Pushing Excuses

I'm able to attest to the fact that some behaviors (such as pushing and hitting) must be nature, not nurture. Despite my best parenting attempts, my kids often are use brute force to express themselves, and sometimes, I'm not even sure they're expressing any deep emotions or opinions, but maybe just knowing how good it feels to have some power.

At any rate, I've heard some fabulous excuses this weekend for pushing.

Yesterday, Brooklyn pushed Ty and said: "I wasn't pushing him, I just went through him!" She was emphatic about the difference and positive that her argument was sound.

Today, Ty was standing at the top of the stairs with Sadie and pushed her. I'm seriously paranoid about one of the kids getting pushed down my long flight of hardwood stairs, so I immediately reprimanded him. He then replied, "I wasn't pushing her, I was strapping a rocket on her back". Seriously? He almost had to be to come up with something so creative.

At least Ty and Brooklyn make excuses, trying to cover up misdeeds. Sadie, on the other hand, is 23 1/2 pounds of pure attitude. She pushes everyone, including Jake and I, much more often than any of the other kids. She doesn't make excuses, she never denies it, but confesses as if she were fully justified. What's a mom to do? I'm thinking about pushing back a bit!

Useful Information

For those of you who live here in Milwaukee, be it known that not making a full and complete stop when turning right at a red light WILL get you pulled over. I learned so last night. I was lost, trying to get to a restaurant in the Third Ward. The officer was at the intersection, I totally saw him; but I didn't think about making a rolling stop to turn right at the light. I was lost, and more focused on looking at street signs and figuring out where to go than making a complete stop. Honestly, when those lights started flashing in my rear view, I didn't even know why I was getting pulled over. Fortunately, the office was very kind; offered me only a warning and gave even me directions (then followed me most of the way there, I don't know if he was concerned about me or just checking my story). He simply asked why I did what I did, I tried my best to look pathetic and lost (sticking out my pregnant belly as much as possible). Off the hook! (And no ladies, I didn't even have to resort to crying) Drivers beware and be careful!

Like Mother, Like Daughter, and so it goes

I've been a rotten blogger lately, but I did want to post something of note that made me laugh. Brooklyn's b-day was a few weeks ago; and she was supposed to take birthday treats to her school class. After contemplating letting the grocery store bakery make our goodies for me, I guilted myself into feeling like a "good mom" would make homemade goodies. So, I referred to one of my wonderful friends (Google) to try to come up with some fun, simple cupcake ideas. I won't go into boring details, but I spent way too much valuable time planning cupcakes for a 5-year old to take to Junior Kindergarten. After I completed my cupcakes (which did end up being adorable (and very simple) thanks to butterfly shaped gummies that I found at my local grocery), I called my Mom to tell her. After all, I remember when I was young, my mom often stressed about what for me to take to my class (yes, I remember this, maybe it had something to do with having a birthday 5 days before Christmas). Anyway, I related to her how funny I thought it was that she always stressed about silly b-day treats; and now I was stressing. She then related to me a story about my Grandma's mother, regarding the same thing. As the story goes, my great-grandma was up all night, burning batch after batch of candies on a wood stove for my grandma to take to her school class. It's hilarious to me to see the commonalities of women of all generations. Gluttons for punishment we are, and it's apparently either genetic or a trait that follow the female sex in general. Next time I pull an all-nighter for the sake of being a "good" mom/wife/friend/church member/nut case/perfectionist/over-achiever; I will remember that I am in good company and that it's nothing new!

I'm ALIVE!!!

As you can see from my cute little counter there on the right, I am 27 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I'll leave that as my number one excuse for not blogging. We're all doing pretty well. October was a rough month, I just couldn't keep my family healthy. I'm hoping maybe we've got some credit earned for future illness this winter. (With Brooklyn in her first year of school, I'm afraid not). The kids enjoyed Halloween, and I'm now devising a way to toss out some candy without someone taking note. I am really good at making my kids limit their candy intake, it's ME that's the problem. "Oh, I'm pregnant...I need the extra calories...I worked out today...I'm feeling stressed today, I deserve it!" I try to remind myself that delivering this baby isn't going to do anything for my hips and thighs. At any rate, the candy has to go before the Christmas treats start rolling in.
I will post pictures later (of the kids, not the hips; it was enough the my sister in law posted SWIMSUIT photos of me on Facebook last month...I'm still thinking of how to return the favor...it's pretty hard to match pregnant AND swimsuit)

Getting OLD

This weekend, when we were celebrating Brooklyn and Jake's birthdays, Brooklyn was very excited about "being bigger" and growing up. All day, she was sure that she had acquired new skills, talents, and abilities by becoming 5. She asked Jake how old he was, and he told her. She then counted to 30, and said, "Wow! You went all the way through all of your twenties!" Ironically, I am 10 months OLDER than Jake, but I had a lot of fun teasing him about being "OLD". I'm comfortable in my old skin; I have so much more confidence now than I did way back when. (Also, last year, the day before my birthday I had a miscarriage, so I kinda worked my way out of old jokes). Anyway, Happy Birthday Jake!