Living la vida loca



This week the boys took on something new.  Gymnastics class!  Besides their preschool/church, they have never participated in any other classes or sports.  I've been talking about it with the kids for weeks now and they acted like they wanted to go, but I could tell they had no clue what I was talking about.  I worried that Nico would struggle a little since he's only really been away from me at school or with his brother.  When we got there I, for one, had no idea what I was doing.  It was obvious it was my first time as a parent doing this.  I know that when I was a very young girl my kids' ages, I don't remember ever thinking even once that my parents might be clueless.  I thought they knew what they were doing at all times.  I really trusted them.  (Of course this changed as I got a little older).  I wonder if my kids feel the same about me...I'm kind of doubting it, and I absolutely am not going to question them about it.  I don't want to give them any ideas.  I really know how silly this sounds, but yesterday, walking into the recreation center I felt like I really just didn't know what I was doing.  Not that I felt like it was a big deal that I didn't know, but it was one of those moments that made me reflect on where I am now as a parent and where I was just a short 5 years ago when Max was born.  I was clueless then, and I'm clueless now, just about different things.  The only difference is that now I don't get as intimidated or scared by my cluelessness.  I've learned that I will gain the knowledge that I need as I go, and I suppose I've matured and become more confident in myself as I've had more children and have had more, different experiences with them.  So I said before that I don't get as intimidated or scared as in the past, but I didn't say that I don't get a little.  When we arrived I noticed that a class was already going on, and the kids looked just a little younger than Nico.  However, Nico looks about two years older than he really is.  This worried me making me think that I had gotten the time wrong for the class and that we were 20 minutes late for a 30 minute class.  YIKES!  I was going to feel terrible if I had missed Nico's first day after having talked it up so much lately to get him ready.  He was excited loading up in the car with his brother and sister and my BFF who came along to help us out.  He gladly took his socks and shoes off to prepare for the class.  How was I going to tell him that I completely flubbed up by missing his class?!  Thankfully, it turned out alright.  I wasn't late after all.  It was in fact a different class.  I did get myself worked up though.  I just didn't want to let him down.  I hope my kids didn't see my panic!  Nico was excited when his class started, however, he (nor I) realized that the kids would just be dropped off at the door and parents were expected to wait outside.  I was hoping to get lots of great pics of his first day!  Turns out he didn't want to stay without me anyway so the instructor was very kind and let me sit on the mat with them while they did their stretches.  As Nico started getting into the activities, I slowly moved to the outside of the mat, making my way over to a bench, then over to a bench further away, finally making it to the door, then slipping out without so much as a peep from Nico.  I half expected him to run after me causing a scene, but he did awesome.  Only I wasn't able to snap more than one mediocre picture of him in my cautiousness not to draw attention to myself as I snuck away.  When Nico was done he was super excited.  I think he really enjoyed it.  Although...he is in a class with four other little girls and no boys.  He's ALL testosterone so when he was done doing his bear crawl he stood up and being proud of himself he took somewhat of a karate stance and shouted kapow!  The girls looked at him like he was CRAZY!!!  One looked nervous.  I think they worked it out because I saw that same little girl (who was not enjoying following the instructions much the same as Nico's difficulty in keeping his attention focused) and Nico having a discussion about something.  I can only imagine what about.  We had a 30 minute break in between Nico's class and Max's.  Up until this point Max had been doing alright with patiently waiting for his turn.  He really started to get antsy when finally his class came up.  Like Nico's class, the kids go in while the parents wait in a small lobby area behind a glass wall.  There was no decent seating to have a good view so I just kept having to get up and look through the door.  I got some okay pics of Max because the balance beam was the closest to my viewpoint.  Overall I think the boys really enjoyed their time.  Next time I will arrive better prepared with activities for distraction.  I so did not come prepared with enough snacks (I had some, just not enough) or toys or colors, etc. to keep the kids from getting impatient.  Thank goodness for the BFF.  She's once again a LIFESAVER!  Love you, girl!  She completely took charge of at least one of my children at a time so that I could survive.

After our gymnastics adventure we went home for some lunch and to try to have some quiet time so the baby could nap...yeah...right.  No nap for that little one!  that afternoon the BFF and I decided that we wanted to take the kids to see the Disney movie "Brave".  I think that we were being just that taking three little ones to the theater, but you know what?  It was awesome!  They couldn't have been better.  I couldn't have had better help with them too.  And the movie was wonderful!  I wasn't quite sure if the boys would care much for it with it being a "princess" movie and all, but since I had never actually discussed the movie with them in a way that made them think it was a princess movie, they didn't mind going.  Actually they had seen the bears and bows and arrows and thought it looked "cool".  Neither boy really moved much during the movie, with the exception of a potty break and an anxious Max getting excited in his seat during a couple of times in the movie.  Perhaps it was the ginormous bucket of popcorn that kept them still.  Belle fell asleep in my lap during the opening previews and didn't wake until the last 10 minutes of the movie.  I couldn't have timed it better myself.  It was a very pleasant experience for all of us. 

That evening we had breakfast for dinner!  Fernando cooked up french toast, bacon, and smoothies which of course the boys LOVE!  Then after the kids were fast asleep, BFF and I headed out on a night time Target run!  It was great to get out with her and do a little shopping again.  Errands are best with friends, and kidless makes it that much more enjoyable.  I didn't have extra hands putting things in my cart!  Or in Nico's case, sneaking things into my cart.  While I was there I just had to check out clearance items since that is my BFF's specialty.  She finds the best deals!  I was looking for a nice new toy for Belle since she's 6 months now and getting really interested in playing.  We found the perfect toy on clearance that I knew the boys would get a kick out of too.  I got it $10 off!  I love a good deal! 

When the boys got up this morning they noticed Belle's new toy immediately and couldn't wait to get it out of the box.  We made them wait for Belle to wake up, but once she did and I got it opened, that toy provided hours, seriously HOURS of entertainment.  They started by figuring out how everything worked.  Then they showed Belle how to use it.  Belle has been sitting up on her own without toppling over much for the last two days.  I prop pillows behind her so that she doesn't fall too hard.  Almost her entire day today was spent at a sitting position.  She LOVED it!  I overheard Max telling Belle at one point, "Don't worry, Belle, I'll catch you if you fall."  One of the most precious thing I've heard!  Sigh, I love my kids.  Anyway, back to her new toy.  Play with it eventually evolved into a countless number of imaginative scenarios.  I just don't know where Max comes up with the things he does.  He is definitely one of the most imaginative kids I've ever met.  He reminds me a lot of my brother and me when we were kids.  He has such an engineering mind already.  I know that it runs in the family, but I'm just so surprised to see it so young.  I am impressed with him every day.  He is so detail oriented.  Every aspect of his play is carefully created until he masters the exact concept he is going for.  There have been many many times when he will ask me how he can accomplish something.  I will be about to think how we can come up with a way to do something, and no sooner has he asked me the question, he's answering it himself.  And they are GOOD solutions!  He astonishes me, and I just feel so blessed to have him.  On another note for that one, that kid has had more accidents in the past two days than I can count.  I really pray he did not inherit his mama's clumsy gene...Yesterday he was climbing on the outside of the staircase (against the rules), and I was just about to call him down from it (I was pumping a bottle and couldn't physically remove him myself) when he slipped and his legs got caught in between the wooden rails.  Fortunately his has skinny legs.  Unfortunately his right leg got twisted up and caught in there and he was hanging with his bottom having nothing but air under him.  The only thing holding him up was his upper body strength.  If he couldn't have done that he would have seriously damaged his little knee.  The poor kid had to dangle there until I could get out of that darn machine and over to him.  Even though he was doing something he knew he shouldn't be doing, something I had told him numerous times was dangerous, I still felt terrible for him.  This was right before gymnastics class too.  I quickly tried to calm him down (like myself, he's rather emotional) and I got some ice for him to place on his knee to keep any swelling down that might occur.  Belle kept him company while we took a little time to get himself fixed up.  Eventually he began to feel better and I think before we got to gymnastics he had already forgotten about it.  He did great in the class and never complained of the injury.  Now today he had an even worse incident.  While eating his lunch, he was failing at keeping his hands to himself, or rather, legs.  He had his legs laying across the bench, pushing on his brother with his feet.  Every time he pushed he must have scooted back a little.  After I had discovered what he was doing he started pushing more quickly because he knew that I was going to come over and end it.  Well I did not get to him fast enough and he pushed his little brother too many times, scooting himself back too much and fell backwards off the side of the bench landing on his back with his legs in the air, slamming his head on the hard wood laminate strip attaching our kitchen vinyl with our living room wood laminate.  At first he stunned himself and then the wailing started.  As mad as I was at him for not listening to me and for deliberately continuing to mess with his brother, I couldn't help but feel so incredibly sorry for him once again.  His punishment didn't fit the crime.  He instantly asked me if he had broken his head.  

Max icing his head after his fall.
He wanted to keep the ice from falling
off of his head so he ended up putting his
Spiderman baseball cap on over it. (His idea)

He was extremely concerned about this and it took a lot of convincing to make him believe that he had in fact not cracked open his skull.  Thankfully he had no signs of disorientation or confusion.  He did have a headache the entire day and complained of tiredness right afterwards, but I think he had exhausted himself from getting so upset and scared.  He never did fall asleep, but he did spend some quiet time resting.  The thing is, if the kid would just listen to me, he wouldn't get into these messes.  Future Max, if you are reading this, please remember these words, "Listen to your Mother!"  I promise I'm not disciplining you or telling you not to do things just to annoy you.  I have good reasons.  I'm trying to keep you safe!....Oh my gosh, I just had a vision of myself in the future saying these words to teenage children...CRAP! 


Today was one of those days when I felt like I was walking under water.  No, it was more like a bad dream.  It seemed like the more I struggled to get anything accomplished, the harder it was and the further the end appeared.  Between the fights among the boys and the restless baby, I had a seriously difficult time even getting the necessary chores taken care of.  Laundry is a beating like always.  I think I'm just going to continue to complain about my dryer until someone gets so completely sick of hearing about it that a new one just magically appears on my doorstep...that or my clotheslines get strung up in my garage...do you think that's HOA approved?  It was like a nightmare where you are moving your legs as fast and hard as you can, but no matter how hard you try, you just can't make it anywhere.  Oh my goodness, talk about frustrating.  FINALLY the baby decided she would nap longer than 30 minutes at a time and gave me a good hour and a half.  That sweet baby needed that rest so badly.  The boys were wore out from their constant bickering and fighting and took a short break from it by splitting off into separate rooms and playing quietly.  I didn't even force this on them.  I think they sensed that I was getting to my wits end and they took it upon themselves to try to help me out.  Thank you, kids!  After I sprinted through a long list of things I had to get straightened and cleaned up during my short window of time, I was finally feeling like I was moving smoothly and more free again.  Phew.  The afternoon went a lot smoother, except for a few more fights between the boys.  They had an exceptionally difficult day of extra energy.  It's days like this that I feel terrible for not having a backyard for them to play in.  If I did they could go out there and run around a few minutes safely while the baby could be inside.  We did have an intense game of Simon Says where Simon aka Max had us doing all kinds of crazy things including jump 30 times (about a million times).      It helped burn some energy though. 


Max created a backwards periscope
all by himself.  He even knew what to call it.



It doesn't matter what happens to us on any given day.  I still feel so blessed to be with these precious babies every single day.  I know that not everyone who wishes that they could, gets to do this.  I never want to take my time with them for granted.  I'm so thankful for my husband for being willing to sacrifice to make my being with them a possibility.  God has truly blessed our entire family. 

Happy Jumper!

   

Nico dribbling his small beach ball as if it was
a soccer ball, but calling it a baseball.