I misplaced the baby

Well, I am officially the worst mom ever. This poor baby. He has been forgotten in the bassinet at night and left on the dining room table when we went out, but this takes the cake. I lost him. All 17 pounds of him...misplaced.

I can blame Kathy for the start of it. My friend that I haven't seen in ages called and tells me she is moving to the Yukon so her fiancee can teach wood building to native kids in a bush community. Yes, exactly as crazy as it sounds. So I am a bit distracted, plus I have a cold. My brain is fuzzy.

We talked for a bit, then as we were talking, I put the baby down to bed. We discussed how amazing it was that I had a baby that COULD be put down to bed, and moved on to other exciting things going on in our lives (basically, the Alaska thing).

Got off the phone and I started collecting the other kids to get them off to bed. Still a bit distracted (yeah, I am floored by the Yukon Bush teaching thing)....I walked in my room carrying the 2 year old, going to put him in his bed. I glance at the bassinet next to my bed to check on the baby. Hmm, no baby.

My heart stopped. I yanked the blanket off, just in case he was curled up in a tiny little ball at some hidden spot in the bassinet. No baby. I drop to the floor to see if maybe he somehow fell out of the bassinet and rolled under my bed. No baby. Pull the covers off my bed...maybe he somehow JUMPED from the bassinet to my bed. No baby.

Now, I was panicked. I think my husband would be a little pissed if I lost the baby because I was chatting on the phone. So I run downstairs with Jackson laughing in my arms. Check the bassinet downstairs. No baby. Check the swing. Again, no baby. Not many other places for this baby to be. Back upstairs.

I quick look in the girls room, ask them if they know where William is. They just looked at me, kind of like maybe I should be the one who would know where he is. Just as I am about to start calling in the search dogs, I go into Jackson's room to check his toddler bed. I just KNEW I put that baby to bed somewhere. Well, in Jackson's room we have this big wooden thing, I have heard some people are known to let their babies sleep in them, I believe it is called A CRIB.

What do you know, always the last place you look. Baby. Sleeping so sweet in his crib, right where his mama put him. I think I need to be medicated.

Our Christmas picture...what angels....

Diapers, dolls, and dating..oh my.

The big news....my son has a date. Wow. A girl named Sam(antha) spread the word around she likes him, so he asked her to the movies. A part of me wants to scream "NOOO", but the sensible "I am going to be an understanding communicative parent" knows the best way to keep open communication is to be reasonable and flexible and go with the kids flow, to a point. Right now, Tyler is so open with us, I don't want to discourage it. So, off to the movies he goes.

Now, I of course have been asking around about this little harlot that is tempting my innocent little boy, and unfortunately, that seems to be what she is, a harlot. Apparently, she sneaks out of her house, lies to her parents, and is a bit "loose". What that means in 6th grade I am not too sure, when IO was that age it would mean you let two boys hold your hand or something. But times are a'changing. I was informed that there is such a thing a "Blow Job Fridays" at the local movie theater. Hmm. He better not plan on going on a Friday. Is that even a possibility at 12??? I don't know, but we will not be finding out anytime soon.

Back to "Blow Job Friday"...why are these girls just so eager to give to these boys without anything in return? NO relationship, no love, not even any "gratification" on their part....(Note to self, must work on my own daughters self-esteem)...

Kids these days......

So, anyway...I guess I officially have a preteen. That means I have two in diapers, two still playing with dolls, and one dating. Let the wild rumpus begin!!

Crazy lady...

So, there was this CRAZY lady walking through Kohls today...

She had three strollers, was pushing one, and two kids were pushing the other ones (apparently she took one whole cart just for the kids coats, I HATE when there are no carts left at the door and inconsiderate people are using them for these kinds of things). The kids were knocking over boxes, ripping clothes off the racks, running into each other and other people...just in general being the kind of kids you look at and shake your head. You know, THOSE kids. Crazy ladywas trying to find clothes, hopefully ones that fit her as the crap she was wearing looked like it might fall off with any strong gust of wind. She was totally ignoring the kids, so she really had no right to be pissed when the little girl knocked over a display. But man, did she lace into that poor girl. You know, the get down in the ear and hiss at them type of lacing into. Of course, who knows what that particular girl was doing to crazy lady all day....but is that really an excuse for bad parenting??

So anyway, I saw them again at the shoe department where the oldest kid was drooling over a pair of sneakers. Crazy lady looked at the price tag and launched into a lecture about how there was no way she was spending $60 on a pair of shoes this close to Christmas, if kid wanted them, kid would have to buy them himself. So he says ok, he would. Well, then crazy lady starts on how he needs to spend his money more wisely, he shouldn't be wasting so much money right before Christmas, there are starving families out there don't you know??? So poor kid puts the shoes away. Of course, I have no way of knowing if kids aunt or someone was planning on giving the kid the shoes or money towards them for Christmas or something, but man, is that another excuse for bad parenting???

While walking through the parking lot, I yet again had another encounter with crazy lady. She was trying to get these unruly kids into the car. One was crying because another one took her favorite seat (they looked exactly the same to me), another was screaming in the infant carseat, and yet another was hanging out the other door in the van. Where was poor shoeless kid at this point???? Sitting in the front seat trying to hide his face so no one would recognize him I am sure. Of course, crazy lady was hissing his name from the other side of the car to please get the little escaped kid before he ran away....And we have another excuse for bad parenting.

If you can't control your kids, don't take them out in public....

People are nuts, and on that note, I have to go get crazy ladies kids to bed, they are ripping apart my living room....

Growing up....

My eleven year old is asking a girl to the dance for next Friday. Wow. I am so not old enough for this, yet I feel that he is FINALLY old enough, if that makes sense. Of all my kids, I need him to grow up a bit. He has been such a hard child that the glimpses of adult hood from him are promising to be wonderful. When he talks to us like a "real person" and has things to say and opinions, I just love it. I am so very thankful that so far he includes us in his life, sometimes he tells me things that even I wonder why the hell is he telling me this. But it is good. In three more months he will be twelve, and I will have a "preteen". Yikes. Scariest thought of all is I met my husband when I was fourteen. I am so looking forward to this next step though. I think, with him at least, I will be a much better mother to him now. I still don't "Get" him, I don't think I ever will. We just don't connect on a familiarity level, we have NOTHING in common. Our personalities are completely at odds with each other. I just don't understand him....I am realizing though that I don't have to understand him. I can see his differences and appreciate them.

Parenting is so hard. Wonderful, exciting, rewarding, awe-inspiring...but hard.