The Orange Bird

Orange Bird.

I have 3 kids, and my 2-year old daughter is at the height (or what I pray is the height) of the terrible twos. She is irrational, emotional, defiant, and melts down over the most inane reasons. Over the course of today, there have been more tantrums than I can count, but here are a few highlights that culminate with the story of the orange bird.

Meltdown #1 this morning: Over her request to have a drink on the couch in a cup with no lid. Denied. This has never been allowed so I am not sure why she thought there was a chance. She is 2 years old.

Meltdown #2 later in the morning: One of the candles on her play cake is missing. No one knows where it is. This is the end of the world.

Meltdown #3 this afternoon: We are out of yellow popsicles. Also, the end of the world.

Meltdown #4 this evening: Mommy gave her the wrong Hello Kitty cup with dinner. Not the light pink Hello Kitty cup! The dark pink one!! Catastrophe!

Well you can imagine that bedtime could NOT come soon enough. The hubs had to work late so after this A+ day of parenting, Mommy was on her own at bedtime. Oldest kid: easy. 4 years old, totally gets that Mommy is on the brink of losing it, cooperates and pretty much puts himself to bed. Youngest kid is a 21 lb. 6-month old. Despite his size, he too is an easy kid these days — especially compared to M.C. (“Middle Child” — don’t judge me). But by bedtime, the baby is tired and hungry.

Mommy desperately wants this day of horribleness to end and in order to do that, Miss Irrational needs me to meet her list of demands. They are as follows:
-Read story. One more. Just one more Mommy. NOOOO! One more!
-Water. More water. Just one more sip of water. MORE WATER!
-White bear. Not THAT white bear. The white bear with the pink ribbon!

Just when I think we are done, she then asks for orange bird. Orange bird is a 2-inch tall crocheted bird. He is completely random and I have no idea where he came from. By this point in the night, my 6-month old is VERY tired and hungry and is clawing at my shirt trying desperately to find a nipple. I attempt to say, “No. You already have several friends in your bed. You can see orange bird in the morning.” (Not only am I tired of giving in to her ridiculous demands, but also, I have NO IDEA where the frick orange bird is.) Obviously, this is received well.
“NOOOO! I NEED ORANGE BIRD!”

Carrying my ginormous tired and hungry baby downstairs, I begin the search for orange bird. After scouring the disaster that is my playroom, I miraculously find it. (In a pot, in her play kitchen. Obviously.) Okay! This is it! I go all the way back upstairs, carting hulk-baby on my hip, and enter her room.

“Look who I found!” I put orange bird next to her in the bed.
“No, I don’t want it in my bed. Orange bird needs to sleep over there. On the shelf.”

(In my head): “Are you f-ing kidding me?” And good night.

 

Image credit: pixabay.com

 

 

Modern Dad Pages

I began writing this blog when my eldest son was 2 and my daughter was an infant. I was adjusting to life with 2 kids as well as learning how to potty-train a toddler. Thus, many (most) of my posts were pee / poop related. There were just. so. many. stories to tell.

Well that little infant is a full blown 2-year old now in the throws of potty-training herself. (By the way, we DID finally get our son potty-trained. It only took a measly 15 months start to finish.) And we have a new infant in the house — a 19 lb. 4-month old who loves to be held. A lot.

I don’t have as much time to blog as I used to so there are a lot of new potty-training stories that will unfortunately have to be omitted. But this latest one is a real winner so I made myself find time to sit down and write.

My uterus is officially retiring so we are beginning the baby purge as our little (enormous) guy grows out of things and therefore held a baby stuff garage sale. I was outside manning the tables and money; the big kids were playing nicely inside. Not fighting, miraculously. I was thrilled. It was a nice break being outside in the fresh air without them pantsing me, fighting over the last red popsicle, or bringing me bugs. However, after not having any child visitors for a curious amount of time, I popped inside to check on them. They were both laying on the playroom floor — one on the computer, the other on the LeapPad. I immediately noticed a large circular stain on my daughter’s bottom (as she was laying on her stomach). She looked up and said, “I peed.” Um, no. The stain was brown. Oh shit. Yes, pun intended.

I whisked her to the bathroom as quickly as possible. It was as a bad as I had prayed it wouldn’t be. Worse.
Underwear: garbage.
Shorts: garbage.
After cleaning her up, as well as the floor and well, pretty much the entire bathroom, I headed back to the playroom to check on the status of the carpet in there. Walking through the kitchen, I slipped and almost fell on my butt. What…is….that??!! Yep, some diarrhea poop had fallen out of her clothes onto my kitchen floor, and yep, I just slipped in it.

Flip-flops: garbage.

One of the best and truest quotes I have heard lately is “I was a really great parent before I had kids.”
I was very quick to pass naive judgment in my energetic carefree kid-less 20s.

“I will NEVER have a toddler running around in public with a pacifier in his mouth.”
“I will NOT have a kid who only eats 4 things.”
“Our kids will NOT play video games.”
Blah blah blah.

Well, who has two thumbs and is guilty of letting her kids do all of the above? THIS MOMMY!

I recently stopped in at our local gymnastics facility to sign my daughter up for classes. There was a mother there watching her daughter practice while also trying to keep her other children entertained in the waiting area. She had brought a slew of books, toys, snacks, etc. to keep them occupied. She had 4 kids total (=3 “watching” sister in gymnastics). One of her kids looked to be between 1 1/2 and 2 and had a pacifier in his mouth. I realized while talking to this adorable little guy how much I had changed.

Old me — B.K. (Before Kids) would have thought: “Oh my goodness. Get that thing out of his mouth so he can talk. Ridiculous. I will NEVER do that.”

A.K. (After Kids): “Soldier on, Sister. Soldier on.”