Cookie Mirigal

Last Sunday the muppets had a day off school, the final PD day of the year. The excitement of having a long weekend filled our house at 5:30 am and the muppets announced they were not going to get out of their pyjamas at all that day. I waited an hour to ruin their dream after I had piled their breakfast plates with pancakes and filled their cups with smoothies. I explained that we needed to go and get fitted for suits for my sisters wedding in a few weeks. There were a couple moans but not too much discontent, and they happily ate breakfast talking about the birthday party that the oldest had been to the night before. The oldest had brought back 5 cookies to share with the family and I had suggested that they eat them the following day.

I could hear them plotting something in the kitchen as I sat at my computer drinking my smoothie. The oldest muppet was encouraging the middle guy to go and ask me something “She always says yes to you” he whispered, “Just say it in your sweet voice” they debated back and forth a little bit more and then the middle guy shuffled out of the kitchen. “Mummy” he said sweetly “Could we have our cookies from Rhysie’s party after breakfast?” I told him they could but they had to eat everything on their plates first. His face broke in to a smile and he skipped back to the kitchen “Its a mirigal guys she says yes!” The oldest muppet laughed and asked what a “Mirigal” was the middle guy explained that it was something that never ever happened and when it did it was a mirigal, like when Jesus was alive on Easter… mirigal!

The oldest muppet burst in to giggles, “I think you mean a miracle” he said between laughs, “That is what I said!” replied the middle guy seriously “A mirigal” I walked in to the kitchen and started to clean up, the oldest looked over at me and rolled his eyes and shook his head. I sat down at the table with the three of them, and went on to tell them that each of them have had words that they could not say properly. I explained that the oldest muppet had his own language until he was almost 4, that we used to call Rhyslish. We would have to repeat everything he said and if we said the word wrong he would get really really mad, they all giggled uncontrollably when I told them the words the oldest used to say. Then the middle and youngest muppet begged me to tell them all words that they used to say wrong too. I watched each of their faces light up when as I told their stories, all three laughed and lightened to each of the stories that I had to share, they love it when I talk about when they were babies.

When breakfast was over they each cleared their plates and grabbed a cookie off the counter. The middle guy was the last to grab his, he gave me a big hug and said “Thanks for the cookie miracle Mum, it is a good way to start the day” he skipped out of the kitchen and joined his brothers on the couch.

I sighed and continued my kitchen clean up. A little part of me is sad every time they figure out how to say a word they have been mispronouncing right, it just means that they are growing up a little bit more and that little part of me doesn’t like it at all.

The Working Princess

At the beginning of the school year I sat down with all of the muppets. I had to go to a parent orientation that evening and meet each of their teachers, also on that night there was a sign up sheet to be the class room Mom. The year before I was the middle guys class mom and he begged me to do it again for this school year. I explained to him that since I had volunteered in his class last year that it was only fair that I choose one of the other boys. The crying and begging that happened after this made me seriously consider being class Mom for all three muppets at the same time. But the nagging voice in the back of my head telling me how crazy that would be made me choose just one of them. That night when I met the oldest muppets teacher I instantly liked her, I had a feeling that she wouldn’t be too demanding or have crazy expectations of the class Mom so I signed up to help her out for the year. The other two muppets were devastated but I assured them that I would be there to help out with other things in their classrooms through-out the year.

As the year progressed I ended up helping out in the youngest muppets class, playing games and reading stories with the kids. I was wrangled in to helping out with costumes for the second grade musical, worked with the school on designs for their 25th Anniversary and I had joined a committee at the school that helped plan one of the biggest school fundraisers for the year. There was a point that I felt like I was living at the school, I had a permanent table in the high school cafeteria where I would sit with my computer and the guys at the coffee shop knew my order before I had to say it. I joked around with one of the teachers that they were going to have to give me my own office soon. She laughed and then asked me why I didn’t just apply to work there. It did make sense, I was spending a lot of time there and I enjoyed the environment, if I could get paid to be there then why not.

A few months went by and a job position opened up in the Elementary Office that I thought I would enjoy. As I sat down to update my resume which I hadn’t used in over ten years, I was over whelmed trying put something together that didn’t look like I had been a “Stay at Home Mom”  for almost a decade. When I hit the submit button on the website I wanted to throw up, my confidence levels were not up to par and I was sure that they wouldn’t give my application a second glance. Needless to say when I received a call from the HR department two hours later wanting to set up an interview for the following day I was in shock! Later that day I picked the muppets up from school, as soon as we got home the middle guy and the youngest were out on the street playing with friends.

The oldest guy put his bag away and sat down at the table for a snack, I sat down with him and we both told each other about our day. I told the oldest about the job interview that I had the next day and how nervous I was about it. He smiled at me as he took a bite of his cookie and said “Mum you do some much for the school and everyone loves you there Ms V said so, they would be dumb not to hire you.” He finished his snack and gave me a big hug and went out to play with his brothers. The following day with a confidence boost from the oldest and the support of my loving husband, I had my interview and after a few weeks of cross training they had offered me a contract.

So next school year this Princess will be working full time! It is a new and daunting adventure for me and will be a big adjustment for our family not having me at home all day but I think it will be good. To all of you working Moms out there I think you are amazing I have only been working part time for 3 weeks and I am feeling over whelmed. I hope that I will be able to find a way to balance it all out 😉

Rocking Him to Sleep

When the first muppet was born I broke all the rules that you were “suppose” to keep with a new born. I nursed and rocked him to sleep, I let him fall asleep on me all the time and when his father when to work early in the morning I would bring him back to our bed to sleep with me just to get a few extra hours. As he grew bed times got a little harder, I was so over the rocking him to sleep thing and started to think about self soothing. Every book I read had a different trick and every mother you spoke to gave me advice on what to do. It seemed like once we figured something out something new would happen, we would have to travel somewhere, he would be sick or I would be too exhausted to carry out the plan so we would revert back to our old bad habits.

When I was pregnant with the second muppet I decided that I wanted to have the big guy (who was only 18 months at the time) settled in to a big boy bed before the new baby came. I had vowed that we would never again slip in to bad sleeping habits. Our first few weeks in the “big boy bed” were a success, I really thought I had won the sleep battle but slowly the oldest muppet started to wear me down again. Every night I would lay with him until he fell asleep. I would listen to his breathing start to slow and deepen and make a little move to see if he was on his way to dream land. Most nights his eyes would fly open and ask me where I was going, I would reluctantly lay back down and start the process over again. With ninja like stealth I would attempt to get out of the bed with out waking the oldest muppet and once the door was closed behind me I would sigh in relief and pray that he would sleep for at least four hours straight.

These days bed time is easy, we read a story, brush teeth and all cuddle in to the oldest and middle guys bed. Once hugs and kisses are giving all that is left to say is “I love you all in your hearts” and they are off to dreamland. Some nights there are a few more giggles coming from the room then others but for the most part they are really good. Last night the oldest muppet was wound up, his youngest brother was bugging him about not liking spiders and I had been on his back for not listening very well and yelling at his brother. After I tucked them all in I settled on the couch to decompress for a bit, after 15 mins I heard the door to their bedroom open and the oldest muppet made his way down stairs. He was upset about a book that he had read at school about Big Foot, the Locness Monster and other creatures that people thought to be real.

I calmed him down and told him to think about other things that made him happy, we made a list together of all the things that made him super happy and then he made his way back upstairs. Another 20 minutes later and he was back down the stairs, looking more frightened then ever, he was breathing rapidly and would not calm down. I asked him what he needed me to do to help him feel safe, he told me that he really just wanted to sleep so maybe if I cuddled him in bed he would be able to fall asleep. I walked him back up stairs and crawled in to bed with him, his arms wrapped around me tightly and I told him to take some deep breaths and relax. A few minutes later his grip started to loosen and I could tell that he was starting to fall in to a deep sleep. I could have got up right then at the moment but I didn’t, I laid there with my first baby in my arms listening to his breathing thinking about all of the times that I had done this before, sleep deprived and impatient and wondered if this time was going to be the last time I rocked him to sleep.

 

Reading Buddy

I picked up the youngest muppet at school today as always he was full of stories on the way to the truck. He told me that he had a note in his book bag from his friend wanting a play date and two new library books to read. Then he stopped in his tracks “Oh Mama guess what happened today?” He said excitedly. “Ryder came to my class and read me a story!” I had forgotten that the middle guy was going to be making an appearance in the youngest muppets class today. I asked him how it was to have his big brother share his story to his class. “I was proud Mama” he said with a smile “His story was really good and one day I want to write a story like him.”

It was so cute and when I got home from picking up the other two muppets later that afternoon there was a nice picture in my inbox from one of the teachers. Made my day and made me a proud mama!

Butt Rainbows

The middle muppet is my little sweet heart he is also my lover of sweets!! He is the first one finished his halloween candy, always ready for a second piece of cake and he knows that if he asks for a sweetie no one can say no to him! This weekend we went to the mall to watch their dad play hockey. It was a play off game and the muppets were super pumped to see their father in action and excited about the potential of eating mall food for lunch.

The four of us sat at the tables and watched the game for about 10 minutes before the oldest muppet said he was hungry. I got in to the never ending line up at Hardees, ordered them each a kids meal and decided that I would score extra points with them and let them have pop with their meal. The middle guy was extremely happy about this and asked me if maybe we could get ice cream after the game. I told him probably not today since it was a thousand degrees outside and he didn’t really need more junk. His face fell “You make Ry Ry sad” he said trying not to giggle, I laughed and told him that I couldn’t make Ry Ry happy all the time because too much happiness could cause him to explode. I winked at him and he started giggling, “What would happen mum?” he asked smiling. I told him that if I gave in to all his wishes he would explode with happiness and I was pretty sure rainbows would start shooting out of his bum.

Well he lost it and starting laughing uncontrollably, and then decided to make a game of it. He would ask me for something like a sweet, or cake or gum and I would just say the words “Rainbows… butt” and it was the most hilarious thing in the world. We arrived home after the game and as we walked in to the house he said to me “You can’t really explode with too much happiness can you mum?” I giggled and told him that is couldn’t really happen. He smiled in relief and said “That was the funniest thing I have heard in a long time Mum, I think I will be laughing about that for a good week, I sure hope that there are no rainbows coming out of my butt!”