spaz attacks and kid stories

a few weeks ago i hurt my back. i have never felt so old. how did i do it? NO idea. i got out of the car at my sister's house and suddenly could barely move. taking a breath felt like a stabbing pain in my chest. i thought i might pass out! after several days of VERY limited movement...lots of advil and chiropractor appointments, i was ok. but i learned a lot in those few days. 1)apparently your back is very important. 2) breathing as well, very important. 3)children are not going to slow down, be extra low maintenance and quiet, just because you don't feel good.

one day in the middle of that i was very carefully sweeping the kitchen that is covered in crumbs many times a day. it was taking an eternity because of my limited mobility. rex and gus got involved in a little game of "fun fighting", as little boys are wont to do. occasionally[ok, often] an innocent game of fun fighting gets out of control and someone cries...and it's no fun anymore. well i was too hurt to break it up if it were to get ugly. and i couldn't take a deep breath to yell over them to stop before it got bad. feeling very frustrated in my complete uselessness as a mother at that point, in desperation i took the broom i was using and slammed it against the fridge to try to distract them. i didn't mean to look as spastic and out of control as i'm sure i did. i had no way of getting their attention without hurting myself further! but i had to laugh after i saw i had done this....and the boys did not even hear my little outburst and were still "fun fighting", unphased, in the living room.


and i will not buy a new broom. every day i'm going to make myself use this little reminder to be a little more self controlled. i often remember a phrase another dear friend has used....an out of control parent cannot teach self-control. i'm actually really glad they didn't even see or hear that. me and God is embarrassing enough.

speaking of self-control. i spend a lot of time trying to teach the kids....specifically gus, what self-control is. "control your mouth and don't talk when i talk....control your body and sit STILL at dinner....control your arms and do not hit...". gus loooooooves to be read books. but he has a lot to say. and constantly interupts to point at things on the pages, so our self-control talks often come during our reading time. well the other day i was reading both big boys a book and gus kept interupting. rex sighed, "ugh...GUS. could you PLEASE use a little self-control??"

[i keep meaning to write the rest of these stories down, so here they are.]
one morning recently rex woke up and walked right into my room where i was getting ready. with the most serious/concerned face said, "mommy. you're not gonna believe this. yesterday, i was playing ball with daddy, and he threw the ball to me SO HARD that i really think he was trying to kill me."
say wha?! who says boys have no drama...


gus and rex have a cars book about mater and lightning telling spooky stories. it's all silly and fun and not actually scary. but gus missed the joke the other night and was seriously scared over this goofy book..he whined after we tucked them in and i went back to check on him. he asked me, "mommy, you put dat lightning and mater book up in a bag? pwease?"

i looooooove kids with manners, and that's another thing we try hard on. the other day rex said "no thank you" to me, and gus said, "WEX!!! dat is so GWEAT! i wuv dose manners!!!"

rex apparently has a girlfriend. but i asked him what that even means...and he said, "well if a girl has a boyfriend and a boy has a girlfriend that just means they are friends." ok then, that's just fine;-)

never a dull moment!