Case of the missing Dinner plate 2

****Well! It is quite obvious momma's with newborns should not be allowed to blog late at night all alone. It seems I managed to write a post and get it published, only to stumble around my keyboard and delete it moments later. Several comments were made to the disappearing post, so please forgive me. I have retrieved the deleted post and am I hoping round 2 works out better!***

My parents have enjoyed telling me many a stories about myself, over and over, about what wonderful behavior I displayed as a child, obviously it wasn't the greatest. A certain little tale hits home with me now as I parent my own children.

Apparently, I was playing with the knobs on the stove. I was twisting and turning them on and off and had been instructed, told, and disciplined many a time on this already, that it was a NO-NO. On this particular occasion, I have been told, that my dad told me quite stern, "I do not want your hands touching this stove again!". A few moments later my parents were once again interrupted by the obnoxious noise of me turning the knobs on the stove. However, as they braced to beat my butt they discovered little old toddler me turning the knobs with my ELBOWS, not my hands. I was following their instructions. My hands were not touching that stove!

Now as I have my own toddler, I encounter these moments...more so than I would like to admit to my parents. But it is moments like these that break the frustration of parenting and allow for a good ol' belly laugh and reminder of the innocence of our obnoxious children and a minute to pour that next glass of wine.

This week, Big Sis DIVA provoked one such moment. It was dinner time. I made some delicious homemade cookies for us to snack upon after we finished dinner. Big Sis DIVA spied these "cook cook's" as she calls them, and the rest is history. I informed Big Sis DIVA that after her dinner was "GONE" she could have a "Cook Cook". I had no idea she would take me literally.

She basically took her dinner plate and hid it. When i turned around and saw the plate missing from the table I inquired about the issue. Here is what went down: (it's about 1 1/2 minutes long FYI)

She loves Babies...for now

There is no doubt that in less than 75 days Baby DIVA is going to be a BIG SISTER! Lately she has been very in tune with all things baby. She sees babies in the street and tells me "Bay-bay momma". She brings me her pull ups and wipes and wants to change her "bay bay's" dipey. She races up to me and kisses her baby sister without prompting. And recently she grabbed her newborn snapshot and tried to feed it her sippy cup. All of this tugs at my heartstrings and I think it is just adorable!

Feeding her "Bay Bay"

Changing her "Bay Bay"

A few days ago Baby DIVA enjoyed some playtime with her cousin for his 1st birthday. Now, let me remind you that my Baby DIVA is a jolly green giant and is super tall but she is also kind thin. Her cousin however is a beast. He actually weights more than her. But, she loves "bay bay's" and kept trying to hold him. After a few minutes she became very agitated and started to throw a big tantrum because she could figure out how to hold her "baby" cousin. I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time.

Please let me hold you Baby cousin!!!!

Once Critter2 arrives I sure hope this love of babies trend continues, but I'm betting when she realizes that "bay bay" sister never leaves she will change her tune. What do you think?

Picasso in the Bath

My grungy little tot, Baby DIVA, has decided she hates baths. It became a problem. Not only because my Hippo size self with Critter2 protruding from my mid-section is starting to have a hard time reaching Baby DIVA down in the bathtub, but because Baby DIVA would scream and cry and thrash about when bath time rolled around. It took me and H4L, as a team, to get this stinky girl bathed. Not so fun. And this is not cool because my kid is a dirty kid. She likes dirt. No bueno.

Luckily for us this phase passed almost as quickly as it came about. But it didn't stop us from researching and prowling the net for ideas to help spark our tots interest in bath time during this short month long phase. And that is when we found it. Homemade Bath paint. Let our Baby DIVA "destroy" the walls of the tub and she just might want to bathe again. hmmm. This might be a winner we thought. And we were right!

I found this recipe online and tweaked it a bit. I used baby soap instead. I mixed the soap, cornstarch and food coloring and Voila, bath paint. Then H4L and I swooped in and scooped up the Baby DIVA and tossed her in the tub, with the paint. We demonstrated to her the skills mastered by our 80's roots of the art of splatter paint, and she took right to it. That is MY girl! Giggles ensued. No screams. H4L was able to get her scrubbed clean without a thrash fight. My hippo self was able to stand nearby and snap pictures. No one needed Tylenol or vodka after the bath. It was glorious. Baby DIVA completed her masterpiece with a smile and we haven't had any bath troubles since.

And cleanup was a snap and left Baby DIVA's bath tub sparkly clean!

Simple ingredients we all have around the house!

Toddler time FAIL

Books. Books on shelves at various levels. Books on shelves at various levels in a quiet location. Not a good mix for Baby DIVA.

My little one has always been interested in books, but not really for reading. She loves to snack on them, tear the pages, flip the pages, wear them as hats, make them into flying carpets. Whatever, she is using her imagination so I roll with it. Over the last few weeks, Baby DIVA has sparked a interest in the actual words inside those flying carpets. She will bring me a book and we will sit down and read.

I love it. I have a passion for books, (although chasing a tot around 24/7 leaves little energy to actually hold my own book up and read), so this development made me really happy. I decided it was time to brave the library with Baby DIVA. We have toddler time at our local joint and I was thrilled to finally be able to attend with a story interested tot.

I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO HUMILIATED!

My precious, quiet on the car ride, relaxed Baby DIVA and myself arrived at 10am prompt for toddler library time. We strolled inside and grabbed our tot ticket to story time. Then we headed over to the children's area to look at some books and see what craft they had for us to do. I am not sure what happened on this short walk, but Baby DIVA grew some horns. As we rounded the corner and entered the racks of kid books, her voice began to echo throughout the area. "Mama, Mama, Mama, Ca-Ca, Mama". So I thought perhaps she needed to take a crap. I asked her if she needed to go potty. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, Mama" at full scream.

Attempting to distract her, we went over to the craft table and I tried to engage her in this activity. She proceeded to try and eat the glue stick, try to climb up over the top of the table, tried to steal craft pieces from other kids, all while squawking and mortifying me. Fail.

Then I pulled out the big guns and decided we should walk the racks, burn off some steam, hoping that this might bring my sweet quiet Baby DIVA back to reality. Off we went, hand in hand. And then she squirmed loose and was gone. Sprinting through the racks. My Fluffy pregnant self chased her down and found her attempting to scale the racks of My first Chapter books. AWESOME. Baby DIVA scurrying up the racks in the library. Yes, I am that mom. And might I add, quite memorable with hot pink hair. No hiding me!

A glance around the room at my fellow toddler moms, hoping to be met with looks of "oh honey, I have been there stares", was met with a surprise. Pure distaste looks from these fellow tot moms. Hatred. I am the devil with pink hair mom looks beamed my way. Like their tots are always perfect. Again though, Mortified.

I scooped up baby DIVA and headed back to the librarians desk to turn in our tot ticket. There was no way we were going to make it to story time, much less through story time without destroying something. The kind librarian asked me to please stay. That she had some toys to entertain my tot, and that she would eventually learn the ropes. I denied the offer and high tailed it out of the library. Glances from peering adults from the historical section on the opposite side of the library pretty much demonstrated I need to leave with my tot, PRONTO!!

Perhaps we will try again in a few months. Until then story time will be on my living room floor and might involve a nibble of pages and a timeout or two. Oh and did I mention as we drove home, Baby DIVA was a quiet perfect little princess? Don't you just love the terrible two's?

Oh and those moms who gave me the look of death, I hope your kid throws food at you tonight at dinner!

Emergency Bath

We are sort of engaging in Potty Training here at the Pink Haired Momma house. But not really. I mean, we have introduced Baby DIVA to the lovely little potty we have for her. We have explained to her what happens in the restroom. She has watched us "do our business" since birth in the restroom. She has gone and sat down on the potty a few times and done her business. But we are not really pushing this milestone yet.

Last week we had a breakthrough. Baby DIVA came into the bathroom while I was finishing up some stuff. She took off her diaper, sat down, went pee, stuck her hand out for toilet paper,(which I gave her), she attempted a wipe, stood up picked up the bucket and proceeded to dump in the toilet. HUGE celebrations went down! Lots of cheers, dancing, singing, clapping. The works. Both momma and daddy were present and partook in the festivities. Pee Pee Dance was in full active mode! I was so incredibly proud of my tot, especially because she had no real coaxing in the matter.

Since then we have had a couple of other times where she has used the potty. We are by no means pushing the use and just kind of are letting her figure it out on her own. It might also be that she doesn't really talk yet, so even if she needs to go she doesn't really know how to say, "Yo momma, I gotta pee!" But either way, I prefer to just let her develop this at her own pace.

Fast forward a week to yesterday afternoon. I was keeping the toilet warm doing stuff and in strolls Baby DIVA. She needs to go, she exclaims by ripping her diaper off and plopping down on her potty. She does her business and at a much more rapid pace than I can move gets up and proceeds to DUMP. Never mind that I am still in the dump site!

Emergency Bath took place immediately following celebratory You went pee pee in the potty dance!

Katy Perry and Self Image

All over the mom circuit today, I have been hearing complaints and trash talking about the Katy Perry Sesame Street video clip that hit YouTube. I just read an article stating that her clip, to air this season on Sesame Street has now been pulled after moms united and raised hell saying her clothing was too racy and would give their tots the wrong self image. So I went on over to YouTube and had myself a little watch, just to see what all the fuss was about.

GIVE ME A BREAK PEOPLE!

I am a mom of a daughter. I watched the video and whoop do freaking do. She is dressed up as a pixie princess type chick singing with Elmo. How about this for thought...all those moms that spent so much time today YouTube watching and complaining about how their child's self image is going to be put in jeopardy; how about these women take that same amount of time to learn how to promote positive self images of their children when faced with media influences that steer towards a potential negative self image influence. And instead of watching the video over and over, spend that time with their daughters. Teach them not to be followers. Teach them to be able to decipher what trash is from treasure and to treat themselves with respect. Give them the foundation to be able to recognize and make GOOD positive informed choices for themselves in regards to the negative influences that will in fact be thrust at them on a daily basis.

The world is not a sugar free candy coated playground with no sharp edges. Although we do not need to thrust negative self image material in our children's faces, we do need to expose them to it while we can help them learn from it. We must not shelter our children as this will only result in horrific outcomes. We need to teach our children from early on to have self respect. And something as minor as Katy Perry wearing a pixie fairy outfit on Sesame Street singing a catching tune with Elmo seems like a good enough spot to start.

Haven't seen it? Watch it and let me know what you think?

Terrible two's already???

In a few short months darling Baby DIVA will be turning 2! Yes that is right 2 whole years. Now we might still have 3 months to go until this milestone, but Baby DIVA is already setting the ground for what is in store.

TANTRUMS!
Oh my! She has mastered this artful 2 year old skill and is holding nothing back.
Here have a look at one of her more recent minor throw downs:

And here we have a still shot of a tantrum in progress:

Gotta love it. What do you do during tantrums? Do you walk away? Laugh and video your kids like I do? Or do you console them? How long do you let them cry?

Crayons

Baby DIVA is not all that interested in coloring. The girl loves to paint...as evidence by the numerous pictures I have collected of her entire body covered from head to toe in anything you can imagine. Paint, Pudding, Yogurt, Mashed taters, Marker. That's my girl!!

I don't know if she will ever be a crayon color in the coloring book kind of gal. H4L picked up a GIANT coloring book to try and stimulate her senses. FAIL. I have given her all kinds of papers, coloring books, dry erase boards, chalk boards, drive ways, and honestly she could care less.

She could care less that is until she finds a lonely little crayon that was playing hide n go seek under that couch, from Pink Haired Momma and the ziploc it lives in. Well Baby DIVA's painters hands grabbed a hold of that lonely little crayon and found her muse...she went to town on my tile floors.

Awesome! Luckily since I border on being a helicopter mom, she was only allowed to get creative for a mere moment or so before the muse was put to rest. Not too much damage done at all. Tears and fits ensued as the lonely crayon was reunited with his kin folk. Boo hoo. Hours later there was still no interest in crayons. Oh well. I guess we will bust out the paint in the yard again.

Let the Tantrums begin

I have mentioned before that before I was graced with the fabulous career of motherhood, I used to be an avid reader. Now knee deep in the midst of mommahood, I am forced to enjoy books on a few page basis as I grab a moment alone on the toilet...whenever alone in the pot actually happens. Yes it is true that instead of the book stacks upon the bedside table, in my house you can find stacks of books on the back of the toilet, along with a few parenting magazines as well. Fascinating stuff!


The other day I was reading a page or so in the quiet of the potty room, in my favorite parenting book What to Expect the First Year . I do reference this fabulous book despite Baby DIVA now being a big girl and almost hitting that 1 year and 1 month old marker!! So, I am reading a section about 12-13 months babes and how they may begin to start exhibiting tantrum type behavior. I chuckled to myself and thought, "thank goodness Baby DIVA does not behave in the manner". Boy am I an idiot.


I kid you not, 5 minutes after I chuckled those thoughty words in my happy little mind, Baby DIVA learned the art of tantrum throwing and has not stopped YET. She finds this amusing and is involving the entire city in her new ambitious goal of humiliating momma! Not to mention she is driving Pink Haired Momma crazy with her ridiculous behavior. These tantrums can strike at any time and any place. She has no mercy for them. no warning. No manners. The kitchen of our home, the crib at 3am, the check out line at walmart, eating out at a restaurant with grandma. It is AWFUL. Seriously kid! Just because I did not give you that french fry does not then open the door for you to scream and wail and act a fool. WOW! Must come from daddy because I mean I never behave in that way (those of you who know me personally may now step away from your computer and laugh hysterically for about 5 minutes, I will be here upon return. GO)


Baby DIVA throws the biggest tantrum of the day at bed time. It is a full out throw yourself down and scream and moan and groan and whimper and WaWaWa all the way till you can not hold your eyes open anymore fiasco EVERY single night (for the last 4 days). We are not giving in. She is not giving in. I feel that the stubbornness in this family may kill us all.

Tantrum stage must end soon, please!!! We are of course being the ever most responsible follow the rule parents and we are not responding to this behavior at all. We are allowing her to tantrum throw and not receive any of the positive or negative attention she is reaching for with these outbursts, but it ain't easy!

Tantrum throwing while asleep and with chupy in her mouth!!