Driving exam anxiety: just smoke pot

This time I'll attempt to get my drivers license a *little* different.

I'm not sure if I mentioned my first attempt here (I think about 2 months ago); but it was a total disaster. I was SO nervous I made the silliest, weirdest mistakes. It was like if my brain just stopped functioning. I drove 20 km/h too fast on the high way, the engine quit EIGHT or TEN times, I missed signs, parked horribly and so on and so on and so on. It's a miracle I didn't hit anyone, and to be honest, I think if I did, I wouldn't know. i was out of it. Completely.

I was advised to opt for a special anxiety car exam. So I did. Before the test, I wasn't really aware I had anxiety (and still convinced I don't, actually). But truth to be told, exams have always made me too nervous for my own good. So it makes sense, but just a little. (#denial)

Anyway, the office that handles the exams made me fill in a form about anxiety (sigh). And this question made me laugh so hard:

It says: "What are you going to do to reduce your anxiety?"

And answer J says: "smoke pot".

I live in Lala land. I swear!

Clearly, the person responsible for making these questions was high. On pot. I mean, come one! Who does that? Or worse: who actually answers "J"?

Now wish me luck and no anxiety!

The end of sleep as we know it

The moment I have been dreading has arrived: no more naptime for Monkey.

As in: not ONE single minute of naptime.

Ever since Monkey was born 3.5 years ago, I thought I needed naptime, for ME. You know, to recharge my own battery. As much as I love my kids, I need to have a little me-time too. I need it to be a good mom.

PLUS every day at around 11ish AM, Monkey really needed his sleep. It was never a battle, and sometimes he even asked for it.

However. About 2 or 3 weeks.. or was it 4? Well, Monkey - aka the very good 7 PM sleeper - refused to sleep at bedtime. And with refused, I mean REFUSED. In SCREAMING, crying, tantrums. It would take us up to 2 hours to get him to bed!

It was tres "The Super Nanny". In a moment of total desperation I even started following The Super Nanny on Twitter. And when her writers send me a tweet with advice I knew it had gone too far.

More help came: a friend of ours, with a son just 3 weeks older than Monkey, had just gone through the same thing and she gave us the magic tip: no more nap time.

So we ended nap time for Monkey.

And it's been wonderful! For one; every night at 7 Monkey is exhausted and very willing to go to bed (HOORAY) PLUS with Roo still enjoying her 1.5 hour naps; Monkey & I have been enjoying some private Monkey-mommy time.

I make it a point to have 30 minutes to myself (or the household), and let Monkey watch TV, read books or play with his Duplo. But after the 30 minutes we do stuff together. And it's been so awesome. We do crafts, we read, we cuddle and play. And talk.

Our latest craft project was an air ballon from paper mache; like this (I thought Mission Impossible, but it was actually quite easy)

Someone's excited!

I always try to make Monkey do as much as possible, and he enjoys the responsibilty (especially holding children's scissors, I try not to panic)

The fun part, glue, lots and lots and lots of glue!

So proud, he asked me to take his photo (that's rare, he normally hides from the camera)

After we let the paper mache dry for 24 hours and made the basket.... tadaaaa:

as it hangs in his room:

With the kids growing and growing, our lives constantly evolve. I like this new phase in Monkey's youth. I like getting to know my son a little better every day. He's almost outgrown the toddler phase and I love every minute of it.

But mommy alone time for 1.5 hours a day was good too.

Turning 29

....AGAIN!

Surprise!!

Anyway. We spend my birthday weekend in a cottage in the forest near Dutch national park: De Hoge Veluwe. Just me, the hubby, Monkey and Roo.

We even had a little Sound of music I am 30 28 going on 31 29 thing going on.

See!

I know, I know, you probably would not give me a day over 28 if it wasn't for these two always around.

It's zen that's keeping us fit and happy:

Our Friday began at a Gelderland lake surrounded by forest. Lots of kids playground things and great fun.

"Mom, before I put my bathing suit on... PLEASE. The Camera. HAS TO GO. Here's the lens cap."

Saturday we biked through our national park. We also rented one typical Dutch bakfiets. You see these things A LOT in the city where I live (and probably in other Dutch cities too). We r even considering buying one.

This air pump for bikes really made me laugh. Only in The Netherlands (is my guess) you find pumps for bikes in little houses.

Looking out for wild animals (like honestly, animals would even come within 2 kilometers of my insanly loud children).

Ladies: I have found the secret of the "Men know directions, and women don't" They pass it on from man to man at a VERY early age. See:

Fashion FAIL: socks in sandals. But she's rocking it, right?

And in this playground something cute happened:

Yesterday night at that playground.. I'm working my way up the slide with Roo (who does everything her brother does). Monkey is already up there and Roo is taking her time (she wants to climb the thing on her own *eye roll* ).

This kid - Tyrell, about 6 years old - walks up to me and asks if he can go up first. "Sure" I tell him, knowing it could take a few minutes for Roo to get up there. He tries to get up the first steps (it wasn't a normal ladder, but more climb wall style) and he can't manage to get up. "I'm sorry" he says, "I'm always kind of slow", I reply that that's OK, he can take his time as Roo is also REALLY slow. After a few more attempts, he turns around, smiles and says "I can't climb this thing, because I am... " " You HAVE TO PROMISE not to tell ANYONE" I smile and say "I promise" , Then he says he is disabled and indeed I now notice a brace around his leg (I'm not blind, the thing was just not that obvious and the kid was walking around with it). I ask him if he wants my help or if he wants to do it on his own. "A little help please", he says. I decide not to actually lift him, but let him hold my arm to climb up there by himself.

When he's up there, and I finally arrive with Roo to go of the slide together, he asks with a slight whisper in his voice: "Do you like children's slides?" I laugh and tell him "I will tell you, but you HAVE TO PROMISE not to tell anyone" He came a little closer and said: "I promise: I can keep a secret!" I tell him "I LOVE children's slides" upon which he laughed the brightest smile I'd seen all day and off the slide he went.

I thought that was too cute, like these too:

Turning 29 is great.