Fight the Jealous

It was icky and rainy outside Monday morning and I was on my way to work. At Starbucks, I stood and line and composed myself after running through the rain into the store like Kramer on Seinfeld. There were a few people in front of me so I had a moment to observe my environment and I noticed a woman next to the creamer station. She was reading a book, and for a split second, I was jealous. Jealous of her ability to sit there and read with her cup of coffee for some undetermined period of time. I love to read, but I don't seem to read books very often anymore. I read babycenter.com emails on my phone instead. I'd read at night before bed, but I have my 7 month old in a bassinet next to me in our bedroom so I can't turn on a freaking light. And yes, I know she should be in a crib but I haven't gotten that far yet. Anyways, I had to get to work so I hustled out of the store, but then I thought, that lady was old. I mean old like my mom, old. When I'm that old, I'll be able to read then too. So, I accepted that consolation prize and moved on.

Then I got home, and I was so excited to see Bubu and Peewee. We all sat together on the floor to play and almost immediately after I picked up Peewee to give her a hug hello, Bubu started insisting that I put her in her down and pick him up. And this wasn't the first occurrence of jealousy displayed. We've been running into it more and more lately. I looked away for a moment and when I looked back, Bubu was sitting behind Peewee slapping her on the back. No clue why, he just felt like beating her I guess. So, I explained that we don't beat the baby. I mean, really, I said, "No, no. We do NOT beat the baby. Okay?"

It's very interesting to see such a little kid experience this totally icky emotion that I wish I never felt as an adult. But we do, right? And so do our little kids. It's an awful emotion that we learn how to fight as we get older. My question is how do we teach them how to fight the jealous?

The Binky Battles

Every year, my husband has a get-together trip with his high school buddies. It was this past weekend, and since I've gone back to work and have that weird absent mom guilt, I got all psyched up to have a fun-filled weekend with just me and the kiddies. I made all these plans in my head, like going to the park, taking them for a ride in their new red wagon, maybe even Target or grocery shopping, whoo hoo! So, here's what really happened.

Friday night was good. I maneuvered bath time and bedtime with the two munchkins and it actually went pretty smooth, if I do say so myself. I got both kids to sleep, poured a glass of wine, and relaxed for a moment thinking "this isn't so bad" and "I can handle this!" This was going to be an opportunity for me. All these months I've felt uneasy because I felt like the kids were learning how to behave based on someone else's example in place of mine. But now, I get to be the one and only example and disciplinarian for the whole weekend.

Saturday morning I decided that we'd run some errands first and then after nap time when it warmed up, we'd go to the park and play. It reminded me of my stay-at-home mom days where I planned some random errand almost every day just to get us out of the house and more importantly, to kill time. It wasn't as easy as last night but we got ready and piled into the car and we were off to Target to shop. Overall, not a bad trip, but eye-opening. Peewee slept through most of it and Bubu ate three cheese sticks out of the package that I had bought at the store. It kinda grossed me out and normally, I wouldn't have given in to the repeat requests for cheese sticks but  honestly I wanted to avoid a public meltdown so I didn't fight it.

We made it home and I started making lunch for us. Bubu, thanks to the cheese stick meal at Target, refused to eat lunch but did still ask for a candy cane. Ugh, what was going on here?? Once again I was totally grossed out that all he had eaten so far was fat and now he was asking for sugar. Seriously, I was disgusted.

After nap time, I thought it would be so nice to go outside and play. I attempted to get Bubu into his jacket and shoes, and it was so weird, he totally fought me on it and didn't want to go. All he wanted was his pacifier. I went from Mommy Jekyll to Mrs. Hyde in less than 3 seconds and yelled "Fine, don't put your shoes on! We'll just sit here at home then and do nothing!" Bubu was totally okay with that. It made me wonder, if he's happy, then why am I pushing this?  And the "paci" is just for naptime or bedtime so I had to had to let him lay on the floor and scream for awhile.

Saturday night, I had this great idea that I could give both kids a bath together now that Peewee could sit up by herself pretty good. I got the kids in the tub, and everyone was happy and playing with their bath toys. I got up and started cleaning up the bathroom like I always do when Bubu is in the tub. I picked up all their dirty clothes and turned around to dump them in the hamper when I hear Bubu yell, "baby fell down!" I spin around around and Peewee is totally submerged. I grabbed her up and out of the water and she was startled but breathing and fine. Let me just admit, that I was not fine, I almost started crying actually. I held Peewee tight in my arms for what seemed like forever on the floor in the bathroom. Needless to say, I've learned that 7 month old babies require more supervision than 2 year old kids in the tub.

The next day, I decided that morning was the best time for an outing and since it was chilly outside I took the kids to Chuckee Cheese. Sometimes I wonder, what the hell am I thinking? Well, I guess it wasn't too much of a nightmare, and Bubu had a blast as I followed him around pushing Peewee in her stroller through the tight spaces in between all the games and people. Oh and I only lost him twice, which I think is a victory. He actually won a bunch of tickets and so I let him pick out a prize in the glass case. He of course picks some incredibly large piece of candy and I hand the girl the tickets to count, and she says to me, "You have to go feed your tickets into that machine over there and get a receipt to get prizes." Huh? really? I have a 2 year old here pointing at this piece of candy like it's the most important thing in the whole world and you want me to go feed probably 100 tickets into a machine? So I take a deep breath and drag Bubu and the stroller over to the machine, where there's a line. I go to another machine, and it's out of order. Finally, I just ask a different cashier if I can just buy the candy instead of redeeming these stupid tickets. Yes, thank God, so I buy the $0.86 lollipop. Mind you, I've calculated that I spent over $100 of my time to get that lollipop. I get out to the parking lot, get the kids in the car and it's pretty windy so as I put the stroller away, I have freakin' tickets flying everywhere. I hate the Chuckee Cheese tickets.

I got my quality time with the kids, lots of laughs, a few tears, and I was happy when my husband walked in the door. Unfortunately, Bubu is only on Team Mom again and won't even let Daddy read him his bedtime stories. Maybe I should plan my girls weekend so Team Dad can win back his players.