Temper

I have been very short on temper the last two days.  I dislike it when I snap at my children for things that I should be able to handle in a more positive way.  I don't like when I yell at them because what they're doing is very child-like, but so not what an adult wants to have happen--like pouring an entire cup of water on the table, just to see what happens.

My children have been children, nothing more, but when you're running low on patience, it's hard to be the parent you want to be.  My children are at that age where they like to push you and see what they can get away with.  Okay, wait, that's not entirely accurate, they are in that long stretch of life called, "childhood" in which they test and test and test their parents to see what happens.  Today, I was not interested in being tested.

Today I was a crappy parent.  Tomorrow,  I hope I'll be a more mellow mom.

The Big Boy Update:  "I'm going to do it the right way."  My son had brought out a very simple puzzle with colored fish.  All the fish are the same shape and any fish will fit into any spot.  My son for the first time decided there should be some order to the fish and wanted to put the colored fish into the matching colored slot. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "Why you doing the bouncy house one?"  My daughter asked me this question and I had no idea what she was talking about at first.  We had some sticky substances get into the car seat latches and I had been soaking them in water to dissolve any residue.  I decided to dry out the latches with a hairdryer and had gotten the extension cord so my hair dryer would reach the car.  What I didn't realize was that the only other thing my daughter has ever seen us use that extension cord for was to plug in the bouncy house. 

Dinner With Friends

We had dinner with our neighbors tonight.  We went to one of their favorite restaurants.  We enjoyed small plates that we shared and a lot of good conversation.  I had a great night.  We have some great neighbors.

Among stories shared were those about pregnancy, delivery and other things best shared only by those who have lived through the horrors (or joys) of delivering and raising a child.  That's not to say that others might not be interested in the stories, just that those that have experienced them personally will find your stories that much more humorous.

We have a lot in common with our next-door-neighbors.  We plan to go out on child-free dinners more often. 

The Big Boy Update:  "Why we have balloons in the car?"  My son asked me this after having a lovely dinner at a restaurant.  Upon leaving, the waiter gave both my son and daughter balloons.  They happily carried them to the car and were then strapped into their seats.  As we drove off, my son asked us why we had balloons in the car

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   "I want a spoon."  My daughter has a utensil issue.  She only likes spoons.  If a for is available, it's not a spoon.  She has almost had a tantrum over the lack of spoon at her place.  Okay, let me think that through, she has had a tantrum because a spoon, "wasn't available".  We're not letting her have a spoon every time she asks for one because she needs to learn that a fork is a useful tool as well.

Alcohol Is Heavy

So this month I haven't been drinking alcohol.  Or for the most part I haven't been.  There was the champagne toast and the unfinished champagne bottle.   (Let's not ask my husband about that one, he may have some choice words for me.)   There was the, "let's go to a bar before we go to dinner so we can have drinks" birthday event that I felt obligated to have a beer at to be social.  But other than a few specific instances, I haven't had any alcohol at all. 

It's interesting how your mind just doesn't care about alcohol when you haven't had any for a while.  I hear it's like that with lots of things, such as fatty or salty foods and candy.  Maybe it's like that with reality television.  I know I don't have any desire to watch any, but that could be because I've never gotten interested in it.

Back to the alcohol though.  Last month it seemed like I had to pay attention to my weight and I was even considering going on a restriction of calories for a week or two because I had seemed to be going up a tiny bit for a while. 

This month with no alcohol and I'm back to where I expect my weight to be.  I don't know if it was the calories in the alcohol or the food I ate because alcohol makes me hungry that made the difference. 

The Big Boy Update:  "I want to be good."  This was one of those things that just about made me cry.  I had a phone call and was working on something today and my son wanted the iPad so I gave it to him so I could work on the computer for the duration of the call.  I came back after the call to find him lying on our bed with very wet pants.  This means our comforter was wet with urine as well.  I was so mad that I yelled at him.  He really does know better and he's so good at toileting at this age, but sometimes he gets too focused.  I kept yelling at him and telling him I was so mad and that I was disappointed in him because he knew better.  He was sitting forelornly on the bridge with his legs dangling through the pickets in the railing when I had calmed down.  He looked at me and said in a sad voice, "I want to be good."  And I know he does want to be good.  I picked him up and hugged him and told him I knew he wanted to be good and I knew he tried and I was so proud of him for trying.  We then had to wrestle around on the floor until we both got the giggles.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Change of roles.  Tonight, my son calmly got out of bed after an unexpected nap, walked downstairs and sat in the chair waiting for dinner.  My daughter, on the other and very uncharacteristic hand, threw a tantrum like I've never seen her do before.  She was unable to comfort herself and she didn't want my help either.  It went on for twenty minutes.  When daddy got home and had chocolate, I gave her a mini candy bar out of desperation because she needed some calories and nothing was working.  She sat on the floor, at the candy and then my daughter returned to normal.

An Itchy Update

The Big Boy Update:  Most of tonight's post is going to be about my son, so I'm just going to start with his section heading as I know my three readers are easily confused.  Alright, fine, it's not you folks. It's for me for future reference.  Years from now, how will I find something I remember writing about but have no idea when I wrote it?  (Assuming this blog, the internet and  I'm still here)  If I stick it in the main section of the blog will I miss it if I'm only looking through updates on my son?  So to make sure I don't get confused (you see I was the confused one all along) I'm keeping updates on my son in his section. 

Let's talk about being itchy though.  My son developed eczema when he was about four-months-old.  He didn't know how to scratch then, but it looked bothersome and we hoped it would go away.  Some time later, we discovered he had an egg white allergy.  It's not uncommon in young children and the allergy usually goes away when their immune system is more mature.  So we avoided eggs.

His itchy skin--he could scratch by this time--didn't get better though.  And to back up, the allergy he had was initially obvious; he would eat something and then get all red around the mouth and on his thumb and index finger.  He was reacting to things he was eating on all the external places he touched the food.  Only later did we make the connection to the eczema.  There would be an immediate topical reaction and then there would be a delayed dermal reaction of about two days.

Eggs are in a lot of things in small quantities.  We avoided it mostly, but he would have strange reactions to things that didn't make sense--things he didn't react to last week.  We were perplexed.  We finally got a blood test for food allergies done on him.  And then we understood.  He was reactive to all the major things: milk, egg, wheat, soy, tree nuts, fish.   Well no wonder this kid had eczema.

The pediatrician said the levels weren't high and gave us some foods to avoid over others.  We cut back on some things and his eczema got better.  He had gotten better at using a utensil and getting the food in his mouth by this time so he didn't get red in the face and his hands didn't look like he needed to soak them in Palm Olive and have a manicure anymore.  But the eczema persisted.

For example, at one point we were feeding him edamame beans and unlike the times before he had a terrible itchy reaction.  After that one time we've carried Benadryl in the car ever since.  As he gets older, both the reactions and the eczema have reduced.

Now, my son can eat a meringue cookie and ask for a second.  That's right, that's a cookie made entirely of egg whites and sugar.  Egg whites were his nemesis for a long time.  Those soy beans he had a fit of a time over, we now buy in freezer bags and give him a bowl full for snack.  Peanuts he still dislikes, but other than that, he's got a much more flexible diet now.

He's old enough to tell us if something, "makes him itchy" and we'll ask him before we try something he reacted to in the past for a new evaluation.  If he doesn't like it (say like the coconut cookie I tried today) then no matter how delicious that item might be, he'll hand it over to his sister and let her have it. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  She only uses a pacifier in the bed at night.  Well, unless she finds it during the day.  She can and does sleep other places without it, like the car seat or the sofa, but she is very fond of it.  It's going to be a sad day when the pacifier has to be retired. 

The Oreo Tooth

My son's discolored tooth had me thinking back to my childhood and the days of loose teeth and the memory of that strange sensation of a freshly missing tooth in your mouth.  But this story isn't about my mouth, it's about my friend's.

She had a loose tooth that she was waggling back and forth but didn't quite have the nerve to pull out.  It was one of her top front teeth and she didn't have the experience to know yet that it's far better to rip it out and get it over with than deal with the bother over days or weeks. 

We were eating Oreos and swinging in the hammock in our front yard.  Back then, the hammock was close to the front door.  These days those sturdy trees are long gone, cut down when they started impinging on the house, but back then, they were young and healthy.

So we were swinging and eating Oreos and we had made a lovely pile of leaves under the hammock in case we decided to roll out.  It was a nice fall day and I am certain our parents were more than glad we were occupying ourselves and letting them enjoy the day.

About that time my friend told me there was something hard in the filling of her Oreo.  She spit it out into the leaves.  You know what's coming next, right?  She realized a few minutes later--interestingly enough, not immediately--that her tooth was missing. 

Thus ensued a long and exhaustive search through a large pile of leaves for that tooth...because she needed it for the Tooth Fairy.   We must have had more patience as children, because we looked long enough and eventually found the tooth.

The Big Boy Update:  Tower of trucks.  I got another truck for them today.  Children seem to like to things like dump trucks around backwards, usually running, for no apparent reason.  Uncle Dale's childhood trucks are very popular and one more truck, somewhat bigger was only going to make the fun more funny.  One of the first things my son did was to put the smaller dump truck in the back of the new dump truck.  Then he put the tow truck in the top of that dump truck and when I looked next, he was trying to balance a fourth truck on top. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Purple.  My daughter has taken a recent liking to the color purple.  She has a water bottle that she likes to tote around and hold with her Mickey Mouse or baby or other stuffed animal.  She didn't want snack today unless I could put it in the purple bowl for her.  The purple bowl was in the dish washer.  She decided she didn't need snack in that case.

We're Leaving...

My children really don't care if we leave.  They like their sitters and they have fun when people come to visit.  They might be upset when we go because, for example tonight, my son didn't want to eat dinner.  He didn't want to eat dinner because he was overly hungry.  Our sitter, Tristan, sat on the steps while he wallowed on the lowest stair and asked him some unrelated questions and the next thing I knew, my son was eating his dinner.

Did they care when we told Tristan we were leaving?  Not one bit.  I suppose I'm proud of that.  They don't have separation anxiety with either my husband or me.   On the other hand, it's nice to be wanted and missed. 

I suppose you can't have both attachment and independence at the same time.

The Big Boy Update:  Under the dining room table.  My son loves to get under the dining room table.  It's a square table so there is room for him to easily sit under there with a toy, multiple toys or as in the case today, an iPad he found.  I wouldn't have discovered him for a good while had he not turned up the volume on the app he was playing.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was eating pretzel sticks today and she was making shapes on the table with them.  She had made a triangle and I showed her how you could put a triangle on top of a square and make a house.  She looked at the house and said, "that's Madison's house!"  Madison is her next-door-neighbor.

Laura Little

My children were invited to a birthday party today.  We got our present, decorated our card, put on some cute clothes (the children, not me) and headed over to their house.  I had looked up the address several days before because I recognized the street, but couldn't place it.

I did know where that street was, but I hadn't been there in years.  I was pretty certain one of my friends from elementary school had lived on that street, but I couldn't remember exactly.  It's hard to remember street names when you're years away from driving and your parents take you everywhere.

But I was right, it was her street I discovered when we arrived.  I could picture her house, so interesting to me because it was a contemporary design.  There were skylights and angles and it was very exciting inside because it felt both open and like there were lots of little spaces at the same time.

I hadn't remembered her name until we parked and got out of the car.  I looked over to here house and suddenly her name, Laura Little, came to me.  How memory works is amazing.

The Big Boy Update:  Naked.  We were outside today, in February, without jackets.  It was sunny and warm and our neighbor's son was out in a t-shirt and shorts.  My son and daughter walked up to the neighbor's porch a while later and after some time we decided we'd better go check on what they were doing.  My son had taken every bit of clothing off because, "they were dirty."  He decided he wanted to play naked for another hour outside.  He even slid down the slide naked.  Hillarious.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Must...be...naked...too.  My daughter decided if her brother could be naked, she could be naked.  She also took off all her clothes, slid down the slide, fell in the dirt, wiped her bottom off with a cloth and then kept playing.  I kept my clothes on.