Un-Super Mom

My kids just can't catch a break. It's been a few days in a row now that I have had some pretty major yelling spells directed at the girls. Emma prayed the other night that God would give me "patience with [the kids]" but even Ty was frustrating me the other day when he wouldn't eat the new food (avocado) and thus wouldn't eat anything after that...and he's only 9 months old. These tough days have been extra discouraging to me because I assumed that when I came out of my own time of personal trials everything else in my life would fall into place and be perfect; I assumed that my patience would be back. And sometimes I can pinpoint certain things that make me more irritable, such as hunger and running late, but particularly frustrating to me is when the kids are whining before they even have breakfast. The girls will fight, still in their beds in the morning, about not wanting to be the pretend character that the other is assigning them.

The other day Emma threw a royal fit because she now only wants to wear leggings, and they have to be "tight, with no bumps." This narrows her pants down to about 3 pairs. That morning I even pulled out the there-are-kids-in-the-world-who-have-no-clothes line. This just got a blank stare. The whining did not stop even after all the reasoning I was trying with her, and I finally exploded. I was at the end of my rope. Emma was sent to her bed, with nothing on it, for an indefinite amount of time. After I cooled down I was able to talk to her again, apologize for freaking out, and she really seemed to accept my explanation that I will not do the laundry every day so that she can wear the pants that she prefers. We hugged, and she accepted the "baggy" pants that she had to wear that day...for part of the day, at least.

I know that the best way to be with my kids is calm. I want them to be calm, so I totally know that freaking out is displaying horrible behavior, but part of me wonders if Emma would have really listened to me and understood what I was saying without the blow up. I had been speaking calmly to her all morning about the pants debacle, but got nowhere.

So, this is a lot of rambling, but I just thought I'd put this out there cause I often use this blog to post the times that I've been a super mom. And I have a lot of those moments, and I'm proud of them, but I am, just as often, the frazzled, frustrated, freaking out mom!

Just Hangin' Out

Purim 2011

We just celebrated Purim (the Feast of Esther) this past weekend! We encouraged everyone in our congregation to come to service in costume, loosely biblical, so the girls were princesses (Emma: Esther, Siri: just a princess), Matt was "spiritual warfare," I was Pharaoh's chief baker, and Ty was Pharaoh's cup bearer. After the service and oneg we had a variety show in which Emma and Siri sang "Good Ship Lollipop." This was actually thrown together as somehow time escaped us, but they sang it last year in NY at Purim and remembered it pretty well...well, Emma did :) Then, on Sunday we attended a Purim carnival put on by another messianic synagogue in our area. Emma got to ride a pony, the girls played games, we ate yummy food, and stayed for the congregations play about Esther set at Windsor Castle.

Friday night we opened a Purim goodie-box from Nona and enjoyed purim masks (of Esther, Queen Vashti, Mordechai, Haman, and the King), treats from Israel, and hamantaschen from Brooklyn! :)

Ty as Morcechai

The treats!

See Ty bearing the king's cup?

Good Ship Lollipop

Bikes...Finally!

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for a week in the middle of February and we did lots of fun thing, one of them getting bikes! Being in apartments has actually caused me to forget about getting bikes for the kids. That sounds terrible, but its true. Sometimes I feel bad about it, but Emma was rockin' her trike when we moved to Maryland and she was barely 3, but we moved in the spring, when it was still chilly, and are now on the 4th floor of a building and we're surrounded by active parking lots...its just makes it not really convenient and so it really just slipped my mind that the girls are at the age to ride bikes! So, we found bikes at great prices, and Emma rocked' it right away, but Siri wasn't so keen and got distracted/scared by a large bulldozer at the park, so she quit early :) It also started crazy-snowing as they were riding, so we had to quit early! We have bikes, nonetheless, and are so thankful to Grandma and Grandpa for the fun times!

Valentine's Day

...or Valentime's day, as Emma still calls it, was quite a while ago, now! But we have had lots of visitors since, keeping the computer time at a minimum! It was a fun day, complete with heart shaped sandwiches. I really wish I did more, and I always loved how much time and effort Kate Gosselin put into Valentines on the show. But anyway...this year we received a treat in the mail from the girls' new pen pals. Ellie and Saedi live in Tennessee and their mom went to Nyack College with Matt and I. They sent coupons for Chucky Cheese tokens, pictures, Fun Dip (they basically chomped the stick and licked out the flavoring), and Bowling Boys, a great way to get out your aggression at the opposite sex :) Just kidding!
In any case, just a shout out to Ellie and Saedi (and mostly Michelle) for making the day pretty great!