Kinda feels like being naked in public....

I am going to share with you, my faithful readers. I've done something that makes me really uncomfortable. But I wanted to do it. I needed to do it. I submitted an essay about motherhood to a local event that is having auditions for a show in April. The first step is to submit the writing, then wait to see if you are called for an audition to read in person.  It's called the Listen to Your Mother Show.  Apparently, they are having it only in a few cities across the country. The link is http://www.listentoyourmothershow.com/nwa/ if you want to check it out. Little shy me, you know. This is not something that I'd normally do. But I am experimenting with my writing. Guess we'll see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

Here is the essay that I submitted. I might as well share it, because you might be the only audience I get. And keep in mind that EVERY BIT of this is true. Comments and critiques are welcome. Comments like, "Man, you are crazy!" are not. Just sayin.




Welcome to the Big Top


Rhonda Bramell

Springdale, AR



I am the mother of three kids under age 5, including a set of twins. Let that sink in. Three kids under five. I know what you are thinking. Yes, I have my hands full. Yes, I drive a minivan. Most days I feel like the ringleader of a three-ring circus. In case you think I’m exaggerating, I will share with you what a typical day is like at my house. If you aren’t tired after reading this, then you are welcome to come over and babysit anytime. Like now.

My husband works early morning hours, which leaves me to handle the morning rush alone. I have to force myself out of bed to get the children up, dressed, fed and out the door to daycare. Add in feeding the dog, making lunches, packing the diaper bag and finding lost binkies, and I feel like I’ve run a marathon by 9:00 a.m. Then I head to my full-time job, or vacation, as I like to call it.

The twins are 1 ½ now, and getting to be more manageable. By that I mean that I don’t have to cage them anymore just to take a shower and dress myself. After all, I have a four-year-old to entertain and torment them while I’m busy. Our daily schedule looks pretty much like that movie Groundhog Day, where the same thing happens over and over. Here is what I can count on happening:

1) We will be late. Every day.

2) Someone will stick food in his or her ear.

3) Boy Twin will poop his diaper at 8:50 a.m., without fail. This happens to be the exact time we need to be loading up the minivan to leave for daycare. See item #1.

4) Girl Twin will loudly scream “MOMMY” approximately 652 times.

5) My oldest daughter will tattle on the twins and cry when they take away her toys, even though she is older and outweighs them by 15 pounds.



My poor husband, who is awesome by the way, comes home every day to the ransacked house that smells like dirty diapers and looks like an F4 tornado blew through. He may get a few peaceful hours to himself before he picks up the kids, but most days he is just busy trying to repair the morning’s damage.

The evening routine is almost as daunting as the morning. After the morning craziness, working at my “other” job all day and the mommy guilt of actually having to be at work, I’m beat when I come home. The bright spot in the whole thing is that my wonderful hubby usually has dinner on the stove when I walk in. The little monkeys tackle me when I get home, as if I’ve been gone for a week. Girl Twin literally will cry herself into a frenzy unless I immediately pick her up. I have to sit down in the floor so all three kids can crawl on me. Being missed is a wonderful feeling!

The absolute hardest part of my day is the time from when I walk in the door after work until the kids are in bed. This is crunch time, as we’ve got roughly 2 ½ hours to have dinner, clean up, bathe the kids, have playtime and get them down. Don’t even get me started on bathing three kids! A drain in the middle of the bathroom floor would be helpful. And a pooper scooper.

By 9:00 p.m., the house is quiet and my husband and I are again faced with the all-important decision to watch CSI or wash dishes. We get about five minutes into a show then both pass out. I swear, our DVR is so full that I think it might explode. We peel ourselves off the couch and move to the bed, ready to do it all again tomorrow.

People ask us all the time “How do you do it?” In reality, I should answer, “Barely.” But really, we have adapted. I’ll trade the old days of lounging on the couch watching TV for giggles, hugs and playing peekaboo any day. I’ve decided that as long as my kids are clean, fed and loved, that’s all that really matters. Just let someone judge me on the pile of dishes in my sink or the stains on my work clothes. Not only am I the ring leader in this circus, but I’m the star juggler, too.

Baby Babble

I am happy to report that Evan's speaking has really come along in the past couple of weeks. He's still not really voluntarily talking, but he'll say something if you ask him to. Here are some of the words he is saying:

*Ball (Becca's first word)
*Baby--they like to point at babies on TV
*Pop
*Nanny
*Fork (or something like it)
*Bath
*Shower
*waffle

Carley is still the big talker of the two. In fact, she's never quiet! Between her and Becca, we can't even have a conversation between adults.

*Carley says her name "Car Key"
*"Ebbie" (Evan)
* "Be-ba" (Becca)
*MOMMY--over and over and over, etc.
*poo poo
*pizza--especially when she sees a commercial on TV
*snack
*milk

I'm sure there are more words, but that's all I can think of now. Becca's new thing is to say that everything is "hilarious." Quite dramatic, really.

I've finally gotten around to printing the blog! I've ordered the first year (2007) and waiting on it to arrive in the mail this week. I can't wait to see it. There is so much material that I've decided to cut it into years and print. It's a little expensive, so I'm just going to do a little at a time. This will be so precious to have when the kids are older. We can look back and have so many photos and memories. Thanks Tara and Meredith, for the info on blog2print.com. It was very simple to do!

Yes, it's February & I'm posting Christmas pictures!

I think I've said everything to say about our Christmas 2011. Mom, Tracy and Jonathan came up here to spend it with us. We cooked a big meal on Christmas Eve (mom and me, not Tracy) and had our friend Ellen over to eat dinner with us. We had a nice time and some good food! 

The kids had a big time with opening gifts and playing with all the new toys.

I guess the kids are all ready for some breakfast! You can see the Kinect on the TV--the big kids' Christmas present. We are enjoying the games. The kids and I really like Just Dance 3; we all get in on the fun!

I thought this picture of Lee is funny. Notice Frosty looking over his shoulder!

Carley and Evan love their glow-worms! They sleep with them every night. When they first go to bed, it's like they are trying to synchronize their glow-worm music in there with both of them going at the same time. So funny!

Not real easy to get all the kids to sit together for a picture. I think matching PJ's will be our Christmas tradition, just like the Counts family's.

This concludes the end of pictures from 2011. It is only February, you know.

'Tis the Season 2011

After much debating and thought (well, not that much), we decided not to make the trek to Wynne for Christmas. Just the sheer amount of stuff we'd have to take along with the kids was overwhelming. Not to mention the crazy amount of stuff we'd be bringing back home!! 

Let's just say my kids were treated very nicely for Christmas. They should not be bored or in need of something to play with for many, many years. Literally. I'm glad they are so loved, but FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, would someone else in my family please start having some babies!!! 

I love the look on Becca's face here when she was opening her BIG gift.

Pop got Carley her very first baby doll. She loves it!

Here's the "big" gift put together. Thanks to Lee and his mad toy-assembly skills. Becca is in love with this dollhouse. 

I need to take a picture of it now. She got a set of 7 Disney Princess Barbie dolls for Christmas. Those, combined with the few she already had, make for a crowded house. Poor kid only has one Ken doll--she calls him Justin Bieber! I told Lee the other night that it totally looks like the house on The Bachelor....all those princesses and one dude. Glad I don't live there.

One December night, we were lucky enough to have some pretty mild temps. We took the kids to the Fayetteville Square to see the Christmas lights. Becca was thrilled to ride the ponies, see a real reindeer and look at the smelly camels. Evan and Carley just hung out in the stroller and did some people watching.

Did I already post these pictures? Now I feel like I've blogged about this already...did I? Oh well, I'm not going back to look now.

Better late than never

It just occurred to me that I haven't posted any pictures from Thanksgiving or Christmas! I almost forgot to do it.  The Bramells spent a nice Thanksgiving holiday in East Arkansas visiting our families. We had a great meal with my mom's side of the family in Jonesboro on Thursday. We spent Friday watching the Hogs vs. LSU game at Dad's, but Karen had to work. Then on Saturday, we went over to Memphis for our first trip to the Children's Museum of Memphis. We got to have lunch with Bernie, Annette and Sarah, then they joined us at the CMOM. We had hoped to go to the zoo instead, but the weather was pretty yucky. The kids loved the museum! I know we'll be going back.

The kids loved grocery shopping at the Kroger in the CMOM....even the little ones knew just what to do! They filled their carts and went to scan their loot at the cash register. So cute!

They loved playing with Sarah....and I think she liked it, too. I think we had to drag them off the slide.

Here is Becca at the dental office. I think she'd make a fine dentist!

It was pretty chilly on Thanksgiving Day, but the kids just had to get out and run a little. I didn't get many pictures. I guess I was too busy eating!

Leave it to Becca to make a toy out of anything. She used the door to Aunt Pam's storm shelter as a slide! 

I think Blake was trying to get Evan to stand still.  Um, no way!

18 month check up

The kids had their 18 month well visit last week. Poor babies had to get 4 shots each! They were surprisingly tough. I think Becca was more upset about it than they were. The good news is that we are done with shots until they turn four. Yay!

Dr. Davis was very happy with their growth and development; they are both right on track. In fact, they hit a growth spurt after the 12-month mark and moved into the 25th percentile and even 50th in a couple of categories.  Carley is 75th percentile in height!

Baby A (Evan): 24.5 pounds, 31.5 in tall.

Baby B (Carley):  23.9 pounds, 32.2 in tall.

We questioned him a little about Evan's speaking, or lack of. Carley is definitely talking way more than he is.  The doc said at this age they should have between 3-10 words they can say and we know what they are talking about.  Evan has maybe two at this point; Carley closer to 10.  He told us not to worry unless his speech hasn't picked up by the two-year check up. He says most babies' speech kicks in right before they turn two. Evan certainly has no trouble telling us what he wants with his pointing and yelling, though.

While all three kids were running laps around the exam room, it occurred to me what our life is really like. I've been struggling to find the right way to explain it when people comment that "you sure have your hands full." Well, I can do it now!  It's just like that scene in Toy Story 3 where the toys are fighting each other and Evil Dr. Porkchop (the pig) drops the Barrel of Monkeys out of the sky! That's it!  They are the monkeys....it's totally like someone dropped a real life barrel of monkeys in our house.  Every. Day.

More Becca Funnies

It's late and I'm trying to get to bed so I can get up early to exercise. Wanted to write down a couple of Becca funnies before I forget.

• Becca and Carley went to stay a few days at Tracy's house the week of Christmas, so Lee and I could finish our last minute prep. The first thing Becca said when she got home (seriously, THE FIRST):        "The house is so clean!"  Yeah kid, much easier to keep clean with only one kid around. Duh.

• We took the kids to Silver Dollar City for the last night of the Christmas Festival. We didn't tell Becca we were going until we were ready to leave, as she has turned into a Miss Million Questions kind of gal. It's exhausting. We were literally on the other side of Springdale heading out of town when she asked (for the first time), "Are we there yet?" Seriously, 3 miles from our driveway.

• Then, poor kid, the anticipation was killing her. The traffic into SDC was horrible, the parking was horrible and waiting in line at the gate wasn't much better.  We got inside before dark, so she couldn't really get the whole effect of the lights right away.  It wasn't long after dark that she was running around screaming, "It's the first day of my life!" over and over. Hilarious, as we're sure she meant the BEST day, not the first. But who could burst her bubble like that?