If you ever come to our house, be sure not to sit on the couch. Penny has peed on it more times than I care to count. Same goes for our dining room chairs. And the kitchen rugs, her bed, our carpet, and one time even the electrical transformer that Kevin plugs his computer into-- not that you'd try to sit on it. Consider yourself warned.
The weather has turned to fall, and my girls have no warm clothes. I went shopping the other day and returned with a bag full of winter clothes. Most of them were too large, but I purchased them anyway. Kids grow. However, this left me with about 4 items that kind of fit now. When I dug through them to see what I'd bought, there were so many flowers, stripes, polka dots, sparkles, lace, ribbons, and bows on them that I could hardly see straight. Would it kill someone to make some plain, single-colored, basic clothes in this country?
Penny is at this stage where every other time she opens her mouth, she's whining about something. Yes, she is two. (And if she's anything like her Aunt Sarah.... it may be a long decade ahead of us.) I just hate the feeling of wanting to smack her every time she opens her mouth. I've been good at resisting so far, mostly because smacking her doesn't exactly cure the whining problem at all.
Naomi kind of reshuffled her sleeping schedule this week. I don't remember what she was doing before, but suddenly she started sleeping all day. She'd sleep for 2 hours in the morning, and then about 5 hours in the afternoon. On the one hand, it was pretty awesome to be able to do whatever I wanted, but on the other hand, after a while, I hadn't left the house for days, and hadn't talked to anyone but our housekeeper or Kevin. Our housekeeper is super nice, and I like her a lot. But she doesn't speak standard Mandarin. I only understand about 25% of what she says, and that's after I've asked her to repeat herself 2 or 3 times. Imagine having a basic understanding of English, and then working with someone from Tennessee or Georgia. Yes, it's English, but it's nothing like the stuff you learned in your textbooks. I talk to Kevin in the evenings, but he's usually pretty tired from work. This leaves me with talking to Penny, and as we've already discussed, she just whines all the time. I need to get out more.
After church today, there were several hungry, tired, cranky girls in the house. In one particularly beautiful moment, I threw my arms in the air, loudly finished my conversation with Kevin, and ran to my room crying. I was ready to wallow and fume for a while.
About a minute later, before I was ready to be civil to anyone mind you, Kevin poked his head in the door. "I know you're not ready to talk to me or Penny yet," he said, "but Penny just told me, 'Sad,' and now she's in her room with the door shut saying, 'Sad, sad, sad.'"
Fine! Just go ahead and make me smile. There goes my wallowing and fuming.
9 comments:
Hang in there. And get out and about, even if it is only for a walk around the block - or better yet, a walk to a playdate for the kids and for the mommy.
Can Naomi be moved after she's fallen asleep? And can she sleep in the stroller? If so, you should definitely try to get out more. I'm sorry. Hang in there.
I'm so glad you posted this. I feel like I'm the only young mom in the world that lives this life! Sofie after almost 6 months is still not potty trained, although she doesn't normally pee on things anymore. But thank you for being honest and letting me feel like I have at least one other mom that doesn't have sunshine and roses all the time!!! And it's so cute that you call Naomi meimei, 'cuz I've got my own little Meimei and it makes me feel closer to you!
My cousin and old roommate visited Milwaukee this past week (one is single, and neither has children), and while we were all out apple picking one day, my cousin commented, "EVERYTHING is so much more fun with kids around!" (And then my old roommate agreed with her.) I cut them off in the middle of their wistful daydreaming, and explained that while kids are great, there are plenty of things that aren't more fun with kids around:
-Restaurants
-Grocery shopping
-Post offices
-Traveling
-Vacations in general
-Exercising
Etc. etc. etc. Kids are really hard! (Yes, they're wonderful, but still hard.) I understand the term "refiner's fire" now as a mother better than I ever had before. My kids have a way of forcing me to develop attributes and qualities-- stuff I thought I had before (patience, creativity, selflessness, service)-- but maybe I didn't have enough.
I had a pretty rough (okay, very rough) time after Cole was born and things were dramatic and emotional for about 10 months. The sleep deprivation magnified all emotions. I found a job because I needed a break. It was two days a week, and it was a lifesaver! I came back so excited to see the kids, and so refreshed. It was what I needed. Anyway, if you're having a lot of hard days, maybe consider something like that just to get a little outlet. Some mom friends of mine do volunteer work for the community, some get gym memberships and drop their kids off for an hour while they work out, some do a home business, some get an actual job, etc.
Also, I saw one of those "I'm a Mormon" videos the other day that I really liked, kind of about this topic:
http://mormon.org/people/
It's at the bottom of the screen on the right-hand side (with all the pictures of people), and her name is Leilani.
I hope you're doing okay! I'm only a few months ahead of you in terms of our kids' ages, and it DOES get better. (And I hear from others it gets even better later later too.)
I just realized that was the world's longest comment. Sorry!
I'm sorry you had such a difficult week, but glad you were able to crack a smile today :)
I've discovered that Corn Starch brings out pee really really well - in such things like cushy couches and carpets. You pour it on, wait for it to dry and vacuum it up. Even the smell is gone.
I feel for you!
I'm glad I'm not the only one - I feel your pain!
I know I'm late on this but wanted to tell you I was thinking of you and hoping that things would improve. Being a mom of little ones is rough some days. Hang in there! You're doing awesome. I hope you find ways to get out. It can make you crazy otherwise.
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