Princess or Diva?

Most little girls are called "princess" when they are little and my little girl is no different. Lately though it seems as she is either trying to take princess to a new level or she is just skipping that and becoming a full fledged diva. Some days I fear that she might get mad as I give her a treat that the M&Ms won't be the right color. This morning she refused to finish getting dressed and screamed a pitch I don't think I have ever heard. Then a few minutes later I was trying to get her socks on so I could put her shoes on to as it was time to take the Boy to school and it was a battle as I think I put the same sock on the same foot at least 4 times. She knows what she wants and how to get it, and people tell me that is a good thing, but at the age of two I disagree. She can save that independence for after high school as otherwise I may lose what little hair I have left very very soon.

100 days & Peeing on the Floor

I thought I would update on some of the little things that have been going on around our house.

The Boy has his 100th day of school coming up which apparently is a big deal. They have countdown badge every day that tells how many days are left until the 100th day of school. For their weekly show and tell they needed to do an amazing feat 100 times, the Boy chose to hug his Mom 100 times and then draw a picture of and write what they did. Then as a family project we have to make a collection of 100 things for the Kindergarten and Pre-K hallway, I think we are going to make a ear of corn on poster board with 100 kernels of popped popcorn on it. An there may even be a 100th day assembly.

The Girl is talking more and more. The other day I had some butter on my chin and my lovely little girl called me "butter face". We have a rule of holding hands in parking lots, she has taken this to the next level, she will hold hands but she sometimes wants to hold her own hand, today she screamed as loud as she could as I picked her up as she refused to hold my hand. She has an obsession of trying to drive me crazy by asking for one thing right after another. For example this morning she wanted french toast sticks, then she wanted her clothes changed and her fingernails painted all at the same time. The girl also has taken a liking to shredded cheese, my curiosity is does she get more in her mouth or more on the floor.

In addition, we are in the midst of casually potty training her. As I started typing this part there was a cry out from the bathroom, "Daddy all wet!" She had setup up the potty, taken off her pullup and went back in the bathroom and peed on the floor. So I figure she is two feet short of using the potty. This really just happened, it kind of freaks me out that I started typing this and this happened. What I was really going to say is how she claims to want to go potty and then goes in and out of the bathroom calling my name and then when I get there telling me to go away. So maybe, just maybe there will be no more diapers!

The First Report Card

I wasn't sure if kindergarten passed out report cards or not. The boy had his in his bag and I was anxious, nervous and excited to see it all at the same time. In this one moment I get a glimpse of how school is going as usually when I ask him I get the "Fine." answer. I must say I was very pleased as he got mostly check marks and pluses. He had a couple of NWs (Needs Work) and for him that was pretty good because they were in the areas we have been working on. The Boy has no volume control yet, interrupts when he is supposed to be listening and has trouble with practicing self control. He gets very excited about things and just has one volume, we are working on it and sometimes he does well but he wants to be heard. The interrupting i think is more of a function as he says "I have a lot to say," and he likes to add to things or thinks he knows what is going on before the teacher is done talking. The self control thing is the most difficult as he gets excited and just keeps building on that. His favorite thing in school is art and it shows as he got all pluses for art (as well as music). In Phys Ed he got all pluses and one NW as following directions is his downfall, mostly as he gets too excited and wants to just get after it before reading or hearing instructions like any good male. A great comment that makes me happy is from his computer teacher is "Enthusiasm gets in his way." I will take that and run with it as I am happy to have him be enthusiastic about school as opposed to the opposite. Overall we are very pleased and maybe a little incentive will quiet him down, help him listen and practice a little more self control.

On another note, his school has movie night where you can drop the kids off and a snack and have a couple of hours to yourself while they watch a movie with their friends and have fun. A win-win in my mind. I mentioned to him about movie night and he complains to me this morning that it will then be passed his bedtime and he was upset about this. I had to laugh as lately he has been fighting bedtime so he has an opporunity to be up later and he is mad.

Girl Shoes

The Girl needed some new shoes. While we were at Target trying to get appropriate size pajamas for the Boy we went to find some shoes. She of course picked out the sparkleist shoes she could see which are great if she was going to a ball or something but she needed something for everyday wear. First we took a shoe off and tried the size chart to see about what size we should buy, then we started looking at shoes to find ones she liked and that would fit. She picked a pretty good pair so we went to try them on and she was very cooperative as she is a girl and they are new shoes. They fit well and she was very excited so I took them off to put them int he cart and tried to put her old shoe back on. This was not in her plans. She grabbed her shoe and threw it as she wanted to wear her new shoes. I tried to explain we needed to pay for them but she was not happy so she wore one shoe and one sock on the way to the register. I was not the only one she got mad at, she was mad at the cashier - how dare that lady put her new shoes in the bag. So as soon as we were done paying she got to put on her new shoes and I as I called my AGW to tell her of this fine trip to Target she informed me last time she let the Girl wear the shoes and had to promptly stand her on the scanner so the shoes could get paid for. So now I wonder if I should call her a princess or a diva?

Want This!

"Want This!" is quickly becoming a very annoying phrase. The Girl insists on wanting everything, I realize she is 2 1/2 but it gets old after a while. Usually the hard part is when she wants something, I get it for her and then I get screamed at because she doesn't want it. Then the real annoying finger pointing at everything else happens. It then proceeds to me asking what she wants, naming things and being told no, and then just flat out screaming at Daddy. Usually after she cries and throws her tantrum she will quietly come up and want the first she wanted and happily take it. Sometimes I think how happy we could be if she would just go with her original want first and not change her mind and then eventually come back to it. This also goes on with many other things, toys, movies, etc. People say it is just a phase but really I think she works for the local beverage store.

I want to look Handsome!

The Boy has a pretty decent routine for getting ready for school in the morning. He wakes up by alarm clock (most of the time) at 6:45 am, gets up and watches a few minutes of TV and eats breakfast, goes to the bathroom, brushes his teeth, changes his clothes and then it is usually time to get ready to go to school. This morning was a little different. He was up in the bathroom longer than usual, as I was about to go check on him he came running down the steps saying, "I combed my hair because I want to look handsome!" Then as we are getting ready to leave I ask him if he wants his hat but he says, "I am not wearing a hat today because I don't want my hair to get messed up so I look handsome." So I wondering if their is a new crush (person he plays with the most) at school or something as this has never happened but it seemed really really important.

Automatic Doors

The Girl is putting her Toy Story knowledge to good use. In the second movie there is a see where the toys are trying to get through a door automated by the pad you walk on and it opens. One toy can't do it but jumping in unison they can open the door. Today at the mall as we were leaving and the Girl saw the automatic doors she ran up and jumped to get the door to open. It was very cute and then she did it again on the second set of doors. It was great especially since 99% of doors that I see that open automatically these days are opened by motion sensor.

The Atlas

My AGW saw a very impressive Atlas produced by National Geographic on Ellen before Thanksgiving and we discussed that it may be a good present for the Boy. I looked it up on Amazon and found it to be $130 (too bad we weren't in Ellen's audience that day). No way he was getting an atlas for that much even if Santa was to bring it. So on Black Friday as I was shopping I found some lesser versions that were good and purchased one for the Boy for Christmas. It has been a lot of fun so far as we have used it to talk about the different places int he world and looked up webcams in different parts of the world. First one we looked at was at the South Pole, known as South Pole Station, and have since ventured to some African ones where last night I saw Kudu and Wildebeast (or at least that is what I thought they were). For school show and tell this week the kids were asked to bring in their favorite Christmas present and I am proud to say the Boy wants to take the Atlas as he is fascinated by it. Nothing like an educational present that kid loves.

Back to School

Finally back to school. The last week and half has been fun but long at times. We celebrated with family, saw them all again, played some hockey and went bowling a couple of times. Trying to entertain in cold weather is not easy with a 2 year old and a 6 year old. A bunch of new toys certainly do help but even then everyone gets a little stir crazy. The Boy got a Agent P alarm clock and is now using an alarm on school days, although this morning I think it scared him. It is cool though because like a rock or bomb that is armed you can unplug the wire from the side of the clock to disarm the alarm. The other reason for getting him a clock was so that he doesn't keep getting up at 6 am on the weekends. it is very frustrating when he gets up which wakes up the cat which wakes up the Girl which forces one of us out of the nice warm bed.

Back to school today after winter break was a little rough as we have to once again get back into our routine. This morning was not too bad except for deciding on breakfast, sometimes you would think that we are making him eat the sludge from the bottom of a deep fryer. The Girl has to get used to him being gone as well as she asked several times, "Where's the Boy?" I am sure she will adjust just fine to the undivided attention.

Today for lunch I was having some chicken noodle soup and had some left over canned carrots that I offered the girl for part of her lunch which she immediately refused with her classic hair tossing head shake. I decided to put them in the soup as soon as she was almost done eating and I was about to start eating my soup suddenly she wanted the carrots out of my soup. I think I will start making lunch for three so that I have a chance to eat my own food for once.

Finally, the Boy was published in the kids section of the local paper. He has yet to seen it but I am sure he will be very excited when he gets home especially since he was just complaining he hasn't been on TV yet.