"Mommy In Motion"

This spring was so much fun! I had the time of my life. Let me tell you about it.

My 7 year old started taking karate when he had just turned 6. So, we have been taking classes two nights a week for over a year. We usually went on Mondays and Wednesdays.

This spring, we decided to sign him up for Dixie League machine-pitch baseball. It would be his first year to play baseball. He had played t-ball when he was 4. At first, before the baseball season began, we were practicing on Mondays, Fridays, and Sundays. So, we switched karate to Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The only free day we had was Thursday and of course, Saturday. It was pretty crazy! But, it got worse.

Once the season started, we had games every Tuesday and Saturday. Practice got changed to Friday and Sunday. So, here’s what our schedule looked like:

Sunday…..practice
Monday….karate
Tuesday….game
Wednesday…karate
Thursday…batting practice and make-up games
Friday…sometimes make-up games
Saturday…game

This was all for one child! I can’t imagine what it will be like when my 4 year old starts playing t-ball next year. Something’s going to have to give.

I’m also going to be taking night classes on Monday and Tuesday in the fall semester at a local community college. That rules out two nights a week. The next semester, it will be worse because I’m nearing graduation. If it sounds like I’m complaining, I’m not. I actually miss it!

I honestly don’t think that, if my step-sons lived with us, that I would be able to do any of this though. To begin with, the cost would be outrageous!

To summarize the story, the saga continues. I will always be a baseball mom, a karate mom, and possibly a soccer and football mom. Is that so bad?

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"The Defining Moment"

Being a mother of 4 boys is extremely adventurous! You’re rarely ever bored. Let me first say that my two oldest sons (step-sons) don’t live with us. They live with their mother. They stay with us during the summer months. I didn’t meet them until about 3 years ago. This is why I don’t have as many tales from their younger years.

My 7 year old is a very active child. From the time he was 2, we knew he was gifted. We also knew that he was abnormally hyper. He would blurt out things that didn’t make sense. I remember very distinctly taking him to the doctor when he was 2-1/2 years old for a check-up. He was bored sitting in the room, waiting for the doctor. So, he decided to sing to himself.

Then, he started to scream out words at the top of his lungs. He got so loud that the nurses kept coming into the room to see what was going on. I guess they thought I was beating him or something. After I assured them that he was just bored, they left.

About that time, my son got another great idea. He decided that it was the perfect opportunity to start slamming his head into the mirror that was on the wall next to the exam table. I tried everything to get him to stop, short of just taking him off the table.

Looking back now, I know that taking him off the table would have been the logical thing to do. But, we all know that new mothers don’t think logically.

While I was in the process of trying to explain to him that he couldn’t do that, the doctor and nurse came running into the room AGAIN! I guess they thought, again, that I was doing something horrible to him.

The nurse asked me, “What in the world is all that noise? Is he ok?” I explained to her, again, that he was bored and was slamming his head against the mirror. It was then that I was told something that would shape the rest of his life.

“Ma’am, I think your son may have ADHD.” I was thinking, how could a 2 year old have ADHD and why would someone even suggest that at this young age?

The doctor explained to me that although you cannot test a child of that age for ADHD, they will sometimes show early signs of it. He asked me if things like this had been going on at home. I explained to him that it was pretty normal for my toddler to bang his head and blurt out things loudly. These weren’t the only symptoms, but you get the picture.

I was told that I should have him tested right before he started kindergarten. So, 3 years rolled by, and that’s what I did. We had him tested for 6 months straight. After thorough exams, they determined that my son had not only severe ADHD, but something called mood disorder. To this day, I’m not sure what that means.

Fortunately, they also determined that he was testing in the gifted category. This was great news to me! Little did I know how hard it would be to deal with a gifted child with ADHD and mood disorder.

We eventually got him on medication. Once we found the right one, he improved drastically. Before that, he would sit in kindergarten and blindly punch his fists into the air and blurt out things like, “Blah, blah” or “Poopy, Poopy”.

His teacher thought he had Tourette’s syndrome. It seemed that way, but I was reassured that it was just the ADHD. He had already been tested for Tourette’s syndrome and was negative. To this day, if he doesn’t take his medicine, he will blurt silly little phrases out and say things out of context. But, when he does take it, he’s a pretty good child.

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"The Culprit Revealed"

Well, we figured it out. We found out what the smell was. It was two cups that were wedged together, in the boys’ room. The bottom cup had chocolate milk in it. There is no telling how long they had been in there. I’m just thankful that it WAS food and not #2!

The boys say that my 4 year old did it, but I know better this time. Usually, it is the 4 year old. However, the fact that it was two cups and the fact that my 4 year old doesn’t drink chocolate milk, points to my step-sons. I don’t make chocolate milk for my kids. I just never have.

We do have a bottle of squeeze chocolate that goes on ice cream, in the fridge. I have a sneaking suspicion that they made this chocolate milk themselves. I imagine that they put WAY too much chocolate in it; hence, it was not finished. So, there it sat in the corner of the bedroom, curdling away.

One of the things I have struggled with over the years is disciplining my step-children. When I suspect them of doing something, I rarely ever say anything, unless it’s something dangerous or destructive. I’ve had those moments of “You don’t ever get on to YOUR boys”. This is totally not true. My boys stay in trouble! The thing is, they’re rarely ever around each other at the same time, so the older boys don’t always witness the punishments.

Anyone that knows me knows that my 7 year old and 4 year old each stay in trouble for their own reasons. I am guilty of babying the 4 year old though. I just can’t accept the fact that he’s growing up. He’s my baby and always will be. I won’t have any more children. So, yes, I’m guilty!

Until it becomes a crime to spoil your baby, I’ll keep doing it. I guess I’ll have to deal with the consequences when he starts school.

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"Name That Smell"

What a crazy weekend!

This weekend I picked up my two sons from their father (he’s keeping them this summer). We also had our two older boys (my step-sons) at our house. So there we were, all 6 of us, crammed into this tiny little house. We just had to get out!

My husband decided that he wanted to take them swimming on base. So, while I took my 4 year old to the doctor, for the same ear infection he’s had for 3 years, he took the other three boys to the pool. We met them there later.

We stayed out in the HOT sun for about 4 hours. To me, suffering in the sun (I wasn’t swimming) is a lot less painful than being cooped up in a house with 4 boys and a husband! It’s not even close to the same thing.

After that, we met some of my family at Outback Steakhouse for my husband’s belated birthday party. I LOVE Outback! The only reason I go there is for the cheese fries. Forget that it was my husband’s birthday. I just wanted the cheese fries.

If some of you moms out there haven’t tried this, do! When it was time to be seated, I stayed to the back of the line. I very strategically placed the kids next to my husband. Then, I sat in the only spot that was left, at the far opposite end of the table. Sneaky, huh? But, I digress.

Afterwards, we went somewhere to have ice cream, with all the kids. All in all, it was an uneventful evening.

The next morning, I took my two youngest boys to their cousin’s birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. I stayed there WAY too long! I used to work there when I was a teenager. I started having flashbacks to the days when I was forced to dance against my will.

Later that day, I took the boys back to their father.

But, something went wrong that weekend. We still haven’t quite figured out what it was.

This morning, we woke up to an absolutely horrible smell coming from the boy’s bedroom. This is actually a quiet common occurrence considering we have 5 males living in our house. Needless to say, I spent this morning playing “Name that smell”. This is not a fun game, I can assure you.

When I left for work today, we still hadn’t found the culprit. My guess is that over the course of the weekend, my 4 year old snuck some food into the room and hid it. Although, and I’ve got this down to a science, it takes a couple of weeks for food to smell like that! My husband is convinced that the 4 year old went #2 in there. It smells that bad! I just don’t think he would do that, but I have to consider the possibility.

To make an already long story short, I plan on working until my husband calls me and says, “We found the smell and took care of it”! Until then, I’ll be hanging out at my desk.

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"Look, I'm A Cowboy"

That last story got me thinking about what other horribly embarrassing things that my children have done to me. There was one more that I felt I had to share.

One day, my 7 year old (then 2) and I were walking through the aisles of Wal-Mart. This day, I had decided to let him sit in the main part of the buggy. He sat on his blanket and played with some of the toys we had brought from home.

I thought, “I’m such a smart mom to have thought to bring all of this stuff ahead of time”. I just knew that this trip to Wal-Mart would be so much better than the fiasco’s we had had in the past.

Do you think I was wrong?

I was strolling down the home improvements aisle, looking at water faucets and things like that. I was so focused on what I was looking at, that I forgot that my child was sitting in the buggy, near my purse. You can only imagine the treasures that he would find in there!

I heard him rattling around, but never really looked to see what he was doing. I assumed it was his toys or maybe some paper from my purse. My purse was always filled with paper.

Right about the time I had found the faucet fixture that I liked, an older man approached me, hysterical with laughter. He said, “Ma’am, you may want to take a look at your son.” Just then, I looked down, and saw the most embarrassing thing I had ever seen in my life. My sweet, innocent little 2 year old had taken about 5 maxi pads out of my purse, opened them, peeled the sticky tab off of them, and stuck them all over his head and body.

To top it off, he had also found a tampon. He had taken the plastic cover off of it and was holding it by the string and swirling it around in the air, as if he was in a rodeo.

As I looked as his sweet little face, he said, “Mommy, look, I’m a cowboy!” Now that’s what you call embarrassing!

All in all, it was actually a pretty good trip! My son discovered what he wanted to be when he grew up; a cowboy!

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"The ICU Visit"

I woke up today thinking about some of the embarrassing moments that my children have caused. There is one that sticks in my mind more than any other. I thought I’d share it with you in hopes that you’ll sympathize with me.

A few months ago, when my youngest son was three, we were spending time at the hospital because my dad was in ICU. I knew when I brought my two youngest sons up there, it would be a mistake.

At first, things were going great! There was another family in the ICU waiting room. We had all been sitting up there for hours. Everything was pretty quiet, as it usually is in such a serious situation.

With this other family, there was a burly looking middle-aged man. He was kind of sitting in a corner, not really talking to anyone. I could tell that he was with the other group though. Of course, my 3 year old decides to make his way around the room and introduce himself to everyone. That really means that he decided to ask everyone for food.

After a few times of me telling him to stop, a lady that was sitting with the other family said, “He’s alright. Let him sit with us.” So, I agreed. After a few minutes, I couldn’t see him. All of a sudden, I heard this enormous burst of laughter coming from the other side of the room. I knew it was my child causing this stir.

So, my aunt went over to see what was going on. Then, she started cracking up as well. Apparently, my son has climbed up onto this burly man’s lap. Here’s how the conversation went:
As my child climbed onto his lap, the man said, “Wow! Kids never like me. You sure are a cute little boy.”
Then, my son leaned over towards his ear, looked at him with this cute, innocent little face and said, “My mommy has a knife and she’s gonna cut your head off!”

About then, the burly man held him out as if he had some kind of horrible disease. Apparently, the man’s family overheard the conversation. That’s why they started laughing. Some of the women were laughing so hard that they had to run to the bathroom. They said that it made their day!

I've since figured out that my son is simply repeating things he hears from other children.

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"Bull In A China Closet"

Being a mother of 4 boys is the hardest job I’ve ever had; although, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Right now, my boys are ages 4, 7, 8, and 10. The youngest two boys are mine, by birth. The oldest two are my step-sons. Besides being the mother of 4 boys, I work part-time, I’m a student (majoring in Web Design), and sometimes a chauffeur to my boys and their friends.

I’m lucky that I have children that are, for the most part, very well behaved.
Well, let me back up for a minute. We are having a few problems with the 4 year old, but that’s to be expected. He’s just a “bull in a china closet”. He’s constantly on the move and always in search of his next meal.

He’ll touch anything, climb anything, and basically eat anything that comes in his little path.

He talks to everyone, climbs on everyone, and kisses everyone he meets.

This was all cute when he was two, but as he gets older, I worry about what the consequences will be. I’m sure that he’ll grow into a very outgoing young man, and that’s all fine. What I’m worried about is that he will run into the wrong person one day that may take advantage of his kind heart.

Is this something that I should try to put a stop to? How do you stop someone from being who they are? Or, should I do what I’ve always done; let him be himself and keep an ever vigilant eye on him?

They say that the terrible twos are the worst.

I thought the terrifying threes were the worst.

Now, I can say for sure, that the frightful fours are by far the worst!

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