I'm Okay!

There are days when I believe that becoming a mother has reduced my brain to mush. I wonder why I'm doing certain things (like things my mother did that I vowed I would NEVER do), or why I just said something so strange (a line out of Curious George or Dr. Seuss). I've always attributed it to the unbelievable pace your life takes on when you become a mother but I see now that I'm wrong...other people do it too! Read this. I now stand with the best- for you see the other day the following happened to me.

One evening last week I was drawing water in my sink to wash bottles so that I could fill them before going to bed. As the water ran into the sink I was putting dishes away and straightening the kitchen when I heard Son #1 yelling that Son #2 was out of bed. Wearily I went up the stairs and gave a kind reminder that once we're in bed, we stay in bed. After comforting him and telling both sons I loved them I walked out of their room and remembered that I hadn't gathered up the garbage to put out on the street for collection in the morning. So I gathered the garbage in the bathroom, schoolroom and my room and put it at the top of the steps so that I could carry it down once I also gathered the dirty laundry to take down and put in the washer so that it would be ready to go early next morning. With dirty laundry load and garbage in hand I walked down the stairs and to the laundry room (which is at the opposite end of the house from the kitchen) and placed the dirty laundry in the washer. While there I notice that the bathroom sink was really dirty from when the boys had washed their hands earlier that day so I cleaned the sink. The toilet paper was also out so I replaced that and remembered that I didn't have any plastic bags upstairs on the changing table for dirty diapers so I gathered them out of the spare room and took them upstairs and put them in place. It was then I remembered that Philip had no shirts ironed for the next day so I took one out of the closet and went to the ironing room where I starched and pressed it and took it back upstairs to hang it with his suits. While I was upstairs there were a few more items I attended to and then saw that there were some tea towels on my bed that I'd folded earlier in the day that needed to be taken to the kitchen so I went back downstairs and re-entered the kitchen I'd left quite some time before (I really can't tell you when I left the kitchen). To my utter horror I realized what this other fine lady realized...you have to turn the faucet off when you leave the room. Bad things happen when you don't.

Now it wouldn't have been a problem if our home was level because then any water in the left sink (that I was filling) would have overflowed into the right sink. But our house isn't level... it has a decided lean southwest and so water from the left sink runs across the counter top and fills up the corner until it overflows and then it travels down the wall and under the cabinets where it disappears to who knows where. I sighed and wondered how long it would be before I'm placed in a little white padded room.

But I'm NORMAL! YES!!! It's not just because I'm a mom....I'm human! There's someone else out there just like me....what peace of mind this gives. Hmmmm....I guess it could be argued that she is a mom to ....whew...how many girls live in that dorm....wow....ughhhh oh.....I feel uncertainty creeping in ....I only have three boys to look after compared to her dozens.... (I wonder if she's ever placed a stack of clean undergarments in her refrigerator...maybe I'm not okay)

Most loved brother around

Stephen has charmed his brothers and they enjoy loving on him. Sometimes I have to save the poor little guy from them but I'm glad they do so well with the little guy.

Boys Fun

The boys have to be creative sometimes when it comes to city living but this was one of the things that amused them this fall (once they thought of it). It's the sort of things mothers have heart attacks over but they love it.

October doings

I haven't posted for so long that there are some pictures that I forgot about. The last of October Mom Brown bought a pumpkin (or "punkit" as Daniel calls it) for the boys to carve. They had much fun...I'm not sure which enthused them most...the pumpkin or the fire on the candle that went into the pumpkin.

Some pictures of Stephen

I know that this blog has been very negligent in keeping up with the little guy's progress. He's growing so quickly and is already out of some 0-3 month outfits. These are some pictures taken over the past three weeks.