High Maintenance Mom

We moved our daughter in a "big girl bed" about 5 weeks ago and it has been a hilarious ride! All I asked was that she either sleep or play quietly in her room. Every time I went to her up from nap, she was redressed in everything and anything she could get her hands on. My favorite was her feetie PJ's, tights on over that, several shirts and a head band. Her room looked like a tornado ran through it.

Now that I have 2 kids and 1 can talk, I feel like I am defending my (good) parenting from time to time and I hate it. I wanted to do this post on the front page of the site but realized that at this point I am just venting. Bring it on if you have well meaning, informed information that would help but if you feed your kids soft drinks and french fries on a weekly basis keep it to yourself. If your kids bed time is later than mine (10pm) and they know the prime time TV line up nightly, dont give me any parenting advise and most of all, dont comment on my kids healthy food choices, scheduled nap and bed times and overall perfection.

My DD (darling daughter) felt the need to throw a fit in her car seat on the way home from school today. I felt my insides start to boil because my 14 month old son was asleep in the car seat next to her. Not that he would wake up....poor thing is transitioning from 2 naps to 1 and is so tired by the time I pick up DD from school at noon he sleeps the whole ride through and continues the nap in his crib.

My son had a fever of 102 yesterday and I went into full sick mode with Motrin, humidifier, etc. He slept well and by morning was 100% fine. Then I get an email from a close friend whose son had been ill since birth. He will be OK but it has been very stressful for the baby and for his parents. I read her email and almost started to cry. I am so lucky and try to remind myself often. I will be posting my friend's story on the front page in the new few days.

I didnt think the first colds of the season would come this soon but I have a cold and so does my 3 year old. My son seems to be in the clear but his nose is making some crackling noises so I assume one is one the way. I love our cool mist humidifier, our vapor plug in and Motrin. The combination does help both kids to sleep through the night which is key...sleep! I hope this winter proves to be kinder to my daughter who was sick too much last winter, ear infections, stomach bug, etc.

So I am completely over this milestone and all the sleeping issues it has caused. Things were looking better after a week of S waking and getting upset about sitting and crawling all over his crib but last night was a disaster. Luckily my husband said he would be the point person for laying S back down to settle him. Maybe his new tooth is bothering him too and maybe he was chilly but either way, he woke 4-5 times and then at 6am upset but ready for the day.

So my son is crawling and while I love that, I don't love being up at ungodly hours placing him back down after he gets up and cant seem to get himself back down. I went through this with my daughter but somehow you forget (thankfully). He is also getting tooth #3 and is refusing solids so we are back to formula just when he needs to be eating finger foods, etc. He isn't a stubborn baby and each day is getting better.

One day my son stacks blocks and the next day my daughter owns the potty! I am so happy that her potty training is going so well...she is really trying. I was nervous driving to my friends house for our weekly play date but little miss thing went to the potty right before we left the house and did very well. I did put down a little piddle pad on the car seat just in case. This is only the 3rd day we have used panties on her so I wasn't 100% sure how she'd do.

My son impressed me today. Well, to be honest he finds a way to impress me everyday but today he did something amazing. He stacked blocks. He's 9 months old. I took out the small wooden blocks I got at Pottery Barn when my daughter was little and he took to them right away. He seemed fascinated with them and reached his little hand out to stack one after watching me for a bit. I cheered in delight and he quickly clapped his hands in response.

I brought my 2 1/2 yr old daughter to Boston University this past week for a 2 part study on how young children learn about different kinds of objects. I thought it would be fun for us to go into the city and meet some new people and help out the students. My daughter can be a bit slow to warm up to strangers and since this was only a 15 minute session, I thought it might help her learn to jump into things faster.