Target practice

My potty-trained daughter has had several accidents in the past few days so I started wondering if something was going on and decided to take her to the doctor. I've only been to the pediatrician twice with my kids outside of well visits so I was feeling pretty proud of myself for taking the time to go. It wasn't until we arrived at the doctor's office that I realized the challenge that lay ahead.
I took on the challenge and all 3 of us crammed into the little bathroom. I showed my daughter the target ... A small cup with a Carolina blue cap. She liked it but still wasn't sold on the idea.
"I need you to pee in this."
"Mommy, that's silly. I can't sit on that!"
After getting her situated on the potty with the cup in my hand and my 15 month old son crying on the floor, I realized too late that I should have gotten a glove. I'm happy to say that I managed to catch some of the urine in the cup.
After she finished, I told her I needed to go and she asked me if I needed a cup. I graciously declined.
Mom of the year ...

Special yogurt

We have been dealing with all the extremes of abdominal distress this week.  After the 24 hours of vomiting subsided, our 15 month old son started having several watery poops per day.  Our 3 year old daughter, in contrast, kept complaining of stomach pain, crying on the potty, and squeezing out rock solid pebble-sized poops.  As a pediatrician, I am a huge fan of Miralax and dole it out to my kids frequently.  My daughter seems to be catching on and no longer wants to drink water or milk after she sees me mixing in the white powder.  Last night, I packed some Miralax for our dinner outing.  My daughter always wants to eat yogurt for "dessert" so I planned to mix it in.  Unfortunately, she was sitting beside me so I couldn't think of an inconspicuous way to get the yogurt drugged.  Instead, I decided to tell her that since she had been so good at dinner, I had some special sugar to put in her yogurt to make it extra sweet.  She took the bait and was so proud of her "special" yogurt.  So far, no major consequences from the special yogurt but I have this strange feeling it will come back to haunt me!
Mom of the year ...

Vomit virgin

Somehow, I survived 3 years of motherhood without cleaning up vomit.  Fortunately, my daughter has only thrown up a couple times ever (and I happened to be on call), and my son has never thrown up (other than spit-up).  I consider this fact to be a blessing given that I am not very good with vomit.  I have a strong gag reflex and always feel like I may throw up myself when I see other people vomit. 
Earlier this week, I paid my dues.  My daughter woke up around 10 pm vomiting.  I think vomit at night is worse than vomit during the day (mostly because children are supposed to sleep at night, not vomit).  We bathed her 3 times and did 3 loads of laundry in the middle of the night.  She finally seemed to settle down around 3 am.  The next morning, I went to get our 15 month old son who I was planning to send to daycare while I stayed home with our ill child.  I walked in and he stood up in bed smiling.  He pointed to the other end of the bed.  I've never seen so much vomit in my life.  Goes to show you how different your children can be.  While my daughter was waking up every hour, our son decided to go back to sleep on the other side of the crib and woke up smiling!  Either he is a really easy kid or he has learned it's not worth competing with his sister for attention.  Either way, cleaning up after him was much easier!
Mom of the year ...

The Birthday Gift Shift

I just dropped off a trunk loaded with birthday presents to the NC Children's hospital.  These gifts were donated by the generous friends and family who came to my daughter's 3rd birthday party, in lieu of a gift for the birthday girl.  We have made this a tradition in our house since her 1st birthday.  At first, my friends told me I was crazy - that once our kids were old enough, they would pitch a fit about donating all those gifts.  I was especially worried this year since our daughter was turning 3, old enough to understand what gifts are (and to want them!).  I tried to prep her ahead of time by telling her that people were bringing gifts for the "sick children" to her party.  Still, I had my doubts about how it would all go down.
At the end of the party, my daughter looked at the pile of gifts, then looked up at me and asked "are we taking the presents to the sick children now?"  I almost cried ... maybe I really am Mom of the Year!  Well, I guess it's more like "mom of the moment" ... I'm pretty sure I almost strangled her later that day.

If anyone else would like to start this tradition, aka "The Birthday Gift Shift," please let me know and I will facilitate delivery of the donations. Not only will you feel good about donating gifts, but you will also feel good about not having to find space in your home for all that stuff!
Mom of the year ...

Fetch!

My 15 month old son loves balls.  In fact, he loves them so much that he wakes up saying "ball" and will run around looking for a ball as soon as he gets out of his crib.  I have to admit that we often use the ball as "bait" to get him to come with us.  We also discovered that he is really good at playing "fetch," so good in fact that we call him our labrador retriever. When I threw the ball today and said "fetch," I think he may have taken the game a little too far ...

Mom of the year ...

Sour milk

Whenever I pick the children up from school, my daughter asks for water and whines the whole way home if I don't have any.  For this reason, I have tried to keep a cup of water in the car at all times.  The other day, I picked the kids up and per usual, my daughter asked for water.  The purple cup that I had been keeping in the car was sitting in the cup holder.  I knew it had been a week since we had been out of town for the weekend, but I figured giving her the water was better than listening to her whine about it.  I handed her the cup and she took a swig.  She immediately made a face and said "That's not water, that's milk and it tastes funny."
I had forgotten that my husband had driven my car the day before we left town (5 days before the incident) and must have left the purple cup in it with milk, not water.  I almost gagged at the thought.
Mom of the year ...

Hypocrisy of parenting

My friends who know me well know how much I love sweets, especially chocolate.  These same friends also know how rarely I allow my children to eat sweets.  I refrained from giving either kid any kind of sweets until their first birthday, and then only on that day.  (I blame my career and the growing trend of obese children.)  I've only very recently started giving my 3 year old sweet treats, usually on some sort of special occasion.  To her, yogurt and apple sauce are desserts.  Of course, while I deprive my children of chocolate, cookies, cakes, etc, I tend to stuff my own face behind their backs.
This week, we celebrated our friend's one year birthday by going to get frozen yogurt.  It was one of those self-serve places, and I was so proud of myself for letting my daughter have a cup (my 15 month old son of course got none).  After filling my own cup, I sat down and took a look at our cups side by side.  I felt a little less proud.

Oh well, I still enjoyed my yogurt and my daughter did too!

Mom of the year ...