girlymama

a quiet two-year-old usually means trouble

Exhibit A:

no first day of school picture this year

We were waiting at the end of the driveway, just as the bus started to come up our street and I said,"Oh, shoot! We forgot the nametag your teacher sent for you!"

One look at my daughter's devestated face told me I needed to get that nametag, even if I had to drive it to school.

"Hang on," I said.

I turned and tore into the house at a full run. Up three flights of stairs to my bedroom, yanked open the file cabinet, grabbed my folder labeled "school" and tore back down the stairs. I threw open the front door and ran across the lawn just as she was going up the stairs into the bus. I climbed partway into the school bus and handed her her special nametag from her new teacher. The look of relief on her face was worth it.

The bus driver, who she has had for three years now, was laughing at me and said, "Ready for another year, huh?"

Clearly my goal for this school year should be to get my act together.

"Mom, does this have fat in it?"

Ellie asked at dinner the other night.

She's SEVEN.

We tried to talk to her and figure out why she asked that, why she was worried about fat, if she even knew what fat was... but to no avail. She clammed up and wouldn't say another word.

I know what is coming. The obsessing over weight, the counting calories, the strange diets... all of us women go through it at various points in our lives. Being a teenager is tough - and struggling with body image is a huge part of that. I know we need to start talking more about healthy food, taking care of our bodies - but not obsessing over them, the changes that are ahead for her as she grows up... I just wasn't thinking we needed to start that quite so soon. It makes me so sad to think this gorgeous girl is even worrying about things like this.

This breaks my heart that we're seeing this at SEVEN. Is she really worried about getting fat at seven? Where is this coming from? We eat fairly healthy (with the occasional pizza thrown in), we're all pretty slim, we don't talk about diets or losing weight in front of the kids... and Ellie is very average in her height and weight. (And she's recently become obsessed with getting braces. For some reason she's worried about getting braces?)

Maybe because she is bigger than her sister? Gracie is younger,and fairly petite, but its not a huge difference between them. Maybe its from friends? I just can't figure it out. That question hit me like a truck and I'm still trying to sort it out. Any advice?

just so you know

Swim diapers are not water tight.

So when your son pees as you're carrying him through the house, you end up looking like this:

And then you get to clean your floor.

Good times.

overscheduled

This week we've been talking about our schedule for the fall. The girls just want to do everything - soccer, ballet, gymnastics, tae kwon do, piano, Girl Scouts... and I have a question:

HOW DO PEOPLE DO ALL OF THIS STUFF?

Is it just me?

Normally kids barely do anything and we barely have time for that. Last spring  for one month, we did soccer, piano, gymnastics AND Girl Scouts and I just about died. It was ridiculous - we were out of the house every single weekday with soccer games on the weekend. (Not to mention the money? Holy cow, this stuff is expensive!)

As it is, they don't get off the bus until after 4:00 in the afternoon. Between homework and dinner and 8:00 bedtime... there's just not enough hours in the day. When will they play? When will they spend time with their poor little brother who misses them all day long? When will the go outside and just be kids? 

I'm totally stressing about this. Does anyone have any tips for balancing all of this? How do you decide what activities your kids do?

two

Colin is two.

And he is driving me crazy.

He wakes up in the morning and he's immediately two. This morning, for example, he cried because Daddy came to get him out of the crib instead of Mommy. Then he was smiling and cuddling in our bed with us. Then he cried because I need to change his diaper before we went down to breakfast. Then he threw a fit because he doesn't want to take off his pajamas. Then he threw a BIGGER fit because he didn't like the shirt I picked out. Then he calmed down and happily walked down the stairs to the kitchen. Where we discovered we were out of strawberry yogurt. Then he threw another fit because I offered him blueberry yogurt instead. Then (after another time out) he sat down and cheerfully ate the blueberry yogurt.

This is not a fun way to start one's day. You can see why I'm exhausted.

Yesterday he threw a fit for 45 minutes. Not crying and fussing on and off for 45 minutes. He was laying on his floor, kicking, screaming and crying for FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. STRAIGHT. The only thing that stopped him was me finally going in there and holding him tightly until he stopped screaming and calmed down. (That fit was because I insisted on changing his dirty, stinky diaper. I know. The injustice of it all! The poor baby!)

He's an emotional roller coaster all day long: one minute he's happy as a clam, the next he's on the floor screaming. He's playing happily, then he he's in tears. Cute little adorable toddler to monster child. For no apparent reason.

Except being in public. I can almost guarantee that whenever we're in public, he'll throw at least one fit. He's almost always leaves the store held under my arm like a football - screaming - while I try to get my shopping cart and two other spacey children herded to my car.

I'm so frustrated. Not to mention that he does not sleep through the night -- STILL. Whenever he wakes up, he screams for me. And he won't stop until I go down and rock him back to sleep.  He wakes up almost every night around midnight, then again around 4:00am. Its ridiculous.

I know this is a stage. And as much as I don't want him to grow up too quickly, I will NOT be sad to say goodbye to this little monster that has taken over my two-year-old.

i'm sure this would never happen to you

I'm sure you've never mailed your oil bill to the garbage company and mailed your garbage bill to the oil company.

I'm sure you've never forgotten your kids swimming lessons or ballet lessons.

I'm sure you've never gone to the store to get milk and walked out $30 dollars later... with no milk.

I'm sure you never get stuck out with an extremely stinky baby and no diapers or wipes.

I'm doubly sure you've never had that happen at home, and you end up searching through old purses and your car trying to find an extra diaper.

And I'm sure you never got to the store at 2:00 in the afternoon and, as your kids were getting out of the car, realized that one of them was still wearing their pajamas.

deciding if this battle is worth fighting

After the wedding week, Colin has adjusted his sleep schedule so that he is staying up until 11 o'clock at night.  Colin has also decided that he rather liked sharing a room with Mama and Dada at my mom's house and is now refusing to sleep in his room.

It. Is. Awesome.

bangs head against wall.

He's screaming for like 2 hours at night before finally falling asleep in his crib. Then he wakes up and screams again during the night. And he won't take naps either, instead screaming and pointing to our bedroom.

"Mama bed! Wan Mama bed! No me bed! MAMA BED!!!" repeat for two hours.

I'm wondering if its worth fighting it, since we're going on vacation on Saturday and will probably be sharing rooms and having weird schedules again.Is it better to insist that when we're at home he needs to sleep a certain way? Or just let it go since we'll be gone again? Or will we regret letting his schedule/etc be off for so long?

I'm too tired to decide. Any advice?

so long, ariel and hannah

As you may have heard in the Twitterverse, there was a huge storm here in Philly about 10 days ago that knocked out power for hours - even days in some areas - around our house.

We weren't home, since I was out in Ohio helping get ready for my sister's wedding. My first worry was the fridge. We weren't going to be home for ten days and I had heard rumors that we weren't going to have any power for up to 6 days in our neighborhood. In this 95 degree heat, I was thinking we'd probably need to buy a new fridge if we didn't get power soon. YUCK! Luckily my hero, Megan, came over and cleaned out my fridge so we dodn't come home to a stinky house.

But I never even thought about the fish.
Who were in the tank.
Where the filter couldn't work to clean the water.
In 95 degree weather.
For TEN DAYS.

Lets just say that - after I almost threw up when I opened the lid - we decided to just throw out the entire fish tank.

Yes, it was that bad. 

So now we are pet-less. Ariel lived a long and full life - three years is a pretty good run for a $2 goldfish. Poor Hannah only lived here for about three months. And probably wishes she went home with some other family.

boys

Yesterday I was sitting and chatting my my neighbor - minding my own business - and I heard "MAMA MAMA!"

Colin was stuck.
Colin was stuck in her car.
Colin was stuck in her car's exhaust pipe.
Colin was stuck in her car's exhaust pipe up to his shoulder.

SIGH.

No, I didn't get a picture. I wish I had because it was pretty hilarious. He looked like a chimney sweep or something. But I was too concerned with him not touching anything at all in the house and, you know, the TOXINS that were now ALL OVER HIS BODY to snap a picture.
I know, I don't deserve to be a blogger.