Quick Takes/Pinishers

Thursday, May 16, 2013

--1--
 
Andrew has been gone for bedtime twice this week (for a rehearsal and a concert, I'm considering asking for 50% of what he makes as hardship pay...).  Bedtime by myself is NOT fun.  Here's how it goes:
 
- Get big kids in bathtub.  Make SURE that there's a "mystery color" (a couple of drops of food coloring in a plastic cup) ready to go so that John Paul doesn't freak out.  This actually makes him not fight bathtime at ALL, so it's worth it to me.
 
-  Get babies naked and put prefolds all over their rug to catch the inevitable pee.
 
-  Let babies play while naked, go yell at John Paul for spitting water in Cecilia's face/pouring water on Cecilia's head/telling Cecilia that he's going to push her, all of which make her sob.  Tell Cecilia to stop threatening to bite John Paul, making HIM cry.
 
-  Start a load of diapers or other laundry
 
-  Start diapering babies, who are now sobbing because MOM LEFT THEM ALONE FOR MINUTES!!!
A couple weeks ago Mary Claire got so tired of waiting for me that she just babbled for a while and then fell asleep naked...
 
-  Hear water pouring on the bathroom floor, tell big kids to drain the water (you bet I'm not washing them tonight - we'll do it tomorrow!).
 
-  Babies are crying more.  Get onesies on and swaddle them.  Put Mary Claire in the swing downstairs with lights and music to lull her to sleep (while she cries for a few minutes.  I'm sorry, Dr. Sears, sometimes I can't meet all my baby's needs when I have 3 other children to attend to...).  Pick up Elizabeth and start nursing her.
 
-  Put hooded towels on big kids and tell them to dry themselves after they take one last pee in the potty.  Hand them toothbrushes with toothpaste and let them brush & rinse themselves tonight, since there's no way I'm going to be able to do that with one hand.
 
-  Tell big kids to go get jammies on.  Balance Elizabeth on lap while still nursing to help Cecilia with her shirt. 
 
-  Read a book on the couch with the big kids while nursing.  Prayer, song, tuck in and lights out!
 
-  Continue nursing Elizabeth for another 30 minutes or so.  Put her in the crib and sit down with a sigh of relief.
 
(Then of course, Mary Claire wakes up to be nursed, John Paul and Cecilia wake up to pee, Elizabeth wakes up again...  I don't know how single moms do it!!!)
 
--2--
 
Yikes, longest #1 ever.  That could have been a post on its own...
 
Anyway, Andrew left right after the big kids went to bed tonight.  Which is normally fine, except the babies did not particularly feel like going to sleep.  So after an hour of nursing, I put Mary Claire in the swing (Elizabeth doesn't go in there swaddled, she rolls herself over...) and Elizabeth was ALL smiles!!!
 
 
Which was amazing considering how fussy she was for me all day...  But we know that babies have that special super-power to turn into the cutest, most engaging little things RIGHT when it's time for them to fall asleep!
 
--3--
 
So here I was with a swaddled baby in a great mood when I suddenly remembered a pin I had seen...
 
Draw eyebrows on a baby and then take pictures?  Yes.  Yes, yes and YES. 
 
Andrew wasn't here to stop me.  He decided to go see the new Star Trek movie in the same week that he had already been gone for two bedtimes.  So, inspired by Spock, I went to work with an eyeliner pencil.  Elizabeth was SO happy (in a non-sarcastic way - she thought this was REALLY REALLY fun!!!)!

I contemplated not washing it off and getting a hilarious reaction from Andrew when he saw her like this in the middle of the night.  But then I realized it would probably rub off on our sheets, so I cleaned her forehead.
 
And I figured, this was DEFINITELY an adventure!  An adventure in finding out if my husband thinks this is hilarious or borderline child abuse...  But really, he only has himself to blame!
 
So I'm doubling my link-up fun and linking up with Dorian's Pinisher series!
 
Let's be honest, kid's gonna be STUNNING once she actually grows some eyebrows!  And it's just not fair that her twin has eyebrows and she doesn't...  6 months is plenty of time to grow some, I don't know what her problem is :P
 
 
And how could this not be considered a success when it yields such amazing super-villain-type results as this:
 
 
--4--
 
Okay sorry, that was another really long one...

Mary Claire loves bow ties already.  Good girl.
--5--

 
I took John Paul to work with me today and he LOVED it!  He's been begging to come with me for weeks, but the schedule wouldn't work and now that we're in testing season things were thrown off enough for me to bring him in.
 
He packed his little frog backpack for me - I put two of his favorite books in and told him to pick one on his own.  His choice?  The Way of the Cross.  Of course.
 
Then he put his backpack on and waited by the door for almost an hour before we needed to go.  Kid was EXCITED!  He was SO good the whole time (except when he kept putting markers into the safe in our room...  We'll get them back eventually) and sang with my choirs and danced all around the room during warm-ups because he was so happy, and then spent a while on my laptop playing PBS Kids games (the first time he's been allowed to and he almost died he was so happy). 
 
Huge success, but not something that's going to happen often because I got VERY little done.  But hey, I made his day :)
 
--6--

Ah, Cecilia.

It seems as though the potty inspires some of our most amazing conversations:

Cecilia, in the bathroom:  Mom, COME TO ME!!!
Me:  No.
Cecilia:  Mom, COME WATCH ME POOP!
Me:  Cecilia, you don't need me to watch you poop.
Cecilia:  MOOOOOM!  HOLD ME WHILE I POOP!
Me:  *sigh*  I relented and went to the bathroom to keep her company during this difficult time.  As usual, we had a conversation about her poop.
Cecilia:  What comed out of my booty? (EVERY time.  Every single time she asks this question.  How can she possible not know the answer by now?)
Me:  Poop.  Poop is coming out of your booty.
Cecilia:  For eatin'
Me:  No, we don't eat poop.
Cecilia:  What animal eats poop?
Me:  No animals eat poop.  It would make them sick.
Cecilia:  Um.  Maybe a cow.
Me:  No, not even a cow would eat poop.
Cecilia:  Or a horse.  What do horses eat?
Me:  Hay.
Cecilia:  And pigs eat corn!  And chickens can eat corn and seeds and bugs!  And birds can eat seeds and bugs!

Yes.  Good.  Glad we had this bonding moment on the can.

 
--7--

Cecilia, screaming and almost in tears:  A BUG!!!!!!!  *runs to me*
Me:  It's okay Cecilia, it's just a big ugly bug that can't hurt you.
Cecilia:  Wike a ugwy pwincess!
Me: 
Cecilia, snuggling into me:  I snuggle Mom, it-a not hurt me...
Me:  That's right, sweet girl.
Cecilia:  Da fwy's name is Minnie Mouse!  And, da odder fwy is Mickey Mouse!  And Goofy!  And Pwuto and Donald Duck and Daisy Duck!  And...  Tootles.  And Choo-Choo...

They have a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse book.  Can you tell they're obsessed?



 
And there you have it!  I'm just going to go ahead and post this on Thursday night because I don't think anybody should be denied the baby eyebrows...
 
Linking up to Jen at Conversion Diary, the most scorpion-tastic blog I read!

29 comments:

  1. Haha, love the eyebrows! So hilarious! You gotta have fun with the whole not sleeping thing. :)

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    Replies
    1. Totally doing it again someday - she thought it was hilarious, too!

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  2. You have transcended the Pinisher spirit to a whole new frontier of wonderment. Those pictures are the funniest thing I have seen in quite some time! Thanks for joining in the linkup!

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    1. Minimal effort for amazing pictures makes it totally worth it :)

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  3. Eyebrows are hilarious! Love your posts Rosie. Always.

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  4. The eyebrows!!! Please tell me Andrew loved it!!

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    Replies
    1. Because he is an old stick-in-the-mud. Pay no attention to him, blogfriends!

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  5. Bedtime by myself ~ ugh ~ and I'm only balancing three; yes you should get hardship pay and major kudos for agreeing to a movie out after all of that.

    Great conversations! Glad to know my daughter is not the only one who thinks potty time is ideal for chatting.

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  6. Did the bedtime routine solo a few times this week too. I salute you.

    Also, LOVE the eyebrows...very nice color choice too. They look almost natural ;)

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  7. Your children are beautiful with or without eyebrows!

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    Replies
    1. They are :) But the eyebrows, as ridiculous as they were, give me a little glimpse into the future ;)

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  8. If my husband were gone for three bedtimes in one week, my reaction would be much more dysfunctional than drawing eyebrows on a baby! Hilarious!

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  9. Baby eyebrows! HILARE! You are a trooper, Rosie. Bedtime alone is like torture.

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    Replies
    1. I may have tried self-medicating with a hard cider on a different night... THAT didn't work, so eyebrows it was!

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  10. Cecilia is the most random, non-sequitur-ish child I have ever known. Except for you, Rosie.

    Also, earthworms eat poop. And they turn it into wonderful, wonderful garden soil. But you probably don't want to tell the kids about that yet. We don't want them freaked out by our tiny friend, the earthworm. (Why is an ant John Paul's "tiny friend"?)

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  11. Have wanted to try that pin for weeks now! Love it!

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  12. Rabbits also eat poop. The eyebrows are fantastic and I might do that to our babies. I think it would be funny and CPS would definitely not come for me...

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    Replies
    1. She will be REALLY excited to hear that bunnies eat poop! Although she likes to pretend to be a bunny a lot, so maybe I'll keep that fact to myself...

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  13. The baby eyebrows...you just made my day. Hilarious!

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  14. The eyebrows are hysterical!! Also, I frequently have three on my own (two of whom are pretty self sufficient) but I have found cheap shaving cream to be great for the boys to bathe themselves. They love spreading it all over!! Then I come in and spray them off and call it clean enough!

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  15. We are laughing AGAIN at the baby eyebrows. Third time today. And, as regards Mr. Andrew's disapproval of the eyebrows: I'm sorry, but dads who have multiple musical engagements in a week that cause them to miss bedtime do not get a vote. (From your friend the woman with baby twins and only one preschooler who has a husband who frequently has multiple musical engagements in the same week and who has not yet resorted to creating eyebrows but may just do it in the future)

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  16. He tells me they don't closely resemble Spock's eyebrows - clearly I needed to do my research beforehand :P

    There's a reason I waited until he was gone to do this - deep down I knew he would think it was dumb! But hey, the rest of the internet approves, so what do I care?

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    Replies
    1. They were supposed to be Spock eyebrows? FAIL.

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  17. LOVED the eyebrows! Oh that was so great!

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  18. The eyebrows and toilet talk are too funny! And, oh man, bedtime routine alone is craziness. During this last pregnancy one of the things I kept thinking about was managing 2 different bathtimes. Major kudos for going it alone with 4!

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  19. The eyebrows are too much!
    You may like this blog on motherhood: http://lionofdesign.blogspot.com/

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  20. 1 - Suddenly bath time with my three boys doesn't seem so bad. At least 2/3 of them can make it to the toilet. I was also intrigued by the food coloring in the water. Does it ever color the kids skin??
    2 - I was thinking, ohmygosh, that little one is sooo cute
    3 - Then I couldn't stop laughing at the Spock eyebrows, especially since I just saw the movie yesterday. LOVE.
    4-7 I want to comment more but I've got two fighting, screaming children. Gotta run.

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