It's About Damn Time, Isn't It?!

So where the crap have I been lately, right?! I know. It's been ages since I've really written anything. So many times I think 'Ooh yes! I need to blog about that!' and then I want to think about it for a while and get the idea fully formed before doing anything about it and then......well, then 6 weeks pass and I end up not writing Jack about anything. So what would have been 5 or 6 articulate, well-constructed, witty, and downright kick-ass blog posts will now most likely come out as random, scattered, half-baked nonsense. Arse.

Where to start? How about some bullet points, and then I'll get on to meatier stuff later.

* Kitty Kat knows exactly where our local grocery store is, and every possible approach to walk/drive/cycle to it. She also loves going there, because Mama often buys her raisin bread to munch while we're in the store so she shuts her loud self up is happy and fed. Unfortunately, this means every time we go past the turn-off to the store without stopping (which is frequent, because it's on our route to/from school), she throws a massive screaming tantrum.

* Mr T is finally riding his bike. Yippee!!! Today was the first day I let him ride to/from school, with me riding alongside him, of course. There are 4 elementary schools within a 3-block area (no joke) so pickup and dropoff times are scarily congested with cars, bikes, and pedestrians, but he did great. Not yet seven, but he's still pretty late at this party by Dutch standards. So proud of him though!

* My exercising took a real nose-dive with the month-long deep freeze this winter. Then I had a nasty chest infection (which was nearly gone until it resurfaced a couple days ago....I blame Kitty Kat) and I was really NOT in any kind of place to run. I learned something through my exercise sabbatical. If I don't exercise, I don't to ANYTHING healthy. Seriously, it's an all-or-nothing scenario for me. When I'm running regularly, I eat significantly better. When I don't exercise, I eat the most awful crap in volumes you can't even imagine. Everything in moderation? Ha! You obviously haven't met me. Luckily, the weather is beautiful, Kitty Kat is going to a babysitter two mornings a week, and I'm working hard toward my goal of a sub-60 10k next month. Guess I should take advantage of all this while I can, because apparently, if one healthy lifestyle choice stops, so do all my others!

* Mr T has watched the first Harry Potter movie with us a few times and really enjoys it. He wanted to ask me a question about the house of Hufflepuff at Hogwarts the other day, but it came out 'Mommy, you know the Muffinpups House......' Hahahahahaha!!! Muffinpups! I nearly fell off the sofa. So damn funny!

* This was news article I came across, saying that many parents now don't recognize that their children are overweight. Just an interesting read. BBC News

* This is also an article that came my way recently, and it really hit home. ---- Huffington Post --- I've been having issues with the whole 'parenting' thing lately (to be addressed maybe later in this post, maybe in a whole post to itself) and reading this was like having someone else inside my brain. In the past few months I have done things and said things to my children that I swore I would NEVER say/do, but lately my standards have dipped so low I sometimes don't even recognize myself. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying 'I wish you'd never been born' while stubbing out lit cigarettes on their arms, but I've certainly had an increasing number of moments when I know I've been ..... well, let's just say not exactly warm and loving. I could ramble on and on, but no need when this article is so well written.

* Oh! One of Mr T's funniest ever!
Mr T: I'm usually scared to be around black people. They look like baddies.
Me: Excuse me? That's not a very nice thing to say. Are you scared to be around Q-Bert and his daddy?
Mr T: Huh?! They're not black!

Me: (?!?!?!?!?!?!)
After some investigation, it turns out he meant people wearing all black, like balaclavas and hoodies. Hahahahaha! Oh how I love his blind innocence on these things. (And you know Q-Bert's daddy was the first person I relayed this story to!)

* Kitty Kat threw one of her special tantrums when leaving toddler gym last week. She was wearing jeans shorts with tights, and her favorite pink rubber boots (Wellies, for you Brits). Come end of gym class, she wanted her drink. I told her she could have her drink while she put on her boots, and got both the boots and drink out. Pure. Rage. Wanted the drink, didn't want the boots. Mama said 'You ain't gettin' one without t'other!' (don't know why I had a southern accent, but there you go) Then I sat dead still while she flopped around the floor, wailed like she was being disembowled, tried every trick in the book to grab, steal, sneak, and otherwise get the drink herself. No such luck, and Mama wasn't rising to the bait. She threw such a fit that the other moms who until that point had only even spoken Dutch to me were coming up as they left saying 'Good for you for being so patient!', 'Stay strong Mama!', 'She can't scream forever' and other such assorted things. TWENTY MINUTES LATER they needed to close the gym, so I took the battle outside to the parking lot. She had nothing on her feet. No coat. It was 50 degrees outside. We sat on the ground in the parking lot for another THIRTY MINUTES. I had nowhere to be, so decided to wait her out and teach her that Mama will always win these battles......then I got bored. There's only so much parking-lot sitting that can still be considered amusing. Oh, did I mention I'd ridden the bike that day and we had a 30-minute ride to get home? Guess how Kitty Kat went home? On the bike......with no boots. In 50 degree weather. I finally got so bored that I forced her coat on her, jammed her into the bike seat with a crowbar, and cycled her distraught self home to the tune of her 'Boots! Boots! Please!' song all the way. Ha! Better luck next time, little madame.

* Speaking of, I took the kids to London for a week a few weeks back (school vacation) and hardly got a moment to myself because Kitty Kat was surgically attached to my lap the entire time. I know some moms find it 'flattering' when their kids go through this stage, getting some kind of pride that 'I'm the only one (s)he'll settle for', but I find it suffocating. I know she's not yet two, I know it wasn't her house, I know it can take kids time to warm up to 'strangers' (not that her grandparents are strangers, but at this age she needs to re-remember them), blah blah blah. But I kid you not, after a whole WEEK of living in their house, she would only on the very last day sit next to one of them on the same sofa. Not on laps, not going out for a walk with them, but allow them to be within 12 inches of her. The rest of the time, it was Mama, Mama, Mama, no matter WHAT approach was taken. I really wanted to take advantage of the babysitters and go running four mornings that week, meet my ex-work friends for a drink one night, etc. Not once did I get to do anything. No, wait, that's a lie. On the last day I did get to run an errand to the bank and the grocery store for an hour. Other than that, there was literally no way I could leave her. And I felt so sorry for Granny and Grandad! At this age, Mr T would sit for hours on laps....if he was being read to. We'd pile stacks of books by Granny and the two of them would be set for the day. No chance this time. So sad, for everyone involved.  :-(  Thankfully, though, Mr T took up the slack where his sister left off. Granny STILL had to sit for hours reading to him. Or when he was feeling more like a 7-year-old than a 2-year-old, she had to sit still while he sat on his lap playing his DS for hours. He went bowling with them, went to the zoo with them, played for hours on end throwing stuffed animals up and down the staircase with them (don't ask, it's a personal little game between him and Grandad). So at least they got interaction with one of their son's offspring. Sigh!

 

Ok, enough talk. I'll blog more soon....really, I promise this time! How about some pictures for now? Except Blogger decided to make my life difficult and mess with the uploading process just before the new season of The Apprentice is about to start, so I don't have time to get them in any kind of order or be very clever with them. Sorry, some visual vomit to go along with the verbal kind today.

Dork!

He got some chopsticks, so I taught him the way I learned...on popcorn

I love that he reads to her before bedtime!

I'm the only one who gets nervous when Daddy and Kitty Kat play this game

Mr T was sent upstairs to get dressed and put the clean laundry away. He came downstairs looking very.....colorful. He said 'Mommy, I did something really clever. Instead of putting away all the laundry, I wore it. Then I don't have so much work to do!' Told you he was a dork. And what's up with his sister's grumpiness? Fashion Police not pleased?

She LOVES this hat

This is what happens when a Kitty Kat discovers the downstairs bathroom

She also loves wearing her bike helmet

Did I mention her curly hair can be quite....SPECIAL when she gets out of bed?!

Awww.....

Didn't take him long to graduate from popcorn onto raisins

We'll have a hard time keeping the teenage girls away if he keeps up with my guitar

Like I said, she loves this hat

When you have to walk to pick brother up from his friend's but can't find the toddler harness, what do you do? Get Daddy's robe belt, naturally. Oh, the psychological trauma I inflict upon her!

I must look like the world's most protective mother, forcing a bike helmet on THIS. Honestly, she refused to take it off!