Parenting Issues

Today a serious problem with the Babe came to a head. He is in this phase where he has decided he doesn't want to listen to anything I say. I thought this didn't start until he was a teenager. lol. But the best way to describe his attitude is that he is apathetic towards authority. Meaning, I, being the parent, make the rules and he doesn't want to follow them so he doesn't. I don't mean that I'm making unrealistic rules, I'm just trying to get him dressed in the morning and feed 3 meals a day. He talks back like he'll tell me no, I don't want to. I thought that reasoning through things would work but it hasn't. I thought perhaps I was being too strict. So I decided to consciously pick my battle and let him do things in his own time. For example, my girlfriend told me that she wouldn't make her kids get dressed until they were ready but if they missed activites then it was their lose. So I tried that and it completely backfired. He doesn't care if he gets dressed. No, he can't go outside but oh well. So I understand that I need to change my parenting approach....but how? What should I be doing that I'm not? I hate this parenting. It's always changing. Why couldn't it just stay the same for a few minutes?

Fatness

Last night the hubby, the Babe and I were jumping on trampoline. It's fun to go out there and play with the kids. The Babe loves to put a ball on it and try not to get hit by it rolling around and try not to let it fall off. So I got on and was jumping with the hubby when one of the springs flew off! They are held on by a strip or tramp material around a triangle where the spring connects. The material ripped clean off.

At about the same moment, our backdoor neighbor came out. The Babe just had to announce that daddy had broken his spring on the trampoline. The neighbor said oh how'd that happen. The Babe then told him it was because daddy was too fat. That's when I crawled under the trampoline and died.

I promptly made the Hubby look at the tags attached to the trampoline to see if there was a recommended weight limit. He looked and it said something weird like only one person could be on at a time and they weren't allowed to breathe. So not 2 minutes later, the Babe was "reading" the "instructions" as he calls them. His instructions went, "Daddy's aren't allowed to jump on the tramp because they are too fat and they'll break this thing right here. And then they'll fly off because he's too fat." I reassured the hubby that he's not fat.

Exciting New Adventures

I am so happy to announce that I found and bought a hemstitching machine! For those of you who don't know what hemstitching is, look here and here and here. Anyway, the machine I bought was made in the 1900's (like between 1900 and 1910) so it's old! It's not here yet so I can't show you a picture. But soon. So I need help with a name for my hemstitching business. Any suggestions? Anyone ever started a business? Anybody wanna be my first customer? I think I might take your dollar bill and frame it on the wall.

The Lost Art of Writing (You know by hand)

Yesterday, I wrote by hand about a page on regular old paper. A little while later, I started complaining that my hand was hurting. I thought that perhaps because it was raining that it was aching from the change in weather (which sometimes happens). But then I thought about it for a minute and realized it was because I had hand written that page today. I mentioned it to the hubby and he asked me when the last time I had written anything that long was. I really had to think and I couldn't remember the last time I had written a full page of handwriting.

Isn't that sad?? Everything I do is on the computer. I used to keep a handwritten journal and this blog has overtaken even that. I still write little to-do lists or I write down notes from a phone call but never is it a very substantial amount of writing.

So I am rallying around the lost form of art, handwriting. People used to write with a feather quill and ink and have you ever seen any of their writing? It was so gorgeous and neat. I find that my handwriting gets sloppier the more I don't use it. My 3-year-old son knows where the first letter of his name is on the computer but he can't write it yet. I really wonder when they teach typing in school now? I took it in junior high school and I bet if I asked my parents, I doubt they took it. Maybe they don't even teach it anymore because kids now learn it quite quickly with their text messages on their cell phones.

So I am going to handwrite another page today and another tomorrow until my hand stops hurting. I think it's a shame that I can't even write 1 page without feeling my unused muscles hurting.

Quest for Fulfillment

I usually like to try and keep my blog positive. This post will eventually get positive....I think.

I have been struggling lately with boredom. Now before you jump all over me, hear me out. I have 2 children. The 3-year-old can entertain himself and the almost 1-year-old needs attention but not all day long. So I find lots of dull, empty hours during my day. This has led to feelings of accomplishing nothing and not having a purpose in my life. I mean how many times can you clean the house and have it dirty in 2.5 seconds before you stop cleaning it. These feelings lately are leading to me finding any excuse to spend time away from my children and almost wishing I had never had children in the first place.

I read something in Harry Potter this weekend that kind of brought all of this to a head. There is a portion that one of the greatest wizards in the books talks about a time in his past. His mother died when he was quite young and had just finished his schooling. He, being the eldest, had to take the responsibility of his younger disabled sister and brother. To make a long story short, his sister died and his brother estranged himself from the family. He talked about how sad he felt that these things happened but how relieved he was also. That he wasn't tied down anymore. That he was free to be the great wizard that he was when he told this story. That was exactly how am feeling. That my children are tying me to a life that I don't want. But of course I made the choice to have children so I have to live with it.

This comes down to my point. I can't stop the feelings that my life is moving by without me and the feelings of un-accomplishment and no purpose. But I can't get rid of the guilt of leaving my children with a sitter to raise them while I go work because I'm "bored". So I wonder how other women do it? How do you deal with the daily rigor of being a stay at home mom? I am by all means not saying I am giving up on my children. Perhaps, I just need a break? Or should I give up? Perhaps I am not cut out to be a stay at home mom? If I'm truly honest with myself, it really doesn't seem it fits with my personality. I mean I wasn't one of those loving girls who babysat and loved babies. I'm sure this too will pass but how can I continue without going crazy?

Harry Potter (not a spoiler no worries)

No, I'm not finished with the book. I'm only a couple hundred pages into it. I had company today. But I wanted to write about my going to buy the book at midnight yesterday.

I went with one of the hubby's friends for book 6's release at midnight. We went to Wal-Mart in Vegas that I thought surely would have tons of people. But there weren't that many. So we were out in 15 minutes no prob.

Here I went to the Wal-Mart near our house and it was nothing short of insanity. When I got there at 11:45 there were people lines up out the door on both entrances. They handed out colored wristbands to go in order by color. I luckily, got a colored wristband that was first in order. So the lady told me I could go up to a short line. Then I got doubly lucky when they opened another checkout line in my line. The annoying part was when I got finished buying it. They had 15 employees standing by the books just handing the 5 checkers stacks of books when they ran out. 15....Wouldn't it have been more efficient to have 10 of those standing around employees ringing people up? They also had 3 policemen guarding the books. I can understand that. So I was out in 30 minutes by my sheer stroke of luck.

On my way out the line was probably 100 feet out the door when I first got there it was only barely out the door. Crazy! I really only went because we had friends over late and I was awake so I thought I'd "run" get it. Well at least I wasn't there till 2 am like I thought I was going to be when I got in line.

Newly Widowed

The hubby has decided again to take a 2nd job teaching at the University one class. So I will go back to being a widow. Well figuratively anyway. This time he is teaching a more general education class in the science department. So if you see a crazy lady with 2 kids yelling at her kids in the grocery store without a husband, that's probably me.

No, I'm really excited for him about this. Teaching has always been something he has wanted to do. It is just impossible for him to do full time. He would take a huge salary cut initially and then over the long run his pay wouldn't increase like it would in the business world. He is very nervous today because his license should be coming in the mail and he is just crossing his fingers that this time everything went smoothly with his paperwork (they are a little finicky). We'll see. So we have reason to celebrate!

The hubby has promised that if he teaches this job then I can buy a hemstitcher machine. I am very excited about this. So stay tuned for more info on that.

Booki Baaki Returns

First of all, I did take a much needed break from blogging but hopefully I'm back for good. You know with all the stress of buying a house everything kind of got to me.

But today, I just couldn't help it. It's the most bizarre story about our cat. A few weeks ago, we got 2 little 5-week-old kittens. The Babe lovingly named them Booki Baaki (boy) and Petunia (girl). They were fun for the Babe to play with but he was slowly learning what was appropriate and what wasn't (e.g. throwing cat in pool= not acceptable, throwing cat up or down slide= not acceptable).

Last weekend, Booki Baaki came up missing. I didn't realize how attached I was until he was gone. So we went looking for him but decided surely someone found him and thought he was a stray because he was so small. Well this week, Petunia has been driving me crazy! So I thought we'd just get another cat to play with Petunia. I looked and couldn't find one. Every time I called about one, they would have been taken like 10 minutes before I called.

Well last night, a traveling salesman came to my door to sell me some carpet cleaning stuff. He said, "Oh that's a nice cat, he looks just like mine. *long pause* Did you happen to lose a cat recently?" I said of course and we identified that the cat was ours. He told me that the kitten had wandered a street over and was meowing at his carpet cleaning truck during the day. He thought it was pretty hot out and didn't know what to do with the kitten so he took it home. His wife was immediately smitten and they lovingly named him London. Well after he explained this, he called his wife to break her the news. She was upset and hung up on him. Then she called back and said they would not be returning the cat. The man left assuring me that he would bring our cat back that evening.

I really thought I'd never see him again. But a few hours later he came back with the kitten. I guess his wife was very heartbroken but that wasn't my fault. They are the ones who stole my kitten and got attached to it. Petunia was so happy to see her brother. They've been fighting ever since.

New Car

Today we bought a new/used car. It was exciting! We are now a 2 car family. How exciting! For 5 years, we've had 1 car sometimes no running cars. We're living the good life.

P.S. I left that nice glare on the windshield (it really was in the picture) because it looked new car-ish.

The Poop Eating Child

Today my mommish stomach of steel gag reflex met its challenge. I was enjoying my morning with one kid gone with grandma and only the baby to look after. So I thought I'd do some very normal pre-2 children things shower, read some blogs, check email and generally just relax.

As a forward to this story, we got 2 little kittens last week. They are tiny tiny. They weren't litter box trained and still want milk hence them licking up my daughter's constant spit up. They are generally quite disgusting. The Babe wants to name them Booki Baaki and Petunia. But we are still taking suggestions for names. The hubby and the Babe love them. I'm thinking more realistically especially after this story.

So the Little Lady is crawling around spitting up followed by my 2 nasty clean up crew cats. She was getting into anything she wasn't supposed to. I had cleaned up 300 spit up spots on the carpet, pulled 3 objects from her mouth that weren't supposed to go there and pried her death grip off one of the kittens for the uptenth time. Things were going normal. Then I noticed she was being very very quite, which any mom knows means trouble. I look over at her and one of the cats had pooped ON MY CARPET and she was EATING it! Well that's a bit dramatic. I never actually saw her put any of it in her mouth because I then would have surely ralphed on the spot. But she had it all over her hands and clothes and knowing my daughter she puts everything in her mouth. *insert throwing up a little in my mouth*

Let's not lose our calm here. There are worse things a child could do....cut her arm off?! After getting the Little Poop Eating Lady (maybe I'll change her name to that) cleaned up, I called the hubby to declare to him that cats have to go. They've had a short life with us but a good one.