Into the Wild

Snow days bring such lovely thoughts to mind ­— staying home wrapped in a blanket, taking in a good book and drinking hot chocolate.

But, as a stay-at-home mom with two little boys (ages five and three), it’s more like being trapped in a box with wild animals desperately trying to get out of their cage. With no good release for their excess energy, watch out … on edge, wild animals will rely on their instincts as opposed to their learned (better) behavior.

Essentially your house becomes the hunting grounds. The predators’ plans are simple: attack, destroy and eat everything in sight. And believe me, they take no prisoners.

Sweet Rewards

Our kids are in the negotiation phase of life. If we want them to do things, it will happen, but usually it comes with some benefit to them – they usually end up on top.

They will clean up their room … for a treat, they will clear the table … for a bath, and of course they will eat their vegetables … for dessert. It’s a classic, but in our house, it gets the job done.

But if you think about it, very few things in life are done without some kind of incentive.

Married Soup

Some of the troubles women have with men begin when they start thinking men think like they do. First of all, men are not complicated, they don’t say one thing and mean another … they don’t have different meanings for words based on the tone … they don’t analyze situations over and over.

Let’s give men credit where credit is due. They are straightforward; they know what they want.

Living with three boys (both large and small), I’ve realized the surefire way straight to their hearts, and to their love, begins right in their mouths … those big, loud mouths. Nothing gives them a thrill like when I come home from the grocery store with their favorite snacks, or when I surprise them by making their favorite meals, or even better, late-night brownies. Suddenly, I’m an instant celebrity, who can do no wrong.

Seven Points for LOVE

Now that I live the life of a leisurely stay-at-home mom/trophy wife (ha!), my husband and I joke all the time that I married him for his money. But if you know us at all, you know this is far from true. The man I married was actually unemployed. In fact, he quit his job working at a horse stable just so we could go on our honeymoon. But we didn’t fear for our future, we were young, blinded by hope, and living on love.

And it’s a good thing that’s how it all began, because here we are … with our one income family surviving a union refinery strike … we are back to living, and surviving, on that love.

Milestones

Remember when your kids were babies — you thought how funny they would look with teeth?! But lately, it’s been getting hard to remember what my boys looked like without them. Until last night, when my 5-year-old lost his two bottom, front teeth. Now, I can’t help but look at him and remember that silly, toothless grin. I wondered then, what he was thinking? What would his voice sound like? Would he always be that adorable?

I couldn’t imagine what he would look like when he was older, and I’m the same way today. Right now, at 5’3”, I feel like a tall person … well, I am taller than two out of the four people in this house. But then I look at mothers with teenage boys and I try to make myself think, hmmm … that will be me one day. I may no longer feel so tall.

I wanted my little boy to have no fears about losing his first tooth, so I bought him a Tooth fairy shark pillow to get him excited about it. However, losing his first two teeth (by me holding him, and his Grannie whipping the danglers out), proved to be pretty traumatic for him. He screamed and screamed forever after the deed was done. He thought the world, as he knew it, had ended.