Four!

Actually written on 09/16/06

Ever since my children have developed the skill of speaking--2 of the 3, so far-- they have been fascinated by the number FOUR. I'm not sure why. T began one day by telling me that her favorite number was FOUR. She also liked two, but not as much. The past several days, L has been doing absolutely everything in FOURs. She counts to FOUR over and over as she trots around playing, while taking a bath, riding in the car, whatever. FOUR.

Why FOUR? Especially when such things at these ages as counting automatically go to TEN. It's considered a milestone to have your child learn to count to TEN without missing any of the numbers, and without reversing the order in any way. Of course, we are always pointing out that we have TEN fingers and TEN toes. So why not a fascination with the number TEN?

Or even two. My kids started telling everyone how old they were when they were TWO. We have TWO eyes, ears, arms, legs, nostrils, etc. They have TWO parents. Each of my girls has TWO sisters. And up until the last three months, I had TWO daughters.

What about THREE? According to what I learned so many years ago thanks to Schoolhouse Rock, THREE is a magic number. Yes it is.

Perhaps L's focus on FOUR comes from my softball practice a few weeks ago when she heard "FORE!" yelled a few times from the golfers on the neighboring golf course. I'm certain she had no idea what it meant, but she did see all the adults on the field quickly duck and look around. It probably didn't help that during our practice she heard "HEAD'S UP!" yelled and then seconds later was hit by a foul ball. Perhaps we should have yelled FORE! Not that that would have prevented the mild trauma anyway, given that she doesn't know what that means either.

And speaking of the practice of yelling "head's up" on a ball diamond when an errant ball might strike someone, why do people actually look DOWN when they hear the phrase? I guess we'd all rather be hit in the back of the head rather than in the nose...which, by the way, was where L. was struck. Thankfully it was just a glancing blow.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Here's hoping I get at least TWO hours sleep before the baby needs to be fed. THREE or FOUR would be great. Of course, though, I'll be dreaming of TEN.

Later, and happy parenting:) K.

Wahoo!

Actually written on 9/15/06

Well, the newest in the life of this stupor mom is that my 3-year old got up to go potty in the middle of the night...not very exciting, except when I think of the prospect of not buying diapers for her anymore. She's quite potty-trained during the day, but can still load one up at night. I was shocked when she appeared (cute as ever, of course) all sleepy-eyed at the bathroom door around midnight. She needed to go potty! Wahoo! It's not very exciting in the grand scheme of things, but for a mom, it's quite a milestone.

Off to paint the new bunk beds for the girls...new to us at least.

Until next time...happy parenting:) …K…

Bienvenue...

Welcome to StuporMom...my name is Kris and I am the mother of 3 girls. I decided to try this blogging thing for a couple of reasons: I want to record the precious moments I experience as a mother, I want to record those moments that are exasperating as well, and I want to work on my writing. So, this "blog" will be a journal of sorts. I won't be advertising it, as I really don't have aspirations of being well known on the internet. Mostly I will be just using it as a method or recording the madness that goes along with motherhood. Here's hoping I actually have time from day to day to post.

Let's see...where to begin. As I said, I am the mother of three wonderful girls. T is 6, L is 3 and B is 3 months. I live in the Midwest and never plan to move...I love the change of seasons too much. In fact, I am really LOVING the weather these days, as autumn is my favorite season. The crisp air, the return to school, the wearing of bulky sweaters; nothing compares.

My daughter T just returned to school. She is in the first grade at a local Christian school. The city I live in is quite large, and the public school system is less than what I'd like for her. Also, whole separation of Church and State thing really bugs me, so she's in private school. It's very important to me that she not only get an education in the basics, but in the most important subject of all: how God created and runs the world we live in. She can only get that at the Christian schools, so there she attends.

My daughter L just started preschool. I was going to have her attend on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays for 2 1/2 hours each day, but some further thinking on my part made me change her schedule after the first day. I realized that if I placed her in the Tuesday and Thursday extended classes (4 hours), I would only have to drive 2 days a week instead of 3. By changing her pickup time, I also went from zero families to carpool with to three. So, even though I drive her to school on both T and Th, I only have to pick her up on Tuesdays. With gas prices as they are, that cuts down on driving significantly. As of today, by the way, gas is going for about $2.33/gallon...which is down almost a whole dollar from when we started school a month ago.

The youngest, B, is just trying to survive. I don't mean in a medical sense. Rather, I mean that she's only 3 months old and does nothing but eat, sleep, coo, or cry. Thankfully we are moving into more cooing and less crying these days. That hasn't been the case as of the last several weeks. I guess you could say she tricked us. For the first 2 weeks or so, she didn't do much but sleep, which made me think she was going to be as easy as L had been (and boy, was she easy...sleep, eat, and sleep). Anyway, come week 2 or 3 of her life, the crying started. If she was awake, she was crying. But, like I said, that is diminishing and she's becoming a much happier creature. Whew!

A funny thing was said to me the other day. I was at a craft fair and ran into my friend's mother, who also happens to work at my pediatrician's office. We were chatting about having three children, mostly because I had the baby with me and I was also with a friend who is 8 months preggers with her third. She passed along something she was told when she was pregnant with he third child thirty-some year ago. She said,"Going from one child to two is like going from one to two. Going from two children to three is like going from two to seventeen." 'Nuf said.

I had to laugh out loud. Some moments that seems so, so true. Thankfully, however, we've been able to handle the change pretty well so far. Although, things will more than likely change as little B starts to be more mobile...hmmm, maybe I'll have to tie her legs together so she doesn't walk 'til she's 3. Just kidding:) Well, I could write more, but it's late. Gotta catch some ZZZZs before the madness begins tomorrow.

I'll try to remember to talk about T's lost tooth (her first!) and B's baptism. If I get to it, I can also recount the millions of times L has made some sort of mess (usually while I'm cleaning up from and earlier one!).Until next time, happy parenting.K.