The oddly normal life of Clorie

  For some reason, the past month or so, my kids, especially the youngest 2, have been obsessed with staying up all night. I was thinking about this today. I thought to myself, and thankfully not out loud, "I remember when staying up all night was cool!" Now I am lucky to be up at midnight, and normally wanting for my bed around 10pm. I even fell asleep one year on New Years BEFORE the ball dropped! Then it hit me. All this, OMG. I am OLD!  I remember my parents, getting onto us at sleepovers. Time to go to sleep, lights out, bedtime! Over and over. Still giggles and squeaks came out of us all night. We TRIED to be quiet!!! Now its me. I am the old, no fun, "Grown up" who wants the kids to go to sleep, who is so past ready for bed, who is wishing she never said yes to the sleepover.... Then I understand why my parents were always hesitant to tell me or my friends yes to sleepovers...  I understand now.  I am old. I am a mom. I am no longer "fun, or cool

 How are you? How was your weekend? How's life?  When you ask a pretty much total stranger any of those or similar questions, your not really wanting an honest answer. Or a full answer. What we look for is "fine" Or "great!" Its just better to lie and say those things normally then go into detail about how you really are, or how stressful your weekend really was.... Or life. Do you really want to get me started on life???  Normally I mean it when I say "Fine!" or "Great!" but today, today I got to go through the motions of pretending I was fine and great, because I know no one really wanted to hear, how I really was... So why do people ask? I do it to. Its normally the first question I ask a new table that has sat down, and half the time, after asking, I don't have even the moment it might take, for them to tell me how they REALLY might feel. I too, hope for a "Fine" or a GREAT. Not a real explanation of how they were... So

Its not possible to be there, every second of every moment of every day. Its just not. You cannot keep every bump from happening. The fact of life is, at some point in time, no matter how close of an eye you keep, no matter if you keep them in arms reach or just beyond, they will fall.  When they fall, as a parent you always blame yourself. If I had just been there five seconds sooner. If I had just not let them go. What if I had wrapped them in bubble tape??? The fact is, the world is a big, and scary place. At some point, weather you like it or not, your children are going to venture out into it. Sometimes with you, and sometimes, alone.  You have to let them go. I am pretty sure its against the law to keep them locked up and within arms reach after a certain age. Its hard to let go, and its even harder when they fall and you were not there to catch them. I want to be there, arms open for every fall...  I need to accept the fact that I cannot be. I am not sure if I ever will be a

 Well soon enough it will be the start of a new school year. Sooner for my younger two, than for my older two. So today we went to get a few things that will be needed. Some shoes, socks and backpacks. Mommy needed a new pair of shoes too, I wear mine out pretty quickly being on my feet as a waitress.  So my son is about the pickiest shoe person out there. Nothing fits. We have to try on like every.single.shoe. in his size before he can choose. Its irritating and stressful. Hannah was pretty easy although she did not take the cheaper "on sale" pair I liked best. Either way she was quick and painless.  So then mom's turn. I put on a pair of 6.5 I wear those or 7's depending on the shoe. I wanted to try those new shoes with the curved bottom. Anyway... I get the 6.5 on and Hannah feels for my toes. "Oh you better get a size bigger" She says. "Those wont last the whole school year!" I told her I did not have to worry about outgrowing my shoes. My

 Late last night, or very very early this morning... However you want to put it. I was putting the kiddoes to bed. I laid my son down and then noticed the rats were nearly out of water.... I went over to refill the bottle I noticed Timpleton was sleeping pretty soundly. This has been the usual for him for about a month. He is laying there, looking dead, I freak a little, shake the cage and he is alerted to the fact I am there and comes to meet and greet and see what snack I might have....  Last night/this morning though, such was not the case. I went to fill the bottle and he laid there, and did not move, the other rats crawled over him, and he did not move... Then I noticed that he was not breathing. He was gone... Poor rattie.  So then came the task of telling my son. He was very upset. :O(  So poor Timpleton he's gone to a better place, Sniffy I am afraid is not far behind. Max will be left alone for the time being. Bailey has said he does not want to have anymore rats. :O

 Of all the people who would wait on him hand and foot when he did not feel well, the last, I would suspect would be his baby sister, yet she has been doing any and everything for him. To the point of being ridiculous if you ask me.  The boy had a sore ear Wednesday, come Thursday night he was up crying in pain. Friday afternoon we took him to the doctor. Ear infection. Again. I thought he was done with those. Pain meds, Antibiotics, and "gasp" No swimming for a week!  So the boy, being a boy has made this a VERY big deal. I am in no doubt that it hurts, but he cannot walk without tilting his head to the side, get up to eat a Popsicle at the table like they are supposed too.... Nope he cannot do it. I am the first to tell you I don't "Do sick" very well. When I am sick I generally try to not think about it, and get the hell over it. Obviously this is not the case with kids. I try to be patient but I can only take so much.  Not my baby girl. She was VERY sy

 So we're abusive parents. Why? Because we asked the boy to watch TV in his room, on the TV he insisted he buy for his birthday, even though Hubby and I were insistent up until that point that the kids NOT have TV's in their rooms. We gave in, he got the TV and now he wont watch it!  He wanted to watch a court drama type show, like his daddy likes. Detective stuff. The baby girl wanted to watch Hannah Montana, as usual or whatever was on Disney. So we told the boy to watch the show on HIS TV. This is apparently, abusive.  He at one point brought his TV into our room, after we threatened to sell it since he never uses it anyway ect. We put it back into his room. Later he came out telling us he was NOT going to clean his room. Um. Yeah? Never do, I thought.  Later as I walked down the hall, I nearly broke my toe on a damn TV He'd moved back into the hallway... Prove his point I suppose.... Going to put it back into the bedroom.... We realized why he had said he was not