Parenting is hard

     Duh, right? But sometimes being a kid is just as hard. And on rare occasions it's equally hard for both parent and kid. Today we had one of those difficult learning moments.

     Buster is upstairs in his room crying, I am downstairs crying because my heart is breaking for him. But I know I'm doing the right thing. James hit one of his friends today with a plastic skeleton leg (which now that I have written it down is pretty funny) and she got hurt and decided (like any sane person) that she didn't want to play with someone who hits his friends with plastic skeleton legs. Buster asked me why she went home. At this point I had two choices to make and about a split second within which to make it. I could 1) lie to save his feelings and pull the "I don't know" card or the "it was time for dinner" card or I could 2) tell the truth that she didn't want to play with him anymore because she hit him. Seeing that this would be a great parenting opportunity (if not stressful and tantrum inducing) I opted for choice #2.

     Other parents might know where I'm coming from. Friends without kids might question why this was a hard decision. The last thing on Earth I want to do is cause my son harm, make him sad, or otherwise put him in a foul mood. I like my kid to be happy and go-lucky. But sometimes, we have to do the hard thing and realize that having our kid cry and having our kid be sad is sometimes good for them. Actions have consequences. This might be one of the hardest lessons for children to learn, but it's an important one. It may hurt both of us. I want to run upstairs and lick his wounds and tell him it's okay. But it's not okay. It's never okay to hit or hurt someone else. I have no doubt that a very difficult lesson was learned today and I have no doubt that ultimately he's going to be a better person for it. 

     I always scoffed as a child when my mom would say "this hurts me more than it hurts you" but now I get it. It really does.

Long time no see

Buster is getting cool again and I'm feeling inspired again. Let's blog!

Only my pride is hurt

Our neighbor girl stopped by yesterday to sell us some Girl Scout cookies (yay!). She is in 1st grade. Buster has a major major crush on her. So what do 3 year old with crushes do to impress the love of their life? They try to perform double axles (spin jumps) in our living room. "Bella look!" Of course, then he promptly did a face plant on the hard wood floor. Bella was unimpressed.

But! Another first! First bloody nose. Hooray!

The preschooler laws of probability

If Buster has a 50/50 chance of getting his shoes on the right foot, he will get it wrong 100% of the time.

Missing you

Conversation this morning -

Jim to Buster: "Have fun at school today. I'm going to miss you!"
Buster to Jim: "And I'm going to miss my mom!"

Reason number 867,899 not to have a kid

I'm sitting at the kitchen table this morning drinking coffee and reading the news when out of nowhere I get a thumb of poop thrust into my nasal area. "Look! Stinky on my finger!"

Now I have both barf and poop to clean up.

Thanks Buster.

Sunscreen

So, we have the 1 kid in 5000 (or whatever the number actually is) that is allergic to chemical sunscreen. Seriously. This is what happens if we put sunscreen on him -

Not good. His entire face swells up and gets huge red welts on it. Thankfully, he doesn't really seem worse for the wear through it all.

Off we went to the pediatrician to try and figure out what went wrong. Her reaction = "huh, weird. I've never seen that. I think you should see an allergist." Thanks. Off to the allergist we went to try and figure out what's wrong. Her reaction = "huh, weird. I've never seen that. There is no actual test for allergies to sunscreen or the sun so it's all trial and error. Try putting him outside without sunscreen on for a day and see what happens." See what happens!?!!? Uh...do you notice the whiteness of his skin and the redness of his hair?

Ultimately, we tried many different combinations - no sunscreen (only outside for an hour), sunscreen on a cloudy day, sunscreen on a sunny day, sunscreen for babies, sunscreen for kids, sunscreen with parabens, sunscreen without. Finally, we deduced that yes, he does have an allergy to chemical sunscreens. Now we have the kid with the white face because we have to use zinc oxide as a physical sunblock.

"Did you have a good birthday?" "Yes, I did. I big."

Happy 3rd Birthday Buster!

I can't believe we've all (mostly) survived to 3!!! These years have been filled with tons of fun memories, as well as tons of hair pulling moments.

Buster's favorite part of his birthday - 2 birthday cakes and seeing Tori!

My favorite part of his birthday - when he yelled 'Holy Balls!' as he opened his gifts from us.

Jim's favorite part of his birthday - when it was time for bed.

Here's a rundown of the Dude's big day -

Opening presents in the morning. We decorated the house after he went to bed. Buster was so excited when he woke up - "For me?!?!? It's my birthday!!!!" As he opened his Thomas the Train wooden set he yelled "Holy Balls!" I learned that while not technically a swear, it's pretty close so I need to stop saying it. However, coming from a 3 year old - it's adorable!

Picking out what Thomas toys he's going to get next.

After the morning's festivities, we spent the afternoon with Grandma and Buppa, Auntie E and Auntie Chelle, and Allison. As usual, he and Buppa played until Buppa could play no more. Then Buster made him play some more. It was wonderful to see Grandma out of the house and dolled up - we are so happy you are healing well!

Grandma and Grandpa Mason called Buster all the way from Florida to wish him a happy birthday. He loved talking to them and misses them very much!

Then it was on to Stonefire Pizza Co. for some pizza and fun with Tori and Ferris. (If you ask Buster, Tori is his sister.) We told him he could bring one friend with to pizza and he chose Tori (Ferris comes along in a package deal but it's cool because Buster also loves Ferris.) We ate pizza, played with (more!) trains, water tables, pizza kitchen, face painting, and playgrounds. Then it was on to our home for more cake and presents with the Drake clan, Uncle Chris, and Uncle Patrick and Aunt Steph.

By the end of the day, Buster was beyond exhausted and more than ready for bed.

A huge thank you! to everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts as well as the gift of spending time with us and helping us celebrate. The day was a success!

We're having fun darn it!!

that's my boy!

Disclaimer: Please note that the drink is NON-alcoholic. I'm a bad mom, but not that bad!

Buster got to come out to dinner with Allison and I. He chose Mexican (it's one of his many favorites) because he loves tamales. After hijacking my NA strawberry margarita, he perused the other options that the restaurant had to offer.

Merry Christmas?

Here are a few pictures that I *finally* uploaded from my camera from this past Christmas...

epic fail

Sorry guys.

But here's what Buster said to me today - "I love you mom. You're my best friend"

March!

New goal for March - blog one post everyday (yes, I realize it is already the third, just go with me on this one)

Since I'm too lazy to go get the camera to upload pictures, I'll relay a Buster story today:

Yesterday after I got Buster dressed and put on his monster feet slippers he walked by the full length mirror, doubled back and said "Oh, hi" incredulously (like, Oh! What are you doing here?) Then he says "You like my slippers?, I like your shirt. Thanks, bye!" and walks on like nothing unusual transpired.

Tomorrow, I promise I will not be lazy and will post some pictures (maybe from Christmas?!)

Conversation number 2

Sure to melt your heart -

Buster: "Mom?"

Me: "Yes, baby?"

Buster: "I miss my Dad"

(Jim was at work :) )

Princess!

Heard today while Buster was wearing one of my necklaces (in singsong voice) "I a princess, I a princess!"

I *love* tomato sauce!

Buster's breakfast of choice this morning? Canned corn and egg nog. What a weirdo.

Don't be mad mommy

We had our first experience with markers on the wall. Thankfully they were washable markers and more thankfully I had a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser on hand (I swear a mom of a toddler thought of those). After I cleaned it up, I had the following conversation with Buster.

Me: I am mad at you.

Buster: Why?

Me: I am mad at you because you colored on the wall.

Buster: Don't be mad mommy. Don't be mad.

Me: I'm mad because you are naughty.

Buster: Don't be mad mommy. I not naughty, I Jimmy.

Parenting Rules

These are the "rules" I often break. I never said I was a good mom, I just said I was a mom.

• I let Buster jump on the bed
• He often watches much more than just 30 minutes of TV a day
• He has had pie for breakfast and lunch
• I knowingly let him color on himself with marker because I thought it was funny
• I have sworn in front of him
• I don't always get him dressed during the day
• He often wears his clothes to bed
• I let him eat in the living room

What rules do/did you break?

Art Class

Last time at art class we decorated pumpkins. Buster decorated his all by himself. As we were creating I was talking to Buster and told him how I didn't like eyeballs because they scared me. Naturally, he decorated his pumpkin in nothing but eyeballs then...

Hiking

Last weekend it was gorgeous outside. Like 70 degrees gorgeous. We thought it might be fun to go to the zoo. We figured it would be busy since it was so nice outside but that we could handle it. Little did we know that it was Family Free Fun Day so about 75% of the population of Milwaukee also decided to go to the zoo. Considering that neither Big Jimmy nor I particularly enjoy crowds, we bailed. Thankfully Buster was asleep so he bought our story about how the zoo was sleeping (I will be very sad when he doesn't just blindly believe everything I say, but for now I take full advantage of it). We decided to go to Grant Park to walk through the woods for a spell instead. Below are pictures of our adventure. The last picture is Buster's portrait of Jimmy and I.