Funny, Dunny, and Their Friend Star Wars

These two lucky toys are Justin's new best friends.  He sleeps with them every night.  They are toys from Wacky Packs which in case you don't know is Sonic's version of the Happy Meal.  I'm sure Sonic really appreciates that comparison.

Anyway, Justin scored two of them because Leo didn't want his. I guess Leo's too good for a plastic toy that doesn't do anything.  But not Justin.  He's got that wonderful imagination that makes two mini Route 44's his new best friends.   He has slept with them for the past 4 nights.  And not just slept with them in his bed, but has totally spooned them as much as a four year old can spoon two 2-inch toys. 

Saturday morning I was woken up by Justin peering at me from the side of the bed while holding them in front of his face.  And he says,

"Mom, meet Funny and Dunny.  Dunny was cranky last night so he had to sleep in the toy (a batman vehicle) so he wouldn't keep me and Funny awake all night.  We needed our sleep."

"Say cheese, Funny and Dunny!"

Then later in the day he says to them, "Don't be sad, Funny and Dunny.  Are you sad because we are going to the Harlem Globetrotters?  Don't be sad.  We will be back.  They are just funny basketball guys.  Oh yes, sir, they are." 

Tonight, Funny and Dunny met Star Wars.  They have become good friends!

Leo told me that he wishes Funny and Dunny would "say underpants because that would be so funny!  But they can't say poop or pee or butt.  That would be bad and they would have to go to time out.  I have to go to time out if I say butt." 

Never a dull moment in the O'Brien household!!

Calm Is My Middle Name

When I am experiencing difficulty in various aspects of my life, I think the best thing to do it is sit back and reflect on what I could be doing better.  I did that today.  I spent some good time reflecting and playing back different situations and how I handled them.  And what I decided is that none of it is my fault.  I am completely without fault.  So there! 


In an attempt, albeit a weak one, I will try to be be strength based about these challenges.  Each challenge has presented yet another opportunity for me to hone my skills. I am working hard at remaining calm, thinking on my feet, and modeling responsible reactions/responses.  I'm pretty good at thinking on my feet and talking my way into or out of things.  I've got the silver-tongued gift on most days.  Other days....not so much.  And on most occasions I am calm.  Calm is my middle name.  It's pretty hard to get me rattled (at least in front of people.)  I prefer to have my freak outs in private if at all possible.


I guess I can be thankful that the last 2 weeks have given me ample opportunities to practice being calm and thinking on my feet.  I've been fairly successful at it lately.  And boy, let me tell you there have been some situations where I could have slipped off the sanity track.   Some real doozies lately.  I would just love to shout the gosh awful truth right to people's face.  It would probably make me feel better.  No, it would DEFINITELY make me feel better, but that's not my role and it's not my style.  I don't get to be "that" person.  I get to be the responsible one.  The boss. The parent. The adult.  I signed up for these roles and I'm gonna stick with them however painful it might be.


If you don't believe me, I've got lots of examples.  Many of them can't be shared on this blog due to confidentiality, but I can give you a perfect example from today.  My boys had a meltdown while we were out running errands today.  I know this is a big shocker to those that follow the blog, but I didn't do anything wrong this time.  I fed them before we left.  Everyone had been potty.  Everyone slept through the night.  Everyone was their sunshiny selves when we left.  Maybe it's just shopping in general.  It's not my favorite thing to do either, despite what my husband believes, but I don't always have a choice. 


I'll cut to the chase.  Both boys through a little fit at JC Penney's.  The sass was flying around.  We got into the car and I announced calmly that plans had changed.  We were no longer going to our next destination.  New plan:  HOME.  Well, this didn't sit well with Justin who proceeded to sass and kick the back of the passenger seat.  So I followed my little plan.


I remained calm.  I calmly reminded Justin that the last time he behaved this way in the car on Christmas night he ended up losing his Leapster for one week.  (I wasn't so calm Christmas night and things didn't go well. If I expected calm, I better be calm!) 


Then I pulled out the biggest trick I had available to me in my parenting bag.  I told Justin that if he didn't choose to start being calm and nice soon that I would call a babysitter to stay with him while the rest of us went to the Harlem Globetrotters tonight.  That was quick thinking for sure!  It was a risky move on my part.  I'm a big proponent of only threatening actions that I can follow through on.  This one was a gamble.  But we did have about 6 hours to rectify the situation and at least 2 of those should involve a nap.  I was willing to gamble.


He continued his ranting and sassing.  So I calmly grabbed the cell phone and made a fake call to the babysitter. I had me a nice little fake chat with the babysitter and explained our little predicament.  I told fake babysitter that I was so sad Justin wouldn't be able to go with us because he was so excited about the Globetrotters.  I also told her that I would be happy to call her back if he decided to start being nice between now and the time we left.


It was immediately calm and quite in the backseat.  A mere 5 minutes later I got a super nice and sincere apology.  I, of course, then picked up the phone and make my little fake call back to the babysitter and excused her from her fake duties tonight.  I even threw in a little "We'll call you again sometime when the boys are being nice so you can come over on a night they are being happy." 


And don't think I won't be bringing this up tonight.  I'll be all "Hey, aren't you glad you decided to be good so you didn't have to miss this?"  Oh yeah, I can play it out until the cows come home!  I wish I could say every challenge these last two weeks has ended this successfully.  But alas, they have not.  I will keep giving it my best shot.  And so speaking of the cows coming home, this cow is going to go bake some chocolate chip cookies.  Four of them.  So there.  All's well that ends well.  (except my waistline is not appreciating the added stress lately!)


btw, do they sell alcohol at the Sprint Center during a childrens event?  Mama might need a cocktail to make it through tonight!!

Them v. Me

You know what my problem is right now?  It's that my four year old insists that I NOT discipline my 3 year old. I realize this problem is small potatoes compared to so many people with real problems.  I'm not so silly and self absorbed to think it's an actual problem.  In fact the more I think about it, it's really more entertaining than a problem and I hope you are entertained by it too.

Justin stands in complete defense of Leo every day.  I guess that's what big brothers do.  If I so much as say boo to Leo, Justin is right there telling me how I should let up on him so that Leo won't cry or his feelings won't be hurt or he can still have his prize, etc. 

Tonight, as with so many nights, those discussions center around dinnertime.  Ahhhhh, dinnertime.  The thorn in my side in more ways than one.  Leo's constant "I don't like that" mantra is to be expected these days.  He didn't fail me tonight.  To set up the story I have to go back to last night.  If the boys finished their dinner they got the ultimate reward: a blueberry muffin for dessert.  I know you are jealous. 

Leo ate pretty good but he got too distracted and didn't finish within the allotted dinner time (which is a requirement lest it go on for 3 hours).  And of course, Leo was sad and disappointed that he didn't finish his food.  Such are the lessons in life.  Also a lesson in life: sit quite while letting your big brother fight your battles. And that's what Justin did tonight.

Leo didn't want what we were serving.  Big fat shocker there.  I simply reminded him that he will have to eat all of it before he will get a blueberry muffin.  To which Justin replies:

"Mom, you are making me very angry!  Just let him eat whatever he wants so he won't cry.  Just give him a muffin so he'll be happy.  I don't like it when you make him cry."

So I respond with my obligatory "I'm the mom....I make the rules for the house....everyone has to follow them, etc, etc." And Justin's reply is "I'm getting so angry about this.  I'm going to knock out a tooth I'm so angry.  I can't even stand it when you make Leo cry!!!"

Incidentally, Leo is backing ME up with this and reminding Justin that "mommy is in charge and she is the BOSS."  I'm no fool.  This is just the beginning of the them vs. me mentality.  I'm getting a good grip to hold on for the ride!!

Thoughts Of The Day

I am sort of out of the blog mode so in order to kick start my thoughts I decided to just make a running list of thoughts/events today to see if they produced blog ideas.  What I found is that they are kind of a blog in and of themselves. 

1. Laundry sucks. 
2. The junk drawer is overwhelming so I cleaned it out and spread the junk throughout out the house so it is all in its proper junky places.
3. The biggest tragedy of the day is that Justin's pink princess ring from Brooklyn's birthday party in July of last year broke. The "jewel" came unglued.  And so did Justin.
4. The card game War is extremely boring and I thank my dad for playing with us for hours on end.  Yes, it teaches number skills, blah, blah, blah but it's BORING!!
5. I have had a headache for 3 days and am grinding my teeth at night.  I have some sort of hidden stress that I'm not allowing myself to address.  That should be fun when it decides to surface in a few days and I do the big 1, 2, 3 FREAK OUT!  Better hope it doesn't come on you.
6. I am consistently amazed at the amount of food Justin can put away in a day.  Cannot keep him satisfied and I am acutely aware that this is only the beginning.
7. I have been cracked out on jelly beans since last week.  I tried to stop and quit them for two days this week.  Started up again yesterday.  It's so bad I'm even eating the black ones to make them last longer.  I would venture a guess that the sugar rush is one of the reasons for my consistent headache but I can't stop.  Not yet.  Maybe next week. 
8. I watched Far and Away this morning off and on.  I miss the old Tom Cruise or at least the Tom Cruise he pretended to be or thought he was back then.  I also think there's a good chance I would not have survived that time period.  I prefer looking for a house with a realtor, not a horse and a flag.  Plus, I don't think they had jelly beans back then. 
9. Justin told me today that when I "grow a baby" we are going to name it Juliet (from Gnomeo and Juliet) and that it "better be a girl" because he really likes that name.  He is the 3rd person this week to insinuate, or downright ask, if I am  preggo.  Must be all of the jelly beans I am eating.  And for the record, I am not!
10. I am not yet comfortable with the level of testosterone in my home.  Moments after promising each other to be nice and quit hitting/punching/pulling shirts, etc they turned their efforts towards their poor defenseless stuffed animals.  I have an awesome video that goes with this but it refuses to post tonight.  Such is life.  Maybe I can get it posted to Facebook.

Ten's a good round number.  I think I'll stop there.  Good night! 

....and let it begin with me (revised)

I posted a blog very similar to this in July 2010 and I felt the need to repost and tweak it a little bit for this New Year's Eve.  Last weekend at Christmas Eve Mass with Jeremy's family in Lee's Summit all parishioners were given a copy of a book titled Rediscover Catholicism by Matthew Kelly.  I've started reading it over the last few days and already feel inspired to have a better understanding of my religion and how to show it in my daily life.  If I were you I would anticipate several quotes and blogs stemming from chapters in this book! 

Tonight I took the boys to Saturday night Mass and they nearly slept through the whole thing which was fine because I had a nice chance to soak in the service.  The closing hymn was "Let Peace Begin With Me."  The second line to the song is "...and let it begin with me."

So, yes, as the song goes.... "let peace begin with me. Let this be the moment now. With every step I take, let this be my solemn vow. To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally. Let their be peace on Earth and let it begin with me."

I am not big on New Year's resolution so I'm not sure that this is really a resolution as much as it is a promise to myself.  Maybe they are the same thing, but I feel better not putting into the resolution category.  So this year I will strive to remind myself to let peace begin with me.  Let me encourage peace to those around me in all areas of my life. 

Happy New Year to all of my blog friends.  May 2012 bring health, happiness, and PEACE to all of you!!

Behind in the Polls

Well, I lost Mother of the Year award several months back and with the way things are going it doesn’t appear I will be in the running again anytime soon. And now it would appear my Wife of the Year nomination is slipping from my grasp.

Yesterday just wasn’t my day. Picture me with a big pouty face and arms crossed. Things did not go my way. And I don’t like it when things don’t go my way. HMMFFFF! It wasn’t like anything major went wrong. Everyone is happy and healthy….well I nearly ruined the healthy part but we’ll get to that. I know I don’t have room to complain, but somehow the knowledge of that didn’t really stop me.

I could go on and on about all of the things that aren’t going my way, but really when I start to list them out in my head it’s almost just embarrassing how insignificant they are in the grand scheme of things. So with that, I will get to the real reason I started this post today: my campaign for Wife of the Year and how I likely won't even make it past the primaries.  I am not polling well, so to speak.

I started the year off pretty strong by being my stunningly perfect self, slipped slightly in the polling when I took 3 vacations this year without my dear husband, but came on strong at the end by buying him an IPad2 (with all of the extra money he earned from working a 4th job…..wait…..that seems less like my accomplishment and more like his. Hmmmm). Anywho, I think I still had a shot at the nomination. Until last night.

You might recall from two paragraphs ago that I didn’t have a stellar day. I came home and my sweet little Jeremy was taking down all of the Christmas decorations for me.  He's really the man behind the woman, behind the man.  Behind the woman.  Taking down the decorations is a big job and one that I don’t particularly care to take on. I am better at making a mess than picking it up. He and I are opposites in that way. It really works for us. Or maybe just for me. Hmmmm, again.

It was time to cook dinner. I felt obligated to take on that task since he had just finished taking down all the decorations. Of course I had worked all day and spent the day putting out fires on various cases. But really….life’s not fair, right? And we all have to eat. We have very little food in our house this week. We are kind of in clean-out mode. Dinner for the last two nights has been a hodge-podge of leftovers and items that we need to use up before they spoil. We had a choice of breaded pork loins from Schwanns or Tomato Basil soup with grilled cheeses. Fancy, I know. Don’t be jealous of my Julia Childs' like household. I know you are.  Really, don't be.  OK, be jealous.  It will just eat away at you.

Apparently Jeremy voted for soup and grilled cheese but somehow in my mind I switched that over to pork loins. I know what you are thinking. This story is so good and suspenseful you can’t hardly stop reading it! Pork loins instead of soup! I’m pretty sure the Today Show is going to call any minute to share this story on the national news.  We might just be the lead story on my new favorite TV show, Rock Center with Brian Williams.  He's yummy. 

Ohhhh, I JUST realized that publicly salivating after an older man miiiiiiight work against me in this campaign. Damn.

Anywho, next task was to figure out side dishes. Again with the hodge-podge. I was desperate. Really, really desperate. Jeremy had already turned his nose up at me once when he realized I had screwed up the menu choice. But seriously, I’m not a freaking waitress!! And I was not put here to serve you. Whoa! Where did that come from? Got a little off track there.

So, sides. Back to the sides. Jeremy always complains that we don’t eat rice. Our son was highly allergic to it for the first several years of his life so it was banned from our house…..or was it??? We occasionally bought frozen meals or microwave meals for lunches with rice in them knowing we would take them to work. So, as I rummaged through the cupboard (do people really use that word anymore?) I found a Rice-in-a bowl microwave meal.  PERFECT!  Jeremy's side for the night. 

I cooked and served dinner.  We ate.  (again, I know this story if RIVITING!!!)  Time for clean up.  I noticed that Jeremy didn't actually eat the rice.  Deep down inside I knew why, but I had to ask.  "Honey, did you not like the rice??"  "No, it sucked." 

And this.....this, my friends......is where my campaign really derailed.  This was the breaking news story that interrupted your previous scheduled programming to splash my faults to all of the world.  Well, not really.  I'm doing it by posting this blog but it's really more exciting to think of it the other way.

I could have looked into the camera (or Jeremy's face as the case may be) and lied.  It's what we, in the biz, all do.  Or I could have claimed innocence and thrown someone else under the bus.  Low man on the totem pole is to blame.  It would have been easy.  Leo is the obvious target.  He's low man in the house and could have done any number of things to that rice.  But I'm a strong woman.  Hear me roar. 

Again, I know the suspense is killing you!! This is good stuff here. Literary work of art.

So I confess.  I knowingly fed Jeremy a Rice-in-a-bowl that expired in December 2009.  Oopsy daisy!  In my defense he always brags about having an iron stomach.  He once ate a loaf of bread from a co-workers locker that had been there for a YEAR while the co-worker was overseas in the military.  So really, was this that bad?  I didn't think it would really hurt him.  And again, in my defense, it didn't really.  His stomach as a little upset as we went to bed.  And he had some really bad gas, but really people...is that all that different than any other Tuesday night?  No, it is not.

So now I just have to wait on the vote.  Am I still in the running?  Can I bounce back in the polls?  Can I start a smear campaign against the other canidates to divert attention?  Yeah, I can probably do that.  I can actually probably be pretty good at that. 

Crossing my fingers that I come out at least in the top 2 on Super Tuesday.  Right now I'm polling behind his IPad2.  I might be behind in the polls now, but there is still time to redeem myself and reenergize my campaign.  I suspect it will require lingere. 

Letters to Santa

Dear Santa,
Now Jack the Elf is the greatest elf in the world and I thank him so much for coming.  I've been kinda good and I want like a Star Wars game for my Leapster and a cookie maker that is so much fun where you can make an elephant or a sun or I don't really know what else you can make.  So, can I have that please?  And I guess I would want something that, um, that goes to my Leapster and it gets micromods and it downloads micromods anytime you want to.  It's kinda like when you push a button and micromods apear.  Well, um, I guess that's it.  Hey Santa, could you give me a woogle pet?  You put fluffy all in and sprinkle in the magic and then you can make your woogle pet talk.  I saw it on a commercial.  And then just one more tiny thing.  I want a Green Lantern mask and thingy that goes on your arm and press a buttom and make noise.  That's it.  That's the very last thing.
Love,
Justin.  this is me and I love you Santa. And I love your elf.


Dear Santa,
I wan a batman game for me leester (Leapster).  I been good.
Love,
Leo