Monday, July 27, 2015

highs, lows, bests, and worsts

Sometimes you just have to stop and asses the quality of your domestic and parental endeavors both for the sake of additional laughter and learning in the realm of the wife and mother world. Enter highs and lows, bests and worsts.



+ This summer has been as sorts of busy with things that normal, fun parents do for their kids in the summer that I have never brought myself to do out of sheer laziness, one of which is the ever-so-necessary SWIM LESSONS!! This is a best and a high for me because I am DOING it. I am getting them there, they are learning to swim, I am fulfilling my motherly duty and they are much less likely to meet their maker during an otherwise fun and uneventful beach trip. It's good. But then today it was also a...

+ Low and worst. Because! I was in the locker room getting dressed in one of the stalls after instructing Bernadette and Lucy to sit tight while Naomi and I dressed. It was then that I heard Lucy ask in her typical loud and nasally voice as to the color of some one's skin. I held my breath and almost breathed a sigh of relief when I didn't hear anyone answer back right away and hoped beyond all hope that she was simply asking Bernadette about someone she had seen and NOT asking an innocent bystander if they "had very black skin???". But then my relieved sigh turned into a guttural gag when I heard the poor woman answer Lucy with a very gracious "yes, I have darker skin than you" and then proceeded to even more graciously laugh out loud about "how much Lucy was staring at her" (cue every mortified, horrified emoji there is in the whole world!!!). I promise we do not only have white friends, I just have very tactless kids and I am not the best teacher-parent.

She'll figure it out one day and so will I.

+ I have become very aware of how horrible I am at getting to commitments on time and last Tuesday found me running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying not to be late again to our second swim lesson and sprinting into the building only to discover that lessons were actually canceled that day due to an accident in the pool. I was not about to have all of my efforts at getting so many kids clad and in the car be in vain and decided to make a quick run to Old Navy to return a few things purchased on a gloriously kid-free shopping stop a few days prior. Need I even say more about why this was a major low/worst? 4 kids in Old Navy with lots of tweens and college aged people with zero kids and open-mouth stares and all those mannequin in the front of the store. It made for a really fun, tantrum filled trip complete with appendages falling off the mannequins and Lucy riding the fake Old Navy dog. She flat-out refused to leave the store because she had claimed the dog as her own and I walked out with a confused baby on one hip and one screaming toddler on the other. I made the firm resolution then and there to never do that again. Or at least not for a few weeks.

+ Ok, how about a high or best. It's 2:30 p.m., 2 kids are "napping" and I am drinking coffee out of a Guinness glass:


Elmo says "at least it's not Guinness". A high and a low if you ask me.

How about you? Share our goods and bads, I am all E-Ears.

11 comments :

  1. I'm just really glad I'm not alone. Sometimes I feel like I have the hardest job in the world and that raising three toddlers is going to do me in. I have low moments every single day and usually multiple times a day. I've taken more deep breaths than ever in my life and had to walk out of rooms more times than I can count just so I can step away from a situation to make sure I don't blow up. But, but, but, I wouldn't trade being a mother for anything and I keep forgetting that four short years ago we weren't even sure we'd ever have the chance to become parents biologically. That thought puts me in my place real quick. Anyway, all that is to say again, thanks for this Ana.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am with you too. Yesterday I had all 4 with me at the grocery store. Joshua threw a tantrum because he saw a toy in one of the aisles. Why does there have to be random toys hanging in multiple aisles? I just want to buy sugar! And I decided that I wouldn't take all of them shopping for awhile. But then today! I decided to go to Walmart anyway. Joshua did fine until we got to the van to go home and he wouldn't let me buckle him in. We sat for 20 minutes in the car trying to talk him into getting in his carseat and then I had to force him in. He screamed and fought the entire way home. This time I made a firm decision to really not go anywhere for the next week... haha! I think I might just go make an iced coffee as well! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh boy. The Walmart. Oh boy. The BUCKLING! My three-y-o fights me on this still EVERY TIME! I try to just stay at home as much as possible, and order everything on dang Amazon!!!

      Delete
    2. Oh Lauren, this sounds identical to so many of my outings with kids. When will we learn!? Probably when they're all grown :)

      Delete
  3. Getting them to lessons is the worst. And I am an idiot and signed them up for not only swim lessons but other stuff. Are they having fun at dance and camp and all? Yup. Am I dragging all 4 kids all over all the time even though I hate that and I'm 8 mo pregnant and its July in Texas? Also yes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Whahahahaha! The Old Navy trip!! I went in there the other day with my three youngest, and LOST one, had to do several bathroom trips, and had to figure out how to nurse in the baby wrap. I went in there just to get two pairs of flip flops. The high there is that I actually only bought what I intended to buy. The low is that it took us over an hour. #motherhood

    Coffee in a Guinness glass: YES!! I sometimes have my wine in a coffee mug! ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wine in the coffee mug. All the time!!

      That Old Navy trip sounds hilariously similar to ours, my kids think it's hilarious to hide in all the clothing racks, which is fine if you only have one to keep track of, but 4!?! Recipe for child services being called, for sure.

      Thank you for letting me know I am not alone!!

      Delete
  5. Good? Almost done with the first trimester (with baby #4)... Bad? My 4 year old now asks constantly if I'm nauseous. Ha! Good? Painting the two room we're staying in at my in-law's. (Even better? Since I'm pregnant, I can't paint. So it's all on hubby.) Bad? All the prep work it takes! I'm washing walls and taping off doorways... it's exhausting!
    Good? I've enjoyed summer. Bad? For us, it's almost over. And that means my husband leaves to go back to teaching in rural Alaska while we stay behind in Washington this year to see me through the rest of this pregnancy. I'm so grateful to be surrounded by family... but I'm really, really going to miss that man of mine. And so are our three sons. :(
    PS-- Thanks for the Monday evening word-vomit therapy! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh man, Ana. My low also came at swimming lessons but I would have LOVED if it was just my kid asking about someone's skin color. James, who is almost 5 and has played in pools before, and I went to a mom-kid class and he flipped out. Like death grip, screaming, leg around my neck. I was so mad at him because we'd talked about it, I'd arranged a sitter, it cost money, and I yelled at him, spanked his butt and we left. Everyone thought I was the worst mom ever. So yippee.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bonnie! This WAS ME today at swim lessons. Literally every person was staring at me as I yelled angrily through gritted teeth at my almost 3-year-old for dowsing our towel in the water and then tantruming the entire way out of the building. I'll be hitting up confessions tonight for sure.

      This mothering thing is no joke and I am really behind at figuring it out. I am glad I am not alone in the struggle!!

      Delete
  7. lol! Hilarious also I cannot believe how much your oldest has grown!! wow and kids always make those comments. My brother once told my friend he was going to eat her because she looked like chocolate...

    ReplyDelete