High Maintenance Mom

I was at Whole Foods on Monday with both boys trying to get a medium size list of food. It was a reasonable trip with only a few trying moments such as N operating the automatic peanut grinder and both kids blocking the aisles. Another shopper, who was male, told me I was a great mom so I was trying even harder to be that person I want to be. Of course, the euphoria started to decline as the experience continued and by the time we got into the checkout line, we were all ready to go. N asked if he could stand up in the kid's cart he was pushing and I said no. A minute later I looked over, noticed he was standing up, and said in a nonconfrontational way, "N, it's not safe to stand in the cart. You asked if you could and I said no." I was amazed he asked in the first place but since he did, I thought I was handling things pretty well and he was getting out of the cart. It was at this point that the checkout clerk said, "looks like someone is going to get a spanking when they get home..."

The recent recall of Veggie Booty an all natural, vegetarian snack made of puffed rice and corn (this one with spinach and kale) made me furious. Yes, furious! I am pregnant and have a 20 month old and do everything I can to eat right for my unborn child and buy foods that are good and fun for my toddler and my husband. So, I go out and buy organic this, all natural that and sleep a little better at night.

Ever since I found out I was having a baby a while back, it seems that the schedule debate has been looming as if it was a nasty four letter word. It was very clear to me that having a schedule for my new family would be a blessing and something that I would hold to come hell or high water. Let me make myself very clear, however. I do not believe that newborns should be on any schedule except for their own! I am talking about babies old enough to self soothe and those who understand the rhythm of the day. I found an interesting question and answer series on www.aplaceofourown.org in the Topics, Child Care Management, Schedules and Routines.

After our long weekend of activities B was up all night and on Monday we found that he had another raging ear infection right around the time I realized I had a sinus infection. Thinking I could get better on my own, I didn't start antibiotics until Friday when my voice disappeared (B started antibiotics right away as he's had chronic ear infections). I thought it was funny and didn't realize that it might not come back for a while. By Sunday, I admitted that I had laryngitis when no sounds came out. This week is our big international geophysical conference (AGU) and I love talking to everyone. Of course, talking or whispering only makes it worse so I have had to write in a notebook. Writing in a notebook is fine for adults, but almost useless for our 3.5 and 1.5 year olds...

I was in Alaska last week and returned to a sick husband. There really are times when I wonder how everyone else, who isn't happily medicated or with full-time live-in help, does it. As I write this, I can hear B asking if his nap, which he hasn't taken even though he threw a huge fit while we were trying to leave a playdate, is over. No, it's still not over. My biggest worry is that he'll wake his brother and then I won't even be able to fall back on a video since Baby Entropy is much more interested in destruction than he is in being sedated by the television...

Little Grab is now deep in the middle of the dumping phase. Anything than can possibly be dumped, must be dumped thus causing him to earn the new nickname, Baby Entropy (Entropy can be defined as a measure of the disorder of a system and the Second law of thermodynamics basically states that "there is always an increase in disorder")...

Little Grab isn't eating very much anymore. He's still running around and climbing on things but he's not sitting still long enough to eat. A few months ago he had an allergic reaction (mainly hives) to a sulfa drug and ate poorly for over a month. During that time he lost a lot of weight and went from about the 10th weight percentile to below the 0 mark. He looked thin and sick but continued to run around. It was scary and we were very excited when he started eating again and made it back to the 10th weight percentile...

I couldn't sleep last night knowing that I had so many things to do today. Tomorrow begins four inservice days for our preschool and I had several projects at work to finish beforehand. Today was also the day to register for gymnastics for out-of-town families. It's not enough that we have to pay more money but we also have to get to registration before 8 AM in order to get a spot in our second or third choice class...

I was tired yesterday and that made answering some of the same questions over and over even more difficult. "Mommy, what would the small airport people say if a big plane tried to land at their small airport?" We've been discussing plane and airport size for about a week and I blame The Pocket Physicist for starting it by pointing out a small airport on one of his drives...

I consider myself an open person. I'm outgoing and generally happy to talk about almost anything with people I've just met. There are, however, many conversations I don't want to have with my children. I'm sure that some of them are unavoidable, but I am trying hard to delay them. The one I have recently had to work to avoid has been menstruation. I'm pretty sure that I didn't learn about it when I was three...