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!