Thanksgiving & Craft Reveal!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving, I know I did! We hosted the day at our house, same as the last 2 years. My turkey turned out perfect, I'm happy to say. I only make it once a year, so I tend to forget what I did the year previous. I need to stop reinventing the wheel and just write it down or something. In addition to the turkey, I made stuffing (of course!), deviled eggs, spinach Parmesan dip, cranberry sauce, croissants with pumpkin butter, and rice pudding. With the dishes that everyone else brought, we had quite a spread. I didn't get very many pictures since I was so busy hostessing and running after the girls. The stamps that I made last week made a cameo at the table:

I think they turned out really nice! We also made the traditional turkey handprint and I tried to make a cornucopia out of D's foot. I think it would have looked more like a cornucopia if I had painted her toes different colors. Still cute, though!



Hopefully in the next week or two, I'll have time to feature the sweater dress tutorial I found. I hope everyone made it through Black Friday alive! We hermited in the house and didn't go anywhere. Perfect day for me ;)

Two Steps Back

I had an absolute armpit of a day today, which is really disappointing because I feel like I've been doing so much better lately. I think D is teething, so she's been in a rotten mood the past few days. Both my kids were painfully slow teethers. Emphasis on the *painful*! D only has her four top, four bottom and four molars in. I noticed her canines poking through this morning, so hopefully we're in the home stretch.

I swear I spent over half the day either crying or trying not to lose my shit. I really need to pay more attention to my personal habits, too. I know I skipped breakfast and forgot to eat lunch until almost 2 in the afternoon. That certainly doesn't help my mood.

N's been getting more possessive of her toys, too. Today she had a huge setup of Littlest Pet Shop animals and a building block city on the couch. Right at D level. As soon as D would come within a 5 foot radius of N's bustling metropolis, N would shriek at ear splitting levels and whack D on the chest. Everyone crying again. I need to make a little D-free zone for N to have her imaginative play time, because that takes up a large portion of her day.

The last recurring trial of the day (really the last week or two) is that D is obsessed with the "potty". I hate to discourage her, but she only wants to play in the bathroom. If I bring the little potty out of the bathroom for her, she wants nothing to do with it. She wants to sit on the big potty and play with N's toys, which inevitably fall between her legs into the toilet. Then she wants to get down and rummage in the extremely un-kidproofed closet. Ten times a day. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that one. Like I said, I don't want to discourage her from potty stuff if she's interested, but I suspect she's just using it as a vehicle to achieve fun times in the bathroom.

Hopefully, the coming holidays will be a bit of a break with A home. We're having everyone over to my house for Thanksgiving, so I'm really excited about that. I have photos of the stamps and the craft we used them with to post, but I'll have to save that for another day. I have to go clean!

Tomorrow will be better, right?

Craft: Home Made Stamps!

So this is my first attempt at a tutorial-type post. I'm making Thanksgiving place cards with the kids (probably just N) later this week and I didn't have any fall themed stamps. I had a mini-epiphany on how to make my own (it's so easy that I'm sure there's an identical tutorial out there somewhere) with stuff I already had.

You Will Need:

Puffy Paint or Glue Gun
Adhesive Backed Foam Sheets
Flat Glass, Mirror or Ceramic Surface
Washable Marker
Scissors

 I'm terrible at writing backwards, so I used the back of a plate to lay out my text.

 Press the foam sheet to the marker before it has a chance to dry.

 Ta-daa!

 I did one word at a time so that it didn't dry.

 These words were a little small for the puffy paint, but I wanted them to leave room for N's decorations on the place cards.

 These will take about 24 hours to dry, so plan ahead!

 For the decoration stamps, I just freehanded some fall-themed pictures directly onto the foam.

 If you need a stamp RIGHT AWAY you can also use a glue gun. It's not as smooth as the puffy paint and the lines are thicker, but it dries in just a few minutes.

 Pilgrim hat!

 Here they all are :)

After they dry, I'll trim them a little closer and adhere them to... something. Maybe I'll get A to cut me wooden blocks. Those small cardboard disposable jewelry boxes would also work well. We'll be using sponges to apply poster paint to the stamps in a few days. I'll update with the finished product in a few days!

Attack of the Toy Fairy

If you've been keeping up, you may have read about the Toy Fairy. I have threatened to leave toys out for the Toy Fairy in the past, and this usually spurs a little cleaning frenzy. N was feeling particularly obstinate the other day, so when she refused to help me clean I said "That's ok. I'm just going to clean this up for you and since you can't take care of your toys, I'll just leave them on the front porch for the Toy Fairy. She'll have lots of fun playing with your toys." I got through three bins of toys before N came to help me finish. Whenever she passed the kitchen window and saw her toys on the porch she got a little sad. The next morning they were gone. That day was fine, but the next morning she wanted to build a tower. I told her that if she helped me clean up all the toys that were out that we could write a note to the Toy Fairy asking for her toys back.

N dictated the note, decorated it and signed the bottom. She even drew a picture of the Toy Fairy in the bottom left hand corner. The little blobs above it are her wings, haha! After all that she *still* had to wait until the next morning to get her toys, since the Toy Fairy (like most fairys) only operates at night when you're not looking. For the most part, she's been better about cleaning up lately. We'll see if this made any kind of impression on her next time I need to pull it out!

Postception?

I know a post promising that I'm going to post a post is a little redundant, but maybe if I put it out there it will actually get done.

I think I want to redesign a *little* to include a crafty section for my blog. It will give me something positive to write about as well as motivate me to craft more and document what I'm making. Coming soon... sweater dress, bear ears, home made stamps, ummmm... maybe a hat or two? Most of these won't be tutorials since what I'm making was picked up from another blog or website, but I'll link back to my source so that y'all can try it out if you want.

I'm excited, how 'bout you?!

Don't Worry, It's Just a Phase

I've been away from blogging over the summer. My husband was home more and my evenings somehow disappeared into a haze of cleaning and vegging in front of the TV. (yuk!) Now that the semester is yet again underway, I'm on my own at least 4 full days a week. It's definitely trying my patience, but we're all adjusting. I'll touch on a few things before I get into my "real" blog post.

Preschool

N started preschool this year. *tear* She goes in the mornings two days a week. It's a nice break in our routine, but it's a busy way to start our loooong week. I was worried that N would have a little trouble being away since she's never been watched by anyone other than immediate family. I should have saved myself the grey hairs. I don't even get a kiss goodbye before she's running into her classroom. Of course, D wailing and draping herself across my arms may have something to do with that, too. D redeems herself when we go to pick up N and she's squealing and dancing before we reach the door. Actually, both of them are. Cute!

 

N's First Day of School

 

N's First Two Weeks of Classwork

The Garden

This turned out to be such a nice project for the summer. We ate oodles of squash, and a good amount of cucumbers. The peppers were a little sparse, but I think that was due more to the damage of the storm/hurricane than anything else. They were coming in late in the season, right when the storm hit.

The Beach

We went on vacation to Nags Head, NC for a week with my parents. IT WAS AWESOME! We had a great time. The girls behaved so well and the weather was perfect. I can't say enough good things about our time there.

 

A & D in the outside shower. This is my favorite picture from the week! (seriously, we didn't take a single shower inside all week)

Family Photo! The stairs on the right hand side of the photo led to our cabin.

Ready to head home :)

Not Much Else

I'm sure we did more, but nothing is standing out to me at the moment. We didn't do anything life changing or epic (other than our rockin' vacation).

Just a Phase

You know when you hear that phrase... it's exactly WHILE your kid is doing something embarassing/out of control/or vaguely obscene that someone sagely nods their head and says "Oh don't worry, it's just a phase, hon." I hate that. Unfortunately, it's also true. I remember when we thought that Nora would never get out of her 24/7 temper tantrum. I felt like she spent 90% of her waking time rolling around on the ground sounding *exactly* like what I imagine a stuck pig to sound like.

This is her licking snot off her nose following a fit because the stupid baby bjorn wouldn't stay on or something. This was March 2010, so she was 26 months and D was one month old. Obviously, we weren't in the best frame of mind to deal with the trivial (to us!) problems of a two year old, either. However, this time passed without us noticing the end of it. That's not to say that N never has hissy fits, they're just much less frequent and often we can head them off at the pass and avoid it altogether. At the time they were absolutely unavoidable. The frustrations of being two coupled with distracted parents and a new baby sister (not to mention her sassy personality) were a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, D is just gearing up for her time to shine...

Oh, bad mommy won't let you pull a frying pan full of ground beef and grease on your head. :(

N's bedtime routines have also eased up a bit. We have a nice, SHORT, reasonable routine in place. No more 30 minutes from start to finish. I think a big thing that helped with this was N giving up her nap. (If you could spend a moment of silence to mourn its passing, I would appreciate it.) With no nap and school in the mix she is very tired by bedtime, which has been bumped up to 7 so that she goes to bed the same time as D. Sweet! There's little resistance especially on nights that A isn't home. We have our ducks in a row and mommy doesn't take any crap. Not that daddy does, but I think with two of us around she sees the opportunity to take a chance on someone being a softie.

Another change that I have noticed since the last time I blogged is that things are a lot more in control for me at home. I cook a lot more, and the house is almost always tidy. I still have a hard time keeping up with the "real" cleaning like mopping, bathrooms and laundry, but the dishes are usually done and the floors/countertops are clear before I go to bed. I attribute this solely to audiobooks. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?! It makes it so much easier to lose myself in my book while cleaning. I never look at the clock to see if I've cleaned long enough to sit down guilt free, and I actually look for things to do so I can listen longer.

I know people always say that they wish that there were more hours in a day. What I want is another *day* in my day. The only caveat is that my kids need to be on another plane of existence while I have my extra time. There are a few basic things that I want/need to accomplish with my time sans children: cleaning, crocheting, reading and the occasional blog. I can not keep up with all these in the time allotted. Since I have the girls from waking to sleeping, at least four days a week, I also need to get to bed at a reasonable time every night. This is very hard for me, still. I want to cram as much "me time" in the hours after 7pm that I end up staying awake way too long. This makes me cranky and short-tempered the next day, which is bad for everyone.

Well, the long and the short of it is that I need to: 1) remember how far N has come in a year, 2) cut D some slack and 3) discover how to manipulate the space-time continuum so that I can get everything done.

Easy peasy, mac & cheesie!

K. I. S. S.? I wish!

Keep it simple, stupid!

I know that toddlers and pre-schoolers thrive on routine, but N's bedtime rituals are getting a little ridiculous. This is what happens EVERY night:

Things that NEED to be in the bed:
2 Pony Security Blankets
2 stuffed Ikea ferrets
2 different stuffed giraffes (they both rattle/jingle which is annoying)
regular pillow
bear pillow
down throw blanket
large egyptian linen swaddle blanket
large crocheted blanket
pink patchwork quilt

If any one of these things is missing from her bed, she WILL notice and you MUST find it. Sometimes she's carried it out of her room, sometimes it's just lost in the crazy jumble of toys and blankets. Either way, if it's not there, she's not sleeping. The list is only about half of what's in her bed, the rest is a semi-rotating gathering of toys and blankets that are crammed into her bed tent. There are nights that she gets it in her head that she needs a 4" tall piglet change purse that hangs out in her bed. Try finding that in the dark!

After we make sure everyone is in bed and ready to go to sleep, it's time for the routine.

Read a book in Mommy & Daddy's room, because D's sleeping and we can't do it there.

Make sure her fan and nightlight are both on.

Once in bed, we say the sleep rules:
1. Stay in bed.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Be very quiet.
4. Go to sleep.
5. If it's red, stay in bed. (this refers to her nightlight / toddler alarm clock, which also must be on)

Then it's time for prayers:
Now I lay me down to sleep... and also God is Great (the one you say before eating). I'm not sure how this got added in, but whatever.

Then, I sing her two songs:
The Beatles, All My Loving (Close Your Eyes)
and Mr. Moon (Before you judge, my mom used to sing it to me and I didn't think of changing the lyrics until it was too late, haha!)

After that, I have to hold up the sign language I Love You sign, and say "Goodnight, sweetheart." The very last thing is to lay in bed with her for more than 30 seconds, but less than 2 minutes. She doesn't like it if you  stay too long and she says "OK, please go away now."

While all of this can get a little annoying, especially finding all of her toys in bed, it works like a charm. If I follow the routine, she's good to go. The downside is that when we aren't at home, she has a very difficult time going to sleep and never naps.

The simple days. 1 Pony, 1 Ferret, no fuss!

D, on the other hand, I could chuck her in bed from the doorway and just go downstairs. (Of course, at her age, N was the same way!) We read her a book or two before bedtime, just because. For naps, I take her upstairs, hand her the bear blanket and cover her up. She'll fall asleep on her own in 5 or 10 minutes. If she's not sleepy, she'll talk to herself for 30 minutes before she settles down. I don't remember the last time she cried when I put her down to sleep. We've been super lucky with her. Also, A and I have always firm believers in sleep training, and protecting the girls' need to sleep and nap. The book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child was our bible from when the girls were 4 months old and up. Whenever someone is going through a nap transition, or having trouble, I still refer back to it. I highly recommend it to every new parent, or to parents of older kids with sleeping or napping issues.

Anyway, I'm not complaining about N's routine. I think it's cute and only mildly annoying that she's so inflexible. It comforts her and gets her to sleep, so it's all good in my book! I've found that a well rested child (and a well rested parent) is much easier to deal with, so whatever it takes is worth it.

The Fruits of Our Labors

Or rather the vegetables of our labors, to be more precise.

I noticed that there was one squash that was ready to be picked today, and N helped me pick it. The squash plants have taken over the garden, so I had to go in and pick the squash for her. She still got a little squash prickle in her finger, but she wore a bandaid for 10 minutes later in the evening and it was all good.

So proud of her squash!

Before she went to bed, she had to tuck her squash (complete with its own bandaid) into a makeshift bed.

I told her that she could take her squash over to Giga's (my mother in law's) house tomorrow since she and D are spending the night and that Giga would make it for dinner. Now I'm not so sure that will be cool with N. I hope that all these vegetables don't become her personal entourage.

Also, I still haven't figured out the commenting problems on blogger. I can't even comment as anonymous now. Grrr!

On Again, Off Again, On Again, Off Again...

My diet.

We're currently on again after a painful betrayal by my scale. My butt cheated on me with some oatmeal creme pies, so my diet and I got a mediator. We've been working through our issues, and have made good progress the last week and a half.

I haven't actually gained THAT much weight back after my Operation Wedding Weight journey from last fall. (Those of you that don't know, after D was born I joined Weight Watchers Online and lost over 40 pounds of chronic pudge that I've carried most of my adult life, not baby weight.) However, seeing those pounds creeping in on me is a scary thing. 8 pounds now can easily be 20 pounds in a few more months if I'm not careful. When I started getting pissed at the scale, I decided to DO something about it this time before it got out of hand, instead of just hoping that the weight would disappear. It seems like calorie counting is the easiest way for me to lose weight. I hate exercising more than I love food, so it's been the way to go. SparkPeople is a little more serious than Weight Watchers in that instead of blind "points" I have to keep track of calories, carbs, protein and fat. I've noticed that I'm always short on my protein for the day, so I need to make some changes to fix that next time I hit the grocery store. Also, it's free, so that appeals to my inner cheapskate.

My only problem with the whole process, if you can really call it a problem, is that I get a little overwhelmed and I over think everything that I eat. Instead of eating a normal breakfast and then tracking it, I obsess over what I'm going to eat and end up eating nothing for an hour while I decide what to have. While this tendancy is great to curb snacking, it makes eating my regular meals a pain. I try to have a plan of attack for the day and a set of go-to foods to eat so that I don't get stuck at mealtimes.

I've lost about 5 pounds so far. I think a good bit of it was just random water-weight and my starting weight was a bit pessimistic. Still, my numbers are dropping again so that makes me happy.

There weren't many "before" pics, but this was taken Spring, 2010.

This is my "after" pic!

I made my goal and wore my wedding dress on our 5 year anniversary: October 29, 2010.

On an annoying side-note, blogger isn't letting me comment on anyone's blog, including my own. I'm not ignoring anyone, just not computer literate enough to figure it out.

...How Does Your Garden Grow?

I've been remiss in my blogging as of late, mostly due to the fact that my husband has been home at night more the past few weeks. I use the blog to kill time after the girls go to bed when there's no one to talk to and I have housework to avoid! I also wait until I have a TON of stuff to talk about instead of making 3 or 4 shorter blog entries.

Anywho, tonight's topic is N's garden. It seems to be doing OK. My alternate working blog title was "Two Left Thumbs" but her plants have perked up a bit in recent days and I think they're doing better. To start at the beginning, A and the girls dug out my garden for Mother's Day. It took about a week to put on the finishing touches and get the dirt to fill it in.

 It's a good thing the garden got done, these guys were getting out of hand! Also, we seriously need to work on her "picture face"!

Hooray, it's done! N's ready to plant.

Digging the holes with her own little shovel.

Carefully planting some peppers.

Phew! Job well done!

N and I watered her plants every day and we made it through the heat wave with most of the plants intact. We lost one pepper plant right next to the door, but I think that was due to N stepping on it a few times. Oops! It was nice to have something specific to do while D was sleeping. Some days, when it was too hot to go out, I watered them while N was asleep. Luckily, she didn't remember! The plants have been growing well. The squash are doing the best, the cucumbers are still hanging in there, and the peppers are slowly growing. A few weeks after the initial planting, I got N to help me weed out her garden. There were only a few tiny weeds, but we had fun!

N's got her gardening gloves and her goofy grin ready to go!

Me pointing out the difference between her plants and the weeds.

N pulled them all herself.

Plants are getting bigger!

Baby squash!!

Since the rains have cooled things off a bit, the squash have gotten so much bigger. Hopefully we can keep things going and not kill off all of the plants. I'm super excited to have squash and cucumbers this summer! I'm not too hopeful about the peppers, but we'll see. We never got a chance to get tomato plants, but perhaps it's just as well. I think I'll have my hands full with the garden I started!

The Toy Fairy

Lots of households with kids have random fairys that reside within. One popular one is the Tooth Fairy. We have lots of little Nature Fairies that live in the birdhouses outside (they only come out when you're not looking). I've often heard moms wish that they had a Clean-Up Fairy to do all their work! Well, I think that I've met the Clean-Up Fairy's cousin, and it's the Toy Fairy.

The Toy Fairy doesn't leave your darling children toys while they sleep. The Toy Fairy doesn't magically fix a broken favorite toy. The Toy Fairy doesn't even give you mystical inspiration on what to get your kids for their birthdays. The Toy Fairy in our house will STEAL YOUR TOYS IF YOU DON'T PUT THEM AWAY! I'm not even kidding. Well, she's a little nicer than that, but she will take them to play with for an undetermined amount of time if you leave them out. It's so awesome. When N's done with a box of blocks and wants to move on to something else but is too distracted to get them all put away... "Honey, I thought I heard the Toy Fairy in the house last night. You better get those blocks put away or she might take them to play with!" It just lights a little fire under her butt, hehehe! As of yet, we haven't had to actually implement a toy taking. The threat of fairy invaders has been enough to spur a cleaning frenzy.

I've also heard that the Toy Fairy has lots of sisters and brothers, just in case you want to invite one to stay at your house. ;)

Rainy Day? Craft Away! (Updated)

I'm always looking for something easy, cheap, quick, fun and not too messy to do with N. A tall order! I ran across a neat website called HowDoesShe? that has lots of craft ideas as well as recipes and articles on mommy-type stuff. I've found a few nifty things on there so far. One of the crafts that I ran across was this sidewalk chalk recipe. It looked easy, and N had a birthday party to go to soon and I thought it would make a good gift. I did end up modifying the "recipe" a little to make it less messy and easier to clean up.

You will need:

2/3 cup water

1 to 1 1/4 cups plaster of paris

sandwich sized ziploc baggie

ice cube tray or silicone candy mold tray

scissors

food dye

toddler or pre-schooler

1) Pour water into zip loc baggie and add food dye.

2) Add about half of the plaster of paris and seal baggie with most of the air pressed out.

3) Give to wee one to squish around until the plaster is thorougly mixed in.

4) At this point, the mixture will be very watery. Add more plaster until it is about the consistency of pancake batter. The pink set used a little over 1 cup of plaster and the yellow used about 1 1/4 cups. You can see the difference in how thick the mixture is. Both set up fine.

UPDATE: After popping out the chalk, the thinner mixture turned out much better. The chalk had no bubbles in it and the tops were smoother. I really like the home made chalk better than the cheap store bought chalk becuase it's much denser, so it lasts longer. The store bought chalk looks like it's made from a frothy mixture, so there's lots of air bubbles in it. Nothing wrong with it, but goes quickly. I need to get some more interesting molds, though! Also, the chalk only really works on sidewalks. It doesn't work very well on an indoor blackboard.

5) When you have the mixture at the thickness you want, snip a corner off the baggie and fill your trays.

6) After a few hours (or a nap!) flip ice cube trays upside down and pop out your chalk!

Here's the set I made for Z's 3rd birthday party. I got the boxes and basket at Rite Aid, and N decorated them with princess stickers.

The best thing about my modifications to the original recipe is that there's MINIMAL CLEANUP!! Just toss the baggies, wash the mold and you're done. I also like the small sized batches, this lets N pick lots of colors and squish lots of baggies. Her squishing made me a little nervous, so I'm definitely going to invest in some name brand baggies. The ones I had were from the dollar store and I didn't have a whole lot of faith in them holding up to her enthusiastic participation.

We had lots of fun today, even though it was rainy and chilly out. Now I just need to find something good for next time...

Too Cool for School!

A few weeks ago, N and I visited her future pre-school. There's not a whole lot of options in the area, so I scoped out everybody's websites and called a few places. It seemed like one came out far on top in attitude and price. When I called, the woman was super nice and it's right in town. (Also a big plus!) She told me that N and I could drop by any day just after all the kids get there and hang out for an hour or so while they do their morning routine. So, I arranged to meet up with N's little friend W and her mom, and off we went!

The preschool is set up in a church basement. There's a large common area with classrooms all around the perimeter. I think there were 2 three year old classrooms and 2 four year old classrooms. Each class had 10-12 students and 2 teachers. The three year old classes focus on shapes, colors, letters, numbers, etc. It seemed like most of what they would be "learning" is stuff that N already knows. However the MOST important thing that N will learn is how to follow directions and how to act in a classroom setting. She's never been to a daycare, or had to behave without me or A around. I signed her up for a tiny tots tumbling class to see how she'd do, but it's kind of a bust. N's not very interested in it, she is terrible at following directions, and the teacher isn't very good at controlling the rest of the class. I spend the entire class herding N around and trying to keep her on task while the two boys run amok. W is a little angel, of course!

When we got there, N definitely looked overwhelmed with all the activity. After a few minutes, she decided it was OK to join in the free play and she fit right in! After 15 minutes or so of kids coming in the door and getting settled, it was time for all the classes to meet in the common area for morning prayers and songs. This was where things got a little scary for N, I think. The 3 year old and 4 year old classes all got together in a big circle (with N and W) while W's mom and I hung back to watch. I think what was most intimidating to N was that everyone knew what to do except for her. W, however, jumped right in and copied everyone's dance moves and tried to sing along to the songs that she didn't know! Even though I was trying hard not to giggle too loudly, it was a bit sad to see N so weirded out. Since it's the end of their school year soon, all the other kids had months to learn their songs, dances and Bible verses. They were a well oiled machine! N was just standing there like a deer in headlights while the other kids were clapping and dancing. At one point, W tried to hold N's hand to make her feel better. For the next few minutes, while W had gone back to dancing, N had frozen with her arm sticking out and a panicked look on her face. Poor kid!

After morning songs and prayers it was back to their classroom for craft time and free play. The teachers would pull out two students at a time to work on their Easter baskets while the other kids played until everyone had a chance to complete their craft project. W's mom and I just hung back again to watch how our girls interacted with the rest of the class. I didn't think that N and W seemed so much younger than the other kids. Everyone played and shared nicely and W even helped clean up when play time was done. N will be on the older end of the 3 year olds by the time she gets into class, which is fine by me. Hopefully it will give her a chance to mature a little more and listen a little better.

I'm sure that N will be fine when she starts in the fall. She's only signed up for two days a week from 9 to 11:30, and she should be in the same class as W. I, however, have never had to leave her with strangers before, so... I think I'll be the nervous wreck! We've definitely been lucky in that A's mom watched N while I worked part time, and that I was able to stay home after D was born. It was a blessing that we got to keep the kids home with family. It has been hectic lately and I find myself daydreaming of work sometimes, but when you get right down to it, I wouldn't trade my life for anything.

Stickers, Stickers Everywhere!

It's funny how much a small change can make such a big impact on such a young mind.

A few months ago, I was at my wit's end with N. My anxiety level was at an all time high, she had screaming temper tantrums several times a day and I cried at least once a day from anger and frustration. We've been going through a lot of big family changes, which I've touched on before. The biggest is A's schedule. Before he got the wonderful opportunity to teach, he gave the girls a bath and put them to bed every night. It was their daddy time. Right now, he's in school and working more hours in the hopes that he can teach full time in the future. I think this has impacted N the most. Don't get me wrong, I miss him, too, but at least I can rationalize and understand what's going on. N's little brain just went haywire, I think. The tiniest obstacle would result in yelling, crying and throwing whatever she could get her hands on. Time outs were marginally effective. They were better at calming her down after the fact than preventing one to begin with. At her worst, she was going ballistic more than once an hour. And so was I.

To vent a little of the steam, I posted up on facebook and got many helpful tips from my friends. One was that I should do something to reward and reinforce good behavior. They suggested a chart that she could put a sticker on when she did something good, then trade it in at the end of the week for special "daddy time." The very first day we instituted it, I felt like she was calmer. It wasn't like she was trying to be good, but maybe that I noticed the good things she did more often and praised her for them. I couldn't think of a good name for it, so I just called it the Be Good Chart, haha! The chart was definitely therapeutic for her AND me. It's hard to get through the day when the moments that stick in your mind are all the crappy ones. I knew I would never remember everything that she did, so I would put a sticker on and then write one line at the bottom about how she was good. I tried to get her to tell me what she did, like "shared toys with D" or "left the park without a fit." Lately I've been heading off tantrums with a reminder that if she gets ready for bed quickly without a fuss, we can put a sticker on the chart.

N is so proud of her chart, she shows it off whenever she can. Just last week, Aunt C came to see N (and incidentally stay later after N & D went to bed for drinks and crocheting) and one of the first things N said was "Come look at my Be Good chart!!" I think a lot of the change in the household attitude is stemming from focusing on the positive. A comes home and asks how the day went and I can tell him all the nice things N did, instead of how many hissy fits she had.

I also wanted to post about N's visit to pre-school, a few of our crafts and D's scary trip to the ER, but it's really late. Everyone probably already heard through Facebook, but D spent the day at the ER with pneumonia. No fun! She's all better now, so I guess there isn't really anything to post about. We've been blessed thus far in that we've never had any serious health problems with our children. This was the first time anyone has been seriously ill and one of only a handful of times we've ever even taken them to the doc's for being sick. N went for an earache once, and D went when she had Fifth Disease and went for her diarrhea, but that's it. Like I said, we've been lucky!

I'll try to get back soon for the rest of the updates, but until then... Be Good!!

The Power of Bacon

This was supposed to be my triumphant post of how I overcame monumental obstacles with the help of... bacon! Unfortunately, one of my largest hurdles that I THOUGHT I had cleared has tripped me up again.

But first, the successes.

1. What to make for dinner?
This was an easy one, but I figured I would include it to make a nice round number of goals to post about. I definitely get stuck in a dinner rut. Steam broccoli, make pasta, repeat daily. I bought some squash and asparagus at the grocery store the other day, but was tired of the usual roasting method. Enter bacon!

I don't have the words for how super yummy this was.



2. Mice infestation.

Recently, we've been dealing with a few mice in the kitchen. They ate my Double Stuf Oreos, so it was game on. A friend suggested baiting our mouse traps with bacon grease, so I figured what the heck? The next morning the trap was gone and the mice were no more. We only ended up catching two or three, so hopefully it was just a small group of them. It's been quiet since then, so I'm hopeful that they're gone. Thanks, bacon, for your supporting role!

3. N's nose.

This was supposed to be my coup de grace. The apex of my shrine to bacon. We promised N bacon for breakfast if she didn't scratch her nose open. It worked for a week. A whole WEEK!! I was dancing the cha cha every morning, I was so excited that her nose was healing up. This has been a two and a half month ordeal for us. Just about every morning and/or waking up from naptime, N looks like she's been attacked in her sleep by Freddie Cruger. Blood everywhere. Her pillows and blankets are stained, it's gross. Not to mention the big scab on her face that's going to leave a big scar. This whole thing bothers me a lot, but we try very hard not to make it a big deal for N. Low key. I'm also worried that it's going to get infected and BECOME a big deal, whether we like it or not. Anyway, a week of leaving it alone goes by. Then D gets pneumonia and a few days later, N sounds like she's hacking up a lung all night. I don't think she's developed pneumonia yet, but it has definitely disrupted her sleep. This coupled with the fact that she spent the night away from home the other day proved too much for her itchy fingers. Back at the nose. Damn. It's been another day or so since then and she's left it alone, so hopefully she's out of the habit of it. I hope to post my success picture soon. It's very disappointing, though.

Other than N's nose, she has been super good lately. Her temper tantrums are way down in frequency and intensity. I credit the success to... bacon. Just kidding. I made her a new chart that she gets to put stickers on when she's good. At the end of the week she turns it in for special "Daddy Time". I'll devote a post to it later, because I'm so proud of how well she's doing with it. :) I'll also touch on our visit to her future preschool, her garden, and some new fun crafty things we're getting into!

That's What Friends Are For!

I did a little brain-storming with C and came up with a well thought out (I think!) plan of attack for N's temper tantrums. I haven't actually started these, so any input or feedback is welcome and appreciated.

1. Feelings Flashcards
I think that a large part of N's (and any pre-schooler's tantrums) stems from her inability to articulate what she's feeling. My idea was to make 8.5 x 11 sheets with faces on them to illustrate what a feeling looks like. One for each sheet. I haven't decided if I want to do simple smiley-type faces, pictures of N, pictures of us, magazine clippings or a combination of all. These will go either in a binder or on a wall. The master plan is to try to distract N from a pending hissy fit by asking her to either point out how she feels or maybe putting a sticker on the face that she feels like. Hopefully this will help her to talk about what's going on in her head as opposed to rolling around on the ground screaming, which I don't find helpful at all.

N pretending to be sad. (summer 2010)

2. Punching Bag Monster
When N is trying to not have a full blown on-the-ground temper tantrum, she often hits herself or throws whatever is handy. If nothing's nearby, she'll walk all the way across the kitchen to dump a box of toys and then look back at me to check my reaction. *sigh* I'm hoping with this idea to create an outlet for her anger and frustration that is acceptable. I've got lots of fabric laying around, so I was going to make a monster for her that she could punch, throw, hit, whatever, when she was mad. I'm not sure if this will help her channel herself into an acceptable outlet or if it will encourage her already feisty tendencies. I need a good name for him, too. Punchinello? Hissy Fit Harry? Temper Tantrum Timmy?

3. Daddy-Time Chart
I think a lot of N's temper problems have escalated since A's been gone so much. It's been a big change in the household and it's hard on everyone, A included. I try to keep my own frustration levels down by thinking "it's not forever!" but N doesn't have the luxury of understanding that. A friend suggested that N could earn special time with Daddy with stickers for good behavior. I don't really have any structure in mind other than a blank week that she gets to put a sticker on when she does something nice or acts politely without me asking her. Sometimes she IS very sweet and thoughtful to her sister, or she gets ready to go out the door with no fuss, and I would like to reward her. I always make sure to let her know I noticed her good behavior, and I thank her for it without making it the hugest deal in the world. Kind of like her tantrums, I let her know that it isn't acceptable and I either ignore her or put her in time out. Hopefully this will make her more conscious of the good things that she does, and she'll get to spend some one-on-one time with A on the weekend.

I don't know why N's temper tantrums have escalated so badly the last few months. It makes me feel like a terrible parent when she melts down at a play group or family member's house. We don't go out too often, largely because I'm trying to avoid a scene. I don't feel like I reinforce her bad behavior, but obviously I'm not doing something right if she's being this bad. I definitely think that her behavior is worse than other kids her age. Maybe it's her age, maybe it's all the changes, maybe the wind is blowing the wrong way that day. Who knows? I just know that I need to get her in hand, and I have no real idea how to go about it.

These Are a Few (more) of My Fave Things

I got to thinking after yesterday's post about the things that make me happy. I need to remind myself more often that there's lots of things that are totally awesome about my life.

Crocheting
A recent hobby I picked up a few months ago that has been neglected lately. I got back into a blanket that I started a few weeks ago last night. I had forgotten how relaxing it could be. It feels productive, too, so I don't feel as guilty chilling in front of the TV.

N's butterfly hat

D's ear flap hat

Routines
I realized today that my routines that I have here with the girls really do make my life so much easier. We do the same thing every day. Every day. It makes me a little crazy sometimes, but N thrives on it. I realized this when I saw how things fell apart when my husband gets in the mix. My girls and I love having him around, don't get me wrong, but naptime and bedtime can be a bit of a struggle. N always wants daddy to put her to bed, but when he forgets one silly (to us!) little thing like turning on the nightlight in the middle of the day, it's a disaster. N and I take naps and go to bed the same way every night. I don't even think about it until I forget something or do it differently. After all hell breaks loose, I realize that I accidentally switched something up.

Reality TV
Baaaad guilty pleasure. But it does make me happy!

My Friends & Family
This should have been at the top of my list yesterday. I could never get by without the support of the people around me. They may be an hour away at work or live too far away to see all the time, but a phone call can turn my day around. Sometimes I need a sympathetic ear when my day is going south or sometimes it's just to share a funny story from my day. Connecting with my friends and family keeps me going. Often, the LAST thing I want to talk about is the crappy day I'm having. It's nice to hear what other people are doing!

Me and A on Valentine's Day 2011

Me and C. BFF4Eva&Eva!!!