Wordless Wednesday: Bathtime

Windex...Yum!

To my kids, Windex is like crack. They can't get enough of it. Her Highness has outgrown her addiction but The Conqueror is reveling in his. He loves, loves, loves licking windows and all glass surfaces to taste the squeaky goodness that is Windex.

We spent this afternoon with my parents at their home and my son was allowed to sit on the dining room table, which is incidentally covered with glass. (See where this is going?) Well, he soon figured out that it had recently been cleaned and leaned over and licked the surface. He then begins crawling across the table but I grabbed his leg and pulled him back. As he was pulled across the slick glass, he left a slobbery trail the size of his ten month old tongue in his wake. Classy, huh?

The good news for me is I don't clean. So, our surfaces are rarely freshly Windexed so I don't have to worry about the little fiend getting his tongue stuck to a window like the kid on A Christmas Story did to the flagpole.

A Good Day

Yesterday, RxMan and I took Her Highness, The Conqueror and my niece to a local pumpkin patch. The weather here in southeastern Ohio was lovely: around 70 degrees and cloudless skies. It was truly a perfect day for being out in nature.

There was a corn maze, hay ride, sand box, slides and petting zoo. I was a little disturbed by the petting zoo, though. It consisted of three bunnies, 2 pigs, 2 donkeys and a sheep and a goat. All of the animals but the bunnies could run away but these poor little rabbits were stuck in their cages at the mercy of all the little kids who reached in a dragged them out. That seemed a little inhumane to me and I am not really a person who gets worked up over animal rights or anything of that nature. Of course, my indignation didn't stop me from getting them out and passing them around to the children with me. Hmmn. I guess I'm being a bit of a hypocrite, aren't I?

It is days like yesterday that make me proud to be a mother. My children were well-behaved. I didn't berate or scold RxMan in public (that I recall). Her Highness didn't melt down about, well, anything. A good time was had by all.

What Do I Have To Complain About?

I spend a lot of time worrying and complaining about the state of things right now in my life. The Conqueror has decided he will go into newborn-mode and get up every two or three hours at night. I guess he just wants to mix things up a little; keep me on my toes. (Or, show me who's boss!) I feel like I am neglecting Her Highness because she is seven and simply not as needy as the boy is. RxMan's having a lot of stress at work and then the lack of sleep we are getting at night is a concern I have for him. His job is such that there is no room for error and I worry that he will make a mistake that could really harm someone.

But what do I really have to complain about?

I have a nice home. A loving, wonderful husband who would do anything for me or my children. RxMan works so hard so I can stay home and be with TC and HH. He is so encouraging about my course work and the time I need to do it. He even lets me go back to bed in the morning so I can rest for a little bit when the boy has been up several times in the night. I am a truly blessed person to have such support from him because I know many don't have that.

I also have two children, who are healthy and perfect in every way. Her Highness is smart and nice. She makes friends everywhere she goes. She is talented. She is polite and such a help with her little brother. Less importantly, she is so pretty. Even when she was a wee baby, RxMan and I were stopped by strangers telling us how beautiful she was/is. I always wanted a daughter and am so glad that HH is the one I got.

Then there is The Conqueror. There is a reason I dubbed him this when I began blogging some time ago. He is a force to be reckoned with, that is for certain. He will not conform to any set of schedules or rules that I set down. Oh, no. He is a dude with an agenda and will of his own. He brings out a side of me that I don't much like sometimes. His stubbornness and unwillingness to conform to my ideals makes me feel frustrated and defeated; I feel like I have somehow failed as a mother a lot of times. But, I also have found a new way to love someone. He and I are so much closer than HH and I were at this point, thanks, in part, to breastfeeding and no post-partum depression this time (thank God!).

So, for all the sniveling I do on these pages, I know that I am truly one lucky, blessed person. I have everything I want in my beautiful family and thought today was a perfect day to remind my self of it.

Burning Question

So, The Conqueror is seven months old today! Somedays it feels as though he has always been in our lives. Other days, I am still forgetting to sign his name on greeting cards. As he slowly approaches that one year mark, the burning question is often posed: "So, Toni, are you having more?" I vehemently answer, "NO! This child is killing me!"

But how do you really know if you are done having children? My friend, Allie, once told me that when she could hold a baby and not wish it were hers was a sign. My friend Steph says that she would still love to have a baby and that The Conqueror makes her feel squishy inside but she wants independence from her own two girls more than a baby (I should mention, too, that Steph and her husband are still on the fence about a third- well, the hubby is). My other friend Andrea and my SIL (who went the medical route to guarantee they were done) dealt with it in numbers: "Well, I've got two healthy ones of my own, how many more could one person want?"

Can I 100% percent say I am definitely done having children? No. But, I can say with 85% certainty that I am done. I, unlike some, detest being pregnant. I am not cute. I do not glow. I sweat. And puke. And swell. And have to do crappy tests like pee in a bucket for 24 hours (I know, ew, gross!). I can never get enough rest. And I am scared of my OB; it is like going to the principal's office- you know, in elementary school when he still seems like a prison warden.

Would I love to have another child? Yes. I would love to have another daughter (whom I would name Grace, without question). As much as I love The Conqueror, I think there is something magical about girls. Maybe it is the bows, ribbons, mary janes and dresses. Maybe it is the fact that, in my family, the most sought after organ is the penis and the birth of my brother was hailed as if The Messiah had been born once more.

The problem with having another child is that I don't desire to be pregnant, have surgery and go through the first 6-8 weeks of breastfeeding again. Oh, I know that formula is okay but because RxMan and I have crappy genes, bfing is the only way for our kids to have a fighting shot at a not quite miserable childhood. (I am definitely not a breastfeeding nazi. To each her own.)

So, until RxMan and I get $30K, which is the approximate cost of adopting a child from China, that we don't need for anything else, we are a two child family. I am completely okay with that. I was absolutely fine with Her Highness being an only child if God chose not to bless us with TC.

So, to answer your question, no, we are not having any more children. Probably....I think.....More likely than not....