i was raised in the country. my house was surrounded by fields on all four sides, and i used to hide and play in the bare spots in the middle of corn fields. i drove my 4-wheeler on back roads, rode with my daddy in his 18-wheeler, climbed haystacks, and went "swimming" in trailers full of soybeans.
when i met my husband, he found it so strange that i had never ridden my bike to the minit mart for a coke, never gone door-to-door trick-or-treating, that i grew up without cable tv. minit mart? seriously? the closest convenience store was 10 miles away. if i walked door-to-door for candy, i'd be walking a good 30 minutes from one house to the next. and watching mtv was a treat that i got only when i would spend the night with one of my friends who lived "in town".
but even though i grew up in rural america, there are plenty of things i've never done. i never worked in tobacco. i couldn't tell you the first thing about it. i've never baited my own fishing hook. worms are gross and i prefer not to touch them. i've never shot a deer. i went hunting once in high school, and though i'd practiced for a week shooting pumpkins with a 30 alt 6, i just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger when the time came. and i couldn't tell you at what time of year one plants beans or corn or wheat. heck, i can barely distinguish one from the other.
so imagine my surprise and delight when mom and dad watched the girls for a couple of weeks and turned them into some little country bumpkins. after the first day, they had acquired the skill of making the best mud pies you've ever "tasted". that weekend, they decided to camp out in the backyard. amazingly enough, they stayed in the tent the whole night. madelyn learned to drive the kubota back on the farm, they chased lightning bugs every night until it was too dark to see, and ella became quite distinguished at the art of frog catching. she named one of them "hoppy".
kids have too much "stuff" these days, and i feel that we as parents are partially to blame. we put a tv in every room, hook a wii or a playstation to each of them, give them ipods and nintendo ds's to keep them occupied on-the-go, and then wonder why they don't listen to us when we tell them to go outside and play. so thank goodness when mine go to gran and papaw's, they learn to enjoy the simple things. maybe we should all take the time to that every once in a while!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
battle of the bulge
i don't like taking showers. no, it's not because i don't like being clean. it's not because i'm lazy. nor is it because my children inevitably bust through the bathroom door every morning just as my clothes drop to the floor (although i long for the day they stop doing this). it's because i hate seeing myself naked.
i'm sure there was a time in my life when this didn't bother me. like when i was 13 and a size negative zero. although i specifically remember being self conscious about my body even then and thinking that i was "fat". boy, i wish i could go back in time to all the times i thought i was such a cow, slap my scrawny back-in-time self and say, "you think THIS is fat? ha! just wait 'til after you have kids! you ain't seen nothing yet!"
i remember the way my body looked about 4 hours after i had madelyn. i had been lying in a hospital bed for 2 weeks, barely able to breathe or move. i had lost blood, stayed drugged most of the time, and barely ate a bite during my entire hospital stay. but when i first got out of bed and looked at myself in the hospital room's full length mirror, i remember thinking "dang, i look good!" my boobs were huge, by legs were toothpicks, and my post-baby belly was almost non-existent. of course, i was also so sick i probably could have died. but wow. my body didn't look like that even before i got pregnant.
and then came my second child. mom took a picture of me the night before i gave birth to ella, bare-bellied with my shirt raised, and it is absolutely hideous. i mean, i knew i was big, but pictures really put proportions into perspective unlike any mirror ever could. my face was fat, my stomach was gigantic, and my swollen ankles didn't regain their normal size until ella was about 2 months old. i remember asking for a pair of furry-topped knee boots that christmas before ella was born, thinking surely this would be a safe bet. um, no...i couldn't fit them over my puffy feet.
i haven't quite been the same since then. i have a "pooch" that refuses to go away. my arms have become a bit on the flabby side. and i now refuse to wear shorts--even in front of the hubby--because i have knee fat. that's right, knee fat. it exists.
luckily, i have a bossy 7 year old who gladly obliged when i asked if she would be my personal trainer. we have started a 'biggest loser' competition at work, so i decided that now would be the perfect time to start working on my less-than-stellar bod.
after 60 jumping jacks, 30 sit ups, 20 crunches, and some body ball maneuvers, i was spent. but i felt awesome. my new found exercise regimen, combined with a 1300 daily calorie diet was sure to drop the pounds.
i gained 1 pound that first week.
needless to say, i cussed like a sailor for the next several minutes after the scales had returned their cruel verdict. i hated the scales. i hated my coworkers who had lost weight that week. i hated the vegetables i had eaten that week. and i fired my personal trainer.
"why don't you want to exercise anymore?" madelyn asked me that night.
"i just don't. not this week. maybe we'll start back in a few weeks."
"ok. but i don't think you need to exercise anyway. you're not fat."
i smiled. there it was...my honest little madelyn had given me the greatest compliment ever, and she didn't even realize it. and i knew it had to be true because she doesn't lie...at least, not well.
let's face it: i'm not an exerciser. i'm not a dieter. i don't enjoy doing things that don't come easy for me. i've never had to work out or watch what i eat, and i don't really want to start now. according to a recent complete checkup, i'm in pretty good health. do i wish i had the body i had 10 years ago? yes. do i wish i had a better body than i did 10 years ago? definitely. am i going to kill myself to look that way? um, probably not. so although i still refuse to look in the mirror when i get in the shower, my hubby thinks i'm pretty and my daughter thinks i'm "not fat". so there. now, pass the cheesecake.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
"awwww, i'm telling god!"
parents are supposed to be leaders. unfortunately, ever since i can remember, i've always been a follower. as a child, as a teen (much to my parents' dismay...can we say "peer pressure"?) and even today i would rather "go with the flow" as opposed to stepping up and taking the lead. but as a mom, i realize that it is my duty to be an example for my children. sometimes, however, i find that they set more of an example for me.
i was reminded of this last week when it appeared that a strange "freaky friday" type turn of events had transformed my 7 year old into the mother and me into the child. it began when i let a not-so-nice word slip out of my mouth while in madelyn's presence. it wasn't a horrible word, but keep in mind that this is the child who reprimands me for saying "oh my gosh".
"awwww, i'm telling god!" she said, her eyes and mouth wide open as if she'd seen a ghost.
"i'm sorry, i didn't mean to. and you don't have to tell him, he already knows...and he's not happy with it, either." i smiled.
at some point during the day, i changed into a t-shirt that i've had since spring break 2001. what can i say, i'm a pack rat when it comes to getting rid of clothes, especially novelty tees. it's a dr. pepper shirt, as indicated by the dr. pepper logo on the back, but the front of the shirt simply has 2 words printed across it: heavy drinker. madelyn stared at it and sounded out the words.
"heavy drinker. hmm. you're a heavy drinker? what's that mean?"
"no, it's a dr. pepper shirt," i said in my defense.
"do you like dr. pepper?"
"um, well, no. but the shirt was free and i...i don't know...it's just a shirt!" hmpf. strike 2.
but never have i been so proud, or felt like it was madelyn who was setting the example for me than when i went to tuck her in bed that same night to find that she had fallen asleep with her bible wide open beside her. my baby had fallen asleep while reading god's word. i stood in the doorway and smiled. but then my smile of pride turned to tears of guilt. how long has it been since she found me reading my bible? here i was, a 31 year old woman staring at a 7-year old child who is probably the greatest example of how i need to be living my life.
madelyn is forever keeping me in check according to her own standards. like scolding me if i say something that she deems inappropriate. or reminding me that "it's against the law to text and drive". i have to laugh at how completely straight-laced and proper she is sometimes. but for the most part i am extremely proud of the young lady she has become. because although she may be innately good, i'd like to think that i can take some credit and hope that the way i've raised her has led her to become the way she is today.
i was reminded of this last week when it appeared that a strange "freaky friday" type turn of events had transformed my 7 year old into the mother and me into the child. it began when i let a not-so-nice word slip out of my mouth while in madelyn's presence. it wasn't a horrible word, but keep in mind that this is the child who reprimands me for saying "oh my gosh".
"awwww, i'm telling god!" she said, her eyes and mouth wide open as if she'd seen a ghost.
"i'm sorry, i didn't mean to. and you don't have to tell him, he already knows...and he's not happy with it, either." i smiled.
at some point during the day, i changed into a t-shirt that i've had since spring break 2001. what can i say, i'm a pack rat when it comes to getting rid of clothes, especially novelty tees. it's a dr. pepper shirt, as indicated by the dr. pepper logo on the back, but the front of the shirt simply has 2 words printed across it: heavy drinker. madelyn stared at it and sounded out the words.
"heavy drinker. hmm. you're a heavy drinker? what's that mean?"
"no, it's a dr. pepper shirt," i said in my defense.
"do you like dr. pepper?"
"um, well, no. but the shirt was free and i...i don't know...it's just a shirt!" hmpf. strike 2.
but never have i been so proud, or felt like it was madelyn who was setting the example for me than when i went to tuck her in bed that same night to find that she had fallen asleep with her bible wide open beside her. my baby had fallen asleep while reading god's word. i stood in the doorway and smiled. but then my smile of pride turned to tears of guilt. how long has it been since she found me reading my bible? here i was, a 31 year old woman staring at a 7-year old child who is probably the greatest example of how i need to be living my life.
madelyn is forever keeping me in check according to her own standards. like scolding me if i say something that she deems inappropriate. or reminding me that "it's against the law to text and drive". i have to laugh at how completely straight-laced and proper she is sometimes. but for the most part i am extremely proud of the young lady she has become. because although she may be innately good, i'd like to think that i can take some credit and hope that the way i've raised her has led her to become the way she is today.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
nose art
i've mentioned before that driving with my children can be a hectic and stressful event. but the most driving that i usually do is 30 minutes at a time, tops. 30 minutes isn't nearly enough time for my girls to prove just how over-the-edge they can drive me. this weekend, however, was my oldest sister's birthday, so my middle sis and i took a road trip to louisville for a "sister's weekend". and ella and madelyn went with us. it was during this excursion that my children reached their full annoying backseat passenger potential.
i knew that the drive wasn't going to be a pleasant one when madelyn's first reaction upon learning that she'd be visiting her cousin abigail for the weekend was, "but it takes soooo long to get there!" had abigail been coming to visit us, she would have been ecstatic. but there's something about riding for 2 1/2 hours in a car that drains the fun out of everything for a child. when she realized that she had left her nintendo ds at gran and papaw's house, it became all that much worse. i mean, she might have to read a book or color or something else old-fashioned and un-electronic. god forbid.
but madelyn isn't the one i was really worried about, it's ella. because she's younger, ella tends to be a little less tolerable in the car. or at mall. or walmart. i attribute much of this to her age. but honestly, lots of it has to do with her personality. not that she doesn't have an amazing one. in fact, she has tons of personality. she is smart and spunky, a little mischievous, a total ham, and absolutely hilarious. but she is also extremely short tempered.
madelyn's only real fault during the whole trip was her incessant talking and need to be entertained. she loves her aunt jen dearly, and insisted that the two either be playing hangman, or was constantly bugging her to play some sort of game on her iphone. then of course, there's the whole "i'm hungry" complaint, although both had eaten breakfast before we left the house. jennifer brought sausage balls, so i was set, but the girls complained that they didn't want sausage balls. so when we stopped in bowling green for gas, we also bought slim jims and mt. dew (at madelyn's request...what was i thinking? as if madelyn needs any more energy...). and jennifer and i, who had already sucked down one red bull a piece, also bought 2 cups of coffee.
ella first got mad when i attempted to listen to a song that she didn't want to listen to. she is currently into the pixies, red hot chili peppers, and eartha kitt's version of "santa baby." so a screaming fit ensued. she got mad when madelyn spoke, when it was too hot, when her coat bothered her, when her drink was empty, when the sun shone in her eyes, and when jennifer and i tried to carry on a conversation. no matter what happened, she was ill.
but the icing on the cake was when i glanced in the rearview and noticed that she was drawing on her window. she had been very good and quiet for some time, and jennifer and i had actually enjoyed getting the chance to talk and laugh with each other for the first time since we left olmstead. normally, i wouldn't have said anything, but the windows weren't fogged up, so i wasn't quite sure how she was drawing anything. curiosity got the best of me so i had to ask. "ella, what are you drawing on the window with?"
about that time i saw her reach her pointer and middle fingers up into each nostril and proceed to paint her masterpiece.
"oh my gosh, are you snot painting on my window!!!" i screamed.
wrong response.
for the remainder of our ride--30 minutes which seemed to last for an eternity--we got to hear the yelling and screaming and crying of an insulted, embarrassed, and ticked off 3 year old.
moral of the story: if your child is being good, don't bother them. no matter what they're doing or what they're smearing on your car window.
i knew that the drive wasn't going to be a pleasant one when madelyn's first reaction upon learning that she'd be visiting her cousin abigail for the weekend was, "but it takes soooo long to get there!" had abigail been coming to visit us, she would have been ecstatic. but there's something about riding for 2 1/2 hours in a car that drains the fun out of everything for a child. when she realized that she had left her nintendo ds at gran and papaw's house, it became all that much worse. i mean, she might have to read a book or color or something else old-fashioned and un-electronic. god forbid.
but madelyn isn't the one i was really worried about, it's ella. because she's younger, ella tends to be a little less tolerable in the car. or at mall. or walmart. i attribute much of this to her age. but honestly, lots of it has to do with her personality. not that she doesn't have an amazing one. in fact, she has tons of personality. she is smart and spunky, a little mischievous, a total ham, and absolutely hilarious. but she is also extremely short tempered.
madelyn's only real fault during the whole trip was her incessant talking and need to be entertained. she loves her aunt jen dearly, and insisted that the two either be playing hangman, or was constantly bugging her to play some sort of game on her iphone. then of course, there's the whole "i'm hungry" complaint, although both had eaten breakfast before we left the house. jennifer brought sausage balls, so i was set, but the girls complained that they didn't want sausage balls. so when we stopped in bowling green for gas, we also bought slim jims and mt. dew (at madelyn's request...what was i thinking? as if madelyn needs any more energy...). and jennifer and i, who had already sucked down one red bull a piece, also bought 2 cups of coffee.
ella first got mad when i attempted to listen to a song that she didn't want to listen to. she is currently into the pixies, red hot chili peppers, and eartha kitt's version of "santa baby." so a screaming fit ensued. she got mad when madelyn spoke, when it was too hot, when her coat bothered her, when her drink was empty, when the sun shone in her eyes, and when jennifer and i tried to carry on a conversation. no matter what happened, she was ill.
but the icing on the cake was when i glanced in the rearview and noticed that she was drawing on her window. she had been very good and quiet for some time, and jennifer and i had actually enjoyed getting the chance to talk and laugh with each other for the first time since we left olmstead. normally, i wouldn't have said anything, but the windows weren't fogged up, so i wasn't quite sure how she was drawing anything. curiosity got the best of me so i had to ask. "ella, what are you drawing on the window with?"
about that time i saw her reach her pointer and middle fingers up into each nostril and proceed to paint her masterpiece.
"oh my gosh, are you snot painting on my window!!!" i screamed.
wrong response.
for the remainder of our ride--30 minutes which seemed to last for an eternity--we got to hear the yelling and screaming and crying of an insulted, embarrassed, and ticked off 3 year old.
moral of the story: if your child is being good, don't bother them. no matter what they're doing or what they're smearing on your car window.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
mornings at the roberts house...enter at your own risk
my weekday mornings are treacherous. sometimes i wonder if anybody else goes through the insanity that i do on a daily basis, but then i remember that i'm not the only mother in the world who has 2 young daughters. somehow, though, i'm convinced that there can't possibly be any 2 children in the world more dramatic, more demanding, and more emotional than my own.
madelyn has finally gotten to the age where she is fairly responsible in regards to getting up, dressing herself, and fixing her own breakfast. some mornings, she has on her jacket and her book bag is on her shoulder before i've even gotten out of the shower. but there are other times when she is so very, very slow. earlier this week, for example, it was time to walk out the door and she wasn't even close to being ready...because she had spent 20 minutes braiding a section of her hair and she hadn't even eaten yet. or there are times when she's in the middle of eating pancakes and she feels the need to run into the bathroom where i'm fixing my hair just to tell me something funny that a student in her class said 3 days earlier. it's the random, time-consuming tidbits like this that make me long for the day when she finally understands the concept of time.
and then there's ella. if i think back really hard, i can probably remember a time when mornings with ella were easy. or at least a time when they didn't make me want to pull out every hair on my head. but for the time being, those memories are lost, replaced only by kicking, crying, screaming fits of rage.
ella tends to have anger issues from time to time. she gets very upset over very minute details. i can't blame her; she comes by it honest. but at 6:30 in the morning, while i'm wrapped in a towel with wet hair and frantically running around trying to let the dog out to pee and put waffles in the toaster and brush my teeth, the last thing i want to do is deal with ella screaming about a pair of socks.
a few weeks ago, i made the mistake of answering ella's question, "what do i wear?" with the response "i don't care...whatever you want." minutes later she appeared in the doorway of my bedroom wearing a floor length satin dress that madelyn had worn when she was a flower girl a couple years earlier. i couldn't help but laugh. but that was the wrong reaction.
"dooooooon't laaaaaaaugh at meeeeeee!!!"
for the next 30 minutes, the ceiling in our bathroom felt like it was about to cave in, as ella lied on the floor in her bedroom kicking and wailing at the top of her lungs. and if she's not mad about an outfit, she's ticked off that she has to get out of bed because she's "sweepy"...or that she doesn't want to brush her teeth because the toothpaste is too "spicy"...or that madelyn looked at her wrong....or that she put her panties on backwards.
but it's not all my children's fault that i can never make it to work on time. or that i'm stressed out beyond belief before 8:00 every morning. i have to take some responsibility for my own actions. perhaps i hit the snooze button a few too many times in the morning. and maybe it wouldn't hurt to pick the girls' outfits out the night before. heck, it wouldn't hurt to pick out my own clothes the night before. just this morning, as i desperately attempted to button a pair of my skinnier jeans and then screamed "never get fat! you'll be miserable!" at my 7 year old as i flung the stupid things back in the closet, i wished that i had already decided upon what i was going to wear...preferably a pair of sweatpants. a little organization and preparation on my own part would probably cut the stress factor in half.
but i'm a self proclaimed procrastinator. i used to start on research papers the day before they were due. last sunday, i woke up early, but then mopped floors and cleaned house up until the last minute and ended up being late for church. but i've often found that not planning tends to work out pretty good for me, too. spontaneous, carefree nights of just hanging out at the house are always more fun than a pre-planned evening out. and the birth of my oldest child, madelyn--one of the two most precious gifts with which i've ever been blessed--wasn't exactly planned. but oh how much joy she has brought to my life.
so maybe i scream like a crazy lady every morning before work. and maybe my coworkers avoid me until my coffee has kicked in. maybe i go to work with mismatched socks, occasionally send my oldest to school with crazy hair, and let my youngest wear a flower girl dress to gran and papaw's house. all moms do that...right?
madelyn has finally gotten to the age where she is fairly responsible in regards to getting up, dressing herself, and fixing her own breakfast. some mornings, she has on her jacket and her book bag is on her shoulder before i've even gotten out of the shower. but there are other times when she is so very, very slow. earlier this week, for example, it was time to walk out the door and she wasn't even close to being ready...because she had spent 20 minutes braiding a section of her hair and she hadn't even eaten yet. or there are times when she's in the middle of eating pancakes and she feels the need to run into the bathroom where i'm fixing my hair just to tell me something funny that a student in her class said 3 days earlier. it's the random, time-consuming tidbits like this that make me long for the day when she finally understands the concept of time.
and then there's ella. if i think back really hard, i can probably remember a time when mornings with ella were easy. or at least a time when they didn't make me want to pull out every hair on my head. but for the time being, those memories are lost, replaced only by kicking, crying, screaming fits of rage.
ella tends to have anger issues from time to time. she gets very upset over very minute details. i can't blame her; she comes by it honest. but at 6:30 in the morning, while i'm wrapped in a towel with wet hair and frantically running around trying to let the dog out to pee and put waffles in the toaster and brush my teeth, the last thing i want to do is deal with ella screaming about a pair of socks.
a few weeks ago, i made the mistake of answering ella's question, "what do i wear?" with the response "i don't care...whatever you want." minutes later she appeared in the doorway of my bedroom wearing a floor length satin dress that madelyn had worn when she was a flower girl a couple years earlier. i couldn't help but laugh. but that was the wrong reaction.
"dooooooon't laaaaaaaugh at meeeeeee!!!"
for the next 30 minutes, the ceiling in our bathroom felt like it was about to cave in, as ella lied on the floor in her bedroom kicking and wailing at the top of her lungs. and if she's not mad about an outfit, she's ticked off that she has to get out of bed because she's "sweepy"...or that she doesn't want to brush her teeth because the toothpaste is too "spicy"...or that madelyn looked at her wrong....or that she put her panties on backwards.
but it's not all my children's fault that i can never make it to work on time. or that i'm stressed out beyond belief before 8:00 every morning. i have to take some responsibility for my own actions. perhaps i hit the snooze button a few too many times in the morning. and maybe it wouldn't hurt to pick the girls' outfits out the night before. heck, it wouldn't hurt to pick out my own clothes the night before. just this morning, as i desperately attempted to button a pair of my skinnier jeans and then screamed "never get fat! you'll be miserable!" at my 7 year old as i flung the stupid things back in the closet, i wished that i had already decided upon what i was going to wear...preferably a pair of sweatpants. a little organization and preparation on my own part would probably cut the stress factor in half.
but i'm a self proclaimed procrastinator. i used to start on research papers the day before they were due. last sunday, i woke up early, but then mopped floors and cleaned house up until the last minute and ended up being late for church. but i've often found that not planning tends to work out pretty good for me, too. spontaneous, carefree nights of just hanging out at the house are always more fun than a pre-planned evening out. and the birth of my oldest child, madelyn--one of the two most precious gifts with which i've ever been blessed--wasn't exactly planned. but oh how much joy she has brought to my life.
so maybe i scream like a crazy lady every morning before work. and maybe my coworkers avoid me until my coffee has kicked in. maybe i go to work with mismatched socks, occasionally send my oldest to school with crazy hair, and let my youngest wear a flower girl dress to gran and papaw's house. all moms do that...right?
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
"it's the most [hectic, stressful, expensive] time of the year..."
oh my gosh, the christmas season is upon us. i can't believe another year has come and gone. it sounds so cliche, but the older i get, the faster time flies. i mean, it's been a month since halloween and it seems like only yesterday i was painting madelyn's face as a cat and forcing ella to wear her bee antennae. it's been almost a week since thanksgiving, and it seems like just this morning i was frantically rushing around walmart, finding the ingredients to make my 7 layer salad (which stressed me out, by the way...this is the first year i successfully prepared a dish for a family function. i'm officially an adult!)
so...back to christmas. this is the first year that madelyn has told me what she wants. last year, i desperately tried to squeeze out of the child any ounce of a clue of anything that she might want. nothing. so we bought what we wanted. same for ella. this year, it's a whole different ballgame. madelyn wrote a list a mile long, partially misspelled, filled with everything from hair bows and lip gloss to video barbie and orbeez (which forced me to search google to find out just what the heck "orbeez" are). ella also wants everything under the sun, but since she can't write yet, i just get to listen to her say "i want that" after every commercial she sees on tv. i did have to veto the fur real friend dog that you walk on a leash, pointing out that she has a real dog that she could walk on a leash if she just would, and that the one we have pees, poops, eats, and everything else. she didn't like my response.
being a parent at christmastime is tough. being a parent of multiple children is even tougher. not only is there the monetary factor to consider, (one almost has to take on a second job just to afford all the gifts his or her child wants) but have you ever gone to toys r us during the holiday season? oh my lord, it's miserable! and don't even get me started on black friday. i don't do it...i think it's the worst concept ever created. this year, my husband forced me out of the house and i almost died. i was one breath away from a major panic attack by the time we finally left walmart. fortunately, he rewarded me with hananoki afterwards.
then there's the whole "how much should we spend" saga. honestly, it doesn't matter how much you say you're going to spend, because it always ends up being more. either one child ends up with more gifts, so you buy the other something else to "even it out", or you get home and it doesn't look like you bought very much, so you go out and buy "fluff" gifts. you know "fluff" gifts...you spend $300 on one electronic, so you have to buy a bunch of cheap crap to create the illusion for your child that you got them a whole bunch of stuff. let's face it, no 3 year old is going to understand that the reason they only got 1 big present is because it cost more than 20 little gifts.
so christmas for parents is stressful. i think i've driven that point home. but wow...how rewarding it is! have you ever been woken up by an eager, ecstatic child at 4 a.m. on christmas morning? have you ever seen the excitement on a child's face when they realize that santa visited the night before? remember how fun christmas morning was when you still believed? these are the things that make it all worthwhile...the hundreds of dollars spent, the lines at the register, the constant questioning of "how many days until christmas?"
...but i still refuse to ever go black friday shopping again. a line must be drawn somewhere.
so...back to christmas. this is the first year that madelyn has told me what she wants. last year, i desperately tried to squeeze out of the child any ounce of a clue of anything that she might want. nothing. so we bought what we wanted. same for ella. this year, it's a whole different ballgame. madelyn wrote a list a mile long, partially misspelled, filled with everything from hair bows and lip gloss to video barbie and orbeez (which forced me to search google to find out just what the heck "orbeez" are). ella also wants everything under the sun, but since she can't write yet, i just get to listen to her say "i want that" after every commercial she sees on tv. i did have to veto the fur real friend dog that you walk on a leash, pointing out that she has a real dog that she could walk on a leash if she just would, and that the one we have pees, poops, eats, and everything else. she didn't like my response.
being a parent at christmastime is tough. being a parent of multiple children is even tougher. not only is there the monetary factor to consider, (one almost has to take on a second job just to afford all the gifts his or her child wants) but have you ever gone to toys r us during the holiday season? oh my lord, it's miserable! and don't even get me started on black friday. i don't do it...i think it's the worst concept ever created. this year, my husband forced me out of the house and i almost died. i was one breath away from a major panic attack by the time we finally left walmart. fortunately, he rewarded me with hananoki afterwards.
then there's the whole "how much should we spend" saga. honestly, it doesn't matter how much you say you're going to spend, because it always ends up being more. either one child ends up with more gifts, so you buy the other something else to "even it out", or you get home and it doesn't look like you bought very much, so you go out and buy "fluff" gifts. you know "fluff" gifts...you spend $300 on one electronic, so you have to buy a bunch of cheap crap to create the illusion for your child that you got them a whole bunch of stuff. let's face it, no 3 year old is going to understand that the reason they only got 1 big present is because it cost more than 20 little gifts.
so christmas for parents is stressful. i think i've driven that point home. but wow...how rewarding it is! have you ever been woken up by an eager, ecstatic child at 4 a.m. on christmas morning? have you ever seen the excitement on a child's face when they realize that santa visited the night before? remember how fun christmas morning was when you still believed? these are the things that make it all worthwhile...the hundreds of dollars spent, the lines at the register, the constant questioning of "how many days until christmas?"
...but i still refuse to ever go black friday shopping again. a line must be drawn somewhere.
Monday, October 11, 2010
pointing fingers
each of my girls are quick to point out the faults in her sister, yet i don't think they realize their own shortcomings. it's really quite humorous, actually, hearing them tell on one another for something that the other said or did. just the other day, my holier-than-thou eldest child scribbled me a quick note on a post-it. it read (and i'm writing this in her own spelling) "i think ella just said damit". i had to laugh. not that my 3 year old had said a curse word (which may or may not be accurate; i decided not to confront her since i didn't hear it myself and because sometimes madelyn over dramatizes things), but because madelyn is so proper that she refused to say the word herself. so she wrote it instead. sadly, ella probably did let this profane word slip from her tongue, but that's another story.
although madelyn would never think of uttering such a word, what she does say (and oftentimes what she doesn't say) is sometimes just as bad, yet she doesn't realize it. madelyn has recently developed quite the attitude that i thought only teenagers possessed, and it frightens me that this personality trait will probably only worsen with age. the other night, madelyn was in the bathroom and i heard her talking so i innocently asked who she was talking to. the response i got was "none of your business!" and i can't begin to count on both hands the number of eye rolls, disgusted sighs, and evil glares of pure hatred that have come out of this otherwise sweet and adorable 7 year old.
i know the saying "what goes around comes around" is cliche, but it is so true. my mother smirks when i tell her stories about the girls because she's been there. three times, she's been there. but especially with me, the youngest child, she experienced every glare and eye roll and hateful word spoken in anger than i am dealing with now. so i actually think she delights in the fact that, on any given day, i'm ready to pull my hair out. believe me, i adore being the mother of my two amazing little girls, but i have to wonders sometimes...are boys easier?
although madelyn would never think of uttering such a word, what she does say (and oftentimes what she doesn't say) is sometimes just as bad, yet she doesn't realize it. madelyn has recently developed quite the attitude that i thought only teenagers possessed, and it frightens me that this personality trait will probably only worsen with age. the other night, madelyn was in the bathroom and i heard her talking so i innocently asked who she was talking to. the response i got was "none of your business!" and i can't begin to count on both hands the number of eye rolls, disgusted sighs, and evil glares of pure hatred that have come out of this otherwise sweet and adorable 7 year old.
i know the saying "what goes around comes around" is cliche, but it is so true. my mother smirks when i tell her stories about the girls because she's been there. three times, she's been there. but especially with me, the youngest child, she experienced every glare and eye roll and hateful word spoken in anger than i am dealing with now. so i actually think she delights in the fact that, on any given day, i'm ready to pull my hair out. believe me, i adore being the mother of my two amazing little girls, but i have to wonders sometimes...are boys easier?
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