Mustard Meltdown

Tuesday afternoon was a complete disaster for the Mays. It was just one of those days where I just couldn't catch a break. Nolan is going to play t-ball this fall for the first time. His first practice was on Tuesday night. We had also purchased tickets for the fall dinner at his school. It was going to be hard to make it to both events; but since we had already spent $20 on the tickets I wanted to go. I left work a little early so that I could get home, get Nolan dressed, iron t-shirts for the boys and Scott. (so he could just run by home change and meet us at the field) and pack us up. I pulled out two camping chairs, made ice water bottles for the whole family, packed snacks and toys to keep Hud occupied and charged the battery for the camera. We had movies that were due back at Blockbuster by 7pm so I asked Nolan to grab his movie and I got mine and we loaded up the car. I drove up to Blockbuster only to realize that Nolan just grabbed the case without the movie. Ugh! No time to go back so we just headed on to practice. Since this was our first practice, we weren't exactly sure where we would be setting up. The coach said he would probably be at end of the park next to the horses. I pulled right up and got a great spot. I unloaded everything and let Hudson walk with us out to the field. (it was the first time without the stroller) We didn't see a team of small players anywhere so we just kept walking... ALL the way down to the other end of the park. Apparently teams already had those spots so he had to just find a place. Once we walked up (mind you both of my arms are full of all the crap we needed) I realized that I didn't get Nolan's glove. OMG! That is the MOST important thing for t-ball practice. It never even crossed my mind. I was embarrassed for little Nolan who was the only kid without a glove. It worked out though because they just had the kids practice running the bases and batting during the first half. I had to call Scott and ask him to grab it. Practice went well, Nolan is learning the basics and his coach is great! After practice we loaded everything back up and went up to the school. Everyone was hungry, hot and tired. Scott said that he didn't really want to go and that it would probably be cold and picked over since it was already 6:30 and the dinner started at 5:30. I told him that the dinner was from 5:30 to 7:00 and that I was sure lots of families were just now getting there - especially those that work. Um, let's just say I was wrong, dead wrong. Scott was right on the money. I think that we were the last family to walk through the line and all they had left were cold hot dogs and flaming hot cheetos. Not good. Hudson had a meltdown as soon as he saw the hot dog. He hates hot dogs and wouldn't even touch it. Too make matters worse I had told him in the car that we were going to Nolan's school to eat sausage and french fries. (The kid will hardly eat meat but if we tell him that the burger is sausage we can usually get a few bites out of him.) Hudson started yelling "Sausage and French Fries - I no like hot dogs!" Scott was griping about how he knew we should have just cut our losses and gone home. I looked over at Nolan and his hot dog was gone and he was asking for more. (He seriously ate the dang thing before I could even get mustard on mine!) I thought, okay I will feed Hudson some cookies from the diaper bag for now and give Nolan his hot dog. BIG MISTAKE! Hudson started throwing an even bigger fit at the fact I had just taken his untouched food. Nolan was asking for more ketchup, Hudson threw himself onto the floor and Scott started in with an "I told you so" kinda remark. It was out of control!! I slammed my hand down on the table and hit the mustard packet - which then made mustard squirt out and fly across the table and land on Scott's shirt. It certainly wasn't on purpose but Scott's eyes got huge and he was instantly SO mad. Right then he got up from the table and said "That's it! I'm leaving, this is ridiculous! I knew we shouldn't have come!" I, of course followed it up with "Well good, just go!" He got up and left since we had two cars there. I couldn't believe he actually left but he did. I was SO mad. The PTA meeting was starting so I cleaned up our mess got us the heck out of there! Nolan was crying cause he hadn't finished his 2nd hot dog and I had to pick up Hudson off the ground and carry him out screaming. It was awful. Instead of being one of those moms, we were that family! (Becca said that to me when I told her the story!) When I got home Scott wasn't there. After feeding, bathing and putting the boys to bed he came home (about an hour later). I was so mad I didn't even speak to him. This is rare - even if I am mad I at least yell at him. But not that night I was TOO mad. I still had to take the stupid movie back to Blockbuster so I grabbed it and left. At 9:00 I was finally able to take a shower and then eat some cereal for dinner. Scott and I patched things up the next day after he listened to me scold and lecture him for an hour. He knew he was in trouble so he just took it. Of course he was extra sweet the rest of the week. Jerk. :)

Ava's 5th Birthday Party

We went to Ava's 5th birthday party at Pump-It-Up. Of course we had tons of fun! Nolan and Hudson just love Ava and Addison. It was a Cheetah Girls party and the cake was super cute. Hudson was so good at climbing through the tunnels and up the big ladder to the top of the slide. The kid has no fear! Nolan ran around like a crazy kid and begged Chris to play with him the whole time. I think he thinks Ava's daddy is just a bigger kid - ha ha! We always have a great time with the Kings and today was no exception. Happy B-day pretty girl!!

Kindergarten Heart-Throb!

It's hard being a boy mom. I came from a family of all girls and there are SO many issues that crop up about boys that I just don't know the best way to handle. Sometimes I feel sorry for Nolan because he has a mom that is clueless on boy stuff - but I'm trying! Just when I think that I have a handle on boys and boy stuff something new happens. :) Wednesday after school, Nolan tells me all about these two little girls Erin and Avery that like him. He said that they told him they love him and he doesn't know why. He got all red faced and embarrassed when he told me about it - lots of eye rolling and shrugging of shoulders. It was really funny because he was very serious. I was actually surprised that he told me. He said that Erin said that he is her boyfriend and then Avery said that it's okay to be her boyfriend because he is going to marry him when they grow up. It made me laugh. I just told him that girls are silly like that and to just ignore it.

Thursday when took Nolan to school I went inside with him because I needed to put money in his lunch account. (Not that he wants to use it yet but I wanted money to be in it in case he forgets his lunch or decides he wants to buy milk sometime.) I dropped him off at his designated table and walked over to the lunch ladies. When I came back just to tell him bye, a little girl walked up and said "Hi Nolan!" in this sweet little drawn out voice. He immediately huffed and rolled his eyes. I asked him who that was and he told me that was Avery. She came around the table and sat right across from him. I swear her backpack was bigger than she was! Her big brother was telling her to move because she was sitting in the wrong place. She told him to leave her alone and that she wanted to sit by Nolan. She then said "Hi Nolan's Mom!" (Very forward for a 5 year old, right?) I just smiled and talked to her for a second and then kissed Nolan good-bye and walked out. The funniest part was when I looked back and she was blowing him kisses from across the table and he was telling her to stop it. SO FUNNY! I hadn't really thought about girls liking Nolan already. I mean I remember chasing the boys on the playground and they could have cared less about girls! We had a form for the school directory and they asked for the student's home phone and email address. Seriously, I don't even know our home phone number and there certainly isn't a phone plugged into it. I of course put my cell phone and my email on the form and didn't think about that being an issue until today. What happens if little girls start calling my phone or even emailing me....CRAZY! What do parents do these days with their kids? Is this why they all have cell phones at 7? I guess we are going to have to plug a phone into the land line for them in a few years! At least I hope I have a few years and not a few weeks!

On Saturday we went to Ava's 5th b-day party at Pump It Up. On the way to the party Nolan said "Well, I'm not going to marry Ava anymore." I asked why and he reminded me because he has to marry Avery. Then like a true jerk guy he said "But I'm not gonna tell Ava that today. That would hurt her feelings and I wouldn't want to do that since it's her birthday." Right!!! It's like he's already been through teen guy training and knows the ropes. He will be that guy that breaks up with the girl right after Valentines or right after the holidays...so sad! We have always joked that we want the boys to marry our friends kids but now I am thinking twice about it...too much drama! Ha ha!

Wow - 9 Years!

Scott and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary yesterday. We have been together for 12 years which is just crazy! I can remember feeling like I had only known him for a short time of our lives. Most of our stories were about life before each other - that is certainly not the case now. I can barely remember things that happened before Scott. School seems SO long ago. My whole adult life has been with Scotty and what a life it's been! We have been through the best and the worst of times together. I love Scott, he is my perfect match and probably my complete opposite. We have the best of friends, a loving family and two amazing boys. We are both stubborn and bicker all the time; that's just part of life the the Mays'. (It actually makes me think of my grandparents who were married for 58 years.) He makes me laugh and keeps me on my toes for sure! We are passionate people whether it's for our children, our hobbies or our relationship - we work hard to make it work everyday. Scott understands me like no one else ever could - me, my feelings, our life. I am thankful everyday that he asked for my phone number all those years ago.

Loser!

Last week Scott and I were in the kitchen and we overheard Nolan call Hudson a loser. We both went into the living room and had a long talk with him about how he is not allowed to call anyone a loser. Not ten minutes later he got mad at Scott about something and called him one. He was immediately put in the corner and had TV and books taken away for the rest of the day. That seemed to do the trick and he did not say it again. Then this week on Wednesday Scott asked Nolan to do something and Nolan responded with "Okay Winner!" We were both just kinda stunned. Did he seriously just replace loser with winner? Good god. How do we even handle that? He has us on a technicality. Little smartie pants! Of course we both scolded him and explained that he could not call anyone anything other than their names. Can you imagine when he's a teenager?

What happened to this sweet baby?

Sunday Smackdown

Sunday started out great; I made breakfast for all my boys and then we cleaned house. Nolan vacuumed, Hudson picked up toys, Scott and I changed sheets, dusted and cleaned the bathrooms. Once everything was in order I was going to run to Kroger. I usually go when the Hudson takes a nap because he is not so good in the grocery store. He typically throws a fit to eat things the whole time. I am sure this sounds funny but believe me it's NOT. He started doing it at about 18 months. If I take him we have to avoid the produce section because he just doesn't understand why all that lovely fruit is just sitting out and he can't have it. I have left the store MANY times over because of this issue and just had to either check out with what I had or leave with nothing. I have written about Hudson's fits before but truly unless you have witnessed the action it's hard to explain how awful they really are. You know when you have been in a store and there has been that screaming kid on the other aisle and most of the time you can ignore this type of thing; but every once in a while there is that extra loud kid that has the pitch that you just can't ignore...that's my kid. Sucks, but it's true. Hudson just came out of the womb with a loud cry - I remember how cute it was when Nolan was a newborn and cried. It was so tiny and even though he was so mad and trying to be loud it was still so quiet. NOT HUDSON - he was the exact opposite. Between Hudson's puke and screaming, let's just say he has not been the easiest baby. :) It has been a few months since I attempted taking his to get groceries so I decided to try it again. BAD idea. We actually made it through the produce and bakery before our first the meltdown. We got the cart with the car on the front of it because he saw it and asked nicely for it. It is an awful thing to drive around the store because it's bigger and the cart is smaller but I agreed to it. The problem started when he wanted out of the car part but refused to get in the cart and get buckled. Oh my goodness - it was the loudest, most annoying, bratty scream ever! I was finally able to force him into the buggy but he was out of control and thrashing around. I tried to bribe him with blueberries - no luck. I even made a dash back for the toy aisle and he was already so worked up he refused to even pause or acknowledge them. After five straight minutes of screaming I gave up and went to check out. I had to much to just leave it plus meats from the deli. Gotta love Kroger for opening up another checkout lane and escorting me to the front of it. The manager even unloaded my groceries from the cart to the conveyer belt for me since Hudson had a death grip on me at this point and would just scream louder if I let him go. I could barely get my wallet out and check out. Once I did check out I was even escorted out of the store with a bag boy (which never happens anymore). Hudson continued to scream all the way out to the car and the kid had to load my groceries in the trunk so that I could force Hud into the car seat. Becca and I always swap "I love Kroger" stories and this one tops them all. I am sure it was because of their superior customer service skills and seeing a mother in distress - not their own agony that made them jump to the rescue. :) Our other "love" stories include getting a big bag of bruised produce for 50 cents (saving about $10!), the time they called B to tell her that the pico she had purchased was recalled, fresh flower bargains right before a shower, last minute presents found, their fresh tortilla's that they make in the store that are awesome...etc, etc. We LOVE them, we are dorks. (I also like Walmart; I know everyone hates them these days but they are cheap and I can get the basics from our little neighborhood market which is still clean and nice and not all skanky like most of them!) Anyways - back to the fit - he screamed and gagged the whole way home (luckily he didn't throw up because it was hours after breakfast). Once we arrived at home he refused to get out of the car. I went inside and got the camera which just made him even more mad. I finally picked him up and carried him to the living room. He continued to cry for about 15 more minutes when I finally just put him in his bed and walked away. He was in there for a long time before he quit crying and fell asleep. I was really surprised that he didn't get back up. I wrote that I love this age a while back - I might need to rethink that statement! :)

The last girl standing....

Kendra was the last of my high school girlfriends to turn 30. FINALLY! I remember when she finally turned 18 and finally turned 21 - but this time I don't think she was in quite the rush! Ha ha! We met up with the hubbys in tow at 8.0's in Fort Worth. We ended up leaving early because Scott wasn't feeling so hot. It was still a fun night, perfect weather and we had a great time catching up with everyone.