I made poop!

8 years ago today, Brian and I got hitched! Hitched in what was quite possibly the fastest planned wedding in the history of weddings that appeared as though it had been in the works for a year! (3 and a half weeks is how long we had to plan. Brian was set to deploy and had we kept our originally planned wedding date, well, he would've missed it.)

Anyhoo...8 years. 

Here's a photo highlighting parts of our vows to one another...

YEAH RIGHT! 

Let's just say we were blissfully unaware at this moment in time what struggles were ahead...And even more so, what joy we were in for. Life is funny that way. I know Brian and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

(Who are these skinny people??) 

On a different note, let's talk about those crazy kids that live in my house. 

Are you curious as to how a day begins in this household? I'm on summer break right now which means I get to (somedays I may substitute the phrase 'have to') spend 24 hours a day with them.

I'm not going to lie. My room practically looks into their room and right around 7:45 - 8:30, I hear the first sign of alertness. It's at this time I try my hardest to feign total sleepiness.

Regardless of my efforts to ignore him, Colton stands at the gate proclaiming a desperate need to pee. (I resist the urge to yell from the warm comforts of my cozy bed that he IS wearing a diaper and can in fact just pee in that.) But I know that is contrary to what I'm trying to teach him and he's SO close to not needing a diaper at night, so I roll out of bed, painfully aware of how sore my back is first thing in the morning, and I pop open that gate and escort Toddler A to the bathroom. In doing so, it apparently appears to child number 2 (Hunter) that I am abandoning her and as such, she begins to scream "But Mommy!!! I want you to hold me." 

I yell from the bathroom, "I'm not leaving you, Hunter! I'm in the bathroom with Colton." 

She responds with no less urgency in her voice, "But mommy, I NEED you to get my baby and woobies." 

"Hunter," I yell back. "YOU are a big girl. YOU can get your babies and woobies. I'm helping Colton right now." 

So in case you lost track, Colton is peeing, Hunter is freaking, and Ethan had just sauntered down the hallway begging to watch Doc StickMuffin. (That's Doc McStuffins for you other Disney Parents). 

"Ethan, do you need to go pee pee?" I ask. 

"NO. Not yet."

"Are you sure? Let's take off your jammies and go pee pee."

"Okay."

But of course he wants to go on the big potty (which Colton is currently occupying.) 

The madness ends with both boys peeing and Hunter announcing that she has poops. (Awesome)

We address that issue and begin the march downstairs.  3 kids, 1 mom and they ALL want to hold my hand. Despite my mad reasoning skills which usually go something like this, "Okay kids. Look at mommy. How many hands do I have? And how many of you are there? So how are we gonna do that?" 

Frankly the answer varies from day to day. Some days I have to make another trip upstairs, other days one kid decides he doesn't really care to hold my hand anymore and other days I hold 2 hands in my one hand and the other hand in MY other hand. It all just depends...

No sooner than we hit the bottom step, requests are being made for breakfast. 

"I want cereal mom."

"Mommy, I hongry."

"Mommy, can I eat cereal?" 

So I move to the pantry to get out 4 different choices of cereal and as I begin to take requests, I hear this-

"Mommy, I need ice water." 

"I need ice water too."

Mommy, I want some white milk."

"Well that's' nice kids," I say. "But I'm a little busy at the moment getting your cereal. "

After my stint as a short order cook, we all sit down and eat 3 different kinds of cereal. 

Always Strawberry Mini Wheats for Colton, 

Life Cereal for Hunter and 

Pops for Ethan. 

I join Hunter in the Life Cereal department. 

We all sit and eat together peacefully for exactly 24 seconds. And then Ethan drops his spoon, Hunter is freaking out because she needs a bobby pin and a pony tail and Colton is apparently "all done" after the 2 bites he took. 

I pick up a spoon, run to get a ponytail and a bobby pin, yell at Colton to sit back down and eat and then return to my bowl of soggy Life cereal. It's been 32 minutes that they've been awake and I'm exhausted. 

In fact, THIS is pretty much how the morning (and afternoon, and evening)  goes....

Someday I'll tell you how the rest of the day proceeds...it's just as humorous. Or frightening. Or whatever...

But check out our paintings from the other night. I dictated what they were saying while they painted. 

HUNTER:

"See? It's a tree. And there's a flower. It looks like it's growing. Aww! It's so beautiful. It's perfect! It's so perfect!" 

ETHAN:

"Loook mommy! Look at this! It's red! Look mommy. Oh dear...what happened? You ready? You ready? Whoa! I made that! (making the red spots in the upper right corner). One more time! Three-Two-One, Three-Two-One. I all done painting, mom. I all done." 

 COLTON:

"I made poop! Look mommy! Eeeeww! There's the poop! One more...It's Hyper's poop (Piper's...our dog). I did it mom! Mommy, I made poop! It looks like poop!" 

 As exhausting as they can be, somedays I'm just lucky enough to enjoy moments like these where all is right with the world and we all just get along....

(Playing 'Meet the Sight Words on the iPhone.)

 Love these little feet. 

So goodnight my friends. I'm tired. I've gotta go get ready for my morning wake-up call.  Sweet dreams to you all!