Some days

Do you ever have those days when you feel like the worst Mumma in the world??  I was trying so hard today not to raise my voice but no matter what I couldn't seem to keep everyone happy. Ears were not working.  It started with an early morning as usual, washing day, five loads of washing, stripping and re-making three beds, keeping the kids clean, feed and happy etc. 
I heard crying when I was out at the washing line so I dashed inside to find DS1 with blood streaming out of his nose - DS2 had whacked him in the nose with a matchbox car :(.  Timeout for DS2 which resulted in him falling asleep. 
I had to go to the bathroom at one stage so I pulled the plug out of the side of the paddling pool which was still set up in the backyard since Australia Day.  I didn't want DS1 going anywhere near it when I wasn't nearby to supervise.  I came out to find that he was wet through to the skin, so this resulted in a time out, with many tears and screams. He woke DS2 up!!  I had to tell him that he wasn't allowed back in the garden for the rest of the day (the ultimate punishment for him).
There was incidents of headbutting, hair pulling and wrestling and multiple time outs.  By this afternoon I was just over it!!!  I put dinner on and had it on the table at 4.45 and the boys showered by 5.30.  When I had to replace the DVD for about the sixth time because DS2 would wait til we got it all set up again and then run and push eject, DS 1 started yelling at me and his brother, and generally having a melt down.  I decided I was done for the day..... Both boys were taken to bed, no cuddles, no stories.  Ten minutes later they were both asleep by 6.10 pm. 
So I have spent the evening feeling guilty and trying to figure out where I am going wrong.... can I create more hours in the day?  How can I be more involved with them and spend more time playing, and still manage to keep the house in one piece?
Tomorrow I will do a better job!  I hope that when I come back to this in years to come I don't have a pair of teenage boys who can't stand me because I was the cranky Mumma.  Although, DS1 says I am still his friend!  Let's just hold on to that as long as we can.....

The first one.....

I have been thinking more and more about a way to remember all the things my boys say and get up to, and I think this would be good way to do that, plus this way I can share it with my family and friends.  I will be able to look back in the years to come and share with the boys some of the funny things they have said and done.

I have to two beautiful, funny, sweet sons.  DS1 has just turned 4, and one of my good friend described him as bold, and I think this is the perfect description of him. He can be shy to start with but given some time he is just exploding with energy, in your face and barely comes up for breath between sentences.  He blows me away with his thought processes - I am not sure if this is due to my lack of experience with little children prior to my own or he is a bit outside the box.  I have been posting some of his questions and quotes on Facebook for a while now, simply because I find them so amusing and below are some that I have mentioned in the past -

• We were walking through the carpark of a shopping centre, and DS1 said to me "Mummy, one day I think I will have a magpie and a duck", I asked him - knowing him as I do, "Do you mean to eat?"  "Yes, Mummy" was his response.  I told him I didn't think there would be much meat on a magpie.....
• He asked one day if we could listen to bolognese in the car - it took me a few seconds, but I realised that he meant Meatloaf.
• At one of his friends birthday parties he turned to me and ask "Who kills the dogs when we want to eat hot dogs?"  I explained that they weren't made out of dogs and he seemed rather disappointed.
• When his father was pouring him a bowl of cereal, his father said "Say when" and DS1 response to that was "Today, Daddy!".
• When I arrived home from picking up Chinese take away for dinner, he came running to the door to ask if I had any "pink crunchy pigs ears" for him - this also took me a few moments of thinking to figure out he meant prawn crackers.
• Yesterday his Auntie ask me to pick up some tiger balm for her, when I relayed the message to his father  DS1 looked at me and asked "Why does Auntie P need a tiger farm?".

He is so active its unbelievable, he does not cope at all being couped up.  I have spent hours freezing my butt off sitting in the sand pit building sand castles, pushing him on the swings etc.  He reminds me in so many ways of my brother when he was little.  And I occasionally call DS1 by my brothers name....ooppps!

DS2 will be 2 in less than two weeks, I can't believe how fast the time has gone.  When DS1 turned 2, I was eight months pregnant.  DS2 hasn't started speaking much yet as he had a some issues.  My bubba is had his tonsils and adenoids out when he was 20 months, plus fluid vacuumed from his ears and grommets inserted.  The size of both the tonsils and adenoids are blocking his eustachian tubes, causing fluid to fill his ear cavity.  I know children fall over when they are learning how to walk but by the time he had been 'walking' for 4 months he was still falling over literally 100 times a day and had nearly permenent bruising across his forehead from banging his head so often. I seriously thought he was going to end up with brain damage from the amount of blows to his head. And I felt awful, I just couldn't seem to get him to stay upright.  We have sorted out his balance issues, mostly and he is just as active as his brother.  We still have some big issues around his association between food and pain - plus he is really fussy, so food time is very hard!  He has gained back some of the hearing he has lost and that has meant a great improvement in his speech and vocabulary.  He has a new favourite word - NO!  But he says its in such a sweet way, I can't help but laugh half the time.  I am sure the novelty will wear off soon enough. 

I am not sure how I will go updating this, but I will try to come on every couple of days, and journal some of our adventures and all the interesting things they say! :o)