goals

this week i have a few goals:

• teach amelia that the computer desk is *NOT* her toy area

this will be very difficult. every single time i sit in front of the computer to check email or the news or read a blog or ANYTHING she climbs onto the chair, pulls at me, wiggles her way around to the front, climbs onto my lap & then attempts to climb onto the desk. it was funny the first week, annoying the 2nd week, more annoying the 3rd week & so on. which is why i haven't been on facebook or blogs for a few weeks. & why i had no clue what happened to tiger woods...you know, it's important stuff that i'm missing. i have to admit, it was kinda nice to be out of hte loop for a few weeks, but now, *now* i am ready to re-plug in. i just have to get amelia on board with not attacking me. it has been a long 20 minutes already.

the thing is, amelia has a hard time playing by herself when adeline isn't here. amelia is excellent at parallel play; it keeps her wonderfully occupied to play beside adeline. but alone...she just gets bored. maybe b/c she has the attention span of a gnat?! seriously, 1 page into the book & she throws it aside, looking for another one. the only time we get a full book in is at nap & bed times. & then she's so tired that she's mostly asleep.

right now i'm typing away--it's a good thing i can type fast--as amelia is throwing her snack everywhere (another good thing: a dog who likes to eat thrown aside snack food, aka cereal). anyway, so the deal is every time amelia tries to climb onto the chair i give a stern but kind 'no no amelia, time to play' & take her to a toy, get her interested, then a few minutes later i walk away. *sigh* this is going to take forever. i have lost hope.

• read most of the adrenal fatigue book.

see the reasons behind #2. if i take some time by myself when either girl is awake, i am attacked. hair pulling, etc.

ARGH. a millie monster is in full tantrum mode. this goal is going to be a difficult one. so all this to say: don't anticipate a flood of blogging or internet chat from me for a few weeks. heck, for a year? how long will it take for this milligan to get that the computer desk is not her playground? ideas?

butt water

tonight as i tried to keep adeline's spirits up (as amelia was dumping all the bath water adeline had worked so hard to fill up a bucket cup by wee cup) i started to make butt-tooting-poopy jokes. addy is in the stage of really finding my 'dirty' jokes simply hilarious, so i am instigated to tell these not so funny jokes. so we came upon the idea of bath water being called butt water (this was to help remind adeline a few months ago why she was not to drink bath water: B/C YOUR POOPY BUTT IS IN THERE!) & tonight i was rolling with the whole butt water idea. you know, oh there goes butt water down amelia's face! egads, that was a lot of butt water near your lips, etc. & then adeline starts to giggle & would say something like 'butt water gilly {silly}' & catastrophe was averted b/c of the giggles.

wes took amelia after amelia decided her bath was over, which she told us by climbing out of the tub repeatedly & throwing mini cups of water at me (laughing while doing it, at least). so adeline & i were alone in the bath room & i mentioned to her which classmate she is to buy a christmas gift for this year for the preschool gift exchange. she starts laughing uncontrollably & i was like 'do you not like this girl?' & was getting a bit concerned of the match-up for christmas gifts if they didn't like each other. then addy finally stops giggling & says the kid's name & then says 'give her butt water!' & starts to laugh uncontrollably again...then i started to laugh b/c my little girl made a 'dirty' joke. hopefully she doesn't really intend to pick that as a gift, i don't think the school would allow it, right? come on, butt water is nearly as bad as coal.

***

and, drumroll: amelia has another ear infection! her fussiness started to increase last weekend & was full throttle this morning (at the mall, ugh...why am i always the one walking the screaming kid in the stroller through the mall?! i even finished browsing the kid clothing stores with a screaming toddler & no one glared at me! it must be the holiday spirit making people a bit more cheerful & forgiving?). so we made an appointment for her this afternoon & sure enough, ear infection. she didn't even make it 6 days without antibiotics (which makes me wonder if the last round of antibiotics actually did anything?).

we are now being referred to an ENT for the (cochlear??) tubes, which we pretty much expected given amelia's continuous ear infection status for the past 7 months. i know this is a fairly common procedure, but i'm still nervous to go through it all. i'm sure it will be fine. the good news is that we will most likely get the tubes put in before 2010, which is good b/c we've *totally* reached our deductible for the year. i think it was met by last april, sadly.

& officially, addy is an advent-calendar-candy swiper--christmas eve will find one little girl a bit sad for her lack of candy that night...maybe she will remember november 30 as the night she took chocolate from that numbered box when she shouldn't have. & amelia can say hat & wassssAT & dog. & she likes to play the screaming game with me which now puts my parenting skills at a new low... (the game goes like this: i try to take an object, like a bottle of medicine, from amelia's steely grip. she screams until her forehead gets all red & blotchy. i then grab the item again & imitate her screech & laugh. she laughs & screeches again. after 10 or maybe a dozen times she's finally coaxed into giving up the item. but then must have an equally enticing object around her. see, parenting low.)