Road Trip

I used to love Sunday drives, heading out on a beautiful sunny day and just enjoying the quiet scenery, but with young children quiet doesn't exist anymore and road trip has taken on a whole new meaning.

My husband announces that he would like to go look at a used snow mobile he has found on kijiji and it would be a nice family drive, would I like to go?  My first instinct....'ROADTRIP!"....my second reality check 'ugh, roadtrip?"

You see my husband is thinking it's only an hour and half away and its a nice day.  I'm thinking that is a total of three hours the kids would be sitting in the car and they get very antsy when they've been sitting too long.  I envision lots of 'are we there yet', 'how much longer', 'she's touching me' and 'ouch, she pulled my hair' among other calls from the backseat.  But, I don't really want him to make this purchase so I figure I might get the chance to be a voice of reason if he has a moment of hesitation.

Preparations begin....

I start with the easiest my 7 year old, send her upstairs to get dressed, brush her teeth and hair and have a pee. (haha one down, two to go) I ask my 3 year old to come upstairs with me so we can get her dressed.  We go upstairs together to pick out an outfit.  There are no arguments today on what to wear so getting her clothes on works out very well.  Into the bathroom we go, I ask again/remind my 7 year old to get ready, as I get my 3 year old's toothbrush ready and brush her hair while she brushes her teeth.  (haha two down, baby to go) I pick up the baby, remind my 7 year old that she will need socks and a sweater over her t-shirt since it is no longer summer, take the baby into her room, diaper change and dresses.  Lots of complaints and wiggles from baby but we get the job done.  Check the diaper bag, calculate how long we might be gone and how many diapers I could need.  Into the kitchen, pass my 7 year old and remind her to get her hair and teeth brushed, pack a small snack and drink for baby.  I look for travel drink containers for the older girls but I don't see anything clean, oh well we can buy something on the road if they need it.  I do grab a snack/treat for the girls since they have already asked.  Get myself dresses and ready very quickly, double check that my 7 year old is ready (can you tell she's a bit of a dawdler) We are all ready to go, now for the outdoor gear.  Get the baby's stuff on, help my 3 year old with her coat, she does her boots herself and my 7 year old is ready by herself with no reminding required.

Oh, where's my husband while all this is going on you might ask, standing around somewhere twiddling his thumbs waiting for us, I'm sure.  Why? you might ask.  Well, unfortunately (love him to death but..) he has no clue, I find if he does help with one child he always forgets something important and I don't notice until it's too late (and we're talking coats and hats), once in the summer we got to the grocery store and my 3 year old was without shoes.  So it's easier if I get everything ready that way I know we have everything and if not it's my fault.

The Trip....

The trip in a whole was pretty uneventful.  Yes, we had our backseat arguments and the girls had to be told on several occasions to keep their hands to themselves, but all and all pretty good.  You know how I mentioned that we could buy drinks for the girls on the road if needed.  Why is it you can never find a stinking corner store, drink machine when you are looking for one?  And of course we were even stuck waiting for the ferry at one point so that was even longer the girls had to wait in order to find a store.  But my husband bought ice cream as well and that appeased them enough we didn't hear another word about being hungry or thirsty.  And there was of course the bathroom break, this is were I regret having all girls, my husband gets off pretty easy with this one (and to think I only have two out of diapers).  We get to a public washroom, get the girls out of the vehicle and my husband says "I have to go when you get back" (I hope he can hold it??)

Boohoo, my husband didn't even have a millisecond of hesitation on his purchase, Hopefully he won't mind me moving it under the tree for him at Christmas.

Pretty as a Princess

I'm so excited this time of year when it comes to dressing my girls in their holiday dresses.  Luckily they all still love being dressed up and wearing pretty dresses.  I usually don't buy clothes for my 7 year old without her with me since she has started developing her own tastes in clothes and I don't always get them right.  But when I was out shopping the other day with my other two girls, while she was still in school, I saw this dress on display and it just sang out to me 'you daughter will love me'.  I decided to try and find the other two girls dresses at the same time in hopes of coordinating.  My 3 year old found a dress she liked and it looked good with the one I already had.  Good thing too, because it wouldn't have been easy to change her mind, it was purple.  Over to the baby section and got my 10 month old a dress as well.  One thing about shopping for them this early is that there are lots to choose from, usually I'm scrambling at the last minute (along with everything in my life).

My 7 year old gets home from school,

"Come see what I bought for you today" I say to her as I head down to the bedroom.

I hold up the dress for her to see, her eyes bulge out of her head in delight and a smile slowly spreads across her face,

"for my party!" she squeals with excitement, grinning from ear to ear.

(uh-oh) She is, of course, referring to her birthday party which we have been planning for and is fast approaching in a couple of weeks.

"um, no" I respond, as I watch her smile slowly fade. "It's for Christmas time."

After thinking about it for a bit (I do have their photography session booked for before her party).

"I say, if you promise to be very, very careful and not get anything on the dress you can wear it for your party." I say to her.

"oh thank you mommy," she hugs me and skips out of the room.

Cross my fingers that her sister doesn't decide she wants to wear hers as well.

Do you think the shower curtain I wrap around her when she is eating her chocolate cake will affect the pictures? ;)

Let the Fun Begin....

So my 10 month old is now able to get herself around crawling very well and really enjoys exploring the different rooms in the house.  She can now pull herself up to stand and rather prefers being upright, so will climb on anything and everything she can.  It is getting really hard to get back into the watch them constantly, don't turn your back for a moment mode again.  I would like to say that she is getting quite mischievous, but since she is still a baby I can't really say that, she doesn't know what she is doing, or does she?  When I say her name, or tell her no, she looks at me with those brilliant blue eyes, gives me the biggest smile, shakes her head, I swear she is thinking, 'hehehe, Watch this mommy.  See what I can do."

Yesterday I really got the message about how much fun we are going to be having together....

First off she showed me how much fun the bathroom can be.  There is a big bowl of water to splash around in (thank goodness the toilet was flushed!).  There is this wonderful white ribbon that spins around, you can wrap yourself up in it, it tears very easily into tiny bits and you can even eat it but it doesn't taste very good.

Second she was kind enough to help me with the laundry, although she seems to do the job in reverse.  She seems to think that the folded laundry which I foolishly left on the couch looks much better on the floor in a pile.  While I was putting clothes away in my closet and she pulled all my sweaters down off the shelf, even crawled up in to get the job done right (how kind of her).  She had such a blast playing in my soft cozy sweaters that she decided to do the same in her sisters closet when it was time to put their clothes away.  I even tried giving her a basket of unfolded laundry to play with, but no she decided to check out those books on the book shelf (at least they were on the book shelf).

Next when we were playing downstairs she selected approximately 20 movies that she would like to watch and pulled them out of the media drawer, but she was kind enough to place them in one pile.

Yes my littlest princess is starting to get into all sorts of mischief and having a blast doing it.

...its a phase it will pass..this is a phase it will pass....deep breath in...and relax...

A Spoonful of Sugar

Had a bit of a fight with my 3 year old tonight over medicine.  She had one of her I'm over tired won't listen to reason tantrums that she has now and again.  It was bed time and I had just tucked her in for the night and since she has had a cough from her cold hanging around we have been giving her some herbal cough&cold medicine to help her with her cough at night.  But tonight was different...

"Mommy, Can I have some medicine?" she says as she tries her best to cough.

"No honey, you don't need it anymore" I respond.

"But I want medicine, pllllleeeease can I have some medicine?" she begs me.

"No, we don't take medicine unless we need it." I try and explain.

Yep, you read right, my 3 year old is pleading with me for medicine.  Not only is she pleading but she is now in her bed crying and screeching about how unfair I am for not giving her medicine (I'm not going to her birfday party!).  How did I get so lucky you ask, I have no freaking idea???

I hate taking medicine.  My mother had to hold me down and fight to get me to take any medicine growing up.  She still talks about the grief I gave her over it and I still cannot take medicine without gagging and plugging my nose. My father's worst threat he could scare me with was "I'll make you drink the white medicine".  I still have the image of that huge white bottle on the top shelf of the linen closet.

Because of my childhood trauma involving medicine, my 6 year old has actually benefited, for whenever she has to take any medicine I allow her to chase it down with a spoonful of ice cream (thank you Mary Poppins).  Now when she is coughing she also asks me for medicine, but again I discourage it when it's not really needed.

So as a result I have no walls, sheets and shirts covered in red goo as I fight to stuff a syringe into a child's mouth as they spit and thrash about.  No I just have an discussion (er, okay,argument, I do have girls) about how we don't take medicine unless our bodies really need it.

...my mother shakes her head with jealous awe.....hehehe

That's My Job!

You'll have to forgive this post but I need to blow off a little steam.  There are some things that I find very irritating and one happened to me yesterday.  I need to vent a little, and what better way than a blog.  

Don't try and parent my child when I am there.  When I send my child to your house and I am not around, of course I expect my child to act accordingly, respect your rules and listen to you.  But when I am around if you have a problem with what my child is doing then you come to me with the request, you don't snap or yell at my child.  Maybe your having a bad day, I don't care, respect my child and don't take your issues out on them.  If you see my child about to do something that is going to hurt them self or someone else then of course speak up, if there is no time for my inclusion.  But if she is doing something that you feel is inappropriate behavior then bring it to my attention and I will deal with it how I see fit.  I'm sorry, but if you think it appropriate to berate my child in front of me then you have another thing coming.  Not only is rude to me but it demeans my authority and insults my parenting skills.  Let me be the judge of whether or not the behavior is worth snatching back something, that she clearly is only trying to help with, and snapping at her like a cruel witch.  Maybe you need to step back and think about a situation before you jump to the wrong conclusion.  Your just lucky that I respect you as a person enough to hold my tongue and not lash out at you for acting so foolishly.  If we are both in the same room and I see your child doing something I would never take it upon myself to correct his behavior, because I know that's your job.  

I know that it's your child's special day, but please let my girls share in the fun, they only want to help!

Confessions of a Shopaholic

I am not a shopper.  I'd like to think it stems from the fact that I am careful with my money (yeah, ok I'm cheap!).  I also find it exhausting to walk around from store to store looking for 'a steal'.  Throw trying clothes on, forget it, what's your return policy, I'll do this at home when I have the time.  Now that I have three munckins I find shopping even more exhausting.  But it's got to be done, right?

So today I venture out into the world of shopping with my three girls.  I had to exchange a pair of pants I had purchased for my 3 year old that ended up being way too big.  So I needed her there to try on the next size down since I did not want to return to exchange the same darn pants again. I also wanted to find a fall (and maybe winter) hat for my 6 year old.  I mean we have lots of hats, but apparently they cannot have any poof on the top.  I figure there is no sense in my forcing her to wear something to school that she doesn't like, cause we know the second she steps on that bus it's going to disappear into her bag. 

As soon as we enter the store my 6 year old dives for the first thing she sees that she likes.

"Can I have it?" she asks.

"No" I say simply.

"awwwwwww" she whines.

(and so it begins)

I take the girls into the change room (luckily it's a children's store, so we all fit) but my 6 year old, who is becoming more and more independent, ducks out again.

"I'm going to wait out here." she declares. 

"Why don't you go and find the hats and see if you can find one you like." I say to her.

"Okay!" she response with utter delight.

We finish up in the change room, with success, and go in search of my 6 year old.  Not a big store so she was easy to find.  Of course the fact that as soon as she spotted me she was bouncing up and down with three hats in her hand....

"Mommy! Mommy! I like this one and this one, and can I see that one." She squeals excitedly.

She tries on one of the hats and I ask her to go look in a mirror to see if she likes it.  Since there didn't seem to be any mirrors around us I directed her to the change room to look in the mirror there.  I though I asked her to do something simple, but apparently I gave her permission to do something as exciting as 'eat this whole big bowl of smarties as fast as you can'.  There began a slew of her sister and her running back and forth from me and the change room trying on different hats.  Laughter and giggles filled the store, other parents may have found it annoying, but I didn't care my girls were having a blast.  My 6 year old eyes were as big as saucers, she was grinning from ear to ear when she finally chose two hats.  I think I have myself a future shopaholic.

"Mommy, I think I need gloves too."

All I Want for my Birthday is.....

Ah, the wish list has come to me, I asked my soon to be 7 year old to make out a list for her birthday and Christmas wishes.  I've given translation for those who don't read grade 2 writing, but if you say it phonetically you can usually understand what they are saying.

Wish List for Birthday

zoo zoo pets,

zoo zoo pet climre (climber),

zoo zoo pet clowse (clothes),

clowse for me,

costchooms (costumes),

and most importintly (importantly) munny munny (money)!

So apparently she really wants some of these zoo zoo pets, some kind of interactive fad toy hamsters they have on the market right now.  She loves her clothes and costumes comes from the fact that we are in the midst of hallowe'en.  The last thing on the list made me chuckle to myself since my daughter has no strong concept of money yet nor how much things really cost, so I wonder what she is planning on buying?

All in all a pretty reasonable list, I think.  No big ticket items or unreasonable demands.  She has always been more of the heat of the moment kind of girl.  Wants something but the thought quickly fades as time passes.  Hasn't really held onto an idea for very long, except for her Nintendo DS and she got that last year for Christmas.

Bye-bye Summer

Fall is probably my favorite season.  The trees are beautiful.  The days are cooler but still bright and sunny (usually).  About the only thing I don't like about this time of year, when the days get a little cooler, but they look warm and inviting, is that I am constantly saying...

"You can't wear that it's not summer anymore."

"No, it's too cold today to wear that."

"You need to wear socks and shoes and don't forget your sweater."

"Didn't I have that top put up and away already?"

Ugh, my girls love their summer clothes.  Sometimes I feel like I'm wrestling my 6 year old's tank tops and summer dresses from her hands (sometimes I physically am).  Reminds me of those women who race around those big wedding dress discount sales and attack each other to get the one they want.  I try and put the clothes away, tuck them in the back of the closet or place them on the high shelf in the closet.  But my sneaky fashion diva manages to find them and will sweetly imply that she found it in her drawer.  I've bought them a few new outfits for fall, which they love but certainly not the first thing they look for ("Mommy, where's my purple dress?"). 

But I agree, no outfit is more exciting for a young girl than that frilly summer dress that twirls just right.

Ah, the Birthday Party

My oldest girl will be turning 7 in about 6 weeks.  Time to start planning her birthday party.  I've told her it's not going to be a big party this year, she had her big hoopla last year.  I gave her the option of taking a couple of girlfriends to a movie or having a small gathering in our basement, she chose the basement (darn that means more work for me).

I thought this year since she's 7 then maybe she could help me with the party ideas.  I suggested a theme and asked her for ideas on activities, loot bags and such.  WOW! that girl has some imagination and ideas galore, I had to bring her down to reality a few times and steer her more into a reasonable direction.  I'm sure the party will be even more exciting for her since she has been involved in the planning details, although I couldn't imagine her more excited.

Today I was dabbling with my computer and created an invitation for her, can't wait to show her tomorrow and see if she likes it.  She wants a pinata this year so I've started looking for design ideas and will have to get started on that this week so it has time to dry.  The nice thing about the timing of her party is that it's after Hallowe'en so I can easily get small candy to fill a pinata.  I've decided to create a cupcake cake instead of an actual cake it makes it so much easier to serve and what kid doesn't love cupcakes (well, the icing at least).  We'll do snacks since I find most kids are too excited to eat anything so when you try and serve them a meal a lot of food goes to waste.  I think my biggest pitfall with every birthday has been the activities, how to keep a bunch of excited children organized.  I try to have a craft, which works but then some kids are done before others and they start running amok, while others are still busy crafting.  Or you plan on an activity lasting a certain length of time only to have it flop and then your left with a hole of time, and once again the kids are off ...amok, amok, amok, but they don't mind (it's my ears that are ready to explode).  Lots to do and tons of ideas running through my head, luckily I've given myself lots of time to get organized (I hope).

..Just think by the time my baby is turning 7 I'll be able to plan a birthday party blindfolded, hands tied behind my back, and with 2 days notice. ;)

Sniffling, Sneezing, Coughing, Mommy's heart is aching....

My kids are sick.  So far it's only two of them, hopefully my eldest will be lucky and not get this cold.  It started with me and soon my 3 year old and baby followed.  I find dealing with sickness one of the hardest mommy jobs.  Aren't mommies suppose to be able to take a child's ailments away with her magic kisses. 

When I hear my 3 year old cough that raspy, painful, dry hacking cough I just want to scoop her into my arms and take it away. She's asleep though, as awful and painful as her cough sounds she at least sleeps through it.  I've given her an herbal cough and cold tonic, since it's not recommended to give young children cold medication anymore.  It helps a little, I'm sure it soothes her throat but it doesn't take the cough away completely.  I also try to get her a drink of cold water but she is so sleepy she only takes a little bit.  So, although I get woken up frequently in the night due to her cough she seems to get a good sleep.

My baby did not fair as well, she was up more frequently.  She not only has the nasty cough but also a stuffy nose and runny yucky eyes.  Basically there is goo coming out of her everywhere.  She uses a soother to fall asleep, which is hard to do when you can't breath out of your nose.  I've pretty much nursed her every time she woken up because I find it helps drain her sinus and lets her breath a little easier (if only for a short time).  We do have a vaporizer but I hate using it since it makes a mess, soaking everything in the room.  I've played with the idea of getting a cold mist humidifier but have always put it off wondering, 'will it really make that much of a difference?'.   But two days ago, when my baby woke up from her nap coughing and sneezing, I decided that I was going to get one that day.  That night she slept so much better and didn't cough nearly as much (had one of those, why didn't I do this sooner moments).  

Last night both girls were about the same.  My 3 year old was a little better, coughing slightly while sleeping.  My baby still stuffy and coughing but still able to sleep better.  That is once I figured out one of her sisters had been playing with the dial on the new humidifier and had it turned right down. So, I'm thinking maybe I'll be able to get a better sleep? .....

My 6 year old wakes me up at 3 am, "Mommy, I had a nightmare."

Sigh, a better sleep will have to wait for yet another night.

Snack Attack

My 3 year old loves to snack, when it comes to snacks she is never full (if only dinner was the same).  I really have to try and limit her snacking to twice a day. Although she does seem to eat for a good part of the morning, but sometimes she hardly touches her breakfast so I give her one thing at a time and if she's still hungry we'll add something else, and then another thing until I finally have to say "okay, that's enough sweetie".  The one good thing is that she is great about eating healthy snacks.  If you put a bowl of strawberries and a bowl of pudding in front of her she would gobble up the strawberries in a heartbeat.  Of course when she was finished she would ask, "Now can I have the pudding?"

She takes an absolute fit when I tell her she cannot have a snack.  One day I was in the middle of preparing lunch when she asked for a snack,

"No hun, I'm making lunch right now." I reply.

She pouted and said with a whine, "I don't want any lunch, I want a snack." (huh?)

All day I hear...

"but I'm hungry"

"Can I have a snack, plllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaasssssseee!"

If I tell her no she cannot have a snack usually 2 minutes later she is asking for gum (word of warning; do not get one of those cute little novelty gum ball machines, it's not worth the drama.)  I've threatened on many occasions to throw the gum away if she doesn't stop asking me every 2 minutes. (maybe it was worth it...leverage!...wahaha)

So yesterday she has been asking for a snack over and over again.  It's 11:00 am and she has already had a bowl of cereal, a banana, a piece of toast (which she didn't finish), and a yogurt tube.  I mean the girl is not wasting away, but she is having a absolute fit.  So I start on lunch and decide it won't hurt to eat a little early.  

"Do you want an apple with your noodles today?" I ask

"Yes, can I have an apple and an orange?" she replies

"Okay." I can do that. So I give her half an apple and half an orange (shhh don't tell her).  She gobbles up all her food and looks up at me, she has these squinting playful eyes, and says "Can I have a snack?" 

I look at her plate and giggle, "Yes honey, go ahead."

"Yeah!" she cheers as she hops off her chair and heads into the cupboard.

I think we'll change the name of supper in our house to 'Snack Time'.

Laundry - I will defeat thee

Alas, although I continually battle laundry I am loosing hope that I will ever win the war. With five us in the household we, of course, have a lot of laundry.  With the youngest two, although their clothes are tiny they both make lots of messes and therefore where twice as many outfits.  With my 6 year old she produces extra laundry, well, because she's a girl and 1 outfit a day isn't enough, and even though it's only been on for 2 hours it still ends up crumpled on the floor or a miracle happens and it actually gets put in the hamper by someone other than me.  Now if I had all the time in the world I would probably check the clothes as I pick them up off the floor for cleanness but it seems easier just to toss them in the hamper.  That's all the clothes I need to wash then there is towels and wash cloths which make up another load a week.  And with four beds there are sheets, sheets and more sheets (but I'm embarrassed to say the beds rarely get changed weekly).  I also use cloth diapers and need to wash them every 2-3 days. 

I use to wash our clothes in the easiest way possible. I would do a load of laundry based on who's it was.  Wash everything together (all colours included) in cold water and do a medium dry.  Unfortunately I'm finding that some of the clothes coming out of storage are not usable, too worn or the elastic is shot.  I've decided that I will take a different approach to washing our clothes in order to take better care of them and hopefully lengthen their life span, especially now that I hope some will be passed down twice.  My new approach is to sort based on colours and cycle.  There is of course a lot more sorting required, especially before hand.  Now I have whites, colours, and then darks.  I still wash everything in cold, but now I have gentle cycle, regular cycle, dry on low, dry on medium, hang to dry.  I've created more work for myself but I don't think I've increased the amount of loads (at least that's what I'm going to tell myself).

So this week I was doing pretty good at keeping up with the laundry, when I noticed that my 6 year old's poison ivy seems to have made a come back.  Up I go to strip her bedding again and have successfully set myself back 2 more loads of laundry (it's okay breath, it will be okay).

I have a laundry line full of sheets and they have been enjoying the sun for about an hour, when I hear snap. I take a look outside, the line has broken and all my laundry is laying on the ground.  Did I mention that my husband was able to get the lawn mowed today, so my laundry is laying on the freshly mowed grass (my lower lip quivers as I fight the tears of despair)

The whole family comes out to help me pick up the mess.  Everybody is carrying something back up to the house.  I look down at my 3 year old's sock feet as she skips back up the house.  "sigh"  I just shake my head and smile....

"someday, I will conquer our laundry"

Curse you Poison Ivy

We have told our girls many times about the plant and they have a healthy fear of the weed.  There is a lot of it growing around our area so the girls stay on the road and don't venture into unknown territory without our go ahead. 

So I take my 6 year old across the road so she can climb the driveway of our neighbor and go play.  It's a steep, long driveway and each side is covered in poison ivy.  Stay in the middle of the driveway I remind her, "I will" she cheerfully yells as she runs up the hill.  Satisfied that she is safe I walk back home.

The next day she wakes up in the morning complaining of bug bites itching her. I'm thinking this is odd since it's late in the season and too cold for mosquitoes, but we did have a oddly warm day yesterday, okay maybe.  I ask to look at the bites and there are three small red bumps around her knee, okay put Afterbite on her marks and send her off to school.  The next day she is still complaining about the itch so I have another look and there are now more red bumps and the old ones have grown (okay not looking like mosquito bites anymore).  

My mind is in search mode .... 

poison ivy? (but it's around her knee not her ankle) 

bed bugs? (ewwww)

flea bites? (yes, her friend has a kitten)  

I hop on the computer and start my search to find out what this is. 

"Ah Ha, my girl has..er well at least I'm pretty sure, she has poison ivy."

But where the heck did she pick it up, since she swears she didn't go off the driveway at her friends.

My husband makes an oatmeal bath for her and I treat the wounds with a Burosol solution.  The next day there are more red bumps and the old wounds defiantly are resembling poison ivy (time for more Burosol).  The next day even more bumps have popped up.  She now has gone from 3 bumps near her knee to many spots around her knee, another cluster on the back of her ankle, a strip above each of her inner elbows, and finally many underneath her buttocks on her legs.  I change the treatment to a hydrocortizone cream. (Grrrr) At this point I am very frustrated that it continues to spread.  I strip the bed and blankets and anything that may have come in contact with her skin, towels you name it.  My neighbor gave me a treatment that kills the oil that could still be on her skin, so we treated her with that yesterday and so far has not seemed to spread, hopefully we are just dealing with treating the existing wounds....cross our fingers.

Well, it has now been a full week and luckily she is on the mend.  Although a few more spots have popped up on her arms she doesn't complain about any itching except for one spot on her leg.  Her old wounds are quite ugly, the poor girl, it seems, is very allergic to the cursed weed.

No Pain, No Gain

I love going for a walk with my girls.  It is a wonderful bonding experience and great exercise, at least for them.  In the spring and summer they bring new meaning to the saying 'stop to smell the roses'.  In their case it is stop at every flower, be it weed or not, and pick it (usually for mommy).  Now we live in a rural area so we are surrounded by wild flowers and the whole length of our road is riddled with flora.  Needless to say we do not walk at a very brisk pace.  So I may have to stand around a lot more than I get to walk and I may end up with stinky hands from a strange floral bouquet, but I still love it.

My 6 year old is riding very well on her bicycle and my 3 year old is really getting a handle on her tricycle.  So I'm thinking great we'll be able to get some speed in our walks if I have two girls on bikes and another in a stroller.  I head out today with my 3 year old (6 year old is in school), she's on her tricycle and I have the baby in the stroller.  We start out and she is pushing her trike better than ever, for all of 3 steps, before she stops to ask me a question.  We start out again, we get 2 more steps before she stops again to point at something she sees.  Basically the whole trip was like this walking 2 or 3 steps and stopping to chat. It was too comical to get upset at, she is such a cutie. 

...And to think I was actually worried about her speech and language skills as a baby.

Goodnight, Sweet Dreams

You know you hear of those parents that have a baby that they just lay in the crib at bedtime and leave the room and the baby happily coos in their crib until they drift off to sleep.  Oh come on, you'd think having three babies at least one of mine would be like that.  I personally like to think those babies are much like the unicorn, a beautiful creature that doesn't really exist.  Now I remind myself that I'm not alone or else there would not be a hundred books for sale, solely on the subject of babies and their sleep.  

I hate letting my babies cry themselves to sleep.  Every fiber of my sole tells me that their crying is wrong and unnatural.  So for my baby, I am going through a bedtime routine which includes, nursing, stories, and singing lullabies until she's just barely asleep.  For the last week I've been letting her fall asleep in my arms and then transferring her to bed.  It's been going well she stirs slightly when I put her in but goes back into sleepy land quickly.  The idea being that eventually I would start putting her into bed sooner and sooner, before she gets into a real slumber.  

My baby hasn't been sleeping well through the night (it could be teeth, it's so hard to tell).  When she wakes the only way she will go back to sleep is for me to nurse her.  Now I only nurse her to sleep occasionally when she is super tired, usually she is still awake for stories. My husband expressed concern that this was quickly becoming at habit for her and that I should leave her to cry.

"But I don't want her to wake the rest of the house" I said

"Don't worry about that." was his response.  (HA! Ya, he says this now, wait till 2 am then we'll see how compliant he is!! You forget we've been through this before.)

So, time to try and put her down as soon as she starts to drift off tonight.  Her eyes are starting to droop and as soon as they are closed and I finish the song, I pick her up and place her in the crib.  She immediately arches up and twists around and starts to wail.  My heart goes in my throat, and I quickly leave the room.  I'll try, I hate it but I'll try to let her cry a bit (if only to prove my husband wrong).   I feel awful, my heart is pounding and every muscle in my body is constricted.  I'm short tempered and trying to deal with an upset 3 year old is not going well.  I decide I better leave everyone alone while I deal with my emotions.  I decide to attack the dishes in order to occupy myself.  My 6 year old comes upstairs to brush her teeth and asks why the baby is crying so loud.

"Daddy wants me to let her cry tonight." is all I can mutter.

"Poor baby" she says as she walks past me back downstairs.  (another big stab to my heart, feelings of failure attack my sole)  As I listen to the wailing I realize that they are now pauses in the crying (thankfully).  By the time I finish with the dishes she seems to have settled herself to sleep.  I wait for a good 15 minutes before I sneak in to check on her.  Everything is good, she still has her soother and she is in a comfortable position.  We'll have to wait and see if this has any improvement on her slumber tonight.  One thing is certain I cannot and will not be able to go through this in the middle of the night, I haven't the strength.

HiHo - It's off to work we go

What happened I remember when my little girl was so eager to help me out.  Much like my 3 year old is now, they want to help do things that really they cannot do.  You try so hard to let them help even though it takes three times as long to complete whatever it is we are trying to do.  But it makes them so happy, it's all worth it (well most of the time).

My 6 year old has only 2 chores, to clean the toy room and to help with the dishes that cannot be washed in the dishwasher.  We started with the toy room, it went well the first week, and it's been downhill ever since.  Then we added helping with the dishes and luckily she has been very helpful with that.  The difference is obvious, she needs mommy's help with the dishes.  So after a huge blow out in trying to convince, bribe, threaten and finally giving up and grounding her for not cleaning the toys up. I had to take another look and direction at chores in our house.  Obviously I did something wrong along the way, because my girls has no concept of money or it's value.

Voila, the chore chart.  I search on the internet for some fun ideas regarding chore charts and come across chorechart.com (yes, that's right there is actually a site named that) and printed off some charts for both girls ( I figure better start earlier with my 3 year old so we don't go through this again).  My girls and I sat down together and decided what chores were appropriate and helpful and filled in the chart.  The girls were both ecstatic and couldn't wait to fill in those spots with stars. Although they are very eager to complete their chores today we'll have to wait and see if it lasts.

Hush Little Baby

Sleep has been on my mind a lot lately, mostly because I haven't been getting much of it.  My baby has been having trouble getting to sleep, she's been waking up twice in the night and also has been waking up for the day around 5 a.m.  I continually remind myself that it is only temporary and I will be getting sleep soon, or will I?

  

I look back at my 6 year old, she was the most amazing sleeper as a baby.  She started sleeping through the night around 2 months old.  When she was a year and a half she would often ask to go to bed and she never put up any fight when you told her it was bed time.  Then something crazy happened, the 'lay with me' started.  Although we will never be sure of how or why it got so out of control, I do blame a big part of it on my husband.  When she was around 2-1/2 or closer to 3 years old we would put her to bed with a story and then 'lay with her' for a short time.  Well when my husband would 'lay with her' he would often fall asleep, thus increasing the amount of time that someone was in her bed.  He would usually remain asleep well into her slumber so he would wake up and leave her room without her even knowing.  Not surprisingly my daughter would always ask for daddy to put her to sleep and before we knew it someone had to be in her bed until she fell asleep.  Well by this age she was quite good at keeping herself awake and one of us would often be in the room for a good hour or so and if she ever woke in the night we would have to again lay with her until she fell asleep.  In the end we did wean her off of this habit and brought it to an end, but still to this day she will often ask for someone to lay with her.  Presently she does go to sleep by herself, although sometimes she does fight it, but she is plagued by nightmares and will often wake me in the night for comfort.  Which is simply my reassurance and escorting her back to bed.  Okay fine I don't mind her coming to me when she is frightened but this morning/night she comes and wakes me with "mommy, I have to go pee and get a drink."

"okay" I mumble.

"Can you help me?" she asks

WTH?? she's almost 7 and I have to help with a bathroom break, okay fine, whatever, I stumble out of bed and get it over with, too tired to argue.

Now I think about the sleep issues with my 3 year old.  Obviously there haven't been that many since she isn't that old but I remember nearly going insane from lack of sleep when she was just shy of a year old.  She would be up pretty much every hour in the night, (yikes!), I was loosing my mind.  The going to sleep by herself started late, basically I was still nursing and rocking her to sleep at this time.  Mostly I had delayed sleep training do to, well, my laziness, it was so much easier to not to worry about a crying baby.  So I tried the same method I had done with her sister, slowly removing myself from the room over a few days, and it was not working at all.  I finally had to resort to the dreaded 'cry it out', I hate the idea but I was at my wits end.  I laugh when I look back, 2 days and 10 minutes of crying each, (are you freaking serious, why didn't I do this earlier).  Today she goes to bed very well providing you get the timing right.  She has a window of opportunity if you go too early or too late it takes her forever to settle down.  Also she cannot nap anymore since that causes huge bed time problems as well. Luckily she doesn't wake in the night much, almost never, but as most preschoolers she is up early in the morning.  I often find myself just sneaking out of the babies room after finally getting her down after an early morning wake up and turn around only to have my 3 year old bouncing out of her room, (sigh, ugh).


Then I look to the future and think okay, once they are independent I will finally be able to sleep. 
- As soon as they get home for their first late night movie with friends.  
- As soon as they are home safe from their date.  
- As soon as they are home safe after the party.  
Then I look even further and decide once they are young adults maybe then I won't have to wait up for them, then I will only be woken by the sound of them sneaking in at 3 a.m.

It's The Little Things That Make My Heart Melt

Today is the day we go to get my 6 year old's other earring re-pierced.  She is hesitant and nervous, they piercer has to again trick her to get it done.  She screams a little tiny scream looks in the mirror and quickly looks up at me with tears in her eyes and the biggest smile I've seen in a long time and says "It's done, yeah, it's done!" Then she wraps her arms around my waist buries her head into my tummy and gives me the biggest hug.

I am sitting on the bench in the mall feeding my baby while her older sisters are amusing themselves and drinking their bottles of juice.  My 3 year old is standing in front of me drinking and listening to the music over the mall speakers (obviously enjoying her own little world).  Then I notice her hips, ever so slightly, start moving from side to side, she is bobbing her head very subtly.  Her hips start to move a little more, then she starts bending her knees down, down she goes. Yep, there she goes her little butt is wiggling away, she just starts bopping to the music.

I'm holding my baby in my arms and trying to get her to say some words (okay, noises).  

I start with 'baba'...no go

'dada'....she repeats it

'mama'....nothing

So I point and touch my chest mama, then I do the same to her and say her name, I point and do the same to my chest and when I touch her chest again I get the cutest high pitch giggle out of her.  

.....My heart is 3 times bigger than before I had children, I love you girls with all my heart.

Good Things Come in Small Packages

I started to write a blog for two reasons first to get all my thoughts out on paper (so to speak) so my mind stops racing (especially at bed time) and also as a look back.  When my girls are older it might be interesting to see how things were; the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Then it occurs to me I haven't written much in regards to my baby.  Which is quite surprising since she is a huge part of my day, needing as much care as she does at this age.  

My third beautiful girl is now 8-1/2 months old.  She is bright, beautiful and a thrill to watch these days as she is learning so much.  We are having a rough time sleeping these past couple of nights since I'm pretty sure those stubborn upper middle incisors are coming out (hopefully soon).  So we wake up kinda early today, I bring her into our bed hoping to nurse her then maybe (if I'm lucky) get a touch more sleep.  She is more interested in playing around, kicking, jumping about, and giggling the whole time.  My husbands decides it's time to get out of bed and start the coffee (boy do I need it!). 

"Geeeeee" she squeals as she discovers a free zone, immediately scoots over to his side of the bed and tries to dive over and grab anything she can off that side table.  I hop up and scoop her back, tickling her belly so she doesn't get too upset at the failure of her quest.  Up into the air she goes, we head into her bedroom to change her diaper.  Changing diapers is quite a challenge these days, she would much rather be exploring than sitting still for anything especially something as boring as diaper changes. Out into the kitchen so I can get started on her breakfast.  She doesn't eat much breakfast this morning, which is a little odd for her.  Not long after that she makes room in her belly, off to the change table again.  She plays on the floor downstairs for a bit, oops we need another trip to the change table.  Okay, so that's pretty much how my early morning went because I changed a third poo diaper before 10 am, I think we now know why she didn't eat much for breakfast, because she was full.  Snack for her is to nurse when she is done with that she is starting to get tired and goes down for a nap shortly after 10:00 this morning.  By the time she wakes up we are starting to think about lunch and getting it started so she plays in her highchair, I throw a few cheerios her way every now and then to keep her happy.  After lunch today we pack into the car and head into town for some shopping.  She really enjoys shopping, so many things to see and watch.  About the only thing she hates about shopping is getting into the car, so I try and do as much shopping as I can in one place.  Three stops is about her limit for car seat in and out, any more than that and I have to do the funky rattle dance (okay, do the buckles up as fast as I can before she notices).  After we get home, she gets another bum change (only wet; phew!).  Since she is fussing again I try and give her a soother in order to get her down for another nap, but she will have none of it, which tells me she wants to nurse.  Take her downstairs to the couch to nurse, wasn't really thinking because she nursed but she was really distracted by her sisters and was cooing and giggling with them.  I put her down on the floor to play since she seems happy again,  She is practicing pulling herself up, not getting very far today but she is having fun trying.  Don't know how, but we forgot about the afternoon nap and she's kinda showing it now, (oops) but it could be hunger too.  While getting dinner ready she has gotten really fussy.  I finally have her plate ready but she slaps the food away (either she is poopy again or too tired to eat).  Off to the change table again, there is a messy bum and when I open the diaper I discover why she was so upset, red hot cheeks of fire are staring back at me.  My husband distracts her while I try and clean her as gently as possible and coat her in a heavy layer of bum cream, diaper back on as loose as I can.  She is now ready to eat her dinner with enthusiasm.  I get a nice bath ready for her, hopefully it will help soothe her bum too.  She has a blast in the tub, splashing and rolling all over, clean her up, let her play for a bit.  Getting her back into a diaper and pjs is a bit challenging tonight, probably from being overtired.  Time for bed, she falls asleep nursing tonight (which I don't really like, oh well).  Hopefully our sleep will be better tonight (fingers crossed). 

Never let them see you cry

My 6 year old got pierced ears yesterday. She has asked me about them for quite awhile, many of her friends have them. She went to a birthday party and in her loot bag was a pair of earrings which she really wanted to wear, so I offered to take her in. She was extremely nervous and scared of the pain. She probably would have back out but the people doing the piercing tricked her and it was done, she loved them so much she didn’t even care about the trick.

Today she was roughhousing with her sister and an earring came out.  She comes running to me with her earring in hand.  I didn’t help matters the way I reacted but my mind starts racing, shoot!  How the heck?  Knowing how hard it was to get the damn things in in the first place. I try to put it back in and she screams in pain, try again she cries before I even get it a little bit in. I give her some Tylenol and put ice on her ear. She wouldn’t even let me try to get it back in. 

"Just throw them in the garbage!" she wails

"I spent a lot of money on these" I say and I try and explain that I would appreciate it if she would just let me try and see if it hurts at all anymore.

"No! I just want to throw them out!" she sobs. 

I tell her that she’s not taking the other earring out and she will be walking around with one earring until she can afford to pierce this ear again herself. That doesn't even motivate her. Overwhelming feelings of failure consume me into tears. How could I, a woman who could win the 'cheapest witch award' raise such a spoiled selfish brat? Okay that's a little extreme, I know she's just being very stubborn.

I feel sick about the money I’ve wasted on this bad decision. I feel guilty about the fact that I sort of forced this on her, since I felt obligated when the store had the guns loaded, set to go and for us to walk out the earrings would have been wasted. I feel selfish about the fact that I expect her to ‘suck it up’ and take the pain while I reinsert this damn thing so we don’t have to, waste money and go through this all over again. (If she's willing to pay for it should I really care??)

She comes up to me later and says “I’m sorry mommy, I really wanted to try, but I’m just too scared of the pain.” Hum..not sure what to make of that yet, could it be true, could her fear of pain really outweigh her love of her new earrings? 
She tiptoes around me the rest of the day, obviously distraught over the tears she has witnessed.

It's hard not to laugh

So it's been a busy couple of days and the kids haven't been getting to bed on time so they are a little cranky, to say the least. This morning at breakfast my husband makes pancakes at our 3 year old's request. She wanted one ‘as small as her head’.  My husband is very creative and makes her a flower shape pancake 'as big as her head' and she loves it, he gets a smile. He puts the syrup on it and proceeds to cut it up for her.  She has a fit "I don’t want it cut up!" and on and on. 

After she carries on for awhile my husband takes her by the hand goes to her room and tells her when she is ready to behave she can come out. After a minute or so I go in to calm her down and explain that she won’t be able to eat the pancake unless it’s cut up, we come to an agreement that she eats this pancake as is and the next one won’t be cut up. She finishes this pancake and asks for another.  My husband puts it on her plate, dresses it up and leaves her to it. 

She takes one look at it, touches it with her fork and says "Cut up please"...OMG!...I had to laugh.

Later my 3 year old is getting in the way of her older sister (who is also having a fit about cleaning the toy room, but that's another blog).  I ask her to come to the bottom of the stairs so I can talk to her without yelling. She yells for me to come downstairs (I don’t think so) I explain that I am busy and have my hands full and could she please come here.  I start the 'count' but before I even get to 3 my husband has had enough, he goes down, gives her trouble and tells her to get upstairs. She comes up to me bawling (she's very sensitive and does not like to get into any trouble)  

"Why didn’t you come when I asked you to?" I ask.

(sniffle, sob, sniffle) "Because I was busy too."....OMG!....it was hard to stifle my laugh.

So we are eating lunch and my picky 6 year old does not like the sloppy joes daddy has made (big surprise, it's something new). My husband tell her that when he was little it was a big treat when his mommy made him sloppy joes. 

Without missing a beat she says “Why, were they a lot better than these?”...OMG!...that one would have made milk come out my nose if I was drinking.

While I'm putting my 3 year old to bed she falls asleep during our story.  I kiss her gentle and she wakes up ever so slightly and quietly mumbles "Mommy, I'm hungry" ...awww...that made me giggle.  It's something I hear from her all day long and she always says it to me in bed.

"Will you play with me?"

My 6 year old is a social butterfly, she loves to play with her friends and she loves to make new friends and play, play, play.  She is having a hard time with the summer break and having no friends available, since most of her friends are at daycare or off doing summer camps and she is stuck at home.  She's tired of playing with her sister, she wants someone close to her own age or even older.  She really wants to play with me, but unfortunately she wants to play with only me.  She doesn't understand that to leave her 3 year old sister out of the game is unfair.  Not to mention that I'm usually busy with feeding, changing, or holding a baby.  When I'm not doing the above mentioned things I'm usually making a meal, serving a meal or cleaning up after a meal.  When I do get the baby down for her nap, since they tend to be so short I try and take this time to do nothing.  Most days I do take advantage of nap time to get some stuff done around the house but the past couple of days I don't feel like doing much of anything.  When she sees me sitting on my butt, to her it's an opportunity for me to play with her.

"No honey, not right now"

I know it hurts her feelings and I hate that, it makes me sad/guilty.  But I know playing with her will bring an argument, because her younger sister will want to play too (as she has the right to do).  So we will have to alter whatever game my 6 year old wants to play because it's going to be something that younger sister cannot really do, and my 6 year old will be disappointed because she is not getting to play the way it's suppose to/how she wants to play.

I really enjoy going on walks or bike rides with the girls.  We went out the other day with the camera to take pictures on our adventure that was great.  The beach is fun, but I like to have my husband along for extra hands and eyes that are needed with our very brave 3 year old.  I took them to a park with a splash pad and they had a blast (until the &$%# ice cream truck came and all went to ...well that's another blog).  I just don't have any desire to get down and play barbies or pet shop with her. I have a hard time with house to since the whole time she is telling me what to do and what to say.  Should I feel guilty?  I'm not sure?  Pssst....That's why I gave you a sibling.

Molly Maid

I cleaned the house a bit today, although you'd never know it to look at it.  I feel a bit like Hansel & Gretel dropping bread crumbs only to have little birds picking them up behind them, leaving Hansel & Gretel lost in the woods.  Only in my house I'm the birds cleaning up and Hansel & Gretel are my kids and everything is in reverse, leaving me to feel at a loss.  I've always imagined that if I had a house big enough, where there was a place for everything, then I could finally get the house clean.  But reality has hit me and I know it doesn't matter if it has a place the kids are going to take it out.  Take the shoe rack, shoes were starting to get out of control at the front door, (well of course, hello? girls love shoes) solution; a shoe rack, right?  It works great when the shoes get put into it, by me of course.  So today I'm tiding the floor and vacuuming, which has to be done frequently now that baby is really moving around.  When I get to the front door I put all the shoes away and vacuum.  Not even 1/2 hour later look over to see a pile of shoes on the floor. WTH? nobody has gone outside?  I ask my 6 year old why she pulled all of her shoes out?  Only to find out it was her sister.

"Why did you pull all of your sister's shoes out?" I ask 

"Cause"

"Because why?"

"Cause I wanted to."

"Why did you want to?"

"Cause I wanted to try them on."

Sigh, so simple, hard to argue with that.

"Hear Ye! Hear Ye!"

I hate yelling.  I hate the way it makes me feel.  I especially hate the look in my daughters eyes when I yell at them.  It's amazing how they can look me in the eye and I feel them seeing mama transform into this horrific monster with fangs and claws (although I don't blame them a bit).  It occurred to me that I have been yelling a lot lately.  Now with my 7 year old bored and missing friends and my 3 year old being a typical 3 year old I have my reasons, but maybe a bit too much, okay a heck of a lot too much.  

I'm sure if I asked my husband "have I been yelling too much?" he would give me that look, that same look I would get if I asked him if I looked fat in an outfit, the look that says if I answer this honestly I will get slapped.  So last night going to sleep I vowed that I will not yell at the kids tomorrow, come hell or high water I will not yell, DAMMIT!  

This morning went very well, everyone was getting along and if the kids did something wrong I calmly asked them to stop.  Now I did have to repeat myself a couple of times (firmly) but I was not yelling or getting an angry face on.  I did slip up once and kinda shouted (her name) when my 3 year old dropped the camera a 5th time. (Now mind you it is a kid's camera, but still it can only take so much, right? okay, oops! I overreacted)  I again yelled NO (or stop, not sure, I was panic ridden) when my 6 year old went to dash back across the road to claim her sisters lost flip flop without looking, but for safety reasons I think it's okay.  I was very proud of myself for not yelling when my 3 year old bit the finger of her baby sister so hard it left a crease for an extended period of time.  I felt the wrath rising within me, but I restrained myself and talked with her calmly and rationally after sending her into a timeout.  I even remained calm when my 6 year old took a fit and tried to refuse to come upstairs for supper.  I think the girls only had 2 major squabbles amongst themselves today, but we got those straightened around without too much difficulty.  All in all a good day, not sure if it had anything to do with my restraint or the fact that my girls were being good little angles instead of needful divas.  I really hope that our days continue down a calmer, more relaxed path.

Coming soon to a store near you

I’ve never really been too concerned about the amount of T.V. my kids watch. I would often enter the room with the T.V. on and look over to see them playing barbies, colouring, or playing with another toy of some sort. They are paying no attention to what is on, having lost interest after ten minutes into whatever show they had to watch. They play outside often, running around, bouncing on the trampoline or playing make believe in the playhouse. But now that my oldest is getting close to turning 7, I started to notice a big change when it comes to T.V. She now pays intense attention to what she is watching and will last through the whole program. Also she has started to try and rush through dinner hoping to get right back to the television. We are in the middle of a hot summer and I prefer they come in out of the heat of the afternoon to hide out in the cool basement and that may be a contributor to her new found attachment. Well the other morning she comes over to me on my computer and says “Mom, can we go to moondough.com?”

“What? Why?” is my response, dumbfounded by her request.

“Moondough never dries out, so you can use it again and again.” She smiles sweetly.

OH my, my daughter just sounded like a commercial, ok time to cut back.

....fast forward to today; this is the first day of my new 2 hour time limit on her television watching. I am really unhappy about having to do this since it is summer time and it’s suppose to be fun carefree times, isn’t it? The day did not go well, there were lots of shouts about how unfair I am and about how bored she is, the list goes on. We had a later than usual dinner tonight and she decides to go down and watch her last ½ hour of T.V. with her favorite new show. I set the sleep timer on the television and head back upstairs to put the baby to bed. I’ve never used the timer and I wasn’t sure I did it right but while I was putting child number 2 to bed I hear stomp, stomp, stomp up the stairs. She comes into the bedroom, sulking, “I wish you never gave me times on my shows.” We now have another hour until her bedtime, oh uh, what’s ahead for mama? Our usual routine for this time of night, she’s downstairs watching T.V. while mommy is up cleaning up the kitchen. Well with no T.V to watch she only has me to watch. At first I was getting frustrated with her being underfoot and asking question after question about nothing, but then she asks “can I help you?”
Help?, really!, "Sure, that would be great." So I get the sink ready for her to do the dishes that cannot be put in the dishwasher and she gets to work. We work together and get a whole whack of dishes clean, and had fun doing it. It was a wonderful way to end this dreadful day.

Two Scoops of Patience

So I wake up in a sleep deprived state after being up several times that night with a baby suffering with a bad cough. My darling 3 year old wants some breakfast so while I stumble around the kitchen trying to get the coffee ready with blurry eyes, she skips over to choose the cereal she would like to have that morning.  

She pulls out the box of Kellogs Raisin Bran and says “I want that one and that one” pointing to the picture on the cover.

“Umhum” was my response, obviously not truly understanding what she was saying.

I pour the cereal into a bowl and turn around to get the milk from the fridge, “No mommy I want that one and that one”, again she points at the box.

“That’s what you have honey, there are lots of raisins in here.”
 
“No mommy!” she shrieks, “I want that one and that one!”

I give up and move on to my coffee preparations since I do not understand what she is talking about and I’m too tired to have any patience for this. She is now sitting on the floor knees pulled up crying, mumbling about that one and that one. So after unsuccessfully trying to understand her again, I end it with pouring the cereal back into the box. She stands up now, with a slight smile (okay, so we are getting somewhere? But we have to move cautiously, we don’t want to wake the monster again.)

“Do you want this now?” I ask calmly, with hope.
 
She again points to the box but this time she is pointing at the top opening “I want some of that and some of that.”

Hallelujah, it all makes sense now. I understand the mind of my three year old. Because you see, there are two scoops of raisins on the cover and in order to get raisins from both scoops you must pour the cereal from both sides of the box. Something every mother should know.