He's definitely 2 now...

I read a blog that joked that their first daughter did everything perfectly, and when, one day, we can genetically engineer children, people would check under her daughter's name for how they want their child to behave.

That's pretty much Drew. I've had very little to complain about (which actually makes me fear our second child). He slept through the night VERY early on. People told me not to "worry", that that was just the newborn phase, but that phase sure has lasted a long time. He nursed like a pro, and though I worried and created my own stress from time to time, overall it really went great. Going to school, potty training, transitioning to the new bed... everything has been so easy!

EXCEPT for the terrible twos. Oh. My. Goodness. Perhaps it's the fact that I'm home all day, every day right now. Most likely at least part of it is due to pregnancy hormones. But all I know is that some days I am literally counting down the minutes until Jason comes home from work. I was completely blindsided by the terrible twos. I mean, when you have a kid who's done everything perfectly you really aren't prepared for that moment when he throws the ultimate temper tantrum because he wants to go potty outside on the front porch. Then, when you finally convince him that if he REALLY wants to potty outside, we can take the potty to the backyard, he throws yet another tantrum because he decides he wants to be inside eating grapes (where did THAT come from??) Today, after much MUCH more than what is described here, I completely gave up, took my book, walked upstairs and shut my bedroom door.

I've read plenty of books and articles on how to deal with toddler tantrums, and I do my best (when my hormones don't get the better of me). I try to make sure he doesn't get hungry (mistake #1 today) or over-tired (mistake #2 today). I understand that a lot of it is an inability to communicate what he wants so I try my best to listen. I've also tried to make sure we have plenty of things to do to keep us entertained and distracted. But I also know sometimes it's just going to happen and the only thing I CAN do is walk away. And pray for patience.

I was talking to Stacey yesterday telling her I'd love to come help her out for a few days as her husband returns to work and she adjusts to being home alone with a newborn. She told me she would love the help, but she worried that I need both rest and family time, too. I had to laugh. I'm pretty positive that chasing a toddler all day is no more restful than taking care of a newborn (who I don't have to feed!) during the day (especially when I can still go home and get a full night's sleep). And I honestly think a little break from home might do me some good. Of course, don't get me wrong, I LOVE my pumpkin, even if he makes me want to curl in a ball and cry from time to time, and I'm loving spending my summer days with him, but I think some patience might be restored if I get even a short break from the constant yes/no battle.

I know this isn't a Monday Minute post... just needed a chance to vent a bit and sort out some thoughts. Thanks for listening! :)

My "unlucky" day

I do not believe in superstitions. I do not fear black cats, broken mirrors, or Friday the 13th. In fact, I fully believe any unluckiness that results from any of these is a matter of perception- a person is more likely to note bad or unlucky things if they are expecting them. But I do have to admit that, after a long and frustrating morning, when I heard on the radio that it was Friday the 13th, my mind kind of went "oh.... that makes sense."

My "unlucky" day...

Unluckily I woke up half an hour before my alarm went off, stressed and in a bad mood because of the book I'm reading (Jane Eyre). I could not go back to sleep as I kept trying to imagine ways the book might redeem itself.

As I got ready to leave for work, I realized the jogging stroller was unluckily not in the van where it needed to be for an afternoon run. Putting it in the van, unluckily, required me to move a vehicle and to dig heavy things out of the van (which, unluckily, were supposed to be dropped off somewhere else the day before).

Unluckily, after I heaved the large jogging stroller into the van I realized it was blocking the outlet I use to plug in my compressor (yes, my van has an outlet, and yes, I do meds on my way to work). Plugging in the compressor required me to do a juggling act in the unluckily frigid morning.

I was finally ready to go and I turned on the van to unluckily find the "low fuel" light on. I drove to Shell where we had a $50 gift card to find unluckily it was not open yet. (Jason did not realize I would be taking the van and had planned to fill it on his way to work).

After fueling (in the frigid morning, remember?) I drove to work to find there was unluckily more traffic than there ever is on Friday.

I decided to grab some Panera and they did, luckily, have my favorite Cinnamon Crunch bagel for breakfast. I also luckily had a gift card. I pulled out and headed towards my school. Upon arriving at school I realized my hands were cold, and upon searching for my (new touchscreen sensitive!) gloves, found they were no longer with me. I realized I must have left them unluckily at Panera. I drove back (already late for work) and unluckily they were not inside. Luckily, though, I found them in the parking lot.

While driving back to work I got a text from my fellow tester saying unluckily she had pink eye and would not be there. I knew that we unluckily had a large number of refugees scheduled for the day, but thought "that's okay, I can just get Ms. __ to help me with testing". I then received a call from another coworker that she was going to be out and, unluckily, needed Ms. ___ to cover the front.

This is when I heard that it was Friday the 13th.

The rest of my day proceeded in a similar fashion. Unluckily registration was very busy (in addition to the refugees we already had scheduled), and unluckily all of the students spoke a lot of English (which means testing takes a loooooong time). Unluckily I had decided to buy lunch (I almost always bring lunch) so, instead of being able to heat up my lunch and simply eat it while testing, I had nothing to eat and no time to go get food. Unluckily I finished testing at 3:00, had not eaten (hadn't even peed) and there was no point in getting food at that point since I leave at 3:30.

On the way home, I unluckily realized it was still frigid outside and jogging with Drew was not an option (so the 20 minute battle to put the stroller in the car was pointless!).

Luckily, however, Stacey and I decided a warm beverage was in order and I was able to release my day  with a good friend over a nice cup of hot chocolate at Starbucks (where I luckily had a free beverage coupon!)

It is definitely all in perspective. Upon reviewing my day I remembered more and more things that had been unlucky. But regardless of whether or not yesterday was Friday the 13th, I'm pretty sure it would have been a rotten day.

Lucky me! I tested 13 students yesterday!

Re: My Son is Gay

A shocking title, I know (especially since I have a 4 month old baby!). It is actually the title of this this blog post that I came across while doing some random browsing (as I often do while sitting and doing my medicine). I really think you should read it. And no, it is not actually about the fact that her son is gay, just as this post is not about the fact that my son is gay.

I'm pretty sure this little boy rocked Daphne much better than I did on Halloween!

 

I'm about to get preachy, and I'm sorry, but the article got to me. Before I even begin I am not going to try to claim that I am free from gender stereotyping. I'm just as guilty as anyone. Yesterday's post is proof of that. But it does really bother me that little girls can wear blue, green, brown...any color of the rainbow (that is not intended to be a pun), but my boy can't wear pink, and hardly even purple. It bothers me that a girl can dress up as a football player or a transformer and we say "you go girl!" but a boy can't even put a dab of paint on a single nail without shocked expressions. It bothers me that we get all up in arms over "freedom" because a city tries to ban restaurants from giving toys away with unhealthy meals but yet we're stomping those very rights to freedom of speech and expression in our own children's lives.

Drew is wearing pink AND purple in this rainbowy tie dye onesie! (He is also looking VERY tiny!!)

But what bothers me more than anything is that these parents are the bullies that we keep screaming we need to rid our schools of. School bullying leading to children committing suicide has been all over the news recently. In fact one of the first stories came out of the very county I teach in. But what can we do to stop the problem when the problem isn't even the children themselves? It absolutely hurts my heart to imagine this little boy with his creative costume idea (dressing up as Scooby Doo characters with a friend? That sounds like a blast!) standing nervously at the doors of his school worrying what the kids will say, only to be greeted by what the moms have to say. I understand that the moms were "looking out" for the boy and worrying over how he would be teased, but in doing so they became the bullies themselves. I can only imagine that this boy will never even so much as touch anything pink, purple, or sparkly ever again.

I think as adults we need to be more careful about the stereotypes we perpetuate with something as simple as a look on our face and the fact that those simple actions tell our children that it's okay to judge. Like I said above, I cannot claim to be free from guilt at all. This article really brought to my attention the problem we've created though and as a parent and a teacher I am making a promise to myself to be more conscious of my actions. Drew will learn from what I do, not what I say, and while I'm not going to start dressing him in pink and bows, I won't blink an eye if he wants to play with a Barbie doll instead of a GI Joe.

Maternity Clothes

Today I was at Kohl's picking up just a few pieces of clothing to help me make it to the end of this pregnancy.  I got a lot of winter clothes (thanks to my mom!), but I never really got around to shopping for Spring/Summer stuff.  I managed to pull off a lot of shirts I already owned, and Stacey's sister-in-law passed on a few items to me (though, unfortunately, they were size "Large" and only a few fit well enough to not look too ridiculous).  At this point it seems silly to invest in a lot of pieces but I wanted a pair of shorts, a pair of capris and a tank top or two.

While I was in line checking out a woman girl  in line behind me proclaimed "I refuse to wear maternity clothes."  She then proceeded to repeat herself loudly two more times until the cashier finally acknowledged her and said "oh look! You have a tiny tummy there!".  I was personally kind of insulted but just said to the girl "it gets kind of hard....".  What I really wish I would have said was "well, I refuse to let the bottom of my belly hang out of my clothing", as hers was getting mighty close to doing.

BTW, it was amazingly hard to find a pic of a belly hanging out even though I see it ALL the time!

She said she had three more months to go, and to be honest, maybe she can make it because she really did have a "tiny tummy".  All the more power to her I guess.  This is what I looked like with three months to go:

 I personally kind of looked forward to maternity clothes.  It was fun to shop for a new wardrobe and find cute ways to show off my tummy.  I also find maternity clothes rather comfortable.  My hips have definitely expanded so even with the various tricks to keep on using your old pants, I can hardly pull mine up let alone wear them comfortably.

I can honestly say though that I think my best friend for a lot of my remaining few weeks will be dresses!  I am getting kind of tired of the elastic waistbands and I'm truly fed up with trying to match my measly few pieces that fit.  Not to mention dresses are awesomely cool for the "Hot-lanta" summer!