Category Archives: parenting

Zzzzzz…

Going into being parents I had a vague idea of some of the things that could prove to be challenging. I knew to expect sleepless nights with newborns, that the twos could be terrible, that potty training could go smoothly or not, but I didn’t realize that so many things could drag out for as long as they do. In 4 years I think we can probably count on our hands the number of nights where we have slept undisturbed and have felt truly well rested. There always seems to be at least one child who wakes up in the night and if one child goes to bed without a fuss, then it’s highly likely the other one will not go down easily. Quite frankly, it’s exhausting.

I can only hope that this stage won’t last another 4 years, but who can say? Phoebe has suddenly decided she doesn’t want to stay in her bed at bedtime, unless I lay down with her and for some reason it is taking her forever to fall asleep lately. I’ll leave 20-30 minutes later only to hear her calling out for me, but even more aggravatingly she has started to lie down in front of her door making it impossible to get in her room! She thinks it’s quite hilarious and then Enzo ends up wanting to know what’s going on as I try to convince Phoebe to back away from the door. We’re working on leaving her door cracked and so far threatening to not let her watch TV the next day if she doesn’t stay in bed has been somewhat working.

Then you have Enzo who has to get up and pee at least once a night, but sometimes more than that and insists on a parent (usually Josh) to come and get him, which is probably for the best since I don’t want him getting hurt climbing out of his bed when he’s mostly still asleep. Sometimes Josh and I will surprise each other in the hallway late at night – him taking Enzo to or from the bathroom and me heading to Phoebe’s room or back to our bed, though generally if she calls for me in the middle of the night I end up just sleeping with her because I fall asleep while trying to get her back to sleep.

It’s a darn good thing they’re both fairly cute and have redeeming qualities or this whole lack of sleep thing would be a lot harder to bear.

Bring it on!

I am planning on a busy weekend spent mostly outside thanks to a good forecast. I bought a deal online for some plants from a nursery nearby, so we’ll be heading there, but also will have to clean up the spots where our new purchases will be going. One area is completely overgrown with chives and I’m thinking a smaller lilac bush would be perfect there. The kids will most likely be content to help us for about 10 minutes before they’re bored, but they love being outside and will find plenty to occupy their time.

With luck we’ll be able to eat outside tomorrow night, but we’ll see. I’m planning on homemade pizza and ice cream because it is time to bust out the ice cream maker! Then we just have to all decide on a flavor, which will mostly depend on what we have on hand.

Then there’s camping prep to do! I want to try and pare down what we bring with us, but we enjoy a certain amount of comfort when we camp so I’m not sure we’ll be able to leave out too much. One day we may just have to get a little camper. In the meantime, our giant tent is good for when it’s buggy outside so that way there is plenty of room to still have fun without being bitten to death. I’m hopeful, though, that this year it won’t be an issue. So far the mosquitoes haven’t been bad at all and considering we’ll be headed north, I think we’ll be okay. And by north, I mean very north. I almost wish I had a passport since we’ll be so close to Canada. Haha!

I’m hopeful it will be a good trip considering the drive, but it wouldn’t be the first time we packed up early if it just ends up not being enjoyable. With luck we’ll see some wildlife and there are plenty of trails to walk on and, worst case, a town close by where there’s a park if we can’t exhaust the kids near the campground. Absolute worst case, I’m not against slipping them a bit of melatonin (we use only the amount and type the doctor recommended and not regularly – usually just for Enzo when he’s having an especially hard time shutting down). We are also not completely against letting them wind down with a show on our portable DVD player, especially if it means letting the campers around us also get some peace and quiet in the evening.

Sure, they look sweet and innocent, but the sibling squabbles started up around the same time Miss Phoebe entered the stereotypical “terrible” part of the twos. She knows precisely which buttons to push with her brother and will do so gleefully when there isn’t something else to occupy her time. I’m trying to explain to Enzo that it’s best to just ignore her when she’s being a stinker, but he thinks he should get the last word since he is the eldest. He has fully stepped into his roll as the bossy older brother. Some days it’s really kind of hysterical listening to the two of them whether it be when they’re playing nicely together or bickering over the most ridiculous things.

Happy weekend, all!

Conjuncti-LAME

Here we go again. It’s never a good thing when my phone starts ringing at work and I see that it’s day care. I dread answering because it’s never good news, you know? Today? Enzo has pink eye… again. For the past I don’t know how many weeks it’s been circulating through the preschool room despite them disinfecting everything. I would rather get a root canal than go through another round of eye drops with Enzo who acts as though we are torturing him. It’s going to be a nasty 5 days ahead of us.

It’s bad enough that the rain won’t quit and our high for the day was a whopping 49 degrees. I give up. I’m going to bed and will consider waking up when the weather is nice again. Okay, I’ll stop whining… it is really green thanks to the rain, so there’s that. It’s also my favorite time of year because of all the springtime babies. I saw two families of geese crossing busy roads with their large broods of goslings. The other day I saw this adorable family from a distance as well.

I need a bigger lens so I can get better pictures of this particular eagle and nest. I don’t want to risk getting too close since eagles really don’t like you too close to their nests and I’ve heard they’ll abandon their nests even.

Well, it’s been a long day and my background soundtrack has been a lot of children’s TV since I needed to get some work done while Enzo convalesced. I figure we’ll make up for the extra TV by getting out when he’s not infectious this weekend. Or maybe I’ll put him to work again… he did so good on that shelf that I’m sure I can find something else for him to do. Child labor at it’s finest!

Get out those shovels kids, it’s time to dig! Oh, and move a pile of rocks… and pull some weeds. They’re going to earn their keep this weekend! Just kidding… sort of. 😉 Happy Friday everyone!

Sports and things to add to my list of parental “fails”

Did you know that in order to register for things like T-Ball you have to do so really early in the year? Like February early? I did not know that, so apparently we’ll need to find something else to sign Enzo up for and depending on his mood he’s either interested in everything or nothing at all. We keep thinking that swimming would be good for both of them, but I really don’t want to spend a lot of money on lessons and have neither kid actually go in the water. The community center lessons are a lot cheaper, but they fill up quickly or there is never enough interest. So… back to the drawing board!

In the meantime, the kids can still practice a bit at home. Enzo really does have a good arm and seems like a natural. At the very least, maybe this year would be a good year to take the kids to their first ball game. They may not last the entire game, but we can always walk around and the food is good, so there’s also that.

What is it about baseball? I’m not a huge fan, but it’s one of the few sports I’m okay with watching and when I was younger I didn’t mind playing it either. I was awful at it, but it was still kind of fun nonetheless. Football just bores me and basketball is the same… plus the squeaky shoes. I can’t handle the squeaky shoes.

Enzo has always enjoyed sports. One of the very first television programs he watched was the Olympics… diving, I believe. Then has he got older he’d stare at football games and be totally mesmerized. Neither Josh or I played organized sports in school – well, he did for a short period of time, and while I liked running and was told I’d be good at Track & Field, I never joined.

We certainly won’t pressure our kids to join any sports or other extracurricular activities, but I think they might enjoy it. Now if we could just get our acts together and remember that you need to do things like register… well in advance. Hmm, maybe we can still find swimming lessons for them or gymnastics classes. They both like tumbling… mostly off of couches, but still!

Actually, Phoebe could probably use some balance assistance. The poor girl is not super graceful and is constantly tripping over her feet it seems. I have a feeling we’ll try and enroll her in a dance class considering how she loves to dance at home. I’m really just rambling aren’t I?

Okay, here’s hoping we can get these two involved in something or at the very least I guess I’d better start checking when I need to register for Winter programs since it seems like you need about 6 months notice. Add that to the list of things I never thought about before having kids.

My own little mini-me.

What’s that quote? A daughter is a little girl who grows up to be your best friend? It’s funny to think about how worried I was when I found out we were having a girl. Can you imagine? While I have a special relationship with each of my children, Phoebe and are definitely in a stage where we’re besties, but that works because Enzo is best buds with Josh too. We each have our own little mini-me and it’s kind of awesome. Josh has a fishing buddy who loves video games as much as he does, and Phoebe is a natural born shopper.

I usually try to shop alone, but if it’s a weekend I have to sneak out of the house or else Phoebe gets incredibly sad if she can’t go too. She’s also a terrible influence on me and we never stick to our list, but she’s also just a big time browser. If we walk past the shoes, she wants to try most of them on. She doesn’t even really want to buy any; she just has to be sure. Same with toys. She might pick a toy out and play with it, but she rarely throws a fit when it’s time to put it back. She just shrugs and moves on to the next thing.

Both kids are getting so fun as they get older. It’s amazing how you’ll look at them at times and suddenly get a glimpse of them several years from now. Sure, there are growing pains, but that’s inevitable. There are times when Josh and I forget that they’re still both pretty little even though they may seem so much older, so we have reign our excitement in and plan for later. I can’t wait until we can travel to more places that we can all enjoy as a family. While you can go anywhere with kids, it doesn’t mean you’ll all necessarily enjoy it. I want to save a few things for when the kids can better appreciate it and remember it, but definitely before they get sucked into things like smart phones and typical teenage sulkiness. Ha ha.

If nothing else, let’s show them as much awesome stuff as we can, so that way they never get too lost behind a screen and still think we’re sort of cool on some level. Or we’ll just ban smart phones and tablets and force them to experience childhood the way we did on vacation. Okay, that’s not fair… we had Walkmans (still have mine) and portable CD players and Gameboys… as long as we brought enough batteries for the duration of the trip. We’ll just force them to road trip the 80’s/90’s kid way.

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures