My Boys

*sigh* There is something that occasionally happens in our house that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. My oldest son has night terrors every so often. I think he used to have them as a baby, but I just didn't realize it. He's always been a terrible sleeper-gave up naps by 18 months, used to frequently get up at 5 am and be ready to rock, at least now he sleeps good from 8pm - 6:30-7am most days. I tried a variety of things to get him to sleep and mostly out of my selfishness did whatever was easiest to get him there. But looking back on the times I was loosing my mind, I wonder if it was something way beyond my control? Once he started talking and could articulate, was when I realized that he suffered from these strange night terrors. Unless you've experienced it, you can't imagine how horrible, awful, helpless you feel when your baby is calling out scared for you and you are right there, but he has no idea. My son typically is crying during these crazy episodes and his eyes are open. He can be looking right at you but it not register. In the past I think we've topped out at like 10 minutes for this to go on, which is a lifetime. But last nights, was by far the longest we've had to deal with. It was around a half an hour. My husband came in and woke me up and said B was having a fit. So I stumble in there and he is crying, sobbing. I felt his face-a few real tears. He is flailing his arms around as if he's swimming in water. I try to roll him over, but his body is very tense and he gets mad that I am trying to change his position. I keep asking him over and over, "B what is wrong?" "Mommy's here!" For a while, I get little response from him. Eventually he starts responding, but he is still not out of the terror. I held him in my arms, trying to gently shake him awake, but he tells me to get away, leave him alone. *stab to my heart* I know this isn't my boy speaking to me. I hold him close even though he doesn't seem to want me to. I don't care. I know that when my son is normally frightened, he needs to be close to me. He finally calms down and as quick as it started it's over. He stopped crying, his breathing regulated and his body relaxed. I laid with him for a while, to make sure it was really over. It bewilders me this phenomenon. I have no idea if there is any real cause or what, but it is such an awful thing to experience to see your child frightened, scared and not be able to comfort him. Thank God these episodes don't happen that often. Somehow my youngest son slept peacefully in the same room through the entire thing! And, of course, when B woke up this morning, he had no recollection of the bad night.



On a funnier note, my youngest son's favorite word right now is "D-Gusting!" Everything is disgusting to him and he says it with much emphasis. He wanted cereal for breakfast, which I said no to since he wouldn't eat it. He ignored my decline and promptly got out the cereal, spoon and bowl. Fine. B had waffles and I ate a bagel. Soon, E starts saying "D-Gusting!" "I don't want my cereal, it's D-GUSTING!" He wants a waffle. I told him after he eats his cereal he can have a waffle. We battled it out for a while, I was mostly ignoring him tyring to get ready. Eventually he does eat the cereal, which by now in my book IS disgusting since it's so soggy. It was comical...I dunno, maybe you had to be there. But he likes to use this word often and it does not just apply to food. If B is roughhousing with E and it gets to be too much, E exclaims, "D-Gusting!!" I'm pretty sure I know where the application of this word came from too... we've been telling him that his dirty diapers are disgusting and he needs to go in the toilet. Ooops! Careful what you wish for. ;-)

No Mail Today...Such a Bummer!

I am weird, I guess, in the fact that I hate it when the mail doesn't run. I love running out to the mail box to open it and see what surprises await that day! I go out with such anticipation! If it ends up being serious junk, I walk back to the house slumped over and deflated. My enjoyment of mail probably started back when I was in middle school and began having pen pals. Back in the day when there was no such thing as email, blogs, and facebook--you actually mailed letters, usually hand written to one another. It usually came on cutesy stationary and maybe adorned with some fun stickers. What a mood lifter. =) I do still keep in touch with one of my "pen pals" from way back when. It's pretty cool, but of course now-a-days we rely on email mostly to keep in touch. Anyway, back to the enjoyment of checking my mail... Though I rarely get any hand written letters or cards in the mail other than at birthdays and Christmas these days, I still hope for something that will brighten my day. A catalog to dream in, a "free money" coupon (as I like to call them usually for $10), a magazine, something I ordered, and best of all "Freebies." I have this crazy hobby of scouring the Internet for "freebies" and free samples on a daily basis~ it can be just about anything and I'll sign up for it. Which really, sometimes is dumb because I will get something that I have absolutely no use for and eventually end up throwing it in the trash. But, opening the box to something other than junk and bills is just such a cheap thrill for me. So, as great as MLK was, I'm not sure it's really necessary for the post office to have the day off... ha ha ha ha... I know... call me crazy! Oh, and I'd love to open the mail box up to a treasure trove of just because cards, notes, or letters! *hint*hint* ;-)

What do you get when you bake sugar and butter?

I have been craving some cookies as of late and store bought ones just wouldn't do. We got a lot of snow today, so I decided it was a good day to bake. I made these yummy chocolate peanut butter cookies first, to help satisfy my husbands chocolate-only cookie consumption. They turned out very good and were delicious warm.

For myself I was looking forward to a repeat of some super yummy thumbprint cookies I had made before Christmas. Unfortunately, I didn't have quite enough flour to make the second recipe of cookies. I remembered I had some cake flour, but still didn't have quite enough. I had already creamed the butter and sugar, so it was kind of hard to quit at that point. I figured, I would just bake them at a lower temperature and that surely they would turn out fine. I scooped out two sheets of little balls, rolled them, filled a zip top bag with seedless raspberry jam and filled all 24 cookies. I put the first sheet into the oven and proceeded to watch their demise...

here there are maybe 5 minutes in...

a few minutes later...

"done"

So to answer the title question...a big, fat, sticky mess!!! I did try to eat one to see if miraculously they were one of those 'oops' that turn into a good thing, but they weren't. I had to toss out the remaining dough. What a waste!!! At least one batch turned out!

Waiting...

I would say I'm a decent waiter. I don't mind being in a long line at the grocery store or waiting my turn to order food, or at the bank (not that I really ever do that one, but it wouldn't bother me.) I am always telling the boys we have to wait our turn in line. However, when it comes to waiting on someone coming to your house~I tend to get pretty impatient! Not really in a bad way but I get antsy.

Today I am waiting for the cable guy. What a cliche! I arrived home yesterday to a cold house and my cable box making a very strange grinding noise. Upon further investigations, I realized one of my lovely children turned the heat to "off" and it was 52 degrees in here! Pretty cold considering it's like 20-something degrees outside. As for the cable box it lead to a dreaded call to the company asking for help. The cable works, but my DVR is totally irretrievable. Thankfully there wasn't too much on there and the couple of things I did want to watch I think I can watch on line. (In case you're wondering it's 10 Items or Less on tbs, http://www.tbs.com/shows/10itemsorless/ I love this show!! Quite hilarious! Also, I need to watch Redemption-24 to get ready for Sunday's premier of 24 season 7 http://www.fox.com/24/dossier/) Naturally, they give you this huge window of when he might come... supposedly before 12:30 today. I'm antsy. Not that we really had plans today. But ya know, what if he comes when you are in the bathroom and the kids let him in?!! I'm waiting for an important phone call, what if he comes then and my dog goes wild, as he always does when someone comes to the door.... the list could go on! Hopefully one good thing that will come of his visit today is that we get a new remote control. We've seriously had the same remote for at least 8 years. All the lettering has rubbed off and it's not in great shape at all. Sadly, my husband and I are very excited about the prospect of a brand new shiny remote control! woohoo! =)

What do you get impatient for?

I had to add this since I need shades to look at this beauty...ha ha ha