Rambling Fool

Grossness warning: I didn't get to shower today, so I'm hurrying up this post to get that taken care of. I'm just gonna list a few things I was thinking of.

First of all, apparently I need to whine more often in my posts. You guys really came through for me on the comments! Heehee. Thanks you guys for all the love! I'm hanging in there!

Baby Bear's tooth has a buddy now. Its match has ever-so-slightly popped through the gum. She actually did a smidge of damage nursing tonight, but nothing major. Yet...

I finally removed the gate leading up the stairs yesterday. We could have done it a long time ago, but were too lazy to commit to giving the boys freedom to roam the entire house. I did go up and down the stairs a lot more often yesterday, to help them with things and make sure they were following their upstairs rules. I think we'll have to install a crazy-long extension to the light pull in the middle of their room. It's the only way to light the room, and it'd be great if they could take care of that themselves.

I booked our Orlando vacation yesterday as well. When Daddy gets home we are spending a few nights at the Nickelodeon resort there. We're staying in a Spongebob suite, and the boys will have their own twin beds. I hope we get to use the cool water park and entertainment and stuff there. We'll also be spending one day at Disney. Hopefully it'll be an exciting but relaxing time, as I think we all dream our vacations will be.

The boys skipped their naps today because Bubby had difficulty with his lunch. Part of their well-balanced (I specify because it's not often I pull that off, and I was proud of their lunches today) meal was broccoli. I try to continue to offer them veggies, knowing full well they won't touch it. I also had some yummy yogurt for them, which they were given to eat once they swallowed the minuscule grain of broccoli I broke off for them. Popo managed to comply and ate his yogurt all up. Bubby couldn't swallow it. He eventually gave up on the yogurt, wasn't phased by everyone else finishing up and leaving the room, wasn't motivated by Spongebob in the living room (I turned it on specifically to lure him), and didn't mind sitting in his chair for AN HOUR all by himself. I checked on him regularly and tried to give him advice on getting it down, pulled the whole "I love you and I want you to be big and strong, and you have to swallow this broccoli so it will go down in your tummy and make you a big, strong boy" thing, tried to force him to keep it on his tongue (he was storing it between his teeth and lip), was sweet to him, stern with him, and everything in between. I was praying so hard that I'd know what to do. I eventually got a smidge of bread and buried the broccoli in it. He watched and then I cheered him on to chew it up quickly and force it down. It worked, but I'm totally unclear on whether I accomplished anything.

So that took lunch way into their naptime and I decided to let it go.

It's really frustrating to sometimes feel like I have to choose between two extremes when it comes to these food issues. On the one hand, there's the argument that they have to be obedient, no matter the topic. In my impatient state lately, this is the extreme I'm tending towards. So if I tell them they have to eat x amount of carrot, they have to eat x amount of carrot. On the other hand, I'm bombarded with junk about not making mealtime a battle because the kids will be permanently traumatized by it and have eating disorders as they grow up. I usually feel like we're in the safe gray area with our general policy of "they'll eat if they're hungry", mixed in with a little deceptive veggie concealment. But sometimes I get sick of tiptoeing around the table.

Okay, that's off my chest... So much for a quick run-down.

We did some tracing, coloring, and pasting practice today. Things are improving on all fronts. Popo is really taking off with the tracing. He's holding the crayon correctly with no prompting from me. I usually have to remind them how fairly often, but he ran with it. Bubby wasn't as on it today, and I think I bugged him too much. I tried to back off him the rest of the day because I think I caught a sign of stress on his face about the whole thing.

Oh, Brandon: I'm not sure I'll remember to tell you this. Out of the blue while we were singing Wheels on the Bus at bedtime, Popo had a crazy memory flash and was telling me about how we sang that song when we were waiting at Tire Kingdom last year. I don't even remember singing it then! He explained to me about the cars being up in the air and they were fixing the wheels so they could go on the road and stuff. I found it somewhat disturbing.

They are really absorbing the dentist information. We got The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist at the library yesterday and they really seem to get it. And today we made some cool mouths with torn-paper teeth and when I was explaining how if I was a dentist, I'd want to look close at those teeth to make sure they were healthy, blah, blah, and they ran with it, telling me what a dentist is, about his chair, his mirror to see the back of their teeth, etc. They think it's pretty cool. Hopefully they'll keep that outlook when we go for their first visit on Monday.

Okay, apparently I could ramble on forever, so I'll cut myself off here. We expect to get out of the house tomorrow, yay!