Lucifer

I am having such a hard time with Lucy. Suddenly, she is TOTALLY two. At least that is what I am hoping explains her increasingly defiant behavior. Because if this is an emerging personality trait, she’s a short block away from being disowned.

Tantrums, spitting and throwing food are just a few of the daily events I deal with. The food throwing is the worst. If you don’t have a plate of food in front of her when she sits down, she tosses her placemat. If you do have food in front of her and she tastes a piece of pasta and it’s too hot, the bowl is on the floor. Sometimes, she’ll just take one look at her plate of food and throw it. Then, the food throwing is followed by screaming and pushing her feet against the table so that her chair slams into the wall behind her. If that doesn’t get your attention, she starts spitting. On the table, the floor. I am waiting for her head to start spinning next.

I have tried everything. Scolding her, ignoring her, putting her in time out… it doesn’t seem to matter. I know I have to be consistent so I am trying to choose one technique and stick to it. I have decided ignoring is the best practice, but it’s hard. Her food is on the floor, she is screaming and slamming her chair into the wall. Eventually, she will calm down or get distracted by a sound or something and pull herself together. But her food is on the floor and now she wants to eat it. I have been calmly picking it up and giving it back to her. She will sometimes eat it, sometimes throw it again.

If I take her out of her seat, she wants to be held. Then, when she calms down, she wants to eat sitting in my lap. I don’t want to get into this habit. So, I tell her she needs to eat in her seat. Back to the tantrum.

I am at a loss. What I don’t want is to get in the habit of her not eating at mealtimes and then demanding to eat an hour later. Any suggestions here?

There are also many tantrums over nothing. I can ask her something as neutral as does she want to sing a song and that is enough to set her off – “NOOOO!!!!” followed by screaming and laying on the floor and kicking her feet and then screaming for “lovey” (her blanket). These tantrums I just ignore. I mean, come on.

Man, this is hard work. Drake is like a dream toddler compared to her. He likes to say ‘no’ to everything, but that I can handle.

Potty practice

I know we are most likely years away from potty training Drake, but maybe only 6 months or so away from potty training Lucy (she still can't pull her pants up or down all the way, but is getting close)? Feeling optimistic, I went out and bought a potty for them to start getting used to. So far, Lucy wears the removable bucket as a hat and they both only want to sit on it fully clothed. But, (since I can't see into their diapers) I don't think they are doing much once there.

Drake asks to sit on it a lot. Novelty, I think. I just love this picture of him on the pot. He is really starting to look older, not babyish at all! His glasses, in case anyone has noticed are missing, have been flung from the stroller on a walk and we are currently awaiting delivery of another $200 pair. Grrrrr.

Off the couch

I feel like the 'biggest loser' but on Monday I started Jillian Michael's "30-Day Shred". It's a 20-minute home workout that you do for 30 days -- and she claims will help you lose up to 20 pounds. Well, I know I am not going to lose 20 lbs as I am not willing to give up my nightly glass of wine and other comforts, but I do hope to lose maybe 5 lbs and tone up a bit, especially in the gut region. I just finished day 4 and still feel like I am going to puke during the ab workout. But I will feel like even more of the biggest loser if I can't do 20 minutes of exercise for 30 days, so I will push on to a flatter tummy!

In other off the couch news, I realized the other day that I never have to watch Drake on the couch anymore. He can get down by himself and every time he does it 'feet first', which I swear we worked on for months. It just sort of occurred to me that I think nothing of leaving the room with him on the couch. I still have to help him get up on the couch. He is almost there, though. He pulls to stand and leans forward on it and gets his left knee up about a 1/2 inch from the top of the cushion.

Resolutions

I have so many resolutions this year, it isn't even funny. At the risk of boring anyone who reads my spotty blog, here are the top five:

1) RELAX. I have felt so wired and anxious and high-strung as of late. I am worried about Drake in general, about finding the right preschool for the twins, about my health (I had a stage 1A melanoma removed from my leg last year), about my marriage, basically about everything except my job. I know I need to take a deep breath and focus on all the positives in my life. Drake is doing well, I have a couple leads on really great preschools, including one that would eventually take Drake, my melanoma was caught early and they cut it out, my husband and I are great friends and partners at our core...it will all work out.

2) EXERCISE. I still have 12 pounds to lose to get to my pre-baby weight. I know 12 lbs isn't that much, but it's the difference between the pants I wear now and the cute pants I have tucked into the bottom drawer of my dresser. I bought an exercise bike for the house a few months ago, and was using it a bit, but have fallen off the wagon since Thanksgiving when I got sick and then the holidays and now I am running out of excuses. Except that I am waiting for American Idol to start and then I will bike as I watch...

3) MORE EXERCISE/STRETCHING FOR DRAKE. We used to be so good at stretching Drake every morning. Lately, we have fallen off the bandwagon. I want to resolve that we stretch him AT LEAST once a day. We have been pretty good about the stander. He is in it at least once a day for 30 minutes (not twice a day like his therapists wants), but we have seen improvements in his leg strength already.

4) MORE TIME FOR HUBBY. This one is tough. We joke (if you can call it that) about our top 3 life priorities right now. His are: 1) work 2) kids 3) me. Mine are: 1) kids 2) hubby 3) work. As you can see, I am his least priority and he is my second highest. I really want to work on being a better wife, but it' s hard! After working all day, then coming home to put kids to bed, I am exhausted and barely feel like making dinner and having exciting, challenging conversation and passionate sex all night! Got to work on all three....

5) FINISH HOUSE STUFF. We live in California, notorious for earthquakes. Our house has what is called a 'soft story', a room over nothing basically. That room happens to be our bedroom. For years we have said we would put the cash towards stabilizing this room. We really need to do it this year. We have interviewed architects, gotten bids, we just need to PULL THE TRIGGER! It's pretty expensive, which is the reason we keep dragging our feet. But this house won't be worth squat when half of it has fallen down!

Well, I guess that's it. I have a bunch more little ones like not drinking so much wine (goes with losing weight), etc, but these are the biggies. Wish me luck!