Parenting

This week I've been potty training Hannah. We started bright and early on Tuesday morning when we took her remaining few diapers and ceremoniously tossed them into the trash can, waving goodbye and singing "no more stinky diapers." I read an e-book called "Three Day Potty Training" and followed it pretty perfectly. Basically you just give your child lots and lots and LOTS of fluids, then you wait for them to have an accident. As soon as they start to have an accident you RUN them to the bathroom and try to have them finish on the toilet. This is what you do, confined in your home for three days going nowhere. That's the gist of it. It was a horrible three days. By the end of day 3 I was about ready to pull my hair out, drive to the e-book's authors home, and burn down her house. Miraculously, After Hannah had gone to bed on the third night I heard her get up and knock on her door. I opened the door and Hannah ran past me to get on the toilet and go. It's now been three days AFTER the three day potty training, and while I'm sure we still have a ways to go, Hannah has woken up dry every morning since Wednesday (we don't use pull ups...they are expensive and supposedly lengthen the process...?) , and has only had two accidents since Thursday afternoon. We are progressing a lot.

It has had me thinking a lot though. This is seriously the hardest thing I've done as a parent to date. Even harder than when Hannah went in for surgery, because I know how difficult and frustrating it has been for her. She gets impatient with herself. I have to be kind and patient to her.

Being a parent is difficult. Today it's potty training, and before I know it, we'll be teaching her how to drive. Not only the physical lessons, but the emotional lessons as well. Today in Relief Society we were learning about how to be "Guardians of Virtue." I sat back thinking about our standards and what I'll need to teach my daughters, and felt super overwhelmed.

Recently, a good friend of mine gave me parenting advice. It was unsolicited, and actually stung quite a bit. While I know she was probably TRULY trying to help me with my strong willed two year old because Hannah really is strong willed (she has started to say "ouch, don't hurt me..." while I reprehend her, even if I'm not even touching her) and I know this. I know she disobeys and it is a physical and emotional struggle. There are constant power struggles going on between Hannah and I. The friend actually used the words "You need to discipline her. She has much too much freedom." I wanted to scream and shout "I DO! I have tried everything! I take toys away, I talk, I admonish, I yell, I scream, I spank, I take privileges away, I am consistent!!!" It came on a day that I was already feeling like a bad mother...then low and behold, someone else noticed that I was a bad mother too. I went home and bawled for hours. I know this person didn't mean to make me feel that way. I am not even upset at the things that were said to me. I just think...if you aren't in my home, if you don't know my child, you have no idea what is going on and the struggle I go through.

Hannah is strong willed. She is also very smart. I don't know any other two year old who can recognize not only every letter in the alphabet, but also match their phonetic sounds. She can count up to 30. She knows her birthday is "Juwy twenty seben" and Mommy's birthday is "October ten." She's memorized books and not just Goodnight Moon but also The Cat in the Hat. After watching Pinocchio, she asked "Mommy, you are Hannah's conscience?" She knows that "Gwandma and Gwandpa live in Utah with Sean and Meggie and Lizzy" and "Nana and Papa are in California and have doggies." She knows that "Hannah lives in Las Vegas Nevada." She also knows what she wants, when she wants it, and she rebels against me...and tries to trick me.

Parenting is hard. It is exhausting. Between Hannah, and Paige (mostly Paige) I haven't slept through the night since July and that is hard. I'm tired.

What is the hardest part of parenting for you?

Name That Disney and or Pixar Film

Hannah and I have been really into play-doh lately. Her favorite things to make are babies, alligators, and snakes. All of which look pretty much the same, the only difference is what she assigns them to be in that moment. My favorite thing to do is make a shape and tell her to guess what movie. She is awesome at guessing. I'm particularly proud of her assessment of one of my creations. I challenge you all to guess (some are very obvious...maybe they all are and I am underestimating my abilities...) what movie my creation is from.

SAFE!

The first thing  Adam said was "I can't wait to do it again." Ummmm....

Happy Birthday?

Today (October 9th 2011) in Mesquite Nevada, a 70 year old first time Skydiver and her tandem partner died while skydiving.

Tomorrow (October 10th, 2011) Adam and his best friend David are going skydiving in Las Vegas to celebrate Adam's 30th birthday.

I am freaking out.

Happy SURPRISE! Birthday!

Last night I threw a TOTALLY AWESOME surprise party for Adam. I've been planning it for months. To celebrate his monumental 30, I invited our friends to an 80s surprise party.

Adam thought we were going to drop off our girls at a friends house to babysit so we could go to Blue Man Group on a date. I had to pick a show I knew he wouldn't be disappointed to miss out on once he found out we were STAYING at our friends house hee hee! We walked in and Adam saw a bunch of kids hiding and thought "Wow, Kristen has a full house tonight, I hope Paige is going to be ok!" Then all the kids and adults jumped out and shouted SURPRISE!

We had a lot of good sports dress up in 80s clothes. Obviously I had to change once we got to the party, I couldn't go around looking like I was from the 80s. I also bought Adam a vintage Xmen shirt (which represented him in the 80s). We had pizza and soda and lots and lots of vintage 80s candy. It was aaawesome.

I'm so glad I could pull off that surprise (he was completely surprised) and that we could celebrate Adam's big 3-0.

Paige: one month

Sunday marked Paige's one month birthday. I can't believe how incredibly fast this month has gone! Seriously, I feel like it was about three days. If Paige could talk, I think she would say something like this:

"Hi, my name is Paige Lily. Beautiful name right? Well my mommy insists on calling me Baby P. Or Paigey-Pooh. Sometimes just Paigey. It's alright. I'm sure she'll grow out of it. I've only been around for about a month. Sometimes I wish I was tucked back inside mommy's tummy where it was warm and cozy. Not to mention I was always snuggled. I am a snuggler.

Most of the time I'm content to lay on the couch, or in my bouncy chair, or swing, or bassinet...as long as I can hear or see someone in the room. As soon as I think I'm alone, I let people know that I am M-A-D. I will scream and scream until I get my way. If mommy is helping Hannah and takes an extra few minutes to attend to Princess P I will get so mad that it will take me a while to calm down. Once I am calm, I will fall to sleep in exhaustion because of my extra efforts to get attention. Then Mommy will try and put me down, but I've been made alert. I will scream and scream the moment I'm put down. In fact, at this very moment, I am being held by my mommy as she types this.

Hannah is great. I remember her talking to me while I was still in Mommy's tummy. I remember her climbing on Mommy too. Hannah used to sing me "I am a child of God" and now she still does when it is time to go to bed. Hannah also used to kiss Mommy's tummy. Now she kisses me all over. Hannah and I have gone on some great adventures already. A few days ago Hannah tried to carry me to Daddy. Before that, she picked me up out of my bouncy seat to bring to Mommy but we both fell down and bonked our heads. I cried. Sometimes Hannah is too rough with me on accident and I cry. The other day she bonked me on the head with Mommy's cell phone. Other than that we are good buddies. We snuggle together and sleep. That is my favorite. Hannah must know I like to snuggle. Sometimes when Mommy isn't fast enough, Hannah will come running and hold my hand and ask "You cwying again Baby Paige?" I love my big sister.

I love my mommy too. Perhaps I love her most of all. She gives me yummy milk, baby massages, and is happy to indulge my high maintenance ways. She knows I won't be little forever and so she doesn't mind taking a break to sit and snuggle and sing to me. Hannah doesn't get jealous and sometimes the three of us will just snuggle together. At nighttime after she feeds me, I hate to be put down so mommy will set up a safe spot in the bed and we will fall back to sleep together. I secretly laugh because poor daddy is frequently on the verge of falling out of bed because of me and mommy.

Daddy is great too. He works really hard for us so that mommy can stay home. I like that. I like cuddling with Daddy. He is probably the best one to cuddle with because he is so willing to let me fall asleep on his chest and we sleep together after he gets back from school. I don't spit up much, only three times in fact, but I save my spit up mostly for daddy's chest because I love him so much.

Other than cuddles, I love my binkies, my baths, my eating time, my sleeping time, my walk with mommy and Hannah, going shopping with Mommy (because I get to sit in the front pack and be cuddled, and most of all I love being around my family."