Oh My and "Mom and the Meat"

Oh My

It has been so very long since I have updated the Bean Blog!

I feel horrible about it. But in truth life has swept us down a raging current and I don't really see any relief in sight. Part of the problem related to my computer taking a poo. Now I have a new computer, and the Blog is bookmarked. I will try to be more up-to-date in the future.

 "Mom and the Meat"

The Bean has been in rare form as she "ages." Her vocabulary is exploding and her personality is becoming more defined. She is funny! I mean, deliberately funny. I love it.

The other night I was cooking taco's, which are a favorite in this house.

A few years ago, my middle son wrote a mother's day letter and in it he mentioned my famous taco's!!

"Once you take one bite of my mom's taco's you have to have more. They are delicious. She has a special ingredient, tobacco sauce." 

...sigh... Thank you 3rd grade teacher for not proof reading that letter.

Oh, did I mention it was published in the county newspaper? Yeah. Tobacco sauce. Classic.

Anyway, back to the Bean. She has a phone that is nicknamed the "Zombie" phone. It is my old phone, that stopped working properly. The touch screen would not recognize a finger for anything! A month or so after my new phone purchase, the old one came back to life!! (I was fiddling [removing and messing] with the thick protective plastic cover and I think I accidentally gave it new life.) Well, she has a blast with that phone. It takes photo's and videos and she can pretend to talk and text. Fun stuff for a four year old. 

Back to the taco's...I was cooking and heard her sweet little voice. I peek over at her to see she is videoing me with the Zombie phone. Let me tell you what I heard:

"This is mom cooking meat. (I turn and display an exaggerated smile and nod a few times.) We are having yummy taco's. I love taco's. 

Now mom is stirring the meat. It smells good. (another exaggerated smile and nod)

Okay. thank you for watching the broadcast of mom and the meat."

Yes. I nearly peed myself laughing so hard. Mmhumm...mom and the meat. If only...

Little sisters...

I want to apologize for the lack of BeanBlogging these days.  If you don’t already know, I have been dealing with some health issues and haven’t really had the energy.  I am hoping to update at least twice a month after my meds regulate.  Hoping.  I have a lot more bad days than good ones, currently. 

At the introduction of a sister (which is basically impossible, lol)

You have to understand something, The Bean and I are together a lot.  She even sleeps with me.  I know, I know, this isn’t really the best choice to have been made, but it is what it is.  I don’t even use the bathroom with the door shut.  She cries from the other side. Who needs privacy anyway? 

Also a possible bad choice is, I never pressured her to potty train.  I always thought that when she was ready, she would go.  Well, she has been near fully potty trained for two years now, with the exception of night time.  She still needs to sleep with a pull-up thing. 

She is nearly four and those things just aren’t holding up like they need to though!  She has leaked pee onto the bed quite a few times in the past few weeks.  While this isn’t her fault and I don’t yell or shout, she knows I am exasperated as I strip the bed and mutter to myself about washing the bedding yet again.

Well, enter in “the sister.”  The Bean’s sister isn’t generally a bad girl, but…she does have some interesting qualities.  The following two excerpts from my life should show that well enough.

1)      Sleepy Bean opens the bedroom door, walks to the computer desk and stares sleepily at me.  “Good Morning, Beanie Baby,” I greet.  Abruptly she exclaims to me, “Mom.  My sister peed the bed.”  Honestly…I chuckled.  “Oh, really?” I noted.  “Yes.  Go in and see for yourself.” She points toward the bedroom. (I’m not making this up.  Those were her words!)  Upon inspection, darned if that sister didn’t pee in the bed.  I always knew sisters were pains!! (so speaks a woman with two, lol)

2)      Average chilly day in Michigan, about 25 degrees.  I enter the living room from the hallway off the kitchen and stop dead in my tracks as a cold stiff breeze hits my bare feet.  “BEAN!  Why is the window wide open?”  Not batting an eyelash she fires back, “Because of the gophers!  They are filled up in here, Mom." (she waves her arms around frantically to illustrate.)  "My sister let them in.  LOOK, you just stepped on one!” lmao.  “So, we have to leave the window open to let the gophers out?”  I question.  “Yes, Mom,” she replies.  Well, I wanted to expedite matters and closed the window despite her protests, and just opened the living room door (which we never use) and kicked them all out.  LOL…

The Bean has also taken to helping with the cooking.  I am eternally grateful for her goodness, lol.  I am now “Big chef” and she is “Little chef,” when we are cooking.  She has become an expert at stirring.  No one doesn’t stirring like the Bean.   We will sit down at the table with the boys and she will say, “Great dinner, Big Chef,” to which I will reply, “Great dinner, Little Chef.”  The boys just plow through their food with little or no regard to the other people at the table…:D

Have a great March, readers. Best wishes to you all, no matter how far away we are.

Snowday(s)

Snow, snow, snow!  The children are in heaven. :D

I, on the other hand, am going a bit stir-crazy.  The amount of snow we received was a bit stifling.  Just about 20 inches all at once.  On a positive note, the Great Lakes really need the snow to add to the dwindling lake levels.  Where is all the water going? Good question.

The Bean

The other night, she was sitting on my lap while we were filling out Valentine’s.  Yes.  She already has friends to send Valentine’s to.  (From daycare, lol.)  We were working; well I was working while she was playing with a PEZ Elvis.  A stolen PEZ Elvis.  My oldest son decided a few years ago that he wanted to start now “collecting” things that may be worth money someday.  I suppose I am the one that started it by getting him a Michigan State University basketball signed by MSU coach Tom Izzo.  He has left it in the box and stared at it longingly ever sense.  Well, the following year he invested in an Elvis PEZ collection in a tin case…set of four.  It included Army Elvis, White jumpsuit Elvis etc.   He did not have the Elvis collection is a safe place though (since the Bean learned to climb) and she happened to get it down, open it and proceeded to play with all the Elvis’s. 

Part way between our, I mean my, card labeling she decides I need to add Elvis’s name to the cards. 

“Mom, mom.  Write my name and Elvis’s name.  Because we are together.  Right Elvis?”  Some parental part of me is so glad that the first guy she is “together” with also happens to be dead. 

Since I didn’t really have a mother during the formative later years of my childhood and into my teens, a side of me is so very apprehensive about The Bean.  I worry about messing up when she gets older, not having good advice, doing the wrong things, and letting her down.  I suppose it is my biggest parenting fear.  I guess we will both have to get through it together and I know I’ll do my best.  I also know that she will never go to bed wondering if I love her.  I’ll do that right, at least.

This is the front yard...well...under all of that snow is my front yard. lol...It has honestly been too cold to go out and play, but as soon as it warms up a bit (today) I'll get a shot of the Bean playing in the snow for posterity. :D
Enjoy winter readers!

Updating the BeanBlog. 

I think it is appropriate to begin with her wise words.  The conversation went a bit like this:

“Mom.  Look!  I remember this from when I was a little kid.”  Laugh my butt off.  When she was a little kid.  *shakes head* She is 3.5.  Why is it that when we were young, one of the goals we had was to get older, to be bigger, to be able to look back and see a wide gap between what was and what is?  And truly, we didn’t understand nor appreciate all that that gap represented.  In some ways, I was very glad to put my “childhood” behind me.  My childhood left a lot to be desired. 

But for my children, I strive for their childhoods to be the best that I can provide.  I strive that the smiles outweigh the tears in the scales that weigh a good/poor childhood.  Sometimes this means a lot for “mom” gets put on the back burner.   I am fine with that.

The amount of joy that the Bean and her brothers bring me far outweighs the parts of my life that are put on hold.

What is going on with the Bean.

Currently, the Bean has a new love.  I will admit that I have encouraged her shamelessly in the newfound love of hers.  I have actually went out of my way to make this person look good (not that he actually needs it.  I think he is grand anyway) recently and that is what this little update is about.

So…Uncle Greg, of whom she loves his photography, sent the Bean some balloons, via an icon thingy over the computer.  And not only once, but twice, I think. The Bean already enjoys Uncle Greg’s strange, I mean lovely, insect macro’s. 

Well, she was hell-bent on getting her “balloons” out of the computer so she could play with them.   As we all know, this wasn’t going to happen.  lol…So, me being the good friend and mother that I am, went to the store and purchased a shiny red balloon.  And OH. MY. GOSH.  What a wonderful thing that balloon was.  So much fun was had chasing it, bouncing it, pulling it.  And then...it happened.  She laid on it.  I told her not to.  She didn’t listen.  It popped.  The sound was nearly as loud as her heart breaking…she held the deflated shell of that shiny red balloon.  I watched her face as she realized all her balloon dreams had died.  Tears.  Screams.  “Everything is RUINED.  EveryTHING is ruined.”  Mournful wails came from the little girl crying on the floor.  You have no idea.

So…since I can’t tie a balloon to save my life, so no I don’t keep a bag of them on-hand, I knew what I had to do.  (Maybe I shouldn't have.  Maybe I should have let the balloon popping be a lesson...sigh...)

Yes, dear.  We will go get you a new balloon tomorrow.  What?  Pink this time?  Sure, baby girl.  I’ll get you a pink one….    

She pulled the string off and lost it, so I couldn't get a photo of her playing with it...sigh...This is the best we could do. :) Enjoy.

Happy New Year

Just a note from Mommy
The little monkeys are all snug in their beds and it is nearing 2:00 am.  Now that I am home, I am taking a bit of time to reflect for a moment on all the things that have happened in the last year.  I have experienced a varied amount of stress, challenges, friendship issues, relationship issues and health issues.  And I suppose, in this reflection time I wonder, what, if anything, will be different in 2011?  The answer to that is simple and complex...it will be a challenge and it will be ordinary life.
Ordinary life is never easy.  We face challenges each and every day.  Much of the time we orchestrate the symphony of our lives, but sometimes others are conducting. It is in the time of challenges that we learn about ourselves, who our friends are, and who we can trust.  It is simply life. 
And each time I reflect, each time I wonder what the future holds, it all comes down to what is best for the most important people in my life.  My kids. :)  That's just the way I roll, lol. And judging from the happy looks on their faces in this blurry like life photo, I'm not doing too shit of a job.
Happy New Year, readers.   May good fortune, peace of mind, health of body and happiness be yours for 2011 and beyond.

Christmas Cheer

Christmas cheer is always in danger of becoming small around me.  I'm not sure what it is about Christmas that brings out the spurned lover feeling in me.  It's a really hard season for me, at times.  Well, the kids really help me to focus on what is important.  They help me to wait on the things I want, wait for those things to come later.  So, when I am in danger of letting my cheer become too small to recognize, I count all of my blessings.  I hold them close, with both hands.  I press them next to my heart, so when bad, sad, disappointing, heart breaking things crop up, I don't have a free hand available for holding.  Those things just have to pass by.
Lessons From the Bean
Of course the Bean set me to rights this year on Christmas morning as she so often does in my daily life.  She woke up this day, and excitedly made her way to the living room.  Still rubbing sleep from her eyes, she looked at the brightly lit tree, the rolling hills of gifts strategically placed under the tree, and was so filled with awe.   She was so excited!  At 3 and a half she thinks that Santa is real and I am happy to believe along with her.  I told her, as is tradition, we start with the stockings. She grabs hers, Disney princesses of course lol, and begins exploring.  Guess what her favorite gift of the day was?  The whole day?  A princess wand.  One that lights up, with a star shape on the top.  She looked at me later and said, "Mommy.  Hurry and open this, please.  I want to make you a princess." Yeah.  She wants to make me a princess.  Heart of gold that one. The thing that makes me realize I need to slow down and enjoy what leads up to this day more, is the fact that that wand, her favorite gift, was something I bought for $1.00.  lol...Christmas cheer...:)

She was actually just doing a puzzel, which she loves by-the-way, and just exclaimed, "I'm a genius!"  Oh.  My.

Our first blog...woopie

9 December 2010

As the first entry into our blog history, I feel compelled to make this something epic and worthy of the ages...but why overreach and set us all up for disappointment for the future?  :)

Words from The Bean:
The other night it was getting close to bedtime.  First comes bathtime, though.  So, The Bean went into the bathroom to gather her toys and ran out yelling to me.  "Mom, come here!" Of course, I reply with concern and ask what is wrong.  She pulls my hand and tells me, "Come on Mom.  You have to see sonthing (she has a slight lisp yet at 3.5 years)."  Her eyes are wide and alight with concern, yet I hold back a bit and ask what is so urgent. She decides to play her big cards to get me moving faster. "Mom.  It's something dangerous and ridiculous."  Well.  That did get me moving.  Off to the bathroom we proceed, where she grabs the white cloth shower curtain with both hands and pulls back with a flourish.  Her tiny finger points to the bottom of the bath.  "See!", she says.  My eyes follow the direction that little finger points, to the bottom of the bathtub.  What do you imagine I saw there?  Spider?  Broken glass, perhaps?  No.  With a smile I look and see small pieces of grass, a few twigs and some mud clumps from the previous bather (her brother) who had cut wood earlier in the day.  Dangerous and ridiculous indeed.
Let this be a lesson to us all:  if a three year old can use such wonderful words as 'dangerous' and 'ridiculous' in a sentence, so can we.  Get your dictonaries out people. :)

In closing, we would like to thank a certain talented Australian beauty who's idea this was.  The Bean will have her to thank one day.  Hugs.

From today for this occasion.