The Lost Sock!

The kids are in bed, we're sitting around talking and our two year old starts crying. So I go into her room and she's just bawling. I'm trying to think what's bothering her. I ask her if she's got boogers. No response. Finally she says, "It's lost. My sock. My foot is cold." (Imagine slight dramatic pauses between each sentence. Perhaps a deep inhale or sniffle too. It was so cute.) It was the saddest, most pitiful thing you've ever heard. It was so cute! So I helped Monkey find her sock and put it back on. She's now happily tucked back into bed. :)

Ponderings of a Public School Parent

Sometimes when I'm making Moose's lunch for the next school day my brain gets a-wandering. These are some of the ponderings I had while making his lunch tonight.

I can't help but wonder what other kids are eating for lunch. Not the lunch they get at school, but the sack lunches they're bringing from home. I'm pretty particular about what I pack in his lunch. Bless his heart, the hubs can't replicate what I do without a written, detailed list. Here's a lay-out of his daily lunch.

Snack Container:
granola bar or a few crackers
fruit: half an apple, handful of grapes, half a peach, etc.
veggie: 3 carrot sticks, one stick of celery with peanut butter and raisins (I'll get him up to 2 celery sticks soon. they're still kinda new)

Main lunch Container:
PB&J, Ham and cheese, or chicken nuggets

Second lunch container:
equivalent fruit and veggies from snack container
2 vitamins
cheese stick or yogurt
small treat: 1 cookie or 2-3 small pieces of candy from around the house

That's about it. More or less. If he gets ham and cheese, I usually don't give him a cheese stick. I usually give him yogurt with chicken nuggets. The kid's only been in school a few months, and it's already a fine-tuned rotation. He already knows Wednesday is chicken nugget day. For a while I rotated his main dish. M and Th were PB&J, W was chicken nuggets, T and F were ham and cheese. He went through a ham and cheese boycott, so I'm slowly working it back in. I really need a few more things in my rotation, but he really doesn't mind. He always eats it all. And he told me a while ago he sometimes shares his candy with his buddy, because he asks. And sometimes his buddy shares things with him.

Okay, so those are my slightly OCD lunch-making habits for my kindergartener. And every so often as I'm making his lunch I can't help but wonder what the other kids are eating. Are they eating healthier stuff. Junk food? Shnazzy lunchables? Just curious, I guess. I know I'm doing right by him and teaching him good habits. Even though he still hates peas and whines everytime we tell him there are onions or peppers in dinner. He's healthy and one day he'll thank us. :)

But what are those other kids eating? *shrug* Who knows. I'm sure many of you are thinking I need better things to think about. I know. It's true. :)

Hurts me more...

There's that old saying "This will hurt me more than it hurts you". So true. Sometimes parenting is a real drag. I've learned multiple times that sometimes what you have to deal with is not worth the lesson you're trying to teach. Or it is worth it, but you still wish you didn't have to do it anyway. Case in point:

This evening I was getting Moose ready for bed. He was in the bathroom and was supposed to be putting toothpaste on his toothbrush so I could brush his teeth. I got a phone call and was talking on the phone, while still gesturing to him to do what I asked him to. He fooled around and all-around ignored me, not putting his toothpaste on. I get my stern face on (while still on the phone) and pointed to his toothbrush. He got totally sassy and was completely ignoring me, laughing, etc. This happened for a minute or two. I was so very frustrated. Finally, I grabbed him and sent him to time-out while I finished my phone call. Okay, reading it like this, his infraction doesn't sound very bad. But I have a hard time articulating sassiness. The boy was ignoring me (not okay in our house) and just being obnoxious. It got me so mad. So I brushed his teeth, denied him his last small drink of water (I know, I'm so mean, right?), made him swish his flouride and sent him to his room to be put to bed by his Papa. When he got in his room, the hubs took away his book. This sent him to tears. Serious tears. The hubs explained that we do not treat Mama that way and so he would not get his book that night. It was awful hearing him cry and whatnot. I really questioned whether or not it was worth it. But in the end, he was being really rude to me and disrespectful, which the hubs does not tolerate when he's home. (It's harder to enforce not being disrespectful or rude to the parent when you're the only one there. I find it's easier for him to discpline for the kids being rude to me and I discipline when they're rude to him. Don't know why, but it works better.) Anyway, long story short, I think it was totally harder for me in that moment to listen to his totally pathetic crying over losing his book than it was for him to lose his book. I think that's also true because I'll remember it much more potently than he will.

Disciplining your children is not for the faint of heart. You give them an inch and they'll take a mile. And yes, they can smell fear.

Sigh

I couldn't think of a better post title than that. It was a crazy afternoon. I have a kindergartener. More and more I'm realizing that I am learning more having him in kindergarten than I think he is. Today's lesson learned: Teach your boy how to pee in a urinal before he goes to public school. Let's just say this has led to un-necessary stress in my life on more than one occasion. 'Nuff said.

I was actually working out this afternoon during the girl's naps. For the first time, I was actually bothered by an interruption. (Which generally I welcome to get me out of the sweat-fest) The work-out mojo was gone, and the children were awake before the interrruption was taken care of.

Monkey, who is generally potty-trained decided to have another accident today. It was icing on the cake of undesirable occurences today.

I'm off to sing Monkey's "one more song". Then it's parental relax time with popcorn and a movie. Yay for Friday nights.

Flying Solo

So I flew solo for most of the day today. After work, the hubs had parent teacher conferences, which meant he didn't get home til 9 this evening. In anticipation of days like this, I generally plan on doing nothing. Although I did end up having a very active afternoon before I had to pick Moose up from school at 1:30. (Can I just say I hate early release days? Throws off everything. Naps, lunch, ugh.) Once the girls were asleep for their naps, my day consisted of finding a cheesy fantasy teeny bop tv show in netflix instant watch and attempting to watch it while tending my kids, making dinner, and putting my kids to bed. My philosophy on days like this is that I want to avoid stress, since I won't have the hubs to step in for me if I get stressed out. Although I realized that if I were a single parent I would either get nothing done or be stressed out daily. I blame my desire for laziness on still recovering from my trip home for Grandma's funeral. I had about 3 nights of really awful sleep. Things have been nice since I've been back, but I haven't had any extra sleep. So I figure I'm still behind, right? I'm really looking forward to the weekend. That's when the hubs offers to take the kids in the morning so I can get extra sleep. Lately I've just been trying to get up when they do so we can get more done. But this weekend, I'm totally sleeping in. I'm tired. Blog done. Bed time.

Still here

So I've decided to keep on blogging about my crazy kids. Sometimes the things they do are just so fun you have to share. Or so annoying I need to vent. And just about anything inbetween. Here's a child update on my kiddos.

Moose: He's almost 5 1/2. He started kindergarten in September. Kinda crazy! But it's been such a good thing. He's learning and making friends. He had his first play date with a school friend yesterday, at their house. He was so excited. The only downer is now he's going to ask to go just about every day. But fortunately it seemed like his friend was just as excited and spazzy as my kid. So mine isn't the only one. :)

Monkey: She is 2 1/2. A bean pole. She's potty-trained. Although I've learned that's a really loose term. Sure, she's wearing undies. (Can I just say I hate the word panties. Don't know why.) But that doesn't mean she's in control all the time. We still have accidents. A few a week. But in general she does great and her accidents are generally only wet ones, nothing smelly. She can officially operate the blu-ray to stream netflix all by herself. She also navigates the computer on her own too. She has her own favorites folder with her approved games in it.

Munchkin: My baby is no longer a tiny baby. She's 7 months old today. She's cutting her 2nd tooth. She's learning to sit. I just came back from a trip back home for my Grandma's funeral. Now that I'm back she's a bit clingy. And although she's waking up later than she did for the hubs (5 am for him, poor guy), she's still waking up too early and it makes her cranky. Speaking of the little beasty, I hear her making sounds over the monitor. 45 minutes is not an acceptable nap. She had better go back to sleep!

So, look forward to more antics from me and my kiddos. :)

Support...

So lately Miss Munchkin has been a real back-breaker. She doesn't nap for more than 45 minutes at a time, but only eats every 3-4 hours. This makes for one whacked out schedule during the day. And if we do this for the entire morning, by noon or so she's a mess and is so overtired she won't even eat. So yesterday I went and vented on facebook. Bless my family and friend's hearts for commiserating with me, offering advice, ideas, or just empathizing. Sometimes when we do this, we don't always hear anything new or anything that will help. And sometimes they bring you a fresh perspective and help you see things a different way. Either way, it's just nice. Friends offer support, they tell you that their kids did it too and that it will pass. I woke up this morning feeling just a tiny bit better. I still don't know if Munchkin will sleep longer than 45 minutes without serious intervention. But I know that I'm not the only Mom out there who's dealing or struggling with raising kids.

Like they always say, before you know it they'll be off to college. So I'll enjoy what parts of this stage I can, and just wait for the rest to pass.

Growth Spurt...

The last few days things with Munchkin have beena bit unusual. She's been a bit grouchy, waking up more often at night, and not eating as usual during the day. After doing some researching this evening and talking with the hubs, we decided she might just be going through a growth spurt. She had one between 6-8 weeks. That's normal. One place I checked said that after that kids generally have one once a month or every 8 weeks. It said that it only lasts for a day or two. We're on day two with this little gal, so I'm hoping that it won't last much longer. Last night I was up with her every 3 hours. It was exhausting. I really hope she goes back to her fabulous nights of only waking once. I hope tonight's the night.

Outside of this fun few days, things have been going alright. The hubs is on summer break, with the occasional work at a side job. It's been a bit of a change having him around. For me, it's been an awesome change. It's been a bit harder for the kids. They're so used to me doing things. Having him step in and do things has been a bit harder. But we're trying to live up the summer as much as we can. We've already had one family reunion. We've got another one next week. We're had some fun camping, and hope to do more. Swim lessons, trips to the library. Who knows?  I just hope it stays fun. And that I start getting more sleep at night. ;)

Family Reunion...

We have just finished a week-long family reunion. (Including driving days, and some family returning with us.) I fear it's going to take twice that long to get our kiddos back to where they were. They've been going to bed at 10 pm all week long with no naps. Fortunately, Monkey knows how to let herself sleep in. The same can't be said for Moose. Tonight is the first night of trying to get them back to normal. They've now been in bed for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Although this process is being made all the more difficult by Monkey's teething, congestion, and diaper issues. (Diaper issues are another blog, completely. Oy.) Munchkin seems to be doing well. Despite being the worst traveler in our family. Let's just say that being rocked to sleep in the car does nothing for her. Which makes an 8 hour day in the car very unpleasant.

But despite all the unpleasantness, we are so glad to be home. The kiddos will figure it out. Things will readjust. And it was so awesome to visit with family. I suppose the memories will be worth the pains of readjusting to normal life. :)

2 months...

I can hardly believe Munchkin is 2 months old. It goes so fast. She weighed in at 12 lbs. 15 oz. and she's 24 inches long. She's in the 95th percentile for both. Another big baby for us! I love it! She's starting to sleep a bit better. She even napped in her crib a bit today instead of the swing. (The batteries died, so it happened by chance. But she did well, so we'll have to keep this up!) She's still doing well at night, and becoming more alert and interactive during the day. The big kiddos still adore her, so I couldn't be happier! (Well, I'll be happier when I sleep straight through the night, but I'm not complaining or anything.) Overall, she's healthy so I couldn't be happier. :)