Man, even four years ago, you never could have convinced me that I would prefer the family life to that of the fun college childless one. Boy, was I wrong! Today was so great, and so much fun!

First, we went to church--as a family. Trey was off today, and I got everyone up early (boy, that's another story!) and dragged us all to church. It was nice. I liked people seeing that I actually do have a husband, and that he's such a hotty in his dress pants and tie! I think TJ was excited for Daddy to be there, too.

When we got home, I was not feeling well, and Trey let me take a nap while he made lunch and watched the babies. What a wonderful man! When I woke up, his parents, sister-in-law and neice and nephew were here. We hung out for a while, and when they left to get KK a Halloween costume, I decorated the trunk of our van.
Here's what it looked like, albeit at the end of the night...

Once everyone was in costume and ready to go, off we went back to church for TRUNK-OR-TREAT! It was SOOOOO fun! They had a jump castle and slide, and hotdogs, peanuts (boiled, ick!), snowcones (yes, it's still hot enough here in the South!), drinks and more! Plus, there were lots and lots of decorated trunks for the kids to go trunk-or-treating at! I loved it b/c not only was it a fun way to trick-or-treat, but it was also so much more safe. I knew most of the people there, and could run around and talk to them. TJ was in a pretty well enclosed environment, and I had less worry of him getting run over or getting dangerous candy from strangers. Plus, everyone who had candy decorated their trunk and they were so well done! Fun was had by all. My neice KK and her brother Mikey were there, as well as my neice Julia and her brother Blake, and I had fun playing with KK and Julia on the bounce castle and slide. Of course, now I've had a workout for the month (those things are tiring to move on)! It was really cool to have all the little people on both sides of the family there together to play! Check out some of the fun stuff:

Pictures in order from top to bottom:
Taryn as a pink spotted dog
Trey and TJ going down the slide
Little Mikey as a lamb
KK as a unicorn
TJ as Frankenstein
TJ and KK going trunk-or-treating

Okay, enough, enough already! I had so much fun, though! Anyway, I'm going to do it all again tomorrow, including trick-or-treating, so I'm sure I'll be back with more! I hope you all have a fantastic Halloween, and I'll see you soon!

PS-Please, whether you usually comment or not, if you read my blog ever, go to the top and put your name on my map. I would love to see where everyone comes from!

I know there are some people out there that read my blog and don't comment. This is for you, as well as the ones that do (and which I appreciate SOOOO much!). I just put at little box at the top left corner of my blog that says something about Frappr. It's a world map that shows where all of my readers are located in the world. It's really cool. If you could, please go up there and put your place on there. Then I'll be able to visualize better where you're coming from, and man, it will just be so cool! Plus, you can see where some of the other people are from....and of course, make your mark on the world, and my life, by plottin' out your own space.

Okay, thanks, and I'll be back tomorrow hopefully with lots of fun stuff to tell you... Have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

Look what we did today and yesterday! We're getting ready for the "Trunk or Treat" at my church on Sunday. You decorate the trunk of your car, and hand out candy to little trunk-or-treaters who are there to check out your trunk! TJ did a lot of the work, but since his attention span is quite short, I ended up finishing most of what we did today.

Yesterday we made the paper pumpkins and ghosts. I cut out the pieces and he glued them on.
I think it's funny how, for some reason, with my coaching on all of them, on two of them he got the faces just fine, and on two of them I don't even know what he was doing! That little ghost...well, he was quite sure that's where he wanted the eyes and mouth, so I didn't argue!

Today we made spiders out of egg carton pieces, and a big one out of a styrofoam plate. We used pipe cleaners for all of the legs. If you could see them up close, you'd see the one that TJ painted the mouth on. It's a little, umm, squiggly! He painted one spider, and that's about it. Once I pulled out the googly eyes, he could have cared less about what we were doing!
Guess who put on the eyes and mouth on the big spider!

This evening, I decided we needed to paint our pumpkins for Sunday as well. We have to go to Charleston tomorrow and Saturday, so I don't want to run the risk of running out of time on Sunday. The one we carved decided to rot and become the new home to about ten million tiny little bugs now happily enjoying their new "my back porch" neighborhood. Nice, eh! I'm so glad I got pics! Anyway, we tried that for a while...
Can you guess which one I did? I was so proud of her blonde highlights! I totally messed up her teeth, but hey, it's one day, and it'll be near dark anyway! This idea was not so smart, as TJ wanted to paint everything but the pumpkin, and kept putting his paintbrush in the water over and over again, but not drying it off. He went into time-out once for hitting me when I took his paint brush away, and after that he came back to try again. When he painted on the back of my shirt, it was over. Ahhh, what was I thinking! I'm sure one day I'll look back and laugh...or something...

Anyway, I am kinda proud of the work we did. Even if he is a pain in the ass when we do it, it's still fun to do crafty things with TJ and show them off. I think I must be a masochist or something, I really like to punish myself and cause myself pain, both physical and mental! Nevertheless, you can't get these days back, so you might as well enjoy them while you can, eh! Talk to you later, have a great day!

Yep, that's right, it's COLLLLLDDDDD outside! While, I can't guarantee that it will last very long, as our weather tends to change its mind quite frequently, it has been here long enough now that I've dressed my kids warmly two days in a row and pulled out the winter clothes in preparation. I went through them last night, and I'm just waiting for a whole week of cold, then I'm going to get rid of the summer clothes! TJ has a TON of clothes for winter, even after I filtered through them some and pulled out what I don't want. Taryn has a bit, but nowhere near as many as TJ! For some reason, that just feels weird! I thought guys weren't supposed to have tons of clothes! If Taryn's feet ever grow, though, she'll kick TJ's butt with how many shoes I've already gotten her!

We went to the playground yesterday with Gina and my friend Amy from church, and all of their kids (minus Blake, who was at school). It was pretty cool, and really nice to be able to talk to other adults. After having had the opportunity, I kinda think TJ's not the only one who needs to work on social skills! I could definitely use some work with talking to adults again! Taryn got to wear her new sweater from Old Navy. I'm very proud of it, as it was quite a deal. It was regularly priced at $16.50, and I got it for $1.97. Not bad, eh? Do take a look at it, it's SOOOO cute!


I also yanked out some totally cool overalls for TJ. He was the cutest boy out there, as usual!


Oh, and I've decided on Taryn's Christmas outfit. I haven't even thought about TJ's, but you know, the first Christmas is important. Here it is:


That dress is so cool! It's got little sparkles in the fabric all over it, and it's so nice! My mom got it for Taryn. It usually costs $40 (what it says on the tag), but I think she either paid about five dollars for it, or $2.50, I'm not sure which. Either one is a steal, though! It's so pretty, and I just know Taryn will look awesome in it!

Well, I guess that's all I've got to say right now. I hope you're having a wonderful day, and I'll talk to you later!

I made eggplant parmesan today! Hooray! TJ helped me bread the eggplant, which was disastrous, but fun. The first piece I tried, I burned the crap out of, and had to open the doors and windows to let all the smoke out of the house. I called Trey's mom to ask her what I was doing wrong, and undoubtedly you have to cut the stove down after you heat the oil up enough. Go figure! Anyway, the next time I tried, it worked perfectly! Thanks, Gayle! I also made farfalle noodles, and a sauce called eggplant ragout (?) out of onions, garlic, eggplant and crushed tomatoes. I have to say I wasn't overly excited about how that came out. It tasted alright, but it wasn't really my style. However, I'm very proud of the meal that came out, and now I don't have to go to Olive Garden and spend ten bucks to get eggplant parmesan!

Okay, this continues from yesterday. Undoubtedly, I wasn't too covert about whom I was talking about (did you all know?), and I seem to have further upset Trey (which was what I was trying to avoid!). It may work to our advantage, though. We'll see. He's vowed never to read my blog again, which isn't what I was going for, but maybe he'll come back soon. Anyway, now that I've pretty much told you that I've been upset, I need your help. We talked a little today during his break, and for the four hundredth time we came to the conclusion that we are not working together, but against each other, and that we need to change a lot of stuff. Okay, we've established that. The real, true problem, though, lies with how to actually do the change and stick to it. It seems like everytime we have a talk, everything is good for a week or two, and we're really trying, then it all goes back to the way it was after that. I want to go to counseling, but we can't afford it. We need help, though! I certainly don't want to lose a great marriage over the stuff we're having problems with that surely can be fixed. So please, if you have any suggestions, ideas, cure-alls, anything, TELL ME! I love him, and he loves me, so surely we're one up on the challenge. Help, please!

Alright, I'll talk to you later, and you have a great day!

B/c really, I have nothing much to say today. Our last couple of days have been for the most part less than eventful. I went to the flea market here for the first time yesterday and got TJ a new computer for his games. The excessive rudeness I experiences from fellow shoppers insures that I will not be returning there unless I absolutely have to. Today I watched my neice and nephew, Julia and Blake, and found out a little bit of what it might be like to have four kids. I have to be sure that it wouldn't quite be the same, since they are not always here, but still, just seeing what it was like trying to pay attention to four separate people for a few hours made me think twice about having any more for a while! They were really good, though, although I can't say the same for TJ. He really needs to start playing with other kids more, b/c he needs a LOT of practice with social skills and sharing!

I forgot to take my pill today, which might have something to do with the very funky mood I'm in right now. I'm very frustrated. It didn't help that my son was being a total ass when he had visitors, and that my daughter for some reason decided the best time to cry for no reason was when there was a house full of children. However, it's not mostly that that's bothering me. I know what is, but I really can't talk about it. In some ways having a blog is great, b/c you can write out your problems and get some unbiased answers, and some that you wouldn't expect that are biased. However, it's not really a complete journal if you know anyone reading, b/c, I've learned through past experiences, you can't really put just anything you want to on it. Therefore, I can't tell you what I really want to, and ask you what I really want to, b/c there may be someone out there reading who might know what I'm talking about and get upset. Damn feelings!

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'm sorry if you're still reading and just wasted that minute of your life on my rambling about nothing. I still love you, though, and am so glad you wasted that minute on my ramblings! I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you later.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking...The weekend isn't even here yet. Well, here at the Pitchford homestead, the weekend typically happens on Thursday and Friday. Sometimes it's Wed. and Thurs., depending on Trey's schedule. So, ours is officially over now till next week! Anyway, we stayed pretty darn busy the past two days!

Yesterday, TJ rode on his first go kart! Trey wanted to take him to ride one, so we drove over to Frankie's, and hopped right on. That place is EXPENSIVE!!! It was $5.50 for a ticket to ride it ONE TIME! Thank goodness we didn't have to buy a ticket for TJ, but still...Anyway, I'm still not sure if he liked it or not. He kept sliding down in the seat, and was sure to tell me about three hundred times that his side didn't drive. He said he went really, REALLY fast, though, and I think he liked it.

Later, we went over to Wal-Mart and picked out a pumpkin. We were going to go to the pumpkin patch that Echo found, but she went and said they didn't even have pumpkins in the pumpkin patch, so I didn't see the need to waste the gas or time. TJ had just as much fun picking one out from in front of the store! We picked out about 8 or 9 good ones, and lined them up for TJ to pick from. We left the ones he didn't pick, and by the time we left, almost all of them were gone. Yep, we're good punkin' pickers!

Last night we carved it. I think it's loverly! Here's a short recap:



Today, we did a lot, too. Well, we didn't do a lot, but what we did seemed to take FOREVER! It was fun, though. I thought it would be fun to make cookies with TJ. I wanted to make sugar cookies and decorate them for Halloween. I learned a lot today. May I just say here that it's much easier to just buy the dough in a tube and do it that way, as opposed to actually making them from scratch! TJ's attention span lasts for about twenty two point two seconds, and most of that was spent doing the exact opposite of what needed to be done to get the cookies made! We did have fun, though. However, TJ seems to think that the most important part of the whole process is to eat as much of the dough, then the icing, then the cookies, as possible. Oh, and here's something else I learned: If you don't have any food coloring, and your husband tells you you can use Kool-Aid to color the icing, keep in mind that the icing will end up tasting like the Kool-Aid you used! The recipe called for three drops of red food coloring to make orange frosting, so I found some red Kool-Aid and tried it. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get it to change from pink, and I'm pretty sure our cookies are the first Halloween cookies ever to taste like Watermelon Kiwi! They are still good, though!



Tonight Trey and I made lasagna, and he made banana pudding! Wow, I'm pooped! I love Halloween and this time of year! I hope you're having a great day, and I'll talk to you later!

I just had to share some of my favorite things that TJ has said recently:

"Look, Mommy! She has two butts!" (in reference to Taryn, whose diaper I was changing at the time--this is my favorite thing he's ever said!)

"DAMMIT!" (I'm sorry, it's just so funny!)

"I sure do luuv when Uncle Mike comes and plays with me." (this is said about EVERYTHING, you can fill in the blanks, and done so in a very country accent!)

"Be carefully!" (said when Trey is driving off to work. It's a mix b/t be careful and drive carefully)

"I almost pooped on the floor! Hee hee!" (said as he runs to me right after pooping on the floor!)

"You don't tell me what to do, Mommy. You don't tell me what to, Daddy. I do what I want!" (not my favorite thing to hear, but definitely funny at the time!)

"TJ come here." "Huh?" "I said, TJ come here." "What?" I said, TJ come here!" "Huh?"...etc., etc., etc... (again, not my favorite thing to hear, but certainly entertaining for someone!)

"We're going to go to Mimi's house Sunday and go to downtown and go to fishing." (we went to downtown Charleston the other day, and it was undoubtedly the best night of his life! Now all he can talk about is going downtown and going fishing at Mimi's house!)

"KHEEEE!" (this is a sound that he makes with the back of his throat. It's the sound of the dinosaurs in his tummy that he ate!)

"If you're happy and you know it, I don't care! If you're happy and you know it, I don't care! If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it. If you're happy and you know it, I don't care!" (he made that up all by himself!)

"Yaayahhh!" (this is actually "yeah", but he says it so country, it's funny. Yes, I know I'm supposed to be teaching him to say "Yes, Ma'am" but I want to wait till he's not cute saying that anymore!)

"I have a peeenis, and Daddy has a bagina!" (too funny!)

"But I waunnt tooooo!" (also very country, but also very cute!)

"I need to own-lock the door, then I can lock it again." (yes, that word is supposedly unlock!)

"TJ's don't like to drink Kool-Aid. TJ's like to drink water." (also said about lots of stuff. Not sure where the whole talking in third person came from!)

There are tons more, I'm sure. I just can't think of them right now. Pretty much anything he says is great, except, of course, for "NO!" I love, love, love when he sings, too! Man, I have a funny kid!

Have a great day. Talk to you later!

So this won't be very long. I did want to show you a couple of pics that I took today, though.

Just to let you know, the book I read the other day on discipline seems to be helping a lot. I hope I'm not jinxing it by telling you, but I think TJ has done much better the past few days. We went to my mom's over the weekend (Thurs.-Sat.), and he's usually pretty bad there. I think he did exceptionally well, though. He did spend a bit of time in time out today, but I think it's good b/c he's seeing that I am actually following through on what I say now. I also asked his doctor about time out and spanking and what not, and she said I should make time out longer, b/c three minutes is hardly enough time for him even to calm down. I have to say I agree. Anyway, things are looking up. I knew it was partially my fault for slacking off, and I'm doing my best to pay more attention to them both (which has made getting anything else done around the house even harder!). It's still a work in progress, but I'm feeling much better now, and thank you all for your help and advice and what not.

So, the good ol' doctor also told me to start feeding Taryn solids. She said to start with just a tiny bit of cereal, and work up to vegetable baby food and on from there. I started yesterday. Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, Taryn now weighs 15 lbs. (85%), and is 26 in. long (97%). She's doing great, so sayeth the good doctor. Anyway, back to feeding her. She's not too fond of the idea yet, but even today she did better than yesterday. She still doesn't get the whole swallowing thing. She mostly pushes it all out. However, today, she started moving her mouth up and down for a second, and actually swallowed some. I cheered and praised her a whole bunch, and she was so happy! Of course, she then proceeded to gag and spit it all back up. Then, seconds later she was right back to pushing it out again! Anyway, I had to take pictures to commemorate the moment. TJ also begged me to take a picture of her food (?), so I'll let you see that beautiful picture, too!


Ain't she just the cutest! Alright, you have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

I went to see my grandparents yesterday. It was an experience that I'm having a hard time letting go of.

My grandaddy has Alzheimer's. My great-grandma had it, too. She was very quiet and smiled a lot. I always just thought that's the way she was, and never thought twice about it. It was a bit of a rude awakening a few years ago when I found out that she once was a vibrant and fun woman. She was a little on the wild side, and completely lived up to the stereotype of redheads (which she was, a fire-redhead). I had no idea. I really didn't even know she had Alzheimer's till much later.

Anyway, back to Grandaddy. He is in the far-gone stage of Alzheimer's now. He shuffles slowly around the house. He plays with his belt buckle, unhooking and hooking his belt over and over again. He nervously fidgets with everything, and I'd have an easier time getting TJ to sit down for an hour than I would to get him to sit for a minute or two. His speech is slurred, and incoherent. He hallucinates and confuses people. Grandma said he rarely sleeps more than a few hours at a time anymore, and she's forced to get up with him, b/c he will wonder off, even out of the house, and hurt himself. He looks so old, and he's not. He's not the Grandaddy I know and love. He once was a fun-loving guy. He played tennis and golf. He was in the military, and retired from law enforcement. He was very friendly, and had a great sense of humor. I can still remember his voice clearly, and it was a lovely voice. He would play silly games with us, and take us to his cool beach house and go swimming with us and on bike rides. Grandaddy even mastered the combover, as much as I hate when men do that! I love him! I'm having such a hard time fathoming even the idea of such a great man being brought to such a level. I just feel like this is some kind of bad dream, b/c surely that's not even possible. To think that a man with such a commanding presence now greets you with a mumble and walks on by, going on about something completely irrelevant.

I'm learning the true meaning of love from Grandaddy's current state, though. My grandma is doing everything in her power to continue taking care of him and keep him at home. It must be so hard for her. She's got to be up with him at all times. She must take him with her anywhere she goes, and babysit him like a tiny baby (that happens to be three or four times her size--she's very, very skinny!). She was once also a very active woman, and now has had to drop everything so she can be there to take care of Grandaddy night and day, every single day of the week. She has some help, mind you, but it pales in comparison to the hard work that she now must go through. It's harder than having kids, I'm sure, as even with kids you can get some level of understanding out of them, and they do sleep at some point. Again, too, he's much, much bigger than her, and capable of so much more than any baby could ever do. Grandma said he frequently tries to move the furniture in the house, and yesterday I watched him rearrange several small rugs into different rooms. To fully understand how this is teaching me, you must know about my grandma. She is a very cold-seeming person, who shows very little emotion, period. She is nice, and I've always known she loves us, but you would never know from her expression. Everytime Taryn saw her yesterday, she would cry, if that tells you anything. So I know that she must truly, truly love Grandaddy to go to such great lengths for him. Despite constant pushing to put him in a home or get help, she refuses b/c she believes that his staying home with her is the best thing for him. I think that is so sweet (albeit a little insane to take on such a great burden!), and I have learned just what true love means from seeing her total dedication to their relationship. She exemplifies the statement, "in sickness and in health, for better or for worse" to a tee.

Probably the most scary part, though, is that it is hereditary. My great-grandma had Alzheimer's, my grandaddy has it, and it is likely that my mom will get it, too. She was so kind as to point out to me today that I have a chance of getting it myself, but that doesn't worry me. I mean, once I've gone braindead, I surely won't care, right! I can't imagine watching this happen to my mom, though, and being helpless to do anything to stop it. I love my grandaddy a lot, but I am so much closer with my mom. Once, I thought about her dying, and busted out into tears. Just imagine seeing her become like Grandaddy? All of this is really upsetting me, and I'm not sure what to think.

I've been thinking about taking the kids to a nursing home once a week to visit, and this has made me think that my idea is the right thing to do. Therefore, my goal for this week is to find a place that we can go to. Not only will it teach my kids about helping other people, but maybe it will help me prepare for what is to come. What a horrible disease Alzheimer's is.

I'll talk to you later. Have a good day.

Just read this. Then, when you pick your jaw up off the floor, come back and give me a hard time about how I'm struggling with just two kids!

http://shellsgal.blogspot.com/

Wow, I can't remember the last day I had a whole day off to myself. I LOVED it! I'm so sad that it's almost over now, but man am I glad I had one! Thank you, Trey, for your brilliant idea! I love you! Thanks to my in-laws, too, for watching the kids. Without you, there would be no day off!

I started it off by doing exactly what I was told to do. Julia told me to sleep till noon, so I did. I really didn't think I'd be able to, since I'm in the habit of waking up at 8:30 now. However, I held myself up as long as possible last night, and found no trouble at all sleeping until 11:30. After that, though, it was a struggle, but I pushed on and went back to my dream about partying with teenagers and playing on a baseball team (who knows!).

Once I got up, I watched tv. Now, this doesn't seem like a big deal to most of you. However, it was so wonderful to me, b/c it was the first time in a very long time that I got to sit down and watch an entire program w/o interruption. I watched. I enjoyed. I understood what was going on in the show. Great, just great!

Unfortunately, I had to run errands today, too. I got the alignment on the van fixed, but that was even great, b/c I got to sit in the waiting room for an hour all by myself, and just sit there and enjoy the peace. Plus, the guy who took my car was so nice to talk to, and the Mitsubishi place I bought the van from payed for it!

After that, I went to Barnes and Noble and read books on how to discipline your strong-willed child. I used to read books on just plain children, but now I've moved up to the ones about defiant children. I read an entire book called Try and Make Me! by Ray Levy, and I learned a lot of things. Earlier today I talked to my mom on the phone, and nearly broke down. I pretty much felt like the only possible thing I can do now to get TJ straight is to spank him, even though I'm still dead-set against it. I really don't want to, and I'm hoping that the stuff I found in this book, along with a renewed motivation to fix things around here will help, and I'll be able to avoid it altogether. I feel like if I do end up spanking him, I'll be seen as a big quitter, especially after my vehement arguments against it. We'll see. Anyway, back to my day. I know it must seem silly to go and read books about kids on your day off, but it was sooooo nice just to be able to sit and read a book w/o anyone running off or bothering me. I never wanted to leave...but the hunger and my back hurting made me!

Last, I went to The Olive Garden. Trey hates to eat there, and I really didn't want to cook something just for me. I figured, "Why not!" After all, what's better than being able to sit down to a meal and actually eating it w/o distractions, feeding your children, making them sit down, etc.? It was great! Of course, while I was there I mapped out my new daily schedule that will hopefully work, if I hopefully will stick to it. It was nice, though, b/c I was able to actually think and have complete thoughts, w/o having to stop every ten seconds to correct a child or pick it up. Ahhhh. Oh, and get this...in the table next to me was a woman who was also out on a night off, and eating all by herself! Cool, huh!

Now I'm at home, playing on the internet and waiting for Trey to get here so I can go get my cheerin'. It's funny that even though I'm so glad to be away from them for a little while, I still miss them so much and can't wait to see them again. Today while I was at Barnes and Noble, a little baby girl started crying, and I almost jumped up and grabbed her to hug her! (I'm sure that would have really freaked the dad out!) I've decided that Trey and I need to work it out so that each one of us gets a day like this at least once a month, even if it's just for the majority of the day and one of us takes the kids somewhere else for a while. It was so therapeutic and necessary. I sure do love Trey and his wonderful ideas! Have a great day! I'll see you soon!

Okay, so today was a BAD day. It seems now that my son not only can't make it to the bathroom in time to pee most of the time, but he also seems to think it quite funny, and actually peed on the floor today, in front of me, to piss me off, and gave an evil grin about the whole issue. (wow, what a run-on sentence!) I was not happy. It may not have been so bad, had it not been the fourth pair of soiled underwear and the third pee stain I had to clean up off of the floor already today (and it was only 1:30!). Did I clean it up, you ask? Oh hell no! I made his little devilish butt do it himself!

Nevertheless, though, that's not all. I'll just say that today was really bad. So bad that I called everyone I could think of, and finally gave up (not home, busy, etc.) and called Trey at work in a desperate moment to have someone help me regain what little sanity I had left before I did something I would regret. He suggested I take them to his mom's house to stay for the night. I'm not overly excited at the thought of them going there, but the idea was just too good to pass up. So, finally, tonight at 8:00, they climbed into Nana's car and off they went.

Now tell me this--Why is it that I should be elated and thrilled to have gotten rid of my kids for a day (I have tomorrow off!), but instead all I can think of is how much I miss them already and when they are coming back? I am so sad.

I'm wondering lately if I'm not the worst mom in the world. I have asked, and been told that I'm not, but I'm beginning to think people are just being nice. TJ has become more than I can handle, both mentally and physically. He was better when I first brought Taryn home, which makes me wonder if his behavior is b/c of her. I keep thinking that maybe now it is worse b/c she actually wants attention more and demands it. He keeps hitting her lately. Time out is not working, no matter how consistent I am with it. Nothing is. I'm going to admit something in total shame--I swatted him on the butt the other night, hard. I did it b/c I couldn't think of anything else to do, and he was being reprehensible. The worst part is that all he did was yell at me for hitting him! He was not at all phased, AT ALL. He has fits all day everyday, about nothing. He hits and throws things when he gets mad. He won't go to sleep for naps or for bed. He won't sit down to eat. He sucks. So do I. I just have the feeling I was too slack before, and now he just thinks I'm a joke. Yes, my mom was right. I was too afraid to hurt his feelings, and now look where I've ended up. I've become the screaming and mad mom that I dread. I want to be a stellar mom, but I'm not. It's not for lack of trying, and reading every possible child-rearing book, article, website, etc. I can find. I am a wealth of information when it comes to how to discipline a child. Does any of it work for me? No. I need Nanny Joe(SuperNanny) or Nanny Deb (Nanny 911) desperately. I even try all of their stuff, and they make it look so easy. It's not. I need support, a LOT of it. I know I need to spend more time with him each day, and that would help some (I stress the word SOME). I've made a schedule with playtime together scheduled in, but it's not enough, and I'm SO TIRED of doing these dumb little kid things. I keep trying to get together with people, and it never works. I can't do this anymore!!!!!!

Hi, I'm sorry for that. I needed to vent a lot. Maybe my free time tomorrow (getting the car fixed!) will give me the much needed break and let me clear my mind some and get refreshed and ready to tackle the babies again. We'll see. Until then, have a good day, and I'll talk to you later.

Uh huh, I know what you're thinking. Yeah, well, keep your thoughts to yourself!

I have a new best friend. This best friend is great, b/c it cost me very little to make this best friend, and, well, he really hooks me up. You know, does a lot for me. It's b/c of him that I'm able to finally wear clothes that are not maternity again. It's b/c of him that I was able to have a great time the other night while out with Trey on date night. He really loves me, and I really love him. Hell, even Trey likes him a lot! Yep, a great, great friend. I'd like for you to meet him.



While I'm here, I have a question for those of you with little boys. When you started potty training them, or maybe when they went to real underwear, if you've done so yet, did they suddenly become obsessed with their penis? Nobody is fessing up to me that their kid was madly in love with his, but I just know there are other little boys out there that can't stop touching themselves! I swear, everytime I turn around, TJ has his "toodlewhop" hanging out and his hand on it! He comes and gets in our bed sometime early in the morning everyday. This morning I woke him up, and he was laying on his stomach, with his hand on it of course. He was kinda laying right next to Trey's head. Trey rolled over b/c I woke him up, too, and when he opened his eyes, BOOM! There was TJ's "toodlewhop" right in his face! Minutes later, he comes out of the room and tells me, "Mommy, I have a big ol' toodlewhop! Look at it!" Later, (I'm assuming it's tired of being messed with so much), he comes up and tells me it hurts, and he wants me to kiss it. Umm, yeah, NO! Here I thought it was bad enough that the other day he asked me to kiss his butt when it hurt! If you have any suggestions or promise that this too shall pass, I'd love to hear it! I am really not that interested in seeing my son touch himself all day everyday for the rest of his life!

Alrighty then, I'm out! Talk to you later! Have a great day!

Get ready to laugh at me. and TJ. I'm about to tell you something that I could never imagine telling anyone, much less the entire internet, just for the sake of entertainment, and the hopes of getting you to keep coming back here. If nothing else, at least my mom won't be able to tell it to my friends anymore to embarrass me.

So, when I was a wee tot, we had a little doggy dog. I was prone to eating, and as many yungins' do, I would put anything I could find that looked tempting in my mouth. As it was, the little doggy dog we had had a bit of a problem with making it outside when the time came to, ummm, empty its bowels. It seemed to be much easier just to relieve itself under my bed. And thus, one day the little doggy dog did just that. Now, things haven't changed much since then in the area of likes and dislikes of mine when it comes to chocolate. I am always willing to enjoy a good piece of chocolate, whether it's Hershey, Bavarian, or even the cheap stuff. I'm not picky. Undoubtedly, I wasn't then, either, but I was particularly fond of Tootsie Rolls (which I now don't really consider chocolate, but...). If you can already see where I'm taking this, good. I would prefer to save myself the embarrassment of actually putting it into words. If not, just know that the dog was small, and its poop bore a stunning resemblance to above stated candy...

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper once I found out that my yummy candy find was in fact not candy at all!

So, today when TJ suddenly became very upset, and spit out something brown and squishy onto the floor at my feet, it should have occurred to me immediately what was going on. Instead, though, I just asked him why on earth he always has to eat stuff off of the floor (I thought he had found a piece of candy or cookie on the floor, as his Nana was here yesterday, and they pretty much ate nothing but candy and cookies from the way TJ tells it), and told him to go get a bite of his breakfast to get rid of the taste. He did as told, and came back seconds later still freaking out and crying that he wanted some "chlocate" milk. "Great, now I have to get up from my comfy seat where I was happily trying to ignore you and get you a drink!" I thought. So I looked down on the floor to find out what this yicky thing he ate was. I examined it closely for a second, and couldn't think of what it could be. I picked it up and smelled it, while simultaneously feeling its gooey texture and noticing its very dark brown coloring. Oh yes, my friends, TJ had followed in Mommy's footsteps! We don't have a doggy dog, though, nor do we have a cat. For that matter, we have nothing animal-like, save the babies and Trey (yes, I'm the only civilized one here!). It didn't take long to figure out where it came from, though, as TJ turned to have me follow him to the kitchen to get his milk for him. That distinctive lump in the back of his pants told me everything.

Ahhh, the joys of raising children and potty training! Did I mention that he peed in his mouth yesterday? You know, I'm guessing that one day TJ's really, REALLY not going to like it when he finds out I put this on here. I love being a mom! Have a great day!

Yesterday I had a moment I was neither prepared for, nor ever wanting or planning to have. Now I know that when babies are really little, boys that is, they tend to pee on their caregivers while they change their diapers. I got lucky in that area, as TJ never hit me, but did hit himself in the face quite regularly. So perhaps yesterday was some sort of payback for the years of pee I missed.

We were playing on my bed, bouncing and rolling around, which is a common lazy day thing to do around here (it's just fluffy and soft and king-sized). Taryn and I were laying on the bed cooing and whatnot, while TJ bounced around our heads, threatening utter doom if he were to fall or slip. We were calling each other silly, crazy, funny, all the fun things parents and children call each other, when TJ said to me, "Mommy, I pee-peed on Taryn." I said, "You better not ever pee-pee on her, or you'll be in big trouble." He giggled, and the fun continued. A few minutes later, he came up to me and said, "Mommy, I'm pee-peeing on you!" I went to laugh and give him the warning of punishment again, when I looked up, and saw what I now perceive to be funny, but at the time not so much. There stood TJ, above my torso, with his 'toodlewhop' out, and giving me the shower I had managed to miss that morning! All the while he was just laughing away, as if peeing on Mommy is part of our daily fun. Needless to say, I don't think he was prepared for the sudden shock and anger I lashed at him. No, no, I didn't hit him or anything. I did, however, yell in a voice I never use, and with a force that TJ had yet to hear from me. I think I scared the piss out of him. Of course, he had already emptied that, so he didn't have to worry about changing his underwear!

Anyway, just wanted to share the highlight of my days of late. I hope your days have been equally as exciting, and I will be by shortly to check! Talk to you later!