Our "You Ate My Scriptures!" Moment

Background: When my oldest nephew was about 4, he came up to his dad with his hands cupped over nothing. He was pretending. He asked, "What do you think I have in my hands?" His dad reached out and pretended to picked up something and popped it in his mouth. His son immediately began crying and said "You ate my scriptures!"

Last night, my girls were pretending in the kitchen. Angela was playing with things when she brought out her hands as if she was carrying something. Jamie reached out and "grabbed" it and carried "it" off. Angela started crying. Daddy got in on it and tried to take it back and give it back to Angela. All this is pretend. Jamie through herself on the floor because Daddy had taken the pie away. We couldn't help but laugh. All this was because of an imaginary pie.

Another attack of the scissors

Jamie is making a habit of this. Grandma let her use children's scissors to cut up paper. Supervised the whole time, until that brief moment that she walked out of the room. She came back to see Angela with locks of hair missing from above both ears and Jamie clutching something tightly in her hand. Jamie dodged around Grandma and dumped the hair into the box that held all the cut up paper.

Angela wasn't in need of a haircut yet. She hadn't had even a trim up to this point. Maybe we need to give Jamie some lessons.

"No" "Way"

"No", said Jamie.
"Way", added Angela.
"No", said Jamie a little more forcefully.
"Way", added Angela.
Jamie almost starts crying. She's yelling "No" now.
Angela continues to add "Way".

This went on for a little while until I stopped Jamie and told her that Angela was just helping her say "No" because Angela thinks "No" should be said "No way".

Scissors

We just had a major attack of the scissors in our house. Jamie got a hold of some kitchen shears - you know, the ones usually used to cut chicken bones and stuff like that - and did a nice little crew cut to the front of her hair. For the short time she had them, she did quite a bit of damage. What makes this even more amazing is that these shears are the very tight and hard to use. We've put WD-40 on the hinge but it still doesn't loosen up. Jamie was able to use them, probably two-handed.

I think this makes the third scissor attack in Jamie's life.

Oh well. That is life. Now if we can keep Angela from repeating this, we'll count ourselves lucky.

How Much is a Good Night's Sleep Worth????

Exactly $.25. That is how much we are paying our 4-year-old to sleep in her own bed.

She got in the habit of sleeping with us during her worst eczema flare-ups. They lasted for quite a while and were so bad that she would wake up crying in the middle of the night. Of course, she would scratch and scratch, making it hurt worse. So she ended up in our bed with us holding on to her hands while she would scream and cry and thrash about until she finally fell asleep.

I guess the comfort of sleeping with us kept her asleep so we let her continue doing it until the flare-ups died off. Then she would still come wandering in during the night. We would be so tired that sometimes we weren't aware she was there.

We started putting her on the floor on a sleeping bag. She would sleep longer but would eventually end up in bed with us.

Then, one day, she saw some quarters Alphy had. "Can I have those?" Jamie asked.

"Only if you sleep in your own bed. You'll get one a night."

"OK."

Since she has slept in her own bed, I sleep better. Alphy sleeps better and Angela sleeps better. Angela used to get up in the middle of the night. She hated going to sleep too. We'd find her asleep in the rocking chair because she would come to the door and cry until she knew we weren't coming. Then she'd crawl up on the rocking chair and fall asleep.

Now that Jamie is in there all the time, Angela crawls in bed with Jamie. I think that keeps them both asleep. They need the comfort of somebody there.

So, yes, I'll keep paying a quarter a night, for as long as it takes. I really enjoy the sleep!

Realistic Exercise for Moms

Every time I pick up a Parenting magazine or one about pregnancy, usually at the pediatrician's office or the OBGYN office, I see an article about how to regain that pre-pregnancy body without going to the gym. I hate those things. The exercises they recommend tend to be just a little too complicated. Plus, they always show someone in sports clothing who is already in shape. It just doesn't seem very realistic, especially the exercises you are supposed to do when out and about with a stroller.

As I've never been in to exercise that much, not the formal "now lift your arms out from your body..." type exercise, I would like to propose some realistic exercise that most mothers could do when they are out with their kids.

• Push the stroller with the child in it. Not only will you be walking, you will get some resistance training from the stroller. You should be able to do this shortly after leaving the hospital.


• Once you are comfortable with step 1 and can make it to the park from your house, if it is in walking distance, or around the park on the sidewalk if you have to drive there, move on to this step to increase resistance: Start pushing the stroller through the grass or wood chips or whatever is available. You'd be amazed at what muscle groups are used to do this.

NOTE: If you have more than one child or if you can borrow more children by babysitting or play groups or whatever, you can get ever more out of steps 1 & 2 by using a double stroller. Load up on the older, heavier children and get even more benefit.

• Have you ever gotten on the swings and swung for a while. (Swing/swang/swung/have swung, etc. I don't know which is correct) Swinging in the swings is great for the abs and the legs. But keep an eye on your kids.


• A variation on the above I discovered just today, place a toddler on your lap as you swing. You have to swing only with your legs because you are holding on to the child. Your legs get quite the workout.


• Chase your kids in games of tag. Great aerobic exercise.


• Weight lift using your kids as the weights when they are able to hold their head up by themselves. Side benefits of this includes, your weights are growing as your ability to lift them grows. Or your ability to lift them will grow as they grow. Sometimes their weight gains may outstrip your abilities for a while but since you gotta lift them, you'll catch up.
  

Good luck and get out there and lose that baby weight.

Okay, I give up...

My sisters have been at me forever to get more updates on my family and how we are doing. I have another blog that I am using as a semi-professional blog so family updates (and updates in general) are few and far between.

Here you go Jessalee. Give me time to learn how to get pictures etc. posted but I will post updates here a little more often.