Binkies and Briefcases

“Patience is a virtue known by few women and no men.”-Anonymous.

I used to be one of those women, honest. I used to have a seemingly endless supply of patience for children. I spent years as a nanny, an elementary school teacher, and even a mother without irrationally losing my temper, yelling, or saying things I shouldn’t. I am an adult, after all.

My patients is gone now. It vanished into thin air, I swear it really did. What happened? I think I met my match in the only person I’ve ever met who has ever been able to match me in terms of will power and determination: my daughter.

As a baby Nicholas easily complied as I decided when and where he would eat, sleep, bathe, or just about anything else. He was always pleasant and genuinely wanted to please. Sure, he had his moments in the form of a temper tantrum here or there, but I never had a lack of patience for him. Never a knot in my stomach accompanied by a feeling of “there’s just no way in hell I can do this for YEARS to come.”

Raising one child came so easily, in fact, that we decided to have another one right away so that they would be close in age. Yup, I consciously brought this on myself.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Abby is incredibly sweet and very lovable, the picture perfect blond, blue-eyed baby American Dreams are made of. She’s also as stubborn as a mule. Has been from day one.

I didn’t want to give her a pacifier, but we had to because there was just no satisfying her sucking reflex otherwise.

I wanted her to sleep in her bassinet, for 4 months the only way she would sleep was sitting upright in her swing.

I wanted to schedule her feedings, she refused to eat unless it was on her terms.

I wanted to schedule naps, she flat out refused to take them. (Have you ever met an infant who can stay awake for 15 hours straight, I have one.) Unless of course, she was being held- only upright and only if the person who was holding her was standing up and rocking side to side NOT back and forth- in that case, she might cat nap for about 10 minutes.

When she decided she finally wanted to sleep laying down I wanted to sleep train her like we did with her brother. Just like Super Nanny says, let her cry for a few minutes, go in with no eye contact or talking to soothe her, then leave. Repeat until she falls asleep. Yeah, good luck with that. This baby does not cry herself to sleep. She stays up crying until 6am, keeping an entire family awake in the process. That’s not fair to Nicholas. That’s how she wound up in our bed.

So now I have one child who never had a pacifier, always sleeps in his own bed, eats his meals at regularly scheduled times, and at almost 3 still naps about 80% of the time when I tell him to and one child who insists on having a pacifier, sleeping in our bed, eating when she wants, and refuses to nap.

I need to get my patience back so I can straighten her out now because if this keeps up little miss Abby is going to turn into one teenager that I am NOT going to want to deal with!

In the process of appeasing my 9-month-old self-proclaimed princess I have also lost all patience for things like kitchen renovations that take over 5 months, garage door openers that do not work, whining, insurance companies, dishes, laundry, my house being disorganized (back when I had patience I was also a queen of organization. Now, not so much.) and weight loss.

I am trying to stay positive and focus on the fact that I have a beautiful, healthy family, which includes an incredibly supportive husband (who did take me on that trip to Lancaster last weekend, which was awesome) and a business that, while it is currently in the incredibly stressful and financially draining start-up phase, does have a lot of potential.

Frankly, I’m surprised I had the patience to write this much with one child whining because he doesn’t like the way the magnets make the toy trains stick together and one child pulling my hair and hitting the key board. Serenity now…

Ok, I’m not updating daily as I originally intended. My bad, but I really don’t need another thing on the to-do list. Take today, for example…
I woke up with the baby at 6:30 and had all three of us (Nick, Abby, and myself) fed, dressed, and out the door by 8:15 to go to Mom N Me at our church. The program doesn’t actually start until 9, but I need to get there early because I’m on the steering committee and it’s my responsibility to make the coffee. We had to leave in the middle of the presentation because Abby was crying inconsolably and pulling on her ears.
Ear infection? An 11 am last-minute doctor’s appointment said no, just fluid in the ears, most likely from teething.
Got to the toy library by noon, and good thing because we actually had quite a bit of traffic today because our add was printed in the latest issue of Clipper Magazine, which just came out. Nicholas had his OT appointment at 2, which (thankfully) we can do right here at Tiny Toes. Cue pop-in visit from ad sales. Cue phone call informing me that Kirsten (my employee) has fallen down the steps while 6 months pregnant. Thank God mom and baby are both alright, aside from being a bit sore, but she will be in the hospital overnight for observation.
Kept the kids with me until after 5, when Eddie was able to pick them up. They were actually really good today, all things considered.
Continued to play phone tag all day with a reporter. Guess we won’t be able to schedule that interview for tonight after all. For the best, because I’m exhausted. I still have two more hours and a story time to do before I can crash in front of American Idol.
Coming in early tomorrow to open for our playgroup. Mommy needs a nap. Why did I think running a business and keeping the kids with me all day was going to be such a great idea?

Ok, that sounds totally full of myself. What I guess I should say is that I have discovered a hidden talent for writing press releases that seem to get a lot of attention. The latest one has gotten me into a bit of a pickle. You see, I recently partnered with the ladies from Atomic Bounce, another mom-owned business in our area, and we decided to send out another press release about ourselves as momtrepreneurs. So I wrote it and sent it out and about three hours later I had a lady from channel 8 on the phone wanting an interview.

Great! Slight problem, though. The header of the press release said something along the lines of “with dads being laid off and families stretched to their limits in this economy, some stay at home moms are going into business for themselves…” True enough, and it got their attention like I knew it would, but my husband (thankfully) is gainfully employed, and as far as I know so are the Atomic Bounce dads. Of course, the reporter wants to do a story with a group of moms who are struggling more now than they used to be. Of course, I tell her it will be no problem to get a group of these moms together to do an interview. Of course, I agree to schedule everything. Dumb? Maybe, but I think I actually can find a few moms who at least sort of fit that description, so hopefully I’ll be able to pull it off.

At home we’ve been battling a stomach virus for almost a week. Nicholas got sick last Saturday, but only for a few hours. I was next, so I missed several days of work this week, and then Eddie caught it much worse than anyone. Luckily his mom came and swept the kids away for a few days, hoping we could keep Abby away from the germs as much as possible. We’re going to pick them up later today. It’s been quiet without them!