**Thank you to all the parents who shared their lives with me this week! I appreciate you!**
Our Best:
I asked my daughter what she wanted to do for her birthday and she said, “Can we go to dinner with Mimi and Papa? Please, please?” Um yeah. Easiest birthday party ever.
I ate (almost) an entire pack of Twizzlers in front of my kids and they didn’t even notice. That’s some ninja shit right there.
I climbed a tree with my kids the other day. I hadn’t done that since I was a kid, and it was a lot of fun. I hadn’t really played with them like that in a long time. The sunshine brings it out of me, I guess.
I had my first baby a few months ago and I’ve been struggling with postpartum anxiety. I’ve been terrified of leaving the house and being out in public with my own baby. But today, I took a shower while he was taking a nap, and I went to a Mommy and Me group at the community center. They had breakfast and there were a bunch of other babies, and a really awesome speaker. I’ve never been was so happy to have some adult interaction.
Last night I practiced self-care by spending an hour in the bathtub, eating a bag of chips and scrolling through inspirational quotes on Pinterest.
I took half a vacation day, sent the kids to my mom’s house, sat on the couch and watched A League of Their Own.
I was early picking up my kids from school so I pulled into the parking lot, laid my seat back and took a 15 minute power nap. When we got home, I felt like super mom. I was happy, they were happy, and we didn’t fight about starting homework. I even started dancing while I was making dinner, and my oldest daughter said, “Geez, Mom, you’re in a good mood.”
♦♦♦
Our Worst:
I was trying to get everyone out the door to school. The baby was a MESS with Daylight’s Savings Time, and after breakfast he would just scream any time I put him down. Meanwhile, my middle daughter is complaining that she can’t get her shoes on (on the brink of an emotional meltdown), and my oldest son who is completely dressed and waiting at the door keeps singing over and over “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas…Have a Holly Jolly Christmas…Have a Holly Jolly Christmas…” I put the baby down to help my daughter with her shoes, the baby starts screaming again, and since I couldn’t take it out on the baby I just turned to my son and yelled, “STOP SINGING THAT STUPID CHRISTMAS SONG!”
My 8 month old has been really curious with everything lately, especially when I put him to bed. Last night, I got done feeding him and instead of nodding off like he usually does he began picking my nose with his little fingers. And because it was 3:00 in the morning, I just gave in. Let’s face it, there were some boogers in there soooo, I just let him have at it.
I was standing outside talking to my neighbor, and I looked over to see my 3 year old PEEING ON THE NEIGHBOR’S DOG. What’s worse, the dog didn’t even care, and my son was laughing hysterically. Which really meant he was peeing all over himself too.
I tried to bathe both kids at the same time which resulted in my 3 year old refusing to wash her hair. She said, “I don’t want to,” and I said back, “You don’t have to want to.” She proceeded to splash me, so I told her she could do it the hard way or the easy way. She yelled again. So I said, “I guess you want to do it the hard way…” and dumped buckets of water on her head while she screamed.
My husband and I took the car to a car wash. It’s one of those where they clean the outside, but you have to vacuum the inside on your own. My husband had the doors open and the keys in the ignition and the car kept beeping. I pulled out the keys and threw them on the seat. To make a long story short, we ended up locking the keys in the car with our 18 month old in the backseat. I started screaming for help, while my husband went inside to see if someone could help us. In my hysterics I just started throwing anything I could find at the window, looking like a lunatic. Then my husband walked out with a man who was carrying some tool and he popped the door open right away. He told us it happens all the time. I let my husband thank him so I could get back in the car and hide from all the people looking at us.
We were getting ready to leave to go to our friends’ house for dinner and I told our 5 year old he needed to get ready. His response, “No. I don’t want to.” So I said, “Fine, we’ll just leave without you then.” He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Ok sounds good.” I have no pull in this house.
My husband has been out of town for almost two weeks, and I’m so worn down. One night this week, I realized it was almost 6:00 and the kids hadn’t had dinner. When they started whining about how hungry they were I told them they could have whatever they could reach in the pantry. They ate fruit snacks, apple sauce, pretzels, and an entire box of Girl Scout cookies.
We went to the playground, and I knew it was going to be hard to get my son to leave. As a way of trying to get him to come with me without a meltdown, I told him I would race him to the car. We started running and he lagged behind and then fell to the ground crying. I figured he was crying because he was losing. I just kept saying, “You’re fine, buddy, get up!” He kept crying, “My foot hurts!” To which I said, “You’re fiiiine!” I started walking towards the car hoping he would get up and follow, but he just kept screaming and crawling on the ground. He finally got up and was hobbling towards the car. “You’re not hurt! Stop over-reacting” (in my defense, he does this a lot).
Well, we got home and he took off his shoes and his ankle was so swollen. Like, bad swollen. The next day I ended up having to take him to the doctor. It wasn’t broken, thank god, but it’s sprained really badly and he has to wear a cast for four weeks. Mom of the year right here.