Category Archives: small humans

January 3, 2014

Half-Assed Holidays

By Steph

I feel like I should write about the holidays, but I don’t really want to.  So I’m going to half-ass it, and tell you a few things that happened, and then move on to the important stuff, like sleeping and chickens.

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1.  I may have inadvertently caused my ferret to have a nervous breakdown.  Ferrets sleep 18 or more hours a day.  I thought my ferret loved red things, because he’s always stealing anything red and hiding it.  So I got him a red toy for Christmas and hung it in his cage.

He didn’t sleep for 24 hours until he killed it.  Could not rest until the evil red intruder was destroyed.  When I finally noticed what was happening, he was hissing and twitching like a ferret on crack.  (Or how I would imagine that.  My ferret does not do crack, so I don’t really know.)

http://static3.wikia.net

Similar to this, only more crazy eyes.

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2.  I drank all my wine on Christmas Eve, which caused me to accidently insult my cousin.

Her:  You liked me when I was a kid.  (Meaning, you liked me, as opposed to my brothers.)

Me:  Whatever!  I like you now!   (Meaning, of course I like you!  Oh shit, that’s not what you meant.)

Her:  Wow.

Me:  Err.  Really!  I like you all the time.  Anyone thirsty?

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3.  I drank all my wine on Christmas Eve, which caused me to have no wine on Christmas Day.  To remedy this, I sent my husband to the store to get another three more bottles.  Don’t judge me, Christmas is hard.

When he went up to the register they said, “I’m sorry sir, we don’t sell alcohol on Jesus’ birthday.”  Oops.  My bad.  (Sorry, Jesus and embarrassed husband.)

www.distinctlykelownatours

No, Santa, not today.

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3.  Cracker Barrel poisoned me somehow and I had an allergic reaction in Wal-Mart, which made me really confused, and I told my daughter to either get the microwave or don’t, we gotta go.  She’s 4.  There was no microwave.  I’m pretty sure they thought I had found more wine.

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4.  I ate half a pound cake for breakfast one morning.  As I was on the last bite my daughter wanted some, and in what was not one of my finer moments, I told her it had butter in it.  Because she hates butter, and I didn’t want to share.  That was not a lie, because  I am 95% percent sure pound cake has butter in it.  Mom-Of-The-Fucking-Year.  That’s me.

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5.  New Year’s Eve.  I’m not going into that.  But I do want to quote my husband.  “Feel free to put some pants on and join us.”  Again, he said, “Feel free to put some pants on and join us.”  He’s just lucky I wasn’t feeling well, because that sounds like a challenge if I’ve ever heard one.

http://www.brooksbell.com

 

 

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December 28, 2013

Baby Girl

By Steph

She’s got this little round belly and this confidence that just goes on forever.  She sings at the top of her lungs and dances with complete abandon.  Watch me!  Look at this!  I made this song for you!  She is all that is beautiful and if you ask her if she is smart she will yell, “YES!” and then tell you all she knows, and some things she doesn’t.  She knows she is funny and isn’t afraid to tell a joke, and even if no one else gets it, she will be the one laughing the loudest.  If she wants a hug, she will just open her arms and know that arms will enfold her too.  She knows she is loved.  She knows she is precious.

She will always be beautiful to me.  But I want so much, so, so much for her to keep this ability to see the beauty in herself.  When she has lost her chubby baby belly, is that when she will start judging the way her body is shaped?  At what point does the world teach her to lower her voice, her eyes, her head?

I want to wrap her up in her innocent self-love so that it stays with her always, so that she never, ever wonders about her own worth.  I don’t want her to lose her golden-fine little girl hair only to gain her mother’s insecurities.

I can’t stop the world from affecting my child in ways that I will not always like.  But I can show her every day a woman who is not afraid to laugh, to love, to sing loudly, and to dance with abandon.  A woman who loves herself, as she is.

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in parenting, small humans, thoughts

December 5, 2013

Ice, Ice, Baby

By Steph

In 2009, this happened.  January 25, 2009 to be exact.  That was also my due date.  Since this gorgeous disaster caused us to lose electricity for more than a week, I’m thankful my daughter came two weeks early.  I think it’s pretty safe to say that I wouldn’t have handled a home birth well.

Yes, it was pretty.

Yes, it was pretty.

Imagine, if you will, having a newborn child and two other small children.  In an ice storm.  With no heat, no water, no electricity, and most definitely no sleep.  And No.Way.Out.

No way out. None.

No way out. None.

Let me just go ahead and admit that I can be a little high-strung.

I did not handle it well when the power went out.  Or the days after that when we camped out in my mother’s living room near her fireplace.  Or when I developed mastitis and thrush in my left breast and feeding my daughter felt like lighting myself on fire every two hours.

There was a lot of crying.

The baby cried some too.

According to the weather people, we are under a Winter Storm Warning.  I haven’t been that concerned, because I don’t have a newborn and we have our own fire now.

But then my husband went to the store to stock up, only to find out that some motherfuckers have bought all the Coca-Cola.

Now I’m panicking.  How does a store run out of Coke?  I don’t even think that is legal. 

Is this the apocalypse? 

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November 8, 2013

Kids? Tyrants? Gremlins? You decide.

By Steph

My children have got the crazy-making thing down.  I mean, they are professionals.  Little ornery agents of chaos, stalking me everywhere I go.  (Seriously.  Everywhere.)

I have compiled a list of some of the random shit my children have come up with in their never-ending quest to watch me unravel.

1.  Refusing to wear coats.  This may not sound serious, but when it is 16 degrees outside and you can barely get your kid to wear shoes, you’ve got a problem.  And you might think this is no big deal, but it is a big deal when you know it is not actually a dislike of outerwear, but probably a plot designed to get Child Services called.  They are sneaky, I’m telling you.

2.  Calling me “Mommom.”  They never just say “Mom.”  It’s always “Mom. mom. mom. mom. momomomomommomom.”  I believe this is to keep me off balance, always looking over my shoulder for additional mothers.

3.  Throwing my own words back at me.  For instance:  After taking a healthy dump off the front porch, my then 5-year-old looked at me with a straight face and said, “What?  You told me to go outside if it was an emergency.”

4.  Drawing pictures of me at school.  I don’t mind the flattering ones, but seriously?  This?

The journal entry for this said, “I ate too much candy and my mom got mad at me.  She got so mad at me, her head almost exploded.”

5.  They do not show an appropriate amount any appreciation of my dancing, singing, or joke telling skills.  In fact, they claim unbelievable things like I am “lame” or “not funny.”  Pssh.

6.  They are always pointing out my mistakes, like when I put the milk in the cabinet or the toothpaste in a lunch box.  And then they tell other people.  What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas; the same should apply here, only with less drugs and strippers.

7.  They are always wanting food.  ALL the time.  Like, every day.  I think they all have tapeworms.

8.  They FaceTime or Skype with people without telling me, so random teenagers see me in my pajamas talking to the cat.

9.  Goading me into playing video games and then mocking my mad skills when my guy is always the one stuck in a corner or aiming at the sky.

10.  Telling their friends that I’m not helpful with studying because I always laugh at answers like “Titicaca.”  (That shit is funny.  Don’t tell me it’s not.)

I could go on and on, but I’m exhausted from trying to stay a step ahead of the little gremlins, so I’m out.  Don’t worry, I learned long ago to sleep with one eye open.

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October 21, 2013

It’s a disinfectant kind of day.

By Steph

It’s not even noon and I’ve been covered in a small human’s urine twice already.

This is motherhood, people.  Think on it.

I’ve got to go clean up after my cat, who has apparently decided that her litter box may only be used one time before she has to go in the floor to teach me a lesson.

If Cleanliness is next to Godliness, then I am currently living in the Devil’s asshole.

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