Sleeping Beauty

Drue is a sneaky sleepwalker. By that, I mean she can sneak so quietly into our room at night, climb into our bed, and snuggle herself in between David and I and we won't even know she's there! We are surprised many a morning to wake up and see her little brown curly head sleeping peacefully right smack dab in the middle of our bed.

On occasion, she has snuck downstairs while David is watching TV, crouched up into a little ball behind the couch and fallen asleep. Unbeknownst to David until he heads upstairs for the night and finds her there.

It always takes me aback when I go to check on her and find that her bed is e-m-p-t-y. Thus begans the mad scramble to find her. Once she was balled up next to our bed on the floor next to the wall. One morning I went to check on her before I headed off to work and found that she had gone downstairs to sleep on the couch, and had tucked herself in and everything.

What a funny little girl.

Last night, I went to check on the girls before I went to bed and to turn their light off. I opened their door and immediately saw that Drue's bed was unoccupied. I had just come from my room so I knew she wasn't in there. Just as I was mustering up the energy to go search for her, I looked down at the foot of Reese's bed and there she was.

 

Why didn't we think of this before? We could have saved some money on a bed for her. They probably would be able to sleep comfortably like this for another few years or so...

My Supermen

 

Once again David has jetted off to sunny California, leaving us behind to endure blustery winds and frigid temperatures. How sweet of him. I believe my resentment would be lessened if his mid winter business trip destinations were to Alaska...or Antarctica.

On a positive note, our menu this week will include tuna pie, tuna pancakes, and tuna popsicles, with a side of pea juice.

Ironies of my day

I'm not even sure of the correct plural form of "irony" or "ironic", but "ironies" will suffice for now.

#1. After dropping off Reese this morning the younger two and I headed to Lowe's. They will ride in a regular cart when necessary, however, they really prefer the ones with bucket seats that have straps coming over their shoulders. There was a whole row available when we got there. I plopped Tate in the first one and finagled his little arms through the straps while Drue climbed up on her side. As I scrounged around under Tate's patootie in search of the actual buckle, I discovered it was missing. So I untangled him from the straps and looked at the next one. No buckles. On down the line....NO BUCKLES! Finally, the last one in the row had 2 buckles per seat, so I started the process all over again. I situated Tate, then Drue. We were off. So why was it that the only cart with workable buckles, had the loudest squeaky wheel imaginable?! It sounded like a train whistle...all throughout the ENTIRE STORE!

#2. Last week our temps for the day were 7 degrees, 21 degress, and the like. So why on a beautiful 60 degree day like today are the winds blowing 112 miles per hour?! Enough to blow away my pint sized playmates so that we can't even get out and enjoy the weather. It blew Tate's hat right off his head in the school parking lot. How fun that was to chase after holding an amused toddler and commanding his sisters to STAY PUT lest they try and follow me.

The Grass is Always Greener...

I love the show House Hunters on HGTV. I don't even know why. And David has pondered that out loud on more than one occasion. "Why do we even care which house these people pick to live in?". (Don't let him fool you, he gets as involved as I, in their decision making process).

For those of you who have no idea what the show is about, basically it follows a different family/couple each episode who are looking for a new house. A realtor takes them through 3 houses, and at the end of the show, they pick the one they want and buy it. But there's a twist. 80% of the time, they pick the one you'd least expect them too.

I actually had to ground myself from watching it a few months ago, because I was getting depressed that our biggest dilemma in life, wasn't which $500,000 house to pick.

Well, this morning we were watching it and the houses were gorgeous and expensive, and had backyard oases complete with swimming pools. After we found out which one the couple chose, Reese asked, "Mommy? Do you wish you had that house?".

"YES! I do. I really really do," I answered emphatically.

Reese slumped down next to me and said regrettably, "Ooooh...maybe I shouldn't have pointed that out."

Issues

The crazy things we parents do for our kids #1-because we love them, and #2-because we want to avoid any unnecessary battles...

Drue ABHORS wearing socks or tights. At first, I thought she was just being difficult, wanting to be in control, or just being outright disobedient. I have never witnessed anything like it before. It got to the point where we'd be getting ready to go somewhere and the phrase, "Girls, time to get your socks and shoes on" would cause her to meltdown. Right there in front of our eyes. All because she was anticipating the feel of the socks on her feet.

It started sometime at the change of seasons when it was too cool to continue to wear our norm of flip flops or crocs without socks. She would burst into tears as soon as we slipped the sock on her foot. We tried different kinds of socks, we tried situating them different ways, we tried to have her move them around on her tiny feet until they were comfortable, and we tried distracting her with crazy antics, all to no avail. There was always a hysteric fit thrown.

Of the two of us, David is the most patient in these types of circumstances. So I would work with her as long as I could contain myself, and when I still couldn't get it right, I would send her off to her Daddy. Of course, he's not here during the week, so finally, I just started telling her, "I know it feels kooky, but you just have to wear them until we get Reese dropped off at school, then you can take your socks and your shoes off."

That tactic worked...for awhile. But there were still the hysterics. They never went away. The time length was just shortened.

Finally I went to our good friend, Google, and typed in the issues she was having. Lo, and behold, website after website popped up about children with similar behaviors. I felt horrible. She wasn't being defiant, she was actually physically uncomfortable when the seam at the toe end of the sock rubbed up against her little piggies. One article I came across was advertising "seamless socks" so I kept telling her I was going to order her some, but then kept thinking, "What if I spend money on seamless socks, and she still has an issue with them?".

In the meantime, I decided to make homemade seamless socks by cutting off the toe end of a handful of pairs of her socks. It was really a move out of desperation one morning a few weeks ago. We had to be somewhere and I just grabbed the scissors in haste and cut the ends off her socks. She started wailing when I brought the socks over to her, but when I slipped them on and her toes poked out, she autmoatically stopped. Her little face brightened up through her tears, and she excitedly said, "Mommy! These socks don't feel kooky!".

I breathed a huge sigh of relief. She is like a different child when it comes to getting ready to go somewhere now. And she always reminds us to "get the socks without any toes"...like we'd forget.

I no longer make her wear tights to church. She wears footless leggings under skirts or dresses, and toeless socks. I think I may go ahead and order some seamless ones for her to wear to church or over to other people's houses, so if she takes her shoes off, she won't look like a homeless orphan.

Rather then dismiss the importance of their feelings, I have been trying to be better at saying things like, "I understand you're upset about such and such, but this is why we have to do this or that". The other day we were getting ready to pick Reese up from preschool and it was the first time Drue had cried about her sock since the toe cutting began. It brought back all my feelings of frustration and anxiety. (This time I think the heel wasn't on straight and felt weird in her shoe). I took a deep breath and as we backed out of the driveway I said, "Drue, I care about your issues, and I will try to fix it as soon as we get to preschool."

Still crying she corrected, "They're not issues!" and held up her tiny feet for me to see...."They're shoes!".

Differences

David had an all day meeting today that ended with dinner out. Since he was away we had tuna casserole for supper. Hip Hip Hooray! He can't stand even the smell of a hint of tuna, therefore we never get to have any tuna in the house. I chose peas as a side item (also a delicacy which David detests).

Of course Reese turned her nose up at both. I only placed a few spoonfuls of each on her plate, so I was expecting her to eat what was put in front of her. She put one tiny solitary pea in her mouth and her face automatically scrunched up in disgust. The pea slowly started to make it's way back out of her mouth, but was stopped by the evil queen who instructed her fair princess to SWALLOW IT DOWN!

By this time, I had already finished half my plate. "I loooove peas," I stated cheerily.

Reese responded, "I don't. God made us different. We like different things."

Not Sure The Message Got Through

After disciplining/punishing/reprimanding our brood, we always have a debriefing time, to make sure they know what behavior needed correcting, and why.

I have had it with the sassy mouths. Second only to whining, a sassy mouth sends me over the edge, so much so, that I want to dive headfirst through the glass fireplace screen.

Tonight at supper, Reese had a sassy mouth moment and got sent straight up to her room. A bit later I went up there for her debriefing. And here's how it went down.

Me: "Why did I send you to your room?"

Reese: "Because I had a sassy mouth."

Me: "Why is it not good to have a sassy mouth?"

Reese: "Because your mommy and daddy will put you in time out."

Me(trying my darndest to suppress a giggle): "Ummmm....."

Reese (excitedly interrupting): "No, wait! I know a good one....because that is being a blooper." (Blooper is a word used for ungrateful whiny children in one of our devotionals).

Me (prompting more): "And it's disre---..."

Reese: "...spectful."

Me: "Disrespectful to our...."

Reese: "Manners."

Me: "PARENTS! IT'S DISRESPECTFUL TO OUR PARENTS!"

Reese: "Ohhhh yeah...parents...parents."

Cute Things The Boy Does

All too soon, Tate will be a real life little boy, going off to school, and I don't want to forget the cute things his toddler boy self does.

He LOVES shoes. Any shoe. Doesn't matter. He loves to put on shoes and walk around. While he doesn't always appreciate getting dressed or changing his clothes, he LOVES to have his shoes and socks put on. In fact, he loves it so much, he giggles the entire time we are putting them on. He watches intently, through his giggles, as we slip each shoe on, then he raises his hands, and claps for our accomplishment.

Another sweet thing he does, is when he's sad or hurt and we scoop him up to hold him, he pats our back with his little hand, while we comfort him.

Don't grow up too quickly little buddy....

Tea Time

David and I have started a new "Sad, Mad, Glad" game with the kids we learned from a video series that is part of our current Sunday School curriculum. We each take turns telling each other something that made us "sad", "glad" and "mad" during the day.

This afternoon while the other two were napping, Reese and I had an Oreo Cookie Tea Party. Reese always likes to act so grown up during our tea parties, so after she finished the little story she'd been telling, she asked, "What should we talk about now?".

I started the "Sad, Mad, Glad" game with her. She has added in "Scared" to the list also. So she asked me, "Mommy, what made you scared today?". I like to come up with an answer to each question, so I said, "I was scared that when I took my shower this morning, Tate was going to get into trouble," then happily added, "But he didn't."

Reese pondered this for a second while she licked her cookie, then knowingly responded, "Wow...that's a surprise isn't it?!".

As we were finishing, Reese lamented the fact that naptime would be coming to a close soon. "It sure is nice and quiet, isn't it Mommy? Not crazy, like it will be when the kiddos wake up."