Time must have wings, because it flies

They say time flies when you’re having fun. I think it also flies when you have too much stress and more to do than you have time or money! Seems time flew by after Christmas. The kids and I have been having a lot of fun. In December I was able to use up my saved paid time off and had most of the Saturdays off. It was so much fun to get that extra day in. I haven’t blogged about the kids in a while and just want to catch up.

(pictured left) The kids at our new ward.

Madison has been wearing glasses for almost a year now. Her stigmatism is doing much better. The newness of glasses didn’t take long to wear off. She is my best child and worst! When she’s good she is good. She can be so helpful and sweet and nice to her brothers. Refraining from negativity, I’ll leave out the dark side. She is struggling in school. Frankly, I believe a lot of her early learning problems may be attributed to her farsightedness. I don’t think she could see the papers on her desk clearly. She is having a hard time keeping up at her grade level with reading. Amazingly though, she can memorize like crazy. I told her she just needs to start memorizing words instead of reading. I actually did that. That’s why I spell so well...that and reading the dictionary.

She always wants to have girl time; but that’s hard to do when you only have all three kids for half the week. Her athletic ability has been surprising. I was afraid she was going to take after me. We were at Jaymi’s house when I saw her throw a baseball. My mom, an expert softball player in her day, was really surprised at her aim and distance. The first and second graders run together for P.E. sometimes. Madison and Porter said she was very far ahead of everyone. She can run really fast. Sometimes she just likes to have talks with me. She seems like she has a lot going on in her head.

All About My Family

She said she has a hard time making friends and didn’t know what to do. She was almost in tears because she said she tries to play with people and they always leave to do something else.  I don’t think they are doing that necessarily, I just think she is insecure. I asked her if we could talk to Porter and have him help her make friends. Porter said he would find her at recess and, “…get her some friends.” He did. She’s been really happy about it now and feels a lot better. She worries so much about feeling accepted. Even in her class, she feels left out. She is interested in taking gymnastics. She watched Toddlers and Tiaras yesterday and has now decided she wants to be in pageants.

She has a very intuitive spiritual side. She asked me if we could start reading scriptures at night again. She was so cute yesterday explaining to the boys how she felt such a strong spirit when she went into Relief Society with me. She said it was really strong, and you could really feel it! She always likes to make sure she has her CTR ring on and she always volunteers to pray. She made the book cover pictured for school. Her writing isn't very clear, but it's titled, "All About My Family." She drew a picture of four stick figures. One has "mom" above it and the others have an initial for each of the kids.

Porter and Lane at Chuck E Cheese

Porter and Madi are in a conspiracy. When Madi is sweet, Porter is moody. He’s been having a really rough time. I think the moving back and forth is starting wear. He is a brainiac with my phone and computer. The kid is a whiz. He is also excelling in school. His reading is above average and he loves math and science. He makes friends everywhere he goes. He told me he is going to be a doctor so that he can make lots of money and give it to me. I told him to be what he wants so he will love his job. He said, in that case he would like to be a fireman. He and Lane are thick as thieves. Those two boys love each other to death. When Porter cries, which he has been doing a lot lately, Lane will hug him and say, “It’s gonna be okay, Porter.” He finally got his cast off and was so excited. I think he thought it was fun at first, but not having a hand wasn’t any fun.

My favorite threesome.

Yesterday, I was at my wits end with Porter. He just had a really bad day. He spilled oatmeal all over the kitchen floor. He cried almost nonstop. He tried to pull a towel off the counter—it was under several big bowls and dishes that were drying. He broke one of my favorite bowls. It has a matching bowl, so I guess at least I still have one. Porter almost cried over that. I had to tell him I knew he didn’t do it on purpose. He said, “Mom, you always say it’s okay because you love me more than that bowl.” I usually say that when they break something I want to scream about. I said that to him last summer when he dropped my phone on the sidewalk and shattered it. I can’t remember what else he did. I want to block out that day. He wants to learn to sing and dance and play the guitar. He got to talk to my friend who is a professional singer and he was really excited about that. His advice was to learn the piano first so he could learn the notes.

Lane is my little sweetheart. He is the only one that is always happy. He helps and loves to do dishes. He is the neutral party when the twinners start fighting. Although, sometimes he gets downright mean. This morning at breakfast he told me he thought Porter was stronger than Madison. I asked why and he said because I bent Porter’s finger all the way back and he didn’t even cry. When I did it to Madi she started crying. He also punched Madison in the stomach yesterday. He said, “What? I didn’t know it was going to hurt.” I’m not sure yet if he doesn’t realize what he is doing or is playing innocent. He does not like to be wrong or do something wrong. He lies when I catch him. I’m trying to break him of that. On Mondays, we get to spend the day together while the kids are in school. He always says, “Mom, let’s have cuddle time.” Even though it’s only one day a week, I am really going to miss that when he is in school.

He is so polite. He says thank you for everything. He will say thank you for cleaning the house, mom. Or thank you for getting us food. Thanks for cuddling with me, mom. He always likes to get my door whether it’s at the house, a restaurant, or just for the car. He will get mad at me and say, “Mom! You didn’t let me get your door!” He wants to learn to play the piano just because Porter does. He unfortunately, pees the bed a lot. Sad thing is, he didn’t start until we separated. I just go easy on him, because I know it’s a residual of having to deal with the divorce.

We went to St. George for a three day weekend. It was so much fun to get out of this wretched city. We got to visit Jaymi and Kim and the kids had fun with their cousins. Lane was in love with little Emma (Jaymi’s girl.) He thought she was the cutest thing he’s ever seen. He wanted to know if we could have one. He liked Kim’s chubby little Grant, but he is a little older and didn’t sit still like Emma.  

Plus he would scream and cry in terror when he would look at me. The first time I held him he just looked at me in shock. I said, “What’s the matter? Do I look like your mom? Do you think she’s gotten old and wrinkled on you?” He started screaming. Every time after that he would start screaming when I looked at him. I wish we could live there again. I have friends, family, support, smaller town, better jobs, lower cost of living, but other than that….Vegas is just dandy.