What's that about the 7th time?

Before I forget, is anyone's kids on Floradix? When mine went for their 21-month appt, Dr S said they were looking a bit pale and to give iron supplements!

We started giving them Ferrimed and then I decluttered my medicines (in a burst of productivity on the Easter weekend) and found two unexpired bottles of Floradix (liquid iron).

They are 10 ml bottles and the dosage instructions say to take 10 ml before morning and evening meals which is obviously crazy.

I gave them each 1 ml but does anyone know what the correct dosage is?

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Today was the 7th time the babies went to children's church and finally, the first time I didn't worry one tiny little bit.

Afterwards I was so anxious to see them and when we went up to the classroom, we peeked in.

BTW, am I the only one who gets annoyed by peaks, peeks and piques all being used wrong?

Kendra was right near the door and I said, "Kendra!"

She turns around and goes, "MUMMY!" with such joy. We laughed!

Then we watched Connor for a bit where he was playing with some bigger (but still in the 12 - 24 months class) boys.

Eventually the lady on duty told him we were there.

First thing he does is he scrunches up his face like he wants to cry.

He was remembering that actually, he was sad to be left 1.5 hours earlier.

And then he ran over and I scooped him up.

I couldn't resist and spontaneously said, "Connor, you gorgeous boy! I love you so much!" and I saw a couple of the parents smiling.

D said to me afterwards that I better get it under control because I'm going to embarrass him.

Is it bad that I don't care?

He is gorgeous and I do love him! :)

So things are looking up.

We went to D's mom for lunch and the kids would not eat a single thing.

I was mortified because they're normally excellent eaters but were just not in the mood for food and she'd cooked things she knows they eat here - pasta, chicken, etc.

Then we went to drop off the camp cot at Caren's place.

Caren is looking fabulous. I could hardly believe it - she's lost so much weight and is even more gorgeous. I'm so proud of her.

And her babies? Big and beautiful.

They were gobsmacked by my two crazies running around in their space :) and didn't utter a single word the entire time.

We were saying how we couldn't believe that they are all so big and two years ago we were all just pregnant.

And now I'm freezing and my warm, electric-blanketed bed and my Sheila O'Flanagan are calling my name.

Also, I'm down to 161 posts in Google Reader.

How was your Sunday? What are you looking forward to this week?

PS Laura, the books are in the PS of my previous post.
Laura Case, I'm going to write you a lovely long email soonish... about your doubt post.

Adventures in letting go

Remember another thing on my list of 36 is to learn to let go?

Yes, well, I'm doing well in some areas (business), okay in others (things that are not good for me) and quite badly in others (babies!!!).

Fortunately, I remembered my ESTJ profile in the Motherstyles book said exactly this so I take comfort in that fact. That I'm not too weird. After all, 6% of women have this style. I just googled and it's the 2nd most common MALE style. Hmmm.


But back to the babies.

I have now "let go" four times:

1. When we took them to daycare for those 3 hours in December
2 - 4 Leaving them in the children's ministry at church

So after this post, D and I started thinking.

I will admit that I pushed a LOT.

But finally we decided that we needed to start letting the kids go to children's church so we could go to big church and enjoy the message.

I especially felt like I needed it (because I'm ministering again through those talks I'm doing) and told D that if he was uncomfortable then we'd go to the family room in the morning and I'd have to make a single trek out to the church on Sunday evenings.

I don't think he was too keen on doing the bedtime routine by himself :) so he agreed to at least try.

"What's the worse that can happen?" - this is a sentence I use quite often actually................. :)

They have now been on 6, 20 and 27 March. On 13th the kids were sick as was D.

Day 1 was actually the easiest, maybe because there was only one other toddler there.

They screamed when we left but I felt okay because there were enough workers to each console a baby.

Day 2 was worse - lots more kids and lots more screaming. The workers distracted them with their snacks....

When I got there (I'm so impatient that I leave the main auditorium before the closing prayer and RACE towards my kids), they were walking around outside. The worker told me they only calm down when they're outside. LOL

Day 3 (this Sunday) was terrible. We started walking towards the room and they started freaking out.

OH MY WORD.

But this time D was very certain and sure so I went with it.

This is what we do well - the one is always normal when the other is not. It's been this way our entire married life and is really helpful so the whole thing doesn't collapse when we go through tough times.

We left them SCREAMING Mama and Daddy but D held my hand, we said our goodbyes and that we were going to church and off we went.

I could hear those screams echoing in my mind for a long time afterward.

Eventually, after Praise and Worship, I told D to please go check on them. I know I'm a little softer with this type of thing and I'd just take them and undo the previous weeks' training.

He returned and said they were fine. He peeked through the window and they were playing (Connor) and eating (Kendra) but were fine.

After the service (but again before the official closing) I was out of there like a rocket.

I think it must be funny to see me speed out of there (especially to those who knew me pre-kids) because I'm usually a big socialiser after church.

When I collected them, Connor was himself immediately but Kendra was super-clingy and kept asking, "where's Daddy?"

Poor things.

Or poor us!

I know intellectually that they will be okay in the long run and I keep telling myself, "no-one's kids have psychological issues because they're left in children's church for 1.5 hours" but my word, it's hard to let go.

As I always do, I tried to rate myself on a scale of 1 - 10. I think I'm a 2 now. I was probably a -3 at first :)

Where are you on the letting go scale? And how do you guys do it with the daycare thing?

I really hope this is a once-off event

Today I had a hectic day at work.

I still have a long to-do list but I was proud of myself for leaving (even though I was twitching at the thought of those items. do you twitch when you have a long to-do list?) and going for a massage AND a workout with Kyle.

(I skipped Friday's session because I felt like my body was starting to get sick).

So, driving home, I was all relaxed and the good kind of sore, and I made an evening to-do list at the traffic lights.

And then I got home.

My children were SO GLAD to see me and we had some fun for a bit until they had to go sleep.

The wailing then started.

Connor screamed and screamed, "Mama, Mama, Mama".

(imagine that over and over and over again, in a little boy's voice, shrieked at a really loud volume)

(then imagine his sister also starting to cry, this time in sympathy - they love doing the twin crying thing)

I went in, picked him up, calmed him down and as I was putting him down again (my hands holding him over the cot, his feet still suspended in the air), he starts the screaming again.

D then had a bash.

And so it continued.

We left him for a bit and it would quiet for maybe 2 minutes before he started again.

Gosh, 30 minutes is long when the screaming is that intense.

I needed to cook supper, bake sweet potato muffins (new recipe) and write my newsletter so delegated the Connor-monitoring to D.

Eventually I twigged.

Maybe he keeps screaming for me because he missed me.

Yesterday I left at 12:20 (mid-day) for the photo workshop, saw them for a minute as our cars passed one another at 6:30 pm and then I had 40 minutes with them this morning before I had to go to work.

He is a quality time child so I thought, "okay, let's see if this love languages stuff works".

I broke all my rules and fetched him out of the bedroom to come sit at the kitchen table with me and chat while I finished cooking supper, packing lunch, etc. (my normal evening routine).

D was Mr Cranky Pants about this - he is even more rigid than I am sometimes - but I'd read a beautiful blog today about cherishing the moments and other such inspiring cheesy things and so I said to D, "what is the alternative to the bedtime antics ? not having a gorgeous, cuddly boy? I'll take some extra hugs and cuddles any day".

I think I convinced him. At least a little bit.

Connor then came to play with puzzles in the study while D and I had our supper (our dining room is right outside their bedroom and we didn't want his jabbering waking Kendra - we don't normally eat in the study).

Eventually at around 9, I asked him if he was ready to go sleep. He looked up with those big, brown eyes and told me he wanted milk which in Connor-speak, is "yes, please, I'm ready to go to bed now".

Another rule broken but hey, 100 ml of milk never killed anyone.

So off he went to bed with his little love tank full.

Aaaawwww.

D says it could also be a new separation anxiety thing because yesterday and today (D took the day off to recover from the long weekend!), Kendra would not let him out of her sight and apparently had some crying fits at SIL's house.

So my question to you, is there a separation anxiety thing that happens around 20 months?

PS I know I still need to blog part 3 of the love languages. It was on my list for tonight until this happened and now I'm off to bed, one hour past computer cut-off.

Crying babies

A few months ago my friend, Sasha, asked me if the kids don't cry when I leave for work.

And I said, "no, never. should they?" :)

There was a really fleeting moment when I thought, "hmm, maybe there's something wrong with them?" but mostly I thought, "thank goodness they're so secure with V".

Well, friends, that has all changed.

The last two weeks Connor has HOWLED when I leave.

Usually they're playing near the door anyway and I say "bye", Kendra waves, Connor ignores me and I leave.

These days Connor starts crying like his whole life has just ended.

I didn't realise how bad it was because V didn't tell me but on Saturday, I went to a women's conference at our church and D looked after the babies in the morning.

When I got there I phoned D (I always do that because I am very good at getting lost) and he told me that Connor WAILED for 5 minutes non-stop after I left.

!

Well, I got home at about 3 and after playing with the babies, I wanted to dash out quickly to return some things so I took Connor to V and told her I wasn't going to say "bye" but would just leave quietly.

So Connor was fine.

Kendra, on the other hand, was playing in the sunroom. I pulled the security gate closed and the two of us played kissing games through the security bars.

Eventually I said "bye" and got in my car to leave.

Complete meltdown, this time by Kendra.

Oh my word.

Looks like this is the new thing because this morning the same thing happened.

I started reversing my car down the driveway and both of them held onto the security gates, WAILING!

They are making it very hard to leave.

Do you have this going on? How do you deal with it? Does it help to kiss and hug a lot before or does it make it worse?