Moms have battle training too.

It's taken over a week, and we are officially in the swing of doing things around here minus the barrel chested man of the house. Sure, we miss him and he wonders into our thoughts through out the day, but emotional moments are dwindling as each day goes by and bed time can go off with out whimpers of "I wish daddy was here." OH, tug tug at the heart strings


I'm glad that we are settling in to the separation because come tomorrow is when the hard part begins.

All except for one night so far, that cowboy soldier of mine has been able to call every night, if only for a brief moment, to tell us he loves us and misses us, and listen to a quick 10 second recap of all the events of a school day of an eight year old. After tonight that will all change. He won't be able to call.

At oh my lord, people should not be waking up this early in the morning, he gets on a bus and leaves OK to head for the middle of the desert of NM. What lies ahead is 4 weeks of this is the Army and this is the way it's done training. Hey at least it's not full boot camp, it's what I call mini-boot camp. Besides intense working out he gets to do the cool stuff, like hand to hand training and my personal favorite, guns and grenades.

Heck Yeah. Wonder if I could just do that part. They can keep the other stuff, I don't like getting yelled at, I might cry. Nobody wants to see a fluffy mother of 3 boys cry. so maybe they'll hold my coconut cookie and let me blow something up. Maybe? Possibly? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Can you imagine what it would look like if they let us moms of small children go and blow stuff up. You think big burly men do damage...HA HA HA! Try taking a handful of sleep deprived, stressed out mother's out somewhere with explosives to relax and blow off some steam.

We have battle training. Our lives are battles of; no you can't climb up the wall like spiderman as the child runs full tilt into the wall, stop swinging from the handheld shower hose, you are not Curious George, stopping one from diving off the back of the couch onto a single pillow, while another is seeing how many crayons can be shoved up it's nose to see if the end result is rainbow snot.

You think these men learn how to run, duck and cover. Try making a batch of cookies which are NOT for the household and get them on the plate, covered, out the door and into the truck without your children, snagging the plate, tackling you along the way and hog tieing you with kite string or socks they accidentally on purpose left in the sandbox the whole time fighting off a wee one that's climbing up your leg like a spider monkey. Small children have strange powers, do not underestimate them. Now this is the regular day of a mom with small babes, that's good training for something, but what?

Oh yeah! Teenagers.

So, honey! Blow something up for me, Your baby has discovered how to open doors.


It's bath and bedtime though. Battle stations Ladies.

Constantly on my toes and I'm not talking ballet.

You would think being on my third baby I would have been better prepared and expecting this. Ha, Ha. Baby RJ is officially in that, I'm independent and mobile, I will do anything I want and if you try and stop me I will scream till the my face turns red and do it anyway. {deep breath}...here we go again.



Oh I know he's cute peeking over the gate at me. He's wanting so bad to be in the kitchen and help mommy make dinner, and when my back is turned run into the bathroom to splash and throw whatever he can get his hands on into the potty. Or, into the computer room pushing buttons and making the computer do things I didn't even know it could do.

Mommy please let me out of here, I can just read it in those big beautiful green eyes. What makes it even harder is, just like his 2 older brothers, Odie and Bubba as he calls them, he knows just how to melt my heart, big sloppy open mouthed muahhhh baby kisses. Oh I can't forget the one time he talks quietly and that's "Momma".

So I break, I usually let him out of the baby gated living room and put him in his high chair or close the bathroom door and gate off the computer room. Dilemma solved, every one's happy.

But, for every baby/toddler dilemma solved a new one will arise.... I give you ... the stairs!

That little stinker, just climbed his little butt right up them stairs to his Nirvana heaven...the bigger boys toy room.

Oh, I laughed and I was proud that he has the ability to not only climb up the stairs but back down as well.

I was a bit sad too though. Partially because he does so well up and down the stairs and I'm known for tripping up the stairs or the infamous think there is one more step there that really isn't, so I look like a total dork lifting my leg like Frankenstein walking to take a step that isn't even there, now that's if at the top. At the bottom I just trip and about smash my pretty little pug nose into the front door.

My real moment of self awwww is... a milestone like this makes me realize even more that my last baby is growing up way too fast.

I'm pouting now, my babies are all growing up too fast. And I miss their little tiny chubby baby feet and no teeth grins and looking up at me with that look of total adoration...oh wait, I still get that whenever I fix and kiss a boo boo.

Motherhood is the greatest gift we can be given, but man ole man is it a roller coaster of emotions.

* My quote of the day or words of advise or whatever you'd like to call it...

Make sure you've kissed your baby's. It only takes a second and the effects last a lifetime.