What's your name again?

Big Daddy and I have this wonderful middle child who probably fits the middle child mold to a tee. Trent is sweet, endearing, smooth and... well... loud. I don't think he even knows how loud he really is. He even whispers loud. I could ask him a million different ways to be quiet and it always only lasts for about 30 seconds. Even just his general talking is loud. It's who he is to be quite honest with you. He has loud hair, a loud smile, a loud personality. Why not a loud voice?Trent is a little over-zealous to say the least. He is out there.

Now, to round out the picture Trent also rarely likes to go by the name of Trent. We have had various names. The one that stuck around the longest and reappears from time to time is Waffle. Yes, our child for quite some time preferred to be referred to as Waffle. Yes. The breakfast food of his choice. Waffle. So much that when he met his preschool teacher for the first time and she asked him what his name was his reply was "Waffle". It sounds out there and it is, we know that. But some days you just choose your battles and to be frank with you if calling my kid Waffle will get him to wipe his own ass, put his socks on and get in the van when I need him to without beating on his brother. Waffle it is.

This past weekend Big Daddy had to work all weekend doing some computer upgrade thingamajigger, I think there was tweaking and systems analysis, trial somethingorothers and an Imported Computer Geek(ICG) to boot. So, he was at the office all weekend with the ICG. I on the other hand was on weekend duty by myself.

Big Daddy and I chose to book many activities and sports on the weekends in the high hopes that between the two of us we'd be able to get the kids to most of it and in some very specific occasions to not have Addie in tow. She's at that age where she doesn't understand that she can't be in the water at swimming lessons or lay on the mold, wet hair, dirt ridden floor of the change room while I try to get two boys out of wet trunks into semi dry clothes that are now wet, dirt and wet hair ridden from her throwing them on the floor.

Ok, I'll admit at times three children is a little overwhelming. As a dear friend of mine says sometimes Mom's cheese slips right off her cracker. But alas Big Daddy and ICG had "work" to do. Riiiight. If you call Internet porn work *eye roll* I am sure ICG had a new slew to share.

So there I am at Joseph's soccer game with all the kids by myself. It's bad when they outnumber you in sums more than double yourself. Joseph is on the soccer field, Trent is off playing with some other unlucky tagged along younger siblings (don't worry he's loud enough I can hear him from where I was sitting) and Addie is in her stroller. She can't run away and fall down stairs that way. She is nibbling on snacks and sipping on her water as I try to get in a few odd claps and actually watch Joseph kick the ball a few times. After the hour long game we are packing up to go and Trent is standing beside me talking to Joseph and this kid walks by and taps Trent on the arm and says "See you later, Venom"
Hmm, Venom, Waffle... Trent... it's all the same right?

The Lesser of Two Evils

Lately I try to avoid talking to people. Why? Because the polite ones say stuff like "What's new with you?" And, well, if THAT isn't a fully loaded questions these days I don't know what is.

It seems like a phase where I am tired of explaining all that is in fact new with us. Not that new is bad...I just get tired of telling it over and over. It was like when we bought our townhouse, everyone and their dog stopped by to see our first home purchase...It was so nice to have so many people love us and be proud of us that we had bought our first house. But in the same regard I got so tired of showing people around. You get to the point where you just want to say, I'll sit here with my kids and you go have a look around...just don't look in the closets, Oh wait and ignore the underwear on the kids bedroom floors and if you find any stray dirty diapers while your upstairs could you be a peach and bring it down with you.

Life has changed for us in some pretty big ways as of late.
I have a job.... a new job at the hospital, job. As Joseph would say in code it's the new J-O-B. I have been there for over a month now and yet he still spells J-O-B. That's a story in itself. I guess that's the throw back from asking him to keep it a secret for a few days. 5 weeks later is still in his mind "a few days."

Regardless, I like my new J-O-B its a huge change of pace from daycare. The daycare thing just wasn't healthy for my family...full time daycare that is. My kids suffered in ways my kids should never have to. I read the signs and made some choices. No more full time daycare! It was like the weight of the world has been lifted. I don't think *I* realized how stressed it was making me. Thus started the job hunt. I still have some part time daycare kids who are fantastic, they have great parents and they are great kids who I love having over once in awhile and it is FUN. Which, in my opinion, daycare needs to be. I really enjoy doing the daycare thing part time... do I enjoy the daycare or the kids... the kids really. They make me laugh. I like that it's a change of pace for my kids but it isn't every day all day long. It's like being the fun Aunt, you aren't responsible for them ALL the time so you can feed them fun stuff, do fun things and not worry about doing educational acitivities for a certain time frame each and every day, or worry that your feeding them all the right things. I am not left at the end of each day or week wondering if I did enough to shape them into good people. With part timers, they go home and their parents can worry about that. I just get to colour with them and play connect four and tickle tag.

Making the choice to go back to a J-O-B outside of the house was a long hard decision. Harder than quitting my old J-O-B. It came down to what was best for my family and as much as my not being here some evenings and weekends will be hard, in the long run it is the lesser of two evils. The fact of the matter is that I get to be home all day, every day and can do preschool stuff and grocery shopping, make supper and most importantly to Big Daddy and I, our kids are being cared for by US.

I guess the fact is that the downfall is that Big Daddy and I are once again at a place where our time together is limited. We once again have opposite work schedules. That is hard. I think I really packed that part of my married life away once Big Daddy was finished university. So, to unpack that part of life and almost in a sense re-live it is bizarre. But it is the choice we have made. Paying to send our kids to childcare just isn't for us, right now. Will it ever be, who knows. We just weren't ready to do that right now.

What else is new... Joseph has had to get new glasses because he is growing and is headed off to see an ear, nose, throat specialist about tubes in his ears and a tonsillectomy. Its a scary proposition. But facts need to be faced. We'll go and see what the pro says. He is losing teeth faster than the tooth fairy can collect them. We are on a a corn on the cob hiatus as of right now....

Trent never ceases to be Trent. He had some tough issues going on with my doing full time daycare. Thankfully he is bouncing back and is returning to himself which is so great to see. As much as I as a mother get frustrated with his enthusiasm sometimes, to see him not be so over zealous about everything was even more frustrating. Trent is back to his zesty self and loves life to the fullest. The other day right in front of one of his pals he smooched me and he ran back to his friend and said "you know, I REALLY love my Mom" ~swoon~ He is one smooth talker. I get more compliments from my four year old than I have in all my life.

Addie, what is new with her. I mean she is 16 months old what isn't new with her. She is our baby-girl. She is growing like weed, eating like a horse and FINALLY knows What a kitty cat says. It is really cute. She says "beeeowwwww" I guess we need to work the the mmmm sound. But little miss Addie knows how to say her name, nose, please, thank you, mama, dada, gramma, grampa, papa, jojo (joseph), tey (trent), purple, baby and a variety of other words. She definitely has the gift of gab. If you are on the phone she will proceed to lay herself on the kitchen floor and cry because she thinks that she needs to talk on the phone. Oh dear Lord help us... girls and telephones.

Also, I mean we just wouldn't be who we are if we didn't pack even more stuff in. We are on the hunt. The house hunt. It's be on-going for awhile now but we are in a more serious position now. We had to 'get there' mentally. Ok, I was there Big Daddy wasn't...he's now there. We are moving, when and where is to be determined. It's a scary prospect. But, I just have to have some faith that things will work out as they are supposed to. I know what I want, but what we end up with may be something totally different.

To top it off we are trying to find the time to get the kids to their activities. It's busy, it's fun and we relish in family movie night even more so now.

So, my apologies for being slack on the blog. That's life sometimes... some thing's gotta give. Today, it was my lunch dishes...they are still on the kitchen table because I felt the need to blog. I wonder if they magically rinsed themselves and crawled into the dishwasher???
Ya, I doubt it too.