more perspective

Just as we were both really getting tired of teaching Pink about the world and we were about to just start treating her like a baby, doing everything for ourselves (much more quickly), we realized why we are devoting so much of ourselves to her training.

Someday she will enter a classroom with colorful posters and small desks and small chairs, and she will rock that room. Because she will have confidence in her ability to triumph in the face of new trials; she will have confidence in those who love her when a kid isn't nice to her at recess; she will have the skills to learn new tasks. And eventually, when she leaves our house and dances off into the world at large, she will do it graciously, with strength and character that inspire others to follow her.

So I promise to get up earlier so that she can feed herself breakfask, put on her own shoes, comb her own hair, and brush her own teeth. Even though we have to be out the door at six o'clock in the morning when it's still dark outside.

And I promise to keep putting her in time out. I promise to love on her when I've been away from her for the night, and let her stay up late to cuddle with daddy. But not too late. I promise to be patient, kind, and firm. I promise to keep the boundaries reasonable and clear.

And I promise to persist.

absolute truth, 2 year old style

I have concluded very unscientifically that the amount of time it takes Pink to fall asleep is directly proportional to the rigidity of my post-nap schedule. If, for instance, I plan to stay home, do one more load of laundry, and fix her a snack when she gets up, it will take her precisely 2 min and 34 seconds to fall asleep.

If, however, we are meeting family from across the country at Sea World and must leave by a certain time because Daddy is even taking off work for this, it will take her at least 57 min. At least.

top five

reasons why you should never "toss" an open package of coffee grounds onto the counter/stove while fighting with hubs:

5. You will spend so much time cleaning up that you won't have time to make your coffee.

4. Drinkable coffee, as opposed to dried grounds, should always be a priority on mornings when fighting with hubs.

3. Treat coffee grounds with gentleness & respect or they will pay you back by somehow finding their way into your microwave across the kitchen.

2. If you vacuum up the mess (the most expedient method) your house will smell like Starbucks every time you vacuum. Surprisingly this is not such a good thing.

And the #1 reason you should never "toss" an open package of coffee grounds onto the counter/stove while fighting with hubs:

You'll look crazy to all your cyber friends if you ever decide to blog about it.

the big picture

Sometimes it's so easy to look only at snapshots and feel like I'm in over my head with this parenting gig. I lose sight of things like "this too shall pass," and the big picture that Pink's probably going to turn out just fine.

I keep snapping at her and then having to apologize for not staying calm, and I've lost track of how many times I've said, "God, please get me through this day without screaming at this child!"

So today we cuddled with a blanket and watched Curious George together. I don't think it undid all the discipline I try to dish out, but even if it did, it gave us 30 minutes of calm, loving interaction and snuggling. It was worth it.

answer key

For the one of you who had the time/courage/gumption to guess how many misspelled words were in this post, the answer, including the title, is ten:

miss pelled: misspelled
desided: decided
graphon: graph on
diffence: difference
tempeture: temperature
now: know
far and height: Fahrenheit
speach less: speechless
mispelled: misspelled
apear: appear

And yes, Dilenna, you may blame it on being a math teacher, although 7/10 isn't too bad. Just promise not to ask me to find the value of x in any kind of equation. :)

busywand (aka disneyland)

Who knew that “buyswand” could be so fun? It must be that I had missed Cindella’s cass-o, never experienced chasing one’s cousin all around the park, and undervalued the enchantment of little manequins singing a song that would be stuck in my head for days to come.

The world through the eyes of a two year old is a special, magical place. Oh, to have that perspective every day as I push my way through traffic, rush from obligation to obligation, and get stuck listening to songs I equate to nails on chalkboards. How much more content would I be in life?

we've still got it

Once upon a time I knew this relatively adventurous girl who met a very adventurous and fun-loving young man. They fell in love over hikes in the rain, snowboarding lessons (he was an instructor and she was helpless), and wakeboarding in January in spring suits. They were fun, those two.

I hdan't seen much of them once the fun couple became three. There were remnants of fun in them, but overall they became too busy living life to really "live" it. Until it rained sideways at Disneyland. Then they were back in full effect.

We (if you haven't caught on by now, the fun couple was Beloved and Yours Truly) were treated to a day at Disneyland with Pink, her almost-2 year old cousin, his parents, Papa, Grandma, and our 7 year old niece (thanks, Papa). We had a very fun, rain-free morning. Until we didn't.

Just as we hit the motorhome for lunch and toddler naps, the steady drizzle turned to a downpour that came in sideways. We ate lunch, put Pink down for a nap, and offered to take the 7 year old back out in the storm to have some fun.

Everyone else sat (slept) for three hours in the warm shelter while we headed back into the park for some toddler-free rides, against the mass exodus (crazy people - scared to get wet). And as we walked up to the front of every line on every ride, wet from head-to-toe under our newly donned ponchos in 45 degree weather, we knew we still had it. And it felt good to know that, in the midst of our boring lives, we've still got that wakeboarding-in-January quality to us.

And I think we officially became the cool aunt and uncle.

it's not actually writer's block

Technically I think writer's block is when a writer truly has nothing coming to mind. For me, it's just one big case of memory loss. As in, every time I think of something great to blog about, I forget it before I can write it down somewhere.

And since our digital camera fell into the hands of a poor man who saw it in our car and was just desperate to have something to document the lives of his ten children (that's what I like to tell myself, and not that someone sold it on the street), I've had a hard time even getting pics of Pink up here.

So we're quite boring at the Sources of Joy household. Sorry! But with Disneyland on Friday this week (in the rain with two toddlers, no less), there should be enough material for a while. So come back next week and bear with me! :)

perspective

Some day she'll say "blueberries." And when she does she'll probably be able to brush her own teeth, eat without making a mess (ideally), will limit the use of the word "no," and generally be at least slightly more, how should I put this, agreeable.

But then she won't say "boo-blerries" anymore. And I'll be a little bit sad to trade in my "boo-blerries" model.

trade in

Ummm, may I have the three year-old model, please? The two year-old one doesn't seem to quite fit. She's wonderful and funny and smart and beautiful and has many other fantastic qualities, really. Just drives me insane, that's all. Maybe the older version will be a better fit? I hope? Please?

miss peld words

The spelling word: height

The sentence(s) a student used it in on a test: I want to do a project for my science class, so I desided to do a graphon the diffence between Boston and Japan tempeture. But, I needed to now the far and height of both countries.

I'm speach less, but giggling. :) My poor students who don't bring erasers with their pencils. Maybe I'll stay here with them. After all, she did spell "height" correctly and, therefore, must have studied. Pencil & eraser or not.

Just for fun, any guesses as to how many mispelled words apear in this text, uh, post?