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Friday, September 30, 2011

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun...

was playing on the car radio this morning.


If I've ever wondered if my kids are listening to what's on the radio, I need not wonder any more.  I change stations and hear Cyndi Lauper singing the chorus.  Apparently Monkey did as well.  They first thing he says after said singer has finished the first line of the chorus is "So do boys!"  I smile and try not to make a big deal of it, he's enough of a ham without encouraging it and I want to see if he'll say anything else on his own.  Sure enough, further along in the song he announces, "Me too!" and "Boys too!"


Yes Cyndi, I suppose your song is a bit sexist... at least in the eyes of my 3 year old.


Vicky

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Fuzzibunz or Rumparooz giveaway!

AMRC is having a great giveaway!  Check it out!


http://amrcgiveaways.blogspot.com/2011/09/changing-diapers-review-with-giveaway.html

Vicky

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

School Spirit

Today Sunshine and I were emptying out her school bag, a task that will almost always produce something.  Today she had in her bag: her 'K' book - a book all about the letter K, a book fair pamphlet, and an order form for clothing with her school's logo on it.


I asked Sunshine, "Would you like a t-shirt with your school's name on it?"


Quickly and a little too forcefully, she responds, "NO."


Uh, no?  What kid doesn't want to have her school's name on it?  "You don't want a t-shirt with your school's name on it?"  Maybe she didn't understand me the first time or maybe she didn't think about it.



"No.  Why would I want that."  Note, that that was not a question, merely a statement.



"Well, sometimes during the school year they have school spirit week and kids might wear their t-shirts.  Do you want it?"  I can't believe I'm trying to force her to want something that everyone else has'.

"No.  I already have my own clothes.  I don't want it."

This doesn't seem right.  You're only 5, how can you not want something with your school logo on it?  Against what she says, I am going to go ahead and spend the $15 on a t-shirt for my kindergartner who doesn't even want it.  I'm hoping that they won't change the colors or logos when Monkey enters school.  I have a feeling she doesn't really understand what I'm talking about when she says she doesn't want one.  I mean, who doesn't want to dress exactly like everyone else in the school for 5 days during the year?

Vicky

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Fears

Poor little Monkey.  He is absolutely petrified of spiders.  I'm not talking about the childish screams that it seems all children do at one point or other when they see a bug that they don't want around them, I'm talking, honest to goodness fear.


Tonight Monkey and Sunshine were going in and out the backdoor to play on the deck.  Sunshine does that high pitched "Eeehhhh" sound "Mommmyyyy, there's a really big bug out here."  The sound that makes most moms sigh and think, just step on the darn thing!  Monkey isn't saying anything but he is hiding behind her; she might be annoying but she does work well as a shield!  I head on out wondering if it's going to be a bee (fly) or a bug.  I look at the deck floor and see a little bit of old brown leaf that has been smashed, it doesn't look like a leaf, but it definitely doesn't look like a bug.  "This?  That's not a bug."  "NO, there!"  She points at the side of the house and sure enough, there's a 4" long praying mantis.  Holy s**t!  I'd say that's a big bug!  I calmly say, "Wow!  It's a praying mantis!  I've never seen one before." I called Hubby out (who brought his camera) and we all looked at the "bug" that had decided to rest on the side of our house.  They were very interested and I was very impressed that they weren't scared once I told them what it was.


Fast forward 20 minutes.


Sunshine and Monkey are out in the yard playing.  Hubby is out there with them and I'm in the house getting dinner ready.  All of a sudden I hear a half scream half cry come out of Monkey.  It was the sound of one who was truly scared.  I ran outside and saw him looking at the corner of the deck step.  He was trembling and making little crying sounds, but not actually crying.  I look and all I see is a spider web.  I knew, it was the spider web.  "What's wrong?"  "Spider!  Spider!"  I make Hubby knock the web down and tell him it's just the spider's web and that there isn't a spider there.  He comes inside with me and is still scared.  I walk about 2' from him and he starts crying again while screaming, "Spider!"  Where?  He is pointing at his shirt and I don't see a spider or anything that could be a spider.  He then says it's on his pants.  Off come his pants.  He continues to cry and says it's on his arm.  I think at this point he is probably feeling one of my many hairs.  I tell him that and he seems to be OK with that, but he is still pretty upset.


This isn't the first or the second or even the third time this has happened.  I'd say it's either an extreme fear or a phobia.  I'm hoping I didn't do this to him.  I am scared of spiders but I'm always (at least I think I am) calm and just kill them if they're in the house.  If they're outside, we don't kill them, I just walk away from them.  I make sure I tell the kids that they're outside where they belong.  For Sunshine's sake I have "released" a spider or 2 into the wild again.



I just can't figure it out, he was so calm about the huge mantis, but the thought of a spider put him over the edge.  My poor baby.



Right by the back door.


Vicky

Friday, September 23, 2011

How much clothes do you really need?

Sunshine has been voluntarily wearing skirts and dresses.  Yay!  This isn't something that most moms of 5 year old girls have an issue with, but for me, I had to practically beg her to wear a dress.  This year though she has decided that she likes wearing them.  I went ahead and bought some tights, fun tights because let's face it, fun is fun and when else can you wear polka dot tights but when you're 5 years old.  Anyways, I digress.  Today she came home and went outside to play and wanted to go in the sandbox.  That's fine, but you have to take off the dress and put on something different.  After a little whining she goes upstairs to change her clothes.



Do-do-do-di-do...


Aaah here she is.  Ten minutes later she comes back down wearing the a black shirt and the same pair of black Halloween tights that she wore to school.  "I'm ready to go outside."

Uh, you need pants on.  So I tell her this and she asks why, these are clothes.  "It's kind of like wearing underwear, you need something over them."

"No they're not, I wore them today at the playground."

"Yes you did, but you had a dress covering up your tush."

"My tush is covered up.  You can't see it."

Ok, enough of the arguing, time to bring out the all-encompassing answer, "Because I said you had to wear pants.  Change your clothes or you don't get to go outside."

It got me wondering though; why were the tights unacceptable for outside?  They were thick, black tights with pumpkins on them and you couldn't see any underwear.  They had the typical tights stitching around the butt area but other than that they were covering just as much, if not more so than leggings.  I've seen some little girls wearing pastel leggings and dark underwear.  What were their moms thinking letting them leave the house with their dark underwear on under their light colored pants?  So it seems that the only differences are 1. they're tighter, 2. the stitching, and 3. the have feet (not always the case as I have seem footless tights).

I'm going to need some better answers before Sunshine enters pre-teen and teen years.  For the record, she did change her clothes.  She's outside now playing in the sand.

Vicky

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

It's just a day...

School has begun and we have the sickies.  Sunshine came home last week with a slight cold.  Nothing major but enough to breath all over the rest of her family.  After about 3 or 4 days she was fine, sniffles gone and coughing is over.



Yesterday she had ballet.  Now going to ballet is fun for her and she loves it.  Going to ballet for me is not so fun.  I have to sit in an extremely small sitting area with the boys, the other moms and any siblings.  Yesterday there happened to be 5 others ranging in age from 7 to 4 months.  Bug was happy to sit on my lap and watch what was going on.  This should have been a clue that there was something up.  Sitting on my lap usually means nursing or jumping.  It never, ever means sitting and leaning back on me.  I was enjoying it and didn't want to look into it too much.


This morning poor little Monkey and Bug woke up all congested and coughing.  I woke up so tired that I was almost falling asleep watching them.  I'm not even sure what time they woke up but it seemed extremely early.  So now I'm home with both boys who are not very considerate about germs, snot or spit.  As I sit here, Bug is sucking on his hand to later rub on my face.  This is the necessary second step of rubbing in the earlier coughs that he christened me with when he first woke up.  Monkey cuddled with me and sneezed a booger out, he promptly rubbed his hand across his nose smearing it along his cheek.  *Sigh* I just remembered that Monkey was sharing his fork with me the other day when we had the dead bunny incident.


I'm not sick.  Yet.  It's no wonder moms get sick and stay sick longer than the kids.


Vicky

Monday, September 19, 2011

The rabbit died...

Last night my kids wanted to watch Star Trek.  Yes, my husband is making them Trekkies at a very young age.  We record it on our DVR and let them watch a random episode.  I'm always amazed at how kid-friendly the show is.  The characters may look strange, but they still are "people" looking, there is no killing, only stunning, and a ship will never explode, implode, or completely lose their air supply.  Anyways, they had been watching the show and left the TV on while we were eating dinner.  After dinner, Monkey goes into the family room to watch the end credits of the show and the next 2 minutes of whatever happens to come on next.  Unless it's on PBS, I usually turn a show off before they are able to watch the next 2 minutes and this is why...



I'd never seen or heard of the TV show "Hitch", but I will never forget one of their opening scenes.  Hubby was reaching behind the TV trying to fix something and Monkey was standing next to him.  The show starts with a cute little bunny standing on the side of the road.  Hippity-hop goes the bunny into the street.  Vroom goes the car.  Splat goes the bunny.  All you see is the tire of the car running over the rabbit.  It is so gross, you see the bunny flattened into a pancake with just some tufts of fur waving in the car's wake.



"What happened to the bunny?"  is Monkey's first question.


I attempt to be calm about this and to make him realize that it wasn't really a rabbit at all, even though it may look like it.  Explaining CGI to a 3 year old is not at all easy though.  "The bunny wasn't hurt.  It looked like it was didn't it?  That was just a pretend bunny that they use for movies."


Monkey, whose speech and word selection is still a little shaky, "Da car went..." Then he pushes his hand over the other like the car on the road.  "What happened to the bunny?  Is he dead?"


This continued for quite some time.  His little lip out and close to tears.  He came and sat on my lap and cuddled as we talked about how it wasn't a real rabbit, how they aren't allowed to hurt animals, and most things we see on TV are just pretend.  I don't think he understood or believed me.  It was so sad to see him so upset, yet Hubby and I couldn't help but smile at each other about it.  I know, it's mean, but it was funny.


I'm wondering how often he will talk about this and for how long.  He doesn't seem to hang onto things as long as Sunshine but then again he's never had a traumatic experience like this before.  ;)


Vicky

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Don't poke the Mama Bear

Sunshine has been in kindergarten for 2 weeks now.  She left the first morning, stepping onto the big yellow bus with a grin and excitement for what could only be a wonderful experience.

She has been coming home telling me that she's had a good time at school.  She is meeting new friends, learning new things and having a great time.


Or so I thought.  
She also wears glasses for reading, something that we have her use mostly at school.  When I first asked her if she wore them at school she said yes, she had made sure she took them off when she was supposed to, put them on when she was supposed to and had been very careful with them although a couple of the kids said she looked different with them on.  I completely believed this, she had been wonderful at preschool about it and never needed reminding.  When I say her kindergarten teacher at a parent curriculum night, I asked her (just to be sure) and she confirmed, yes Sunshine has been very responsible, she has been very impressed with how well she has been doing with them.  A few days later I asked again and she told me that she had forgotten to put them on.  Well Sunshine, make sure you put them on.  I asked her again a few days later and she says no she hasn't been wearing them.  I'm beginning to think I know why she isn't wearing them.


I gently ask, "Sunshine, why aren't you wearing your glasses?"



Sunshine: "None of the other kids have to wear them."


I know this isn't true, one of the kids at her bus stop has to wear glasses.  When I tell her this, she answers in her new favorite answer, "Sooo... I just don't want to wear them."
"Sunshine, why don't you want to wear glasses?"


Her eyes fill up with tears and she begins to cry.  "Because some of the kids said I looked silly with them on."


Now it may hurt my feelings when someone says something rude to me, but I've never felt this kind of hurt in my life.  My heart broke as I watched my baby cry about feeling less than perfect I know she is.  I was so angry and sad and I felt myself begin to cry for her as I told her that she was beautiful with and without her glasses.


She curled up on my lap and continued to cry.  After a few minutes, she then proceeded to tell me that some of the boys were chasing me even though she kept asking them to stop.  She couldn't figure out why they were being mean to her and she again broke down crying.
I emailed her teacher and told her what Sunshine had told me.


I happened to be going up to the school to sign her up for Daisies and her teacher was still there.  She said she hadn't seen anything and was surprised because Sunshine was always so happy, she would keep an eye on her, she would have another talk with the kids about treating others nicely, and what to do if someone isn't being nice.  In a week, we would see how things were going and if it wasn't getting better she said she would want to see both me and Sunshine.


I felt a lot better about how the situation was going to be handled once I talked with her.  I do not feel better about the obnoxious child that hurt my baby's feelings.


Vicky