It's been a long day.

 Our garden continues to produce......in spades. We are enjoying tons of basil, mint, parsley, oregano. peppers, lemon verbena, and cilantro.....and as it was a crazy 82 degrees out today it appears that this may continue a bit longer. I'm not complaining, though my stomach lining might be. The habenaros are smokin hot! I can't even let the kids near them, or cut them up when they are around, or use the garbage disposal, as they can choke us all! Love em!

 This was Jake this afternoon, when I had to go wake him to pick up Julia from school. He is so huge that he looks funny in his crib. At 28 months (I think, I just tried to count on my hand) he may be the kid who is in his crib the longest? Which is funny as he is our largest kid....he is so content in there that there just doesn't seem any rush to move him into a bed. Plus we are lazy. Plus I am sentimental. Plus lazy. And lazy. He looks like some weirdly cute man baby in there. But wow, does he sleep. I heaved the giant into his car seat, where he soundly slept for another 45 minutes while I picked up Jules, then a prescription, then left him sleeping in the car while we waited for Lukes bus. Finally, at 4:15, I woke him up out of his car seat, just because I felt like enough was enough. The kid loves to sleep. Works for me. 

 More on this, later. Not a happy Mom. 

I take no prisoners. 

So its been a kind of shitty week. 

It all started off with a difficult for us birthday party at chuck e cheese on saturday night. It was for one of our very favorite kids in the whole wide world, so I'm not complaining, but I had to do it solo, and it isn't one of the most......well.......zen or holistic like places one can go. We all woke up slightly crabby. 

I woke up feeling like I was getting sick, in fact. So did Jake. Luke wet his pants at the gym. It wasn't our best day. 

In fact, it was such a bad day that it started to hit me that Luke had been wetting his pants fairly frequently lately. Blah blah and a lot of talking to friends later, I realized that it really HAD been happening a lot, after not happening EVER, for years. I called our Pedi, fully expecting them to say, "oh, yeah, totally normal, silly BOYS". Nyet. Instead, they said, "we would like to see you at 10 tomorrow". Ok. 

So. On Tuesday morning me and the three kids trotted off to the pedi. Super fun. He said it was one of four things. 

1. Diabetes

2. Urinary/kidney infection

3. Constipation (backup pressing on his bladder, compressing it)

4. Something else that I forget, because it wasn't this. 

Anyway. We ruled out 1 and 2 with a pee stick test. We went to the hospital for an x ray (me and the three kids ~ fun times!) to test for #3. We found out that afternoon that sure enough ~ despite the fact that Luke will down a bowl of whole oats, or a boatful of sauteed broccoli or cups of brown rice or couscous like no bodies business.....the kid is constipated. Shocker. He goes everyday? Apparently, even though he is going, he is backed up inside himself, and where he is backed up, it is pressing on his bladder, so his poor little bladder is all tiny and by the time he realizes he has to go, it is urgent, or he does not realize it at all, hence the accident. 

Awesome. And I was yelling at him. And here it was medical. So. The fix is easy, MiraLax for a few weeks.......but. That was Tuesday. 

And today? Today I get a call from his principal ~ Luke got in trouble on the bus for spitting. At a kid. 

Being silly. But still. Spitting. And in TROUBLE. And THE PRINCIPAL. 

And I feel badly writing about this, like I'm telling on Luke or something, but heck, this is the blog, and this is about them, and if this is their childhood, it has to be honest. Luke, you little bugger, I wanted to THROTTLE you. I may have used the word asshole in texting my best friend. I love you. I love you so much, and I know that you are the kindest little kid out there, so what the heck? 

The super double annoying thing is that this actually happened yesterday.....and yesterday he came off of the bus, and Jules and Jake and I were waiting for him, all excited, telling him that we had a surprise for him inside (an apple crisp in the oven) and we had this great afternoon of a bubble bath for the sibs, and a family pizza night with Dad, and this apple crisp and ice cream and family time.....and he never said a word. 

And TODAY I get the call, and of course, Nate is off at school, and its just me here to deal with him as he gets off of the bus. And of course, I have this fun kids night out planned for them at my gym (from 6-9 , they offer free babysitting once a month, the competition to get in is fierce, tonight was my night, I was signed up so that I could go out with girlfriends, but I'm fighting this cold, and have been trapped in the house a lot this week/my house feels a right mess/I feel a mess with my hip falling apart again/I didn't feel social/I took the kids anyway and came home and went insane on the house cleaning and organizing)............ anyway. I had to deal with how to punish/talk to Luke about this. Solo. 

And you know what? This stuff is HARD. I know its only Kindy. But I'm just not well equipped for this. Because it feels HUGE to me. And I know, logically that it isn't. I know that. 

So. That has been our week. I'm struggling with my hip. I'm going to get a second opinion, and may be facing a second surgery. May be, we will see. And Luke hasn't wet his pants since Tuesday, which is good. But he spit on a kid on the bus, which is really, really bad. So my heart hurts. But my house is really organized, for this next few hours, anyway, and that is good. So we will take the good with the bad and just march on, I suppose. This parenting stuff is about to start getting real. THIS is when people should start showing up with cassaroles and shoulders to cry on, not when you have a newborn, folks, newborns are a walk in the park. (if anyone mentions teenagers in the comments I will cut you. I know. I am in denial. Total, total denial).