Thanks for Nothing

I was feeling rather generous on Saturday morning so while at WalMart, I picked up a pack of gum for each of the kids. I got Molly and Cody a minty flavor and I got Rylee a sugar free fruity flavor. I thought everything was fine until my conversation with her this morning on the way to daycare.

Rylee, holding out a stick of her gum towards me: Mom, you want a piece.

Me: No thank you.

Rylee, giving me a yeah I know look: Why not Mom?

Me: Because I don't like fruit flavored gum.

Rylee, a little exasperated says: I KNOW. I don't EITHER so why you got it for me?

OK, note to self, no more fruity flavored gum for the sinister one!

Every single day she somehow manages to crack me up.

She's Growing Up and Moving Out....

...of my room that is. A while back I purchased a bed that Rylee had picked out for her and Molly. I wrote in that post that the sleeping arrangements at our house desperately needed revising and the bed would solve a lot of it.

Well, Molly and I finally got the bed fully set up correctly and we re-arranged her room so it is truly "Molly's" room (except for the little sidekick sleeping next to her at night). Rylee was so excited. She was going to be sleeping in her own bed for the first time!

I didn't hold out too much hope that she would make it through the night. I mean she has slept with someone next to her pretty much since she was born. She's not a fan of sleeping alone. She always has to have her hand or her leg or her foot resting on me while she sleeps. And she knows when I leave the room, even when I leave for the gym at 5:00 in the morning, she wakes up within a half hour and either calls out for Molly or gets up and lays down next to Cody until I get home.

BUT...she has done it!!! She is officially in her own bed at night! She was sooooo cute. And what was even cuter was how excited she was to be sharing the time with Molly. She asked Molly if they could "talk" before they went to sleep. Just "girl talk" she said. "Like boyfriends and crushes and stuff". Too funny...as always.

The Wheels in the Head go Round and Round

So, so, so many things to blog but never enough time!!!

As a reminder for some day soon (I hope) I'm making a quick list of things that I'd like to express:

* The pride I have for Molly for really stepping outside her comfort zone this year and amazing me with her courage.

* Rylee and how she really, truly is a teenager trapped into a little 4 year olds body

* My resolve with getting healthy this year and my realization that age is a big factor now

* The games we play in real life and in our own heads to make things right for ourselves

* The Angelina lookalike mom that just gave birth to EIGHT babies and has SIX others at home, presumably with the family that gave her the dysfunctional life she claims she had

Will post soon.

A Morning of Teenage Angst

It was bound to happen. Things have been going just too well. In fact, I was just telling a good friend yesterday that the kids have been awesome and that we have been doing things every weekend for a month now and have had the best of times. Sliding a few times, watching a few high school hockey games, a nice dinner out, going for a couple of walks, visiting with some friends, playing games and singing along to the radio on the way to out of town hockey games. It has actually been fun hanging out with the kids. No major battles or backtalk. No screaming or playing the blame game. No sarcastic words and rolling of the eyes. Did I mention no backtalk?

But all good things must come to an end. And the end was this morning. As of now, Cody is grounded for the weekend AND he has to do dishes AGAIN tonight and Molly, well she can't ever seem to just shut her mouth when we are having words. She always has to get the last word in and it is always a word that pushes me over the edge. This morning it was "awesome" after I told her that she needed to stop with the attitude. But I don't think it was so much the backtalk, I think it was more the attitude of when she said it, staring at her image in the mirror with a smirky kinda curve to her lips, totally not even looking at me. WTF?!