For the past week I have been home with sick kids. At first it was my oldest, while my younger guy was ok. On one of those nights, my bigger boy feel asleep early, which left me cuddling with just Ben. When you have more than one kid, on those rare times when you have just one to give your undivided attention to you take full advantage of it.  I sometimes feel guilty that my younger son has never known what is like to have two parents giving him full attention all the time. It does not hurt that he adores his big brother, which is something Will never had, so I suppose it balances.
So we are cuddling, then we get a little silly, and this happens: (Be warned, these are not good pictures of me. Thanks to my blackberry being ever-present, I was able to capture something I never would have otherwise.)

These pictures are far more real than what I usually post on the internet, no nice cropping or even cleavage covering(that last one). I love them, simply because they capture what was a very sweet moment between me and my littlest guy. That right there is what my life is about.

another stellar parenting moment...

Earlier today my son called me into the bathroom, to well...complete the cleaning up process. (wipe his butt). So while I was there I noticed he needed a little lotion. We were at my inlaws house, so they don't have desitin readily available. I opened the cupboard and scanned for whatever options were there. The first thing my eyes fell on was a bottle of ben-gay.

And then I just forgot that I was talking to my four year old potty obsessed child, and I said out loud "well we don't want to use that, cause that would be like my butt, my butt, my butt is on fire!" Complete with a little song and dance on the end. When I saw my childs eyes WIDE open while he laughed, hard. I realized I just handed him the keys to potty humor kingdom, and he confirmed it when he started singing and dancing along to my little tune!

I promise I'm a good mother..but really, someone should just stop me from talking to my kids!!

the strength of women

I have a friend, who is struggling with her health, and now her marriage is over, with no more than a flip comment from a selfish man. She faces surgery, tomorrow, knowing her husband will be moving out by the middle of next week.

I have a friend, who is living a shell of a marriage, because she needs her living situation and wants to provide some stability for her children.

I have a friend who has realized that something about her youngest child is different, and is trying to find out what he needs and get him appropriate services, while working against her husbands issue of his child being less than perfect.

I have a friend who is at a crossroads in her marriage, and about to uproot their lives to get in a place where they can put it all back together.

I have a friend who is tired of being a doormat. Her family of origin expects she will just do for them, without bothering to ask her opinion. She is at that place where she is deciding what kind of woman she will be and making decisions that are moving her away from how she was raised.

It seems to me that woman as a whole carry these things. We just get up everyday, pull on our big girl panties and do. We do whatever needs to be done, we drink more coffee, we get less sleep, we eat too much chocolate. Sometimes it sucks to be a girl.

The thing is though...women rock. We are dynamic, changing, we absorb what comes at us and grow. We are every day getting stronger. What makes women special? Men don't have this ability. The man you marry, is the man you will have. They are human they grow and learn. They are not women. I think the reason for this is simple. We have each other.

When women talk, we are not just chatting, we are sharing our life experiences. I know who to call when my son has hit a stage I just cannot fathom, I know who to call when I'm worried about my marriage, I know who to call when I need a laugh, I know who to call when I need to vent, I know who to call when I need to go out and have fun. When any of these women need me, I drop everything and go, as they do for me.

My friends are from very different walks of life, different ages, different upbringings, different jobs. Each of them has taught me something, and I have passed on what I know. This is the power of women.

I would be screwed without them.

wow! are we blue-collar

I was wandering around my house-I mean cleaning it, yeah that's it, I was cleaning! When I noticed my work sneaker, on top of my husbands work boots. Nothing says we are blue collar more than some shoes meant for work, am I right? It's all good though, as long as we are taking care of them: