misadventures

Today I was attempting to have 2 minutes to myself, as I went into the bathroom to pee. (I know. Clearly I was delusional!) Of course, as soon as I sat down, I heard:

"Mom! MAMA!!! MAAAAAAAA-MAAAA!!!!!! WHERE ARE YOUUUUUUU?? MAMA!! MAMAAAAAAA!!!!"
"I'll be right there, Colin! Hang on!"
"MOM! MAMA! MOOOOOOOOMMMMMMEEEEEEEEE!!!! Mom!!!!!! MOM! MOM! MOM! MOM! MOM!"

I rushed out of the bathroom and said something very kind and patient and loving, like "WHAT!??!"

He looks at me and says, "I missed you" and opened up his arms for a hug.

Its had to get mad when he has an answer like that.

…its just my son.

*sigh*

Ever since Christmas, Colin has had issues. He is super grumpy and acting like a total brat. (And I say that with love, of course.) I'm exhausted from dealing with him! He certainly has his moments when he is brimming with sweetness, but they are few and far between.

Like this morning when I was making breakfast, he was informing me he don't wike eggs, he don't wike bacon, he don't wike juice, he don't wike pineapple, he don't wike toast, etc.(But of course, he ate it all when it was put in front of him.)

He also no longer likes his carseat, his bed, baths, sharing, eating meals at the table, shoes, milk, and wearing a coat.

He only wants to sleep in our bed, he only wants to eat junk, he only wants to watch his new "fav-wit moovee" (favorite movie), he only wants to sit in my lap for 23 hours a day. He's also slipped on ice and scraped his leg and his hand, gotten his finger pinched, fallen down the stairs and gotten his finger pinched again.

He's totally exhausted (due to the not sleeping thing), but his behavior is requiring a lot of attention and the poor kid has been in time out practically since we got home! Today I was able to put on shoes again, so we're heading to the grocery store with my grumpy boy.

I'm sure this will be super fun!

Last Saturday, we drove up to Boston to visit Nick's grandmother. His grandfather passed away earlier this month and a few of the grandkids who were unable to get up there for the memorial service headed up this past weekend. It was a bittersweet time of seeing our beloved family, who all live much too far away, and saying goodbye to Nick's grandmother's home. She is moving to a nursing home and her house will be going on the market. As you can imagine, it is quite an emotional time for the family, as they saw goodbye to this home that has been a part of their lives for so long. It was hard to leave her to head home.

We drove home on Tuesday (which for some reason seemed to take much longer than the ride up, Thank you, Connecticut Department of Transportation!) and everyone promptly got sick. Of course my mom and sister are here, so thus continues our tradition of spreading germs to the nice people who come and visit us. I know there is something going around, but with all of us totally exhausted from a crazy weekend, it hit us really hard. My husband is the sickest of all of us – poor guy. Not the funest way to spend Thanksgiving!

Not that I let that stop me from eating half  my weight yesterday 🙂 Luckily my mom was here to help with the cooking. Plus, the lovely folks at Swiss Colony had sent me some yummy treats so we had some food already prepared for us to nibble on all day. Just because we were sick, doesn't mean we can eat toffee! We're not dead or anything 😉

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I'll be back on Monday. Hopefully NOT sick!

This morning, I was downstairs in my bathrobe pouring that first cup of sweet, sweet, nectar coffee, and my husband who had just gone outside to check on the bunny said, "Melissa, come out here for a minute."

I knew something was wrong.

The bunny was gone. GONE. Cage door hanging open and no sign of the bunny. Gone.

Despite our trying to be discreet, the kids immediately figured out something was going on and burst into tears. We assured them that Violet was probably just being silly and playing hide and seek under the shed, not to worry, go say a prayer and eat your breakfast while Mommy and Daddy go find that silly bunny.

Meanwhile, we were watching the rush hour traffic zoom down our street, remembering the fox we had seen waking through our backyard just yesterday, realizing that our bunny just is not the smartest bunny in the world and realizing that – if we were lucky – we'd never find this bunny. If we weren't – we'd find the fox's leftovers.

So at 7:00 in the morning, we pulled on coats over our pajamas and were wandering around our yard yelling for a bunny who probably doesn't know her own name and hates us and probably was proposely trying to stay lost.

Then – you are not going to believe this – WE FOUND HER. I saw a flash of white out of the corner of my eye diving under the car. She was hiding behind the wheels of the car!  So everyone who drove down our street this morning, got to see our pajama-clad butts sticking up as we tried for the next 20 minutes to get the &%#$ bunny out from under the &%#$ car.

We finally caught her and got the &%#$ squirming. kicking bunny back in the &%#$ cage.

The kids are thrilled. And we are of course grateful to God that our bunny miraculously survived the night and didn't run away, get run over or eaten.

But if anyone is looking for a pet bunny, I might have the perfect one for you.

…that say "We survived the Stomach Bug 2010." Sounds like I could sell a ton.

Gracie had it on Monday, then Ellie fell Thursday.  And on Friday night, I was the lucky one. And Colin was sick with a 102 fever. And – did I forget to mention this again – my husband was in Europe. Whee.

Being sick sucks, but being sick when your a parent and you're by yourself with three kids is pretty brutal. Especially when its sick with a particularly, um, violent strain of the stomach bug. Especially when one or more of those kids is sick as well and needs care. I got approximately 2 hours of sleep this weekend.

My favorite moment? Hard to choose. How about when I was in the bathroom throwing up and Colin was banging on the door yelling that he wanted the CARS cereal bowl, not the ELMO cereal bowl. (I'll get right on that, Sweetie.) Or when I discovered Colin sitting in his bed eating Children's Tylenol. (Yet another call to poison control.) Or maybe when I pulled something in my shoulder while sleeping in Colin's toddler bed with him and then could no longer move my neck to the left. Or maybe I'll just go with all the throwing up in general. Cause that was definitely a high point.

But before we never ever ever speak of this again, can I get a big shout out to my girl Ellie who stepped up and was an unbelievable blessing to me! She got up with her siblings, made breakfast all by herself, cleaned her room (and vacuumed) and generally entertained her brother and sister for me while I was laying on the floor of the bathroom for 12 hours. She was amazing.

And thanks to all of you locals who offered to bring ginger ale and saltines to my door. I really appreciate it!! I'd give you a big kiss, but I'd be afraid to pass this on.

*****

We pulled it together by Sunday, though and were able to go trick-or-treating!  (Much to the kids relief!) We had an adorable little lion:

Not to mention a leopard and a butterfly:

*****

Does everyone like the new design? See there are good thing about laying in bed all weekend. You can finally install your new blogs!

A few other new things:
I've added two new writer to my fashion blog, b*Stylish! Go say hi to Laura and Nicole!  Laura's first post is up today.  I'm so excited to have these fashionistas on board. Since you might occasionally want to read about something without ruffles 😉
I'm not sure I mentioned it here, but also say hi to Karen and Ceceila who are contributing to Thoroughly Modern Mommies!

Colins newest thing?

Running up to me, leaning in close…

and wiping his nose on my clothes.

SIGH

When we did the Rumpled to Runway fashion show, we got to check out the Electrolux Perfect Steam Washers and Dryers. They were very pretty – shiny, with  lots of buttons and pretty colors… but what impressed me the most – besides the fact that they make ironing pretty much obsolete, which is AWESOME – is that they have the shortest wash-to-dry time. It takes just 36 minutes to wash AND dry your clothes. And BOY was I ready to go out and buy one this morning.

My washer and dryer takes approximately 90 minutes. (Mainly because I have to run my dryer about three times to get the clothes dry. We are the very pinnacle of green living over here in our house.)  While this is fairly annoying to me and our electric bill, it is particularly traumatic for one family member. Once a week or so, I wash Colin's blankey. And we have to wait 90 drama-filled minutes to get it back.

This was taken just this morning, as he sat in front of the washer for 20 minutes crying while blankey "took a bath."

Then – oh, it gets worse – then he has to witness me taking blankey out of the washer and – oh the horror – putting the wet blankey in the dryer. He cannot understand why it needs to go into another machine. For an even longer time.

He decided to leave the laundry room after this and cry in the kitchen for another 20 minutes while I cleaned up from breakfast:

After about 20 minutes, he stopped crying. And followed me around the house asking, "Bay-bank done now? Bay-bank done now? Mama? Done? Bay-bank? Mama? Done now?" for the next 30 minutes.

I finally cracked and took the blanket out of the dryer while it was still damp because I JUSTCOULDN"TTAKEITANYMORE and gave it to him. A sweet reunion followed.

And all is right with the world again. Poor baby. Maybe we should get him a new washer and dryer for his birthday. He's probably be thrilled.

this is not a sponsored post. i just was dreaming of a new washer and dryer this morning...