My Top 5 Reasons Why….

So I awoke this morning to my husband informing me that James did not wear his coat to school. To my husband of course this was no big deal. To me I wanted to smack him upside his head. He informed me that when it was time to leave for school James did not want to put his coat on. This is pretty usual behavior, normally I have to fight with him about some piece of apparel. I’m thinking okay, so you tell him to get over it and put his coat on. Sounds easy right?

You have to wonder, what are they thinking sometimes?
Source: Sizzlebopblog.wordpress.com 

Nooooooooo, my husband told him it was too cold for no coat and to put it on and promptly went and got in the car so he could get it started leaving James to his own devices. James is very strong willed and stubborn so of course a couple minutes later James comes down and gets in the car with no coat on.

Unfortuantely, since he was running late as usual my husband didn’t notice that fact until they were more than half-way to the school. If it were me I would have either turned around or dropped him off and then go pick up the coat and taken it back to school.

I guess this concept was just too much like work since that isn’t even close to what happened. He came home and went back to bed. Then when he got up he told me so I could do something about it. Well not really, he thought it was no big deal.

So givien the excitement of my day I have compiled what I call the …

Top 5 Reasons Why Men Should Not be Held Responsible for Their Actions

5. Responsibility requires actual response about things besides cars, sports, or hot women

4. In order to complete a task you must first know what it is,

    this of course requires a miniscule amount of listening skills.

3. Their Men

2. Did I mention… their men

1. The Male Ego is a fragile thing... Break it and you won’t get anything done!

I realize this is a wild generalization but it makes me feel better!! :-)

Best Plan EVER!!!!

The other day I came across a tweet from @scarymommy that shared a link to another blog “Dadmissions the Book”. After reading through the post I found myself laughing my head off and offering props to this completely unknown to me author. The post was titled Parent Gift Etiquette the title says it all, proper gifting etiquette for parents.

Saving parents some bucks one occasion at a time
Source: crescentelectricservice.com

The jist of it is a contract formed between parent and child(ren) stating that since the parent will first threaten not to purchase a gift chosen by the child and will then threaten and take away said gift after the purchase based on their bad behavior a deal must be struck. According the the article this deal would offer an

understanding that the parent agrees not to purchase the gift therefore avoiding all the threatening and the child(ren) then agree that they will choose that special gift they would like and then accept that they will then misbehave and not receive it.

Ingenius! Parents can relax because they don’t have to spend hours waiting in line in order to spend hundreds of dollars to get that one special gift. They also won’t have to spend their time threatening their child(ren) since they have already accepted their behavior. I would complete this contract and make multiple copies so I could prominently display it all over the house as a reminder.

“We the undersigned kids agree that it’s impossible for us to behave and therefore we’ll never get to keep the coveted gift we so want. We agree in the pre-gifting arrangement where we will pick out a gift, but then never receive it, thus cutting out the middle man. We further agree that any tantrum or yelling is really pointless since we never actually got any gift to begin with and therefore nothing has actually been taken away from us.”(Scarymommy.com, 2012)

I am totally behind this idea. Of course I realize that it is unlikely that any parent would ever actually do this nor would their child(ren) ever agree to it but the premise is really spot on. It was definitely good for a laugh. If you have a chance to check it out by clicking here http://bit.ly/zEYjzw.

Reference

Parental Gift Etiquette (2012, Jan 26) Retrieved from http://www.scarymommy.com/parental-gift-etiquette/.

Crescent Ekectric (n.d.). Image retrieved from http://www.crescentelectricservice.com/

Just a quick update

Yesterday James came home with all smiley faces :-) I knew he could do it

HELP!!! My Child is Acting Like….. ME!

Every since he went back to school after Christmas Break James has been having trouble with being distracted and talking during class. He did this at the beginning of the year, but that was normal in my opinion. At the beginning there only frame of reference is kindergarten where they only went half a day and in that half day got to play half of it. He seemed to settle in after about a month and really didn’t have much trouble but now he seems to be in trouble almost every day.

I’ve been talking with him about what’s going on trying to figure out what it was causing this unruly behavior. I will happily any advice that anyone would like to share. We finally had a breakthrough yesterday, at least I hope.

After talking with his teacher we are trying a daily behavior report that shows how he’s doing for each section of the day using J or L. It’s designed to help them understand that they are accountable for their own behavior. I really thought just starting this would straighten him up. Boy was I wrong!

I think this says it all!
Source: http://www.123rf.com/

We began on Monday and he came home with all J! He was so excited, because that meant he got to stay up 10 minutes later than usual. I’m thinking wonderful. I don’t expect perfection but the next day he comes home with two L faces and in the red. To explain, his school uses a traffic light system for behavior; they start on green and once receiving warnings emphasis on the s, they get moved to yellow and so on. He has been on red before but from September to December it only happen two maybe three times. Since school started again it’s been four or five.

Source: highqualitypic.blogspot.com

We had a talk, okay I admit I may have yelled a little, but we discussed it and he told me he was sorry and there were just things he wanted to do instead of what he was supposed to. So after an evening with no video game time he decided he was going to pay attention and listen to his teacher if they corrected him. Sounds great right! Of course it does, if it happened. But nooooo he comes home yesterday with a two more L and in the red again. TWO DAYS IN A ROW!!!!!!!!! Nothing like this has ever happened the whole time he has been in school. I was in shock!

We sat down to talk again and I tried to tell him that he needed to tell me what was bothering him because this couldn’t keep happening. So after I took away video game time which was the deal if he got L faces and the television for the day since it was twice in a row he finally decided that he should tell me what was wrong. It is so hard to tell a six year old that they can tell you anything and he’s allowed to feel however he feels. I finally got through and he told me he missed his Daddy. My heart broke. It’s not that he doesn’t get to see Nick at all but Nick is working afternoons so he never sees him during the week and then on weekend he has to share him with Lucas.

I thought this was appropriate
Source: http://www.123rf.com/

I assured him that we would make sure he got Daddy and James time every weekend. He is so excited it was the first thing he told Nick when he woke up.

So when he got home today he did get one L but he was not put on red, so I decided there would be no punishment but he didn’t get to stay up. Hopefully once he has Daddy James time over the weekend it will get better. Fingers Crossed!!

Do you have any ideas of things I can do? Let me know!  

The One and Only…

Source: thegazette.com

Disclaimer: I hereby promise to speak my mind about this topic; on this one occasion and never mention it again. This post is in not based in fact, it is an opinion and should be treated as such. While some people may find my opinion on the topic offensive, it is not meant to be derogatory in any way. I understand that many people may not agree with my opinion and want to ensure those individuals that I completely respect their view regarding the matter and understand fully that everyone is an individual and has the right to their own views and opinions. I am not claiming to be an expert on this topic in anyway and understand that there are many individuals out there that are more informed than I. This is no way directed towards any particular party or entity.Thank you for understanding and I hope you will please come back for more of my stories J!!

STOP SHOWING POLITICAL ADS DESIGNED TO SCARE PEOPLE INSTEAD OF INFORMING THEM!!!

Every time an election comes around you start hearing all about how they; by they I mean any political party participant, want all Americans to come out and vote. Claiming they want informed voters. This is why I have a HUGE problem with them putting so many ads out there with all the negative claims. I don’t believe they’re lying so I don’t want to give that impression, but as they say there are two sides to every story. While they may convey a negative fact they fail to inform the viewer about the circumstances surrounding it. While this is effective and good marketing, when it comes to electing the individuals who will be representing our rights it should not be about who had the best advertising campaign, it should be about who the best candidate for the job is.

Thank you for allowing me to share my little rant!

Thegazette.com (2012, Jan.). Image retrieved from http://thegazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/vote-button3.jpg.

The Drama “King”!

As a mom of two boys when I say drama king you would probably assume that Lucas has decided to voice his opinion in an even louder method or that James has decided that I’m the meanest person on the planet and I suck. While both of these things have happened to me at one point or another my drama king is my husband.

There are times when I would like to give him a sandwich sign that says BooWoo, Poor me! Everyone always says I have a flare for the dramatic but my husband can put me to shame. He informed me yesterday that this was the last bottle time we were going to have so I should enjoy it. This, of course is insinuating that he doesn’t want any more kids. Which isn’t always true, it just depends whether Lucas is crying or not.

Poooooor Meeeeee!!
Source: frederatorblogs.com

 Lucas is getting his front molars so he has been waking up in the middle of the night a lot lately. Lucas has gotten all of his teeth in groups so whenever their cutting he begins to wake up during the night. This occurrence normally brings up the “I can’t handle any more kids” conversation.

I digress, after sharing his bottle time theory he informed me that he is no longer of “breeding age”. At this point I could barely keep myself from rolling on the floor from laughter. For some reason when he said that all I could think about was an old dog ready content to just lay around all day. He then took it a step further and decided to share his next theory with Lucas. As he was taking Lucas to bed I heard him informing the 14 months old baby that he was almost forty. I realize I haven’t shared our exact ages but we’ve got a good seven years until we hit forty (Hint, Hint).  Is it just me or is this just the slightest bit mellow dramatic?

 I am used to his normal dramatic antics. Normally it’s just things like I can’t find this or I can’t find that and of course his idea of looking is turning his head in one direction and then the other and announcing that he doesn’t know where it is. If I’m really lucky he might actually take a few steps while moving his head around.

The problem is he has taught James his bad habits. My all time favorite is the blame everyone or thing but me tactic. James can be playing around and run into the table and the first thing you hear is “stupid table.” Like father like son I guess.

I would like to thank you for listening to the drama in my life, if anything it should be worth a laugh!

Frederatorblogs.com (n.d.). From Going Away. Retrieved from http://archives.frederatorblogs.com/all/2005/11/.

Snow Day!

So, Sunday was the day! After living here his entire life James was going to get his chance to go sledding! He was so excited. I told him to start getting dressed in all of his layers, but before the rest of us had a chance to even begin to get ready here’s James with all of his layers, including snow pants, jacket, scarf, hat, and mittens. I tried to explain that we weren’t leaving yet so he would get hot but that really didn’t matter, he wasn’t going to listen.

The rest of use bundled up, Lucas included and we headed out.

Once we got to the hill, I got the exciting job of pulling Lucas around in his little toboggan. It’s one of the ones with a seat where you can belt them in. It was very handy for getting him all the way out to the hill. Once we were there he wasn’t much interested in it though.

This was another first also, Lucas’ first time actually in the snow. As soon as we sat him in the sleigh he was reaching for the fluffy white stuff. Unfortunately, this was when Nick was trying to put his mittens back on!

We trudged ourselves to the hill and James was off up the stairs with Daddy in tow. He was so excited and I was excited for him. Lucas decided he wanted out of the sleigh, so I let him out to wander a little. This of course meant that he wanted to wander right toward the bottom of the hill where people were flying fown the hill at a million miles an hour. Nick came up with the idea of placing him about 20 feet away and then letting him walk back to

to us. That worked until about the third turn. That was when he decided, “forget it, I’m going the other way then”.     

After I ran after him a few times he then decided that sitting in the snow was a better option. Not on the top of my list of things to do but he was layered so I really didn't mind. I was laughing so hard I almost had frozen tears running down my face when he attempted to get back. Much like a rolly polly he kind of fell over, rolled one way and then the other finally getting a hold of the slippery ground and began to work his way up using his forehead to balance.

All in all we had a lot of fun. I was freezing since I left home without my scarf and hat. Yes, I know. Both the kids had so much fun it was well worth the cold to see the smiles on their faces.

Since the best layed plans always have some lumps, I have now compiled a list for any future trips to the sledding hill

What you need for sledding...

      Long Johns

      Jeans

      Long sleeve shirts

      Undershirts

      Snow pants

      Coats

      Scarves

      Hats

      Mittens/Gloves

      Sleds (Something I could live without!)

      Portable Cabin with inboard heater (For Mommy!)  

Oh, The Cleverness of Me….

 Doesn’t it seem that even though you see your kids every day, watching them grow and play yet somehow they still manage to surprise us on each and every one.

Rearranging,
 That turlte began on the other side of the television!

I believed I mention that Lucas is a very large toddler and reaches both my dining room table and my kitchen counter. Well now he’s decided that it’s a good idea to climb onto and move around his toys. Not the small toys that although bulky can be easily picked up and moved, noooooo he climbs up on his activity table. Then he moves it and the bounce on turtle around the room a few times a day.

Is this normal behavior and I forgot about it? I a managed one day off but normally he pushes his highchair out about 3 or 4 feet and he also loves to carry the chair from James wooden table set through the house. I think he likes the sound of it scraping along the kitchen tile.

Just a moment ago he knocked over one of the chairs and was using it to climb onto his activity table which he moved about two feet from where it’s supposed to be!

Of course, he does all this with that cloyingly cute grin on his face which just melts me regardless of what he happens to be doing wrong.

He also, and I’m still trying to figure this out, got a hold on a butter knife. So obviously I went to take it away; before I had a chance he ran up to my locked bedroom door and proceeded to try and stick the knife in the handle. Such a stinker!

 A little back story so that makes a little more sense, We keep our bedroom door locked so he stays out of our master bath since it has no lock, the lock looks like a big screw so we keep a butter knife on the upper molding and use it like a screwdriver to unlock the door. He of course saw us do this many times and has now decided to do it himself.

First the television remote, now unlocking doors! What’s next?

I remember James picking up on things like that. I don’t remember him being this young though.

I’ll take any suggestions about how to keep my child planted on the ground!

And The Winner Is….

And The Winner Is….

Source: Breaking Down Barriers Blog

So when I pulled up my homepage today to my surprise I found a headline for the most stressful cities in the United States. Something about it caught my eye and I started thinking, I wonder…and not to my surprise in the top five most stressful cities to live was Detroit/Livonia/Dearborn. It’s kind of sad really, according to the article the main reasons living in the Detroit Metro is so stressful is because the area is in the 100^th percentile for both violent and property crime. (Kane, 2012) I have lived here most of my life other than a few years in my twenties and I never diluted myself into believing that Detroit was a truly safe place to live but those numbers are shocking! 100^th percentile! I tried to calculate it out and according to the statistics there are about 21,000 violent crimes in the Detroit/Livonia/Dearborn area annually and almost 80,000 property crimes annually. Seeing these statistics really puts things into perspective.

We also have the highest unemployment rate on this list but that wasn’t too surprising to me. Speaking of high percentile’s we are also in the 97^th percentile for poor mental health days per month, based on the amount of cloudy days. Can’t say I was too surprised by that either.

The other cities in the top five included Jacksonville, FL, Miami, FL, Las Vegas, NV, and Tampa/Clearwater, FL. The sunshine state appears to be quite stressful! If you have a moment, you may want to check out the article at http://on.msnbc.com/AoWmOM.

I suppose the moral of my story is that you never really know everything about where you live regardless of how long you lived there.

Reference

Kane, C. (2012, Jan 20), Americas most stressful cities in 2012. Bottomline on MSNBC.com, Retrieved from http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10200982-americas-most-stressful-cities-in-2012.

Breaking Down Barriers (n.d.). Image retrieved from http://mccoolmiller.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html.