A night in the life of a boring Mommy

Last night, I tried to spice things up a bit for Little Man A. We couldn't go for a walk - it was raining and cold, we had already watched 3 tv shows (I try to limit it to 60 minutes per day - even that I think is too much when I total it), and I was bored. As he was sleeping, I tried thumbing through "The Toddler's Busy Book" I got for Christmas.

It has ideas for "rainy days" (perfect! that's today!), Kids in the kitchen (too young), Water play (more for outside), Outdoor adventure (hello? it's 30 degrees and raining!), music and movement and a few others. Some of these ideas I have to seriously question the people who made them up.

Ice cube bags: Mix water and food coloring (enough for two ice cubes of each color) and pour into ice cube try. When frozen, place a yellow and a red ice cube into one Ziploc bag, a red and a blue into a second, and a yellow and blue into a third bag. Younger children will enjoy moving ice cubes around in the bags, while older children will enjoy watching what happens when the two colors melt together.

Seriously?? My child would take one look at it, throw it across the room and proceed to a different toy. And I'm sure an older child would sit still long enough to watch them melt? Come on.

Anyways, I happen to come across one that involved balloons. I have balloons, I thought! Let's just blow them up and bounce them around the room. Little Man A loved looking at all the balloons from his birthday. This is a no brainer. I'm excited.

I carefully blew up three balloons (I've had them for awhile and didn't know if they would be any good). And waited for the perfect moment to show them to Little Man A.
At first, he was really excited. He even started to kick them around. And he loved to watch Mommy bounce them back and forth like a punching ball. Five minutes later....

Running around with my slippers or chewing on Mickey's foot were more exciting for him.

He was off to play with some of his old toys. Which by the way, he's already getting bored with as well.

Or try to steal the camera from Mommy is always more fun.

So much for a brilliant idea by Mommy. Let's pray for the sake of this child that his daddy doesn't get deployed again because this child would end up in therapy from pure boredom. I think if hubby does get deployed again sometime soon, I'll have to go back to work and let outside help give him enrichment for the day, because I'm starting to get bored myself. I'm sure once the weather starts to get nice again, we'll have fun outside. The other day before the cold front came through, we sat outside in the driveway watching the pinwheels in our front yard and walked up and down the driveway for 30 minutes.

So, wish me luck for tomorrow.

Seriously??

I wasn't quite sure how to title this one, so I went with that. No it's nothing too exciting. Just the normal, "You've got to be kidding stuff" that happens with us mothers on a daily basis.

I made an appointment last week for Little Man A's flu shot booster. I was not looking forward to it today. Apparently, he sensed it and woke up at 5:45am. And to top if off, I went in there to hear him sniffing a nose full of snot. He and I have been dealing with a cold. I've been leaving the humidifier on for him during the night. The last two days I haven't seen any runny nose, so I thought it was gone. Not.

So I give him the pacifier and tell him to go back to sleep. Apparently, I've - actually we have - created a monster with this little routine. But anything to get him to sleep until atleast 7am or somewhere in that vicinity is our goal. Ok, more my goal. I can't function previous to 7am. But regardless of what time we put him to bed, he's been waking up lately between 5:45 Am and 6:30 AM. So I may have to deal with an earlier start to the day.

He goes back to sleep for 15 minutes (or maybe he just lays there) and wakes up crying again. I go back in again, lay him down, shove the pacifier back in his mouth and jump in the shower. By the time I'm out of the shower and dressed he's already crying again. So we go and start the day. I give him Tylenol with his morning milk and atleast feed him his oatmeal before we head out the door.

We get to the doctor's office, check in, let him nibble on some Cheerios and wait. And wait. And wait. Hello?? This is just suppose to be a shot. A quick hello - good-bye appointment. 25 minutes later, I walk up to the counter and ask if there is a problem since we have been waiting for 25 minutes. She checks and says I'll make sure they get on it. The nurse comes out, call's A's name, and she says "You're early."

Me: What? My appointment was for 7:30 AM.

Nurse: No, you're suppose to wait alteast one month before his booster.

Me: What? The nurse and the doctor last time we were here said 3 weeks. Why didn't the person when I made the appointment say anything? Why have we waited 25 minutes for someone to tell us we don't need to be here?

Nurse: I'm sorry.

So now we head back home with a sleepy child who isn't feeling well with a runny nose and a full dose of Tylenol in his system for no reason. Great! And to top it off, I get to deal with my child alone ALL DAY LONG since hubby has to go to his cult meeting tonight. Guh!

On a lighter note, I have toothy pictures! I have been dying not being able to get a picture of A's mouth since his first tooth popped through. I just wanted to open his mouth and snap a picture, but obviously he wouldn't think that it was fun.
So, here it is... a nice close up of his bottom front teeth. When he really smiles, you can see all four teeth.

I was really hoping it wasn't going to rain today so we could go for a walk, but I guess I'll be breaking out some of the new Busy Toddler books I got for Christmas. Maybe we'll color. Maybe not. He'll just want to chew on the crayons and then get upset when I say no. Oh well. Wish me luck.

Tootles.

Twas the Month after Christmas

"T'was the month after Christmas and all through the house
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.


The cookies I'd nibbled, the eggnog I'd taste
All the holiday parties had gone to my waist.
When I got on the scales there arose such a number
When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber).
I'd remember the marvelous meals I' d prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared.


The divinity and fudge, the bread and the cheese
And the way I' d never said, "No thank you, please."
As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt
I said to myself, as I only can,
"You can't spend a winter disguised as a man"!


So--away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip.
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
"Till all the additional ounces have vanished.
I won't have a cookie--not even a lick.
I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick


I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie,
I'll munch on a carrot stick and quietly cry.
I'm hungry, I 'm lonesome, and life is a bore
But isn't that what January is for?


Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!"


Ain't that the truth! Happy January everyone!

An evening at Borders

Since Little Man A has really taken off with this walking thing, I decided we needed to take him someplace to just walk around... besides outside (more because it's still cold outside ... except for today). The other day, when he wouldn't take his second nap because God forbid he slept past 10:30am, we decided to take him to Borders. I wanted to get some Baby food books anyways, and Little Man A loves books, so we loaded up in the car.

Here's a pic of hubby walking with A as soon as he got into the store:



They headed back to the kids section, with Gramma in tow while I looked for my books on how to make more baby food... that he'll actually eat. Between finding new things to play with, seeing all the other children reading books, and just being someplace new where he can walk around semi-freely, I think he really enjoyed himself.



Gramma reading him a book while he's sitting at a table - with Gramma's support of course.

I don't know if it was a coincidence or if he's just that good at reading titles on the sides of the books, but he picked out a Backyardigans book and handed it to me. That's something new that he's doing that's too cute. Especially when I finish the book and he hands it back to me to read again.

Needless to say, we'll be going back to Borders (too bad there's no Barnes and Nobles around - I like them better) again in the future!

Tootles!

Great Start.... NOT!

Even though we had a blast for New Years Eve with family, we didn't start the new year off quite right with Little Man A. We think he's teething again, this time his first incisors - at the same time. I really hate giving him Tylenol, especially when I truly don't know if he's in pain or just plain cranky. But it is a relief to see a change in temperament within the hour after I give him the Tylenol... mainly because I know I just helped him and I don't have to feel guilty about possibly dosing my child for no reason.

He's also been waking up in the middle of the night and not going back to sleep on his own. The first night, I went into his room and rubbed his back like I've done in the past, but instead he rolled over and reached his arms up to me. I reluctantly picked him up, because I really don't want to make a habit out of this, but who can resist their child reaching up to you. I was able to sway back and forth with him while rubbing his back for just a minute and then put him down and he went back to sleep. The second night, grandma rescued him and it took a little longer and she ended up giving him his pacifier to get him back to sleep. Thankfully, last night/this morning he didn't wake up, but was awake at 5:45 AM ... mainly because he soaked through his diaper again.

On top of all that, he's been back to his old routine of throwing out his beloved Jeffrey, pacifier, and stuffed giraffe if he doesn't want to take a nap. Yesterday, in disbelieve to every one in the house I'm sure, I let him cry/complain for 45 minutes. It wasn't until my husband came to me and asked, "How much longer are you going to let this go on? I'm pretty sure nap time is over." Well if that wasn't a slap in the face/mood change for me, but I'm sure he didn't mean it that way.

To put more icing on the cake, today he threw over just his pacifier and Jeffrey and paced back and forth in his crib for 45 minutes - wailing. Not crying, but wailing! My mom seems to think it's also because of the amount of people that have been in the house over the past few weeks - too much stimulation, I guess.

Whatever the problem, all I want is my good baby back. I'm starting to think that I'm not too sure about this next year. That maybe all this is a sign from above telling me I should just stop with 1 child (which I'm sure my belly stretch marks will thank me). But like my aunt said, he has to be "bad" once in awhile so I can really appreciate the good times when I have them... and that I do! But all I can think about right now is going upstairs and raiding the cookies/pie/cakes/oatmeal cookie bars that were made over the past week and eating them all. If it wasn't so damn cold and windy outside, I'd sit outside and read and get some fresh air. Instead, I'm going to go scrapbook. This is my new years resolution... not only will I get allot done with his first year scrapbook, I can use it as a stress reducer as well. Hope it works!

Here's a peak at his first two months layouts:




Tootles!