The Preferred Parent

The Preferred Parent

Do you see this bonding? This goes on all day and night.  Angry Husband is the preferred parent.  I’m the one that takes care of things.  I’m the one to find the backpack, pack the lunch, RSVP for a birthday party, go buy the present, do the laundry, etc. until midnight every night.

I’m not making this up. Even my parents have noticed.  My mom has mentioned more than ever, that Angry Kid is a total daddy’s boy.  It is all about D-A-D-D-Y.  I don’t play the video games or watch Star Wars.  Seriously, it must be genetic for males to watch movies over and over and over.  I think I’ve seen enough Star Wars and Clone Wars for a lifetime.

Tonight, it was the coin game. I had to go online to even see what game it was, Coin Push Frenzy.  Yes, they are a little obsessed.  They also play Plants Vs. Zombies and Tap Fish.  I have games on my iPhone, but the only reason I have them is for Angry Kid to play them.

Angry Kid cries when Angry Husband leaves the house to go to work, the store, out with his friends, and even the damn mailbox.  When I leave the house, I get a wave and a “Bye Mama”. Daddy is King.

I’m ok with it though, because one of the moms at kindergarten was volunteering the other day, and told me that Angry Kid was talking about me.  Angry Kid told her that “his beautiful mom (ME ME ME) was also volunteering every Monday and she wore a beautiful shirt on Monday.”  I have to admit that Angry Kid does have good taste, the shirt was from Anthropologie, and it was might pricey.

Mama's Losin' It

“Signs that my little one is just not into me anymore.”

Wordless Wednesday: The Moon

Harvest Moon 09-22-10

Welcome to  “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

If this your first time here, HELLO! I do a link-up every Wednesday! Post a picture(s) that you took in the past week and link back to it here. Wordless Wednesday is a great day to post an awesome picture that “speaks” for itself, no words needed.

Project Garage

Garage Pre-Makeover

In between all of that chaos and mess, is our brand new Bosch washer and dryer.  I think we bought it in July.  It is awesome.  But sigh, our garage junk is taking over once again.

This picture looks like one of those in a magazine, where it gives you a list of things and you have to find all of them in the picture.  This is only a corner of the garage.  If this corner looks this bad, well, you can imagine what the rest of the garage looks like.  We use our garage so much, and honestly, Angry Husband and I are tired of tripping over things.

So he is moving around cabinets, because he wants to.  I am going through boxes and Rubbermaid totes full of my important stuff, you know junk…

Can you spot the dogs? Oh, the poor dogs…

I’m not sure when we will be done, but I feel so cleansed now that some of this crap is gone.  Seriously! I worked on the Master Bedroom closet tonight too.

The trashcan is my friend!

Visual reminders of my faults, via iPhone

My husband is the king of sending picture and video messages via his iPhone.  Sometimes, it is great because I am at work and I get to see pictures of the fun things that my husband and son are doing together.  Other times, Angry Husband likes to comment on chores I may have not finished, or certain purchases I have made.

I recently purchased a new planner, which was personalized.  I knew that the planner wasn’t cheap, but I ordered it anyway.  I have been very good with my purchases lately, so I treated myself.  I checked the FedEx tracking yesterday, and saw that it was “out for delivery”.  I had to leave for work around 11am, and FedEx had not come yet.  I already knew from prior experience that, this was a bad omen.  Sure enough, I got a picture message later in the night.

This was added underneath the picture message, “$60 W-T-F”.

So that was NOT one of my finer moments in life.  Note to self: Mail higher priced items to work, or tell them to not include actual purchase prices on receipt.  Not that I would ever lie about something like this.

A few days ago, Angry Husband and I were discussing some of the left over child-proofing devices that we still had intact within the house.  Angry Kid was a very smart baby, and somewhat ninja-like.  This kid could figure out everything.  We had to flip the deadbolt on our access door between the house and garage, because he kept getting out, and would open the garage door.  Angry Husband agreed that it was time to flip the deadbolt back to the original position.  I removed the key from the garage side of the door, and placed it on the hook in our kitchen.  Well, I just went to work after that.

Angry Husband walked to get Angry Kid from school, and left through the garage.  I think that somehow on his way out, the interior twist-lock got turned and locked the door.  Well, when they came back, the door was locked.  Angry Husband and I rarely use our keys and mostly go through the garage.  Well, luckily, Angry Kid is still somewhat of a ninja, because I received this video, via text, once again.

I wonder if Angry Husband would appreciate me texting him pictures of his failures? Hmmm…. Cause you know, I’ve never passive/aggressive like that.

We finally have a sleep solution

Angry Kid Sleeping

My son climbed out of his crib at around sixteen months.  We tried everything, which included lowering the mattress, a sleep sack, and even a tent.  The kid would not stay in the crib.  Our crib was convertible so we switched it out to a toddler bed.

When we switched him to the toddler bed, our hell began.  He would not go to sleep at night, nor would he nap.  Our son was strung out from lack of sleep, and we were overly tired.  Around age two, he started preschool, and he actually took naps there.  But at home, at night, well that was a different story.  He would eventually crash on the living room floor around ten or eleven at night, which was way too late.

Around age three, we talked to his pediatrician about his sleep habits, or rather lack of sleep.  Angry Kid is hyper-active and his brain/body just can’t seem to calm down.  She, along with several other people, suggested that we give Angry Kid melatonin to sleep at night.  My husband was hesitant at first, but after seeing it work a few times, he praised that little medicine bottle.

We were able to give Angry Kid melatonin in his milk at night for about two years.  He would drink it out of a sippy cup and I ground up the medication and mixed it in.  He never knew it was in there.  After we transitioned off of the sippy cup, we were screwed.  I tried to give Angry Kid the pills orally, by asking him to take it.  Ya, that didn’t quite work.  He made gagging faces, and spit it out in the toilet. So we gave up with that method.

In late July, Angry Kid finished preschool and we transitioned to day camp for the rest of the summer.  Angry Kid had been taking naps at preschool/childcare every day, five days a week, up to this point.  Angry Kid was now going to camp all day with kindergarten through sixth graders.  He did not nap anymore.  Well, you can imagine his behavior at night.  He was obnoxious.  We were having the “witching hour” from around 5pm to 11pm, every night.  Our son was out of control and overly tired.  We had previously tried about every method of getting him to sleep, and nothing worked.

I work late at night approximately three nights a week. Angry Husband has bedtime duty.  Well, actually, he always has bedtime duty.  He is better with that, than me, and he has more patience at night.  Around mid-August, Angry Husband and I were over this night drama with Angry Kid.  I spoke with several of my friends about “this situation” that have school-age kids.  Both Shannon and Tiffany told me that we need to lay down the law and apply a strict schedule.  Well, Angry Husband didn’t really want to hear this.  Actually he didn’t hear this, because we were having a passive/aggressive discussion via text message.  Doesn’t everyone argue via text message these days?

Well after a little discussion, Angry Husband agreed to try some new tactics with Angry Kid.  At 8pm, the fun is over.  I like to define fun as “video games, snacks, juice, treats, and TV shows that the kid enjoys”.  Angry Husband did not think it would work.  By the second night, our son was sound asleep by 8:30ish pm.  Our son now crashes between 8:15-8:30pm every night.  He actually TELLS US that he is tired now.  I may have actually said the words, “who is this kid, and where did he come from?”  Seriously, all of these years with sleep programs, and now he actually tells us that he is tired.

I also think that he is completely exhausted at the end of the day with kindergarten, new habits, after-school program, and all the expectations that come with it.  So can I just get a big, “whoop whoop” because kindergarten is awesome and my kid actually sleeps now.

P.S. The key point to my rambling is, put your kid on a schedule, adhere to it, and awesomeness happens.

Wordless Wednesday: When snakes attack

shotthesnake

Welcome to  “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

If this your first time here, HELLO! I do a link-up every Wednesday! Post a picture(s) that you took in the past week and link back to it here. Wordless Wednesday is a great day to post an awesome picture that “speaks” for itself, no words needed.

Six years of my life, in a plastic tote

TheThesis

“A Profile of Ecstasy Abuse and the Social Implications of Ecstasy Use in America”

What does this phrase mean to you? Well, I can tell you what it means to me.  This phrase was on a fifty page document, with my name on it, with this phrase as the title.  This was the topic of my Master’s Thesis.  This was the end of my Master’s program, and the start of student loan repayment.  With a few years for a break in between, six years of my life dedicated to a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree.  I finished my Master’s program, ten years ago, this month.

Angry Husband is currently re-organizing our garage for the bazillionth (yes, that it is a word I made up) time.  The man can’t remember to put the toilet seat down, yet he re-organizes our garage several times a year.  I am constantly tripping over tools, boxes, zip-ties, you name it, in our garage.  Yet, if a box or a tote that belongs to me, sits too long in one certain spot, my husband loses his mind.

He most recent gripe was this plastic tote.  He pulled it down from the top of the garage cabinets.  He said, “whatever is in the heavy tote, get rid of it.”  I knew what was in the tote.  I was not “getting rid of it.”  This tote was completely filled with notes and papers from my undergraduate and graduate school careers.  They were all related to my majors.  I’m pretty obsessive compulsive when it comes to school-type stuff.  I took very detailed notes, and highlighted all the right parts.  If my notes were too messy, I re-did them later at home.  I’m a complete freak about things like that.

I’ve kept this tote for a few reasons…some of them may be: it’s my stuff, you never know when you might want a good paper/discussion/profiling of the Columbine School Shooting Incident….and someday, a complete Plan C…D..or maybe even F..I might want to teach some of these topics in the college level.

While organizing the contents of this tote, I started reading some of my notes and papers.  I was a sharp cookie, or really I am a sharp cookie.  I believe that my thoughts, and opinions on things are still the same, and perhaps they have developed even more with some life experience.

But really, where am I going with all of this rambling? I feel that I have lost some of my brain sometimes, or maybe people think that I have lost some of the brain.  I have been in my career field for thirteen years, a mother for five years, and a blogger for three plus years…  I am “running” with a completely different crowd now than I was ten years ago, really two years ago, and that is ok.  I like to “run” or “hang” with like-minded people.  But I am not stupid.  I am not ditzy.  I have a brain.

I guess I’m just getting tired of being treated like I’m an idiot.  This applies to every facet in my life, whether it be family, work, blogging, friends, you name it…  Angry Husband gets pissed at me all the time, because I never say anything.  I lay low.  I hide in the shadows.  I let a ton of stuff just roll off my shoulders…and then I vent.  I want to apologize to my crew, the people who listen to my rants.  Because I have been ranting, a lot lately.  Because although I may not say it, blog it, or tweet it…I read and listen.  I wonder why I have so many anxiety issues?

and yea, Angry Husband, that tote is going back up in the rafters, until I need it.

P.S.  I may use stupid words like umm yea, awesome, rad, etc..in my blog posts.  I can write properly.  I am just lazy. And yes, my Thesis was on Ecstasy…that is quite rad!

The Apple

DSC_0008

Last week while on the tram to Disneyland, Angry Kid asked for a snack.  I had the mental image of dollar signs after he said that.  Because snacks are not cheap at Disneyland.  We live locally, so I try and feed him before we leave, so I don’t have to spend copious amounts of cash on crap.

So we head down Main St., and he asks for a snack again.  I ask him what he wants and he points to a cart.  I was shocked when I saw which cart that he pointed to.  He wanted something from the fruit cart.  He requested an apple and I got a water.  He wanted the biggest apple that they had.  Who is this kid, and where did he come from?

So then we headed towards the rides, and ended up standing in line for Finding Nemo.  A woman with three kids was commenting on how nice it was to see a child eating an apple rather than all of the junk food that you can buy at Disneyland.  She complimented me on my parenting and showing my child proper nutrition, etc.  I started laughing.  I told her that Angry Kid begged for the apple and it was his food choice.  I was expecting to buy him an ice cream or something.

He then began to chomp into that shiny apple.  He told everyone how “tasty” it was too..

And his smirk that he has in the photo, well that was because that woman WOULD NOT STOP talking to him. She kept going on and on, and on…. I think Angry Kid was getting annoyed.  He was just nodding his head, and letting her talk.

Angry Kid is the KING of smirking…I get more smirks than smiles from that kid.  I thought that this photo and story would be perfect for I Heart Faces Smirk Photo Challenge.

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