'Burgers'

I'm pretty sure there is no way I can play 'catch up' at this point with posts of any quality, so I'm just going to ramble about some of what has been going on around here...and some of the funnies from the kids...

Lili won't shut up these days and she's a TOTAL spaz. I do remember being like this myself as a child...and I also remember my mother getting to the point where she would yell at me in public to CALM DOWN. Right now I think it's pretty darn funny and I hope I never reach the same breaking point that my own mother encountered, but I can sympathize with her a bit. Anyway, Lili's new obsession is 'Doing the dishes'. She moves a chair over to the sink, hops up and plays for hours...literally. She will put a little water in a cup...transfer it to another cup...stick pieces of Will's bottles in it...dump everything into a bowl...spill water on the counter...screech when the water runs off the counter and onto her feet...swish the bottle parts around in her bowl...move them one by one to a pot or pan...spill more water...begin again. I really don't care if she does this and I find it amusing to watch, but there comes a point when we need to switch gears and direct her elsewhere. When her skin is shriveling up like prunes and her fingertips are turning purple...and the kitchen floor looks like a swamp...it's time to do something else. Does Lili like this? HELL NO! This is when devil child shows her colors. The 1st day she discovered 'doing the dishes' we let her play for 3 hours. When we tried to stop her, we witnessed 45 minutes of SOBBING and mad attempts to get through/over/under the gate Daddy put up to block off the kitchen. There was absolutely nothing we could do to distract her. We just had to wait it out. The tantrums since then have been a little shorter, but still make me want to pluck my fingernails out one by one.

Both of the rugrats caught a cold (after our bout with the stomach flu) last week and I now have it too. It's not too bad, but Lili likes to tell me that she has 'burgers' in her nose. Well, the 'burgers' are always there right now because she has a COLD. Try explaining that to a 2 year old.

Temps are getting a little colder here in MN. This seems to be happening later than normal this year, which is fine with me. I don't mind the cold, but I'm not looking forward to stupid drivers in the snow. I also really don't enjoy bundling up the munchkins at 6am to drive 5 minutes to daycare, only to take everything off again. It's especially frustrating when I have to figure in an extra 15 Lili Minutes. This is the time she now needs to do everything herself. God forbid you try to put her socks on without her 'help'...or her coat...or her shoes. Bribes and/or sitting on her are the only things 'working' right now. Then there are the mornings when we are in a rush because there have been one too many delays and I tell Lili we have to hurry. As we walk out the door she has to say, 'Biiiiirrrrrdddd! Biirrddd! Mama, it's cold I need my hat!'. Apparently she thinks that when I say, 'Brrr! It's cold out here! Let's hurry!', I'm actually saying 'bird'.

We still have 'tigers' in our house and Lili likes to get everyone who walks in the door to go see them with her. 'Let's go see da tigers! Want go see da tigers?' Occasionally we have issues with Lili dropping (a.k.a. throwing) food on the floor during mealtimes, so we respond by telling her that food stays on her plate and it's not o.k. to throw it on the floor. Twice in the last week alone she has responded to that with, 'Da tigers will eat it.' Well sweetheart...I don't see any tigers. All I see is a whole lot of food on the floor. I'm pretty sure the puppies and the mice that bite are gone, but the tigers seem to be sticking around a little longer. This afternoon she informed me that there is a 'scary monster' here too...

What about Will? Of course he's around here too and turning into a feisty little bugger. He's walking along everything and has even taken a few steps on his own. He's strong and has great balance, but then he stops dead in his tracks...realizes what he's doing...and immediately hits the floor. I have a strange feeling that he's going to be a menace to society in his teenage years...though I'm only basing this on his current interactions with his sister. He has already learned the art of tormenting her and is absolutely ruthless. He will crawl as fast as he can across a room, just to smack her in the face as he grabs the NUK out of her mouth. I have given this kid every opportunity to have a NUK of his own, but does he want one? No! He just wants hers. He has an iron grip too, so she can't even pry it out of his fingers! He follows her around the house, waiting for her to put down her blankie or her sippy cup and he takes those too. As soon as you say his name he knows he has something that he shouldn't and crawls away with it. I can't even imagine what this is going to be like when he can walk, much less RUN! Scary...

The sibling squabbling has also begun. One minute they are playing together happily...then suddenly Lili's hand is on Will's back, pushing him over. We had one incident last week with Lili biting Will's finger as well, so that was fun. I can't say I feel sorry for the little guy though. He dishes it out just as much as he takes it. Hair pulling is big for him, as is scratching...though I'm pretty sure he is more 'innocent' in his actions. I don't think he even really knows what he's doing, however it has the same affect on her as her 'evildoings' have on him. So far we haven't experienced anything too bad...just a lot of picking at each other and a lot of crying over toys being 'stolen'. I did have one day last weekend where I just wanted to run from the house screaming, but then I gave them a deck of cards. You would have thought they had died and gone to heaven! Those cards kept them busy for over an hour! I'm going to have to buy more decks so I always have one on hand...