By Heather O.
I love this time of year–honestly it’s my favorite. When I lived up north, fall was my favorite, but after moving down south, I’ve decided there is nothing more beautiful anywhere than a southern spring. It’s all kinds of glorious.
And if you can see through the itchy eyes and breathe through the snot generated from all the pollen, all the better.
I actually have a secret for that:Breathe Right strips. It sounds super dorky (which they are) and they don’t do much for your sex appeal, but they work really really well for the nighttime sufferer of allergies, especially for people who aren’t keen on taking lots of meds. I have had a really hard time sleeping at night, just because I can’t quite breathe. And I don’t sleep deeply because I’m not breathing very well. I finally broke down and got those strips (they aren’t cheap, which is a bummer), and for the past 3 nights I have had the best night sleep all season. I can finally look in the mirror and not see huge giant bags under my eyes. The bags under my eyes are now only normal sized.
They are also an excellent alternative for the pregnant woman who wants to avoid taking even more Benedryl (I just assume ALL pregnant women take Benedryl to curb the constant puking, but I may be projecting from my own experience a little here.).
In other news, my son walked into my bedroom this morning, fully dressed for school. He was wearing a blue and grey striped shirt and green camo pants. It hurt my eyes to look at all that pattern clash. I looked at him, pointed to his outfit, and said, “This doesn’t work.” He looked down and said, “What? What doesn’t work?” I just shook my head and said, “You can not wear stripes with camo. You just can’t. Pick a different shirt, or pick different shorts.” He sighed and stomped off to his room, but returned wearing grey shorts that nicely complimented the grey in his shirt. I gave him a thumb’s up, and as he rolled his eyes and left, I chuckled to my husband, in a “boys will be boys” kind of way. He said, “I don’t get it. What was wrong with his first outfit?”
This is what happens when the color-blind father supervises the fashion oblivious son. Someday I won’t be there to save them from themselves.
Little Sister learned to make toast this morning. I painstakingly explained to her how to do it, then hopped in the shower. I could smell the toast from the bathroom, so I assumed she was successful. How successful became evident when she greeted me in the shower with SIX pieces of toast. “Look, Momma, I did it!”
Yes. Yes you did, child. And I’m so glad it took a half a loaf of bread for you to do it.
No random crap post would be complete without mention of my dog. Poor dog, she’s struggling a little. Her hormones are all wacky, and she’s having trouble with her bladder control. And when a 105 pound dog loses control of her bladder, well, it’s a LOT of pee. She’s usually impeccably housebroken, but didn’t quite manage last night, and we woke up to a large puddle in the playroom. We did our best to clean it up this morning, and I sprayed some Febreze around the house after I sprayed the spot with Nature’s Miracle, just to freshen up the place. I had to run out this morning for a bit, and when I came back, our house smelled like pee and Febreze. Well done, Febreze.
I took Little Sister to J’s school today for their annual Walk-a-thon. After the walk-a-thon, we strolled through the school, while I pointed things out to her. I took her over to the Kindergarten rooms, just so she could see where she would be going next year, as we will be registering her next month. Yes, my daughter is going to KINDERGARTEN next year. I felt the irrational desire to carry her back to the car, to pretend she still needed me to do so. She squawked in protest, and then we turned it into a game, with her trying to escape and me trying to hold her. It was fun, and we laughed, but it made me want to cry.
I always made fun of those women who cry when their children go to Kindergarten. Boy, what a soft shell I’ve turned out to be.
Happy Spring everybody!




I laughed at “This is what happens when the color-blind father supervises the fashion oblivious son.” Because my husband is colorblind and one time last summer he dressed our boy (then 21 months old) in a pair of red sporty-looking shorts and an ORANGE and black PLAID shirt with long sleeves (yes, in the summer). It was awful. Luckily Husband doesn’t help the boy dress often, and the boy is still too young to get his own clothes. Not for much longer, though, so I’m sure that before long I’ll be having the exact conversation that you described.
Comment #1 by KathrynApril 20th, 2012 at 10:05 amJust an FYI on getting the smell of urine out of carpet-ammonia (ok pretty sure I spelled that wrong). You can pour that stuff straight on your carpet without diluting it with water. You may want to do a small spot check for discoloration but I haven’t had a problem yet. Ammonia is a really awesome odor neutralizer, guess something in its ph or something makes it eat away all the nasty odors urine leaves behind. I realize my explanation sounds extremely professional and scientific, but I promise, it works great.
it will smell like ammonia for a few hours, but once it clears you wont be able to smell any sign of urine.
Comment #2 by haybayApril 20th, 2012 at 12:20 pmIt sounds like you were in my house just a few days ago. My 6-year-old ds came into the kitchen, all dressed for school. He was wearing a too-small long-sleeved blue & yellow shirt with ridiculously bright orange shorts. When I made him change he came back out in the same shorts and a different shade of orange shirt. He was not at all happy when I made him change again.
Comment #3 by RorieApril 20th, 2012 at 12:41 pmBeing colorblind doesn’t give him a pass on camo shorts and a striped shirt.
)
One of my favorite memories is when my then-4 year old made us breakfast in bed. Of course, being only 4, her entire repertoire consisted of toast. So she made us toast and water for breakfast. But the best part was the pretty pink jelly she found in the fridge to put on our toast. “It has sparkles in it!!” My husband and I gushed praise at her and took bites off of the edges of our toast. After she left the room, we quickly tossed the jalapeno-jellied toast into the garbage before she came back in the room. But, she had also kindly made a piece of toast for her little brother. We couldn’t help but laugh as he stood at the foot of our bed and ate his toast — even after he said, “This is ‘picy!!” Poor boy!
Comment #4 by StrollerbladerApril 20th, 2012 at 4:57 pmAhahahaha, my husband tells me that learning what patterns match is Much harder than learning which colors match
I had to teach him how to match when we got married, and then when we threw patterns into the mix he said it really fouled him up . I feel you on the kindergarten thing, my oldest is getting ready to start school and while that seemed so liberating on paper, I’m still finding myself being quite the Eyore about it all…ho hum…
Comment #5 by Depressed Mormon MommyApril 22nd, 2012 at 7:18 pmYou’re a better mom than I am! I always let me son go to school in whatever he walks out in. I figure that if peer pressure can’t give him fashion sense or fashion mortification then I haven’t got a shot.
Comment #6 by AmyApril 25th, 2012 at 8:48 am