Stylish Blogger Award !

I am so excited because last week, Chunky Mama from Chunk and the Game awarded me with the Stylish Blogger Award.

I accept this award on behalf of my children. Without them, I would not need an outlet to express myself in more than one syllable words.

I'd like to thank the Academy, err I mean Chunky Mama, for giving my blog a chance and becoming one of my first followers to whom I was not actually related. Her blog always makes my day and we may or may not have been separated at birth.

In order to accept this award, the rules state that I must share seven things about myself with my fabulous readers, so here they are:

1) I do not own a laptop. I think I really need one. Not having one is really cramping my blog style!

2) Sometimes I really miss my old office. It was my own personal space, and anyone coming in to bug me could see over the desk and typically did not need their diaper changed.

3) I spend a lot of time watching my girls sleep.  There is something so soothing and relaxing about watching their little faces drift in and out of dreams. It is not as big of a time commitment as you might think.  They don't like to sleep very much.

4) I really want to be a hockey mom. I also really want my girls to grow up with straight noses and all their teeth. Therein lies the rub.

5) I have a hard time going to bed before 11:30 pm. Usually it's more around midnight, at the earliest. I often wait for Sweet Hubby to get home from work because I actually like to spend more than 15 minutes a day with him.

6) Food is my only vice. (Well, maybe Diet Coke too, if you don't think that counts as food) I may even have some kind of weird eating disorder that makes me want to eat everything, all the time.  This has gotten much worse since I have been home full time.

7) I feel personally aggrieved by the new Weight Watchers Point Plus system.  I did so well on the program the last time I needed to lose weight, and this time, I just cannot get the hang of it. Please refer back to number 6.

Now for the really fun part, I get to pass this award along to blogs (I am going for five) that I have discovered recently, and my picks are:

Practical Parenting
Katie is a licensed clinical social worker who gives amazing advice on how to relate to your kids.  She gives me hope that I may someday get my act together and figure out what makes these girls tick!

Donkeys to College
A hysterically brilliant combination of humorous anecdotes, editorial commentary and current events.

Natasha's Blog
A brand new blog by a writer, who I happen to know got an awesome college education. She has a gorgeous outlook on life, and a family to match.

Party of Five
April has great things to share, and her blog is fun to follow. Besides, she quotes Dave Matthews Band on her title page. How cool is that?

Funambulism for Beginners
Another amazing new blog by a woman who is trying to balance it all and tell her story along the way. I can totally relate!

So that is it for this fantastic Sunday afternoon! Time for some QT with the kiddos and Sweet Hubby!

Three Tough Questions

How do you keep your emotions in check when your child's behavior is totally disappointing to you?

How do you teach your kids to act responsibly and understand consequences without making them feel like they are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders?

When they fall short, do you explain to your child that their behavior has upset you and explain why?

Dear Santa,

I know it's a little bit early this year, but I have just finished throwing a bunch of crap away organizing the play room, and I know exactly where I want to go with this year's list.  What, you say, don't I let the kiddos create their own wish list of wants and NEEDS to you every year? Well, first of all, Santa, it may surprise you to know, given the skills of your elfish North Pole co-inhabitants,  that the little beings in this house cannot read or write.  Therefore the task of list-editing falls directly on my already way too burdened shoulders.  Second of all, I am no fool, Santa.  I know exactly what I do and do not want to be forced to endure with mind-numbing repetition play with my children, so I tend to use the power of suggestion as I guide their choices.

But this year I think I am going to work in reverse. It is way to early to know what over-priced, poorly manufactured box of plastic and chipboard will be flying off the North Pole shelves come Christmastime, so I think I will just tell you want we DON'T want this year.

On the list of No Thank You's this year:

Any sort of choking size piece of paraphernalia for the Barbie Nightmare Tower. We especially don't need any more of the fantastic 5 piece dinner place settings. Barbie and the gang can make do with the 2 forks, 1 knife, 1 saucer and 2 plates that we can still find.

Riding toys.  We do not live on a 20 acre piece of property nor do we have 10 kids, which is what we would need to be able to use all of the bikes/scooters/ride-on toys that we have here already on a regular basis.

Stuffed animals.  I know that every single one of the Wonder Pets is freaking adorable and every kid should HAVE THEM ALL, but really, we have more fake fur here than a Paris runway. I already donated over 50 stuffed animals to charity last year (That was no easy task, by the way.  Apparently, most charities don't want the things either!)

Fake food.  Here again, we are well stocked. Now, REAL food? Absofutely!  Have you seen the price of groceries lately?  I am not too proud to beg, Santa. If you are worried about the perishable stuff, then a Giant gift card is fine too.

Retro-style toys.  These are popping up all over to bring back our fond childhood memories - Fisher Price Record Player, Spirograph, Lite Brite.  Unfortunately, the lame attempt to recreate these classics is turing out cheaply made copies that just aren't the same.

Did I mention the Barbie stuff?  Sweet Hubby just wanted me to be sure. He also wanted to stress that none of the two dozen Barbies that live here need any more hot pants, mini skirts or FMe boots.

So I hope this gives you a place to start, Santa.  Even with Christmas so far off (and many months left to lose the rest of the Barbie dinnerware), we are looking forward to a happy and healthy holiday, enjoying the company of family and friends. Maybe this year will be the one where we can really focus on the true meaning of the holiday and not worry so much about material goods.  I think now is as good a time as any to start!

Enjoy your vacation and see you at the mall in September!!

Sleep Issues

We have been waiting for a good long time for The Baby to sleep for more than 4-5 hours a night. As a newborn, she spoiled us with a couple of months of solid sleeping from the get-go, but then around four months, settled into a pattern of waking several times a night. Not unusual for a nursing baby and what is motherhood without a good daily dose of sleep deprivation, so we just came to accept it. But as she is closing in on 18 months, we (and by we, I mean me, the one who gets up to soothe said baby throughout the night) were starting to be ready for a full night of uninterrupted sleep.

It took Little Diva a good 16 months to start sleeping through the night so the timing seems about right. And low and behold, for the past few nights, The Baby has actually been sleeping for about 10 hours. Most likely she wakes ups, as all babies do, but she must be getting herself back to sleep. No crying required.

Sadly, this fabulous milestone has coincided with a sudden dramatic change to Little Diva's sleeping pattern. While she has always been prone to the occasional middle-of-the-night venture to our bed, she has just begun to regularly wake up and come into our bed around the same time EVERY night. And given her flair for the dramatic, she doesn't just quietly creep in. She flings herself into the bed, tosses and turns to get comfortable until she is finally able to wedge herself in perpendicularly between Sweet Hubby and me. As I've mentioned, I'm pretty laid back. I don't object to a child in my bed. I do, however, object to a jagged toenail jabbed into the small of my back all night.

I'm not sure of the cause for the recent night wakings. Scary dreams, room too hot or cold, the lack of the nightly cries of The Baby to which we had all become conditioned? Perhaps that's it! Perhaps little Diva is so finely attuned to the needs of her baby sister that she wakes herself in panic when she doesn't hear her cry at least once per night.

But I feel bad for the poor girl - clearly something is disturbing her. Perhaps one of my more psychologically-minded blog friends (hint hint) will address the topic of night wakings.

But in the meantime, I guess my nights of unrest and coffee-and-Diet Coke-fueled days are not over just yet.

Oh Brain, Sometimes I Miss You!

Most mommies will agree that our brains just don't seem to function like they used to.  With each subsequent child, this affliction, creatively called "Mommy Brain" just seems to get worse.  It seems to start in pregnancy, where we can laugh it off, and blame it on the hormones, and most people will cut us slack because of our "delicate condition".  But to our surprise and horror, our keen ability to remember things like giving the kids breakfast what we had for breakfast, never really comes back. And at this point, what used to be cute and funny, seems confused and irresponsible.

Now, we mommies are resigned to using all kinds of tricks and tools, to keep us operating with minimal damage to ourselves and our reputation. I have heard of some moms using a Sticky Note system. They just write everything down on a series of sticky notes and this keeps them organized throughout the day. I am not sure this system is for me.

First of all, most days, I can't even find the Sticky Notes. And when I do, the entire pad is usually covered with Little Diva's scribble-scrabble artistic creations. She also likes to stick them all over. So there is a good chance I could defeat my effort to appear slightly more put together, by leaving the house with a reminder to "brush my teeth" stuck to my a$$.

Other mommies will stick to a very strict daily schedule to keep them on task. I LOVE this idea. Unfortunately, I do not seem to possess the ability to schedule myself or my day with any regularity. I find this absolutely deplorable, considering that in my former "professional" life, time management was actually one of my most revered skills.  I used to accomplish 12-14 hours of work a day within a 9 hour timeframe so I could get out and get Little Diva picked up from the daycare on time. Now it seems like there are just too many conflicting needs between the two kids to do anything at the same time every day. More on my complete inability to create a routine for us another time.

A regular To Do list is also a popular choice for mommies who are trying to make sure that we don't forget things like buying stamps, and oh say, picking up the kiddos at school. I tend to employ this method myself. The only problem is that I sometimes forget what I want to write by the time I get over to the list on the kitchen counter. Then I spend the next 10 minutes trying to remember what I did not want to forget. Multiply this by 5-10 times a day, and it starts to seriously cut into my daily schedule. I am not exaggerating when I say that it has sometimes taken me upwards of half an hour to write my list of errands and by the time I am done, I don't have time left to go out and actually do them!

I often rely on the kindness of others to make sure that I remember what needs to get done. Like the nice lady at the dentist's office who calls to tell me when we have a check up scheduled. And sometimes, the generic robo-receptionist from the doctor's office who leaves a pre-recorded reminder for our appointments. The latter is only useful, though, when I remember to check the messages, so we have missed a few of those!

Also less sharp these days - my ability to remember names and faces. This is awesome when we run into pre-school moms, or friends from other activities. I recently enthusiastically greeted a fellow mom at Panera and asked her how her daughter like Kindergarten. She had no idea what I was talking about (her oldest is three) and then I realized that I had her confused with another mom at the ballet school. Oops!

I will proudly say that I still have an uncanny ability to remember where in the piles of dirty laundry you will find any particular article of clothing. For some reason, I have an almost photographic memory when it comes to finding dirty clothes. I think this is made possible by the large qualities of dirty laundry that we have at any given time, but I am proud nonetheless. I mean, not everyone can do that, right?!

So most days, I am just a train wreck. Fortunately, I can usually use my cute kids to divert attention away from my "hot mess"-ness.  And I take solace in the knowledge that I am not alone in the whole mommy brain thing.

To those mommies out there who do have their sticks together, you know I love you, and wish I were you.  If you have a chance to bottle up some of your "Cool Mama Mojo", please send some my way.  For the rest of us, just check your behind for a Post-It before you leave the house today, okay?