I confess that, although I never used to leave the house without makeup on, there were two days last week alone that I ran errands without putting makeup on all day. In my defense, one of these occasions was to make it to the pediatrician 15 minutes after making the appointment and it is a 10 minute drive there. (I made it on time. Sam does not have another ear infection, so it was an unnecessary trip.)
I confess that the level of cleanliness in my home is very different than it was pre-kids, and I would not invite you in the front door without some frantic cleaning beforehand. I justify this with telling myself that Sam and Anna don't care and they would rather play with me, anyway.
I confess that I picked up food I dropped on the floor more than once today, and gave it to my children, which they ate. 5 second rule, right?
I confess that I'm more judgemental about other people's parenting practices than I should be.
I confess that I'm not really improving very much on eliminating swearing from my vocabulary. It's a mystery to me why I can at work, but not at home.
I confess that although I love all the extra time I'm spending with my cherubs this summer, I might have just swore a little to myself when they woke up super early from a nap today.
And now I feel just a little bit better. :)
Showing posts with label TMI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TMI. Show all posts
Monday, July 11, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Poop.
This is probably not remotely interesting to anyone but me (or my husband) but when you have small children, it is amazing how much of your time you devote to thinking about someone else's poop: how much they poop, how often they poop, and even what it looks like. So you were forewarned by the title: this post is about POOP.
Sam and Anna are frequent poopers and always have been. They both poop multiple times a day even now as almost 16 month olds. I was always jealous when I heard of other babies that pooped once every few days, because I was and still am changing sometimes 7 or more poo-filled diapers a day. On the other side of things, because they go so often we rarely have blowouts, which is an awesome silver lining to the amount of soiled diapers we go through.
So you can imagine (maybe?) my delight in that Sam seems to be progressing in his awareness of his own bodily emissions. He has had a "pooping spot" for a long time now- he'll go stand behind a particular chair in our home to take care of business. When we are away from home, it is not unusual for him to find a different chair to stand behind. It's easy to tell what he's doing (aside from the grunts) because he stand still for a bit, and he rarely does that, except to poop! Just recently, he started to grab at his bum after standing in his selected spot, with a look of unhappiness on his face. To my knowledge, that is yet another sign that potty training is on the horizon.
What's more- today, after I was changing Anna's dirty diaper, I stood up to toss it in the genie and turned around to find that Sam had laid down on the changing pad I put on the floor (we've been changing diapers on the floor for a long time now. They are just too wiggly and like to protest too much to change them up higher). He had just stood in his spot, grunted, then grabbed at his diaper so I was about to check him anyway. I'm taking the fact that he laid down on the changing pad as a sign that he wanted me to change his diaper for him. While changing him, he kept saying "dia, dia, dia" over and over.
I'm recording this here so that I can see how long it is between these recent changes and when we actually begin potty training.
(Side note- that child loves the Diaper Dance song on Baby Signing Time. I wonder: do I maybe owe some credit of his diaper awareness to that?)
Anna on the other hand, has shown no signs of recognition that she has a dirty diaper. She rarely grunts and her poo just doesn't smell as much as Sam's so it's sometimes a crap shoot (haha!) whether she needs to be changed or not. She also poops during naps often or sometimes during night sleep, so I have a feeling it will be a looooong time before the potty training commences around here.
Oh well. That's just fine with me anyway. My initial thought was to wait to consider potty training until I was back working full time so our daycare could bear the brunt of it. Because honestly, the thought of training two at a time to go in a toilet is another situation that frankly, has me quaking in my flip flops a little, too. My goal? Two potty trained kids by the time school's done for summer, next year!
Sam and Anna are frequent poopers and always have been. They both poop multiple times a day even now as almost 16 month olds. I was always jealous when I heard of other babies that pooped once every few days, because I was and still am changing sometimes 7 or more poo-filled diapers a day. On the other side of things, because they go so often we rarely have blowouts, which is an awesome silver lining to the amount of soiled diapers we go through.
So you can imagine (maybe?) my delight in that Sam seems to be progressing in his awareness of his own bodily emissions. He has had a "pooping spot" for a long time now- he'll go stand behind a particular chair in our home to take care of business. When we are away from home, it is not unusual for him to find a different chair to stand behind. It's easy to tell what he's doing (aside from the grunts) because he stand still for a bit, and he rarely does that, except to poop! Just recently, he started to grab at his bum after standing in his selected spot, with a look of unhappiness on his face. To my knowledge, that is yet another sign that potty training is on the horizon.
What's more- today, after I was changing Anna's dirty diaper, I stood up to toss it in the genie and turned around to find that Sam had laid down on the changing pad I put on the floor (we've been changing diapers on the floor for a long time now. They are just too wiggly and like to protest too much to change them up higher). He had just stood in his spot, grunted, then grabbed at his diaper so I was about to check him anyway. I'm taking the fact that he laid down on the changing pad as a sign that he wanted me to change his diaper for him. While changing him, he kept saying "dia, dia, dia" over and over.
I'm recording this here so that I can see how long it is between these recent changes and when we actually begin potty training.
(Side note- that child loves the Diaper Dance song on Baby Signing Time. I wonder: do I maybe owe some credit of his diaper awareness to that?)
Anna on the other hand, has shown no signs of recognition that she has a dirty diaper. She rarely grunts and her poo just doesn't smell as much as Sam's so it's sometimes a crap shoot (haha!) whether she needs to be changed or not. She also poops during naps often or sometimes during night sleep, so I have a feeling it will be a looooong time before the potty training commences around here.
Oh well. That's just fine with me anyway. My initial thought was to wait to consider potty training until I was back working full time so our daycare could bear the brunt of it. Because honestly, the thought of training two at a time to go in a toilet is another situation that frankly, has me quaking in my flip flops a little, too. My goal? Two potty trained kids by the time school's done for summer, next year!
Monday, March 14, 2011
One More Thing
Jen from Maybe If You Just Relax posted these words last week:
"You know how sometimes? There's a bunch of shit going on? And you're all, fine. I can handle this, but this is all. I can't handle one more thing. If one more thing happens? I'm going to jump out the window/poke out my eye/pull out my hair/drink ten kegs of Christmas Ale.
It seems that I have added that One More Thing..."
...and I found myself nodding my head in agreement. Lest you think I'm a huge bitch- yes, I do realize that I am very blessed in so many ways- to have had a successful IVF that resulted in BOTH Sam and Anna; to not to have a baby in the NICU or to have lost a baby at birth like Jen. I am aware that people across the world are doing much worse than I am in Japan or Libya or lots of other places. But this post isn't a eat-your-peas-because-someone-somewhere-is-starving kind of thing. This is my eating-a-little-cheese-with-my-whine post (although in my case there's a margarita washing down the cheese and crackers I'm munching on).
Lately it feels like okay- I can do this. I'll breathe a big sigh and buck up and play my kindergarten teacher/mom to twins/wife role and carry on. Then that One More Thing hits and I buckle. I hold back a few tears driving home from work, or before I fall asleep (because dang, I've never been exhausted for such a prolonged period in my life), or heck even when I get a few moments to myself in my classroom.
The Bill in WI passed last week (Yeah, on Sam and Anna's birthday to boot. Way to be a downer on my babies' first birthday.). This will dramatically change our way of life. I am seriously considering leaving education. I will be taking a huge pay cut and it will hugely affect our future- both with my retirement and Sam and Anna's education. The morale at school is lower than I've ever seen. 37 teachers at my old school were given layoff notices (I would have too, if I still worked there). Great teachers at my current school are feeling forced into retirement before they are ready (causing tears and depressed feelings). The ways that this could hurt education are limitless, and that is truly very scary for those of us in the trenches right now.
But okay, I can handle that.
Pile on top of that the fact that I have a student with major emotional issues that have really exploded in the last month. This student slapped me last week, threw a boot at me today while screaming in front of my class that he hated me, has hurt other students by choking them, punching them, etc, has thrown chairs etc. My entire classroom has been like a derailed train for the last month. I've probably already said more than I should, so I'll leave it with the statement that more support for this student would certainly be beneficial and help me keep my marbles.
But okay, it sucks and my job is not fun at all right now, but I have no choice but to handle that.
Then, THEN, our car dies and needs to be replaced asap. Okay, drain the savings, but doable. We can still buy food and diapers.
THEN, THEN- add in party drama and differing of opinions with the hubs stemming from party issues leading to a fight. My parents getting the flu and not being able to come to the party, either (there were a total of 3 guests). Add in Sam and Anna's birthday gift of ear infections for both for their birthday. Ear infections that are not being helped by the antibiotics. Major (but not really) snowstorm causes our professional pictures to be cancelled. Have to reschedule the 1 year dr. appt. because our pedi had to take a sudden medical leave and we have to go to someone new, much later than their first birthday. Someone hitting our new car in a parking lot leaving a big mark and dent but not leaving any info (thanks dude- our car was less than a week old).
Those one more things have pretty much eaten me alive lately. I'm barely treading water most days, trying to get from 7:40 to 3:40 as the constant power struggles and attempt to have a death grip on 100% of my attention happen every second of the day. Living for the moment that I can change to the mom of twins role again. Marking each day off the calendar, ticking down the 56 school days left until I can hang up the kindergarten teacher hat and wear the mom of twins hat all summer long. There are 56 days until Summer Vacation. It can't come soon enough.
"You know how sometimes? There's a bunch of shit going on? And you're all, fine. I can handle this, but this is all. I can't handle one more thing. If one more thing happens? I'm going to jump out the window/poke out my eye/pull out my hair/drink ten kegs of Christmas Ale.
It seems that I have added that One More Thing..."
...and I found myself nodding my head in agreement. Lest you think I'm a huge bitch- yes, I do realize that I am very blessed in so many ways- to have had a successful IVF that resulted in BOTH Sam and Anna; to not to have a baby in the NICU or to have lost a baby at birth like Jen. I am aware that people across the world are doing much worse than I am in Japan or Libya or lots of other places. But this post isn't a eat-your-peas-because-someone-somewhere-is-starving kind of thing. This is my eating-a-little-cheese-with-my-whine post (although in my case there's a margarita washing down the cheese and crackers I'm munching on).
Lately it feels like okay- I can do this. I'll breathe a big sigh and buck up and play my kindergarten teacher/mom to twins/wife role and carry on. Then that One More Thing hits and I buckle. I hold back a few tears driving home from work, or before I fall asleep (because dang, I've never been exhausted for such a prolonged period in my life), or heck even when I get a few moments to myself in my classroom.
The Bill in WI passed last week (Yeah, on Sam and Anna's birthday to boot. Way to be a downer on my babies' first birthday.). This will dramatically change our way of life. I am seriously considering leaving education. I will be taking a huge pay cut and it will hugely affect our future- both with my retirement and Sam and Anna's education. The morale at school is lower than I've ever seen. 37 teachers at my old school were given layoff notices (I would have too, if I still worked there). Great teachers at my current school are feeling forced into retirement before they are ready (causing tears and depressed feelings). The ways that this could hurt education are limitless, and that is truly very scary for those of us in the trenches right now.
But okay, I can handle that.
Pile on top of that the fact that I have a student with major emotional issues that have really exploded in the last month. This student slapped me last week, threw a boot at me today while screaming in front of my class that he hated me, has hurt other students by choking them, punching them, etc, has thrown chairs etc. My entire classroom has been like a derailed train for the last month. I've probably already said more than I should, so I'll leave it with the statement that more support for this student would certainly be beneficial and help me keep my marbles.
But okay, it sucks and my job is not fun at all right now, but I have no choice but to handle that.
Then, THEN, our car dies and needs to be replaced asap. Okay, drain the savings, but doable. We can still buy food and diapers.
THEN, THEN- add in party drama and differing of opinions with the hubs stemming from party issues leading to a fight. My parents getting the flu and not being able to come to the party, either (there were a total of 3 guests). Add in Sam and Anna's birthday gift of ear infections for both for their birthday. Ear infections that are not being helped by the antibiotics. Major (but not really) snowstorm causes our professional pictures to be cancelled. Have to reschedule the 1 year dr. appt. because our pedi had to take a sudden medical leave and we have to go to someone new, much later than their first birthday. Someone hitting our new car in a parking lot leaving a big mark and dent but not leaving any info (thanks dude- our car was less than a week old).
Those one more things have pretty much eaten me alive lately. I'm barely treading water most days, trying to get from 7:40 to 3:40 as the constant power struggles and attempt to have a death grip on 100% of my attention happen every second of the day. Living for the moment that I can change to the mom of twins role again. Marking each day off the calendar, ticking down the 56 school days left until I can hang up the kindergarten teacher hat and wear the mom of twins hat all summer long. There are 56 days until Summer Vacation. It can't come soon enough.
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