Plea from a mom

Being a parent is hard.  I get that.  I love parenting my girls, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a stay at home mom right now.  And I accept that there are many annoying and downright undesirable things that come with being a parent.  Like wakeful nights, dirty diapers, and even having your child vomit directly into your cleavage. But some things just have me throwing up my hands and whimpering "why?"

Why must my beloved younger daughter routinely poop right before we are due to head out to pick up Maya from school?  It happens about 50% of the time, and when I say "right before" I don't mean within the half hour before leaving, but rather within minutes of leaving and often in the 2 minutes between  dressing her in coat and boots and picking her up to carry her out the door. This little biorhythm she has going seems to be independent of her wake-up time, morning meals or even whether or not she has already soiled a diaper that morning.  So far, we've managed to only be late picking up Maya once, but not for lack of trying on Chloe's part.

Why on earth does my 4 year old leave her socks lying around all over the place?  Maya loves to be barefoot, and I'm ok with that, but the socks end up in every corner of the house EXCEPT the laundry hamper, which inevitably means there are also none in her drawer, despite the fact that she has well over a dozen pairs.  This routinely results in a sock hunt to find socks she's stashed someplace that aren't too dirty to be worn again anytime we want to leave the house.  On the upside, all her socks are identical, so I don't have the added worry of trying to find a matching pair. On the downside, Chloe has recently learned how to take off her socks too.

Why must Maya have such selective hearing? It's become common for Jeff or I to ask her nicely to do something three or four times. Then we get frustrated and raise our voices, at which point Maya frowns and tell us "You have to tell me nicely, then I will do it!" Yeah, 'cause that strategy was clearly working so well for me!

And the biggest one that leaves me throwing up my hands in despair ... why do my children both become noisy and/or demanding the second that I pick up the phone?  It never fails!  A few days ago, my girlfriend sent me a message via MSN asking it was a good time to call.  All was quite, so I told her yes.  In the time it took for me to walk over to the phone on the wall and pick it up on the first ring, my older daughter started making loud demands for a snack, and my youngest burst into tears.

How about you?  What has you pleading for mercy at your house lately?  I'd love to read your comments and stories.

Let's Catch Up

So I probably should have gotten back to blogging a week ago, but I was so backlogged with things I wanted to blog about that there was a log jam in my brain and none of them squeezed out.  So today we're going to play catch-up.  Here, in no particular order, are some things that have been going on.

EYES.    My eyes aren't back to normal yet, but are good enough for everyday functioning.  I was really taken aback by how long it took them to get to feeling normal ... it was definitely 4 weeks until the light sensitivity subsided enough for driving to be ok, especially on sunny days. I have a check up later this week, but I already know the vision is quite good now, though still some trouble with eye strain when reading too much.

COUPONING.    I've used coupons on an occasional basis for years, but in early January a good friend and I decided to challenge ourselves to take it up more seriously and see what kind of savings could be had.  I had planned to blog my intention to start couponing, then follow up after the first month.  So much for that.  But about 5 weeks in, I estimate I've saved at about $100 by using coupons alone, and gotten some great deals by pairing coupons with sale prices.  I'll post more about this soon.

MAYA.    My girls are growing by leaps and bounds, and both have surprised me often in the past month with the stuff they can do, seemingly out of nowhere.  Maya is making all sorts of new connections to things around her and puzzling out things for herself and is growing increasingly independent.  Conversations with her are often fun and interesting. 

CHLOE.    Apart from walking very steadily and swiftly, Chloe is now into climbing up on things, and this week is taking delight in climbing up and sitting on chairs all over the house, looking immensely proud of herself.  She says several words now (her favourites are "Mama" and "uh oh"), and chatters away having long conversations ... if only we understood her language.  She's discovered she can reach things on counters and tables and that she can open cupboards and drawers and help herself to their contents ... so we're spending a lot of time chasing after her and putting things back where they belong.

VACATION.    We're heading to Florida soon for a family vacation.  My parents are joining us, and we're looking forward to having this time away together.  We won't be going to Disney, but we have some other fun things planned. 

FRIENDS.    A number of our friends have moved away from the area over the past few years, and at the same time we've been consumed by work and keeping up with our young kids, leaving not enough energy for socialising.  But we've both been feeling the lack of companionship beyond our families, so we've pledged to renew old friendships and forge some new ones this year.  We're feeling better already, and it's only February! 

HOUSEKEEPING.   Not good at it usually, have been worse at it the past month due to eye surgery.  The kitchen floor was so bad at one point that I'm surprised my children weren't glued to the floor.  (which might have been poetic justice, since they're the ones who made it so sticky, with all the food they spill/drop on purpose onto the floor!)

Phew!  My brain feels lighter again.  And just in time, as Chloe has started to cry and it's time for the school pick-up run.