Moments

Today I am "life stressed". Feeling like I'm doing all of my jobs half way. Mom, Wife, House-keeper, Cook, Photographer, Child Entertainer. Nothing gets 100% because there just doesn't seem to be enough to go around.

My back is slowly recovering. Slowly. Doesn't help that I'm hefting a 20 pound ridiculously wiggly baby around all day. He wants to crawl. Badly. Today I sat him in a laundry basket so I could change laundry loads. And he managed to pull himself up into a standing position. Pretty sure it's too early for that. He also zooms all over the house in his walker. And I have found him sucking on the side of the garbage and trying to stick his fingers in an electrical outlet. Time to start baby proofing.

And he is high energy. And thinks sleeping for a stretch longer than 15ish minutes isn't necessary. By the time I get him down in his crib and back down the stairs, he's usually awake. But put him on his daddy's shoulder or in someone's arms and he'll give you maybe 45.

Behind. In everything.

So much to post. So little time.

Here's one of the stinker. Glad he's mine.

Ow.

I hurt my back. And by "hurt" I mean I couldn't move for 3 days. No Bueno.
Here's how it went.
Sunday morning I was getting kids frantically ready for church. By myself since Mike has meetings. And he was speaking that day.
I bent over to grab Carter's leg. He was laying on the bed.
Ow. Something just happened to my back. Ow. That hurt really bad. Curse word. Ow.
That wasn't good. But thankfully I can still move.
Get to church. meeting progress's. Pain increases. I stiffen.
By the end of the meeting I was ready to puke. And was hurting something fierce.
I left the kids at church with Mike and went home to take a Lortab and hopefully recover quickly.
My Lortab was mysteriously missing. Thanks Burk.
By the time Mike got home things were bad. I couldn't get off the couch. I couldn't sit. I couldn't bend. I couldn't cough without tearing up.
Not. Good.
Long story short, I have no idea what I did. The crazy chiropractor I went to see said it was a disc problem and would take 9months of rehabilitation to get back to normal.
9 months. That's how long it takes to cook a baby. I'm not coming back here for 9 months.
Thankfully I have great friends, family, and neighbors around who stepped in and took over my job of mom.
People came in shifts all day Monday and Tuesday and took care of my slightly demanding high energy baby and my girls.
And I laid on the couch. On pain meds. And ice. And heat. And a nifty electrical shock machine Kristin lent me.
Today is Thursday. I'm still on pain meds. But I can at least stand. And hold Carter for short periods of time. And I can even bend a little.
We're on the mend.
Backs are brutal. It's amazing what you can't do without a good back.
Big fat THANK YOU to all of those who came over and took shifts with my kids. And cleaned up my house. And changed diapers. And got puked on. And rocked Carter to sleep. And fixed lunch. And dinner.
And of course Mike. Who never once complained for having to go to work all day and then come home and do all my jobs too. And he took work off. And he fetched me ice packs, and pain pills, and graham crackers and apple juice. He's pretty awesome.
Hopefully this never happens again. Because it's not awesome. And very inconvenient.
Some observations I made while spending hours on the couch:
**I never drink apple juice unless I'm in pain. I don't normally like juice of any kind. But when I hurt (like after having babies or now with my back) I drink apple juice and eat graham crackers. Weird.
**Lower back pain makes it impossible to do just about anything.
**Carter thinks he needs to be entertained constantly. And he wants to crawl so bad.
**I know a lot of amazing people who seemed more than happy to put their lives on hold to come and take over mine. It's nice to know I'm surrounded by those people.
**There's not a lot to watch on TV between 1 and 3. Some TV station needs to fix that.
**Driving while on pain meds probably isn't a good idea.

Jumper.

Our latest attempt to keep this kid happy. He's a pretty discontent baby if he's not being held, moved around, and constantly entertained. Little does he know, I have two other kids, a small business, a husband, and a house to keep clean. Though I'm pretty good at doing just about anything with one hand, my back and mind are suffering.
Time for the Johnny-jumper. He didn't quite catch on to the jumping. Just lots of spinning. And then he was done. The girls think it's awesome and I'm just waiting to catch one of them in it or spinning Carter as fast as they can.

Two-wheeler.

Miss Mya at the ripe age of 3 asked her dad to take her training wheels off. "I'm ready, dad". So he did. And we spent a day trying to help her get the hang of balancing. Training wheels made her lazy and she wanted to start going with both feet on the pedals. And she has a habit of not paying attention while she's riding. "Mya, quit singing and pay attention."
Mike and I both had moments where we were holding Carter in one arm and sprinting down the street balancing Mya with the other hand. It was awesome. Thankfully she caught on quickly.
Now she rides WAY too fast and tends to crash more than I'd like. But she's quite proud to announce "I can ride a two-wheeler"

First Swim

Little C's first time in a swimming pool. He kept splashing and couldn't figure out why his face was getting all wet. He didn't laugh, but he didn't cry. And I didn't have plastic pants that fit right and the swim diaper was a little big so I was just grateful he didn't do one of his tsunami poops and clear the whole pool.

Mom, take our picture.

First tooth.

Jaida didn't get her first tooth until she was about 13 months old. So I thought she'd lose teeth late too. I was wrong. Her bottom tooth was loose and it was slightly on the traumatic side. No one could touch it. And she wouldn't try to wiggle it. Until two weeks went by and she got bumped in the face. And it was hanging by a thread. Nasty. So Mike pulled it. And thankfully the tooth fairy remembered to come.
I'm not looking forward to the rest of the teeth that have to come out. I think the whole process is disgusting. And I can't criticize her one bit about freaking out about loose teeth. I was the same way. No one was allowed to touch mine and they'd be loose forever before they finally came out. So I leave her alone. They'll fall out eventually.

Cowabunga.

My girls have been begging to go to Cowabunga Bay. Begging. They don't go down waterslides. Should be interesting.

But I found a deal I thought I'd share.

Go to citydeals.com and you can get a 2 for 1 pass to Cowabunga Bay. Then enter the code JULY4 and you get an extra 10% off. So each ticket ends up being $11.50ish. You won't get them cheaper than that.

Cowabunga bay here we come.