A Blog Is Born

Getting Things Started

Originally posted: Wednesday, August 5, 2009

CamCam will be two on August 23. I'm not sure who coined the phrase "terrible twos", but experience has taught me that this does not actually refer to a two year old child. The so-called terrible twos seem to start around 18 months, and continue until 3 1/2 years. So it should actually be called the "terrible two years". I'm currently drowning in this phase. Nothing on this planet can match the determination of a toddler who's made up his mind to do something. Never again will rage and anger be expressed so physically without any regard to the consequences. The world has suddenly opened up to this curious little mind, and they have no fear.
Everything was going ok until about 2 weeks ago. That's when CamCam taught himself how to climb out of his crib. Up until this point, I at least had a 3 hour break mid-day while he took his nap. Not anymore. Now he doesn't nap, he trashes his room instead. He will not go to sleep at bedtime, he trashes his room instead. He doesn't sleep in, his brother wakes him up. I feel like a tornado has entered my home and I'm running around after it trying to pick up it's wake of destruction.

He's actually quite adorable though. His smile embraces his entire face, and has a bit of mischievousness mixed in. You can't help but smile when looking at him. I love this little boy to pieces, but he sure is driving me crazy!

So here's the closet he and his brother share. Everyday he pulls down all their clothes onto the floor. Everyday I refold all the clothes and put them back on the shelves. I tried putting them up on the higher shelves, but he just climbed up the shelves to get to them. I can't shut the door because he taught himself to open doors. I had baby-proofing knobs on them, but he learnt that if he put his thumb in the hole and pulled down, it pops right off. His almost 4 year old brother can't get through a door with a baby-proof knob on it, but he can.

Results of nap time. If he didn't share a room with his brother, I'd just take all the toys and books out. But they do share, and that wouldn't be fair to his brother. However, I'd like to know why everyone seems to think stuffed animals make a great gift? They must have 20 or more stuffed animals in their room. I never see them playing with them. I try putting them on shelves to look cute, but they both just take them down and throw them everywhere.

Is this the point of stuffed animals???

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This week I’m following the weeks worth of writing prompts during SITS Back To Blogging Event.  Today’s prompt was “Re-upload the first post you ever wrote on your blog.”  I like today’s prompt, nice and easy! And, bonus, I got to correct all the spelling mistakes I made the first time around.

This event is sponsored by Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliances,

That isn’t apple juice running down your arm. . .

There is a lull in the morning.  A time that peace and quiet reigns over my house.  The oldest two are off at school, two of my little boys are still sleeping, and The Baby is silently looking at books.

Silence.

This is MY time.  I can read a book, poke around on the computer, or just sit and drink coffee while looking out the window. 

And then Mr. Trouble comes down the stairs.  He immediately wants food, says his tummy hurts and he MUST have food NOW.  The Baby is excited to see his brothers finally waking up, and starts running around full of jibber-jabber.  He runs by me as I’m getting Mr. Trouble his breakfast, and I catch a whiff of a dirty diaper.  Mr. Trouble says he needs milk, his tummy is really, really, really hurting and he needs milk now.  The milk and dirty diaper must wait a second, I hear a “tap-tap-tap” coming from upstairs.  CamCam is up, and he needs to be let out of his room.  I run upstairs to let him out, decide to pick him up so I can quickly get back downstairs.  The pressure of my arm is just enough to send his full diaper over the edge.  Yucky liquid starts running down my arm. 

And so my morning has begun. 

Goodbye peace, goodbye quiet. 

We shall meet again 24 hours from now.

That Made Me Cry!

When you have 5 kids, you spend a LOT of time at the pediatrician.  CamCam is a smart little boy now, and he’s very well aware of what goes on at the doctor’s office.  Every time he hears we’re going to a doctor appointment he asks me, “Who doctar for ma? Who’s turn?”

He doesn’t care which sibling the appointment is for, just as long as it isn’t for him.  Numerous times on our drive to the doctor he’ll bring it up.  “Day-don’s turn doctar ma?  Not me?  For Day-don?”

Once we get called in by the nurse, he always lets her know who we’re here for:  “It’s Nolie’s turn doctar.  Not me.  Not me, Nolie’s turn.”

It doesn’t stop there, he need to make sure the doctor knows who this appointment is for as well.  “La-La’s turn doctar.  Not me, not my turn.  It’s La-La’s turn.”

Which is why I was dreading today.  Because today, it was CamCam’s turn.  This morning, I hesitantly brought it up.  I told him we had to go to the doctors today.  He immediately asked who it was for.  I told him that the doctor wanted to see how big he was now that he was 3. 

“I’m bigger, bigger, bigger, like this!” he said, standing up taller and taller in his chair.  I breathed a little sigh of relief, he seemed ok with this after all.  

But once we were actually called into the appointment, CamCam changed his mind.  He walked very slowly away from the toy area, thought a bit, and then ran up to the nurse and said, “Actually, no, it’s not me.  It’s not my turn.”  We convinced him that it would be fun to stand on the scale and see how big he was.  He went along with it, but you could tell he was watching us.  Next we went for the eye check, but CamCam refused to say what any of the pictures were.  He just sucked his thumb the whole time, and gave the nurse a look that said- “I’m onto you.  You try to pretend you’re all fun with this little game of yours, but I know better.  I’ve seen what you can do, and I’m not buying this fun-and-games routine.  I’m not playing along!”

Next she attempted to take his blood pressure.  You’d have thought she wanted to rip his arm off, he flipped out so.  He just screamed, cried, and clung to me for dear-life until the nurse left the room. 

He warmed up to the doctor.  The doctor, though, gets to come in and be fun and friendly.  At our practice, the doctor NEVER gives out shots.  He (or she) is the “Good Guy.”  CamCam loved showing off, hopping on one leg, jumping around.  He was in such a good mood he didn’t notice that the doctor had left and yet we were still in the room. 

I had PROMISED CamCam that there wouldn’t be any boo-boo’s for him, that we were just going to see how big he was.  But I had completely forgotten that CamCam was 2 shots behind.  The pediatrician had run short on 2 vaccines, and so he wasn’t able to get them at his 18 month checkup. 

Today was the day.

I felt so bad for him, he was so upset, he acted like I betrayed him.  It’s one thing to hold down your baby to get shots, and then they forget the minute you pick them up.  It’s quite another thing to hold down your toddler who doesn’t forget the minute you pick them up.  Nope, he cried at me the whole way out, “I said no doctar, you said no hurt me!”

I felt so bad.  Poor little guy.  He actually limped as he walked, and held the spot where his shots had been given, so I ended up carrying him.  That’s the LAST thing little kids heading to their appointment needed to see.

And then we were driving off, and all was well with CamCam again.  As we pulled out of the parking lot he says, “That made me cry!”

Momma too, little man.  Momma too.

What Do These Things Have In Common?

 

Three Lego wheels….

A Lincoln Logs man…

 

A bean bag….

One sock….

Two fighting men…

 

Vacuum piece…

  

A red Imaginext bullet…

Yet another Lego wheel and a magnetic ball….

 

So what do these items have in common???

These are all items I pulled out of my sub-woofer

7 Days With No TV: Day 7

Dear Mr. Television,

I’m sorry, but I think it’s time for us to break up.  It’s not you, it’s me.  Actually, no, it really is you.  Your a sneaky you-know-what, and I’m now wise to your devious ways.

You claim to help me out by watching my kids for me so I can get more done around the house.  But since I took a break from you a week ago, I’ve found it a million times easier to get things done.  I know, it defies all logic, but it is true.  Hours will go by before I hear a peep from my kids, they’re so involved in their playtime.  Not so with you, with you they continue to come to me asking for drinks, or food, or manage to fit in a wrestling match that I need to break up in between shows.  I have to stop what I’m doing every 5 minutes to attend to some “want” or to referee.

You claim to provide mindless entertainment for a period of time, giving us all a much needed break.  But once we spend time with you, we don’t feel like doing much else. 

You fool us into thinking we’re spending time as a family just by being in the same room.

You suck away at our time without us even realizing it.

No, I’m sorry, there’s nothing you can do.  A call was already put in yesterday, there’s no going back now.

You’ve seen more then enough of my kids faces, now it’s my turn.  I’m going to be the one entertaining them from now on.

Sincerely,

CamCam’s Mommy

 

7 Days With No TV: Day 6

My whole parenting life, I’ve been in search of the perfect toy.  The perfect toy would hold my kids’ interest for more then 10 minutes.  It’s something they’d want to come back to and play with again and again.  My house is filled with toys, but my kids said they were bored of them all.

Until this week.

This week, all our toys are suddenly fun again.

“Leader of the Fab-Five” was interested in his Legos again.  His room looks like a Star Wars Lego store opened up shop in there.

I think our Lincoln Logs have been played with more this week then they had been in the past 7 years that we’ve owned them.

 

We invented a really cool game with the LeapFrog ABC toy that used to drive me nuts.  We tied a large paperclip to the end of a string that was attached to a wooden spoon.  I turned all the ABC’s upside down so that the magnetic side was showing, and then “Mr. Trouble” and CamCam took turns “fishing” for ABC’s.  They couldn’t get enough of this game!

 

And CamCam has spent HOURS with his train table.  Honestly though, this isn’t unusual, he LOVES trains.  What’s funny is we bought this train set for our oldest son because he loved to play with the setups that stores would have on display.  Wouldn’t you know though that he never played with the one at our house?  Why are kids like that?  But we kept it all this time, and recently The Dada built a table and the train set was resurrected for CamCam. 

    

But guess what’s getting used again during the day?  Something that hasn’t been used during the day in AGES:

All this activity really tires him out!

7 Days With No TV: Day 5

You wanna know what I’ve discovered the past few days?  My kids are FUN!  Now that they come at activities with eager attitudes, they are a blast to hang out with.  Not once have I heard “I’m bored.”  Not once have I heard “Ugh, I’m tired, can’t we just go home?”  No matter what activity I bring up, they’re eager and willing to try.

Today we walked on the bike trail.  CamCam did NOT want to turn around, he wanted to walk to the end.  It’s close to 5 miles long!  I convinced him that we should turn around because there was a trip to the playground waiting on this end.  I let my “Little Hurricane” out of the stroller for the mile walk back and man, can that baby run!  Those little legs move with lightening fast speed, but never in the direction I want them to go.

Once we were done with all our outdoor activities, we came back home and played ABC Bingo.  “Mr. Trouble” and CamCam LOVE Bingo.  It’s a new game, they just got it this week, and I think I’ve played it close to 500 times already.

I am so blown away by the positive change in my kids and our family dynamic that, today, for the first time, I am seriously considering making this a permanent change.  I mean, honestly, how could I go back?