From the Mouths of Babes

Posted in From the Mouths of Babes by teamtradermom

Tonight’s special feature to entertain Isabella while she brushed her teeth was “Mommy singing songs and doing voices.” Her requests included the “Hi ho” song from Snow White, the “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” song, the “Hot dog dance” and the Good Night song (which is really Good Night Sweetheart by The Spaniels).

After all those, she asked me to talk like Pluto, then Mickey, then Goofy. Let me tell you, I do some mean Disney character impressions. I have Pluto, Mickey and Goofy down cold. Donald on the other hand is more difficult. CJ can do Donald but not me. Of course she requested him next. I told her that I can’t do Donald and she said, “Yes you can mommy. Just try it.”

So I did and failed miserably. I laughed and said, “I know, that wasn’t even close.”

She walked over to me, patted me on the butt and said, “That’s ok. Keep trying Mommy. You can do it. That’s a good brave girl.”

My heart grew 10 sizes in that moment.

Later that night….

As I was getting Isabella ready for bed, the phone rang. She said, “We have to be quiet when people are on the phone.” I agreed and told her that was correct.

She went on to say, “Today Daddy was on the phone and I wasn’t quiet. He told me to be quiet and I cried. Then I did crazy things.”

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9Jan2012

Samson Stories: Thief

Posted in Samson by teamtradermom

Samson and I have a morning routine. Samson is big on routine. He’s a Labrador – OCD is in his blood.

Here’s one example – for meals we have Samson sit on a rug in front of the sink while we get his food ready (and by “ready” I mean dump 2 cups of chow in a bowl). We then put his dish down in the designated area and release him. If that rug is not there (if we’re washing it or Isabella is using it as a blanket) he refuses to sit down. He just stares at us incredulously like, “Are you kidding me? You want me to sit on the cold tile floor? Where is my rug? I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS TREATMENT!” Or, if someone is standing on it washing dishes, he looks at them like, “Dude, you’re on my rug and it’s mealtime. Step. Off.”

Our morning routine starts when I get back from the gym. I grab 2 dog treats (half of a milk bone along with something soft like Beggin’ Strips or Pupperonis) and bring them upstairs with me. I let Samson out of his kennel and he follows me in to the bathroom. I put the treats on the counter and then make him sit on the rug. He gets the milk bone after I get a kiss.

At this point, any of you non-dog people out there are going – ew, gross, this lady is weird. She makes her dog kiss her. Every morning. For a treat.

You better your sweet bippie I do! Dog lovers unite!

Samson hates it. Or pretends to. In fact some mornings he flat out refuses. So he pokes my face with his nose and we call it good.

I then jump in the shower and he lays down on the rug (again, if there is no rug there, he refuses to even come in the bathroom. He’s special). When I get out of the shower, I find him either like this:

(I’m always amazed at how he can get his large 90 lb. body to fit all curled up on one rug)

Or like this:

At which point I squee over how cute he is, snuggle his fuzzy face and then throw him another treat.

This is where the mystery begins.

One day a couple weeks ago, I couldn’t find the 2^nd treat on the counter. Turns out I had accidently thrown it in the trash. Don’t worry I dug it out. Hey, this dog will eat flies – he can eat a treat from the trash.

Then a few days later the treat was missing again. Only this time I couldn’t find it in the trash or anywhere else. I searched high and low, then gave up.

The next day it happened again.

At this point I thought I was losing my mind. How could I be misplacing all these treats? Was I going to find a whole arsenal of them in a drawer or something one of these days?

Then I figured it out. Just call me Nancy Drew.

Yesterday I put the treat on the counter, per usual, and hopped in the shower.

I noticed it was gone as soon as I stepped out of the shower 10 minutes later. That’s when I realized that all this time, Samson had been jumping up on the counter and helping himself while I was showering! The little sneak! Not sure why it took me so long to figure this out but I guess it’s because he never usually does this type of thing. We can leave chicken sitting on the kitchen counter and he won’t touch it. He’ll stare at it and drool a lot but he won’t touch it.

Until now. I think the new house has brought out the puppy in him because he’s doing all kinds of things we thought we had moved past – like taking Isabella’s toys, running like a mad dog around the dining room, and now, stealing food.

So our morning routine had to be modified. I still bring the treats up, but now I put them way on the back of the counter, behind all the lotions, soaps and olive oil. What? You don’t keep EVOO in your bathroom? Huh.

Tomorrow is Doggie Day Camp. Hopefully that’ll get some of the stink out of him!

3Jan2012

Parental Warning

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

Parents. Whatever you do. Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT under any circumstances give your baby a pacifier.

It may seem harmless at first. In fact it may seem like a life saver to stop that little new born from crying.

But trust me, one day, that seemingly small decision will come back to bite you in the ass.

And nearly kill you.

We’ve spent the last 3 days trying to break Isabella from her “oobie” habit and I think it’s breaking us instead.

First we tried taking her to a 12 Step meeting and having her admit she was powerless over the oobie. She didn’t really get it though so we had to go another route.

We did it gradually. The first step was to limit her oobie use when we moved in to our new house in September. We basically said she could only use her oobies for sleeping, so during naps or at night but not otherwise during the day. She resisted at first but eventually was super good about it. She’d even remind us that we forgot to put her oobie away if she brought it downstairs after a nap.

Then I started limiting her to only one oobie while sleeping (normally she would use 3 – one in her mouth and each hand).

That one was harder for her to buy in to.

5 days ago, while thinking of what New Year’s resolutions I wanted to make for 2012, I decided to take them away from her for good, starting January 1st. I told her about it too, to prepare her. Basically I warned her that in 2 days she would have to give all her oobies away to other little babies that needed them, like how we gave them some of her toys after Christmas. She seemed on board with the idea! No protests. We talked about it many times over those 2 days. Then, come Sunday morning, we packed them all in to a baggie and put them out in the donation pile (secretly I stashed them in a cupboard when she wasn’t looking, just in case. I guess I needed a safety net too!). Again, she was cool about it.

Until nap time. She wouldn’t lay down and sleep for anything. She wasn’t crying, she was jumping and singing and talking and running back and forth. Anything BUT lay down. I fought with her for over an hour. Finally I gave up. I knew we were going over to my sister’s house later and that she’d probably fall asleep in the car. She did.

Then nighttime came. More lolly-gagging. We pretty much ignored her and let her do her thing.

That’s when the crying started. And it kept going. And going.

We’d check on her every 20 minutes or so. At one point she looked at CJ and just pointed to her mouth like, “Um dude, did ya forget something?”

Finally, after an hour, I gave her on old broken oobie (one that had the top cut off). It was no good for sucking on but I figured she could hold it and get some comfort that way. My heart was breaking for her. I knew it was like we had taken away her best friend, one that she’d slept with every day for over 2 years. We had ripped her little heart out.

And my heart was broken too.

CJ couldn’t take it anymore and retreated to the basement, wearing headphones, and worked out on the elliptical. Finally after about an hour and 20 minutes of crying, she wore herself out and stopped.

Silence, sweet silence.

We were both afraid to move or make a peep though for fear of waking the beast!

And we dreaded the next night.

Monday morning when I got her out of bed, I told her what a good job she did sleeping without an oobie and how proud I was of her. She said, “I didn’t have an oobie in my mouth…it was very hard…I cried…mommy gave me a broken one…” She already knows the art of a good guilt trip. I dread the teenage years.

The same shenanigans happened come naptime on Monday. Goofing around and not wanting to sleep. Finally after about an hour she fell asleep. Last night, more crying and carrying on. I don’t know how long it lasted because I was super exhausted, pleaded for mercy and begged CJ to hold down the fort while I went to bed at 8:30pm. I think it lasted for a while though.

Then tonight, more crying. Only this time it stopped after 40 minutes. Progress? I sure as hell hope so. Some of it was that she didn’t nap at all today so I know she was exhausted. But I hope it’s progress too.

My nerves are fried. I feel like a PTSD victim. Every time I hear a cry or wail, my blood pressure shoots through the roof. It’s horrible. It was all I could do tonight not to curl up in our closet and hum gospel hymns to myself in hopes of a miracle.

I read somewhere that the transition could last anywhere from 1 night to a week. A week! Dear God, no. I don’t think I can take anymore. I’m liable to break at any moment!

So parents, let this be a lesson to you. No matter how cute they look with one. No matter how tempted you are. No matter what your parents say.

Do. Not. Give. Your. Baby. A. Pacifier.

This message has been brought to you by PDLPGP (Parents Don’t Let Parents Give Pacifiers).

Thank you.

28Dec2011

Hittin’ the Sauce

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

We are trying to be real with Isabella when it comes to body parts. We call everything by their proper name – even genitalia. One day she walked in on CJ changing his shirt and saw his nipples. She asked what they were and he told her, mentioning that she and mommy have nipples too.

Today when I was changing from work clothes to pajamas, and I took off my bra, she grabbed it and said, “I want to wear nipples.”

I explained to her that a bra was ~~a torture device~~ an item of clothing women wear to support their breasts and nipples. She didn’t get it.

Then she cried out, “Thomas wants to wear nipples too!” and promptly did this:

That’s Thomas wearing my new rainbow striped bra. She said she was decorating him with nipples like how we decorated the Christmas tree.

Mmm, k.

We left the room and went off to do other things. When I went back later to get something, and saw Thomas covered in a bra, my first thought was that he’d been sneaking some booze again. That or visiting the strip clubs. Guess we need to start teaching Isabella about a little thing called “rehab”.

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27Dec2011

Accomplished

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons, House and Home by teamtradermom

I love me a good to do list. This is for 2 reasons.

It outlines my tasks and helps clear my head
It feels so amazing to cross things off and see what you’re getting done

Yesterday was one of those days.

First of all, let me just say how nice it was to have the day AFTER Christmas off. That extra day really helped get things reset and back to normal before starting work again.

Boy did we take advantage! Originally we considered using the day to catch a movie or something but that would involve a baby-sitter (we feel Isabella is too young yet for movies, even the kids ones). Plus, that would take valuables hours away from the many tasks that have been piling up. Owning a house – and particularly having just moved – means no end to chores, fixes, repairs, remodels, etc. So we opted to stay home and get stuff done.

I didn’t actually write out a list, which is unusual for me, but I was checking one off in my head. Here’s everything I got done:

2 loads of laundry folded and put away
First floor vacuumed
Dishes washed and put away (by hand and dishwasher)
Pictures hung in the master bedroom
2 pictures hung in the living room
After Christmas shopping done at Lowe’s
Isabella’s kitchen set put together*
Christmas presents put away
Goodwill items donated*
Basement cleaned up and some organization started**

CJ got a whole bunch of other stuff done too, from his own list.

Boy did it feel good! I went to bed last night exhausted yet satisfied.

Switching gears a bit. I’m not going to write a whole Christmas re-cap post this year because frankly, I’m ready to move on. I love the holidays and we had an awesome weekend, but I’d rather leave it be and quietly go forth with my week. It’s one of those things that you build up for a whole month and then when it’s over, it’s time to just let it go and stop retelling it.

One thing I will share is that this year we got Isabella involved in culling through her toys. Before we even brought one gift from Grandma’s into the house or opened many of her Santa gifts, we had her sit with us in the play room and decide which toys she would keep, which ones would be put away for a while (i.e. take out of the rotation and bring back in 6 months from now when we needed something “new”) and which would be given away to “other kids and babies and ladies and guys” (as she says it).

I thought it would be hard for her to understand and that we’d have to grab toys out of her clutched little hands but it didn’t go that way at all. She was cool with giving some of them away. She even went with us to Goodwill yesterday and watched daddy take the bags of stuff in. She asked where daddy was taking her toys and I reminded her about other kids who needed them. She said, “And babies and ladies and guys.” Yes, them too.

With a herd of toys either gone or relegated to the basement, her playroom had much more room for her new toys, like the kitchen set. It looked so nice and neat and open last night I almost wept. I know it won’t last – especially with my tornado Father-in-law coming over today – but it sure looked good for a day!

Another project that was started today was the basement. That one wasn’t even on my to do list – it was a total accident. See, last week I started working out again. Some of my gear is still packed away, and we don’t have the TV set up in the basement yet, so I’ve been forced to do either the elliptical while reading a magazine or free weight moves (using fitness cards from magazines). Well I finished my magazine this morning before my time was up on the elliptical and I CANNOT use a machine without either reading material or TV to watch. So I had to find other cardio. I looked around the basement – which has basically been the dumping grounds for everything else in the house that we don’t know what to do with – and decided I might as well work on organizing it.

So I moved furniture (including the elliptical which before was tucked back in a dark corner and now is near another wall, under some light), went through boxes, picked up toys, and basically started figuring out where things should go and how to keep it somewhat tidy while still being in limbo.

I got so much done and was moving and using muscles the whole time. Not too exciting but I felt great about it! Plan to do that again tomorrow and every day thereafter until we have a gym membership (which could be sooner rather than later)!

I have a whole slew of other projects to get done but those will have to wait for another day and another post.

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