Grumps

Whining and general grumpiness descending on our house at 6:45 this morning.  This is an early wake up for my kids, and didn't really bode well for the rest of the day.  By 8:30 I had raised my voice at them.  More than once.  I try not to be embarrassed about what our downstairs neighbor hears coming from our apartment.

image from mind soup.  as a parent, this picture makes my blood run cold.  i can hear the misery...

Chicken has pinkeye.  I think the little Monkey is teething.  Or is just generally pissed off at the world.  Hard to tell.  I tried to avoid both of them this morning.  This is hard to do in a 900 square foot apartment.  I think I was seeking the "me" time that waking up early usually affords me.

After yelling at them for the nth time, I tried to approach it a different way and actually engage with them.  You know- play with them.  Sometimes I forget to do that- I am so desperate for some space from them that I try to (figuratively) push them away, when what is often more effective is just engaging with them.  Then they are happier and, often, will be happy to play on their own after they've gotten some time with the best mom on the planet.  [Ahem].  Either my sister or my sister-in-law calls this "filling their cup".  Spend time being present with them, fill up their little selves with the knowledge that they are loved and cared for, and be intentional about it.  Sometimes their whining is because they haven't had that undivided (or any) attention from me.  I can get pretty intent on boxing out and trying to protect myself from having to actually, you know, parent.  Like be involved and that sort of thing.

But I digress.  Back to this morning.  9:00 rolls around, I'm yelling at the kids, cursing a teensy bit here and there, and feeling like goodlordthedayhasen'tevenstarted.

So I breath.  Pray.  Engage.  Try to switch gears and switch approaches.  Do that parenting thing that involves playing with them, and not just peeling them off me and trying to get away.

I got a sheet out of the laundry closet.  "Hooray!  Sheet fort!".  Thinking of a headline something like this:  Mom of the Year rallies, against all odds!  Builds best sheet fort ever!  Peace and harmony are restored!

image from assorted colours

It was awesome for about 5 minutes.  Maybe 6.  Then the Monkey pulled it down for the eighteenth time and I tapped out.

I remembered some other words of advice for me, when parenting times are tough.  "Go out to eat.  Have someone else make your food and clean it up.  Preserve your sanity and buy time until naptime."  With that line of thinking in mind, we went and got a haircut for Chicken (entertainment!), shopped for new cloth napkins (retail therapy!), and ate pizza at Slice.

And naptime is finally here...  Ahhh...  

Some other advice I have gotten along the way:
1.  Make dinner during the kids' naptime.  Don't start dinner at 5:00- the "suicide hour".  Nothing good happens in this hour for kids under the age of 5.
2.  Paper plates and frozen pizza.  Don't be ashamed to call in either.

Golden advice that seems so obvious and wise, yet I had not considered.  Thank goodness for friends who can enlighten me like this.

Anyone else have tips on basic survival, for those days that just seem so bleak?

Threeeeeee!

This past weekend, playing in the creek.

Chicken is three today!  

At this moment three years ago, I was still at work, very pregnant, but trying to finish up a little early because I had a feeling the baby was coming early.  She was not due for another three and a half weeks.  I finished meeting with clients at about 4:00, went to Babies 'R Us to shop for a crib bumper (I mean- you can't bring the baby home without the crib bumper!), and called my sister-in-law about something.  She asked me how I was feeling and I told her about some crampiness that felt different that morning.  I said as long as I was off my feet I felt okay.  She asked a few questions about pregnancy/labor things, then informed me I was most definitely on my way to having the baby soon.

Let me pause and ask, for just a second, how many of you are wondering if I am about to tell my birth story, in all its glory?  Bwahahaha- you wish!  No way I'd publish those gory details!  I'm not that brave.  And I can't handle reliving the trauma.

A few hours later we were googling "labor" to determine if, in fact, I was in labor.  Oh, hindsight.  You really are 20/20. 

Yada yada yada... Labor happened...  Chicken Little was born!  11:45 that night. 

This is pretty much how I remember her those first few weeks:

wook at dat wittle bitty ting

We came home from the hospital and had a plumbing problem that required our whole front yard to be excavated and us to move out for a few days.  We stayed with our friends in their one bedroom basement apartment.  Chicken slept in a laundry basket.  Oh yeah, and my sister showed up (surprise!) from South Carolina and stayed over as well.  Five adults and one newborn in the apartment.  I remember Philip bringing lots of Bodo's bagels for us to eat and friends dropping off dinners for us.  Oh, and watching Oprah and whatever else was on at that time.

If I could go back and re-enjoy that time, I totally would.  I remember trying to, but also feeling keyed up with this whole "new baby" thing.  Sort of in an adrenaline fog. 

But seriously- all she really did was sleep.  She couldn't have been any easier.   I just didn't really know that at the time. 

And this is her now:

photo courtesy of Robinson Imagery.  Incredible work, right?

Wide awake! 

Happy third, Chicken Little!  Now go to sleep already.  You've been talking in your crib (yes, still in a crib) for almost an hour. 

Hot Dogs and Spam

That's what I stocked up on at Harris Teeter this week.  The deals were incredible!  I coupon-stacked and bought $7.51 worth of hot dogs for $.02!  Do you know how far your money goes when it is used for hot dogs?  I bought a deep freezer to store them in!  I will return several more times to continue to get these great deals on hot dogs!  

And the Spam.  Oh, the Spam.  What should have cost me $15.32 cost me $1.07.  $15 worth of Spam?  That's a true deal!

Here's my plan to make it healthy.  Spam sushi:

 the wanderlust diaries- thanks for the inspiration

That's what I've been doing with my free time, now that I am facebook-free.  Double coupon week at Harris Teeter!  Woohoo!



J/K.  I didn't really buy Spam.

I did, however, buy lots of Palmolive dish soap (sorry, Seventh Generation hippie soap doesn't work for me.  I go through it twice as quickly as Palmolive, which can't be that much better for the environment, right?), Aussie shampoo, and Multigrain Cheerios.  And a lot of toothpaste.  I might have gotten carried away with the toothpaste.  Also a ton of other stuff like organic eggs, some pasta sauce, noodles, etc and so forth.  More stuff than I usually buy, but not enough that I have to hide it under my bed just yet.  I mean these are the shelves the hubs built for my stockpile but that is totally normal, right?

Again.  J/K.  No stockpile here.  Just a small pyramid of toothpaste that will last us for at least a year.

I went to Harris Teeter twice in two days (once with my kids, sort of in a low blood-sugar buying frenzy- I think that's how I ended up with all that toothpaste.  I was stressed and hungry and just throwing things in the cart) and once by myself.  I spent a total of $90 in my two trips, but saved $74 using coupons and my VIC card.

I had not done the math on that until now, when I just looked at my receipts.  Hot dang I am impressed with myself.  

I didn't buy anything weird and I didn't buy a cart full of frozen taquitos or something (not that there is anything wrong with that).   Mostly just stuff I normally buy one at a time, as needed.  Except this time I bought a lot at a time if it was on sale and I had a coupon.

Of course I spent some time looking online at the sales and then clipping my little coupons but it felt enjoyable to me so I don't mind that.  And a couple of hours of my time is worth $74 to me.

No facebook right now, so coupon'ing is how I'm spending some of my free time.  

Although I have to admit to feeling a little embarrassed when I pull out my coupons.  I'm not sure what I'm embarrassed of...   Maybe that I'm a cheapskate?  Or that I'm acting out some sort of stereotype (Mom of two pulls out the coupons, haggles over the $.50 deal on toothpaste, then walks her groceries out to her mini-mini-van/crossover vehicle/"space wagon")? 

Does anyone else feel lame forking over coupons?  Is this normal?  Analyze this, please.  There's something embedded in there...