Getting My Baby Back

This has been a difficult weekend for Olivia. She has done nothing but cry and not sleep, then cry some more, paired with more not sleeping, and then a little more crying. I'm blaming it on the applesauce that I gave her on Friday and Saturday. This morning I almost lost my mind, and I'm pretty sure that without Ron here I would have. By this afternoon, Olivia took a real nap for the first time in 3 days. She slept for 4 hours. I was so relieved. When she woke up she was happy and smiling again, and I'm thinking that I have my baby back. She went to bed without a problem tonight, and as I head to bed, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we all get a good night's sleep finally.

Grateful

I've always had a slight addiction to reality TV. I especially enjoy the parenting variety of these types of shows. It started with A Baby Story, Supernanny, Wifeswap, and the like. Then my obsession morphed into the shows featuring extraordinary circumstances. You know what I'm talking about: Jon and Kate, The Duggars, Quints by Surrogacy, etc.

This past week I watched the Octomom special. When I saw her trying to juggle (and I mean literally juggle) her 8 babies all at once, I felt overwhelmed. Granted she has some help, but seriously... life with 14 kids? 8 of them being infants? You've got to be kidding me. I'm tired just thinking about it.

Today I watched a new show, "Raising Sextuplets." Since the situation of this family intrigued me, I set it up to record all episodes on DVR a few weeks ago. Somehow, I stumbled across a spare moment to watch some of it today. These people have six 18-month olds. What I witnessed was a lot of diaper changing (even more than I'm doing!), a lot of boo-boos, a lot of crying, and a lot of the "no biting, no hitting, no pushing" commands that I so frequently use with Joey. As I watched these parents struggle to take care of six babies, I began to wonder if that would be something I could do. I've always thought of myself as being capable of anything. But in this case I'm not so sure. (quite honestly, I'm glad I don't have to find out...) I thought to myself, they have 3 times as many babies as I do. Katelyn and Olivia would just be 1/3 of a group of Sextuplets. How would I possibly take care of 4 more infants at one time? And how much louder would my house be? YIKES.

When I turned off the TV to tend to my own houseful of children I looked at the three of them and actually felt relieved. I feel grateful that God decided to bless me with my wonderful children just one or two at a time. Not 6. You know the old saying, God doesn't give us more than we can handle? Well, I'm pretty sure He knows what He is doing, because this is about all I can handle right now.

Review and Giveaway: ISpy Game from Briarpatch Products

Recently I came across a cute puzzle featured in Parent's Magazine. I thought it would be fun for Joey, so I checked out the website to see more. I was excited to see that Briarpatch.com has a lot of great puzzles and games for toddlers and preschoolers. The Sami Block Puzzle was sent to us, and Joey has really enjoyed playing with it. We also received a great sampling of ISpy products that are so much fun! Luckily for you, I have teamed up with Briarpatch.com to offer one of my readers their choice of ISpy product!

To enter, visit Briarpatch.com and return to leave a comment telling me about a product that caught your eye. Up to 5 additional entries can be earned by doing one or more of the following: (Leave another comment for EACH additional entry!)

• Become a follower of Thou Shall Not Whine
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• Link back to this post on your blog or website
• Leave a comment on a Non-giveaway post
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Giveaway is open until Friday, September 4th at 11:59pm EST. Winner will be selected via Random.org and announced on Saturday, September 5th. Please be sure to leave your email address so I can let you know if you win!

Grand Reopening

In case you haven't noticed my blog has undergone a major makeover. More than a makeover. I'm calling this reconstructive surgery. Many thanks to my great blog designer, Tara! If you are in need of a new blog design, check her site out at http://blogmakeoversbytara.blogspot.com/. Or you can click her button at the bottom of the left-hand sidebar. Yes, I said sidebar. This blogging thing is rubbing off on me and I'm beginning to use technological terms like sidebar and navbar. WEIRD. In all seriousness though, Tara is talented, affordable, and very easy to work with!

Anyway, now that my new design is up and running I'm going to kick things off with a Grand Reopening Party. And we all like parties because they usually come with food and gifts. Well, I don't have any food to give out, so go into your own kitchen and get some but I do have a gift. A giveaway actually. I think you're going to like it so stay tuned...

What Were We THINKING?

Everyone went down for a late nap today causing them to sleep later into the afternoon than usual. We didn't unearth Joey from his crib until 5, and the girls got up sometime around 5:30. I thouroughly enjoyed all of that time to myself, but as the clock ticked away, so did the idea that the kids would be in bed early enough for me to watch Octomom at 8. So we needed something to fill the time between dinner and bed...

After everyone was fed and changed Ron and I decided that we'd take a family trip to Borders. Getting in the car at 7pm with three young children who are normally in bed at that hour was our first mistake. Not putting Joey in a stroller while at Borders was our second mistake. Not stocking up my bag with a single package of animal crackers, gummies, or even a lolipop was our third mistake. Get the picture??? Joey ran through the store faster than we could keep up with him. He touched everything, he yelled everytime we came near him, he was like an animal that had spent a lifetime in captivity out of his cage for the first time.

We should have left. I know that. But somehow I've gotten to the point where I'm not all that embarrassed when my husband and I make complete idiots of ourselves as our children cause an obnoxious scene in a public setting. So I stayed the course. I was determined to not leave the store with what we went in for so I made all 5 of us (and many strangers) suffer through the madness. But let's not put all the blame on poor little Joey. None of my kids wanted to be shopping in a bookstore at 7 o'clock at night. After finding the book that I wanted to buy, I finally grabbed hold of Joey, propped him up on my hip, pushed the stroller through the checkout line, sent Ron and Olivia back to the car, and made my purchase. I even remembered to use my coupon! HURRAH!

Once everyone was back in their respective carseats and the minivan turned out of the parking lot Ron said, "We are either really stupid, or really brave." I replied, "I'm thinking a little of both."