Battle of Epic Proportions

I'm a little dazed at the moment. Kind of deer in the headlights. I feel like I've gone 10 rounds with a prize fighter and have 3 more to go. A is taking her second nap of the day when we should be attending a friend's birthday party. We had to call and give our regrets; we couldn't attend because of A's poor choices today. And I am so sorry that we chose consequences that effect someone else's joy. I would take that one back if I could.

Wanna know what she decided was more important than a birthday party? What cause could be so worthwhile as to choose it over birthday cake, party games and a houseful of squealing friends? Pears. She chose pears as her fruit at lunchtime then chose not to eat them, forfeiting the privilege of watching a show before nap. After nap, she was confronted again with the pears at snack time. She had been warned that the pears would be back. No snack until the pears are eaten. Everyone else in the family had cookies for snack, she wailed. She decided it would be okay to not eat pears or cookies if someone would play with her. So that was removed as well. No, we will not play with you until you eat your pears. More wailing and gnashing of teeth. Mommy and Daddy enjoyed a jovial game of checkers, trying to entice her to eat her pears. Nope, only more wailing. Several throwdowns and spankings later, she was sent to bed. No party, no cake, no cookies, no playing. Over pears!!! Not peas, cabbage, brussels sprouts, but pears!!

I have no idea how long this will take, but it is very clear to J and I that we have to outlast her on this one. We have taken away the show in the past if she didn't eat her fruit. Today it was obviously not incentive enough. As I tucked her in for her second nap, she told me, "Mom, when I get up, I'm not going to eat my pears." We need the Holy Spirit to intervene!

In the greatest of ironies, we will probably negate all healthful benefits of the pears by having some processed, refined mac-n-cheese and chicken nuggets for supper. Of course, she has to eat the pears first. Does that count as a bribe? Cause I really don't want to bribe her. She needs to choose to eat the pears.

I'll let you know what happens. It has helped to write this out. When she wakes up, we're going to pray together about the situation and see how God answers our prayer. I'm so glad it's Saturday and J is home.

*I am relieved to report that the battle is over. It wasn't pretty, but it's over. She had pears as an appetizer for supper, then blueberry muffins and raisins. We'll all live to see another day, but there will be large quantities of ice cream during the triage hour following her bedtime.

Does the end justify the means?

If I didn't try to take some photos, then she would one day say to me, "Why didn't you take any pictures of me when I was little? You have tons of your firstborn, but none of me!" This will help back up my cause.

Too Good to be True

I have spent the last two days in the throes of frustration.  Mint is dead to me.  Not the yummy goodness that is Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip and certainly not the Girl Scout Thin Mints that have found their way into my fridge.  No, mint.com in all its seductive glory is dead to me.  I actually gave up on it last October when I realized that some bug in their system makes my data totally unreliable.  Just a minor glitch.  I should have known it was too good to be true.  But the shift from Quicken to Mint was so extreme in methodology, that I feel like I ate from the forbidden fruit and now I know the difference between slavery to the old way and the possibilities of technology that actually works for me.

So I have been searching for a workable solution since October.  Well, I lie.  I actually gave Mint the month of October to resolve my open help ticket.  That didn't happen, so I said I would find something new in November.  I landed on buxfer.com toward the end of the month and was so not motivated to try anything new during the holidays.  So I let it slide, and slide it did.  When I started getting back to it this month, I was shocked at how we had overspent because we just had no clue what we were spending.  So, I summoned all my motivation and jumped back in the saddle.  But buxfer just isn't cutting it for me.  For starters, it appears that it might have a bug similar to the one in Mint.  But more than that, it is obvious that paying for "priority support" means nothing, zip, zero, zilch.  J tried to console me by explaining that most of these new applications are run on a shoestring budget and customer support doesn't really make them any money, so they don't have any customer support.  This is not comforting.  I am so frustrated at the time I have wasted and data I have lost trying to find a good system.

I took the girls to a friend's house today and I came back and spent two and a half hours (!!!) researching almost two dozen different personal finance applications.  Yuck, yuck, and more yuck.  I cannot believe I spent my child-free morning doing that!  I made myself do it because it is my single biggest responsibility as the manager of this household (outside of parenting).  Everything else I wanted to do involved spending money, and I sure wasn't going to go do that because I don't know how much money we have to spend because I can't find a decent budget system!  Aaarrggh!

Since I know you're just as frustrated as I am by now, I'll offer some hope.  I think I might have found a couple of potential options.  I started from Dave Ramsey's list of recommended sites and narrowed them down.  I'm going to field test BudgetTracker and BudgetPulse.  It's 2010, dang it.  There has to be a budgeting solution out there that automates a significant part of the process, maintains my data integrity, and backs up their program with decent customer support.  Is that too much to ask of Web 2.0? !  I am such a computer geek's wife.  Time for some Thin Mints.

One Year

Okay, I really thought I scheduled this post to run on her birthday, but I just realized it never did.  Oops!  Here's the big one-year-old post (just a week late):

Bless you, baby girl, you have made it a full year.  I know it's God's grace to both of us because I can barely remember any of it.  Know what you got for your first birthday?  A double ear infection.  Happy Birthday!  Good news is that you perk right up as long as we keep the motrin flowing. 

Guess what else you learned to do this week?

That's right, you're a climbing fool!  Step ladders, playscape at the park, the dishwasher door...you're trying to climb everything these days.  Yesterday you figured out how to climb onto one of the little kiddie chairs in the kitchen.  First attempt, you stood up and shook the chair while holding onto the back.  Second attempt, you scooted it to the fridge, climbed up and started swiping all that stuff you know you're not supposed to have.  Unfortunately, this also means that we have passed the point of no return on spankings and you are earning them daily.

Still not walking.  Hallelujah, Amen!  But you're getting close.

You weighed in at 20lbs this morning when we went to the doctor.  Your well-check is next week, though, so we'll see then about height and percentiles, etc.  You're between 12- and 18-month sizes right now, so you're either wearing high-waters or low-riders on any given day.  The hair on top of your head continues to outpace the rest of your hair resulting in a troublesome reverse-mullet that does not play nicely with a drippy winter nose.  Hence all the photos of you with a top knot.  I think I'll attempt a trim now that you're one.  But I know it will really alter the shape of your precious little face to frame it in bangs, so I'm hesitant to snip away that baby charm.

You're so snuggly.  You love to give hugs and even attempt kisses.  You've started snuggling stuffed animals and it's so cute to see you shove a bear under your tummy and roll all over it.  You've picked a favorite and even named it.

That's Aida Monkey (pronouned "ate a monkey").  You called it that a few weeks ago when you reached for it in your bed, and now you ask for Aida by name.  What's so sweet is that you latched on to the one that A picked out for you on the day you were born.

Happy Birthday, C!  You are such a joy and delight--you climbing, squealing, snuggling little piece of heaven.  Here's to another twelve months of doing all the things that I read about in parenting books and never thought my children would do.

Women's Lip

I've gotten a couple of golden quotes from my little lady-in-waiting recently.  Last week, she saw a show about mommies with all different types of jobs--archeologist mommies, doctor mommies, teacher mommies.  At lunch that day, she started talking about what she wanted to be when she grew up, maybe a doctor or a firefighter.  Then she asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  "Well," I told her, "I'm already all grown up and I am exactly what I have always wanted to be...a mommy."  "And do nothing?!" was her incredulous reply.  Ha!

Clean-up time seems to be a dramatic disaster waiting to happen lately.  So this afternoon, I had A practice cleaning up before Daddy got home.  (He usually cleans up with her after supper.)  We even tried to get C to participate.  It was a true girl-power team effort.  After supper she asked Dad if he would play a board game with her.  He said there would be time to play one game if her room was not too messy.  "Is there much to clean up?" he asked.  "No, Dad, the women already cleaned it up."  Of course they did!  Mommy had nothing else going on, right?

Little personality

Not that she hasn't already been demonstrating her own personality, but C is definitely starting to come into her own as a little person.  It's fun to see A discover that her baby sister is a viable option for interaction.  Twice today they have actually played together and enjoyed each other.  The first time was this morning as I tried to plan my menu for the rest of the month.  A had gathered a huge bundle of pillows onto the guest bed to make a pillow cave.  C found a little chair and used it to climb onto the bed (crazy climber!).  At first, A was mad about having to share her cave, but then C started climbing all over her and snuggling on her.  That warmed her little selfish heart and she decided to make a spot in the cave for her sister.  That warmed Mom's heart, too. 

Then we were at the grocery store after lunch, coming into the home stretch in the frozen foods.  I was pushing my luck so close to nap time, but they actually did great.  C always wiggles and squirms in the seat and this time, managed to get her hand poking out of the leg hole closest to A's leg.  So she started tickling A, trying to figure out what her hand was touching.  A's face wrinkled up, so I did a quick giggle and told her C was tickling her.  That made her giggle, which actually made C keep tickling.  It was pretty cute and a very pleasant way to end our shopping trip.  So fun to seem them interact!

The BIG Event

As newcomers to town last year, we learned that once a year the local student body does a massive service project to thank the residents of our community for their support.  Free manual labor for four hours; not a bad gig.  Last year, we were told about this incredible not-to-miss opportunity on the day of the big event.  While we ourselves were painting two little girls' bedrooms.  This would be the opposite of what everyone else in town was doing (i.e., watching young, able-bodied students perform their manual labor for them. for free).

So it is with great pomp and circumstance that I am pleased to announce that the job request forms for this year's Big Event are now available to download from the website.  This year's event is March 27 and the request deadline is February 19.  My thoughtful neighbor clued me in today that only the first 1300 requests are able to be filled.  Race ya!

Farewell, Arctic Blast of 2010

For all the hubbub and hoopla generated by The Great Arctic Blast of 2010, I have but one thing to say...

DIE, MOSQUITOES, DIE!

Super skin saver

This is a really superficial post.  Literally skin deep (couldn't resist).  But I've found a new skin care secret and I want to tell the world!  I actually have to give a hat tip to SimpleMom.net.  She's very granola and has lots of great natural, frugal ideas for health and beauty, like homemade shampoo, deodorant, and face cleansers.  Most of these ideas test my comfort levels and/or require mixing of products that I either don't have on hand or don't make the time to mix up.  One of her tips caught my eye, though, because it required no mixing and I already had the product--lanolin.  She recommended it for lip balm.  Makes sense, doesn't it?  I still had some on hand, so I tried it and I have to say it works wonders!  Usually during the winter I have to keep chapstick in my pocket, but I apply some lanolin at night and don't need any more until the next night. 

I figured if it worked so great on my lips maybe it would help the dry, itchy skin on my hands.  It's a little sticky to be slathering on as a general lotion, but I spot treated my cracked knuckles before bed a few nights in a row and haven't had to use my prescription lotion in weeks!  SimpleMom points out that lanolin is basically sheep sweat, which is not the most pleasant thing to think about when putting it on your lips.  But if it's safe enough for breastfeeding babies, then I can get over its origins and relish in my healthy skin.  End of infomercial.

And then there were five

Our girls were blessed with some Christmas cash and we gave A the option to pick out another toy or go to the pet store and buy a fish.  She didn't need much convincing at all.  Saturday, we went shopping for a fish and all its necessary accessories.

When we first walked into Petco, our super-sniffer-in-training was bombarded by ode de pet store.  "Why does it stink in here?" she asked.  "Because pets stink, love," was my matter-of-fact reply.  I got pinched by J who dreams of one day owning a dog.  I figure ode de pet store bought me at least six more dog-free months.

She picked out a red beta fish, just like Grandma's.  Grandma's beta fish is appropriately named Mr. Beta Fish.  When we asked A about naming her new fish, she came up with Peter.  I thought that was a pretty good name for a fish.  Then she finished...Peter Mr. Beta Fish.  We have to say the whole name every time.  Peter Mr. Beta Fish, Peter Mr. Beta Fish.  It's quite a tongue twister.  She's totally smitten, even kissed his bowl good night last night.  On the way home from the pet store, she proclaimed, "Now there are are five of us in our family!"  Welcome to the family, Peter Mr. Beta Fish.

Who do I know?

While window shopping with J during our anniversary trip, I saw a Christmas wreath that reminded me of someone.  I did a mental scan to try and figure out who I knew that was trying that color scheme with her Christmas decorations this year.  She had said that it was a brave, new thing - the colors were bright greens, pinks, blues.  But she really liked it and wanted to incorporate more of it in her Christmas decorations.  The wreath was marked down quite a bit and I debated purchasing it for my friend, or at least telling her where I had seen it (when I could remember who it was).  It occurred to me later that it was a fellow mommy blogger whom I've never met before.  Isn't that crazy?!  I feel like I know that woman well enough to shop for her Christmas decorations! 

J said I should do a post on what that means for the quality and significance on online relationships.  I don't really want to go there, though, because I'm quite certain the anecdote would cease to be funny the moment I began dissecting it.  Now who do I know that was wanting to try homemade dish soap?

Re-org

I did a major toy re-org yesterday.  It bugged me that we kept putting toys away in A's room that she doesn't play with anymore and that C's toys were camped out in the living room.  So we moved the changing table into A's room where her little bookshelf used to be; took the pad off of it so it could just be a set of shelves.  Her little bookshelf got moved over by the window and the toy bin rack in her closet got moved to C's room where the changing table was.  Oh, and the play kitchen got moved into C's room too, since she is the only one who ever plays with it.  The one major downside is that we'll have to start changing C on the floor, but we really needed to make that transition anyway since she was always trying to roll over and crawl off the changing table.  The unexpected bonus is that I moved the pink bins holding A's clothes onto the shelves of the changing table and moved her hanging clothes down to the lower rod in her closet.  She can now reach all of her own clothes!  Wonderful!  Now she can put her own laundry away, too.  She also has more space for her big girl toys and C has toys in her room that she can access.  I'm thrilled!

Some of my mommy friends say if they don't have the opportunity to do something creative every now and then, they just go crazy.  Me?  I organize.  Every now and then things just need a good shake-up.