Some days I'm SuperMom!!! The kids and I are up and dressed before 9 am. Their inevitable spills are handled with a smile and a wet dishrag. Their whining is met with a fun spontaneous tickle-centric activity, or a trip in the snow to the mailbox, or a craft idea squirreled away for a rainy day. I do dishes while they color at the kitchen counter. I fold laundry during their TV time. The house is clean and the meals are hot, delicious, and nutritious. And a choir of angels harmonizes in the den.
Some days I'm SlackerMom... We're still in our pajamas (now quite dirty from breakfast mishaps) at noon. We've gone over our allotted TV time by several hours. The house looks like someone came along and dumped out every toy bucket, dirtied every piece of clothing, and used every dish. Meals consist of snack food, usually popcorn, and cold cereal. The incessant crying gets to me and we have early naptimes/bedtimes. There are no crafts. There are no hot meals. There is no harmony. In fact, choirs of demons anti-harmonize (dischord-ize?) in the dining room.
Most days are in between the two. Right now I can either have a clean house OR happy kids. Dishes done OR hot meals. But that's ok with me. It won't always be like this...these are the good years, right? The years before school and sports and lessons. The easy years that are free of schedules and tardy slips and vacations scheduled around school. Some day I'll look back at these years with fondness and envy. Today, not so much.
We've all been sick for the last month. It kind of explains, but doesn't excuse my lack of blogging. I've enjoyed reading everyone else's blogs, but haven't been motivated enough to write my own. It seems like we've been trading illnesses back and forth for weeks now. Anywhere from one to four of us has had sore throats, coughs, fevers, sniffles, body aches, low energy...you name it. It has been one crappy month.
When the kids are sick all they want to do is sit in my lap and watch TV. That's fine with me. I can get my taxes done (mostly) and surf the web. I can read blogs and headlines. It's not so great for the healthy kid, though. They're left to watch TV with the sick one or entertain themselves. It's interesting to see what they do in their own little world when they're left to it. Pumpkin usually resorts to legos. Princess lines up her animals and pretends to read them books.
Lately the Princess has become very independent. When she's thirsty she'll get a cup from her drawer and fill it with water from the fridge dispenser, and toss the cup in the sink after drinking. Awesome. The other day, though, she was hungry. Instead of letting me know, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She got a stool, pushed it to the counter, got bread out of the breadbox and had a slice. No problem. Hunger issues solved, right? Nope.
When she saw the strawberry jam on the counter next to her, suddenly a plain piece of bread didn't look so appetizing anymore.
So what is an acceptable way to get jam for a 2 year old? How about sticking your hands into the tupperware of homemade strawberry freezer jam and finger-spreading it on your bread sans knife? Yeah, that'll do it.
Who needs a knife when you have opposable thumbs? And what's the next course of action? Why, crying because your hands are now really sticky and you can't get down off the counter, of course.
Strong-willed, independent child who likes to fend for herself? check
Slightly marred, freshly opened tub of jam? check
Blog fodder? check
I think my work here is done.
***********
In follow-up news, Kindergarten sign-ups are this Monday. For now we've decided to go ahead and sign Pumpkin up to start public school in the fall. It gives us a little more time to make our decision as to whether or not to homeschool. For his money, Pumpkin likes the idea of homeschooling. I'm still on the fence, but leaning toward at least starting him in public school to see how he does. I think he'll really like it once he tries it. Plus, in Kindergarten you only go for 3 hours a day. If he can handle church, he should be able to handle school. And there's no substitute for the social rules you learn in the classroom and on the playground. Plus, I'd love for him to have a best friend.
Some days I'm SlackerMom... We're still in our pajamas (now quite dirty from breakfast mishaps) at noon. We've gone over our allotted TV time by several hours. The house looks like someone came along and dumped out every toy bucket, dirtied every piece of clothing, and used every dish. Meals consist of snack food, usually popcorn, and cold cereal. The incessant crying gets to me and we have early naptimes/bedtimes. There are no crafts. There are no hot meals. There is no harmony. In fact, choirs of demons anti-harmonize (dischord-ize?) in the dining room.
Most days are in between the two. Right now I can either have a clean house OR happy kids. Dishes done OR hot meals. But that's ok with me. It won't always be like this...these are the good years, right? The years before school and sports and lessons. The easy years that are free of schedules and tardy slips and vacations scheduled around school. Some day I'll look back at these years with fondness and envy. Today, not so much.
We've all been sick for the last month. It kind of explains, but doesn't excuse my lack of blogging. I've enjoyed reading everyone else's blogs, but haven't been motivated enough to write my own. It seems like we've been trading illnesses back and forth for weeks now. Anywhere from one to four of us has had sore throats, coughs, fevers, sniffles, body aches, low energy...you name it. It has been one crappy month.
When the kids are sick all they want to do is sit in my lap and watch TV. That's fine with me. I can get my taxes done (mostly) and surf the web. I can read blogs and headlines. It's not so great for the healthy kid, though. They're left to watch TV with the sick one or entertain themselves. It's interesting to see what they do in their own little world when they're left to it. Pumpkin usually resorts to legos. Princess lines up her animals and pretends to read them books.
Lately the Princess has become very independent. When she's thirsty she'll get a cup from her drawer and fill it with water from the fridge dispenser, and toss the cup in the sink after drinking. Awesome. The other day, though, she was hungry. Instead of letting me know, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She got a stool, pushed it to the counter, got bread out of the breadbox and had a slice. No problem. Hunger issues solved, right? Nope.
When she saw the strawberry jam on the counter next to her, suddenly a plain piece of bread didn't look so appetizing anymore.
So what is an acceptable way to get jam for a 2 year old? How about sticking your hands into the tupperware of homemade strawberry freezer jam and finger-spreading it on your bread sans knife? Yeah, that'll do it.
Who needs a knife when you have opposable thumbs? And what's the next course of action? Why, crying because your hands are now really sticky and you can't get down off the counter, of course.
Strong-willed, independent child who likes to fend for herself? check
Slightly marred, freshly opened tub of jam? check
Blog fodder? check
I think my work here is done.
***********
In follow-up news, Kindergarten sign-ups are this Monday. For now we've decided to go ahead and sign Pumpkin up to start public school in the fall. It gives us a little more time to make our decision as to whether or not to homeschool. For his money, Pumpkin likes the idea of homeschooling. I'm still on the fence, but leaning toward at least starting him in public school to see how he does. I think he'll really like it once he tries it. Plus, in Kindergarten you only go for 3 hours a day. If he can handle church, he should be able to handle school. And there's no substitute for the social rules you learn in the classroom and on the playground. Plus, I'd love for him to have a best friend.
