Anticipating Gustav... Remembering Katrina

*This post contains images of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that might be unsettling*

I sit here trying to think of something lighthearted to post this Sunday. I want to laugh, I want to make witty jokes... but today I am antsy.

I'm keeping my eye on the television today, and though we know Gustav isn't coming our way, I can't help but keep holding my breath. I'm holding my breath for all the residents of the Gulf Coast. For my friend who has already evacuated the New Orleans area but has no idea what she might be returning to. For everyone who can't afford to evacuate but are trying to leave anyway. For everyone who has decided to stay.

Images of Katrina flash in my head. Images that looked like they must have been from some third world war zone... not right here in our own country.

I keep watching officials in New Orleans telling everyone that things are going smoothly and things are safer now than they were 3 years ago. I just hope they're right.

Today I will clean my house and do laundry and go to a birthday party for one of our favorite 12 year old relatives. And I will try not to dwell on what might happen tomorrow.

You are the best readers EVER

Can I just tell you how wonderful y'all are? The terrible parenting stories are rolling in and I'm just thrilled with the support everyone has given for my petrified best friend.

Keep the stories coming, y'all! You guys have had me giggling and crying while reading them all. Seriously, your honesty and open writing is... well, let's just say my cup runneth over.

Thank you all, every single one of you. You are all amazing parents.

In honor of Robin's wonderful late aunt who left us all some of the best advice I can think of when it comes to parenting, "throw away all the books and try not to drop them on their heads."

I'm still a good mommy, I think

When Bug was probably only 4 or 5 days old we were scheduled to go to the pediatrician. I was a new 22 year old mother without a clue. It was the first time I was taking my little guy out of the house and I was a mess. My diaper bag was crammed full of every thing I could possibly think that I might possibly need. I was dressed in my baggy maternity clothes, looking rather deflated. I had Bug all dressed in something cute and snugly wrapped in a blanket and it was time to go. I gathered everything up. The heavy diaper bag over my shoulder, the car seat in my right hand, and Bug cradled in my left arm. I was ready.

As I tried to get out of the door with everything all at once, running late as usual, I *smacked* that poor baby's head against the door frame. The poor little guy didn't even cry immediately it probably made him so wonky.

But I did. I cried. I bawled. I just knew I had caused brain damage and my poor little guy would suffer a lifetime of problems because of my negligence. I cried all the way to the pediatrician's office and begged him to take extra care looking over my little guy because I was sure I had caused a severe concussion.

Dr. Schwimmer (I loved him) giggled a little and calmed my fears. Bug's head was just fine and continued to be just fine. Now he's my Mr. Smartypants.

Later when Munchkin was maybe a little over a year old and just starting to be pretty confident with her walking skills, The Man and I put a video on for Bug and Munchkin in the living room of the house we lived in at the time. We went upstairs and took a shower together. Crazy kids we were, I know.

When we finished our luxurious shower I got dressed and went downstairs fully expecting to find my two toddlers sitting on the couch watching Blue's Clues.

There was no one there.

And the front door was OPEN.

Frantically I screamed up to him "THEY'RE GONE!!!!" and ran out the door.

I searched the neighbors. They weren't there. I searched the other neighbors. Nope. After much panic and hyperventilation we found them. On the next street over.

I was so relieved I broke down in tears and thanked the man who stood with them. He admonished me and lectured me and made me feel even smaller and more of a failure than I already felt.

And then he let me know he had called the police.

The police came, they lectured me, they ridiculed me, they reminded me that I should never have allowed myself to breed. Then they called the department of Children and Families and we were investigated.

Days later, a case worker showed up to check on the kids. He found that Munchkin had bruises on her legs. They took her to a state doctor and had her checked for abuse. She was fine. The doctor noted that she bruised easily and had fair skin.

The case was closed and we were all fine. And we installed way up high locks on all the doors so the kids couldn't escape again. And we stopped taking showers together.

So why am I telling you all this? Why would I admit this? Because my best friend who I love is having her first child. She is due December 11th (the day before Bug's birthday!) to meet her little baby boy and she is scared.

She is petrified, much like I think we all were when we had our first child. What if she screws up? What if she's a bad mother? What if she does everything wrong?!

So I posted this here to share that we all make mistakes. We all screw up and our kids live and thrive, despite us.

We all make mistakes and we all get through them. Sure, we hear of the horror stories, but way more often than not our kids survive our screw ups and we all sort of laugh about them later. Sort of laugh.

I'm really hoping you all will share your stories of how you screwed up and post them here with Mr. Linky. Link to a story you've already shared if you have one (or five) or make a new post. My friend will be reading these stories and they'll help her get through her fears. And maybe they'll be found by another scared soon to be mommy some day going through those same fears and it can help her, too.

*Unfortunately I'm finding I have to delete some of the links since they don't go to the actual post in question. :( If you'd like to relink up after yours is deleted, please link to the individual post about your parenting mistake, not just your main blog page. Thanks!

Hanna!!?

If you live in on the coast you know what I'm saying when I say that we're all holding our breath. Holding our breath through hurricane season every year. Checking the weather channel, stocking up on water and canned goods, listening to the radio broadcasts. We're all on alert, our ears perked up whenever we hear about a storm "out there" that could be coming our way.

Last week we were holding our breath over Gustav and now we've exhaled. Unfortunately, most of the Gulf coast residents, and especially New Orleans residents are all holding their breath.

Now we've got Hanna to watch out for. We'll be holding our breath this weekend while we wait to see what she plans to do.

The storms develop out there in the Atlantic, they approach Cuba, and we all inhale. We hold our breath, we stop, we wait... and then the storm goes elsewhere or dissipates or downgrades... and we exhale.

Fay came along and we all laughed at her. And then she did this:





I'm not laughing at Gustav or Hanna.

It's crazy because I never gave Hurricanes a second thought when I was growing up. We'd all heard about the legendary hurricane of 1928 that filled Lake Okeechobee and crumbled the dikes and killed close to 2000 people, but that sort of thing wouldn't happen again, we thought. Now we know they're coming, now we've got bigger and better dikes, now we'll be safe.

The only big hurricane I remember was Andrew in 1992 and that didn't affect us in Palm Beach County so badly. We had a tiny Hurricane Irene come through in 1999 when I was pregnant with Bug but it only caused a little flooding. We barely lost power.

I thought people were crazy to be so concerned about hurricanes. I mean, really, what was the big deal? We got some rain, some wind, no big thing!

Then it was 2004. Frances came and ripped up our yard, tore down our fences, flooded us, knocked over trees. We got stuff cleaned up and Jeanne came by and wrecked it all over again. We were without power for several weeks and people were fighting over gas. It was like nothing I had ever seen. We packed up and spent weeks in North Carolina where no one was thinking of hurricanes. We called regularly to find out if our power was back.

In August of 2005 Katrina came through our area as a windy storm that dumped a lot of rain. We barely noticed her as she calmly made her way across our state. We couldn't believe what Katrina did to the gulf coast... it was like we were watching the stories we had heard about the 1928 hurricane playing out on TV.

In October of 2005 Wilma came along and ripped most of our roof off. Half of the state had blue covered tarps covering their homes and it wasn't until January that we could finally get a roofer to come fix it. Again we were without power for over a month and we spent that time in North Carolina.

So now I hold my breath. Now I know what a Hurricane can do. Now I count the days down until the end of hurricane season every year. 94 more days to hold my breath.

Hose water and soggy diapers

It's that time again! Time for the Sincerely 'Fro Me to You bloggy carnival at We Are THAT Family!

This picture was taken when I was heavily pregnant with Munchkin and Bug was about 18 months old. Poor Bug wanted to get in that pool so badly with his uncle and cousins. At this point no one could tend to him in the pool the whole time so he occupied himself with the hose.

He was adorable out there playing with the hose. He'd flail the water around, watch it splash on the patio and in the pool. Occasionally he'd get lucky and hit an actual person and be thrilled with the reaction he'd get. Whenever it would hit him he'd stop and inhale and make this shocked look like he just couldn't believe how cold it was. It was just amazing to watch him discover the world around him and his impact on it.

I'm sure he got to go in the pool shortly after this picture was taken, so no one needs to feel sorry for him. :)

If you can read this, thank a teacher!

I am so excited about today. Seriously! I've been waiting for today for what feels like an eternity. I'm not kidding.

What is it, Spaz? What is it that could have you in a state of such anticipatory glee? What?

I'll tell you what.

It's Works For Me Wednesday time again. Yeah, baby!

That's right, it's time for the blog carnival that tops them all! No offense to any of the other blog carnivals that I love and participate in. I really do love y'all.

But there's a special place in my heart for Works For Me Wednesday. It was my first (I think) and it has brought me much traffic and many of my regular readers. I love Shannon for starting it, I love you all for clicking over and reading from it, I love Works For Me Wednesday.

(big exhale)

I'm so glad it's back.

Oh! Right! I'm supposed to post about something that works for me!

Sorry, it's been so long I nearly forgot. :)

I've got a great one, too. See, it's back to school for us and for most of y'all, too. This year Bug entered the gifted program and every night he's required to read for 30 minutes as part of his homework.

Munchkin scored academically and intellectually high enough to enter the gifted program (we're still working on the maturity level), too, so The Man and I decided she should probably join him in his 30 minutes of reading.

In fact, The Man and I think maybe the whole family should make a point to sit down with a book for 30 minutes of quiet time every evening. Because reading? That works for us.

Photo by ninjapoodles<

So last week we packed everyone up and headed down to our local library. All three of the kids picked out a couple of books (and so did The Man and I) and we brought them home. Now, we've done this before with disastrous results. The first time we returned the books like two weeks late. Totally my fault, I am so disorganized!

The second time Goober completely lost one of his books and I spilled tea all over one of The Man's books, ruining it. Oops. There's a $50 mistake we won't be making again.

This time we made a new rule. The library books are ONLY to be read in our living room (aka the room we never go in) and not taken out of there. There are nice plushy couches in there and it's a quiet room and heck, there's even a fireplace! It's the perfect place to curl up with a book. So now it's our reading room. Not only do we actually use the room, but the library books will always be able to be found and it's highly unlikely we'll ruin any of them.

That completely works for me.

Speaking of reading, I was alerted to a great program that TJ Maxx is sponsoring this year. They've partnered with Save the Children and launched a website where they've created a little game called The Great Book Adventure Game. It's a cute little game where you choose to be either a bus, a rocket ship, or a submarine and you travel along giving books to little animals, aliens, or marine life. I know what you're thinking...

Spaz, aliens don't read! They automatically absorb knowledge through highly advanced receptors! Duh!

I know, I know... just go with me, here. The people at TJ Maxx and Save the Children must have overlooked that. Forgive them.

Not only is this game SUPER cute and sort of addicting, but every time you play TJ Maxx will donate a book to impoverished children living here in the United States! Did you know that there are more than 2.6 million children living in rural poverty right here in our country? Take some time to read about what Save the Children does to help with literacy for these children.

But wait, there's more! (Hee hee, I just had to use that line.)

When you register to play, you'll be entered to win a $1000 shopping spree at TJ Maxx.

Cha ching!

Have you seen the selection of purses at that place? Heck, there's one in my area that carries Valentino and Prada dresses. I practically raced over there to enter.

Reading and improving literacy definitely works for me! For more Works For Me Wednesday posts, check out Rocks In My Dryer!

Hey, wait! Before you go, please take a few minutes to nominate a blogger for the Little Fish award! It's just one way you can share the bloggy love!

And another Little Fish is crowned

Wow, I'm announcing the Little Fish of the Week way later than normal because I've been just so darned busy today! We're two days into our second week of back to school and I haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet. What states do they do that "school all year round" thing? We may have to move.

Anyway... on to the Fish!

This week we had two nominees. They were:
She Just Had To Say It
and
Miracle Moments

These blogs are absolutely different. One is lighthearted and fun in a "just had your pedicure night out with the girls and a few bottles of decent red wine" type of way. The other is heartwarming and touching in a "curl up on the couch in your PJs and watch Lifetime with a box of Kleenex and a mug of hot tea" kind of way. So the decision was tough. Really tough.

I mean, some times you're in a night out with the girls mood and sometimes you're in a Lifetime TV mood, am I right? One is not necessarily more worthy than the other!

But blast! We had to make a decision. Cause that's the rule (that we made up). Rules are rules...

We can't help it... we're social... we chose the night out with the girls.

She Just Had To Say It takes the prize. We love you, you have been added to readers, we think you (and your new tatas) are awesome.

Here's your button. :) We hope you wear it proudly!

<a href="http://slackermomof3.blogspot.com/2008/08/and-another-little-fish-is-crowned.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://domesticspaz.com/blog/goldfish.jpg" /></a>

About the Little Fish award:
The Little Fish award is a weekly award given to a blog that makes us giddy. Little Fish blogs are not the most popular blogs. They're not on every blog roll in the blogosphere, but they should be. Blogs are nominated by anyone who wants to nominate one and all nominees are reviewed by a panel consisting of some bloggers who decided they wanted to read some great blogs. One winner is picked each week and featured here on Domestic Spaz.

Qualifications for the Little Fish award:
1. Nominees should not be featured on Alltop
2. Nominees should have an Alexa ranking of 1,000,000 or higher. (Here's a quick explanation.)

If you're not sure if a blog qualifies, nominate them anyway! We'll check for you. :)

If a blog has already been nominated a previous week and did not win, nominate them again! If you won the Little Fish award, we hope you'll wear your badge proudly on your blog to spread the word about the award. We also hope you'll nominate some of your favorite lesser known blogs.

Nominate blogs to the comments section of this post or tweet them to me on twitter!

Teaching the children about Buddhism

If you didn't notice, which you probably didn't, I didn't sell out yesterday. Did you miss it?

Of course you did. :)

So today I still don't have much to talk about... my family has not provided their usual bloggy entertainment lately. Except I did miss a great photo opportunity the other day when Goober and Munchkin decided to join me while I did a little yoga. Goober's downward dog was priceless. I'll have to try to get them to do it again.

Nevertheless, I will blog! I'm gabbing about Buddhism today... I hope you'll stick around.

As I learn more about Buddhism and how it fits into my life, I feel the need to pass that on to my children. See, when I was growing up my parents let religion take a backseat. They didn't want to thrust any particular belief system on me so they sort of just let me decide on my own. I had a Catholic background but we didn't really go to mass much and the only Sunday school I ever got was when I tagged along with friends to their churches.

Now that I'm all grown up I have mixed feelings about how my parents approached religion. While I'm mainly thankful that they chose not to thrust me into Christianity, their laid back approach didn't really give me the spiritual guidance I craved. I believe everyone needs some spiritual guidance in life. Without it, I always felt a sort of emptiness, a constant feeling that I was missing something.

Not to say I didn't develop the moral character that goes along with religious teachings, because my parents were very big into developing character. I could write a book of my dad's lectures teaching me right from wrong. (Not a bad idea, actually.)

I guess it was shortly after high school that I really began my search for spiritual answers. Answers to life, the universe, and everything. Douglas Adams didn't answer my questions, Christianity didn't answer my questions, Wicca didn't answer my questions, my Religion Theory professor didn't answer my questions, my friends didn't answer them, hallucinogenics didn't answer them, having children didn't answer them, and it got to a point where I wondered if there even was an answer.

Then one day I realized that the answers to those questions didn't matter. Why does it matter what happens when we die or how we came to be here or whether there's a God or a heaven or a hell or any of it? If someone could come along and answer all of those questions for me and I could make sense of their answer, would it change the way I live my life today? Should it change the way I live my life? Would I want it to?

It took me over a decade to find some sort of peace with my spirituality and I don't want my children to go through that sort of search. I want them to have peace from the start. I want them to feel complete from the beginning.

So I've sort of gone off on a tangent here, but it all leads back to a point, I promise. :)

I want to teach my children what I believe. But how? There are a lot of parts of Buddhism that aren't so easy to explain, and I'm still learning myself, so where to begin?

Google, of course. Duh.

That's when I found this. An online library of eBooks on Buddhism! There is a whole section devoted to children's books, too! Including bona fide textbooks explaining the story of Siddhartha Gautama and how he came to be the Buddha! I'm so excited to have found these books. Now I just have to read them all, of course, before teaching them to the kids. I've read the textbook geared for younger children and it seems wonderful. The Man will probably review all of them, too, before we decide to start teaching.

I encourage anyone interested in learning more about Buddhism to browse the library here and to explore the whole site. It really seems to be a wonderful resource.

Because I have nothing else to post about today

Found here.

25 Reasons You Owe Your Mother

1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
‘If you’re going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning.’

2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
‘You better pray that will come out of the carpet.’

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
‘If you don’t straighten up, I’m going to knock you into the middle of next week!’

4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
‘Because I said so, that’s why.’

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
‘If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you’re not going to the store with me.’

6. My m other taught me FORESIGHT.
‘Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you’re in an accident.’

7. My mother taught me IRONY
‘Keep crying and I’ll give you something to cry about.’

8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
‘Shut your mouth and eat your supper.’

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
‘Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!’

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA.
‘You’ll sit there until all that fish is gone.’

11. My mot her taught me about WEATHER.
‘This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it!’

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY .
‘If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times. Don’t exaggerate!’

13.! My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
‘I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.’

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.
‘Stop acting like your father!’

15. My mother taught me about ENVY.
‘There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don’t have wonderful parents like you do.’

16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
‘Just wait until we get home.’

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING.
‘You are going to get it when you get home!’

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCI ENCE.
‘If you don’t stop making that face, it’s going to freeze that way.’

19. My mother taught me ESP.
‘Put your sweater on; don’t you think I know when you are cold?’

20. My mother taught me HUMOR.
‘When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don’t come running to me.’

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT.
‘If you don’t eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up.’

22. My mother taught me GENETICS.
‘You got that from your father’

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
‘Shut that door behind you. You don’t live in a barn?’

24. My mother taught me WISDOM.
‘When you get to be my age, you’ll understand.’

25. And my favorite…:
My mother taught me about JUSTICE.
‘One day you’ll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you.’

Egyptian Cotton Wishes and Flannel Pajama Dreams

I seriously need to get my crap together. The kids have been in school for a week now, we have no tropical disturbances coming our way. It's time. Time to put a fire under my ass and get moving.

This is what my head keeps saying. My body, however, still doesn't quite understand why we're awake at 6:30 in the morning yet. All the coffee in the world isn't going to make me happy about being awake before 10. Heck, it's after 10 now and I know I could crawl into bed right now and fall fast asleep in a matter of seconds.

Tonight at 10? No such luck. I'll be wide awake and thinking of a billion things I need to do and I won't actually get myself into bed until after midnight. Then I'll toss and turn for a while and maybe think of some other thing I just HAVE to do and I'll get out of bed and do that. 6:30 comes really early after a few days of less than 6 hours of sleep.

I'll be doing my best to reprogram my body over the next week or so to not be horribly tired all morning. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this less painful, I'd be glad to hear them. Right now that bed is looking mighty comfy... and a quiet house with no kids in it isn't helping.

Second cup of coffee, anyone?

Oh darnit... now I have Boston stuck in my head...

Is it really Thursday already?

The calendar says it is... so without further ado, I bring you my entry for the Sincerly 'Fro Me To You carnival at We Are THAT Family.

I don't have a lot of pictures from my childhood or mementos from my youth because the house I grew up in was burned down almost four years ago and a lot of those things went with it. I do hold all those memories, though. That's something you learn when you lose so much of the things we all hold on to. The memories are still all there... sometimes it just takes a reminder to bring them back.

When I was two I was given a doll. It was a simple cloth doll and I named her Amanda. She was HUGE. She was almost as big as I was and therefore I deemed her my best friend. She had curly blond yarn hair and I loved her curly blond yarn hair. In fact, I loved it so much I truly wanted curly blond yarn hair of my own. Amanda was always sleeping (her eyes were always shut) and had a peaceful smile across her face. I loved her.

I remember being in awe that there was a doll so large! I held her hand and dragged her around with me as many places as my mother would allow. I once got something brown and sticky in her curly blond yarn hair and it never really came out. It dyed a patch of her curly blond yarn hair brown which always made me sad.

Over time Amanda became dingy and dirty and she must have been put away and forgotten about as I grew older. Every once in a while I would think about her and wonder what happened to her.

Several years ago I was helping my dad clean out the attic in my parents house and I found her in a black garbage bag filled with other dolls and stuffed animals from my early childhood. Amanda was dingy and her curly blond yarn hair was pulled in places and still had that brown stain in one spot. Mostly I was shocked at how small she was. She was no bigger than the length of my arm and her tiny little arms didn't even fill the palm of my hand.

I smiled and put Amanda back in the bag and left her in my parents attic. When the house burned down I was sure I had lost her forever.

Until I found this picture a few weeks ago.

There we are, Amanda and me. She's still clean and new in this picture (heck, so am I!), sleeping on the shag carpet. This is just how I'd like to remember her. She was a great friend. :)

I wish she'd shut up about back to school already...

Conversation with Munchkin in the car home this afternoon:

Me: So what did you learn in school today?
Munchkin: Everything.
Me: Everything? So you're done with school then? We don't have to go back?
Munchkin (rolls eyes): No Mommy, I mean everything for today.
Me: Oh, of course... well what did you learn then?
Munchkin: I don't know.
Me (exasperated): Did you go to PE today?
Munchkin: No, we had library.
Me: Did you check out any books?
Munchkin: We didn't actually go to the library. We watched a movie.
Me: Oh cool, what movie was it?
Munchkin: I don't remember the name of it.
Me: What was it about?
Munchkin: An alligator was eating kids.

WTF?!

I send my child to school to be traumatized by natural Florida wildlife.

I also learned today that Bug's new school is so overcrowded that they can't actually eat lunch in the cafeteria. The kids who bring their lunches sit at their desks and the kids who buy lunch go to the cafeteria and buy food and then they bring it back and eat it at their desk. No wonder it takes me a half hour to get through the school pick up line to get him in the afternoon!

Speaking of the pick up line at Bug's school. It's quite the chaotic event. Bug's school is on the corner of two relatively decent sized roads and some parents choose to park their vehicles on the side of the road and just walk up to the school to grab their child. This causes mayhem as some cars try to get "prime parking spots" closer to the school than others and parents and kids are walking all over the place and I'm fairly positive there will be some injuries there before the school year is up. I'm sorry, but it's worth my extra few minutes to pick Bug up at the school and make sure he doesn't get run over by some mad frantic parent or some high school kid that happens to be traveling through the area. The crossing guards are all blowing their whistles like twenty bazillion times and yelling at people who block the crosswalk and getting all bent out of shape. Those ladies sure need a cocktail, that's all I have to say. A cocktail after work, of course. Drunk crossing guards would be bad.

Cars are trying to get into the parking lot from both directions and this poor administrator woman is trying to direct the traffic and practically getting run over by parents who have been waiting for 20 minutes and are all angsty. She lets two cars in from one direction, then two cars in from the other and so on. She has this big smile plastered on her face even though all these parents look at her like she's got a target painted on her backside. Perhaps she has had a cocktail.

The pick up line itself is a snake through the parking lot much like a line at Disney World, which is sort of funny because you can actually see your child waiting WAY before you can actually get to the child. There is much waving from cars (including between me and Bug). Today between picking up Munchkin and then Bug I spent an hour and a half of my life and probably a half gallon of gas.

I'm can't wait till Bug is assigned a bus.

About Alexa

I get a decent amount of questions about the whole Alexa ranking thing so I figured I'd make a post to explain it.

Here's a not so brief explanation from the Alexa people themselves but all I really know is that it's a basic way to rank a site and "big fish" bloggers are all well UNDER the million mark and I liked it.

If you want to determine a bloggers ranking, it's easy to do.

First, go to www.alexa.com.

You'll see a screen like this:

Type the address of the blog you're interested in finding the ranking for in the search bar up top and click the Search button.

Then this screen will pop up. (I used Bossy for this example because I love her.)

The ranking will show up right there where I circled in the picture. :)

But for the Little Fish award? You don't have to do all that. Just go ahead and nominate a blog and I'll check it for you!

Fay Shmay & some Bloggy Love

So they say we've got a Tropical Storm upon us... and yeah, I guess it's windy out there. And rainy. Definitely rainy. And the TV keeps getting interrupted with that nasty tornado warning and flash flood warning junk that makes us unable to hear what Oprah is saying.

School's are closed, dentist offices are closed, government buildings are closed.

I'm a little irritated.

Yesterday was our first day of school and I drove in a torrential downpour to pick up my kids. Faculty and students stood outside with lighting rods umbrellas in hand waiting for minivans and SUVs driven by worried moms to come rescue them from the hell they were enduring. We all drove around in the mess, business as usual, going slower and trying to be more considerate of each other, everyone wanting to get home to hunker down for the storm.

The storm they tell me is upon us now.

Sure, we've had some power surges and the trees are blowing around a bit out there... but compared to yesterday it looks like a nice day for a leisurely drive.

On a brighter note, I won a blog award! Every Day Baby Steps gave me a supah sweet award!

Is that not the cutest?!

As with most awards there are some rules.

The rules of the award are:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs. (seven?!)
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated

Since I love to give the bloggy love I'll play along.

I'm nominating
1. Bio Girl
2. For the Love of Pete
3. From the Planet of Janet
4. The Jason Show
5. Life With Three
6. Raising A & C
7. See the Woods and the Trees

Play along if you wish, guys! :)

The Next Little Fish!

This week the panel didn't have too much reading to do as it was a two blog race for the Little Fish title. With all the mess of Back to School I guess that was a good thing!

The nominees this week were:

Me and You and Ellie
and
Bad Mom

Deciding which Little Fish to choose is never an easy decision and that didn't change this week just because there were only two nominees. But when push comes to shove, the little fish panel has to make a decision... cause that's the rule... that we made up ourselves.

This week's winner of the Little Fish award is Me and You and Ellie. If you haven't ever read this blog you're really missing out. It's unconventional and fun and witty and real. Written by three sisters (which makes me sort of teary eyed because I, too, am one of three sisters), this blog is about life. It's about sisterhood. It's about living.

And I love it.

That's right. LOVE.

Ellie has commented on my blog a few times and I've clicked over to Me and You and Ellie to show some bloggie love when she does but it wasn't until this week that I really read it. I'm so darned happy I did.

Go check Beth, Jacquie, and Ellie out. Grab a glass of wine and just read. You'll love them, too.

Here's a badge for y'all!

<a href="http://slackermomof3.blogspot.com/2008/08/next-little-fish.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://domesticspaz.com/blog/goldfish.jpg"></a>

About the Little Fish award:
The Little Fish award is a weekly award given to a blog that makes us giddy. Little Fish blogs are not the most popular blogs. They're not on every blog roll in the blogosphere, but they should be. Blogs are nominated by anyone who wants to nominate one and all nominees are reviewed by a panel consisting of some bloggers who decided they wanted to read some great blogs. One winner is picked each week and featured here on Domestic Spaz.

Qualifications for the Little Fish award:
1. Nominees should not be featured on Alltop
2. Nominees should have an Alexa ranking of 1,000,000 or higher.

If you're not sure if a blog qualifies, nominate them anyway! We'll check for you. :)

If a blog has already been nominated a previous week and did not win, nominate them again! If you won the Little Fish award, we hope you'll wear your badge proudly on your blog to spread the word about the award. We also hope you'll nominate some of your favorite lesser known blogs.

Nominate blogs to the comments section of this post or tweet them to me on twitter!

Back to school - Part Deux

Pick up today was fun.

I arrived at Munchkin's school at 1:15 and was FIRST in the car pick up line. How's that for prior planning, Mom?

I used my 45 minutes to tidy up the car so when I opened the sliding door to the minivan to let her in I wasn't horribly embarrassed that all the teachers and aids could see my mess. Or worse, nothing actually fell out on to the pavement when the door slid open. Been there, done that.

Then I read blogs from my cell phone. I am such a geek.

Munchkin got in the car, pouting, and asking how many days she was going to have to stay in this school. *sigh*

Then it was on to pick up Bug.

The rain hadn't been too terrible while picking up Munchkin but it really started to pour on our way to get Bug. Torrential downpour. The heavens opened up and unleashed a fury of rain on to my poor minivan. It was rough going.

Bug's school is overcrowded so they're building stuff. More buildings, more offices, more stuff. Since it's the first year I've had a kid at this school I have no clue as to whether the construction was going on last year, but it's a mess over there. Picking him up was joyful, let me tell you. Combine the first day of elementary school with terrible construction with a main road with a tropical storm.

Oh yes.

I arrived in the vicinity of the school at 2:15 thinking I was doing well. I didn't get Bug in the car until after 3:00. I wish I had taken a picture of all the poor teachers out in the pouring rain with umbrellas trying to direct traffic. They really deserve a raise.

Bug was SOAKED when he got in the car. Soaked through to his underwear. This morning The Man had given him an emergency poncho to put in his backpack for such an occasion but Bug had read "emergency" on it and thought he wasn't supposed to use it unless his life was in danger or something. *sigh*

Bug was grumpy. Dentist appointment tomorrow, torrential downpour or not.

His new folders are soggy... I hope they dry cause I'm steering clear of any school supply aisles for a while.

On the way home I gathered Goober up from his preschool where he seemed happy to see me, even though I interrupted snack time and he was thoroughly enjoying his Cheetos.

Goober gibber gabbered excitedly all the way home and then they changed clothes and did homework while I filled out a billion emergency contact and consent forms. It's good to be back in a routine again.

I need a nap.

Back to school, Tooth Pain, & Tropical Storms

Today was the first day of school. It was a little unconventional this morning since we were still finalizing all the hoopla over the gifted program and all so we had to be at Munchkin and Bug's school from last year really early to meet with a school psychologist and ESE coordinator.

Which meant we had to drop Goober off even earlier at his new school. Which meant we were up before the sun. That's always fun.

Last night Bug declared that his tooth hurt. I'm a bad mommy in this regard and I know it. About a year and a half ago I took Bug to the dentist and the dentist declared he had a cavity that needed filling. So I took Bug back to the dentist to fill said cavity and Bug lost his little mind when they tried to give him a shot of Novocaine. He freaked so violently that the dentist told me I needed to take him somewhere else. Thanks for the support, Buddy.

It was then that insurance problems happened and all kinds of mess and one thing led to another and Bug didn't go back to the dentist. I mean, come ON... the tooth was just going to fall out eventually anyhow, right?

Evidently that logic is flawed.

Yesterday Bug bit into an apple and it caused such insane pain that he has agreed to now go to the dentist and let them do whatever they need to do. Poor guy. I totally dropped the ball on this one. He's my first child so I'm kind of learning with him. Ahem...

I guess the poor little man's tooth hurt so badly that he didn't get a lot of sleep last night. I gave him some Children's Motrin to help with the pain and hopefully make him sleepy but he was still awake at 1:30 in the morning. Just laying in his bed... being awake. It was around 2:00 that I finally fell asleep and when I woke up at 6:00 poor Bug was on the couch asleep. I hated to wake him up.

Once I got them all dressed (The Man, too) I had them stand for the obligatory "First Day of School" picture. I tried and I tried to get Bug to smile... but it wasn't going to happen.

It wasn't until about 10 minutes later when they were eating their bagels that I realized I had it in my power to get Bug to smile.

Ya gotta love kids.

After breakfast we were off to school. Goober was dropped off first and announced to his new school that he was "Reporting for Duty!" with a salute. No issues with that kid at all.

Then we were on to our school psychologist meeting. I had The Man sit in the car with Munchkin and Bug while I went in for the meeting. We were still waiting on teacher evaluations from the teachers that the kids had last year and everything at the school was hub bub and chaos, being the first day and all.

Bug's evaluation came back and all looked good. Then Munchkin's came back... and there were problems. Due to the teacher's evaluation, it appeared that Munchkin will have to stay at this school for a little while. There are some questions as to her maturity level and I completely understand. I've mentioned before that she's got some attitude issues and it obviously has been spilling over to school. That and an unwillingness to apply herself are a couple of the issues that would cause her some problems in the gifted program. Her teacher this year will be working with the ESE Coordinator to try to get Munchkin over these humps and hopefully she'll be ready to move on to the gifted program next year.

It was hard to break the news to her. She had spent the whole weekend mentally preparing herself for this new change and we had to break her little heart. The poor Man had to take her to her class this morning and reassure her. I can't wait to pick her up and see how she's doing.

Next it was time to bring Bug to his new school. He got to make a fashionably late entrance to his new classroom and it was chaotic. I'm sure it wasn't anything out of the ordinary but when we walked in the teacher had all the kids unwrapping new supplies and putting together a big binder and it was just loud and crazy in there! My poor Bug looked like a fish out of water when we left him and it about broke my heart. You'd think I would have been crying about dropping Goober off at pre-school this morning... but nope, it was my older kids that had my heart today.

As The Man and I left Bug's classroom the rain started to come down. By the time we were on the road home it was pouring down and the roads were starting to flood. Hello Fay! At this point we have a good chance of schools being closed tomorrow just after they began. I'll be driving Bug to the dentist, tropical storm or not! I wonder if they have a backup generator on that drill.

So now I've got 3 kids to pick up this afternoon at 3 different schools and a tropical storm raging down on us. These are the days I just love being a mom.

Selling Out in over 400 colors

If you're anything like me you probably have about 15 bazillion broken crayons in your house shrouded with familiar Crayola wrappers. Perhaps you've stepped all over them, perhaps you've spent hours scrubbing their marks off of your walls, perhaps you've even put one through the dryer.

Regardless of how much trouble those little yellow and green wrapped wax sticks have given you in the past, a fresh new box of them still gives you a tingly happy feeling.

I see you smiling just thinking about it.

Did you know you could spend hours perusing all of Crayola's stuff online? And you can even receive a 10% Off discount code when you sign up for email updates at CrayolaStore.com!


I was shocked to see all the stuff they have on that site. Crayola has a lot more than just crayons, peeps. They really have stuff for ALL ages. Seriously.

For preschool aged kids there's an array of sidewalk chalk, Color Wonder finger paints (you know about the Color Wonder stuff, right? It only works on the Color Wonder paper so it CAN'T mess up your furniture!), and triangular crayons that won't roll off the table. I'm going to buy about 12 boxes of those to bring to restaurants. Enough of my four year old going under the table four times to retrieve the yellow crayon that just won't stay on the table!

For more advanced young artists they have oil pastels that aren't as messy as real oil pastels so you can let your child experiment with different tools. There are also specialty crafts to create with your child or let your older child go nutty with.

I was really floored with all the great stuff that Crayola has in their store. From the big box of 64 crayons with a built in sharpener to a Crayola Digital Camera to Crayola Crayon WALLPAPER, you really have to go check it out!

They offer free shipping for any order over $75 and now if you enter code B2SCHOOL at checkout you'll receive a FREE Crayola Mini Twistables Crayons with any Back to School purchase over $15!

While you're all hopped up on crayon glory, why don't you check out Crayola.com? My kids are so happy I did, because you can go there and print out coloring pages and other crafts. If you register with their site, you'll be able to generate award certificates for your kids (homeschooling moms, these are for you!) and make cards! Also, when you register at Crayola.com, you'll receive a 15% discount code to use at CrayolaStore.com. What's stopping you?

Click over there, you know you want to. :)

Narcolepsy in the family?

Just Label Them Gifted

On Tuesday Munchkin and Bug were tested for the gifted program. Being that school starts on Monday I'll admit it was a little last minute. That's how I roll.

Both of them scored high enough so I spent the last couple of days driving all over creation, making phone calls, and basically begging people to move along on paperwork so they can start Monday at the right school. I've thoroughly annoyed receptionists, coordinators, and psychologists in my quest.

I'll be going in for the final meeting with the school psychologist at 7:30 AM on Monday morning. School starts at 8:00. I know...

Yesterday I had to review a whole new supply list (I had already purchased everything for them to attend their old school) and run out to find the new supplies in an already picked over school supply market.

But now I can officially say that my kids are smarty pants, so that's good, right? I can spend the next 10 years reminding my pretentious children that just because the school says they're "gifted" doesn't mean they should feel superior to any of the other kids. Even though secretly I'll be dropping the "gifted" word to other parents whenever I get the chance. (No, not really... I won't do that... probably... heck, I'm dropping it right now, aren't I?)

I was a gifted kid and I think it was great for me. I went to school with the same kids for almost all of my education and am still close friends with some of those kids. I don't think things were so competitive back when I was in school, though. I'm pretty sure my mom never felt inclined to "one up" the other moms she knew when comparing her kids. I'm fairly certain my mom talked more about Jack Rogers sandals and whether to use a pink or green tablecloth for her luncheon than she did about her kids.

I'm really not sure when mothering became a competitive sport. New Olympic category, anyone? The mom who has her Johnny speaking 4 languages by his third birthday wins the gold, outshining the mom who has her Amelia potty trained by six months!

But I digress.

Munchkin and Bug are a little sad that they're not going to their old school this year. Bug is sad that he'll miss his best friend and Munchkin is nervous in any unknown situation. So I'm sure it's going to be an interesting day on Monday. I'm actually a little nervous, myself.

Anyone have any ideas on how to make Munchkin (and Bug for that matter) feel less nervous starting at her new school? I'm thinking of letting her wear a little shimmery lip gloss and got her the coolest version of the school's polo shirt and khaki skirt uniform that I could find. I want her to be confident since a lot of these kids have been in the gifted program for the past two years and already know each other. She'll have adorable hair accessories and a Hannah Montana backpack and Hannah Montana pencils and folders. Anything else? Maybe you have a very cool daughter that could hand out some tips?

Bug I'm not as worried about. He makes friends everywhere he goes and doesn't seem at all concerned if some of the kids don't like him. He'll just find the ones that do and be happy. Goober has absolutely no problems making friends. Munchkin is very concerned that everyone like her, though. I just want her first day to go well.

Goober loves shots!

My Blogger Dashboard looks different this morning.

I've been frazzled, my peeps. School starts on Monday morning here and all of my 3 will be entering the school system again this year. Things have been a little crazy around here.

Goober is starting a new pre-school this year. Being that his birthday is September 12th and the school board's cut off date is September 1st, he's not eligible to enter kindergarten until next year. I was all upset about this a year or so ago but these days I'm sort of happy I'll have an extra year with him in the end.

He's so excited he can barely contain himself. He has a little box of supplies all ready to go to school on Monday with his name plastered all over everything in black Sharpie marker. This new school even has a pool and they give the kids swimming lessons once a week!

Goober had to get shots to go to school. His appointment was scheduled for Monday and on Sunday night I told him.

"Tomorrow I'm going to take you to the doctor and they're going to give you some shots."
"Shots?"
Goober knew nothing of shots.
"Yes, and it will hurt a little but afterward we'll get you a lollipop."
"Lollipops! I LOVE shots!"
Oh boy.

Monday we sat in the waiting room with about fifty kajillion other parents and kids who all needed to get shots. Goober is a talkative little guy and he had no problem making friends with some of the other kids.

"I'm going to get shots!" He announced with glee. "I LOVE shots!"

The other kids thought he was crazy.

When we got into the exam room (after an hour and a half of the waiting room) Goober was very excited to get to pee in a cup. I was not so excited, but was thankful it was Goober and not Munchkin. Munchkin peed all over my hand when we had to do this.

The doctor came in and checked him out and told me he was perfect.

Except for one little thing that I was worried about. Goober has an umbilical hernia. When he was born it was just nutty how big it was and now it's so much smaller I was sure it wasn't even a problem. It's just an outie, right?

Wrong. It's still a hernia and he needs to have surgery to correct it. I'm so sad about this. My poor little guy under the knife! Our appointment with the surgeon is the 28th so I'm trying to forget about it until then.

After I was told that my little man was going to be sliced and diced, it was on to the shots!

"I LOVE shots!"

Except shots hurt and Goober wasn't exactly anticipating that. He had to have two shots in each arm and after the first one he had had ENOUGH of that shot thing.

"I HATE shots!" he cried through tears. I cried, too.

My poor little man. I got him a hot fudge sundae from McDonalds to compensate.

Pregnant Women Make Bad Hostesses

If you read my blog regularly then you're probably tired of hearing about Munchkin's birthday. Too bad. :)

In honor of the Sincerely 'Fro Me to You carnival at We are THAT Family, I was going through some old pictures and found some from her 2nd birthday. This one stopped me short.

What's so shocking about this picture? Only that I'm 8 months pregnant in it and I'm sitting on the FLOOR! I complain about getting up and down off the floor now only 5 years later and not even remotely preggers!

I need to quit my whining and do more yoga.

I can remember this day so well, too. We had been only been living in this house for a little over 3 months and it was August and I was so pregnant and I was hot. I had tried on every maternity outfit I had trying to look decent for the party without being too overdressed and in the end I just settled on this pink Motherhood top that covered that ugly cloth maternity panel in my ugly shorts. In the end no one cared and we all walked around barefoot and casual and I was *so* glad.

I remember Munchkin was fussy the whole day and I was heavy and tired and I just couldn't wait to get everyone out of my house. There were kids running around every where and people asking me how I was feeling constantly and so many hands on my belly I wanted to scream.

I think that face about sums up my feelings for the day. In fact, I think that couch is where I was when I broke into hormonal pregnant tears after everyone had left.

She still hasn't shaken that attitude problem.

Gummy Worms and Mexican Gum

I would have liked to have had Munchkin's birthday post up earlier but things sure have been cRaZy around here! I've hardly had a chance to read any other blogs (what have y'all been up to?) and I think my head's about to pop off my shoulders and roll across the floor.

But anyway...

Saturday was Munchkin's 7th birthday which means we partied all weekend. We started out with a little shin dig over at my mom and dad's house with my side of the family. It was to be a hamburger and hot dog pool party kind of day and Munchkin was E-X-C-I-T-E-D!

Munchkin had requested that we do make your own cupcakes (with gummy worms to decorate them, mommy!) this year in lieu of a cake. However, on the way to my mom's it occurred to me that I wouldn't have a cake to put the number 7 candle on and I wouldn't get the obligatory picture of the cake if we didn't have a cake and ohmygosh we need to get a cake! So we stopped at Publix and bought a small cake just for me Munchkin.

She picked out some special birthday ice cream to go with it.

Munchkin had also requested that she and I make a piñata this year. I'll just digress here a moment to let you know that unless you have hours and hours and hours of free time on your hands don't ever ever agree to do this.

This is sort of how things went with our piñata.

I measure out cardboard in the shape of star, trace, cut, make a huge mess, use packing tape to stick it all together, get frustrated, finally the shape of the star emerges. Munchkin watches.

I drag out crepe paper and tissue paper in vibrant colors. Munchkin oohs and aahs and then asks where the other colors are.

I show Munchkin the painstakingly slow process of crinkling the paper around a pencil eraser, dipping it in glue and sticking it to the star form. Munchkin dictates to me that she would like pink, blue, and purple stripes here and then opposite stripes here and it should be all purple here and...

I hand Munchkin her supplies. We both start working.

I complete one point of the star. Munchkin completes one stripe on one part of one point of one star.

I keep going. Munchkin goes to watch Hannah Montana.

I get frustrated and bitch yell calmly ask her to come help with the piñata.

I keep going. Munchkin glues on two more pieces of crepe paper and declares that her fingers hurt.

I keep going. Munchkin begs to "just go buy a piñata!"

It went on like that for many hours. Finally we just started throwing crepe paper streamers on the thing all willy nilly and it looked like heck.

You can't see the back in this picture.

It was beat into smithereens anyhow.

All of the candy inside had labels written in Spanish. It was mostly gum and my sister probably hates me for giving her 3 year old a zip loc baggie full of gum she can't even read the ingredients on.

The next day we went skating... that's a whole different post.

Little Fish Announcement Time!

It's Little Fish announcement time again! This weeks nominees were:

One More Fairy Tale
Confessions Of...
Motherhood is Not for Wimps
Morningside Mom
2nd Cup of Coffee

It didn't take any of us long to decided that Morningside Mom should take the prize. Her blog is down to earth and real and we could relate to her writing. Digging into the archives I found this post which brought tears to my eyes and then more recently this post had me nodding in giggling agreement after a summer with my kids. I've definitely found a new blog to add to my reader, so go check her out!

Here's your code, Morningside Mom! We hope you wear your badge proudly!



<a href="http://slackermomof3.blogspot.com/2008/08/little-fish-announcement-time_12.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://domesticspaz.com/blog/goldfish.jpg" /></a>

Please nominate your favorite lesser known bloggers to the comments section of this entry or tweet them to me on twitter!

Nominees for the Little Fish award must meet the following qualifications:
1. Not be featured on All Top
2. Have an Alexa ranking of over 1,000,000

If you're not sure if your favorite blog qualifies, that's OK! Nominate them anyway and I'll check to see if they qualify!

Special thanks to Apron Strings and Angst and See the Woods and the Trees for voting in the panel this week! Thanks guys!

Want to help pick the next Little Fish? Go here and sign up! Join the Little Fish Panel Group and you're in!

Chicken Sandwich with a side of Crisis

When I read today's writing prompt from Absolutely Bananas I was thrilled. I didn't even have to think about what I would be writing about. I knew right away.

There was a time, not too long ago, that we had a roommate of sorts that lived with us. We'll call her J to keep things simple. J loved Chick Fil A like it was nobody's business and one day she stumbled upon a recipe online somewhere that instructed her as to how to go about making an authentic Chick Fil A chicken sandwich. It required the use of a pressure cooker.

I happened to have a pressure cooker that I had received as a wedding gift back in 1999 and we dragged it out to put it to work... for the very first time ever. This wasn't any fancy shmancy pressure cooker, it was a very basic model. When it had been given to me I had been told that I would be able to cook all sorts of magnificent creations with it. It scared me, though, and I promptly hid it in a cabinet all the way in the back.

My fear would turn out to be justified.

So J and I dragged out the pressure cooker (aka contraption of evil) and filled it with oil and specifically seasoned chicken breasts and tightly closed the lid. J placed the pressure cooker on the stove and we thought all was well.

The kids were all pretty small at the time, Goober was an infant so Bug and Munchkin must have been 2 and 4. Their world was safe and secure, their home was a haven that no harm would ever come to in their sweet little minds.

So I was standing in the kitchen and The Man was standing nearby chatting as the kids ran amouck as kids are typical of. J had gone into the other room to use the bathroom or something, I'm not sure. As I leaned against the counter, looking at The Man chatting about five feet away from me, we both heard a loud "POP!"

I turned to look in the general direction of the stove only to be smacked FIRMLY in the forehead with the lid to the pressure cooker. As I started to black out I could only dimly see the flames that began to shoot out into the kitchen and hear the screams of my poor children as they watched the scene play out in horror.

Somehow I managed not to pass out and I made my way over to our family room with the kids and told them I was OK (even though I wasn't sure I was). The Man frantically swatted at the flames with kitchen towels while shouting at me to ask if I was alright and J came back into the room screaming at all the ruckus.

It didn't take him long to put out the flames and in no time I stopped seeing stars. The kids deemed Daddy a hero for saving us all from burning up and we were forced to eat our dinner out on the patio due to the house being filled with smoke.

The pressure cooker went into the trash and the next time anyone wanted Chick Fil A we got into the car and paid $4.29 for it just like everybody else.

Happy 7th Birthday Munchkin!

Seven years ago yesterday I was heavily pregnant. It was my due date and I was carrying a stubborn child that refused to make her way into the world. Uncomfortable was an understatement. Two weeks earlier I had cried in my obstetrician's office and begged him to induce me. I pleaded through my tears that I knew this child was well over cooked. I was so heavy and uncomfortable and I had a giant hemorrhoid that made sitting a most miserable experience.

He refused to induce. I still wish I had told him where he could put that speculum.

It was my due date, August 8th, 2001, that I felt the first contraction.

"Oh please oh please oh please let her be coming!"

I didn't really believe it though, because what baby actually is born on their due date? But the contractions kept on. Finally, when I could barely stand the pain any longer, we went to the hospital.

The contractions were so bad by the time I got into a room and got all hooked up to every monitor in the world that I literally tried to run away from the pain. I'm not sure what I was thinking but I got out of the bed and unhooked monitors and ran across the room.

I was so happy to see that anesthesiologist, I could have kissed him. I fell in true love with him as he injected the needle from hell into my back and I sat motionless on the edge of the bed. Epidurals, my peeps, are dreamy.

I didn't have too much time to enjoy my relaxed haze, though. When the nurse checked (and by checked, I mean inserted her entire hand inside of me and wiggled it around causing intense pain and tears) me she got a look on her face. A look that meant something was wrong. Of course she didn't say anything to me... she quickly called for reinforcements. After two other nurses also "checked" me they called in for a mobile ultrasound machine. They feared that Munchkin was arriving in a breech position.

When the ultrasound technician arrived and I got all gooped up, they discovered that Munchkin wasn't arriving backwards, she was arriving FACE FIRST. These nurses had been poking and prodding my poor baby's eyes and nose and mouth and thinking it was her hoo-ha!

It was determined that due to her strange position, Munchkin was stuck in the birth canal. Her face couldn't very well do that nifty coning thing that infant's heads do so she was having a pretty difficult time making her way out. All my strong contractions were doing nothing more than causing stress and it was decided pretty quickly that they were going to take this baby out.

I was prepped for a cesarean and my sister prepped to join me in the operating room. A month or so earlier I had mentioned to my sister that if for some reason I needed to go in for a cesarean that I'd really feel comfortable if she was with me. She quickly agreed, but never thought it would actually happen. Boy, was she surprised!

At 4:13 AM on the 9th, Munchkin cried her first cry and I fell in love with her.

This was the same outfit I had brought her big brother home in less than two years earlier. I love how babies scrunch up like that while they're sleeping.

Her favorite present was a glowworm doll. It's face glowed when you squeezed it and she loved that she could make it glow.

At two years old she was already making healthy choices. :)

And sometimes not so healthy.

The blanket that she's jumping out from behind in this picture is a king size comforter that I used while I was in college. Munchkin LOVED it and we had to bring it on all trips. It's not that she didn't have regular sized blankets to fall in love with, she just had to have this one.

Here she is at almost four at the zoo imitating the animals.

She's always had the guts to make bold fashion choices. See how she pairs those princess shoes with that hot pink school girl skirt? And a purple renaissance inspired top? Daring!

At six years old, Munchkin was already ready to take the drivers seat. She knows what she wants and will stop at nothing to get it. She's a girl on a mission.

What a magical seven years we've had with our little princess! Happy Birthday my little Munchkin. I am so happy to have you.