Fun in the Sun!

This pretty much sums up what we did at the Maxwell House last weekend.

Sometimes It Takes a 3 Year Old

Wednesday night Nick's middle school soccer team had their "banquet" (I'm not sure you can really call it a banquet when it's outdoors and you have fried chicken...). I got there late and they were just getting ready to start the player vs. parent game. That's right, the host had an actual soccer field on his 16 acre property for the kids to play on. Bailey and I sat on the sidelines and watched and cheered on the participants. Then we had a little playmate join us. Her name was Katherine and she was 3. She was adorable, and what was even more adorable was the fact that Bailey followed her everywhere and wanted to do everything that she did. I have to say, I think I needed this. There have been days over the last month or so where I've questioned my desire to have another baby...and if you know me, you know that doesn't sound like me at all. Yeah, I'm the one trying to talk my husband into 3 kids when he would be fine stopping now! But with the tantrums and work and cleaning I've been so tired that it's been hard to imagine having another child to add to the chaos I call life. But seeing them play together completely restored my longings for a larger family. I know it won't always be easy, but I know I'm meant to have a bigger family...whatever the number may be (I'm still pushing for 3, he's compromised to 2).

To My Child

I read this today on Baby Center's website (while reading about how to handle Toddler Tantrums :) ) and thought I would share it with you all.

To My Child:

Just for this morning, I am going to smile when I see your face and laugh when I feel like crying.

Just for this morning, I will let you choose what you want to wear, and smile and say how perfect it is.

Just for this morning, I am going to step over the laundry, and pick you up and take you to the park to play.

Just for this morning, I will leave the dishes in the sink, and let you teach me how to put that puzzle of yours together.

Just for this afternoon, I will unplug the telephone and keep the computer off, and sit with you in the backyard and blow bubbles.

Just for this afternoon, I will not yell once, not even a tiny grumble when you scream and whine for the ice cream truck, and I will buy you one if he comes by.

Just for this afternoon, I won't worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, or second guess every decision I have made where you are concerned.

Just for this afternoon, I will let you help me bake cookies, and I won't stand over you trying to fix them.

Just for this evening, I will hold you in my arms and tell you a story about how you were born and how much I love you. Just for this evening, I will let you splash in the tub and not get angry.

Just for this evening, I will let you stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars.

Just for this evening, I will snuggle beside you for hours, and miss my favorite TV shows.

Just for this evening when I run my finger through your hair as you pray, I will simply be grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given.

I will think about the mothers and fathers who are searching for their missing children, the mothers and fathers who are visiting their children's graves instead of their bedrooms, and mothers and fathers who are in hospital rooms watching their children suffer senselessly, and screaming inside that they can't handle it anymore. And when I kiss you good night I will hold you a little tighter, a little longer. It is then, that I will thank God for you, and ask him for nothing, except one more day..............

A Case of the Mondays

Some days it would just be nice to be able to crawl back into bed and just re-start the day...today is one of those days. Bailey decided to wake up at 6:15 this morning, which is almost an hour earlier than she usually wakes up. She did stay in her crib until 7:00, because she was content talking to her stuffed animals, but it still makes for a crabby baby when we're out of routine. As always, I start to put my make up on at my vanity. I do allow Bailey to play with certain items (empty blush container mainly), but she decided she wanted my foundation this morning. I stuck my hand out and asked her to please hand it to mommy. Instead, she looked at me and threw it down behind her. Time Out. After time out I asked her to say she was sorry, "No". We went back to time out. I asked her again to say she was sorry, "No". This was pretty much how the rest of the morning went. She refused to say no. She didn't care that she was in time out (okay, she cared, she was screaming and crying at this point, but didn't care enough to say sorry). And usually she gets to watch a cartoon while I dry my hair, but not this morning. Then we're headed out to the car. She stops in the middle of the driveway and doesn't want to walk anymore. So I go pick her up and she doesn't want that either! She squirms and screams the whole time I'm putting her in the car.

Then on the way to my mom's a lady backing out of her driveway almost hits us because she isn't paying a bit of attention where she's going. I honk my horn, swerve and try to stop and she just casually goes back into her driveway like nothing's wrong. No "I'm sorry" hand wave or anything.

On my way to work I think thats it's probably too early in the morning for a drink, so a donut will have to do. (My office is just a few doors down from Frank's Donuts, seriously the best donuts!) I always try and resist the smell of fresh donuts wafting out into the parking lot as I head into work, but I decided this morning they would be just what I needed. I scrounge up change from my car and purse (It doesn't really count as spending money if you don't have to use your debit card, right?) and head down to the store. Only to find that the neon light is off and the door locked. Seriously? They're open 7 days a week, and they decided today would be a good day to close up shop?!

That's how my Monday morning was going, all before 8:30...hope everyone else started the week off on a better note!

**Ok, and after about 50 attempts I'm now so frustrated with stupid blogger I want to throw the computer out the door! Sometimes it will separate my paragraphs where I want it to, and other times it won't. Does anyone know why this is? It drives me crazy!!!**

Confession

I love my blog. I love reading other blogs. It's great to see that others are going through some of the same things you are, and you're reminded that some are going through things you could never imagine. I love to write about the fun things we do as a family, silly things Bailey is doing/saying and maybe even the occasional new recipe (although not recently!). However, I rarely open up and share the hard things. Maybe it's shyness (not likely) or maybe it's me trying to "present" myself a certain way to the blogging world (more likely). Whatever the reason, for some reason I've felt the need today to have a sort of confession post.

As a mother, I doubt myself constantly. Is she watching too much TV? Is she getting enough vegetables? Should I read to her more? Am I disciplining her correctly? Doubts I've gotten used to, but...

Then there are nights, like last night, when your child is behaving much worse than you know she could/should and you just want to scream...and maybe you even do!

Bailey has horrible allergies and we're just recovering from the last big attack she had. Right now she has a horrible flemmy (I think I just made that word up!) cough and I know she isn't feeling 100%, but she absolutely wore me out last night. Of course Nick was gone for soccer stuff and it was just the two of us last night. She was fine until it was time for me to start making dinner. She kept crying at my leg "Mommy do", and I would try to ask her what she wanted me to do, but she just kept crying.

I gave her juice, she threw it down. I gave her a bowl and measuring spoons to "bake" with, that pacified her for a whole three minutes until the tears started again. Then she got in trouble for being too close to the stove, which caused another melt down. I went ahead and put her in her high chair and gave her some tortilla shell to snack on until everything else was ready. The crying continued. Finally I screamed. I, the "adult" in this situation, screamed at a 19 month baby for crying too much. I just wanted to sit down in the floor and cry too. We managed to finish dinner and get through the rest of the evening with only a few more tears shed.

When I went to bed last night, I cried. I had screamed at my baby for no real reason. She can't help it that she doesn't feel good and that she can't tell me exactly how she feels and what she wants. I prayed for God to give me the patience that I know I lack and to help me handle these types of situations better in the future. I know she'll never remember last night and me yelling at her, but I don't know that I'll ever forget it. And ok, in the grand scheme of things it could have gone worse, but still I feel so horrible! Chalk last night up on the mommy not-to-do list.

Maxwell Mini-Adventures

This year a beach vacation just wasn't in the cards for us at the Maxwell House, so we decided we do little trips...or "Mini-Adventures", as I've decided to call them, you know, just to make it sound a little jazzier! We took our first mini-adventure this past weekend. We got a hotel room in Erlanger for Saturday night and then went to the Newport Aquarium on Sunday. We had so much fun!! In true vacation fashion we let Bailey break all the rules and just have fun...we jumped on the bed when we got to our hotel room, we all took a nap together in the big King sized bed, she got to have more ice cream than normal for dessert and she got to stay up an hour past her bedtime :) We had dinner at Dewey's pizza, which I highly recommend, it was the best crust! Our hotel had an indoor pool and my little swimmer loved it! We would hold her stomach and she would kick her legs like she really knew what she was doing. I swear that child is scared of just about everything...except the pool. It was all we could do to keep her from just running and jumping in when we got there! Here are some pics of the trip.

Bailey with her new sunglasses, this is her Hollywood look.

Having a little pb & j on the way to our hotel, with her purse in her lap :) Mommy and daddy are excited!!

This picture is for Sarah and Ivy...they had belly dancers performing at the Levee, and I couldn't help but think of sweet Ivy and her talented little belly...sorry, they must have been on break here, no action pictures :)

Headed back to the hotel room after dinner.

At the aquarium. She packed Mr. Froggy Pants the whole time...it was a homecoming for him, that's where he came from!

Pointing to the big "feesh".

She kept grabbing her belly and laughing at the fish.

She would just sit down and then point and tell me "Momma here"...just a tad bossy :)

What a good little mommy, she wanted to make sure Froggy could see the jelly fish.

A cute sting ray.

On the way out.

All tuckered out on the way home :)

So, she was a little scared at first of all the fish, but then she realized they couldn't come out of the tank and she had a good time. However, there was one time that she had her face pressed up against a tank laughing and a huge fish swam by, stopped and turned and looked right at her and she about jumped out of her skin...it was so funny!!

This was a great first mini-adventure and I'm looking forward to many more this summer!!

**I do have one gripe. I had my heart set on seeing the Penguin Parade, which is something they do every morning right when they open. They bring 1 or 2 penguins outside and have a little "parade". The website said it happened at 10:15 every morning, so we got there at 10:00, only to find out that the aquarium now opens at 9:00 so they have it at 9:15. When the teen-age boy told me this I let him know (in maybe a not so nice tone) that they need to update their website because it still said they opened at 10:00, and people make plans based on that information. Nick told me I was being a "mean mom"...but I was upset, I had my heart set on that! Oh well, maybe next time!**

Problem Solving

Wednesday night Bailey and I played outside for about an hour and a half after dinner, and most of the time she pushed her baby around in the stroller. She has a tendancy to drift to one side or the other while pushing the stroller, and she kept running into the grass...but she figured out a way around that... It's so fun to watch her figure things out...kids are so smart!