Look at you, you brilliant specimen of humankind! Our fathers and forefathers all the way back to our ape days would be right pleased to see you carrying on this journey of fitness.
This is a place to celebrate every moment of parenting that you deserve a big fat gold star for. I don’t mean in the sarcastic, “welp we’re watching Cocomelon for 2 hours because there is not enough coffee in the world” sort of gold star, I mean the really and truly moment of pride you feel.
Parenting can be thankless sometimes. Let us recognize you!
Today, in fact, I avoided the two hours of cocomelon. I even refused to cave into the tantrum for messy water play in the kitchen. Instead I suggested water play in the bath and we are here, while I drink coffee and surf the web and soon will watch Netflix.
Ok maybe I shouldn’t be using my phone in front of the kid. Whatever, fuck you! My kid is using his senses instead of being a TV pupa (like me). GOLD ! GOOD JOB MEOWKINS.
Today’s gold star for encouraging art and self-expression in Kiddo.
This morning as I was driving Kiddo to school I pointed out the sunrise making all kinds of colors on the clouds. Kiddo said after school he wants to do painting so he can paint the sunrise and hang it up in his room. He knows that I have painting stuff ready by the back door (including spare clothes) so he can do it on the porch and I don’t care if he’s a bit messy. The last time he did a big painting on some brown paper used as packing material he did a dragon and it’s still hanging in his room. Not sure where we’ll find wall space for a new art piece but that’s part of what he’ll figure out, he’s been into “decorating” lately. The other day he “decorated” the bathroom by placing a TP roll on the bathtub ledge and was very proud to show it off.
I had to throw away my corn on the cob because it tasted fermented. All the other corn at the table tasted fine.
My 4-year old made me alternate bites with her on her corn because “corn is your favorite, Mommy, and it’s good to share if someone doesn’t have something.”
My kid reliably says thank you with every interaction (not always please - still working on it). Then she tells us that she “said thank you Mama, because I so polite!”
I cooked a real dinner even though I didn’t want to. We have all sorts of premade, freezer kind of stuff that I would have rather microwaved but the child who is seriously underweight prefers my cooking. So I made carne asada, beans, rice and guacamole instead of a frozen pizza. She ate the tiny amount she could fit in and thanked me and I’m still annoyed that this is the situation but I really can’t be lazy about keeping her alive, so I did it.
I took two kids to a shopping centre so one could pick the other one a gift. I did my very best not to influence the gift decisions (hello sparkly frozen bubble bath) and was patient while we tried out every coin (paypass) operated vehicle we walked past (my kids don’t know what happens when you pay yet). When the four year old was hungry early and suggested getting sushi I took a moment to recognise that she wasn’t just asked for something she wanted, she identified she was hungry and came up with a solution before it got to meltdown point. She asked the waiter for a pink cup and got a grey one but took a deep breath and said “this is a nice grey cup isn’t it? I wanted pink but this is ok too”. We had a delicious birthday sushi lunch for the one year old. She reminded me to put my mask back on to go up to pay .
Normally these are not places I like. I definitely try to avoid taking kids. We all had a really good time.
We must be doing something right - because boy PDM seems to be really clever. I was reading to him tonight from “100 things to know about Planet Earth”
And he says “like shade does!”. He was presented with a new piece of information and then related it to his limited understanding of the world. Aka the magnetosphere sphere protects us from the sun and so does shade. 3 years old.
I calmed down my kid from a night terror without breastfeeding or being awake for hours after! And then at 6 I got him back to sleep quickly without breastfeeding. I did the hard thing and he is still loving and not broken!!!
The grandparents ruined this for me. Why would ANYONE let kids know what happen when you pay?!
My daughter doesn’t know that there is ice cream in our state. She keeps asking to go to Portugal or Nebraska for ice cream. Sadly, school let her know that it is possible to put chocolate into milk…but oddly you just can’t do that at home…
Absolutely pouring today at daycare drop off.
I told my daughter I would unbuckle her and she would climb over to get out on son’s side. Then I would HELP son out (usually not allowed) so we could go quick, and then would all walk, no one run, so we did not fall.
4- year old says “speedwalking?” I had no idea she knew that word.
But then she says “You know what would help us? An umbrella?”
And then I remembered I HAD AN UMBRELLA.
I thanked her for saying that and she said “I thought it with my brain.”
Then she and her brother held hands to walk nicely under the umbrella I held up for them, without fighting.
My daughter loves to clean and whenever someone spills something or the baby spits up she yells “uh oh!” and runs to the buffet, opens the drawer with the kitchen towels, pulls out a kitchen towel, and cleans it up. Last night we were playing in the garage and the baby had one tiny bit of drool drip out of her mouth and she ran inside to get a towel and clean it up.
She also pulls the broom out of the closet at least once per day and “sweeps” all over the main floor.
Oh, I just thought of another one. Anytime she is in trouble we say “oh no” with a sad voice and then tell her that she is going into time out. Lately if we say “oh no” she looks at us and then runs to her time out spot and closes the door (the closet under the stairs). Yesterday I caught her climbing on the counters and after I took her down I asked her if she is allowed to climb on the counters. She shook her head, said “no no no” and went to her time out spot.
Today I survived the first time I have been alone with both kids(3 year old and 6 week old). We made art, ate food and only had minimal screen time. While getting ready for bed the 3 year old(who didn’t take a nap because I didn’t have spoons to deal with nap) she had a meltdown because she “had too much fun today”. The meltdown sucks but the reason made my day.
Latte found a little play hammer I had stashed a while back. She immediately learned a new skill: smash all the furniture with a hammer. Instead of stressing about furniture dents and taking it away and causing a meltdown, I went and got an appropriate toy, meant for hammer smashing, and she happily directed toward that task. No more furniture has been smashed.
My kid said no to dinner. Insisted on bread and butter instead. And I told him that this is dinner today but he can have bread and butter another time. Went apeshit, refused to eat, etc cetera. Then when we were reading books he said he needed to eat, went to the dinner table (where his dinner still was), ate the chicken and thenorzo, and then continued the bedtime routine.
He has no idea how close I was to just giving him Bread and butter.
Maybe not a gold star for all parenting styles, but I feel really good about setting a boundary and rule and sticking to it. Also, he eventually did eat what was available, which, that’s life man.
We are up to two weeks now of getting them both to (afternoon) nap and then go to sleep for the night on the same schedule. When I sit my rump on the couch at 7:30pm to watch adult tv with both of them tucked up for the night (or for the next 4 hours a la infant) at the same time, I feel like a MF champion.
A regurgitated milk soaked champion because this damn baby is a projectile princess. It ain’t all sunshine - it’s mostly laundry. But the sleep is good and that makes everything bearable.
! GOOD JOB MEOWKINS.
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