Adventures in Toddlerhood

Reflections

nobody@vox.com(mmk) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:57:48 -0800

After I checked in on the kids as I was heading off to sleep, I couldn't help smiling to myself. We had such a good day today...and a really good week, all in all. We've all had our moments, myself included. I decided I had to get it written down. Some highlights:

There have been little to no mealtime battles about eating fruits and veggies. Aidan has suddenly turned a corner, and he is eating his "healthy foods" without any prompting, or at least very little!

Alanna has been very snuggly with me, and I LOVE that. My girls are not snugglers.

Aidan and Alanna are getting themselves dressed while I blow-dry my hair in the morning. One less thing on my list of "to-do's!" This will be especially helpful when we are getting out the door to preschool in the Fall!

I've been testing the waters with allowing Emory to "roam free" while I shower and get ready in the morning. Normally, she goes in the pack n play for fear that she will get into something she shouldn't. This week I decided to see what happened if I let her sit with Aidan and Alanna and watch a video. Whenever I peeked out into the bedroom, she was sitting nicely with them. No one was screaming. No one was fighting. She wasn't getting into my drawers. And to top it off, she felt compelled to open the door to the bathroom and say "Mommy!...I love you!" 5 or 6 six times. Now that I can handle.

Everyone has just been in a good mood and being very nice to one another! I have tried to be very mindful of praising them for all this angelic behavior. I think I need to step it up a notch though.

We went to the NC Museum of Life and Science on Saturday, strollerless, and we didn't even have any situations where anyone would have needed to be isolated or confined. They had a blast, and it was great seeing them have so much fun. We even took them out for dinner to Cafe Carolina, and we all had a great time. No meltdowns. No mealtime battles. We need more days like that!

Oh yeah, I got my stroller back yesterday...and it made it home from the gym. :)

And on another note: Alanna and Emory have figured out how to open one of the gates that keeps them all confined to about 3/4 of the downstairs. (sigh) Emory HATES it when Jason comes home then goes upstairs to wash up after spending a few minutes with them. I was cooking dinner yesterday, and I suddenly heard her wailing from very far away. She had opened the gate, gone upstairs and was standing outside our bathroom door wailing for Daddy.

Oh. No. They will NOT have free reign of the entire house. Not yet, anyway.

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Unfair games

nobody@vox.com(mmk) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:12:14 -0800

Today on the way to Super Target, the kids overheard me asking Jason if I should pick up something for Valentine's Day. I was trying to be discrete, but they always pick up on these things. They didn't know exactly what I was talking about, but they knew I'd be getting them something...for some reason. So they asked "Will it be chocolate???" I said I didn't know, then I asked "Do you love Mommy or chocolate more?" Both Aidan and Alanna answered that they love Mommy AND chocolate. "Good answer!" I replied. Alanna said "But we certainly love chocolate!" Then I asked Emory, who was feeling very grumpy. She tersely said "no."

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Before my head gets too big...

nobody@vox.com(mmk) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:09:03 -0800

Last night as we were getting the kids ready for bed, they all wanted Jason to get them out of the tub and into their PJ's. Jason asked Alanna what I would do if nobody wanted me to get them ready (seeing as how there is never a long list of things to be done.) He suggested that I go downstairs and relax. Alanna's suggestion...that I go wash the dishes (which were already done, thank you very much). Ugh.

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Toddlers - smarter than you think...

nobody@vox.com(mmk) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:20:16 -0800

Tonight Jason is moonlighting again, and I feel like I barely sat down all day. When he left at dinnertime, I was already dragging and ready for bedtime (for the kids...and me!) I could feel myself getting edgy, and I didn't want to end the day on a bad note. Typically when we go up for bath time, Aidan runs to the office to "check his email" and the girls run in different directions. Suffice it to say, no one typically goes running straight to the bathroom and gets ready to brush their teeth and take a bath. Tonight I was a little desperate for some order though. So before we went upstairs, I got all their attention and explained that I was tired and since Daddy wasn't home to help me, I'd need their help. I asked them to go to the bathroom and get ready for the bath while I collected pajamas. We went upstairs and I went about getting pj's for everyone. I about fell over when I walked into the bathroom, and all three of them were in there. Aidan was on the potty. Alanna was nearly undressed, and she had even laid out the toothbrushes. Even Emory had gotten her pants off! After the bath, I was getting Alanna ready for bed, and she asked if she could get herself dressed. When I thanked her for being so helpful, she said "When Daddy's not here to help, that's what we do. We help." Am I lucky, or what? I guess I know what the strategy is from now on!

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Why being a mom rocks...

nobody@vox.com(mmk) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:09:50 -0800

1. There is no doubt that children ADORE their mothers (and fathers...and grandparents, but those are not the topic of my entry!) It is truly amazing to be loved so much and so overtly.

2. My kids tell me daily, and often multiple times a day, that I am the best mommy in the whole wide world. (Completely unprompted...occasionally manipulative...but almost always just being sweet as can be.) What an ego boost!

3. They will tell me this with utmost sincerity mere seconds after I've snapped at them about something because I'm tired and it's the end of a long day.

4. There is something special about being the only one (or one on a very, very short list of people) who can make everything better. (It also makes it a little bittersweet when you suddenly get demoted...as when Emory became Daddy's girl nearly overnight when we were on vacation at the beach and has been so ever since...but I'm still a close second, and since Jason's gone so much it's like being "number one" anyway!)

5. Anytime anyone tells you they love you, you can't help but feel good inside. I am blessed enough to have three little ones tell me spontaneously that they love me, and they don't care where we are...at home, at Target, at the mall, at the grocery store. (I won't pretend that these professions aren't occasionally prompted by promises of trips to the mall or a cookie!)

6. Yes, I'm biased, but Aidan, Alanna and Emory are just so darn cute (and brilliant!) :)

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Manipulation of the Sweetest Sort

nobody@vox.com(mmk) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:33:48 -0800

Somehow I wound up teaching Alanna the Barney "I Love You" song. We don't watch Barney, except on a very rare occasion, but for some reason this song came up. So she LOVES to sing it and take turns singing the lines. For anyone who doesn't know the lyrics...it goes (at least as far as I know...):

I love you.

You love me.

We're best friends as friends can be (or: we're a happy family)

With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you

Won't you say you love me too.

So now she frequently sings the first line, then looks at me expectantly to sing the second line, and we go on in a little duet from there. It's pretty cute, but she's started to do it just when she starts hearing an edge in my voice because she's not listening or something. She looks at me and grins and sings the first line and waits for me to join in...as if I can resist such cuteness. She even does it when I start to get irritable from dealing with Emory's antics of late. With Jason out of town for his conference, my patience has been thinning, so Alanna's really been singing a lot this weekend. Maybe I should start counting and see how many times she has to sing between now and the time Jason gets home on Wednesday.

...or maybe that would just serve to make me feel guiltier than I already do for being grumpy. :)

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In Case You Didn't Catch This the First Time Around...

nobody@vox.com(mmk) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:07:08 -0700

I emailed this to some people a few months ago, and I keep it around for good humor when I need a dose. I've been pretty good about journaling about Aidan, Alanna and Emory's development, but I've often thought I should document more about the craziness that has engulfed our lives since welcoming Aidan and Alanna into this world...followed 17 short months later by Emory. It would be funny to look back on all this and laugh at our trials and misadventures...and treasure all the endearing moments. Anyway, here it is...

Who says moms don't have time to exercise?...

Cross-Training/Intervals for Moms:

1. Load 3-20+ children into the car

2. Drive to BJs

3. Unload 3-20+ lb children into stroller and cart

4. Push ~45lbs worth children plus stroller while pulling large cart with another 23 lbs in it.

5. Begin weight-loading.

6. Brain interval...as you pass random staple items, recall how much you have left and if it will last until your next trip to BJs since you weren't smart enough to think of it before hand.

7. Weightlifting: Add large box of diapers to cart.

8. Squats (to pick up shoes dropped by a nameless creature in the stroller)

9. Brain interval: figure out how much water to buy for a week at the beach with 9 adults and three children.

10. Weightlifiting: Add 2 roughly 30lb flats of bottle water to cart, and continue dragging to next aisle over while politely waiting for random people blocking the entire humoungous aisle to get the HE## out of the way.

11. Brain interval...figure out how to put 50 lb bag of dog food into cart while conserving space for enormous packages of toilet paper and paper towels.

12. Rearrange 60lbs worth of bottled water, realize you picked up the wrong size.

13. Weightlifting: Add dog food.

14. go back to water aisle, rearrange contents of cart again to make room for large size bottles.

15. Squats: to pick up juice thrown on the floor by same un-named child.

16. Cardio: wander around pushing 45 lb stroller, pulling very heavy cart trying to find the stupid toothbrushes your dentist recommended...pass them once unknowingly because you are at the wrong end of the aisle and couldn't see them.

17. Brain interval: figure out how much toilet paper you need for 9 adults and 3 children for a week at the beach. (18 big rolls? 12 mega rolls? AAAGGHHH!)

18. Cardio: Go to the complete opposite side of the store to get juice

19. Continue collecting misc items

20. WEightlifting: stupidly choose the self-checkout aisle out of habit even when there is NO ONE standing in line at any of the lanes where they do it all for you.

21. ARrange water and sundry items in empty cart at end of the checkout.

22. complete checkout

23. Weightlifting: Realize you do not want to transfer 50 lb bag of dog food again...unload water in new cart and put it back into the old one.

24. Weightlifting/Cardio: Load children back into the car.

25. Brain interval: figure out how to get all these items into van around the three car seats and you can't use the back because it is packed to the brim with strollers. :)

26. Drive home and unload it all.

Tell me that doesn't sound like a good workout!! :) I know you've all been there...I just thought it was kinda funny. I was sweating like crazy and really felt like I'd been at the gym by the end!

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