Parenting Mistake #2

Don't ever forget your child's favorite stuffed animal that she insists on sleeping with each night at the hotel you stayed at the past weekend.

I accidentally left "Beaver" at the Kelly Inn in Fargo this past weekend. Lindsay loves that thing. Never sleeps without it. Here's the photographic proof:

The good news is that they have it and my brother is going to bring it back to us this weekend.

The bad news is that last night was a disaster and her and I ended up sleeping on the couch all night and she cried off and on throughout the night. Maybe it is a coincidence and she just had a rough night of sleep as a function of very little napping over the weekend and lots of excitement the past 2 weeks.

I hope that is the case, but I'm not confident. This could end up being a very long week.

I'm no tough guy

I talked awfully big about my 2 kid-free weeks. All the fun things I would do and how great it would be to have all that peace and quiet.

While I've indeed had a lot of fun with Kevin and my friends, I have to say that I'm officially over it. We've golfed, went to a movie in the theater, eaten out, went to the State Fair, drafted fantasy football teams, went to sporting events and concerts and camped. All fun!

But....I want to see the kiddo. It's too quiet and I'm too old to have all that adult fun anymore. Sitting at home and reading kid books, watching Dora and playing in the sandbox is what I now crave more than anything else. I'm at peace with it. I'm old and I'm in love with a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl.

How could you not miss this face? Can't wait to see her this weekend!

Parenting Mistake -- first entry

Not sure I've made a much bigger parenting mistake prior to tonight.

Tip: NEVER show your 2-year-old new Dora sheets for her new big girl bed 20 minutes before bedtime.

Technology!

As a parent, sometimes you start to feel a little sorry for yourself (or at least I do). You know, like those times when you see younger, cooler people with no kids having fun or when you are busy running errands with a whiny kid and you see a retiree taking their time to stroll through the aisles of Target.

On a recent drive back to North Dakota was one of those times. It was just Lindsay and I in the car and not even 30 minutes away from our house, she became irritable and a downright crabass.* I had 9 hours in the car and we couldn't even make it to the western suburbs before the trip was a disaster.

*Sidebar: Not that I blame her. Have you seen the carseats these days? I'm obviously on board with them because of the superb safety, but she may as well be in an enclosed padded box that is harnessed to the backseat. She can't see outside, can't reach for anything and has no one to play with back there.

Anyway, it was at that point I remembered that we had recently purchased a portable DVD player so that she could watch cartoons on long trips. Talk about a godsend. We pulled over, threw in a Nick, Jr. DVD and we were good to go. Even more of a godsend, that DVD had 6 episodes on it and automatically looped back around to the beginning when it ended! Check out this happy camper!

Yes, you read that right. I let her watch 6 episodes in a row and even let it loop back around to the beginning and start over. Judge all you want, but that was a phenomenal drive back to good, ol' ND! Happy kid and momma got to throw on her iPod and listen to P!nk, JT and Rihanna to her heart's content with no whiny interruptions whatsoever!

Honestly, I'm not sure how our parents made it without one of these miracle machines. One less thing for me to feel sorry for myself about. Guess I'm going to have to take my martyr business elsewhere.

Happy Birthday!

I make a lot of observations and funny commentary (well, poor attempts at humor at least) on here, but the truth is, I don't know what I'd do without my little girl. She's enriched my life more than I could have ever imagined. So a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY (which she still doesn't understand the concept of....to her it appears to be just a reason to sing a fun song) to my smart, independent, funny and beautiful girl!

A Whole New Level

After a weekend in which her babysitter (who had her all day Saturday and Sunday) said to me that Lindsay was awesome, easy and never whined or cried about anything, today was something else. After picking Lindsay up from daycare, she said she wanted a juicebox. I told her that she could have one when we got home.

And that's when all hell broke loose.

She literally lost her shit immediately after me saying "Sure, when we get home you can." I have never heard her scream so loud or high-pitched. I whipped my head around because I thought something had to have come through the door and attacked her or something.

But no, she was screaming a horror-movie quality scream while kicking her legs and pounding her fists. I honestly couldn't believe it was happening, let alone that she went from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds. I figured I had a good 10 years before I had to deal with this. Holy smokes.

It lasted for the next 90 seconds (a VERY LONG time when that noise is being made), at which time I decided I would take the time to stop at the gas station just so I could rest my ears for a couple minutes while the car filled. And wouldn't you know it, the second I got out and closed the door she stopped screaming. I guess even she couldn't keep up the fake drama of the 5-minute wait for a juice box.

I'm not sure if I won the battle or not, because she still got her juicebox about 20 minutes later.

She's no dummy

The other morning I was kneeling next to Lindsay and checked her diaper for poop. I asked, "Did you poop or was it just a toot?" To my delight, no poop.

Just then I may have farted. I'll deny it, but obviously there is a reason Lindsay did what she did next.

She walked behind me, pulled on my pajama pants, looked in my underwear and said, "Mommy poop?"