Dear Baby,

Oh, Baby Girl, Mommy's sorry you are so sad. You have been sad all day. OK, not all day. You are happy when you are nursing, or during the short periods of sleep. At times you will even sit on my lap happy for a few moments. But oh how sad you've been. I can tell you are not feeling like yourself. You've wanted mommy to hold you all day. I love holding you. But it makes me a little sad when even holding and cuddling my precious darling can't make it all better, and you are still sad. What can I do for you my sweet? How can I make it all better? I'll hold you forever if that what it takes. Your biggest sister is so awesome. Right now while I hold you and type this one handed, she is reading and singing to your big brother, getting him ready for bed. And he is being such a good boy and letting her do it. Next that biggest sister of yours, will read to the bigger and big sisters and help them get ready to bed. She is such a great helper. Oh, my girl, your sad little cry is breaking my heart. I love you baby. Oh how I love you. If only my love could make your sadness go away. There now, peanut, you've just given in to sleep. Hush my darling and sleep now.

The Art of Not Yelling

I came across a blog called the Orange Rhino yesterday. The ideas presented there caught my attention. Lately it seems that everyone yells at everyone else all of the time. Even my mostly mild mannered James has started to yell at his sisters. And most of the time the yelling is over something very insignificant, but turns into a full blown yelling match and even at time turns physical between the children. I have tried to not yell, to keep calm, but when my children push and push and continue to disobey me, I quickly lose my temper and resort to yelling. I feel like it is the only way to get them to hear me and finally get a response out of them. I hate it. I hate the feeling in the house after. I then say things like "why do they have to push me to my breaking point? Why do they make me yell at them to get them to do such and such?" But in reality, I know that it is I that has chosen to yell.
Enough is enough. Today it stops. At least for me. And hopefully by example it will spill over to the rest of the family. Next Monday for FHE I will present the plan to the family. On the Orange Rhino Blog there is a list of 100 alternatives to yelling, so I will print that out and post it in the house somewhere. We will talk about these alternatives and ways that we can help each other to stop the negative yelling and start with the positive talking. The Orange Rhino even has a "yelling meter" to help you through. I plan to put Orange Rhinos up all over the house as a reminder to all of us to stop the yelling. I know this isn't going to be easy. I now it will probably take longer for it to catch on with the kids, but wouldn't be nice if we could eliminate yelling? I think it is doable and only good can come from trying. So today I vow to stop the yelling. I am taking the Orange Rhino Challenge for myself, and taking the whole family along with me, whether they like it or not.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

I was looking at some older pictures that my dad had posted on Facebook, and marveled at how much Kathryn looks like me. Don't believe me? (as if anyone out there denies it) Here's proof.

At times while I was playing with these pictures I forgot that I was looking at two different kids...from two different generations. Crazy!
And here some proof that Ella looks a bit like me too.

Grandpa's Rotten Potatoes

I just had an interesting experience. I was peeling potatoes for supper, when I reached in a grabbed one that was half rotten. Oh the smell. Usually I hate that smell. It's the kind of smell that will make you gag. It's revolting and disgusting. But tonight, as I drew in a deep breath, I savoured that smell for just a moment as I grinned and thought of my Grandpa Paxman. Oh what sweet memories of harvesting potatoes, the potato pit and my Grandpa flooded my mind for that short moment. Then I pulled out another rotten potato and gagged at the smell.

Say No To Chocolate

So I have this baby. And this baby seems to react negatively to me eating chocolate in excess. This lovely, beautiful baby of mine can turn into a cranky unpredictable gas chamber when I consume chocolate in excess of a dozen mini eggs. This baby is forcing me to restrict my chocolate intake(for my sanity and her comfort), and by so doing may be the catalyst to me dropping some unwanted weight (one can only hope that such a thing will happen if being forced to cut back drastically in the chocolate department). That is if I don't substitute one fetish for another...like, say...licorice allsorts!!!

What a lucky girl.

So Kathryn came home from school all excited. Once again this kid has won something, a really cool something. This time she's won a Kobo E-reader. Very cool. I shouldn't say she's lucky. She worked for this. The School attended an Agriculture Safety day and at the end of it they were asked to make a poster depicting an aspect of farm safety and write a short essay explaining it. She did a wonderful job, as always. The past few years she has also won first or second place in the Milk River Watershed poster contest and has received a number of cool prizes and cash to go along with it. She is a very talented kid.

Growing pains

Wow, what a crazy, happy, busy, grumpy, peeing on the floor, sleepless, contentious, loving, cranky, messy, and enjoyable couple of weeks we've had. I swear that everyday since we brought Ella home can be described with each one of those words. The whole family seems to be having a hard time adjusting to our beautiful new addition. Although each and everyone of us absolutely adore her, that alone can be the source of our troubles, especially among the Big, Bigger and Biggest sisters...I constantly here "I want to hold her, you've been holding her more than me!" Oh to be loved so much that everyone fights over you. On top of that my darling boy has decided that maybe that potty is not all that it's been talked up to be. Peeing on the floor, deliberately, is totally the way to go. One day last week he came up stairs and said to me, "Pee potty". I was thrilled because we had already had a few "accidents" that day, so I said "good boy, go pee in the potty" to which he responded "NO, pee floor" as he walked into the bathroom. I called after him and said, "Don't pee on the floor, sit on the potty". Yeah...he just stood in the bathroom with his pants on and everything and peed on the floor, just like he said he was going to do. The next day, he pooped on the floor in the girls bedroom....I just about lost it....correction...I completely lost it. I had anticipated that we would have potty training set backs when Baby was finally born...I just didn't think that these set backs would be worse than when we started the whole potty training business. So I was forced to step back and start from the beginning. I got out the little portable training potty again, and hoped that he would at least be willing to sit on it. I've gone back to the cheering every time he does it on his own. I've stooped to bribing him with chocolate eggs when he refuses to sit on it at all. There is a lot less peeing on the floor, and that is always a good thing.

The girls never gave me so much grief when a new baby joined our family. But this boy of mine, he is really giving me the gears. He hadn't ever reached that Terrible Two stage, even though he is almost three, that is until he wasn't mom's baby anymore and the big sisters all went back to school. For the most part, he is still my lovable boy, but he can have a melt down over the littlest things. And when he has a melt down...Watch out! All Hell breaks loose and the whole house gets turned upside down. Some how he has the power to turn everyone in the house into a miserable monster and everything just goes up in flames.

Bed time is my favorite time of day. Honestly it has always been my favorite time of day, but these days I love it like I have never loved it before. Thankfully my kids have always been great at going to bed. Even the boy in his melt down, once he has been put to bed will stay in his room with the door shut. He may continue the melt down, but at least he does it behind closed doors. I have been trying really hard to continue with our regular bedtime routine, regardless of how he is acting. I want him to know that mommy still has time for him, and that some things will always be the same. But there are nights where nothing will console the monster, and the only thing that can be done is to leave him alone with his blanket and let him cry it out. And then when he has started to calm down, I always try to go in and tuck him in and give him a kiss and let him know I love him.

I have moments where all I can do is cry, but thankfully there are so many other moments that just make me smile or laugh right out loud. Yeah it's hard to be a mom to five kids....what, did I just say FIVE kids? How did that happen? Seriously, am I even old enough to have five...oh,right, yes I am. Not sure how that happened either, didn't I just graduate high school? (almost 20 years ago Mandy).....
Right, so it is hard and complicated and challenging to be a mom of five, but it's all good. We'll get this figured out before it's over....or at least working functionally well, in a way that we can all survive with smiles on our faces...That is the plan.