toddlers

It's been a long while since I've written a blog entry with any substance to it, largely because life has had all the substance I can handle right now. I've been busy planning a trip to Denver, Colorado, where my now-19-month-old daughter and I (along with my mother, thank goodness) will be spending 16 nights in a hotel and as many days at a hospital.

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The television is a big presence in our house. It's not quite another family member - we don't invite it to dinner - but it's definitely a big part of our daily lives.

I realize that it is not cool to say that your kids watch TV. Television is blamed for a variety of ills, from hurting your eyes if you sit to close to causing ADHD (neither have been proven true, by the way). But for my family, child-themed shows and cable channels enrich our lives and give all of us some much-needed down time. Even my whirling dervish of a son can be calmed for the length of an occasional TV show (thank goodness). Don't worry, my kids get plenty of much-needed exercise and mental stimulation. Neither of them are fat, mindless slobs!

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You know you and your family have been wicked sick when:

You've thanked God more than once that you have no carpeting in your house, only easy-to-wipe-clean laminate flooring.

You've given up on thoroughly cleaning each vomited-on area, and instead you've made the decision to just mop the whole house when people stop puking.

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You know how women's magazines have articles that show you how many calories normal things you do every day burn? Like, pulling weeds for 1 hour equals 200 calories, dusting for 30 minutes 100 calories, and so on?* I think someone needs to analyze how many calories "toddler wrangling" burns. I took a trip to Target today that should have earned me the right to stuff myself with a cheeseburger and fries!

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This week, my darling 15-month-old daughter will undergo an endoscopy to determine whether her severe food allergies are instead part of a life-altering disease called eosinophilic esophagitis. When I was sitting in her bedroom after midnight tonight holding her as she cried, I was inspired to write this poem. It's probably not very good, but it's heart-felt, and it describes the bittersweet life of a mom of a sick child. (Suddenly I'm a little nervous about posting poetry...)

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The last few weeks have simulataneously blown chunks and been wonderful.

The chunky moments have been many. Some involved shelling out piles of cash. The car went to the mechanic three times to fix the same problem. The last and hopefully final fix cost $558. One of our dogs had a lump that went whacky so we had to have it removed (and we had her teeth cleaned at the same time because, you know, canine dental hygiene is important). The bill came to $616. The Discover card is getting a workout!

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First off, I'm ashamed to admit how far I've fallen behind in this blog. The thing is, I keep thinking that I need to "catch up" before I can post something new. So I don't post anything new. That's dumb, I know.

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This morning was a prime example of why toddlers are so much fun. My Little Man is 21 months old now, and he is as headstrong as they come. When he woke up this morning, he decided that he wanted a yogurt. Without so much as a glance my direction, he walked into kitchen, opened the fridge, and grabbed a yogurt. He went to the drawer and pulled out a spoon (his spoons are the only things in reach in the drawers thanks to the locks), then helped himself into his highchair. I tried helping, which led to him screaming "no no" to me. My independent Little Man.

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Ok, now I'm sure there are pediatricians out there that have already caught on to what I am about to offer as a revolutionary (ha!) idea for their practices, but for the most part pediatric offices are nothing short of a danger zone.

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Okay, so I've decided that being a mom means only having half of everything (and more often than not, even just a quarter of said things). At the end of each day when my kids are asleep I look back at the preceding 12 or so hours and think to myself how I just can't seem to get anything done in its entirety.

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Now that we have been through a mild form of hell and are almost back to normalcy, I am really more excited than ever to get back to Los Angeles. I truly hope that our plan to be back there by February comes to fruition. I am sick and tired of Portland.

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Okay, okay, okay....I know I should feel awful about not posting on here in ages, but life has taken a turn for the absolutely crazy and I thought I wouldn't have time to write here anymore.

But because my life is crazy (and not the rockstar fun crazy that it used to be) and I really have no time or money for therapy, I have decided to tamper with the title of my blog and turn it into "Confessions of a Model Mom" and use this space as therapy....writing down the madness that swirls around in my gob always has seemed to help.....at least it's kept me from turning into a complete and blithering idiot or padded cell tenant.

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these two are my babies. the one on the left is my son, R., and the one on the right is my step-son, S.

Now that I have my modeling adventures & exploits blog, Peacocks On Leashes, and have been left excomunicado from Blogitive, this is and has officially become my mental health blog......basically where I come to write about what irks me, fascinates me, or puts me one step closer to the proverbial nervous breakdown.

So that is where my son's tantrum of the century comes in.....one of those things that took me so close to total loss of sanity, I may never wholly recover. Up until now, my son who is 2 1/2 has been a challenging child. He is sweet, loving, intelligent yet incredibly stubborn & strong willed & can be manipulative beyond his years. He has had what I initially thought were tantrums on more occasions than I care to mention.....or so I thought. Basically, he had had what I now know are meltdowns......today he had his first full-blown TANTRUM.

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I am kinda having a bit of a dilemma, surprise surprise!! See,my daughter is due on February 26th. The original due date was March 1st, but at our big ultrasound she was measuring three days early....so now we are looking at a February baby! My son was due on the 4th of July and he came early....on June 25th, so I am hoping that baby girl does the same....and if she doesn't then that is where my dilemma comes in. To induce a few days early? Or not?

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