The Great Poop Debacle, or A Mother's Day to Remember

My mother's day didn't start out remarkable. We go up, went to church, got Breakfast on the way. Had a good class, and, even though I had nursery duty, a good service as well. When we got home, Dustin stayed with the girls while I ran to the store to get pizza for lunch. Ran into a spot of trouble at the register when the items didn't ring up correctly, but no big deal. Even got to drive Dustin's new truck. And we had just enough money for a Redbox movie. So it was going okay.
We ate lunch and settled in to watch Battle for Terra. It was pretty good. Dustin and I were on the couch and the girls were in their room. A recipe for peace if there ever was one.
Then Faith came to me and said,"Poopy".
"That's okay. You can be poopy in your room," I said, since the movie was nearly over. After a brief struggle, she disappeared into her room. Or so I thought.
Less than five minutes later, she came back out, holding her foot funny and fussing.
"Go be poopy in your room," I told her. She laid her foot on the ottoman by Dustin's leg. There was a noxious brown substance on the bottom that my superior mother's brain identified immediately and with a sinking heart. Unfortunately, so did her father.
"That's POOP," he said with dawning horror. Did I mention that poop is apparently his Kryptonite? "Oh my god, that's so gross! That's - she got it on me! Eww! Eww!" I had apparently grabbed her foot a second too late and she had managed to smear excrement on his pant leg. He jumped up and began tearing off his clothes, which, under other, more delicate, circumstances would have been enjoyable, but in this instance, it merely sent me off in a fit of giggles. Which seriously impair your ability to hold a poopy foot, FYI. Barely maintaining my grip, I asked him to get me the wipes from the table.
As he passed us, pantless and pressed against the opposite couch, he complied and headed down the hall to our bedroom. By this time, Abby had joined me and Faith by the corner of the couch and at the same time he announced that Faith's diaper was in the hallway, I noticed that Abby's hands were poopy.
Then Dustin said in a voice that never bodes well, "DON'T PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN!!" I now had my hands full of wipes, poopy hands and feet and looked at him like he was crazy. Bear in mind that this undoubtedly looked ridiculous because I was still laughing. "I mean it," he said. "There's a huge turd under your foot!" That set off the giggles again!
Abby kept pulling her hands and I finally got Dustin to take her from me. The second I let her go, she promptly rubbed her head. Yay. He grabbed her arms and rushed her to the bathtub. I followed a bit more slowly with Faith because no way was I carrying her and I needed to clean her foot off.
In the bathroom, my beloved husband was struggling to undress his youngest daughter and still avoid the poop. I alternated between hysterical laughter and my evil mommy voice. You know the one. That step past sanity when it sounds exactly like the demon from the Exorcist is coming out of your mouth and you feel exactly like your mother must have when she sounded like that.
All I could think was, Mom is going to love this. It'll make her day for a year.
Dustin abandoned the field, saying, "I do throw up, you do poop! I do throw up, you do poop!" Like I'll ever let him live THAT down!
And to top it all of, the moment I set Faith down in the tub, Abby rubbed her hands in her sister's hair. Because gross, ain't gross enough. If this is what girls are like, boys are gonna kill me!
My mother did, indeed, love it. She told their entire church that evening, according to my younger sister. Happy Mother's Day, ha! LOL

He Was Right

So the other day, Dustin and I were having a discussion (read: argument) and it came up that I doubt my ability to write. Well, he found this poem that I forgot I wrote and it really rocked me. I actually have to share it. Bear with me here, just this once.

My Daughter

Ageless now
Trapped forever
In photographs and memories
She grows daily
More precious every second
Every breath amazes me
I see her ever as she is
And as she was
From the second she moved in me
My life forever changed
No longer just us two
But now we are three
My daughter
God's gift to me
My purpose in this world
The greatest task
Is to make a difference to her.

Just had to type it out and share it with you.
Later

What's new?

School has started! It seems the end of summer comes sooner and sooner with each passing year. Before long, we will have done away with summer break entirely and our children will be the dour little scholars or the hideous little delinquents we truly wish they were! Wait, does that make any sense to you?
Anway, off of that soapbox and on to another: my girls! They are getting so big these days. Faith got weighed and measured on Friday and she is 23lbs+some that I failed to note or understand and she is 31 and a quarter inches tall. The Ab-ster was already at 15 and a half pounds at her last check-up and she was at 24 and a quarter inches in height. Faith has developed an attitude to go with her adorable personality and it flares up in the most interesting ways. Abby has begun rolling over quite efficiently and pushing up on her arms. Faith has written on herself with various pens about four times in the last week. Abigail isn't sitting up by herself quite yet, but she makes a good effort. Both girls adore each other and giggle and laugh together a lot. Faith says hi and kisses her sissy al the time and Abby will stare and smile like she understands everything. I love just watching them!
We are all awake, albeit in different roms at the moment, just waiting on Grandpa to get out of the bathroom, so we can take a bath. I will be so happy wen we are out of here!!
Later.

The girls are sleeping!

As a mother of two, I have learned that sleep is a precious commodity, meant to be treasured to the nth degree in all it's various forms. So I am taking this rare moment in which my daughters are both sound asleep to blog. Or something like that, anyway.
The girls are awesomely amazing and awful at the same time. If one is upset, the other is too. Faith has finally decided to have bouts of jealousy which manifest as fits of screaming and bursting into tears at the least provocation. Fun on so many levels, that! But they also get along famously. Faith will talk to Abby and Abby beams out of her little eyes all the love she has for her big sissy. So adorable! And Faith is constantly kissing her on whatever body part she can reach.
Oh, and Mr. Dustin Ryan Pedretti produced some gassy girls, let me tell you. It's horrible and cute at the same time. Must be some kind of mother madness! LOL

*BTW, as I finished typing the last line of the first paragraph, I heard the unmistakable sounds of Abby awakening. Which actually sounds quit creepy!

Been a While

I hate that life itself takes money. Its depressing on so many levels that I have to get a job. I'm hoping that Walmart or someone will hire me for a few hours a night, four or five days a week.

I did try to sell blankets on Craigslist to make money, but apparently at this time of year the only people interested in anything I'm selling are spammers. The jerks!

Abby is nursing really well. With Faith, I had such a hard time. Not with getting her to nurse, but with the pain. Not to mention the surface infections she lovingly bestowed on me constantly. Plus the first night she was home, she had to have a bottle of formula to calm down and go to sleep. Abby has been so different. She nurses like there's no tomorrow. Literally. When that child is hungry, the whole world knows about it until she is satisfied! Sunday night, Dustin and I went and saw the new Transformers movie (Awesome!) and Rebecca kept the girls. I should tell you that Abby has a grace period. You can do whatever you want, shopping, eating, housework, whatever for about two hours. Sometimes a little more. At the end of that time, you had better get her what she wants, quick, fast and in a hurry. Well, it just so happens that the movie was almost three hours long, which was about 30 minutes longer than her grace period. Poor Becca was texting us frantically asking what to do because she had tried everything. Even the bottle of formula I had made up for her. My darling child gagged when she tried to get her to drink it. Gagged. Obviously Abby is as given to drama as her big sister. Of course, all I could think when Rebecca said that was "That's my girl!" Any sympathy I had paled in comparison to the pride that my baby is ONLY satisfied with her mommy! She finally calmed down when Rebecca rocked her in the rocking chair. We finished the movie and came home to immediately nurse.

Dustin has been working crazy hours. Leaving the house at 5:30 in the morning to come home after 5 at night. Been a bit tough on all of us. Now he has to work on Sunday and Rebecca and I are driving to Houston by ourselve. Since I haven't driven in Houston at all, he's making us meet my parents at Loop 336 and HWY 45 and one of them is going to drive the rest of the way. Sweet, yes, but irritating, too. But since he's now officially in charge of the pre-fab area/workers/whatever, he can't miss a single day. Really bites!

Hey, if you guys know of anyone having a girl in the winter months, I have a bag of warm baby girl clothes. There are some regular clothes, too, but a lot of it is warm clothes. There are different sizes, too. I think they cover 0-6 months in sizes. Not a total wardrobe, but a good start. Let me know.
Later, ladies!

A Mother's TRUE Revenge

I am not so naive as to think that I will not miss changing their diapers. I will, I know it. Just like I miss nursing Faith even though nearly every second of it was filled with almost excruciating pain. However, I wish to say this one thing and mothers world-wide will acknowledge it as truth.
I will never EVER miss dirty diapers. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.
In fact, I look forward with GREAT relish to the day I can hold my grandchild, smile sweetly and hand him/her over to their mother with a diaper filled to the brim with horrible grossness. Then, and only then will they have repaid me for any of the diapers I have changed in the last fifteen months or any of the ones that I will change until Abby is potty trained.

Family stuff

So, it's been a little while since I posted. Been a little busy!
Abby's a month old now and Angela is in the States on leave for 15 days, give or take. That's the news and not what I wanted to write about.
I've been thinking a lot about my childhood and family life. Partly because of my children and partly because of this show I found on TLC called Kids by the Dozen. I did watch a couple of the 17 and 18 kids and counting about the Duggars, but frankly, I found them quite weird. (No offense to any of their admirers, just an opinion)
But Kids by the dozen was different, they seemed more normal somehow. I could relate to them more.
Like the Heppners. Not a fairyale love story by any means. They didn't just meet and fall in love and live happily ever after, popping out kids as they went along. They had very real struggles and issues and managed to make something good out of them. I had fun watching them.
The Arndts made a business out of their family, but in a good way. They have a ministry and they are all involved in it in a different way. One of the boys, I think the oldest, was talking about being in the midst of a big family and what it was like growing up with that many kids and all. It reminded me of a conversation, Dustin and I had once about my family. I said that it was easy to look at it from the outside, now that I have some distance on the whole thing, and think, Oh my gosh, there are nine of us! But when we're all together, it's not the same, it's just us. As a kid, it seemed strange that other people thought that we were strange!
Anyway, been thinking about htis for a while now and its nce to have it out.