Nice to meet you!

My main reason for coming here is  because I’m tired of a certain other journaling site getting hacked because of some battle over Russian politics. I just want to write about cute things my kids do and idiotic things that the youngest one’s doctors do. Since I can import to that other site through wordpress, I’m giving this a shot.

My name is Carla. I’m 32 years old and I live in the midwest. I’m obsessed with nail polish and love being on the internet. I’m not so obsessed with housework and other boring things, so sometimes I have to give myself peptalks to get stuff done. It gets done. I just don’t get excited until after it’s over.

(Louie) I’m married to a wonderful man that I’ve known for a total of almost 7 years. We got married last November. He’s a hard worker, working on second shift, so my evenings are usually spent alone with the kids in this zoo we call a house. When he’s off work, we’re usually running errands or off doing something. Due to the nature of his job, his schedule is on a rotation and he’s only off on the weekends about every 5 weeks. He does get time off though and that’s our family time. It’s also his woodshop time. I love that his ‘thing’ doesn’t take him away from home and I can count on him being here on his days off but when I get pms, I have severe jealousy over power tools.

I don’t have any pets, cats or otherwise. I have plenty of kids to make up for it. Sometimes they even pee on the floor. That’s where the five little kittens come in. Remember the story about the three little kittens losing their mittens? Well mine lose mittens, socks, homework, toys, money, and I don’t even want to know what else. Meanwhile, I lose my mind.

(Brittany) My oldest daughter is 14 going on 40. I think that’s the case with all kids that age. Some days she’s my best friend and some days I’m checking the calendar to see if she’s 18 yet. As the oldest, she feels she’s entitled to certain privileges that the other kids aren’t. Like half of a paycheck. Or a homecoming dress when the only money I have is to be used to get to my uncle’s funeral. She’s a good kid. She’s just selfish sometimes because she’s a kid. She’s never had to be an adult so I try not to expect her to think like one. Some days that’s easier said than done.

(Ronald) My oldest son is 12. He’s in Arkansas right now with his dad/my ex-husband because he had to miss the scheduled summer visit due to summer school. He has a heart of gold but he’s also a master manipulator. He will bend over backwards to help his elderly grandmother but he will lie through his teeth to get out of doing homework. But hey, at least he willingly showers.

(Kimberley) My middle child is just that. She’s 9 and spent a good portion of her life as the baby. Then when she was 7, she got a new baby sister. Ten and a half months later, she got a new baby brother. She doesn’t act out over it too much but she does like to milk not getting enough attention when she gets into trouble for something. “It’s just that nobody pays attention to me!” I really doubt that has anything to do with why you didn’t do your laundry.

(Olivia) In case your math skills are failing you after reading the last paragraph, kid #4 is 2 1/2. She has witnessed so many changes in my life, whether she realizes it or not. It’s astounding how different life is, just in the little time she’s been alive. We’re in the throes of potty training right now. Most days she does great. She hasn’t worn a diaper in a week. Today I’m beginning to wonder if she needs one. She’s at that age where every other sentence that comes out of her mouth is blogworthy. Yesterday, she told me her pee is a snake – an anaconda. Thanks, Diego.

(Perrin) My youngest son is really my light. I love all of my kids, but this one has taught me so much about acceptance and not having control over life. He was born at 33 weeks in September 2009, and although he didn’t have any serious problems (just a little trouble eating), he must have had issues with oxygen before, during, or after birth. At 9 months, he wasn’t sitting up. He wasn’t crawling. He wasn’t scooting. He just rolled around. I consulted the doctor and she said he was fine so I consulted the NICU follow up clinic and they referred us to EI. Then we were referred to a neurologist. That’s how we got the MRI done that determined that our son has Periventricular Leukomalacia (PVL) which is the leading cause of cerebral palsy.

At 22 months, he can sit unassisted but he has to lean on one hand or work out his own posture to make it so. He’s crawling. He’s cruising. He has the will to walk. We just have to improve his core strength so it can happen. He can walk with a walker, though, and his daddy made him some really sweet little parallel bars out of wood. It’s a work in progress and it always will be. He now sees the neurologist, a physical therapist, a developmental therapist, an occupational therapist, a pediatric ophthalmologist, and now an ENT because he’s going to get his adenoids removed in September.

He’s on baclofen (a muscle relaxer) and it has been our miracle drug. He couldn’t do 75% of the things he’s been able to learn to do in the past 6 months or so without it. He wears glasses to correct lazy eye. He had AFO’s (a type of brace) but they didn’t seem to help. They had to go inside shoes and the shoes had to be three sizes too big to fit over the braces. Ever try to walk in clown shoes?

We’ve made a lot of progress though, and I am very thankful for that. You’ll often hear the phrase in these situations that you are your child’s advocate. That gets proved over and over.

A few other things about me:

I love to cook. Somehow this translates online to me being some kind of domestic goddess. I’m not. I’m just hungry.

I’m still nursing my youngest and don’t intend to stop any time soon. I don’t care how you feed your kids. Just as long as you do.

I live in a very small town. I let my older three kids go across town any time they want. When the entire town is 8 blocks long, that’s easy.

I keep a garden. I was raised by a dad that did the same thing. Some things are second nature to me. Everything else is trial and error. This includes learning the difference between a cucumber plant and an okra plant, and learning to grow more than one radish seed.

I think that about covers it. From here on, I’ll just write and leave it to you to figure it out or ask questions. I’m pretty sure that most people will already know me anyway since I intend to import this directly into that “other” journal.