Ah, the sweet sound of silence

How much sleep is enough?

Why is it that so many of our conversations are about sleep and the lack of it?!

My sweet little Miss 2 year old has stopped napping at daycare. This means by the time dinner is on, she's usually in quite a state. The daycare teacher and I have had lots of talks on ways to try and get Little Miss to nap better, of course believing its the daycare environment, not her slow path to abandon her afternoon naps.

Sadly, as I sit her typing this entry, I can hear her fitfully resting in her crib. She's quiet for a few minutes and then she starts chattering, and then she'll call out for me, then she's quiet for a bit and on and on this will go for an hour or two. Sometimes she'll fall asleep, but days like today, it doesn't seem likely. She is currently chanting "Where are you?" over and over again. Of course, this means a) I will not be able to finish this post, and 2) the afternoon is going to be more challenging than normal!

The books and websites say a 2 year old should get around 10-13 hours sleep. Of course, all kids are different, so it's really hard to say what your child's needs are. I can only tell by what she's like when she doesn't nap. Impossible is one way of describing her. However, you can't force someone to fall asleep. You can however be patient. I don't want to jinx it, but I I think my sweet Little Miss has finally succumbed and is napping. Only an hour and half after I put her down!

Now if only they had the luxury of time at the daycare.

Good thing I didn't have anything planned for this afternoon!!

Why my little guy didn't see Cars 2

As I sit in front of my laptop, my son is at my side watching an episode of Max & Ruby on Netflix on our modestly sized 42" TV (I say modestly sized as first we picked out a 55" TV, but I digress.)

While we sit in our living room together, most of his little daycare friends are getting ready to see Cars 2. You see one of the friends at his daycare turns 4 today and apparently LOVED the first Cars movie and so his Mom thoughtfully planned this party. Pretty cool!!

Unfortunately, DH and I decided that a nearly 2 hour 3D movie was not appropriate for our little 4 year old. I mean he gets scared watching episodes of Angelina Ballerina and Diego! Lord knows the nightmares that would ensue after 2 hours of Pixar Cars jetting around Europe, crashing, banging, shooting and torturing...Yes, I said shooting & torturing. Apparently there is a 'torture' scene in Cars 2 and the movie also features lots of guns. Oh joy!

Now, there is nothing wrong with letting your children see this movie. It has a pretty decent cast and it is Pixar after all, so I'm sure it's probably pretty funny. I'm just a ridiculously over protective Mom and I just don't want my sweet little innocent baby boy being exposed to violence.

It's funny how I feel like I need to apologize for my thoughts on this. I suppose it is because I really don't want people to feel as though I'm judging them. I'm not. I let my kids eat ice cream for breakfast. I do no judge other parents for their choices. Trust me. With a blog titled "maybe tomorrow I'll be a better mother", I'm certainly not in a position to judge others.

Shows that make you go "ugh" - Part 1 (because there's sure to be more to come!)

Being forced to watch Bob the Builder with Little Mr. Man and I have to say, I am not a fan!

The voices, the writing, the writing...gosh this is just awful!!! Maybe I should revisit my no Barney rule. Nothing an be as bad as this!

Must find a way of removing this from the Netflix repertoire!!

Such a lovely day outside, why are we inside watching TV anyway???? I promised Little Mr. Man he could watch extra TV while Little Miss naps so that their is no whinging when the hockey game is on tonight. It is Game 4 after all!!

Anyhow, this show is so bad I can't even block it out. The voices are going to haunt me!!

The Diaper Files - An Update

The diaper dramas continue. You may recall last week I was going on about Little Miss' new developmental milestone - removing of diaper, well she's raised the ante.

Since then we've had a couple more instances of stripping down in the crib, the last one was this morning. We talked about it some more, sat on the toilet some more and I thought we were good.

A little while later I see her running around the house with no pants and no diaper on. We go back to toilet, no contribution made, but the effort was there, put the diaper and pants back on, have another little chat and once again I think we're good to go.

Cleaning up after breakfast, I'm on a call with the president of the board of directors for the kids' daycare, I go into the living room to once again see Little Miss with her diaper off and pants around her ankles. This time however, she's saying poopy Mommy, poopy. I quickly get off the phone and examine the situation a little closer.

Little Miss must've started to do a poo in her diaper and decided it best to finish on the carpet. Why her big brother didn't think to let me know what was going on, I'm not too sure! Anyhow, we have another really long talk, clean her up, clean the floor up and once again I think we're good.

Oh, yes, the diaper dramas continue....

At Costco (no laughing please), Little Miss was insistent that I let her walk. She promised not to run off. And, she did keep her promise - sadly it was because she was too busy trying to get her pants and diaper off in the frozen foods aisle!

All this BEFORE 11:30 am.

Guess my little girl is growing up and it's time to bite the bullet and start potty training.

At least I'll have no shortage of things to write in my blog!!

Minor rant of a delusional mother

At the Starbucks the other morning a man asked how old my kids were. I told him, 4 and 2.

He responds, "no kindergarden???"

I say "no"

Him: "what about pre-school or daycare?

Me: blank stare, start to say that they're in daycare 3 days a week, but before I could get the word daycare out he interjects with:

"when my kids were small they were in Gymboree and busy busy after that. all day. all the time..."

me: (realizing he doesn't want a conversation but rather to offer me his pearls of parenting wisdom, respond with another blank stare. All the while dying inside, wondering how much damage I'm doing to my children for not having every minute of their lives scheduled. After a quick mental self-slap I snapped out of it and continued to enjoy the Mommy & kids time I was previously enjoying)

Deep down, I know the man meant well. I'm sure he wasn't even passing judgement on my poor parenting skills (as my children were wreaking havoc at the Safeway Starbucks playing bumper cars with the "car" trolleys!). I'm sure he was lamenting how busy his kids were and how he had such little free, unscheduled time with his darling children. Yes, of course, that is exactly what he was thinking!!

diaper on, diaper off

Diaper on, diaper off.

The other night I went in to give her a good night kiss and she was completely NAKED. No diaper, no jammies, no nothin'. Just her adorable little tush sticking up in the air. And pee soaked blankie, hop hop and sheets, of course (mercifully no poop!).

After a long chat the next day, I thought we'd remedied the situation; and we did...

...until this afternoon that is.

I thought Little Miss & her big brother were playing nicely in the living room while I was getting their lunch ready, until it got really quiet.

When I came into the living room Little Miss had taken her pants and diaper off and was squatting on the carpet. Thankfully she didn't pee or poop on the floor!

Off to the loo we went, but nothing.

I'm afraid to leave the house, for fear that if I turn away for a minute she'll be stripping down in Costco or Safeway (yeah, we really live the fun life!!)

I'll keep you posted ;-)

When I'm Five

Little Mr. Man announced that he thinks wearing underwear to bed is a good idea. When he's 5. He just turned 4. He wears pull-ups to bed.

Up until that announcement he's never even expressed the slightest interest in night time potty training. He seems quite happy to pee in his pull-ups.

Of course, I've been reading about this issue for quite a while. All my friend's children seemed to start staying dry pretty soon after they mastered daytime potty training. No one's seemed to have any issues. They're kids just stopped peeing at night. Easy Peasy.

So, as any self-respecting, loving and caring mother would do I turned to the Internet for guidance. Didn't find much help there either, although I did get a good laugh. Here's a highlight of what those in know have to say about the issue:

For starters, most discussions start by saying the "child needs to be developmentally ready". Apparently the development between bladder and brain in my little man is seriously out of whack with the rest of his development. This is the same child that went downstairs and fixed himself breakfast this morning because he didn't want to wake me up. Without making a mess. He reminded me of this as I was getting him a second bowl of Cheerios and promptly spilled Almond Milk all over the table. Who's not developmentally ready?!

Other suggestions just make me laugh out loud! One of my favorites is the suggestion to wake your child before you go to bed. They say the child will be so sleepy they won't remember. They also say it won't do much in terms of getting them to stay dry on their own, so that you'll have to continue to do this until, well I guess, until they're developmentally ready. The part I find funny is that I don't usually stay up much past the little guy. In fact, my husband and I have both been known to fall in asleep in his bed before he does during our night time snuggles. I don't think this option will do us much good!

Another one I find quite funny is the suggestion to take your child to the bathroom if they come to your bed in the middle of the night. Right, so I'm to have the wherewithal at 2:00 am to not only calm him from whatever 'bad guys' were haunting his dreams but to also take him to the toilet?! I can't even take him first thing in the morning when he wakes up (another brilliant suggestion)! There's a reason why the little guy was making his own breakfast - Mommy doesn't do mornings (or middle of the nights)!

Clearly my sweet breakfast-making-little-man is not ready for night-time potty training. Not only has he never stayed dry at night, it really doesn't seem to bother him. I suppose it shouldn't bother me. Should it?

How have you dealt with night-time potty training?