Better Off Then Their Parents

The other day (before Christmas) I heard one of the Kardashians or some other person who is famous for being famous say something like that. But, the way she said it was like she wanted her kid to HAVE more then she has or had. I don't think that is the true meaning of the quote. And it sure isn't what I want for my kids.

Let me tell you about my first Christmas. The first one I remember, anyway.

I was around six years old. I did not get up early as a child and my stepmother, Beth woke me up. Or rather she bellowed from the living room for me to come out of my room. I was groggy and slightly confused. I remember walking down the hall, rubbing my eyes and suddenly my father was yelling at me. Yelling that I did not appreciate all that he did for me and that I needed to get back to my room and "DON'T COME OUT TILL YOU CAN SHOW SOME APPRECIATION!"

The following year there is a picture of me holding my hand to my chest gasping. I can see that picture in my minds eye as clear as if it were taken yesterday. I remember not seeing anything that morning, as I was just as groggy as the prior year. I surely was not going to get yelled at the same way I did last year. So I faked it.

As a child I walked on egg shells. I was always worried about getting yelled at or worse.

As a parent I try so hard to have patience. I am working daily on it.


I want my kids to have more then I had as a child. Not more stuff. Not more possessions. I want them to have more love, more understanding, more respect! I don't want them to have to experience a lot of the things I experienced and know they could careless about the material things, at least right now anyway.

Christmas "Presents"?

Leni (our Christmas puppy) has been doing great with going pee outside, but we are having a difficult time teaching her to poop outside.

Today I was telling Julie about how I found Leni sleeping in the girls room hours earlier and Avery chimed in with, "And I saw POOP!" I said, "What? You saw poop in your room?" "Avery, you have to tell us these things!" Sure enough there was puppy poop behind the chair in their room.

Not to be to graphic, but the puppy's poop is really small and doesn't smell...from a distance...

The second night we had Leni she slept through the night and woke me up at 5 am. I took her out so she could do her business. She peed. I brought her back in and put her back in her bed in the bathroom. She started wining and crying so I figured I would let her run free for the next hour seeing as how she had already peed. Then Avery got up at 6. Usually she gets in bead with us, but the puppy was running around so she wanted to play with her. I said sure. (I just wanted like 30 more minutes!) I feel back to sleep and woke up about 45 mins later to Avery hading me something and asking what it was? It felt like play-dough and it was dark. It was also dark in the room so I could not really see....I wasn't sure so I smelled it. It was puppy poop!!! I began to have a visceral reaction complete with gagging as I am trying to get out of bed to fix the horrific situation. Julie in a huff gets out of bed saying "don't be so dramatic." as she stomps off to the bathroom to get TP.

I laugh whenever I think about this cause Julie's reaction was hilarious!

Christmas Chaos and Puppies

We have a dog named Cooper, aka Pooper as the girls call him. He had a big sister and since she has been gone he has been lonely. I wanted to get him a companion but I really wanted to get him a dog younger then him, but already an adult. Julie REALLY wanted a puppy. She has a friend at work that has dachshunds who had a litter. The dad was cream like Cooper. I said if any of the puppies are cream we will get one. Lucky for me none of them were. Then they had another litter. This litter was born on October 31st AND there was a cream one born... I was doomed. Oh, and they would be available (be 8 wks old) on Christmas Eve... HELLO? How could I say no???

I picked her up Christmas Eve and brought her home. Julie told the girls that Santa had left them a package on the front steps early cause he couldn't travel with it. Her name is Leni, and I think she is going to be much more red then Cooper. Oh well.

Here is a video of the girls when they met Leni. Avery says, "I have two puppies mommy!" so cute!

As far as puppies go she has been pretty darn good. The first night she cried the whole night....it was complete torture! Then the next night she slept through the night. Since then she sleeps through the night I take her out to pee at 5am then bring her in and she goes back to sleep with us on our bed.

Christmas Eve (while I was picking Leni up) Julie, Nana and the LGs made cookies for Santa.

When we got up we made cinnamon rolls and tried to get the girls to open their stockings first. They were not interested in them they wanted to open the big presents. When we finally got to them Emerson was like an Elf in reverse. Nana called it assembly line gift opening. She would meticulously open a present look at it sit it aside and get the next present. It took a few presents to get through to her to let me read the tag FIRST! Avery opened a few presents then seemed to get a little overwhelmed and started playing with toys as Emerson opened them. For Emerson I think it was that she just HAD to know what the heck we were hiding under the paper. So she needed ALL the presents to reveal themselves before she could play with ANYthing.

There was one present they both asked Santa for when we went to visit him. They refused to sit on his lap so they stood about 3 feet in front of him and told him they wanted a Bullseye and a Stinky Pete. I got them the Bullseye, but they no longer make Stinky Pete. When Emerson got to that present from Santa she was ecstatic! Every yelled, "Where's Stinky Pete" DUH!!!

When the last present was opened Avery said, "all DONE!" walked around the christmas tree and turned the lights off on the tree. Talk about a kill-joy!

Short Order Cook?

I always said I would never be one of "those moms". You know the ones. They make a meal for the grown-up and then a meal for little Timmy, cause he doesn't like green beans. Another meal for Jessica, cause she only eats white food. By the time mom actually sits down to eat her meal is cold and she is alone at the table.

Not only is this bad for the kids because it is teaching them that if they complain enough about something mom will fix it. It just reinforces bad behavior. My other issue with it is that it limits the kids palette. I love food and want my kids to love food like I do. If they are only exposed to foods they "think" they like then they will never get to enjoy all the flavors that different cultures have to offer. Oh and Im kind of lazy and selfish. I dont want to make 3 different meals and I want to eat with my family at meal time. (btw, that last sentence was a joke/sarcasm.)

This morning however I was one of them. I now can see how it can happen. It started innocently enough. I heated up some of our dinner from last night to give the girls for breakfast this morning. (It was this breakfast bake I make that is yummy) Emerson and Avery really had no idea I was doing that. Emerson came running in the kitchen and excitedly asked for oatmeal. I told her I was heating up some of the dinner from last night and she melted down. Suddenly in my head, I am justifying making her the oatmeal. "I should have given them a choice, cause I rarely give them choices for breakfast or at meal time period. It's not that big of a deal to make some oatmeal..." so I made the oatmeal. She happily ran into the other room with it. Then Avery came in. "I want cereal, mama." "um..ok..." so I made her cereal. Again my justification was the same as before with the added, "I gave Emerson what she wanted I cant NOT give Avery what she requested."

Guess what happened next? Emerson came running into the kitchen asking for cereal... yes, in the end they both ended up eating cold cereal for breakfast and I made 3 yes THREE different breakfasts.

What did I learn today?
I need to start giving them more choices for the good stuff too. I tend to give choices for the bad stuff and that works, but they need to be able to make choices for the good stuff as well. "Those Moms" are all of us. It can happen to anyone, innocently enough.