Somehow during normal play days with the girls I am trying to get us organized for Christmas. It's not going extremely well - for instance, I just finished my Christmas shopping and the gift for my niece in Virginia won't arrive at her house until January 2nd. Also, the gift I've had for a week for the little Bohemian is still sitting here, hasn't gone out in the mail yet, and probably won't arrive in So. Cal. until after Christmas (sorry!). However, I am finished with my shopping now, and it's time for the fun part - wrapping!
Here's what else has been going in our household since last I posted:
Slipshod is working too much and too hard. Nothing new there. He was going to take Thursday and Friday off this week but decided that he really shouldn't miss those 3 meetings on Thursday. BUT, he's taking all of next week off. YEAH!
The Bug likes peas. Bananas are what got Sweet Pea interested in eating solid foods, but this one likes peas. AND, she will only actually take food into her mouth if SHE is the one who sticks the spoon in. She has also cultivated a brand new sound of frustration, which she first used last night at the dinner table while trying to wrest her water cup out of Sweet Pea's hands (Sweet Pea was just trying to keep The Bug from spilling water all over herself). The sound clearly means, "don't TAKE that away from me," but can also be used to convey the sentiment, "hey, I just dropped/threw that toy out of my reach!"
Sweet Pea flipped her daddy off the other night. He said she knew what she was doing because she told him (I still don't know the whole story - he must have asked her if it meant something to her) that I had told her it was not a nice thing to do with your hand. This is where I wonder if I have an alternate personality, because I have ZERO recollection of being in a situation where I had to explain that to her. Am I the worst mother ever? I guess not - after all, even though I don't remember the exchange, I apparently did tell her that it's a bad thing... But geez, she's only 3 and she doesn't even go to preschool (where you'd think she might learn stuff like that earlier) - what gives?
Today, after Clark the cat stuck his claws into Sweet Pea's new yellow socks (not while she was wearing them), I heard her sternly admonish him to "NEVER do that again," and then she put him on time-out! ha ha ha! I had a good silent laugh while changing The Bug's diaper in the next room. She then tried to get him to stay in one place upstairs for his time-out, asked me to make him stay in one place, which I had to tell her I couldn't do, and then, failing that, she proceeded to follow him around the house carrying a time-out cushion made of dirty laundry, trying to get him to lie down on it. hee hee hee!
Sweet Pea has begun to disobey, willfully and often. She tells me "no" when I ask her to do things. There is steam coming out of my ears sometimes, but I am trying not to scream all day every day. Instead, she has learned that if I count all the way to 3 in a stern voice before she obeys me, she will have a time-out. It actually works pretty well and after she is sternly disciplined by me or Slipshod she usually recovers from her disappointment pretty quickly considering how much whining and stalling was involved in the preceeding conflict.
Before I was a parent I used to natter on about how parents should be utterly consistent and that would make the kids obey all the time. Now I am learning the truth of the matter: Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. Sweet Pea most often disobeys when I am least able to be consistent, like when I am in the middle of a diaper change or a nursing session.
I'm getting a more impressive Mom voice now, though. And she's learning to take me a little more seriously. Today after a 1-2-3 conflict during a nursing session I gave her a lecture about how she has to obey me and Daddy because we know what is best for her and sometimes it's a matter of safety, etc. Instead of bucking at the "obey me" part of the lecture she said, "only you, Mama! I only want to obey YOU, not Daddy!" I know that's screwed up and we are constantly trying to get her to take what Daddy says as well as she takes what I say, but at the same time I almost had to laugh because she admitted that she wants to obey. Whew...
Lastly, we had a wonderful early Christmas celebration this past Sunday with Slipshod's family. They all came over here and there were 26 of us mashed into the house. Thankfully it was a potluck, as are all full-family occasions with Slipshod's family. The floor is worse for the wear, because you can't get that many people together, kids included, without drinks being spilled. But otherwise everything went wonderfully, and it was great to see everyone. The picture below shows just how out of control Slipshod's mom is. She defended herself by saying, "well I only got one present each for the girls," (which is not actually true). You'll notice that Sweet Pea's present FILLS OUR ENTIRE FAMILY ROOM. At least it folds up nicely and this year they gave us something that wasn't inflatable!
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