"Brush teeth Mama?" - short and sweet

We were at my grandparent's house yesterday and the babies (Maceyn and Denton) were "watching TV" in their room. They came out and D brought me a toothbrush and a tube of something and said "Brush teeth Mama?", unfortunately, the tube was Desitin.

On a side note, Maceyn had the nasal side of a bottle of nasal spray in her mouth.

Good times!

That is all.

Active Ignoring, my new favorite phrase!

Yesterday I had a parenting revelation. Well, I don't really know what to call it. That is probably somewhat appropriate. For about 6 months now, my son has absolutely refused to do a couple of things. Some of these things are, drink anything other than juice, not have his pacifier in his mouth, and brush his teeth. I know good and well that a child should not drink juice 24 hours a day and that a 2 year old with round teeth should probably give up his paci. It's not rocket science or anything.

Getting him to give up either is just NOT EASY! He is a pretty strong willed child. He knows EXACTLY what he wants at all times and if he doesn't get it he throws a big, fat fit. I don't know when it happened, but at some point we just gave up. We decided it was easier to give in than to fight. (I am not completely irresponsible, I do mix the juice with mostly water).

Long story longer, we had the 2 year checkup yesterday and the doc says he is healthy but his teeth are grody (um duh), he has to drink water, and he needs to ditch the paci before his teeth form a circle. I say "Well, look Dr. B, this isn't really something we have been able to do". She then said something that may very well have changed the course of my life. She said "Have you heard of active ignoring?" Well to start, no I guess I haven't because I thought she was referring to the way in which my children actively ignore me non stop. (You all know what I mean!).

I came home and googled it and tried it and Oh. MY. GOSH! It worked. I mean like WORKED! D hasn't had juice in his cup in a day and the paci is GONE!!! Fits, what fits? We even had a very enjoyable lunch with the doctor that Clint is buying the clinic from.

If you aren't actively ignoring your children, you aren't livin'! The gist is this: when said child begins to throw a fit, tell them the way whatever is is, and then pretend they don't exist. Easy as pie. Last night we didn't want jammies on. I said "We are going to wear them." I put them on and he immediately ripped the shirt half off, I went to the bathroom and got ready for bed and, when I came back, he asked me for help putting the shirt on, calm as can be! This morning he wanted to play outside, I said we have to get dressed and brush teeth. He said NO! I told him in that case we wouldn't be going outside and turned around. He ran and got his shirt and toothbrush. I mean for real. This might be a miracle.

That is all.

I wish he could be 2 forever!

Okay, maybe not FOREVER, but why does this stage of childhood pass by so quickly?? Of course he is a naughty little beast 80% of the time but he is just cute enough to get away with it! It has been so long since I had a little one and I am loving this stage (most of the time). I know people call it the terrible two's, I agree. He is terrible sometimes, but mostly that is just because he is an emotional basket case. The best course of action is to anticipate the meltdown (which is pretty easy, a 2 year old can be somewhat predictable in that almost anything can make him freak out) or just wait out the storm. He can usually forget whatever he was so mad about in less than 30 seconds, but with in a minute at the most (this is either an every 2 year old thing or a trait he inherited directly from his father who has the same ability).

Whoever thought that a person who only speaks in two word sentences could be such an engaging conversationalist? We hang on his every word because he says the funniest things at the most random time. His sentences sound like they are coming from a robot and I just love it "Where... mommy......... go?" Priceless! Today he was pulling his Cookie Monster wagon around the house giving his cup a ride. He would place the cup on the wagon and say "Okay cup, he go" and then he'd start of and say "Come on cookie" in his sweet robot voice.

I look at him and can hardly imagine the day when he will be a gross hairy man. When his pudgy hands and butt will be covered in man hair and his giggles will become guffaws. Someday his hurts won't be cured by a hug and a kiss and all of that makes me a little sad. I don't know how many more kids I can convince my husband to have in an effort to always have one of these little comedians around! This morning he did one of those little sleep smiles they do when they are babies. It has been so long since he has done this, but it reminded me how much I loved that stage too! This gives me a great deal of hope that I will love the next one equally. They grow up so fast is not just a cliche unfortunately!

That is all.

Don't TEXT and DRIVE!!!!

There has been a lot of necessary hype these days about texting and driving. I am not completely innocent of EVER doing this, I will admit it. I have stopped doing it since my grandfather made me look into his eyes and promise him I wouldn't though.

I think we need to go a little farther though. I would like to propose we extend this rule to shopping carts. For the love of all that is holy on this Earth people, do not text while driving a shopping cart!!!! You swerve up and down the aisles like a drunkard and your sudden stops in the middle of an aisle are a hazard. Most importantly however, you have the tendency to RAM your cart into my cart and this I do not appreciate.

Today while shopping at HEB I had such a run in. I was coming out of an aisle and this lady slammed into my cart at full speed, completely oblivious to the fact that I was half way out of the aisle because she was so consumed by her iPhone (IPHONES!!!!! ARGH!!! One of my largest pet peeves, I could totally rabbit hole on my disdain for iPhones right now but I digress). The irony of the fact that my cart was in the shape of a car was not lost on me, but the fact that the collision slammed the cart into my big round belly and nearly threw my 2 year old out, kept me from finding the humor at that moment.

I righted my child in his seat and the lady was like "OMG OMG OMG I am so sorry, I was texting!!!" I am sure another person would have said something like "It's ok" but I said nothing. I just steered by cart around her as she apologized and walked on. My mother told me if I had nothing nice to say, not to say anything at all. I was making every effort not to call a 50 year old woman an idiot, so I gritted my teeth and moved on. I think it would be best for the world if I stay home until I give birth to this baby. I am not sure if not being pregnant would have helped the situation but I'm going to say it would have. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

So, save the children, don't text and drive... shopping carts.

That is all.

Cultural Awareness - Our experience with "modern" ballet

I am graduating this December (I know right!) so this semester I only have three classes, two of which are electives. After 10+ years of going to college, I am going to be honest, I didn't exactly chose electives that would stretch my genius. I just wanted the two easiest possible classes offered at my college (that I hadn't already taken). I ended up in Understanding Dance and Understanding Drama. They are pretty similar, no thinking required, a monkey could pass them, type classes (geez I hope I pass now that I have said that!). For each class I have to attend some live performance and write a freshman level critique.

So, this Saturday Reghanne and I ventured out to the Winspear Opera House in Dallas to take in a ballet. The company we went to see is called Aspen Santa Fe ballet blah blah something repertoire yada yada. Here is a little montage of some of their work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKV4iuWDZ5U&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL1BED6BB8B3CB78FB

(Although this is not what we saw).

As you can probably see from that little snippet, this is not your mama's ballet company. This is not classic. This is not point shoes and tights. I will be honest and say that I have been to a few ballets in my life but I still know next to NOTHING about it, particularly the "modern" kind (guess that is the word for it).

The first dance/movement/whatever was interesting and strange. Reghanne giggled a little, everyone laughed some, which was odd to me considering I always just assumed all ballet was serious stuff. At intermission, Reghanne asked me what it was about, I told her I had no clue, maybe flowers growing or something, maybe fairies. She went in to the second portion with high hopes that she would "get" what they were trying to say. Oh. My. She was quite wrong. This dance was much different than the first. In fact, the first 10 or so minutes were set to COMPLETE AND UTTER SILENCE! Nothing going on in the entire opera house but the uncomfortable coughing and sniffing of people not sure what they were looking at or how to react. The only thing to break the silence was the sound of the dancer's feet stomping and their hands smacking various parts of their bodies, including but not limited to their rear ends. This brings me to the other sound that could be heard.... Reghanne's uncontrollable laughter.

Although, in her defense, I don't think Clint would have behaved any better! :)

That is all.

The Reason Small Children are Adorable

There may be some debate about this, but I am certain that small children are exponentially cuter than large children and/or adults because they are so bad. Level of cuteness must be greater than badness to enable a child to survive their younger years. It is their only defense.

Examples of Denton's lifesaving maneuvers:

I am in the bathroom and hear a huge crash, my first reaction is that I am going to have to hang a kid by his toenails, then I hear the tiniest voice say "Awwww man" (Swiper the fox style) and instead of freaking out, I am laughing.

Denton is "sharing" my bowl of lasagna (on the couch no less) and dropping it all over the place. He tilts his head to the side and makes this very cute face and says "Mmm it good"

For the 100th time Denton is throwing himself off the bed in a game called "I fall". As he crashes to the ground he takes half the covers, a pillow, and various items on the nightstand down with him. He turns over with a big smile on his face and exclaims "I'm OKAY!"

7:00 AM after he was up until 11 last night and I was up in the middle of the night with a headache. D is ripping my covers off saying "I wanna play". He slides off the bed, hands me my glasses and water and walks to the bedroom door "Come on Mama!"

He better be glad he is cute. He better be glad his big, blue eyes melt my heart. He better be glad his smile lights up the room! He better be glad his cute little phrases calm me down! If he didn't have all that going for him, he would be a current Ebay Auction Item. I am certain you can sell babies on there, right?