Saturday, March 10, 2012

The "Target" years!


The other day I was thinking about the preschool years. The years when I had a 5 year old, 3 year old, 1 year old, and super preggo with the fourth or the next year with a kindergartner, 4 year old, 2 year old, and a newborn. You get the picture. Those are HARD, I mean exhausting HARD years. For those of you in those years right now, I promise there is HOPE. It gets easier. You get through it. Maybe through it in a fog or a daze, or very little sleep, or an addiction to Starbucks, but you get through it.

Now my boys are 11, 8, 6, and 4. Yes, Schella will be coming home within the year hopefully and I will have a preschooler again, but I don't think it will be quite the same.
I have no wisdom to bestow upon you. I was honestly just laughing thinking about some of our times with little preschoolers at home.

I call those years the "Target" years as in the bullseye store, Target! I can't tell you how many countless times we went to Target just to get out of the house between nap times or before Jeremy would come home. Here are just a few of many funny now, not at the time, things that happened.

1. Jeremy dressed the boys one day and forgot to put underwear on our potty training 2 year old Sam. I went to Target (surprise) and Sam had a little accident that fell out his shorts onto the aisle of Target. In all my motherly togetherness I started sweating profusely, grabbed a piece of cardboard off a Halloween costume, scooped the poop, left my baby, 2yo, 4yo, and 6yo in the aisle, ran to the Ziploc bag aisle, put the poop in the bag, ran back to my kids, paid for my Ziploc bags and left.

2. Again at Target...I was loading Sam in the van and put the keys in his car seat, shut the van door, and he locked himself in the car with the key fob. I had to wait 20 minutes for Jeremy to come and unlock the van. I thought for sure I would be arrested.

3. We were selling our house and right before a showing, Blake put a magnet in the microwave and my whole house smelled like burnt rubber. My sweet Blake, also while trying to sell the house, wrote on my white cabinets with sharpie and climbed on the counter and dropped the entire pot of coffee all over the kitchen floor.

4. Every Tuesday and Thursday I would either double stroller my baby and 2yo in to check in my 4yo to preschool and check him out. I am still not sure that preschool was worth it after doing that twice a day every T/Th.

5. Lots and lots and lots of wiping. I had a full time job in wiping...everything.

6. We didn't sleep for about 9 years. I kid..sort of. I had great sleepers, but when you have mulitiple children one or more are up for all different kinds of reasons. Bathroom, bad dream, nose bleed....

I know you can relate. I do miss those times, but it makes me tired thinking about it.




4 comments:

The Denbow Family said...

OK....I am in the thick of it now!! I need some advice....did any of your boys not respond to spanking?? Elsie is VERY stubborn and spanking does not seem to work for her. I am not talking about a soft pat on the hand....I am talking about the real kind of spanking. We have been dealing with some eating issues with her (only eats fruit, crackers, yogurt, applesauce). We decided this past weekend that we would "bootcamp" her per our pediatrician's advice and only feed her what we were eating. After offering yummy things that most toddlers love for 6 days....Elsie still had not eaten! It was the worst 6 days. She asked to be spanked, put in time out and put to bed to avoid eating ONE bite of what we asked her to eat......ANY advice????

Ashley Self said...

Hey Kel! I am sending you a message on fb. :)

Claire said...

Ashley,

I couldn't agree more about the "Target" years...It was one place that we could go, that I could contain all three kids in a buggy, spend a $1.50 for a Coke and popcorn and have a few good hours of browsing...

In fact, just this summer I told Ryan that I think our "Target" years are over because now, no one rides in the buggy, they want to run through the store or play with everything they see in the toy or video game aisle. No longer is a Target run a peaceful treat for me. Now I only love it when I can go alone.

I too, have such a fondness for that red bullseye. It saved my sanity many a day!

Missie said...

This post totally encouraged me! Thank you for sharing. I have a big smile on my face right now :)