The Christmas Sugar High - Detoxing the Preschoolers

Over the past couple of weeks my kids have been partying like mini rock stars. Late nights, missing out on naps and living off of things like sugar cookies and candy canes have become the "norm". With a large family and numerous holiday parties, it's been hard to stick to our typical daily routine of grilled cheese sandwiches and at least an attempt at rest time. It's been fun (for them). Okay, it's been fun for me as well, but guess who gets stuck paying the price during the aftermath of it all? Me. *SIGH*. That really hasn't been fun.

It started the day after Christmas when I stuck to my vow of "NO MORE SUGAR" and "You guys are definitely taking naps this afternoon. No ifs, ands, or buts!" I mean seriously, this Christmas craziness had to come to a screeching halt at some point. What better day than the one after Christmas. It's over and my kids were slowly starting to come down from their chocolate Christmas tree, cookie, candy cane, holiday colored gummy bear high. That high, turned into an all time low. . . fast. They spent that morning crying, fighting over their toys, and throwing fits on our family room floor. It was so bad that I secretly confiscated the chocolate Santa's from their Christmas stockings and hid in my room for a few minutes. While my kids duked it out, I ate their Santas. It was a much better choice than the alternative of whipping myself up a dirty martini at 8 AM and attempting to deal with the madness that was going on around me. That's another vow that I've promised to stick to . . . never become a stay at home mom alcoholic. If I stuck to my guns that morning, I'm pretty confident I'll succeed.

My in-laws phoned my husband that morning while he was at work and asked if we'd like to join them for dinner out. My first thought was yes! No cooking, no cleaning and I can get out of the house . . . YES! My second thought, the realistic one, was that there is NO way I can bring my kids out like this. I made a deal with my kids - no more tantrums, no more fighting and if they rested during nap we'd meet their grandparents out for dinner at our favorite dinner spot. (The place that serves bottomless bowls of popcorn.) Besides one sword fight using fairy princess wands as their weapon of choice, the afternoon went smooth. The crying and fighting over everything came to an end, and they both had a decent rest time. A Christmas miracle! We made it out to dinner and we had been doing good with our no more sugar kick! Until, while out doing errands, the lady at the bank handed my kids lollipops at 10 AM this morning. Whatever. I believe that everything in moderation is okay. They just better not expect me to fork over sugar cookies for dinner. Not happening.

Enjoy the blog? Please take a second to vote for us.

Kids: You Better Not Pout, You Better Not Cry

Okay, so it's September and perhaps it's a little too early to be tossing out the whole Santa is watching you card . . .
Forget it, it's NEVER too early. If the stores can throw Christmas out there before Thanksgiving, or in some cases before Halloween, so can I. Honestly, my kids gave me the idea.

For the past two weeks my three year old has been fixated on Santa. (I find this amusing since this is our Santa picture from last year). For the record: I DID NOT want to be included in this picture, it was the only way I could get my girls within a ten foot radius of the big guy. Trust me, despite my efforts of trying to run away, the photographer convinced me that it would be great for me to just "join in, take the picture with them!" Ugh. To this day I consider it a miracle that I was able to pry them from my legs, and cough up the $25 bucks for this gem of a pic. However, I was firm when declining the $50 jumbo pack "deal". Anyway, my oldest has been talking about presents, Christmas trees and is even making up her own little jingles about Santa and Elves. My youngest is quick to follow her big sister's lead, so it's been just like living in the North Pole around here, although I'm starting to wonder if Hell is around the corner.

Please excuse my bitterness . . . I've been living on caffeine and DayQuil for two days straight. I haven't been sick in a long time, and these are the only things that are keeping me going. On a side note, there should be some sort of rule that states - IF YOU'RE A MOM, YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO GET SICK.  BAH-HUMBUG. 

So, I feel like I got hit by a bus, and with my kids constantly bickering about who Santa's favorite little helper is, the days have seemed pretty tiring. Things took a turn for the worse this morning when my husband left for work and I no longer had my weekend long, tag team partner to help out. Sick mom against the sassy Santa loving sisters who are going through a what's mine is mine phase.

It's funny, people always said to me when I had my girls close together that they would be the "bestest of friends . . . just wait and see." I'm still waiting. Good things come in time I guess, and like any siblings, there's rivalry.

Today my kids fought about whose mini muffins were bigger. They fought over who was going to wear a blue winter hat and who was going to wear a red winter hat. (I'm well aware that it's not winter hat weather, but my kids dug them out and apparently wearing the red hat means you're Santa.) The final draw was when they got into a full fledged, royal rumble over who was going to be the singer and who was going to be the drummer while singing a song they made up called "Santa, Santa All The Way". Drum sticks were flying and winter hats were being stomped on while I'm sitting there wishing I was stuck in an office cubicle with a box of tissues. (I hardly ever wish my stay at home mom days away for a job in an office, but feeling under the weather has clearly gotten the best of me.) So, out it came, 

"You know what? I'll bet if you guys keep acting like this Santa will skip our house. No presents, no stockings, just reindeer poop! He watches EVERYTHING, and only visits kids that behave!" 

Their mouths dropped to the floor and from that point on the fighting stopped. "I don't like reindeer poop!" What's the over under on me being able to put an Elf on the Shelf to watch over them while I curl up on the couch for a nap this afternoon? I'll probably have to settle for another cup of coffee and some cold meds. On the plus side, I've totally got Santa on my side.

Enjoy the blog? Please take a second to vote for us.

<< Click to vote once a day!

Sibling Rivalry: Shark-like Behavior, During Shark Week or Not, is Unacceptable!

The day has come . . . I've started to get my first dose of sibling rivalry with my kids. To be honest, I'm surprised it took so long. They are now three and just shy of two, and I can only imagine that it will get worse as they get older. They have always played well together. They respect each other's space, but are quick to give each other hugs too. They have impressed me with the way they share. Very recently, their sisterly bond has taken a turn. A love/hate, BFF/worst enemy turn that often has me grinding my teeth.

It started last week. It was a rainy morning and I was trying my best to keep my girls entertained indoors. I brought out two pop up tents, a tunnel and 200 mini balls. I thought for sure this would keep my kids entertained for a while since it's not something I bring out all that often. Even though they are good cleaner uppers, this is definitely a once in a while, rainy day activity. After about 50 balls into the clean up process, it becomes torturous for all of us. Within minutes of me dumping out that huge bag of balls, both kids decided they weren't fun anymore. Instead, they opted to put American Girl Doll tights on their heads and chase each other around with spatulas. They renamed themselves "The Amazing Baking Buddies" and were content and full of giggles. It was loud, but not nearly as loud as it got when I left the room.

As I was putting laundry away the giggles I heard coming from the room turned to yells, then screams, then cries. As I rushed back into the room I saw the two of them wrestling on the floor over a pair of fuchsia doll tights. I'm not sure who took whose tights, but what I did see was my youngest lean over and bite my oldest daughters arm . . . hard. I broke up the fight, and firmly told my youngest that biting is not okay. I comforted my oldest, washed the bite and applied ice. She calmed down quickly, and liked the fact that her younger sister was jealous of the special treatment she was getting. I'm not sure what was so special about ice cubes, but she liked them so much that I heard her encouraging her sister to

bite her again later that afternoon as I was in the other room. "Do it Charlotte, bite my arm. You'll get in trouble, and I'll get ice. Hahaha." I rushed back to the room, and thankfully I heard Charlotte telling Lanie "NO BITING". Maybe it was just a one time deal that happened to coincide with the upcoming Shark Week. Whatever the case, Jaws like behavior is one thing that I have a hard time tolerating. Shark Week or not, biting is unacceptable!

My youngest has been working hard to outshine her sister with the potty training. While they are both well on their way, Charlotte shows a much greater interest. Not only will she tell us that she has to go, but she'll climb, and jump childproof gates to get to the adult size potty in the bathroom. Apparently the little potty (that is always accessible in the room they are playing in) is for babies, and so are childproof gates. The climbing . . . Dear God . . . the climbing . . . IS the biggest teeth grinder of them all. I did let the gate climbing slide since she actually used the potty. Plus, that incident was not nearly as bad as finding her sitting in the middle of the kitchen counter, playing with a box of tissues all during the 27.2 seconds that it took me to run a bag of trash down to my garage.

On top of the fighting, biting, and climbing, the Awkward Mom Moment, award of the week, goes to Lanie. During our trip to the local wholesale store, we were in the check out lane, when she decided to strike up a conversation with the woman behind us. It went as follows:

Lanie: "Lovely day. Actually, it's a great day. We're buying Popsicles. What are you buying?"

Woman: speechless and turning bright red

Lanie: "Are you being shy? It's okay. I was shy once too."

Woman: now dripping sweat

I don't blame this woman one bit for not answering the question. I'd be speechless and sweaty too if a three year old interrogated me about the jumbo sized, variety pack of condoms that I was buying.

I looked away in shock. OMG shock. This stuff never happens when people have simple things like snack packs in their shopping carts.

Shark Week 2013 starts August 4th!

If you've enjoyed my blog

please take a second to vote for us.

<< Just click this icon to register your vote! You can

            vote once every 24 hours too! THANKS!