Flexibility

I keep meaning to blog about my weight. And I have stuff to say, but my kids keep trumping it. Such is life, I suppose. Exercise is good. Eating is not so good. Weight is holding (which is both good and bad).

But more importantly, being a parent is kicking my butt right now.

Kicking. My. Butt.

My 2 1/2 year old is causing me to have to go back and completely rethink all my parenting strategies. My daughter, to say the least, is a challenge. Now, part of that may be that I've forgotten what they can be like at that challenging age before they're talking and reasoning but when they're still able to get into everything. Part of it may be that I've gotten lax over the last couple years as the boys got older and Finleigh stayed a baby for so long.

Or maybe, she's just fun.

Like the 3 times in the last few weeks when she's gotten her dirty diaper off in her crib. I've gone back to using diaper shirts again in the hopes that will curb that messy problem.

(we didn't take pictures of this)

Like the refusal to sleep in her toddler bed. Fair enough, we'll work on introducing it more gradually. Willem didn't like sleeping in his big boy bed at first either.

But she's a climber. Here she is at my parent's place, stuck on top of the folded up treadmill. Sweetie, be CAREFUL!!! (Excuse the mess, my parents are renovating)

Due to the excessive tantruming and my tendency to focus too much on the tasks I want to complete and not enough on my kids, I'm trying to include Finn in some of my daily chores. Like bake bread. She decided to play with the water in the sink, while I was getting the dough started. So I cleaned out the sink and filled it with some clean water. Which, while wet, was a great distractor.

Until I went to the bathroom.

So I'm trying really hard to be flexible and parent her the way she needs (in a way that preserves my own sanity). It's a process. In the meantime, I guess I'll just try to laugh.