How Do You Spell Relief? (r-o-l-a-i-d-s)

Remember that old Rolaids commercial? Well, today I'm spelling relief b-a-c-k-o-n-t-r-a-c-k. This morning I sent 3 kids back to school after their first 3-week break of the school year. It's like rolaids for my soul.

You'd think I'd get used to the pattern: Everyone in school. Busy. Projects. Kids get burned out. Mom gets burned out. Go off track just in time. Enjoy freedom. Relax. Do fun things. Start getting bored. Get tired of each other. Drama. Overstimulation. Mom needs escape. Back to school just in time.

The cycle repeats every two months, yet the relief and seemingly simple reality of being with just my little ones for a few hours surprises me everytime. Judging by the contented way Fisher & Logan have been playing together all morning, I think they're liking it too. We've had a fun, busy break that perhaps I'll attempt to catch up on, but for now, I'm just happy to have my brain to myself. At least until the homework comes home.

Add it to the List

I'm talking about that list of ridiculous things parents do when they're irritated, tired, annoyed, frustrated, etc. with one of their children. My favorite example comes from an unnamed friend who, upon tiring of their toddler NOT sleeping or staying in their crib in the middle of the night, blearily brought said child to the living room, sat him on the floor, and turned the pack & play upsidedown on top of him. To keep him contained. Makes me laugh everytime. The behavior I'm adding to this list today isn't quite as logical, but still, I did it and I'm admitting to it.

During naptime the other day, I was interrupted by a little person that obviously hadn't been to sleep yet and had climbed out of his crib and come downstairs to see me. This being the first time he's done this, I kindly explained that it's naptime and carried him back up to his bed. Naturally, he started whining and fussing after I laid him down, so I did what any good parent does in this situation: I said nap-nap, ignored the whining, and shut the door. Moments later, I was downstairs, still listening to this little person who's whine had now evolved into a monotone cry. The relentless kind. Grrr, I thought. I'm not going back up there, that's what he wants. But what to do to get him to stop? Grumble. As the monotone cry begin to raise in decible, my irritation raised as well, so what did I, with a college degree, decide to do?

I threw a stuffed animal at the ceiling to make a thump.

The fact that the stuffed animal was a gloworm (stuffed with more than stuffing) meant it made a louder thump than I'd planned on.

You may ask, if throwing a gloworm to thump the ceiling is a good method for quieting a whining child? Well, no. I'm pretty sure I knew that when I threw the gloworm at the ceiling, but in my 14-year old moment, I did it anyway.

So what did I get from my idiotic method? Well, it startled my 2-yr old into crying louder and woke up my 10-month old. I probably deserved that. On the other hand, my 2-yr old remembered he was tired and fell asleep within 2 minutes. Rationalization? You bet. Embarrassing all the same? Oh yeah.

Doing the Congo

Today the world is reading this heart-stopping headline on Yahoo! News:

Zoologists Capture First Photos of Okapi in Wild

Our family is no stranger to this "mythical" creature, in fact, our first okapi sighting happened back in 2005:


That's a 3D-pop-up okapi you see there. After learning all about this unusual animal, including how to pronounce the name (it's oh-KAH-pee), you can imagine our excitement to have had a real-life okapi encounter in the spring of 2007:

No, we weren't in the Congo, just at the San Diego Zoo. Honestly, we were just excited that anyone else in the world had ever heard about this random animal we knew intimately from a second grade report. Brayden even secured his own rare footage: (uncut & unedited)

I forgot about the leap-frogging bunnies. In answer to your obvious question, I am unsure if those are the elusive leap-frogging, friend to the okapi, Congo bunnies. Maybe we should head to the Congo to find out. Or do the conga. Either way.

Look at this Cutie

Okay, so they're both cute, but the one I was referring to is our newest nephew, Tucker Jason Munk! I just realized I haven't blog-welcomed him and had to show him off. He and Brayden are the oldest and youngest grandkids in the McGee clan thus far. Tucker tipped the gender scale, making the score 6 grandsons to 5 granddaughters, and based on the grandkid gender pattern we most certainly (Katy) have going, the next one is predetermined to be boy. Someone else can get right on that since I've contributed my fair share.

The Molehill

You know that saying about making a mountain out of a molehill? It usually refers to someone making a big deal of nothing, but in my case, I'm taking the term literally and hoping to turn my molehill kitchen into a mountain, or at least something in between. The kitchen has been shrinking and shrinking and I'm desperate to somehow, miraculously find more space in it. So...I'm tackling my pantry, i.e. emptying it out and reorganizing from scratch, in hopes to make that very thing happen. I'm probably fooling myself, and it probably will hurt to try, but I'm doing it anyway. Sigh.

Flashback

This picture recently emerged at our house. It's one of my very favorites of little Brayden and littler Maddie in August 1999. Anyone remember these days? It feels like a lifetime ago to me!

(It also makes me wonder if we found who Claire resembles??)

Silly Six

Connor's much-anticipated 6th birthday arrived last Friday! It started with me visiting Connor's kindergarten class to spotlight him:


Later we did cake and presents (somehow this year's balloon was even bigger than the last--remember "my friend 5" from last year?):


Then we went to dinner at his traditional birthday pick, The Mayan. It's an exciting jungle-themed place with a waterfall and divers for entertainment:


The next day, we went to Lagoon for about the 8th time this summer, and on the hottest day of August. Yep, we planned it that way. Actually, this was my sneaky way of avoiding doing a party. Here we are having birthday cupcakes with friends after hitting the waterpark:

We love you Connor!

You bring life wherever you go.