Three Thought Thursday: Episode 15

This hasn't been a good week in Mommyland, so sorry if this post comes across as a giant complaint!

1. We'll start with something slightly on the good/cool side. Kolbe is becoming more and more autonomous. Little things that used to require Mama's help are now simple for him to do on his own. In fact, he has just recently started going to the bathroom without even telling me. He'll disappear and I'll go to track him down. Upon arriving at the bathroom door, I call out, "Kolbe?" "Me's going poops, Mama." Too funny.

This morning's happenings went a little like this:

Me: Let's get dressed so we can go eat breakfast, Kolbe.
Kolbe: Eats. Yogurts. for Breakfast? Mama? (yes, he does pause between each word...)
Me: Yes, we can eat some yogurt for breakfast. Do you want to get dressed first or Reagan?
Kolbe: Me. Den Rudy.
(I dress Kolbe, put him down and move on to Reagan. Kolbe disappears. Kolbe returns to the room by the time Reagan is dressed.)
Me: Ok, let's go eat, guys.
Kolbe: Mama. Me. Rudy. Eats. Yogurt!

Upon arriving in the kitchen, I'm astonished to find two cartons of yogurt set out on the table. One at Reagan's seat and one at Kolbe's. And each had a spoon beside it! Sheesh. My little guy is growing up before my eyes! A tiny little part of me did make a mental note: Self, you do realize that now that he is starting to do lots of tasks for himself, he's going to be getting in to more and more that may not run as smoothly as this episode. And then another part of me is saying: Self, this guy can get his own breakfast! Convince him that he shouldn't come in and wake you up until he's done with breakfast! Heck, what else can you train him to do on his own!?! Ha ha! I'm proud of my little guy!

2. On to the not so pleasant topics:

My poor little Reagan has developed an icky case of nummular eczema. I'm not exactly sure what makes it "nummular"...that's just what Mark calls it. Something to do with the little circles it makes all over his legs, arms, back.... He's had this eczema for a long time. It's just really gotten worse in the past few months. I'm not sure if it's due to us being outside in the dry, Lubbock weather a lot more than in the winter or what. And it doesn't seem to itch. He's never scratching it. It just looks horribly painful and has moved from just his legs to pretty much his whole body except his face. Eczema runs in Mark's family so we aren't surprised that he has it, and his pediatrician has basically said that we've just got to do the basics to treat it. There's no real way to get rid of it. I don't want him to be stuck inside all summer. He loves to play outside! We've tried everything: hydrocortisone (1/2% and 1%), Cetaphil, udder cream, Pond's dry skin cream, Vaseline, A&D ointment, colloidal oatmeal baths. The list goes on and on. This is the point where I wish I had one of those blogs that like a thousand people read so I could request advice and get tons of feedback with all kinds of ideas I haven't thought of. But maybe, just maybe, one or more of my four and half readers might have a tip or two for treating really, really dry skin. Have you had any luck with anything else? I'm desperate for my poor little guy!

3. So like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this has not been a good week thus far. Things have been super tough in the discipline department. Monday was a nightmare filled with Kolbe attacking Reagan left and right. The jealousy issue has gotten huge with Kolbe! If Reagan has a toy, Kolbe wants it. If Reagan sits on a chair, Kolbe knocks him off. If Reagan has my attention, Kolbe throws a fit to steal it. So after a rough Monday, I decided that I was going to give Kolbe every bit of attention he needed. So I could cut him off before he started his attacks. Tuesday actually went well. I got absolutely nothing done in the house and was completely exhausted by the end of the day, but Kolbe was so much better than he was on Monday. I stuck to his side the entire day. Literally. Other than nap and when we were in the car, he was at my side the whole day. (even when I went to the restroom!) I was able to redirect him before things went wrong and it seemed to be working well. So I thought I'd stick with the plan yesterday too. And I think it backfired a bit. Kolbe quickly caught on to the fact that he was getting a lot of attention and decided that he should revert to acting like a baby. Yesterday morning was total fussy/whiney overload. He somehow confused getting a lot of attention to correct his behavior with getting a lot of attention so he could always have his way. Things were going better after he woke up from nap yesterday afternoon and then this happened:

Yep, that's the inside of my dryer. Around 4pm, right before I was about to start making dinner, the buzzer rang on the dryer. Upon opening the dryer, I was greeted by this lovely site. And everything in the dryer looked exactly like the walls. Virtually a total loss thanks to an ink pen left in Mark's dress pants. Here's an outline to express my sentiments toward this event: (unfortunately not in proper outline format 'cause I can't figure out how to make it line up in right in blogger...)

I. Event: Pen explodes in Asmussen Dryer

II. Casualties

A. my favorite pair of khakis

B. two brand new shirts of the boys'

1. brand new: I just cut the tags off before placing them in the wash

C. a baby gift that I spent the entire nap time making for a friend

2. said baby gift was the purpose of the load of laundry. The only reason I did the load was because I needed to wash the gift. The other items were thrown in just to make a full load.

D. Several other items: a cute purple hoodie of mine, a baby blue cardigan...

III. Benefits

A. Could there possibly be a benefit to this event?

B. Yes. Shopping for a new favorite pair of khakis.

IV. Aftermath

A. Spent 30 minutes scrubbing out the dryer

B. Attempted to re-wash the ink splattered clothing by adding detergent, OxyClean, and color safe bleach

1. while this did work for a few spots, none of the items returned to their former glory. The majority of them had 50+ spots.

C. Since this all took place during the time I'd normally be making dinner, dinner never got made.

D. Packed boys in the car and headed to McDonalds- This was an event only french fries could remedy

E. Dear Husband brought home roses. Possibly trying to brighten my day. Possibly trying to save his life.

Why do the most ridiculous things happen on the toughest days? Dear Lord....mercy!!!