I always had good intentions to be one of those moms who doesn't cave into their kids unreasonable demands. I thought that with the proper combination of love and discipline, my kids would be little angels who would do whatever I asked.
Okay, so I was a little naive. Having never been around kids for extended periods, I did not realize the power such a little person can hold over the otherwise reasonable adults who raise them. Now I realize that successful parenting is not so much about finding the perfect combination of love and discipline that turns the kid into an angel and is more about surviving every day by choosing your battles.
Unfortunately, I think that lately, the toddler has been winning every battle. I have my excuses for my lax parenting, so I will lay them out for you:
1. I am rotund and achy and get very little sleep.
2. Eddie is a very stubborn child.
3. Eddie has been teething and/or sick for most of his life, so I feel bad when I put my foot down too often.
4. Eddie is a two year old and cannot be reasoned with.
5. Eddie is a master manipulator who knows exactly how to get his way.
It is Excuse #5 which I wish to discuss today. In just the last few days, I have started to notice how entirely Eddie is the master of this domain. I think we have been on a slippery slope for some time, but since we learned that his two-year molars are coming in, I have become even more lax than before, telling myself that he doesn't feel good and I shouldn't be too hard on him.
The reality is that Eddie knows my weak spots. Here are a few examples of how he messes with me and inevitably gets his way:
Scenario #1 LunchWhen we get home from work every morning, Eddie wants to "watch some-pin." I am okay with this because it gives me time to make lunch without being asked "what you doin?" eight thousand times. In former times, I would make said lunch, then turn off the TV while Eddie came into the kitchen, sat at the counter, and ate his lunch. Now when lunch is ready, I say "Eddie, do you want to come eat your lunch?" to which he immediately responds "No." When I press him, he says, "In living room?" Unfortunately, I have given into this request one too many times. Now if I say no, he bursts into tears and cannot be calmed until I bring him his lunch in the living room. Or, if I try to wait it out, thinking he will eventually get hungry and come into the kitchen, he will just not eat lunch.
Scenario #2 LunchThe other trick Eddie likes to pull at lunch time (usually in conjunction with the one detailed above) is to be completely indecisive. I am happy to give him a choice on what he wants to eat as long as he follows through and eats what I make for him. Unfortunately, that is not usually how it works. I will say "Eddie, do you want toast with cheese for lunch?" For the sake of this scenario, we'll say he agrees. I go in the kitchen and make toast with cheese. After going through scenario #1, I bring his food into the living room and set it next to him on the couch. Then Eddie says "don't want cheesy toast any more." So I say "well what do you want?" I will suggest various things, which he will always reject. Finally, after the cheese on his toast has solidified into a greasy glob, he will request "sugar toast" (which is really cinnamon sugar toast, one of Ed's breakfast staples). Generally I try to restrict the sugar toast to a breakfast food, but if I refuse, he will then burst into tears, crying "want sugar toast! want sugar toast!" until I give in.
Scenario #3 NapAfter lunch, I attempt to convince Eddie that it is nap time. He has been pretty good about taking naps willingly and I can usually succeed in getting him up the stairs and into his bed. It is once he is in the bed that the tricks start. I tuck him in and walk to the door, at which point he says "Momma?" I turn and say "yes?" Then he says "Wanna say prayer?" I feel this is one request I ought to grant, so I come back in and try to get him to say a prayer. Of course now he refuses to say a prayer or listen to me say one. So I try again to leave and he again demands a prayer. Regardless of whether or not I say a prayer, he is always mad when I finally get frustrated and leave the room. At that point, he generally cries for 10 minutes, then switches to talking and singing for the next 50-75 minutes until I give in and go get him out of bed.
So here is my appeal to you: how do I turn the tables and regain control of our lives? Do I let Eddie go hungry if he refuses to do as I ask? Do I stop asking what he wants to eat and just make something else instead then insist that he eat it? Or do I continue to give in to his demands and end up with one of those 300 pound 3 year olds and we'll go on Dr. Phil so he can berate me for not feeding my child enough vegetables and letting him watch too much TV?
Eddie was very excited to visit Grammy and Papa's house because they recently got a swimming pool in their house. It has been so long since Eddie went swimming that he was under the impression that there would be dolphins in the pool, but luckily he wasn't too disappointed to find it empty.
We got to Cedar on Sunday afternoon and got to spend most of Monday playing in the pool. Since the water is the same depth throughout the entire pool, the kids have to wear life jackets when they get in. 
Eddie was not very comfortable in the water at first and would only get in when he was clinging firmly to an adult. I tried explaining that the life jacket would make him float, but he didn't really get it. He loved watching his cousins jump off the side and go all the way under the water. At one point, Eddie slipped off the edge of the stair when we were playing catch and his face went in the water before I pulled him out. He talked about how he went "under the water" for the rest of the trip. He spent most of the time in the pool motor-boating around and telling anyone who would listen that he did not want to go under the water.
Violet spent the trip being held by everyone. This is the only photo I took of her just to show how big she is getting. She is now one month old and she is wearing 6 month size shirts and 3 month size pants. Her hair is getting too long to mohawk, so I need to figure out some other way to style it. Usually, it is just a ridiculous mess. She has started smiling a lot more and holding her head up really well. I finally figured out that she's not really hungry all the time, but eats to comfort herself because she has gas. Now we're working on addressing the gas problem so that I don't have to spend every evening from 4:00-10:00 PM nursing her constantly.
