Friday Night Leftovers

• AJ is a fighter....I don't know if it's because he's a boy or if it's because of Seena's new interest in "karate". Both of them have not stop "karate" matches. Even this morning AJ was already trying to wrestle me to the ground. At Tae Kwon Do class last week AJ was mimicking, as best he could, all of the moves Seena was doing. And now, to add to my anxiety over this, AJ's daycare teacher pointed out to me that AJ was throwing some punches in class. Great! The minute we get extra $$ or better yet, I might just sacrifice some grocery money to get this boy into some kind of sport or activity to let out some of his aggression!!
• It's no secret that I like to eat...I love food. I've always been a healthy eater but nonetheless, I like to eat. So, having to now "watch" what I eat because I'm older totally sucks. I nearly had a heart attack when I went to my yearly doc appt and realized I gain 7 pounds since last year. I was so convinced that something had to be wrong that I made them take my blood for a thyroid test. Of course it was normal. Whatever. My weight can bite me. Anyway, because I love food so much I don't like to share it. Not even with my kids. I know, call me selfish :) It is what it is. Lately, I've been indulging myself with delicious vegetable chili from Harris Teeter every Friday. My son apparently likes it too and literally follows me around the house asking for bites because I don't want to share it :) I suppose I will now have to buy two bowls next time...mmm, I can't wait :)
• Even with my new crazy hectic schedule I've managed to keep the house orderly for the whole week and then Friday happened. It's like a train wreck came into my house....what happened!

For more Friday Night Leftover please visit our host Danifred.

Rest My Case

This is a picture of AJ taken today at 5:30pm. We got home from daycare at 5:28pm. I would also like to point out the following:

~AJ is still in his coat and hat
~This stool is our compromise for "eating" in the kitchen
~I am being completely ignored over Hannah Montana

Discipline

I would like to know who out there has the magic discipline trick for toddlers? Or better yet, a 2-year old boy? Again, as I've said a million times, AJ is a whole new bag of tricks. Seena just didn't give me this much work when it came to disciplining. With Seena I did the timeouts and the occasional spanking but now I seem to be quite effective with a Strike 3 policy. It's keeping me from arguing with her (some of the time) and hopefully teaching her that talking back, screaming and throwing tantrums are simply not tolerated. Period. If she does any of these she gets a warning and then the strikes begin. She gets to 3 strikes and she loses TV time or a playdate. It's been pretty good.

Now, obviously, this does not work with my little man. He could careless if he got 1 strike or 500. I can't send him to his room. The boy loves the word no and has gotten quite stubborn. There really is no disciplining other than a 20 count bear-hug time-out. I'm convinced he knows how to count to 20 now because he quiets down right when I get around 17 or 18. By the way we're going he'll be the class genius and be able to count to 100!!

To reiterate my difficulties I did a spontaneous experiment the other day. During one of the ever increasing fights between Seena and AJ, AJ hit/bit/scratched/slapped (any, and or all of the above) Seena. Instead of my usual timeout I spontaneously decided to slap my son's hand. Not hard...just a little slap. He laughed.

So I did it again, this time a little harder. He laughed again.

One more time....a little harder....the little fart laughed again.

See!!! What is this all about???

So, please tell me what I'm suppose to do with this? Do they have military school for 2 year olds?

Note....I do say all of this in good fun. These naughty actions are also coming from the boy who won't go to bed unless he's snuggled next to me and rubbing my face ;)

To The Extreme

When it comes to scolding Seena or warning her of possible consequences for her actions, I resort to going to the extreme. I don't know why. My sister does it too. We share stories and laugh about it. I know it's wrong...or is it?

Maybe in the beginning I thought it would scare her enough that she would never do the "behavior" again or maybe I just wanted to see how creative I could get. Who knows. Either way it doesn't seem to have any effect on Seena. I guess she's figured out my bluff ;)

Today we had 2 such scenarios...

Scenario 1
While at Target she asked if she could sit on the edge of the cart. I told her no and of course this was immediately met by a "but why?". My response, "no because you could fall and you'll split your head open. Then your brains will spill all over the floor and people will start slipping on it. Do you want that? Do you want people slipping on your brains?".

Her response, "well, does that mean I'll start talking like this...jifes fiojof fifs fiosrsa?"

Scenario 2
While brushing her teeth this evening she began running around the house with the toothbrush still in her mouth. My response, "stop running around. If you fall, the toothbrush will go straight through the back of your throat and you'll have a huge hole there. And everytime you eat or drink the food will go out that hole."

Her response - she just gave her best 5 year old eye roll and kept brushing her teeth.

At least she stopped running :)

Child Labor

Yesterday I mentioned blogging about a recent decision I would have to make but I've decided it's not necessary. My decision revolves around having to decide to take on another part-time job. A real one, not a contract job that only requires a few hours here and there. This will be a real PT job. Luckily though, it's still very flexible and pre-care will not be necessary. Anyway, as I said, blogging about it is not necessary. Deep down I know the decision I will make. Without getting into all of our private family details and even with G starting his new job, I will need to take this on, at least for a little awhile. If all goes well and as we hope, this will just be a temporary thing. But such is life and as such, it must be done. As my fellow blogger and dear friend Danifred put it, "Column A just does not equal Column B". It's just that simple.

So, since my life will now involve me having:

1. having full-time job
2. being a full-time mom
3. having part-time job(s)
4. volunteering at school and Girl Scouts

I did what any good manager would do. I pooled my resources and I delegated!

This last picture is what eventually came out of the cleaning cabinet. Apparently AJ was not satisfied with just one brand....

And if your wondering who has so many cleaning products the answer would be....we do! We do because G likes to buy cleaning products. He's determined to find the "best one". Meanwhile, my collection grows and grows and grows.... ;)

Friday Night Leftovers

• cannot figure out how "dedai" means pizza. No matter how I try to sound it out, I just can't. But for AJ, "dedai" is pizza.
• as much as I dislike seeing my kids grow up (too quickly) I am very much looking forward to the day that I don't have sticky, crusty, crumbly chairs, tables or floors.
• I'm starting to rethink that perhaps dance may not have been the best choice for Seena. Gymnastics seems to be more up her alley. The girl has already taught herself how to do a cartwheel and almost a round-off. And she swears she already knows karate. She was showing off her "moves" last night. I am actually quite thrilled about this as I really do want to put her in some sort of karate class.
• it's no big secret that I dislike my "job" and I do look for other work from time to time, but when I see my kids wake up at their leisure during the week, the thought of going back to a regular 8-5 office job is unimaginable. Seena doesn't have to be at school until 8:50. I can't imagine having to wake her up at 5 or 6 in the morning to have to go to pre-care. She already has problems waking up at 7:30!! So, for this I consider myself very lucky and pray that this does not change for a very long time. Really, I'm serious.
• G says I nag too much. I've decided that that his fault. He shouldn't give me anything to nag about :)
• As I'm writing this, an opportunity just presented itself that I now have to think about. I will probably blog about it too as I think I may be stepping on the edge of over doing it. Or it could just be what it is...another opportunity to get back on track....

For more Friday Night Leftover please visit our host Danifred.

Travieso AJ and the Terrible Twos

I recently heard that the Terrible Two’s does not necessarily refer to the birth year 2 but to a span of “2” years. And this span can be anytime, 2-4, 3-5, etc. I find this particularly interesting at the moment because I was just telling a friend that Seena was wonderful at 2. I loved her at 2. She definitely had her moments of course, but for the most part she was sweet and loving. Once she hit 3 ½ to probably around 5, she was a nightmare. Ok, maybe I exaggerate a bit but she was terrible. So she fits the “2” year span. AJ on the other hand, is a TERRIBLE TWO. He is travieso. The boy never stops. He never stops

eating
climbing
running
eating
climbing
getting into EVERYTHING
being travieso

And I know this is typical 2 year old stuff but seriously, Seena was not like this. She liked to snack but my son doesn't snack...I don't know what he does for that matter. He just eats. And when I say the boy never stops eating, I mean it. He never stops. From the moment he walks in the door from daycare he heads straight for the pantry and if that door is closed, he's pulling the closest chair to a counter that has any food on it. I've resorted to hiding all fruit bowls, food bowls and cookie jars in the highest cabinets. And forget it if YOU want to eat, he takes that too.

And if, he gets lucky and gets a hold of some food that he's not suppose to have...he crushes whatever item he has in his kung-fu-like grip. I literally have to pry his fingers open meanwhile the food item is spewing through his fingers and all over everywhere. This is usually when the cursing occurs because the crushing of food is never in a convenient place like the kitchen. It's always in the family room or my favorite, the couch. AND the little booger knows he's being travieso because he runs like a speed of lighting as soon as I notice his sneaky foodnapping.

Travieso
The Spanish word travieso translated into English is "naughty" or "trouble maker". This is what I call my son on a daily basis, however, he's not necessarily "naughty", he's just such a boy. And he's two. He's a 2 year old, boy, trouble maker. Not a fun combo. Which, I might add, has definitely added a few greys to my hair and has had me say one too many curse words under by breath. He even has a travieso look. If I can catch it on camera I will. It's a look that oooozes with traviesoness. His brows come down, his lips are pursed, his legs are spread and he does a little bouncy dance thing.

Like some sort of tribal, warrior, battle dance.

It's travieso, I'm telling you. He's going to be the kid that's going to end up in the emergency room a lot because of some traviesoness he got himself into.

Everyday when I look at him or I observe his mannerisms, all I can say is that he is just such a boy. Girls just don't do the things he does. What makes it all bearable is that he's just so darn cute. But still, travieso.

Case in point - this evening he entertained himself with surfing on puzzle boards. He first, laid them out on the kitchen floor. He would then get a running start from across the family room and then jump on the puzzle boards and "surf". Obviously, he didn't get very far and most of his attempts landed him on his butt, but he didn't care. He just got up and did it again. Such a boy.

Does anyone remember the movie Parenthood? Remember Steve Martin's son that runs around with a pail on his head? That's my boy. Travieso.