The forgotten puppets

I've mentioned a few times how Melody is OCD. I usually preface that with "a little", but she tends to be more like "a lot". When she just turned 2, she became completely obsessed with puppets. It was very cute to watch as she would put them on her hands, have them talk to each other, make some out of socks, and I even found her with magic marker caps on her fingers using them as puppets. The problems started with it being summer, and 3 hours of keeping a puppet on your hand got kind of gross. I had to vacuum with puppets on my hands. I had to get her lunch ready with puppets on my hands. There was even a bath puppet that had to be worn for bath time (although it did not keep her from crying and screaming in the tub, it just made more tolerable screams). If you were to ever take the puppets off your hands, even if you thought she wasn't watching, you would immediately hear, "Mommy! Puppets... hands!!"
So I did what every modern Mom would do. I waited until nap time and hid them. It was mostly out of sight, out of mind. She still used the magic marker caps, and socks on occasion, but the obsession seemed to die down. Today I was doing a complete overhaul of my closet in the spare room, getting the room ready to become Melody's new room, when I found the box of puppets. I couldn't help but giggle, then remember how annoyed I was wearing the puppets, then get sad to realize that is such a strong memory, yet it was a whole year ago. Now I'm trying to remember if there's anything else that I've hidden from her that I'm going to find someday!

Dear General Mills

I would first like to thank you for your years of tasty products. I would however, like to point out a problem with one of your cereals that has slipped past your quality control team. My daughter has pointed out, with screams of disgust and flinging bits of cereal around the kitchen, that your cheerios do not sink. For some this may not be a problem but in our household this equals an entire day of bad attitude. It would seem that they cannot be properly eaten unless they are buried under milk. My daughter has tried, with no avail, to sink them. She has smacked them with her spoon, demanded more milk, added additional cereal on top, resorted to crushing them beneath her own had, and they still float. She has pleaded with me to help her sink them. She has bargained with the laws of physics to get them to go under. Yet, they do not sink.
This must be a product flaw, because the passion she shows for trying to make them sink would make me believe that she has seen them sink previously. She acts as though it is her own personal box of cheerios that mocks her with their buoyancy. Please review your quality control team's records to make sure they are not allowing these flawed floating cereals to get onto the open market. Please spare another family of going through the disappointment that we have had to endure here.
Your loyal customer,
Pam

The President's New Job

It's been nice out, so I haven't been keeping up with the laundry. OK, so I was being kind to myself.... we have a GIANT pile of laundry that I will do, we've just been so busy. So Rob, instead of helping with it, decides to bust my chops about it. We were in our bedroom and he was mocking me and my lack of laundry duty and he asked Melody, "Who's job is it to do the laundry?" Melly looks up at him and says, "Barack Obama". I'll gladly let anyone who wants to pick up this chore, but I'm sure he's a bit busier doing other things!

Differences between men and women.

Rob saw my Wal-Mart bill, which I've been told, compared to some, isn't too bad. This particular receipt was large, and on there he saw my eye cream. Here's how our conversation went:

Rob: "$20 anti-aging eye cream?!?"

Pam: "I need it."

Rob: "It's OK with me if you age."

Side note.... it's not OK with me!!!

Devil child

I kind of pride myself on being a "non-yelling" parent. If anything, I'm more of the goofy kind. I like to use humor and silliness to get done what needs to get done. It used to work. Here's how my day went on Thursday and how I was on the verge of tears ready to exchange my broken child for a new one that works.
We went to the mall with Aimee and Rylan and had a great time. We ate lunch together, and things were going just fine. I had a couple of stores to go in, so we said our goodbyes and did our shopping. Melody asked ever so sweetly if she could go on the carousel. I told her she could, especially since she was such a good girl the whole day. She was wonderful in the stores I had to go in, and I even bought her a special book. So we go to the carousel right before we go home.
I get closer and see the big CLOSED sign hanging on the ticket counter. Uh-oh... so I crouch down eye to eye with Melody to break the news to her. Her little chin dropped down, her eyes got wide and she looked at me as if I had just broken her heart. I actually may have, but this is one situation that I truly cannot do anything about. I tell her all the things you would say to comfort a kid that can't go on a ride they wanted.
Melody ponders all this for about 2 seconds, then starts yelling at the top of her lungs (in the big echo-ey mall) "NO MOMMY! GO AWAY! GO AWAY MOMMY!!!" She then walks over to me and starts punching me in the leg. Now my blood is boiling, as all the Mom's in the play area are looking at me to see what I'll do next. I firmly tell her that we do not hit, and we do not behave like this and now we're going home. So now the screams go from words to just plain screeches of painful noise. She is still punching me, and has now added kicking and attempted biting. I grab her by her midsection in a football hold and start to carry her out of the mall as quickly as I can. I get to the door, and I cannot control the stroller and the screaming child, so there is a very nice woman that offers to hold the stroller for me while I try to wrangle her into it. I get her in the stroller so I can race her to the car, while she's still screaming with all of her might. I thank the woman as she tells me she's "been there" also. That's comforting for about 10 seconds, and I run to the car. I barely get to the car and my little Houdini has managed to wriggle herself out of the stroller straps and decides to jump out of the stroller in the parking garage. I drop everything I have to grab her (while she is still screaming, hitting, kicking, attempted biting, and she has now added scratching). There is a woman wrestling her 3 kids out of the car next to me on the side that Melody's car seat is, so I open the other side back door and "throw" her into the back seat while I go and pick up all of my belongings scattered in the parking garage. I now take a minute to catch my breath, and call my sister to vent/get advice/let Melly chill out.
Carol helps me out by telling me all the things that I know, but it helps so much to hear. "She's testing you, she's pushing the limits, she's trying to get a reaction out of you, you need to put her in her place and let her know this doesn't work" All of these things that you hear people say or read them in a book, but it is still amazing how different, and unprepared you are when it actually happens. I swear demons had taken over my child, and she may have actually spit fire at me and had daggers come flying out from her eyes.
Ten minutes go by of Melody freaking out in the back seat of the car. Then I attempt to get her in the car seat. She is still trying to win the featherweight title on me, and I'm holding her down with one arm, grabbing her hands with another, trying to pull the straps out of her death grip, I even used my teeth to hold a strap while trying to buckle it. After 10 minutes of that, a gallon of sweat pouring from my face, I got 3/4 of the straps on. Her face is so red I think it might explode, so I leave her to her screeching for another few minutes before going back in to finish the job of buckling the seat. This would make the total time in the parking lot 20 minutes so far. Now, 30 minutes in, she's still freaking out, I go back to get that last buckle (even if it kills me), and I'm successful. I get in the car and drive home, while yelling at my child from the front seat. Now that I have her without the judging eyes of the parking garage, I yelled, and yelled, then yelled some more. I yelled until my face was red. She cried, I yelled, she cried louder, I yelled louder. All the way home.
We get home, and now she's crying and screaming to stay in the car. Lucky for me, it's easier to get her out than in, so I football carried her once again into the house, direct deposit into her room and close the door. She still hasn't figured out how to open a doorknob yet, so this tactic still mostly works. I tell her she's stuck in there until she can calm down and talk. Well, my little stubborn demon child screamed in there for another 30 minutes! This would make the total scream time about an hour and a half. She really is determined!
She eventually calmed down, I chatted with her, told her she's old enough to have a punishment for acting that way. No TV or shows for the rest of the day, and no story before nap. That brought on more tears, but there wasn't the same passion behind it. I could get her into bed and she cried herself to sleep.
Then, miraculously, the demons went away while she slept, because she woke up and told me, "Mommy, I forgot to tell you something." I ask her what that was, and she says, "I'm sorry and I love you!" Now that's the Melody that I know!

It makes you wonder

We were driving to the mall this morning, and Melody says from the back seat:
"Ghosts, you aren't supposed to be here. You need to come out at night."
Just makes you think a little bit, doesn't it?

Playing with cousins

We celebrated Uncle Billy's 40th Birthday party a few weeks back. It was such a nice day that all the cousins were running around have a fantastic time! They're luckily all only a few years apart, so they get along great. The older ones were harder to catch on film because they were playing with the nerf shooters, so I mostly have pictures of Melody and Faith.


Tell me this picture of Melly's back doesn't remind you of a teenager! Man will I ever be in trouble...



They just play so well together!



And of course girls can play football too!




Me and Joanna laughing at something funny the girls must have done!

BFF's in the park

On another beautiful day, we met up with Kerri and Ashley at the local state park to enjoy some sunshine. For some reason, drawing in the dirt with sticks, and throwing rocks off of the bridge into the water are the favorite activities. I'm always amazed at how many new things we can all find at the park. Between bugs, fish, and all sorts of nature things, these kids walk away with an entire world of knowledge.


Digging in the dirt...


Throwing rocks off the bridge into the water...



Blowing bubbles (or at least trying to). We did end up losing both wands into the water. I guess next time we'll blow the bubbles on solid ground instead of the bridge.




Ashley giving her Mommy some lovin'!





Melody being Melody!

Warm days make gardens!

Long awaited warm days gave us the motivation to actually do some gardening! The past few years we've gone straight from cold to hot, without any warm. That makes for a lot of weeds, and an unmotivated Pam to do anything about it. This year the few warm days was all we needed to get the gardens under control. Oh, and it helped that my little partner was able to dig with me too!


Aren't the little gardening gloves the cutest!



It's a good thing that she's a little OCD. She lined up the flowers for me exactly evenly spaced!



Hurray! I did it!




Don't forget to water them!

Tea party for two!

Melody is finally starting to act like a little girl! Tea party's are her favorite. She likes to invite her guys to join her, and Bunny was her favorite this time.

Easter Egg Hunt

We went on an Easter egg hunt in the town with Kerri & Ashley. It was kind of rainy out that morning, so we had it inside. The Easter Bunny was a big hit, but not as much as the chocolate inside the eggs! Since this was Melody's first egg hunt since last year, it took her a while to get the hang of it. Once she understood she could keep getting eggs, there weren't much left. But, now, she is a professional at gathering the eggs as the other Easter egg hunts after this one proved!


The BFF's giving some love to the bunny!



Mmmmmm..... chocolate!



Ashley looking sweet as pie!

The Peabody Museum

We took a sunny afternoon and went to the Peabody Museum. It was a nice size to keep Melody entertained without being overwhelming. Plus, they have a great kids room!



Who doesn't love a good statue of a dinosaur!



Melody spent the longest time watching the ants in the ant farm. She would watch them take pieces of a leaf from one section, and walk it on over to another section.



There they go....




My little pointdexter trying out the microscope.





And last but not least, an organizing section where she spent forever putting all the seashells into the correct section. Only my child would think that was fun!

The Little Artist

What do we do with our empty shoe boxes? Do we just throw them away? No, that would be way too simple. We decorate the crap out of them! Nothing like some paint, glitter, pom poms and yarn to make a fun morning activity. Although, by the end of painting, Melody always has a nice shade of brown/gray because she insists on using all of the colors on the same spot.

Crayola Factory

So, I'm one of those people that has 3 months worth of pictures stored in the camera, then when I finally upload them I have hundreds of pictures. That is why our fun and exciting trip to the Crayola Factory from February, is just now making it to the blog. Sad, huh?
I wish I could remember all the fun things we did, or a little humorous anecdote that happened, but I just have no idea. Here's some pictures though!
I do know that it's a great place to go with the kids, because there are so many hands on Crayola products for them to play with, along with different learning stations. There's also a Canal Museum in the same building where the kids can learn all about the Locke's and canals. We went kind of last minute, but we were able to drag Papa and Claire with us too. These pictures show Melody and Claire coloring their stuffed lizards with fabric markers. We allowed Melly to name them, and she came up with Demdi and Ding Ding. Don't ask me how or why, but that's what she named them!



Here's Papa and Melody making a snake out of the Model Magic.





Melody and Claire showing off Demdi and Ding Ding.




Melody and Rob making Demdi.

Melly with the Crayon guy.