PARENTING IS JUST BEGINNING...........

Well let's just say this week has been interesting on the parenting front.  Monday night Coop decided that he would rather hang out with me than sleep.  Generally he wakes Terry up when he wakes during the night, but Tuesday was a Mommy Night.  It started about 11:30 p.m. and like clock work he was in every 2 hours until about 3:30 a.m. and then it was every 45 minutes.  He was not cranky at all and was actually very sweet, he just couldn't sleep.  At one point when I was laying beside him and he was rubbing my shoulder he whispers, "Mommy you tired?"
"Yes Boo I am tired, are you?"
"No I not tired, but you go sleep I snuggle with you."
"Thank you Boo but I want to sleep in my own bed."
"Ok I come with you to you bed."
"No Boo, you can't sleep in my bed."
"Otay, you sweep in my bed."
I laid there for a few minutes than told him I was going back to my bed and he needed to go to sleep.  He agreed and I went back to bed.  When he returned again to our room he said, "Mommy I back I need dink, are you still sweepy?"  Hmmmm, I decided then that he was not and I might as well decide I wasn't either.  When 6:30a.m. rolled around I took great pleasure in waking him up!

So after Coop's challenging lack of sleep I was feeling a little sleep deprived which makes me a little less quick on my feet and a lot less patient.  Of course this is the day Raelynn would choose to be a little challenging herself.  First of all I offended her by calling her new Converse sneakers, tennis shoes.  I mean how could I do something like this!!!  Raelynn informed me that they were SNEAKERS not tennis shoes. Then she breaks into song.....'She wears high heels, I wear sneakers, she's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers...." her favorite Taylor Swift song! By this time I am somewhat entertained by this whole episode but also pleased that now I knew to order her to GET YOUR SNEAKERS ON instead of tennis shoes!  We make it through the morning and by the time I picked her up from Mary Beth's and head to soccer I was feeling pretty confident that I was actually going to make it through the day.  Oh little did I know..........we got home from soccer and proceeded through our nightly routine.  It was time to lay out her clothes for the next day and she informs me that she has to wear her cowgirl belt because Jerod wore his and she told him she would wear hers.  We spent the next 20 minutes trying to find an outfit to wear with her cowboy belt without wearing jeans.  It never happened.  So therefore our 20 minutes of frustration was followed by a temper tantrum.  In our home tantrums are not accepted, respected or allowed in any way.  I am big on learning to use your words to express your feelings, not crying and wining and stopping your feet.  Now remember I am exhausted from the night before, irritated by the last 20 minutes we had spent looking for an outfit and now I was to remain calm as my child screamed and cried.  No problem!  We managed to make it through the tantrum fairly quickly and were using words instead which are always much more productive.  Finally it was time to tuck her into bed and after story time and prayer which include a prayer for a friend of ours who is pregnant and we pray for her baby.  I leaned over to her for one last kiss goodnight and she says to me, "Mom how do they get the baby out of the Mommy's tummy?"  Oh boy, here we go......I tried to give her simple answers in hopes that a little info would curb her questions for awhile but no such luck.  I finally give in and explain to her that when the baby gets big enough the body leads it down the birth canal and out the body.  She responds, "so when the baby gets big it takes a birthing canoe out the Mommy's......" I burst out laughing, "no not a canoe.....follows a birthing CANAL." "Oh, so does the canal just come out the Mom?" "Well it leads out of the body." I replied.  "But where does the baby come out of?" So with little option left I explain it to her.  I stay general enough but honest.  She laughs and cringes a little and then says, "What does the Daddy do?"  I had so many answers for this one but I just stuck with a simple, "The Daddy makes sure the Mommy has everything she needs and rubs her back."  Raelynn replies, "the Mommy always has to do everything!"  Again, laughter!  Anyway, she asks questions and I answer with enough info to satisfy her but not any more than I have to.  Then she says, "so that's how it gets out, but how did it get in there?"  I smiled and told her it was late and we would talk about that tomorrow night, buying myself some time on this one!  She was happy with that and thank goodness she did not remember to ask tonight.  But the story goes on.....so I pick her up from school today and she says to me,"I told Jerod that he was wrong about how a baby was born, he thought a stork brought it.  He said he would talk to his Mom about it because she shouldn't lie to him!"  Oh boy, I can hear my phone ringing now!!!  I asked her why all the baby talk and she says "well you know we learned how butterflies and lady bugs are born and wanted to know how we are born?"  So as of tonight, no call from Jerod's Mom and no in depth conversation about reproduction with my 5 year old, so after 2 long nights of parenting I can consider this one a breeze.  As I told my Mom today, I thought parenting was so important during the baby and toddler years but I am finding out that this is when the real parenting starts! Wish me luck!