See that cute little perfect smile?

Yeah, there’s a cavity back there. (WHICH I am totally mortified about, but that’s beside the point.)

So, my sweet, sensitive boy – you know, the one who’s afraid of his own shadow? – is gonna have a DRILL up in there on Wednesday!

I am fairly sure I am going to have to hold him down for this to happen.

I myself have never had a cavity {cue twinkle as I grin} so I really don’t know how to prepare him. I want to tell him what’s going to happen, without scaring the bajeebers out of him.  It’s bad enough how he fusses about the noise his battery-powered toothbrush makes (related: is there like a boot camp for 2nd graders where you can send them to toughen up?), I don’t think he’s going to *sit stoically still*  for a drill.

Anyone been through this lately?  I sure could use a play-by-play of what to expect so I can explain it to him in terms he can bear!  Insert advice below!  (Pleeeease help a mother out!)

What’s happening is, Joshua is at least once a day, feeling “sick” DURING a meal.  So he eats some, feels sick, wants to go lay down or try to puke, never does puke, and usually within 10 minutes or so can finish at least some of the meal.

The foods involved are totally random.  The times of day are totally random.  I don’t think he’s faking it, but we’ve been battling this off and on for two months, and I am the one who’s really sick – SICK OF IT.  I am beyond frustrated.

He never throws up, hasn’t had any weird bowel issues, just says he feels sick and wants to lay down, or just stop eating for awhile. He even went to the clinic one day at school during lunch, and lunch is his 2nd favorite part of the day (after recess of course).

This all started back in July – he did throw up in July two separate times after CHUGGING chocolate milk at restaurants, so I think maybe that psychologically damaged him and now he’s terrified of getting sick so he is worrying about it so much that he is making himself feel bad.

We’ve taken him off dairy and it hasn’t seemed to have made any difference.

Bobby doesn’t get home til 7 pm, so the kids have already eaten dinner by then. I am tired of doing dinner by myself for years anyways, I ALWAYS have to struggle to get Sophie to eat, and now THIS – it’s making me apoplectic. Joshua thinks I am mad at him, which is probably making his whole psychosomatic stomach problem worse. I am not mad at him, but I am BEYOND frustrated and I can’t really hold that in anymore.  I can barely hold ANY frustration in by dinner time, which again, I might add, I do by myself five nights a week, outnumbered three to one.

So, how about it, readers? Diagnose my kid for me. That way you can save me a $30 copay at the pediatrician’s office.  And though you probably can’t save my kid from intense counseling and therapy because his mom is so mean, the extra $30 could at least go toward those future therapy bills.  You have until 4:10 PM, Eastern time to figure this one out for me. GO!

You may recall from reading earlier this summer that I’ve been counting down the days til school started up again since it ended in June!  What can I say, having three kids in my face all day is not my strength.  And yesterday I sent my big boy off to 2nd grade!  He was just as ready as I was.  He was super-cute, as you can see, and really excited.  I was really proud of him because despite the fact that he and his two BFFs are all in separate classes (three 2nd grade classes, three pals, go figure!), he was cheerful and excited about his teacher and he had a great day.

Sophie doesn’t start school until next Monday, and she missed Joshua sooooo badly today.  She told me at least three times, “I can’t wait for Joshua to get home!” and when he did get home she was all up in his biz-ness wanting to know what he did all day!  It was pretty sweet.  She missed her brother but she’s dying to start herself.  Cute pics of that to come next week!

And even though I adore those big kids, I am looking forward to having 2.5 hours a day, 4 days a a week with my little guy.  He deserves some mommy time, the poor neglected third child!

How did your kids’ first day of school go?

But wait, this is not where this post is supposed to be heading!  Because despite my frustration at all the togetherness this summer (which, really, is my problem, a problem I am having adjusting to being a mom of three, and not their problem at all), I love the crap out of my kids.  And I think they are the flipping BEE’S KNEES! I am so proud of them and am so thankful to be their mommy. So, to remind myself of what the heck I am supposed to be focused on, I thought I’d tell you a couple of my favorite things about each of my kiddos.

Joshua. My firstborn.

He is exuberant, optimistic, enthusiastic.  He is loving. He loves his friends so much. He often writes sweet notes and letters to his friends, and is very generous with them.  He’s trustworthy.  He wants to do what’s right.  He’s a snuggler, still at seven. How long will I get to enjoy snuggles from my big boy?   I cherish every one.

Sophia Diane. My girl.

She is funny.  Comic relief for this mama, she makes me laugh about a million times a day!  She is sweet as can be, and everything she does (good or bad) she does 110%.  She is nurturing.  I love the way she cares for Jonah and any other smaller child.  She is fierce.  Determined and stubborn in a good way.  I hope I can help her learn to always use that for good.

Jonah. My baby.

He is happy. Wherever we go he blesses others with his beautiful smile and happy spirit.  He is a joy to be around.  He is silly, blowing raspberries and squealing loudly at all the right times.  He is loving, caressing my arm or face as he nurses.  He is my surprise baby and his sweet personality surprises me every day as it develops more and more.

I love these  babies. They make me crazy, but in between the crazy they bring me joy upon joy upon joy.

And in 10 years, when the older two are writing blog posts about me, I hope they’ll say I bring them joy more than I drive them crazy as well. But we’ll see…

Caps

I like caps because Mario weres one there’s lots of caps in this world caps are like hats because you can put both of them on your head.

(You can see he’s inherited my gift for run-on sentences.)

Cheese Its (Oh c’mon my kid can’t even spell Cheez-Its?? Where have I gone WRONG?)

I like cheese its it is my favorite snack I will eat most things cheesy and I like cheese its the best.

He will eat most things cheesy. Clearly I have not gone too wrong.

Love

Love is kindness. Love is treating peplole nice.  Not treating pepole bad.  Love is playing nice with peplole not playing bad with peplole I like to play with my friends and my friends are Ethan I. Lucas Day Alex C and AJ!

Cars

I like cars because I like race cars and trucks my favorite kind of car is a limo.  I have never rode a limo before but i like the way they look limos look like there the longest car in the world I also like monster trucks monster trucks are big but I like limos more.

Well, I’ll make sure and rent one out for your 8th birthday party! Just kidding, keep dreaming, kid.

My family

I like my family I like to do fun stuff with my family I like to play video games with my dad I like to play outside with my sister i like to play with my baby brother and I like to play a video game cold wii fit plus with my mom.

Aww, how sweet.  Here is the picture he drew of us busting a move on Wii fit:

I like my claw hands & the fact that I am so much smaller than my 7-year-old

And finally, to sum up the enriching academic experience we are paying for:

School

I like school because it has a playground.  One of my favorite things about school is lunch and recess.  and I also like it when we go home.

Clearly he is on the path to greatness in life and blogging!  I love my little guy and  I can’t wait to invade the private musings he writes in 2nd grade!

I had a difficult experience when Joshua was born.  In fact, I don’t even really like to talk about it.  Bobby and I agree that it was at the time, the best day and the worst day of our lives all at the same time.  But God is good, and each year I lose more of the bad memories and feel more of the joy of that day.  Of the first time I knew what it meant to risk, and to love without expecting anything in return.  And the truth is, I’d do it 100 times over if I had to, because I got a healthy, amazing, sweet, smart little boy out of the deal.

To my Joshua, I love you baby boy.  You are everything I could have hoped for in a son.  And I will always love you with my whole heart, no matter what.  I couldn’t possibly be prouder of you, my sweetheart.  I love being your mommy.

On the subject of Jesus

“Jesus is big and awesome.”

On the subject of pumpkins

“Pumpkins are fun Because they are orange and orange is my favrit color and Pumpkins are my favrit frut I like to make skary faces out of them.”

On a “real snowy day”

“When I was walking in the street it was realy snowy my shos got all snowy I ditint lik it at all.”

On Thanksgiving

“On the first Thanksgiving the pilgrims wanted to go to a new world.  They called it the New World.”

On Angels

“Angels can fly they sreve God they are Good but one Angel was trund into Satton.”

On preparing for the 1st grade Speech Meet

“A Good Speech!  On a speech you have to stand still and speck clear!  Don’t put your paper on your face.  Do the speech right!”

On Christmas vacation

“My Vacation”

“On vacation I had a Good Christmas And for Christmas I got a nitendo Dsi and on Vacation my Grandma stayed at my House for some days to take care of the baby and on vacation it was one of my coisins birthday!”

On Christmas

“Jesus was born in the stable and Mary was the mom of Jesus and Joseph was the Dad of Jesus and Jesus grew up and christmas is Jesus’es birthday and one of the best gifts for Christmas is the bible so you can lern abouwet Jesus.”

On Veterans Day

“Veterans are nice they save are contrey and they fly in planes.”

…and my PERSONAL FAVORITE, which just goes to show how enlightened my little boy is…

On Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Martin Luther King Jr. was nice the withe people didint treat the black people nice Martin luther King Jr. thot it was totaly not fair.”

Drawing for the MLK journal entry. Mean white guy on the left!

And that’s the world according to my little boy!

Unfortunately for us all, Joshua has inherited my tendency to panic and freak out about…everything.  He had discovered that same night that he had a very loose bottom front tooth, his first one, and he was CONVINCED that he had swallowed his tooth and that’s what was causing the stomach pain.  (The tooth remains quite loose but intact.)

I, on the other hand, was convinced that he had appendicitis. Because I am an expert, see, ’cause I had mine out when I was 18 AND I had severe pain in my right side, fever, and vomiting with it. SO – I made Bobby take the kid to the ER.  Adding to my worry was that the night before I’d noticed that Joshua had some swollen bumps on one side of his neck.  But he had no fever, sore throat or any other complaints so I let it go.  Now however, it had me even more concerned.

Bobby got Joshua ready, packed a few things, and they went to our local Children’s hospital ER.  They were gone for three hours, almost all of which Jonah slept through – his longest stretch to date.  But I couldn’t sleep. I was too nervous and worried.  Bobby and I texted back and forth and then about 3:30 he texted that it was NOT appendicitis and that they were going to draw blood and do an x-ray to make sure the swollen bumps on his neck – his lymph nodes – were ok.  So that’s when I REALLY started freaking – I would much rather have my kid have appendicitis than something be majorly wrong.

Then I didn’t hear from Bobby for over an hour, and I was fully panicked. Just praying the same words over and over again, basically.  “Let my big boy be ok.”  When Bobby walked into our bedroom at 4:45 and told me Joshua was fine, it was just a nasty virus, I burst into tears of joy and exhaustion. (They send him home with an Rx for Zofran {my old friend!} and 24 hours later he was much better). Bobby and I tried to lay down and get some sleep.

And THEN the baby woke up.

But I was so happy and thankful, I didn’t even care.

How did you spend your New Year?  I hope it was happy and slightly less eventful than ours!

Photo by Notturno on Flickr

Recently, Sophie and I have been reading like crazy. I have FAR too many library books checked out right now. A truly UNMANAGEABLE amount. But I can’t stop reserving them and checking them out! And even though we are ready for new ones before the old ones are due, we love the old ones so we wanna keep ‘em. SUCH a dilemma!

I want to get into the act with Joshua, too, but I’m not sure what to even search for to reserve for him.  Preschool books are so much easier to pick out that big kid books!  Joshua’s a really good reader, and I want to pick out some books we can enjoy together but also that he will want to read on his own.  He and Bobby have been reading through the Chronicles of Narnia for several months now, and he’s loving that.  But I need some suggestions for a good book he can really get into and manage on his own.

So, if you had an almost-7-year-old boy who reads at about a 3rd-grade level – what would you recommend I get for him from ye olde library?  I need your advice!  So get crackin’!

Oh, P.S. – nothing scary please. I have a very sensitive little guy!

“Well, just for a minute,” I replied, “because Mommy can’t lay on her tummy for very long because it’s so big.”

As he scooted onto my back, Joshua commented with a tinge of disgust in his voice, “Good thing I’m not a GIRL.”

“Why’s that, honey?”

“Because I do NOT want to be PREGNANT!”

Well.  I’m kinda feeling you there, kid!

Not that I want to be a dude, but…these days I’m going to have to agree that Joshua really dodged the bullet on that one.