Showing posts with label Parenting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parenting. Show all posts

Thursday, November 6, 2014

That Time I Was the Furious Mom

Yesterday, I read this post and it reminded me of a specific trip I took to the grocery store when the Peanut was a little guy.  I don't remember exactly how old he was but my daughter wasn't born yet so he would have been younger than two.

About half way through my grocery shopping he started throwing a huge fit.  And let me tell you.  He was the master of the fits.  The blood curdling shriek kind of fits.


Once he got started, there was just no stopping him.  That put a quick end to my shopping trip.

And I think only a parent can really understand the frustration of having to leave a grocery store without all the groceries.

Anyone with kids knows what an ordeal grocery shopping can become when you have to take little kids along.  There is never a quick trip for essentials.  Just getting to the store is a colossal effort.  You have to get the timing just right.  Not nap time, not food time, not grouchy time, not poopy time.  You have to find the time when your baby is the most likely to let you get through the store without incident.  That time doesn't actually exist but you make your best effort.  Then you have to get yourself and the baby dressed, pack up all the necessary gear, diapers, wipes, entertainment, food items, pacis, anything that will keep that baby happy.

Load it all up in the car and get yourselves out the door.  Which is right when the baby will need a diaper change.  Back in, change, back out.  At this point, you are running much later than you thought you would be and it is encroaching dangerously in on nap, feeding, grouchy time or worst of all poopy time.  There is nothing worse than a poop explosion at the grocery store.  Don't ask me how I know that.

By the time you have done all the work of getting to the store, you better bet you aren't just going to grab that one thing and get out of there.  Because that would mean having to go through all the preparation AGAIN, another day, for the rest of the groceries.  Nope.  Not even gonna happen.  Once you manage to get there you better get everything.  As in anything and everything you will need for the next month, year, however long you can make it before items would start to actually spoil.

There is no greater tragedy than getting home and realizing you forgot that one essential item.  Because there is no going back.

How many times have you heard or even thought, "If my child ever threw a fit like that we would just leave the cart and walk right out of the store."

Most people say phrases like this all the time.  Until they actually have kids.  I'm guilty of it myself.  I promised myself I would "never be that parent."

Friday, May 4, 2012

7 Quick Takes Friday: Rocking Chairs, the Baby & Bruce Campbell


--- 1 ---
Yesterday I did housework.
I know!
Not sure what is wrong with me. I would claim to be nesting but I don't think that happens until the third trimester. Can't really say for sure because even pregnancy has never prompted me to clean like a crazy woman. So, maybe it's a virus? Like some kind of clean freak parasite taking over my body?
I actually unloaded 
and
 reloaded the dishwasher. Washed the Crockpot. Got dinner in and cooking with plenty of time to spare. All before 10am! Dinner finished cooking at exactly 5pm on the dot.
Which is exactly when my husband declared it was time to take the kids swimming in the still too cold pool. So, we kept dinner on warm and I watched my crazy shivering family splash around for an hour. They had a blast!
This morning I realized that somehow, during the course of the day yesterday, half the dining room table was mysteriously cleaned off. I have no memory of these events. This leads me to conclude that the parasite theory is indeed valid.
--- 2 ---
You will be happy to know that today I am fully recovered and back to my usual housecleaning avoidance at all costs ways.  
Though I really do need to do a load of laundry. We have a busy weekend ahead of us full of going places that require suitable attire and not superhero feety pajamas.  
Where can I find that parasite?
--- 3 ---
See this rocking chair?
It was mine when I was a wee one. Then my 
naive
 generous parents thought they would give it to my children so they could enjoy it and someday pass it down to their own children.  
Unfortunately, I was a much better behaved child than my own children are. I chalk that up to the good parenting I received.  
My kids?  
Might as well have been raised in a barn.  
They have yet to grasp the concept of 
sitting
 in chairs. Rather, they seem to believe that all furniture was created to be their own personal jungle gym. Every day I hear the creak of my favorite little rocker, threatening to give out and crumble into sawdust. I turn to see my son standing in it while attempting to rock hard enough to launch into orbit. I begin to have convulsions.  
It also doesn't help that the chair has become the favorite item to use in a "friendly" game of tug of war. See, now both kids love the chair. Even though they have several other child sized chairs and adult sized couch, loveseat, recliner at their disposal, only the rocker will do.  
Finally a compromise is reached.  


Monday, February 27, 2012

Losing My Cool

I lost it today.

The Peanut was working on his school work.

The same school work he does every day.

But today.

Today.

He suddenly forgot how to write his letters.

All of them.

He just started making random shapes slightly resembling letters.
The x's are his.
Normally, this would be my cue to say, "let's take a break."  Because we both needed one.

Instead, I pushed on.

Because he was so close to finishing the book.

Just a few more pages and we could finish today!

So, we continued.

I continued to instruct.  "Stop at the dotted line and go down."  He went up.

And I snapped.

Monday, June 20, 2011

What Happened to His Pants?!

Getting to church on time is a challenge for our family.  It seems that no matter what we do we are always late.  Yesterday was no exception.  

Now, I know all you organized, get everywhere on time people, will have plenty of tips and tricks to offer, but they won't work.  The universe conspires against us.  Truly it does.

Last week we took a trip to my hometown to visit my parents.  My husband wanted to visit some former work colleagues who were previously working there but have finished up their project and are now going on to other things in other locations.

Packing for our trip I had the foresight to find, wash, pair, and put aside clothes for Sunday.  I knew we would be returning on Saturday and there was not a chance in the world I would happen to do laundry or even think to prepare clothes for Sunday after we got home.  So, Sunday came.

We usually go to church in the evening.  It has just worked out best with nap schedules and kids behaving least badly.  Of course this often means we lose track of the time and realize 20 minutes before Mass starts that we have to get everyone dressed, or possibly showered and dressed, and drive to church, and get inside, and get seats.  Usually this is when I realize I have not done laundry, and none of us have clean church appropriate clothing.  This is also the point where we realize my daughter, with the shoe fascination, has managed to walk off with, and very successfully hide, one of each pair of shoes everyone owns.  The frantic hunt for just one pair, any pair, of something resembling footwear begins.  At the point where I am willing to accept mismatched footwear, we realize she has magically managed to lose all the right shoes.  Two left feet anyone?

Yesterday was not one of those days.  Not only was all the clothing prepared in advance, we also checked the time more than an hour in advance.  I dressed the kids.  Sometimes this is a risk because they will inevitably spill something on themselves if they are dressed any more than 15 seconds before actually walking out the door.  They were totally ready with shoes on and everything.  I endeavored in vain to get my daughter to allow me to put her hair up in  a pretty bow and settled instead with the few swipes of the hairbrush I could catch while running after her.

There we were, all ready, with more than 20 minutes to go before walking out the door.  Ok, now this is also a problem.  Some people might just leave and get there a bit early.  We know from personal experience that getting our children to sit through an entire hour without erupting is a miracle.  Getting them to sit for an hour and 20 minutes?  Laughable.  Sitting in the car for 20 minutes before going in yields similar results.  Not advisable under any circumstances.  You know what is less of a disruption?  Arriving to church 5 minutes late.  I know.  Bad.

Anyway 20 minutes to go.  Usually under these circumstances one of the following occurs.  The aforementioned spilling of substances on their Sunday clothes, potty accidents, possible fits erupting from the lack of understanding why they are not being allowed to consume blue popsicles or possibly melted cheese covered in ketchup.  You know the messiest substances they could possibly think up.  Or, we simply lose track of time . . .

Now, if we make it past this point and manage to get to the door in time, on most occasions, the minute we step foot out the door we will hear those magical words.  "Mama, I have to go potty."  Usually accompanied by appropriately urgent dancing.  Or, "Mama, I poopoo."  Accompanied by appropriately urgent smell.  Note, we of course made sure everyone was properly changed and pottied mere moments before.  No matter.  Something about leaving the house gives their bladder/bowels the incentive it needs.

Yesterday we magically bypassed all these holdups and ordeals.  The kids were ready.  We did not lose track of time.  They went to the bathroom at the appropriate time and magically found all sets of shoes.  We were out the door and in the car with seconds to spare.  As my husband buckled my son in, Peanut lifted his arm and we saw it.  The black smear all down his arm.

What the heck is that?!

My husband grabbed the wipees and cleaned off his arm as he noticed more of the gooey substance on the front of Peanut's pants.

"Oh, I gave him Junior Mints yesterday on the trip home." My husband remembered.  Peanut responded, "Ya, I kept dropping them and dropping them."

Information that would have been beneficial yesterday!  As we drove to church we both realized that those Junior Mints were probably all sitting in the bottom of his carseat.  They had been out in the 100 degree Texas sun all day long.  He was now sitting right on top of them . . .

Oh, please please no.  What would we do?

Sure enough when we arrived and took him out of the car seat, this is what we saw.

Why did we actually unload the car for once?  If only we had left the suitcase in the car we would have a change of clothes.  I frantically ransacked the car for something ANYTHING that may have somehow fallen out or been left behind.  I would settle for a bag of dirty clothes at this point.  Anything had to be better than the alternative.

No, we had been thorough.  Everything had been taken out of the car.  We had nothing.  NOTHING.

I am at the point of considering which of us will miss the first half of Mass and take him home to change him.

Then I had a brilliant idea.
Turn the shorts inside out!!  Genious!!!  Do you think anyone will notice?  Well, it's probably better than the alternative.
So, I did my best to tuck the white pockets back up inside and rolled up the waistband a bit so his shirt would be long enough to cover the top of the pockets.
Could be worse . . . obviously.

I don't think it would really have been noticeable at all except for the fact that he kept raising up his arms.
Oh, and the time we took fixing his pants.  

Made us late for church.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

My Husband's Relaxing Weekend

This past weekend my husband, kids and I all traveled by car 4 hours to spend the weekend in Oklahoma attending a wedding of one of my college roomates.  I spent the weekend involved in various wedding preparations and other bridesmaid attendant duties.  I will tell you more about that as soon as I get all the pictures scanned into the computer.  (Requires me to go all the way upstairs to use the scanner.  I actually wrote the post on Monday but have been procrastinating on the picture part all week.)

Let me tell you how my husband spent his weekend.

Friday, April 22, 2011

A Random Act of Kindness

Remember how I told you the gas company is replacing all the gas pipes in the area?  Well in related news the gas company has been hard at work tearing up our street and sidewalks.

I believe I mentioned before that I woke up one morning and heard the sounds of a jackhammer in my driveway.  A temporary patch was put in place and a few days later that was dug back up and some nice pretty smooth concrete was put in it's place.  Seriously it kinda stands out like a sore thumb with the rest of our broken cracked bumpy driveway.  Anyway they even fixed the part of the curb that was missing because our driveway is all curvy and so everyone always ends up driving over the curb.

Nice right?

Pretty spiffy!

About a week ago, I had the car for the day and so I took my kids over to a friends house to visit with her kids.  We had to drive up over the other curb because of the cones and orange netting stuff at the end of our driveway.

After a lovely visit we arrived home around 1:00pm driving back up over the same opposite curb to avoid the same cones and netting surrounding almost dry brand new smooth concrete.

So very close to being dry.

So close . . .

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Wait . . . Easter is When?!?!?

Well, if you read my blog, you know by now that I am a bit of a procrastinator.  I am also colossally bad at plan making or really anything that requires any kind of an actual . . . you know . . . decision .  That very word makes me cringe.

This is the part where most of you are expecting me to start running around in a panic when I realize I am entirely unprepared for Easter.

Guess what?

I did prepare.

I KNOW!!!!

What is this world coming to?  You just can't rely on anyone anymore.  People just keep letting you down right?

Seriously.  I came up with a plan.  A PLAN!

See, this year I started doing that thing parents eventually do when they decide that society is going to ruin their kids and they have to fight the influences blah blah blah etc.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Death of Imagination

Kids these days have no imagination.

I blame TV.

No, wait.  I blame video games.

Yep.  Definitely video games.

They spend all their time playing video games and no time exercising their imagination muscles.

Take my son for example.

He's 4 and he loves his video games.  His first words when he wakes up in the morning, "Can I play games now?" His last words before bed at night, "But I want to play games!"  After breakfast, "Can I play games now?"  Lunch, "Can I play games now?"  Dinner, "Can I play games now?"

Dreaming of Video Games
If he had his way he would be playing games from the time he woke up, while he eats, until he passed out at night with the controller in hand.  Heck he would play games on the potty if he could.

All this excessive video game playing has taken its toll.

He can turn the TV on, change the input to XBOX or Playstation, sign into his profile, edit his avatar, select his games, navigate Netflix, play Lego games like a pro, but the boy has no imagination.

Let me tell you about his friend.

Better yet let me show you the picture he asked me to take of the two of them.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Mama's Currently Out of the Office. Please Leave a Message After the Bleep

Ever wish you could just set up an out of office auto reply?

Last night I was sitting in the living room with my husband. He was watching TV and I was on the computer.

Moooooooooom!


Thursday, March 17, 2011

The Family Bed: No Room for Me!

Arm's Reach Mini Co-Sleeper Bassinet - Natural First of all I am going to say that I am very much pro co-sleeping.  It saved my sanity when my son was an infant.  The boy would not sleep at all unless he was in my arms.  He's a snuggler.  Plus it made feeding so much easier when I didn't have to wake up fully by getting out of bed, picking up the baby, feeding him, getting back up, and putting him back in bed.  I used a Mini Arms Reach co-sleeper for those times when I needed a little space and could get him to sleep without being latched to me.  I tended to be his pacifier.  It was also a lifesaver after a c-section.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

How to Travel with Toddlers

Are We There Yet? On Monday my husband and I packed our two kids (Peanut 4 and Princess 2) into our car and spent 5 hours driving to my parents house for a visit.  Then on Thursday we packed them back up for the trip home.

Back when my husband commuted 5 days a week for work we usually made the same trip with him once a month.  During that time we discovered several tricks to make the trip go more smoothly with no or at least limited meltdowns.  Here are a few things that have worked for us.


Thursday, February 24, 2011

Helpful Advice for Single Moms

Willow Tree Mother and Son Figurine, Susan Lordi 26102 Recently the results of a poll were announced showing that a group of Americans are not happy with certain trends they consider to devalue the family structure.  What trend did the "Skeptics" view as the most unacceptable?  Single mothers of course.
"The third and somewhat larger group (37%) are the   Skeptics . 1   While they generally share most of the tolerant views of the Accepters, they also express concern about the impact of these trends on society. On one of the trends -- single motherhood -- they and the Accepters have stark differences. Virtually all Skeptics say mothers having children without male partners to help raise them is bad for society. Among Accepters, just 2% say this. When asked about the six other trends examined in the survey, a majority of Skeptics say each makes no difference or is good for society."
And here you were blaming dead beat dads.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Monday Blahs

Bissell PowerGlide Platinum Upright Vacuum, Bagged, Wine Red, 3545-2 Today is truly a Monday.  I am dragging.  I stayed up way too late last night and now I am exhausted and have a headache.  I did manage to clean my living room though.  Mostly with the help of my 4 year old son.  While carrying his toys to his room he tripped on the living room step.  "This is why I should not clean up my toys.  Because I would hurt myself."  Well he definitely takes after his mom!  I certainly can not argue with such logic.  We did manage to finish cleaning the room and I even vacuumed without any further injuries but it was touch and go there for a bit.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Where are all the Normal People?

Normal People Scare Me. Funny Goth Bad Boy T-shirt (Small, Pink) A couple of days ago I read a post that really got me thinking.  Fenny over at The Crazy Rambler wrote a post entitled Are you 'normal'?  I highly recommend taking the time to read it.  She made some great points.  Who wants to be normal anyway?  How boring!  Now I would like to expand on that a little and ask.  Who actually is normal?


This is actually a topic I have given quite a bit of thought to throughout my life.

Just to make things clear.  In case there is any doubt in your mind.  I am NOT normal.  Ok, now that we have that cleared up we can continue.

Friday, January 28, 2011

& then he peed on the floor . . .

Sesame Street Abby Cadabby Soft Potty Seat, Pink Today I got a lot accomplished.  I did some more organizing in the kitchen.  Washed the dishes.  Worked on my blog.  Signed up for a Twitter account for my blog.  Wrote a new post for my blog . . . ok so I spent most of the day on the computer but the point is . . . I was feeling pretty good about my accomplishments.  I even washed two loads of laundry.  One regular load and one load of my daughters training pants.  Because along with everything else, I am trying to potty train my daughter.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

My Most Important Contribution

"You know, the world may never see me as some big hero but maybe someday my son will." - Cat Grant, Smallville
Alright let's face it.  I'm not SuperMom.  
I never will be.

I will also never be rich or famous.

I won't climb the corporate ladder or have a corner office.

I will not be considered successful as the world defines it.

I will not change the world.  At least not directly.

I am not a superhero.

Except maybe to my kids.