My Hard Work Is Paying Off

I know for me it's easy to get tunnel vision about my day to day life.  Getting wrapped up in the bickering and fighting and the constant whining can feel overwhelming and make me feel like I'm raising a litter of honey badgers not children.  And then we get thrown little bits that make it all worth while.  While the cleaning ladies were here yesterday we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch.  As we were enjoying our meal an elderly couple sat next to us and Madaline proceeded to charm the socks off of them.  All of the kids were displaying a rare feat of excellent behavior and exemplary manners.  Emma looked like she was ready to climb to the man's lap and give him her best Emma hug and Aiden was smiling indulgently at his sisters.  We had some small talk about how old the kids are and how many kids they had (who are now all grown) and as we were getting ready to leave the lady told me what a happy family we were.  She said it was so nice to see kids with such lovely smiles, just like their mom's, and that they were so well behaved and pleasant to sit next too.  The gentleman was so charmed by Emma he told her if we didn't leave soon he'd have to keep her.  For once, instead of making a comment about how this was a rare moment of calm, I just said, "Thank you!"  It was lovely to have someone notice and comment on the good, not just say, "Boy you sure have your hands full!"  As we walking out she said again how happy we all looked and I said, "Well, we have so much to be thankful for and happy about."

My Crazy Weekend

I'm finally enjoying a moment with all the kids sleeping and the poor dog quiet in her crate.  I had her out for awhile and the neurotic pacing was getting to me.  I'm thinking she's just uncomfortable and wants to be confined so she can rest.  Here are some pictures of her leg wound, don't look if you get all weird at stitches and stuff.  I'm telling people this happened while she was frolicking with another dog, she'd be embarrassed if I told everyone it was really the skink/Godzilla getting the best of her...

Here is pathetic Daisy with spooky green eyes.

Nasty cut.

Closer view of nasty cut.

Now moving on from gross out wound pictures I had a couple of parenting successes today.  I'll go ahead and brag about them so that when everything goes to crap tomorrow I'll know why. (insert cutsie winking face)  My sweet almost three year old LOVES her pacifiers.  She also loves to drink, "milk in a glass" (baby bottle) and she drags around Grandma Bear something so loved that the cleaning lady asked if it was a dog toy today.  (Emma was incensed and put that lady in her place by the way.)  The time to give up these things has long passed and I just really haven't felt like going through the process of her going through pacifier and bottle withdrawals.  Today was the day to begin the process and after having milk in her bottle this morning we packed them up in a box and she said goodbye.  The new rule is milk at meals, up to this point she has refused milk in anything but a bottle and that didn't change this evening but there wasn't a fit at bedtime when I told her no more bottles.  Score one for Mommy!  The pacifier is going to be trickier.  We gathered them up and put them in a bowl this morning with the promise that she could have them back tonight at bedtime.  Other than a meltdown around 4 she did really well.  After a few minutes of the freak out I told her we would set the timer for 5 minutes and she could haver her passi until it beeped.  She wasn't thrilled to give it up but she did and the rest of the evening went really well.  Score two for Mommy!  Tomorrow I'm going to have her cut the one off her car seat buckle.

In my adventures making baby food I made absolutely nasty summer squash which Madaline quite literally spat out at me.  (I can't blame her, it tasted like bitter grits.)  She LOVED the mashed mango and bananas that she got instead and tonight the butternut squash was a huge hit.

As busy as this weekend was it had been a couple of days since I'd checked on my garden and I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw!  I'm looking forward to enjoying these veggies soon!

Cute little banana pepper!

Cherry tomatoes.

Not cherry tomatoes.

Itty bitty green beans.

Wax beans, they're almost ready!

Aww, it's just a baby squash!

And last but not least, after this crazy weekend and a pretty good but long day I just didn't want to fight with kids eating their supper.  I did the only reasonable thing, I made pancakes.  And boy, were they ever good.

Oh, Emma!

I have had a very challenging few days. Emma has been pushing the limits and basically trying to run roughshod all over anyone or anything in her path. She can be sweet to the point of bringing tears to my eyes and so difficult I actually have to send us to separate rooms to regroup. I spend half the day with my heart breaking for her because she is the least capable of us to cope with all the changes that Navy life brings, with Daddy being gone so much, with a new baby usurping her role and a big brother telling her what to do. The other half of the day (or 9/10 of it) I spend wishing Swiss boarding schools took almost 3 year olds. This stage is temporary and I don't want to overlook the sweet moments an miss out on her being a little girl, I just wish I had some magic answer to fix it. Trying to think of a solution and staying consistent is exhausting. Aiden, even at his most challenging, was always much quicker to comply and it's hard not to compare them, sometimes I beat my head against a wall trying to make something that worked for him work for her. I know I need to have a plan, stay calm and stop letting the kids know they have the ability to get me worked up. Gotta work on my poker face.

As a side note, Daisy is still VERY VERY nervous about the dishwasher. If it's open and she comes in the kitchen she will stop and back slowly out keeping her eye on it constantly. I would too with a dishwasher that looks like this:

Weigh in tomorrow, wish me luck!