A Lesson in the Truth

Alexis apparently has gained a conscience. This morning as I was straightening up the house, I could not find our album of Disney pictures that is usually next to the TV on the entertainment center. I wondered aloud, "hmmm....where are the Disney pictures? Oh, well, I'll find them later".

Fastforward to arriving back home this afternoon after picking Alexis up at school. We put Max in his crib and get into our room. Alexis says, "mom, I have to tell you the truth". Oh, god.....what did she do????? "Ok, Lex".

"I have to tell you the truth and the truth is about the Disney pictures". Sure, Lex, what about them? "Well, the truth is that I hid them". Where did you hide them and why did you hide them? "Well, the truth is that I hid them behind the chair in the family room because I didn't want you to find them. Well, clearly, but why? "The truth is that I didn't mean to do it." Didn't mean to do what exactly? "Well, the truth is that I ripped a page by accident and I didn't mean to". Well, let's go down and take a look.

What it appeared was that she was flipping a page and one of the holes ripped (it's like a 4 ring binder type photo album), and then she continued ripping all the holes so the entire page came out.

Ok, Alexis, it's not a big deal, but you should have told me right away if it was an accident and you didn't mean to do it. I can fix things when you tell me about them, but you can't just hide things. "Ok, mom, sorry".

I should also add that I got a phone call this morning from Alexis's teacher. She was calling to check and see if Alexis was supposed to go home with her friend today because apparently the two girls were trying to convince her that was the case. She was NOT supposed to go home with the other little girl today. She was supposed to go home with her on Monday, but the other girl got sick so the playdate was canceled. I told Alexis we would reschedule, but clearly she took that upon herself today! I guess they were pretty convincing if the teacher actually called me to check! Maybe they should be lawyers!

What Happens When Children Get Overtired......

......why they fall asleep eating of course!!!!


Max woke up at 6am the other day and this was the result!!! He spent all morning wearing himself out at my mom's school and by the time I got down there to pick him up, he was exhausted. And by exhausted, I mean unable to hold his head up. But, since I was eating my lunch, he decided he wanted to eat as well even though he could barely speak coherently. So, I gave him a cracker and we walked out to the car. After I buckled him in his seatbelt, I walked around to my side of the car, hopped in, and looked back. And this is what I saw! Hilarious!!!

My Little Spiritual Girl

I received an email from Alexis's teacher that went to the entire class about an incident that happened at lunch one day. Basically, the kids have been learning about "investigating" lately. And that the Puppies (what her class is called) have been putting on clear safety goggles, carrying around a magnifying glass and looking at things in the room, down the hall, out the windows, etc. One day, the teacher told them, "Every great investigator needs a clipboard so he/she can write/draw about what they see." They took turns sharing the clipboard and drawing the things they were investigating. On this particular day, it was puzzles and magnetic marbles. The teacher asked them during lunch, if they could investigate or find out more information on anything, what would it be? Here were some of the responses:

• balls
• princesses
• how did God make himself
• blankets
• shoes
• "I'm wondering somehow did...how does God make everything?"
• painting
  
• a banana that is yucky
• how do lights turn on
• costumes
• how do people make light bulbs
• how did God make princesses

I thought this email was cute enough, until I got a second email sent just to me. Here is the email she sent: Today at lunch (from the previous email, you can see we all had lots to talk about!), Alexis leans over to me and whispers, "God is a butterfly." I replied, "Alexis, I love that thought!"

I don't know where she comes up with things sometimes, but I agreed, and thought her statement was quite beautiful.

Baby Names

While Alexis affectionately dubbed the baby, "Pixie" long ago, she came to the realization a few days ago that this would not be the baby's real name after it was born. Of course, all along, I was worried that if it were a boy, "Pixie" is not a very manly sounding name, but after Alexis and Max were born they both lost their fetus names very quickly, so I wasn't too worried. My dad named Alexis, Regis, after a very embarrassing story about myself that perhaps I will reveal later and he named Max, Plugis, because that is how Alexis said "Publix" at the time. Without my dad around to properly name the fetus, Alexis jumped into the task. If you don't already know, she has a love of Tinkerbell and Tinkerbell lives in Pixie Hollow, so hence the name. After the ultrasound, Alexis kept talking about Pixie. We informed her that the name was going to change once the baby was born. Alexis looked very seriously for a moment and said, "well, then I guess when she is born her name can be Alexa". We both just looked at her for a moment. Alexis continued, "I want it to be almost like my name, but not really like my name, so it should be Alexa". Makes complete sense to me, but not exactly practical. She has not yet realized that the baby's name will not, in fact, be Alexa, but I guess we'll cross that bridge in June.

Max's Obsession

Max has a new obsession....the ultrasound pictures of the baby. He enjoys carrying them around and you would think that he wouldn't be able to tell the difference between one picture and another. But even if he could, you would think he might like the one of the profile.

Perhaps, if that wasn't his favorite, maybe the one of the face with the arms showing.


But, no, that one doesn't really do it for him either. His favorite one, of course, that he will pick out to carry around 10 times out of 10 is the infamous crotch shot. With a nice little arrow pointing to it and everything. It is pretty obvious that nothing is hangin' around there so I'm pretty convinced that it really is a girl. But, really, Max, does this one have to be your very favorite?!?!?!?!?!

A New Experience

There is always an inner struggle of do you find out the baby's gender when you are pregnant or not. For our first two children, the struggle was limited and we decided to be surprised. This is about the only thing I can think of that you cannot control in life and you can be completely surprised. So we were surprised twice....first with a girl and then a boy. What more could you ask for!!! So for the 3rd time, I thought we'd change it up a bit and find out around 20 weeks (actually 21 because I got off schedule in the beginning with appointments and weeks). Today was our opportunity! We had decided to take Alexis with us because we thought she would be excited to see the baby on the screen, but we were unsure about Maxwell. We figured he really didn't understand the whole concept and wouldn't really get what we were doing there anyway. But in the end, Max ended up there with us. And he totally surprised us! He sat completely still on Ben's lap and Alexis was perched on a stool next to me. As the tech was announcing body parts they were both staring with big, wide eyes at the screen. Finally, she shows us a bottom view clearly of a tush and two legs. She asked us if we knew what it was. Since I thought I saw legs with nothing in between....I thought, "is it a girl?". And she said, yes, indeed, it was a girl. Alexis immediately says, "I knew it was a girl". She starts showing us other views, and Max starts labeling body parts with the tech and was getting so excited. Finally, after seeing all her beautifully perfect parts, the nurse was done and turned off the monitor. All on his own, Max says, "bye baby". So sweet!!! Then all he wanted was to look at the pictures and hold them. Then he would not give them up. I didn't want him to ruin the pictures so I made him his own photocopies of them. He carried them around ALL day. We stopped by my mom's school to tell her and Max rushes in screaming, "Bubum, baby girl, baby girl, Bubum, baby girl". I honestly think he might have been more into it than Alexis. Although Alexis was quite excited too. I have to admit, it is quite the different feeling knowing what it is but not being able to hold it for 19 more weeks. We are used to not being attached to any one gender or the other during the pregnancy, but learning in the moment and then having a baby in our arms. This is definitely different, but just as fun! Now I can dig out the right set of clothes!!! Welcome to the family baby girl!

This Time.....Mommy in the Doghouse

I officially claim the award.....bad mom of the day. So every Wednesday in Alexis's class a different mom comes in to make the challah dough for Friday Shabbat. I did it about a month ago and it was quite cute. However, today it was my turn again. It was written in my planner and last week I distinctly remember telling people when discussing this week's plans that I had to be in Alexis's class at 12:30 today. However, that did not quite happen. Because I completely forgot to show up. Actually, as I was driving into school this morning I saw a sign that said 2-10-10 on the elementary school next door, and I thought to myself "why does that day sound so familiar". I guess I know why now. So I went to pick her up at 1:20 and her teacher came to the car and asked if I forgot the challah. At first I had no idea what she was talking about.....then I remembered. I mean who forgets to go to their child's class when I KNEW I was supposed to be there. I felt awful. Luckily, Alexis didn't really seem to mind. Hopefully, I can find another day to go in and do something in class to redeem myself. I feel as though I can cut myself a little bit of a break because I have been feeling so badly lately, but that excuse will only get me so far. So I accept my fate as crappy mom of the day.

Redemption

Even though there are days when I want to pull my hair out and run away from home (see previous post), they are few and far between. Most days I look at my kids with awe. I feel confident that I already have many of those posts so I don't need to justify it too much. But I thought I would add this one thing that happens most nights at our house. Alexis adores Max so much. She reads him a story at night and sings the Shema with him since he usually goes to bed first. While that is sweet, not the sweetest thing she does. She has a Tinkerbell music box that she loves. Each night she places it outside Max's bedroom door so he can hear it as he falls asleep. And each morning she retrieves it when we go get Max out of his crib, and she puts it back on her shelf. I guess that redeems them from the other day.

A Very Long 36 Hours

Hopefully this post will make whatever sort of day you are having not seem so bad. So, yes, I will just be complaining. Yesterday afternoon after naptime, Max started acting really crabby and crying for no reason. He has had a cough and runny nose for a couple days like every other kid so I thought he just didn't feel well. It should have a been a signal since he passed out 4 times yesterday, but that is not his record high so I guess it didn't really cross my mind. By evening time, it was quite miserable and I thought maybe he had a fever. Of course, when I went to put the thermometer in his ear, he passed out (one of the four, not an additional). So who knows what his temperature was, so I gave him Tylenol anyway. Can't hurt. Alexis had her 4 year old check up scheduled for the next day so I thought maybe we'd take Max as well. Then kids both went to bed fairly early because we just were done! But last night, Alexis got up twice during the night. Not usual for her at all. The bad news was that she was awake twice, but the good news was that she was screaming "DADDY" so I figured it was best just to wake Ben up and send him in since that was what she wanted :) He probably slept in there for about 2 hours with her.

Anyway, today started out well. And by well I mean the time between opening my eye lids and my feet hitting the floor. Those 2 1/2 seconds were great! Because for some reason, this last week, everything I do makes my heart race and be completely out of breath. So getting up, ready, cleaning the house (on the off chance our praying works and someone comes to look at our house), makes me feel like a ran a marathon. No worries, I"m sure it's just the extra 15 pounds I have packed into one location, but I'll be getting it checked out at the dr. next week). To continue, Max woke up, got dressed, ate, and then passed out because I walked out of our bedroom into Lexi's room to get her clothes. Great! We had to leave in about 20 minutes to make it to the chiropractor before Alexis had speech (working on those R's). We finally leave, and I call the dr. in the car to see if they can see Max at the same time as Alexis and they can (small miracles). We make it to the chiro and to my office without too much ado. Leave for our dr. appointment. Once we get there, I pay my copay which I did not realize had gone up to $35 starting in January. So I left $70 lighter. Max will not sit still in the waiting room, he laughs uncontrollably at a kid wearing a flu mask, and throws all the magazines on the floor. Finally, they call us back. While the nurse is questioning me, I'm screaming my answers back at her because Max is screaming because I won't let him down because the nurse left the door to the room open and I'm sure if I let him go he'll dart out faster than a racehorse who has to pee. Sal, the other nurse (who Alexis has hated since the day she was born, but is actually the nicest guy), tries to do her vision test, but she won't talk to him. He's asking her what a variety of pictures are and she is sitting there like an idiot. Finally, I interrupt the other nurse, "Alexis, answer him, or you will be in trouble". Finally, she has a voice and passes her vision test. Then they both leave, door closes, Max is free. Oh, but then Alexis starts wailing because she heard the nurse say that she would be getting two shots. And when I say wailing, I mean as much as if she were getting them that very moment. The doctor comes in, examines Max first, and he has an ear infection. That would probably explain why he passed out when the thermometer went in his ear last night. Also, I ask for a new prescription for his Singulair to try chewables instead of the granules (this will come into play later). Ok, Alexis's turn next. There is only so much room on my lap right now so imagine both children sitting in what is left of it. And you can stop laughing now! While the nurse is trying to talk to Alexis and ask her questions, Max keeps running up to her and giving her a hug (sweet, but I was afraid they were both going to fall on the tile floor, forgetting the fact that the doctor is trying to have a conversation with her and she can no longer concentrate). So I grab Max and won't let him down....so he passes out AGAIN. IN FRONT OF THE DOCTOR! Well, then he went to sleep and Alexis finished her check up in peace. Doctor leaves and Sal comes back with two shots. Alexis went into panic mode. Total and utter chaos broke out. The screaming, wailing, crying began. She was holding down her sleeves so he couldn't roll them up. Now Max is still passed out over my shoulder so not exactly easy for me to tackle her. Finally we wrestle her down and get one arm done. Switch to the other side and start all over again. Finally, two down. She is freaking out like the man just cut both of her arms off. Yes, Max is still passed out over my shoulder. Gather my belongings and try to leave. Walk through the lobby to make Max's follow up appointment with Alexis trailing behind screaming wanting me to pick her up. Now, you thought 15 baby pounds was making my heart race and be out of breath, add 24 more because now I'm carrying Max, so FORGET IT SISTER. Make it to the door, and look outside and SHIT it is pouring! No, I did not bring my umbrella inside. Make a dash for the car. Get everyone piled in. And think, must I go to Target and get Max's medicine now???? For a brief moment, I considered going straight home, but thought better of it. Thank god for Target's covered parking deck. Bring the prescriptions in to the pharmacy and the pharmacist asks me what Alexis's birthday is. I'm about to respond when I realize that Alexis should not have a prescription. Well, the doctor wrote out the Singulair in Alexis's name. I think, no big deal, it doesn't matter whose name is on the bottle (she takes Singulair chewable already). But, no, they won't give it to me because we just had a prescription filled for her on the 14th so no more until Feb. 14. Are you joking? Screw it....not worrying about the Singulair now. So we wander around Target for 15 minutes while Alexis gimps around like she has no arms, pick up the amoxycillin, drive home. Get home, fight the fight to get Max to take the antibiotic, and go to get the Motrin for them both. Max passes out again while I run upstairs. I think this signifies early nap time. After Alexis throws her fit, she finally settles in to watch a movie. After about 1 1/2 hours (the best 1 1/2 hours of my day so far), I hear freaking out screams. Oh dear god, what next? Alexis peed on my bed. Really? I really hope that someone has secretly videoed my entire day just for the pure entertainment of others. Strip the bed, remake it, and REALLY desperately want to collapse on it. Instead, however, Alexis brings some toys in and we play. Now I sit venting on my blog. And about 2 minutes ago began hearing Max waking up. So I better muster up the strength to get him up while I take a moment to pray that Ben gets home early because he is going back to school tonight for some meeting. Oh and did I mention that during my 1 1/2 hour quiet time, a realtor called to say she is coming by tonight with a client so now I have to really go clean the house knowing that someone is in fact coming at 7pm. So please join in my many moments of prayer today that this will be THE ONE!

Oh, and to baby #3, enjoy it in there while you can.

Pure Joy

Finding absolute, pure joy in something solely for another person is almost humanly impossible. I mean think about the times in your life you have actually felt complete satisfaction and enjoyment for someone else that had absolutely nothing to do with you. I really think it is human nature not to feel this way for anyone other than your children. Luckily for me I have two of them (almost 3!). I have to say this is what I felt when at Disney World with Alexis. I found myself to be completely content just because she was so happy. I could not wipe the smile off my lips or my heart simply because she was happy. It is so cliche to say there's no place on earth quite like Disney World, but when looking through the eyes of a 4 year old, it is oddly true. There is some bizarre aura that allows you to forget about everything that you have left behind and be so completely engulfed in the moment. I have to admit I can't even remember the last time I could say I was totally immersed in a "moment" where I did not have 15 other things rotating through my mind. But for 3 days, I was there. Only experiencing awe and amazement. It is so refreshing to view the world through Alexis's eyes where Cinderella is real, Tinkerbell flies, and the biggest worry is finding Daisy Duck. At first, I thought "why does life not stay as simple and magical as when we are 4"? But to answer my own question, it can. All I have to do is look at Alexis and I can relive the magic.

Alexis meeting her idol!