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I awoke in a rough mood–feeling sugar hungover from all the dough I ate the day before, body sore from working out this week, and generally sleepy. But AA was up, showering, and yes, as I confessed on facebook, I hadn’t made him a lunch. When your awesome husband works 12-14 hour days and you get to be at home with the kiddos, pouncing on the internet every chance you get, eating cookie dough, sprawling in the hammock with your two monkeys, not showering, all these luxuries, you really ought to make his damn lunch. So I got up, pulled my bathrobe on, shuffled downstairs, fumbling a little with the kitchen lights. Who knows if the dog was fed–I mean, she barks as though she is starving no matter what. She’s fed, the water is put on for oats, and I survey the kitchen. A little humus. A number of kiddie leftovers-maybe-they’ll-eat-it-for-lunch-tomorrows, cheese in abundance, no eggs, lots of pickles, defrosted chicken thighs, eureka! Deli turkey breast. Sliced. Grey Poupon. Cheese. Bread. It’s a sandwich kind of day. Cherries, sandwich, yogurt + blueberries + pistachios, almonds in the shell, humus & celery to dip. Yup. He’s got something to eat for the day. The oatmeal is bubbling and as I drain out the oats, abandoning the murky water it boiled in, milk pours itself practically right into that oversized tupperware he’ll eat from on the bus. Out the door, my love, and another day at work. Upstairs, not a peep…
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No, I’m not pregnant. That I’m aware of. You know us crazies and our NFP {my article on why we pace our family naturally}. That out of the way, with two kids who finally sleep through the night–not counting SuperBoy’s 10 million getups before he falls asleep–I’ve had so much time to blog, sew, cook, hang with AA, rewatch Alias–yes, guilty pleasure from college. I convinced myself watching it would help me feel inspired to work out. Um. And watch more of it. But in this precious in between kids phase, I do want to be more deliberate in my appreciation for this time. This time with two kids. This time with no morning sickness–all day sickness. This time of lots of me (sometimes us time but I’m the nightowl in this marriage) time. Do I feel selfish? A little guilty? That I have enough time to not clean my bathrooms but hang out with you? Sometimes, yes. Other times, like the 24 hours my blog was lost in outer space yesterday, I realize how much I rely on social media to give me my extrovert booster. Thanks for being here, dear ones! You’re da best. Pre-baby #3 bucket list: 1) Redo the Main Bathroom. It just needs a facelift. Like a Lucille Bluthe kind. New lighting, hardware, wall decor, curtains, paint, ceiling fan. That’s it. Not the toily or sink. SuperBoy has taken to calling the toilet the “toily” and asking SweetPea if she wants to go on the toily.…
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Big fatty mcfat disclaimer: I don’t think you are a bad person if you let your kids watch TV. So whew. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about alternatives to screen time. We all learned last year (the year before? mommy memory) that screen time for kids under two years of age should not exist. No no. A big no no. And after two should be limited. The average kid watches like 2-4 hours of TV a day. Not a good stat. Why? It affects their brain development, it inhibits imaginative play, it pacifies them, it gives them lots of images and ideas you may not want in there, it curtails their communication with siblings/you/care provider, and the list goes on. But why do we think we cannot live without it? Why does everyone have these HuffPo articles being like “hey, it’s okay if your infant watch TV so you can just breathe a little” or “I’m a guilty parent too, but my kids are just fine”? Because our kids are clamoring constantly? Don’t play by themselves? Can’t be left unwatched so we can shower/screentime ourselves/poop? Because you can’t fry anything on the stove while holding your babe in the sling? Because we need them to zone out so we can have a break? I get it! I have two kids under three (now three) as well. Maybe it’s their personalities, or maybe it’s because they don’t know any different, but we don’t use screen time. Period.…
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I’ve been following Conversion Diary by Jennifer Fulwiler for a long while now. She’s remarkable, mom of a brood, writer, blogger, reality TV star, and pretty seriously funny. Every Friday she hosts a linkup (for non bloggers, that means other people share their link to their blog post with the same topic/title)–7 Quick Takes Friday–and it’s just that, quick takes from the week. Linking up with her and the rest of the interesting & awesome writers. Without further ado, my week in seven quickies: — 1 — SuperBoy’s tempter tantrums have been slowing down. Kinda. He escalates in a more physical way now–stomping & wringing his hands–over small little things. His sister touching his raspberry. Me requesting him to go to the bathroom and try to go. Just try. Being done with toys. Quiet time. Playtime. Transition of any kind. You know him, he’s all about baseball so a little baseball bribery has gone a long way–meaning if he doesn’t listen he loses a few of his oh-so-few (THOUSANDS) baseball cards. They go into temporary jail. Until his good behavior wins them back. It’s kinda working. — 2 — Etsy shop’s a hopping. Busy sewing, busy cutting, busy designing. There were two giveaways of my lovelies by Heartland Parenting & Camp Patton. I’m sure the best winners won! My products were also at a New York tradeshow! Well received! Yay! That’s a lot of exclamations, even for me. And I’ve got orders on my table for friends & strangers alike.…
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Joy in kid world. And freaking out your sister. Yes, my poor son is one of those food allergy kids. I shared about his jarring introduction to allergic reactions a long while ago, and now that he’s three we recently had a food challenge in ye ole doctor’s office. That’s when you starve your child until you reach the doctor’s office and then slowly feed him a food he’s previously reacted to and wait & watch as you incrementally increase the amount of the potentially death-inducing food. For four hours. With a three year old. In a small examination room. It’s a peach. A little background for those not willing to delve into the depth of my hyperlinking (I don’t blame you–so often my older posts had bad photos, and link to the old blog so everything’s a big ? over there): SuperBoy was allergic to peanut, egg, and reacted to pine nut. Blood tests confirmed all this, as did a lovely trip to ER when he was 18 months old and ate peanut for the first time. Charmed, I’m sure. IGG versus IGE testing is whole other blog post, but he appears to be sensitive to a variety of foods as well. A few great resources: Food Allergy Support Group of MN, It’s an Itchy Little World, and my girlfriend Abby’s blog about her son’s allergies. The egg part, well, egg is molecularly different when it’s baked into (not onto) other foods–the chemistry changes. So baked eggs weren’t off…
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Boys are hyper, right? Or at least that’s why they apparently can’t sit still and focus in the conventional classroom. An alarming number of boys are diagnosed with ADHD each year, and medicated for the condition, 2.7 million children in 2007 according to the CDC. But a recent study came out questioning the efficacy of the ADHD drugs, and showing that they don’t boost the kids’ grades, instead that the other effects of the medication may outweigh the short term benefits of being able to sit still in a classroom. Read more in the WSJ article. Family encouragement, along with other environmental factors, appear to be more significant in long-term effects paired with the medication. No surprise: drugs alone aren’t the answer. *Update* A girlfriend just gave me this great link & resource for parents going through troubled times with their kids and who are in need of intervention services. Thank you, Deb! One thing that I hear again and again from friends with older boys is that it’s just plain hard for them to sit still for long periods in the classroom. I get it now; I have a three year old boy. He is wiggly, squiggly, and very tantrum prone. I know that’s “normal” for a three year old boy, but I’m sick of the many many tantrums a day. It pains me to see him so beside himself when he can’t have his way. It pains me because I know to indulge him will set him up…
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