The Wilson 6 Chronicles

With Justin being in Canada for two weeks and the kids too young to appreciate what day it was or have the ability to hop in the Ody to shop for some gifts, this past Mothers Day was shaping up to be a bummer for me. Add to that being 28 weeks into a pregnancy that has left me unable to breathe properly and ungodly exhausted plus being the poster woman for being hormonally unbalanced and it was not going to be pretty. But I completely underestimated the ingenuity of my Zachary. He actually got up early (and quietly) on Sunday while the little kids and I slept in (until 8:00!!) and he decorated the kitchen with Happy Mothers Day signs and made me a princess hat. And he made the best gourmet breakfast that an 8 year old can pull off- cheese toast. My day was instantly brighter and it turned out to be pretty special.

Four months....that's how long it has been since I've updated this blog. Let's see- what has happened in the last four months? Let's break it down by order of event and by the numbers. We moved back to SC just 6 months after moving to FL. Alden turned 3 years old. Zachary turned 8 years old. We found out there is only 1 baby in my womb (thank god) and it is a girl. Justin and I (as a relationship) turned 11 years old. Justin turned 29 years old. And we found our 100th geocache (well that one is a little out of order but I am too lazy to go back and edit). And Alden officially halfway potty trained. Apparently the pottying in FL was a one day fluke because he didn't start actually going potty on a regular basis until just recently. So if I can get him full-on trained in the next 3 months, I will be so golden. If I could Eleanor using the potty too, I will be out of my mind with excitement. Only 1 kid in diapers? I can't even remember those glorious days.

Speaking if glorious days, mine are getting numbered with this pregnancy. I am 25 weeks today which means I have 15 weeks left give or take a week. And while I am greatful (grateful? pregnancy has rendered me unable to spell) to be having a healthy baby and no complications so far, I look forward to having the baby in it arms and out of me. After getting over the wicked morning/noon/night sickness that knocked off 15 lbs, it has been pretty smooth sailing except for the tiredness that accompanies being pregnant and taking care of 2 active toddlers all day long. It's going to be interesting to see how baby Harper is going to fit into the dynamic. She better come out fiesty because she is going to need it to keep up with Eleanor.

And speaking of keeping up with Eleanor, time for me to sign out but I promise that I won't let 4 more months pass by without a post.

Today something miraculous happened in the Wilson household....Alden potty trained himself in one day. Yes, my friends, I said 1 day. Now there has a lot of talk of "pee pee in the potty" but no action at all on the part of Alden. I didn't push him- we would just talk about it and sit on the little potty occasionally but I hoped that one day he would take a liking to the potty and become its friend. A dream that every mother dreams, right? Apparently, my dream came true today. This morning, Alden declared his intention to pee pee in the potty by taking off his diaper but I thought it was just another false alarm. I told Zachary to grab the stool for Alden since he was headed to the big potty in the guest bathroom and a few minutes later, Zachary screams "he's peeing in the potty." And indeed he was. And he's done it all day with no accident- he even woke up from nap dry and peed in the potty. And he pooped in the potty too (well, he pooped in front of the potty having been unable to perch himself on the seat). Now, I know he's not technically potty trained yet but by george, I think we have all just witnessed a Christmas miracle. God bless us one and all.

I didn't realize just how much of a Carolina Girl I am until I moved away from South Carolina. Friday night football, that crisp in the air that comes with autumn, the mountains and how you can pretty much see the mountains from most places in upstate SC, hiking in said mountains- it just all forms together to make SC a pretty damn awesome place. I grew up dying to get out of SC- I wanted to be lawyer and live in the City (as in New York City although any city would do when you're an adolescent). Well, my law application got lost in the mail apparently as I still haven't received my acceptance letter from Harvard yet, but I'm no closer to NYC than before I left SC. And I'm okay with that (at least until I win the lottery and can afford to visit NYC on a frequent basis). But let's about the weather- the glorious weather. Sure, it's as hot as Hell's kitchen during the summer but you get the beautiful perfect autumn that more than makes up for it. You gets trees with leaves that really change colors, you get to wear pants and long sleeve shirts, and on a good day, a scarf too. And when you're finished gallivanting outside in the glorious weather, you can go into a restaurant and order a sweet tea- not some crappy powdered sweet tea, but real, honest-to-goodness sweet tea.

So if you're driving on the following interstates this weekend: 75, 4, 95, 26, and 85- you might want to watch out for a blue van 'cause I'm going to Carolina.

Well, I have decided that trying to get a picture of all 3 kids at the same time is definitely a trick, there is no treat involved in trying to wrangle all of them. Last night, I also found out that Halloween is much better in Florida and that we have cool neighbors. No less than 5 houses just on our street had adults dressed up giving out candy and we are talking premium candy- not cheap Halloween Mary Janes here- it is the good stuff. It was pretty freakin' awesome. Now I have 364 days to figure out my costume for next year.

Originally, I had planned on sewing the costumes for the kids but Zachary was embarrassed at having a homemade costume (he didn't say that, but I am pretty sure he was) so he chose the soldier costume. But I was still planning on making costumes for the babies (they were going to be convicts- in stripes complete with a ball and chain) when a trip to the Children's Place changed all of that. I found the cutest costumes for Eleanor there, I had to buy them. Yeah, I said costumes with an "S"- she had 2 costumes yesterday because every diva needs a costume change. For music class she was a fairy but for the afternoon and for ToTing, she was a witch. For what should be obvious reasons, I preferred the witch costume but the fairy costume had a tutu so it was perfect for music. So, I didn't think it was fair for the other 2 kids to have real costumes and for Alden to have a homemade one, so he got to be a knight. Which he totally played up- complete with stabbing the sword into the ground every so often. I guess we have watched King Arthur a little too much because there is a scene where he does this in the movie.

Eleanor has shown to be the bravest of the trio because last night, she didn't care how scary your house was decorated or the fact that you might be wearing a Jason mask deter her from getting the candy. If there was candy to be had, you could forget trying to scare her because she was going to take it and you could take your strobe light and fog machine back to the store because it was not about to scare her. Zachary and Alden just fell into step behind the strange magical powers of the littlest witch.

Alden: "Daddy, Daddy, look at my bad ass truck!"
Justin: "Alden we don't say that!"
Me: "We don't say what?"
Justin: "Bad ass truck"
Me: "Aldi, where did you learn that?"
Alden: "In my bad ass room"

Whoever said that after you have your 2nd kid, the rest are easy to handle obviously never had 2 children 15 months apart. You know, Zachary is almost 8 so I consider myself a pretty experience mom but the team known as Alden and Eleanor are wearing me out lately. A couple of weeks ago, it was powdered sugar. What is so bad about powdered sugar you might ask? Nothing except when your 17 month old takes an entire box and shakes it all over your kitchen, through your hallway, and into your dining room. And then repeats the same little routine the next week. Let me tell you, that little white power is very sneaky. It looks all sweet and innocent as you sprinkle it on your french toast or funnel cake but try to sweep that crap up and it because a monster. And walk through it and it melts and sticks to your feet. I solved that problem with a child proof lock on the pantry door. But all of that was child's play compared to this week. So this is how my week played out thus far:

Monday- while loading the washer, Alden comes into the laundry room with Stinky Dog and tells me to look at him. Well, Stinky has a weird yellow ring around his mouth. Alden's response when I ask him what it is "I don't know" which always comes out sounding like "nah-no." So I walk into the kitchen, there behind the island, Eleanor is squatting done with paper towels trying to wipe EGGS up out of the floor. Yes, you read that right, EGGS!! Having found the pantry locked up tighter than Fort Know, they moved on to the fridge. Luckily, it was only 2 eggs to clean up but have you ever tried to clean up eggs? Imagine a kid blowing his nose all over your floor and multiply that times 100- and you get the consistency and stickiness of eggs on a tile floor.

Tuesday- Eleanor decides that she doesn't want to just play in the toilet, she wants to sit in the toilet. But what happens with a tiny toddler foot slips into the toilet...it gets stuck in the hole. So, I am trying to play trains with Alden when I hear Eleanor screaming from the bathroom and what do I find. Her sitting IN the toilet with her foot stuck in the hole.

Wednesday- Bless their hearts, they gave me a little break from the mayhem.

Thursday- In order to make up for giving me a break on the day before, Eleanor decided to go all out this morning. Alden and I were sitting and watching Cars and Eleanor was playing with her baby doll. So she picked up the doll and went behind the love seat which she does sometimes. She likes to play back there occasionally so I wasn't concerned until she came walking out from behind the love seat and is missing a diaper. I told her to go and get her diaper and when she turned around her bottom was covered in poop. So I scooped her up and threw her on the changing table, wiped her down, and put on a clean diaper. And I told her to go her diaper. So she brought it to me, I checked the area behind the love seat and didn't see any stray poop laying around and didn't see any on her hands. So I thought we were done with that. Nope, I was wrong. So I went back into Alden's room and changed his diaper and put him down while I changed the cover on the changing pad. Then, I heard him say "El-da-nor! Mommy, El-da-nor colored on wall!" So I run into the living room and there she is in all her glory- squatting down, smearing poop on the wall with both of her little hands. Yes, Eleanor colored on the wall- WITH POOP!

Now, I've been trying to figure out who is the ring leader in this little gang they have formed and, after this week, I am pretty sure it is Eleanor. Not that Alden is without guilt, but I think she leads him down the path of temptation. I guess she plays Delilah to his Samson except with the hair cutting and seduction.