Maybe they don’t melt in your hand but…

Lately there have been some issues with little guy at school and I’ve been getting reports of roughhousing with the other boys in his class. Unfortunately this is one of those things that is to be expected in a class full of boys, most of whom have Sensory processing Disorder. If you throw into the mix that its been raining a lot and that means no playground time the rowdiness level goes through the roof. We’ve been having numerous talks with the little guy about keeping his hands to himself and how he needs to listen to the teacher and not push, pull, grab, etc. Some days I get a good report and other days I see the teacher with a look on her face that tells me she just may go home and poor herself a good, stiff drink. In an effort to increase the good days we’ve told little guy he’ll get M&M’s for behaving himself, a reward that worked wonders for getting rid of the binkies here recently.

Today I was delighted when I received a note in little guy’s backpack saying he did great today! I told little guy how proud I was and said he’d get his M& M’s right after lunch. After I handed him three M & M’s (yes, we’re pretty minimal with them) I walked into the office to grab something off the printer. I then hear him yelling “Get it out, get it out!” and run back to see two M&M’s sitting on his tray and his little finger pointing to his nose. “Did you put an M & M up your nose?!” I asked foolishly. He said; “yes”. I tried the method we used just weeks ago when he stuck a blueberry up his nose: trying to get him to shoot it out by blowing his nose real hard. This did not work at all. I ran for the tweezers. To my surprise, once I grabbed the M & M it did not just pop out as I’d anticipated. It was melted in a chocolatey, gooey mess. So I stood there pulling out small chunks of melted chocolate from my toddler’s nose. Then I looked up his nose again with the flashlight to see that there was still plenty of M & M material lodged in there. Great. I once again tried to get him to do the “shoot it out your nose” routine and he was finally able to blow out the rest of the M&M in one disgusting little lump that flew onto his tray.

In related news we are now switching to stickers as rewards.

The Gripe and Whine List

You know how “they” say to remember what you have to be thankful for and focus on the positive? Today I don’t feel like doing that. Yes, I do have much to be thankful for, I do need to focus more on the positive and honestly I strive to do that (most of the time), but sometimes you just have to gripe. So, if you were looking for a feel good post complete with rainbows and unicorns you might want to move along.

Here in no particular order are the things that are currently irritating me:

Rain and cold – I’m over winter now, thank you.

The healthcare/insurance situation is completely ridiculous. Something needs to be done.

The cat’s depressed (see post on loss of dog to understand why) and consequently keeps us up at night meowing. We really need some sleep.

I really, really need outdoor exercise. See “rain & cold” issue above.

Weight loss is not going well and I’m running out of pants. Also, I don’t think it’s humanly possible for my thighs to get any larger however, I do not want to test this theory.

I’m coming up on yet another birthday. I say “yet another” because I just had one. At least it feels like it. I’m still trying to adjust to not being in the thirties any longer. Not that there’s anything wrong with being in my forties, I’m just irritated with being older. I’d probably deal with it better with smaller thighs. *sigh*

I could think of a lot more, but then it would just sound pathetic and complain-ey. Oh wait, it probably already does. But I’m ok with that.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

So, you know how I’ve been threatening to actually start running at some point? Well, as luck would have it, after fully convincing myself to give it a go I now have a huge obstacle.

Back around Christmas time the family all went through a horrible cold. Mine took forever to go away and during that time my coughing caused me to fracture a rib. I’ve been told no exercise at all outside of basic walking. I would be walking if only I could manage to get up in the morning to do it, but alas, I don’t sleep well due to said cracked rib. (Yes, I know, I could/should walk at some other point in the day, but I am one of those "if it doesn't happen in the morning it's not going to happen at all" exercise types.) To further complicate my issue is the fact that my injured ribs are on the side I have to sleep on to avoid snoring and waking up the hubby. Now,with no exercise and not even any walking weight loss at this point is non-existent.

So it all breaks down to this; my ribs hurt, I’m not sleeping well, the hubby has to sleep on the sofa, I’m getting zero exercise and I can feel my rear end get bigger by the moment. It all makes me want to just say to heck with it and eat a carton of ice cream.

That is all.

Little Guy: The newest YouTube sensation?

I know as his family we are probably the only ones so entertained by him. But little guy has us cracking up over his version of "The Chicken Dance" as well as a loose interpretation on the SpongeBob SquarePants opening theme song.  See for yourselves.

Photos of Assorted Home Mayhem

I like to take pictures of various things that happen during the day to share with the hubby. This is one from a series I like to call:

"The crap your kid does during the day"

The Other New Thing

I mentioned that we’ve started two new ventures around here and have already announced one of them, SimpliSave. Now it’s time to officially announce the other one.

We’ve started a new jewelry line! We are now designing and creating handmade items featuring recycled glass, vintage silver flatware, vintage beads and pearls and other glass beads. This is actually the Hubby’s business as he is the one hand crafting all the pieces. I basically model everything and do the photography and web site.

Amusingly, when this all started the hubby made a comment about how it wasn’t very manly to make jewelry. I pointed out however that anything involving power tools and a blow torch is about as manly as it gets.

So here you go folks:

Teenager Wisdom: Laundry

Right about the time the baby was born I cleverly taught Teenager to do his own laundry. Between my own, the hubby’s and the little guy's I’ve got more loads than I can keep up with. This evening I entered Teenager’s room, something I try to avoid the majority of the time because it’s scary and I prefer to close the door and live in denial, and I noticed his very large laundry basket is not only filled to capacity but spilling out over the top and onto the floor. Our conversation went like this:

Me:  Hey, you need to do your laundry, look at this thing!

Teenager:  No, not yet, it’s not time.

Me:  What do you mean it’s not time, the thing is overflowing!Are you waiting until it touches the ceiling?

Teenager:  I mean it’s not time because I’m not done wearing the last load of laundry I did!

2 out of 3

A while back I wrote about how I knew the time was fast approaching that we’d need to tackle some baby/toddler transitions and how I dreaded my baby not being a baby anymore. Because essentially I knew we were looking at going from a crib sleeping, diaper-wearing, binkie using baby to a kid who would sleep in a bed, wear underwear and give up his beloved binkies.

This last week we managed to hit two out of three and we’re pretty darn proud of this feat. It all started when I told the little guy that he simply had to give up his binkies; he was too old and it was time. When I’ve tried this before, there was much screaming and wailing. This time I knew I had to bite the bullet and just do it. I told him that there were other babies, little babies, that needed the binkies and we were going to give his binkies to them. Then I told him that if he could take a nap without a binkie when we woke up I’d give him two M & M’s. He agreed, and reluctantly took a short nap. When he woke up he asked for his M & M’s and stated he wanted to “see the babies”. I gave him his M &M’s and later that night when it was time for bed I told him if he could go to sleep with no binkies he’d get 5 M & M’s in the morning. The night was pretty rough, there was a lot of waking up asking where his binkies were and when we’d remind him he’d again state he wanted to see those babies. But he made it, got his 5 M & M’s the next morning and it’s been smooth sailing ever since!

Next up we needed to get this kid out of his crib. He was way too tall as you can see here.

Ironically though, he liked his crib and did not try to get out. But it was time. Daddy worked on refinishing a cute, old mahogany bed that was a steal at a secondhand store. Then this last weekend we set it up, complete with his new bedding and side rail and the “Big Boy” bed was ready. He loved it and was so excited! The first night he was a tad apprehensive because it was new, but he went to sleep and has been talking about how much he loves his new bed ever since.

Now....it’s on to potty training!