Apple picking

Ugh

Sat in the ER from 7pm- 2:30 am. I have an ovarian cyst. Fun! My mom keeps telling me her stories. It's scary... I'm not trying to lose my ovaries here. She apparently had the same problems. I wish she were back in North Carolina. I'm in so much pain.... there's no one to take care of me. Not that I need a lot of care, I just need a lot of sleep right now. A LOT of sleep. But that's hard with a 20 month old and a 3 year old. :o(

Right now, I'm just trying to kill time before I have to sit on a conference call. I put the kids down for a nap without a struggle. Lanie isn't asleep yet but she isn't moving around or making noise so I guess that's a plus. Too bad I have to use nap time for a conference call. *pouts*

Jena--- my clingy baby did not cry at all when I left her at her little preschool.

Lanie--- Wanted me to leave her. She did not behave at all. She hit and kicked the teacher, threw temper tantrums, threw things across the room. Their lesson in Chapel was to learn about Gods Creations, and they said she would not sit and listen to the priest. But they believe she's just testing her boundaries. I hope so.... I've been talking to her every day about it so hopefully by Tuesday she'll understand. Instead of most punishments now, I sit her down and talk to her. Then give her a hug. That seems to be working. She's been a pretty good girl today. I think, when I tell her to pick up toys, we're going to need a timer. It shouldn't take 10 minutes to pick up mega-blocks.

Parenting------ Sometimes I think it's for the birds.

9/11

I'll never forget that day, walking to the breakfast hall during college. I never knew when I stepped into the hall that the lives of every American had already started changing forever. It's hard to go through and talk about it. Especially in the aftermath. So this post is short and to the point...


I hope all the Victims of September 11th are resting in peace and that their families, if they have not already, will find peace within their lives and remember the happy times they had with their loved ones.

Bold move?

Ok, I did it....

I enrolled Lanie in a local church pre-school! It was hard. They let her sit in the class room while I looked around and she didn't even miss me! She didn't even blink twice. There she was being all perfect and quiet for these strangers. She listened to every word they said! Argh. That's all I have to say about that.

No, I have more.... How could she?! She doesn't listen to me all day long unless there is something in it for her. I usually stay away from bribery but there are some days like when we're going out and she HAS to have a nap otherwise she'll be too cranky to behave and I'll say "We can't go do unless you take a nap." How could she not even care that she'll be left there without me? Okay, okay... it's 3 days a week for 2.5 hours but tomorrow will be the first time that I will leave my baby somewhere and have to drive away without her. Jena has class tomorrow too for 2 hours. So BOTH of my babies. Jena will miss me-- she's going to cry and scream, etc. Lanie... probably won't even remember who I am until I pick her little butt up.

Oddly enough... Lanie is napping right now. And I didn't even have to yell at her to get her to take a nap. Let's hope that this is what she needs to help her through her days. She's actually been asking to go to school for a long time now. Jena, I'm trying her there for a month to see if she adjusts to now having me around. She never did get used to the gym so, we'll see I guess. I better take some tissue with me tomorrow because I will cry my eyes out when I leave.

Frustrated

I need to get a grip on Lanie. I've tried everything from Time Outs to distractions, from Talking to Spanking. Nothing seems to work to get her to listen. Last night we decided to get the kids a Junior banana split from Sonic. We get out and sit on the benches, when it's time to go... we're trying to clean up and all of a sudden Lanie takes off running to the car-- By herself. The drive home was quiet and somber. Except for her crying in the back when we gave her the list of people that she would hurt if something happened to her.

The kid just can't listen. She's so hyper in her own head that she can't comprehend anything. I know she understands the words that come out of our mouth. But either she doesn't care, which I wouldn't even know how to fix that. Or she has no self-control. Which again would be something I'm not quite sure how to fix but I'm sure it's easier to fix that then it would be to fix something she does not care about. Butr it's hard to determine this. At what point does a behavoiral specialist need to get in on it? I don't think we're at that point yet. We may never get there but I'm tried of her not listening to the smallest direction. We let the kid stay up until 9pm and she still won't go to sleep. She won't take a nap. She won't eat what we give her, EVEN when SHE asks for it. "Mommy, I want cereal." Okay, so I give her cereal. Then "Mommy, I don't want cereal." At that point I get to say "It's in front of you now and it's too late to change your mind." Then comes that "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO" screaming fit and the tantrum that makes me look at her like she's a demon child. Something has obviously possessed my used-to-be sweet child. Don't get my wrong, she still CAN be very sweet but that only happens rarely now. I've tried every method out there. Googling why my child won't listen, and to get ideas to see if there are any parents out there that have the same problem that I'm having. I've gotten no real advice or tips.

It's nap time, she does not have to take a nap but she does have to be quiet. She can look at books in her bed. But she's not allowed off of her bed. Simple instruction. She was a terror yesterday, and a terror today. Getting up and getting ice cream at breakfast then throwing a tantrum when I take it away. She asked me to put a movie on and when I'm trying to clean up, she's trying to get into everything she shouldn't. What happened? We didn't even make it a quarter of the way through the movie before her toys got taken away. I have to tell her to go to time out 50 times, and even then I have to take her myself and then she throws a tantrum that could possibly end up hurting her. It's crazy. What's wrong with her? It she a few fuses short or something? She just can't listen. It's driving me absolutely insane. She just had everything in her room taken away. Her room is gutted. No stuffed animals, no beloved Tinkerbell tent. No books out, no Cinderella doll. No Story Book pillow or princess reading pillow. Just her dressers and her bed. She's cried so hard that she can hardly breathe right. What can I do? I caught her standing on one of her chairs 6 times. We started quiet time at 11:30 and it's almost 1pm and there hasn't even been 2 straight minutes of quiet time.

Yesterday was the same. I'm tired. I work late, and then I'm up late dealing with everything if a kid can't or won't sleep, if Daddy D is sick or hurting. That's extra time I'm awake, or extra breaks in sleep and on top of that some nights I just can't sleep at all. I NEED quiet time/nap time for my own sanity. I don't want to spank her. I've tried it. It doesn't work. She still doesn't listen. If I spank her, what does she learn? The only thing she'll think is "Mommy hit me." She's not going to think about why I hit her. I've tried talking to her, she looks at me like she's listening. I use terms she can understand. I repeat-- A LOT, and then I ask her to tell me what I said in "Lanie's words" and she does. She doesn't repeat what I say word for word. Then I leave her, and what happens? She doesn't listen to what I said AT ALL. It amazes me that I can sit here and type this blog while my daughter is crying her eyes out because everything she loves is gone.... But I'm out of ideas. Literally out of ideas. The fact that she could've been hit by a car yesterday baffles me. She needs to be on one of those kid leashes all day. I've set boundaries, I don't say no to everything, but she still doesn't listen.... No once. I enjoy being with my children but it's days like these that I start counting down the days until they are in school. Then I realize, she will behave this way in school and it has to stop--- Now.


Any ideas... from anyone?

Up early!

My usual routine... Go to bed late (1:30), wake up early... 4:00am. Today is a little different. Daddy D has to go to work for a make-up day at school. They canceled school one day last week since it rained so hard the buses couldn't pick up the kids in standing water. So the girls will have their grandparents for the day since I am already taking PTO for Tuesday when Daddy D has to work until 9pm. Fun, isn't it? I was hoping Paid Time Off would be for something fun! Guess not this time! It seems like I only use my PTO for Daddy D's work. :o(


Right now, I have a spinach quiche in the oven and the I-Pod is on. Daddy D put two of my absolute favorite singers on there--- Elton John and Billy Joel. Oh.... They are amazing! I really need to see them in concert at some point in time, but I've seen the ticket prices and on top of that... They never come any where remotely near me! That makes it hard to see them in concert. I don't care where the seats would be... I just want to be there and have my ticket stub to look at for the rest of my life. I really do belong in a different time frame, I think.

I was talking to my boss, about my kids and their over-abundance of energy. She suggested that if they do something bad I should take them outside and make them run laps around the yard and when they want to stop--- just make them keep going. It's starting to sound like a plan to me. These kids cannot and will not sit still at all ever. They have to have ADHD already! I really don't know how to handle them. You would think at some point, they would sit down. They don't want to sit to eat, they don't want to sit to watch TV...They don't want to sit in the stroller at the mall or in the shopping cart at a grocery store. Ugh! There has to be a better way. I hadn't had to spank them.... until they chucked a ceramic piggy bank over the ledge.... onto the hard wood.... clean up for that took FOREVER! Same day... Lanie decides to throw the salt shaker across the kitchen floor. I wonder how long we're going to clean salt off the floor and do that annoying foot wipe. *Sigh* Toddlers!!!!!

Alright, Quiche is finished. Hope everyone has a good day.