Eggs at the Coffee Table

I was having rough morning. Who am I kidding... I had been having a rough couple of weeks. Nugget has been cutting two top teeth and two top molars for what feels like 52 years. It's been a drooling, crying, waking up at 3am nightmare around this house. But Sunday was bad. I woke up after not much sleep with a crick in my neck so painful that I couldn't move my head. Uh great. That's super helpful when you are the only parent on that day and have a 23 pound wiggly toddler for which to care.Magically that moment my mom called. I kvetched and complained and she told me that I just needed to go with the flow, that day especially. We were FaceTiming and nugget was refusing to eat the egg I cooked for him for breakfast. She said, "get him something you know he will eat." When he refused to eat even his favorite Mini Club Crackers, she said "eh, don't worry about it! Try again later. In fact, put it on a plate on the coffee table and let him graze."And you know what? She was right. My mommy was right. She reminded me that no matter my agenda for my toddler, to some extent he is going to make his own and while I can fight the good fight most days, some days I get to just go with the flow.So I put our EzPz mini mat on the coffee table, loaded it up with scrambled eggs and some crackers, got him a sippy of milk and made a nice buffet for him. We decided that THAT DAY, eating wasn't going to be a struggle and it wasn't. Low and behold, he came over and started grazing. Not how I want every meal to go but it worked! We had a nice flow that morning and when he went down for his first nap, I was able to take a nice steam shower (another mommy recommendation... instead of washing the dishes or doing laundry) which helped my neck tremendously.I guess what I am trying to say is... every now and then we need our mommy to remind us that it's ok to eat eggs at the coffee table. :)

Baby, There Are Bad People In This World

My little guy was bit by another kid in daycare the other day. It happened right before pick up and he was pretty sad about it when I got there. Now I know that at 16 months the things I say aren't going to stick but one phrase that just came out of my mouth when I was trying to comfort him was "baby, there are bad people in this world."I was surprised and froze for a second. I didn't mean that in his situation. What I meant to say was there are people who do bad things... but there are also bad people in this world and likely what I was reflecting on to him was my recent run in with some bad people. Not just bad people who operate in their own sphere but bad people whose bad and selfish/self-serving decisions ruin wonderful things around them.Just like a baby who doesn't know any better than to bite their friend when they are in their way, these people in our world lash out and bite us to get their what they want. They only see the next move... I want X so I will do Y to get it. Never mind that Y is biting someone or ruining a phenomenal organization... it gets them THEIR way. If nugget's little friend had thought, "hey, biting nugget is probably a bad idea because even though I will get the toy he is playing with, I will hurt him and make him sad and earn myself a time out," it wouldn't have happened but no, many human beings are wired for short term gratification. Cool, I get my name on a building or a fancy title I didn't earn... who cares who invested what in creating these things... I get what I want when I want it (NOW)!It's funny that all this should come up for me now. I have been reading "The Well-Behaved Child" by John Rosemond and this situation immediately reminded me of something he said in one of his columns.

"Even a toddler knows that he can achieve his objective far more quickly by biting than talking, and instant gratification is their objective."

Instant gratification is their objective... and, sadly, I am finding it is the objective for many adults too. No one taught these adults that even if you want something NOW, you don't always get it NOW. But growing up, we are teaching kids (who grow into adults) that they all get rewarded, and not because of their hard world. We focus on dreaming big but now small acts are insignificant. Kids aren't allowed to fail and now their parents refuse to let their children see THEM fail. Which creates a lovely cycle of entitlement by parent and child. In today's day and age, everyone is special and the kid's supposed happiness always has to come first. Not only all of this but in an attempt to right some invisible wrongs, we give our children every comfort available... a thousand pillows so they don't even feel their fall.Here's what I learned from Mr. Rosemond - previous generations were successful because of how they were raised and if we look back at some of those techniques we might find how to raise another generation of successful kids.Back to my point about bad people. For all the planning and teaching you do for/to/with your child, there will still be bad people in this world and your child will have to deal with them as children and as adults. If we don't give our kids the tools to handle tiny dictators, how will they learn to handle "benevolent" adult dictators? They won't. And they will fall when pressured, become "yes" wo/men and find themselves betraying the morals and values you taught them and that they purported to hold dear.So my point to Nugget stands. There are good people who do bad things and there are bad people in this world. You will not be in either one of those groups if mommy and papa have a say. As a family, we will learn the value of discipline together and when you are faced with the bad people in this world (and you will be), you will be well equipped to deal with them. Their fate rests in their own hands and bad decisions. Don't let them drag you down.

Looking Forward To Mondays?

When I was single and married without kids I hated Mondays (this should not come as a shock to anyone) and LOVED Fridays (again, no shock). The weekends were bliss. Saturdays were for sleeping in, drinking coffee on the porch, reading the Wall Street Journal cover to cover (minus the business section), maybe even reading a book, long walks with the doggie, and studying Hebrew. Sundays were farmers markets, grocery shopping, laundry, errands, and cleaning, the gym and fancy coffee... all done together as a couple.Since the nugget was born, everything changed (again, not a shocker... I know). There are things I really miss about our weekends BN (before nugget) but what I hadn't realized had changed was that I completely approach the week totally differently. It was actually shocking when I realized it. I realized I was starting to dread Fridays and cheer for Mondays. Now, this wasn't instantly and I really noticed the change when I recently lost my job and began doing freelance work from home. No longer were my weeks 60-70 hours long with a dash to get nugget to bed, eat, clean, sleep and do it all over. I had a bit more breathing room. Granted I also had a bit of a crazier schedule than most. I worked 7:30am-5:30pm (because those were the daycare hours) and then I worked at home before bed. But I digress...Now I love Mondays. I take the nugget to school, hug and kiss him, play for a little bit in his room and then dash off to actually drink a cup of coffee... (wait for it...) HOT! I drink hot coffee again, people... I can read the news and catch up on the world while working and no one is crying. I am not trying to beat the clock before someone wakes up from a nap. I can chat with friends on Facebook without miraculously disappearing suddenly for three days because I have no time for myself and who the hell can remember where they left off anyway! And I dread Fridays (a little... not a lot) because I know all weekend will be poopy butts and whiney nuggets and food thrown at/on/to the dog and tiny hands hitting my face and pulling my glasses off 850 times a day.Now, don't get me wrong... I love my son. He is the light of my life. I would never trade him for the world. But I so appreciate his daycare teachers and their patience and that it gives me a break. I have to work and I couldn't work if I had to watch nugget all day. He isn't content to ever sit and my work takes thought and focus.And so we have a new normal. Mondays are exciting and signal some me time while I have to psych myself up for Fridays and the exhaustion that comes with chasing the dog and pushing dining room chairs around the house all day. And I am ok with that. :)

This all came up, by the way, because a friend posted this on Facebook:

People without school aged kids: booooo its monday!People with school aged kids: Mondays here! lets celebrate!#truestory#Ilovemykids#butIneedsomespacesometimes#moneywellspent

The Nugget

I know many of you are wondering why I refer to our son as The Nugget (or nugs or just nugget)... It's really simple, there is no real reason.My brother started calling my little guy and his friend's little girl 'the nuggets' as they were born around the same time. And when I started writing again, it just stuck.I am not opposed to sharing his name (I do on my personal spaces like Facebook) but the internet is forever and I don't want to force him to have all of this stuff attached to his Google search. So pseudonym it is.And that's why we have The Nugget!