Thursday, June 19, 2008

Does it get any better? Or just worse from here on out?

I took a walk to the grocery store today with the three kiddos. M actually walked next to me and the double stroller today - only because yesterday, after letting her walk half a block ahead for a block or two, I told her she actually need to walk with us... embarrassing as it may be for an 11-year-old to walk beside her mother pushing a double stroller... ;)

She was not really happy with me. How do I know? Well, she was full of sass and attitude about it. I was so dampening her style. She rolled her eyes, cocked her head to the side and let out one of those awful teenager sighs of disgust. For the past few weeks it's been nothing but attitude from her. Everything I ask her to do or tell her not to do is met with her exasperation or back talk or arguing...

Man is it annoying and frustrating. I just don't know how to make it end, and it's driving me insane. The more I reprimand her for it the more she continues. So obviously I'm not taking the right approach. I just can't stand the thought of her talking (or behaving) like that with some other adult.

She's really not a bad kid. In some ways much the opposite. I get many compliments from her teachers and others at school. She must not talk to them the way she does me. Not sure whether I should feel good about that or not ;)

I know that she feels we are unbelievably strict parents. She thinks she should be able to run around the neighborhood/city as she pleases. Yesterday we had an argument about her not being able to go to the city pool without an adult. Unfortunately the new neighbors let their daughter, who is the same age, go to and from the pool unattended several times a day. She seemed to think that when she turned 13 she would be able to go to the pool by herself. As if 2 years will make that much of a difference. And really, I'm sure everyone heard about the 2 girls in small town Oklahoma who were shot to death walking down the road? They were 11 and 13. I told her she's not going anywhere without an adult until she's at least 16. And even then I will probably think twice about it. I don't think we're strict at all.

And as far as the pool is concerned, I'm not even sure I'll take the kids to the pool this summer. It's horrible, and I feel like one of those crazy paranoid parents... but seriously - did you see the segment on the Today Show about kids being killed by pool drains?

All of that is a touch off the sass topic, but then again... us not letting her do stuff causes some of the sass...

Anyone got any good suggestions for taming the sass beast??

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Wordless Wednesday




Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Gas Guzzling Woes :(

So we've been trying for the past few days to see if we can trade our gas guzzling SUV for a less of a gas hog minivan... and there is no relief in sight. We are too upside down on our loan... the trade-in value is at least $6,000 short of what we still owe. We would have to come up with a $4,200 down payment. Which we in no way have! Mostly due to the raising gas prices and all the travelling we've had to do in the past couple of months. We are quite in the hole at the moment.

I never dreamed I would be an SUV owner. I actually made fun of those soccer moms barrelling around in an SUV instead of a minivan.

Then we moved to northern Wisconsin. And really, if we wouldn't have had a vehicle with 4WD last winter - we wouldn't have made it anywhere. They just don't make minivans with 4WD. They may have AWD, but that's just not the same thing.

But boy do I kind of regret that decision now. I say "kind of" because I'm so noncommittal ;) Really, in browsing around at minivans, the features on my Explorer are pretty cool. I love the seat-warmers in the winter (or cold as hell spring that we just had). I love the control panel! It tells me exactly how many miles I can go before I reach E. It also will display current mpg (ugh!). And all sorts of other useful things (tire pressure...etc.) The minivan control panels we were looking at left much to be desired. They looked completely old school compared to the digital readout on my Explorer. And I think we were even looking at luxury model Chevy Uplanders and Pontiac Montanas.

Oh well. I guess we will just have to continue getting further in the hole with gas prices until our economic stimulus payment comes... then sadly it will all go towards catching up on bills!

Wordless Wednesday: Hats and Shoes? Hate 'em!





Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Ants Vs Flooding?

Last night I was putting together my next blog post in my head: one about my home being invaded by ants. It was going to be light and humorous. Then I watched the news. Just about every county surrounding us is suffering major flooding! Downtown areas are being evacuated, and closed. Highways all around here are closed. Many people have been flooded out of their houses. Some people in areas of major flooding have no power or water. Cedar Falls was 15ft over flood stage (12ft). It broke the previous flooding record set in 1921! Many of these counties aren't even due to crest until Thursday or Sunday! It's unreal. My husband had to take 3 different detours and go through a foot of water to get to work today, and they ended up closing his office as all the roads surrounding were due to be closed.
Luckily our town hasn't suffered quite as bad. This picture is the flooding down the street from our house last week. Fortunately it receded pretty quickly here. For most other cities/counties around us the waters are still on the rise.

Friday, June 6, 2008

What do toddler boys like to eat??

I mean really?? I cannot get D to eat anything!
OK, he will still only eat a handful of foods. The only things he will eat every time are: yogurt (but it has to be the kids kind with all the sugar and bright colors that do wonderful things to his poo), the marshmallows from Lucky Charms (do they make a cereal that has only marshmallows? 'Cause 90% of the box goes to the dogs.), and mashed potatoes (as long as they aren't real ones).

It's so frustrating! I don't know how he is even gaining any weight. Seriously, for about two days all he ate was breakfast. He may have taken a few bites of mac & cheese or a chicken nugget... but really he was just playing with his food: organizing it, throwing it, spitting it out...

I tried mixing B's baby food into his mashed potatoes. It worked the first time. But the second time he turned his nose up at it... but did eat all my mashed potatoes...

The night before last I made him 3 different things for dinner. I always give him whatever we're having and then have a back up plan for when he won't eat that. He wouldn't eat what we were having, so I made him some of those ramen noodles (which he will usually eat). Wouldn't touch them. After everyone else was done eating I started feeling awful guilty - thinking that he had to eat something... I had a kids spaghetti frozen dinner in the freezer, so I made that for him. Well, he transferred all the noodles from one compartment to the next and maybe took two bites...

I feel like I've tried to get him to eat just about everything. I'm all out of ideas. The foods he will eat sometimes are chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, stuffing, hot dogs (rarely), spaghetti-o's (rarely), rice, lasagna, cheese and refried beans.

I actually went and hunted down liquid vitamins. He wouldn't eat the few kinds of chewables I tried.

Does anyone have any ideas? What are your toddlers favorite foods?

Thursday, June 5, 2008

My first blog award :)

I was so happy to see that one of my favorite bloggers, Suzie from Up the Hill Backwards gave me a blog award!! My first ever :) And I'm so glad it came from someone like Suzie. Ever since I found her blog (after she commented on mine), it's one of the few that I make a point of reading.

There are so many good ones out there it's hard to keep up with all that reading. Of course some days I spend all my free time catching up on those many many blogs instead of posting here! :)

But Suzie is really an inspiration! :) We have a bit in common, which is why she has been on my must read list since I discovered her :) In her blog entry, which includes my blog award [smug], she talks about why she started her blog - it's a great post and I really identified with her and think a lot of us mommybloggers out there could. Its strange how alone you can feel even when you have kids ;) (or even moreso when you have wee ones)... And it is so wonderful to find a community here online of mothers who have similar issues, or mothers who just have great thing to say or hilarious stories to share... I also feel less alone out in the blogosphere.

Thank you Suzie :)

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Wordless Wednesday








 
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