Shopping List

Johnson & Johnson Bedtime Bath soap with lavender.
Johnson & Johnson Buddies Easy-Comb detangler.

Because Lily decided she needed about 25 of the 28 oz. bottle of soap and 5 of the 7.5 ozs. of detangler to wash her baby in the bath last night.

Lily Blows the Whistle...

If you've ever watched Jo Frost, a.k.a. "Supernanny", then you know she's a big fan of "the naughty spot." In layman's langauge, it's a boring, uninteresting place in your home where you can send your child for time out. Pick somewhere where they can't be entertained, can't play with their toys, can't see the TV, etc... etc.... Imprisoning your child in a dark closet is NOT recommended, but you should park your kid somewhere that will create an experience akin to watching corn grow in Dodge, Nebraska.

On a side note, there really is a town called Dodge, Nebraska (population 681), and I'm wondering if this town is the origin of the phrase "Get the hell out of Dodge". Pix of Dodge below.

The object of said naughty spot, is of course to deter undesirable behavior. Child misbehaves -> child sent to naughty spot -> child bored out of skull in naughy spot -> child quits misbehavior.

So it struck me that there might be a teensy tiny flaw with this technique when yesterday, Lily voluntarily sent herself to the naughty spot - FOR NO REASON AT ALL. And THEN asked me to set the timer so she knew when to leave the naughty spot. I humored her, and set it for 4 minutes. And then after the timer went off, she decided she wanted to stay there EVEN LONGER.

I'm thinking the naughty spot might be losing its effectiveness as a discipline tool.

It's just another in the litany of examples that demonstrate Lily is immune to various "expert" proscribed discipline methods. But it's obviously still working for Jo Frost and a legion of other parents out there. There's even a company out there whose sole business it is to make money off children's time outs: http://www.timeoutspots.com/time-out-spots-shop.html.

Maybe I should try time outs in reverse. The next time Lily misbehaves, I won't discipline her. I'll put myself in time out instead. I'll go to the naughty spot. The "experts" recommend 1 minute for every year of age for time out. 38 minutes of peace and quiet? Bring it on!

I might even get of the time-out-spots spots. The pink one looked kind of nice, doncha think?

Maybe I Shoud Call It MomSometimeSoon?

I'm thinking about re-naming the blog. Momsoon, while originally intended to be a play on the word "monsoon" and the whirlwind that is childhood/parenthood, has also been misconstrued to mean I'm pregnant with #2. (I'm not, for the record). But the name also could imply that I will regularly post blogs, sometime soon. Which is sort of the point of a blog.

Clearly I've been a bit lax in this regard the last couple weeks. I'm not certain if it's writer's block; it may be plain old tiredness (See April 1 entry for details - the nightime drama continues).

But for the faithful half-dozen or so readers out there, please be patient with me. I'll return soon - there's that word again - with some new material. But I need a wee bit more time to rejuvenate my creative juices. I'm headed for Mother's Utopia (THE SPA!) this weekend. I can hear the relaxing water effects soundtracks in my head now.... Hoping that will do the trick.

Til then.

Lily's First "Celebrity" Photo

Startling resemblance, huh? At least in the clothing colors...

Things that go Bump...

Driving to school the other day, I hear Lily from the backseat. "Mom, what's this mean?" I glance in the rear-view mirror and see her giving a thumbs up sign. Doing my best Fonzie impersonation, I say "Aaaaaaaaayyyy....Thumbs up means good job, okay. Aaaaaaayyyy...." Can you say that? She pauses, ponders her response and finally says, "No, I can't do bumpy sounds."

It's All a Blur

My cheeks hurt. They're sagging down past my jawline, and I fear they would actually fall off my face if I weren't expending energy just to hold them up. Ditto for my eyelids and keeping them open.

I splurged at the cafeteria today, filling my coffee cup half full of Starbuck's French Roast instead of a full cup of the unnamed decaf I typically down in the a.m.

We're going on double-digits of consecutive semi-sleepless nights now. Lily's never been a good sleeper, but this last stretch has been particularly draining. Her awakenings are not the sweet "Mommy, can I have a drink of water?"- get water- tuck quietly back into bed and return to our own bed type. They are screaming-kicking and tantrum filled, in which Lily pits her desire to sleep on the couch against our desire to have her sleep in her room. And often they happen more than once a night. It hasn't helped that we cannot get her to explain to us why she doesn't want to sleep in her room.

We remarked to ourselves just the other day just why it is our monster heathen Pocahontes (in contrast to Sammy, the Good Dog) manages to do with ease all the things Lily has trouble with - eat, sleep and poop. Now, if Lily could just teach Pokey not to counter surf all the time...

I know all about picking your battles, and you might be thinking that this is a battle we should let go of, and let her sleep on the couch. But this is a slippery slope, a road we've been down before. If we let her sleep on the couch for part of the night, soon she will want to sleep on the couch the entire night. And we're really not all that crazy about abandoning our one and only family room at 8 p.m. and retreating like war-weary soldiers to the limited confines of our master bedroom.

We've tried a number of alternatives. At this point I think we're resigned to wait it out, and hope there's enough caffeine in the world (coffee for me/Dr. Pepper & Sweet Leaf Honey Mint tea for Peter) to get us through. And if it continues, I think we may just become the first couple in the history of the world to look forward to all the sleep we'll get on our honeymoon.