Posts tagged kids
April Fools!
Apr 1st
In honor of April Fool’s Day here are some of Brinley’s favorite jokes:
Q: What do you call the people who live next door to a horse?
A: Neeeiiigh-bors
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Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Dogs.
Dogs, who?
Dog’s don’t hoo, owls hoo!
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Q: What’s a ghost’s favorite fruit?
A: Boo-berries
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Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Yah.
Yah, who?
Are you surprised?
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And when I say that these are some of her favorites, I mean she tells them over and over and over ad nauseum. I have to laugh every single time or else I’ll hurt her feelings. She thinks they’re hilarious every single time. It reminds me of when I was a little girl and my grandfather would ask me, “Want to hear a dirty joke?” and I’d say yes and he’d say “Two white horses fell in the mud.” I’m pretty sure I had no idea why this was even funny back then but I laughed my head off every single time he said it.
Losing Control
Mar 11th
I have been a mother now for four years, five months and eleven days. For the majority of that time I have felt in control of most things baby/toddler/child related. I determine when my children eat, when they bathe, when they get to watch TV. I determine where we are going on a given day and who we will see. The power is in my hands. Though, that doesn’t mean I don’t get request for other things or protests against what I say. But the truth of the matter is, I am the parent and I make the rules. Right?
One thing that I have really enjoyed having control over for the past four years, five months and eleven days is what my children wear and how they are presented when we’re out of the house. By that I mean, I love dressing my girls in cute outfits and coordinating their hair accessories to match. I take pride in their neatness and overall put-together-ness. It’s sort of like a hobby of mine. That might sound materialistic or even ridiculous to some, but to me, it’s just the way I like it. It doesn’t mean that I shop at high end stores or dress my girls in fancy clothes. In fact, 95% of their wardrobe comes from Target or Kohls. I am a bargain shopper. What it does mean is that I just like them to look neat, clean and presentable whenever we’re out. I like them to be dressed properly for the day/occasion and the weather. Up until recently, I have had complete control over this.
ENTER 4 year, 5 month, 11 day old daughter. EXIT mom’s control of outfit selection.
I love being a mom to girls. It really suits me. {Though honestly I don’t know anything else.} But it definitely has it’s challenges. As much as I love dressing my girls, I simply don’t have the time or energy to argue about clothes with a four and a half year old. The mornings are much too rushed as it is and without at least two cups of coffee in me, I just can’t stand to put up the fight. Even if I did, a meltdown of epic proportions would ensue and I’d ultimately give in to get her to shut up! {Please do not criticize my parenting strategy, or lack there of.}
So, yesterday morning, as we were getting ready for the day, my daughter asks, “Mom, can I wear whatever I want?” I’d say this question gets asked as average of 5 out of 7 days of the week. Typically I say yes, but I do ask to see the outfit before it’s put on. If the outfit is weather appropriate and suitable for whatever the day has in store, I don’t fight it {even if it’s the complete opposite of what I would have picked out for the day.} I do have to say though, Brinley does know how to coordinate an outfit so my efforts thus far have been worth it. The clothes she chooses almost always match and look cute. {I, of course, do still have control over what is purchased! Thank God!}
Anyway, back to yesterday morning… Brinley lays out her outfit of choice and I go in to her room to approve of it. She has picked out pink leggings, a jean skirt, pink socks, and a pink, long sleeved shirt. Sounds great, right? Well, the pink shirt had a black cat on it with Halloween themed stars and said “Scaredy Cat”. I mentioned to her that it was a Halloween shirt and that Halloween had already passed but I must have forgotten to put the shirt away. I suggested another pink shirt to go with the outfit but she insisted on this one. So, I let it go. And I let my daughter go out, to a play date even, in a Halloween shirt in March.
Highlighter Tears
Feb 9th
Remember how cool black lights were? I’m not implying that they’re no longer cool, it’s just that it’s been years since I’ve seen one. When I was in college they were all the rage. All of the parties and clubs my friends and I went to had them. The best were the highlighter parties where you’d color on your white shirt or your skin {gasp!} with the fluorescent markers and then hang out in a room lit only by black light bulbs. Totally awesome, right?! So just think how totally awesome it would be if you could have had that highlighter juice coming out of your eyes!
Ok, so maybe that isn’t the most awesome thought right now. It’s actually kind of disturbing. But today, I got to see what that would have looked like. Back in October I wrote a post about my daughter’s blocked tear duct. I was having a hard time with the fact that she might have to have it surgically probed to open it up. This meant putting her under anesthesia. The thought made me sick. But now, I’m coming to terms with the idea.
Today I took Nora for her second eye doctor appointment. The first time, she had a comprehensive eye exam and aside from the blocked duct and very slight myopia {nearsightedness} in one eye she checked out just fine. So back to the highlighter oozing eyes… They put these special yellow drops in her eyes. The drops tint her tears and then the doctor can see how the tears are draining. The way they do that is they shine a black light in her eye and see where the tinted tears are going. And since Nora’s left tear duct is blocked, the tears were pooling on her lower lids and glazing over her entire eye. So when the doctor shined the black light it looked like highlighter was pouring out of her eyes. It was cool and creepy at the same time.
All of this has confirmed the fact that Nora will have to have her duct probed. They refer to it as a surgery which makes me cringe, but it takes all of about 5 minutes. Hopefully once it’s over with I’ll stop hearing, “Oh, poor thing! Why is she crying?”
A Probing Question
Oct 26th
Nora has a blocked tear duct. She has had it since birth. Basically the duct in her eye that is supposed to drain her tears is blocked by a thin membrane. As a result her eye always looks teary as if she has been crying. Excessive tears roll down her cheek. It causes no harm to her and does not effect her vision. The annoying part is that I have to constantly keep cleaning her eye and wiping away the tears. The even more annoying part is that people, mostly strangers, always make comments like, “Oh you poor thing, why are you crying?” when she is perfectly happy. It has gotten to the point where I just smile at them and continue on my way. I used to say, “Oh, she’s not crying, she has a blocked tear duct.” To which the person would look at me like I had ten heads and ask what I was talking about. Hello? I don’t really have the time to stand here and explain to you what it is. Just Google it, please! Anyway, they no longer get an answer.
So what’s the big deal, you might ask. Well, typically a blocked tear duct will unblock itself by the time a child is a year old. It is recommended that the area is massaged daily and rubbed with warm compresses to help it unblock. I have been doing these things day in and day out. Nora is nearly a year and a half old and since the duct has not become unblocked on its own, her pediatrician has recommended that we take her to a pediatric ophthalmologist, a baby eye doctor. They will want to probe the duct opened. The thought of it makes me queasy and nervous. Basically they would take a thin metal probe and stick it into her tear duct. I’ve been told that it is a very quick and simple procedure that has no lasting effects. However, silly me decided to look it up and now I’m not so sure what to do. There are pros and cons to having it done versus not doing it and I simply can’t decide. Nora has her 18 month well visit in 2 weeks and I’m sure that it will be brought up again (unless of course it happens to unblock on its own by some miracle).
So, I’m reaching out to my readers to see if anyone has any experience with this. Has your child had a blocked tear duct? Did it unblock on its own or did you have it probed? What was the procedure like? Where there any side effects? Did it work? Would you do it again if you had to?
Conversations with Brinley
Sep 2nd
Yesterday Brinley came into my room as I was getting dressed. It’s funny how kids have no sense of privacy or the need to knock. Not that I mind, really, and not that she hasn’t seen it all before. But I digress…
Anyway, I was standing there in my towel drying off from my shower. I dropped the towel, was standing there naked and about to pull on some clothes. She looked up at me and made a strange face. Then she said to me:
“Mom, how come you still have boobies if you don’t breast feed Nora anymore?”
I took all I had in me not to burst out laughing at her. But I didn’t want to feel ashamed or embarrassed or like she shouldn’t ask me those types of questions. I love how inquisitive she is but sometimes a child’s innocence is sheer hilarity. I held in my laughter and attempted to explain to her that once you have boobies, they never go away (for the most part) even after you finish breast feeding a baby. She seemed satisfied with that answer, thank God, and just said, “Ok, mom” and scampered out of the room.
