I'm going to shove the game up her....

Christmas is all gone now, and I've got to wait until next year for more joy, cheer, and Santa. Our tree is still up, but it's lingering about like a washed up relative does around the Christmas buffet...no one knows why it's still there and it's not going away on its own.

Teething has turned my sweet baby into a fussy, drooling monster on sleep strike. He sleeps decently at night, but napping? Well, that's out of the question. And on top of everything, he now bites me during every feeding. He got his first two teeth when he was only four months old, and now he's going to have six teeth by the time he's 6 months old. He's currently getting in four on top. And mind you, breastfeeding is expected for the first year.

Adrien is sitting on the couch in his underwear. Yes, underwear. The big boy kind and all...complete with lightning McQueen. Please lord let him stay dry. The couch can't afford another pee spot. If the cushion covers get washed one more time, I think they might fall right apart. So far so good. But, so help me, if I have to wash poop out of those teeny whitey tighties...well. That's another story entirely.

So Christmas is over. We're on to New Year's. My head is full of resolutions that I'm sure will be broken a day or two in. I suppose I'm just not a very resolute person. I do have other attributes though. I guess.

In case you were wondering my Mom did come for Christmas and she did bring said video game thing. It's entirely too advanced for him. It's for ages 3 and up, and while I tried nicely to urge her not to get it, I guess she just had to. He didn't make the fuss about it Christmas morning like I thought he would. Thomas the Train actually did win him over. But it's the fuss he's now making to play the darn thing. We got it out finally Sunday evening and low and behold, it's too hard. It takes either me or Andi to actually play it and he mainly watches and pushes a button or two every now and then. It's just too hard. So now my days are also filled with fits about playing his games. To top it off, my Mom bought him a Shrek game to go with it. The Shrek game is for ages four and up, so I can just imagine how incredibly above him that one is. Her reasoning for getting that one? Well they just didn't have any ones for the younger age group left at the store. Oh come on! Oh well. The thing came with a game anyway. But whatever.

I guess that's what Grandma's are for, eh? Causing havoc with the grandkids and getting the privilege of walking away from it all. Seriously. She is not my favorite person right now.

My Mom, the Narcissist

My Mom is a narcissist. No really, she is. I know we all feel this way about our mothers...or, um, maybe we don't. But in dysfunction land -- where my family resides -- she is. And I can prove it.

I won't even delve into the realm of what she did at my wedding. She single-handedly ruined the entire thing for me, and pretty much everyone else attending; forever staining that day into my memory. And not in the good way you'd think it would be. No, I'm not going there. And I won't even venture into how she left me more than 13 voicemails in the week following my wedding, while Andi and I were honeymooning. She eventually ended up calling our hotel. Why? Because my wedding was supposed to be about the bride's mother and the bride. It was her day. And those are her words, my friend. But I'm not going there...just as I said I wouldn't.

I'm not even going to get into this past Thanksgiving and how it was supposed to be about her and her friends and family. Yet again, I'm quoting of course.

Nope, not me. I don't live in the past. I'm speaking of the future, and how my Mom intends to steal Christmas. My Mom's husband works offshore. He will be working on Christmas, and as such we've celebrated early with them this year just a few weekends back. Now that was fine. Then I found out my Mom was inviting herself over for Christmas this year. Which is fine, I don't want her to spend the day alone. Great. I'll see my Mom and the kids will see Meemaw. Wonderful. But then she announced she was coming up Christmas Eve. I can deal, really I can.

In November my Mom told me about what she was wanting to order Adrien for Christmas. He's absolutely obsessed with tractors, as any boy is, and so she was getting him a pedal tractor. You know, a tractor that's just his size that can be pedaled around. It was even coming complete with a trailor. I figured it would be fine and he would love it. And he will, love it. And therein lies the problem.

I'm not a mean Mom. I want my kids to have presents they like. I want to see his joyful, expressive face light up when he sees this thing. And no doubt he'll want to ride it for hours on end after receiving it. He will LOVE it. But it didn't come in in time for our early Christmas with my Mom. So of course, she was going to be bringing it along for the real Christmas.

Although Santa's got a grand Christmas planned for my little Pooka, let's face it. Thomas the Train does not compare to a big fat Adrien-sized tractor with trailer. It just doesn't. Neither do any of the other gifts Santa's going to be dropping through the chimney. So I politely called my Mom and requested she hold off on gifting the tractor until later that day. I'd prepared myself for my Mom to take it as badly as possible, and of course she would because you know, everything is about her. But to my surprise, she understood. Or at least she said she did. That is, until she called me this morning asking if Adrien would like one of those VTech video game systems.

It doesn't have to be from Meemaw or the parents, she explained, It can just be from Santa.

I guess her understanding is out the window.

Check it out, yo

I've got a new blog in progress! My content is all moved over, and we're (my super genius web designer husband and I) are going to be working on design soon.

I've got my very own URL. I feel like such a big girl blogger!

Check it out:

www.apronstringsymphony.com

Budding Van Gogh

Adrien never ceases to amaze me.

About two weeks ago, I was astonished to hear him call All Aboard! while playing with his trains. I realize, of course, that others probably don't see the significance in this. But to me, it was the world.

I was even more astounded yesterday when we were watching Noggin. They always have these "picture puzzle" things between shows and they had a big picture with a ton of shapes hidden in it. The point was to find all the squares within the picture. Adrien walked straight up to the TV and pointed them ALL out. He knows what a square is! Once again, I realize the significance may be lost to others...

And then today. I came into the living room from just having been checking email for about two minutes prior. I found him spraying a bottle of aerosol sunscreen onto his hand and licking it off.

Never ceases to amaze me.

Elfish Charleston

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Wordless Wednesday: Look what I made!

Respect MY Authority

This past weekend we went to Dallas for the Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children's Parade. It was fun, but holy poopsicles, was it ever cold. We got downtown at 8 or something and the parade didn't even start until 10. It was worth it though! Once the parade started, I forgot how cold I was. Did I mention Jude slept through the entire thing? Ya. Marching bands and all. And we were front and center. I wish he would sleep that deep all the time.

Jude's been sleeping horribly the past few weeks. At first I thought it was his stomach with solids. So I'd cut out solid foods and he was still crying through the night. I can tell he's been in pain, so I finally took him into the doctor to see what was wrong. I was fearing an ear infection in his left ear, and I was right. I've been frustrated about finding a new doctor here in Tyler because I was so happy with our doc back in Dallas. I managed to find an osteopathic pediatrician at a local clinic not too far from our house and I was trying to remain optimistic. She looked nice in her photo and I was hoping the D.O. that followed her name meant she would be a little more liberal on some issues. Mainly on the vaccines.

When I told her my doctor in Dallas wasn't for vaccines she looked at me like I was insane and let me know that she would be willing to "work" with me on the schedule, but wouldn't be willing to see me if I wasn't working toward vaccinating. That seems to be the consensus I've gotten from doctors in this tiny little town. Fine, I'll take what I can get, and I'm guessing that means a doctor that will only allow a delayed schedule. It's not the fact that I'm being forced into vaccinating that bothers me as much as her reasoning behind it. She said, and I do quote;

...If you choose not to move toward vaccinating at all, I would be afraid that you wouldn't respect my authority on other issues...

Authority? AUTHORITY? I mean, who died and made you mother to my children? Since when did doctors become the be all and end all of authority in our childrens' lives? I get that I have no medical degree. But what I get even more is my children and when I know what feels right for them and what doesn't. Is it even right for a doctor to act as if a parent has no authority in their child's life? What she should be respecting is my authority as a parent.

I've caught flack for my stance on vaccinations before. But what's the world coming to when you're afraid to take your child to the doctor because of an informed medical decision you've made regarding their welfare? I was told by another pediatrician here in town that he, too, would have to refuse to see my children in his office if I put off vaccinating Jude after four months of age.

It's just unsettling.

You know what else is unsettling? The fact that I don't think I've brushed my teeth today.

As requested....

Diapers and Schooling

It's been forever since I posted. I'm so bad about that. I really need to try to get better. Props to all those bloggers who have multiple children in the preschool years and still get a daily blog up. I mean, really. It just boggles my mind. Blogging time used to come easily when it was just Adrien...just turn on some telly and I was good for like 20 minutes at least. Jude just doesn't get that whole zone out to the t.v. thing yet.

Speaking of the telly, I'm quite sure my kid(s) watch too much...you see, I'm already anticipating Jude watching too much as well. I was the mom who was never going to let my kid watch that much television. Really, I was. Then, when Adrien was a few weeks old, I discovered that he'd stop crying for a few minutes to let me get some dishes done if he was in front of the moving color box. Call me a bad mom or whatever, but I really needed those few scream-less minutes. And then it was that easy. Not that I let my infant really watch t.v...but when he was a little older we'd put it on Disney every morning. Oh how I miss the days of watching the Today Show...

And now it's like just the norm. We turn on cartoons in the morning, and since I've had Jude, it's sort of like my crutch. At least a few times a week (if not every day some weeks) I catch myself turning on Wow Wow Wubbzy reruns I've TiVo'd just to catch a cat nap while Jude takes his morning nap. And then some days that ends up turning into an all day occurrence (not the napping part, unfortunately). It's like ohmigoodness I need some breathing room, LOOK! there's Spongebob, finally I can get a minute of sanity. So I am really trying to work on that whole using the television as a crutch thing. You know I'm not the only mom. Don't look at me like that. Judge me, bitch, just try.

In jest though. But seriously, I got my new cloth diaper order today! Can we say exciting? I can. Exciting. I ordered some new covers because Jude's chunky little self moved up into a new size quite a while ago, we've just been stretching by with what the had. I decided to try a new kind of cover since the others I had were bulky (and expensive). I tried these ones out and I'm so happy so far! They're not bulky at all, and best of all you get TWO for only FIVE BUCKS!!! (That's compared to only one cover for close to $12 or $15). I also ordered some new prefolds for him since he's long since outgrown his infant sized ones (we've been living on some hand me down fitted diapers). They're absolutely GINORMOUS! And best of all, I finally broke down and ordered a BumGenius 3.0 one-size diaper. These are like cutting edge in the cloth diaper world. I've so coveted them, but have been too cheap to order until now. I finally allowed myself to order one because it was on sale and it was Black Friday. I sense an addiction coming on.

I've also been starting to think about schooling. I can't believe that in just two and a half more short years we'll be starting Adrien in school. I want to start the whole preschool experience soon. He's at an age where he's picking up on new concepts easily, and I feel now's the time to let that budding genius loose. In all seriousness though, I'd like to start him in a preschool when he's closer to three, but I realize we most likely won't have the money to put him into one I'd like. So I was checking around town for a preschool co-op. There is one that is ran through a homeschool co-op, and I was very excited to learn that...until I found out you have to have at least one school-aged child to enroll your children into the program. So that stinks. So I could enroll Adrien for Kindergarten when he's old enough and Jude would get the preschool benefit. That doesn't exactly do much for Adrien. So I'm going to keep checking. But I was talking to Andi about it and telling him how excited I was about the co-op thing and he asked me if I wanted to homeschool. So that set off a spark in my head. And now I'm researching that too. I am eager to get my adult life back, complete with a job and all, but education is very important to me. I don't want my children to be poorly educated by the public school system. On the other hand, I don't want them to miss anything socially by not going to public schools. I would adore a private school, but I'm being realistic and we probably won't be able to afford that either.

Get excited! I have my MOPS meeting tomorrow. We've started attending the church I got to the MOPS group at and we love it so far. It's quite a bit larger than what we're used to, and we're attending the contemporary worship which differs greatly from the strongly liturgical Presbyterian church we'd been attending in Dallas. But the music at the service is superb, and unlike some contemporary worship services we've been to, the music doesn't stretch on and on. I'm feeling like I'm missing something in my life right now and I can't quite put my finger on it. I'm thinking it's a strong sense of church home. Hopefully we'll be fully settled in the new church soon. We're trying out a Sunday School class this Sunday. Let's see how that goes.

We're going to be going back to Dallas this weekend to see a friend and go to the big Christmas parade they have there. I hope the weather's mild and not too terribly cold. I can't wait to see my friend! It's been too long already and I miss her a great deal.

Dallas, here we come! :)