Mother's Day - Ever Have One of those Kids?

I thought I'd talk about what Mother's have to endure with their kids. Hey, mine weren't as accident prone as my daughters are, but I did go through hell with them. As a matter of fact my son was so careful not to get hurt that the day he skidded on his bike and came to the door skinned from his nose to his toes, the look of shock on his face was so comical I could hardly stifle a laugh. Nice mom huh?

My son did, however, have to go through a lot of surgery and hospital visits with his heart condition. Guess that's probably why he didn't need any more abuse to his body, and therefore the utmost caution in playing games.

My daughter was a klutz, but no broken bones, except apparently when she dropped the bowling ball on her big toe when she was five. She seemed to go through life unscathed until her preteens. There was the day that her eye suddenly started flipping up in her head. We knew she was evil, but here was the proof of her possession. Nope, turns out she had a lazy eye all these years and it never showed until she started staying up late and got less sleep. Too late for surgery, she had to wear special glasses and still does.

Then the bowling ball thing. Bet you thought that was too easy. Turns out it kinda split the bone in the tip of her toe, and an she developed a bone tumor during her growth spurt. Two surgeries to try to remove and 2 trips to remove the toenail later, and there is still a little spur on her toe.

That's the story of my kids, how about yours.

Here are some pictures of my daughter's kids. The youngest boy's face seems to be a magnet for disaster. These are 3 different incidents. The first happened at school the day the baby was born. Kinda hard to see, but he has s shiner. In the
second, he was recuperating from almost loosing his eye, when a plastic thingy at the end of a bungee popped him right in his eye and caused internal bleeding. That one had to sit still for a month. You try to get your 8 year old boy to sit still for a month.

And the last picture is from this year's Halloween party where the mean kid next door pushed his face into a metal chair (he fell into it). He has taken Karate lessons now, so hopefully he has discovered how to change his center of gravity to his body, not his face.

Then there's the baby. Right now she's about a year and a half and yes,
that picture is her in a cast. She doesn't walk yet, but that's because she's a mountain climber. She likes to test her standing skills by climbing on bed and sofa and bouncing on them. We're always careful to watch her, but her parents didn't think that she would fracture her elbow from taking a little spill off a picnic table bench. But the way this little daredevil plays, we all fear there are more hot pink casts to come.

Happy Mother's Day to you patient and loving Moms out there and I  hope your kids appreciate what you put up with for them :)

If I Had a Magic Wand

I wish I had a magic wand. I would take away all the stress in the world that makes us loose our temper. I would make all ill children well. I would make us all respect and love each other.

A child doesn't grow up wanting to be bad. They don't say, "some day I want to be a mass murderer". It takes years of frustration and pain to bring a person to that point.

I do believe in gun control, although it is the person doing the shooting that kills, it wouldn't be so easy for them to do it if they didn't have one in their hand.

Gun control does not mean that you have to give up your right to bear arms. It just means that you have to register your hunting weapons and that people with criminal records and mental illness can't buy weapons. It also means that no one can own assault weapons that have no place other than the military. It doesn't mean that there will be no guns, it means that there will be less on the street, and fewer around to kill your children with.

But there is more to the equation than guns. There is the sensitive mind of the shooter. What drives a person to do that? We had a shooting here not long ago. I wrote about Coming Back to Chardon earlier this year. The young man who did it was very troubled, had a rough family life and just maybe, was a bit dissociated from reality.

Maybe we need to look at our neighbors a bit more closely, if we think they're suffering, maybe instead of shaking our head, we should say hello, how are you today. If they're walking with their head down, maybe it means they need a lift, not that they're just anti social.

I'm not really good at this myself, I get angry at the bullies that tease my grandsons, or push them down and hurt them. But I do understand that they are not getting the guidance they need at home. I also know that my bullied boys are at risk of fighting back some day, and we talk to them, guide them, and love them. Not every parent does.

You get a licence to drive a car, someday you may need a license to carry a gun, but will anyone ever need a licence to raise children? Will there ever be mandatory classes that teach you the basic emotional needs of a child?

Poppy's Soap Box - LilyBugBabyThings Review

Last Tuesday was package day and in rummaging through the packages I received Inside of one marked SunflowerRadiantLove was a package from LilyBugBabyThings (they live in the same town so if you order together you can save on shipping too, I will review their packages later) Today I'll review the little crib Shoes I bought from an auction I was involved in.

First looks-these are totally adorable I mean how can you not love little baby shoesies that are handmade!

Construction- These are very high quality! Nicely made with serged seams on the inside and little encased elastic at the ankle. There are no uncomfortable edges to irritate little feet.

Wearability- I have to tell you, Luna has about 20 pairs of shoes and a 50 socks, most of which she has tossed of one of and lost at one point. These were easy to get on her fat little feet and lasted a day long journey through the mall and Thrift store shopping!

Value- For $12 I would have to say these are an incredible price for these little shoes that actually stay put!

http://www.facebook.com/LilyBugBabyThings
http://www.etsy.com/listing/94102699/skull-crib-shoes-booties-slipper-size
http://www.facebook.com/sunflowerradiantlove


Some of the images are fuzzy, because Luna was so delighted with the booties, she couldn't sit still.

Poppy's shop is poppyswickedgarden.artfire.com. She sells wonderful clothing, costumes and accessories. Poppy loves to shop, so she will be doing reviews of product regularly here on Wednesdays. If you would like to have Poppy review something of yours, please contact her through her shop.

Life on Mars - Another Quiet Week?

Ha, I fooled you. No it was not quiet. My DD had a horrible sinus infection and was moaning in pain for days before she gave up and went to the DR. On Valentines Day we were invited next door for dinner by her MIL who felt that us eating Lasagna there was better than the steak dinner that DD's DH had to make for her. Of course she would rather have Lasagna with her MIL.

So early in the am,  both of us in pain get a call from MIL. Can she use our stove to cook the cake, because hers doesn't work? Great, we get one pan of batter. We bake and she comes over, "that's good I'll send over the next one in a few minutes". She only had one pan so she baked half at a time. Then she was going to make the lasagna later. We always save energy by planning what we need to bake at the same time. The freaking oven was on all day, and we really didn't feel like dealing with the nonsense that day.

Wednesday we got DD to the DR and got some meds. I did grocery shopping with a whopper of a neck ache and sinus headache. Later that day I heard from my DS who is at the Mayo Clinic, trying to find out if and when he's getting surgery. He was sent there by medicaid for 2 days of testing.

The second day my DS was at Mayo I got more updates. They really weren't sure, because they needed more tests that couldn't get approved by Medicaid. They are thinking that maybe he can hold of on surgery for a while, but that he needs a defibrillator to regulate his heart and start it if it should stop. Apparently because surgery is so difficult and the replacement valves only last so long, they like to hold off as long as possible.

Later that day I was writhing in pain with the worst headache I think I ever had. It wasn't sinus, it had to do with the neck ache and it was in the back of my head. DD and I passed the poor baby back and forth as we each had our moments of misery. After nearly 2 weeks of this, we were getting pretty weak too, and so behind on work.

Finally catching up on work. Car still not mobile, but it does start up. We are thinking the emergency brake cable is hung up. We are praying for a decent tax return. I won't have one, but DD might. I start work on it next week.