There are 5 kids in my family. I always consider myself the middle child even though I am technically the 2nd child. “Why?” you ask. Well, because my brother, the 4th kid, wasn’t born until I was 10. That’s a long time to spend in the middle of 2 other girls. And then the 5th child wasn’t born until I was almost 18. So, yeah… I was the “middle child” long enough to get warped. This what I found off a birth order website regarding the middle child of 3:
* Has neither rights of oldest nor privileges of youngest.
* Feels life is unfair.
* Feels unloved, left out, “squeezed.”
* Feels doesn’t have place in family.
* Becomes discouraged and “problem child” or elevates self by pushing down other siblings.
* Is adaptable.
* Learns to deal with both oldest and youngest sibling.
And this is what is says for the 2nd child:
* Never has parents’ undivided attention.
* Always has sibling ahead who’s more advanced.
* Acts as if in race, trying to catch up or overtake first child. If first child is “good,” second may become “bad.” Develops abilities first child doesn’t exhibit. If first child successful, may feel uncertain of self and abilities.
* May be rebel.
* Often doesn’t like position.
* Feels “squeezed” if third child is born.
* May push down other siblings
Hmm…. yep. Sounds pretty right on to me. I’m not sure *why* it works out that way, but it does. Maybe it’s because back when I was born there weren’t cool things like camcorders so unlike with my little sister- my first 3 years aren’t all on tape!! And I think it may have been different if my older sister was a boy, etc… I think that makes a difference. You should go check out that site and see if it matches up with your birth order.
I don’t think anyone did anything to make me feel “squeezed” or turn me into a “rebel.” I was born with a rebellious streak, I think, but I don’t think that’s handed out just because I was the 2nd child. And I think that streak can be a blessing as much as it has been a curse. It’s a certain strength I have when I reign it in to do good. lol
I’ve written warped middle child stories in the past. Such as my “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia” post and my “Tattle Tail” story. There’s plenty more where that came from if you keep reading my blog… (say that like Napoleon.) I had another story planned and I just totally forgot it. I must be healing. haha
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“Mom, I wanna listen to “Cuz I’m just a teenage dirtbag baaaaaby….”
-Taj
“I kissed a girl and it’s yucky. I wish I had listened to Mommy…”
-Me, singing my new version of “I Kissed a Girl” for Tristan
———————
Heard last nite during the 4th quarter of the Lakers/Nuggets game:
“Tori, you know if they win you’ll get LU-CK-YYYYYYY.”
-Sei
“Man, if they lose I”m gonna have to cut you off babe.”
-Sei
**ROLLING EYES REALLY LOUDLY**
-Me
————————————
Heard everytime I walk in the bathroom… still
“Pee or poop Mom?”
-Liv
————————————–
Heard ’round the world and blogosphere:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NO COOL STORY!!!
I ? ya!!!!
(ps. I mailed your gift late. UPS should deliver it by Monday. That is all…)
————–
You can go to Reidsupply.com and check out the free cad drawing designs!!! It’s a super cool site and easy to navigate.
Dear Livie,
Yes, you will one day “Get big boons.” But could you maybe refrain from asking about them and touching my “boons” when we’re in line at Kroger? Also, when I am in the bathroom with the door shut it is totally not your business if I “have pees or poop.” Besides, chicks don’t poop.
Love you.
Mommy
———————
Dear Alec,
I love you and you’re awesome, but will you please, please, please cut your hair? You’re really starting to look like Napoleon Dynamite. And although you’re still handsome & I love your curls, I really wanna take you to the “Cuttin’ Corral” to get yer hair did.
:)
Mom
———————-
Dear Tristan,
I’m sorry that the bishop wasn’t diggin’ your fo-hawk at church. I loved it and thought you looked great. Don’t worry- I took the blame. He knows I’m a troublemaker, so it’s all good. I told him he was lucky I didn’t use the red hair gel. I’m just sayin’… I gotcho back.
xoxo
Mom
——————-
Dear Isabel,
You are so beautiful and I love laughing with you. I also don’t mind that you choose the music from my iPod to listen to when we get in the car. But do you think we could play something different than “Poker Face” occasionally? It’s gettin’ a little old. Plus, I don’t really want you to learn all the words. I still feel bad that you sing “Gives You Hell.” I blame myself for that.
Love you!
Mom
————————
Dear Taj,
I really need your teeth to stop falling out. The Tooth Fairy called and said that a 5 year old losing 7 teeth already is unheard of and she is going broke. She also would like to request you NOT lose any more teeth on Saturday evenings.
Love,
Mommy
———————-
Seiuli,
Um, hi. Could you do me a favor? Stop lookin’ so hot in your police uniform. It’s getting ridiculous. You come home, dinner’s on the table and all I can think about is you. Much yummier than the meatloaf. You know I can’t trust all those badge bunnies out there. So, tone it down a bit Officer Gorgeous. Love you.
Your wife
April is our family’s birthday month. My dad is the 2nd, Tristan’s is the 6th, my lil sister’s is on the 20th and Isabel’s is today!! Isabel was born on April 9, 1999 at 8:22am after 24 hours of labor. Unlike Tristan, her head was not a cone shape and I didn’t have an epidural. She is the biggest of all my babies (beating Livie by 1 ounce) weighing in a 8 pounds 2 ounces, 19 3/4 inches long. She looked like a chubby, hairy, Oriental baby. Too cute!! Alec couldn’t say “Isabel” so he called her “Diddle-bel” which eventually became “Diddles” and the nickname has stuck.
Izzy is shy and not a big talker. She is so talented in so many things. We’ve discovered that individual sports may be her “thing.” She already kicked butt in gymnastics and is now taking karate. After 4 classes she tested and passed for her yellow belt. She really enjoys it a lot! She also told me that tennis sounded fun… She is very sweet and doesn’t like to hurt anyone’s feelings. When she was tired of all the hours she dedicated to gymnastics and didn’t want to miss out on the fun at home she was so nervous I would be sad that she wrote this long letter to Sei and I about how she just wants to be home with us, etc… It was so sweet. When I married Sei, Kelsea and Karlea were almost 3. Isabel was so giving and nurturing and sharing with them even though she was younger. She never complained about sharing clothes, toys, her room, her parents!! And she would just sit there, looking as sweet as can be while people doted on “the twins” and ignored her. Broke. My. Heart.
Isabel is beautiful, athletic and awesome. She is so smart. She has always loved learning and could read and write earlier than any of her other siblings. She loved to use sign and could sign her ABCS in like 10 seconds flat when she was 4. She has always been the child I could take into public and come home with all my hair still intact. I actually cried when she started kindergarten. *sniff* I love you Isabel!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIDDLES!!!!
I had a tshirt that said what my title says. Except B.S. stood for Bull$h!* and B.U. stood for “Butthead University.” My mom thought it was funny. Idk why… 
Anyway… my point is that I didn’t always deliberately do or not do things to irritate my parents. Take 8th grade for example. I wasn’t a troublemaker yet and my friends were good kids for the most part. We all decided to be wild and tell our parents we were going to see “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” but instead we’d have one kid’s older sister buy us tickets to “Pretty Woman” instead. You know- typical 13-14 year old stuff. Ok, ok- so that part was deliberate. But the next part wasn’t. My friend Shannon had an unexpected visit from Aunt Flo… so we headed across the street to buy her tamp0ns. We missed our movie, so we decided to go to the later one. It never once crossed my mind to call my parents to let them know I would be home later. In my head I was covered because I had a ride home, so for some reason it never registered that I should tell my parents I would be home 3 hours later than originally planned. Yeah… duh.
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I love Tristan so much. He is so freakin’ witty. He just busts out with these sarcastic things out of no where. Idk WHERE he gets that from. Tdog is athletic. He can excel at any sport he tries because he’s just a natural athlete. He is so great with babies- probably because as the oldest he’s had a lot of practice. He is thoughtful and well-behaved. He’s smart and he’s a great hug-giver. I love his hugs.
Anyway… today he is 14. I can’t believe I have a 14 year old. CRAZY. And he’s so handsome with a normal shaped head and 2 eyebrows, not one. I love you Tdog. You make me so proud.
Guess what made my nite last nite? Well, actually it probably wouldn’t be appropriate to talk about it on my blog, so I’ll tell you the OTHER thing that made my nite last nite. I’m walkin’ in to Kroger grocery store with Tristan when I see HIM. I see “Go Conner!” Remember “Go Conner!” from this post (a must read if you missed it)??? I was totally staring at him trying to figure out where I knew him from when I saw his sweat shirt- with his school’s name. I said, “Tristan it’s the whiny kid!!” And T said, “I know Mom. Please don’t say anything. Please don’t say anything…” as I said, “Amen Brutha!” I couldn’t help myself. Tristan just kept his head down like he was mortified.
I was like, “Come on Tristan. Did you really think I was gonna say anything to him?”
“You DID say something!”
“All I said was ‘Amen Brutha!’”
“And he LOOKED at you!”
“He did? Ah man. If I had known that I would have said more like ‘Hey there’s that whiny baby from H______. Remember when y’all totally won that game? Or, ‘hey kid. I blogged about you.’ Or I could have just waved my hand in front of my face and said ‘Boo ya!‘”
“Yeah, but then he would have just thought ‘That kid has to bring his retarded mom to the store.‘”
“True…”
GO CONNER!!
*So, this weekend Alec’s basketball team won the bronze medal for their league. I hate losing and all I could think during their game was, “I hate losing. Don’t lose.” Man, I’m such a loser! Isabel’s team lost their game so they walked away with the silver medal. YAY! But get this- they were down 14 to 5 with 1:30 left in the game. Hello- it took them almost the whole game to get 5 points and the other team’s coach calls for a full court press. What?? Not only that, but there was this annoying dad yelling at his daughter on the other team. “Casey!! What are you doing?!?! GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!!!” “Don’t pass like that!!” “Don’t let her past you Casey!” “Move your feet!!” NOTHING positive at all. And he kept trying to get her attention to coach her from the stands. Ok, that is NOT good. If you wanna coach then volunteer. Otherwise, shut up. I just sat there going, “They’re 9. They’re 9. They’re 9.” I think he finally figured out I was talking to him.
Later a girl on our team got fouled, bad, but they didn’t call it. I just said to my mom, “Ooh, that was a foul.” (I don’t yell at refs at rec games.) And the man says, without looking at me, “That wasn’t a foul.” I looked right at him and I said, “When they grab your arm, Yes, it’s a foul.” BRING IT. I sooooo wanted him to say more, but he didn’t. Boring.
*I also took Isabel to the Jonas Brother’s 3-d movie. It was like a 3-D concert. Those 3-D glasses get annoying after a while, but I thought the movie/concert was good! I bought Isabel the soundtrack at the movie theater for an early birthday present and the manager walks out and gives Izzy a GINORMOUS poster to go with her cd. She was stoked!! 
*I took a mega-long nap yesterday. And I wasn’t even in my bed. I was curled up on the living room floor with my head against the desk. I was watching Sei hang a ceiling fan and 3. hours. later. I woke up. Apparently Tristan took a picture of me with my phone- sleeping. Isn’t Seiuli so lucky to sleep with me? Atleast my mouth is covered up because I’m sure it was wide open. Sei laid down next to me and slept for an hour- in the living room floor. When we woke up we were laughing because we were trying to think if we ever saw any of OUR parents sleep in the living room floor…
*I slapped Tristan on Sunday. He deserved it. He was putting on a mask like this & harrassing me:
He wrapped himself up in a black sheet, walked into my bedroom and turned off the lite. He just stood there. Scared the crap out of me. Then he ran into my bathroom. Then he came over to the bed where I was studying my medical transcriptionist stuff and just stared at me. And kept moving closer. And closer. And- WHACK!- I popped him on the mask. Oops. So, what does the genius do? He backs up towards my bedroom door and comes CRAWLING at me!!! What the heck? Mask + Crawling = Tori craps pants. He’s so lucky I didn’t kick him in the face. I called Sei in the room and yelled at him- because it’s his fault. If he didn’t crawl at me trying to scare me all the time Tristan wouldn’t do it either.
And that concludes my weekend review.
“HE IS?!???!?!”
(sing it with me now) THE FACTS OF LIFE! THE FACTS OF LIFE!!
Ok, Tristan is 11 and Alec will be 10 on Tuesday. Tristan knows about puberty and maybe a little about $ex, but nothing major. Sei has been saying he will talk to the boys… forever. So, I finally said, “Come on boys. We gotta talk.”
I had bought Tristan this book a while ago. May I highly recommend it to all parents- especially those of the LDS faith. It’s a great book. But anyway- being a female I don’t know all the male type puberty things. I mean, I know of them, but haven’t experienced them personally. So, I grabbed the book and started reading parts about puberty to the boys. Ok, it was SO fun! I know, I’m a dork. But that conversation with my boys was awesome! We were giggling and making jokes and they were totally opening up about stuff that would have normally been embarrassing to talk about. And their faces when I read the part about how their um, private parts?, will grow eventually- CLASSIC. I was rolling!! I finally said, “Well, would you want to be as tall & big as Granddad, but have the same size parts you have right now?” We all lost it because Taj ran in with no clothes on at that exact moment. It was awesome. Anyway- we talked about that. I told them about how they need to be respectful to girls- especially since they have 4 sisters (3 that will be hitting puberty all about the same time. Fun.), etc… We talked about $ex and how it is for married couples to have with only each other. And how it is what makes babies. To which Tristan replied, “Well, when M___had $ex with J___when y’all were married, why didn’t she have a baby?” (M is his biological father and J is now his step-mom who was also M’s mistress.) “Uhh… well…. because they are huge sinners who are going to hell!” Just kidding. I didn’t say that. I just said, “There are things you can do to make sure you don’t have a baby. Also, some people can’t have babies….” Ok- how did we get on this subject?? Anyway… the point of this post is that I am so glad I got to have that talk with them. It was cool. We were silly, but they learned. Heck, I learned! Oh, I forgot. They asked me if Sei and I were having more kids to which I replied “No. Our family is complete.” I swear they looked relieved. I mean, that means their parents won’t be having… $ex. Ewwwwww!!!!!!!
