learn something new everyday

I've always believed that you should learn something from everything, every situation, every person you meet. I've tried to change things about myself that I don't like as I've gotten older. I try to think before I speak, and I try to think of the consequences of every action. I hope that my children are learning new things everyday. Sometimes however, you just get it wrong.

Today was one of those days. My hubby is away for work so I am well and truly alone, in the deep end with the kids. Whilst he's not usually here for dinner/bath/bedtimes, he is coming home at some stage and subconsciously I know that. My mind tells me during the 55th tantrum of the hour that its ok, soon there will be someone here to share my pain, soon. Today is pretty much day 6 (I think) in a row of craphouse weather, rainy, cold and windy as all hell. Basically indoor weather. My two tornadoes have not been happy with this and have shown me many times exactly how they feel. Missy Moo just wails, she throws herself down and wails - usually when I leave the room or walk away from her. Monkey Man is a cheeky thing, and defiant. He tells me 'no' alot, and this afternoon I heard him threaten Missy Moo with a 'mack'!! I'm guessing I threaten him with a smack quite often so its bound to flow down hill. He's agressive and can be downright violent - today he bit his sister right in front of me! I know, I know, its the age but there has to be a point where you step in. He has been in the naughty corner at least 5 times today for pushing his little sister, who incidently idolises him and follows him around like a puppy. Does the naughty corner actually provide any benefit to a 2yo?? I'll have to google that one or perhaps ask Jo Frost but it does separate the two of them for a while, it just means he wails louder at being punished. It takes a fair bit for me to reach the end of my tether, And he did get a smack today for pushing Missy Moo down the stairs which was just downright scary. She's wobbly on the stairs as it is, her confidence is still growing with going up stairs and coming down is a no go zone yet, she just freezes in fear. Such polar opposites my children are. Monkey Man ran straight up the stairs the first day we moved in here and he was 22mths old at the time, never really been exposed to stairs before... She's alot more cautious, shy around new people, clings to me... Monkey Man will talk a strangers ear off and couldn't care less where I am.
I forget that she's not even 14 months old yet, and that really she's only been walking for about 6 weeks. Time goes so fast and I do forget her age, she wants to do everything her big brother does and I just forget that she's not there yet.

note this isn't meant to start a debate about smacking

Anyway, Monkey Man was asking for (demanding) pikelets so we made some, well I did while they supervised and licked the beaters. I flipped pikelets whilst holding Little Miss over my shoulder - see I did learn a new skill today! I would never have known I could do that til I tried. I popped her down for a nap and came back to the toddlers. We then made scrambled eggs with fresh vegies, the kids chose the vegies they wanted in their eggs. I don't think they actually ate any of it, they picked the cheese out and ate the pasta swirls (I boiled up just in case) but hey, small steps right and not alot was thrown on the floor! woot! Teaching them names of vegies was their lesson of the day and hopefully they remember that tomorrow and not how many times they were in the naughty corner. I was in the mum zone, we were having fun, no one was screaming to go outside, and all was good. I then looked up and realised it was after 6pm!! The kids normally eat at 5 so no wonder they had been screaming at me, bad mummy! I'd been telling them to shhh while I unpacked/packed the dishwasher, washed and prepared baby bottles,emptied the fridge (its bin night) etc etc etc... Some how I thought it was coming up to 5 but really it was after 6. How did I lose a whole hour? I'm still not sure? Anyway, we quickly finished up dinner and headed up to the bath. Both kids had bags under their red eyes they were so tired and both went to bed with minimal fuss - clearly tired. Tomorrow is Toddler Free Friday (woot!) so they will be exhausted again tomorrow night, but hey, its a long weekend so they can rest lots and sleep in - pfft! yeah right!! I wish!!

oh and I ate at least 4 pikelets, completely forgetting about my new and improved me. I bet you I suffer on the scales on saturday as a result. how annoying.