Dollar Store Shopping

I LOVE the dollar store and I never in a million years thought I'd ever say that.

Before I had kids, I had never really been in a dollar store, but then when Katie and I were staying home together we would go for walks in town and there was a brand new dollar store that we would visit.

Here are the things I ALWAYS BUY there.

 

• Books !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Board Books GALORE - and not just crappy, no name versions - all the stuff in the picture above is from various Dollar Stores. Coloring books, Preschool work books, Board Books -I even managed to grab some big girl hard cover Disney Princess storybooks once

• Stickers - Katie went through a phase where she used stickers all day, every day and we made lots of projects... we got regular stickers, (current characters) foam stickers, foam shapes, re-usable stickers to decorate her walls and more
• Flash Cards - Katie LOVED flashcards (Ben just tries to eat them) She learned her alphabet and numbers from flashcards from the dollar store
• Balloons - I hate balloons because I had the sound when they pop - I also hate how much they cost - but they are only a buck at the dollar store and I'm talking legit Mylar balloons with princess, elmo, mickey, etc......
• Bubble Bath - I hit the jackpot the other day and found Strawberry Shortcake Bubble bath, Abby Cadabby hair de-tangler, Elmo hand soap and more - I stocked up because seriously - for a dollar you can't go wrong! And when they run out, I will re-fill the bottles with regular bath soap
• Some Cleaning supplies - I found some Lysol Toilet Bowl cleaner the other day and grabbed it - cause it was WAY cheaper than at Target.

I have also found Littlest Pet Shop toys once - so you NEVER know what you are going to find! Check out your nearest dollar store, and I guarantee you will be glad you did - Dollar Tree is the more popular one by me and the one that I have found the most awesome stuff in - if you go for nothing else, hit up the coloring books and board books and you will be glad you did because you will be able to create a whole new library for your child with 10 bucks!!!!!!

Happy Shopping!

How do I slow down?

My mind is on overdrive all the time - I'm not exaggerating.

It takes me a minute to wake up and get out of bed, but once I'm up - I'm UP and ready to do stuff.

The other morning I woke up early with Ben. When it was time for breakfast, I thought - perfect - I'll put him in his highchair in the kitchen, let him watch Bubble Guppies on the computer while I empty the dishwasher.

Then I realized it was Saturday - and thought it would be nice to  make pancakes for Katie and Dave - so I mixed up some pancake mix and then started emptying the dishwasher - Benny was happily eating in his highchair and then I realized - 

WAIT.. I'm wasting time, I could be cooking the pancakes and in between flipping them, I could be emptying the dishwasher.

So that's what I did - I made pancakes while I emptied the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen and Ben ate his breakfast. 

This is how my brain works all the time. 

It's wonderful for getting things done around the house, but I find that any time the kids are being quiet or are playing happily, my mind is running through the neverending list of things that need to be cleaned, cooked, packed, organized, folded, washed, dusted, vacuumed, etc...

I am incapable of just sitting and enjoying them. I always feel like I need to be doing something around the house.

I thought that working from home would allow me to do some of these household things during lunch breaks of while on conference calls, but that is just not happening. Even at work, I am a multi tasking freak - I have 2 monitors and 2 computers to work on so if one is busy doing something, I can hop on the other one to do other things. I wear a headset because I need my hands free to do other things while I'm on the phone.

I even have about a half hour each day after the kids leave the house, before I start working, but that time is usually spent cleaning up the kids morning messes, making breakfast and showering. 

I am proud of the fact that I can multi-task most people under the table on any given day. I'm always thinking about maximizing efficiency and getting 2 things done at one time - but I'm sad because now that I work, I am doing this all day, every day and it's starting to make me bitter. 

I'm thinking of hiring a cleaning person to come in and do all the big cleaning for me so that I can erase that from my never ending list of things to do, but then I feel like a cop out because I think that cleaning ladies are an extravagance. (we never had one growing up so I have to adjust to the idea what it's "OK" to have one)

But, even with that, I'm hesitant about spending the money and what if the people I hire are crazy or weird or take stuff or break things?????

UGHHHHHHHHHH

What other things can I do to make myself slow down?  How can I switch my multi-tasking mind off and turn on my relax and enjoy the kids nonsense mind on? What things do you do to make sure that you have a balance of fun along with  getting everything done around the house without losing your mind? 

My Orange Marker

One of my favorite quotes on Parenting from The Back Up Plan (which I think is a must see for ANYONE thinking of having kids;))

A Dad to be asks a dad who is at the playground with his 3 kids what having kids is really like and this is his response: yes it's grossly exaggerated and no I don't think it's true every single day - but if you have more than one kid, I bet this makes you smile!


"The best way I can describe it is, it's awful awful awful awful, and then, something incredible happens, and then awful awful awful awful awful. "

So, here is the story of my something Incredible from yesterday

I went to a baby shower yesterday that was out of town, so being the multi-tasking queen that I am - I made a few stops to run some errands on the way because we needed some stuff for the house.

So, I searched high and low (as if I had extra time to search) for special bubble bath for Katie, I got Ben a cute toothbrush, (making sure to pick out JUST the right character) I got Dave a new Keurig Coffee Filter as ours has literally disappeared off the face of the earth.

Then I went to the baby shower and won a prize for catching lots of people saying the word Baby and taking their necklaces away. The prize was a cute, hard cover notebook and I thought - This is PERFECT for Katie - she will love it.

After the party, I went to Target and got some yogurt bites for Benny because they were on sale and they are seriously like like crack for kids (both my kids can eat an entire bag in less than 5 minutes) - and I picked up some new markers for Katie because hers were drying up and I thought she'd like them, especially since she was gonna get a new notebook.

I go home, and bring in all my bags and tell everyone that I got treats for everyone!! Katie followed me and helped hand out the treats like a helper elf!

Then I told her about the game I played and how I had won and that I was giving her my prize.
The first thing she did was look at my neck because she understood that I had collected necklaces during the game - so she asked me if I had to give them back. I told her I did, but the true is, I threw them away because it was ribbon with teeny tiny little plastic pieces on them that I knew she would A) need to carry around for about a week and B) Ben would try to chew.

So, she was coloring in her notebook with her markers and she looked at me and said, "But where is your special prize and treat?"

I told her, "Well, Katie my prize was the notebook but I am giving it to you so you can have it"

She looked at her markers and grabbed an orange one and said, "you can have one of my markers as your special prize."


I almost cried. For real.

I mean, she's 3 years old and hoards things. If she gets a package of 4 lip glosses, she will carry around all 4 at all times and freaks out if one is missing. And here she was giving me one of her precious markers... and she didn't even give me a 'boy' color which she was separating out while she was drawing.

She has been particularly mean to me lately - refusing to play with me and only asking for Daddy - so this little quip made that all go away, if only for an afternoon:)

Don't get me wrong, at bedtime - she still cried when I asked if I could read to her because she wanted daddy only but I didn't let it upset me - because she gave ME a marker - not Dave. So, I know loves me no matter how fresh she can be ;) And at the end of the day - I read her 3 My Little Pony Stories when I was only supposed to read her 2 - so that's gotta count for something right?

I love my kids and it's not always awful - and there is more wonder and excitement during any given day than I ever thought possible. But it is hard - and some days you forget about how wonderful it can be and I'm hoping I can check back here and read this when I'm frustrated with something she is doing, and remember that at the end of the day - she gave me her marker:)

Happy Parenting!

Worst night as parents ever

It's been awhile - for those of you that read, I apologize - life is just a whole lot of hectic and I literally haven't had time to sit down and type anything out. I have been making hats for people like crazy, reading some REALLY long books (the Game of Thrones Series) and working my butt off all while trying to keep this house in shape and my family, fed, watered and clean:)

The other day, we had our worst night of parenting ever.
Katie decided to throw a HUGE tantrem. I'm talking - kicking screaming, yelling, crying throwing herself all over the bed trantrum.

We were not prepared for this. My katie bug doesn't throw tantrums - she rarely even disobeys us.
I can leave her alone with a brand new box of markers and white walls and don't have to worry about her coloring ANYWHERE but on the paper in front of her.

I can tell her that she can't have an m & m until she eats 3 more bites of her dinner and she will eat 3 bites and will be honest about how many she's eaten - so if we think she's eaten 3 and she hasn't - she tells us she's only eaten 2.

If Dave tells her she can't do something and I tell her she can - she tells me that Dave said no first. It's been like this since she was around 18 months.

I'm not exaggerating - she really is this good.

I think part of why she's so good is because she learned to talk very early so has been able to communicate clearly, thus avoiding some of the frustration that most toddlers feel.

So... we were not prepared for this.

She had a particularly bad day where she was pushing Dave's buttons and she was refusing to let him get her ready for bed - so I went in to finish up. She freaked out and was refusing to let me put her pj's on. I ended up carrying her to her bed without her pj's on because the bathroom is next to Ben's room and we didn't want her to wake him up.

Then all hell broke loose.

kicking, screaming, crying - it was like the exorcist had taken over my little princess.

We had decided as a team that we were going to put our feet down so we were in it for the long haul so I refused to give in to her requests of Dave going back in. (which was her screaming theme)

I kept going back in and threatening her with taking away the dolls she sleeps with - then I tried being super nice mommy and offering to let her pick her pj's out and put them on herself.

She kept insisting on Dave.

She was crying, I was crying outside her door, Ben was awake and poor Dave was speechless.

I finally went in one last time and gave her back her best buddy because no matter how much she misbehaves, I don't think it's fair that we take her security blanket - so I'm trying to stop doing that because I realize it's not right. so I gave him back and explained that I just wanted her to put her pj's on so that she wouldn't be cold.

The exorcist child did not let up.

So I told her she was going to be cold because I wasn't coming in again and it was bed time.

(not the most mature response I know... but if it had been you, you would have said it too)

I came downstairs to try to cool down and she got quiet.

I waited a few minutes and went back upstairs and she had fallen asleep - without her clothes on. I had brought extra blankets up with me just in case so I piled the extra blankets on top of my usually sweet and adorable child and then cranked the heat up to like 75 degrees cause I didn't want her to be cold. Yes, I brought my camera because I knew that sooner rather than later - I would find this whole thing amusing...


Then I waited for her to wake up and realize she was backwards and mostly naked in bed.

Our dilemma was this.. we knew that she would remember - so did we send Dave in - or keep our foot on the ground and make her do what we wanted?

We decided to compromise because I saw no end in sight.
She woke up hysterical - I went in and tried to negotiate. (yes I still try to negotiate because sometimes it kind of works if even just for a little bit)

No go.
I left again and had visions of continuing this argument until the wee hours of the morning so I negotiated again and told her if she let me put her PJ top on, then Dave could come in and help her with her pants.

P.s. we had started out with a blanket sleeper - which I swapped out realizing it would be impossible to wrestle little miss exorcist into - so I got 2 separates figuring I could at least try to throw the shirt over her head.

It worked... took a little coaxing - but we met in the middle. She put her top on - Dave went in and put her pants on and then sang to her and all was right with our worlds again.

At the end of the day, it wasn't that big of a deal. (the initial reason we decided to put our foot down) But I feel like if we always give in, she'll never learn that sometimes we mean no for a reason - so for now, we will stay a team and try our hardest to be as fair as possible with punishing her while at the same time not going overboard when she asks for extra books or songs because 6 months ago - bedtime took us an hour with her because she wanted the extra attention and now it's just reading and a song.

Did we over-react?? yes - was she CRAZY? yes
Were we all alive and well at the end of the day - yes
Are we perfect parents - HELL NO
but we are a team and we will keep learning and helping each other learn as more and more curve balls get thrown our way. But, seriously - I hope to not have a night like this for a REALLY long time - it took a lot out of me and her too I'm sure!!!!

Happy Parenting!

Summer Camp and how it's taking me to Grenada

I spent two of the most amazing summers of my life at summer camp.
No, not as a camper - as a counselor.

The summer of 2000 - I quickly decided that staying home in Naugatuck, CT after being away for an entire year of college just wasn't going to do it for me. I randomly found this summer camp looking for counselors for 9 weeks - applied and like, 2 weeks later was moving up to Kent, CT for the most amazing summer EVER.

It was my first real introduction to international cultures. It was also the very first time I was going somewhere where I knew absolutely no one. (Even the small college I chose - had some familiar faces somewhere my first year.)

I had no idea what to expect. To this day, I have no idea what came over me that made me fill out that application - I swear it was fate because it really wasn't like me.

The first week of camp - you are cleaning out the cabins and getting ready for the campers, so it's just staff. I am not even kidding that on the very first morning at wake up revelle at the flag pole - is when I met 2 of what would become the Fearsome Foursome!

It really was that magical. We were assigned to the same age groups (I think it was 11 - 14 year olds) and we ended up sharing the only 2 cabins that were connected. We also were not assigned as partners to each other - which was convenient for scheduling all our nights off together - because had we all been assigned as counselor partners, our summer would have never happened - at least not like it did.

Working at a sleep away camp is a 24 hour job. You get a few nights off and one full day a week. There is a curfew when you have to get back to campus and check in - we took full advantage of every second that we had off duty as well as our on duty time with our kids.

We were young - 19 and 20 and that summer turned us back into 13 year old girls. (just like our campers)

We had crushes, love triangles and drama just like the girls we were taking care of.
We were DRUNK (literally on our nights off and figuratively) on the prospect of having as much fun as humanly possible. (we were very good with our kids at the same time, which was different than a few of the other counselors who couldn't have cared less about the kids)

We quickly became friends and linked up with 2 boys from boys camp and from that point on were known as the Fearsome Foursome and the Gruesome Twosome.
(Yes, I am serious - I told you we had turned back into 13 year olds)

There were other people that joined us for our nights off - but we were the core group.

We made out with boys in the woods, went off-roading in a Jeep on a Christmas tree farm and explored (and got kicked out of for being underage) the surrounding bars and hang outs on our nights off. When I think of some of the things we did and how lucky we were that nothing bad ever happened, it gives me panic attacks that my own daughter might do something similar but not have such a happy outcome.

We trusted these boys completely (and it worked out in our favor because they took very very good care of us) and allowed them to take us into the dark night down some creepy road with no lights - park at this hiking trail entrance that was CLEARLY closed for the night, and let them lead us down to this place they said we HAD to see...

(this could have gone wrong in SOOOOOOOOOOOo many ways)

But what happened, is we came out of the woods into this open clearing by a river that they had found the night before.
We called it the Rock - and we went there together as much as we possibly could for the rest of the summer. We swam in the river in our bras and underwear and had to check back in at camp soaking wet. (none of us thought to bring towels) We jumped off a rock ledge way too high (no, seriously it was high) in the pitch black into a body of water with a depth that was kind of unknown to us. We bought beer and ice and used the rocks as coolers to pack the beers into. We drank and drank and drank and lucky for us, we always had a designated driver - our friend from Wales who only drank Smirnoff Ice (which was not yet available in the US) and NEVER drank beer. We also had nights where beer wasn't involved because we had to drive almost an hour away to get it with the fake ID we were using at the time and we didn't always have that kind of time to commute for beer and still have time to hang out before curfew.

It was an unlikely group of people - me, from CT, T from Colorado, S from Georgia/Florida/Hawaii, and S from Wales/Grenada/London. M was from PA and J was from Virginia I think.

We took care of each other, we took care of our kids. We sailed in the lake and braved the swim test together. We raided the kitchen after hours and even took day trips together on our days off. In fact, a group I wasn't with them - and half of them were internationals and they just stayed at my house and then went on their way)

We argued about Trainers versus Sneakers and Pants versus Track Suite Bottoms. We used torches (flashlights) to find our way to the Rock at night. (although by the end I don't think we needed them) We sang the Star Spangled Banner at the top of our lungs one night when the boys dropped us off to the Rock and we had to wait for them to come back. We figured it would let anyone or anything in the immediate area know we were there - clearly scaring them away until our boys came back.

We watched for shooting stars and had late night picnics. We had dance parties and played music loudly in our cabins with our kids. We participated in Color War and took it to heart.
We let our kids dress us up as differently themed Barbies for a contest - and we had our hearts broken hearing the stories of some of our campers and how un-involved their parents were with them. (some of their parents dropped them off at camp and then jetted off to Europe for their own vacations - never calling or writing or visiting on Parents day)

We experienced all that camp life has to offer and let me tell you, there are some weird traditions, songs, skits, things that go on at camps... and being on the outside looking in, we had a blast dissecting and trying to understand it all.

Saying goodbye at the end of the summer was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do both to the kids and to each other, because we all knew that being so far away - it could never be like it had been. I think we always knew we'd stay in contact to some degree, but we knew that was all it would be - because life happens.

It's been 12 years (HOLY COW) We have gotten together for S's wedding in Atlanta, my wedding in CT, my husband and I visited S in London a few years ago and she visited us here during the NYC marathon which she ran in. T and I visited S when she was going to UGA in Athens and T spent a new years eve at S's house one year as well.

This brings me to Grenada. S is getting married in Grenada and at first, I figured it would never happen with the kids, etc... I mean I just went back to work and haven't been more than 2 hours away from the kids EVER. I quickly realized when I started researching flights that it was going to be impossible for my husband and I both to go, because it's just too hard to get back in case of an emergency and I didn't want us to be so far from the kids... so I kind of left it at that.
My hubby however - told me I should go alone. Make it a girls weekend.

Take the chance and do it - because you only live once and I'd regret it if I didn't go.

I felt awful because I know it's selfish and I feel bad leaving the kids for that long and I feel even worse, leaving my husband to be a single parent for 6 whole days while I go to paradise.

But he told me to go... so I booked a flight and I'm headed to Grenada in April by myself and meeting T there. S already promised me that her friends would adopt me and I wouldn't be the lonely American girl and I believe her because her friends were amazing to us when we visited her in London.

When you come across friends like these - the really true ones - that you can get together in a room no matter long it's been since you talked and have the time of your life - I feel you have to take every opportunity to get in that room with them!

I don't have any friends that I can just call up for coffee. Geography always bit me in the ass in that department as my best friends all left me at some point and now live AT LEAST an hour away. I don't get to see my good friends nearly as much as I'd like to and I know it's ok - because life happens and we all get busy and grow apart and head down different paths. It's sad - but it's true.
My best friends are the people who I've spent time with in College, or at camp, or for 3 years while we lived in Irvington, NY and had the best neighbors ever - and all of these people have left me to live elsewhere.

So, I am moving past my feelings of guilt and starting to get incredibly excited at the prospect of a girls weekend in paradise with some of my favorite people on the planet.

Just cause we don't talk a lot or see each other (like, ever) doesn't mean that you're not still my favorite people.

So, here's to Grenada and to Kenmont/Kenwood Camps for introducing me to some amazing people. And cheers to my best friend in the world, for encouraging me to go and promising NEVER to hold it over my head and for volunteering to hold down the fort with our kids.

I'm feeling pretty lucky and starting to think that 2012 is really going to be the year I get out of my terrible funk for good. I also think I need to try to make more time and occasions to visit all you people that moved away. Not sure how I'm gonna do it, but I'm gonna try really hard. If only we could transport through air instantly like in Harry Potter - I'd travel to Brooklyn, Connecticut, Brewster, Alabama, Florida, Boston, Colorado and London (just to name a few) way more often!

Here's to great friends in far away places!

Poop

My Life Revolves around my kids poop.
I'm dead serious.

This is not for the weak of stomach... I've warned you.

Katie has always had constipation issues. Since she was in diapers.
When she was eating baby cereal, we used to have to put prune juice in it just to try to help her out a little and even that didn't always work.

(Buying my little 6 packs of prune juice was embarrassing - kind of like buying condoms or tampons.... only there's no fun to come!!!)

It has gotten so bad that we have literally had to pull it out of her.

When we potty trained her, I figured it was going to be a disaster - but shockingly... it wasn't...

So, there's one poopy plus!

Now that she is potty trained... she just holds it in. I swear she has seriously amazing control of her body function - because she can hold it in for DAYS and DAYS.....

So it's a battle.

We have discovered that she absolutely cannot eat bananas.. not even half of one because that means about 3 days of misery for all of us. Of course, she loves bananas - so that's a huge bummer.

Now, we try to encourage her to go every day. She has bouts of time where this works and all is well in our house. Everyone is happy.

Then she has bouts where she refuses to go either because she's afraid it might hurt or she wants to have control and then we all are cranky and angry and we fight back and forth trying to convince her that it's a good idea to go. Then my husband has to sit with her for half an hour at a time while she's on the potty waiting for her to poop.

She refuses to let me sit with her during this and screams and yells that she wants him - so the poor guy gets stuck 95% of the time with it.

Then there is Ben. He has the opposite problem. he gets Diarrhea all the time. The doctor keeps telling us it's nothing - but the daycare doesn't want a kid there with diarrhea. So last week, they kicked him out on Wednesday afternoon and he couldn't go back until Monday. We took him to the doctor and they again said it was no big deal. Then I told them I'm concerned and they said if I was worried, I could collect a poop sample and bring it in.

That is the most disgusting thing I've ever done in my life. Particularly because the poop I had to use for the sample was the worst smelling, most foul thing I've ever seen.

Ben has also picked up the habit of waking up to poop every night between 1 and 3. If he doesn't wake up for that, then he probably pees through his diaper and we have to get him and change everything for that.

Our happiness at night during family time and our ability or inability to sleep all revolves around when and how our kids poop and pee.

This is something I wasn't prepared for and I am hoping that it gets better- because it's not fun.
It's not

Our happiness on any given night can completely depend on whether she poops. Our sleep deprivation level depends on whether he poops OR pees.

This is the stuff no one tells you about - so I'm letting it all out;)

Anyone have any ideas on how we can possibly try to change his pooping schedule so he doesn't have to wake up to do it in the middle of the night?

Anyone??

Please:)

Christmas and Santa Claus

O.k... this whole thing is WAY HARDER than I had thought it would be.

This year, we were able to push Christmas up by one day because my Dad had to travel - so, otherwise, it would have been super rushed and no fun.

We could do this because Katie is 3 and didn't take too much stock in which day Christmas was - I think this is the only year we will be able to do it because she's CRAZY clever!

So, there we all were - kids were sleeping and we started getting the presents out from their hiding place. (Have you asked YOUR parents where they hid presents when you were growing up yet?? go ahead - do it - you will be amazed at how much STEALTHIER they probably were than we are!!)

Anyway - the hubs and I had decided that Santa gifts would be unwrapped and ready for play. (Assembled, batteries in, etc...)

Then there was everything else that we had bought and all the stuff my parents had bought - so how do we tell Katie who brought who? As far as she knows Santa brings gifts - not mommy and daddy - we had planned to tell her some were from Santa and some were from us and my parents, but she kind of kept saying - things like... "O.K. mimi and grumps bought this present, but Santa brought all the rest"

So, we didn't really argue.

So, does that mean that next year everything has to be from Santa? Can some be from us? Do we keep doing the unwrapped versus wrapped thing? Does Santa fill mommy and daddy's stockings too or just kids???

Way more complicated than I had anticipated!

We got through it, and it was AWESOME. She was so excited and so good with the presents
"Mommy, can I open this one? Does it say Katie... I see a K!!!"

She didn't just dive in - she was very patient. She did toss clothing presents aside and even through in an, "I don't want them" comment about socks and leggings but all in all - was very very well behaved.

She liked all of her presents, although I'm surprised at which things she has played with the most so far. I think she's just overwhelmed and can only handle one thing at a time:)

The baby wasn't that into opening... but did like playing with new stuff. His favorite were his sisters princess dolls and this textured, nubby, sensory ball.

We do Christmas all over again next weekend with my in-laws and they are going to get enough stuff that I have to take my tree down to make space for it - and I can't wait to see her face when she sees her MAJOR AWARD - this super, deluxe - monster princess castle with all the princesses and a Cinderella staircase, etc - the whole shebang! She's going to DIE - and then she's going to SCREAM bloody murder when her brother tries to pull himself up to stand on it - but she's still going to die:)

Christmas is awesome.

Next year, I hope to adopt a family so that we can spread our good fortune because as I think of all the kids getting spoiled rotten with toys they will only play with for a few hours - it is hard to not think of those poor children do who not even get one toy - or who don't know where their next meal is coming from.

So, my new years resolution is to donate more all year long - not just at the holidays because you never know... it could be you or someone you know and everyone deserves to get something.

Merry Christmas!