And tomorrow he will be four...

My stepson Nathan turns four tomorrow. We had a party for him Saturday which was fun. But even though he's not technically four until tomorrow, he's been acting that way for about six months now haha. He's in this weird transition from being a "baby" to being a "big boy" and I have to remember to pick and choose my battles. And my, did we have one tonight!

I monitor what my kids watch. I'm not a prude, I mean, they mostly watch Disney and Pixar movies and educational shows or Nick Jr. and the like, but I'm not above letting them watch a select episode or two of something like Futurama (the ones without a lot of sexual references and the like). No harm done. But I'll admit that he had seen a couple of episodes of Family Guy unintentionally, like if the TV was on when I left the room for a potty break or whatnot. Of course, I changed it when I realized what he was watching, because while I think Family Guy is hilarious, it does tend to rip the envelope into tiny pieces at times, so of course, my kids don't watch it.

Tonight, I sat down to watch a little TV before the kids went to bed, since I had watched the same two Blue's Clues tapes that my daughter LOVES literally most of the day. I turned it to TBS and it was at a commercial, so I left it on. I should explain that our remote is toast and that we change the channels the old fashioned way. I sat down to see what was on, and I had just put the baby to sleep. Family Guy came on, so I put the baby down in her "cocoon" on the couch (a little bed I fashioned out of Steve's grandmother's quilt and pillows), and got up to change the channel. As I was getting up, Nathan said "I'm gonna tell Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow that I got to watch Family Guy a little today" (Steve's parents), and I said "No, you don't have to tell them that, I'm turning the TV off because you're not allowed to watch adult cartoons." The second the tube flashed off, the whining started: "But I waaaaaannnnnnnnaaaawaaaaattttccchhhiiiiiittttt!". So I calmly told him "Stop whining, you know you can't watch it, get back to your coloring", which was followed by louder whining. I said "Nathan, if you wake the baby up, you're going to bed early" (this was 30 minutes before bedtime anyways), and he proceeded to scream louder, of course, and woke the baby. So I said "Okay, Brenna's awake now, you're going to bed" and was exposed to more screaming. I grabbed his puppy that he sleeps with and walked to the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. He followed, but screamed all the way. I was starting to lose my temper, so I tossed the puppy up the stairs and told him to go to bed. He cried and whined and I followed, but then Ellaina started following me, thinking it was bedtime. I called Steve to get him to stop Ellaina, and as I looked up at the top of the stairs where Nathan was, the world turned to slow motion: Jakers, our cat, was sitting in the doorway of the kids' room. Nathan was standing in front of him. I knew what he was going to do before he even did it. I started to dart up the stairs saying "Noooooooo!" like in those slow motion scenes in action movies and he lifted his leg, brought it all the way back, and kicked Jakers, full bore, in the face. I immediately saw red. I have had problems with Nathan being mean to the cat before, but nothing like this. I got to the top of the stairs, and there may be those of you out there that are against spanking, but I felt it was necessary in this case. Once, when I was about 5, I was mad at my mom about something and I hit my cat out of anger, and she tore my butt up, but I never hit the cat again. I actually went to her crying and apologized, and the cat just looked at me like "Um, yeah" and walked off. haha So he got his butt popped a couple of times (I didn't beat the child haha), and of course, he was making a dramatic scene. Steve looked up and wanted to know what was going on to cause such a strong reaction and I told him that he had kicked Jakers in the face. Nathan went into his room, and I looked for the cat. He was huddled in the corner of my room, shaking. I checked him, he was alright, thank goodness, and I went to Nate's room and said "Don't you ever hurt Jakers again, now go to bed."

Of course, when I went downstairs, he yelled and whined from upstairs. I gave Ellaina her bath and got her ready for bed. We went upstairs and she picked out a couple of books to look at in bed, and I put her in her crib. Nathan sat up and said "Ashley, I'm this much mad at you" and held out his arms. Well, I have to admit, I channeled my inner 4 year old and said "Yeah? Well, I'm this much mad at you too" and held my arms out (you'd be surprised at how well you handle yourself around an angry child haha). Then I told him that he should not have kicked the cat, and then he asked for juice. I said "You don't get juice tonight because you hurt the kitty" and he yelled that it wasn't fair. I said goodnight to Ellaina, and as I was leaving, I said "Nathan, I still love you even though you are mad at me" and he started wailing and said "I don't want to be your friend no more!" I said "Fine, I still love you, goodnight" and went downstairs.

I explained to Steve what exactly happened and he understood. I was a nervous wreck, and had to take a smoke break to calm myself down. I heard Nathan yelling from his room, so when I was finished, I ninja-ed up there and stood in the doorway. I calmly said "Nathan, what is it?" and he started to cry and said "I still want to be your friend". I smiled and sat on the edge of his bed. I said "I'm sorry that I lost my temper like I did, but it really upset me that you hurt Jakers. You should never do that to him, no matter how mad you get at me, okay?" and he said between sniffles "Okay" and I asked him if he was sorry and he bawled again and said "Yeeeessss, I'm sorry!", so I hugged him and said "I'm sorry too, and I'm not mad at you. I still love you." and he said "I love you too!" and we made up. :-) I tucked him in, kissed his head, and went to Ellaina, who was standing up in her crib wanting another book that was on the floor. As I went to get it for her, he fussed at me and said "You shouldn't have thrown Puppy, he's just a baby and he could get hurt" and I smiled and said "You're right. I'm sorry I threw puppy. I won't do it again" and he started to fuss at me again, so I said "Now Nathan, I said I was sorry. You can't still fuss at me, I'm not fussing at you about Jakers" and he said "Okay" and I said goodnight, and went downstairs where I had to rock the baby for an hour and a half. *whew*

I think that's the biggest fight we've ever gotten in haha. I think I handled it alright though, sure, I lost my temper a few times, but who wouldn't? All I know is that I have one stubborn, obstinate, and opinionated 4 year old on my hands. :-) I'm glad that all is well now.

Until the next time he kicks the cat...haha.

Gonngitabaff?

Ellaina has started this cute new thing recently. See, the other day, she had pooped in her pull up while she was asleep I guess, and when I went to get her out of her crib that morning, she was a little dirty lol. So I said "Aw, you pooped. You wanna get a bath?" (she LOVES baths by the way!), and she said "Yay, gonngitabaff!", which is Ellaina speak for, of course, "gonna get a bath". She just shoves the words together to make one big one lol.

So yesterday morning, I went to get her out of her crib, and she looked up and said "Mama, I pooped. I gonngitabaff?", so I replied "Okay, you can get a bath", but when I checked her pull up, it was just wet. I laughed and said "You didn't poop, you just wanted a bath", and she smiled that little devilish grin she has, and says "Yay, I gonngitabaff!". So she tricked me, but hey, the girl has great hygiene.

We cut to this morning. I went to get her, and she said "Mama, I pooped, I gonngitabaff?". So I said "Let me check", and of course, just wet. So I laughed and said "You're tricking me just to get morning baths" and she just grinned. I didn't get to give her one this morning because I had to run some errands for my mother, but good thing because when I got home, I made the kids PBJ sandwiches and lo and behold, she came up covered in PBJ and said "Mama, eww, I gonngitabaff?" :-)

I have the cleanest two year old in the world! haha

Mother's Day

I had a pretty good mother's day. I got to sleep in, didn't have to change any poopie diapers, and when Steve told Ellaina to tell me Happy Mother's Day, she said "Happy day, mama!". :-) Adorable!

Steve hand picked me some roses and irises from his mom's garden and I have them in a huge vase beside my computer. My mom got me a keychain and a bookmark. Nathan and Steve's mom made me a card. My dad took Steve, myself, the girls, and my mom out to dinner (for those who don't know, my parents divorced when I was three, but they're still friends). The girls were well behaved, Brenna fussed to let us know that she wanted her dinner too (she ate a ribeye...just kidding haha), and Ellaina decided to try to finger paint the wall with her sweet potato, saying "Look, mama, painting!" :-) She likes to think outside of the box haha.

Now I have to look forward to changing all of those dirty diapers I missed on Father's Day!

In the begining

I'm new to blogspot, but not new to blogging. I have a MySpace account that I'm totally addicted to, but I spend so much time tweaking my profile and answering messages that I forget to blog every now and then. And also, since my profile is set to private, only my friends list gets to read my blogs. I thought I'd try this avenue to get some of my blogs read by others, since most of my friends have been too busy to read my ranting and tales from spending the majority of my time with a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a 4 month old (ie my children).

I'll start with a little back story on my life, to get everyone up to speed. May 26th will mark the one year anniversary of my marriage to my awesome husband and love of my life, Steven. We met in fall of 1999, when I was a sophomore in high school, and he was a senior. We began dating in April 2000, and stayed together until 2002. We split, went our separate ways, but never lost the love that we had for each other (it's a long and weird story). During this time, he married and had a son, and I had a daughter. In 2006, we finally started talking again (he had divorced his wife and I had split from my dead end relationship with a man who was cheating on me with Jim Beam and Budwiser), and we got back together. He proposed to me on New Year's eve going into 2007, and we married in May. We had our beautiful daughter, Brenna, in Jan. of this year.

So here we are. Nathan is about to turn 4 on the 21st, Ellaina turned 2 in Feb., and Brenna is almost 4 months old. Life is busy, to say the least. I'd love to see how much money I would have if I got a dollar for every diaper changed, every cup of juice made, and every time I've watched Aristocats and Blue's Clues on DVD. I'm sure it would be a lot. :-)

Nathan is my husband's son. His mother hardly sees him, which breaks my heart, because I have to see his sad little face when he starts to miss her. He's a great kid, though, he has a very advanced vocabulary for an almost 4 year old, and he tends to act a little big for his britches. We've had some behavior problems, mostly due to a mother in law that won't listen to a word we say, but that's getting a little better everyday. He gets quite a few time outs in a day's time, but at least he actually goes into the time outs now! haha He's a great kid, though, and has an infinity for making up knock knock jokes, most of which go "Knock knock! -Who's there?- Uh....apple. -Apple who?- Uh...apple, working on a fish tank!" Seriously folks, he has a million of these, all of them ending up with random objects working on fish tanks. Who knows what goes on in the mind of a preschooler... I recently taught him the one that goes "banana, banana who?" and ends with "orange you glad I didn't say banana again?", but he'll encore with an ad libbed fish tank special a la Nathan. It's a trip, really. :-)

Ellaina is my 2 year old daughter. Her father works in Yellowstone National Park (where we met in 2004 when I went out there to work retail as well), so she sees him like once a year. So of course, Steven is her "daddy", because she sees him on a daily basis. And personally, that's the way it'll stay until she's old enough to comprehend that Dave (ex) is her biological father, but ultimately, Steve will always be her "daddy". She's an amazing girl, so so smart. On Christmas day, I bought her some magnetic letters and a marker board so she could start learning her alphabet. Now remember that at the time, she was 22 months old. She started out sticking the letters to the board, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, she picks one up, shows it to me and says "A". Of course, it was the letter A. Amazed, I said "Yes, very good". I thought "Hey, wow, she knows a letter, cool." But it didn't stop there. She picked up another one and said "R", and another and said "D". She showed me that she already knew how to read about 10 letters. It just got better and better after that, and by her 2nd birthday, she could read all 26 letters, and recognize numbers 1-11. I can't think of a moment where I was more proud than that. She's the brightest thing I've ever met, and loves to reenact movie scenes now. Her favorites are Aristocats and Finding Nemo. She is constantly making me laugh. Maybe she'll grow up to be an actress and buy me a house somewhere...you never know. ;-)

Brenna is almost 4 months old and a great baby. She never cries, unless she's hungry, tired, or wet. She can lift her head while on her tummy, and already smiles, laughs, and "talks" to you. She's started sleeping through the night, which is awesome because I was starting to get a little loopy there for a while from sleep deprivation. I feel very blessed to have such great kids.

I also have a cat, Jakers, who is by far, a whackjob. He's a great cat, very affectionate towards me, but every night, around 11PM or so, switches to "LSD cat-mode" and runs around like a maniac, swatting and freaking out and attacking you at random. It's never a dull moment around that animal. He also loves to go "fishing", which consists of him knocking the thin plastic piece off the back of the top of the aquarium and sticking his paw in the water and waiting for our brim, Everett, to swim by. I'm gonna laugh when that fish bites the crap out of one of his fuzzy little fingers.

So there you have it. A little background on the whole gang. Stay tuned for future updates and just random rantings, which I tend to give out from time to time. Enjoy!