Starting Dance

Debbie has started dance class!! It's a new feeling for me, dropping her off with strangers, trusting them with her care. Good thing it's only for one hour!

And it's off

Well, Isaac's having none of it and I'm not in a mood to fight him, so potty-training is going to have to wait. grrrr

It's that time again?

Today I am going to potty-train Isaac.

I'm terrified.

I think Debbie scarred me... and it's not even necessarily her fault. She's my first and I know I made many, many mistakes.

So here we are, I'm going to attempt this with my second child not even 9 months after the first.

I keep thinking how fantastic it would be if Cosette decided she wanted to jump on 'the train' and I could get a two-fer. But I'm not that naive, I do realize that's only in my dreams (she is only 18 months old after all.). *sigh*

Playin' in the mud

Oh how we love a good mud puddle!

Grammar

One of my most favorite exchanges between Isaac and Chad:

Isaac: "Daddy, I are poopy."

Chad: "No Isaac, it's I AM poopy."

Isaac: "Oh... You am poopy?"

Debbie

I've been stuggling with my relationship with Debbie. I feel like I'm fighting with her all day long and she's unhappy and I'm unhappy. I worry about her because she's so easily influenced by those around her. She is more likely to disobey me to listen to her friends than to turn her friends down to obey her mother. I've been stressing about this for a while now and as I was laying in bed tonight trying to get to sleep I had a realization... If she's that easily influenced by her friends then maybe I'll have a chance of getting through to her if I'm her friend too. I don't play with her near enough and I feel overwhelmed so often that I don't spend much positive time with her. So, while I try to praise her and tell her that I love her often, I am still giving her more negative attention than positive attention. My goal now is to spend time doing things with her that we both enjoy. I'm going to try to read to her everyday and find other things that we both enjoy. She enjoys playing princess and dress up and pretend, but I seriously have nothing to offer her in that department, so when I try I end up bored and irritated. I've really felt bad about this in the past but tonight I realized that it's okay that I don't enjoy that, I can color with her and read with her and do whatever else we have in common. I want to love her and enjoy her company, and in order to do that I need to spend some good time with her. And by golly, I'm the mother and it's my job to love her when it's the most difficult to love her so I need to get my act together and work harder at proving to her that I love her! And maybe if she feels secure in my love then the negative behavior will lesson a bit and it won't be so hard to want to be around her. Here's hoping I can change for her. Debbie showing off her snails that "the nice boy" (a little neighbor boy) caught for her. And yes, she put them in her princess purse. She's frilly but surprisingly not prissy. She's not afraid to get dirty and doesn't think twice about playing with worms and keeping pet snails, but at the same time wants to wear her princess dresses ALL day long!