And now they interact...

Samuel... he's a MINE overuser.  He hates when other people have ANYTHING that he has ever had at any moment in time.  He's now so intense that he's learned that if he cries hard enough and long enough, Jacob will give in and literally give him the shirt off his back.  While it's really nice of Jacob, and we want to praise him for his generosity, he also needs to learn to stand his ground.  He is letting Samuel bully him into giving in.  He even said out loud "if I cry, Jacob will give me what I want"!  Little bugger!  What can we do?  Do we stop Jacob from being nice?  Well that's exactly what I did this morning.  Jacob had put on a Spiderman zip up sweater and the moment Samuel saw it, he started crying for it.  Jacob almost immediately started taking it off to give it to Sam.  I stopped him and said NO, you will keep your sweater, it's yours and Sam can't have it.  Samuel really wasn't impressed that I got in the way of his evil plan.  He knew exactly what he was doing and wanted me to stay out of it.  He finally let it go and put on the monkey sweatshirt which was perfectly acceptable once he got over it.  I'm really hoping that Jacob learns to stick up for himself because if he gives in to his brother, he will most definitely give in to the bigger bullies at daycare/school.  I gotta teach my little dude to stand up for himself!

On Wednesday morning, Zachary and Jacob went into our bedroom as they often do to jump on our bed and play hide under the blankets and jump on each other (fun right?).  I heard the door close and then a whole lot of giggling.   I went to check because it's never a good thing when those two start giggling.  When they get to working together, they become little tricksters and most of the time, it's nothing good!  I get there and the door is locked!! OH NO!!!!!!!  So you're probably thinking, well that's not a big deal, just get a hair clip and unlock it through the hole... having grown up with a sister, I know all about that little hole and how it works... but here's the thing... My husband used to rent out the rooms in this house so he had installed doorknobs with key locks.  Sadly, we no longer have any of those keys.  When one of the boys locked the spare bedroom door the other day and Gab had to drill his way through, he went to buy some regular door knobs the next day but hasn't had a chance to install them yet.  So as Murphy's Law would have it, the boys were locked in.  I start panicking a little even though I know they're perfectly safe!  I try to explain to them how to turn the little knob to the unlock position and as much as they tried (and did they ever... "like that mommy?  Like that?) so no avail.  Since Gab had been able to successfully drill through the other door knob without having to kick our spare bedroom door shut, he thought he could do the same to this one.  So after assuring ourselves that the boys were far far away from the door, he proceeded to drill.  It wasn't working.  This is when Zachary started being scared.  When he said "Mommy, I really want you right now", that just broke my heart.  I knew I couldn't get to him and although I knew we'd get through the door eventually, it was a really hard moment for me as I'm sure it was for him (he's been really attached to me lately).  After realizing that the drilling just wasn't going to cut it for this door, Gab went to put on his big work boots.  We must have asked them 20 times if they were far away.  We were petrified of Gab busting the door right on their little faces.  While Sam was watching with terrified wonder, Gab busted through the door.  Thankfully there were no little boys behind it.  The boys haven't left Gab alone since then!  "Papa! NO NO NO, NOT nice! Broke the door with your NEW big work shoes! NOT NICE!".  Still today, they were telling everyone who would listen that Papa had broken the door.  Thankfully he only broke the jam and not the entire door!

This weekend was finally the Thirsty Thursday boys got to go away for a boys weekend.  The Thirsty Thursday boys are mostly the husbands of the ladies in my book club.  They went to our friend Matt's parent's cottage.  They have been planning it for months and were all really looking forward to it.  They had a really good time and plan on making it a yearly thing which I think is great.  That means that I should have had the boys to myself all weekend... Low and behold, my Younique conference landed on the same day they were set to go.  I wasn't going to NOT let him go so I recruited our family to once again come to our rescue.  They actually took the boys on Friday night.  I think it was the first time ever that we have slept in this house without our children here.  CRAY CRAY Y'ALL!!! We are sooooooooooooo lucky to have the family that we do that we can rely on for stuff like that! Since they were gone by 5:30pm on Friday, we should have taken the much needed time off to clean our house.  Did we?  Hells no!  We sat on our asses, ate take out (yummy St-Hubert!!!) and watched TV.  I did my hair and a live video and we went to bed knowing that we could sleep in.  By sleep in I mean, I could get up at 6:30 which is still a WHOLE HOUR more than what I usually get!  Did I sleep until 6:30?? Nope! I was too damn nervous about what to wear and how to do my makeup for the convention!  It was such a good day!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am so blessed to be a part of a company who's mission

I did have the boys alone last night and all morning today.  It was rough and I seriously raise my hat to all those moms who do it day in day out!  Stay at home mom just isn't for me!!  I mean, I'm sure I'd be way more organized if I were to stay home with them but man, it was a crazy morning!  Not that we didn't have a great time together but trying to clean?? HA! Forget it!! How do these women clean while taking care of toddlers all day? Kelly!!!!!!!! I'm talking to you!!!   First, my Netflix was down, and they REALLY wanted to see Beat Bugs (my fault for bringing it up before I checked Netflix but seriously, I didn't think it would be DOWN!!).  After convincing them that Patte Patrouille (Paw Patrol) would have to do (to Zachary's grand pleasure), things settled down until Jacob decided to throw his not so hot chocolate at Zachary while I was trying to put the clothes away.  I storm into the kitchen to see a soaked Zachary and a kitchen full of hot chocolate splatter!  Thank God I added super cold milk to their hot chocolate or Zachary would have been scalded!!  After a time out and a super slow clean up by Jacob, Sam decides that it's his time for a freak out.  I dealt with that and then decided it was way too pretty outside to stay inside and besides, the boys always thrive outdoors.  What a good idea MC!  Well Zachary had made up his mind that he wasn't going... I put his socks and shoes on anyway and went to dress his brothers.  Dealt with the whole Sam MINE debacle and turned around to see Zachary was bare feet again.  So again I put on his socks and shoes and whisk them all outside to play!  Zachary must have spent a good 10 minutes at the gate crying to go back inside.  Convincing him to want to stay outside took a while but once he was convinced, he was a happy little dude.  We had so much fun playing!  We played in their little house, we played on the slide for a good 30 minutes.  Their favorite game was sliding backwards into me and then into one another.  They laughed so hard!  Man, the outdoors eh?  What a perfect perfect way to occupy toddlers!  We stayed out for about 1.5 hours and came in for lunch.  Gab came home at about 11:30, helped with lunch/nap time and off I went to visit the NICU as a veteran parent.  It's always so great to go back there as veteran to help those who are going through so many of the emotions I went through.  It's hard at times because it makes me constantly relive some of those emotions but I know I'm helping so I really don't mind!

That's about it!  I feel like I had verbal diarrhea!!!

Have a good week y'all!!

With one of my Kelly's at the convention! 

Got to meet one of my makeup idols! 

The black status (the highest status you can reach) panel!  They helped ease my fears about some stuff! 

My little dude who didn't want to come play outside!

Poor Samuel was just climbing the ladder and Jacob pulled down his pants!!

They made me sit in their little house, it was actually kind of cool all the details in there!

Climbing out the window!

Wee!!!!!

Trying to glue our door back together... 

The cottage where the boys had their getaway.  Gorgeous!

Little piece of heaven

Brushing their teeth with their new electric Spiderman toothbrushes!

 Have a good week everyone!  And have a happy Fall!!!

You are not my friend

These are the words I heard from my mother as a teenager and those same words will most likely come out of my own mouth when my children become teenagers themselves.  I say those words to my students at the beginning of every year because I am their teacher and sometimes I will do things that will make them angry and they may not understand but it will all be to make them better students.  The same will apply to my children.

I often piggy back my blogs on mom videos I've seen, blogs I've read, conversations I've had or even a quote I saw on my Facebook newsfeed.  This week, I saw this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4OKjNB7KMo

...and I just couldn't help but think of what my parenting will look like when my kids are older.  I really hope I can be like her because I tell ya, I believe in all she says.  I also see the negative effects letting your children be kings and queens in the house has on them as a person.  I have many little entitled children in my classrooms because parents never want them to be mad at them.  I tell ya, if it takes my kids being mad at me for a week to turn them into decent human beings, so be it, I'll suck it up.  If 100% of my kids are mad at me at the same time, BRING IT ON, I'll suck that up too.  I have plenty of friends and hopefully my children will let me be their friend when they are adults but my JOB as a parent is to LOVE my children.  This means I have to love them enough to let them be mad at me when I'm trying to teach them a lesson about life.  It means I have to love them enough to let them make their own mistakes every once in a while.  It means I love them enough to tear them away from people who will just break them.  It means I love them enough to care about the type of men they will become.  It means I love them enough to make sure they become people I would WANT to be friends with.  So yes, my children, you are not my friends, not yet anyways, because my job is to LOVE YOU.

And do I ever... I was looking at them today and wondering why they can't stay in this amazing puppy phase forever.  You know when your dog is a puppy and it's annoying because it chews on everything and still isn't potty trained but you just wish it would stay little forever?  Well that's how I feel about my children at the moment.  Yes, they have their moments but for the most part they are SO DAMN CUTE!!!  Like they'll just give me pretend food all the time (I'm sure it's because they know I love food but can't eat all I want so they pretend haha).  They make up amazing dances and songs.  They LAUGH SO MUCH!!!  They greet me as if I'm the best person they've ever seen (I can't wait for that teenage scowl coming into my house...).  They're learning new things and new words and it's such a wonder to see it as it happens.  They, 90% of the time, are so full of joy it warms my heart.  I know that in a few short years they won't let me squeeze them as they do now so I just want this stage to stay so I'll have my amazing little men forever with me.  Is it bad that I just don't want them to grow up?  Maybe I'll say the same every year though?  Who knows...

This week we started a new bedtime routine because we just couldn't do what we had been doing.  I HATED the idea of Cry It Out as toddlers because in my heart I knew they would feel the abandonment much worse than they did as babies.  After talking with a few friends and my mother, I decided to bring it up to Gab and see what he thought.  We decided that they were finally old enough to understand that we wouldn't abandon them.  We decided to go in, read them a book, tuck them in, say good night and close the door and leave.  Monday, they cried for about 25 minutes and I went in at a few different intervals but I didn't have to sit in the room, hold anyone's hand or get my back all out of sorts for sitting in there for an hour!  Second night, I closed the door again and Zachary was NOT a happy camper at all, he pounded at the door for about 15 minutes until I went in.  He looked at me with his sad little eyes and led me to his bed.  Poor little dude just wanted me to tuck him in... It broke my heart but I kept telling myself that we were doing what we thought was best (but WTFK right?).  Third night, I left Gab in charge while I went to a Moncton Preemie Power meeting.  Zachary wasn't taking it well that I left.  It took Gab about 20 minutes to get them settled enough so they'd go to bed. He closed the door for about 10 minutes.  Zachary was again the one who was the most upset. He went in tucked him in and all was well after.  On Thursday, I didn't even have to close the door.  I just had to reassure them that I would keep it open if they stayed in bed and they did!  They tested the waters and walked out a few times, but without tears and went right back to bed.  Promises of open doors and mini marshmallows in the mornings have changed our night time life!  Man, what a change... please keep cross your fingers that it keeps going this well!  Tonight was another good night!  I was in charge and I'm still getting to write my blog... it's just wonderful!

That's all folks!

I don't have many pictures this week so these will have to do!

Just look at the time!  All three in their bed at 7:32?!? That's cray y'all!!! Woop Woop!

Just to show you that you are not alone if your living room looks like a hurricane went through it

The boys are sharing rice... what a mess!

Rice face!!!

Helping papa with the dishes!

Sale day was CRAZY

This is the face Sam made after he showed him the face I made in the picture above

Post sale celebration with great moms!

Have a good one y'all!!

That time I was hit in the face by a truck...

Yep, a truck, a toy truck... at the hands of my Samuel.  I swear I'm doing the best that I can to raise these kids in the kindest way possible and they are still turning into little monsters!  Or I guess we are entering the threenagers phase... I had a great play date this morning with my Kellys as Fall is bringing back the Sunday morning get togethers and I swear my kids we little devils compared to theirs!  I know I shouldn't feel judged but every time one of the boys would do something slightly violent, I would cringe internally and wonder why they still let their children around mine.  I can't be the only one with kids are rough as mine surely??  One minute I blame it all on our own moments of anger towards them so they must be turning into the Incredible Hulk simply based on our weak moments and then other times I convince myself that they are just little boys and that's just what they do.  So tonight when a truck came flying at my face I crumbled... Where did I go wrong??  Why would my sweet boy think it OK to hit his Maman in the face with a truck?  Where did he get the idea???  I surely never encouraged that kind of behaviour.   I always emphasize that we only ever throw balls.  I was so shocked I never even clued in to give him a time out because in our house violence is an automatic time out.  Should I be more strict?  Should I have disciplined them when they were jumping all over Kelly who had no idea what to do other than go with it and try to protect poor little Wyatt.  I've always had such low self esteem that the moment my children misbehave I automatically put it all on me and think that all my friends will leave me because they think I'm a horrible mom who can't control her kids.  I know, I know I'm being overly dramatic but it's like the urge to always apologize for all the crappy things your kids do as though you were the one who threw sand in the little girl's face at the park... Not you, but you still believe that your children are a direct reflection on you!  Sometimes they are, I know, but surely not everything!  I mean, the woman at the park who let her toddler daughter take her 9 month old to go slide down the big slide face first should have known that it wasn't a good idea (a Kelly P story)!  I mean, THAT poor kid has no hope but mine do right??  You do the best you can and you still end up with a truck in your face sometimes right?  I will continue on my path of being the best damn mother that I think I can be and hope that they'll grow up to be semi decent humans.  I mean, my boys aren't a complete disaster.  I feel like I'm painting a picture of devil spawns running around destroying everything and everyone around them.  They are truly NOT that bad.  They have their crazy moments but for the most part they are just the cutest more hilarious little boys.  It's the moments that sometime scare me!  They just transitioned to an older class where they are now the youngest where they were the oldest in the other one.  It's like going from elementary school to middle school.  I think they may be reacting to that transition.  It's been a crazy week in our house as far as tantrums but we've adopted the rewards system and let me tell you that mini marshmallows, fishies and dried cranberries have saved our morning sanity!  Thank you to my friend Alicia who suggested it!  Now the promise of any of those things, they will get a diaper change, put on their clothes, put on their shoes, and walk themselves to the van... We haven't wrestled an alligator all week!!  So we went to Costco and bought a 2kg bag of Craisins lol!

Anyways, all that to say that my children may be a little crazy but they're my crazies and if anyone judges me, they need to walk a mile in my shoes, get hit in the face by a toy truck and still feel the crazy love I feel.  That's when they'll know I'm doing the best I can...

Here are some pics:

The injury... It's really not that bad but it hurt like a BIATCH!!!

All cuddling on Maman

Group pee

Morning drive with Mommy (don't worry, I'm still in the driveway!)

Sam doing some floor cleaning!

Jacob was just washing my doors.  I'm glad they like it now... I'll have to fight when they're older!

Zachary didn't want to clean..

Our BFFs

Such fun!

My BFFs... loving our return to routine... and I suspect so do our husbands!

Samuel was loving all his friends today!

Alexie's birthday... loving the popcorn machine.  I stopped them promptly after this.  Zachary still snuck in a few after! 

Yummy cake my sister made for my niece's 10th birthday!

Jacob saw a pool noodle we were trying to hide... it was over

They had a blast on the car ride home from Mémère and Pépère's.

That's all folks!

________________________________________________________________________________

I do want to take a moment to remember all those who lost someone they loved 15 years ago on that dreaded day... September 11th will always hold a piece of my broken heart.  I will remember...

ARGH! Bullies!!!

So this afternoon I took the boys to go play in some bouncy castles that were at my family's campground to celebrate the last weekend of Summer.  The boys were having a ball.  It was after about 20 minutes of fun that I started noticing this group of like 10 tweens who were up to no good.  They kept jumping the line in front of little kids, or went to the back of the bouncy castle obstacle course and scared little kids as they were coming down the slide.  They were hanging off the bouncy castle's plastic designs.  They were rough.  They laughed at my niece because she told my Samuel that she loved him.  They laughed at me when I had to go in to get the boys in the bouncy castle because they wouldn't get out.  I told them that they needed to go to the back of the line and let the little people have a turn.  I tried to get the glow parties supervisor but since there were so many events planned for today, there was only the super shy employees who didn't have enough back bone to stop them.  I was so angry.  We kept doing our thing, moved on to another bouncy castle and when I had to go in, yet again, to get Zachary, they were, yet again, laughing at me.  I lost it.  I said "Ok, I've had enough with your bullying, get out of here, I'm getting your parents!"  Yes, I know, I'm old, but the more I talked to the people around me, the more I learned.  Apparently, this same group of boys were bullying a kid on the playground yesterday, calling him a Dumbo.  Stole a hat from another kid and kicked him in the shin.  Poor little dude went home crying and now has a swollen shin.  As I was taking my children away from that environment, I could see them talking to themselves and saying "Look at her, she's leaving, she's on the golf cart", I went to see my sleeve tattooed prison guard brother in law to tell him about the bullies.  He went over by them and just stood there staring.  It was golden.  Send a bigger bully to fight the bullies, that's the way to beat them right?

As a high school teacher, I see way too much of that kind of behaviour and we have an amazing woman on my staff who nips it in the bud as soon as she's made aware and things, at our school anyways, are much better than they have been.  The only bullying we can't control is the one we don't see and sadly, that's where it happens the most.  Online is the worst... people love to hide behind their screens.  I also hate the bullies who bully just to look cool.  It's just so sad... Also because I'm a teacher, I've learned over the years that there is always a reason behind the bullying.  Often, the bullies are bullied at home and feel like they have no power so they take it where they can.   It's hard to reason with a bully when all they know is belittling.  It really makes you want to get to the root of the matter and try to save the bully because the underlying issues are sometimes as heartbreaking as what they are doing to the poor defenseless souls.  As a parent, it makes me scared for my kids.  It makes me scared that they will one day cry because of the hurtful words of another child.  It makes me scared that they will make someone cry with their hurtful words.  It makes me scared that they will grow up in a world still so full of ignorant people raising ignorant, ungrateful and mean children.  I really hope that I can raise my boys in a home that is loving enough that they don't have to be scared of being unloved.  I really hope I can raise my boys to be kind and accepting.  I really hope I raise them well enough to stay away from bullies.  I really hope I can raise them well enough to make the right decision when choosing their friends as I know as soon as they hit teenageland, my opinions will no longer matter.  I really hope I can raise them well enough to know the difference between being funny and being cruel.  I really hope I can raise them well enough to stand up for themselves (or each other) and believe that they are better than the cruel ones.  I just hope I can raise them well enough to not be anything like the boys I saw at the park today.  I'm not naive.  I know that boys will be boys and they will have their moments but I can assure you that if I am ever a witness to that kind of behaviour and unkindess from my own flesh and blood, they will pay dearly with lessons of acceptance and doing all sorts of activities that will straighten them out.  I'm not perfect, my husband is not perfect, we will not raise perfect people.  I also know that I am not always kind and accepting myself and I'm trying really hard to work on that side of myself.  The world is not perfect and I will never claim it to be, but I'll be damned if my sons become bullies or their victims.

END OF RANT

Man, what a good ending to Summer I had this week! (minus the bullying incident...)

Great start to the school year, great meetings, grand ideas that I know my students will roll their eyes at but I know will be awesome anyways, FANTASTIC getaway with two of my besties filled with beach walks, girl talks, beer, wine and food and SO MUCH LAUGHTER,  Such an AMAZING family day (aside from the boys refusing to nap due to their crazy excitement over the bouncy castles) filled with laughter, beer, corn boil, water fights, toddler wrestling matches, and so many other fun things.  The boys didn't nap so they passed out on the way home.  They were all changed thankfully right before we left but they were all still in various states of dress.  Jacob went to bed in his diaper only until he cried for a shirt.  Zachary is just in a swim top and I'm pretty sure that Sam still has his full body swim suit... oh well, when you transfer sleeping toddlers, you don't want to rock the boat too much!  I'm really glad I have another day off tomorrow just to recover from the weekend because my house is a DISASTER, my stomach has no idea what happened to it and my head is most definitely NOT in school mode.  HURRAY FOR LABOUR DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's it from me gang, I could tell you a whole lot more about the week/weekend but I also need to recover some lost sleep so I will leave you with my pics and wish you all a good week!  And as the ever amazing Ellen would say "Be kind to one another" and I will add "Don't raise your children to be assholes!"  LOL... (maybe I still have weekend beer residuals making me so blunt this week!)

Good night!

The neighbours were cutting down a tree and the boys weren't sure about it all

Nope, not announcing a pregnancy, just thought this photo was the cutest! 

About 90 people were getting baptized at the same time at Parlee Beach.  Quite a sight to see!

No swim wear? We don't care!

I can't believe I didn't bring them down to the beach ONCE this Summer!  Today was the first time!!!
THEY LOVED IT SO MUCH!!!

Even SAM!!!  Well except when he fell and a huge wave slapped him right in the face!

The boys insisted on wearing all the same shirt on this day so we got a LOT of people stares at the beach!

They were using the Parking painted signs as wheels. lol

Pushing the golf cart hard! Look at the strain on Jacob's face!

Having a snack

Bye bye Papa!

Don't judge me in me boots! 

That's the stuff!

Loving it

Uncle Eric showing them how to drink right from da hose

Uncle Jeff showing them all about the outdoors

POOPED!

Our nearly free gazebo is slowly coming together! 

Toys R Us fun!