Ugh, the never ending cycle of sick!

Who's sick? Your sick, I'm sick, he's sick, the dog's sick, the kid's sick, the husband's sick, the person two rows down in the cubicle on the left is sick, EVERYONE'S SICK!

At home, life has been pretty miserable and the view above sums up reality. Right now, my husband, Dave, is laying down in the bedroom on a Sunday morning coughing his brain's out. Our son, Ryan, is resting in his room with ear pain and a cough of his own. And, I'm writing a blog post, hoping to will my sore throat away with copious quantities of coffee and a ranting blog post. My son said it best yesterday, "This has been the worst Christmas break ever!"

He's right, it's been the worst Christmas break ever. Especially because yesterday, we went to the doctor to get his ear looked at since he was crying and all the doctor said was, "You're passing around a viral infection in your home. Since you both have symptoms, you're going to pass it back and forth." Well, that's helpful Mr. Doctor. I'm glad I wasted that money to learn that we'll just have to keep taking Tylenol, drink juice, sleep, and home one of us won't be sick and then that will catch on. UGH.

Being sick has been a never ending cycle for us and trying to find a way to make it stop is exhausting. After learning from the doctor that we have a viral infection from hell, I asked what we could do to make the cycle stop and all I got was, wash your hands more, cover your mouth when you cough, and expect to always be sick. JUST GREAT!

Well, I think I'm going to go get some juice now and hope no one breathes on me, sigh.  

The never ending Christmas list...

I knew this day would come, the day when my son, Ryan, would want everything he sees for Christmas.

In the past, Ryan only wanted a few things here and there, nothing crazy. Maybe a toy that lit up or some blocks that he could smash around and then never play with again. However, that's all changed this year. Now, Ryan wants it all. When Grandma Nancy asked for him to circle a few things in the toy book she shared with him, he circled pretty much everything:

(Pictures courtesy of Grandma Nancy) 

So, I'm at a loss on how to handle this upcoming Christmas season. I'm not sure, well, I'm more than not sure that Santa is not going to get everything on his list and then when Christmas comes around, I'm more than sure that a certain little boy is going to be rather disappointed. It makes me feel like I did something wrong as a parent because Ryan never used to be this materialistic. Like, maybe last year we gave Santa the okay to go a bit overboard with the presents since we love Ryan so much and felt he deserved it. Maybe we planted the seed, along with the multiple ads for toys he watches daily on TV, since he never really wanted all of this stuff in excess before? Could be that or it could be that he's getting older or it could be that he's bored with what he has? Who knows? No matter what's the cause, I feel like I need to nip the excess wanting of material things in the but sooner rather than later.

My thoughts on how to handle the situation are to ask him what he really, truly wants and go from there. Wish me luck because who knows how it's going to go come Christmas Day.

Pets and children...

Ryan and Gumball!

The idea for this post is the result of my son’s craziness this morning with our pooch, the mighty Gumball who is a 9 pound white Maltese that just wants to sit and chew his bone. However, Ryan just doesn’t want to let that happen. Instead, he wants to play “Jurassic Park” and act like the mighty T-Rex, running after Gumball to see if he can catch and eat him. Most of the time, our dog is able to scamper away and escape to safety under the kitchen table. Other times, Ryan is able to catch him and they tussle playfully on the living room floor for a bit with Gumball finding himself lifted three feet in the air waiting for the ordeal to end. Ryan will let him go after few moments and typically, the process will start all over again.

As a parent, I let this circle of death, I mean fun, happen for a little while until I can tell that Gumball is completely fed up and ready to bite Ryan’s arm off. So, I intervene asking Ryan to stop because Gumball’s going to bite him. Ryan says no, he’s fine, they can keep playing. I up my game and instead of asking, tell Ryan to stop. He again says no, he’s fine, and that they can keep playing. Finally, I tell Ryan to stop and before I can get the word out, Gumball yelps in pain since Ryan squished his neck, he tries to retaliate against Ryan with a chomp, misses, but gets a decent scratch in. Ryan says Gumball is mean, I tell Ryan he should have stopped, he says whatever, and then tries to go back to playing. I mean, God forbid he learns anything from what just happened, mind you it happens almost every day. At that point, I put an end to the “fun” and Ryan stomps off to his bedroom mad that he can’t continue making the dog's life hell, wait I mean, playing with the dog. :)

What’s the point of this rant you ask? Well for one, I wanted to get all of the above off my chest since I needed to vent about the crazy. With that being said, I guess my point is as parents, it’s our responsibility to keep our children in check and make sure they don’t treat a pet like a toy, just something they play with. A pet is a living, breathing thing and it’s my job to teach Ryan that fact. I think I’ve been doing a decent job of this so far, hopefully, Ryan will start catching on sooner rather than later for Gumball’s sake.

Let your kid pick their path on the playing field

One of the things that is at the core of my being is playing sports. When I was young, that's all you could find me doing. Sometimes I was at the gym shooting hoops, other times I was out on the softball/baseball field, and then there were the times I would be in the backyard throwing the football with my dad. In short, I'm a sports freak and let's be honest, I want my son, Ryan, to be a sports freak too.

There is one problem with wanting your kid to be a sports freak too, you want your them to love the same sports that you love and so far, my son isn't quite taking to all the sports that I love. For example, this past spring when my husband, Dave, and I asked Ryan if he wanted to play baseball again, he wasn't all that excited. In fact, he was a bit pouty about it. I was kind of bummed to say the least since I like baseball and watching him on the ball field. So we asked him if he wanted to play something else like soccer and he was like, "Yeah, I want to play soccer!" And, he loved it. Every week, he ran around the field with a big grin on his face and was pumped every time he scored a goal. I never thought I would like watching my little man play soccer, but I did. Seeing him happy, like he was dribbling the ball below, was all that mattered. 

Ryan dribbling the ball on the soccer field. 

This fall, we gave him the option of playing three different sports at the Y and before we could even spit out the options, he said, "I want to play basketball." Now, that made me happy since I love the roundball and had a lot of fun last winter seeing him play. Anyway, we told him that basketball wasn't an option until the winter and this time around, he could play soccer, football, or tennis. Immediately, he said tennis and now, we're going to have a tennis player in the family, well, at least for the fall session anyway. We even tried it out over the weekend and so far, he loves it. And to be honest, I don't mind playing it too. 

Ryan hitting the tennis court over the weekend!

So, you might be thinking, what's the point of all this rambling about kids playing sports and not playing the sports you as parents might like? Well, the point is, your kid is their own little person, they have their own likes and dislikes, their own hopes and dreams, and what they decide is not up to you. It's up to them and only them. Don't push them, don't make them do something that they don't want to do. 

You have to let them pick their own path and if in the end my son doesn't like sports at all, so be it. I want him to be happy and if that's on the playing field, great. If it's on the stage playing on instrument, great. If it's behind a computer, great. 

Basically, whatever he wants to do in the future that is productive is fine with me. In the meantime, we're going to let him try all the sports, and other activities, that he wants because life is about exploring and having a fun time doing it! 

It's been six years ...

You read that right, it's been six years since I've become a mom and a lot has happened, changed, and rearranged!

My son is now a walking, talking little human that has become a little version of my sarcastic self. I mean, he went from this:

To this:

Like, how crazy is that???? Right???? Well, I guess it's really not all that crazy because life doesn't stand still, life is always moving forward and there isn't anything that any of us can do to stop it. Okay, one thing and that is the opposite of life, but let's not make this blog post a depressing one.

Anyway, back to what I said about things constantly changing. My family and I have been through a lot in Ryan's six years of life. We moved multiple times, my husband Dave had some serious health issues and we almost lost him, we had to put our old dog to sleep and Ryan thinks the dog just moved (yes, we will tell Ryan at some point the truth), we got a new dog, Dave's health problems returned and then went away again, and really, I could write on and on about what we've been through.

What's my point? My point is, we all have a story, we've all been through something and I've decided, it's time for me to start writing about my something and share my story again. I'm excited to get going again and I hope you are too!

Wow, time flies!

Six years ago, I first started this blog. And yes, I've neglected it. But, it's time to start sharing my story and my parenting journey once again. 

My little man isn't so little anymore and things have been wild, crazy, fun, scary, and more crazy since he's been born. Our family has been through a lot and I'm ready to get back on the blog writing saddle once again. 

So stay tuned, things are going to pick up soon!