Mommmmmmieeeeeee

So it's been a hard week for me. AP has another cold and it has been pretty rough on many levels. Not only has she been waking up at night regularly, but she's been having weird tantrums, usually around 3am, where she throws off her beloved blankie (which she usually can't sleep without)and kicks her legs against the side of her crib. All of this is done while screaming "mommmmieeeeeeeee" over and over again. Not fun. She's also starting to throw tantrums when things don't go exactly as she expects them to. For instance, if she asks for a banana and I peel one for her and give her a small piece instead of letting HER break off the piece herself, she goes nuts. I feel like she's really tied to her routines and preferences these days and if we deviate even slightly, she breaks down. Is this typical toddler/21 month old behaviour or perhaps a reaction to being over-tired from the frequent colds and other illnesses that have hit our household in the last few weeks...? Or perhaps a reaction to her father being away?

Anyways. I just needed to vent. I know my problems are insignificant given the state of today’s world and sometimes I feel guilty venting and feeling overwhelmed by things that don’t involve famine, violence or massive earthquakes. I know I am SO lucky and blessed in so many ways. But sometimes, I feel that if I hear another whiny “mommmmmieeeeeeeeee” come out of my typically sweet little girl’s mouth, my head might just explode. Thanks for listening.

Clocking out for the day

When Alex takes a nice long nap, I occasionally get a couple of hours to myself to do some laundry, tidy up or sew. When he doesn't take a long nap (or no napping at all) I get very little time to myself. Even bathroom time is rarely solo. I put in 12 hour days. Everyday. There's also the occasional night time shift. Can you imagine if an employer made you work those hours. Oh wait. I have had crappy jobs where breaks are non-existant. What I did at those jobs is the same thing I do now. I take it upon myself to take a break. When Alex finally goes to bed for the night, I am off duty. I stop the dishes (too noisy anyway), and ignore the laundry that needs folding (there's always more laundry!). I read, or watch a movie, or sew, or just surf the internet for a bit before collapsing into bed. I once complained it's too difficult to iron while Alex is awake and my husband suggested I iron after he goes to bed. Umm no. That's like bringing home work from the office. I don't get paid enough for that.
It's done wonders for my mental health. I'm much happier having a bit of time to myself where NOTHING is required of me. Until the cat coughs up a hairball or mister wakes up from noisy neighbours, and then I'm on duty again. It's about putting on your own oxygen mask first, before helping others to put theirs on.

Rethinking praise

I just read this article on the risks of overusing praise and lines like "good job" with our kids. This is definitely food for thought for me. I'm sure if I counted the number of times in a day that I say "good job" to little a., I would quickly run out of fingers. What are your thoughts on this - is praise something you're wary of, and if so, have you replaced it with some other kind of reaction?

In spirit

Hey ladies,

I hear you'll be getting together for a night out tomorrow night and I just wanted to say that I will be thinking of you and communing with you all in spirit! I thought I'd take a moment to jot down a few little snippets that I would no doubt have shared if I could have been there to join you.

• You may have been following the tutu saga on Facebook. Little a. insists on wearing it some days and forgets about it entirely on others. Her aunt very kindly sent along a beautiful purple tutu, quite a bit bigger in order to avoid any quarrels between little a. and her tutu-loving friend E. So far, no interest on the part of little a. I bet it will take E. wanting to try it on to make this beautiful new tutu an appealing option for her.

• I think little a. is starting to say "I want..." which seems quite linguistically advanced to me. Unfortunately it is inevitably followed by babble, so I don't usually understand what she is actually hankering after.
  

• We've gotten into a pretty good rhythm during the week of going out in the morning, coming home for lunch and then a nice two-hour nap. When we lived in Montreal, I didn't feel the need to get out of the house so much, but these days, it seems like days go much more smoothly if we do. Fortunately, there are a plethora of different activities and drop-ins for us to choose from, as well as a very welcoming library with play area in the neighbourhood. Anyone else find that at this age, getting out of the house is a must?

I'm sure I could ramble on and on, but the most important thing to say is simply this: "I miss you guys!" Don't get me wrong: it's great to be out here and catch up with family and old friends (and escape winter for the most part) but I sorely miss our little circle of moms. I'm sure I will manage to create a similar network with time, but I have yet to really connect with any other moms of toddlers right about the same age of little a... so I am so glad that we continue to share our stories online.

Have a blast tomorrow night, my friends. You deserve it!!

M - Putting Things Into Perspective

Things have been rough around here lately....two babies, double ear infection, starting daycare, basement renos, etc. etc. So rough in fact that I usually collapse into bed by 9:30 (If I'm lucky and Loïc goes down that early) and think about how rough life has gotten.

It was amazing timing then to receive this (sorry for the link, for some reason I can't copy and paste into this box) in an email from S. Shortly after, I was telling a friend in a similar situation with two little ones about the oak tree analogy and she told me that at the end of the day when she also collapses into bed, she reflects upon the rough parts of her day - but she reflects upon how short lived they really were in the grand scheme of things. "Wow, that was a really intense hour I had".

This really got me thinking and taking note. The most challening parts of my day were in fact not adding up in hours like they felt! In reality, there would maybe be an hour or hour and a half stretch that felt like hell but really, it was just an hour or hour and a half. What about the other hours in my day?

So now, I try my best to channel the oak tree and to put my day into perspective. It's so easy to focus on the difficult and negative parts and to let that drain and frustrate me, but really, I'm forgetting about the amazing and funny moments with Rand and Loïc - and trust me, there are a lot of those too!

Recommended vaccine against the rotavirus (responsible for gastroentiritis)

Hi,

Me again. I just wanted to ask this general question.

Did your babies get the vaccine against rotavirus?

I'm asking because Nolan's pediatrician highly recommended it to us when he was still young because he said every year, he's seen many infants get hit with the gastro. Not sure if another virus is responsible but we did have Nolan vaccinated against this when he was younger (it's called Rotateq), in addition to the usual ones. So far, he hasn't gotten gastro (knock on wood!!) so I'm not sure maybe this is the strain that the vaccine was developed for?

It's given by mouth so he didn't mind it then in addition to his other shots.

I can't remember if the government covered this vaccine. I seem to recall that Dr. Lupu said it wasn't covered yet but he highly recommended it to us back then and seemed passionate about it enough that we said yes.

Just as an FYI. Of course, nothing is fullproof but just in case...

Christine