Thursday, April 27, 2006

Noses

Thing 1 learned the song “If you’re happy and you know it…” but instead of singing it that way she sings “If you’re happy in your nose…”

Thing 2 tried to teach my mom how to roll her “Rs” the other day. It was so funny. She’d give Grandma instructions to say different words, and they’d go back and forth with Thing 2 patiently telling Grandma what to say… sit, hat, goat…, then she’d throw in a ‘RRRRRRRRRRRRR’ roll, then go back to the other words… like the problem wasn’t that Grandma couldn’t roll her Rs so much as she couldn’t follow instructions.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Errands

Thing 2 and I ran errands today after Thing 1 went to school. She’s kind of been in a cranky mood this week. It kind of went along with her whole mood when she put one of the rented DVDs through the shredder. It destroyed the envelope, and only chewed up the first quarter inch of the DVD, but of course it was enough to ruin it. Luckily it seems they’re not going to make us pay for a replacement, the online rental company sees this has a hazard of online movie renting.

Today at Costco she was in the cart standing on another DVD I was buying. What is it she has against DVDs? Anyway, I just moved her off of it and said something along the lines of “Honey, don’t stand on it. The case will break.” Thing 2 picked it up and threw it. It didn’t really hurt it, the thing is shrink wrapped in its cardboard cover, but we don’t throw DVDs, that’s the rule. I said no, don’t throw it, and moved it to the other side of the cart. She grabbed it and chucked it again. I picked it up and carried it so she couldn’t throw it again. She got very angry and started screaming at me, standing up in the cart and trying to grab the movie. By now we had everything we wanted and were making our way to the checkout line. Unfortunately there was a line. Thing 2 continued to scream at me while we waited. She was leaning over the side of the cart howling. I picked her up and firmly sat her back in the cart, then started putting our things on the belt. If I didn’t have the roast we were having for dinner in the cart, I would have just walked away and left everything there. But I wanted the roast. In Costco the cart goes on one side of the conveyor belt and the customer goes on the other. I pushed Thing 2 in the cart up to one side, and walked around to the other side myself. She continued to scream. I ignored her, hoping we would get out of here soon.
A little grandmotherly lady came across a couple checkout lanes to say “It’s sure hard, isn’t it?” I smiled, not exactly sure what she meant. Shopping with a toddler? Suffering through the screaming? Then she said; “You’re doing the right thing.” Oh, trying to ignore the tantrum. “Thank you,” I said.
It was just funny to me to be in a position that other people would be encouraging me about my child rearing/ignoring.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Croup

I think it was her first winter.. that would make Thing 2 9 months old or so… she got croup. She woke us up in the middle of the night having trouble breathing. She might have been in her 2nd winter, I’m not sure. Anyway, she was little. I knew more about this than Hubby did, but I kind of panicked that what would happen if I took Thing 2 to the hospital and she had another choking fit in the car. I’d be driving, who would help her? So we woke Thing 1 up too and had a family visit to the hospital.

Thing 2 has always been really good about taking her medication. In fact giving her some just now reminded me of this story. When we got to the Emergency room they looked her over and spent a while explaining to me about croup and how driving around with the windows down on a cold winter night is usually enough to cure whatever croup she has. All this time they are talking to me I’m holding her hand she’s wheezing and I’m thinking to myself “SHUT UP AND FIX HER!!!”

They gave her a breathing treatment, which was basically a little tube attached to a machine that pumped out a little medicated steam. She was supposed to have two doses of this, each about five minutes long. The nurse told me to just hold it in her face and he’d be back.
Thing 2 loved it. She took it in her mouth and sucked on it, laughing and giggling. She got mad when I took it away. She played with in, letting the mist on her lips, and then sucking the steam out of it, and just playing with it like it was the funnest toy.
The nurse came back and watched for a while and was just amazed. He said he’d given this to a whole lot of kids, but he’d never seen one take to it like her. He said, “She’s like a dog playing in the sprinkler!”