There Are Times When...

There are times when being a parent you wish you could do something to have a little fun with your children but don't dare because you will pay for it after. This has nothing to do with corporal punishment. I'm referring to the times when your children do something and being the sarcastic / cynical person that you are, your first response must be held back. For instance:

When you have the option to either let your child remain sleeping in the car seat or transfer her to her crib, let her sleep in the car seat. Have you ever heard of the saying "let sleeping dogs lie"? Case in point... Murphy's law would dictate that as soon as you move your baby to the crib she will wake up and immediately begin crying and carrying on like the world was coming to an end. Then after 20 minutes of scrambling to figure out what is wrong you determine that she is hungry. You feed her expecting her to go right back to sleep only to have her wide awake and expecting you to hold her, play with her or otherwise keep her occupied for the next few hours.

Children being children will ultimately get into something at some point during the day. That having been said it's expected when your toddler manages to get into the Tupperware drawer and throw the entire contents on the floor. However, when you are taking a shower and leave the children with their father you don't expect to have a knock on the glass from a little person who would like to watch the water fall on you because water is the greatest thing in the world, while holding his father shoe. Once you get the startled, bewildered look off your face, you should not begin to play with the child by throwing water onto the glass. All this does is encourage the child to do this more often and you can't get it to stop with out battle.

Inevitably the poop filled diaper will stink up the babies room if not the whole house.
While dad is changing the poop filled diaper and from the depths of the house you hear "No...Not the pelvic thrusts..." your immediate reaction is to laugh. Knowing that the baby has just lifted his rear end off the table then let it fall back to the, table at least once, while the poopy diaper is still on thus spreading poop out the top of the diaper and all over the changing table. Laughing is definitely not the right reaction. All it does is encourage baby to do this more often and frustrate dad even more. However it is incredibly funny!

When your child is going through the stage where everything is going into his mouth, be sure that you don't laugh when they decide to put something in their mouth. Regardless of how cute or hysterical it is. For instance when the oldest decided to come out scooting (yes, somehow managing hopping on his butt) with a stuffed dog in his mouth by the ear don't laugh. All that did was encourage the act and put more stuff in the mouth.

If you have ever heard that once you have children you will get no peace, well, that's no exaggeration. When I'm at home with the kids and need to go to the bathroom closing the door is not an option. Should I do so the oldest will sit outside the door wailing like a crazy person until I come out. So leaving the door seems the only logical option to save one's eardrums. This only means that the oldest will not only come into the bathroom while I'm on the toilet, but try and get you to play or bring things for you to look at. As you can imagine, it's a little disconcerting to know that you can't even take a dump in peace. Aha yes, separation anxiety, what a lovely stage.