Stomach Flu

Well it seems this week the recurring theme is the flu in my household. Just, no fun at all LOL especially with a toddler who does not know that she is supposed to get sick in a bucket (I would prefer the toilet) anything is better than the floor, but alas lol I am just as sick as her, yet I am still capable of taking care of her, its amazing what mothers go through sometimes. 

Do your parents take care of you when you are sick? I think I will have to take care of my girl when she is sick forever now!

Picky Eaters

As a child, I used to eat any and everything. I grew up trying new and different things all the time, I consider myself to have a very wide range or tastes, I thoroughly enjoy food. My daughter on the other hand, will not eat anything. And when I say anything I mean, all she wants to eat is toast and cookies. She was breastfed for 6 months and her pediatrician tells me that she should like food more but no matter what I try she will throw a tantrum if she thinks something is yucky and there fore I have wasted food.

What about you guys, have you always enjoyed foods? Can you remember being a picky eater, what do you think should be done to ensure the children are getting enough to eat?

I try to jazz up her plates of food as much as possible, making funny shapes and different colors, it works until she tastes it LOL I am hoping this is just a phase and she continues on to be a good eater like myself.

ps. Adsense disabled my account :( need a new ad network that is just as good or even better!

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1.03.01

Temper Tantrums

They don't call it the terrible twos for nothing!!!! I think it starts at this age any never stops because I can remember being older than 2 and freaking out, they had to bribe me with Teddy Grams so I would stop, I think my daughter gets it from me! She freaks out over the stupidest stuff, its cute but at the same time she needs to chill out!

Do you guys ever remember taking temper tantrums as a child?? What happened? How did your parents handle it?

When my daughter flips out I just ignore her, usually its over something like she broke her crayon, I don't sook her I just replace the crayon and we move on, or if she is mean she gets a time out for 2 minutes. I think she needs to learn sooner rather than later that her having spazz attacks wont make her get her way, whereas with me, I always got my way I was spoiled rotten, I do not want that for my child!

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1.03.01

Potty Training

Okay so someone commented that they wanted to see me blog about more things that I deal with on a day to day basis when it comes to parenting so here is something recent that I can relate to. 

Potty Training

My daughter turned two in July and ever since she was born I had this 'plan' that I would start potty training when she turned two years old. Well, two years old has came and is going but not so smoothly shall I add. I never thought of potty training as a big deal before but now I see why it is. I got my girl a special Dora the Explorer potty and everything but she will just not piss on the damn thing! She did once but I think that was just a fluke because now she just cries LOL I don't even see the big deal now, about why I wanted her potty trained so soon, she is ready to learn but not willing to do it so I'm just going to take it day by day and see how it goes!! The last time I tried to get her to sit on the potty (I did NOT pressure her in anyway, she actually said she wanted to) but then she peed on me and the floor and then started bawling, I reassured her that I was not mad at her and everything was okay, people have accidents sometimes, but I think she is traumatized now (believe it or not haha)

What about you? How would you handle potty training? Is it as easy as it seems or am I right for backing off her case? I believe she will do it when she is good and ready, no I'm not going to let her stay in diapers forever but maybe just a little while longer, she is growing up too fast as it is!

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1.03.01

This Weeks Poll

I asked : "Do you think you will ever have children?"

57% said yes, I will make an excellent parent

21% said no, I never want kids

22% said I have never thought about it

What is interesting about this is, the people who actually want children may have a hard time conceiving; the people who said they never want children will probably end up with at least one and the people who have never thought about it are the people who are most likely to get pregnant by accident.

I was on birth control when I got pregnant so my daughter was a total fluke, the odds of me getting pregnant were 1% and somehow I ended up pregnant. I knew I wanted to have kids someday but I just didn't want kids at such a young age, I guess she really was meant to be. When my daughter turned 6 months old, I started trying to get pregnant with my second because I always knew that I wanted my children close in age (my child's father and his brother are 10 years apart...) anyways, I have a history of miscarriages, since I started trying I have had 3 and before I got pregnant with my daughter I had 2. I tried for a second child for just under 2 years before giving up. I still want more kids but the more time that passes, the more I'm sure it will never happen. My daughter is a blessing from God and I'm so thankful for her. In the 2 years I spent trying I met a lot of women who were trying as well, I never knew there were so many people that had trouble getting pregnant and I never thought I would be one of them, I got pregnant on birth control, I was sure I didn't have any problems but I do and I wish life was different sometimes but overall I'm happy with the way things turned out and I can now say I'm a firm believer in 'everything happens for a reason'.

If I would have answered this question a few years ago, I probably would have said "I have never thought about it" because at that point I never really did. What about you, what did you choose and why?

Also, new poll to the left! 

5 Problem Children

Children I would not want to be the parent of....based on movies that I saw and liked of course! The movie links are in the name titles.

No order as always!

Mikey, this movie gave me nightmares as a child, him and his little 'accidents'

Damien, he killed his own mother, 'nough said

Joshua, this kid is just your basic jealous older brother, or not....

Ester, the 33 year old foreign chick with an aging disease...i would be okay to never adopt after seeing this movie.

 & for the lulz, Junior....man, this kid was crazy, the second movie was the best though because it had Trixie and she was cool, I'd chose her over him any day

Mixed Race Families

Decided I wanted to do a post on this because awhile back I was reading a forum where people were pretty much debating that Michael Jackson's kids were not biologically his. Now I myself am bi-racial with a daughter who is even more so bi-racial and I know first hand that NOT ALL BI-RACIAL PEOPLE LOOK THE SAME.

Stereotypical bi-racial people, as the majority of people would think, (lets say white mom, black dad) come out with a skin color in the middle, not too dark, not too light- like me. However, my niece has a white mother and a black father and you want to know what she looks like? WHITE. Everyone who knows her obviously knows she is bi-racial but people who do not know her think she is white, why? Because they are stupid and think that all bi-racial people come out the same color. Now, when I came across these people arguing about Micheal Jackson's kids, I just had to laugh because even though they don't look entirely bi-racial (to the majority of people), they look bi-racial to me, and even so THEY LOOK JUST LIKE HIM. All of them. Even Paris who looks a bit more like her mother even has some of the same features as Michael.

People try to argue and say that they look nothing like him and then they try to compare pictures of Michael AFTER he had surgery on his face....well obviously his after surgery face won't match the kids because you have to look at pics from when he was younger. Also it seems that Prince has inherited that extremely rare skin disease that caused Michael to have pigmentation problems (which led to his decision to bleach his skin).

Anyways here is a video, can you see the resemblance?

This topic makes me rage because my poor daughter is going to have to grow up dealing with people calling her 'white' (not that its particularly a bad thing, i just want her to accept herself as who she is, which isn't just white) all the time and saying that she can't be my daughter because her skin is lighter than mine (it's already happened...), they are ignorant and don't know any better. Hopefully by the time she grows up though times will at least be starting to change....I don't care what anybody says, the majority of people now a days are mixed with something anyways.

Traveling/Personal

Thinking of taking a vacation this winter! If expenses allow, anyways. I haven't been on a trip in so long! Last time I actually traveled somewhere I ended up stranded for a month (good times!) in Toronto. The time before that was way back in high school when we went to Chicago, that was a blast! But, things are different now. With a child it's so incredibly hard to get away unless you have a willing babysitter (I, however, do not) and I decided to do a post on traveling with children. People do it all the time, It can't be that hard.

Places I want to go:

Since it will be winter here on the east coast I'm thinking of going somewhere warm, although I'm not so sure I want to leave the country as it's a lot of work to do with passports, bookings, travel insurance and such. Here is the list of places I want to go to.

In Canada*

Penticton, British Columbia - Home of the Ogopogo (Nessie's cousin) and also my daughters father spent a good chunk of his life living there, I think it would make a great trip.

Montreal, Quebec - I have already been to Quebec in 2003 for a school trip, I loved it but I feel like we weren't there long enough and would love to go back.

Edmonton, Alberta - West Edmonton mall FTW! Never been there but always wanted to go.

In US* 

East Islip, New York - I have family there that I haven't seen in years and they have never met my daughter so I have a good excuse to go.

Florida - Disney World obviously and have family there as well I haven't seen in a while.

Portland, Oregon - Have friends there and have also never been there.

Traveling with Children:

The younger they are, the harder it is, in my opinion. The older my daughter gets the easier it is to take her places. So if you plan on traveling with children I suggest waiting until they can at least voice their own opinions on what they want or your vacation isn't going to be very great. When she was a baby just taking her overnight to her grandparents was even difficult for me, having to pack pretty much everything in relation to a baby is not fun BTW...but now I take her overnight and we have no problems because I don't need to pack a bazillion things.

Keeping them occupied however is a different story. I have never flown with a child so I don't know how difficult that would be, probably a lot less than driving just because it's faster but when traveling in the car make sure you have plenty of things to keep them busy. If you are lucky they will sleep for a good majority of the time.

I found some good info HERE on traveling with kids. 

I'm going to try to make my vacation as fun and entertaining as possible and hopefully will get to enjoy a lot of things for myself! 

Thanks for reading guys :)

Creepy Pasta

Tourist trap

In rural Wisconsin, there is an old abandoned park. Built in the 1920s, it served as the town’s gathering place for everyone.

That is, until a newly developed Train and Tunnel for Tots™ ride was installed in 1932. It was an innocent looking childish train, with one main (mechanized) head car, with three small trolleys pulled behind it. It went around some loops before going into a small tunnel.

But this is where the story gets weird. There were numerous cases of child deaths that year, all of them happening after the child rode on that train system. Some kids went missing in that short tunnel (about ten feet), and others went comatose after leaving. One, upon exiting, was found to be dead. Her dress was covered in what looked like small bloody handprints. Some killed themselves by scratching at their throats until they bled out, and one of them even killed another child before hanging herself with razor wire at the family’s farm.

The park was closed, and the town’s popularity as a tourist town plummeted.

Recently, a team of scientists were sent out to the park. They taped a video camera to the train, and put a new intern in with it, before sending it on its way onto the tracks.

When the train left the tunnel, it was empty, except for the camera.

The last ten seconds were nothing but static, save for the sound of children laughing.

Parents and Life Insurance

This never occurred to me before, I mean I'm still young, healthy and probably not going to die or be in a coma at any point anytime soon. What I didn't realize is that, none of that matters. After reading a blog post on life insurance, my friend and I had a debate about it. We are both parents yet we stand on different sides of the argument. She seems to think that saving up $10 every month is just as good as life insurance, but how?? I mean thats only $120 every year, what if you got in an accident and died when your kid was 3, that would leave them with $360 for the rest of their life, but my friend is adamant she isn't going to die. She's probably right but life is unpredictable and accidents do happen. All of this got me thinking. What happens if I die? How can I insure that my child will be okay if I end up checking out too soon? I have been looking at life insurance quotes since the discussion earlier, my mind tends to wander when I start thinking bad things and well I would rather be safe than sorry!

What do you guys think, is life insurance a good idea or a bad jinx?

Daily Quote

Mother Nature is wonderful.  Children get too old for piggy-back rides just about the same time they get too heavy for them.  ~Author Unknown

Adoption, Fostering and Endangering The Welfare of Children

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you had been adopted? Coming from someone who was (for all intents and purposes) adopted, I wouldn't have it any other way. Being adopted can mean different things for different people as well, some are adopted at birth and never know their biological parents, some are taken from their parents at a young age, and some people even decide to divorce their own parents in hopes of finding new ones. Adoption can be a blessing or a disaster. Sometimes people are adopted into homes that are worse than the ones they came from, sad but true. That is the fault of the law for putting the children with people they haven't fully checked out. This happens because there is usually more children to be placed in homes than people willing to take them in and they end up getting desperate and placing children in even worse situations. Most people who adopt though are generally okay, it's the foster parents that are more of a concern. My godparents raised me, they were foster parents but I was thankfully one of the luckier children to ever go in foster care because they are such amazing people. And then I heard this story about a young boy who was put into foster care and was locked in a closet most of the time and regularly abused because they just didn't want to deal with him, basically they were only fostering for the money (surprise, surprise! just like the other 90% of people who do it). I wonder how social workers feel when they find out about this stuff going on? It's their job to make sure everything in the home is going well for both the care givers and the children. Makes me wonder what the world is coming to.

As a parent, it saddens me to know that this is going on. The children probably would have been better off with their real parents anyways in most cases.

When adoption can be good, it can be amazing. Just say you were adopted into the best home ever, when you finally got to be an adult would you try to find family? Why or why not? I believe I have some curiosities about my biological family, I'm older now so I have since found a few of my family members, I know enough of them to get the idea of what my family is like. It doesn't really bother me that we are not that close, I have a family already, the one I was raised with. Blood may be thicker than water but it's the people who care for you the most that matter.

With technology on the rise, anyone who is curious about the unknown can use certain websites specifically designed to help you find members of your family. My favorite site is Ancestry. It's not free but you do get a two week free trial, which in my opinion is more than enough time if you know what you are looking for.

Daily Quote

Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.  ~Robert Fulghum

 Monkey see, monkey do, right? Children are way more impressionable than we give them credit for!