That's gonna leave a mark

Why is it that during the most inopportune time, disaster strikes? Picture it. . .me home alone with three kids and Fernando is on call. This is a very common scenario so let's spice it up some. Add into the mix two neighbor friends whose mom is doing her RS Presidency duties. These kids are good kids, but I wasn't ready for the influx of energy. Some how in the short hour or so time I was babysitting, Tiago supermanned himself from the couch to the end table (must be made of kryptonite seeing as how is gashed right into his eyebrows). I was unable to witness this since I was assisting a naked friend into the bathroom. I had a surround sound of screams. The little neighbor shocked to see Tiago's bloody brow, Mia concerned that they were showing their sacred body, and Talia, getting bad vibes from the whole situation, added her own unique yelps. Strangely, my biggest concern was that he would have to have stiches and that would equal a painfully long visit to the ER.

To hopefully avoid this predicament, I phoned another neighbor who is a Doctor and he came right on over. One of the many bonuses of living in our neighborhood is that every other house has a doctor of one kind or another. Diagnosis: call Fernando so he can sneak out of the hospital with some Dermabond and be done with it. He kindly paged Fernando who contacted us. Just then the other mom came home. Poor her. I had to explain how her child had a little potty accident and that we had to leave due to Tiago's accident. I could only imagine what my face looked like as I was trying to remain calm and collected.

Just as the doctor ordered, Fernando bonded our kid's head there by getting a magical chance to see daddy and avoiding the ER at nighttime. The next day, Fernando had hopes of stitching it up, but the Dermabond wouldn't budge.

When plans go awry

Yesterday I made one of those insignificant, but wrong choices. This happens to me frequently. Such choices may involve picking what you think will be the short line at the drive up banking only to realize that the person in front of you is cashing in quarters and can only send 5 at a time. Or in the grocery store when you hop in the short line behind the lady who wants a price check on every other item and it's the clerk's first day on the job. Or trying to take the quick route to your destination that ends up being three time longer than the first option. Again, it isn't the end of the world just kind of annoying.

Back to yesterday. I had two main choices for the day's events. One: Story time down town with Miss Anastasia. Proven entertainment and the perfect day to do such. The weather was mild and the water fountains are always exciting. You can see for yourself how much fun the kids have at the Main Plaza Conservancy.



Option two: Big Top indoor play gym that seemed like a very active sort of fun. Plus the day was a discount day. (big flaming clue to avoid it) This seemed the better of the two as my kids had a lot of pent up energy from being inside all day for several days in a row. We drove the 30 minutes only to find an over crowded, not letting anyone in until someone leaves, sign your name up and have your kids watch other kids play situation. This puts me in a precarious place. If we don't wait, the kids feel jilted. If we do wait, the kids wonder why they aren't able to go in. If we leave after waiting, what a waste. I tried all three only to leave with a screaming/protesting Tiago and Mia explaining how really we could be playing inside instead of leaving and wasting all her time coming. To make matters slightly more awkward, Tiago who is potty training, had an accident. I didn't mind cleaning it up, but there was no way that I was picking him up before I could change him. (not the easiest slip to the car with three kids that I have been involved in). To top it all off, after we left and finally made it to the car to change Tiago and after getting everyone mostly loaded, three or four moms left which could have made our wait 30 mins shorter. Not appealing enough for me. It was almost nap time, we still had another 30 mins to go and I didn't bring any lunch. On top of all that, I realized that we were very close to the Temple, but I had no clue how to get there. As loser mom feelings crept in, I saw a beacon in the distance. The red and white Luby's sign. We ended the bad choices in a Denny's done Texas style and blue jell-O. Yeah, not what I was going for, but they did go down for naps so I guess the desired end result was the same.

Many Uses of Pull UPs

Tiago decided about the time Talia was born and we were getting ready to move that it was the perfect time to learn how to use the potty. We tried to persuade him to wait but he was determined. Without any major parental push, Tiago's interest faded leaving us with some brand spanking new pull-up training pants. Brigham Young as well as other Prophets have counseled us to not let anything go to waste. So when we were learning about the Armor of God we decided to get a little help from our Lightening McQueen pull-ups, some amazing aprons that Kristi made, and some play swords and shields to give us a more "realistic" effect. No fiery darts are going to penetrate this troupe!

A little Truman like insanity

In the movie The Truman Show, Jim Carey breaks down. . .frustrated at his so called real life. There is a funny line in which he asks his wife whether or not she will "slice or dice" him. I found myself in a somewhat similar predicament Friday. It was the 2nd time that week that Fernando had been on call which translates directly into over 24 hours of on call mom moments/responsibility with limited to no adult interaction or intercession. The kids were less then perfect and I was losing it quickly. Finally bedtime came and I sent the kids to get pjs on while I filtered through the mail. Mia's squeals pulled me from my mundane bliss only to bring me to my snapping point. Tiago with new essence of lilac super concentrated body wash was making puddles all over the family room upstairs. This wasn't the first attempt to decorate with soap. A few days earlier, Tiago had tried to blob up his comforter to no avail. Why is it that his first "successful" venture occurred on a carpeted highly traffic area? After a very unsightly, but unsatisfying yell-a-thon and hours of angry wet vaccing, I still had some aggression to release. So I did the most illogical cause/effect thing I could think of--whack off my hair. I was slightly tempted to shave it off in some odd sort of teenage expression of anger, but luckily I wasn't that dumb. Instead I did the safest cut job known to man. Pulling my hair into a pony tail, I grabbed my dull $1 wonderless scissors and gnawed my hair away. I once saw a stylist do this on tv to some lady with hair down to her toush in one of those extreme make overs and it looked remarkably good. My hair job wasn't so fantastic, but did relieve some aggression and brought a new sentiment of dang you ugly sort of feel. By the time Fernando was post call I found myself an appointment at a near by Paul Mitchell School (yeah I don't pay a lot for my hair cause it grows too fast). 5 hours later*. . .










*Knowing that it was a training salon, I knew it would take a little longer than normal, but 5 hours? Let's just say I am glad I came home to the kids dressed up as Woody's round-up with smiles instead of Lord of the Flies. Post call doesn't make anyone up for babysitting or being awake for that matter.