Back Seat Driver!

I'm wondering if you can drive a car better than I can if you still play with Barbies, take naps, and use a sippy cup occasionally? I didn't think you could, but Maddie obviously feels differently. She was all up in my business today about my driving .... here are some of the best lines:
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Madison is drawing in the backseat as we drive to dance class.

Maddie: "Mom, look at this picture I drew."
Me: "Madison, I can't look right now because I am driving. I'll look at it when we get to class."
Maddie: "Mom, you can look. I'll watch the road for you!"
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We were pulling out of a busy parking lot. I had started to pull out because I saw that the oncoming car had it's turn signal on and was going to turn before the street we were on. Maddie apparently didn't feel the coast was as clear as I did. As we passed the car that was turning, she waved to the car and shouted "We're sorry, ma'am!"
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Even though we were at dance class early, Maddie somehow had it in her mind that we were running late. I tried to tell her that we would get there in plenty of time today, and we would probably wind up sitting in the parking lot waiting for her teacher to arrive (which did happen). As we were driving to class, she decided that chanting "Go, Mommy, Go" over and over again would get us to dance class quicker!
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I didn't think the back seat driving would happen quite this early! I feel like I need a drink after being in the car with her today!

Ouch.... That's gonna leave a mark!

Today, McKenna and I were sitting at the table eating lunch together. I have a feeding chair for her that is strapped to one of my kitchen table chairs. There really isn't alot of space in my kitchen to neatly store a highchair, so we've used this chair with both of our kids and it's been great. The chair has a removable tray just like a highchair which is what we've been using for McKenna most of the time.

Today, however, I decided to just pull her right up to the table and set her food out for her. She was having a great time rolling her peas all over the table and being a "big girl". A great time, that is, until she pulled her head back and then slammed it down on the table. I *think* she may have been trying to eat a pea off the table without using her hands. Who knows? What I do know is that the instant she slammed her little baby head on the table I knew it was NOT going to be good.

She was hurting so badly that she couldn't even cry. She had her face all scrunched up like she was crying, but nothing would come out. Those silent cries are scary. Just based on the sound that the thud of her head had made, I assumed that she slammed her forehead down. I didnt see any immediate redness or swelling on the head and I knew that I needed to check her mouth in case she hit her teeth. And, thats when I saw the blood. My poor little baby's mouth was bleeding and I was starting to freak out. (As an aside, why do these things always happen when you are the only parent home? Hubs went to the Eagles game today and I got to deal with head slamming and bloody mouths!)

Once I got some of the blood cleaned up, I could see that luckily all of her teeth were just fine. She had hit her teeth on the inside of her upper lip and it is cut. She's probably going to have a fat lip, but it could've been alot worse.

I am feeling soooo guilty. Why didnt I just leave that damn tray on her chair?

Ahhh, the joys of parenting.

Sarah, Nancy and Val: Do NOT read this!

Ok, so as proof that my brain has TOTALLY left my body since these children were born, I am going to share a story about a little (or big!) faux-pas I made yesterday.

Sarah, Nancy and Val....my dog-loving friends.... you've stopped reading, right? No, seriously, STOP reading right now!

Yesterday, I picked Maddie up from preschool at 1pm. I rushed home because I was meeting someone at the house to give me a price estimate at 1:15pm. I pulled into the driveway and she was waiting for me. As I let this person into my home, the dog got out and I let him just hang outside for a few minutes to do his business and not bother me and our guest. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Fast forward 20 minutes and I am ushering guest out of the house and I get completely wrapped up in the nap process for 2 tired little girls. Finally get them in bed, finally get myself some lunch and settle into doing some housework and blogging before the little ones wake up.

Afternoon goes along normally and nothing seems amiss until dinnertime, when I am feeding my 11 month old peaches and she dumps half a bowl on the floor. Feeling lazy, I decide to call the dog to come clean up the peaches for me. Ben? Oh, Ben? Ben, where are you? OH NO! BEN!!!! I LEFT BEN OUTSIDE FOR THE LAST 5 HOURS!!!!!!

I go outside and start screaming for him to no avail. I knew that by this point he wouldn't be in hearing distance. I also knew that he does not have our phone number on his collar. So, I pack the kiddies into the car and start on a mission to find our poor puppy dog. By some miracle, I got only half way down our street when I see a man walking Ben on a leash. I pull up (looking so stylish with my mismatched baggy sweatpants and peach-stained tshirt!) and tell him that Ben was our dog. Were it not for my 3 year old in the back seat shouting "Ben I am so happy to see you!", I'm not sure this guy would've turned the dog over to me. Apparently, Ben had made it a few streets over when he ended up at this man's house and he took GREAT care of our dog all afternoon. He decided to take Ben for a walk through the neighborhood in the hopes that we'd be out looking for him. And, thankfully we were at that time!

Ben... I am sorry buddy. This whole memory thing.. yeah, well, I am working on it! Can't make any promises, pal, but I'm hoping I'll never leave you outside by yourself again :-) As my husband said "It happens to the best of us" which made me feel better, even though he followed it up with "although 5 hours IS kinda a long time"!

A glimpse into the teenage years

Tonight Matt was out, so it was just us girls. Madison was upstairs helping me get McKenna ready for bed. All of a sudden, she found an Elmo cell phone in McKenna's toy basket. She immediately dropped what she was helping me with and said "I have to go to my bedroom now so I can call D" ("D" is her best friend... she has actually called her that... so cute!).

So, off she goes to her bedroom where I can see her having a full blown conversation with this toy cell phone and telling D that she had fun at her house today, and that she was going to read books to her doll babies and have mac and cheese for dinner....very important stuff.

She looks up about midway through the conversation and sees me watching her. And this, my friends, is where I saw my future.... and it wasn't pretty.

She drops the phone on her bed, rolls her eyes, and gets up and shuts her bedroom door! Um, last time I checked, Madison, you were 3, not 13. Could you please not start acting like a teenager yet? My fragile little heart just can't take it.

Mom, Stop Snoring!

So, last night Maddie went to bed really well, and after about a half hour of no calls from her, I thought we were home free. Not so much!

Around 8:45pm, she called out for us. I was upstairs in my bedroom putting laundry away, so I headed to her room to see what she wanted. She looks at me straight in the face and this is how the conversation goes:

Madison: "Your snoring is waking me up, Mom!"

Me: "Madison, I wasn't snoring."

Madison: "Yes, you were."

Me: "Madison, I promise you I wasn't snoring. I am still awake. Now, this isn't funny. You now will not be able to play on your swingset tomorrow, and if you call out again, something else will get taken away. I love you. Goodnight."

Madison: "Mom?"

Me: "Yes, Maddie?"

Madison: "Do you ever snore?"

Me: "Yes, Madison, once in a while I do snore. Now goodnight!"

Madison: "Well, could you stop snoring? It is waking me up!"

It was all I could do to not start bursting out in laughter while I was still in her doorway. I went downstairs to share the story with Matt and we both had a good laugh! She is getting VERY creative.

She's pulling out ALL the stops now!

I am knocking on wood right now as I type this .... both of my kids are good sleepers. Madison, in particular, is a fantastic sleeper. With the exception of the first four months of her life, Madison has pretty much gone to bed every night thereafter with no fuss, no argument, no nothing. We follow our bedtime routine, we kiss goodnight, we leave, and she sleeps.

A few weeks ago, however, Madison started calling out for us to come up to her room. She will do this 1 - 3 times during the first hour she is in bed. Her needs when she calls out range from having to go potty, needing a drink, wanting a snuggle, needing socks put on her feet, or wanting to say "I Love You" one last time. Given that all of those things are part of our bedtime routine, there is absolutely no reason for her to call out for these things once its lights-out. Basically, she is searching for things to need so that she gets our attention. I am not sure what started this whole thing, but it is getting tiresome and I want to nip it in the bud. I get particularly salty about this issue when she says she has to go potty (a request she knows we wont refuse), then sits on the toilet and says "You know what, maybe I didn't have to go potty" (which I could have predicted given that she had just gone 5 minutes earlier before we put her to bed!).

Anyway, last night, she called out for us after about 10 minutes after she had gone to bed. I went up to see what she needed and she said, "Mommy, I just wanted to tell you I love you again". Now, it's hard to get upset about her wanting to share her love, but this whole business needs to be stopped, so I tried to stay firm. I tell her that I love her so much too, but that she told me when she went to sleep, and she isn't supposed to call out anymore, yadda, yadda, yadda.... If she calls out again, something will be taken away from her. Goodnight.

Another 10 minutes goes by and she calls out again. This time Matt goes up. She wants a snuggle. Matt tells her that she got a snuggle before she went to sleep, that it is time for sleep, that we expect her to STOP calling out and GO TO BED! She can have a snuggle in the morning. Then the tears start rolling and she cries " I JUST WANT SOMEONE TO LOVE ME!" OMG, this is the guilt trip of all guilt trips and it is being perfectly executed by a 3 and a half year old. I swear that Drama should have been her middle name! Although it is somewhat infuriating that she thinks she can just play us like violins, it is also very interesting about how advanced her manipulation skills are :-) I was proud that hubby stood firm and told her we loved her but she couldn't have a snuggle right now and she needed to go to sleep. But, part of me just wanted to run up there and snuggle the heck out of that little cutie, even though it wasn't the right thing to do :-)

Anyone have any thoughts on how to break the calling out cycle?