Conversations

Kylie is at an age where she can have a full-blown conversation, and I love it. When we got in the car tonight the first thing she said was "So tell me what did you do at work today?" I said "A lot of work!" and she said "Oh. What kinds of work?" so I told her everything I did (which included wearing a viking hat, giant sunglasses and pink gloves, dancing on camera, and doing a pyramid which Heather fell off of. I know, all in a day's work!) and when I finished she said "Oh yes, that is a lot of good stuff you did!" then she proceeded to tell me everything she did. It was so cute! When we got home I fixed dinner and after dinner she wanted to make me a bracelet out of construction paper. In the process, she knocked her milk off the table and spilled it all over herself and the floor. She began apologizing profusely (I assume afraid of getting in trouble) and I had a parenthood moment that I was very proud of (in contrast to my last post) and I told her it's okay, we just need to be careful with where we put our drinks. She knelt down next to me and said "Mommy, I'm SO sorry, I can't believe I spilled it" I gave her a hug and a kiss and she said "Mommy, I will always love you!" and it was the sweetest thing she could ever say, and it completely made my day. These are the moments in parenthood that you treasure and make it all worth it!

Mom of the year...

So, after a stressful day at work and I was looking forward to relaxing and enjoying the company of my girls. I even stopped at Toys R Us and got them each a little surprise! We get home, Kylie starts playing with her Crayola dry erase board and we're having a good time. The other day we got some peaches from an actual orchard (best peaches ever!) so I cut one open for their dessert. This is where it went downhill. Kylie didn't want a bite of peach, and when she decides she doesn't want to try something, there is no convincing her. I kept asking her nicely, just to try this one little bite (I even cut the peel off and the red inside, it was just the sweet juicy peach), she refused. I started pleading with her to just try it. You moms are familiar - this is the point when you decide whether you should just give up and act like you never asked, or firmly stand your ground and teach her to do what you ask her to do. you know, teach her a lesson! On this evening, I chose the latter. So I told her she was going to go to bed if she didn't try a bite. She started crying, so I told her to take a bite, for the love of God, and this will all be over. She proceeded to fall on the floor and start crying and kicking, that of course made Claire start crying as well. This banter went on for about 5 minutes, with everyone crying, and she was covering her mouth like Fort Knox. So I picked her up and carried her to her room, put her in bed, and told her she was being a bad girl. Well, this was at 6:15, she had her clothes on from the day, and I was thinking she would get up in 5 minutes like she always does and come out and say she was sorry. She showed me this time - she immediately went to sleep, in her clothes, without dinner, without pottying, and it's now 8:00 and she's still in there. I'm only hoping she will wake up in the morning and think it was all a bad dream.
To top off that whole Emmy award-winning performance, I was on the phone telling my husband why Kylie was in bed already, and Claire walks over to me, and proceeds to wipe cat vomit all over me. Apparently the cat puked, unbeknownst to me, and Claire of course found it before I did. She took a big old handful, apparently took a little taste of it, then wiped the rest all over me. I immediately stood in the kitchen and started crying like a baby. One kid thinks I'm the worst mom, and is in bed sleeping in her clothes without dinner, and the other kid is playing in, eating, and completely covered in cat puke. This was a banner evening. I pulled myself together, gave Claire a bath (and a glass of milk!) put her pajamas on, and put her in bed.
So, next time you're thinking you're a horrible mom, or you can't handle your kids, you can think about this post, and hopefully it will help you through whatever you need to handle. I think I'm going to have a glass of wine, a bath, and go to bed. Tomorrow has to be better!

Awesome Job

Okay, not to be braggadocios or anything (but it's going to sound that way) - I think I have, like, the best job in the world. As I was contemplating posting tonight or not I thought, "I do things at work that most people would never think of doing, why not share them?" I have friends that listen in amazement as I speak of buying supplies to play "The Price Is Right", or picking out fancy dresses to wear to a masquerade ball, or buying silly hats and sunglasses to wear to Telethon. I could go on and on - there have been quite a few days that my co-workers and I have asked ourselves "We get paid to do this?!" The best part about doing all this fun and crazy stuff is, we are raising money to help sick kids. For those of you who aren't familiar, I am the Assistant Executive Director (and hopefully soon to be Executive Director!) of our Springfield chapter of Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Today we had the first day of our first ever Hispanic Radiothon. We raised $3,800 in one day, which is pretty darn good for a first time event! (we've done regular radiothons before, just not Hispanic) All the money we raise stays local and helps local kids. You can't beat it. I get to literally do something different every day. Yes, I have an office with a desk, and there are days I am there working all day. But there are so many days when I'm out visiting sponsors, or at fun events like the PCCC Auction or Burgers & Brews, or out doing something fun and crazy like eating 4 DQ Blizzards in one day! I love not having a monotonous job, and I love having a job that means something. I can go home every night to my healthy, happy, smart, adorable kids and know that I did something that day to help families that aren't as fortunate as we are. I think that's a valuable lesson to pass on to my girls as well, and it's never to early to teach them philanthropy. Well, that's my spiel for the day, I just wanted to share with all of you how lucky I am and how blessed I feel.

Crazy nights

For the past few nights, like maybe 7, Kylie has gotten up several times in the night. Usually 3 times, but as many as 9, every half hour. This has needless to say been frustrating and tiring for everyone involved. Last night took the cake though - she got up about 4 times between midnight at 4am, then about 4:30 she came in and had wet the bed. So we had to give her a bath, change sheets, wash clothes then back to bed. She got up again at 5:00 and claimed to have to potty, she did, then back to bed. Up again at 5:30 claiming to have to potty, she didn't this time, then back to bed. By this point, I was awake and my alarm was set to go off at 6am so there was no point in going back to sleep. So I got up for my morning run (which incidentally was a beautiful morning for a run, so that worked out nicely!) But I have been so tired today, being up since 4:30 this morning. Kylie was also very tired, she cried a lot at Becca's, and was tired tonight. So she went to bed about 6:45 and will hopefully stay in bed all night! If any of you mom's have any tricks, or have experienced this with your kids, please share your wisdom!!

Too much ice cream...

Today was Diary Queen Miracle Treat Day, and I visited a total of 4 DQ's and ate a portion of a Blizzard at each one. I thought I was going to explode at one point. BUT, a portion of each Blizzard sold today will benefit Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, so it was all worth it! I got to see some of my favorite kids like Dustin, Mckenna and Megan, and my own girls even went with me to one DQ and ate a Blizzard! Claire of course ate more than Kylie did. Tomorrow it's working at PCCC all day for me, then the much anticipated WEEKEND! This week has been SO crazy busy, I have had my eye on the weekend all week.
After all the ice cream Kylie ate, she was hyper and tired at the same time (I'm sure if you have kids you are familiar with this state of mind) so everything for her was really exciting and really frustrating at the same time. At one point, she wanted me to help her potty (which she's been taking herself for at least 3 months now) and threw a fit because I wouldn't help her. Well she proceeded to pee all over the bathroom floor, her pants and the toilet. That's the second time she's done that, and I get the feeling she does it on purpose, but I can't prove it. Believe it or not, it was all down hill from there (and that wasn't a very high point!) She cried about everything, didn't want dinner, etc. So we took a bath and went to bed early! Hopefully tomorrow will be better!
One funny point of the night, Kylie was playing with blocks and Claire wanted to play as well. Kylie kind of pushed Claire away, and Claire came around behind Kylie and started hitting her on both sides of her head and screaming like a banshee. Claire is apparently past the point of putting up with Kylie's big sister bullying! We told Kylie she's on her own now, and if she can dish it out she needs to learn to take it in! It did make us laugh though :)

The Lake

The girls went to my parents house on Saturday, and Pete and I had a nice "date" at Olive Garden, then we're such party animals, we went home and went to bed! Sunday we got up and went up to Lake of the Ozarks for a friends wedding. Before the wedding, we rented a boat with some friends and spent 4 hours on the lake. Besides getting sunburned, I had SO much fun! I always tell Pete I just want to buy a boat and live on it, I love the lake so much. He doesn't agree. We went to the wedding (which got postponed for an hour because of rain). It was an absolutely beautiful wedding, it was at Shady Gators, it was very tropical with cabanas, an infinity pool with swim-up bar, tikis, tropical flowers, it was so pretty! If I had a wedding, that is where I would want to have it. Maybe we'll have our 5 year anniversary/late reception there! We drove home last night about midnight because Pete had a meeting. Today I had to set up for the Price Cutter Charity Championship Auction, and I have to do the same tomorrow. Had a nice run outside tonight before the storm came. I was happy to see the girls tonight, I missed them this weekend! Today was Aubrey's first day at Becca's (Ryan and Kara's baby) and I guess Claire just LOVED her. She would go sit next to her on the floor and say "Hi!" "Hi!", and take her toys to play with. Becca said it was so cute. I fixed Kylie and Claire macaroni and cheese with hot dogs for dinner, and of course Claire ate hers in 5 seconds, and Kylie took tiny bites of hers, then ended up throwing it up all over the table in a grand act of defiance. It was all very dramatic, so they ended up getting bath's (on a non-bath night!) to get her cleaned up. Kylie is at a very, how shall I say it, "independent" age.

Changes

Well, it's been an exciting couple of days! My boss (and best friend) Heather put in her notice today, she got a new job. I am super happy for her because I think it's a good change for her. I think she was getting burnt out at CMN. Along with that, I am now in contention for her job. I have been the Asst. Executive Director for almost 4 years now and feel like I'm ready to take over. I just have to convince our boss that I'm the right person for the job, that's what I'm facing right now. I'm gathering all my supplies, achievements, goals, plans, resume, letters of recommendation, etc. to take with me on my interview (whenever that may happen). I'm nervous for a lot of reasons; I really want to get this job, plus it's a lot of responsibility, plus it's taking on a lot more work because we recently had another employee leave that we can't replace, so it's part of her job, part of my job (all of my job until we hire someone else!), and all of Heather's job. I know I have a lot of good ideas and changes to make and I really hope I get the chance to implement them! I was so stressed out I ran for 30 minutes straight tonight, and I haven't done that since my last 5K! I know everything will work out how it's supposed to, I just want it to happen right now! :)
I'm still out of WW points for the week, but I've done a much better job each day of staying within my daily points, so I feel confident I will lose weight this week.
We had tacos for dinner tonight, and Kylie ate 2 whole tacos! I couldn't believe it, she never eats that much! Claire didn't have tacos, I thought the meat might be too spicy for her, but she still ate a good dinner and "hammed it up" the whole time she was eating. They are always doing something funny, it's so hard to remember all of it, even each night! Kylie has stayed in her bed so far tonight, so hopefully that lasts all night.

Kids

I got up this morning and ran, and did a group fitness class after work. I am going to be sore tomorrow - but once again, over my Weight Watchers points for the week so I have to do a lot of exercise to catch up!
Kylie was tired today, but that didn't translate into bedtime tonight - she has gotten up 5 times in the two hours she's been put to bed. One of the times she got up, I was looking through our honeymoon photo album, so I decided to show her the pictures. She looked at one of Pete and I and said "Mommy! Do you remember when you guys looked so much different than my parents?" Man, that really cuts deep! I know we were younger, but I didn't think we were so much younger that my 3 year old would notice! Almost as bad as when she calls me "Huge bottom".