Keeping the Frat party at bay

I usually work 1 of 2 shifts. Either 7 to 3:30 or 7 to 7:30. Either of these shift can be much longer depending on the day but there is always hope that I will be home shortly after. The days that I get off at 3:30 are great I have the whole evening to help with homework, cook dinner, do dishes and hang with my boys. Often when I come home after my 7:30 shift I feel like I came home to the wrong house. Maybe I accidentally set foot into the frat house.

What could have possibly happened in the 4 extra hours I worked? Where did my sweet little boys with good manners go? I can't help but smile when I open my house and hear all the giggling going on. Even if it is over someones bodily function. There are wrestling tournaments, and Mario tournaments, push up tournaments and eating spicy sauces on pizza tournaments. These are only some of the tournaments that I am privy to knowing about. Some days when I ask them what they've been up to I only get giggling in response. These days it is probably best I didn't know.

Thank goodness there is a little estrogen in this house. My new motto should be "Motherhood keeping the frat parties at bay".

Wrestling for dummies

Today was absolute insanity! Today was our first wrestling tournament. I am a planner and like to be as prepared as possible for things. I am ok if it changes along the way I just like to start things off by at least thinking I am prepared. I arrived at the gym 30 minutes before the tournament started (when the coach said we needed to be there). The gym is already packed. I am actually concerned if the fire marshall were to come they would have to shut the place down. The boys quickly change from their shoes and wedge their feet into their wrestling shoes (seriously why are they so tight?). They run off to join their team to do strange warms ups wrestlers do.

I found the sign that was put up on the wall so our team would all sit together and headed up. I carried my camera bag, the bag I brought of things to do in "free time", the bag that held the boy's tennis shoes and 4 winter coats. I shoved through the stairs hopeful I would find a place to sit down. There were a few areas that appeared to be open but after wedging myself right up to multiple options and being told "sorry these seats are taken" I went and stood at the top of the stairs.

Finally a mother (from our team) offered to move a few of her things that were holding a seat in case her kids wanted to sit there later. I am so thankful for her! She then helped explain what was going on and what to expect. Later when I was watching Noah wrestle and Ethan had to go to the bathroom she took him. She helped keep an eye out when Ethan and Jacob would wrestle since they seemed to start at the same time. I wanted to hug this woman!

Ethan wrestled first and won. He was very excited! He later wrestled 2 more times and lost both of them. He put a lot into each match and wasn't always convinced he should stop when the ref told him to. He would shake his opponents hand vigorously. If he was an old lady his arms may still be shaking from these hand shakes! It warmed my heart the entire time he wrestled it was so stinkin cute!

Jacob lost 1, won 1 then lost his final match. He did a great job listening to his coaches and doing what he was suppose to. His final match he got hurt. His shoulder got pinned behind him and he started crying. I teared up as well. I was proud of him because he finished the match. Sometimes when things get tough Jacob will just give up and I was sooooo proud that he pushed through! He did great!

This is the first year of wrestling for Ethan's age group so today was all of their first tournament. For Jacob some have wrestled for a year or two but there are plenty that are new to the sport. This isn't the case for Noah. All of the kids he wrestled today have been wrestling since they were 4 or 5. For at least half of their life they have been on the mats. They have lots of experience. Watching him sitting on the mat before his first match I felt a little nauseous. I think he did too.

His nervousness was very apparent because his coach was shaking his arms before he went out there to loosen him up. He lost all 3 of his matches today but he gave it his all. He has scrapes and bruises all over his body to prove it. Those older boys tough!

Today was very difficult for me. It was hard to watch my boys in hand to hand combat. At the same time I was so proud of them! They all worked so hard. I can't wait to watch them grow throughout the season.

I too am excited to grow this season. I have a lot to learn about wrestling. This is the first sport that they've played that I have no clue what is going on. I am going to be doing some online searching of "wrestling for dummies" tomorrow. I already know I am smarter than I was this morning. Next week I'm going to get there 1 hr early so I can have a seat, we are leaving winter coats in the car, the cooler is coming in with me so I don't have to run out to the car a dozen times. Ethan is going to go pee when the 8 year old kids are wrestling.

It really was a great day and I can't wait until the next one!

It's the right thing to do

So I need to rant and I thought this would be the perfect place to do it! I have good kids (I'm not ranting about this part). We set rules and are consistent and we think it is our job to parent. It is our job to lay the foundation of what is right and wrong. What is expected of our children. Yes it is hard work and yes sometimes it sucks. It's the right thing to do.

At wrestling practice the other day I was busy helping wedge E.T.'s foot into his shoe (why are wrestling shoes so small?) and I overheard a mother telling her son that he can't go to practice until the coach comes up to talk to her (her son is 4ish). My incredible hearing skills could not help but overhear the conversation that took place with this mom and the coach. HER son was wrestling a small, younger child and had pinned this child and wouldn't get up. This happened at home not at wrestling practice. She wanted the coach to punish the child today by having him only watch practice and have a talk to him. This mother told the coach that her son needed to learn when it was appropriate to wrestle etc.

(My heart is pounding through my chest right now just remember the conversation. It actually went on for quite a bit longer with the mom telling the coach what he should tell her son but I had to stop for fear of stroking out right here at the computer and I haven't set my kids clothes out for school yet.)

At the end of practice this mom was talking to another mom about the "incident" and how the coach needed to "step in". She also talked about how he didn't have a father figure so no one was there to tell him what was appropriate.

I wanted to jump up and down raising my hand. Oooohhhh pick me, pick me, I know the answer to your problem - "Parent your kid!!!".

It doesn't matter if there are 1, 2 or 12 parents in your home. It is your responsiblity to parent your kids "it is the right thing to do".

My own little "Duggars"

Immediately after my last blog post little E.T. and I went to Target in search of a potty chair. They had 2 choices. One was a $20 princess chair and the other a $30 chair that has a "flusher" a toilet paper holder and if a person were to actually own AA batteries it talks, sings and when the sensor gets wet (hopefully from pee) it says "good job" (this is what the box tells us). I was willing to wait a few more days until I ran to Walmart but my little dugger really wanted a potty chair for his brother. He batted those sweet little eyes at me and I said "fine". So E.T. carried the box through Target, to the car and had his little arms wrapped around the box the whole way home. He ran it into the house and began using his scissors to cut into the box before I got my shoes off.

He has since brought Mason a variety of books to look at hoping that he will be there when his brother pees in the new potty for the first time. They just got done playing hide and seek and I heard E.T. say to Mason "I know you have to pee by now let's go try". He brought Mason in and sat him on the toilet and when Mason didn't immediately go he got mason a drink of water. When Mason didn't have his gun behind the backstop they have nicely installed for the boy pee-pots he started giggling and said "he doesn't have his privates put in there". I reassured him that Mason would figure it out.

So this is one of my little Duggars. Although I don't have 19 (and counting) and the oldest kids don't do all my cooking and cleaning and child rearing (Noah did cook dinner tonight) I will take my Cannon's any day!

Damn diaper

"Damn diaper" this is the phrase that I mutter over and over in my head right now. Mason is not yet 2 but he is already showing signs of wanting to potty train. Just like his big brothers did. All the boys were early potty trainers like their mother. Not to toot my own horn or anything but I was potty trained before my 1st birthday. I felt like this was a remarkable feat and was supremely disappointed when I found out that there was no box to check on my college application about how young (or old) potty training commenced. Bummer.

Taking this new-found knowledge into parenthood I didn't push potty training. I knew that the boys would do it when they were ready. One great thing about saying that I will wait until they are ready is that not a single one chose to be ready when it was convenient for me. After realizing with Noah that no time really is a good time and it really is great to get them to pee/poop in the pot!

The first 3 boys were potty trained between 22-26 mos. They all needed pull-ups for different lengths of time at night. Sweet little Mason is very.......determined. I didn't know how this "determination" would affect my potty training track record. He has actually been interested in "peeing in the pot" since he was about 18 mos. He hasn't ever been very successful but he has been very interested. The past week he has decided the minute he pees (or poops) in his diaper it needs to come off. He also just likes to walk around naked and once I see that he has started peeing I run him to the toilet. This has been very difficult this week because I've been so sick that walking and breathing has been difficult for me let alone running a little boy down the hall with a loaded weapon.

This is were the thoughts "damn diaper" have come in. I want to scream "keep your damn diaper on", but he wants to potty train. No this isn't the best week for me to potty train, but next week we have 2 birthdays and taxes and the week after wrestling tournaments start so if it was up to when it was convenient for me who knows when that would be.

I am not going to be angry or upset that Mason wants to be potty trained right now. I am going to enjoy the potty training memories of my last boy. From here on out I will just be offering potty training support for my friends and family who want to pull their hair out because their child has pooped/peed on the floor for the 32nd time that day. It really is worth it. My only regret from today is I didn't get a picture of him earlier but since it is an image I hope to never forget I will describe it here: Mason had on a grey long sleeved t-shirt, diaper and jeans. He decided to remove his diaper and jeans. He found a pair of Ethan's cloth shorts (dark blue) which he wanted to wear as undies (I asked him if he wanted undies he said "uhhh uhhh" nodding and points at the shorts). he put both legs in one leg hole and had the shorts around his waist. All of his business flapping in the wind when he was running around. He then found his jeans and put them back on....backwards. So he was laying on the floor, playing with his zipper down, jeans unbuttoned, cute little butt-cracked buns hanging out. I wish I had taken a picture!

So I'm off to Target. I am going to get a new potty chair and potty seat (and probably a few more containers of Clorox wipes for the floor!)

Wrestling

Wrestling season has officially started. We have 3 little rugrats (well 4 but Mason is too young to be an official wrestler). This is the first year for all of them and they are very excited. Although I am not usually a fan of the singlet I can't wait to see little Ethan in one! Their first tournament is in Feburary. Until then it is a lots of running, lots of crab walking, bear crawling......I know nothing about wrestling except the tournaments are long, there are tons of people and crazy mothers will be yelling at their kids to pin my boys. I will be channeling my happy place when this happens. I promised Noah I wouldn't come running onto the mat to make sure he is ok if he gets pinned.


I am hoping to learn quickly about the whole scoring. I can't complain that they are not scoring fairly if I have no idea what is going on. I wonder if they have the rules of wrestling for dummies.

Preserverence vs. Failure

The new year is always very exciting! I am always anxious to see what it may bring! Each year I make a few of the same resolutions. First to lose my "baby fat" as I like to think of it (well I actually didn't like to think of it). Second was to be better about sending cards, gifts etc. I am great about buying them and I buy them early. So early if fact that I had to wait to mail them so it didn't seem weird to be getting a birthday card 5 or 6 weeks early. I have found that I am really good at the waiting part. So good in fact that I wait until after the the holiday to send them if I even remember to send them at all.

This year I am excited to say that I get to change my resolutions a little! I was able to lose all of my baby weight! It was worth all of the sacrifice to see the extra pounds kindly given to me by each boy. First it was Mason, then I lost Ethan, then Jacob and finally Noah. I officially weigh less than I did when I got pregnant with Noah. I weigh less than the weight on my drivers license. 30 lbs. The weight of Mason is gone! Maybe it took so long because I felt bad about losing the gifts that each boy lovingly gave me. Thank goodness I can't lose the stretch marks from each of them!

So this year I will keep working on sending holiday cards in a timely fashion but I get to change the other one. I am also going to add a few more!

They are in no particular order:

1. work on sending cards (thank you, birthday, holiday, just because)
2. have a date with my honey every month
3. work on my "remembering me" list
4. organize my recipes
5. finish the projects I start
6. look at this list at least monthly

There are a few more things but they fall into the remembering me list that I haven't looked at in months (probably since the day after I posted the list).

Admitting that I have to add the same resolutions every year feels like failure. I do no like failing. So instead of looking at it as a failure I will think of these resolutions as on-going. I looked up the definition of resolution and at the end it listed the synonyms - resolve, determination, perseverance, tenacity, strength and fortitude.

These are the characteristics I am going to have to focus on. I am not going to focus on my failure of not completing one resolution. I am going to focus on the perseverance it took to finally lose the my baby fat!

2011 is going to be a great year!