A Must Tell

Saturday I was watching a Lifetime movie while the kids were taking a nap. Before kids this was a regular thing that I did on the weekend. As strange as the Lifetime movies are sometimes...there is just something about them that I like. It is like reading a good novel to me. Anyway, Mya woke up and came out to the couch to lay with me. It happened to be during a love scene. Oops! The man and women were lying on the floor kissing and the man took the shirt off of the woman. That was the extent of the scene, but my three year old doesn't miss a beat with the television. She looked at me and said, "Mommy, what are they doing?" I said, "They are kissing because they love each other. Mommy and Daddy kiss too because we love each other." I like to find opportunities to talk about my love for Dan whenever I can and this was a great moment...or so I thought. Then Mya says, "You and Daddy lay on the floor and kiss like that?" And I said, "Sometimes." Thinking that would be the end of the conversation. Then Mya says, "Does Mommy take her shirt off too?" Oh boy!!! Needless to say I was too shocked to know how to respond to that. Luckily she let it go. Mya is going to be one of those kindergartners who tells her teacher something like that during sharing time.

A Quiet House Is NOT Always A Good Thing

Since having children, I have found out that when the house is quiet, the girls are usually doing something they shouldn't be doing. So today I came up with a list of things that the girls have done in a very quiet manner, usually done while I am talking on the phone or doing house chores.

-After taking two tubes of toothpaste from my bathroom drawer, the girls climbed into Sara's bed, took the caps off the tubes, and started eating the toothpaste. They cried when I took it away from them.

-The girls decided they were hungry so Mya opened up the freezer and they pulled out three bags of frozen vegetables. One of the bags was open so after dumping the frozen mixed vegetables on the floor, they ate them. And they loved them!

-While I was taking a shower, the girls unrolled all the toilet paper, took it in the living room and shredded it to pieces.

-Mya took all the kleenexes out of the box, lined them up on the floor, and decided to jump from kleenex to kleenex.

-Both girls got deodorant from from our bathroom drawer, hid in their room, and started putting it on like lotion.

-Sara took Mya's glue stick while I was schooling Mya, hid in a corner, and put it on like chapstick.

-While in the bathtub, Mya took my brand new bottle of Biolage shampoo (which isn't cheap) and poured it on her head and on Sara's head. Both kids were screaming as the shampoo was dripping into their eyes. It took Dan and me a good 15 minutes to get all of the soap out of their hair.

Party At My House

If any of my readers are interested, I will be having a Silpada jewelry party on February 15th from 6-8. I would love to have you stop by!

Retreat

Dan and I woke up on Thursday morning, looked at each other and said, "Let's get out of this house." So we took our no longer infected family out of our infected house and headed to Columbus for two nights. We went on priceline.com and got a room at a very nice hotel for $50 a night. What a deal! So we left Thursday afternoon and headed away with the girls.

Before we left town, we stopped at Starbucks and Dan went inside to get me a peppermint hot chocolate. My new addiction! While he was inside, I attempted to take a picture of me and the girls in the car. There was a guy sitting in the car beside us laughing at me while I was doing this.

Here is my first attempt...you can see Mya in the background.



Here is my next attempt...oops, no kids in this picture.



And here is my final attempt...if you look close you can see all three of us in the picture.



Our time away was wonderful. I have never NOT wanted Dan to go back to work this bad before. We have really bonded as a family this week. And with all the time that we spent together this week, we didn't drive each other nuts. I am really going to miss him come Monday when he goes to work. And boy are the girls going to miss him too. Dan is a wonderful father and husband and I feel so grateful for our time together this week. I am amazed at the kind of father that he is. He adores his little girls.

Here are some more pictures of our fun trip together.

Broken Movie

If you read my previous post you might think this is kind of funny. After deciding to take Mya to the movie, we got there and found out that the specific movie we wanted was broken. Only that happens in the Ashland theater. Not to mention the fact that if the heat was on, it was most likely set at 50 degrees. Okay, that is an exaggeration, but I am kind of glad that we didn't have to sit through a movie with the kids in the cold theater.

"Oh... the Guilt!"

All I can say tonight is, "Oh...the guilt!" I feel so much guilt. Poor Mya and poor me. I took Mya to the dentist today for her first tooth cleaning. Everything was going so smooth. She let the hygienist pick at all of her teeth and scrape the plaque off. This went on for a good five minutes. Then it came time for the spinny toothbrush. Oh boy....she flat out refused this, which I was not prepared for. She uses my rotating toothbrush at home and she used to have one of her own. It was never an issue. But even the bubble gum toothpaste at the dentist wasn't enticing enough. So as the frustration grew for both of us, I resorted to bribery. This is the number one thing that I promised I would not do with my kids. I thought that parents who used bribery were just plain lazy. Well, I was one of those parents today and it wasn't because I was lazy. It was because I needed leverage...and fast. So I used going to a movie tonight as leverage. I told her that if she wanted to go to the movie then she needed to let the lady brush her teeth. Well, that did not work. I continued to push the issue thinking she would just give in. That didn't work. Then I attempted to hold her in the chair and that didn't work. Then....I attempted to hold her head and force the toothbrushing thinking that if she could just feel it once she would like it. But quickly I regretted that and felt so much guilt. Forcing a child to do something is never good. And it is another thing that I said I would never do as a parent. Ugh! So we left with no tooth cleaning and the promise of trying it again at the next visit. And after Dan and I talked about things when I got home we decided to go ahead and take her to the movie. Mostly because I didn't feel right taking something away from Mya when the situation was about fear and not negative behavior. So I gave in instead of following through with the consequence that I said I was going to enforce (not going to the movie). Another thing that I said I would never do. Especially from my background as a behavior specialist I know that when you say something...you better follow through with it. Luckily we can reason with Mya and weigh the pros and cons and learn as we go. Once we were home I told her how much I love her no matter whether her teeth were brushed or not. That is what I realy wanted to communicate to her. Bottom line....I have to forgive myself for making mistakes today and just learn from them. I wrote a thank you note to the dental staff thanking them for their patience with my daughter and with the mother. The other bottom line...every situation is different and it is okay to bend the rules and try new things with our daughters. I think that making sure they know that we love them and giving them hugs and kisses no matter what the circumstance is going to help all of us heal from the mistakes that we have made and will make as parents.

My Butt Is Making Noises

To add some comedy to our unfortunate situation last night, I have to post a comment that Mya made. At about 4 AM, Mya woke up with a very bad case of diarrhea. I mean...it was bad. But as she was sitting on the potty doing her thing, she looked up at me with smiles and said, "Mommy, my butt is making noises." Then she laughed. She thought it was so funny. I had to laugh in the midst of all that was happening. And then to top things off, I woke up at 6 AM with the same thing. Ugh!