Rut

So I think I am in a winter rut.  I know, winter hasn’t even really started yet.  But I think it has less to do with the weather and more to do with the extended darkness and the monotony of our daily activities.   Breakfast, School, Lunch, Work, Nap, Clean, Dinner, Bath, Bedtime....I’m bored, my kids must be too!  I want to try and do more interesting and different things with them, I just cant seem to find the time.  You other working mom’s out there....do you feel like you have enough time to do this, or is it just me??  I cant tell if I would still feel this way no matter what, or if it’s just because I spend half of each day at work.  I think my new goal is going to be to try and do at least one new thing with the girls each day until the end of the year..we’ll see how it goes!

Smile

I can’t help but smile every time I see the smiles on my daughters’ faces.  No matter how bad my day is going or if I am sad, mad, etc, seeing the smile on their little faces just brightens up my day and I can’t do anything but smile and laugh with them.

Switchy Witchy

I really try not to give Kenna much snack/candy type foods, mostly because it is bad for her, but also because she can’t eat most of it because of her egg allergy.  So holidays are rather hard for her because everyone eats things she can’t have.  Christmas is loaded with cookies, Thanksgiving is just a pain because I have to make everyone double and triple check what they put in the food they cook, and Halloween...I never know what is in all the candy, short of reading the labels on every kind of candy at the store before hand and making a list..not worth it.  So while trying to come up with my plan of attack for Halloween this year, I stumbled across something in a magazine.  They had the idea of “The Switchy Witchy”.  Sounds silly, I know, but give it a chance.  So they had the kids pick out just a few pieces of their candy, and then the rest they leave in their baskets on the front porch, then in the morning the Switchy Witchy takes the candy and leaves them something like a book, DVD, or toy.  I thought, well that seems a lot like bribery, but then the idea started to grow on me.  At least for this year, my girls will be trick or treating early (not to mention also on 2 different days before the actual Halloween trick or treating), so if they leave the candy for the Switchy Witchy, that in turns means less candy I have to buy to pass out, bonus number one.  I don’t have to check the candy for egg, bonus number two.  It also means my kids are not eating all the crap that they get and bouncing off the walls all night, bonus numbers three and four!  And that was all it took, I was convinced!  The Switchy Witchy is coming to our house this year to exchange books for candy.  Oh, and to add educational to the list of bonuses, I am making Kenna write a note to the Switchy Witchy to leave with her candy to let her know that she is indeed interested in the switch J



It's For Me

So I tend to buy my girls a lot of movies and CD’s and such.  It would seem that I do it to be a nice Mom and give them something, but really it’s because I can’t stand to listen to the Tangled soundtrack every time I get in the car anymore.  If Kenna starts liking a new movie/show/song, I pretty much let her run with it because it is at least something different than the last trend.  So, on that note, the newest craze in our house is the movie Rio.  I decided to buy the soundtrack for the car, and I like it!  It’s fun and upbeat and it makes me feel like I am somewhere tropical, not driving in my mini-van in Michigan weather with one screaming child and the other singing loudly.

Confession

Confession:  Even though I have a to-do list a mile long, when both girls actually take a nap at the same time, I like to just sit and relax, at least for a little bit. J

Thankful

I have decided that I really need to appreciate all the good things in my life, however big or small.  I don’t want to take anything for granted and I want to enjoy every minute of everything I do.  I tend to be a little bit on the negative side.  A while back, I wrote a list of all the things I would do if I had more time, which did tend to be a bit negative.  Instead, I am going to think of things that make me happy each day that I get the time to enjoy, and all the things that I am thankful for!

·          The quietness of the house when I get up early and get to sit in the dark and drink my coffee.

·         Hearing Kenna call for me in her singsong voice each morning when she wakes up.

·         Getting some good alone snuggle time in with Brinley when she decides to wake up at 4:30 am, and the happy smile she always gives me as I am trying to rock her back to sleep.

·         The time I get to spend with just me and Joe either before the girls get up, or after they go to bed, where we get to really just sit and talk to each other, without the TV on.

·         Getting to spend time with our great family and friends, and knowing how lucky we are to have them in our lives.

·         Knowing that although I don’t love my job, I am lucky to have a job and one that allows me to bring my girls with me.

·         Seeing the new things my daughters learn on a daily basis and knowing that I am teaching it to them.

·         The exhilarating feeling after getting in a good workout. J

·         Being able to feed, clothe, and provide for our family.

This is my life

So this is on the hind tails of being up all night with a hysterical teething baby.  You know when you see a commercial or ad or something that makes you laugh so hard because it is so relatable? Like you have said those exact words at one point or another. That is me with this new show that is coming out this fall called Up All Night. Every time I see a preview of it, they are literally saying exact phrases that I have used in the past few months and it cracks me up! If you haven’t seen previews, you need to watch this, especially if you have kids...you will laugh, promise!

http://youtu.be/5db6eixmiv0

Mother Knows Best

I know exactly what kind of parent I am.  I am the overprotective, overbearing mother.  I thought it would get better as they get older…I was wrong.  There have been several things lately that have opened my eyes to how bad I really am.  For starters, we were at Kenna’s last night at swim class last night, and they took the kids to the deep end and just threw them in.  No swimmies, no life jacket, nothing, just chucked the poor little 3 year olds into the deep end and made them swim to the side.  I was so worried, that my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest!  I made my husband sit right by where they were so that he could jump in to grab my baby if need be.  Some of the other parents were just sitting there relaxing, while I was having a full on panic attack!  The other thing I noticed when singing songs from Tangled with Kenna, is how accurately the song “Mother Knows Best” pertains to my way of thinking.  My sister laughs at the ridiculousness of the song, while I nod my head in agreement.  Here is a short segment of the song:

“Mother knows best, listen to your mother,

it’s a scary world out there. 

Mother knows best, one way or another,

something will go wrong, I swear. 

Ruffians, thugs, poison ivy, quicksand,

cannibals and snakes, the plague. 

Also large bugs, men with pointy teeth,

and stop, no more, you’ll just upset me. 

Mother’s right here, mother will protect you,

Darling, here’s what I suggest,

skip the drama, stay with mama,

Mother knows best.” 

So I now have Kenna walking around singing “skip the drama, stay with mama”.  Apparently I just need to find a tower for us to live in….

I don't trust you

So this morning on the news there were 3 different people being charged for sexual assault against children in Michigan.  And I also read about another charge up north about a dad molesting his own 3 month old daughter and killed her in the process!  WTF??  What is wrong with our world!?!?  I can’t take it anymore.  I hate that I have to worry about sick people that would do anything to innocent little children.  I also hate that I have to have lingering doubts about any person that comes into my daughters lives about if they are safe with them.  The news also talked about ways to talk to your child about this issue, and I thought it would be dumb advice, but it was actually okay.  It said to discuss with them what their private parts are (which I have already done), but then it also said to teach them never to keep secrets.  They said even doing something as little as “oh, we can get ice cream, but it’s our little secret, don’t tell your Dad” is bad.  They said that most kids that get molested don’t tell anyone because the person tells them it is their secret, and that 93% of sexual abuse crimes are commited by a person the child knows.  All this stuff just makes me want to take my girls and go live in a hole somewhere where they will be safe!  I don’t remember worrying about any of this when I was young, or my parents talking to me about anything.  I don’t know if times are changing, or if it was always this bad.  So sorry any friends or future friends of my girls, your parents are going to get put through the ringer before either of my girls will be left anywhere alone with you, that’s just the way it’s going to have to be!  You may think that we are just all going out to dinner together, but really it’s a scrupulous interview to determine what type of people you are J

Nice

So I took Brinley to the doctor yesterday for her 4 month wellness visit. I was getting her out of her car seat and a little old lady in the car next to me said "oh, it’s a young baby, how cute, I can see her little feet poking out" and I (being the super friendly person I am) said "yup". I proceeded to pull her out of her car seat and as soon as I got her out the lady says "OH! She's a fatty!” Wow....nice! I know my girls are big, but they are not ridiculous! Not to mention, who says that?? If she wanted to mention her size, there are many other words that would be more appropriate and less mean, like chubby, or even big for example. On that note, she was 25 1/2 inches tall (90th percentile) and 15 lbs 8 oz (75-90th percentile)...so there are at least 20 percent of kids that are bigger than her thank you very much! :)

Really Disney, Really??

So I read that Disney is not going to make anymore “princess” type movies.  I don’t remember where I read it, but I did.  They are going to focus more on the movies like “Prom” to appeal to more kids.  I am very, very disappointed in you Disney.  I love all the Disney movies from my childhood!  Beauty & The Beast, The Lion King, Aladin…I can go on and on.  I think there is so much out there that is forcing our kids to grow up too fast as it is, I don’t want my kids watching “Prom”.  Not only is the content not appropriate for most children that watch it, but do we really want our kids watching a movie that is telling them that prom is such a big deal?  I don’t.  News flash everyone….prom is not what is important about school!  I wish all the media would stop encouraging our kids to grow up so fast, it is just sad.  Don’t get me wrong, I love all the stupid reality shows like Real World and 16 and Pregnant.  But I am an adult (apparently), and I know what those people are doing on those shows is crazy and dumb, but all the young kids growing up don’t know that.  I was relying on Disney to provide entertainment for my kids when I need to get things done around the house, or to be honest, when I just want a little “quiet time”.  I guess I will have to fall back on the classics on DVD, or hope that Pixar keeps cranking out some goodies!

The mall is gross

So the title pretty much sums up this blog today.  I went to the mall yesterday to quick run a few errands.  Since having kids, I don’t really have the time to go hang out at the mall anymore, so needless to say other than running in and out of a store real quick, I haven’t really been to the mall on a weekend in probably about 3-4 years.  So I went with my husband and the girls yesterday, and if the mall represents the population of our country, I am truly scared.   Maybe I never paid attention before and it has always been gross, but otherwise somewhere along the line I think the mall has gotten rather trashy, and the people that are there do not help that cause.  There are kids running around without any supervision that look like they should still be in diapers, the girls are all dressing like they are going to stand on a street corner downtown, and there are a ton of people up by the food court scarfing down crazy amounts of unhealthy foods.  Not to mention, I thought this economy was bad?  What are all these people doing spending money at the mall?  It didn’t look like anyone was having any financial troubles with the amount of bags the masses were carrying around.  To sum this up…if this is an accurate representation of the people and future generations of our country, we are in trouble and maybe I should just move now.  Oh, and I am also going to shop online instead.

I blame their father

So, I think I am the only one who has this problem…my kids don’t sleep.  When Kenna was a baby, we blamed it on her colic, then on her alertness, and then on her smartness (“She is just too into everything, too smart to waste her time sleeping”).  When she took 2-3 naps, they were always really short, and she dropped those to the one per day.  Everyone told me, “oh, now that she is down to one nap, it will be like a 2-3 hour one”..Nope!  The little stinker only took like one 1 hour nap a day.  Ok, fine, so this one just isn’t a sleeper.  Well now with Brinley, I was hoping I would have my little sleeper, you know, the one that just wants to cuddle for an hour in the morning to wake up.  But I fear that is not the case.  She is already cutting all her naps short, going to bed late, and waking up talking at 4:30-5am ready to be up for the day.  Are you kidding me???  Both of them??  I like sleep, I am not a morning person.  I like to lay around in my PJ’s and drink coffee for a good hour in the morning, you know, ease into my day.  Not the rest of my family.  This is where I blame their father.  He brags about not needing much sleep.  He will get up and go exercise at 4am after getting 4 hours of sleep and will be fine.  He wakes up full of energy and ready to start the day, he is definitely a morning person.  This is why my girls turned out the way they did…it’s got “DAD” written all over it.  I guess if it has to be this way, at least they all wake up happy, laughing, and talkative!  I can take that over the sound of an alarm clock.

Funny Things My Daughter Says & Does

After writing a blog a few posts back about the funny stuff my daughter says, I just started writing down some of my favorite things that she has said or done.  Hopefully you find it funny too, or maybe its just because I think she's extra cute :)  (for Future reference, Kenna is my older daughter, & Brinley is my younger).

*”Mom, Brinley is giving me attitude!”  (Brinley was staring at her in the car).

*”That lady just wanted to meet me.” (Some lady at the chiropractor was trying to talk to her).

*”Where’s Daddy?”  (He is at work, Kenna), “oh, poor Daddy.” –This was when she was like 1 ½ years old…so observant J

*”Mom, I don’t like cranberries in my oatmeal, we can just go ahead and get rid of those.”

*(I was doing “so big” with Brinley) “Mom, Brinley is not so big, she is very little, I think you are wrong.”

*She took my sister’s credit card off the counter and put it in my purse and said “Cash Money” J

*”Mom, that is despectable”  (Do you mean despicable, Kenna?) “No, I mean despectable”.  Apparently she is making up her own words now.

* After I barely bumped into Kenna (she didn’t even cry or anything), she tells me “Mom, you can give it one kiss, then I need an ice pack, and I think a cookie would probably make me feel better.”

*Me: “I just want to eat Brinley up, she is so cute”

   Kenna: “I bet she tastes like macaroni & cheese”

   Me: “oh, really, then what do you taste like?”

   Kenna: “probably a hot potato”

   Me: “Kenna, stop trying to lick your sister, she doesn’t really taste like macaroni and cheese”

Oh Wow

So I was watching a commercial for a new show coming out on Animal Planet, its called Hillbilly Handfishin’.   Yes, Hillbilly Handfishin’, and it is exactly what you think it is.  A bunch of people (hillbillies) playing around in dirty, nasty looking creeks catching fish with their bare hands.  You would think it would be a bunch of gross old men, but in the commercial I saw, they had a few younger women in the water too.  I don’t get it.  The water looks gross, fish are gross, and it seems like you are making fishing a much harder task than it needs to be.  Why would you not want to sit on a nice clean and dry boat and wait for a dumb fish to catch your bait?  Oh wait, I can get filthy dirty, swim around in nasty water, and grab around like a crazy person trying to catch a fish with my bare hands, please let’s choose the second option.  Gross!  Not to mention, it seems like more often than not, you are not actually going to get the fish with your hands, pretty sure they can move quicker than us.  I want to know who does this…and who at Animal Planet thought “Hmmm…hillbillies catching fish with their bare hands…I’m going to make a TV series out of it!”  So yes, I will probably end up watching at least 1 episode.

*http://animal.discovery.com/tv/hillbilly-handfishin/

The lights of my life

Some days with my girls are a challenge, but at least every day is new and exciting.  They keep me on my toes and show me things in life that I would otherwise be too busy to notice.  These instances make everything worth it, even the really challenging days.  The other day I was on the phone with my husband, and my daughter was cheering “Go, Daddy, Go” in the background.  Like a good mom, I ignored it until I got off the phone.  J  After I got off she said “Mom, I was cheering Go, Daddy, Go for Daddy because he is doing an awesome job at work”.  I immediately felt bad for ignoring her and not letting her “cheer” for her Dad on the phone.  I wish I could think as matter of factly as my daughter does.  She just says it how it is with everything.  She says so many funny/interesting/smart things to me on a daily basis (ohh…potential blog topic later!).  I like to think that she is a genius, but I will just settle for her being keenly aware of everything around her and being able to report these findings in such an entertaining matter and making me smile everyday!

I'm in love

I am in love with a website called www.zulily.com.  It is one of those deal of the day sites, but it has a lot of different items each day.  Check it out.  Anyways, I know that I am addicted because as soon as 9 am rolls around, I have to get on and see if they have anything good.  It’s never anything I need, and sometimes it is not even good deals, but they have such cute stuff.  It’s mostly baby items, kids’ clothes, or house wares, but most of it is stuff I’ve never heard of.  I like to dress my girls in cute clothes and not the same ones that are out there everywhere, and not in the aforementioned risky clothes at the local stores.  So whenever I find cute clothes on the site, I always feel like I need to get them, even if the girls don’t need any new clothes.  I really need to stop, and not just because it costs money, but because my daughter’s closet bar is literally starting to bend in the middle from the weight of their clothes.  Which I think does say a lot, since they are little and their tiny outfits don’t weigh all that much.  So I guess I will stop, but not because I want to, but because my husband will probably refuse to put up a new closet bar if this one breaks since he already told me to stop putting so many clothes in there J  (at least until fall clothes come out, she needs clothes for school of course!)

Am I old already??

I am only 28.  I still feel young, and I hope that I even still look young.  But apparently I am getting old.  There have been kids out all over the roads in the student driver cars, is it me, or do they all look about 10 years old??  It scares me, not only because it makes me feel older, but also because it just doesn’t seem safe that they are driving.  I know when I was growing up; I couldn’t wait to get my license at 16.  If I was honest then (which I wouldn’t have been…I was 16), I would have said I wasn’t ready to drive.  Looking back on it now, I KNOW I wasn’t ready to drive.  I did it obviously, but there were many near miss incidents, and a lot of goofing off with my friends.  Now looking at the kids out there driving with cell phones and the texting, it sure doesn’t seem any safer than when I was growing up.  I know I would make all the kids so upset by saying this, but I definitely think they should change the driving age to 18.  They are legal adults at 18, so why not?  At least in myself, I know there was a dramatic difference in my personality/responsibility level between the ages of 16 and 18.  I think we would see a lot less accidents.  It breaks my heart when the spring/summer season rolls around every year; the news is just flooded with teens that are in car accidents.  I think that banning texting while driving helped, but I really hope the age changes before my girls get there.  I realize I sound like an overprotective old lady.  Someone please do a study on the difference between drivers starting at 18 instead of 16 and prove me right.  Thank you.

Wasting my life away

I think I have a problem.  I am addicted to facebook.  I don’t even know how it happened.  I just caught myself typing in www.facebook.com without even realizing it.  I know I check it a lot, more because it’s how I communicate with everyone than just to look around.    But still.  It apparently has become a reaction for me to just to hop on the computer and get on facebook for no reason and without anything to even look at.  Next step will probably mean logging on facebook in my sleep!  This is bad, I can see how teenagers do this, but I am supposed to be an adult with better things to do.  If internet/social media play this big of role already, I am extremely scared for what this will entail for my girls when they get older.  Maybe I better put myself on restriction.  Ok, my new rule is, if I hear my daughter talk about facebook, I’m done!  Now someone will just have to hold me to that…

3 going on 23

I am very disappointed with children’s clothes designers.  My older daughter has recently moved up to the “girls” size clothes rather than toddler size.  Looking at the options, it seems that they were all created for young 20 year olds.  I personally don’t want my daughter dressing provocative, not at the age of 3, or even the age of 10 for that matter.  I know that styles are changing, but since when is it cool to look trashy??  I just want my 3 year old to dress like..well, a 3 year old.  Why can’t they make the cute toddler style clothes just in bigger sizes?  It seems like all the clothes are either kind of slutty looking or just plain t-shirts with decorations that are either not cute, or something I wouldn’t want her wearing.  I can’t really remember what I wore when I was 3, but I have to imagine it was cute little dresses, or jumpers, not mini-skirts and tube tops.  If my husband would even allow me to put those outfits on her, I would feel like one of those moms on Toddlers and Tiaras, or the moms who buy their kids the push-up bikinis from Abercrombie.  Apparently my decision to not dress my daughter like she is going out clubbing is going to require searching for cute clothes or for me to buy a sewing machine and learn to sew…which might not end well either!