Smiling heart and a snaggle-tooth smile!

Kit Kat is five years old. My L'il Man is seven years old. Kit Kat has lost two teeth. L'il Man has lost none. Ouch!

The first thing KitKat said when she woke up without her tooth was, "L'il Man is going to be so jealous!" He overheard her and barked back, "No I'm not!" I said, gently, "Buddy, it's O.kay if you're jealous." He said, matter-of-factly, "I'm not jealous. It's one of the Ten Commandments."

My heart smiled.

Thanking God today for reminding me that they do listen!

On Second Thought...

I felt guilty about my last post, so here's a picture of KitKat acting like the Princess that she is can be.

I was actually going to end this post here, but remembered a conversation from earlier today that I thought I'd share with you. She told me that I was the best mom ever, and I told her, "You're the best 5 year old!" She yelled at Sunshine earlier in the day, "I don't even like you!", so I took this opportunity to tell her, "KitKat, mommy just wants you to be sweet." She replied, "One day I was sweet all day. I don't even know how I got into all that sweetness. I'll have to think about it and try it again. Maybe Auburn was winning a lot." I hope Auburn has a winning season until she's 18!

Time Was On My Side

Sunday morning was a typical Sunday morning around here. We were running late for church and I was rushing the children out of the door. When we finally made it to the car, I looked at the time on the clock and said, "Y'all we are running really late. We have three minutes to get to church, find a parking place, and get inside. I need everyone's help." L'il Man said, with all of the confidence in the world, "Don't worry mom, I'll help." He then took his hands and made pretend binoculars out of them and held them up to his eyes. He focused his eyes on the clock on the dashboard. Confused, I asked, "What are you doing??" He replied confidently, "Whenever I don't look at the clock, the time goes by really fast, but when I look at the clock, it goes by so so slow. I'm just giving us a little more time to get to church." Well how about that!

I can't make this stuff up!

Thanking God today for stopping time and allowing us to get to church on time. Kind of reminds me of the time He fed a crowd of 5000 with 5 loaves of bread and two fish. (Remind me to tell you about the time He threw me a tennis ball!)

Sick and Tired

God gave me KitKat to keep me humble, because I was well on my way to writing a book on "How to be the Perfect Parent." My first two children are naturally obedient and eager to please. Their number one goals in life are to please Jesus (well, at least that's AA's) and to please their mom and dad. No joke. So you can imagine how great I thought I was at parenting. I thought that they were this way because I had raised them to be this way. I looked down on parents whose children didn't listen, talked back, didn't eat healthy foods, or didn't take their medicine.

Then God gave me Kit Kat.

And the rest is history.

I have been on my knees ever since - every day, sometimes twice a day, and occasionally...all day!

I adore that child, but she is tough! Most days I feel like I'm in uncharted territory. Her will is strong, her personality is strong, her demeanor is demanding! And I am totally lost!

Today is a perfect example. She ran a 103 degree fever most of the day. Dog gone it! That meant I needed to give her medicine! No!! Help!! I paged M. He didn't call back. KitKat slept most of the afternoon. I paged M again. Thank goodness he called back. "Get home, please. KitKat needs medicine and it will be a two-man operation." He came home. He said, "KitKat, it's time to take your medicine." I laughed to myself because I knew what was coming. "NO! I'm not taking that medicine." He has met his match! But she has met hers! She gagged as she tasted the pink bubblegum flavored medicine. 30 seconds later her head was in the toilet. So M crushed up a grape tablet in the apple juice and handed it to KitKat. She refused to drink it. M lost his patience and said, "Get on the bed. You're getting a suppository." She looked at me with the fear in her eyes. M said, "Come on." KitKat screamed, and I hate to admit it, but I was on the verge of dying laughing! In a last ditch effort to get her to take her medicine orally, I pleaded with her, "Kat, drink this right now so you won't have to put your medicine in your bottom." "I'll drink it - I'll drink it!", she sobbed. So she sat on the edge of the tub. I sat next to her. And M got comfortable (see photo above). She wasn't going anywhere til she drank that medicine. So we sat. And she sipped. And sipped. And sipped. And sipped . Finally, she was towards the bottom of the cup, where the majority of the medicine was concentrated. Then she started gagging (of course)! Then she ran to the toilet and threw it all up. The drama! The hurling! The noise! The coughing!

M said to her while her head was in the toilet, "When you're finished, I'm giving you a suppository." She replied, "Can you bring me a chair in here? It's gonna take a long time."

Me? What was I doing? Trying not to laugh but not succeeding! (oh yeah, and I took a picture).

So we brought out the suppositories. 45 minutes later, we were done.

I'm beat! M left for a meeting. And KitKat is no longer running a fever to she's running around like a wild Indian. I think I liked it better when she had a fever (Did I really just write that!?!?)

(I had to take a break from typing this so that I could feed the kids. This is what I walk into: KitKat says,"Mom, they don't believe me that I had to take my medicine in my crack." AAA and L'il Man asked simultaneously, "Did she really?" I replied, "She really did." Then KitKat added, just for kicks, "Dad had to stick his finger in my bootie." Y'all I swear I try to keep this G-rated, but my kids won't let me!)

Warning - Adult Content (eventhough my kids said it!)

The other day AAA started telling me a story, "Mom, today I hit Scott in the balls on the playground..." and she continues. When she finally finishes her story, I said, "I can't believe you just told me that story." "What??" she asks innocently. I replied, "Now tell me the story again." She continued, "Today on the playground I hit Scott with the balls..." "Oooh," I say. "What?", she asked. Then she gets it, "Mooommmm. .. I know what you think I said. You're so gross!" We laugh and that's the end of it...at least for an hour. Later we were in the car. AAA was in the very back row and she yells to me in the front, "Mom, does Will know?" I reply, "Does he know what?" She says again, "You know. " Then she whispers as loud as she can (!), "That he has balls." Will perks up and replies, nonchalantly, "Of course I know I have balls!" AAA then asks, innocently, "What are they for anyway?" Will replies, "For collecting your pee!"

It's a laugh a minute around here!

Quick funny

Tonight we were eating at Laredo's (Mexican restaurant). Kit Kat leans over to ask me, "Why do all the workers here look like Chinese people?" Love it!

Our "trip" to the dentist office

I can't believe I forgot to blog about this a couple of weeks ago ...I thought it was so funny at the time. I think I mentioned in a previous post that the children all had their teeth cleaned about three weeks ago. But I probably didn't mention that L'il Man had a cavity so we had to return to the dentist office a week later to have his cavity filled. After his visit, he came to the waiting room and said, "Mom, they didn't give me a filling. I replied, "Yes they did, buddy." He argued, "No they didn't. I just opened my mouth real quick and they looked in it and that was all.' I said, "Buddy, they gave you some gas in that mask they put on your face and it makes you forget stuff." He tilted his head to the side, looked me in the eye, and said, "What was in that stuff? They put that over my nose and I felt like I was doing the back stroke but my body wasn't moving!" Ha! I love it!

Have a great day!

Thanking God today for kids and laughter!

Oops!

The other day I said a "bad word" in the car in front of my four children. A college student (I am sure!) pulled out in front of me and I slammed on breaks to keep from wrecking the new Mini-Van. It was a four letter word. As soon as I said it, I said to the children, "Mommy just said a very bad word and I'm very sorry. I shouldn't have said it and I never want you to say it." L'il Man replied, "I know one bad word, the "F" word." Gulp. Hoping that it was the "F" word that means the same as "toot", but bracing myself to hear something much worse, I asked, "What is the "F" word?" He replied, "Stupid." Oh Thank God. You see, L'il Man also has a hard time saying his "s" sounds, so apparently he had said, "I know one bad word, the "S" word." Unfortunately, I think I may have taught him a new "S" word.

Thankin' God today for sweet innocence!

Cwushes!

Today I picked up my L'il Man and his friend from school. They are both 7 years old. L'il Man says, "Mom, Anna has a crush on somebody." Lil Man's friend says, "I think it's on me!" I asked, "How do you know?" He said, "Because she always smiles at me." L'il Man says to his friend, "Dude, I know. And when she stares at you and smiles...it's scary." The funniest part of the whole conversation was that L'il Man wasn't trying to be funny. He really gets scared when Anna stares at him and smiles! Ha! And the cutest part of the story is hearing my L'il Man say "scary." He has a hard time saying the "r" sound, so it sounded more like this, "Dude, I know. And when she stares at you and smiles, it's scawee." Love it!

Thankin' God today for this pweshus little man!

Wishin' and Hopin' and Prayin'

This is THE FIRST chance I've had to sit down and blog since our return from Disney, which was a complete blast! I took my two youngest children, KitKat and Sunshine, and my mom. My youngest sister also stayed with us, along with her 5 year old boy and 2 1/2 month old baby girl (who slept through the night!! Thank you, Lucy!). My other younger sister was there for part of the time with her 5 year old boy. The time together was priceless! We laughed about "nothing" the entire time!

KitKAt made a wish the first night that we were there at the "Dreams Come True" fireworks celebration. I begged her to tell me what her wish was. She was tight-lipped until I told her that it was O.Kay for little girls to tell their mommies. Major mistake. Of course her wish was impossible. And then she blamed me for her wish not coming true. So the next night she said, "I want to stay and make another wish since you ruined my life and made me tell you my other wish and it didn't come true." She's five years old! What will it be like when she's fifteen years old. I'm so scared! She has a very strong will and I'm not ashamed to tell you that her will IS stronger than mine! I've never been strong-willed. I don't even want to be strong-willed. But I know I better start! That girl is going to exhaust me! I love her to death, but boy howdy, she's one strong-willed little girl! I better get ready for a wild ride!

I'll post more pics later, but just wanted to say "Hello"

Thanking God today for that strong-willed little girl who will keep me on my knees!

That Just Ain't Right Part 2

All four children had dental appointments last week. It was a nice hour - I sat in the waiting room reading trashy celebrity magazines while the children had their teeth cleaned. I was really concerned about KitKat's teeth because she told me the day before the appointement, "I don't use toothpaste when I brush my teeth." What???" I had no idea. I asked, "Why wouldn't you use toothpaste when you brush your teeth??" She replied, "It's takes quicker if you don't use toothpaste."
I am happy to report that despite the fact that she eats junk everyday, she had no cavities!

That Just Ain't Right

Dinner conversation tonight:

Me: What is that smell?

Everyone stares blankly.

Me: WHAT is that awful smell?
Son , is that your socks??
It IS your feet. Get up and go put your shoes on.

Son: But mom, can't I just take my socks off?

Me: No way. Get up and go put your shoes on.

Son comes back, slightly grinning.

M to son: Are you wearing dirty socks?

Son: Yesuh. (Yes sir)

M (firmly and loudly): You better change your socks every day. And your underwear.
If I catch you wearing dirty socks, you're gonna get a spanking.
If I catch you wearing dirty underwear, you're gonna get a spanking.
Do you understand?

Son: Yesuh.

M: When we get up, I want you to go take a bath.

Son: But I had one yesterday.

Um

Tonight I took a bubble bath. After the bath, I put on my nice, thick robe and walked into my bedroom. The kids were sitting on the bed. I reached into my underwear drawer and grabbed the first pair of panties that I saw. A pair of black all lace panties. Li'l Man saw them , laughed ,and asked, "What kind of Mom are you?!" I started dying laughing. I said, "If it weren't so inappropriate, I'd put this on my blog." AAA pleaded, "Mom, but please don't post any pictures of you in them!"

Don't Shoot! It's Santa!

A couple of days before Christmas, the two youngest girls and I were in the van headed for home after having left Target. The girls had picked out some toys that they wanted Santa to bring them for Christmas. Sunshine said to KitKat, "If we aren't good, Santa will give our toys to the poor kids." Kit Kat said, "Mimi said the poor kids will shoot Santa." I immediately called Mimi and asked her why in the world she told the girls that the poor kids would shoot Santa (you can imagine what I was thinking...I won't put it in writing). Mimi denied it, but I could tell that KitKat was serious about having heard Mimi say that. Well about 4 hours later, Mimi called and said, "I remember. The girls and I were putting together gift boxes for Operation Christmas Child. I told them that they were for the poor kids. Sunshine asked why Santa just didn't go to the poor kid's houses and give them toys (good question, four year old!). I told them that there were wars going on in some countries where the poor kids lived and Santa might get shot." Ha! So now you can see how the children thought that the poor kids might shoot Santa!

You Might Be a Redneck If........

Sunshine and I were having a conversation about nothing today when she suddenly called me an "old grandmother." She giggled and I continued doing the dishes. AAA asked, "Did you hear what Sunshine called you?" I said, "Yes. But I really am old enough to be a grandmother." She didn't believe me but I went on to explain that if I had had a baby when I was 18 and my 18 year old had a baby, then I would be a grandmother. She said, "Yeah - but you'd be a redneck." O.Kay.
Sunshine asked AAA, "What's a redneck?" AAA replied, "Like when a boy wears his pants down real low. Or when your grandmother pulls off on the side of the road and goes Tee-Tee in the bushes." WHAT?!?!
I called Mimi to make sure she wasn't a redneck!
(She says she's not).

Thanking God today for silly conversations with my kids! And for AAA not believing I'm old enough to be a grandmother!

Enough with the Pennies, Already!

Apparently yesterday's post caused a little controversy! I'll try to post about something simple today, like the "pennies" Elizabeth mentioned in yesterday's comments! (And, Mimi, you already know this story!)

When KitKAt was two years old, Sunshine was about 15 months old, Little Man was 4, and AAA was 5. Needless to say, I was busy and tired! Kit Kat was in pre-school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Well on Thursday mornings, the little toddlers had chapel and would bring their pennies to chapel for the offering. As soon as I started dressing KitKat, she started asking for "pennies". I kept telling her that I would give her some when I dropped her off for school. I gave her breakfast. She asked for pennies. I brushed her teeth. She asked for pennies. I buckled her in her car seat. She asked for pennies. I took her into her classroom. She lifted up her little smocked dress and said,"I need some pennies". PANTIES! She needed some PANTIES! I had misunderstood her all morning -she wanted PANTIES- not PENNIES! Bless her heart! (And mine!)

Have a great day!

Thanking God today for those cute little bottoms that go into those size 2T Dora panties!

Mommy Who?

When I was 9 months pregnant with Sunshine,the rest of the family and I were all sitting on the bed, just talking. M. was leaning against the headboard, AAA and my Little Man were sitting in the middle of the bed, and I was sitting on the edge of the bed (at the foot), holding 6 month old KitKat in my lap. All of a sudden, I began to lose my balance. I tried to hand KitKat to Mark before falling backwards off of the bed. M. knew what was happening - he reached for Kit Kat and I had my arms outstretched so that he could take her. We were successful with the "baby hand-off"but I continued falling backwards.


The fall did little more than knock the wind out of me, but because it did knock the wind out, I couldn't talk. This caused M. to panic a little. He thought I was going to go into spontaneous labor right then and there. He ran and put KitKat in her bed and yelled to AAA and Li'l Man to go to their rooms, and ran back to me. By now I could mouth, "I think I'm O.Kay", but I still couldn't talk. M. managed to help me back on the bed - this time lying down. Within a few minutes I was back to "normal" and the children came back in to the room. AAA looked at me and ever-so-sweetly said, "Are you Okay, Mommy? It scared me. I said a prayer to God... I thought you was dying and I didn't know WHO was going to brush my hair!"


Well O.Kay Then! I see where my place is in this family... I understand my value.


Little has changed in the 4 years since that incident. After yesterday's little fender-bender, one of the children told me that she was glad that I wasn't hurt in the accident because "Daddy doesn't make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches like you do, mommy."


Thanks.


Thanking God today for ...hmmmm...


Thanking God today for being here and being able to fix hair and make peanut butter & jelly sandwiches! I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Disco Duck

KitKat and Sunshine have been asking me if they could take ballet. I 've tried to ignore their request because I really don't need one more place to be in the afternoons, but they are persistent so I'm about to give in. There are only two or three ballet studios in town and I must confess that I will not be walking into the one that starts with an "N"! And it really has nothing to do with the ballet studio or the instructors. I think I have a bad reputation there and I'm too embarrassed to return!

Here's the story: I was 9 months pregnant with Sunshine when it was time to register AAA for ballet. A dear friend volunteered to not only register AAA for me, but to also take her and pick her up from dancing lessons all year long! (Her little girl was in the same class as AAA). So of course I accepted the offer. So I bought AAA the cutest little leotard you've ever seen, along with a matching scrunchy,a tiny pair of pink ballet shoes, and shiny pink tights. And ,of course,she had a darling little ballet bag with her name on it. Well...about 4 weeks into ballet, AAA decided that she wanted some tap shoes. She talked about them ALL the time. Well by now Sunshine was here and I was sleep deprived and I was tired of hearing about the tap shoes. One night at dinner she said, "Everyone in my ballet class has tap shoes. I need some tap shoes." Well I couldn't believe that she flat-out lied to me about the tap shoes. Surely she was not trying to manipulate me into buying her some tap shoes! So I said, "AA, do not bring up the tap shoes again. You are taking BALLET. I know that everyone in your ballet class does NOT have a pair of tap shoes. Please drop it!"

Well about 6 weeks later, my friend told me that it was time to pay for their costumes. $75 for the ballet costume and $75 for the tap costume. I quickly replied, "Well AA just takes ballet, so just $75 for me." She said, "Tiffany, it's a ballet/tap class. They do ballet for 30 minutes and tap for 30 minutes." What?!? I wanted to die! My poor little girl had been tapping in her ballet shoes for almost 3 months! I wondered why her teacher hadn't called me so I quickly hung-up the phone with my friend and dialed the ballet studio. I spoke with her teacher and blamed the whole thing on Sunshine! Lack of sleep. yada yada yada. She said, "I asked AA why she didn't have tap shoes and she told me that her mommy said she wasn't going to buy her any and to not bring it up again." The ballet instructor NEVER laughed. As terrible as I felt about it, I still had to laugh. It was, after all... funny. However,I knelt down on my knees that day and looked AA in the eyes and apologized to her for not listening to her and not believing her. I asked her, "What did you do when everyone else was tapping in their tap shoes?" She just looked at me and said, "I tapped in my ballet shoes." What else was she supposed to do?!?!

The year just went downhill from there. By the time January rolled around, I was having to force her to go to ballet. We still had 5 more months of this. But I was locked in because of the small fortune I'd spent on the costumes.. the TWO costumes! May finally arrived but she did NOT want to dance in her recital. Of course I didn't give her a choice, but on the night of the recital, she said, "I'm so excited!" I knew it! I just knew she'd be excited when she put on her costume and matching feather head piece! I said, "I'm so happy that you're excited!" Well that little Disco Duck looked straight at me and said, "I'm excited because I never have to come back here again!" And after the embarrassment of being known there as the mom who refused to buy her little girl tap shoes, I was kind of excited, too!

Thanking God today for that little Disco Duck and for ALL little ones who so easily forgive their mommies! Maybe I'll do a little better the second time around!

Par-tea!

Yesterday I called a dear friend to tell her about how CUTE my goody bags/party favors were for Sunshine's 4th Birthday Party. I told her that I knew she'd be at the party in less than 24 hours and that she'd see them for herself then, but they were so stinkin' cute that I just had to tell her RIGHT THEN! (She was a great sport and played along well...thanks A.T.). And then I remembered...HELLO...I have a blog...I can brag to many people at once...PERFECT! So here's a picture of these cute goody bags folded and stapled to resemble large tea bags - complete with a grosgrain ribbon attached to a nametage where the "Lipton" label would normally be! >

Now enough about me and my tea/goody bags! Sunshine turned 4 on Friday and we celebrated today with a tea party. Lots of little princesses running around and a few cute-but-stinky boy cousins chasing after them! But guess what...Sunshine had such a great time with Mimi and Papa that she went home with them! We're all a little sad and lonely around here without birthday girl's love and laughter! The "problem" with her visiting her grandparents is that she doesn't miss me NEARLY enough! The last time that she visited them, she told me that while she missed me "A lot", she missed daddy "A LOTTER!" Well... I'll miss her "A LOTTEST!"

Of course I can't put a picture of my party bags in here without a picture of the party girl. So she's here too.

And a picture of her sister helping(?) with cake and cupcakes.

And a picture of the cake!
And I have no idea how to post more than one picture in some sort of order...hence the collage!

Thanking God today for Mimi's and Papa's everywhere, and for another beautiful year with my now 4-year old baby! How sweet it is!