Zero Tolerance = No Common Sense

I am so irritated right now. I am just fed up with the public school system. EVERYTHING has to be made an issue and there's no more "let's call the parents and let them handle it."

I got a call from the principal today telling me to come get The Nut because she was hugging and kissing a boy on the field during P.E. He also said that she's suspended tomorrow which is the last day of school.

Ok. These kids are six. It's not like they were frenching each other. If anything it was a peck or two MAYBE on the lips but most likely on the cheek. At any rate, they're SIX. Does it really require a suspension? Can they not see the difference between 2 sixteen year olds kissing in an empty classroom and 2 six year olds pecking on the field during P.E.? One scenario is serious and the other is innocent. In fact, not too long ago adults would giggle at 2 six year olds kissing and would maybe even take pictures. GASP. Now it's grounds for disciplinary action.

@@ <----------That's me rolling my eyes.

I wish I could homeschool but I know my limitations. Too bad we don't live next door to a retired teacher who loves kids and wants a little extra income. I just don't see things getting any better over the next 11 years.

Technical Difficulties

The Nut just came up to me and told me she couldn't get the apple juice machine to work. I was confused until I went into the kitchen.

I recently bought a pitcher to put the apple juice in since we buy the giant one gallon glass containers of juice. This was the first time she used the pitcher and didn't know she had to turn the lid so the open part was lined up with the pour spout.

Apple juice machine, LOL.

Don't Report Us For Neglect

My sister wanted me to post what happened recently. For background, The Nut and Frito are both pale white with blond hair and light eyes. My sister's husband is Mexican and their little girl, I'll call her "A," takes after him. She and The Nut are only 4 months apart so they're very close. The other day The Nut came out of her room with 2 sock puppets she had made and asked me if I could guess which one was "A."

I feel SO bad about not posting in so long. The problem is that I have a velcro baby and it's extremely hard to type one-handed. My email replies average about 1 sentence lately and I can't be held responsible for typos. Luckily, she stayed asleep this morning when we rolled out of bed so I'm able to update.

She generally only sleeps soundly if I'm uncomfortable. She likes to be pressed right up against me with my boob either in her mouth or at least resting on her cheek. That means I have to be curled up around her with one arm flung over her head and I have to be STILL. That one arm starts to freeze up AND just freeze since I'd have to put a blanket over her head to cover it up. So I don't sleep well and then I hurt when I wake up. Good times.

This morning The Nut was up first and she asked if we wanted her to get Frito out of the crib when we heard her stirring around. So they were up for some time while we dozed. Then The Nut came back in to tell us that Frito had taken off her diaper. Instead of getting up and taking care of it TGTBT asks her to please put another diaper on The Nut. So off she goes. We can hear her struggling with Frito and Frito is squealing and fighting back.

Now, good parents would have gotten up then and taken over. REALLY good parents wouldn't have made their 6 year old take care of the 2 year old in the first place. Being just mediocre parents, we laid in bed and giggled at the sounds of the drama. Then we heard The Nut say, "There! She won't get that diaper off now!" And she giggled. All I could picture was Frito walking around covered in scotch tape.

Frito came and climbed into bed and I saw that The Nut, genius that she is, had put the diaper on her backwards. I looked at TGTBT and he looked at me and then shrugged and said, "Hey, if it holds everything in and stays on, who cares?"

When she got dressed she put her shirt on backwards too. She's just keeping with the theme.

I Can't Stop Sweating!

I'm sure it's some combination of hormonal changes and having a warm cuddly newborn on me at all times but I feel like I'm ALWAYS sweating. It's disgusting. What's even worse is that I rarely have time for a bath anyway so I stay filthy all day and get a 5-10 minute bath before bed while TGTBT keeps the baby occupied. I couldn't wait to have the baby so that I could shave my legs and do, ahem, other maintenence, but since I barely have time to do the absolute bare minimum that's pretty much off the table. And people wonder why new moms sometimes go through a depression and "let" themselves go to pot. I love the men who complain about how their wives never put on makeup anymore and wear sweatsuits all the time after the baby. We don't have a choice!

I do sometimes feel resentful that 99 times out of 100 the man's life hardly changes at all after a new baby. They still go to work, run their errands when they want to and TELL their wife when they have something planned as opposed to the mom who literally loses herself in the new baby. There's not a thing about my life that's the same as it was 4 weeks ago. My time is not my time, my body is not my body and, quite literally, my life is not my life anymore. This isn't my first go-round so you'd think I'd be used to this phase and it would be old hat but it doesn't get any easier. In fact, with the older kids to deal with also it gets harder each time.

Now, the above paragraph isn't necessarily about TGTBT as he does everything possible to help and encourages me to take time for myself. I do get a little bent out of shape that he doesn't seem to realize that I CAN'T. He suggested I go to Walmart by myself last night just to get out of the house and Frito needed diapers. The baby hadn't napped all day and had just fallen asleep on me and she needed to sleep. I couldn't just up and disturb her and drag her out when she was so tired. He said he'd keep her and I should go by myself. That won't work either because I'd imagine her crying as soon as I pulled out of the driveway and I'd get anxious and all worked up trying to hurry and get back to take care of her. In my defense she honestly doesn't stay asleep unless she's on me so the above scenario is a given. So he tries to help, but......

I did get out this morning with Frito and the baby to go to Walmart and it wasn't that bad. The worst part, of course, was the sweating because I had the baby in the Mai Tei all bundled up against me and I was just dripping sweat. But other than that it wasn't too bad at all for my first trip out with more than one kid by myself. My mom is coming tomorrow to go grocery shopping with me because that's something there's no way I could do by myself with the baby and Frito.

Anyway! I need to get to wash clothes. I forgot how much more laundry a tiny baby means!

I survived!

Yesterday couldn't have gone any more smoothly. The girls slept until 11 and Frito was very well behaved and the baby did a lot of napping and let me put her down a lot more than usual. Of course, my mother was also here from 1:30 until about 7:30 so the kids made me look like a liar by being so good. My mother cooked us a big supper and helped wrangle Frito throughout the day and held the baby some and I got a lot of laundry done. By done, I mean REALLY done. Folded and put up and everything. We've been living out of baskets for so long that it feels good to have that accomplished.

The Nut's teacher called TGTBT at work yesterday to let us know that The Nut has been really acting up these past 2 weeks. Gee, I wonder what could be going on in her life that's making her act up.......for 2 weeks now.........

So when she got home I asked her why she thought she was getting into trouble in school and she said, "Because I'm bad."

"Ok, but WHY are you being bad?"

"My mind is just out of control!"

Like my mom said, you KNOW she's heard that from a teacher before.

Today has gone pretty smoothly also and I decided to try to go it alone. So far the only conflict has been when I was trying to nurse the baby back to sleep and Frito was crying in her crib for me. It's so hard not being able to jump up and take care of her like I used to/want to. She doesn't seem to be any the worse for wear though and loves on the baby every chance she gets. Of course, she also tries to take her from me to put her in the swing so we have to watch that but it could be worse!

All That Drama

for nothing. TGTBT decided late last night to NOT go in to work today because he had a few more things he wanted to finish on the house and meet with the contractor again to tie up a few loose ends. So I have one more day to deal with the anxiety and freak out.

And I do believe I am a swaddling convert. I used a Halo blanket last night for the first time and she seems to stay much more settled. In fact, she's now napping in the swing all swaddled up. She actually didn't sleep as well last night as she did the night before but I think the night before was an anomaly. She slept 6 hours straight Sunday night. Last night she slept in 3 hour stretches. I'm happy with 3 hour stretches. But she seemed to be easier to get back to sleep last night and didn't really move around and get fidgety.

I never swaddled my first two. The Nut slept through the night at about 2 weeks and by about 3 weeks she was sleeping 8 hours straight. Frito probably could have benefitted from being swaddled but it was just something I never really thought about trying. But if it works, it works! And they look so darn cute all bundled up like a burrito. :o)

I'm Freaking Out!!!

TGTBT goes back to work tomorrow.

Enough said.

The baby (still don't have a nickname----I keep saying I'm going to call her Won Ton since she looks Chinese) sleeps well at night but for some reason is HARD to get down during the day. At night she sleeps next to me and will fall asleep nursing and that's that. During the day she falls asleep nursing but when I lay her down she wakes up within about 5 minutes. She'll sleep for hours in my arms or on my chest but that's about it. Which means I wind up sitting almost all day because I know if I put her down she'll cry and then I'll have to go through the whole process of getting her to fall asleep again. I wouldn't even mind that so much if I didn't also have an almost 24-month old to deal with.

So TGTBT has been taking care of EVERYTHING since all I'm good for lately is sitting and nursing. The times he's been gone and I've had to put the baby down to deal with Frito have been very stressful because nothing sends me through the roof like a crying baby. Not that it's irritating------I just have an overwhelming need for my babies to NOT cry. It breaks my heart. They sound so pitiful and I just want to make it STOP! Today I had to give Frito a bath and TGTBT was tied up with FEMA people so I put the baby in her bouncer and gave Frito the fastest bath in history and then she was upset because she didn't get to play in the tub so I had to listen to BOTH of my babies wailing and I was near tears myself. Thank goodness The Nut was in school because if she'd have joined in I'd have lost it.

Speaking of The Nut, today was her first day riding the bus to and from school this year. She was very excited. There was just no way I could see bringing her to and from school now that the baby's here. You have to sit in line for up to a half hour sometimes and the baby isn't overly fond of being in the carseat so this is best all around. Hopefully Frito and the baby will sleep through me getting The Nut ready and on the bus in the mornings so that I don't have to try to handle both of them starting at 6:30 in the morning. TGTBT doesn't get home until about 6:30 in the evening so 12 hours of a newborn and a 2 year old would do me in. I know it.

Frito has developed a taste for Desitin. I caught her eating a tube of it a few days ago, read the warnings on seeking medical attention ASAP and was freaking out because it was just me, her and the baby. I didn't think she'd eaten very much because it looked like she was digging out what was in the cap. I smelled her breath and it still smelled like cinnamon from breakfast so I decided she was fine. Then yesterday TGTBT caught her with an almost empty tube of it and it was smeared on her chin. We had no idea how much she'd eaten and her breath smelled a little like it. I hopped online and was reassured that it would actually be difficult to "overdose" on it so we just watched her and she was fine. Later that afternoon TGTBT caught her eating shampoo. We try to keep everything out of reach but she's at that age where she could probably construct a rocket to get at what she wants.

The Nut spent last weekend at her grandpa's and TGTBT and I got in her pig sty and cleaned it top to bottom. She called and I told her what we'd done and she sighed and said, "Oh, great. Did you clean out from under my bed too?" "Yes we did and it was filthy under there." ---sigh---"Oh, great. I had things just how I wanted them under there!"

Well, I've been on edge all evening anticipating what tomorrow's going to bring. I'm afraid to start our nighttime routine because it feels like the end. Once I go to bed I'm going to wake up in a whole new world and I'm not sure I'm ready for it. Part of me just wants to fast-forward through the next 3 months or so to when it'll be easier. And people actually PLAN and WANT to have kids this close together?! I just keep thinking of my sisters who each have had very stressful newborn periods for different reasons. They survived it and I suppose I will too. I just may need to have 5 minutes every day when TGTBT gets home to lock myself in the bathroom for a good cry. I'm sure he won't mind.