birthday parties

Growing up, I had the rule that I was allowed to invite 1 kid older than my age to a birthday party (I could invite 6 people to my 5th birthday etc.)  This is the policy that we've adopted for our kids.  However, I think that we are the only people in America or at least in our land of surburbia that has this policy.  We could go to a birthday party at least once a month if not more.  A.'s preschool has the unwritten rule that if you invite one kid, you invite them all.  I understand this to a point but, 1) 3 year old kids don't understand being invited.  They don't know if Sue got to go to Timmy's party and when it was. 2) 3 year old kids have no sense of time  The party could have been a year ago or 3 days ago in A.'s mind and they all start to run together.  3) what if the parents can't afford the extravaganzas that are parties for 22 kids?  So, without the extravaganza, you can't invite any friends from school.  How does that foster relationships?  I mean, it is a reality of life that you are friends with some people and only acquaintances with others and if your honest, some people you just don't really like.

Now, on the other side of the mega birthday parties are the people that have to buy presents for kids they don't even know.  I really think we could have a line item in our budget for buying gifts.  These gifts don't usually get opened at the party  With the exception of 1 party, no child has opened the presents there.  From talking to some other mom's it's because at these parties for 22 kids, there isn't time.  I get that, but how does a child learn to be grateful if they never say thank you and open these presents in the comfort of their own home.  On the other side, A. really thinks about what she gets each kid and makes them a card.  She wants to see them play with their new present.

I guess my point in this rant is that I feel like it is getting harder and harder to keep life simple and birthday parties are definitely an area that seem to be getting bigger and bigger and bigger.  However, my kid does love to go to them so I'll suck up my opinion and be grateful that she gets an hour to play.

swimming aka my new personal hell

A started swimming lessons on a Tuesday after I got a certifikid for $40.  She got her new bathing suit and bravely walked to the door.  Her male teacher, who knew the other little girl in her class said very loudly HI!! and splashed.  A. ran screaming from the room.  We did finally get her in the water but she fought the whole way.  Then, every night for almost a week, she cried and asked if she had to go see Mr. Tim again.  We had to decide whether it was better to fight and put her back in the water though I'm not sure if she was more scared of the water or the teacher.  As a result, we decided to change her teacher to a girl and take out the male teacher factor.  She went the Saturday to her new class and did great.  I wasn't there, but B. said that she got right into the water and whimpered a little only when her teacher asked her to put her face in.

Week 3 (also the same day as chips before lunch,) I took her and she started saying, "I don't want to tuck my head in" before we even got into the car.  OK, whatever as long as you do what the teacher says.  Apparently, that didn't cut it because my little one is hard to convince once she gets something in her head.  This time, when they called her name, she started SCREAMING.  Screaming like the teacher was going to hold her under the water and drown her.  I took her to the dressing room where I tried everything that I could.  I told her she was a brave girl, I told her she would be great, I tried the "I'm disappointed route".  I tried everything until I finally decided that I wasn't giving her an out but I wasn't going to traumatically push her into the water.  The resolution was to stay in the room by herself until she either got into the water or the class was over.  10 minutes later, I was about to pull my hair out because I heard her contentedly playing in the other room.  I went in and told her they were climbing the ladder; this is her favorite part.  That little girl walked right in and joined the lesson.  I was half proud and half infuriated at the same time.

Week 4.  Aunt Stacy came and A. was AWESOME!!  She was so ready to go.  She decided before we left that she was going to "tuck her head in" by herself sometime during the lesson.  She did it the rest of the way.  They moved her to level 2.  We registered her the same teacher the she was finally comfortable with.

Week 5: new level.  We get to class 5 minutes late because traffic was HORRIBLE.  We walk in and Ms. Colbi is NOT her teacher.  Really, I'm sure this teacher would be fine but again, REALLY? We just finally got comfortable enough to walk in with Ms. Colbi.  A. bravely got into the water only to run screaming from the room a few minutes later when this teacher tried to force her to put her head underwater.  I feel beaten down by swim lessons.  A. doesn't want to go back.  So here is the question, do we
A. quit and let her remember swimming as a bad experience
B. force the issue and fight our way through it until she is comfortable with this teacher.  keep in mind, we are paying $90 for 6 weeks for her to get a rapport with a teacher
C. call and get Ms. colbi and reiterate how annoyed we are that the teacher was changed at the last minute, I mean, we just registered on Sat for a class with Ms. colbi
D. say suck it up and realize that I am a suburban mom that is overly worried and overly analyzing swim lessons

the real life valentines day

Valentine's Day is extra special in our house because it is also A.'s half birthday.  I know that doesn't matter in most houses but for ours, it means a half cake and a rendition of "happy birth".  Since it is Tuesday, it also means swimming lessons for A.(more on that another day) so we had our annual trip to Fudruckers last night.  Why Fudruckers you ask, because when we started dating at age 14, it was the only place we were allowed to go on a date.  Then, year after year, I had dance competitions that happened to be right next to a Fudruckers.  After the 4th year, it kind of became a tradition.  Now, we have celebrated 18 Valentine's Day's at Fudruckers and we've grown to adding our 2 kiddos and our family best friends.  It's fantastic and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Tasty milkshakes

fun rides

And full tummies.  Who could ask for more?

Anyway, since we had our celebration last night, B. stayed home from the hell that is swimming lessons (again, more on a different date) to cook us a delicious dinner.  Since we were late coming home, the half birthday cake wasn't decorated yet.  We should have known it was a bad decision to push the celebration but we had been talking about it all day.  So, B. got the cake plate that was my Christmas gift 2 years ago (I know I am a nerd but I did ask for it for 3 years).  Apparently, the frosting from the previous cake wasn't totally gone because the plate and it's lid were momentarily stuck together.  I accentuate the momentarily because as I was yelling at B. something to the fact of ," it's going to break, put it down.", the plate fell apart onto the counter top and shattered along with a piece of my husband's arm.  I immediately walked away because I was super angry at his stupidity when I heard nice and calmly, "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah."  I turned around and this is what I saw.

That's right, it is blood all over the counter.  Apparently, I simply said, "Oh, that's why you were calling me." I ran upstairs to grab supplies and I heard A. saying, " Do you know the time that I stepped on glass and hurt my foot."  My husband that was holding his arm above his heart while blood was still dripping just said, "tell me about it."  I still believe that he should have gone to the hospital for some stitches but he says, "chics dig scars."  (I guess I'm the chic that matters there, I don't know).  Anyway, he decided a Dora bandaid would cinch it together and a sterile 2x2 and wrap would suffice.  Though sometimes I crave the romance that is the before kids, I am a lucky woman to be married to such a wonderful daddy!

definitely not me

What kind of crazy mom would let her kids do this?

Hey mom, not only are you letting me play with a plastic bag, its a bag filled with little itty bitty tiny pieces of paper!

And... it's at least 20 minutes past my bed time.  Look at my tired eyes and  not washed hair

Oh yay, lets add a 3 year old to the mix. She'll make this mess.... smaller

Anyone see my daddy's feet in the corner?  If you could see his face you would see looks of disbelief and confusion and finally a sad look of acceptance before he lovingly went and got the broom.

That is one CRAZY mom

leftovers

From looking at the blog over time, it's pretty easy to believe that A. loves to paint.  Painting is pretty much the only thing that keeps her entertained without someone else to talk to.  So, since she was using her broccoli to paint her plate tonight, we decided to give her the leftovers to be her medium of choice for the evening.  Ahhh 15 minutes of quiet while she made a broccoli and orange peel creation with only a minor wiping of the floor afterwards necessary.  

princesses

Why is it that little girls love princesses?  I have not led A. towards princesses AT ALL.  I wouldn't say that I pulled her away from them but I definitely have not pushed her towards frilly tutus, wands, or anything Disney.  She watched her first movie the other day and it was Dolphin Tale; she has never seen any Disney movie.  Yet, my child has a favorite princess, wants to name her child Aurora, chose 3 princesses to sit in her prize cabinet until she earns them (3 stupid little dolls and their matching princes for $21.00 eewww), and has already decided to have a fairy birthday party... in 6 MONTHS.

Painting her princess castle that she made to house the princesses that she does not yet own.

her favorite toy, princess dress up dolls send by her god mother

 K. on the other hand pushes a pink grocery cart, has hand me down pink towels, and drinks out of a pink cup.  He loves art supplies and the play kitchen.

Gotta love that kid!

Princesses, embrace them or fight them?

chips before lunch

Neither B. nor I come from a family of yellers.  I can count on one hand the times in my life that my father yelled.  B. has 2 stories that he relays frequently about the few times that his father yelled.  At this point, though I'm sure they were founded at the time, they seem pretty silly.  B.'s favorite was when he walked in to his house after church and his mother started making lunch.  B., being the growing boy that he was, started eating chips.  The way I've heard the story, his dad walked in and started yelling that he should not be eating chips and he was going to ruin his lunch.  Apparently, even B.'s mom looked at him in amazement and wonder as to why it was such a big deal on this day.

Today, was a chips before lunch breakdown for me.  Here is the lead up...

I didn't feel well this morning but B. had to work.  He was FANTASTIC and kept the kids with him from the time they woke up at 5:45 until he had to leave at 7:15.  Then, they were all mine.  We played and had breakfast until I put K. down at 9:00; a pretty typical morning.  Usually, I get in the shower at 9:00 and A. plays by herself or reads, sometimes it is in her room but most of the time she sits on the bathroom floor and jibber jabbers away in her typical A. self.  Today, she for some reason could not sit still and was walking all around giving this weary mom a heart attack that she was going to fall on the wet floor.  She did, and grabbed onto our new towel rack that my hard working husband just hung last weekend. It fell off the wall.  I screamed, she screamed and fell into the scale which made a really loud noise and K. woke up.  I took a deep breath, sat A. down and K. fell back to sleep.

We then had a little time where we played one of A.'s pretend games.  I think she was Santa and was passing out puzzles and taking pictures or something like that.  She continued to climb everywhere including my bed where she pulled all of the candles off of the wall and then I found her climbing on her window sill in our 3rd story house.  A LONG hour passed and it was time for swimming lessons.

A. was so excited about the lessons this morning.  She woke up talking about her teacher Ms. Colbi, she called Aunt Stacy to see if she would come watch her, put on her own swim suit etc etc.  However, they called her name to go into lessons and she screamed as if someone told her King Herod, witches, goblins, and deep freeze were all coming to get her.  Here is one of the many blogs about fears if you can't imagine how loud or horrible the curdling scream actually was.  Anyway,  I tried to talk to her, I tried to tell her I was disappointed, I tried to drag her in, I finally put her in the dressing room for her to calm herself down by herself.  I told her we weren't leaving and that she could sit in there by herself until the lessons were over.  I think she was fully prepared to sit in there for 30 minutes.  Again, I took a deep breath and went back in there and simply told her that the other little boy was climbing up the ladder, her favorite part, and she agreed to go and see.  Once we were in there, Ms. Colbi took over and though 15/ 30 minutes of the lesson were over, she got in.  She was laughing in approximately 3.5 seconds and then talked about how much she missed Ms. Colbi as we walked out the door.  It was infuriating.

I was determined to make after nap better.  Since A. was in such a climbing mood, I decided to interrupt my husband who REALLY wanted to watch the Maryland basketball game and have a family obstacle course building time.  I started to set up some things and K. started in crawling everywhere.  He was having fun.  

A. played for awhile then started lugging in every single toy from the play room, B. half heartedly joined us while watching the game.

I was irritated that it wasn't going as I planned.  I was irrationally irritated that my husband that works then comes home and cooks us dinner or plays with our children rather than asking for a guys night out was watching the game and texting his friends and was only playing intermittently.

note: this was one of the intermittent times and it does look fun

So, I abruptly said it was time to go upstairs for dinner and time to clean up.  A. started negotiating as she always does, "no,Mommy, baby is sleeping on that couch cushion."
"A. keep one cushion, put the rest away."
"Baby is sleeping."
escalating- "A. just put one away."
"But, Mommy.....

Here it is...
I picked up baby, threw her over the baby gate and screamed at A, "No MORE "but Mommy's".  Put the cushion away."

A. screamed, because baby was gone.
K. screamed because he was scared
B. screamed to calm down

I picked up the couch cushion and went upstairs.

Ironically, A. had eaten chips before dinner.

Aisms

These are things that my 3 and almost 1/2 year old says that I don't want to forget...

"This is taking for a long time"-- everything takes for a long time:  the trip to school, Mommy washing the dishes, her clock to turn green in the morning, K. to wake up from his nap etc. etc. etc.

"I'm going to tell you a question."  -- this comes before any story.  Yesterday her "question" was that she was playing teacher at school and she told her friend that she had to be the student and she was Ms. molly and they said the pledge of allegiance.  It was one riveting question.  Hopefully, she'll get her story telling skills from her father and not her mother as I am a notoriously bad story teller.

Don't "lell" -- A. can't say her "y's" yet so yellow and yell both start with an L.  I think it is one of the last ties to toddlerhood and I LOVE it.

She also has this somewhat annoying, somewhat funny habit of shortening her nouns to 1 syllable words which takes some reading into the context of each situation.  "Can I have some wa?"  "Can we open the wind?"  B.'s  favorite is "Ma!"  He then taught her to follow "Ma."  with "Where's the meatloaf?"  So, we now have our very own wedding crasher in the house.  Fun times.

She sings half of her day away.  Now, this is not necessarily pretty singing or singing of songs.  However, it's more of I sing what I should be saying yet to some sort of a tune.  Well, her own tune.

Sorry it's sideways...