How's This for a Welcome Back?

When you fall off your blog for so long...what becomes the topic that finally forces you to write a post again? Was it your son's 6th birthday? Nope. That came and went. Was it the greatest sickness that I have ever personally endured? Nope. I lived and it was far too boring to write about. Was it The Boy losing his first tooth? Nope. But the fairy took care of that so all was well. Was it all the amazing changes that are going on with my business? Nope. Far too busy working to write...

My daughter woke up this morning and told me that she didn't want me to put a diaper on her. She wanted to go sit on the potty. Ummm...okay, sure. So I went and put her little potty in the living room in front of her favorite show and she sat down and chilled for a little bit. She has done this countless times and never produced anything so I wasn't really thinking about it when she told me, "I did it! I pee-peed in the potty!" I went over expecting to find a few drops but she had fully peed. Now that has certainly never happened before!! We did all the hugging and the dancing and celebrating and may have even called a grandparent...and then she got the treat of her choice (a fruit roll up--at 10:00 in the morning. It sorta disgusted me, but whatever, this was her deal...) and sat down all proud of herself and ate it.

She had one accident after that when she put on pants and socks and shoes and went outside with brother. But after that she has spent the day inside in a long sleeved shirt and undies. And she went over the peed again. All on her own! Just came over, all casual like, and was like, "yeah Mommy...I went pee pee again. Let's flush it so I can have my treat!" And so we did.

So I thought it was a bit strange when not 20 minutes later she came into my bedroom and told us that she had done "dat yucky thing" in the potty. I was like, "what did you put in the potty?" Anyway, after some investigation it was discovered that she pooped in the potty! Holy crap! Just went out there and sat down and pooped. Like she's been doing it all her life. Crazy.

I should clarify that I in no way am under the impression that it is this easy and that my daughter is now potty trained. But this is a huge step for her. Huge. She turns three in a month... My big girl.

I Need Your Help

It's very rare that I put out a plea on the Internet for help with an issue with my kids, but I am at a loss. If any of you out there have any advice for me, I'd love to hear it. Here's the situation:

My daughter has decided that going to bed at night is for the weak. She's just not into it. At all. She's not in her crib anymore (since she was crawling out of it and hurting herself) and she goes to bed fine and lovely. We do our normal night time routine: we read a couple of books, brush our teeth, and head to bed. She gets some time to be in her room with a flashlight to play with toys or read in her bed, and then after I get The Boy in bed, I go back in, take the flashlight, sing her a song and say goodnight. And then she goes to sleep.

Or at least that is how it used to go. Now, we do all of the above steps, but once I leave her room she gets back up. She will mess around in her room for a few minutes, but then I hear her door open, and she "sneaks" down the hall, goes into her brother's room and tries to talk to him. This is somewhat tolerable when we are talking 8:30 and 9:00 at night. But when this is occurring at 11:45 and midnight...it is NOT okay. Her brother goes to sleep like he always has and then he gets woken up. If for some reason I am in the living room and don't hear her "escaping" then he has to come and tell me she woke him up and we start the process all over again. But of course then the poor boy has been woken up. Fortunately he can go pretty much right back to sleep, but with her...it never ends.

So here is what I have tried. I went out and bought those "baby-proof" door handles so that she can't open her door. That worked for about a week. I would not start the night with it on her door (because I want to give her the option of making good choices), but after the third time she got up, I would put the handle on her door. Each time I take her back to her room I tell her that it is time for bed and when she screams at me that she isn't tired, I explain she doesn't have to sleep, but she does have to stay in her room because the rest of the house wants to sleep. She would usually respond to that by kicking her door as hard as she could to get out because she couldn't open it. Until last night. Last night she figured out if she puts her little fingers into the holes of the door handle in a certain way she can pop it off. So that no longer works. Unfortunately that means I can no longer put one of those handles on the outside of her brother's door so that she doesn't wake him.

I have also tried to let her take her "game" (iPod Touch) to bed with her. I am not proud of this parenting decision because I don't want her to get into that habit. But if the issue is that she is honestly not tired, and she will stay in her bed watching a PBS show until she falls asleep I was willing to let it happen. Even that doesn't help. I tried that last night and her iPod lost the battery at around 11:30 (and she had already gotten up about 5 times prior to that) and she went postal and tried to terrorize the entire house. I then put her back in her bed with a flashlight and tell her that she can read a book. I let her pick out a few books but then she screams, "I don't WANT to read a book!!" and then proceeded to take each and every book out of her bookshelf and throw it at her door. That was fun.

The only thing that seems to "work" (and I put that in quotes because I don't think this is the long term solution), is to make sure she does NOT take a nap during the day. If that is the case, by bed time she is physically so tired that after about three or four of these fights she usually is so tired she falls asleep (of course it is usually in the middle of her floor or right behind her door; not in her bed). But then she makes my life a living hell between the hours of 3:00pm and 8:00pm because she is exhausted. She's two years old. I really don't think she is ready to get rid of her naps yet. Yesterday she actually came to me at about 3:30 and said, "I am going to go lay down in my bed Mommy," and she did. She walked to her bed, layed down and went straight to sleep. I let her sleep until 4:30 and then woke her up (also not fun because she still wants to sleep so she is a bear when I force her to wake her up before she is ready). So she only got one hour of napping yesterday. And I was in tears last night at midnight because I was out of solutions and so tired I wanted to die.

What she would like is to take a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day (like a normal 2 year old), and then be up until midnight. That is just not an option. I get up everyday with my kids no later than 6:30am so on most nights, I am in bed by 9:30 and asleep by 10:00pm. This new schedule is slowly sucking the life out of me. And I don't think I need to spell it out that when I am exhausted I am not the best parent that I could be.

I just don't know how to deal with this. Anyone have any advice? Have you ever had a similar situation with your kid? If so...how did you deal with it? What am I doing wrong? For the love of God...WHY WON'T MY KID SLEEP ANYMORE?!?!?! HELP!!

Happy Holidays

It's a holiday in our household today so I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season, and here are some of the pictures from the kids' holiday photo shoot... I may have already shown you some of these but if not, enjoy! Have a wonderful day everyone!

Apparently There Is A Limit to My Crankiness...

This past week has been ROUGH you guys. Trying to work AND take care of two kids simply doesn't work. It just plain doesn't. I can either work properly, or I can take good care of my kids...but I can't do both of those things at one time. So this week has been crazy and I am not proud to say that I haven't been the most patient parent in the world as of late. In fact for most of this week my children have literally been driving me out of my mind.

But then tonight I put The Girl to bed and then I put The Boy to bed in their respective rooms and went into my bathroom to take off my makeup. I hear my daughter open her door, walk out and pause a little bit in front of my room to see if I am looking at her (I am not, but can see her through my bathroom mirror) and then "sneak" into her brother's room. I have his monitor on so I turn it on and see her hop up on his bed, give him a hug and lay down on her tummy with her ankles in the air watching her brother do something with Spiderman. They whispered because they didn't think that I knew she was in there. They sat together for about 15 minutes before The Boy couldn't stand it (he's definitely my honest one) and he came out and told me that The Girl was in his room but could they please please please spend some more time together? He was teaching her how to not be afraid in the dark and he was going to go get her Kitty (her lovey) for her. I said sure and he ran off. A few minutes later I went in there and they were both laying together on his bed under the covers and asking if they could have a sleepover.

Let me reiterate...there has probably not been more than a handful of moments in the entire last week that I thought these two were cute. They have both been "on my list" all week long. And yet...even I couldn't resist the adorable brother/sister bonding that was going on. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and we don't have to be anywhere until 4:00pm. It's a perfect night for their first ever sleepover in our house (they have slept together in other places before, but never at home). So I blew up the aero bed, put the sheets on and they each made their own part of the bed. She chose her pillow pet, her kitties (2 of them), her blanket, her stuffed frog and a spiderman figure. He chose his pillow pet, his Lambie (like her kitty; a lovey), a flashlight, a blanket and three spiders. Oh, plus another Spiderman figure to battle his sister. I took a picture of the cuteness, turned off the lights, and slipped out to leave them. I will never know what they talk about or what they do in there tonight, and I shouldn't. This is just between the two of them.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Pray for Me

Today is the last day...for more than two loooong weeks, that either of my children have any sort of school or daycare. It's going to be a LOT of togetherness. I mean I do feel lucky and joyful to spend this wonderful time of year with my two children... But dear God. It's a really long freaking time. Let's have a couple of pictures of them during the season while I still like them... Happy Friday!

Bullets

The time just keeps going so quickly that I never have time to sit down and write a proper post anymore. So I'm going to catch us up quickly since I haven't written since Thanksgiving.

• My daughter is a huge pain in the ass. Seriously. I adore her more than life itself but DEAR GOD with the attitudes and the tantrums and the bossy behavior... It's a miracle some days that I have made it through the evenings with her.
• On the flip side of that...oh my God is she so freaking cute right now. She LOVES any and all things Christmas. She asks for the songs in the car and knows them by heart and sings them at the top of her lungs. We took her to see some lights last night and she kept running around going, "And anodder kissmas tree...and ANODDER...and wait! LOOK! There's frosty..." It was perhaps the sweetest genuine love of Christmas I have seen in the long time.
• The Boy has attitude as well. Seems like teenager attitude...like blatantly ignoring me when I ask him to do something. Taking his own sweet time to do that things he actually does. And generally thinking he's MUCH cooler than he actually is.
• But again...he's so sweet right now. Is reading at school and I volunteer in his class and read with all the kids so he is trying SO hard right now to master reading. He loves, loves, loves all things school and I will say (again) what an amazing school he goes to. He's still my little science boy and my little helper.
• Job thing is a bit crazy with the transitions to working with a partner coupled with normal end-of-year activities and my heart is palpitating a little trying to figure out how to fit it all in.
• One of my very wealthy clients let me go to his beach house over the weekend for a night. I will say it was like NOTHING I have ever seen before. Most beautiful house that perhaps I have ever set foot inside and I actually got to spend the night. Right on the private beach with the most amazing view you have ever seen. I went with the kids and The Girlfriend and it was awesome. While eating breakfast in the morning at the big, oak table in front of a burning fire we were watching the surfers and the waves break outside the window. And as we were watching a school of dolphins swam by. Swear to God. Even have pictures to prove it. It was a pretty surreal moment.

And we'll end on that because I have to run out to pick up The Girl from school, The Boy from his OT and then bring them home, throw them in the bath and get their dinner started before The Ex gets here to watch them. Because at 6:00 I am going out for drinks and sushi with my BFF. Will try and do a proper post soon! Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday!

Thankful

This is a good year. There is much to be thankful for. Of course, always on the top of my list are my two amazing children. They are a handful, and they challenge me on a daily basis, and they bring a light into my life that feels like the sunshine. I adore every moment. The ones that are hard, and the ones that Hall.mark looks upon and says, 'that's what cards are made of...' Because they both exist in my household. On a daily basis. Sometimes on an hourly basis.

I am thankful for my family. My mother is my rock and my best friend. My life would function at a much different place if it weren't for her. I could never ask for more. She brings so much to my life and to my kids' lives. If I can be half the mother she has been for me than I will have been a success. And add in the extended family of my stepdad, my grandmother, my brother and his wife...and I am a very lucky person. My entire family unit is surrounded by love. I don't take that for granted. And my children are growing up spending every holiday with their cousins and building amazing traditions and memories. That is priceless..

I am thankful that finally, after 5 years, I have opened myself up to the dating world and been lucky to find a woman that treats me like I am something special. And who seems to not only accept, but adore my crazy life with my two kids (who are around ALL the time) and want to be a part of it. I am very thankful for that. I am very thankful she is in my life.

My friends are the best ever. I have about 5 close friends that I talk to on a regular basis...you guys keep me grounded and provide the friendship that endures the test of time. Having a few, really close friends is a lucky thing. And I have several.

My work. First of all, I am thankful for the fact there there IS work to be had. In an economy like this, I am so thankful that my cup is running over where my workload is concerned. I am thankful that I have a new business partner and that the future is looking bright. I am thankful that my hours allow me to volunteer on a weekly basis in my son's kindergarten class, and that I am able to have both my children home with me on a daily basis by 5:00pm. My work allows for all of this.

Most of all I am thankful for where I am in life right now. Right this very minute. Sitting in a house that I own, typing on a computer that I love, listening to my kids play together in The Girls room, sipping a glass of wine waiting for The Girlfriend to arrive in about an hour when we can all get to bed early and enjoy a long day tomorrow of family and fun.

Here's wishing you and your families all a wonderful Thanksgiving.