it's a normal life

Life is slowly getting back to normal.. Tahahaha. "Normal". As if. What I meant by that was; Connor is starting to walk a little more upright, nobody is throwing up in the middle of the night and Mike got the floor mopped. It's nice to be getting back on track.

Cooper had a well visit today and is a big bubba. I think he might be the biggest one yet. 16 lbs he is..(not sure why I had to talk like Yoda to say that..) My neighbor told me that her daughter was 16 lbs at 1 yr.. and here he is only 4 months old. It's not like he looks like one of those Maury babies that are terribly obese- he's not huge. He's just big.. not even roly poly. I don't know.

So back to his well visit today...Taking kids to well checks are funny after you have five kids. Doing ANYTHING after having five kids is funny. Our doctor basically walks in, does the once over, asks if everything is okay and bam, we're done. Literally we spend more time making small talk about his son's traveling hockey league than we do going over the development of the baby. I guess he figures after this many we pretty much have it down. The same goes for having a baby. First baby, you have a nurse in there every two minutes checking to make sure you don't have pain, making sure you have food, pillows, a working tv, checking how much you've voided.. Number five- you're lucky to even see a nurse. I think a couple times they threw the pain meds at me through the door as they were walking by...I did get a couple of "You good?"s as well. Or then you have the polar opposite nurse who treats you like you are a 16 yr old first time mom.. I try real hard to let them do their thing... *try*. I know everyone is just trying to be helpful. I'm not ranking on nurses, trust me. That's one job that deserves wicked kudos. The things they have to deal with.. NO thank you. If we have a "wet spill" on aisle 5 in the house, I'm calling Mike. Seriously. If someone has a poo accident, and he's not here, I will call him and see how long until he's home. No joke. I don't do well with poop- or throw up. *Gag* just thinking about it makes me ill....*ack* The other night when he was in the hospital with Connor, and both Cole and Chloe threw up- I contemplated just pretending like I didn't know it happened and waiting until he came home to clean it.. "What?!? Someone threw up? Huh.. I had NOOO idea. Weird. Seems like I would have HEARD something"... Nice, I know. And yet he stays with me, and loves me and would clean it up if I didn't. That's one of the gazillion reasons why I'm still so in love with him.. (awwwwwwww- quiet! {jealous})

freaks and stuff

So I thought I would just write a little more considering, I'm TRYING (keyword) to make this a nighttime habit- and not a "stare at it all day" habit. I think once I am LOVING the background, and can add more pictures, I will be a once per day blogger. My nightly unwind ritual..

People ask me what it's like to have five kids. It's about the same as one, except you are not a freak about everything. Granted, when you only have one, you have NO idea that you are a freak- first of all you are too busy being "sooooo tiiiiiirred" (cough, snicker)... and second of all, it's hard not to be a hovercraft when you only have one "area" to observe. Life changes the more kids you have. I was getting a bikini wax and a pedicure the night before I had Cooper, and the lady at the spa asked about the difference between my first and my fifth pregnancy.

Well, my first pregnancy- or should I say "our" first pregnancy (because you know it was like that) was pretty much over at month 5. We knew we were having a boy, we had his name, his clothes, his room, stroller, car seat, pretty much EVERYTHING but the baby so far in advance. We did a lot of pushing around an empty stroller and waiting.. Bags packed, focal picture, first outfit, birth plan, childbirth classes, breastfeeding classes, maternity ward tours, multiple trips to the baby store.. onesies, twosies, threesies- freak. freak. freak. I think he must have known we were a little anxious, because he couldn't wait to come out and so he decided to come early (umm hello?!?! that was NOT part of the plan).
You couldn't make noise if the baby was sleeping, you couldn't shower in the next room because it might wake the baby, don't breathe, don't even look down the hall toward his room, because..you guessed it, it might wake up the baby.. Of course if you had asked me then if this was normal, umm DUH- yeah, it's normal. So don't bring it up again, because I'll get really defensive and yell, and if that happens.. it MIGHT. WAKE. THE BABY!!! Fast forward to pregnancy five.. no bags, no room, no plan, no diapers, no carseat...instead, I'm at Dolce Salon and Spa getting waxed and painted the night before. So at least I had nice tooties and no hair down there for a few weeks after baby. See how my priorities have shifted?

Being a mom has totally changed me. Don't get me wrong.. I'm still a freak- I like things how I like them.. but at the same time I can roll a lot easier now. I am known to match my monkeys' outifts, get a little hyper when things don't go my way, I'm CONSTANTLY counting heads to make sure we have everyone (we have two that are a known flight risk), but I have so much more of a sense of peace within, and I can thank my kids for that. And their dad... he's pretty awesome. But we'll talk about him another time.

number two..

With the title of the post, you'd think that the content would have something to do with toilet habits, but that is not my intention, although as a mom of FIVE, the topic does come up pretty often..

So Chloe has been out of school since last Friday b/c of this flukey pukey thing she's got going on in the middle of the night.. Well, the night before last she didn't throw up, so yesterday she went to school, but was especially cranky when she got home, didn't really eat at supper and then threw up right before she got in the shower at bedtime. She woke up fine, so she went to school today.. I'm so on the fence about sending her to school,  but when she's fine ALL day, and wants to play and ride bikes or scooters, I'm pretty sure she can handle school.. What's strange, is that Cole threw up the other night too- while I was cleaning up Chloe and her bed- but he's been fine since.. eating like a champ and playing..

Connor is recovering from his surgery.. He's not really a "milker", but I think he's digging the extra attention he's getting from this whole ordeal. I've said for a while that he is a great only child- the only problem he has is those four pesky siblings. He reminds me of myself when I was that age. He knows everything, questions everything, and there is no room for gray areas. He's also not one of those kids that can be appeased with a half-way answer. For example, once we were in a public restroom and there was a tampon machine in there. "What's that?" "It's for Ladies." "Okay, but what is it?" "It's a tampon." "Okay, what does it do?" "It's something that ladies use once a month." "Okay, but for what?" "For when they have their period." "What's a period?" (do you see where this is going?). I think I explained something and then said "Let's ask Daddy when we get home". That's my "get out of jail free" card- the "Oh, I don't know, why don't we ask DADDY"... Someday the kids will figure out that I really DO know, I just don't want to explain it. I also do the same thing when it comes to replacing batteries or fixing things. "Oh Mommy can't do it, let's ask Dad". It buys me a little time to plan my escape.

I feel like I can't talk about some kids and not talk about others.. So I'll chat it up about Collin- my best three year old. He's funny. This morning he said "I'm sick" so I said "well, go lay down" "I'm not that sick, but I will be sick in 5 minutes, so I need medicine now to make me better". I love how he predicts the future. In true 3 year old spirit, five minutes later, he had forgotten all about sick, medicine and was ready for school. That one will be the topic of many posts, I can tell. Mark my words.

Cooper- ahhhh the baby. I never really thought there was anything to that whole "baby of the family" thing, but oh my- if I could convey baby talk over the computer, you would be sick. Little schmoopsie poopsie cutie pie. Oh I love him with every thread of my being. There's something about those little cuddlebugs that just gets me <>...

I'm going to end it on that warm fuzzy note.. can't ya just feel it? Like grandma's afghan. Snuggle up friends...

maiden voyage into bloghood...

So I'm thinking this blog idea might be good for me. I was inspired by a blog that I came across in an offhand way. My lifelong partner in crime, sister-friend, bff Stacy shared a blog with me about someone who has breast cancer right now. When she called me to tell me about it, she was emotional, and after spending more time that I should have on the computer looking at the blog, I was emotional as well... I was moved by the stories, the music, the pictures and inspired at the same time to go on a journey that I have contemplated for some time- that being..MY own blog.

I'm not a fan of bragging about myself- but I do have a great life. I think you don't have to yell truths about yourself to others, most times they are obvious. I think the only reason that people try to convince others of something, is that really, deep inside, they are only trying to convince themselves... jmho.

I have a great family. I find myself to be blessed. So much sometimes, I have to look at my life and say "really? WOW!" I never- *stress*NEVER* thought my life would turn out like it has. I think I had hopes for a happy life (what girl doesn't) but the road getting there was full of twists and turns and plenty of mistakes on my part. I feel whole, and it's a good feeling.