The Saturday 7

1. It's wedding week!! My nephew is getting married one week from today! Lena is supposed to be the flower girl, but that's looking pretty unlikely. Until recently, she at least said she was excited. Now she's saying she doesn't even want to do it. Ha. Lucy's going to be the back-up flower girl. But of course, I don't have a dress for her. Or shoes for either of the girls. Or an outfit for Levi. I borrowed a dress for myself and am planning on borrowing some shoes. Good news, though. I bought my own spanx. Haha. Although I ordered it online and it still hasn't arrived . . . Check back next week for the update! (Not on the spanx, on the wedding, and Lena's participation.)

Attempting to put an outfit together for Levi.

2. Levi has finally discovered the joy of the jumperoo. Until this week, he just kind of swayed in it and got bored after about 2 minutes. But all of a sudden, he figured out how to jump and is loving it! He'll jump in that thing for half an hour at a time! And it's so good for his underdeveloped leg muscles. I'm hoping we'll see some improvement for his 6 month appt. in September.

He wouldn't stop jumping long enough for me to get a non-blurry picture!

3. Well, I finally did it. I had the awful "body safety" talk with the girls this week. I've been doing research and pinning articles for weeks. I originally planned on taking the girls out for a girls' day and then having a talk about all the safety rules. But then I found a couple books that said it so much better than I could. I read through them and put them on my nightstand. On Thursday, Lucy found the books and asked me to read them to her. So the girls climbed into bed with me while I was feeding Levi and I nonchalantly read the books without making a big deal out of it. Then I quizzed them a little bit afterward to make sure they were paying attention. I hate that we have to have conversations like this. We sure didn't talk about this stuff when I was a kid, but my eyes have been opened lately to how many people have been affected by this crap. It's so much more prevalent than I realized, and I have to do everything in my power to protect my kids from it - even if the conversations are uncomfortable. And I'm doing my best to act like it's no big deal so it doesn't have to be uncomfortable and awkward. One of the suggestions in my research was to share the rules I've taught my kids so that our friends and family don't accidentally break them. Here are the big ones:

  - I'm the boss of my body: I don't have to hug, kiss, or touch anyone I don't want to . . . This is going to be a hard one. My family is affectionate, but my girls are not. I'm always saying, "Oh stop it. Just give him a hug and be nice." We're also really bad about bribing my girls for affection. "If you give me a hug, I'll give you some candy!" It's seriously not as nefarious as it sounds, but it's really sending them the wrong message.

- We don't keep secrets . . . Again, right now, it's so innocent. We tell silly secrets. It's never anything bad. But we need to change our vocabulary. They need to learn early on that "Secrets, secrets are no fun. Secrets, secrets, hurt someone!" Haha.

Here are the books I read if you're interested. I really liked both of them.

I loved the Christian aspect of this one. It's out of stock on Amazon, but I found a copy through the library's interloan program. I'll probably buy it when it gets back in stock.

Amazon Link

4. Of course, I had already told the girls we were going to do a girls' day (with the intent of doing the body safety talk), so even though we read the books and did our talk at home, they still insisted on a girls' day. Originally, they each wanted their own. Lena wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese and Lucy wanted to get her nails done. But when it came time to take Lena to Chuck E. Cheese, Lucy decided she wanted to go too. So then Lena decided she wanted to get her nails done too. Oy. This girls' day turned into an expensive girls' weekend. We did Chuck E. Cheese last night, and are going to get our nails done today. Oh well. We're making memories. And we didn't do any fun vacations or trips this summer, so I guess this is it.

5. The other day, I was pulling into the Meijer parking lot when I noticed a man standing next to his car way in the back of the lot writing in a notebook. My first thought was, "Man, I wish I could be somewhere by myself to write in a notebook." Lol. I think I've gone off the introverted deep end. We've been very busy lately, Lena has been especially clingy, and Levi has been especially grumpy/needy. I miss having alone time. That man at Meijer was probably working on his grocery list. I'm sure it was nothing fun or exciting, but I was jealous of his alone-ness. Of course, I feel horribly guilty admitting that. I adore my kids and love spending time with them. I'm not jumping for joy at the thought of Lucy going to school every day in a couple weeks. I know I'd be lonely and bored without them after about one day. But I wouldn't turn down the chance to be away from them for like 12 straight hours . . . during daylight hours. Haha. Someday when Levi is done nursing every 3 hours/refusing to take a bottle I will go thrift shopping and bookstore hunting and coffee shop sitting with my notebook. Until then, I'll just stay up 'til 11:30 every night binging on brownies and Blue Bloods and regretting it in the morning!

6. I've also been having a really hard time parenting lately. Lena's behavior is out of control and I don't know what to do with her. I'm at my wit's end with her whining and crying and throwing fits. I was feel really defeated and discouraged, so I went back through all my old blog entries with the label "parenting," and I came across this from November 2013:

" Lucy and I had kind of a rough week. She is entering the whiny phase with a vengeance. I need to nip it in the bud, but I'm kind of at a loss. It's not just a whiny voice. It's this teeth-clenching, mind-numbing, fingernails-on-the-chalkboard fake cry that goes on and on and on. One day this week, we went to the dollar store 5 minutes from our house. 1 mile down the road she said, "I forgot to bring my balloon!" (She wanted to bring her balloon in the car with her.) When I refused to go back and get it, she cried the rest of the way to the store, the whole time we shopped, and the whole way home. Grrrrr. It makes me crazy. She seriously cries more than Lena does."

Lucy was exactly the same age when I wrote that as Lena is now. So it's not just me! It's my kids at 3.5 years old! It's just a rough age. And it's especially draining/difficult for me because now and when Lucy was that age, I was/am nursing an infant that won't take a bottle, so I get very few kid-free breaks. Lucy's getting to a much easier age, so I feel like there's hope for Lena. It's just a phase . . . a long phase, but it'll be over soon enough . . .

7. This week in pictures:

Redneck Lena . . .

He loves reading

Lucy has become a voracious reader. She carries her book with her everywhere and is constantly reading. 

In Pizza Hut

Trying on Halloween costumes at Grandma's store. Lucy wanted to pose like this because she was being Elsa singing on the mountain. 

So then Lena had to pose the same way:

Lol - this girl can drive me crazy, but she can also make me laugh so hard

Good news, guys. I fed my baby in the Target food court and didn't get harassed! 

Haircut

Maybe next summer . . .