I have begun to not wash my clothes until they are really dirty. I mean, either visibly dirty or offensively smelly. And I’m not doing this as some tree-hugging type of thing… it’s out of sheer laziness. That, and the fact that I need to figure out how to cut down on laundry some how. With my wife, tossing pretty much everything that she touches in the hamper. The kids going through 2,3, or 4, outfits in a day, some covered in poop!,. A bunch of towels and cleaning towels, burp rags, hooter hiders, swim stuff, and blankets and pissy sheets to cap it all off.
The laundry dosent stop… ever. And if you dont do it, like everyday… the stuff really gets out of hand.
I know that this is nothing new to all you moms and dads out there. But I just felt the need to point it out.
I put everything into piles like this… its crazy
And that’s it…

happy bottle times
Now that we got the little girl going to bed at a decent time… in a big girl bed, and sleeping all night long… the next thing is getting that damn bottle away form her. For some reason, she has to have it at night and in the morning. I still haven’t gotten the balls to just take it away and let her cry… I am just super happy that she is going to bed without a fight. We looked online for some super nanny 911 tricks, but so far have found no real winners. There was one, that looked promising – give her a bottle with something that she hates in it…. and milk in her sippy cup. I might try that tomorrow.
What do you do? Any special tricks?
So a few days ago the kid started to get this really nasty cough, runny nose, and just overall uncomfort. I just didn’t know what to do, this cough just broke my heart every time she did it. She sounded like a barking seal. And the coughing just wouldn’t stop. For a while I was convinced that she had whooping cough of something, so I took her in to see the doctor. It only took the doc about five seconds to diagnose my little girl. She said that she had croup. I had never even herd of it but apparently it’s fairly common among kids 11mths to three years, she said.
Its kind of like having asthma, but its a viral sickness in the windpipe or larynx. It can make their voice sound weird, affect their appetite, make it difficult to breathe right, have a super nasty sounding cough, a low fever, runny nose, and worst of all for us parents… a really, really rough time sleeping. Croup gets really bad at night. the kid will just toss and turn all over the place, and cough constantly. Its really upsetting as a parent to see you kid so uncomfortable.
There are a few things that you can do make it better for them.
The humidifier really helps… I think. At least she seems to sleep way better with it on. So I would have to say that if you kid gets croup, or is coughing lots, get a humidifier.
There are some homeopathic remedies that lots of people swear by like Aconite or Spongia. I don’t know what this stuff is… but people say it really works.
Natural Cures http://www.hpathy.com/diseases/croup-symptoms-treatment-cure.asp
Good Croup Information http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/commoninfections/a/croup.htm
A few posts ago I was dealing with some serious temper tantrums. I got some info online on some ways to deal with them. They seemed to work great. When the kid freaks out for no reason or for something stupid… ignoring her has seemed to work great. Then explaining to her that the screaming and yelling was not OK, seemed to calm her down. I think that she might even be learning from it.
Ignoring a temper tantrum at home is hard to do, even harder on the road or at a store or something. So when she gets really mad at home, and its for some stupid reason, I just ignore her… don’t even make eye contact, or its all over for me. If the screaming is just too much for me to handle, I will put her in her room and shut the door. After a few minutes, usually she calms down. Then I go right in, and have a nice little talk about what happened, and get a nice hug and kiss.
On the road is another story. If I’m in the car, no problem. She is trapped, and I have a loud radio. But when where at a restaurant or in the store… I just have to leave… I’m still working on that one.
Temper Tantrums…suck!What are we supposed to do? You know that horrible time I am talking about. Full On Temper Tantrum. Your at the store, and you want to get a remote control car, so you can chase the little monster around the house. Then you “unknowingly” pass the to baby doll section. She grabs all the babies she can carry, and runs. You know your in for it. So you ditch the toy car and head out, like a destroyer of fun and dreams as you take the dolls away.
Now you did it. The limp noodle (your kid) falls to the floor, yelling, kicking, screaming… it not like you can reason with this person (at least I haven’t learned how to yet… if you know, tell me… please) , shes only 18 months old. Here are your options
I choose 4. Sometimes I just cave in because its easier. I know that this is not the right thing to do… but I’m working on it. So I decided ask around. But the people that i asked are OUR parents and grandparents. The answers I got… well, they were not the answers i was looking for. Spanking, strap, abandonment, squirted with water… on and on… not my style.
I found lots of good articles online in forums and parenting sites. So here is what I am going to try on the next set of tantrums
This should help the kids to understand and learn from their behavior. Getting mad, yelling at them, and giving in will just mess them up in the long run, so I guess I can’t do that.
But what if you cant get out of public?
I will make a report on my findings soon. Hopefully this works.
Here is one of the articles that I read… the article on tantrums is really good… but the site is some really weird Pagan site or something crazy… good advice though…I think. http://www.heptune.com/tantrum.html
What do you do when your kid has tantrums… this is where you go ahead and leave a response below… scroll down.
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