Thursday, July 26, 2012

So, how do you discipline a three year old, exactly?
This age is so interesting to me. Lily is nothing short of hilarious, even when she's being bad. Everyone keeps telling me "Make sure to have a consequence for wrong doing...and follow through!".
Ok, so, she spits her chocolate milk because she thinks it's funny. I warn her twice to stop, the third time the consequence is no more :::ipad, movies, pool, treats, etc.:::::: for X amount of time, or the rest of the day even.
Her response?
"I don't want my :::ipad, movie, treat, pool, etc.::::", with the proverbial devilish grin, and continues undesirable behavior. I follow through with my threat and she follows through with her ability not to give a shit.
It's interesting.
I'm really at a loss in those moments on how to discipline. I always knew discipline would be tricky. THAT is one thing I was kindof-sortof prepared for with parenthood. I did not expect it to be so funny though. I cannot help but laugh when Lily says something snarky right back at me or Dustin. I don't let her see me laugh, of course, but it's funny.

One thing that she does that really irritates me, but, again, it's funny, is when she does the "dead man float" out of water. Does that need elaboration, or do all kids do this? So, it's when I'm trying to get her to do something: take a bath, go potty, etc., and she doesn't want to go.... so she plays dead. Her whole body goes limp and she even closes her eyes. I'll attempt to get her on her feet and she is just dead weight. I literally cannot lift her when she does this and she just lays there and laughs. I cannot muster any verbal commands when this happens because, again, I'm laughing at her creativity.

Sigh. Toddlers.


Sunday, July 15, 2012

I'm trying to keep up with blog. I know I will regret it if I don't. This is my memoirs of my only child and my sole purpose is so I can do two things, 1.) let Lily read this someday if she chooses, and 2.) laugh at myself someday when Lily is WAY more challenging, as in the teenage years.

Speaking of teenagers, I read the term "Threenager" on my friend Christie's blog and that is a PERFECT way to describe the age of three. It's much more challenging than two. I'm sorry to break it to my friends with children younger than three, but it's true. Someone wrote in an article that "three is two... with intent", and it's so true. Three year olds are much more calculating, manipulative, and determined. And much more hilarious, which I'm assuming, is what God throws in there to make this all worth it. Emotions run high at this age. It can be downright scary at times...but, it is such a time of learning and exploration, so much different than that of a younger toddler, so it's fun.

Recap from the last couple of months:

Disney...
"The happiest place on earth" is what they all say. I have to argue with that. I mean, if walking around in 100 degree humid heat, waiting in lines for hours, paying a ridiculous amount of money for food, tickets, and souvenirs, watching kids melting down everywhere you look, and battling copious amounts of people is what the happiest place on earth is like then I would HATE to see hell. Ok, so I'm obviously not a fan of theme parks but I have to say every single second of heat and crowds and every penny was worth it. We had a blast.
We took her the week before her 3rd birthday. It was so fun to see her reactions and all the excitement on her face. She was so excited that she didn't sleep well the night before which made for some really interesting tantrums throughout the morning but she did really well overall.
My favorite tantrum story of the day was her meltdown on It's a Small World ride. It was her first ride ever. There was no wait at all. As we're walking onto the boat, Dustin picks her up to help her since she almost fell into the water trying to do it herself. Apparently, it was one of those "I WANT TO DO IT MYSELF" moments and she freaked the hell out. She threw the biggest tantrum for the first five to ten minutes of the ride. Everyone was staring. Classic moment. Then, this sweet lady with two older children turned around and gave me one of those looks to say " I so know what you're going through. Just breathe" and then looked at Lily and said, "Hey, you can't cry on It's a Small World! It's supposed to be happy" and then proceeded to try to calm her down by pointing things out to her. It was all to no avail but sometimes the kindness of strangers reinstates my faith in people. Lily did calm down and did enjoy the rest of the ride. I've never seen her eyes so big.
She got to meet all of her favorite characters and got their signatures in her autograph book (with the help of daddy since we forgot the book when we saw Mickey and Minnie). We only rode a couple of rides since meeting characters was much more important, but it was all perfect.
We spent the night in a hotel, which was a first for her. So, after waking up at 6am, not napping, and being completely in love with everything in the hotel, especially the elevator (or alagavater, as she called it), she finally fell asleep at 10pm, in bed with me, which was also very interesting. It was certainly a very memorable couple of days.


Birthday...
A couple of months before her birthday, I asked Lily what kind of party she wanted. She vacillated from Curious George to Rio to Up to Minnie/Mickey Mouse. I was super excited about the "Up" theme...but then I realized that it was her party, not mine, and as she became more insistent about the Mickey/Minnie thing, I had to go with it.
I decided to DIY a lot of the decorations, thanks to Pinterest. I made Mickey Mouse plates out of small and large black paper plates, dipped strawberries and marshmellows and covered them with Mickey Mouse sprinkles, and even make Mickey shaped rice krispie treats. No one ever told me that DIYing does NOT mean it will be cheaper. I think I spent more on this party than I did on her first and second combined. Everything did turn out the way I had imagined though and Lily seemed to really like it.

DIYing...



{banner by Paper Lullaby, my friend Shel's company. Love her stuff!}

{Cupcakes by Auntie Kiki, who should have her own business!}
{Cupcake topper designs by my husband, Designs by DN}
 {My daughter was lucky enough to have 2 homemade dresses for her party. Dress #1, compliments of Jessica.}
{ Dress #2, compliments of my friend Cori.}
{And yes, my child had a black eye on her birthday from tripping at Bop's house. It's genetic.}
We hosted around 40 guests at our clubhouse in hopes of a pool party. Of course, true to Lily form, she wanted nothing to do with the pool and was so fixated on her gifts that nothing else mattered, not even cupcakes. 
So, I made the ultimate mistake of allowing her to open her gifts. With 9 other toddlers in attendance. I apparently missed the memo that the reason why parents wait until guests are gone to open gifts is so that bar fights don't break out amongst the children....because that is exactly what happened. Lily received a play golf set from her "Uncle" Nick. Very cute, simple toy with 3 plastic clubs and balls. Well, the clubs soon became weapons and there was a lot of crying involved. Lily couldn't care less because she was onto opening her next gift, but, I won't be making that mistake again. Toddlers are scary. 
This was one of the bar fights. Lola and Gema fighting over golf clubs. Notice Ty on the far right using the club as a bat. He loves baseball. 

It was a really fun party and went by in a blur. She got shy when everyone sang to her but proudly blew out her own candles. She chased her friend Lola around the most, since my child loves to just be one on one, and was so happy the whole day. We didn't get any videos this year. I'm not sure what happened to my brain on that one. All of the DIYing got to me, I think. 

On her real birthday, we celebrated quietly at home with a homemade dinner by Bop and cake by mommy. That was a fun, relaxing day. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lily now:
- Is in the "why??" phase, which I have always dreaded, but it turns out that it can be kind of entertaining. 
- Can count to 20.
- Can count up to 20 objects when asked "how many _____ are there?".
- Swims with floaties.
- Is in a fearful phase of things like slides.
- Is asking about going back to school.
- Loves playdoh.
- Continues to recite commercials and movies.
- Loves to jump on anything that can be turned into a trampoline.
- Continues to be a tomboy and wants nothing to do with anything princess-like.
-Has a fantastic memory and remembers every.single.promise. you make her.
- Loves old school cartoons like Tom & Jerry, Scobby Doo, and Chip & Dale.
- Is fully potty trained but can be so stubborn about pooping in the potty. 
- Continues to get compliments on a daily basis for her "classic hair".

I know I missed updating a lot but daily life just slips by. I can't believe just 6 more weeks until we leave with Lily for 2 weeks to Costa Rica. I'm starting my prayers now for that trip.
More to come...