You Know You're a Mom...

In honor of Mother's Day, here is a list of a few ways you might know you are a mom.

When you finally blow-dry your hair for the first time in who-knows- when, all of your friends ask if you got a hair cut.

When you tell the hair stylist who cuts your hair every six months that you part your hair in the middle, (where you have been parting it since college), she exclaims, "Did you know the middle part is coming back in style?"

Even though you used to go out for the night at 9:00, when you are driving a baby around at 1:00 in the morning, you are completely shocked at the amount of people who are not only out in the middle of the night but dressed in something other than pajamas as well.

You can put in a DVD, pass out snacks, and retrieve dropped toys - all while driving.

During award season, you don't recognize most of the actors, you've never heard any of the songs, and you have seen 1 1/2 of the movies ( you feel asleep in one because you tried to watch it after the kids went to bed)

You are always the best dressed at church because it's your only opportunity to wear your nice clothes and heels.

Your best dressed for church also includes a little spit up.

When you are driving in your car by yourself, it takes you five minutes before you realize you are singing along to Old McDonald on the radio

You look forward to the dentist; it's nice to lay back and not have to talk.

Breakfast is eaten standing up.

You love when Daddy (or grandpa or uncle) is around so you don't have to do the roughhousing.

You know the tune to this: Backpack, backpack. Backpack, backpack.

You write a list about being a mom for a Mother's day, and finally get it finished a few days late.

You start a blog about the craziness of being of mom, and can't seem to keep up because being a mom is just too crazy.

You consider Mother's Day a day off.

Happy Mothers Day!

Down the Drain

My daughter likes to throw things. Not balls. In fact, she probably inherited my ball throwing skills. She likes to throw things when she's mad. I don't know who she inherited that from.

So the other day we were in the bathroom washing her hands and something I did made her really mad. Honestly, I dont even remember what was making her so mad. But she was frustrated and needed to take it out on something. she picked up a tiny plastic flower pot that belongs to her doll house and threw it across the room. Of course, it landed right in the open, just used, potty.

Here was my opportunity for a little natural consequences style parenting. I remained calm and said, "I am so sorry that landed in the toilet. It's gone now. We can't throw our things because they can get broken or lost."

She was pretty upset. It was working. She was crying and talking herself through what had just happened: "I was frustrated and I threw my toy and now it is gone forever and we can't get it.". I was pretty sure the consequences were sinking in.

As soon as we were done washing her hands, I had decided I would probably fish that little toy out of the toilet. The lesson had been learned and my daughter had suffered long enough. So, I reach over to grab the towel and I hear a flush.

Thank you little brother.

Lesson learned.

Inspiration

For Christmas/birthday, I got an iPad!!!! It's kind of inspiring me to start blogging again. I think about it all the time (blogging, not the iPad) but I never make myself sit down and do it because I'm afraid I will just fail at writing again. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. I'll give it another try. I think my stories are worth sharing. I'll be posting soon!

Special Visitors

This weekend, my in-laws came in town for Halloween. We had a great time, and I really do always enjoy having them visit. But preparing for their arrival is almost always a lot of work.



First, let me explain that I have a wonderful mother-in-law. But she does make one thing really difficult - she is a super neat freak and a REALLY good housekeeper. No problem, right? Not unless you are married to her son. Sorry, honey, but I will never be able to keep a house like your mother. Oh well. I have long ago accepted this part of my personality. However, when they come for a visit, I always feel just a little extra pressure to present my house looking it's best. And while they are here, I always feel a little pressure to make sure it stays that way. I'm not trying to be someone I am not; in fact, this is the housekeeper I always strive to be and their visits give me a little motivation to succeed.



So, my cleaning started a least two days ahead of their arrival. I can't leave anything for last minute. As soon as I do that, some child will refuse to let me put them down and then I have to shove everything in the master bedroom and close the door just minutes before they arrive. And this was not just a regular visit either. This was a some new people who have never been to our house might stop by and ask for a tour of the house visit.



Here is a list of "in-law" cleaning, both before they come and while they are visiting.



1. After every meal, I thoroughly clean both the high chair and booster chair. Not my typical get the big chunks and major crust off. I actually take the tray off and wash it with soap and water.

2. All trash and toys are brought in the from car - immediately when we get home. I typically tell myself that during nap time I will go back out to the car and bring in all the stuff. And then I usually forget until the next time we go somewhere.

3. Beds get made. I actually do like to make my bed everyday but when the in-laws are here, I make sure to do it - just in case the bedroom door happens to get pushed open.

4. Vacuum stairs. This is a chore I really hate doing but I love the results. It is saved for special occasions, i.e. the in-laws

5. Vacuum the dog hair from under the ottoman. Just in case we decide to move furniture around for sleeping arrangements.

6. Change sheets. Of course this is a no-brainer. But I'm not going to lie. Last time they came I didn't change the sheets. I'm pretty sure they were the last visitors any way.

7. Vacuum the dining room. Our dining room is tucked away and we don't typically eat there. I usually ignore it on my regular weekly routine. But I'm pretty sure our cat sleeps on the chairs during the day. Must be cleaned for visitors.

8. Pick up all dirty clothes and toys after a bath. I like to pretend that clothes go immediately in the dirty clothes and that bath toys are left to dry on the side of the tub. Not always the case.

I know there are so many other things I do during the in-laws visit that aren't always typical for me. You know, pick up toys, clean the dishes, feed the kids lots of vegetables. Trying to be the best version of me that I can be.

I wonder if I've fooled them?

Blog guilt

As a mother, every little thing can make you feel guilty. Going out with friends while your husband watches the kids (even though he just played golf for 6 hours while you stayed home by yourself on a Saturday). Feeding your kids McDonald's. Looking forward to nap time. Napping during nap time. Turning off the monitor for just 5 more minutes of sleep during nap time. Putting your 9 month old in front of the TV so you can go to the bathroom. And the list could go on and on...

But I never expected that a blog would bring me guilt. Especially not a blog that I very much enjoy writing. But that is exactly what has happened.

A few weeks ago, my son decided that he was going to start the process of dropping of his morning nap. Every morning, I would anxiously await for him to show his tired signs - rubbing eyes, getting crabby, etc. I am pretty obsessed with trying to make sure that my kids don't get overtired because then we all suffer. But by 9:30, no signs of sleepiness. 9:45 - still nothing. 10:00 - despite him playing happily, I scooped him up and went ahead with the nap time routine - diaper change, failed attempt to read a book, nurse, sing, put in crib, leave the room. Thirty minutes later, he finally falls asleep. And then sleeps for 3 hours!!

Funny how this SHOULD be a positive thing. If he was my only child, I would have been celebrating. But not with two. Right about the time my daughter is ready for her nap, he is waking up - well-rested and ready to go for hours. Right about the time he is getting grumpy again, it's time for my daughter to wake up. And where does that leave me? With NO time to myself. No cleaning the house time. No Bible study time. No watching Ellen time. No blogging time.

Before I knew it, two weeks had gone by with no blog post. Every day, I would promise myself that as soon as the kids went to bed, I would blog. But then I was just too tired.

And then, I started to feel the guilt. I might as well not even continue the blog if I can't post regularly. I started to imagine all my readers wondering what happened to me. (When in reality, I am pretty sure my Mom is the only reader anxiously awaiting a new post). Most people probably didn't even notice I had dropped off the face of the blogging world. I started wondering why I had even started to blog and was feeling embarrassed that I couldn't get it together. So I decided to just quit.

But then I realized something - this is supposed to be fun, right? The whole point of this blogging thing is to give me an outlet to write and record the funny things in my life. It doesn't really matter if I have any readers at all. So, I'm back. Maybe not as often as I would like, but I have so many stories in my head that I can't wait to tell. Hope you enjoy reading them Mom!

We have a tooth!



Finally, my son got my first tooth!



Honestly, I had given up looking for it. I had even given up blaming fussiness on teeth (almost). You see, my daughter didn't get her first tooth until almost 10 months. And when her teeth did come it, they were far from perfect. So, I just expected that our children must have weird teeth genes.



I'm not sure where they would get it. I have never had braces or any major problems with my teeth. Growing up, I never had any cavities or work done on my teeth. My husband also has a beautiful smile. Of course, he does call his smile The Million Dollar Smile. I guess it has something to do with the baby teeth that never fell out or the mouthful of veneers or the FIVE years of braces.



So honestly, I wasn't surprised when every time I would check my son's bottom gums I didn't see any signs of teeth. It never occured to me to look for teeth on top - babies always get those two cute little teeth on the bottom first. I even had a friend ask me a few weeks ago if his top teeth were coming in. No, of course not, he hasn't even gotten his bottom teeth yet.



But I was wrong. His first tooth popped through just last week. And guess which one it was. The top tooth. But not even a top middle tooth. The top tooth beside the middle tooth! My son is a snaggle tooth.



I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Weird teeth just run in the genes around here....



Not that I'm blaming anyone.

I Need a Time-Out

As a modern day preschool teacher, time-out is not my favorite form of discipline. I do believe that every now and then, a good old-fashioned time-out is in order. But most of the time, I try to use more natural consequences. You know, if you don't ask politely, you don't get what you want. If you spit your milk, you get it taken away. If you run from Mommy in the store, you have to ride in the buggy. I also try really hard to give my daughter a second chance to make a good decision; she is, after all, just learning what is expected of her. But even though I have had lots of practice with discipline as a teacher of Deaf preschoolers, sometimes I am not really sure what the appropriate consequence would be - and this is when I usually decide to try time-out.

Over the past few weeks, my daughter's "two-year-old-ness" has really been shining through. I have resorted to time-out a total of two times, and this is how that went:

First attempt: Last week, the weather was finally bearable. So, we all went to play outside. My son and I sat on a blanket in the shade, and my daughter was pretending to drive to Texas in her little red car. At this point, I can't even remember the specifics about what upset my daughter, but I do remember that she decided to yell at me. I just remember her yelling, "NO" at me. Now, because I always believe in warnings, I calmly stated, "I cannot accept you yelling at me. If you yell again, you will have to have a time-out from your toys." (sounds like a teacher, huh?) She looked at me for a moment. Then, let out a very obviously pretend yell and then exclaims, "I need a time-out" as she plopped down beside me to pay her debt. Somehow, that didn't really feel all that effective.

Second attempt: Another fantastic behavior to recently come into our household is hitting. Although, I am glad to say that I think the phase is already almost over. But for a few days last week, I got hit A LOT. So, one day when we were playing in my daughter's room, she got mad about something and raised her hand to hit me. I stopped her half-way by giving her a good mom stare and saying, "If you hit me, you will have a time-out" (there's that warning again). Of course, in a test of my parenting, she went ahead and hit me. Being that I hadn't really thought this through, I swept her up and quickly scanned the room for a good time-out spot. Nothing. The floor was covered in toys and way too much fun to be good for a time-out. So, I whipped her around the corner and sat her right outside of her door. Immediately, she begins wailing. I tried to pretend that she was crying because she was so upset that she was in time-out. At least that would mean the punishment was a little more effective this time. But I was pretty sure that on the way to the ground, I had hit her back against the corner of the door. Maybe, just maybe, she hadn't noticed. She was doing one of those cries where no words can come out, so I couldn't know why she was really so upset. But she was upset. And loud. And again, because I hadn't really thought this whole thing through, I had put her in the hallway only a few feet from my sleeping son's room. She was wailing and I wasn't willing to wake him up. So, I let maybe 15 seconds pass before I ask, "Are you ready to try again?" "NO!" she cries. Great. Now, I have to follow through and leave her in time-out. Please, don't let her wake up her brother! Another 15 seconds go by. "Are you ready to try again?" "Yes," she whimpers, while holding her back. "Did I hit your back?" Of course, I did, and I know it. So, I apologize and give her a hug. Again, not so sure that was effective.

Needless to say, I haven't tried time-out again.