Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Friday, April 6, 2012
Post the Tenth – Easter Fun + Some Advice About Professional Pictures
Dubya has to work the occasional weekend, and as our luck would have it he is scheduled for this weekend. 7:00 am to 7:00 pm Saturday and Sunday. This Sunday (I’m sure you know) is Easter.
It’s not too awful usually. The twelve hour days are certainly more stressful but he gets two weekdays off to sort of make up for it and in the end works only eight hours more that pay period than when he doesn’t work a weekend. The suckiest part is that he gets the Thursday before the weekend and the Friday after the weekend off so he ends up working seven days in a row with the long weekend shifts at the beginning of it so we don’t get to recuperate from the weekend until a week later. The nice part is that when he has the Friday after off he gets a three day weekend.
This weekend, the only difference is that we had to move our Easter celebration to a day he had off. We went ahead and did it yesterday.
It was a really fun day. P1 especially had a blast… getting her Easter basket and hunting for Easter eggs. She also got to dye eggs for the first time.
Infected with severe “mommy brain”, I had also scheduled P2’s 5 month pictures (we do pictures monthly for the first year) for yesterday so that made things moreridiculously chaotic interesting.
We got up, showered, dressed, ate breakfast (well… Dubya and P1 ate breakfast while I did P1’s hair. I do get quitecrazy creative with the hair) and went to our first picture appointment.
Why yes, I did say first picture appointment. Here’s your advice:
Many photography studios have an inexpensive package meant to reel you into the studio. This package is often limited to one pose, but you get around 15-32 pictures of the one pose (an 8x10, 2 5x7, 4 3.5x5, 8 or 16 wallets, and sometimes a 10x13 and/or 16 locket-sized pictures).
I have seen the package range from $4.99 - $8.99 at Picture Me Portrait Studio (in Wal-Mart Super Centers) and from $10 - $18 at other studios (Picture Me gives you the least pictures… 1 8x10, 2 5x7, 4 3.5x5, and 8 wallets. Other studios, such as Picture People or studios in JC Penny or Sears to name a few, usually include a 10x13 and often have16 wallets. The locket-sized pictures seem to be disappearing from most studios’ cheap packages but you can find them in the package sometimes).
We have spent $20 on the package once but that was also the one time it was not limited to one pose. Instead we got to get six sheets (a sheet is 1 8x10, 2 5x7, 8 wallets, etc.) in any sizes and any poses we wanted.
These studios will allow you to do this package as often as ONCE A MONTH (works perfectly for us *wink*).
SO… we go to 2 or 3 studios in the same day (so we don’t have to dress/do hair for pictures more than once) and get the super cheap package with maybe a few extra sheets at the per-sheet price and voilà! More pictures for less $.
Also, if you join the studios’ clubs it costs a little up front but you often get a free 8x10 every time you come in or something else that easily makes up for the cost of the membership. At Picture Me we get a free 8x10 every time we go in and either 40% off or unlimited buy one get one free depending on the day (plus you can get a free 10x13 online as a reorder).
So just from Picture me we get the 15 pictures for (on average) $7, 2 or 3 sheets (these are either $10 each but we get 2 of each sheet for that, that’s how they do the buy one get one free… or $6 each if we take 40% off but then we only get one of each sheet), a free 8x10, and a free 10x13 (with $5.99 shipping). That is a lot of pictures from a studio for only $31 or $43. If we bought all of that sheet by sheet it would come out to $100 or $130.
Then we do pretty much the same thing (but usually buy less) at a second and, rarely, third place.
Sorry if that is all confusing. I tried to be as clear as possible.
Anyway, I digress. After the morning pictures we came home and did Easter baskets.
Then we had lunch and Dubya took the girls upstairs while I hid eggs. We had 45 eggs to hide so that took a little bit of time. It’s hard to be sure what is hidden, without being too hard to find for a preschooler. Most of the eggs were pretty easy to spot but I tried to make a few fairly challenging, without being too frustrating for her.
Once I got all the eggs hidden Dubya brought the girls down and the hunting commenced.
I made Dubya take a picture of their egg hunting buckets after they were done. I’d say they got a good haul.
After our egg hunting adventures (and after P1 had eaten probably more than a dozen pieces of candy. She kept sneaking it when Mommy and Daddy weren’t looking), we headed back out for our second (and last) picture appointment for the day. Thanks to all the candy you couldn’t even tell P1 had missed her nap in all the craziness and the second appointment went more smoothly than the morning one (I had been afraid it would be a disaster because it was supposed to be 4 hours earlier but then they called and rescheduled it to later in the day, causing us to be unable to have said nap).
We came home, ate dinner and dyed Easter eggs with P1 for the first time.
All in all it was a busy but awesome day.
It’s not too awful usually. The twelve hour days are certainly more stressful but he gets two weekdays off to sort of make up for it and in the end works only eight hours more that pay period than when he doesn’t work a weekend. The suckiest part is that he gets the Thursday before the weekend and the Friday after the weekend off so he ends up working seven days in a row with the long weekend shifts at the beginning of it so we don’t get to recuperate from the weekend until a week later. The nice part is that when he has the Friday after off he gets a three day weekend.
This weekend, the only difference is that we had to move our Easter celebration to a day he had off. We went ahead and did it yesterday.
It was a really fun day. P1 especially had a blast… getting her Easter basket and hunting for Easter eggs. She also got to dye eggs for the first time.
Infected with severe “mommy brain”, I had also scheduled P2’s 5 month pictures (we do pictures monthly for the first year) for yesterday so that made things more
We got up, showered, dressed, ate breakfast (well… Dubya and P1 ate breakfast while I did P1’s hair. I do get quite
Why yes, I did say first picture appointment. Here’s your advice:
Many photography studios have an inexpensive package meant to reel you into the studio. This package is often limited to one pose, but you get around 15-32 pictures of the one pose (an 8x10, 2 5x7, 4 3.5x5, 8 or 16 wallets, and sometimes a 10x13 and/or 16 locket-sized pictures).
I have seen the package range from $4.99 - $8.99 at Picture Me Portrait Studio (in Wal-Mart Super Centers) and from $10 - $18 at other studios (Picture Me gives you the least pictures… 1 8x10, 2 5x7, 4 3.5x5, and 8 wallets. Other studios, such as Picture People or studios in JC Penny or Sears to name a few, usually include a 10x13 and often have16 wallets. The locket-sized pictures seem to be disappearing from most studios’ cheap packages but you can find them in the package sometimes).
We have spent $20 on the package once but that was also the one time it was not limited to one pose. Instead we got to get six sheets (a sheet is 1 8x10, 2 5x7, 8 wallets, etc.) in any sizes and any poses we wanted.
These studios will allow you to do this package as often as ONCE A MONTH (works perfectly for us *wink*).
SO… we go to 2 or 3 studios in the same day (so we don’t have to dress/do hair for pictures more than once) and get the super cheap package with maybe a few extra sheets at the per-sheet price and voilà! More pictures for less $.
Also, if you join the studios’ clubs it costs a little up front but you often get a free 8x10 every time you come in or something else that easily makes up for the cost of the membership. At Picture Me we get a free 8x10 every time we go in and either 40% off or unlimited buy one get one free depending on the day (plus you can get a free 10x13 online as a reorder).
So just from Picture me we get the 15 pictures for (on average) $7, 2 or 3 sheets (these are either $10 each but we get 2 of each sheet for that, that’s how they do the buy one get one free… or $6 each if we take 40% off but then we only get one of each sheet), a free 8x10, and a free 10x13 (with $5.99 shipping). That is a lot of pictures from a studio for only $31 or $43. If we bought all of that sheet by sheet it would come out to $100 or $130.
Then we do pretty much the same thing (but usually buy less) at a second and, rarely, third place.
Sorry if that is all confusing. I tried to be as clear as possible.
Anyway, I digress. After the morning pictures we came home and did Easter baskets.
 |
| Here is P1’s |
 |
| P2’s |
 |
| P2 checking out her basket |
Then we had lunch and Dubya took the girls upstairs while I hid eggs. We had 45 eggs to hide so that took a little bit of time. It’s hard to be sure what is hidden, without being too hard to find for a preschooler. Most of the eggs were pretty easy to spot but I tried to make a few fairly challenging, without being too frustrating for her.
 |
| Eggs in our back patio area |
 |
| Eggs in our living room |
 |
| Eggs in our front yard |
Once I got all the eggs hidden Dubya brought the girls down and the hunting commenced.
 |
| P1 finding an egg in the front yard |
 |
| P2 getting an egg off the sidewalk |
 |
| P1 found an egg in the patio area |
I made Dubya take a picture of their egg hunting buckets after they were done. I’d say they got a good haul.
 |
| Buckets o’ eggs |
After our egg hunting adventures (and after P1 had eaten probably more than a dozen pieces of candy. She kept sneaking it when Mommy and Daddy weren’t looking), we headed back out for our second (and last) picture appointment for the day. Thanks to all the candy you couldn’t even tell P1 had missed her nap in all the craziness and the second appointment went more smoothly than the morning one (I had been afraid it would be a disaster because it was supposed to be 4 hours earlier but then they called and rescheduled it to later in the day, causing us to be unable to have said nap).
We came home, ate dinner and dyed Easter eggs with P1 for the first time.
 |
| Pretty eggs. I did the drawing. At almost-three P1 isn’t quite that artistic yet. Not that I am artistic… I’m NOT. |
All in all it was a busy but awesome day.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Post the Ninth - New Friends?
I’m not an introverted person. I’m not extremely outgoing either. It really depends on the situation I suppose but one area in which I tend to be less outgoing is joining in on conversations with people I don’t know.
You know the scenario. You’re in a public place and a couple (or a group) of people strike up a conversation. You overhear and have something to contribute but you don’t know if they will welcome your input or be offended that you were listening.
I am a stay-at-home mom who doesn’t drive. I live in a city FAR from my family and childhood/high school friends. We have lived here for going on 3 years and in that time I have made maybe half a dozen friends, most of whom have moved away or are about to move away. Later this month I will be down to one person that isn’t my husband or my girls that I really get to spend time with. It’s quite rare that I get to have a conversation that doesn’t involve Scooby Doo.
Understandably I go a little crazy at times.
At the Easter event at Dubya’s work, while we were standing in line waiting to get P1’s face painted, there were three women in front of us talking about the Easter egg hunt. P1 was in the 0-2 year category (I would have put her in 3-5 but Dubya signed her up). The way the 0-2 hunt works, they set up a big, open area with eggs just scattered all over the ground in plain view. Since the kids are so young the parents walk with them as they pick up eggs. It is easy to understand why the parents go with them. Some of the children can’t even walk and the ones who can might get knocked down or lost in the group of adults with the kids who can’t. So yes, even our almost-3-year-old P1 was accompanied by her Daddy.
While it is understandable that the parents accompany their babies and toddlers, it also presents some problems:
I finally jumped in and the four of us had a lovely conversation (and no one even mentioned Scooby!). I found out that all three of the other women were stay-at-home moms as well and that they all wanted more adult interaction. I must have been feeling especially brave because I suggested that we all get together for some play dates (or as I think of them, mom dates). We all exchanged phone numbers and hopefully will be getting together sometime soon.
Looks like stepping outside my comfort zone might have paid off. One thing is for sure… Even if none of these ladies actually follows through with any plans to get together, I’ve promised myself to put myself out there more in the hopes that I can have some mommy friends. After all… If I offend someone by trying to join the conversation I’ll likely never see them again anyway
BUT
If I join in and we hit it off, I just might.
You know the scenario. You’re in a public place and a couple (or a group) of people strike up a conversation. You overhear and have something to contribute but you don’t know if they will welcome your input or be offended that you were listening.
I am a stay-at-home mom who doesn’t drive. I live in a city FAR from my family and childhood/high school friends. We have lived here for going on 3 years and in that time I have made maybe half a dozen friends, most of whom have moved away or are about to move away. Later this month I will be down to one person that isn’t my husband or my girls that I really get to spend time with. It’s quite rare that I get to have a conversation that doesn’t involve Scooby Doo.
Understandably I go a little crazy at times.
At the Easter event at Dubya’s work, while we were standing in line waiting to get P1’s face painted, there were three women in front of us talking about the Easter egg hunt. P1 was in the 0-2 year category (I would have put her in 3-5 but Dubya signed her up). The way the 0-2 hunt works, they set up a big, open area with eggs just scattered all over the ground in plain view. Since the kids are so young the parents walk with them as they pick up eggs. It is easy to understand why the parents go with them. Some of the children can’t even walk and the ones who can might get knocked down or lost in the group of adults with the kids who can’t. So yes, even our almost-3-year-old P1 was accompanied by her Daddy.
While it is understandable that the parents accompany their babies and toddlers, it also presents some problems:
- The company Dubya works for is very large. There are a LOT of people who turn up for the family events at Easter, Halloween and Christmas time. There are a lot of families with children in the 0-2 year range… So there are a lot of kids and a lot of parents participating in the egg hunt. This means that any one child (and parent) has a sea of other children and their parents to try to fight through to get any eggs. If you aren’t at the front of the group, by the time you get to a place that had eggs it has been picked clean.
- Parents get competitive and selfish. Parents not only do not limit the number of eggs they will allow their children to collect, but many even encourage their children to get more eggs than they should. (Last year, when I went into the fray with P1, we even had a parent urging their child to snatch an egg that P1 was reaching for right out from under her nose. I had to tell the child, “No. She was trying to pick that egg up. Let her get it please.”) Our rule is that P1 may get no more than 4 eggs (this year Dubya had trouble even helping her get that many, it was so bad). The reasons we do this are that she will get to go to other egg hunts (just this year there are four… one at Dubya’s work, one at Sam’s Club, one at home, one at church), we want to try to limit how much candy she has, and we want to teach her consideration for the other children and make sure everyone gets some of the eggs.As I stood waiting for Dubya and P1 (who were still struggling to get even a second egg), two children and their parents walked over next to me. One child’s bucket was filled to the brim with colorful plastic eggs (at least a dozen, likely more). The other child’s mother was bragging to the mother of the first “He got TEN eggs!” The child was barely old enough to walk and certainly was unlikely to have gotten ten eggs without a lot of encouragement (I remember when P1 was that age she would get one or two eggs and then was more interested in opening them than getting more). If there were 100 children participating in the egg hunt, at 10 eggs each the company would have to provide 1,000 candy filled eggs JUST for the 0-2 age group. They also do 3-5 and 6-10 age groups.P1 finished the hunt with four eggs, two or three of which she got because a volunteer running the egg hunt dropped them near her after most of the other kids were gone. At least the people running the event try to remedy the issue by giving eggs to the children who get bullied and ignored by greedy parents.
I finally jumped in and the four of us had a lovely conversation (and no one even mentioned Scooby!). I found out that all three of the other women were stay-at-home moms as well and that they all wanted more adult interaction. I must have been feeling especially brave because I suggested that we all get together for some play dates (or as I think of them, mom dates). We all exchanged phone numbers and hopefully will be getting together sometime soon.
Looks like stepping outside my comfort zone might have paid off. One thing is for sure… Even if none of these ladies actually follows through with any plans to get together, I’ve promised myself to put myself out there more in the hopes that I can have some mommy friends. After all… If I offend someone by trying to join the conversation I’ll likely never see them again anyway
BUT
If I join in and we hit it off, I just might.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Post the Eighth – Sleepless in Mama H-ville
Okay, I know this blog is supposed to be about me giving advice… about what I’ve learned and my mistakes and successes, but I’m not perfect. Dubya is not perfect. P1 and P2 are not perfect. There are certainly times where I need some advice and when I might need an outlet for those less than perfect aspects of someone or something.
I try very hard to “fight fair” when Dubya and I are having a problem or a disagreement but I am human. Sometimes I do get frustrated enough to lose my cool and yell, say not-so-nice words, etc.
Yes, we do have those moments. If anyone tries to tell me that they and their spouse/partner/etc. do not have those moments my first thought is that they are either full of it or they are so much alike that life must be rather boring.
So there is an issue we have that we haven’t been able to solve:
Dubya does not do well with too little or interrupted sleep. This became apparent when P1 was an infant.
In fact, in the hospital after P1’s birth (which included a likely unnecessary episiotomy and more than 12 stitches) I COULD NOT get him to wake up to help me AT ALL if he was asleep. I yelled so loud at one point that a nurse came in thinking that something was wrong. (Well something was… ever tried to get out of a hospital bed with more than a dozen stitches in your perineum?)
He was (and is) very helpful during the day but getting him to wake up at night to help is like trying to take a bloody steak away from a tiger… If you do manage to grab hold of the steak, you’re going to get your face ripped off (I LOVE YOU HONEY!!).
Don’t get me started on nights in the hospital after P2 was born.
P2 still wakes up in the wee hours of the morning. I ALWAYS get up and take care of her during the week, bringing her into our bed to nurse her. I have not perfected the art of getting her back into her own bed without waking her back up. Dubya can get her back in her own bed every time.
During the week, rather than wake him since he needs to get up for work, I let P2 sleep in our bed for the rest of the night. This results in me waking up with my back and neck hurting and a headache. I don’t know why, it just does. It is a choice I make willingly out of consideration for him having to get up for work.
Last night I got up to get P2 as always. I put her in our bed, lay down next to her and nursed her. For once she decided she was done eating before she was fully asleep. She needed her pacifier, which I couldn’t reach without waking her more because it was in her bed. Since it was a Friday night I asked Dubya to get it, which he did with only a bit of grumbling. Once she had the pacifier P2 relaxed and fell asleep.
Dubya went into the bathroom, came back, laid down and decided to start rubbing me like he was feeling frisky (I was just feeling tired). In the process he rubbed against P2 and woke her up. She promptly started crying. I told Dubya that since I had already been up with her and he woke her he needed to take care of her until she went back to sleep.
I put her next to him and he proceeded to ignore her and go back to sleep. I started to get angry.
“Take care of your daughter!” *shaking him*
With a plethora of complaints her sat up and began to try to rock her (after I told him she needed him to STAND UP, WALK and rock her). She screamed louder. I told him that wasn’t going to work and she needed him to WALK. He sat there for another five minutes or more (right next to me) and ignored me, preferring to sit and let her scream because he KNEW I would take her. At this point I was pissed. I took her and within about two minutes she was asleep (I, however, was far from it).
I was not a very fun person to be around (definitely not “fighting fair”… I was yelling and cussing to be honest, but it was the culmination of months, even years of frustration) for the rest of the morning while we got ready to go to an Easter event at Dubya’s work. Luckily for him that was a wonderful distraction for me and it greatly improved my mood (more on why in the next post).
This has been a problem since having P1 in 2009 but it has been especially bad with P2. Dubya bought me a breast pump when she was still a newborn so I could pump milk for him to feed her ONE night a week when he didn’t have to work the next day. I spent TWO DAYS trying to pump enough for him to take a feeding just for him to inform me that he WAS NOT getting up to warm a bottle up when I could give her some already warm milk from my breast.
“Then they the hell did you WASTE the money on the pump???” (me)
Oh and let’s not mention that I got eight hours of sleep in more than THREE DAYS when I gave birth to P2 and his response when I tried to get his help?
“Well ONE of us should get some sleep!” (Dubya)
“And why the hell should it be you??” (me)
Oh yea, he worked so hard giving birth to our baby… wait… that was me? I’m so tired I forgot.
Anyone have any help with this?
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Post the Seventh – IT WASN’T MY FAULT!!!
I had an awful mommy moment yesterday… I felt SOOOO bad. BUT today my darling little P1 told me something that made me realize that my guilt was truly unwarranted.
Here’s what happened:
Yesterday I put P1 in her room… her VERY toddler/preschooler-proofed room… for her daily nap. She is generally in there for about 3-4 hours (about ½ hour or a little more to fall asleep and then 2.5-3 hours of sleep). I am quite lucky in that respect J.
Her room has its own bathroom that is kept locked unless Dubya or I need to help her use the potty or give her a bath (which doesn’t happen often. She usually just takes a shower with one of us because her bath tub holds water about as well as a colander). The bathroom is somewhat childproofed, but definitely not safe for her to be in unsupervised. The toilet doesn’t have a lock, the cabinets do not either (though they are mostly empty), etc…
Some time ago, before she really started to pick up on potty training (therefore the bathroom wasn’t used much), a wet pull-up ended up put in the trash can in there. It was probably in there for more than a week before we went in the room again to make sure it was clean enough for some company to take showers in it while they visited (we REALLY never used the room). As I’m sure you can imagine… the smell was less than pleasant (we no longer have a trash can in that room to avoid it happening again… plus we’ve switched to cloth training pants to go with P2’s cloth diapers). After emptying the trash can, scrubbing it out, cleaning the rest of the bathroom and plugging in an air purifier, it still needed something so I plugged in an oil burner as well.
The smell was gone by the time our company arrived but I left the oil burner in there, seeing no reason to remove it. The bathroom was always locked, after all. By the way, the lock is the kind you can unlock with a fingernail or a butter knife or something. I know, I’m frigging brilliant…
While P1 was upstairs yesterday, she somehow got into the bathroom. I went upstairs to find her in the bathroom and the oil burner (which had maybe a tablespoon of oil in it at most) empty. She initially told me she cleaned the oil burner with a flushable wipe but I could smell it on her mouth and when I asked if she ate it she said yes. I guessed she must have tasted it but wiped most of it away with the wipe. I don’t think she would have consumed much. It HAS to taste AWFUL!
Still, as a mom, you can’t help but think of the “what if’s”. What if she had consumed more of it? The bottle of oil, with it’s very un-childproof lid, was in there as well… What if she drank some from it? What if it made her really sick or even *gulp* killed her?
**Okay, seriously… I’m a MOM. I’m allowed to be a little crazy (or batsh…spit INSANE) when I think about something bad happening to my baby (er, I mean… “BIG girl”. Sorry P1).**
“I MUST have left the door unlocked! How could I have been so careless?? It was ALL MY FAULT!! I must be a horrible mother!”
That’s how I felt yesterday…
Today I took her upstairs to get ready for her nap. She had to potty so I took her into the bathroom (now empty of everything but towels, washcloths, toilet paper and children’s shampoo. All of which is up on a shelf she can’t reach… Have you ever tried to clean ½ a bottle of soap off of the floor? It SUCKS!).
As I was unlocking the bathroom door with my thumbnails, my darling almost-three-year-old runs over saying, “Mommy, stop. Don’t use your thumbs! Use this (indicating part of a toy that was just perfect to fit in the lock). ‘Member? Yesterday? I use this and I go in there and touch stuff and eat stuff.”
Suddenly the room got painfully bright and I heard a joyful refrain that could only have been sung by angels:
“Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Halle-e-lu-jah!!!”
IT WASN’T MY FAULT!!!!!
My kid’s just too damn smart… I thought we were supposed to want our kids to be intelligent…
The toy is no longer in her room.
Have any of you ever had that awful mommy moment only to find out it wasn’t your fault at all? Did you feel relieved that you weren’t to blame or terrified of what your kid would figure out next? For me it’s a pretty even mix of both. And why does she have to EAT EVERYTHING???
Here’s what happened:
Yesterday I put P1 in her room… her VERY toddler/preschooler-proofed room… for her daily nap. She is generally in there for about 3-4 hours (about ½ hour or a little more to fall asleep and then 2.5-3 hours of sleep). I am quite lucky in that respect J.
Her room has its own bathroom that is kept locked unless Dubya or I need to help her use the potty or give her a bath (which doesn’t happen often. She usually just takes a shower with one of us because her bath tub holds water about as well as a colander). The bathroom is somewhat childproofed, but definitely not safe for her to be in unsupervised. The toilet doesn’t have a lock, the cabinets do not either (though they are mostly empty), etc…
Some time ago, before she really started to pick up on potty training (therefore the bathroom wasn’t used much), a wet pull-up ended up put in the trash can in there. It was probably in there for more than a week before we went in the room again to make sure it was clean enough for some company to take showers in it while they visited (we REALLY never used the room). As I’m sure you can imagine… the smell was less than pleasant (we no longer have a trash can in that room to avoid it happening again… plus we’ve switched to cloth training pants to go with P2’s cloth diapers). After emptying the trash can, scrubbing it out, cleaning the rest of the bathroom and plugging in an air purifier, it still needed something so I plugged in an oil burner as well.
The smell was gone by the time our company arrived but I left the oil burner in there, seeing no reason to remove it. The bathroom was always locked, after all. By the way, the lock is the kind you can unlock with a fingernail or a butter knife or something. I know, I’m frigging brilliant…
While P1 was upstairs yesterday, she somehow got into the bathroom. I went upstairs to find her in the bathroom and the oil burner (which had maybe a tablespoon of oil in it at most) empty. She initially told me she cleaned the oil burner with a flushable wipe but I could smell it on her mouth and when I asked if she ate it she said yes. I guessed she must have tasted it but wiped most of it away with the wipe. I don’t think she would have consumed much. It HAS to taste AWFUL!
Still, as a mom, you can’t help but think of the “what if’s”. What if she had consumed more of it? The bottle of oil, with it’s very un-childproof lid, was in there as well… What if she drank some from it? What if it made her really sick or even *gulp* killed her?
**Okay, seriously… I’m a MOM. I’m allowed to be a little crazy (or bat
“I MUST have left the door unlocked! How could I have been so careless?? It was ALL MY FAULT!! I must be a horrible mother!”
That’s how I felt yesterday…
Today I took her upstairs to get ready for her nap. She had to potty so I took her into the bathroom (now empty of everything but towels, washcloths, toilet paper and children’s shampoo. All of which is up on a shelf she can’t reach… Have you ever tried to clean ½ a bottle of soap off of the floor? It SUCKS!).
As I was unlocking the bathroom door with my thumbnails, my darling almost-three-year-old runs over saying, “Mommy, stop. Don’t use your thumbs! Use this (indicating part of a toy that was just perfect to fit in the lock). ‘Member? Yesterday? I use this and I go in there and touch stuff and eat stuff.”
Suddenly the room got painfully bright and I heard a joyful refrain that could only have been sung by angels:
“Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Halle-e-lu-jah!!!”
IT WASN’T MY FAULT!!!!!
My kid’s just too damn smart… I thought we were supposed to want our kids to be intelligent…
The toy is no longer in her room.
Have any of you ever had that awful mommy moment only to find out it wasn’t your fault at all? Did you feel relieved that you weren’t to blame or terrified of what your kid would figure out next? For me it’s a pretty even mix of both. And why does she have to EAT EVERYTHING???
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Post the Sixth - Detoxing
Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as the title sounds.
I’ve had a long-time (most of my life, in fact) love affair with a substance than most anyone you speak to will say, hands down, is very bad for you. Anyone who knows me already knows exactly what I am talking about.
This substance, while amazingly delicious, is bad for your overall health. It is bad for your teeth, it can contribute to users being overweight, it is bad for the kidneys, liver and stomach lining… It is full of sugar, empty calories and carbohydrates, acids, chemicals… It can be addictive.
My “drug” of choice has changed over the years. As a child for a time I was hooked on root beer (at least that one was caffeine free). In middle school and early high school I had a loving relationship with cherry coke. In early high school I think they altered the flavor of cherry coke and suddenly I found myself leaving my beloved cherry coke for regular coca cola, which I have remained faithful to ever since (with the occasional flirtation with pepsi (EW!) when there was no coke to be found in a restaurant). When I was younger other sodas would do but milk was only tolerable with copious amounts of chocolate and water was pretty much never an option.
As an adult (especially with my first pregnancy) I sucked it up and began drinking bottled water, but it has to be cold. In fact, during the first half of my pregnancy with P1 I drank almost no soda at all (so I HAD to drink water). Then I found out that I could actually have more caffeine than there is in one can of coke each day with no known effects on the baby. I don’t think I drank a coke every day for the rest of the pregnancy but I definitely drank a lot more than I had been.
With P2 it was more so the opposite. I drank a can of coke most days in the beginning, but about half way through I had my glucose test and the result was borderline. After a second test (better but still not great) I was declared “glucose intolerant”. Immediately after not passing the first test I called my diabetic mother to hash out a “diet” for myself that mostly involved eating the same foods I had been but with smaller portions of carbs and larger portions of proteins. I also almost completely cut out coke and sweets. These changes probably helped the second test come out better than the first.
I also had a third test, closer to the end of the pregnancy, just to check and make sure the changes to my diet were enough. I passed that one.
I still eat much better than I did before (as far as carb:protein ratio and less candy and such) but I gradually slipped back into my old coca cola habit and, once again, I drink about 12-36 oz. a day. Usually closer to 12.
Though I was losing weight at an amazing pace after P2 was born (now weighing around what I weighed before getting pregnant with P1), I have now hit a plateau. I am hoping to lose another 15-20 lbs. I also have noticed lately that I get a headache if I wait until too late in the day to drink coke and that I get a burning feeling in my stomach when I do drink it. I also have several baby teeth still and have really been feeling like I need to take better care of my teeth. OH AND I’m trying to cut the amount of money we are spending in every area possible (that is a big one).
Because of all of these reasons I have decided I AM kicking the habit. I am choosing to taper off because a) you are less likely to return to the habit if you quit gradually, as opposed to “cold turkey” and b) I can’t care for children while home alone with them if I have a debilitating withdrawal headache. I will be finished with coke by my P1’s third birthday next month. She won’t know it, but it is going to be one of her biggest birthday presents… A healthier Mommy who will hopefully have more time to spend here on earth with her as a result of making healthier choices. PLUS, she has been getting pretty interested in drinking my coke whenever I have any (I mostly do not let her) and I want to remove the temptation before she gets the idea that it is acceptable to have all the time.
I’m not going to say my kids, Dubya, or even I can’t have any soda EVER… but from P1’s birthday on it will be a special treat when we go out to eat (which is rare). We’ll all have to learn to practice self-control and MODERATION.
What habits do you have that you need to get under control so that they don’t have a negative influence on your children? Are there any habits, in your opinion, that are okay to practice but tell your children it is unacceptable for them to do the same?
I’ve had a long-time (most of my life, in fact) love affair with a substance than most anyone you speak to will say, hands down, is very bad for you. Anyone who knows me already knows exactly what I am talking about.
This substance, while amazingly delicious, is bad for your overall health. It is bad for your teeth, it can contribute to users being overweight, it is bad for the kidneys, liver and stomach lining… It is full of sugar, empty calories and carbohydrates, acids, chemicals… It can be addictive.
My “drug” of choice has changed over the years. As a child for a time I was hooked on root beer (at least that one was caffeine free). In middle school and early high school I had a loving relationship with cherry coke. In early high school I think they altered the flavor of cherry coke and suddenly I found myself leaving my beloved cherry coke for regular coca cola, which I have remained faithful to ever since (with the occasional flirtation with pepsi (EW!) when there was no coke to be found in a restaurant). When I was younger other sodas would do but milk was only tolerable with copious amounts of chocolate and water was pretty much never an option.
As an adult (especially with my first pregnancy) I sucked it up and began drinking bottled water, but it has to be cold. In fact, during the first half of my pregnancy with P1 I drank almost no soda at all (so I HAD to drink water). Then I found out that I could actually have more caffeine than there is in one can of coke each day with no known effects on the baby. I don’t think I drank a coke every day for the rest of the pregnancy but I definitely drank a lot more than I had been.
With P2 it was more so the opposite. I drank a can of coke most days in the beginning, but about half way through I had my glucose test and the result was borderline. After a second test (better but still not great) I was declared “glucose intolerant”. Immediately after not passing the first test I called my diabetic mother to hash out a “diet” for myself that mostly involved eating the same foods I had been but with smaller portions of carbs and larger portions of proteins. I also almost completely cut out coke and sweets. These changes probably helped the second test come out better than the first.
I also had a third test, closer to the end of the pregnancy, just to check and make sure the changes to my diet were enough. I passed that one.
I still eat much better than I did before (as far as carb:protein ratio and less candy and such) but I gradually slipped back into my old coca cola habit and, once again, I drink about 12-36 oz. a day. Usually closer to 12.
Though I was losing weight at an amazing pace after P2 was born (now weighing around what I weighed before getting pregnant with P1), I have now hit a plateau. I am hoping to lose another 15-20 lbs. I also have noticed lately that I get a headache if I wait until too late in the day to drink coke and that I get a burning feeling in my stomach when I do drink it. I also have several baby teeth still and have really been feeling like I need to take better care of my teeth. OH AND I’m trying to cut the amount of money we are spending in every area possible (that is a big one).
Because of all of these reasons I have decided I AM kicking the habit. I am choosing to taper off because a) you are less likely to return to the habit if you quit gradually, as opposed to “cold turkey” and b) I can’t care for children while home alone with them if I have a debilitating withdrawal headache. I will be finished with coke by my P1’s third birthday next month. She won’t know it, but it is going to be one of her biggest birthday presents… A healthier Mommy who will hopefully have more time to spend here on earth with her as a result of making healthier choices. PLUS, she has been getting pretty interested in drinking my coke whenever I have any (I mostly do not let her) and I want to remove the temptation before she gets the idea that it is acceptable to have all the time.
I’m not going to say my kids, Dubya, or even I can’t have any soda EVER… but from P1’s birthday on it will be a special treat when we go out to eat (which is rare). We’ll all have to learn to practice self-control and MODERATION.
What habits do you have that you need to get under control so that they don’t have a negative influence on your children? Are there any habits, in your opinion, that are okay to practice but tell your children it is unacceptable for them to do the same?
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