The Fine Art of Punishment

I swore that when I became a mother, I wouldn't become a yeller. I grew up in a family where all of the women were yellers. If a child misbehaved, the next step was to yell, to make them listen. I'm not implying that the women in my family were always screeching mothers, but there were a lot of us, and the children don't listen well. Fortunately, there were a lot of hugs and kisses to offset all of the yelling. Growing up as one of those children, I promised myself that I would observe restraint, and punish misbehaving children with patience and logic.

A few years later, I observed the opposite of my upbringing. I was in Brookline, sitting outside of a boutique toy store. The mother had a 3 to 4 year old with her who was clearly angry because she denied him some sort of toy. The child carried on and screamed and stomped. The mother would quietly walk over, crouch down and try to have a logical conversation with him. This simply resulted in him yelling more and him running another 25 feet away. Imagine this scenario repeated 6 times. For me, it was yet another example of how not to reprimand.

Here I am four years and two boys later and I have yet to find the sweet spot. I understand that yelling all of the time doesn't necessarily help. Additionally, I get tired of yelling. I also understand that logic doesn't work with a stomping 20 month old. I can now understand why mama cats swat their kittens, and why others eat their young. My boys have the ability to get me to the last ounce of patience.

Today has been a yelling day. I swear they had a conversation in their bedroom this morning on alternating getting into trouble. If one is behaving, the other is not. I walked upstairs to move a load of laundry, and came down to this.

I think I need another coffee.

Me Love You Long Time...

It's been a while. A long while that is. Frankly, I toyed with the idea of starting a Twitter feed on the ramblings of my now 3 1/2 year old, but decided that this would probably be a good way for me to keep a modern day diary. Either that, or it'll just be one more thing for me to neglect!

We live in the suburbs, in a rental. We have a whole 1300 square feet (approximately) to call ours, as well as a small patio/garden space. Our complex is large, and doesn't come without it's own set of problems, but overall it's not too bad. Problem lies with the fact that it's a rental. We cannot customize much, as each change we make means that we'll just have to pay more once we move out.  Additionally, having a 3 1/2 year old, and 19 month old means that we have a lot of C-R-A-P crap. Tons of it as a matter of fact.

Since I'm limited to the changes that we can make, I am often "re-organizing." I strive to live a simpler life. In researching this quest, I stumbled upon some inspiration...
ORG Junkie's 52 Week Challenge.

The idea behind this is to outline 52 areas of your home that need organization, and tackle one weekly. I have to admit, I do not have 52 on my list, rather, 33. I'm sure as I start tearing apart my house, I'll find new areas to tackle. I also found a message board that others were working on getting rid of 2012 items in 2012. I decided to pair the two together to see what happens...

O- 2 weeks

Quick update. O had his 2 week doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon. He is growing steadily. He is now 21 inches (he was 20 at birth) and is up to 9lbs 12oz. He's almost gained a full pound since birth (he was 8lbs 13oz). His head was large like his brother's; although I can't remember exactly how large it was in the 75th percentile.

Almost One Year Gone...

So apparently I shouldn't take on new hobbies. It took for my cousin to start a blog about her kids and life for me to remember I had one (http://lifeslittlerevelations.blogspot.com/). In looking back, the last time I posted was when our sweet little boy turned one. He is now almost two and a wild little man. We have also welcomed a new family member. O was born on September 4th, and N has been adjusting wonderfully. O is a sweet, peacefully baby, and N is in love with him. He checks on him several times a day and often talks about his "baby brudder."

Life with a toddler boy and a newborn has been fun. N had his first ER visit last night. He slid down a kid's slide at a friend's house and almost plowed into a 6 month old baby. C was there to grab him before he could hit the baby, but it also resulted in a strange "popping" sound. Suddenly N was screaming and wouldn't move his left arm. We decided it was best to take him to the ER to make sure nothing was broken. As soon as we walked into the ER, the woman at the reception desk said something about "Nursemaids Elbow." Once we were checked into the triage area, the woman in there also said the same thing. No x-ray done. He saw the doctor who quickly popped his elbow back into it's correct spot. Problem fixed. He's back to normal.

We're adjusting to our new found chaos. Everyday brings new challenges and new joy. How can it not with the two beautiful boys below!

We've made it a year

Our little boy turned 1 on Saturday. He was a perfect birthday boy, and his party was a great time! Lots of thanks to our friends and family for coming out for his birthday. N had a great time, and we did as well. Unfortunately, all of the pictures taken are on my mom's camera, so I'll have to wait to upload some photos when she visits next. Until then hugs and kisses from the whole crew.

You can have your cake...

So thanks to the joys of the Food Network and TLC, I was inspired to start playing with fondant. I did my first cake around Father's Day...a vanilla cake with nutella creme filling. I used a combination of nutella, cool whip, granulated sugar, and cream cheese. The cake turned out pretty good. I cheated on the actual cake, using boxed. The actual decoration of the cake was pretty bad, but it was my first attempt.

Last week I made cake #2. This too was a boxed vanilla cake, and I made a strawberry filling. The decoration came out a little better this time.

N- 9 months

One of the joys of N getting older is that his doctor's appointments are less frequent. When he was first born, it seemed like we were at the doctor every week. Since he hasn't had a doctor's appointment since he was 6 months old, I was looking forward to this visit to find out how much he has changed.

We arrived to the appointment at 11:30am exactly, as I had misplaced my keys just in time to leave for his appointment. His doctor's office is located in part of Newton-Wellesley Hospital (same hospital where he was born), and parking there is often very difficult. I have taken to scheduling appointments there around lunch time, as parking seems to be much easier. I rushed through the door just to be greeted with paperwork. Once I finished that, N and I checked out the tropical fish tank that the office has and waited to be called in. A few short minutes later his name was called and I brought him into one of the rooms, where N was very excited to see a giant tropical fish (made of metal, of course) hanging on the wall.

The nurse weighed him, measured him, and then left us waiting for the doctor. And waiting. And waiting. Now, his doctor is usually pretty timely, but for whatever reason, he was running behind yesterday. I will tell you that keeping a 9 month old occupied in a 5x7 room for a half hour is not easy....especially since I could not put him on the ground.

The doctor came in and ran through the usual questions and exams. He was very pleased with his development thus far. He was also impressed with the amount and variety of food that N eats. N weighed in at 19lbs 9oz which put him in the 35th percentile for his weight. He was 29 inches (75th percentile), and his head measured in the 97th percentile. Once again confirming our son's melon head. N took the examining well, as he tends to shy away from people he doesn't know right now. The nurse came back in, gave him his one shot, and we were on our way. I scheduled his next appointment, which will be his 1 year appointment.