Smiling Mom

So a bit ago I wrote a post for SVMB about BC. You may remember how he cried, lost control, and how I might have slightly overreacted a bit by crying and feeling like a horrible mom? Well, I’m happy to report that this past week has been so much better!

My friend Jamie sent me an email, God bless her, with the best suggestion I’ve heard in a long time on how to curtail BC’s increasingly defiant outbursts.

She said I should make him the Man of the House.

You see Hubby recently went back to work after a 7 1/2 month break due to a torn shoulder. This transition seemingly has really effected BC.  Jamie’s suggestion was to give BC the responsibility of being a helper, with a title, while Hubs was away at work.

Now if you’ve ever met my son, you know that he’s all about stepping up to the plate.  In an emergency, he’s the best person to have helping you, aside from my Husband.  So this whole idea of being the Man of the House completely appealed to BC.

Each night this week BC’s furrowed his brow and said, “Now Mommy, I’m the Man of the House, is there anything else you need?” and goes one to say, ” If I hear you say, “Ouch,” I’ll come out of my bedroom to help you.”

And each morning when BC encounters Hubby, BC reports, “Daddy, I was the Man of the House, and I did a great job last night!”

It’s beautiful.  And simple.  And OH SO appreciated.

With this new found responsibility, BC’s like a new boy.  And me? I’m feeling so much better about our nightly routine.  I no longer dread putting my darlings down to bed.

So thank you Jamie!  You may begin charging me for you mothering services at anytime now.  I’ll be happy to pay top dollar!

So last night I had one of those Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad parent/child exchanges. BC and I just couldn’t seem to work things out. It was an emotionally grueling exchange which left us both sobbing and exhausted. It made me doubt my skills as a mom. Did I do the right thing? Should I have handled it differently? I’m not sure. But did I do the best I could? Yes.

Thankfully when BC woke up this morning, he came running out of his room, smile on face, straight into my arms. Thank goodness children are so very resilient.

Hopefully BC’s getting close to the end of this new defiance phase and all can go back to normal in our house.

I wrote about our exchange over at SVMB today.

Today was a miserable day.  My kids have that horrible cough that is going around accompanied by a fever at night and loose stools.

Ya, not fun.

eClaire got it bad yesterday with a temperature reaching 103 degrees.  BC’s had the temperature the day before eClaire’s.  So he’s better except for a nasty snotty nose and one hell of a cough.

Today started better than yesterday proved to be.  eClaire was a bit more herself.  She actually had a bit of food at breakfast!!  Yeay for food.  Apparently it does a body good… if only I could reason with a two year old… sigh.

But the day got progressively worse.  Both Hubby and I have been struggling with upset stomaches and mine came to a head this afternoon. And poor Hubby began his new work week tonight.  Did you catch that?

Tonight.

That’s right folks, my husband job has turned him nocturnal four out of every seven days.

Good times.

So when he woke up from his late afternoon nap, he was met with a hysterical wife, laying on the couch, a messy house, two kids who wanted attention, and mere hours until he was expected at work.

I went to bed, eClaire had horrible, horrible loose stools and required baths.  And through all of this, BC was extremely helpful.  Thank God for small gifts!

It’s now the middle of the night and between Hubby and me, we’ve cleaned up no less than 6 disgusting diapers, one throw up, and a messy house.

My kids were fed breakfast at 7:00, snack around 10:00, a sandwich at 4:00 (oops, momma forgot lunch!) and no dinner.  Ya, forgot that one too.

BC got a, “Sorry honey I forgot to feed you,” yogurt at 8:45 tonight.

Parenting at it’s best.

So now I’m off to sleep in eClaire and BC’s room, BC is sleeping in my room because he has no sign of flu symptoms yet… and Hubby will crawl into our bed as the sun rises, to sleep the day away and attempt to recover himself.

Parenting….sigh.

Just over a year ago right after my daughter turned one, I made a decision to begin feeding my family healthier.  I’ve always forced low fat foods on my dear Hubby and children, but decided to step it up.

Regular sour cream??  They’ve never heard of such a thing! Whole fat Mayonnaise?  Naa, we go with fat free! If it’s made nonfat, I buy it.  (Except for cream cheese.  Fat free cream cheese is just disgusting. So I get the 1/3 fat.  A girl’s gotta have her limits!)

Anyways, Last year I’d become pretty tired of staring at the fridge and trying to figure out what I could make for dinner, sighing, and pulling out a packet of Mac & Cheese or those cute frozen dinosaur chicken nuggets from CostCo.  I was so. over. it.

Since I was just exiting my ugly years….you know which ones I’m talking about, pregnancy, birth, nursing OMG did I even brush my teeth today??!! years, saying Bye Bye Boobie and gaining my sanity and self back.  I decided that I need to take control of my family’s dinnertime chaos.

So I began meal planning.  Insert choir music and angelic voices here. Oh how life has changed.  Once a week I sit down, browse allrecipes.com figure out what meals I’ll be making for the week and write my grocery list accordingly.  I don’t buy pre-packeged dinners ever anymore.  And I rarely fret about what’s for dinner.

You know the greatest thing?  I save bucket of money.  BUCKETS I tell you!!  I don’t buy bags of chips, crackers, or any other snacky foods anymore–with one exception, NutriGrain Bars (Which I keep in the van for those hunger emergencies!)

For snacks my kids often get fruit, string cheese, or low fat yogurt.  I don’t buy high sugar snacks or anything that claims it’s fruit flavored.  They get two snacks, one at 10 a.m. and one after nap.

That’s it.

In addition this Christmas my brother handed over his amazing juicer which I use almost every morning.  I make a full mixture of some or all the following ingredients:

apple, carrot, cucumber, celery, orange, broccoli

And my family drinks it.  eClaire, BC and Hubby ALL drink it.  Hehe, I’m totally getting my kids to DRINK their veggies. More impressive, I’ve somehow managed to hoodwink Hubby into drinking his!!  he he.

Lately Hubby and I’ve been taking it up a level.  Buying organic.  Not everything, but lots of stuff.  We got to our local farmer’s market most Sundays to stock up on our weekly veggies, jam, and honey.  We always choose organic when offered a choice.  And recently I’ve all but changed my household cleaners over to all natural products.

And I feel good.

Sure we still go on an occasional fast food run.  But I try to keep it to In & Out, and NOT McD’s.

And best of all I feel like by teaching my kids healthy eating habits now, I’m hopefully combating a whole slew of health problems down the road, most importantly, childhood obesity.

And that my friends, is recently what I’m most proud of doing right for my family.

****I just looked over to my right and realized that I have a CostCo sized bag of peanut M&M’s open and partly eaten…  I’m SOOO not perfect.  Excuse me while go do some emotional eating as I ponder this…