Jenn's Joys

It amazes me how quickly children grow. I can actually hold a conversation with my son now, or something very near to one anyways. He even has a sense of humor.

As I was attempting to put him to sleep Friday night:

Mom? Can I play Shrek?
No, Jaden. You know why.
Broken?
Yes, it's broken. Shhh, go to sleep now.
K.
Mom? Can I play Shrek?
*giggle* No, go to sleep.
Broken?
Yes.
Daddy broke it?
I don't know, but it is broken.
K. Broken, K.

Quiet for a few seconds, then I say

Jaden? Can I play Shrek?
*Cracks up* Noooo!! Broken!!! *Laughing*

He hears a train go by and hides his face under the covers.

What are you doing?
Hide, hide! Spooky!
That is a train, it is not spooky!
Monkeys coming!
*laughing* Monkeys are not coming! There are no monkeys.
No monkeys? Spooky! Monkeys coming, hide!
Jaden, monkeys don't even sound like that. They say, oooh oooh, eeeh!
Oooh, oooh, eeeh? No monkeys coming?
No, baby. Now, go to sleep.
No Monkeys, K.

Mom? Can I play Shrek?

Posted by Jenn at 08:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think it is so funny that teenagers are so mortified by everything their parents do, when it seems like kids spend at least the first half of their lives making embarassment a sport. At least my kids do. Especially Brianna. Not that she is embarassing in a Magoo kind of way. She just is very outspoken and um, well, the girl has no shame.

Case in point: At girl scouts tonight, surrounded by snooty women and assorted other children, Brianna's best friend came up to me. Brianna just spent the night at this little girls house last week, and the girls are dieing to have a sleepover at our house now.

Girl: Mrs. Joy? Is the sleep over going to be this weekend? I just need to let my mom know.
Me: No, not this weekend. I am still in school on Saturdays. We will have to wait until I have a day off.
Girl: O.K. My mom says I have to sleep in Brianna's bed though.
Me: Oh? That is fine. Why?
Girl: Because of all the fleas at your house.

Now, I should mention that we did have a small flea outbreak about a month ago, God it was awful. I have never had that happen before, but as a result both of our cats are now outdoor cats and we don't have fleas anymore. No biggie, right? I mean, that can happen to anyone who has an animal indoors. However, I didn't go around telling people about this because it makes us sound like some disgusting, dirty, animal hording freaks. Apparantly, to my 8 year old, it was no big deal.

I bet I had a real good look of shock and embarassment on my face. The uncomfortable silence that followed was nice too.

Good one, Bri. When you are sixteen I will be sure to tell your boyfriend how you shake your butt at your sister to make her scream.

Posted by Jenn at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

10. You get woke up by your (almost) two year old saying "Booger nose!" in your ear while wiping his nose in your hair.

9. Your 7 year old comes telling of how she is being bullied at school, and for a split second you actually consider roughing the kid up, Hand That Rocks the Cradle style.

8. Your four year old wants your last Cadbury creme egg, your favorite candy in the entire world, and you actually give it to her so she won't be sad.

7. You realize that your children are smarter, cuter, more charming, funnier and just all around better behaved than all other children that you encounter. You also realize that every parent thinks this about their own kids, and you know that they are all wrong but you.

6. You spend an entire day in your pajamas, not cleaning, playing with your kids and do not feel one bit like the day was wasted. Instead, you feel complete and alive.

5. You let your daughter bring home a lizard, and keep it as a pet. Even though you already have 2 cats, 2 rabbits, 1 dog and 3 kids to feed. You do it because it makes her happy. (We actually compromised on this one. She gets to keep it for a month, then she has to take it back and release it so it can be free.)

4. You play memory with your four year old. Every day. Several times a day. And you let her win most of the time. She thinks she is the memory queen.

3. You feel for them, truly and deeply. You cry with them when they are really sad, laugh with them when they are happy, and your heart breaks when theirs does. It is like having little pieces of you walking around in different directions at all times.

2. Your kids fight in the car, all the way home and you don't leave them by the side of the road or on a church step. Even if the thought does cross your mind breifly when they start saying,"Moommm!!! She is looking at me again!"

1. You get to the end of another day, the kids are all in bed, your son is sleeping peacefully and you can hear your 8 year old daughter singing your 4 year old daughter to sleep, and the moment touched with love and a rare absence of sibling rivalry brings tears to your eyes and it makes it all worth it.

Posted by Jenn at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have this ex-friend, I will call her T, that would just NOT get the hint that I did not want to be friends. Even after over a year of me not contacting her or returning her calls. Even after she had another baby, invited my daughter to her son's birthday, and I didn't respond to either event, she still would call and email me at least once a month. This chick is borderline unstable, to put it mildly. I mean, one of the main reasons that I stopped being friends with her is because she used to call me almost daily, literally in tears over how her three children were driving her nuts, how she TIED ONE TO THE KITCHEN CHAIR because he wouldn't sit still to do his homework, nice stuff like that, then she got pregnant. With a FOURTH child. ON PURPOSE! That was it for me.

Anyways, I finally emailed her (email, I know I am brave like that, heh) and told her, kindly but firmly that I do not have any desire to be friends with her. I said something like,"I see no future for our friendship, but I wish you and your family all the best." Pretty straightforward, for a normal person. I thought that would be the end of it.

Today, Brianna recieved a letter in the mail. It didn't have a return address, but I could tell that it was from a child. I just assumed that since her birthday was Friday, one of her friends had sent her a card. You can see where I am going with this, right?

I foolishly gave her the letter without reading it first. She was really puzzled and said,"I don't know who this is from. They want to be my friend and see me before they move away. They want you to read this." I took the letter at that point, and this is what I saw:

First of all, at the top in 8 year old writing is a happy face on one side, with the words "Still my friend, Happy" then a sad face on the other side and "not my friend, upset". Then the letter says,"Dear Brianna, Please tell your mom to lookat this and read it. Can we get together before we leave? I also want to be pen pals. I really miss you!! I want to see you again before we move. We are going to Iowa. From, T's son.

Can you believe that? What a low blow, and something that only a true psychopath would resort to. What really pisses me off is that it totally worked. I automatically found myself thinking,"Well, they are moving anyways. I guess I can let her see him one last time." But then, Hello!! How is this my responsibility? Yes, our kids did like each other a lot, but I explained to my child a long time ago that friends come and go throughout our lives, that I don't have the same friends now as I did at her age. That is just a fact of life. Our friends grow and change as we do. I told her we never forget or stop loving those people, we just can't always stay friends with them. I explained to her that because I did not get along with his mommy, she wouldn't be able to see him anymore. She seemed a little sad, but obviously not too much since now, almost a year and a half since she's seen him and 6 months since she last mentioned him, she didn't even know who he was when she got a letter from him. I did my job as a mom, let T handle her own shit, right? Or am I just being a cold-hearted bitch here?

And get this, included in the letter was an invitation to thier families "Goodbye Get-together" in a few weeks. Seeing as how I just told this lady a few months ago that I wanted nothing to do with her, that would be a real comfortable position to put myself in, right?

I do feel bad about the kid though. What can I say, my daughter is like her mother. Charming and irresistable. ;-)

Posted by Jenn at 08:36 PM | Permalink

Brianna turned 8 years old on Friday. I never realized just how fast the years pass until I had children.

I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. I was nieve enough to think that her birth wasn't going to change my life all that much. Instead, I found myself looking at this tiny human being, my former life lying crumpled at my feet and my new life shining in a halo of love surrounding us. I had never experienced love like looking at my daughter for the first time, and she looking back at me. Seeing my husband, so proud and happy, it was just amazing. Funny, I thought we were so old then, but Matt had just turned 21 and I was a month shy of 21. We were practically babies ourselves, I see that now. At the time though, I didn't think that it mattered how young we were, or that we weren't married yet, I thought we were all grown up and I was all ready to play house. What an awakening I had in store.

In many ways, your first child is your trial child. They pave they way for any kids that come later. You experiment with the first, like it or not. You use this child to figure out what is normal for kids, and what is not. You find out what works, and what doesn't. You usually have higher expectations for the first baby, and you most definately have more time. For three and a half years, all Brianna and I had was time together. We had so much fun. We went everywhere. Parks and zoos, playdates and swimming. Afternoons filled with play-doh and bubbles, visits to my moms and walks in the neighborhood. She was my world.

Of course, she doesn't remember much of that now. Before her memory was really formed, along came Sadie and then Jaden two and a half years after her. I love all of my children, and I have fun with all of them. But those first, more quiet years with Brianna will always be some of the sweetest in my memory.

So, Happy Birthday Bri. Remember that no matter how big you think you are, you will always be my baby.

Posted by Jenn at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can't believe what happened today.

I got my first ticket.

I always thought I would be scared if I got pulled over, but I was just pissed, and annoyed that I was going to be late for my appointment, and kind of snickering because I knew that my husband was going to love it. I am always giving him shit about his numerous tickets because I had never even been pulled over!

Hindsight is always 20/20 of course, but I KNEW I shouldn't take that particular road today. I kept hearing this little voice telling me to take the other road. I didn't listen because I thought that road would take too long. Then, when I passed the speed limit 50 sign, I looked down and saw I was going over 60, saw that there really weren't any other cars around, and thought,"I better slow down because if a cop is around he is getting me since I am the only one out here." Then I said 'screw it', since I was late. That is about the time I saw the cop.

He wasn't a total dick like some are, just real to the point. 'Give me your lisence, here is your ticket'. I did mention that it was the first time I had ever been pulled over, hoping he might cut me some slack. His response was,"If that is true than you should be able to go to traffic school and get this wiped from your record." All I could think was,"After I pay a fat fine. Thanks asshole."

What really annoyed me though? When he handed me the ticket, he said,"Have a nice day."

Fucker.

Posted by Jenn at 09:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have to give my first speech next week. The subject is a famous person, and I chose John Lennon.

While working on our speeches in class tonight, the teacher mentioned that she didn't really want us to end with the persons death; that she wanted us instead to give the speech as if the person could walk into the room at any moment. After some reflection, I have a problem with this, especially with John Lennon as my topic.

It is my personal belief that John Lennnon would not be the legend that he has become had he not been murdered that night in 1980. Yes, he was undeniably a great musician and he contributed much to the music world, but part of his icon status is a direct result of his death.

Realistically, his music was hit and miss. He did not put out consistant number one hits, not while he was a member of the Beatles and certainly not in his solo career after. He was a pioneer in his use of sound and other creativities in his music, but that doesn't mean that people liked everything that he did. In fact, some of it was just weird.

Had John lived, what would these past 25 years have held for him creatively? Most likely, he would have seen his share of dissapointments, like his fellow Beatle Paul McCartney. Instead, as a direct result of his untimely death, he was catapulted to his legend status, beloved by the masses for all eternity, a symbol of peace and love.

Now my dillema is whether to go with my gut and keep in the murder, explaining my reasons in my speech and hope my teacher is understanding, or be a good girl and follow the rules.

Hmmm, what to do, what to do?

Posted by Jenn at 09:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have what many would consider to be an ideal life. I don't have to work. I get to stay home and raise my kids. My husband works hard to allow me to do this, and he lets me do pretty much whatever I want. I have a beautiful home filled with beautiful things. I drive a nice car. I have a good looking husband and three gorgous kids.

So what is wrong with me that has lately been making me feel like running away to vegas and becoming a showgirl? I am so frustrated. How can I fix what is wrong if I don't even know what is broken?

Posted by Jenn at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)