Sniffles...

So I didn't sleep superbly last night, and upon getting up I learned that both my little ones have the sniffles. Yay. (Said very unenthusiastically.) So today was a lazy day. When I told Moose that, he said, "What's that?" I told him he could stay in his pajamas and we would just hang around the house and not do much. (I'm sure he's like, how is that different?) But he wanted to play the computer, and usually the rule is chores have to be done first, which includes getting dressed. So I was the loner in my pj's today, and doing my best to be lazy since my kids apparently don't get the concept.

Hopefully what we have is short-lived and doesn't get any more involved that sniffling. Moose's preschool group tomorrow is already cancelled since all kids involved are sick in one form or another. Goodness gracious. Oh well. Maybe I'll make tomorrow a lazy day too? :)

Girls Night and Nose Picking...

So last night I got home late due to a very needed Girls Night Out with frozen yogurt and conversation. I actually lost track of time. (Really!) But that's a goodthing, since I usually don't and I'll hurry home as soon as I think it's getting late. It was much-needed and great.

(Watch out, this may get gross!) So, on to nose picking! Twice now, including today and Wednesday night, Moose has given himself a bloody nose from picking. He told me before that he picks his nose in bed because no one can see him. The first one was pretty bad, getting all over himself, bedding, and he even touched his sister's face. (Eww, I know.) He had no idea what was going on, never having had a bloody nose before. Today he was napping on the couch and it wasn't as dark, so he went and got a tissue like we told him to. I didn't even realize he had a bloody nose til I came out from our room to go somewhere. It wasn't a bad one fortunately. But still, eww! I've tried to tell him how gross it is, but I'm sure this will be a long-term battle. Perhaps I'll have to ease up a touch and choose my major battles over the nose-picking. Maybe we'll have consequences for giving himself a bloody nose, but otherwise I'll leave it be unless I see boogers? Maybe.

Oh, the joys of parenthood. :)

Nice Moments...

So I've noticed ever since we've gotten Monkey back to her sleeping schedule she has been back to her sweet self. We made some changes to our routines lately, with the hubs leaving for work earlier so he can come home earlier, and I had to make a mental change to be more of a morning Mama. This was such a good thing. Although she's starting sleeping in til 7:30 (and then watching Baby Einstein for 30-60 mins.!) I've just had a better mental attitude about the kiddos during the day. I mentioned before making a conscious choice to not let their bad naps, cranky attitudes ruin my day, and boy has it helped! Anyway, lately her naps have been just short of 2 hours (vs. the 3 hours they used to be) and Moose usually goes down about 30 minutes after her in my room. So I have anywhere from 1 1/2 hrs to 45 minutes alone. A bit less than I used to. But I find that it's totally okay. She's in such a better mood when she's up and let's me get things done if I want to. But the last two days after she wakes up, she'll come sit next to me in our big lounger chair and she'll watch Baby Einstein (Baby Mozart) while I read a book. It's so great. Throughout the show she'll giggle and play with me, and it's the sweetest thing. We'll do this for about an hour. I really cherished it today, knowing that it probably won't last forever. I'm so glad for little things like this that can be so rejuvenating emotionally and just in general. Helps me keep going on those days when there aren't so many nice moments. :)

I smell...

As I was laying in Monkey's bed waiting for her to put something "a-way", as she would say, I snuggled up to her pillow and babies. They have a very distinct smell. Her smell. I just love it. I don't really recall Moose ever having his own smell, although I'm sure he does. But she does. I can smell her things that she sleeps with and it always has her scent. Makes me smile every time. :)

Discipline Update...

So since we've changed our tactics with Moose a bit, I thought I'd give a little update. Here's a brief bit on what changed. I've cracked down on his minor behaviors more severely that bug me (baby talk, talking back) so that we don't have a Mt. Everest breakdown later on while all these little things continue building and bugging me.

Ultimately, we have more timeouts. Which he hates. I find it ridiculous, because they're the easiest punishment ever. (I don't make him sit there that long.) I try to talk to him more about what he's doing, what's expected of him, what just happened and why. We did a lot of that with him when he was younger and it lessened our freak outs. After he loses a privilege we talk about it. Later that day we review and remind him what was lost and why, and how we'll act differently next time so he doesn't lose that privilege. He does seem a bit more emotional/whiny, but I think that's mainly because he's been getting away with a lot of behaviors that I should've been cracking down on. (The talk back mostly. Which has dropped drastically.) I think overall the changes have been very good.

Now, to figure out what to do with Monkey, our resident banshee. When something drops, most kids her age say uh-oh. She screams. Something happens that she doesn't like and she screams, she needs help and she screams. It's really getting old. Oh, and when we put her in time out she completely L-O-S-E-S  I-T! Yes, the capitalization and whatnot are necessary. I mean, seriously, she loses her mind. It's so weird. She's only been doing that recently, although she hasn't had a lot of time outs lately either. Perhaps she realized she didn't like them and has decided that if she gets one she's going to freak out big time? Very likely. Maybe I should bring the hammer down on her a bit too, just to remind her who's boss. In the end, I can always scream louder. :) (Not that I do, just saying.)

I knew it...

Today was a normal day. Although I'm starting to feel physically more tired by dinnertime than I was before. But I realized today I'm about 7 months pregnant with 2 pretty demanding kids, so I suppose that's pretty normal at this point.

Anyhow, I was somewhat stressed by the time dinner rolled by and the hubs took the kids to a family get together for a niece's birthday. It was in the later evening, and I knew the night would only be stressful for me since the kids would be staying up late, be overtired, etc. So I stayed home (and prepped for preschool group tomorrow. So glad I did that!) and the hubs took the kids for cake and ice cream.

Moose ended up having a huge tantrum when it was time to leave, and after it was all said and done, different discipline tactics tried, the hubs came to at least one conclusion I already knew concerning Moose. Spanking doesn't work. We haven't done it consistently with him ever, and it just doesn't do anything. I end up hurting my hand more than him for the spanking to even hurt him. Otherwise he just smirks at you, or forbid he even laughs. And of course that makes me more mad. So a long time ago I learned that spanking was futile. I'm sure we came to an agreement about it, but lately it had been brought up again. (The hubs remembers spanking as punishment for lying, which was an issue if you recall.) So he tried it. It didn't work. Not for Moose.

So tonight was a night in which I was able to be reassured (after much time had passed) that: yes, I know my child, and yes I was right that spanking is not a good tactic to use with him. Thanks for the reassurance hubs. :)

Oops...

As I was laying in bed last night, I realized I had forgotten to post. I was actually quite bummed. It'd been a while since I missed a day, and before now it was usually on purpose. So, last night was an accident.

Today was a good day. We took the kiddos to church, tried to do naps, but that didn't work. (I'm suspecting it was because they were in the same room. We had that working before Monkey's sleep issue hit, and have since regressed. Moose always naps in my bed cause they just can't handle it. Neither one of them.)

So when we go to the library most weeks for storytime, Monkey never gets anything. She doesn't really care about their books at her age, and Moose always picks the videos, which she's not interested in watching either. However, the last time we went she picked out a Baby Einstein video, so I got it for her. We got one once before, and she ignored it. But I thought I'd try. It's been over a week now and let's just say she loves it! It's Baby Mozart. And this week we found Baby Brahms (or something). It's so neat to see her sit and watch something intently. Although she does like to spin whenever something on the movie is spinning.

Anyhow, to today. She asked to watch it. (She calls it "baby" since we call it the baby show. Baby Einstein. Get it? Anyway.) So the hubs put in the Brahms one, which has a bunch of lullabies on it. Now, remember she hadn't taken a nap today, and after maybe ten minutes or so, she fell asleep on his lap. It was the sweetest thing ever! Our kids are not the type to fall asleep in odd places, on the floor, or anything like that. We put them in bed regularly enough, and mostly on time, so they just don't do that. But she did, and it was adorable. I even took a picture. :)

Carnivals and Basketball...

Tonight was a fun night. The high school was having a small carnival as well as a bunch of basketball games. So me and the kids went up (the hubs was still there) and Moose played a few games, they both got their faces painted, and we watched half the girls varsity basketball game. It was tons of fun. Moose was really excited. He remembers watching football and so he gets pretty into it. I enjoyed teaching him some of the rules, and the "whys" for the whistle blowing and whatnot. He seems to get more engaged in the game and pay attention more when he understands little bits. So that was nice.

As for our problems yesterday, today was pretty good. I think his day of lying was enough for him to realize it's a bad thing. He's not the kind to lie a lot either, so it just must've been one of those days. But I clamped down on his other negative behaviors and it seemed to work. He ended up losing his naptime song, any tv after his nap, and his babies that he sleeps with. He was on the verge of losing the carnival we went to, but finally snapped out of it and went to time out. (He was absolutely refusing to go. Seriously? Sit in a corner for a minute, or until you're calmed down, then count to 30 and come out. Such a wuss.) But after it all went down, we talked about what happened, why, and what he should do next time. So it was pretty good overall. I also talked to him about not yelling, and that things were going to change around here in that respect. It was good. Hopefully we'll continue to be able to make progress with regards to all that.

At least it seems like, for now, Monkey's sleep issues are pretty much gone. It almost feels like her big issue never happened, now that she's back to how it used to be. It's really such a relief. Sleep issues with your kids is so stressful. So for now, things are pretty okay. I wonder what will be next? With kids, it's always something. :)

A Lying Day...

That is what Moose called today in his prayer before bed. Let's just say it was a "lying" 24 hours. We had quite the event last night. Moose kept coming out of their room to tell us that Monkey was taking his "babies" (dolls he takes to bed) away, as well as his pillow. So she kept getting in trouble. Well, we eventually realized he was doing it. We don't know if she was originally, but by 8:15, he was getting out of bed and putting his babies and pillow in her bed. It was ridiculous. He had been lying to us the entire time and she was getting in some serious trouble. I was so annoyed and just downright bothered. He's lied before, about small things. But this just irked me something awful.

Today he has taken to lying a bit more. He lied to me this morning, right after we talked about what happened last night. Then when I picked him up from his preschool group he lied twice in a row. These were all about small things, but still. I couldn't believe it.

Aside from the lying, it was an emotional/screaming day. Me and Moose just butt heads over and over again. For some reason I wasn't handling it well today and reverted to some of my older/less desirable habits. (yelling) After he had a breakdown with his preschool teacher (thankfully, a great friend of mine) telling her all about our scream out, I realized I had to reign things in.

Fortunately, despite the awfulness of today, I've learned a lot. Or re-learned, or remembered. However you want to call it. Moose just doesn't respond to yelling. He yells back. Or if I catch him off guard enough with it, and growl just right, he breaks into tears and just bawls. Not only this, but he's starting to yell at Monkey. Totally unacceptable.

After some chatting with the hubs (he's such a great sounding board, and always on my side, no matter how horrible I've been) we realized one of the problems that led up to today. All week long, Moose has been giving me some serious sass. When he deserves a time out he comes back with a sassy, "No! I don't want to go to time out." Which is then repeated multiple times. Just today when he asked me a question about what was driving me crazy, I told him he was driving me crazy. He responded with a sassy, "You're driving ME crazy!" Little things like this, all week long. I don't know where he's getting it from, but I'm guessing it's what's been bringing me to the boiling point, very slowly, all week. So after our discussion, me and the hubs decided we need to crack down on the negative behaviors. Moose and I are going to have a long chat tomorrow morning (hopefully before he's done anything worthy of discipline) about what's not acceptable, and what the punishments are. His most common removals are: computer games (one hour a day), tv/movie watching (2 hours a day) or candy after meals. We are also, most likely, going to institute a reward type system of warm fuzzies. It's something he's been doing with his preschool group that he really responds to. We take an empty container, and whenever he's good or does something really nice for someone else, we put a little fuzzy ball in the container. (A "warm fuzzy") When he does something bad, we take one out. When the jar is filled, we give him a reward and start all over again. Teaching a child good behavior, and getting rid of the bad, is so much work. It's completely worth it, but goodness it can be trying. (As well as bring out your own worst behavior, which doesn't help any.)

Wish us luck. Oh, and the doctor's appointment went great. My weight gain is right on track. (At about 16 pounds, I think.) My uterus size (for those not knowing, they measure your uterus, not how big your belly is. Two completely different and separate things) is perfect too. She made me feel a bit better. Sometimes I get comments on how small I am. I was starting to think maybe this baby would be smaller than my last. But she said that how you show has no bearing on how big you are inside. Even as a doctor she can be wrong, by looking at someone, at how big they really are inside. So I'm just right, she said, and that makes me feel better. I still have over 2 months of growing yet anyhow. And it's not like I want to be huge or anything, although I do love a pregnant belly. I've just always loved my big belly and when people tell me I'm small I guess it makes me feel like they don't see all the hard work I've done. (Nor do they remember how small I was before hand.) :)

Anyway, 10 more weeks to go. Hopefully me and the kids will survive til then. (And maybe we'll even pick a name for our poor nameless baby.)

Our Secret...

So I think Monkey's sleeping habits have officially turned a corner in a good way. The revelation we finally had after 2 nights of insanity was that she was completely overtired all the time. Nothing big had changed except for the following: During winter break the kids stayed up a bit later due to family events, and they started waking up a bit earlier. After winter break, we started putting them back to bed earlier, but they were still waking up earlier too. So Miss Monkey had just been tired. So we started putting them to bed between 7 and 7:30 (as in lights out at this time) and she has been doing amazingly better. She cries out as we shut the door and cries out "Mama" a few times. But she doesn't get out of bed, and it stops after a few seconds. It's miraculous, the change. I'm loving it! So now she's back to going to bed between 7 and 7:30, waking up at 6:30, and napping for 2 hours in the afternoon.

Although this morning was a fabulous exception. She woke up at 4:30 in the morning, unable to find her pacifier. I gave it to her, and left their door open, knowing she'd freak out if she saw me close it. I went to shut their door right before 5, knowing the hub's alarm would go off and he'd be up and about getting ready. However, she wouldn't let me close it still. So I went into their room and laid down on the floor next to her bed. (We tried bringing her into our bed once when this happened and she didn't want to leave her bed.) So I shut the door and slept next to her bed. The bad thing was it was horribly uncomfortable. I couldn't sleep too long on my side without one arm going numb, and getting a kink in my side. Not to mention being horribly aware of how unsupported my spine was, and most likely nothing even close to straight. But I was still able to sleep. Moose woke up shortly before 6, but he stayed in bed as quiet as he could manage until 7, when I let him go out to the living room and watch a movie. But I stayed next to her bed sleeping on the floor. Me and Monkey didn't leave the bedroom until 8:20! That's the longest she's slept in months. I know it was mostly because I was there. I don't know how long it took her to fall asleep after I came in there. But it was definitely what she needed. She still took a nap from 1-3 and will certainly be down at her normal bedtime, after a few large yawns at dinner. I'm so glad to have things back to normal. It makes our evenings so much more relaxing and less stressful.

Oh, and we're mostly decided to take away her pacifier before baby #3 comes. Most likely at the end of February. So we'll have at least a month to get her acclimated before we have another one who will be taking a pacifier. But for now I'm not stressing it. I'm just glad she's sleeping regularly again without huge bouts of crying or screaming. (And having her missing pacifier wake her up at 4:30 doesn't help her paci cause any. I could practically take it away right now if that happens again. We'll see.)

So yay for progress anyway. So glad we finally figured out what the deal was. For tomorrow's agenda: Doctor's apointment! Week 30. 10 to go. How crazy!