Our Little Litter

Inevitably you will run into moments in your life where you have to talk to your kids about "the hard stuff".  I had to figure this out when I was diagnosed with cancer, two months after our third child was born.  Luckily I have a Masters Degree in Clinical Counseling and have a fair amount of time working with kids in the clinical context.  I also grew up in a home that was very open, and no topic was off limits, so I learned the value of openness in the home at a very early age.  I was the kid on the elementary school playground, who was teaching my friends about periods, erections and sex, using anatomical terms. Both in and out of the therapy office, I have parents asking me how to talk to their kids about "adult" issues, and I tend to rely on the same suggestions, so here I am sharing them with you. You Are More Uncomfortable Than Your Child Is Hands down, the adult is always more uncomfortable than the kid is.  If you listen carefully to the conve...

Yesterday was the twins first tball game! For most of the twins almost 5 years of life, there has been very little time when they do not have easy access to mommy or daddy.  They can always ask us questions, or look to us for direction... until tball.  There are 20 kids between the two teams, 4 are serious about the game, 7 are crying, 3 left the field and are playing in the grass in the next field over, and 6 are switching between wrestling in the infield, and picking dandelions, or piling rocks like tiny yogis.  There are about 7 adults in the infield to make sure that no one gets nailed in the face with a ball, and so the kids know where the bases are. The 4 that are actually playing are constantly looking to one of the many coaches for guidance, but it's confusing to know which coach is yours, so when the coach yells, "Run to third" about half of both teams go running to third.  They are all so excited to get the ball while fielding, that when the ball goes t...

I'm not even sure where to begin with this post.  Almost 3 years have gone by since the last post, and as you can imagine, a few things have changed. Every once in a while, someone says "Bree, why aren't you blogging anymore?" and then I have to take a deep breath so that I don't punch them in the face: then I think: "Well, it's hard to find time between moving to Alaska, having 3 kids, two-ish jobs, trying to start my own business & recovering from cancer and 4 surgeries you idiot." But usually, I say "eh, not enough time." I love writing, but honestly, I don't usually have time to write the long blog posts that I want to, which has pushed me towards quick Facebook posts, as opposed to blogging.  BUT what I love about family blogging, is that I have this amazing record of our family life, so here I am.  The goal now, is to use my blog to make mostly "Facebook type" posts, with the occasional "omigod the kids are ...

(I had written this post a couple of months ago - and true to it's title, my "mom brain" forgot to edit and post it.  So now you get it a couple months delayed) My best friend flew into town this past weekend to spend some time alone with me a few weeks before my wedding.  We had planned to run a 5k, stay in a hotel one night so I could try to get out of the mom-zone-frame-of-mind, eat good food, drink good drinks and maybe smoke some shisha. She got into town on a Friday.  That night, we packed up and headed to the hotel.  When checking in, the woman looked up my name, she gave this head tilt and said, "hmm, you're not in our system."  I said "Yes we are, look I have my confirmation here."  she says, "oh yes maam, that confirmation is for tomorrow night."  I said "No, for tonight." she says "Look, right here, it says for tomorrow night."  Feeling like a first class idiot, I say "My mistake, do you have anythi...

For all of you parents out there, you know the dream.  Going away for a few days to a luxury resort and leaving the kids at home.  Well, I don't want to brag, but I am Living.  That.  Dream.  Right.  NOW!  I never get to travel for work, but for three days this week, my company has flown the whole team here to San Diego and are putting us up (yes even the locals) in a fancy resort for some conferences. When we were told about this mandatory staycation, I was so angry and irritated.  I did not want to leave Evan alone with the twins for 3 days.  Not because he is anything short of amazing with them, but let's be honest, I have control issues, and worry that Evan has not perfected the art of chaos as well as I have.  I thought that they would lay in their cribs at night and talk about how they were going to overthrow daddy while mommy was gone.  A piece of me worried that the babies would think that I abandoned them, and I really lo...

As all of you parents know, coming up with dinner ideas to keep the fam excited, is hard to do.  it is even harder if you have someone who has food restrictions, or, like me, is just trying to eat healthier. Almost every day, Evan says "what's for dinner?" and 1 of two things happen.  I irritably reply "I don't know Evan, why don't you help me think of something?"  Or, I say "I'm not sure, baby, let me find something that looks good." and then this leads into a 2 hour sort through Pinterest - the black hole of all websites, followed by a 3 store grocery shopping extravaganza to find all the right ingredients.  The question came up the other night, and as I was milling about my "food fantasies" pin board, I found a Shepherds Pie that looked like a big warm hug.  Big warm hugs of food are what make me pack on weight like a bear heading into hibernation, so I thought I'd try a lighter version.  The good news is - it was AMA...

It's crunch time.  The wedding is 6 weeks away, and I need to lose 20 lbs to get to my "pre baby weight".  hahahahaha.  Kidding.  Well not really, but I lost the dream of "pre baby body" a long time ago, so now I just try to work out to feel better and relieve stress.  I have started replacing 1 meal a day (it's supposed to be 2, but that's too hard) with a smoothie of my own invention.  Today it was 1.5 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk, half an apple, two handfulls of spinach and a tablespoon of rolled oats.  yesterday it was similar, sub kale and a banana and probably a reeses cup or something.   I hate dieting, but I learned in high school that the best way to lose weight in a hurry is to go on a liquid diet.  My best friend and I did the "soup" diet for weeks before prom.  We looked amazing, but no one liked us because our bitch factor rose with exponential fury when we were hungry.   Anyway, I want my kids to be happ...

Do you remember that movie?  I'm channeling Jennifer Lopez tonight.  Not in an "defending myself from an abusive ex" way, but in an "I'm a super mom, and if you try to invade my home you will probably lose." sort of way.   I should back up. Evan is in Austin for his bachelor party, undoubtedly 3 sheets to the wind - as he should be.  I am home alone with the twins for a few days.  It's my first time alone with them for more than a day, so I am already overwhelmed.  Now this was just the icing on the "Are you kidding me?" cake.  Earlier today I was at work and got a text from my nanny saying that my neighbor stopped by to tell her that he came home and interrupted some guys casing the complex.  They had a lookout who saw him pull into the driveway, he yelled into the complex and a few guys came running out.   I called the non-emergency line to report the "casing incident" and the lady said she couldn't help me.  I begged her...

I don't think "busy" is descriptive enough for our lives.  Hectic, chaotic... no those don't do it either.  I just sat back in my chair, put my hands on my head and tried to create a word that describes our lives in a nutshell.  My next thought was  - "stop wasting silence, you have work to do".  So there, I don't even have time to make up fake words.  My life is so hard.  Yes, I do have time to blog though.  Because I love to blog.  It's therapeutic to me, and I think for the most part, you all enjoy our stories.  Each day, I have a short amount of silent time while the kids are napping.  Ok, to be fair that happens Mon, Wed and Fri when I am at home with the kids.  But during these times of silence, I am cramming in phone calls to golf courses.  Because M-Friday, regardless of whether I'm at home with the kids or I'm in the office, I am also a full time account manager for Active Golf.  I picked up a new job doin...

A very smiley and exuberant little Wyatt was on the floor laughing and showing me the toy he was playing with.  I was at the table filling out paperwork to send to the hospital to request a refund for an appointment we paid for out of pocket but had coverage for.  (oh the irony) Wyatt, practicing his new skill of pulling himself up on everything, grabbed onto the back of the dining room chair across from me and just as quick as I realized what was about to happen, he pulled the chair down on him.  Luckily our chairs are pretty light, but the back of the chair came down on him pretty hard.  Wyatt started screaming in one of those, "I first stopped breathing and then let out a horrific cry" ways.  I threw the chair off him, grabbed him and held him against me, rocking him.  Poor little guy had two bloody nostrils.  He wouldn't let me touch his nose, so of course my most "rational" mommy brain thinks:   Is his nose bro...

I've been over thinking these blog posts.  I sit down tonight to do some work for my marketing job, but I wasn't feeling motivated to do that.  Instead I thought ok, I'll write a blog post... but I don't really have much to say.  That's a lie!  I have some great things to tell you about. First and foremost, we have crawlers!  The babies turned 8 months old yesterday and today, as if they were watching and waiting on an 8 month countdown, they began to crawl.  Just a couple little crawls, they don't do much before laying on their belly's and crying.  Or in the case of Olivia, she just rolls everywhere.  Rolling is faster than crawling.  She's an innovator. Martha Speaks Wyatt still has only two and a half teeth, while Olivia has about 6 or so.  Wyatt is sleeping a little better at night.  We are up with him anywhere from 2-6 times per night.  It's usually 10pm, 2 or 3am, 4am and either 5 or 6am.  Evan gets up with t...

If I was counseling myself, that is the diagnosis I would assign.  Adjustment Disorder 309.9 unspecified.  That means that I am going through an adjustment in life that is bigger than our everyday adjustments and challenges and one that is probably part of the reason to seek counseling in the first place.  I think there should be a specifier for people who throw themselves into an adjustment disorder state of being on a regular basis.  like this Adjustment Disorder 309.95 - Self Inflicted.  That would be my real diagnosis. What am I adjusting to you ask?  Well, I have recently been hired back by my old boss to do marketing again for golf courses.  This is part time, and I can work from home except one day per week when I need to go into the office.  I also just rented space and opened Empower Bodywork & Personal Coaching , which is my massage and life coaching business.  I have a few coaching clients and am hoping that my old massage c...