Parents and Pastries Disaster, Student of the Month...Again, Bubba's Sweet Moves, I CUTE!!!

Noah (aka Bubba) thinks he is such a big boy.  The other day for lunch he screamed and screamed and I couldn't figure out what he wanted.  It was a little frustrating, but eventually I figured out he wanted to sit at the bar with Sarah and Daniel for lunch.  Once I sat him up there he thought he was big stuff.  Then he started screaming again.  I then realized he wanted his own fork to eat his nuggets with just like Sarah and Daniel.  He is getting too big (and very socially aware which we have been anxiously watching)!!

 Here he is trying to work his fork.  I guess it doesn't matter if you have to use two hands to actually get the nugget on the fork in the first place.

 Ahhh success.  He is quite proud of himself.

I was at the store the other day and they were playing overhead music.  Noah must have really liked it because he started to bust a move.  I love the 'oh so serious' look on his face when he starts dancing.  His sweet moves are some serious stuff, according to his facial expressions!

In other things we are still working with Sarah and the potty.  Let me just say I have not had a kid so stubborn as she is!!  She has the #1 down, but getting her to do #2 in the potty is next to impossible.  The only times she has done #2 in the potty was mostly by accident--it just happened to come out while she was doing #1.  Sorry to be so graphic, but that's the only way to explain it.  I have tried bribing her with 'pretty lips' (lip gloss), giving her a cold shower if she poops her underwear (I know it's mean!), sending her to her room after having and accident, and nothing is working.  I will be trying a chart with her to see if that will work.  I am hoping it will otherwise she may have some problems when she starts preschool later this year.  Maybe they teach #2 training in preschool....how's that for wishful thinking?!  It is SO FRUSTRATING!!  A funny part to this is every time I get upset with her, she looks at me and says, "I cute, Mom!"  That gives her a reprieve of my wrath for a few minutes at least while I try not to smile.  I hear that quite a few times in any given day, too, "I cute, Mom!" Anyway, Sarah loves going pee pees in the potty.  I used to be able to send her by herself and she would take care of everything, but lately she has been needing some parental supervision.  I have found her supposedly going pee pees in the potty, but she has been putting all my flushable wipes in the toilet, swirling them around with her bare hands and trying to flush them all down.  Ewwww!!  She has clogged many a toilet doing this and she has recruited Noah to be her accomplice in all this, too.  I will send her to go potty and after a long time has passed by I will go and check on her to find her and Noah playing in the toilet trying to flush all the wipes down it.  Their guilty faces when I catch them tell me they know what their doing is wrong, but they continue to do it.  AHHHHHH!!  I HATE plunging toilets!!  Here's a side note to that....when we were building this house we specifically requested 'power flush' toilets because between Daniel and Matthew.....well I will just leave it at that.  That was a fun conversation to have with the builder.  I made Aaron deal with that one and here's how the email conversation went:

Aaron, "Is there any way we could get some 'power flush' toilets?  We have some kids that tend to clog them quite often."  What you can't see is how red his embarrassed face was after he sent the email.

Builder, "Uh, sure.  I will have to look into that because we don't get too many requests to upgrade toilets."

Needless to say we did get the power flush toilets even if it was quite embarrassing in requesting them.  However, Sarah has still clogged them more times than I can count flushing all the wipes down the toilet.  I wonder if they make super duper turbo flush toilets that can handle a whole bag of flushable wipes, but that's a whole different situation entirely for a different time.....I am sure everyone will be quite relieved that I won't be going deeper into that situation for now. As for now I am now short on flushable wipes thanks to Sarah and Bubba for taking care of my whole brand new pack just a few days ago.   I should have just flushed the money to buy them with down the toilet because that would have been more entertaining for me and probably wouldn't have clogged the toilet, either.   I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids.....

Matthew received student of the month again for February.  The theme for February was patriotism and Matthew fit that bill quite nicely.  In his class at school they have made him the official Pledge of Allegiance leader and he has taken that job quite seriously.  Even at home he will bust out at random times into the Pledge whether we are shopping, eating dinner, showering, etc.  To quote what his teacher said about him, "Our patriotic, Tenacious Tiger is Matthew Mancil.  Each morning he never forgets to lead the class in the pledge.  If I begin class without remembering to do the pledge, he is there to remind me and asks the class members to get ready and begin with him leading the words."  Somehow I did not find this surprising in the least.  If you give Matthew a job he loves to do, it will definitely get done every day whether you want it to or not.  Good for Matthew, though, and I am glad his teacher is so patient with him, too.

This past Wednesday was Dads and Donuts day at Josh and Daniel's school.  Aaron was able to take off a couple hours that morning to have breakfast with Josh and Daniel at their school.  Of course Aaron had to bring Daniel's breakfast because he can't eat the donuts or drink the milk since he's allergic to both.  Aaron assured Daniel he was going to bring him something good.  When they got to the school and Aaron pulled out some Pop tarts and juice for Daniel, Daniel was MAD!  He thought 'something good' meant fruit snacks.  Aaron got a tongue lashing for that--poor guy.  Anyway, Josh took advantage of Daniel's inability to eat the donuts and ate enough of them to cover his share, Daniel's share and Aaron's share.  Where does that kid put all that food since he is SO SKINNY?!  They still had a fun morning together minus the tongue lashing, of course. 

Last Friday Matthew's school they had a Parents and Pastries day.  Since Aaron went to Josh and Daniel's Dads and Donuts day it was my turn to go with Matthew to his Parents and Pastries day.  Now I kept reminding myself all week about Parents and Pastries day.  When Friday morning rolled around I completely forgot--D'OH!!  I remembered about it at 8 am that morning and it started at 8 am--Double D'OH!!  By the time I remembered Sarah and Noah were already in the shower since Noah and Sarah had already played in the toilet that morning.  I made Matthew pack his own home lunch while I made sure Josh and Daniel were ready to leave for school.  If I hurried fast enough we could make the last 20 minutes of Parents and Pastries--hurried is the key word.  I got myself dressed and ready in 5 minutes flat.  It is so amazing to me that I can get myself ready in five minutes after having kids, when before having kids it took me a whole hour to get ready.  I guess kids will do that to you.  Anyway, after I was ready I pulled Sarah and Noah out of the shower to get them dressed.  Noah I got dressed likety split.  Sarah, however, did not like the clothes I had picked out for her and proceeded to throw a major tantrum.  I tried to put her pants on which was very difficult since she was kicking and screaming.  Every time I would get one leg in she would pull it back out.  I was trying to hurry and this was so frustrating to me.   I finally decided to threaten her and told her we were going to leave her home since she wouldn't get dressed.  Well she called my bluff and just sat pouting and screaming on the couch and still did not even attempt to get dressed.  I hate it when they call your bluff!!  Anyway the clock was still ticking and I was running out of time.  I finally had to hold her down and force her clothes on her.  It was like dressing a screaming, unwilling octopus!  I must admit by the time I finally got her dressed I was broken out with sweat on my brow.  It was hard work dressing and unwilling screaming octopus girl!!  Anyway, I threw the kids in the car and we headed over to Matthew's school.  We got there about 8:37 am which was cutting it close since the school bell rant at 8:50 am.  It was pretty busy so we had to park far away which was not fun since it had snowed quite a bit the night before.  I was pulling Sarah and Noah out of the car when Matthew saw one of his friends and decided to not wait for us and to walk in to school with her.  I grabbed Sarah's hand and was holding Noah and tried to catch up to Matthew.  He was too fast and we quickly fell further and further behind him.  I kept calling out for him to wait, but he had selective hearing loss and I swear started walking faster.  I probably would have too, if I had a crazy lady following me and screaming at me to stop.  Anyway, he disappeared inside the school while I was struggling/half pulling Sarah along on the slippery sidewalk trying to balance Noah on my hip and not fall.  Sarah did not like being pulled along and started screaming and fighting with my grip I had on her wrist.  When I got inside the school he was no where to be found.  I looked and looked and couldn't see him anywhere and Sarah was still screaming which caused everyone to stare at us.  I started walking over near his classroom carrying Noah and pulling a screaming Sarah and finally found him putting away his coat and backpack.  I grabbed him and we started over to where the Parents and Pastries booth was set up which was over by the cafeteria.  Sarah continued to scream all the way over to the booth attracting stares from anyone and everyone.  We even ran into an old neighbor who probably heard us coming before she even saw us.  Again Matthew started walking faster than I could since I was trying to man handle Sarah and Noah through the crowd.  He walked straight past the booth and headed into the cafeteria.  I finally caught up to him in the cafeteria where he was chit chatting with the lunch lady about when he could eat his breakfast.  I turned him around and we went back to the booth where he then informed me that he did not like donuts.  At this time the bell rang and he ran off to class and left me in the middle of the hallway with two screaming kids.  I finally grabbed a donut and gave it to Sarah to try and stop her screaming and, thankfully, it worked.  Well so much for a fun morning of parents and pastries with Matthew.  That was a horrible parenting FAIL.  Hey, at least I give myself a few points for trying even if no one appreciated it.  Again I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids....and yes, Sarah is cute of which I get reminded quite frequently of throughout every day...."I cute, Mom"...

Parenting is not for the feint of heart--that's for sure!!