Pet Peeves

Today's Top 3!

1.  I was watching something on TV and they had a preview for some tell-all interview with Jon Gosslin.  I will say that I enjoyed watching Jon & Kate Plus 8, up until they split up.  Now I don't want to see anything about them.  I was really annoyed when this preview showed Jon saying how he had twins at age 25 (I think) and sextuplets at age 27 and "there went his twenties".  Like having children ruined the best years of his life?!  I did not watch the interview, I only saw that snippet, but I was ticked off!  What do you think your life will be like once you have children? You think you can be the same person with no responsibilities?  Children make you into an adult.  Life isn't meant to be one big frat party for you to enjoy.  I hate that the media and everyone gives the message that life is suppose to be easy, that work isn't suppose to be hard and that having children just means you have more friends to play with.  Ug. It really bugs me.

2. Terrible Twos.  I hate that people call it that.  One of my recent parenting magazines had an article about "surviving the Terrible Twos" and I was really irked by it.  This automatic thought that your kid is suddenly having a tantrum because they are 2, is so silly.  I feel like it gives parent's an excuse.  Oh, I can't help it, my child is 2.  News flash!  2 is this amazing age where your child is learning all kinds of new things and they are exploring and pushing boundaries. Its the time when mom and dad really have to step it up and be parents.  Fun time is over, now its time to work and be a real parent.  Do kids to terrible things at this age?  Yes they do!  Are they intentionally trying to drive you bonkers?  No. They just have these little brains that are going a million miles a minute and they are going to get into mischief.  LOTS of mischief.  And they are going to throw colossal tantrums- they think the world revolves around them and its not fun to learn it doesn't.  

I hate that some parents' philosophy seems to be that they just have to endure this age, and then they are shocked to discover that the terrible two's are also the terrible threes.  Here's what you do:  You expect that your kid is going to be trying new stuff, and getting into trouble. You expect that you are going to deal with tantrums.  You expect that you are going to have to set the boundary here and now, and you plan to be firm and consistent.  You also can look at all the new stuff they are learning and take great joy and delight in watching them grow and develop. It really is exciting to see them developing into their personalities and becoming real people.  And here is the amazing thing- you end up with a pretty great kid at age 3!   And that's my soapbox on that!!

3. Parenting Magazine had an article titled "Raise a Slim Kid in a Supersize World", and they had this sentence in it:"It's frustrating that many of the factors contributing to the obesity epidemic... seem to be out of our control."  WHAT?!!  I'm sorry?  Who feeds your children?  Who lets them (or doesn't let them ) sit in front of the TV or computer or game system all day?  Are you kidding me?  We don't have control over the obesity epidemic?  Who else does?!  Sure, Mc Donalds doesn't have healthy meals.  Sure, Schools don't offer PE like they use to.  Sure, restaurants serve huge portions.  However, that's not what's making anyone obese.  Personal choices are.  When I choose a Big Mac, or when I let my children rot their brains all day in front of SpongeBob, or when I let them buy school lunch every day...  That, my friends is what contributes to obesity.  Nope, you don't have to eat the entire portion you receive at a restaurant.  That's why they have to-g0 boxes.  Heck, you don't even have to go out to eat.  Its much healthier and cheaper to make food yourself.  It is more time consuming, but its worth it.  This statement really had me fuming.  Can you tell?  Let's take responsibility for our choices and own up to the fact that we are a lazy lot and its easier to let kids sit in front of the TV than to fight to get them to play outside, and its easier to nuke some chicken nuggets than it is to fix a healthy meal.

Those are my pet peeves for today and now that I've gotten that out of my system, I feel much better!  To any who may be offended by any of my tirades, I apologize, its not personal to you... well, unless you endorse such thoughts and comments as mentioned above.

Random Tidbits

Delaney makes me laugh.  She has been obsessed with Callie's underpants and wears them over her diaper most of the time. Today she actually wore underwear and no diaper for part of the evening and all potty went into the potty and she stayed dry.  I'm in trouble now!  She really is going to potty train herself. Aack!

Another thing Delaney has enjoyed is the fireman's hat.  It makes Callie crazy that she wears it backwards, but Delaney thinks it is so cool.

Yep, check out how cool she is!

Whoo-hoo!  Mom's got the hat on now!

Yesterday we went bowling.  Hey, I titled this "Random Tidbits".  That means its all random!  And yesterday we went bowling!  That really means that the kids bowled 3 frames and went to the arcade and scavenge trash off the floor while Dan and I finished the game.  Oh, Delaney had a blast pushing the ball around, so she helped too.

Here's Marian.  She nearly put holes in the floor with her huge heave and drop technique.

Dan did not do too shabby himself. Okay, that's a total lie.  None of us bowl well and we only had one score that broke 100. (It wasn't Dan or me!)

My 3 funny girls.  They were obsessed with the bowling balls.  Delaney carted hers all over the place.  Surprisingly, she did not drop it after the first time.

Joshua had a good time, and cracked me up. After he sent his ball down the lane, he would squat down and watch it from right in front.  Very cute.

And today.... ah, today was the first day of school!  Hooray!  I got up early and made breakfast.  Marian said she wanted Dutch Baby, so that's what we had.  They ate it all and seemed happy to head off for the bus!

Marian refused to smile or do anything else.  This is them before walking to the bus stop.  Thank you, thank you Grandma White for shoes that Marian loves!  Check out that they even match her clothes today. It was raining, and I walked to the bus stop with them and they got on the bus with happy faces.

They had even happier faces getting off the bus!  I was so glad.  Marian said she had a good day and liked her class and teachers.  I had been really worried.  They both seemed to have a great first day and are excited to go back.  Whew!

Um.... before this next picture, let me say that Marian told me she learned a new bike trick.  She wanted me to come and see and to bring the camera.  So I did.
I nearly had a heart attack when I saw this!  One week ago she couldn't even ride the darn thing and now she's doing this?!!!  Oh my.

Tonight has been interesting.  2 minutes ago Marian came sleepwalking out of her room.  I guided her back in to her bed, and she came back out skipping.  Skipping, I tell you!  She's in bed now, but this must have been a doozy of a school day.  She hasn't sleepwalked in a long while.  And Delaney.... where to even start!  I put her in bed at 8 pm, all sung to, tucked in, and ready to sleep.  In the last 2 hours she has had 2 diaper changes, jumped on her bed, tapped on the wall, opened her door and asked for things 4 times, and cried 3 times.  No wonder she won't wake up and get out of bed till after 9 am! (And I open her door, pull the shades and turn on the hall light at 8 am!  She just keeps sleeping!)  I'm trying to figure out how to get her to go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier.  Its hard to put her down for a nap if she's only been up since 10 am.

And that's all the good stuff I can share with you tonight.  I'm tired and I'm going to go to bed, so I can lie there awake for a few hours while getting pummeled and getting up to pee 500 times.  Whoopee.

Look Mom! No Training Wheels!

One of the wonderful (when its not infuriating!) things about Marian, is that when she sets her mind to something, she goes for it.  The problem is that it occasionally takes her a while to decide she wants to do something.  Take Potty Training, for example.  She knew what to do, and how to do it, she just wasn't going to do it.  She stayed in diapers for probably a year longer than she needed to.  One day, shortly before she turned 4, she decided she wanted to wear underpants.  And that was it. In 24 hours the kid was diaper- free and accident-free.

This year Dan and I thought Marian was old enough for a big girl bike, so she got one.  She got it on her birthday, which was nearly 6 months ago.  Marian refused to ride it.  Dan took her out a few times, but she wanted nothing to do with a bike with no training wheels, and preferred the old bike with the extra wheels.  Unfortunately, for her, that bike developed some serious issues, and went to the big bike rack in the sky.

This week, something switched on in Marian's brain.  I do not know what.  I do not know why.  All I know is out of the blue, I look up and here is my daughter, wheeling her bike out to the front and giving it a go.  We had some trouble with the chain coming off, which was really annoying.  Thanks to a wonderful and more knowledgeable neighbor, we got the chain thing fixed, and there was no holding her back!

She started a bit wobbly.  She needed to use the driveway slope to get started.  And then she was off!  She road up the street!  She rode down the street!  She pedaled slowly at first, and then she went faster!

And now, this is all I see of her.  8 am yesterday and 8 am this morning she was out there.  I sit in the house and watch her zoom by going one way.  2 minutes later, she's zooming by the other direction.  Dan took her on his run this morning and said she did great!  And yes, Dan does make her wear a helmet!

Fun at the Park

For a little variety, we went to the Preschool Park yesterday.  It had a two-fold mission: 1.  We got to play somewhere new, and 2. It got Callie excited about her new preschool.  It was a success on all accounts.   

Rather than the icky mulch found on most playgrounds, this one sported real, fine, sand-box sand.  And the kids played in it for most of the morning!  Check out Joshua, hauling a load for a project!

Marian was interested in making a deep ditch.  She wanted to see what was under the pristine sand.  It was more sand.  Then dirt.

Making Sand Castles with Callie!

Delaney was very studious about the whole thing.  She made lots of "ice cream cones" for me to enjoy. 

After over an hour, they realized there was more to this playground than just the beautiful sand.  Delaney holed up in this house for a while and had a marvelous pretend thing going on.  Very cute.

Callie stopped by to visit Delaney in her house.

Never the conformist, this is what Marian likes to do with the houses.  

And here is Joshua, hoping I hadn't noticed he was back on the roof after I told them to get off.  His sunglasses and hat made me laugh.  He is soooo cool! 

So annoyed!

I had been thinking about writing a totally different post, but I am so annoyed right now that I am going to annoy you as well.  Feel free to skip this post, since there will be no pictures and no happy thoughts.  Just crabbiness from me.

See, when I found out I was pregnant, I thought perhaps it would be convenient to have the 2 little girls enrolled at the Ft Belvoir CDC (Thats their child care center).  I thought it would be nice to have the option of dropping them off at the hourly care when I had my doctors appointments.  So, waaay back in February, I went in and got all the paperworks  and found out what I needed.  Since I decided Delney did not need to be vaccinated till she was 2, she had none.  So right there they would not let me register.  Since she had just turned 2, I was okay to start catching her up, but I have a 2 shot policy- I won't get them more than 2 shots per visit.  That means, several visits back to get her the shots they want her to have.  

Delaney was down to only needing one more vaccination when we left for the summer.  I figured I'd wait on Callie's physical until Delaney was ready too.  When I called to make an appointment for Callie's physical, I had a 5 week wait!  Today was that day.

Today I took all 4 children out, skipping naptime, because 1:20 was the only time I could get in.  I didn't think it would be too bad or take too long.  It wasn't too bad and it did take too long. It didn't start off too well- Callie forgot to bring her blanket and cried all the way there.  She did very well for the exam though and that went really well.  (Shocking that she weighs 36 lbs and Delaney is 32!)  I told the doc what we needed and why we were there.  She said no, Delaney didn't need the shot I thought she needed, she needed something else.  She said Callie only needed 2, and next year she would need 2 more.  Yes, the doctor was fully aware I needed this for preschool and the CDC.  She filled out the physical forms and we went to get poked.  Callie cried the whole way there.  She screamed the whole time in the office and absolutely howled when she got her 2 pokes.  It was not fun for me.  Delaney cried when she got her shot, but was so cute. She stopped immediately when she saw the stickers.  She had the cutest face- 2 big tear tracks and a big grin about the stickers.  I had to carry a sobbing Callie to the car.  On the plus side, Joshua and Marian were very good.

We were already on base and I had promised the kids donuts if they were good, so we went and got those.  I said we could go to the park if we went to the CDC and dropped off our paperwork.  They agreed, and we went in, faces covered with chocolate and powdered sugar.  And one hour later, Yes, an HOUR later, they tell me I cannot register the girls.  Delaney did indeed need the shot I originally thought they wanted her to have, and Callie either needs the Chicken Pox vaccine, or a note from the doctor saying she'll get it later.  I cannot register them now.  I cannot get them in the system and activate them later.  I can't do a darn thing but go home and take them back to the hospital later to deal with the shots.  Did I mention that I cannot even walk in to get a vaccine?  I have to see the doctor first.  So, let's see..... wait 5 weeks for another appointment, drag unhappy children back in, get the stupid shot, wait another hour at the CDC......  

Wow, that means there is really no point in doing it.  I'll have had the baby by then, so no need to find hourly care for the girls.   I'm just so aggravated about this right now.  I had wanted it as a nice back-up, but I really don't see that any of it is worth it right now.  (Except Callie might actually need the chicken pox vac for preschool).  And I'm ticked off that I wasted so much time on it.  We did go to the park and the kids had a great time.  We got home about 5pm and I called Dan and told him to pick up pizza for dinner because I was too stinking cranky to make dinner. 

That's my gripe for today.  I'm going to eat pizza, out the kids to bed early and do the same thing myself; and tomorrow I will think I was so silly for being so mad about today!