My Kids Are Featherless Birds

I got crafty last month.  I saw these wings a few months ago at Ordinary Time, and decided I wanted to make them for my girls.  I didn't do it right away but started earlier this year.  I finished them a little while ago and was quite pleased with the results.

My hubs suggested adding the streamers on the bottom, and I think it makes it that much more fun.  And actually, they differ a fair bit from the original original design, which is found here at All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go.

Abby and Leigh had been playing Baby Bird quite a bit lately, making nests from blankets and pretending to hatch and be a baby bird.  So I figured that they would love these wings and had visions of them wearing them constantly and flapping their way through life.

Turns out reality is not so much what I though it would be. They refuse to wear them.  I think we managed to get Abby to wear them twice, for periods of time no longer than 5 minutes.  Leigh wore them once, and only just long enough to get them on before she demanded them off.

Mark was very upset that they didn't like the wings and was almost ready to forcefully make them wear them.  I am sad that they didn't want them, but I won't make them do something they really really REALLY don't want to do.  So my wings that I slaved hours and hours over are relegated to the dress-up box.  But I am still holding out hope that they will discover them there one day and think "Wow, I should be a bird today!"

It could happen.

Someone Remind Me Why I Have Kids?

I usually try to write posts that are more on the cheerful, optimistic kind of side because I know that I could easily just sit here day after day and complain about anything and everything.  But unfortunately this is not a post like that.  It is a venting post.  Please excuse it.  It's been a bit of a trying week.

My kids are driving me nuts!  And right now it's mostly Leigh, dear that she is.  She has been sick the last few days with a fever, so I've given grace to her crankiness because I get cranky when I'm sick too.  But today, she threw the biggest fit I have ever seen her have.

She was inconsolable.  Seriously, nothing was making her happy.  Not food, not her monkey (blanket), not even a tv show.  She was hyperventilating a bit and just keep screaming and crying.  We began to worry that she had something wrong with her, like a sickness or who knows what.

I finally got her bundled to take to emerg and Mark took her outside to put in the car.  I came out shortly after and she was playing on our little ship/slide in the yard.  Not crying.  Hmmmmm, that's suspicious.  Maybe she isn't sick.

She was fine outside until I told her she couldn't ride her bike on the road.  That started the fit again.  So I figured that it was just an attitude thing, and she was not ill.  At least that worry is gone.  But how am I supposed to deal with the rest of it?

We got the painting easel set up for the girls, and Abby happily started painting a cow, of course.  Everytime she paints, she says she's painting a cow.

Leigh started to get ready but then started freaking out again.  But after she saw Abby painting for awhile she quietly got on her painting smock and wanted some paint.  And she was fine again.

She didn't throw another fit until right now when I put her to bed.  I am currently listening to her cry at her bedroom door.  Today is the first day in her "big girl bed."  It is just her crib, lowered and with the railing taken off.  But apparently it is not acceptable.  Or maybe it's just the whole bed time that is not acceptable.

Some days I feel like God is gracious and gives me lots of strength to make it, and other days I feel so stretched that I don't think I will make it through the next ten minutes without doing something I regret.

She's a Winner!

Well, way back last summer I boldly stated that we were potty training Leigh.  And then I think I didn't mention it for about 6 months.  Mainly because I stopped because it seemed to take too long and was frustrating.  But in January we began potty training, again.   And this time I was determined to see it through to the end.  It was panties or die.  Or maybe something a little less drastic.  Like cleaning poop off the floor for the rest of my life.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaanyways.  I wanted to boast to  update you all on our progress.  And I am pleased to report that Leigh seems to have 'gotten it'.  She only wears diapers at night, though that seems sporadic now since she likes to rip them off in the middle of the night.  But all day she is diaper free.  And while she still has the occasional accident, most of the time the pee and poop end up where they are supposed to go.  

And the beauty of it now?  I don't even have to give her candy for going, or even ask her if she has to go.  She just goes on her own.  She can take her potty cup and dump it in the big toilet all by herself too.  Though I usually come because I like to rinse it.  

I'm All Alone With Only Myself For Company, Somebody Help Me!

I have a few things I want to share with you but our only camera is my iPhone and I don't have the sync cord since Mark is gone for this week and took it away with him.  I know we have another one somewhere, but I don't know where it is.  So what is the point in sharing things with no pictures to go along?  It kind of makes a bland post, I think.

So instead I will whine to you all about how I have to spend 3 nights all alone (well, obviously not completely alone, since the kids will be here) while hubs is out of town working.  I admit, I cried on the phone to him.  I'm horribly whiny and mopey when I'm the one left home alone.

Yet I am totally gung-ho when it's me who gets to go somewhere.  Like last summer when I went to Chilliwack and Nanaimo for a week.  And in just two months I'll be headed back north for a quick trip before going down south to the Okanagan for my sister's wedding.  All while leaving Mark at home.  Though he will join me for the wedding.  I should probably feel sorry for him, since when I go, he is COMPLETELY alone because I take the kids with me.  At least I get a warm body to sleep with.

And what about all those families where the husband has to work on the rigs for weeks at a time?  I have it super easy compared to that.  Or military families.  Obviously God knew that I wouldn't be able to survive any kind of deployment.  I barely survive a weekend.

And you know what is the frustrating thing?  I was missing him a lot and feeling super lonely, and was glad he called before heading to bed.  And I still fight with him!  I mean, couldn't I put things aside and just let them go?  Why do we have to fight?

It's probably because I'm hungry.  I'm frantically dieting at the moment (so I can fit my dress for the wedding) and have only lost 7ish pounds since I started.  Ok, so when I write that down, it actually seems like a bit of an accomplishment.  But I think to me it doesn't count because it's 7 pounds that I regained after my last weight loss, on top of gaining back what I had lost.

But now I'm tempted to go on a rant about weight loss.  I won't subject you to that...tonight.  Tomorrow is fair game.

Good night, pray that I am able to sleep.