Gratitude

This morning my 3 year old asked my 1 year old what he was thankful for, and he said, "Mom". I don't think he knew what she was talking about at all. But, it still made my day! I am thankful that my children love me. What are you thankful for?

Tricks for WHINING and TANTRUMS?!?

I was so excited when it was my turn for tricks-of-the-trade, because I need some new ideas to curb the summer-time WHINING (with a few tantrums thrown in)! I think (and this is just my opinion) that a 4-year-old + summer-time exhaustion = a whiny, tantrum prone little thing. I love my kids, but year four has proven to be the toughest for me! I've tried a million and one things to curb the whining, and tried really hard to not lose my temper, but my momentum is coming to an end and my patience is also! So any tips/ideas you all might have would be vastly appreciated!



A few things I do that work (some of the time, I have to switch them up)

* sometimes (if she's not too tired) I ride out the tantrum and then clap and tell her how wonderful it was until she starts laughing. (Sometimes, this makes it worse)

* sometimes I just pick her up and put her on her bed with a book or something and tell her that she's in charge of being happy, and when she feels happy again she's welcome to come out with us.

* I know I should ignore ignore ignore, but any tips on how to actually accomplish that would be much appreciated, too!!

* I sing primary songs. But I don't know how long this will work, because my mom used to do it and it made me crazy! It works sometimes now to distract her, though.



These things work some of the time, but not always. Any other tips to throw in the mix would be wonderful! And also -- what age was the toughest for you? I always heard 2 or 3, but so far, four is pretty tricky! I feel bad that she's so emotional, and sometimes I think it's confusing to be that little but not quite a baby anymore, and I want to help her figure out why she's feeling that way. I don't know, but I'm up for all kinds of advice!!

Happy Summer, Moms!

Stuffy Noses

Okay, we're on night three (or is it four now... it's all blurring together) of our 7 year old daughter waking up and wailing that her nose is stuffed up.

It's driving us nuts! The child is definitely of the mindset 'if I'm not happy, ain't no one gonna be happy.'

We've tried getting her to blow her nose, but she insists that she can't. We've tried Mentholatum (sp?) but she swears it doesn't work. We've suggested propping herself up, she says she can't sleep that way (to which I want to say "Well you sure as **** aren't sleeping now are you!?"... I don't do well without my sleep).

We're at our wits end, she does this every time she gets a stuffy nose and I really wish I could just take one of those bulb syringes and suck it all out for her, just so we can get some sleep!

Oh, and when I say she wails, I'm talking gnashing of teeth stuff here. She's not quiet.

So does anyone have ANY suggestions!? Please?

Sharing the Good News...

I'm not sure there is anything more exciting than telling someone you love that you are pregnant. I've heard some really creative ways of telling grandparents and other family members the good news. I was lucky that I discovered I was pregnant with my second on Father's Day one year so that made for an even better celebration. I know a lot of people put "Big brother/sister" shirts on their older children to spread the word. I also heard a cute idea once where the soon-to-be mom let out the news during a prayer..."We're thankful we can have a baby..."

How have you told people you love when you are pregnant? What cute ideas have you seen done?

P.S I'm not pregnant.

Baby Names

We aren't finding out what this baby is, which is fun, but we can't seem to come up with any good boy names. This could be in part because there are roughly 30 grandsons on his side and the names are a bit thin on the ground.

I mean if you really think about it... that's 60 names you can't use. (His brothers get really touchy about it)

So I've been through the books, and gone to the websites and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Honestly I shouldn't since it's my fourth baby, but there it is.

So what are some of your favorite boy names?

The Moms' Club Diaries

So, sorry that I've been absent from this blog for a while, but we're in the middle of getting ready for a move back to the "promised land" as someone told me on Sunday. But, I just thought I'd tell you about a fun book for which I was lucky enough to be a contributor. One of my high school friends (Allyson) is a great writer and put this project together of moms' experiences with raising kids. My chapter is about the joys of having a toddler who is a little (okay a lot) too assertive. I've read a few of the other selections and they had some great insights into being a mom. You can find out more about this book at:

http://www.springcreekbooks.com/catalog/98927.html

What we are in for!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxT5NwQUtVM

This is the best description of what we are in for. My Mother-in-law sent in to me and I loved it!

On Being Mom

I know that this is kind of long, but I just read it and loved what she was saying. I know that somedays I'm wishing for my kids to be a little older - but I realize that this will come all too soon, so I'm really trying to be better at enjoying the short phase that we're in right now. I hope that you enjoy this too!

On Being Mom
by Anna Quindlen, Newsweek Columnist and Author

All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief.
I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults,two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read thesame books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me intheir opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make melaugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel andprivacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who,miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move foodfrom plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.
Everything in all the books I once poured over is finished for me now.Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on siblingrivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education,all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild ThingsAre, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if youflipped the pages dust would rise like memories. What those books taught me,finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and thewell-meaning relations --what they taught me, was that they couldn'treally teach me very much at all.
Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, thenbecomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that itis an endless essay. No one knows anything.
One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can bemanaged only with a stern voice and a timeout.
One child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2.
When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed onhis belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time mylast arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of researchon sudden infant death syndrome.
To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and thensoothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually theresearch will follow. I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr.Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describesthree different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I waslooking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old who did not walk.Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there somethingwrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed,physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China. Next year hegoes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.
Every part of raising children is humbling, too.Believe me, mistakes were made.They have all been enshrined in the "Remember-When-Mom-Did " Hall ofFame.The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language, mine, not theirs.The times the baby fell off the bed.The times I arrived late for preschool pickup.The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp.The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98on her geography test, and I responded, "What did you get wrong?". (She insisted I includethat.)The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker andthen drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.)I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons.What was I thinking?
But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make whiledoing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularlyclear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is onepicture of the three of them, sitting in the grass on a quilt inthe shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish Icould remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how theysounded, and how they looked when they slept that night.
I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing:dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little moreand the getting it done a little less.
Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me andwhat was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thoughtsomeday they would become who they were because of what I'd done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top.
And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity. That's what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts.
It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.

Women who know...

I'm sure as mothers we were all struck by Sister Beck's talk in this mornings General Conference (If you are unfamiliar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints click here) She shared ways that we as mothers can strengthen our homes and families in a way that didn't make me feel guilty for all of my shortcomings but rather motivated me to be the best mom starting now. Here are some of the principles that I pulled out of her talk...feel free to add more or comment!

Mothers who know:

Know who we are
Who God is and have made covenants with him
Desire to bear children (hmmm, maybe I'll be a little less whiny in my next pregnancy!)
Honor Sacred Ordinances and Covenants
Are Nurturers (and good homemakers!)
Are Leaders
Are always Teachers
Do less (I especially loved this principle of allowing less media in the home and less distractions that take children out of the home and away from the family)
Live on Less and Consume Less
Choose Carefully and try not to do it all

You know you're a stay at home mom if...

-On the days where you don't have anywhere to go you tend to stay in your pajamas until at least 2:00

-Substances like pee, poop, spit up, throw up, snot, and spit no longer seem so terribly disgusting because you're usually covered in one of them.

-You can carry a diaper bag, a purse, a handful of mail, a couple bags of groceries, and at least 2 kids from the car to the house.

-You and your friends are used to having choppy conversations that are constantly being interrupted mid sentence to help a child, catch a child, or yell to a child.

-You have the morning cartoon schedule memorized... and so does your child

-You know how to cut a peanut butter sandwich into triangles, rectangles, or hexagons!!!

-Only you can translate what your 18-24 month old is saying

-You've become an expert at peeling the skin off of apples, peaches, pears, and grapes!

-Baby drool is pretty much the same thing as water right?

-You get to see firsthand all your child's milestones (first smile, step, words, days of school, etc...) and you're the first person they run to when they are hurt or upset.

Being a stay at home mom is definitely a full time job, but it's the most rewarding one out there.