mom on a rampage

6-24-09

I am falling asleep.

Yesterday showed me that my boys are much too wild in a store.

I had to go get them both shoes since they drag there feet when they ride these bike things at Maria’s which had created Hobo-Toe. We went over to Payless after my parent’s house since I figured with them having the sale, we would get out of there with not too much money spent.

I was surprised to find a former co-worker working there part time. I had not seen her in a bit, so we began chatting a bit. The boys had been told before we went in that they were to adhere to 3 simple rules. Listen to everything Mommy says, Do not run around, and Do NOT touch anything. They broke rule 2 in 30 seconds.

Apparently they get full permission to run if Mommy is talking to someone. Or more specifically, if there is a giant open area, with a giant circle for which to run around. I didn’t mind too much, but I knew that we needed to put a stop to it. I snipped at them several times, all the while my oblivious friend kept talking to me. She could see I had my hands full with these two, and yet she continued her chatting as if they were not there. She is a mom herself, but with only one young daughter. Her kid is only just walking, so she has no idea what it is like with two boys who feed off of one another’s energy.

On the plus side, another customer came in, and heard me say, “Boys!” and said, “Oh my goodness! They are both boys? But they are so pretty!” Yes, I choose to take this as a compliment since she said that their eyes and hair was beautiful.

I got the boys to the shoes themselves, all the while chatty girl just kept on doing just that, chatting. I had never had to do so much multitasking in my life! Keeping tabs on the boys (who by now had broken every rule and then some), looking through the shoes (which are inconveniently all grouped together despite being girls and boys shoes) for a good price, and keeping up with Chatty Cathy.

Chatty did at one point ask me if I was letting their hair grow, which I found to be a humorous question since unless I dumped some acid on their heads, I was pretty sure I couldn’t stop the growth process. I can only assume she meant, oh so you are letting your boys have long hair. This is really one of those questions that isn’t meant to gain knowledge so much as to criticize my decision to let my boys look like hippies. Sure, it would be easier if Bobby had short hair. I would love to give the kid a Mohawk for the summer. But he has really resisted, so I see no point in it. He is happy with his hair, I like his hair, so what does it matter? Sure, people think he is a girl, but then they are clearly ignorant of so many things.

I also enjoyed this comment. “Only you would do this to your kids.” There is context, but that statement in general is one that continues the, “look, I know you are quirky and I love that about you, but perhaps you shouldn’t subject your kids to the same odd stares you get.” The context on this actually goes back a generation. Bobby’s shoe in particular was really bad off. So my dad, in true dad form, grabbed his roll of blue tape, and wrapped it around both of the toes of the shoes in order to hold them together. I didn’t really care, and quite honestly, I liked it a lot. It made me smile. Anyone who knows the cost of kid shoes these days can appreciate trying to save a few bucks by fixing the shoe in any way possible. Besides all that, I was going to be purchasing new shoes within the hour, so what was the tape going to hurt. My dad said people were going to see the tape and go, “oh, that poor child, and his mother would do this to him.” We laughed, and I told him that I am pretty sure there will be plenty of those kind of idiots out there, but hopefully when I hit up the payless they will laugh. Oh, there was laughter. Chatty attributed the tape to my doing since I apparently was the “type”. I promptly phone my father after all of this to congratulate him on having raised his daughter to be just like him.

I was not thrilled with my offspring. I have decided that clearly I need the walking chain when I go to stores, now. The problem is I have a 4 year old that is learning all of his independence, who would normally be fine if it was just him and I in a store since he wouldn’t wander far. I also have a 2 year old, who despite being strong willed, would also keep close if it was a different situation that didn’t include his brother. When they are together, one of them gets the wild hair up their ass to explore, which inspires the other to run after (even if the first was just walking), and then causes the first to get all riled up, and then they feed off of one another’s energy, forgetting about everything else around them, including rules, location, and most importantly, mom.

Well, they will not forget mom rules anytime soon. It was just me last night as Ken went to the neighborhood watch meeting. It meant that I would be feeding, cleaning, clothing and bedding the children with no Daddy. Bobby back talked to me at one point and I actually took away story time. Dax did whine a bit, but overall, he seems to know when not to fuck with me. That may be simply because he is truly my bear cub and subscribes to the “don’t poke the bear” rule since he himself doesn’t like to be poked.

Ken came home only a few minutes after I had finished bedtime rituals. As he and I caught up on the meeting, Bobby started to come out of his room. I cut him off at the pass, which may have caused him to piss himself since I don’t think he anticipated he opening the door seconds before he did. He also didn’t expect me to practically growl at him. Or for me to open it with such force that I actually knocked down the curtain. Yeah, I was that annoyed.

They both actually settled pretty quickly considering their routine having been compromised. They did try the daddy sympathy card since he did go in to say his goodnights. But they must have known, it wasn’t going to happen. I think Bobby is the one I heard get up at one point early this morning. His insomnia is getting frustrating (thanks, Ken!) since I can tell how tired he is. Putting him to bed earlier just won’t do it. I suppose he could go to bed at 7:30, but he practically does that now, so I don’t see pushing it back making it better.

I showed my mom and dad my piece on the Lakers. I had emailed my dad to see if he thought my mom would read it. He said she would as long as I kept bringing the boys around. He said his price was that I would have to cut Bobby’s hair. I told him that clearly his price was too high, so I would just settle on mom reading it. This morning, he emailed me and told me they liked it. I inquired as to if he read it as well, to which he replied he had, so now I had to cut his hair. Aaahhh!!

It is a slow day today. It may be just due to it being a slow week what with the puppy saga and next week being a short week for me. I have Thursday and Friday off, which is a furlough and holiday. Ken also has Friday off, so we may need to do some family activity. It is funny to say that since the 4th of July for a few years used to be the annual acid trip. Kind of a shame that we don’t do that anymore. I think the kids have to be a wee bit older for me to be comfortable enough to be that compromised for 12 hours. Not saying we would do it with them in the house. I just have a hard time feeling ok with them being at my folks for the whole day and I can’t get to them if something happened. I have a hard enough time drinking too much, and that usually has Ken sober, so if both of us are messed up, I think we lose the kids forever.

I am feeling less excited about the acquisition of two more dogs. They are cute, and I think I will go meet them today. But really, I find myself feeling like 2 extra heads in the house is a bad thing. I already find myself picking up toys (from the boys and Ken), poo, laundry, making food, feeding everyone, keeping Ken on track with his appointments, and overall, being super woman. People ask me why I am so chipper in the morning? It isn’t chipper, it is, I have to get a running start to tackle every day, because if I don’t, I will crash and burn. Chipper is just the best way to get revved up.

I have an old 401K account from my last job. I had been considering, lately, of seeing what it would take to either cash it out, or transfer it. It isn’t big bucks. A couple thousand at the most. I don’t tend to do the money stuff in our house (ironic since I do it all day at work), so this has not been discussed with Ken as of yet. Now he is reading this, so here, honey, are my thoughts.

One, I might put it in my Wescom account to have as a cushion for emergencies.

Two, use it to pay off Doc Steinam, and perhaps a couple of other minor bills like Doc Weston. It would be one less thing looming over us, and with Steinam, it makes me less nervous about taking one of the critters there if they need medical care.

Three, yes, we could potentially just put it in my existing 401K, but it isn’t enough to make a huge difference, and to be honest, I have heard some concerning things about our plan here, and I think we might look into that further before investing this in there. A co worker tried to put out cash from hers only to be told she could not. Not sure that is good, but maybe there was more than I was told.

Four, I use some of it to buy me some new bras and jeans. Ok, this isn’t the whole amount, but seriously, I need both very badly and this would be money that would allow me to have something that actually held up my boobs.

Five, on the shopping idea, I am also thinking of everything from a small freezer for the garage to house repairs, to a People magazine subscription (so I don’t have to buy it at Target each week), and just paying off a couple of things.

I don’t know the exact amount of the balance, so at this point, I can’t make plans yet. So when I get home, I will see if I can track down the last statement. Who knows, it might be something good to use.

I really wish we were going to Matthew’s wedding. It sounds like it will be so much fun!

I swear, I have done nothing today. Ok, not entirely true, but for the last hour, I have emailed Jenni and Brandy, written from time to time in here, and stared off into space. I suppose I could start the report prep now. That way if I get uber busy tomorrow, I don’t forget. Tammy is out on Friday, so I can’t do it then.

I am awake now!

Vicki just screamed like someone was killing her. We ran over to find her in full 50’s housewife mode, complete with her being up on top of her desk, because she had seen a mouse. Apparently there are more than one now. This one was two tone, which is different from the one I had looked in the eye. They put down another sticky trap, which I pointed out don’t work on these mice having had them for a year with no results. I said the mice just think of them as kitchen tables, which amused the masses. I feel I need to look into my own traps and soon before they resort to napalm or something.

We are now talking about a South Bay Gunners reunion! There are 5 of us on Facebook, which is just awesome. I think that if we did some hunting, we could find more. Many of us have changed names, but I bet with a little diligence we could track some more folks down. What would really be good was if we found our coach. I don’t know if anyone else would care as much about that, but I think it would be cool. I think at lunch I will look up a few that I can think of based on high school listing. That is how I found a few of them.

Granted, it sucks to do the reunion when I look like I have never kicked a soccer ball in my life. LOL!