Halloween and My Christmas Wish

I'll start with the pictures

Miz N was a gorgeous Snow White.

A-girl was a perfect little Dora fairy princess.

And Little Man was a tiger/Tigger.  Too cute for words.

My three loves.

At the end of September,
When I started thinking about costumes,
I invited my dear friend
To join us on Halloween night
For food
For fun
For an extra pair of hands.

I raced out of school as soon as possible
And got the kids dressed in their costumes
And then we hit the local Panda Express
For Free Kids Meals for kids in costumes
And Chiptoles for
$3.00 Boorittos for anyone in costumes.
(Yes, they do accept a giraffee headband
And a lion mask
As costumes.)

Then we hit the neighborhood of the Littles' daycare
And we spent a lovely hour walking around the area
Filling up their buckets
Watching Miz N run from house to house
Enjoying A-girl's "Trick a Treat" followed by "Thank You"
And being assumed at Little Man's death grip on his bucket
That people were pouring in extra candy because
"He is just so cute!"
He never said "Trick or Treat"
But he would say "You" for "Thank You"
Or would sign thank you at every person.
And he even gave a few waves goodbye and a high five
(To a man who looked a lot like Santa Claus.)

Then we packed back up the kids
With plans to go back and hit our neighborhood
When it happened.
I realized
I hadn't left my phone in the car
Like I had thought when 1/2 way through the walk
I had wanted to take a picture.
It wasn't in the van.
It wasn't in my purse.

Then I remembered when we first got out of the car
And I had slammed the back door after getting out the stroller
That I had heard a bad crashing/crunching sound
And I had reopened it up to see what I had slammed and saw nothing
And closed it again.

We looked all over the road
And the sidewalk
And the grass
And nothing
Nada.

That phone is my everything.
My only phone.
My only contacts.
My lifeline.

Tried to hold down the paniac.
Tried to get home.
Tried to take care of the kids
(Sara just did it - thank God)
And I started online trying to figure out what to do.

I'll cut out the search
The panaic
The worry
But
About two hours later
It was in my hands again.
I used Find My Phone on iCloud
(So glad
Once again
That I stuck with getting an iPhone
And bought the OtterBox cover.)
And tracked it to a neighborhood
And after watching it for 20 minutes
Sitting in a house
I decided to go drive there and see if I could find out anything.

They found it
Right where I,
Too late,
Realized I dropped it.
And didn't know what to do with it
So they took it home
And planned to take it to Verizon tomorrow.

I seriously do not know what is wrong with me.
I have developed
What I have heard other people call
Pregnancy brain
But
A) I have never been pregnant
B) I have never been pregnant
So I call it
Mommy brain.
I honestly think my head is so full
Of so many new responsiblities
(aka Miz N, A-girl, and Little Man
And all that comes with that
Plus two kids in diapers
Who are basically relying on me for their survival)
That I suddenly have lost the ability to think straight
And multi-task
And I used to be the queen of multi-task.

I've left my credit card purse behind at Target.
My wallet on the counter at Walmart.
My keys in the grocery cart at Fry's.
And now my iPhone on the back door of the van.

The good news is
I haven't forgotten
Or lost
A kid
Yet.

Despite the insanity at the end
It was a fun night.
The kids were happy
Content

And
Miz N was happy with her candy stash
Even if it "wasn't even 1/2 of what she got last year"
And Little Man went to sleep with a ring of chocolate around his mouth
And signing "more, more"
But
The best news was
A-girl fell asleep in her bed
In less than 2 minutes.
(Yes.
Her bed.
First time she's fallen asleep there
And I haven't had to move her there
After she fell asleep in the closet since August.)

Here's to the
Sort-of/Basically
Successfully
Start of the holiday season
And as my mind starts to think about Thanksgiving
And then Christmas
I have
A Christmas wish
"All I Want for Christmas"
Is my
Fully-functioning
Multi-tasking
Type-A
Organized
No need to rely on a calendar for every little thing
Brain
Back.
Please
Santa.
Please.

An October Post

It's not that I don't have things to
Process
Say
Share
Laugh about
Cry about
It's just that I am one tired foster mama
Who is also a language arts teacher
(Which means grading 120 reading and writing assignments
That make you want to put your face out with a campfire
Instead of grading them)
And just fights to stay up to 9:00 am every night.

Lots of blogs have been written in my head
But none of have been written down
And my brain is the worse for it.

There could have been a post
Just about
Every day my mom was in town.
The funny things the kids did.
How the kids reverted back to some old behaviors.
The things we did together.
But
Honestly.
I just enjoyed it.
All of it.

There could have been a post
Just about
Choosing Halloween outfits.
Ended up with a
Snow White
Dora Fairy
Tigger.

There could have been a post
Just about
Attempting to find holiday outfits
In October
With three days notice
For "family" pictures for the kids bio mom
And then the insanity of trying to get 3 kids
Two toddlers
To hold still
And all smile
In some manner
At the same time
With a photographer who had no personality
And how I resorted to getting them to smile
By burping
Loudly
In public.
Over
And
Over
And
Over.

There could be a post
Just about
An 8 year old who lives to be outdoors
An 8 year old in crisis
An 8 year old who is amazing
An 8 year old who is hurting
An 8 year old who can test my temper like no one in the world.

There could be a post
Just about
A three year old
A smart three year old
A hysterically funny three year old
A three year old who is more stubborn than anyone I have met in my life.

There could be a post
Just about
An 18 month old.
Yes,
18 month old.
Who is seriously the cutest thing ever
Who is talking/repeating up a storm
Who has developed a temper that boils up and out faster than you can blink
Who can erase all pain through a giggle and a pudgy arm neck hug.

There could be a post
Just about
Me.
My trying to deal with being a single mom
My trying to deal with the financial issues that brings with three kids
My trying to deal with the balance work (grading, grading, grading) with mothering
My trying to deal with my new found temper than arises in ways it never has before
My trying to deal with Christmas coming.
My trying to deal with scarred children with consistency mixed with love.

But
Tonight
I'll blog about prayers.
Yes.
Bedtime prayers.
(Heaven help me,
Meal time prayers hardly ever happen.
It's like chaos at the dinner table around here.)

Every night
I cradle Little Man
In my arms
And I pray over him.
And when I say "Amen"
He pops up,
Repeats
"A-man"
And then gives me a kiss goodnight
And I lay him in his crib.

I do the same thing with A-girl.
Cradle.
Pray in her ear.
And
Since she finally has stopped
2-second delayed
Repeating my words
Back into my ear,
Last week
I decided it was time
For her to say her own prayer.
I can't usually understand more than one or two words
Until she gets to the "Amen"

Until tonight.

And then I was trying
So hard
Not
To
Laugh.

Here is the prayer of a 3 year old.

God
Thank
Potty
M&M
Dora
Peppa Pig
No Super Why
Bath
Brush Hair
Brush Teeth
Go Sleep
Amen.

Let me interpret.

God = Dear God
(I usually open with this phrase.)
Thank = Thank you
(I usually thank God for something.)
Potty = Potty
(We are trying to potty train...sort of.)
M&M = Three M&M's
(A-girl gets three when she pees in the potty)
Dora = Dora the Explorer
(A-girl got a Dora Potty Doll for her birthday who sits next to her while she goes)
Peppa Pig = A British cartoon about a pig named Peppa and her family
(A-girl is obsessed with this short show and gets a 5 minute episode when she goes pee on the potty)
No Super Why = A PBS show she must watch at daycare
(She was mad tonight because I wouldn't let her watch it after her Peppa Pig clip)
Bath = Night time baths
(It is her and Little Man's favorite time of the day.)
Brush Hair, Brush Teeth, Go Sleep = Self-explanatory
(Literally the list of the last things we did before prayers.)

I kind of like Peppa almost as much as I like Kipper.  (Seriously.  British kid shows rock.)

 

 

 

A-Girl can run the iPad like a pro.