That's snot funny.

As I was putting Isabelle to bed the other night, I was kissing her face incessantly. Izzy says to me, or so I thought, "I need to kiss you." Oh so sweet, I think. So I put my cheek all over her little face. Then she says to me, "I need a tissue." Oh great. Oh yuck.

Update your status.

I've realized that my blog is really my facebook status. I can update it on my phone, and do, often. Blogging is just too time consuming, and who has time? Certainly not me. I'm not giving up on blogging. It's just that every time I get a second to sit down and do it, like now, someone starts crying. Like now.

Back again.

Where do I start? Not only have I not blogged for about three months, I don't think I've written in a journal in that long either. If you know anything about me, you know that is terribly, terribly rare. Almost sinful for me. I opened my journal last night and it said, "I'm 7 1/2 weeks pregnant." Wow. I'm 36 weeks. That's been too many weeks.

I think this pregnancy has gone about as fast as the turn of that page in my journal. It's actually very scary and I'm praying very hard so that I don't develop panic about the fact that another person is going to be in my family in less than 30 days.

JUNE 6?!

Where the hell have I been!? Someone should have slapped me by now. I'll get moving on this, I promise...

Potty time.

Some things are just too good for a facebook status update. Julian woke up this morning and went straight into the bathroom and peed in the potty. And his diaper was dry through the night. And he's been peeing and pooping in the potty all week. And, (this is the best part!) I have not been encouraging it! It's been all on his own! Now I'm not going to be fooled into saying my kid is 100% potty trained or anything, but he is doing so well! I put real big boy underpants on him today - risky I know. But we will see how it progresses. I'm so proud of him. And he is being such a little prince. So much of his negative behavior is gone, and he is being such a little helper. I know there are days and blogs where I want to throw someone out the window (first story, of course), but today is SO GOOD on this potty front.

The art of nesting.

I'm going to be 'nesting' (an expecting mother's sudden and/or persistent urge to clean, organize or otherwise prepare for a baby's birth) for the next 20 weeks. This house is driving me crazy. Why did I find a sippy cup in the kitchen drawer today? Because I have kids. Why do I have an ice scraper sitting by the back door in the middle of summer? NOT because I have kids. Because we have a random, cluttered house. We have some things that definitely don't belong where they are and we have too many junk drawers. As a matter of fact, every drawer is a junk drawer. Even non-drawers are junk drawers. The top of our refrigerator is a junk drawer. Our basement is a junk drawer. My darling daughter's sorry excuse for a dresser even has a junk drawer in it. Does anyone else have duct tape, a screwdriver, batteries, hair ribbons and medicine in their child's drawer? Those are honestly the things in there. Not only does that sound scary, dangerous, and worrysome, it also sounds messy, sloppy, and careless! JUNK!!! Someone, please get me out of this junk. BJ and I always joke that it would be nice to be robbed because things would get cleaned up! Someone get this clutter junk out of my life before I go crazy!! And at my husband's request, I'm shortening my blog posts. GET ME OUT OF THIS JUNK, YO!

I'm getting there. (Haven't I used that as a title before?)

I was so grateful to have my mother watch my children while my husband and I went to South Dakota for a wedding last weekend. I would have preferred for the wedding to have been in Hawaii, but anyway. I was determined to get the 'break' that I needed so badly, and to some extent, I did. I got a nap on Saturday and a nap on Sunday before I picked up the kids.
So I picked up the kids with renewed vigor about my job as a mom. I had been frustrated as of late because my 2 1/2 year old has been a little rascal, and I haven't been able to deal well with him. I was certain that this time away would give me some energy to face mommahood again.
And actually, Monday and Tuesday (today's Tuesday, nap time) have been great! Julian didn't get his first time out until 5:30 yesterday evening, as opposed to the usual 7:30 a.m.
I've realized (this is a pretty general realization that hopefully most moms have reached) a lot of the way that these kids act is based on how I act, and how I react to them. So I've been trying REALLY hard, not to go from 0-60 in one second.
Yesterday, thanks to a packed weekend with grandma, the kids napped gloriously. I had gone shopping the night before and during naps I made dinner, cooked extra chicken, cooked and seasoned ground beef, cut veggies and made a salad. And watched the Brothers and Sisters finale on abc.com. How's that for time well spent!? I was so proud of myself, and I'm so calm today because everything is ready for tacos tonight, it just needs heated up at dinner time.
What an accomplishment for me as a mom. Today I took clothes to the dry cleaner, mailed a package and bought stamps at the post office, played outside and took a walk with the kids, and got three children to simultaneously nap. Okay, to the trained mom or non-mom, these feats may seem laughable, but I'm damn proud of my two days. And if you know me at all, you know that is more than I have accomplished in two days than I usually do in a week. So, I'm standing tall today. (Okay, I'm standing tall everyday, but today I'm proud to.)