Stinky at Seven?

As a went to kiss my darling, baby, girl tonight at bedtime, I caught just a whiff of something...unpleasant. 

I did the sniff test on myself.  And passed. Barely.

Then, I smelled my daughter. Who is seven.

And. She stunk.  A lot. 

This is twice that I've noticed her getting stinky by the end of the day.  She does her own showers now and I've seen her, she does wash. 

But, I'm thinking it may be time to get her some deodorant?  Already?

I was in 4th grade when I started wearing a bra and 5th when my monthly hit.  She will be going into 2nd grade in the fall.  Isn't it a bit early? 
Do I just need to follow-up wash?

Do you think she will kill me if she ever reads this post? 

Summer Lovin'

Summer is my least favorite season.  In fact, the way I feel about summer is pretty similar to my feeling of onions.  Serious dislike.

First, I'll start by listing the things I DO enjoy about summer:

• no school
• no set schedule
• late mornings and late nights
• freeze pops
• dirty feet that require scrubbing with the "foot brush" that results in giggles galore

Now, the things I DON'T like about summer:

• no set schedule--sometimes, randomness is a curse
• I despise being hot.  Seriously.  Our house is always hot. We have window a/c but they can only do so much.  
• finding things to keep the kids occupied that don't involve me getting hot
• seeing hootchey mamas walking down the street wearing not much of anything
• the days just seem to drag

This year, it seems like it took forever for summer to get here.  Everyone was whining about it but I was secretly relieved to be spared the suckness of summer for a tad longer. 

That being said, we do have some events going on this summer that I'm looking forward to.
We are busy planning my grandmother's 80th bday party, next month.  It's on a Saturday.  The Wednesday, Thursday before, me and the kids, my mom, my grandmother,uncle and his family and possibly my brother, will be at the beach!
Now, I love the beach.  Especially in Oregon. Because you can have a nice, sunny, beautiful day at the beach in Oregon without getting hot! 

We are hoping to go camping at least once this summer.  I do like camping.  We haven't done it since Jayce was 3 (and he threw up all night) and Josie was a baby (that would not sleep).
Now that we're done with babies and I don't have to worry about my kids getting dirty, I think camping would be a lot of fun.

I have a to do list that's quite long.  It would be nice to get something crossed off  before we start school up again.

These last couple of days, I have been just , for lack of a better word, pissy. Mad at everyone and everything. 
Kids have been driving me crazy, our a/c hasn't been put in yet and I'm just tired. 
I feel sorta very guilty for being so cranky. 
I loved summer as a kid, I would hate to make my kids' summer miserable.

So, I'm gonna try and enjoy the good parts of summer.  For my kids' sake. And mine, too.

Redo

 I'm going to try and post if not every day, at least every other day. 
Today, Jeven is down with a 103 fever so I'm feeling uninspired.
So, you get a redo.

A blast from the past.
Not sure why, but I found myself going through some of my old posts today.  This one particularly made me laugh.  It's a couple years old. 

Maybe you will chuckle as well? 

I Can Read A Book, Make A Sandwich and Sew A Bear

 All in the shower.

Can't you?

My kids take a shower or bath at least once a week every other day.  In the summer time, it's more like daily.

They are familiar with the concept.

However, when it comes to MY shower/bath time, I am always amazed at what exactly they think I am doing in there.

It never fails, I get a knock on the door.
"Yes?"
"mumblemumblemumble"
"What?"
"googleygoogleygoogleguck"
"WHAT?"
"blahblahblahblah"
"I can't hear you!  Come in here and tell me!"  By this time, I'm irritated and certain this must be the emergency with which I told them was the only reason they could interrupt my alone time 10 minute shower.

Enter mumbler:  "Can you read me my book?"

"Ummm.....Not right now?  I have shampoo on my hair!"

OR:  "I'm hungry, can I have a sandwich?"
"Yes, only if you want your bread extremely soggy."

OR:  "Princess Bear has a hole in her!!  Can you fix it?"
"I'm afraid of what I would poke if I had a needle in here."


My favorite actually occurred about 8 years ago, when Jayce was about 3 years old.  He was a very imaginative child and LOVED Woody and Buzz.  
For some reason, we had his car seat in the living room.
I went to take my shower, putting on Toy Story for about the 3rd time that day. 

This was "Pre-JosieJarrettJeven days" so my shower time was a lot less interrupted.  However, I'm about 5 min. into my shower when I hear all this banging around.
"Thump. Thump. Thumpthumpthump"

"What in the  world??"

Pretty soon, I hear Jayce "Mom?"
"Yes, dear child?" Again, it was pre-JosieJarrettJeven days so I had waaayyy more patience back then.
"I'm stuck."

I peek around the curtain to find Jayce with his car seat strapped to his back.

"What happened?"
"I was in my rocket ship, getting ready for blast off. I buckled myself in but now I can't undo it!"

Did I rush right out of the shower and help the poor boy? 

Of course not!!  I still had 5 minutes left of my shower!!  And, half of my sandwich left.

Shopping Fun

My husband has been building a shed out in the backyard. He's been getting some help from friends.  Who bring their children with them. While the friend helps my husband.  Can you guess who takes care of the extra children?  Yep.

Which, really, is fine. But with the end of school approaching, I have quite a "to do list" going.

Monday, I had 3 extra kids, did some school, made some meals, cleaned some house.  By the end of the day, we had no food for dinner.  We decided to go get some u-bake pizza.  The girl behind the counter used to be our next door neighbor!  7 years ago!  She is now 18 and graduating from high school. I felt really, really....old.

We ate the pizza. Realized that we still had no food left in the house.  It was voted (if you can call my husband refusing to go "voting") that I should go grocery shopping.  It was also forced decided I should take at least one child with me.

I had three children down on their knees BEGGING to go.
"Pickmepickmepickme!!!"
I told my husband "You are going to have to choose" while giving him the eye that said DO.NOT.PICK.THAT.ONE. (I won't say which one but I would love to hear your guesses!)

He chose Jeven, as Jarrett had already gone on an errand earlier (makes guessing which one I didn't want to take pretty easy, doesn't it?) .
Jarrett handled the choice well.
Josie cried. And cried. And cried.
Jayce's friend, "Tim" was over and asked "Where doesn't Josie get to go?" and Judd said "Winco.  You'd think it was Disneyland or something wouldn't you?" to which Tim responded "Jayce, your sister is weird." 

Off to the store we go, my 4 year old and I.

By the time we got to the store, it was 8:45.  After loading our cart, putting the groceries on the belt, bagging the groceries, it was time to pay.  But, the people behind me were physically in the way to the register.  The wife was bagging, the husband was waiting to pay.  So, I stood back and waited as patiently as I could.  Trying to keep Jeven from eating the bag of chips that were in the cart.
The couple's total came to just over $100. The man swipes the debit card.  Which was refused.  He tells the wife to quit bagging.  They both dig through her purse and his wallet and come up with some cash, bringing the new total to just over $40.  He tries the debit card again, with no luck.  Now, they are standing there embarrassed and flustered.  I am standing back, trying to ignore what was going on.  My heart really, really felt bad for them.
I've been there, trying to buy food and having a debit card refused and having to void out the whole thing and walk out of the store empty handed.
I briefly considered paying the $40 for them but frankly, that  literally would have been taking food away from MY children.  Had it been a family, trying to buy the essentials, (bread, milk, eggs, etc.) I would've done it.  But, it was a middle aged couple buying Poptarts and beer.  Not essential.
Finally, the cashier calls a manager over to void out the whole transaction and I can pay for my own groceries.  As I walked away, the couple was picking through their groceries and determining what they could afford.  It was sad.

Next stop, Walmart.  An horrible affordable place to get the things I couldn't get at Winco.  I had literally 3 things to grab.  It took me over an hour.
Jeven voted to not ride in the cart and promised he would be good if only I'd let him walk with me.  I voiced that that sounded good but I grabbed a cart anyway, "Only put the food in there, Mom. Not me. Right?OK?".

I pick out one item.  Jeven says he has to go to the bathroom. Of course he does.  It is now 10:15.
We walk to the back of the store, where the restrooms are located.  Half way there, Jeven decides he needs to walk backwards.  Of course he does.

We use the restroom.  Upon leaving the restroom, Jeven automatically jumps into the cart.  As I start pushing it down the aisle he yells "HEY!!  Why am I in the cart!! I'm suppose to walk!!".  I just look down at him and laugh.  "You got in there all by yourself!".   He declares that he will get back out and I tell him that he can do that when I stop the cart.

As I stop to get the waffles, he starts to get out.  I  push the cart back and forth with one hand and say "Ah,ha!  The cart is stilllll mooooving!".  He doesn't think I'm funny.

Off to the check out counter we go, with our 3 items.

Now.  Do you think Walmart had an express lane open?  Nope.
Or , do you think they had any lane open with less than 5 people waiting?  Nope.
I choose what seems to be the shortest line.  One huge family in front of me, trying to buy a DVD player.  For some reason, the cashier couldn't get the security thingy to scan, or something.  She kept rubbing it over the little scanner thing and it kept beeping. F.I.N.A.L.L.Y she gets it to work.
The family pays and walks off.  But, the teenage daughter of the family decided she wanted an iTunes card.  The cashier scans it, takes the girls money.  But, for some reason decided to check to see if it indeed activated.  It did not.
The girl walks 3 checkstands over grabs another card.  Redoes the transaction.  Same problem.  Goes back over and grabs another card.  This repeats F.O.U.R times.  Finally, I say, quite patiently, which frankly is a small miracle, "Why don't you grab a whole stack this time?".  And she does!!!
After about 15 cards, one F.I.N.A.L.L.Y works.

It takes approx. 1 min for my stuff to get rung up and bagged and we're on our way. Home. Home!!!
My quick trip to the store turned into quite the ordeal.  Jeven didn't stop talking for one second. And not the kind of talking where I could zone and say "Uh-huh" or "Yep" but where he expected a response and in some cases, told me what exactly to say.

I was exhausted.

Out to the van we go.  I put the groceries in. I put the kid in his car seat, buckle the car seat.  Shut the sliding door.  Open the driver door.

It won't open.  There, on the driver's seat are my car keys.  I locked myself out of the van. With my child buckled (safety first!!) in his car seat.  At 11:00 at night.  In the Walmart parking lot.

Of course I did.


**Edited to clarify:
We've never encouraged our children to unbuckle their own car seats.  I know, there's pros and cons to this.  But, our thinking was we were avoiding them unbuckling while we are driving down the road.  Eventually, all of them learned how to do it. By the time they learned, they were old enough to understand when it was okay and when it wasn't. 
All of them learned.  Except one.  Any guesses as to which one? 
Yep. Jeven still cannot unbuckle his own car seat.  Despite me desperately begging through the glass to "Please, try Jeven. Push really hard on the red button!!"  to no avail .

I normally carry my cell phone in my purse, which was in the van.  This one in a million time however, I carried it in my PANTS POCKET!!!   So, I was able to call hubby and he came to the rescue!

It could have been so much worse. It could have been middle of the day while it was 100 degrees outside. Or, my phone could have been in my purse. Then, I would have had to flag down the Walmart cop.

Although, that may have made a better blog entry.

Thanks for the tips!

First, thank you all so much for your suggestions and tips on handling "Zane".
I would like to take just a minute to address some of the suggestions and questions:

• Sitting next to the teacher will be the first thing I try!
• Although I LOVE the idea of a weighted vest, I don't really see how I could get Zane into one without causing a scene.  "Hello Zane's mother.  Before he comes into the classroom could he please put on this special vest?  Oh, no, none of the other children are wearing one. Just your son"  I don't think that would go over very well! 
• As much as I would love to have an assistant, we just don't have the staff.  At our church, the children out number the adults.  For example, at Jeven's bday party there were 16 children and 5 moms.  Us Baptists like to procreate, what can we say! Anyways, by the time we have nursery workers, a teacher for elementary  and another for the teens, that doesn't leave many people for assisting in my class.  Although, the very first day Zane was in my class, I did have a helper. And she couldn't control him either without causing a ruckus.
• As far as the mom goes, I've observed her and she seems to be very physical with him.  Which may explain why he doesn't like to be touched.  She seems at a loss on how to control him . I am not sure if she's contacted any outside help or not.  It's one of those situations where I feel unless she asks for help, it's not my place to intrude. (I don't think there's abuse, just that grabbing him is the first thing she does) I am hoping that I will be able to find some things that work well with Zane and just happen to mention them to her when she picks him up.  

At this point, they haven't been back to church so...all this may have been for nothing!  Although, I imagine that eventually I will have more children in my class with special circumstances.
If he does come back, I will try having him sit in a special chair next to me and just be patient and kind and firm, all at the same time.  I am hoping eventually, he will get use to being in the classroom setting and calm down.

Fingers crossed!