I May be Getting Old and Cranky...

But really?! Rea-lly? Does someone honestly think that I am going to take them seriously if they respond to my ad for child care in such a manner (and I'm not exaggerating):

i would like 2 watch your doughter in september email me back if ur intarested

And that was all. No name. No details (no periods or caps). One sentence, which really should have been two. For all I know this could have been from a 14 year old texting a response-it certainly explains some of the short cut "words". Now I don't expect perfection, I try very hard NOT to be the grammar police...but can you count the errors in the above run-on sentence? Because there are a lot....

*Sigh* Yep...I'm getting older and certainly crankier it appears. But, honestly, how hard is it to hit the spell check button? I think it may be time to remove the ad and pray that the day care works out...

Amanda VS. TV

My kid loves TV. In particular, Alex loves one show and ONE show only. The Fresh Beat Band. At first we thought it was cute, this apparent obsession. She'd get so excited when it came on and clap her hands and stomp her feet and "dance". Well then we made the mistake of downloading a bunch of episodes so she can watch it whenever. BIG MISTAKE! That's all she wanted. Morning, noon, night. If we didn't break the cycle, she would be in a Fresh Beat coma 24/7. She could care less for any other show-including Dora, whom she used to be vaguely interested in.

It's partially our fault. We were trying to get her to "like" TV a few months ago (I believe I blogged about it). Sounds weird, right? Well, I don't call it weird, I call it survival. As in, surviving a 24+ hour flight to Brisbane in two weeks, with the help of a Tablet and Alex's favorite shows. That 24 hours, yeah, that does not include layovers. Ok, maybe not so much survival as being desperate.

So our solution to the dilemma has been to limit Alex's TV time. I refuse to have a couch potato toddler on my hands. She gets to watch two 20 minute episodes in the morning while we are both waking up (we ladies are NOT morning people) and an episode at night before bed. It works out. She gets her fix and mama gets some down-time. The TV is completely off the rest of the day. Yes, even I go without. And Alex is good with the routine now.

Which brings me to another related topic: I think TV gets a bad rap. Sure, I get that some kids sit their butts in front of it day after day and never learn to entertain themselves or learn how to use their imaginations. I get it. Unhealthy. Definitely. I know some parents who use the TV as a babysitter. They don't want to deal with their kids. And it's for these reasons that I think TV gets a bad name...because we see the outcome: obese/overweight kids with no social skills or interest in the surrounding world. Kids who can't entertain themselves or worse, expect to be entertained at all times.

But what about moderation??? I'm a middle of the road kinda girl. I'm not one for extremes so, for me, most things are ok in moderation (sweets, TV, video games *in the future*, etc etc). I figure as long as the kid has a balanced day, who cares about a little TV? Alex, for example, is on the go from morning till night. We run errands together, have play dates, go to the pool, go to the beach, etc. Who cares if she has a little TV in the morning when the rest of her day is jammed packed?  Moderation.

And perhaps this is a good way of teaching our kids about moderation? "Yes, you can watch TV, little Johnny, but you'll have to turn it off after one show". Why isn't that ok? Isn't that a good skill for kids to learn-how to limit themselves, how to use self-control? And to learn a lesson like that at a younger age should be invaluable. Completely cutting out TV won't last forever. Sooner or later a kid will be around TV. Why not teach them some self-control? Such a lesson could be applied to so many different areas.

Anyway, I'm off my soap box now. I guess this blog post was partly in response to the AAP's guideline to not let kids under two watch any TV. Just seems kind of extreme to me. I am definitely *not* trying to criticize anyone who says no to TV. Although I don't get it (admittedly, I don't get either extreme-cutting it out completely or letting the kids have limitless access), I know that parents do what is best for *their* children. Just trying to stick up for the poor ol' Television...

 Pool'ing it again

 A pic from the 4th of July...check out Alex's patriotic shirt and her new alligator chair ;)

Eighty Three!

Eighty Three. It hit 83 degrees today! Can you tell I'm thrilled?! There has been only one other 80-some-odd-degree day since September (but I don't count that day because I was at work all day in my windowless office). It has been a very long, very drawn out, very dreary winter this year...complete with record breaking snow falls. Seeing everything turn green again just thrills me to no end. And I've been itching to get outside with Alex, as we have her new swing set and a sand/water box, amongst other outside toys.

Anyway, I got home around 4pm and Alex and I spent the next 2.5 hours outside playing. So nice. She absolutely loves her water/sand box. We had to go with a raised box, because I knew that the pugs would get into a sandbox on the ground and dig it up and/or do their business in it. We had an absolute ball. We both got filthy-and wet-but such is life.

Being out there with her seriously made me question why we don't move to Australia, at least on a trial basis. Yes..I would miss my family. I would miss my friends, our house, our life...even my job. But still-I feel like Australia would be a great place to raise a family. Certainly the weather would be better and we could enjoy being outside as a regular part of life. The funny thing is, at this point, I'd be more willing to give it a try (for a year and see how it goes) than Dan-the native Australian. Funny how that has kind of flipped around. When I was younger, I was much more worried and scared of such a radical move. Now, not so much. I don't know if it's because I'm older and we have our own family. I think it would be interesting. And if it didn't work out-we can always come back. That's why sabbaticals exist ;) Who knows where life will bring us....it's kind of exciting to not have everything planned out just yet...

 Beautiful day!

 Sand/water box = best buy ever. She spent hours playing with it!

 The end result. You can't really see it...but she's covered with sand/dirt and film from bubbles ;)

Just One of Them Days...

...You know the ones...where you're just all around exhausted and stressed. Yep, had one of those days today. The day started with an 8am baby shower at work for a colleague who is having identical twin boys. They were conceived naturally. On her first try. On her honey moon. Yeah. Actually, it sounds like an infertile woman's worst nightmare, but it was fun. I like the woman, there was good food, my work friends were there...it was ok. I wasn't really jealous-the whole thing just made the baby fever spike to new heights!

After that, I stayed chained to my computer for 7 hours...working on evaluations and setting up meetings and writing reports. Then, when I thought I was done for the day, I had two more cases to handle because a colleague is out on a mental health break. Good for her...not so good for me. Then I get a phone call from my husband saying he thinks that Alex has chicken pox. So he sends me pics...yep-that's what they look like. I tell him to call her pedi and take her in. Well, that would be good if I didn't have the SUV with the car seat in it. To make matters even more annoying, I had to stay at work late tonight to make a speech. So it was 85 degrees here today, I was stuck in my windowless office for 11 hours, and I couldn't go home at my regular time (3:30) to see my sick baby because of the stupid speech. Arggghhhh!

So my poor baby probably has chicken pox, but we won't know until tomorrow. I naively assumed that, because she had the vaccination, she wouldn't get it. Obviously I was wrong...but here's to hoping it's a much milder case. Poor kid :(

But on the bright side...I did get home in time to give her some snuggles before bed. And then mama had a nice big adult beverage and kicked her feet up. See, there is a silver lining (albeit tiny) to not being pregnant. And now...I'm ready to crash...night!

Update: We have a confirmed case of the chicken pox. The pedi seems to think it will be mild though, since Alex was vaccinated. Hope so!

 Chicken pox or not? We'll find out tomorrow...

Poor little monkey...but she's still happy!