1. When socializing with the neighbors on a Friday night, try not to get too engrossed in the conversation that you lose track of your child.  AJ had been running up and down the sidewalk with another little boy.  After conversing for awhile, we noticed the little boy in his backyard “helping” his dad mow the lawn.  No AJ.  What followed next was chaos:  I pretty much barged into another neighbor’s house to see if AJ was in there, my husband hopped on his bike while Kim hopped on her son’s electric scooter to patrol the area, and AJ’s name echoed throughout our neighborhood.  When we found him, he was down on the other street because he was following Kiki as she rode her bike! Not only did I feel like a complete schmuck, but I’m pretty sure my heart had stopped beating momentarily.

2. When tucking the kids into bed at night, make sure to check their mouths for gum.  Kiki woke up yesterday and told me she was still chewing her gum from the night before.  By some miracle, it stayed in her mouth and did not get all over everything.  AJ, however, came downstairs not as fortunate.  He too had went to dreamland with gum in his mouth. But, there was gum stuck to his arms and fingers.  Thank goodness they didn’t choke!

3.  Most important lesson of the week: I will not be Mother of the Year any time soon!

For more lessons learned, head on over to Musings of a Housewife.

My poor Kiki. She has been suffering from allergies for the past two weeks.  Last summer, we had her allergy tested and the results showed that she reacted to pollen and certain weeds that are the worst in Spring and Fall.  Her eyes have been red and puffy and she sneezes constantly.  In fact, that is how I know she is awake in the mornings; she starts sneezing the second her feet hit the ground.

Unfortunately, nothing seems to be working to help alleviate the symptoms.  At first we were giving her a generic form of Children’s Benadryl.  That didn’t seem to do the trick  so we switched it up to Children’s Zyrtec.  It seems like pretty potent stuff since the directions call for one tablet in a 24 hour period.  That still has yet to make a dent.

Kiki is getting to the end of her rope I’m afraid.  The past two mornings she seems almost angry that she is still suffering.  I certainly can’t blame her.  I’ve been telling her that I think if she takes the medicine, as the day goes on she will feel better.  After repeating that same line to her again today, her response was:

“How do you know? You’re not me.  You don’t know what it’s like to be me.”

As she said this, her voice was hoarse from all the coughing and sneezing and her little chin was quivering.  It broke my heart.  She is absolutely right; I don’t know what it’s like to be her.  I haven’t been in agony for the past 2 weeks; she has.  But how does a 7 year old even formulate that thought? I will admit it does seem a touch dramatic.  But as I watched her slowly walk to the bus today, her comment was repeating itself constantly in my mind.  Now I realize, even at age 7, she is her own person.  I may have carried her for 9 months but she really is not mine. She is without a doubt, her own individual: with her own thoughts, her own realizations, her own sense of fashion, and even as a 2nd grader her own battles. Whether it is battles with friends, school work, or allergy suffering, she has to feel it on her own while I stand on the outside only able to guide her.  And the shocker for me is that based upon her comment from today, she already realizes this.  How did she learn that lesson before me?

Wow! If anyone needs me today, I will be in my bed, curled in the fetal position, crying like a baby!

I have a phobia when it comes to public restrooms.  I would rather hold it and get a bladder infection than step into the disgusting world of public bathrooms.  Truth be told, I would rather my kids hold it too.  Now before you go all child abuse crazy on me, I’m not that insane.  If they really need to go, I begrudgingly take them into the dark abyss.  But you better believe I try to talk them out of it first.

Last night we are out to dinner with my in-laws.  Everything was going swimmingly until AJ turns to me and says: “I have to potty.”  Just so you know, he is not potty trained.  However, he started this new thing last week where he willingly uses any potty but the ones nestled safely in our house!  He will fill his diaper to the max if we are home. But when we run errands or go anywhere that isn’t home,  he transforms into a fully potty trained 3 year old.

Since I would like him to be potty trained at his point more than I want world peace, I took him into the bathroom.  Actually, first I ignored the statement but when he repeated it I knew I should comply.  So in we go.  This is my first time taking him into the bathroom.  He is too small to stand up to go so I form the toilet paper safety barrier and sit him down.  He starts going but it isn’t flowing down into the toilet, it is flowing out.  Luckily, it all hit my little strip of toilet paper that I laid across the front.  No problem.  And I was beyond excited that he went plus his diaper was dry when I took it off of him.

“Mommy, get out,” he so lovingly exclaims.  I figured he needed some privacy to complete the rest so I waited outside the door of the stall.  And that is when I hear it.  It was the sound of a waterfall hitting the floor of the bathroom.  “Uh-oh, Mommy,” AJ says from inside the stall.  I open the door to find a huge puddle running towards my feet.  Plus the waist of his pants are now wet.  Now here I am “Miss Public Restrooms are the Devil”, squatting down wiping up the floor of the bathroom.  There are not enough scalding hot showers in the world right now to make me feel less dirty!

About 15 minutes later, we emerge from the bathroom and go back to our table.  It takes everything within me to not curl up into a fetal position and rock back and forth.  “I pee-pee all over the floor,” a way-too-excited AJ shares with the table (and the tables around us.)  I explain to my table (and possibly a few eavesdropping neighbors) the events that just took place.  I ended my story by telling my husband that he is taking AJ to the bathroom from here on out.  He says that I should have rolled up a ball of toilet paper and placed it in front of him.  Although my MIL says she doesn’t recall ever having to do that with her boys when they were younger.  She suggested that I buy one of those portable toilet seats to take with us.  Preferably one with a shield for little boys!  I think I’ll be out looking for one of those today.

It was then that my FIL reminded us that when Kiki was just being potty trained, she too needed to visit every bathroom everywhere we went.  Which just proves the old what goes around comes around theory.  After years of dodging public restrooms, I find myself cleaning up their floors.  IRONY!!

I feel like I shouldn’t even utter these words yet because it may be too good to be true, but I think we have finally broken the binky (or pacifier) habit!  SHH! What is that sound? Oh, it’s the angels singing “Alleluia.”

Here is how it all went down.

Friday night, my husband took the kids to his brother’s house while I went to a neighborhood gathering.  It was going to be a late night for my husband as he was engaging in some poker playing.  Being the smart man that he is, he packed the kids pajamas.  Along with pj’s comes AJ’s binky.  But we couldn’t find it anywhere.  A frantic search around the house turned up nothing.  Oh, well.  Poker calls with or without the binky.  By the time he got home, it was midnight.  AJ was fast asleep and never woke up to ask for the binky.  He actually made it through the whole night.  Of course, when he awoke, the first words out of his mouth were, “Where is my binky?”

I searched that morning for it and still couldn’t find it.  Saturday night rolled around and we still couldn’t find binky.  There were some tears but he managed to get to sleep.  But by 1am he was crying for his binky and I could’t get him to settle down.  I brought him in our bed to try to alleviate the situation.  Here I am trying to break one habit and in doing so support another!

Sunday morning we decide to paint the office.  As we were tearing it all apart, we find the binky.  I quickly stuffed it in my pocket and continued with the cleaning.  He has been doing so well, I hate to introduce it back to him.

Then he fell asleep on the couch last night.  Again he never woke up as we took him to his crib.  This time he slept through the night!  He did ask for it this morning but I just told him we still couldn’t find it.  I braced myself for the tantrum, but nothing!

So I think we can cross binky off the list of AJ’s vices.  Let’s face it, the boy is going to be 3 in just a couple of weeks.  We’re still nowhere close to being potty trained, but the big boy bed is in boxes in our foyer just waiting to be put together.  Slowly but surely we are getting there!

How many of you are singing Bon Jovi’s “She’s A Little Runaway” right now after reading my title?  I’ve been singing that song ever since I decided to title this post.  Fun times!

This morning, I took a moment to take a shower.  Well, truth be told, it was a couple of minutes.  Usually when I’m taking my morning shower, AJ comes into the bathroom with his toys and plays until I’m done.  This morning, however, no AJ.  No biggie, I had a movie in for him so I figured he was downstairs watching it.  So I call his name.  I yell, “AJ!”  Silence.  This repeats itself about 5 times.  I run to the top of the stairs and yell louder.  Silence.

The dog is laying by the door looking out the windows.  “Not a good sign,” I think to myself.  I run down the stairs in my towel and peer out the windows.  Our pumpkins from the Autumn Celebration are lined up in a row along our walkway.  As nice as that looks, I prefer to keep them on the porch.  Obviously, this was the decorating of a 2 year old.  I run upstairs and peer out the back windows to the swingset.  No AJ.  Panic is now setting in and I run back to my room to quick throw some clothes on before heading outside.  Just then the doorbell rings.  I run to the top of the stairs naked to see if I can see anyone.  I’m hoping it’s one of my neighbors with AJ and hopefully not a police officer.  Although either way, I was naked which puts me in a bit of a predicament!  But there peering in was AJ.  He likes to ring the doorbell before he comes inside.  He then opens the door and a huge wave of relief sets in because a.) He is back in the house safe and sound and b.) He was by himself so no one needed to bear witness to my exhibitionist state!

I let him know that he absolutely can NOT go outside without Mommy or Daddy.  I’m not sure it sank in so we need to put something on our doors to keep him in.  I’m just so thankful that nothing happened to him and I refuse to let my thoughts linger on that because I will have an ulcer by tonight if I do!!  I mean really, I didn’t need those extra ten years of my life that I just lost!

AJ has been pretty attached to me for the past few months.  Sometimes I love it because I love to just hold him while I take mental snap shots of my little man.  Sometimes I hate it because there are times when I actually need to be doing stuff and the only one that can help him is me.  My husband could be holding the apple juice in his hand ready to pour it for AJ, and he will throw a temper tantrum because I’m not the one pouring it.  Like it’s going to taste different if Daddy pours it and not Mommy.  I try to remember that this isn’t a forever thing.  I try to remember that someday he won’t want me to do anything for him, or be seen with me for that matter.

So the other night when I got home from work, I asked him how daycare was.  “I cry,” he said.  So I asked him why he cried.  “Cause I need you,” he replied.

Can someone pick my heart up off the floor for me please?  It just melted!!

I finally found a moment to sit down and blog!  I don’t know where the time went these past few days but I’m way behind in blogging stuff!

How many of you parents out there are fiercely protective of your children?  This has been my personal battle for the week.  I have been trying to “teach” myself how to step back and let Kiki handle her problems.  Kiki has a little girl in her class that she has been friends with for a couple of years.  They have had their little fights now and then like all children, but nothing out of the norm of childhood fights.  But this week, Kiki informed me that her friend has made friends with two other girls and they have seemed to turn on Kiki.  Apparently, if Kiki asks to play with them, she is told she can’t because they are not friends with her.

Now before I go any further, allow me to say that I’m not naive enough to think that my child is perfect and is the victim whenever her and her friends have tiffs.  I’ve heard her and seen her in action and know that she is to blame plenty of times.  I asked Kiki if she had done anything to them prior to them “banishing” her and she replied no.  I told her to walk away from them and play with other kids.  She replied that she had done just that.  I know I should take comfort in the fact that she made that decision.

But I actually lost sleep that night over it.  I wanted nothing more than to go banging on the door of this girl’s house so that I could give her parents a piece of my mind.  I wanted to write a note to her teacher to see if he had witnessed such behavior.  In my mind I was even willing to take this to the principal if it went any further.  Do you think I’m crazy yet?  So after a sleepness night, I relayed my worries to my hubby.  I received the normal “How are you a functioning member of society?” stare that he seems to give me a lot.  He pointed out that Kiki wasn’t even as upset as I was.  She certainly didn’t lose any sleep over it.  And actually, I haven’t heard her mention the girls since the other night.  He also said that I need to give her more credit as far as how she handles things.

After this conversation, and a brief nap, I came across an article on CNN.com that hit home.  “Parents: When to back off, when to step in.” seemed to be written just for me! It talks about “Helicopter Parenting” which means that you hover and aren’t allowing your kids to figure out how to handle their own situations.  It broke the children into ages from toddlers to grown adults and gave age appropriate situations of when parents should back off or step in.  One particular part of the article really made me step back and think:

“When [the kids] have little failures, they feel like our own failures,” Ginsburg said. “What we need to understand is that our job as parents is not to finish our kids or produce perfect kids. It’s to start our kids.”

So true! And while I may be irrational with how fast my back goes up when I find out Kiki’s feelings are being hurt, I know that she handled the situation in a way that make me a proud mama.  I also realize that these are all life’s lessons that she has to learn.  My jumping in and trying to solve everything for her is doing more damage to her in the long run then hurt feelings would.

I guess I’m still learning life lessons as well.  Just think, this isn’t even the adoloscent years! I may be committed by then!