Problem Solving

I seriously want to know the answer to this question - when do children typically develop problem solving abilities? What age? Because yesterday we were at Dairy Queen having ice cream, gazing longingly at the park across the street (which was covered in snow).

"I can't wait until the weather is warm and we can go to the park again," I said.
"Yeah!" said MG.
"And maybe this summer we'll take a tent and some sleeping bags and we'll go camping! We can make a fire and roast marshmallows and sleep outside under the stars," I said.
"Wow!" said MG.
"Maybe Uncle Chuck and Basha will come with us," Basha's his dog, "They love to go camping."
"And Grandma!" suggested MG.
"Well, honey, Grandma isn't very much into camping. She really likes wine, and wine is very heavy to carry when you're camping." I said this purely to get a chuckle out of BJ.
"Mommy, maybe Grandma could leave her wine at home, and then she could go camping with us!"

Is it just me, or is she not supposed to be able to do that yet?

It's almost like I'm psychic

I am a pretty frequent commenter over at Parent Dish. On Saturday, Linda posed the question, "When was the last time you were up all night with sick kids?" In my comment, I said...

I don't want to think about being up in the middle of the night with my kids, because if I think, "Wow, we haven't done that in a while..." they'll be up puking tonight. You can bank on it.

Sure enough, last night I was up at 3 am with Claire. She has come down with some kind of cold, she had a low grade fever, and her eye was stuck shut this morning.

I really hate being right, sometimes. At least there was no puking.

At the same time, it reminded me that I need to add the following to my two under two series....

Two Under Two and the Flu

I'm using "the flu" in the old school sense - the stomach virus sense. Technically, I guess I mean gastroenteritis, but that's really hard to spell and it doesn't rhyme.

Few things strike fear into the heart of a Mommy like the sound of retching. At the first "bleuchhhhh..." you begin to write off everything you had planned to accomplish for the rest of the week. As time goes on, you begin to forget what it was like to have healthy kids, and start to wonder if it is some kind of SuperVirus that you will never get rid of. You think of taking the kids to the doctor, but realize that they're just going to charge you $20 to tell you that there's nothing they can do (or worse, depending on your insurance), so you skip it, but you feel like a terrible mother and wonder if maybe it isn't the flu... Maybe they have something awful, like leukemia, and just as you start to really panic and pick up the phone to dial the doctor to make an appointment, you start to throw up yourself. The good news is that your kid doesn't have leukemia, but the bad news? You've got two under two and the flu, too.

So, what do you do with two under two and the flu, when you have the flu, too? (ok, enough Dr. Seuss).

Here is my sage advice... Ready?

Go to bed.

Seriously, you are going to accomplish nothing. Everyone feels like dirt. Pile yourself and your two babies into the bed. Take the following:

• an "emesis basin" (or, in our case, a stainless steel mixing bowl to hurl into)
• any children's books that you have memorized, so that you can "read" to your child while she turns the pages, eliminating the need to open your eyes
• videos, or the TV remote - now is not the time to have opinions about children and television. You're in survival mode, sister. Use any tools you have, including the boob tube
• Sprite or 7-Up, at room temperature is fine, and a glass or sippy for everyone
• suckers to get the nasty taste out of mouths after puke
• a box if Saltines
  
• beach towels

Huh? Beach towels? Yeah, seriously. Put a beach towel down across your bed so that it is under the head and shoulders of all parties who are puking. That way, when someone hurls and you miss it (and you will miss it), you have a chance at catching it on the towel and not having to wash all the sheets and blankets. Last time we had the flu, we would just get everything washed and put back together, and someone would hurl again. I did laundry constantly for something awful like four days.

If you have a mother or mother-in-law who can come down and help you, beg. Offer her money if necessary. Last time we had the flu, BJ was on a business trip and his mom came down to save me. Of course, she came down with it, too, but by then I was feeling better so it all worked out.

One thing that you don't want to do is put any kind of medicine on the nightstand with all your other supplies, because those child proof packages aren't child proof, they are child resistant, which is a completely different thing. If you're half passed out and in a fever-induced stupor, you may not notice that Junior has eaten his way through a whole bottle of Tylenol until it's too late, so don't take the chance. I've heard that you're actually supposed to keep all medication - both prescription and non-prescription - under lock and key, but that seems pretty extreme to me. For now, we're just keeping them well out of reach. You'll just have to get up every 4 - 6 hours or so.

So, that's my advice. Lower your standards, go to bed, and don't get up until you're feeling better. If one kid starts to feel better before the rest of you, bring in some quiet toys and shut the bedroom door - let her play on the floor (and watch videos) until everyone catches up. Mary Grace has been a big fan of my iPod lately, and that would be a good idea if your older child is the one who's better. Let her groove to her tunes (I have a "Kid Tunes" playlist on mine) while you recoup.

Be well!!

DST

The person who invented Daylight Saving Time obviously didn't have small children.

I will see Mitch Daniels in hell.

Narg.









(Image stolen from www.ky3.com)

Blogger Weirdness

For some reason, my photos (in the posts below) haven't been showing up consistently today. They were working when Mimi was here, but they weren't when Ben looked, or when Other Heather looked, and now they're not working again. I have a feeling that Blogger is experiencing technical difficulties. Bummer.

Come back later, when it's fixed, for the fully integrated media experience that is the Pretty Babies Blog.

Updated to add: Oops, it was just me. I'm a tool. Blogger's fine. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog...

Claire is at that point where she can walk if you let her hold your fingers in her two hands, and she is really not happy with any alternatives. Would it be wrong to teach MG to hold her up that way? After all, MG is much closer to the ground than the rest of us are, and walking Claire around all the time that way is really hard on the back.

BJ's at an Astronomy Club meeting tonight. Only a bunch of geeks would have a meeting at 7 pm on a Saturday.

I made a really good meatloaf for dinner.

See, this kind of fascinating journalism is why you keep coming back. What, you want the recipe? Here you go...

Really Good Meatloaf

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 egg, beaten (or two egg whites, if you're going all healthy)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 T milk
1 cup of frozen mixed peppers and onions, chopped, or the fresh equivalent
ketchup
brown sugar
pepper
Italian seasoning

If you're using the frozen "3 Pepper and Onion blend" from Kroger (which is awesome), thaw it and chop the pieces up a little more than they already are. If you've got a bell pepper and some onion lying around, chop them up small and then sauté them in a little bit of fat (oil, butter, cooking spray if you're healthy) until they're soft. Set aside.

Beat your egg in a mixing bowl. Add the milk, the meat, and the bread crumbs. Add the veggies to that. Add some pepper and dried Italian Seasoning (like a half tsp. of pepper and a tsp. of Italian herbs - I don't measure). Smash it all up until it's all good and blended.

Form into a loaf (some say to use a bread pan, but I just sculpt it with my own hands), and put into a cooking-sprayed (unless you forget and have to scrape burnt-on crud off your pan like I did) pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Take it out of the oven and spread some ketchup on it and then sprinkle on a little brown sugar. Stick the oven thermometer in it and wait until it hits 160 (about 20 more minutes) and then, BAM! Meatloaf, baby.


This isn't a food blog. I promise to try to restrain myself in the future.

A Big Blog Party!

Hello Internets! I'm Amy, and this is my blog. I originally started writing e-mails to my friends and family when I was pregnant with Mary Grace, my now-two-and-a-half-year-old. We called them the "Peanut E-mails" and I wrote from her point of view in "the womb with a view." Since then, I've had another baby, Claire, who will be one next week, and my distribution list got long, annoying, and hard to maintain. Plus, I was clogging up everyone's inbox with photos and stuff, so last May I decided to blog, instead.

Then I got involved in the Mommyblogger community, and here we are. I especially enjoy participating in Works for me Wednesday. I also recently started a series of posts on the topic of having two kids under two.

Pretty Babies do not always behave at parties.

The blog party isn't just about getting to know each other, though. It's about prizes! As a "thanks for stopping by!" gift, I'm giving away a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate. In order to win you need to read my archives (start with WFMW and Two Under Two, above, if you'd like) and tell me which of my tips you liked the best. I'll use this info to brainstorm future tips, and to try to generate more content that my audience (you) will enjoy. On March 14, I'll put all of your names in a hat and I will have Mary Grace draw a winner!

Pretty Babies wear matchy matchy cute suits at parties.

And since I like prizes, too, I'm interested in the following prizes from The Big Blog Party Prize Page (jeez, I hope I am doing this right!), in no particular order...

#37 - Moby Wrap
#55 and #59 - cash (who doesn't love cash?)
#60 - Amazon.com gift certificate (we'll just pass it around)
#84 - sling
#112 - Starbucks

Pretty Babies always wear their best hats to parties!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope we'll see you again! Please sign my "guestbook" by leaving a comment before you go!