Haikus revisited

Today I got my new issue of Brain, Child which I believe is the very best magazine for parents. It features great writing and many different perspectives about raising children. Every issue they have a question or challenge for readers. And it's not something lame like "how do you celebrate spring" that you often find in mainstream magazines. In the last issue they asked for haikus and I'm happy to say two of mine appear in this issue! I sent in two that I had previously posted in the early days of this blog, but here they are again:

This is my new game
Throw toy on floor, mommy get
I throw toy again

In the tub tonight
Like to hear the sound I make
Hands hitting water

I haven't written any new haikus in a long time, but I would like to. If inspiration strikes, I'll post them here.

Pictures

On Thursday night the kids got their pictures taken for our MOPS Antiquities fundraiser. These are the pictures that look old timey. I wanted to get some of Cordelia to add to the ones of the boys I got a couple of years ago. I wasn't sure how Cordelia would do and as I expected she was fussy and wouldn't sit still. We tried a few different things, but she was not happy. I think the photographer may have gotten a couple of good shots. I get a free picture of the three kids and I think that one turned out. As far as the individual shots go, I was going to tell him to just do Cordelia since I have the boys pictures from last time, but he was posing them so cute. There is a shot of the two boys that I will have to get. So I'll spend more money than I wanted to, but these pictures are so worth it. Plus I don't ever do studio pictures of the kids so I need some professional pics around here. As usual, Torii had some funny moments. The photographer (who is from Tennessee so I had to smile when he said he was "fixin" to do something), put a huge pillow on the floor for a group picture and Torii asked him "how's this going to work?" Then later when Cordelia wasn't cooperating and the photographer said "that didn't work," Torii replied, "I told you so." He's lucky he's so darn cute.

Mama's boy

This morning we had MOPS. Cordelia has been so clingy lately and I never look forward to leaving her in the childcare. She cries when I leave, although she quickly gets over it. The lady in her room is really good about distracting her while I sneak out. Today I got down on the floor to show her some toys before sneaking off. There are also a couple of older kids in the room that help out. The girl sat down next to us. I thought Cordelia would grab hold of me tighter like she usually does. Instead she handed the girl her blankie and then sat in her lap. I couldn't believe it. I headed for the door and as I was almost out Cordelia looked back. As I said goodbye I expected tears, but she was perfectly fine. Some of the moms were visiting and I mentioned how well Cordelia had just done when I dropped her off. A few minutes later I was told Torii wasn't doing so well and he wanted to see me. He was sitting in his room crying. He really didn't want to go to MOPS today and he said he missed me. I told him he could come sit with me, but it would be pretty boring, but that's what he wanted to do. He shared my breakfast with me and sat quietly next to me. I kept asking him if he was ready to go back to his room and he kept saying no. Later he finally said he was ready, but a few minutes after going to his room he returned to me once again in tears. I think Torii is having the hardest time with me working full time. He hates it when I go to work. He's never been like that at MOPS, but I think he just wanted to be with me more than anything else. In a way it makes me feel really good, but it also makes me feel so bad when I do go to work. He always asks me what days I have off. Tomorrow I can tell him it's my last day for the week.

SAHD

As far as working outside the home and raising children, I've tried it all. I've worked full time, part-time and not at all. Now we are once again trying something new. Since my job is dependant on the summer I have no choice, but to work full time in the spring up until the fall. A couple of summers ago, I worked full time while Fred watched the kids during the day and went to work at night. He didn't get even close to enough sleep so we knew that wouldn't work this time around. So now Fred is working part-time and being stay at home dad during the day. For the most part it is working out. It's nice to come home and have dinner already made, but I have found it was something that was really hard to give up. On weekends I'm at a loss at what to do because I don't do the grocery shopping or plan the meals for the week. I complained about cooking every night, but really it is something I enjoy. Fred isn't a bad cook, it's just that he's an unhealthy cook. (I hid the butter on the bottom of the fridge way in back, don't tell him). I like to cook healthy meals and I like variety. Fred doesn't care for either. I still cook on the weekends, although the last couple of weekends have been so busy that I haven't done much cooking at all. I have binders full of recipes that I don't have the time to fix normally and now I really don't know when I'll have time to try them. Under the old system I always tried to pull out at least one new recipe each week. I never thought I would say I miss grocery shopping and cooking. Really, I liked to do it just because it was good for my family.