Three-nado

I’m not sure if I know what hit us yesterday.....oh wait, yes I do. It was my three year old son who from the minute he got up wouldn’t listen most of the day, back-talked, made messes, and broke a lot of things. He destroyed many things in his path including what little mental energy I had.
I honestly don’t know why it was so hard other than maybe we were off schedule? He needed more attention? He was tired? Starting to get sick? Or it was just plain him being three.

Remember the days when he was in speech therapy? Well, think we’ve clearly graduated. He talks talks talks and is now getting sassy. I’ll say ‘Son, time to sit down’....his response, ‘Time to sit down YOU!’ Meaning I need to sit down. Ummmm what?! ‘Go to your room YOU’. ‘Stop YOU’.
On top of that he talks so loud! Like he hasn’t learned what inside voice means so not only does he talk but it’s like he’s shouting all the time. And yes, his ears have been checked.
It took us an hour yesterday to try and get ready to leave so I could go sign my taxes. He just wouldn’t listen no matter how many calm downs he had.
I was on the couch and he was crawling on me. Normally that’s fine but his elbows and knees hurt sometimes. However this time he had  gotten up and was raising his leg and I said son, please don’t step on me. Sure enough he took that step right on my hip—ouch!
Then when I was getting ready I heard something crash and he had broken my girl’s ceramic bunny by throwing it down and its ears broke off.
Then when we were trying to get out the door I hear ‘whack’ my girl starts yelping.... he somehow hit her in the head by pushing her or from the door.
Then after we get back he walks out of his room with a pile of wrappers—he uses inserts in his pull ups at night and had unwrapped a bunch and stuck them around.
Then I found the top of the soap dispenser broken.
Then I found clothes all over his room. He emptied his dresser drawer because he said  he was trying to find his jeans.

To say it was a rough day is an understatement. It was flat out exhausting and I would have called in reinforcements if there were any to call. I’m proud that I didn’t resort to any spanking etc but I did shout a few times, which I don’t like to do.

The thing is, he immediately knows when he’s misbehaving because he’ll right away say, ‘Saw-ee mommy or saw-ee sissy.’ Then turn around and do something again.
He was in rare form and probably one of the hardest days I’ve had with him.

It wasn’t all him I was very tired from the lack of sleep I’ve gotten lately so it’s not surprising that when I’m not at my best, they aren’t either. It tends to go like that, but some days sure wish it would be the opposite.
Normally I perk up in the evening hours and  if you add caffeine into the mix I wasn’t going to bed until 1-2 am, then one of the two may wake up during the night, and then my son would be up in my room as early as 5:30....so a week or so of 3-4 hours sleep  like that just isn’t going to cut it.
Last several days I cut out caffeine again and was dragging with a capital D.
Sleep has been a problem for me since my mom passed back in 2008. Obviously the emotional toll then but I actually think that living under longer-term constant, intense stress really impacts your hormonal system.i don’t know that for sure, though.

I’ve been wanting to post pictures from our spring break but can’t seem to get phone to do. Tried to do one for this blog and couldn’t. May try one more time after this.
It was full week and we played at park, went swimming, painted, went to library, shopping, played at sand pit, had a birthday party for our cat that the neighbors came over to, played games at chucks, etc....good times although my son struggled napping so he was ‘interesting’ to be around by the latter part of week.

Even though he can be tough at three, he can say the most hilarious things. He still loves riding his purple cah around the house so when he came into the kitchen I said:
‘Where were you?” And he says, “At a woman’s house”. I burst out laughing on that one....
He is also still so snuggly and gives the best hugs and kisses. He’ll come over and slowly lay his head on my leg and put his arms around them and say, “I wuuuuv you”.
Awwww
He’s also telling knock knock jokes just like his sister. Most of them don’t make sense buts it’s pretty cute to see what’s going through his mind.
Like ‘knock knock?’
We say who’s there?
Mom.
Mom who?
Mom......ummmm.....mom blue! And cracks himself up.

The other thing he says a lot is poop, pee-pee, and toots. In that order. Go figure.

It’s a good thing my son is so charming because even after the rough day we had today was much better and he gave lots of hugs and kisses. I’ll take it.

Next up we have registration for first grade next week already. I pretty much decided that we will try to go back to our public school this fall and see if it isn’t better than first time around. I did send an email to the principal like she suggested back when I spoke to her in January. I wrote that we needed someone a bit ‘softer ’ And my girl is used to a lot of smiles, hugs, and positive encouragement and responds well to that. Principal did respond and said she’d add to her notes and copied her admin so guess we will see. Another positive is that I ran into a woman at the park who’s son is also in kinder now and she said they ended up making a 7th kinder class because each class was just too big. That took size down to 20-ish which is better. I also asked them what they thought of the school and big bummer they said they weren’t the people to ask because they weren’t big fans—-for many of reasons I wasn’t (big classes, lots of boys, lack of parenting, some peer group kids questionable, etc).
I realize no school is perfect, but I will say I LOVE our private kinder and have no hesitation saying it was best decision. The kids/parents/school are great. Such a bummer they stop at kinder.
I’ve decided we can try and if for some reason not good, I’ll have to search out another private and just will spend a fortune on nanny and school...even more than I do now.

Other than that, My aunts surgery is coming up, I’m going to try a counselor through work program and see if I like her—several sessions are free, and I learned one of the last closer friends living here accepted a new job and is moving away. Big sigh. Even more reason I need to connect with my girls school, church, etc.

Sad News

Well......some very sad news in our family. I got a call from my cousin and she said my aunt has cancer. My mom's only sibling Uncle Phil is married to Auntie Lynn and they are the ones we have been going to see in the Midwest for Thanksgiving over the past few years. They have 4 children and one of them is my age (43) and she has the 5 kids ranging from 15-3.  And....Auntie Lynn is the one that my children started calling grandma because she is the closest to one in our immediate family....this makes me so so sad.
Exhale.......just jeepers.
My maternal great grandma died of breast cancer, my grandma died of breast cancer when my mom was only 20 so I never knew her, my mom died of carcinoid cancer that metastasized to her liver, etc.., and now my aunt. If I think about my Uncle Phil--all of the main women in his life have had cancer.
So, it started out that she started getting stomach pains and back in early March and my cousin basically forced her to go to the hospital because it just got pretty bad. They initially diagnosed her w/ diverticulitis, however while she was there they of course ran several tests.  That's when they found the appendix cancer. It is apparently very rare and it's a unique kind of cancer. She had a tumor grow on her appendix, it ruptured and spread the cancer in to her abdomen. Her stomach lining, etc..and they don't know all where it is.
What's a bit crazy about this is she 73, but looks much younger....she doesn't smoke, drink, never did drugs, is very petite and not overweight.....works out, eats healthy, etc.. all the things you are supposed to do to take care of yourself. And, if not for the diverticulitis (which she did have), they may not have even found it now because apparently you can have this and not even know it!
She just had a colonoscopy yesterday to see if it had gotten into her colon and it at least is not on the inside---it may still be on the outside.
The plan is they are going to do this massive surgery.....they will operate on her in a few weeks where they open up, debulk and take out any cancer they can see as well as any organs that can be removed that have cancer, then they put chemo inside her abdomen, heat it, then take chemo back out. It is apparently up to a 12 hour surgery and then she will be in ICU for several days.  All the research I read says that this is the treatment they typically do for this, and sometimes they do chemo before the surgery (which they are not), and after....which I'm not sure what the plan is just yet.  She is on the older side for this massive procedure, but she is in a city where they have a specialty group that does this procedure.


I've been staying in touch w/ my two cousins and have called my aunt/uncle a few times. Have yet to talk to them, but my cousins are keeping me updated.  I asked my older cousin Lisa how she was doing and she said, 'Well, you know how it feels, you've been there'. 
Sadly, I do......and it is the single most worst thing I've gone through in my entire life.
I know it was a shock to them because they are all very close. All 4 kids live w/ in 2-30 minutes away from them. And my aunt is still taking care of my cousin w/ the 5 kids' youngest during the day.


I am just hoping and praying......and hoping that this surgery does what it is intended to do, she does well from it......and then we just see.
Wait and see......