New Look

Thought it was time to update the blog look and address. The old one was hard for people to remember and really only had meaning to me. This new address should be easier to remember!

If you don't have kids...

I love reading other blogs, especially ones that get quoted by a major news outlet in an article. The other day I came across a blog I enjoyed and I read 4 pages worth of the writings. Until I came to an entry bashing parents who don't control their children or keep them quiet. This blog author was most likely late 20s by the nature of his writing and obviously not a parent. His blog focused on the restaurant industry.

Now that I've set up the back story, here's what offended me. He's pissed off about people who can't control their children: in restaurants, on airplanes, at the store, in public in general. I understand getting annoyed with unruly children and parents who are doing nothing to stop it, that I get. What this blog author failed to understand is that there is a difference between parents who don't attempt to create order with their children, and times when despite best efforts there's nothing that can be done. If our children get too much to handle at a restaurant, we leave. If they act out in the middle of a shopping trip, we leave. We do something about it whenever we can. I'm not about to let my children run around without supervision or some modicum of control.

But...as in every situation, there is another side...there are times when children don't listen and there's nothing as a parent you can do about it. It's inevitable that as a parent you will someday find yourself in a situation where there is nothing you can do to calm or comfort you child and they throw some sort of fit. For example, our recent trip home from Arizona on the plane. We tried to plan flight times so that Evie and Lex slept a majority of the flight and didn't bother anyone, but the plan back fired on us. Evie was so far past when she should have napped that she screamed inconsolably for 15 mins on the plane before we even took off. It's not like Shaun or I did nothing to try to sooth and quite her, and we couldn't have just gotten up and off the plane for the sake of not subjegating the other passangers to her screams. Is it right to sit and judge a parent in that position? How about being a compassionate passanger and offering to help when you see a parent struggle? The flight attendants on this trip were amazingly helpful and understanding, but I wonder how many other passangers were judging us as this blog author apparently does?

There are other situations where I would also cut the parent of an unruly child some slack as well. Next time you see a screaming, tantrum throwing child in a store with one parent try to consider that perhaps they have limited access to go grocery shopping and this is it. If they took their child and left without finishing the shopping they'd be without food until the next trip to the store. Those kinds of trips to the store happen to me when Shaun is out of town and I'm hauling two kids under 16 months old around with me. Thankfully I haven't had to deal with melt downs during them, but I would need to keep shopping if it happened. It's hard being outside of the situation to really know what's going on. So, what I guess I'm getting at is - unless you've been there, don't judge.

(disclaimer: this does not include parents who do nothing to stop their kids from running around, knocking stuff of shelves, bumping into other people, eating unpaid for food at the grocery store, etc. It's about the parents who do try but are in situations that can't be controlled).

I'm stuck

I was all ready to post video from Christmas for my next entry but we left the video camera at my dad's yesterday. Bummer. So you're stuck with a written post from me :)

Evie's newest word is "stuck". This simple word has become enormously helpful as the screeching noise she made whenever she got stuck was...annoying...to put it nicely. Now she'll push around her new baby stroller until she gets tangled up in a blanket, or caught on Lex's swing, and simply say that she's stuck. It's her way of asking us to help her move without the screeching noise resembling nails on a chalkboard.

Christmas was a hectic, but fun holiday this year. Evie learned how to open presents on her own and was more interested in the festivities then last year. It was exciting to see her run around with her cousins (second cousins or first cousins once removed - how does that naming of cousins work?). I think the kids' toys have officially outgrown our house. Don't know how we're going to stock toys if we're stilling living here when their birthdays come around!

We had originally planned to head up north today for some fun in the snow, but everyone in the house is sick in some form or another. Anything from runny noses to throwing up. Maybe if we're feeling better tomorrow we can find a local hill to go sledding!

Merry Christmas

What the title says :)

It has been a busy, busy fun week so far. I will update more when we have a lull in the running around. Evie is finally getting the hang of this opening presents thing and loves it!

Wordless Wednesday: Pigtails and presents

Head holdin

In my attempt to get a photo of Lex and Evie together I managed to find out Lex can push his upper body up with his head and hold it for a good 2 minutes or more.

Words and Communication

I've been amazed with how much Evie talks. It's wonderful and I really feel she's starting to communicate. She'll come over to me and tell me when she's hungry by saying and signing 'eat'. She lets me know when she wants more, is all done, wants up or down, etc. Less and less guess work is involved in meeting her needs. I decided to put together a list of her frequently used words. I've included animal noises too. There are other words she has said too, but they're infrequent or used inappropriately. I think there are more that I'm forgetting at the moment too. Some of the words random strangers probably wouldn't understand her saying because she butchers the word a bit, but they're all said effectively enough for me, Shaun and those who are around her often to understand.

1 Me
2 Daddy
3 Mama
4 Lex
5 Nana
6 Papa
7 Up
8 Down
9 No (her favorite word :)
10 Eat (with sign)
11 Ta da
12 Touch down (Daddy's influence at work here)
13 Bear
14 Ball
15 Book
16 Baby
17 Hi
18 Bye
19 Hello
20 Duck
21 Meow
22 Woof
23 Cluck
24 Neigh
25 Puppy
26 Baa
27 Night
28 Toodles (a character on MM Clubhouse)
29 Mickey
30 All done (with sign)
31 Elmo
32 Box (more frequent with wrapped Christmas gifts sitting out)
33 Please (lots of spit with this one, lol)
34 Eye
35 Ear
36 Nose
37 Wow
38 Pretty
39 John (how could I forget this one?)
40 Ho ho ho
41 Bonk
42 Stuck

*I keep adding more as I remember them.

Wordless Wednesday: Santa

A holiday tradition

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