Constant Never Ending Busy

I am well aware that life is a busy creature, and for us we are always operating at a steady state of Busy.

But lately, I have been finding myself on this cycle of Constant Never Ending Busy. 

Between my “real” job, my “fun” jewelry selling job, being a mom and a wife, managing the schedules of myself, mike, and Gianna and attempting to enjoy this gloriously hot summer with friends and family – on an average week 6 our of 7 days/nights involve something on the schedule.

It’s not all “work” related stuff keeping us on our toes and our google calendar on overdrive, but even the fun stuff still gets to be a lot to keep track of!

I feel like I am slacking on my communications with friends (sometimes I can’t even get an email written!), keeping up with the house and laundry, etc. is hit or miss and our yard/”flower beds” are a hot mess. 

But most importantly, and the thing that is really getting to me this week, is how much I miss my family.  I miss my girl, I DESPISE the fact that the majority of our family spends more hours with her a week than I do (I’m thankful for them, don’t get me wrong, but I want to be the mommy!). The past few days I’ve just wanted nothing more than to snuggle the crap out of her for hours and hours.  I miss my husband too, and he has been an exceptional SAHD these days.

I know the next 3 months are going to be more of the same GO GO GO YOU”RELATE type of deal, but we do have a family vacation thrown in there and I am holding on to that with all I have.  A break from this Constant Never Ending Busy right in the middle of The Happiest Place on Earth with my 2 favorite people in the world sounds like pure bliss right now.  (Next to sinking my ass in the sand and my toes in an ocean somewhere for a few days).

Some days I just need to get the frustration that comes with this hectic life off my chest and be a little jealous of people who don’t have calendars overflowing with STUFF TO DO.

But I know I would be pretty bored and a little lost without a calendar overflowing with stuff to keep me on my toes, I just need to work on keeping the balance along with the constant ebbs and flows of our schedules.

Tales of Threenager Angst and Woe

It is NO FREAKING JOKE when someone tells you – two is easy, JUST WAIT until your child turns 3, it’s a sort of hilarious, but a lot of crazy frustrating testing of patience, wine (or beer) tasting, and self control.

Gianna is 3 years and 2 months old. And while she is seriously adorable, funny, sweet and caring – she is also stubborn, independent, and full of attitude. And tears.

We have entered the stage (I am PRAYING it is just a stage) of crying over everything and nothing at the same time. And NO. And SCREAMING. And I will exert my attitude and my ability to push all of the buttons you didn’t even know you had.

Our main “issues” right now are:

• Combating the No. She says NO. Or I’m NOT doin’ that. Or any version of a negative statement that you can think of.  We always try to redirect her statements to something positive, but typically the NO is accompanied by the stink eye and a string of either tears or whining or both.
• Combating the blatant not listening.  It’s funny to me how someone so (seemingly) young can have fine tuned her talents of selective listening so well.  Gianna, pick up your toys. :: Gianna continues about whatever it is she is doing like not even the wind blew::  Gianna, do you want some chocolate? ::Gianna runs like the wind to wherever you are before you can finish the word chocolate::
• Combating the general attitude.  She can turn on the attitude like a well seasoned sixteen year old girl. I don’t know how she does it. But I wish it would stop. At least for a few more years. We do redirect her “I can’t” statements and we do not budge on her having to use her manners when asking for something.  She likes to just demand things – that at least, has been decreasing because both Mike and I are pretty hard core on her having to say please/thank you/may I have etc.
• Combating the “I’m scared”. This has been a recent development.  She is “scared” of everything. Especially the dark, apparently.  She used to be SUCH an easy kid to put to bed. The last week-ish? Has SUCKED HARD. She freaks out, doesn’t want to be in the dark, doesn’t want to be in her bed, anything she can think of to not go to sleep.  It is exhausting. And I hate ending the day on such a frustrating note.

But things aren’t all woe is me, I have a threenager.  She has a lot of threenage angst some days. “Why can’t I play wif some friends today?” “I fink you should call “livia’s mommy so she can spend the night” “I’m bored”, “I NEED (insert some ridiculous request here)” followed by “I just never get ANYTHING I want”. And my all time favorite phrase “I don’t like lunch. I don’t want ANY thing.  But I would like a snacky”  (she still eats like a junk-food obsessed bird, it is what is is, but still annoying as hell).

She is keeping us on our toes and our patience on edge, but she also keeps us laughing.  And I am so thankful for that!

Also, I will note that apparently all I needed to do was write a post about how she didn’t want to take a crap in the toilet. Because seriously, that day, she started doing it and she has been rocking out her new found potty-independence since. So thanks for whatever potty-whispering magic you all poured into my comments that day!  It does make me really proud of her, and I know she is proud of herself.

Wordless Wednesday

Gianna on a boat!

about the whole potty training gig

Gianna was not going to budge on the whole potty training issue, so we had to make a parental strategic move.

So we took the diapers (and her night time binkie’s) away from Gianna over memorial day weekend.  (really, we had her gift them to her soon-to-be-born baby cousin, Luci.  it worked PERFECTLY!)

the first morning was pretty rough, but really after that it wasn’t so difficult.  We knew that she could do it, she just had to be forced into it.

she’s even dry at night – which, awesome!

EXCEPT (there’s always an except, isn’t there?)

this girl is the stealthiest pooper in the world.

who happens to not enjoy doing her stealthy pooping on the toilet.

which is frustrating as hell.

she’s not motivated by reward. or by punishment. or by the fact that all her friends do it. or stickers. or candy. or having to clean up her mess. or sit in it. or anything at all, quite honestly. so all of our attempts to buy her ANYTHING SHE WANTS or give her ALL THE CHOCOLATE or whatever if she will just poop in the damn toilet – they don’t work.

she HAS done it successfully once for sure, possibly twice. she is also a quick-draw with the toilet flusher, so we didn’t visualize the evidence when she said she want the other day. so I am only half counting it.  But regardless, she knows where/when/how to accomplish this task on her own. She just doesn’t appear to be interested in that.

so, I guess here’s what I need to know -

a) that it will all be okay sooner than later

b) if anyone has some seriously genius ass-vice on how to get her to do her shit (ha!) in the appropriate receptacle.

Overall, I count her potty trained, if we can get this little “issue” under control – we will be good as gold.

so, HALP?!!

sunday night ramblings

because I am totally incapable of putting together a full blog post these days (I have about 10 half written ones in my drafts folder) bullet points it is today, per my usual.

• it was exceptionally nice here this weekend.  Despite some major meltdowns from the threenager ruling the house on saturday morning, we ended up having a great weekend in the sun.
• gianna went on a boat AND tubing for the first time on saturday. it was freaking adorable.
• we are busily preparing for our first dance recital experience this week.  the studio G goes to holds about eleventymillion practices plus the dress rehearsal and recital.  it’s been a little nuts, but I’m excited for friday!
• I am heading to DC and Dallas in a month, alone. it is going to be strange being away from my family for a whole week.
• it really is true when they say “it takes a village to raise a child” – without our parents and my sisters – mike and I really would not be able to work like we do and it’s really awesome the relationships G is building with her family.
• why do the projects and to-do lists around the house never seem to get any shorter?
• also, the pile of laundry never seems to go away either.  where is that laundry fairy?
• probably hiding with the bathroom-floor cleaning fairy, huh?
• I got my haircut and my eyebrows tamed yesterday – I really like my new ‘do!
• see how totally lame this post is? THIS is why I can’t finish a “true” post – my attention span is about to negative proportions right now.
• so anyway, since I suck at reading blogs and catching up with everyone – leave me a comment and say hey! please : )

wordless Wednesday

Must be summer time!

You know there’s a toddler in the house when:

• you find yourself ending every word with the “e” sound – as in, shoe-e, toes-e, feet-e
• that doesn’t happen in every house? Hmm….
• you find yourself overjoyed when your dinner is interrupted by a phone call about how your kid POOPED IN THE TOILET!
• then you wonder what happened in your life that you got excited over a phone call about how your kid POOPED IN THE TOILET!
• It is clearly potty training time when pretty much all conversations, regardless of who they are with, involve the words “poop” “pee” “underwear” and “potty”.
• There are constantly stickers stuck in the most random places
• There are also toys placed in the most random places. That MUST NEVER BE MOVED because they are there for specific reasons. Clearly.
• You count to 3 many many times a day. Maybe it has to do with motivating the toddler to do something, or maybe it has to do with making sure the mommy doesn’t lose her shit.
• you call every meal a snack just so she will eat something
• There is a lot of laughing. Because toddlers are ZOMG Hilarious.
• They are also ZOMG opinionated, so you know, there’s THAT whole battle.   But it’s kind of a cool one to have – and I’m the mom so I always win. ya, I didn’t think so.
• You deem a “meal” applesauce and goldfish crackers. Because that is all she will eat. Unless there are cookies, then she will eat those too even if she is “not hungry anymooooore mommy”
• Said toddler REFUSES to leave the house in anything but the clothes she chooses, who cares what the weather is like or if they match. And you let her, because at least she has clothes on.
• Also, I don’t know if I can even call her a toddler anymore.  There is no “toddle” about Miss G – but I can’t bring myself to call her a preschooler yet. Not until September, anyway.