I love sleeping with my children!!! I have a king size bed and I love snuggling up nice and close and sleeping peacefully all night long, comforted in the knowledge that I am bonding with my child/children even while we sleep. Now that’s multitasking!
I love when the kids squirm around and decide after much adjusting that their most comfortable position is perpendicular to me, with a hard little foot stuck tenderly in my ribs or even better, between my shoulder blades. Ahhh, sooo sweet. I also really love it when I am exhausted, and they won’t stop talking or want to keep repeating the crazy dream they just had about evil cows or talking toys with glowing red eyes. I am always kind and understanding at 2am and never, never mean! Not me! Sleeping together is important, and a life bonding, trust building activity. What is even more fun is when suddenly, after we have finally dropped off to sleep, a little voice startles me awake screaming that his/her nose is bleeding, and by God, its like a horror movie, with blood everywhere, including, MY PILLOW!!!!
No, I really love sleeping with my kids, especially with our heads close together, my arm completely numb under their big head, soft hair tickling my face relentlessly and puppy breath warm on my face. There is really nothing nicer…after all, one day won’t they grow up and want nothing to do with me? I think I will just enjoy all this extra time spent together in the dark, hushed hours of the night, and I swear to you, in the morning no one suffers because Mama didn’t get enough sleep.
Actually, truth be told, it is rare that I let the kids sleep with me for all of the reasons listed above and more, leaky pull-ups among them.

Ok, where to begin.  First let me say that I know I have already posted today but after the day I just had, I feel the need to share.  And I can’t call a friend because I have given up using the phone, since hiding in the laundry room to have a whispered conversation only works nowadays for about a minute and a half before the bloodhounds scent me out.  Maybe this story will make you feel better about your own day.

Sabrina woke up today with a tummyache, on a day that had much planned that could not easily be cancelled, and she was definitely not herself.  Feverish, coughing and throwing up.  So I drove the kids over to the in-laws as planned, with only one vomiting situation in the car that was easily handled by big sister Paulina, albeit unhappily. 

I should have known that one of the kids would be sick today, because whenever something important is planned, this is what happens.  We finished the day with one fainting session (me), and two more vomiting in the car sessions that were not handled easily, but handled nonetheless.  Hit major traffic on the way home, on not one but all of the three major highways we had to drive on to get home.

We got lost once trying to detour,  and then hit a major thunderstorm at two different spots along the way, and I thought we were going to die.  Surrounded by tractor-trailers on all sides, and unable to see ANYTHING.  Obviously we made it home alive, although a little the worse for wear.  Some days I wonder why we leave the house.

Soccer is a fun sport to coach and especially fun to coach when the kids are little.  I am coaching the five and under team this year, and always love the first couple of games where the kids don’t seem to know what to do.  And they hesitate, even if they aren’t picking the dandelions and stuffing them into the waistbands of their too big shorts.  They don’t seem to understand why all their parents are screaming at them to take the ball from the other kids and run away with it.  They look perplexed, stunned, and even afraid.  It makes them run slower, because their heads are cranked toward the spectators trying to decipher the messages that they cannot believe they are hearing. 

 When you think that from the minute they were able to interact with other children, their parents were constantly issuing orders like, ‘don’t take away someone else’s toys’, and ‘share’ and, ‘be nice’, it’s not at all surprising that they hesitate on the field.  They look at us like we are from another planet, and we do not speak the same language.

 Luckily though, kids adapt quickly and by about the third game most have begun to understand that on the field, there are different rules.  Being nice and waiting for your turn is not encouraged here.  My team all try hard and give it a good effort, but unlike on other teams that we have been facing, we do not have an obvious superstar who stands out from the rest with his/her ability to take the ball at every turn and break away and score.  It is not easy being a team that rarely scores. The kids really do not like it. And it is sad because they try so hard!

 On Saturday’s game, 5 of my players were absent and that left us with my twins, and one other boy.  The other team had a full roster, and on each shift change, they rotated on fully rested, tall, fast soccer players, while I poured water on the heads of my two exhausted, hot and sweaty children and encouraged all three kids to get out there and run some more and ‘oh boy, isn’t this fun to get to play the whole game with no substitutions!!!!’  I think the other coach specifically played his team that way to have one strong player on each shift, among the other players who basically ran behind the pack, in the general direction, and never got close to the ball.  I have to admit that when I saw the other coach unfold his long, attached, professional looking team chairs as I was unfolding the team blanket, I knew we were in trouble.

 My team of three, exhausted, uninspired children ran up and down the field time and again and tried SO HARD to get that ball.  And they actually did, lots of times, but then one tall, well rested kid on each shift always took it and ran and scored.  Gregory eventually managed to hoof it into the net when our team got it down field and boy was he proud.  As is expected with twins, Sabrina was not at all impressed and stomped around with arms crossed on her chest complaining that she didn’t want to play anymore, even throwing herself onto the team blanket at half time and asking if it was over yet.  The other team ran around on the field like energetic, well rested kids and practiced while my team waited for their breathing to slowly return to normal and their faces faded from tomatoe red to pink. 

 A lovely lady from the opposing team came over and twice congratulated us on our playing effort.  While I accepted her congratulations with appreciation, my team remained stony faced.  We lost, again.  It was nice of this lady to cheer us on though, our one and only fan, and wouldn’t you know it, she was the grandmother of the other team’s star player!  Obviously her comments were guilt driven, but I accepted them just the same!

Hi everyone!  I just wanted to write and thank you all for reading my posts.  It’s been very exciting getting the site up and running, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the amazingly smart computer wizard Mr. Chris Martin, from Catnap Consultants.  I am not a computer savvy person, and I know I’ve driven him crazy, but I am catching on now-I think! I want to thank him for all of his help, he is a wonderful and truly generous person!

The site has had a lot more hits than I ever imagined and frankly, I am thrilled as it’s only been live for four days now.  I’ve become somewhat addicted to checking the website hit counter to see how many hits it’s had.  It’s really thrilling to keep seeing the numbers going up and I freely admit to checking it too frequently, and then the kids and I do a happy dance (okay, so I do the happy dance and they stare at me in dismay).  So thanks for checking in, and thanks for the comments, I love reading them and I really, really appreciate you taking the time to write them.

I would love to see my numbers continue to rise, and would like to ask if you haven’t already done so, to please forward my site address on to your own contacts. 

Thanks again and I’ll post to you soon!

 Kelly

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I have just returned home from the best play date ever.  My wonderful neighbour invited the kids and I over and when we arrived at her beautiful home, she had such a big spread of food out that even I got excited.  I love Europeans.  They always have lots of food and Violet certainly did; crackers with dip, garlic bread and fruit trays.  She also had wine.  In my 10 years of parenting, I don’t think I’ve ever been offered wine on a play date, let alone actually accepted any, which I did, and let me tell you, the play date got even better after that.  I now think wine should be necessary at all play dates, as it makes you not care when the kids fight, sneeze on each other, get filthy, or jump on the trampoline with popsicles in their mouths.  It was so much fun that I think I will make it a point to attend more of them!   Did I mention there was wine?