Introducing Madi

I think it's about time that I give you a formal introduction to the new little one in our family. You know so many little details about little Chloe, that I think it's Madi's turn.

For those who don't know, she's my boyfriend's daughter that recently moved in with us full-time. 

She turned 2 near the end of January. 

She has an older (half) brother who's 3.5 that lives with her mother. 

I would describe her lately as happy. She has very few tantrums and meltdowns, finally. She's usually content playing by herself or with Chloe, or just watching tv. She wakes up cranky for the first couple of minutes, but is pretty happy for the rest of the day, and usually goes to bed pretty easily. She's easy to get along with through meal time and bath time. She listens a lot better to me when I say no now. She doesn't seem to listen as well to her father, but she spends more time with me. 

In the past couple of months she's started speaking a ton. All kinds of things: Dora, Pikachu, outside, tv are just some of the random things. She can also put a few words together now like "Chloe outside". It's awesome seeing her learn so much. 

She used to be a super picky eater, but we've finally managed to get her eating everything on her plate, as long as it's something she likes. She used to just eat meat and ignore the veggies but now she'll eat all of it. She hates pasta and won't even try cheese though. 

She fits into mostly size 3 clothes. Some size 2 and some size 4. She's in size 6 or 7 shoes. 

She's changed so much in the past couple of months, and all for the better, it seems. She's happier and easier to get along with. I know all days won't be like this, but for now I'm enjoying it. 

Plus, it's kind of fun having two little girls to dress up.

Confession: I've Called My Baby Annoying

I've called my child annoying before. 

That's one thing that's a little harder to admit. I've said it to my mother before, and she got a little mad. I see her point. My daughter is just a baby. She's so innocent, so doesn't really know much about what's right and what's wrong. And she's certainly not annoying. She does things that might be a little annoying, but she isn't. 

I'll also admit that I've raised my voice at the same, sweet little girl. 

It hurts her feelings, and I know it, but sometimes it happens before I can stop myself. 

There are a lot of things that, as a parent it's really hard to admit. 

We all want to be kind, patient, and loving towards our children all the time. 

We want to, but that's not always possible. 

There are few things more stressful than picking up a cranky baby after a long, tiring day at work. You're both starving, and you're both in a bad mood. You just want to throw food on the table as fast as possible, so both of you will be a little less cranky. But it never works out that simply, because the baby is tugging at your leg. She's whining, she's crying, and then she's throwing a full-on tantrum on the floor. All while you scramble to fix her dinner. 

Sometimes it's hard not to snap a little. I don't think I'm alone in that. 

Or maybe you have more patience than I do. Or maybe you snap more often. I don't know, but we all do it at least once. 

Sometimes snapping at a baby feels like a huge weakness. A huge one. Raised voice and mean words hurt, and I know this. But real weakness? 

Real weakness is hitting. Some people hit their children. And not just a spank on the butt or a slap on the hands. And not like that time my mother slapped me for saying a bad word and knocked a loose tooth out of my mouth. Some people really hurt their children.I will never hurt my girl. And I hope I'm not alone in that either. 

But abuse is not my topic here. It's dealing. 

With two kids now, I know I need more patience, and lately one thing I've read (God-knows-where) really sticks with me when the girls are doing something I don't like. They are not purposely trying to annoy me. It's true. They're just exploring and playing and having fun. So if they throw all the books on the floor and start ripping out pages, it's not to purposely push my buttons. 

And that one little phrase has helped me to react a little better a few times already. 

Although in all honesty, when I tell them 'no' and they look at me with that "Make me' face, it kind of makes me wonder if they really are purposely trying to annoy me. 

Toddlers be tricky. 

But I'm trying not to call them annoying. 

How do YOU deal with these kinds of tantrums?

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Wow, it's Christmas eve. It sure doesn't feel like it. 

We started celebrating a little bit yesterday. We took the girls to visit my mom for a little while. We met up with my friend, S., while we were there and exchanged gifts with her. We got a really nice touch and feel Christmas book, a noisy learning toy, bathtub crayons, and some pjs for miss Chloe. So much nice stuff already, and so much left to open. 

The reason we were in town was for supper at boyfriend's sister's house. We were meeting up with his ex-step-father (his father figure growing up) and siblings, as their Christmas 'get together'. Not only did boyfriend and Lil M get presents, they actually had a present for Chloe and I. It was a surprise but a really nice one, especially since we've never met his father before. 

Lil M had on major meltdown over a sippy cup, and we left on that note. She screamed for a half an hour while we got ready to leave, and screamed for another 15 or so minutes as we drove home. I need your advice, any moms of toddlers, so I'll explain the situation. 

She saw the cup in the bag and wanted it. We told her she could have it later, meaning in the car, and put the bag away. Insert tons of crying and screaming. She had a sippy cup of water already, but didn't want that. She wanted juice. After the first 20 minutes of crying, I poured the juice into another cup. She wasn't in the room when I did it. I filled the one she was crying over with water and gave it to her. She continued screaming over it. 

I refused to give in to her tantrum and give her the sippy cup in the car, even though her father really wanted to. After almost 45 minutes of crying, she fell asleep in the car.

So I ask you, what do you do in these situations? Keep holding out to teach her you don't throw a tantrum to get what you want? Or do you give in after awhile? 

She's gotten to the point that she has little meltdowns over anything. If you give her food, even if she wants it, she will cry and scream if you don't give it to her the way she wants it. I don't know what her mother does about it at home, but I am not the type to give a child what they want just because they scream. Her father is. What do you do? 

Keep in mind, she's almost two and barely speaks so it's not like she can't ever tell us if there's an actual problem, she just screams over everything. 

I got a bit off my original topic... Christmas eve! So I hope it's happy. I'm not sure when I'll update next, so I hope you have a Merry Christmas and I can't wait to read all your Christmas updates later!