Red & White Day, Valentine's Box and Unrealistic Parenting Goals

More randomness….


Here is a picture of Cade and his Valentine’s Box. I was the one responsible for the box this year. It was supposed to be I took care of even years and Jay took care of odd. Last year when Jay asked me about a box I told him he did even and I did odd. I don’t consider it lying – It’s not my fault I was joking and he never caught on to it. But this year we got Cade’s Valentine’s early – Angry Birds and that gave me an idea for a box. I don’t mind the actual construction of the boxes it is trying to decide what to do that makes me crazy. Thanks to a few ideas on Pinterest and a walk into the pantry for inspiration…

Can you guess what inspired me???

And voila an Angry Birds box was born. I remember doing his first box and thinking 6 more to go. After I got this one done it hit me that we only had 1 more to do. If you want to get even more sentimental look at this post from his first Valentine’s Box.

Also today is Red & White day. He couldn’t find any of his Miller shirts so I gave him this one of mine. It really isn’t all that big on him.

And for the Unrealistic Parenting goals. I was browsing a new blog I discovered yesterday and the author had (in my mind) some unrealistic parenting goals. The one that stuck out was always using soft words with your children. It did make me think that NOOOOOO has been used very loudly and very frequently in our house for probably the last month. Maybe I should try to not yell that as much as I have been lately. Or not let things like Camryn digging through the trash and throwing the eggshells on the floor while I’m mixing up a meatloaf bother me as much….or when she is pouring my water on the floor and instead of putting it down when she sees me coming for her she hurries up and pours the rest out before I can get there…or as she is gnawing on my leather furniture and wood end tables and leaving baby teeth marks all over the house, etc. I decided yesterday I’d just go with the flow and try to not scream the exasperated NO! that I’ve been using for days on end.

That lasted until I had used a step ladder to climb on top of the vanity in our bathroom so I could tape around the light fixture. Camryn somehow got in the bathroom and was able to grab a bottle of Windex on the opposite side of the vanity. She would’ve sprayed it in her mouth before I could’ve climbed down from my perch, trying not to fall and break my neck while sweetley saying “put that down” . Instead I screamed “NO!!!”. That got the job done, she quickly dropped it and Jay also realized she was in there with me. Camryn didn’t swallow any Windex and Jay removed her from the bathroom.

A short time later I was on the same step ladder taping the hinges on the kitchen cabinets (I may devote a whole blog post on taping those hinges). I turned around to see that Camryn had climbed up in a kitchen chair and was pouring a glass of tea(sweet tea to be exact) on the table and Cade’s homework and in my purse. I’ll admit it now – there were no soft whispers of “lets not do that Camryn.” I started to scream No…but decided not to. It didn’t have anything to do with the mental health of my child– it was because she was holding one of my Fiesta glasses. I was afraid if I made any sudden moves or noises she would throw down my glass and break it. I will also admit that my Fiesta collection is about the only thing in the house that I would cry if it got broke. I got to her and got the glass out of her hand. Daddy also got involved in that mess – which involved a spanking. While I was wiping up the mess I was saying No, Camryn you can’t do that over and over.

Yeah, quiet parenting just isn’t going to work for me. But I’m not going to feel bad about it. I would like to know how the author of the blog handles a kid rubbing tooth paste on the footboard of her bed. Then when her husband steps in to the bathroom to wet a towel down to rub it off the child then uses the mother’s scarf (that she was wearing to work that day) as a towel on the toothpaste  It is almost impossible to not scream NO! as you lunge for your scarf.  Yes, the toothpaste story occurred Tuesday morning in our house. For any of you thinking you watch your children better than me you had better watch out. I used to think the same thing to. Then I had Camryn.