struggles | SuburbanDaddy

Home Alone

I am home alone with Things 1-3 this weekend.? SuburbanMommy has abandoned me in favor of a weekend of spa treatments, drinking, fine food, and Oscars.

We are halfway through Saturday and so far so good.? We went to a birthday party in the neighborhood this morning.? Right now, Thing 3 is napping, Thing 2 is watching Madagascar, and Thing 1 is upstairs in his room doing art.? At least I hope he is.? Last I saw, he was looking for a pair of scissors.

I think I’m good for the next hour or so, when the baby wakes up, the movie ends, and their batteries have recharged.? That should kick it up a notch or two.? Wish me luck.

I Love The Mall

This weekend we went to that suburban mecca otherwise known as The Mall. Normally, I hate anything to do with shopping, and malls are all about shopping.

But malls are also an excellent place to take kids. Lots of space to roam free. They can be loud, at least louder than I can tolerate at home. There is ample selection of kid friendly eats in the food court. And, at our mall, there is also the JetBlue sponsored, airplane themed play area.

Not for the faint of heart, mall play areas are filled with hyperactive, germ-laden kids, running, screaming, crying. Aaahh, reminds me of home.

The blur in the first photo is Thing 1 on his 18th lap around the play area. The blur in the second photo is Thing 2, four seconds later, as he also completes his 18th lap, trying to keep up with his brother.

And finally, taking a rest together.

Family Meals Made Easy

At our house, meal planning is one of our great struggles. By our, I mean it is a struggle for Suburban Mommy, since she does 95% of the grocery shopping and meal preparation for the kids. My 5% struggle comes in when I get home at 6pm, after picking up the kids at preschool, and there is nothing for me to eat because I didn’t plan for myself. That’s why I end up eating Cheerios for dinner after the kids are in bed.

If you also struggle with planning meals, here is a great solution. Dine Without Whine (love the name) sends you an email each week with menu recipes AND the grocery list for everything on the menu. The meals are kid tested, meaning they won’t look at it and instantly say “I don’t like it”. Having the grocery list already made is the key to making meals simple.

All the planning work is done for you, and you can go back to your other daily struggles, like potty training and bedtime.

Oh No. It is Friday Again.

I can’t believe it is Friday again. That means tomorrow, to quote Thing1, is a Stay Home Day.

Stay home days are difficult. Much harder than weekdays when all I have to do is go to work, where it is quiet and no one fights or whines or cries (usually).

With the holidays over the last couple of weeks, there have been a lot of stay home days recently. In fact, a stretch of 7 out of 11 days were stay home. Sure, to be home with your kids for 7 of 11 days may not sound like much to SAH moms and dads. And I wasn’t doing it alone. I had SuburbanMommy to join in my ~~happiness~~ torture. (By the way, I have no idea how you SAH types do it every day!)

But when you aren’t used to it, when it isn’t part of your kids’ daily routine, it is not an easy undertaking for the parents OR the kids. The last time we spent this much time together was on our summer vacation. And you know how that went.

My kids are used to, and really enjoy, being in preschool/daycare full-time all week. I rather like it too. They thrive on the structure, constant activities, and socialization.

So, when it comes to stay home days, by lunchtime they are bouncing off the walls and we’re usually out of activites.? Especially when the weather is too cold to go outside. Getting them to nap is near impossible, even though they take one every day as part of the routine at school.

We resort to a “divide and conquer”, 2-1 zone defense, where one parent stays at home with two kids, and the other parent takes the third kid out of the house somewhere. Anywhere. Around 5pm, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and we get our second wind. It is also the time we crack open a bottle of wine, which doesn’t hurt.

TGIF? Right now it’s more like TGIM for Monday. Wish me luck this weekend.

New Years Resolutions

Do you have resolutions for the new year? I do. I’d like to exercise more, take better care of myself like get more sleep, eat better, spend more time on my blogging hobby, and, uh, I better stop myself.

Those aren’t resolutions. Resolutions are things you intend to do and actually have a chance at completing. My resolutions are more like pipe dreams.

What I Learned This Christmas

Santa had what he thought was a gift for Thing 1 and Thing 2 this year. What better to get for a couple of energetic boys than a Jump-O-Gym Toddler Trampoline Bouncer. We had been envisioning for a month the furious jumping which would take place Christmas morning. Then we would be sipping hot cocoa while they slept. Ah, dreamers.
Well, Santa didn’t do a good job planning it out. Ok, it was me. It turns out the bouncer doesn’t come with a pump! You can imagine the looks of disappointment.

Luckily, Suburban Aunt and boyfriend also had the same gift idea after spending two nights at our house. They got a full on moonbounce. And it came with an electric pump.
It goes from to in about 30 seconds.

Now we had two moonbounces, if I could just pump the other one up. I managed to find a pump which would work. How hard could it be to fill a toy up with air? In a word: very.

After 64 minutes of pumping, and pumping, and pumping, I learned that you do not pump up a Jump-O-Gym Toddler Trampoline Bouncer that looks like this

with a pump like this

Who Said Variety Is A Good Thing?

Whoever said variety is the spice of life, wasn’t around a toddler very often. While Thing 2’s bedtime routine is endearing, many of the other routines are quite maddening. Case in point: the daily battle over the brown car seat.

We have two identical car seats for Thing 1 and Thing 2. More accurately, they are what you and I would call identical. Not a toddler. The seats in question are both Britax Roundabouts, identical in every way except one is gray and one is brown.

Part of our morning and afternoon routines is the fight over who gets to sit in the brown car seat. Usually, we make it part of an incentive program to get them out the door faster. Some examples

“Whoever is dressed first gets to sit in the brown seat”

“The one who whines the most sits in the gray seat”

“Whoever sits in the gray seat gets out first”. (Getting out of the car first is another daily ~~fight~~ routine)

We have one gray and one brown seat in both cars. That way, both Suburban Mommy and Suburban Daddy get to experience this daily ritual.

The minute you try to make rational sense out of why the brown seat is worth fighting over, don’t bother. If there is only one kid in the car, they could care less which seat they sit in. In fact, they’ll usually sit in the gray seat by choice. It’s only when their brother is there that they actually care about the color.

I know what you are thinking. Just switch the seats so one car has two grays and other has two browns. Oh, if it were only that simple. When the battle isn’t over color, it is over who sits in the back row of the minivan, or who gets to sit behind the driver, or gets in the car first. I stopped trying to apply logic a long time ago.

The lesson here is to have no variety. In anything. If I were doing it again, I would get two identical cars, with identical car seats. And as we’ve learned, identical also means the exact same color.

More Tests Of Wills With A Preschooler

The test of wills with Thing 1 continues. The latest battles have been over something you probably won’t hear talked about at a presidential debate. It’s the age old debate of Sweatpants vs. Jeans. Thing 1 insists on wearing sweatpants. Every day. He was fine with jeans for, oh, three and a half years. But I guess there comes a point in every preschooler’s life, when he must take a stand and choose a side. Thing 1 chooses sweatpants.

I know, pick your battles. And I really don’t care if he wears sweatpants every day. Except I’d rather not have to do laundry every 3 days when there are so many clean pairs of jeans he can wear.

So, we get what happened this morning. Thing 1 was in a great mood and eager to go off to school, until he saw the clothes I brought down for him. M – E – L – T – D – O – W – N.

I held my ground and sent him to the basement until he could calm down. Before you turn me into child protective services for locking my kid in the basement, realize that our basement is fully finished and a virtual paradise for kids, with endless toys, games, books, and art supplies. The only reason it is a punishment to be there is because I made him go.

In true Thing 1 fashion, he stayed downstairs without much fight. That’s because he was plotting his next move. Then we heard the crash of toys.

The battle resumes tonight when he finds out no dessert unless he cleans up the toys. I already know where that will take us, but sometimes a daddy needs to take a stand and choose a side. I’ll let you know how it turns out.