Basketball

I took down the tree decorations Saturday. The kids didn't seem to mind and considering it is the end of January they really didn't seem like it was that out of character. I should be scared by that, I think.

G has been doing well with basketball, his team has 3 wins under their belt and I do believe he has a few assists. I think he could have attempted to shoot the ball at the basket, but no luck making it. I say think because I spend most of my Saturday basketball game time wrestling a pig, I mean the Sweet Baby, in my lap while making sure that The Diva shares my pens with her "friends" and Skywalker stays within eyesight. The last game had real seats, and I remembered to give the baby some Benedryl before we left so I was able to watch more, yay!

All in all, he is doing well. Coach says he needs to be more aggressive. Gave him some mental image about a bee and the basketball is honey. Forget the bee, I said. Just imagine the other team is your sister and she just stole the basketball. Now that's aggression!

Sweet Baby Update

This month Sweet Baby...

• is saying "Cheese" for pictures, but I taught her to say that so I could brush her teeth better.
• loving to color, loving it
• still loves ducks, and they painted one at school last week that she has to show me every few days before we leave her class
• bubbles in the bath tub, she wishes she could push the button on the jet tub to make more bubbles but I won't let her
• Has started waking up for no reason in the middle of the night or nap and crying. A lot. And loud.
• play with Play Doh, she doesn't even eat it! I can put her in the high chair while I cook dinner and she will play with it by herself for 15 minutes
• puzzles, and she is good-- can turn those pieces and put them right in
• these Dr. Suess color flashcards she got from Santa, she goes through each of them, turns them, looks at both sides, puts them in a stack, then restacks them
• is trying to learn how to potty train, she likes to sit on the seat. She likes it when I sing "Twinkle, Twinkle" while she sits there, but nothing in the potty yet. Twice, I have to sing it twice.
• crawled out of her crib 2 weeks ago (I think I may have blogged about it), so now she is sleeping in our bed until we get a big bed for her
• Is learning to count because of how much trouble she gets into. I tell her no, when she doesn't stop, I count to 5 and go get her. She can count to 2 on her fingers with me now.
• Loves to dance
• Organizes things, anything
• Loves to rock babies and sing "bye, bye, bye" *her version of "Rock a bye baby"

Life Lesson #847

   Tonight I was 15 minutes late to pick up G from basketball practice.

   After, on the way to practice, I discussed with him why I was always early to things. He noticed we were going to be early to practice, so I shared with him my tip of setting the clock ahead, he seemed pleased I had a master plan. I suppose it being wrong had always bothered him.

   Typically, practice runs a little over so I was in no hurry. Wouldn't you know tonight would be the night they wouldn't. So as he jogged to the car, visably upset from his wait, I felt about as bad as I could have. 15 minutes is a long time spent waiting and his, "What took you so long?" didn't seem to help. I spent a while feeling guilty, told him I was sorry about 5 times, and resisted the urge to stop at Sonic and buy him I'm-A-Bad-Mom-Icecream.

   Then I told on myself to the husband who had the best idea ever. Why don't I think about these things? I should have just gone all "life lesson #847" on him!

"Well this is how it feels when people are late. Sucks doesn't it?"

   Ah well, I suppose humility and admiting when you are wrong is another life lesson to learn. I also told the hubs I now plan on screwing up more often. We can't have our children believing everyone is as dependable as their dear old mom. So things are going to change around here! Expect an unloaded dishwasher from time to time, and being late to ball practice... although I don't think I can do that to him anytime soon... and... I'm sure I'll come up with more to screw up in the thick of things. Chips for dinner. Maybe we'll have chips for dinner.

We had a quiet New Years this year. I was excited that Adam would be home, he usually misses New Years Eve with us and I was looking forward to spending the night at home with him and the kids. We did just that, nothing fancy.... cocktail wieners, burnt cheese dip, homemade "2012" glasses for G, and watching TV shows on Netflix. It would have been perfect if the cheese dip hadn't sucked.

We even let the Sweet Baby stay up to ring in the New Year with us. She had fun all night playing with the blow horns I had bought, eating the snacks, and playing with her brother, but at about 11:45 she started to lose her steam. Adam couldn't let her do that so he got her up and marched her around the house until she last exactly another 16 minutes. It was worth it, she thought the ball drop was magic, loved to hear the noises G made when it was 12:00, and gets happy when everyone is excited.

But then we've been paying for it since. Everyone warns against letting a toddler stay up but no one tells you why. Well here it is folks, for your information:

Reasons Why Toddlers Should NOT Ring in the New Year

1. They will cry a lot. The whole next day. *turns out it is actually the whole next TWO days.
2. Parents of toddlers are excited to have a wee bit of freedom since their child can now roll over without their attention, so they tend to drink a bit when they get the chance. You'll want to sleep in. They won't.
3. 7:00 A.M. wake up time is now 5:00 A.M. and no one knows why.
4. Everything is a tantrum.
5. You'll have to watch where you step, never know where your toddler has doozed off for a quick snooze.
6. They now know what those noise blowers are and how to work them.

The Great Escape

I was informed recently that I should blog more so here I am. I had planned on blogging about nothing in particular, just the hum-drum that is our lives but them something happened.

Now before I even start this, I am usually very happy to receive advice on child rearing and smile and take every old wives tale and tried and true practice to heart. Why reinvent the wheel anyway, other mothers have blazed the trail before myself, let them do all the heavy lifting and brain work. Yes, most of the time I am open to kind words of wisdom.

Now with all of that said, please do not inform me that my 16 month old should be sleeping through the night by herself.

I know this.
I suck.
I am sure your kid sucked his thumb until he was 6 but I am not casting any glances your way now am I?

Yes, I should have sleep trained her. No, I shouldn't have let her fall asleep on my boob after the 3rd round of breast feeding that night. Yes, I should have put her back in the crib when she looked up at me and made me give her bear a Night Night kiss. I know these things. And yes, she has slept some complete nights in her own bed, just not a lot.

So back to the something that happened. We're just going back to school schedule after Christmas break and after letting a young child stay up for New Year's Eve there are certain prices a parent must pay. Lousy bedtime routine is one of them. So I just put the Sweet Baby down in the bed after rocking and milk, told her good night and jetted. She cried for about 10 minutes I went and calmed her down, tried fake sleeping on her floor but she didn't care.  So I rocked her again but she was fighting me, literally, so I put her back in and left. Then about 4 minutes later I heard a bump and a louder cry (brothers down the hall didn't think that was possible I'm sure).

The little princess had escaped.

So I did what any other dead beat mom would do. She's now sleeping comfortably in the middle of my king size bed.