Carrying Pictures of Your Kids

Do you carry pictures around of your kids? Most people do. Everyone I encounter can whip out a photo of their family. I never used to because my kids were ALWAYS with me. A couple of years ago we had an extra picture of the kids with Santa, so I put it in my wallet, but they all look like Santa just told them they were getting jack squat for Christmas!

Just curious ...

Good Pizza in Kansas City?

Where can you get a good slice of Larry Tate pizza in Kansas City? Probably nowhere.

What is the Larry Tate, you ask? He was the boss on Bewitched, for one thing. He had white hair. So the pizza named after him (found at Two Boots Pizza at Grand Central Station in New York City) has a white sauce, cream cheese, garlic and I think maybe even feta cheese. Two Boots, when are you coming to Kansas City????

Wheat State comes close, as does Minsky’s.

What would a pizza named after you have on it? Mine would probably have baby swiss, baby spinach, baby portabellos, baby everything with tons of cheese and would be called the Dairy Queen.

Happy Birthday, Michael!

Wow! My second child, also my second son, is 7 years old today! Lord, this boy is smart. And he goes with the flow so well. He can stay at home for days and never be bored. He can go out and do activities days in a row and be content. He loves Legos and puzzles. He recently spent the night alone at Poppy and Nana’s, without his big brother. It was a milestone, and he had a great time.

He was ready to move into his own bedroom at our house before his older brother was! And he says the funniest crap, some of which I’ve put on this blog. He used to be pretty quiet but in the last year has really come out of his shell and now alternates between periods of Lego or art concentration and periods of nonstop talking! I'm telling you, this boy will make one hell of an engineer or artist or anything he wants to be.

I love you so much, Michael! I can't wait for the next year with you, my sweet boy!

How to Welcome New Neighbors

The “For Rent” sign came down the other day, and I immediately had my oldest kid (Joel) on the case to find out who our new neighbors were going to be. I told him the next time he saw the owners of the house to ask them who would be living next door to/behind us (we’re on a corner).

Soon after, Joel came in and told me the renters were a couple with a 5-year-old son. Immediately I’m like, “Oh, crap! People with only one kid usually think someone like me is a nutcase and they like to point out things like how stained my kids’ clothes are and how their hair needs brushing.” Wait! My own MOTHER is a person with only one kid and SHE does those things!!!!

Once they are all moved in, I plan to put on my best sweatpants, put in my best dentures, take over a muffin basket (yeah, right) and give them my mommy/business card. I’ll say, “If you want to read about yourselves, check my blog periodically. By the way, can I borrow your Internet connection? And when can you babysit?”

On Being the Mom of 5 Little Kids

Tresa says I have a high tolerance for being touched. Most moms can’t handle so much touching all day long, I suppose. But while I’m okay with the touching, the noise AND the mess, my downfall is the mental energy it takes to decide, all day long, who most needs my attention at any one moment. When I go to bed, I feel like I’ve worked triage at an ER for 14 hours.

And it also drives me nuts when I’m in the middle of a thought and it is constantly cut off by someone wanting me to watch them or listen to them or help them or feed them or the thoughts that creep in about how I should be doing dishes or laundry or making a meal or making a dental appointment or working on the budget or worrying about something or preparing for SOMETHING.

And don’t you dare suggest I shouldn’t have had so many kids because I can handle them all quite well, thank you. I think I’m a great mom for growing up as an only child who had all kinds of peace and quiet and never had to share bites of her food. Every now and then I’ll snap at one of the kids for taking my food, but that’s only when I’m eating a costly Weight Watchers meal and every bite counts and they are skinny little things who could eat sticks of butter and not gain weight!

99% of the time I just can’t believe how [I don’t even have a word that explains the wonderfulness of it all] lucky/blessed/fortunate I am to have this life. When I was in an abusive marriage at the age of 19 I never thought I would have ANY of this. I wished and hoped and prayed for it, but I’m not sure I quite believed it would all happen.

So no, I don’t have all these kids because the Pope tells me I can’t use artificial birth control. And I don’t have them because I don’t know what causes pregnancy. And I don’t have them for the attention, because I can tell you it gets old being looked at like a breeder cow sometimes when I bring 5 or more kids into a play area or to a park.

I have all these kids because I am in love with each and every one of them. They were each planned and wanted. I’m just saying I still have the right to gripe, just like any mom of 2 kids, about the hard emotional and physical and mental work of raising kids.