Category Archives: punishment

Penske Truck vs School Bus

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Saturday morning Steve was still sick as  a dog but H was feeling better and i didn’t want to sit in the house.   L was ok so I decided I would risk taking them to my sister’s house.  If her fever came back I would just take her home  and leave H with the Easter crew. I was tired, as many mothers get, but  today in particular was worse with all the sickness going around. SO needless  to say my patience level was low. We were cruising along when one of those big  yellow Penske trucks drove by. I think they are moving trucks or something.  Well anyway L said “look, school bus” and pointed at the truck to
which H replied “no, truck.” This went on and on for the length
of an entire song. Then it escalated to a screaming match and tears followed by
unbuckling of the seat belts and hitting and pulling at each other. I LOST IT!
I pulled over and of course screamed at them to never take their seat belts off
(side bar- this is an annoying discovery that they have figured out and we
spend many moments on the side of the road buckling back up). Anyway, I yelled “IT
IS yellow like a school bus but IT IS a truck! Now knock it off and don’t talk  again until we get to Aunt Kate’s!”  That should settle it.  The proper  color returned to my face and my pulse stopped rising as the car was the lovely  sound of nothing.  Too good to be true
you say?  Well you would be correct.  A few minutes later very quietly I hear
“it was a school bus”, “no a truck.”  I think I got gray hair that day.

Tip o’ the Day: ear plugs….

And I Thought I was Busy

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It was a great day today, busy but great. It all started with a solid nights rest…until 4:20 that is. But in my world that is a good night. Somewhere in that hour I feel the little hands and feet climb into bed and snuggle in. At 7:00 I hear their voices but that wasn’t what woke me up initially, it was the faint feeling that someone or someones were looking awfully close at my face and sure enough they were. They wanted “milky.” “No. It’s still sleep time.” Sidebar- this lady comes from a strong line of sleepers! The whining picks up so I turn on Backyardigans and tell them after this show I will get you milky. How dumb am I to think they will forget and watch, oh I don’t know, seven more shows! L taps my head and in a sing-song voice says “it’s ooooover, time for miiiiilky.” I had to giggle and get out of bed. S was working from home so I was able to sneak out to a Mommy’s group alone (this group is for the Mothers while daycare is provided for the kids for 2 hours)but not before I folded laundry and did the dishes! Mommy Group was so fun! It always makes for a great day after talking to other stay at home Moms BUT we had a new member. She is a very pregnant Mother of a 2 year old and twin 1 year olds! So when this little bundle is born she will have 4 under 2, at least for a few weeks. Now I feel so pitiful when I find myself exhausted! HA! Who cares? I will continue to complain and whine! We did have a busy day and it went a little something like this:
• Home from meeting fed kids
• Emptied dish washer
• Kept my cool when H went pee pee on the potty but got up and pooped in her pants
• Still kept my cool when I was wiping her leg and she tossed her underwear in the toilet
• Even still kept my cool when she turned around and did again….and then again
• Ironically it wasn’t until a pee-pee in the driveway 6 hours later that really ticked me off. The number 2 I’m working on but the pee has been a done deal so let’s focus child!
• We ran errandssssss
o Bank
o Office building to drop off “stuff”
o Humane Society to drop off donations
 Back into the Humane Society to look at an adorable dog at the girls urging
o Gas
o Recycle plastics
o Michaels for a labeler they didn’t have yet…stupid Eastern Shore
 Looked at Halloween stuff which scared the crap out of L
 Argued with H about why she couldn’t have a $20 basket for her baby
o Sam’s Club
o McDonald’s (should leave that out but seriously we were gone for 4 hours)
o Read a magazine and went through mail while they snoozed
• Whew! Put grocery’s away, new basket to hide toilet paper and undies in downstairs bath, and one for the chalk on the front porch.
• Cleaned the cooler, managed to salvage the 20 beers still in there.
• Walked to the pond to feed geese, none there so we fed the fish
• Watered plants and kids
• Tubbies-or some form of that! Walked out of the bathroom long enough to strip the girl’s beds since they have been sick and I hear “mommy? Can this go in the tub?” Oh God no! They pulled the bath mat into the tub and as I am walking in I lose it at the sight of H pouring a 16 oz. cup of water onto the floor! OUT! Tubby is OVER!
• Dressed them as the whining continued about why they couldn’t watch TV. Dumping water out of tub= no TV for the rest of the night. Oh well too bad so sad sucka.
• Snack
• Goofed off with Daddy
• Story from Daddy while Mommy frantically looks for family pictures for pre-school tomorrow. WHAT? I don’t keep these things lying around! It’s the digital age people; well my printer isn’t working correctly so I need someone to blame.
• Major tears from my L because she doesn’t want to go to school.
• Finally a shower!
• Throw a load of laundry in
• Write this article, try to organize my calendar and hope the load is done and ready for the dryer!
GOOD NIGHT!

Tip O’ the Day:  a clip board stacked with colored paper and washable crayons keep them so preoccupied on road trips

Grab a Beer

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At what price do you stop the hard core potty training? Let me elaborate. Is it worth using a diaper all day and night because both girls have diarrhea and can’t make it to the potty? Will all my hard work over the weeks be reversed because of this incident?

After a fantastic weekend at a family reunion we returned home with upset tummies. Was it the obnoxious amount of food we ate? You would think eating three apples would stop you up! Was it swimming in the mucky pond out back?? Was it the lack of sleep? Was it the bag of tootsie rolls left sitting on one of the tables that somehow made its way into L’s mouth??
After a night of no accidents we decided they could come off. Hmmm, mistake as we already had an incident. Sometimes we have to take a step back in order to take two steps forward….or is it the other way around? For this situation I’m sticking to my original thought.
In my short years as a Mother I thought I made it through the hurdles that would send me over the edge. First it was trying to get the girls to sleep through the night. Done and done. Then I thought it was going to be the annoying wasteful mess of teaching them to feed themselves. Done and almost done. Just when I thought I would sit back and relax a minute we get into potty training. UGGGG how frustrating! To top off this period of strain, the girls added defiance and whining to the mix. How is it that they can make it all the way to the bathroom and then actually have their little hands on the toilet, ON THE TOILET and just go right there on the floor? Why would H touch the stove after I just yelled at L for touching it? And then she has the nerve to cry when I yell at her?? WHAT? They look at me like I’m a monster. But honestly girls when I tell H not to do something and L turns around and does it what do you think is going to happen? Ohhh and that little pointer finger, I could just snap it off. Don’t touch it L, don’t touch it (as my voice is getting louder), and don’t touch it or you’re going to the corner. She is glaring at me out of the side of her little eyes and slowly I see her little pointer touch the computer ever so slightly. My eyes burning a hole through her and I stand up and she just takes off!
One day at a time and this shall pass. What other clichés can we think of? Oh I know. Grab a beer!

Different Treatment

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This is horrible to say but I treat my children differently from one another. Growing up I always thought my parents favored my sister or brother over me and that they were treated better and they were. What I ddin’t realize is that in certain situations I was treated different or better BUT they still loved us very much. I made the mistake of thinking they didn’t love me as much because they laughed at what H said or R got to stay up later. Well the fact is we are all different and need to be treated so. I noticed very early that my patience level with L’s crying and temper tantrums is much greater than with H’s. Why? L was an extremely colicky baby so I was used to holding her and listening to her cry for hours on end. H is always so happy and easy going that when she starts crying or whining I tell her she is fine. Now on the flip side H is a messy child and doesn’t help clean up like her sister. When L makes a mess of her lunch I reprimand her whereas H receives a “not bad” when she only gets yogurt in her hair, face an chair but the floor remains clean. L gets a job well done after picking up almost all her toys while H needs constant encouragement after picking up just one. I love them both so much and squeeze the life out of them equally because they are so stinkin’ cute but I do realize now that all parents have to make choices that help each of their children grow into better, stronger people. A stern look works on H but not L. The threat of a time out will send H crying while L challenges me with a look that could melt ice and the stamina to stand in the corner head towards wall and not budge until I get so annoyed I want to pull my hair out. It’s tough. It’s really tough and I hope I’m doing the right thing which at times I’m sure I’m not but I figure as long as the love I give them far outweighs the punishment we might just get to next year and the year after that.

Tip O’ the Day: put paint into squeeze bottles and let them go crazy.  It’s fun, keeps their attention for a long time and makes very creative designs.