This post is a little different. This post is all about the happy memories that I post on here. This post is going to be honest. Honesty is something I will try to write more about. Because let's face it....being a mom is HARD! I am one of the few friends that have children of both sexes. I am blessed with 2 girls and 1 boy. I have a first hand account of who is harder to raise.......what do you think I am going to say?
GIRLS by far are so much harder not because I have 2 of them. Sometimes it's more like "crap, I have 2 of them!"
Now don't get me wrong, I love my girls more than anything. And my son can throw a fit like no other too but one thing is for sure.....my 4 year old can be impossible to deal with at times and most days you can find her sitting in this position
And sitting in a time=out spot.
I can across this little thing on Pinterst the other day.
To put it simply, my 4 year old daughter is hard. She always has been and always will be. I knew from the minute she was born. 41 weeks, 10 hours of labor and 2 hours of pushing that she was going to be stubborn and want things her way. And that's exactly how she is. She was not a good baby. She screamed and cried for hours upon hours. I can still remember the countless hours of walking around my kitchen island with her and standing in the bathroom with the fan on (that was our saving grace by the way with her). She has never been a good sleeper. She still isn't. She still refuses to lay down by herself. I have to lay with her until she is asleep. If I try to leave before she's asleep, forget it. She ends up in our bed EVERY SINGLE NIGHT! I have no idea what to do about that. Sure I love the cuddling because it won't be like this forever but I also don't want to wake up 10 years from now with 14 year-old sleeping with me. What do I do? She shared a room with her brother and sister so I can't have her crying and wake everyone up.
Let's move on to eating. Again, as a baby, screamed at my boobs. Spit up formula like no other. It took LOTS of sampling with different formulas to firgure out what would work. The solution then was soy. When she finally switched to milk, it was soy. When I finally got her to NOT drink out of her bottle, she was 2, probably almost 3! She has always been the pickiest of eaters. When she was 2, she went through this thing where she spit out her food like all the time. I had her at the doctors and had her evaluated for eating and chewing. She never qualified for anything and then 2 years ago took her to a specialist who still couldn't find anthing wrong with her. Fast forward to this day, the only things she will eat without me feeding it to her is PB&J, yogurt, mac-n-cheese, mashed potatoes, pudding, cereal, chocolate, cookies, PB&J, crackers, and cheese. Oh, and PB&J. The girl eats no meat whatsoever and maybe I can try to get her to eat a hot dog (if you call that meat). She takes FOREVER to eat one meal. Like I'm talking an hour. You have to sit at the table with her and remind her "Eat Grace" or "chew Grace." Ugh! I don't know what to do about the eating thing with her either. I have tried sticker charts and rewards but nothing really. She doesn't care much that she can't have a snack later. Help?
And now moving on to play. Imagine me 3 years ago when I found out I was pregnant when my adorable, stubborn daughter was only 1 and a half years old. Then to find out it was twins! I was like
#@$%. I hope they are not going to be as hard as the kid I already have! Now that the twins are 2, they play so nice and sweet with each other. Enter the 4 year old. She wants everything and anything that they have in their hands. Sharing? Not part of her vocabulary. I have to remind her every 10 seconds to not touch, punch, hit, kick, slap, take away, yell, or shove her brother and sister. Grace has spent many, many, many, many hours sitting on the time=out rug. Apparently that doesn't work because again 10 seconds later.....boom! Now don't get me wrong, there are times when she is sweet and plays good with them but sometimes it seems like they are few and far between. She plays good with other kids and I have never had an issue with her at school. It must just be a sibling thing? Gracie will try to reason with me and say things like "I don't love you anymore" or "Fine, well then I am going to _______" (my favorite thing was when she told me she was going to take off her shirt. Oh, she had me scared with one! Ha)
Now my other daughter is 2 and she is not quite the handful that Gracie it. Yet. She totally inherited the popular "Mueller temper" (the one freaking thing I pass down to her). She is bold and knows what she wants. If someone gets in her way, she will let you know. She is funny to watch when she is yelling at you. Some words you understand, some you don't. But if laugh at her, watch out! She may be little, but she sure is mighty. I think when she gets to school, she will be looking out for her brother instead of the other way around. She doesn't have the eating and sleeping issues as Gracie but she does have her strong personality.
Boys on the other hand, are pretty easy-going. My son is so sweet and gives hugs and kisses like no other. He shares the best and always is concerned when something is wrong with someone. Of course, he has the temper thing too (all me again) but usually if he's crying, it's because he is wuss because his sisters took his toy or knocked him down. Or because I am standing blocking the fridge from him because the boy can eat.
I love my kids with all my heart and can't picture my life without them. No one said it was going to be easy. I'm sure my mom is laughing at me now saying "ha, it's your turn now." I have bought a new book called "Because I Said So". Maybe I'll find some new ideas in there. Until then, I will do my best to raise my teddy bear of a son and my 2 little Princesses...um, I mean girls.
I may not be the best mom out there. I try. Any ideas or thoughts?
Today we took advantage of the nice weather and despite the fact that we had "colds", we headed out to lunch and to the Children's museum. My kids love that place and driving there I realized that we hadn't been there since summer! We headed right for the water first because I figured if we got wet, we would have time to dry off before we left.
Then we moved over to the bubbles. My kids go crazy for bubbles. I can't tell you how many containers we go through during the summer. We stood inside this circle and pulled a giant bubble all around us.
Gracie even made some big bubbles with the hula hoop.
After that, it was time to dry off by going in the wind tunnel.
Evie and Presley didn't get too far inside but they did hold a pinwheel and some flags in it.
The little ones went to play in the little kid area. Evie jumped in the balls right away.
Presley went building with the giant tinker toys. Good thing by parents came with us because for the most part of our trip, the kids were off in different directions the entire time.
Gracie went with Grandpa to build some awesome things.
Here is what she made.
We had fun watching the balls roll.
After that, we headed to the upstairs and Gracei climbed the rocket.
While Presley was in Heaven as they have a new little train layout there.
We did a little bit more climbing.
And playing with blocks.
And playing with shapes.
We ended the trip with a little fun on the see-saw. Gracie was playing with some boys and they couldn't make it balance so they added some extra weights to her side. As you can see, it still did her no good. We'll have to fatten that girl up!
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