my target weight now. If I lose them by the end of April, I’ll have lost 30 pounds this year. I know, that’s cool, right?

I’m feeling good about the weight loss and the fact that I’m wearing clothes that haven’t seen the light of day in about ten years. I’ve come to terms with the other pregnancy side effects that I can’t fix, too, like the smaller chest and the lingering varicose veins and the weirdly coarser hair. I’m generally happy with the physical side of Lynn these days.

There’s one thing I’m still not over, though, and that’s the loss of my lovely, thin, smooth, shapely belly button. I admit it, I had belly button vanity in my youth. My tummy was never Britney-iffic, if you know what I mean, but it was at least free of stretch marks and relatively flat and there, in the centre of it all, was a lovely oval belly button, the ideal size and shape to be richly coveted by the Japanese.

I knew my belly button was taking a lot of damage during the pregnancies, but I thought that once I lost all the weight and got back to my usual size, it’d return to a relative facsimile of its former self.

Turns out, not so much. Even though I’m the same size that I was before, I’m nowhere near the same shape.

I’m thinner and I’m fitter and my pants fit again, but still…my tummy looks kind of like an empty grocery bag. With streaks on it. And a hideous, giant, stretched-out belly button as its new centrepiece.

I remember those golden, innocent days of youth when my friends and I all swore that we’d never have plastic surgery, that the very idea was repulsive, that we were all going to age gracefully and beautifully and embrace our bodies the way they were. SO easy to say when you’re 17 and unknowingly goddess-like.

I’m still not interested in nose jobs or boob jobs or liposuction, but damn if that tummy tuck isn’t starting to look good. Not that I will ever, ever get one — there is no way my mind could ever justify spending that kind of money on myself. Hell, I can’t even buy myself a pair of shoes unless they are at least 50% off.

(I am so very ready to be a senior citizen.)

Still, I saw Kate from Jon and Kate Plus Eight get one last season, and boy oh boy, the results were so amazing. They transformed her belly area from sack-of-raw-pizza-dough to babies?-what-babies?. Needless to say, her newly flat and smooth belly features a gorgeous, perfect belly button.

And also needless to say, I’m so jealous.

Guess I’ll just have to suck it up and go give all my bikinis to Goodwill.

Buckle Up

On By LynnIn TurtleHead8 Comments

The thing that really bugs me about this whole rain/snow/sun/hot/cold weather extravaganza we’re having is that we still have three car seats in our car.

That means three five-point harnesses to untangle, struggle to wrap around flailing kid limbs, snap together, and re-snap after complaining and crying. Every time we get in the car.

Add to that the seat belt adjustment step, to accomodate the day’s selection of coat and outdoor-pant combination, and it’s just too much. I know, it seems like one small extra step, but when you multiply it by three, and throw in belts that have been twisted beyond all movement over the winter months, and you have the strap that broke the Mommy’s back.

The law says we can’t move our kids into booster seats until they are 40 pounds, regardless of height or age. At this rate, we’ll still have three car seats when our kids are in their teens.

The Captain, at age 6, is still holding at 36 pounds, despite recent efforts to get him to eat french fries at every opportunity. He’s already too tall for a standard car seat, and now he’s pushing the height limit on the special extra-large-size five-point-harness seat we had to buy him last year (at a cost of approximately his entire university education). By next winter, there is no possible way we will be able to buckle him in with a coat and snowpants on, so it’s BOOSTER OR BUST for him come November.

The Gal, at age 4 1/2 — the age that the government suggests “most children” will have moved to a booster — is still the smallest in her class and only weighs 30 pounds. If she continues on her current growth curve, she might make 40 pounds just in time to hit the age 8 limit, when it’s no longer legally required to have your kid in a seat of any kind.

And Little Miss Sunshine, who we sometimes refer to our “bruiser” because she’s the biggest of our kids, weighs in at 22 pounds at age 21 months. If we were following the law to the letter (AND OF COURSE WE WERE, OFFICER), we’d only just now be turning her around to be forward facing. Which we totally just did YESTERDAY, OFFICER. We’re really hoping she’s into a booster by age 6 — fingers crossed!

Sigh. Yet another reason to hate the snow on the ground (grrrr) and the more snow we’ll be getting today and later this week (GRRRRR). What the hell happened to Spring?

In Denial

On By LynnIn TurtleHead5 Comments

I’ve washed the snow pants and put them away for the year.

I’ve reorganized the mud room to make room for raincoats and spring jackets.

I’ve made sure everyone has rubber boots that fit, rain pants with no holes in them, and new sneakers one size larger than last year.

So that weather forecast that is calling for “scattered flurries” overnight tonight, and “rain/snow mix” for Wednesday and Thursday, can SUCK IT.

Hard Eight

On By LynnIn TurtleHead5 Comments

We had a very rough night last night, as parents. All of our kids had trouble sleeping and every 45 minutes or so, we were trying to soothe the one with the teething issues, or trying to ease the hacking cough of the one with the cold, or trying to find something that would calm down the one with the night terrors. It seemed as soon as we got one of them to stop screaming, another one would start up. I can’t remember a night since the Little Miss was weaned with so much disruption, crying, and general horror.

Sir Monkeypants was even harder hit as he also has the cold, and he felt crappy before the night even started. Still, he was a total trooper and got up with me (and even before me) every time one of our kids called. I don’t know what I would have done without him, as he’s much better than I am at dealing with the night terror thing. And also the cold thing. And the teething thing, now that I think about it.

Some good friends of ours are getting a divorce and it’s really, really sad. Naturally being this close to the situation has both of us imagining what would happen if we were to split up, and I think it’s safe to say that we are totally horrified at the idea. We just both rely on each other so much, neither of us have any idea how we would ever survive as a single parent.

Like, if Sir Monkeypants didn’t live here any more, I’d never have made it through last night. I don’t know what I’d do to stop the night terrors. And within three days of his leaving, the internet would be totally busted and I’d have no idea how to fix all the little bleep-bloop-light machines. And who would dangle the kids upside down and chase them around the house and make them eat their vegetables? Who would shovel the snow and change the snow tires on the cars and hold the kids when they need to get a shot?

And if I were to move out, who would cut the kids’ nails? Who would work the washing machine? Who would make sure the sheets and towels got washed on occasion, and who would plan the meals? Who would clean the fish tank and label all our photos? Who would teach the kids to read and work on their handwriting and take them to gymnastics?

When one of us is exhausted, the other finds the energy to take the kids for their baths. When one of us is hungry or tired and getting too snappish with the kids, the other one gently takes over. When one of us is too angry, the other is there to mediate and step in.

It’s just overwhelming to imagine learning all the things you’d need to learn if your spouse was suddenly not around. It’s crazy to think of all the work involved in doing EVERYTHING, all by yourself. It’s madness to think of the emotional stress, all day, every day, with no break.

I swear I don’t know how single parents survive. They have to do it all, and hold down a JOB at the same time. That’s madness.

And it makes me extra sad for our friends.