Laugh 'Til it Hurts

Tears were prevalent today. I'm a 'bad news first' person. So we'll start with the sad tears. I was trying to make-up for lost gym time by working out in the living room today. This was a bad idea. I was on the floor with my weights- I had my arms up with the weights and Emilie walked over to me and flopped herselg on me- her daddy flips her when she does this- however, I am not her daddy, and I had weights in my hand so she bashed her forhead into my 8 lb hand weights. :(

Tyler had decided to throw some bread during dinner--- I decided to let him know that I let boys who don't throw food eat at my table. So I scooted his plate away. He finished the bread he had in his hand but the last bit he put on the floor. He decided it'd be a good idea to clean up the mess he made- I agreed :) So he got the broom, diligently swept and tried his best to get it in the dustpan- I was drinking a glass of water in the kitchen as he was doing this. It was a good thing too- I just gulped a huge mouthful of water and turned around to keep from laughing as Tyler would get excited about the next thing to clean he'd pick up his dustpan(all the way, and lose all he collected)- he didn't realize he was doing this :) I know it's a little thing, but it made Rick and me both try hard not to mention it or laugh :D

Quirks about my kids

Just a few random things I wanted to jot down before time passes and I forget them.
1) Tyler has taken to my love and logic approach and uses it on his sister. When it is time to clean up before bed Tyler says, "no problem, I'll take care of it." He rushes and cleans up the toys off the floor. It just so happens that he loves to vaccum and I let children who help pick up the toys off the floor push the vaccum.
2) Emilie really likes hopping around. In fact, she decided to hop around instead of cleaning up when Tyler announced "no problem".
3) Emilie can be calmed down by a pair of sunglasses.
4) Emilie throws fits when it is time to be buckled into her car seat usually when its time to come home from school.
5) Tyler is doing much more imaginative play by himself lately.
6) I have no idea why, but Tyler took the board that Rick had in his closet (stored left over from making bookshleves) and fell asleep with it on top of him the other day
7) Old maid, backgratches, books--- kind of like Tyler's three strikes of bedroom time-- he drains energy from them with poor choices, and gets to keep them for good- its his routine at bed time.
8) Goodnight moon- and the tape recorder is Emilie's routine
9) Emilie will say she has to go to the bathroom right after you put her bedtime diaper on..
10) I started giving the kids dixie cups in their rooms at night
11) Emilie will cry to throw it away, but then cry that she threw it away--
12. Fuzz- emilie will eat fuzz off the carpet, unless you prompt her with the option to throw it away first- then she'll take it to the trashcan-

Alright that's enough for now-- let me ask Rick if he wants to add anything...

"Tyler's playing by himself using his imagination"
"Emilie is going potty all the time" (by herself/with adult help)

Have I mentioned this?

Tyler has adopted a few of my sayings. He many times tries to 'parent' Emilie. I understand his concern, but try to let him know that he is her brother not her parent. Anyway, you can catch him saying things like this, " I give hairties to girls who don't throw them on the ground" or this, "I play playdough with girls who share" lol.

I've been letting the kids play with rice and cornmeal on a tarp today. This worked fine until Tyler dumped it out and realized he couldn't get it back in the bucket- (he had the cornmeal) I said he could trade with Emilie (she had the rice) once he had the bucket full to be fair for her...obviously he couldn't get it all back and got upset about it...so we dealt with that situation, and later he enjoyed helping to clean up and vaccum. I also made hardboiled eggs tonight- I like to color them everytime I make them. Tyler and I had a little discussion about what eggs are, where they come from, who made them, etc... I had more Tyler time, because Emilie took a longer nap. I did try to play a bit with her with the rice today though before starting dinner. I want to be more diligent about playing with her- because she's playing all day at school, then naps at home, eats, and then its bed-- I'm missing out-- she does enjoy sitting on my lap and me reading to her. This girl loves books too but is currently obsessed with Goodnight Moon- and the quiet old lady whispering "hush". Both kids still really like getting drinks. Emilie has her routine down- the other night I was putting them to bed- rick was in school- and I had forgotten to brush her teeth I'd already tucked her in and everything and then that little doorknob starts moving and she's trying to get my attention--- teeth teeth- :D

Alright, I guess that's enough of a little insight into today- I will try to keep posting when I can. I'll regret it if I don't keep up on it-- I know the time flies. Tyler was very affectionate this morning and brough me cough drops and said he hopes I feel better soon unprovoked- he also has been drawing more and drew me a letter P the other day- thanks Tyler :D

Crackers Anyone?

I've found that Tyler is actually willing to compromise. He will sit still holding a cracker and watch his little song while I do his eye medicine now. I'm glad we've found something that works for both of us.

a little better

We are all doing a little better today. Tyler has been able to let me put the drops in the past two times I'd done it. This is like he was initially. I think Emilie is over the pink eye, so now I'm just doing Tyler the next few days. I'm taking medicine now too for my sinus infection, so I'm on the mend.

Toddler Throwing Fits in Public

It's kind of crazy to me that Emilie is only a few months shy of being two years old. Perhaps, it is because I see Tyler, who is a little chatterbox and a year and a half older all the time, but I still think of her as younger than she is. I know she understands quite a bit of what I say, but she doesn't come right out and strike up a conversation with me :D

The title of this post might make you wonder which one of my little bundles threw the fit today... little Miss E put on quite the show. Her favorite acrobatic move is arching her back and stiffening her whole body-- she particularly enjoys doing this when it's time to get buckled in or when having to sit on my lap in the waiting room. Such agility :D
Here's how the scene went down...I know She is older, I just find it hard to 'reason' with her like Tyler- she doesn't normally throw fits like this- so I'm having to decide how I'm dealing with it--especially in public-- normally I just ignore it- or if we are somewhere they WANT to be - we'd leave... I feel like my whole "energy drain" tactics are lost on her because of her age...sometimes, I might try to calm her down. Truthfully, though, when she is having a fit- there is no comforting her- anything is swatted away- and everything is "no" it's best to just ignore her until she's calmer-- Which would be fine at home,
however we weren't at home today.

Today Mommy was sick. I had to go to the doctor. I knew it was near lunch and naptime. I knew the dominos were shaking from transitioning to the car- where she had to leave her food, I knew that sippy cup was almost out of juice, but I had to go,and stay there to be examined. First the cup. First the cup was empty, this was casually noticed and stated by her. I agreed but downplayed it. Then she dropped the cup. I had to take it away because she would have put it in her mouth. This is where she starts to throw a fit. then because she was throwing her self around I had to hold her on my lap. This is where the crying got louder. The nurses peek around- oh btw I was at a walgreens at this point in time. This was close to work. I just kept talking to Tyler as I kept her in the chair and she fussed and cried and tried to escape. The doctor came about and said I had to calm her down before she'd see me because the room is small and she's too loud to hear over. (great) Not really much I could do at this point, tired, hungry, fussy babies don't usually decide to go mute on cue. When I held her, she wanted down...down, she wanted up- you know the story. They had me refill her cup with water- but this didn't do it- The doctor tries to ask me questions/examine me while I'm holding hte crying baby- saying several times I need to calm her down. I eventually let her play in the water. I would have just let her fuss and get it over with, but me trying to 'calm her' was making it worse in my opnion---- but I didn't want to be rude to the doctor and just say, "no" when she asked me to calm her-- I'd rather let her see that there's not any point in trying to calm her right now... Anyway, she probably though I was a mess of a mom because she asked if I had help at home with the kids- I laughed. I said they arne't normally this "bad". Let me say that the last visit which was just a few days ago actually- they were great and one lady was with us at the doctor's and the pharmacy we went to after and she said that my children were really well behaved and I was doing a great job.

Isn't that the way we feel to a certain extent. That if they are little poodles we did a great job...if they are monkeys...what are we doing wrong? I think they can go from poodle to monkey in a blink of an eye btw- that's why I might have a suggestion or empathy for a mom with kids fussing but it really doesn't bother me. So I do like these Love and Logic products, but I'm just not sure how to fit Emilie into it all. By the way, it turns out- yes she was fussing about the cup, but she was also hurt and I didn't know that she had somehow gotten hurt from her zipper not too long from it because it got skin caught or something it looked like--- yeah ouch!- I dind't know til I was home- so see it's hard because you never really know for sure- all signs were pointing to it being from the cup/chair episode, but it might have been escalated by the pain-


Anyway, she was much better on the way out of the room because I carried her and we "brrrmmmmed" up to the front like a car- 1) I feel bad I didn't know her stomach was hurt 2) I understand the doctor asking it, but it seems kind of wrong that they asked that too, because who really controls the baby crying other than the baby? Like didn't she think I'd want her to not cry too- it's not like I wanted her crying either just because I wasn't freaking out about it 3) I need to find more early childhood (under two years old) ways of handling that situation where I had to be there even though she was throwing a fit.




In other news, these pink eye, eye drops-- Emilie watches the little puppy video I have while I put the drops in- Tyler was okay at first...but that was deceiving. Now he won't let up put it in that way ( which is soo much preferred) because we have to forceit in if he doesn't let me do it gently while watching a video-- the forcing was is so upsetting! He has to be laid down still- head still, eyes open, arms down..because we have to get the eye gel into his opened eye...just imagine how upsetting this is when a little boy doens't want his drops in, or his eye opened..last night he was so upset he gagged on his congestion and threw up about it afterwards...I'd hope he'd just let me put it in- this mornign I spent like twenty minutes trying to persuade him to let me get them in- I got one in--- but I hated forcing it as much as he did- but rick had to come help me put them in...
three more times today to do still...I hope he realizes it's better to just get it over with.