Tired Mom

Holy Cow Moment #?:  The holidays are stressful - they are not just worse.

I finally know why you never see a mom or dad of a toddler running around refreshed during any breaks.  Add a holiday to the mix and things only seem to get worse. 

Here is how my week off started. 
On the first day of break my toddler gave to me - a stomach bug.  So while being pregnant I was throwing up everything.  Yeay!
On the second day of vacation my toddler gave to me - one sick husband and I was barely recovered while we had to chase her anyway.
On the third day of vacation my toddler gave to me - the joys of not sleeping because now she was sick and couldn't sleep. 
On the fourth day of vacation - which is now Christmas Eve - my toddler gave to me the joys of taking care of her fever and cranky little butt. 

Anyway - you get the point.  So while fighting a stomach bug, taking care of a sick husband and child, I then had to make all our gifts for his family.  By the time Christmas got here I was ready to take a nap and still had to smile pretty for the camera. 

Note to self - Toddlers are unpredictable and will share everything.  Sometimes this is great, while most of the time not so much.  This is why you see a tired parent around the holidays.

I've Got my Love to Keep Me Warm ...

Holy Cow Moment#:  I hate the idea of leaving my kids and it's worse on those cold winter days. 

It’s snowing and all I want to do is crawl into bed holding my little girl and ignore the world and it’s problems.  Okay – my husband can cuddle too.  The point is I don’t want to leave.  Snow days are made for hot cocoa and Christmas movies.  Cuddling under blankets and snuggling with loved ones.  But, alas, instead I am at work.  Trudging through the snow was not my idea of a good way to spend two hours this morning.

The one thing that I never expected was the fear of my own death.  Not the fear of dying, but the fear of accidentally leaving my child.  This new fear has made driving seem more treacherous and worse yet it has made me realize why I have such a hard time with leaving my child to anyone else. 

It isn’t because there aren’t people that I trust.  There are a select few – you know who you are.  But rather, it’s because I don’t want to let her down.  I hate the idea of not being there when she needs me.  I almost think I have a fear of abandonment myself and therefore I can’t leave her alone more than necessary.  Does this make me a bad parent?  I guess it depends on who you ask.  My child does go to daycare so it isn’t as if she will never get away from me. But after I get her, why would I waste time by sending her off to someone else instead of being a mommy and interacting with my kid if I have the choice?

Everyone has their own parenting strategies and no one is really wrong.  So don’t judge me and I won’t judge you. 

Child Donation

 Holy Cow Moment #?: I survived!!!

Last night was one of THOSE nights. The nights where you really consider child donation or even putting them up on ebay.
 
It was one of those nights where I had too much to do and not enough me to go around.  The second we got home was supposed to be for dinner and baking.  Instead the cookies didn’t turn out – anyone know why cookies go paper thin straight from the fridge to the oven??  Anyway from there it was cranky baby central.  I figured I was lucky that she ended up going down for a nap – for 20 minutes.  Then it was go time while I still had to come up with a cookie recipe for one of those awful cookie exchanges.
 
Let me just say that I normally love everything holiday until someone says “please bake 7 dozen cookies” and you barely know them as it is.  Yeah. 
 
From there my little wonder wanted to dance to the musical ornaments on the tree.  Cute right? Well unless you want to bake – I use the term want loosely. After coaxing her to allow me to leave the tree party I attempted to get her to eat and maybe watch a movie.  That worked for about… oh 10 minutes.  Dinner ended up on the floor mostly.  Now she is going to help me.  Oh goody.
 
Pulling out the stool so she can climb to counter height seemed like a great option, except she wanted to be held.  Have you ever cracked an egg with a baby in one arm?  About twenty minutes later the new dough is ready to go so I force my child to stand on her own two feet – I know I am awful.  I heard all about it. 
 
From here it is a balancing act of getting cookie balls onto cookie-sheets while holding her back to get them in the oven.  After that I have 8 minutes to get another batch ready – or I can clean up the yogurt that was just sprayed around the kitchen. Choices, choices.  After that I have to again restrain child from hot oven and then remove her from the stool that she has now gotten her head stuck in. The night just continues like this for two more hours.
 
By 10 cookies are baked, I am beat, and my child is still running circles around the dogs – who by the way are exhausted even.
 
Merry freaking Christmas days.

Manic Mom Sunday

Holy Cow Moment: I thought I hated Sundays before.

Having kids has made me dread the end of the weekend worse than before.  I hate leaving my precious child – while she’s asleep anyway.  This morning I quietly push her bedroom door open expecting to see her curled up, butt in the air, asleep as I do each morning before I go to work.  I always wake her and give her some applesauce or yogurt, change her diaper, and give her a few minutes of cuddle time before I have to say goodbye and head out.  This morning a tiny figure was patiently waiting for me on the edge of her bed.  The moment she saw me enter her room she very meticulous scrambled off her toddler bed to greet me.  It was the sweetest moment to realize she looks forward to our short time together in the mornings too.  This does not however erase the rush of Sunday nights.

Sunday’s were once a day to enjoy your last day at home.  Now they are overrun with making meals, doing laundry, picking up the trail of destruction to pretend like I cleaned, spend quality time with my child and maybe the husband, run to the grocery store and stores in general, come home do more laundry, and so on and so forth.  Someday I will be adding homework to that list.  I guess what it comes down to, is that with kids there are no “quiet days” just “quiet hours” when the children sleep and so you should be too.  But with all the crazy going on the thing that makes Sundays the worst is knowing that the next day you will be returning to work and leaving your little ones for most of the day.

Holy cow a little person can make Mondays worse than they were before.A second is only going to make leaving harder... darn it all.

PJ Quota

Holy Cow Moment ?:  I am running out of time, laundry detergent, and sanity.

Last night was a three jammie night.  I just stand and shake my head. That’s right. Three.  Here I thought the infant stages were bad when blow outs happen, A LOT.  Now is the toddler vs. anything she can get her hands on.

First pair had the footie part dunked into the dog water.

Second pair had a sad ending with some chocolate milk.

Third pair made it to bed but barely.  I had to de-crumb it after said toddler wolfed down four blueberry muffins. 

Lucky for me PJ’s at toddler size won’t take up much room in the wash.  In fact I can do all her clothes in one load – even if she wore three jammies, two outfits, and a millions pairs of socks – in one day. 

Does this just sum up my life right now or what! 

Toddler Bed 2, Daughter 0

Holy Cow: My baby Is growing up.

My daughter is officially in a toddler bed… okay “in” might be the wrong word.  She sleeps in her big girl bed for most of the night and then will fall out.  One night she made a noise and fell back to sleep next to the rocking chair curled in a ball.  Another night mom wasn’t as lucky and the poor kid was awakened and scared herself.

She has oddly transitioned to her new bed fairly well.  A little fighting here and there but she does well over all. She appears, so far, to stay in bed until we come get her if she wakes before us.  Which of course she usually does.  One more step in getting ready for baby number two.  Aside from not always staying next to me in the store and needing to be potty trained, I’d say we were in good shape.  Over Christmas we will officially get Number 2’s room ready.  At present my daughters room went from busy to crowed when we moved in the toddler bed.  We will be removing the crib this weekend.

So tricks to getting your kid to sleep in her own bed?  Well patience in one.  We started out with letting her ‘play’ with her bed before she was put to sleep in her crib.  Slowly that turned into letting her fall asleep on my lap and laying her in her big girl bed until she woke up.  Naps were key.  We didn’t try nights until after a week of naps had been successful.  After another few days of successful nights in her bed with her already asleep I started to transition her to the bed awake.  This was a little more difficult and involved some crying.  But in the end the subtle transition paid off. 

Anyone else have any tips to share on transitioning a toddler to their “Big Kid” bed?

Dresser Shopping

Holy Cow Moment?:  I apparently am clueless on what a dresser should cost.

Thanks to a new baby we have to redistribute throughout the house.  While going through the: what we have and what we need, we decided that maybe a new dresser for our toddler was a better option and recycle the old to the new baby.  The dresser is mine from being a child and is a tank – but isn’t exactly cute.  So off we go onto a new hunt for a dresser.  Let me start out by saying that I refuse to pay over $300 for a dresser.  My ideal price is under $200. 

As I scour the internet, what did we do before the internet? Anyway,  as I scour the internet, clicking on different store ads, using Google to find new stores, it becomes apparent that dressers cost a whole lot of money.  Dismay fills me as I realize we can’t get our child a new dresser, but what about a new to her dresser?  Craigs list here I come.  My jaw drops as I click on one ad link to the next.  Wow is there some ugly out there.  Just because you saw some value in that dresser in the 70’s does not mean it is still worth that today.  Sitting back in my chair I have to wonder where do I go now?  Do I twiddle my thumbs or sit an wallow?  Who knows.  What I do know is my daughter is a proud new owner of a toddler slide that craigs list had.  I shake my head.  Why is it that you give up on what you were looking for and somehow find something else you didn’t really need.

Holy Cow do I have ADD.  I look for a dress and buy a slide.  Well at least she is having fun.