Wolf Mom Parenting? 3-26-15

Just read these stories this morning:
Wolf Dad Parenting
Er, All I have to say to this dad is: Have fun at 2 1/2 years when you finally try to get him to wear clothes. Fortunately, we've gotten to the other side. Maybe. I hope. Boop is well into her 3's. I had to eliminate Peppa Pig from the screen. Ah sweet Peppa Pig seems so perfectly harmless. Yet, Peppa Pig encouraged all sorts of defiant behavior--not wearing clothes, not going to daycare, not going to bed, not having dinner at the table. Peppa could not be interupted. Alas, Peppa was sacrificed for the benefit of household harmony. Thankfully, we may have also lost the temptation of 'muddy puddles,' but I kinda diffused that when I explained that Peppa was a pig, and that pigs like to play in mud (not really true but true enough to get us through the moment). I have made my piece with Teen Titans Go! They really aren't so awful. Certainly not the IQ-dropping mind-suck of Spongebob Squarepants.

"Little Brats" playing on Veterans Memorial
Yes, I can see Boop trying to have a go at something like this. I'm sure she's already offended people horribly, as have I by my parenting misdeeds. But, goodness, the two of them are pretty old and have scaled pretty high. I guess the troubling thing is that the parents laughed, thought that what the kids were doing was funny. And it sounds like it took a huge crowd to take the hint that this was not okay and not funny. No apologies offered to the by-standing vets. No apparent scolding of the children. Hm. At times like these, I'm thinking it might be helpful to do a little research on the monument and sit down and have a talk: Information on the Vietnam Women's Memorial. Regardless of what you think of the Vietnam War, c'mon these were nurses. MASH was never really my thing (my parent's watching likely conflicted with a Peppa-Pig-like show that I wanted to watch and the blood, still don't like to see blood and innards), but I can appreciate the day-to-day difficulties of nurses in war. And it gives a hint, even if depicting Korea.

Boop's photo of me in the morning.
Yep, nearly 2 years and $5000 of Invisalign and still not quite right.

Beware the Ides of March. 3-15-15

Here's what's happening at 3 years and nearly 3 months:

• I'm wondering how long it will be before Boop realizes my Cocoa Puffs isn't really burnt cereal.
• I was trying to get some of Boop's old clothes ready for consignment. She gave me a questioning look and asked, "What's that?" "It's an iron, Honey," I explained. I don't think she had ever really seen one before.
• Winnie has another UTI and some kind of heart condition. Her murmur is getting worse, but she seems better with heart medicine. I wasn't happy to learn that the antibiotic that they use for her UTI's may be cardiotoxic. In the grand scheme of things, I'd rather her have a UTI than heart failure. So, I called them and told them I wanted to take her off of the batryl, and I did. We've been trying to keep up the uromax.
• Boop got her new Tinkerbell bed this week, and she has slept in it the past few days. It's taken some negotiating, including me trying to sleep in the tiny toddler bed, but we may be turning the corner. Fingers crossed.
• We've also done better in the mornings getting dressed the last couple of days. I gave Boop the moniker "Tar-Zanna" due to her aversion to clothes and baths. A few mornings seriously degenerated into me shouting such classics as, "We are not animals! Humans have to wear clothes!" I took her to my doctor's appointment, wrapped in a blanket. Unfortunately, that did not have the impact that I had hoped. The next day she didn't want to wear clothes so she could go with Mommy. No, no. We went promptly to daycare with her barely covered and in a blanket. Fortunately, she was ready to change in the bathroom before we got to class. Perhaps that did the trick. I am not into public shaming, but I just wanted her to change her very strong-willed toddler mind. I can't cancel life just because my toddler doesn't want to wear clothes.
• Some of the creepy stuff about people stealing children's identities has been worrying me. If you ever happen to see a photo of Boop floating around out there, please let me know. Thanks!