All In A Mom’s Day

It was bedtime so the lights were out when my 2 1/2 year old son called me back into his room because he wanted to give me something. This isn’t unusual because he’s very particular and a lot of times he wants things taken out of his room that just don’t belong in there. As I put out my hand I said what it is. Well, luckily I have good reflexes and was able to pull my hand away fast when he said, “It’s something that came out of my nose.” I quickly went to get a tissue so I could collect the item he was so kindly trying to hand me. He, of course, thought that was funny and was laughing at me. I hope you have a good night without any visits from the boogie man!!!

This isn’t something I normally do (AAAHEM – sorry, just had to clear my throat) but I found myself in the car at lunchtime today and the kids needed to eat and we had someplace to be so I decided to do fast food and let them eat in the car. Normally (I mean, in rare cases when we’ve found ourselves in this situation before) we have gone to Wendy’s or McDonalds. However, one day we drove through Burger King and I discovered something interesting . . . their milk has a foil type covering over the opening. I started to open it and then thought better of it. I just poked the straw through it (well, actually it was too strong I had to use something else – at home a fork works well and in the car the tip of the key will do) and that way there is less concern about spilling. Needless to say, when I found myself in this situation today, I made the fast food decision based on what the top of the milk jug has covering it and we headed to Burger King. Somehow, with all of the advertising they do, I don’t think the fast food people would be thrilled by the way I decided which one to give my business to but that’s life as a mom. If it’s potentially less work for me (not having to wash the car seat cover after milk is spilled on it) then they have my vote. Of course, the toy wasn’t anything great – who needs two bobble head kings? – but my 2 ½ year olds don’t pay much attention to that. It’s my 6 year old who decides on the fast food joint by what type of giveaway they have – My Little Pony, Hello Kitty, Polly Pocket – she’s there (well, only on those rare occasions!).

My 2 ½ year old daughter woke up with an ear infection this morning which meant a trip to the doctor for antibiotics. The 1:00 trip to the doctor meant no nap time at home today. Since nap time was already missed and we had time to kill before picking up my other daughter from school I figured I might as well run errands. I decided to go to Marshalls to look for a baby gift because I keep getting postcards and e-mails about this huge baby event they have going on. I didn’t really see any great big baby event but it turns out that they were having 25% off all of their clearance for the next three days. That was a good and bad thing – I’m sure I bought more then I would have (if there hadn’t been an extra 25% off) and more then I should have (I didn’t really need everything I bought). I’m still working on retraining my thinking. I need to be in frugal mode (not spending money) not in frugal mode (buying things at a good price) – see my previous post about saving money.

When we were baby shopping before I gave birth to the twins we went through the big debate about a side by side double stroller or a long front/back one. I talked to other people, I went to as many stores as possible and I checked things out online. To make a long story not too long, we ended up with the Peg Perego Aria – a side by side stroller. For the most part, I have been very happy with this stroller. At first I was nervous when I would go places using the stroller – I was always worried I might not fit through the door but the only place I ever found that I couldn’t go with the stroller was into the exam room at my pediatrician’s office. I could fit it through all the other doors of the office – just not into the exam room. The only bad part is that the kids are sitting right next to each other. This is fine when everyone is happy but on a day when my daughter has a fire engine red ear infection and she’s missed her nap and mommy’s been shopping for too long I tend to question that stroller decision. You would think that someone with an earache would be gentle with other people’s ears. I’m here to tell you that’s not so. I don’t know if my daughter thought that my son should be having sympathy pains but besides hitting him and fussing at him she kept grabbing his ear and trying to twist it. I finally decided the best course of action would be to remove my son from the situation so I took him out of the stroller as I was going through the check out line. This never ceases to amaze me – maybe it’s a twin thing – but what does he do? He walks back over to the stroller and stands right next to her so she can beat on him a little more. We finally got back to the car and my daughter was asleep within seconds of getting buckled into her car seat.

Well that was my day from 12 o’ clock until 2:30. I hope you had a better day – with less fighting, no ear-aches and a healthier lunch. If not, I hope you at least got to save some money on clearance items that you really needed!! Tomorrow can only be a better day (or at least a mom can hope).

Welcome to the birth of a new blog! I have been reading two other blogs faithfully for the past few months and have learned lots of interesting things. I thought I would start my own blog so that I can pass on interesting findings, stories, etc. to others. I’m a SAHM (stay at home mom) and WAHM (work at home mom). I live with my husband, 3 children and our Golden Retriever in Florida. I have a 6 year old daughter who is in first grade and 2 year old boy/girl twins.

Trying to name my blog wasn’t an easy task. My husband was helping me set it up and wanted to know what I was going to blog about. I couldn’t really come up with one thing in particular that I was going to focus on but I’m sure most of it will have to do with being a mom, having kids, raising a family and all of the things that go into that. Several of our first choices were not available as domain names so we came up with All In A Mom’s Day. I hope you’ll journey with me through my days and maybe even add some comments of your own from time to time.

I just heard two bins of Mega Blocks being dumped on the floor and now there’s a lot of screaming so I think I need to go check on that . . . The screaming just stopped and things seem to be peaceful again so I guess I won’t interfere. Raising children is a challenging yet rewarding job and raising twins just adds a whole new twist to things. They always have a constant playmate which means they always have someone to fight with. They also always have someone to cause mischief with. My daughter is the instigator but my son is usually more than willing to go along. My older daughter rarely caused mischief when she was younger and my friends used to tell me that I just had no idea . . . the other day I told my friend that this time around I got it all . . . the crayon, highlighter and pencil drawings on the wall, broken toys, ripped books, lots of mischief (usually accompanied by fits of giggles) and the list goes on . . . when I’m home during the day it’s two against one and it’s hard to keep up!!

Something that I recently discovered is a company called Simply Fun. If you haven’t heard of it - it’s a company that sells games, puzzles and puppets. You can only get them through their home based parties and on their web site. You can check out their site by Clicking Here. Debbie is the hostess who did the party for me yesterday. The web site is really neat. If you’re interested in any of the games you can watch a video which will show you how to play. We had a bunch of kids here yesterday so they got to play the games and see which ones they liked best. My 6 year old’s favorites were Walk The Dogs and Zoodoku. They have adult and children’s games - a lot of which have been featured on different shows and in magazines. If you’re into playing games and already have all the ones you can buy at the store then check this out.

It’s time to go sort through papers, pay the bills (after I find them in my stack of papers), feed the kids, walk the dog, put the twins down for a nap (ah! a moment of peace), pick up my daughter from school, go shopping for some cooler weather clothes (it does sometimes get chilly even in Florida), eat dinner and get everyone to bed (another moment of peace until it starts all over tomorrow) but that’s okay - It’s just All In A Mom’s Day!!