Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Living with The Wiggles Again!

It was a joyous day years ago when The Wiggles were removed from The Boy's favorite things to watch. I was happy to not have "Fruit Salad... Yummy! Yummy!" playing over and over in my head. Well no one told me that with two children about 3 1/2 years apart I would have to live through another Wiggles phase. The issue now is it is new for the Girl but not for me. Nothing like having all those songs dancing in my head again and annoying the crap out of me. I really wanted to beat up a couple of the Wiggles back then and it hasn't taken long for those feelings to return. I guess to some relief the Wiggles are a diversion from that punk Caillou.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Can I get a do-over?

Today is a day that I wonder if someone is trying to tell me something or if I should just go back to bed and start over. The Girl wakes up at 6 am, I believe mostly to try to wear me out. The Boy gets up appropriately at 6:30 am as it is a school day. They are both a hungry as they are learning to eat all their dinner so they can have a snack before bed. All is good as I make toaster waffles for the Boy and the Girl has her O's, I am making some toaster french toast for myself. As I am coming into the room, my son starting screaming in agony. I run into the room and his mouth is bleeding I get him to the bathroom sink (he has had a loose front tooth for quite awhile now). It looks like it hurts a lot but it also looks like the tooth has come free but still there and he will not let me tough it. So I get him to calm down eventually and then have him go back and sip on his juice. I clean up the sink and look at him and the tooth is gone. This excites me as this has hampered him eating for a while and seeing stuff like that makes me queasy, then I realize the tooth is gone. Gone int he sense I believe he swallowed it. First time this has happened so I am trying not to panic, look up some info and find it will come out the other end. I called the dentist just to double check. Next he freaks out and says his stomach hurts after I told him he probably swallowed it (he was fine until I mentioned it), so I take five minutes and get him calm again. Then he freaks out because he has nothing for the tooth fairy, so I calm him down again and explain that we will write a note and take a picture and the Tooth Fairy will understand and he exclaims "What if she doesn't understand?!" I explain that this has probably happened before and it will be OK. During all this the Girl eats my french toast so now it is time to go to school and I didn't get to eat. So then on our way to school traffic is not moving at all and I see the stop light cycle a few times and figure out there is a train, fortunately the school is before the tracks so I make it around and get him to school. On the way out I need to go to Sam's Club to pick up some things and figure in the 15 or so minutes in the school the train would be gone... WRONG! I patiently sit and wait while a lady pulls up behind me and starts honking as I have a green light with no where to go. She decides to go around me and shakes her head at me and then discovers no one else is going any where either. Finally the train moves along and we get to Sam's Club only to find out they don't have the stuff all together for the online oder and they are scrambling to figure it out (I had a confirmation the order was ready). As we do some shopping and pick up a few other things they get it together and we are good to go, we check out and as I am going out the door I realize I forgot my club card at the register. After all that we finally make it home around 10 am and my brain is telling me it is 5 o'clock somewhere.

Monday, November 22, 2010

The Tantrum Queen

The Princess has become a Queen, a Tantrum Queen. Why are the twos so terrible? I often wonder this allowed as today was a tantrum filled day. The Girl had a tantrum in the morning as the Boy was trying to brush his teeth before school. She then threw a tantrum as I brought her back downstairs, it was such a tantrum she was screaming to go to bed. Laid her down all was quiet for about 5 minutes when she wanted to get up. Then she threw a tantrum before taking my son to school as she wanted to watch Curious George. All of this before 7:30 am. After dropping him off at school, back home we got stuff ready to go to the grocery store which she initially likes as they have cars attached to the front of the carts, which is really nice because I can strap her in and we have a nice little buffer. After about 5 seconds in the car she wanted out by saying, "Done... Done... DONE!" and we were into another tantrum. She calmed quickly as I let her hold a box of Zip-lock bags. All seemed better and she seemed happy so when we got home I gave her a little treat, then she threw a tantrum because I only gave her one treat and she wanted another treat. I offered Cheez-Its (a staple in our house) and made it worse. After a few minutes of her wailing I went back and she wanted me to hold her and she quietly asked for Cheez-Its. Soon it was time for lunch, I bet you can't guess what happened next - Tantrum. She didn't want lunch so I made my lunch and found out she didn't want lunch she wanted my lunch which was a very non-exciting Lean Cuisine Pizza. Then finally nap time, 11:30 am couldn't have come any quicker. The rest of the day has been better but I know she is planning a sneak attack tantrum.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Fry Thief!

Having a productive day going and the Girl cooperating for the most part I decided that we would get some McDonald's for lunch. I got her a hamburger and french fries and got myself some fries too as there was some left over Packo's dogs (with sauce) in the fridge from last night's dinner. Well she was doing a pretty good job of taking bites of her hamburger and eating her fries and then I sat down with my lunch. She still has plenty of fries on her plate but the Girl decides that she must start taking mine. Not only taking one or two she decided she needed a handful of them. I tried to move my plate out of her reach which almost caused her to fall as she just tried to reach farther. I wonder where she learned this behavior? I am going to have to sit both the Girl and my Absolutely Gorgeous Wife down for a talk.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Me Too!

A friend of mine was recently talking about how her kids must always have what the other has, get something when the other gets something or do what the other one is doing. With a 6 and 2 year old I love this all the time, although for the most part it is one way the two year old wants whatever the 6 year old wants, or do what he is doing, etc. Well today she got a little more than she bargained for, the Boy had his annual well visit at the doctor. He did a great job for the first time with no real issues of not cooperating or making things difficult (which made the beverages I was thinking of having before hand seem pointless). Granted the whole time the Girl wanted to do whatever he was doing or had done to him, he was weighed (49 3/4 lbs.) - she wanted to be weighed, he was measured (4' 3/4") - she wanted to be measured, he had to pee in a cup - she wanted to pee in a cup, etc. When the doctor came in she listened to his heart and the Girl needed the same. Well the visit was just about over and it was time for the dreaded flu shot (granted any shot would send the Boy into a tizzy). I always give him the opportunity to climb up on the table himself and do his best which means I usually need to summon herculean strength to hold him while he gets his shots. This time he surprised me and even though he cried a little he did it all without a fight and I just hugged him to help him get through it. Now the fun part was the Girl wanted up on the table too, well be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. So she was happily laying on the table and she was getting a flu shot as well, I distracted her well as she barely knew what was going on so it was probably one of the best doctor appointments we ever had.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Do they Know? Part II

This is the same but a little different. Whenever my Absolutely Gorgeous Wife (AGW) and I hug in our house one if not both of our kids come running and must push their way in between us. Tonight the kids were in the other room and we tested the theory as it was quiet and we thought they were up to no good so my AGW and I hugged and within about 15 seconds the Girl came running in and squeezed in. Then in another 30 seconds the Boy came and started working his way in. So how do they know?

Do they know?

I often ask myself this question, "Do they know?" It seems no matter what the situation the kids know the exact thing to do to either start a fight between the two of them at the worst time, when I need to use the bathroom, get something out that I just cleaned up -dump it and move on, etc., etc. Maybe I am finally making my breakfast after making the Girl's breakfast, the Boy's breakfast, making the Boy's lunch for school and getting all the necessary stuff ready for school one will say "Can I have _____ please?" Fill-in the blank with whatever you want, maybe "red cabbage" perhaps but it never fails. It can happen anywhere as well and usually at the most inconvenient times, even when they sleeping they know to wake up screaming in the last two minutes of a show that I really wanted to watch or the last 30 seconds of the Red Wings game on TV. They just know.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Day Out With Daddy!

Sometimes people are a little ignorant and don't realize that some Daddy's take care of their children too and not just babysit their own kids. This is something that has bugged me for the 6+ years I have been a stay at home Dad. Today at Target, buying princess costumes at 50% off for Christmas gifts for the Girl as she loves princesses and the day after Halloween, virtually the same dresses marketed as costumes and not play clothes are 50% off. So in Target she is a little miffed as she wants to go down the princess isle, well she realizes what is going on once she sees the stuff Daddy is grabbing but for some female reason or another she is pissed off. So she is shoving the cart and screaming at me while I am trying to talk her Mommy. Then an older lady has her cart and is standing there watching this all go down, she has plenty of room to go by us but decides to wait until I am off the phone (by the way was probably a 30 second conversation with tantrum developing). So now I am trying to make sure the Girl doesn't hurt herself and she is flailing around, close call on the shelf and the floor and the cart but I succeed in getting her into tantrum laying on the floor position. The old lady spectator then starts to tell me a little about parenting, I pretty much ignore what she is saying and say, "She is just having a tantrum." The lady decides to continue teaching me when I tell her to "Mind your own business," which prompts her to walk away. I really had some other phrasing in my head but in trying to teach my children to be good people I decided to keep it too myself. I picked the Girl up and she was perfectly fine and even gave me a "Sorry Daddy!"

I know I don't know it all, but I have been parenting for a little over 6 years now so I feel comfortable in letting my 2 year old princess have her tantrum in the middle of Target. I realizing it is annoying to other shoppers but so is hogging the whole isle, stepping in front of me to grab something without an "excuse me," chatting with the cashier when you are done paying and holding up the line, or not being able to find the $100 bill in your wallet to pay for something that is about $21 and it seems that you have more bills in there than you know what to do with (actually was the lady in front of me today).