WAHOOO! Preschool, Here we Come!
I think we finally found a preschool program that it reasonably prices, within a fabulous distance of the house and most importantly where the Big One is actually excited about going to.
We’ve tried the preschool route before and after finding one on Base that the Big One was excited about, we found out they were putting the program on hold because they needed the classroom space for other uses.
So we checked out three other preschools in the area, all of which caused the Big One to freak out and exclaim that she wanted to go home because she “didn’t wike dose schools.”
Yesterday for whatever reason, the FixItMommy checked out the Web site for a local church. The first thing I saw on their home page was an announcement that their new preschool was opening this week.
So today, we ventured out and after an initial shy-freak-out session by the Big One, she seemed to relax and figure out that the director was very nice and the schools curriculum sounds great.
The school is still waiting on one more magic paper for all their certification to become official so they haven’t started quite yet, but we hope in the next week or two we will actually start preschool. WAHOOO!
The FixItMommy is excited for a couple hours with just one kiddo and more importantly for the Big One to make some friends and get some much needed social interaction!
The Big Questions #5 Non-Toxic?
Does anyone know if there is a point at which “non-toxic” washable paints . . .
become toxic?
The Little One thinks everything is edible, I don’t know what I am going to do with her.
I thought this paint foam brush was safe after she bit the end off of a washable marker, apparently nothing is safe from the Little One’s teeth.
PSA Re: Lost Cell Phone
If you ever misplace you cell phone and suddenly hear your three-year old saying “Call China!” and giggling uncontrollably, you can rest assured that your 20-month old has found your cell phone.
That’s all.
{Actually in my defense, I’m not so sure I misplaced my phone, so much as the Little One swiped it out of my pocket. Ask the Husband, she is a pickpocket when it comes to cell phones!}
Love the One You’re With
We’ve all heard the saying that we treat the ones we love the most the worst. I guess the theory is the love bond is so strong that you can be a butt-head and the other person still has to love you.
Being a mom is that concept epitomized, I think. My girls can be butt-heads sometimes. There is no need to explain or justify this observation, it is a known fact.
What I don’t understand is the whole idea that they are perfect angels for their Grandma, Grammy and cousin, but not so much for me. In the last few weeks, I have left the girls with the aforementioned and apparently my girls play well together, play well independently, and share with no major issues. But the second I walk in the door, the whining, crying, screaming and fighting begins.
Why?
Anybody have an explanation for this phenomenon?
I thought about karma, like if I was out partying it up with Dora or dancing with Hip Hop Harry and didn’t bring them with me, but that was not the case.
The first time I was at my sister’s {rental} house cleaning up someone else’s crap, literally. You see my poor sister had a nightmare “renter” {I use that term loosely since he never really paid the rent} and we were cleaning up the disaster that he left behind upon being evicted by the Sheriff’s Department.
The second time I was with my mom and sister in Irwindale, CA helping to decorate the Kaiser float for tomorrow’s Rosa Parade. I suppose my girls would have had a field day with all the materials that were available, but somehow I don’t think that gluing pumpkin seeds on one at a time is their cup of tea. {check out the stars and know that we glued a lot of those pumpkin seeds on and look at the giant wheels and flowers and know that we glued lots and lots and lots of saffron, straw flowers and coconut on those babies!}
So how about it? Do your kids act different depending on who they are with? Anybody know the reason?
Important Announcement Re: Baby Dolls
This is a general announcement for anyone who has, may be considering, or will consider purchasing a baby doll as a gift for either one of my girls.
I have decided that it is high time to set some guidelines, a-hem ground rules, for baby dolls that will be brought into my house.
- They must be bald, I do not want a baby doll with stringy, straggly hair that will get in the baby’s face, get tangled or get pulled out by sticky, sweaty little hands attached to little girls who will then freak out because hair is stuck to them. Additionally, I do not want to have to search for doll barrettes and fix pony tails.
- They must NOT have clothes. I do not want to deal with baby doll clothes, tiny buttons, endless strips of Velcro or having to change the baby in pajamas at night-night time.
- They must NOT have shoes. I do not want to hear whining because one shoe is lost, destroyed by a dog, sucked up by the vacuum cleaner or lost in the car. And I definitely do not want to deal with crying when the other shoe is found intact.
- The must NOT talk. I get enough crying, whining, laughing, and “mommy” throughout the day. I do not need a doll adding to the chorus in my house.
- They must NOT pee, poop or puke. C’mon does this really need an explanation? Not a good idea.
- They must NOT swim. I don’t need any other toys in the tub, especially one that needs batteries and has to be disassembled in order for it to dry out after each use.
I know you are wondering about what type of baby doll is left. Trust me, they are out there. Ask Grammy, she’s found one and I love it. It has no hair, no clothes, no shoes and it does nothing annoying. And guess what? My girls think it is just as fun to play with as the others. She rides in the stroller, she goes night-night, she drinks from the bottle and best of all, she encourages imaginary play.
I don’t want to come off as ungrateful. I love that you want to buy gifts for my children. I love that my children love to play with baby dolls, I just don’t want any more babies to clean up after.
The Worst Mom Ever…
I get the title tonight. There is no discussion. No speeches. No Recounts. I win the prize.
You see I am tired. The Little One has been sick and was attached to my lap for about 4 hours before I finally got her in bed. The Big One did not take too well to the Little One being sick and cuddling with the FixItMommy all day. The jealous little monster in her took over at bedtime.
Grandma actually rocked the Big One to sleep in the living room {a special treat only at Grandma’s house.} After 30 minutes or so of sound sleeping, I picked her up and carried her into her bed. At which point, the scream-fest began. She whined, kicked, cried, flipped and flopped all over the bed. She threw her blanket off, then cried because she wanted it on. She asked me to sing to her then complained it was the wrong song. I was tired and fed up after about 40 minutes of it, as a result, I blurted out the unthinkable threat.
Just an aside, the Husband and I are usually really careful about threats, etc. because we are big on following through with what we say to the girls. So when we threaten a punishment, we make sure that we are ready and willing to enforce it.
What did I threaten? Well, I threatened that if she did not stop the crying, whining, fussing and drama that we would be going home in the morning and there would be no Christmas. Santa would not be brining her presents because she was not being good. She would not see her cousins and there would be no fun.
Yes, it was a bit extreme. Yes, it was wrong, Yes, I feel terribly guilty about it… But it did work. {Thank goodness for small miracles! I don’t know how I would have explained that one to the grandmas and grandpas.} Please help me feel better and tell me how you’ve scarred your children!
A “Great” Catch
You, my faithful readers know that of late there has been a lot of puking, peeing and pooping in my household. Throughout my puke patrol experience, I have noticed a very strange habit. You see when we are not readily prepared for impeding puke and it occurs, I have a tendency to cup my hand under the puking child’s mouth, somehow expecting to catch all the puke.
I’m really not sure what I expect to gain from doing this. The most recent times that I can remember it happening were actually at my parents’ house in the kitchen area. The reason I try to catch the puke still eludes me, as my parents {like most people} don’t have carpet in their kitchen. They have vinyl stuff, it’s very easy to clean yet I am compelled to try and catch the puke.
Of course, once I have two hands full of puke, I am fairly incapacitated. It’s not like I can pick the puking child up and take them to the bathtub. I can’t go grab a towel to begin mopping up the mess and I certainly can’t gather the Big One’s hair into a ponytail to save it from the puke.
So why is it that I feel the need to catch the puke? I don’t have an answer, but I must admit that I did smile a bit this afternoon when the Little One puked {no I didn’t smile because she puked, be patient}. I smiled because the Husband instinctively held up his hands to catch the puke. At least I would like to think it was to catch the puke and not to shield himself from the projectile. {The Husband and my dad were in the midst of assembling a new dining room table and chairs in the parental unit’s kitchen. I suppose since they were about 3 hours into what turned out to be a four-hour advenutre, he could have been trying to protect the brand new table and not really protecting himself, but who knows!}
So do, you try to catch the puke too? Or are we just plain weird or better yet slaves to futility?
Promises, Promises… UGH!
So I promised the Big One that we could get her a new baby doll to replace the one that Gracie Lou chewed up. I really tried to impress upon the Big One that we should get a doll just like the one that was destroyed. After all she was bigger than all the other babies and more importantly she didn’t make any noises. She was just a large baby doll.
Well, as usual, the Big One had ideas of her own as to what we should get to replace the damaged one. We went to Wal*Mart a few weeks ago and the Big One thought the baby who peed on the potty was very cool. I convinced her that we should keep looking for one like the one that we were replacing.
All was good for the last month or so. Then today, she finally wore me down at Wal*Mart and spotted the baby who pees on the potty. Against my gut and my better judgment, I bought the darn thing. I was so tired of the incessant whining, I caved. {nice lesson to teach her, huh?}
Okay, seriously, who is the genius who thought that a baby doll that pees and poops was a good thing? As if I don’t clean up enough pee and poop between my two children and my dog. Now I have a freaking baby doll who pees and poops too.
I tried to play it off like it was all pretend, the diapers, wipes, food packets and all. I tried to convince the Big One that the Baby Alive doesn’t really pee or poop, but the kid has seen the commercials on Noggin {damn TV}. So I put a little water in the bottle and gave it to the Big One to “feed” the baby.
I guess the idea is you feed the doll food and water and then she tells you that she has to go on the potty. Apparently the number of times you have run through the eat, play, poop, sleep cycle with the doll determines how many times the doll tells you she has to go potty before she actually does goes potty.
Of course I forgot the doll was still in “demo” mode from the store, so the water didn’t stay put in the doll, instead it ran right through her. There was no warning or anything like that, just a puddle of water on the carpet.
The Big One thought it was the greatest thing ever to change the wet diaper. And how many diapers do you think the dumb thing comes with? You guessed it…. Two. The one she was wearing and one extra. Now I just have to convince the Big One that I didn’t really fish the wet diaper out of the trash and lay it out on the counter to dry. I think I’ll just tell her I found another one in the box. How long do you think I can pull off that ruse?
Anybody know where to buy diapers {cheap} for the dumb Baby Alive doll?
Yet Another First…
And the Husband of course missed it. I say that with a bit of sarcasm, you just can’t read it, I know. What was our lovely “first” tonight? Well tonight was the first time the Big One screamed and cried long enough and hard enough to puke. Yep, she screamed until she puked.
I was livid with her for throwing this crazy temper tantrum so when she puked, I admit I was less than supportive. Not a real proud mommy moment, but man I was mad. I don’t know why she acts like a total turkey when we come down to grandma and grandpa’s house. I guess she is testing her boundaries and trying to see what all she can get away with. I can tell you that even grandma was tired of her antics tonight.
When she was little she would cry until she pooped {I know she will thank me for all of this when she is 16!}. I haven’t figured out which is worse, puke or poop. It seems that I clean up so much of it, that it really doesn’t matter. It’s all in a day’s work for the FixItMommy {and mothers all across the world!} What’s your preference, fellow mommies?
A Milestone for The Big One
Well, the Big One spent the night with Grammy and Papa last night. I haven’t heard anything yet, so I assume that it wasn’t a total disaster!
They planned a big day today of church, lunch and then cousin “Katy’s Ballet.” No it’s not The Nutcracker, it’s “Katy’s Ballet” and don’t you forget it!
I’ll let y’all know how it goes later today.
I know she didn’t get to bed until around 8:30-ish last night {normally she is in bed by 7 p.m.} I hope she got up okay for church and wasn’t too much of a a turkey butt for Grammy and Papa.
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