Larkin oh Larkin

I can't even remember what prompted this comment, but it had me laughing last night:
Larkin: "Mom, that lady was BROKEN in the HEAD! She was a little coo-coo."

What am I going to do with my little Larkin? I got a call from school that my sweet little girl was hiding snacks all around the room. Then she started smuggling snacks into her cubby. I thought, "Oh how sad, my little girl is starving at school... they should give her more snacks!"
Then I discovered the true extend of her "hiding" things and it wasn't just food. I was cleaning the house and found the most random items hidden all around the house. For example, 12 spoons under the couch, a dried up glue stick under the dog bowl, my high heels under the dining room table, 22 flinstone vitamins scattered in every corner imaginable, straws that I'd put in the trash now under the kitchen table, coins from the toy cash register stashed under her bed, and the list goes on and on. Do I have a hoarder? A bit of OCD going on? A big sister that feels she has nothing of her own because she has to share everything with her sister and all the kids in her preschool? Hum. A few days later, Larkin was found with pocketfuls of beads from her school, then beads hidden in her box at school. Along with hiding things (including brooke's toothbrush!), she is not telling the truth. She walked out of the toystore with a ring in her hand. We've had talk after talk about the importance of being trustworthy, of not taking things that aren't ours, how this behavior makes everyone feel... She must understand the concept by now! Moms out there, what do I do?? I decided to go with the angle that she needs things of her own, so she now has a special box of only her things (mostly her birthday presents). Brooke is not allowed to play with anything in the box. Did that work? Not yet. She loves the box and the extra attention we are trying to give her, but she is still taking things from school and not telling the truth. Finally, I did the only thing I can think of to discipline this girl... I am now taking away a dress every time she takes something that isn't hers or does not tell me the truth. The day before yesterday, I had to take away 3 dresses, including her favorite purple halter dress right off her back (that was traumatic for her I think). I patted myself on the back thinking that I'd finally gotten through to her. BUT, yesterday I asked her to wash her hands with soap before dinner. When she came in I asked her if she'd done it and she said, "Yes mom, I washed my hands." I asked her if she was telling me the truth and she said yes. I then felt her hands... did she wash them? No way. I said, "Larkin, you aren't telling me the truth right now." You know what she did?!? She said, "You're right mom, I'm not telling the truth... I'll go get you one of my favorite dresses." She was so nonchalant... no big deal... here's my dress... let's get on with it. WHAT DO I DO WITH THAT?
I told her that she could earn back dresses with honesty. We'll see how that works.
On top of all that, she decided last night that she didn't need her binky anymore, and just like that she was done with it! What?!? This is the girl that had severe anxiety attacks when we tried to take the binky away before. She only uses it for bedtime, but it has been ESSENTIAL! Now, what, she just doesn't need it anymore? Crazy!
Also, my wallet mysteriously went missing (super huge pain in the ass! I LOVED my wallet... had cash and gift cards in there not to mention all the health insurance cards and numerous credit cards etc... such a pain to lose!). I'm hoping that my little sticky fingers daughter didn't take it and hide it. I've asked and asked and she denies it. I want to believe her I really do... I keep hoping it will turn up. It's been four days now... I think it's really gone.
So, what do I do? How do I be a good parent in this situation? I feel like Gregor and I are really aware and dealing with it with her teacher as best as we can, but at this point I don't know if it's all working or not.

Happy Birthday Gregor

Gregor celebrated his 32nd birthday March 18th. The day didn't turn out quite like we expected. Gregor had a big boys night out planned for his birthday which involved a little indoor rock climbing and grabbing a beer and dinner with a bunch of guy friends. Great! So the kids and I decided to wake up early and cook chocolate chip muffins for breakfast to celebrate.... well... we woke up late and ended up having 12 minutes before Hudson had to catch the bus... so I flew downstairs to put the muffins in the over.. BUT something funky was in the oven and our kitchen filled with SMOKE! Not good! So we had to substitute eggo waffles and a candle in a bagel for dad. This is the best picture I got of the celebration (sorry honey, your eyes were closed in every single shot!). The kids had fun though. Hudson and Larkin made special cards for dad and I think he felt special. The boys night was a success and Gregor and I celebrated by ourselves on saturday night with dinner and a walk on the downtown mall. It was a fantastic night out with Nellie sleeping in the sling the entire night! Happy Birthday Gregor. I hope we can get it together a little better next year, but hopefully you had fun. We LOVE you!

Brooke gets Girlie!

My little Brooke is no longer a Tomboy! After only wanting to wear sweats and leggings, she declared a couple of says ago:

"Only skirt mom, cuz it boo-tiful"

She also had to complete the outfit with a bow "like Larkin."

Since then, Brooke has worn dresses and tights! Now she's mad that she only has one skirt! Guess mom needs to head to Target to update her wardrobe.

Happy Birthday Larkin (and 2 months to Nellie)

Happy 4th Birthday my old soul child. People are always surprised that you are only 4. I think I've been saying that you are four for at least 6 months now. You went to the doctor today and suffered through the last of your vaccines followed by bagels and ice cream. You are 42 inches (9oth percentile) and 37 pounds (70th percentile). I think you might actually be taller than me one day... CRAZY thought! You have inherited your present opening enthusiasm from your debi... Those of you who know debi will appreciate the... "I LOVE IT!" face (note the picture), but you got your "Let's return it and get something I really want" attitude from you dad. We had to go back to the toy store today to pick out things that you really wanted because you didn't like the orange shoes on the doll that we got you... you are even picky with the fashion of your dolls. We have a party planned for you on saturday with all your friends so more pictures to come of my 4 year old!!

Nellie, you are 2 months old today. Wow, how time flies! You are more alert now, and just a laid back, sleepy, smile machine. You seem to have such a peaceful soul, I can just tell that you are going to be one sweet girl one day. Look at those big eyes! This is an attempt at your 2 month old photo for your frame, but I realize that you are wearing the same shirt as your 1 month photo... humm... I wonder if I LOVE this shirt... you are wearing it in just about every picture I have of you! I'm jealous of your eyebrows in this picture... maybe you will be the lucky child that won't inherit my sad blond invisible eyebrows.

a couple of cute pics

Sunshine is so good for the soul. We had sunny and warm weather over the weekend and it did so much to improve my mental health. Larkin loved it because we could eat "al fresco" and she could wear her new halter dress from Target without "arm warmers" or a shirt underneath. Hudson was scared of the bees but tolerated our picnic. He had a much better time decorating for easter and getting Nellie ready for the holiday (what is up with the camera... that picture is so grainy... isn't that what the geek squad was supposed to be fixing while I was camera-less for 2 months!!)

the Attutide

What is going on with my little brookie cookie these days. See this face? See the attitude in this face? I get this face all the time! She will look at me and pour her water on the table. She will throw a puzzle down to the floor from the top of the slide at the children's museum, she will dump the contents of 4 games and three puzzles into one pile just to see me cry. What is going on in this little mind? Is it the 2 year old exploring her boundaries, or the baby trying to come to terms with not being the baby anymore? I think it's because she is too stubborn to take a nap these days and is just so tired she will do anything to stay awake even if that means getting the glare from me. I've met my stubborn match with this one. I need a few more tools in my mommy belt to figure out how to tackle this attitude.

Playing Outside

I'm so excited that it's going to be a nice warm-ish weekend (especially since I am parenting solo until Tuesday!). A little sunshine is SO good for my soul. My general outlook on everything just seems a little more positive when my face is in the sun. My kids are totally out of practice playing outside though... Hudson mostly. I had to negotiate with him yesterday, "Go outside and ride your bike to the stop sign 5 times and you can go back inside and play." Since when does a kid need a bribe to GO OUTSIDE and PLAY!

Recent Fav Pics

Nicole Ritchie, what have you done with my daughter??

Nellie, Why do you always make this face when I try to take your picture?

The best smile I've caught on film yet (can you say caught on film anymore... that's oldschool... what do you say now? caught on disk, memory card? That's weird)

My baby girls look so BIG here! Tell me it's just the angle! How are they growing up so fast??

Favorite Thing #18

Favorite Thing #18: Scooter Bees Shoes

I took all three girls to the children's museum the other day. On my way out I looked down and realized that I'd been walking around (for over an hour!) with a circle of wet on my shirt where I must have leaked a little milk... nice... see my previous post for how this fits in nicely with my week... grrrr). Anyhow, I ran into this cute boutique (called boutique boutique) on the downtown mall because it was close to look for a replacement shirt because I didn't think we were going right home and I needed something without a big wet stain on my boob! Anyhow, I forgot that it was also a favorite spot for Larkin to try on shoes. So while I took five minutes to look for a shirt... found nothing... boo... the girls trashed the store (not really), but I was getting the "whose kids are those" vibe from the people that worked there. They were actually incredibly nice, and after 15 minutes of terrorizing their store, I felt like we couldn't leave empty handed. So we settled on these shoes for Nellie. Turns out I LOVE THEM!

I like them for the super cute colors and the actual design. They Velcro in the back so you can get a really good tight fit without elastic around the ankles (my issue with robeeze, which I also love, is that they always leave those red marks around the little ankles).

Here are the details:

ScooterBees’ patent-pending design accommodates to the different widths and thicknesses of the little feet, enabling the shoes the easiest to put on. The most fun of all, each pair of ScooterBees tells a story by turning the pages of the shoes.We are proud to partner with Trees For The Future to Plant A Tree with Every Pair of ScooterBees purchased. The trees will be planted in the most urgent regions around the world to alleviate soil degradation and land mismanagement.Join us in this effort!We continue to strive to have ScooterBees made from truly sustainable materials, see our Product Info.