Category Archives: parenting

Locks of Boredom…

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A little bit like Locks of Love, except there’s no minimum hair length before the chopping, oh…and there’s also no licensed hairdresser doing the cutting….oh wait….you don’t just cut your hair off??????

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Look at that gorgeous hair.  The hair we’ve been waiting to grow for 4+ years now.  Anyone care to guess how it looks right now??????

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What is a mother to do????

I’ll tell you what I did…Miss A, are you listening…please remember this when you have a daughter who cuts her own hair.  It is most certainly one of my better parenting moments…no sarcasm.  You don’t believe me do you?

Backstory.  The kids both have Staph infections.  They also have mild cases of coxackie.  And Miss A has a ruptured ear drum.  We’ve been home recuperating all week.  Fun times here….fun times.

So…I went to do some mundane, unnecessary task, you know, like getting Baby D out of his crib and changing his diaper.  Apparently, the 2 hours I’d spent with Miss A having 1 on 1 time for breakfast, doing some arts and crafts, coloring in her new sketchbook and chatting was not enough to keep her wild mind and spirit for adventure satisfied for the 6 minutes this silly task took.

We fed baby D, we got him dressed and as we were walking towards the door to leave and head to the grocery store…out of the corner of my eye I noticed what looked like tufts of hair from a hairbrush on Miss A’s floor…..and then I noticed the unmistakable orange handle.  That  handle plus the blunt cut lines on the hair…I knew.  Now, when I looked at her I couldn’t really tell where she cut the hair from…then I got a little closer.  I quietly asked “Miss A…did you cut your hair?”  She started to cry.  Sob actually.  Uncontrollably.  Now…if someone took a scissor to my hair and did that to me, I’d cry that way too.  Thing is, SHE DID IT TO HERSELF!  Why the crying?????  I didn’t even yell!!!

I explained to her that it was her hair, and if she’d like it to be long like she says she does, cutting it will not speed up that result.  Sweetheart!

Inside I’m dying.  If she’s wearing a headband or a bow, it’s not SO noticeable…but in any other circumstance, she has side bangs.  No…not the pretty kind that are layered…more the mullet kind that can’t be fixed unless I chop her hair into a bowl cut.

Miss A…come on.  Can’t I get a break?!?!?!?!?!?!

Oh I did.  Thanks for not cutting your brother’s hair.  Silver lining.

Patting myself on the back for not freaking the F out.  You’re welcome Miss.

7 Months Moody…

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Wow I’m in a bad mood!

When I was pregnant with Miss A I found that I was crazy irritable…like all the time…So as I get farther along with this mystery baby I am trying hard to be aware of my attitude and keep it in check.  Today…I was unsuccessful.  A big FAIL on today in the cranky department.  I certainly raised my voice more than I should have, and my patience was essentially non-existant.  I can only try to do better tomorrow.  I’m hoping that Mister LK goes out to get some Nyquil or Tylenol PM so that he can sleep … so that I can sleep … because I would like to believe that my moodiness today was the fault of about 2 hours total of sleep last night.  The Mister has a cold, and he couldn’t sleep….so I didn’t sleep either.  I need tonight to be better than last night.  I’ve got things to do tomorrow!

Miss A was a good sport for the most part today.  She tried to make me laugh at every turn.  She also used her toddler ways to drive me up a wall with the whining…I know she saw I was weak and was trying to break me.  She did a few times, I can’t lie.

Why can’t grown ups just act out their feelings wherever they are????

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I think I’d feel much better after a tantrum…toddler style!

Hoping for a better day tomorrow!!!

Miss A…UNPLUGGED…

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Most days I feel like a terrible mother.  I am overwhelmed, exhausted, aggravated, irritated, and moody.  I feed her chicken nuggets or pizza because I know with certainty that she will eat it.  I also use the television and an arsenal of Disney movies as a babysitter since they are free and actual human babysitters are not.

While I know in my deepest part of me that none of those things listed above make me an actual bad mother, in the part of my brain where my intentions lie, I feel like a failure.  Oh yea, and this is my blog so I can vent about my failures, even if people reading think I’m crazy!  (secret…I am crazy)

I feel like A has taken control of my life, and in turn I have lost a very important part of myself.  The part that existed before I was A’s Mommy.  I love being creative and learning, and reading and being productive.  Now, the creativity is watching A color while I make sure the crayons or paint or pens or markers stay on the paper and not on my furniture.  The only thing I learn is about toddlers and their behavior and how the princess of the day falls in love.  My reading … well … there were 3 days of 50 Shades, but most of it is either a 5 page story or something about raising my toddler.  Being productive.  Yea…gone.  We’re stuck in the house if it is too hot, too cold, too cranky, too tired, too…well…anything really.  Especially now that potty training a 2 year old really means sprinting through your errands to make sure she doesn’t pee in the aisle of a store.  (sorry Kings Pharmacy)

Yesterday morning, as I started my day as usual, with A refusing to use the potty, insisting on cookies for breakfast, and demanding a “MOVIE MOMMY”.  By 8:30am I had had enough.    Then she told me she wanted to wear a diaper…and I thought I was going to throw her against a wall & jump off my roof.  Obviously she asked to go potty 10 minutes later and the diaper remained dry…oh this girl is testing me!

I decided that if we were sticking around the house, I was going to take back some power.  We officially unplugged today.  I am proud to say that we made it through the entire day with no movies or tv.  We painted, we read books, we played with her dollhouse, we danced, and she napped….really well actually.  There were a few tantrums about the movies…but we got through them.  I plan to keep the tv off for a few more days…we’ll see how it goes.

Some people will read this and think…”Wow…it’s about time she took the tv away” and they’ll be right…it is…but I do what works for us until it stops working.  It has officially stopped working…and so here we are!  Trying something new.  I’m showing A the side of Mommy that puts her foot down and doesn’t pick it up…

I am hoping the rain goes away, the sun comes back out & we end up here ASAP…

She’s way easier to handle on the beach!  A real beach baby!

The Holy Grail Of Mothering…

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DOES NOT EXIST!!!

This post is a direct result of some psycho-babbly article that is floating around on Facebook.  One that is trying to make us “Cry-It-Out” believers feel bad or feel like we are doing irreparable damage to our children.

I have little to no patience for people telling me what to do.  I never have.  Its part of the reason that this mother thing is so difficult for me.  My little girl tells me what to do all day!  If I had to deal with her telling me what to do all night, I might jump off the roof…but contrary to the belief of some, that is not why I believe in the “cry it out” method.

I believe that I know when my child needs me.  I know when she’s sick, or when she is just bored in her crib.  I know when she’s scared, or when she’s feeling left out of the action in the living room.  My choice to let my child sleep in her own bed, in the silence & tranquility of her own room, to let her soothe herself to sleep is not and never has been a situation of distress for her.  She’s been sleeping through the night since she was about 10 weeks old.  I didn’t “sleep train”, I fed her until she was satisfied, and she was able to make it through the night (read: 11 or 12 to 6 or 7).  We did what worked for us.  I got her on a feeding schedule and never once in her life “fed on demand”.  She didn’t need it.  She thrived on her schedule.

If you met my daughter, I don’t think you’d say she was damaged!

I’ve given lots of advice to friends/family since I’ve become a mother.  I’ve always noted that I’m explaining what worked for ME and MY FAMILY.  I say, if you’re struggling with something, you try everything until you see what works.  Anything you try, has to work for your baby AND you.

There are many methods of parenting that I don’t agree with.  Some I’ve mentioned here on this blog, but truth be told, it’s a personal decision & you can make it if you want to!  As far as these studies being done…I think they’re great.  But I don’t think they are law.  I don’t believe in “the right way” to raise a child.  I’ve read approximately 5 chapters combined of parenting books…when I was so frustrated that I needed someplace to turn that wasn’t my usuals.  After those 5 chapters I decided that it’s all BS.  I did my research…I chose the books with scenarios from all different types of kids.  None of them were “mine”.  Unless you are evaluating your actual child, none of these books are a bible to be followed…because they aren’t about your kid!

If 999,999 kids were damaged by “crying it out”…well Miss A is 1 in a million!

My happy girl!

If you parent differently than I do…and you have happy children…good for you!  After all, that is what it is all about…happy, healthy children!