Silent Sunday- Bowler Boy

Terrible Two Tantrums: Take 2

Can I interest you in a video of my screaming toddler?





So how was that for a tantrum huh? This is the tantrum I was talking about in yesterdays post. We we're at the mall doing a little shopping and waiting for the oil to be changed at the auto shop and decided to let Phoenix play at the malls play place.


This place is new on my radar and I take Phoenix about once a week and let him run around until he passes out. Great and FREE fun.


So on the way to the play area he stops mid walk and won't move. Shawn and I are pleading with him to walk and he just stands there with his arms folded and furrows his brow. I try to go up and get him and he starts jumping back from me screaming "No! No!" I finally grab him strap him down in his stroller and start moving. Of course he's still screaming and the older lady in Hallmark says to me "Don't worry. They always stop." and I shake my head knowingly. 


We manage to make it to the play area and you see what happens on the video.


Did you hear the little boy ask me why my baby was screaming? Sheesh!


Oh yeah and in case you're wondering....we did enter the mall with two shoes. But he kicked off one in the middle of his tirade and refused to let me put it back on. This is like the last 2 minutes of the tantrum. It went on for a good 5 minutes.


When he first started hitting that "in to everything" phase at about 8 mths I of course got embarrassed easily in public when he would start throwing a fit. But then I became immune to it and realized that any other mother has to sympathize with what I'm dealing with. This was true until yesterday.


While he's throwing this fit there are about 3 or 4 other mothers in the area and most are looking at me with that "I've been there" look. But once I was able to get him out of his stroller he starts going to the entrance way and trying to back out. "Phoenix. No. Come back." still backing up. Seriously. He backs up one little step at a time. "Phoenix. Mommy said no." and he's just standing there. This one mother has judgement written all over her face and she's looking at me then back him. Looking at me, then back at him. 


I'm just sitting there. Shawn's just sitting there. What. Do. We. DO!? If we go and get him he's going to lose his, you know what. If we just sit there we're giving in to him. 


I finally decide to scoop him up and get out of there. Of course he starts screaming and kicking me. And while trying to buckle him in the stroller flips backwards. 


It was a nightmare in Toddler Town.


Then to top it off Shawn and I start a stupid argument. It was so stressful that I literally just walked out of the mall in a daze over the whole thing.


I can admit that in my pre-baby days I would judge other mothers who had screaming toddlers. Now in my defense I wasn't used to that. My mother always (honest) had a good hold on us in public and I can't remember very many meltdowns in public from my younger siblings. Now maybe with me and my sister we would have that, but I'm sure by child number 3 she knew what needed to be done. So when I would see toddlers and pre-schoolers hitting their parents in public and acting like a crazy person I would always be like "My kid will never act like that".......Pay back is a.....


But I am still determined not to have my son act like that in public. I love my son more then anything in the world. I mean it. My heart breaks when he hurts and swells with pride when people come tell me how cute or intelligent he is. I love everything about him. But I refuse to be controlled by a toddler. I refuse to eat at home every single night because he can't handle restaurants. It.will.not.happen.


I talked to my mom and got a few tips on how to help stop these attacks in public, but I'm still at a lost (because he did it AGAIN today!)


It's like he went to bed Monday night happy and nice and woke up Tuesday with a gun in his waist band itching for a fight.


The other sucky part is for whatever these tantrums -where when you go to touch him he kind of snaps at you like a dog-are only directed at ME! I don't get it. It puzzles me and as you can imagine makes me feel very, very, very, very sad.


But as much as these tantrums frustrate me I can't help but think that even when he's acting like a little stink he is the cutest thing walking.


How do you handle tantrums? The ones at home don't bother me so much because I have no problem ignoring him or putting him on the couch for time out. But in public thats a little bit harder. My mom suggested I to start getting him used to the "look" and "voice" here at home so when I do it in public he knows I'm not kidding.


What have you done to cut down on tantrums  in public or how do you deal when they happen?


And if you haven't already please don't forget to enter into the Slob Proof Your Home Giveaway!


Happy Tantruming (uh, is that a word?) Toddler Hood.

Terrible Two Tantrums: Take 1

This morning I woke up to a smiling, beautiful, happy and intelligent 18 mth. An adorable little lad who answers my question of "How are you doing?" with a "Gooooood" and we happily bounce downstairs to grab some "juuuuus" and breakfast. 


While I'm getting the juice he opens the fridge and decides he wants sour cream for breakfast. Yes, you heard me right he pulled the sour cream out and while tapping the container said "Eat! Eat! Eat!"


Ma: No baby thats yucky, here drink your juice. 


Phoenix: EAT! EAT! No! Eat!


Ma: Phoenix mommy said no. Want a waffle?


Phoenix: No! No way! Noooaaaahhhh!


Ma: Phoenix want a cookie (yeah so I'll give my kid an oreo at 8 am. don't you?)


Phoenix: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!


Ma: Phoenix tell mommy want you want. Want some pears? Here go sit at your table.


At this point he is screaming bloody murder (I had managed to sneak the sour cream away) and throwing himself on the floor.


I manage to get him over to his table where he put his hands on his nose and just stands there. 

Some how he snapped out of it and I managed to get him in front of Oso with a juice box, 2 oreos, a waffle and pears. Balanced breakfast huh?


After he was calm and thanking me for getting him breakfast I sat and watched this sweet sweet boy and realized that we had just opened Pandora's box....and inside was the terrible, terrible, twos. 


I'm scared.....


But this wasn't even the beginning of what ended up being probably the most embarrassing afternoon of my mom life (minus the time my Dad exposed my after-birth photos)


Here is just a tiny sneak peak of what I dealt with this afternoon.

The full story and audio and video-Oh yes you heard me. I video taped my kids tantrum today- to follow tomorrow.


P.S. Check out the giveaway. I'm sure crunched up cheerios and apple juice stains are prevalent at your abode just like mine.

Fashion Roulette- Mom

Have you checked out the giveaway this week? Go enter! If your a mom or married (and certainly if your both) you NEED THIS BOOK.


 I know this month it has been a lot of giveaways, don't worry I'm not going to turn into one of those blogs  that only does a bunch of reviews and stuff. This is still a blog run by a mom and for the moms (or whomever). LOL.

Ok so I really want to start doing outfit/fashion related post more often. I did this one last week and today will kick off another feature Fashion Roulette featuring some of favorite outfits for both me AND Phoenix (and maybe throw Dad in there every once in awhile)! I want to debunk both of those myths that 1. Say once you pop that kid out of you your destined to a life of mom jeans and clogs and 2. That its not fun dressing a boy. So not true! You just have to be creative!




What I'm wearing:


Button down flannel plaid shirt from (Target)
Long boyfriend style tshirt with white tank underneath (to help conceal the twins) (Charlotte Russe)
Boot cut jeans (Old Navy-Sweetheart cut) 
Flat suede boots
Big flower headband (H&M)

Let's pay nooooo attention to the straggling wires. Ya know we're moving and all.

Here is my new hair color. You likey?

Want to put together a similar outfit?

Plaid Boyfriend shirt (Target)

V-neck pocket tee (Gap)

Jessica Simpson boots (Macys)

Ditsy Floral headband (Forever21) and yes I love this print with the print of the shirt. I can't express how much I love mixing patterns and prints!

Hope you liked it! I promise some post will be more exciting then this. Maybe not all the time. But every once in awhile I put on a bit more "ritz" then normal. Usually Friday night date night.


But hopefully it'll inspire you to do what I love the most and what my husband hates...SHOP MORE!

Silent Sunday- Reading begins early

Slob Proof Your House Giveaway! (CLOSED!!!)

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for entering. Click here to see if you won. 






Right now in about 2-3 weeks time I won't really know exactly where I'll be living, ok I know, but I don't know for how long. I don't know if I'll be on the East coast or West. Hotel or house. (to get the full story click here) So for me to be doing a post on decorating might be kind of silly, but maybe not because you all still have places to live so you need to get decorating right? 

And besides when I finally do figure out where I'm going and for how long I'll need to decorate.


Now I figure most of you who read my blog are probably like me. You've got one (or maybe more than one) messy toddler or kid at home and a equally (if not worse) messy husband and probably a pet or two. But that doesn't mean you want to sacrifice a chic and fabulous looking home for a sloppy run down mess right?


You need real decorating tips, real organization tips, and fast and easy clean-up ideas to make your house a home. To make it look lived in, but loved right?

Enter Debbie Wiener. I was contacted by Debbie a few weeks ago to do a review of her book and giveaway and of course I jumped on the chance! I would love to learn how to pick a sofa that shows less stains and pick perfect accessories that compliments the Tickle Me Elmo in the corner.

Debbie is a "strong advocate for the cleaning-impaired and decorating challenged". She is a full service interior designer with her own firm (Designing Solution in Silver Spring, MD - all you locals call her up!) 


She specializes in not creating beautiful showroom style houses (although I'm sure she can she was the winner of 2009 Best of the Best Bethesda Magazine) but designs for how we really  live. Sloppy. 

In her book she'll teach you things like how to keep bathroom floors "spot" free even with boys (SIGN ME UP!) and how good lighting can make "even the modest rooms look impressive".


She'll help you choose sofas, chairs, rugs, curtains and paint that will hold up to the everyday life of toddlers, husbands, teens and pets!


Debbie is so generously giving away her book Slob Proof Real-life Design Solutions to one of my lucky readers! 


The giveaway starts today and will run until March 4th and the winner will be determined by Random.org


To enter:

• Leave a comment with your email address (super important)

For additional entries please leave a comment for each one (and please include your email address in each comment)

• Become a NEW follower of Before The Baby Wakes
• Twitter about the giveaway (and include link in comment)
• Blog about the giveaway (and link back with the post)
• Put my button (located on left side-bar) on your blog (and include link in comment)
• Become a fan of Debbie's on Facebook

Good luck! And if you need expert design help now contact Debbie via her website or head on over to Amazon and order her book!

You can lead a toddler to the table...

But you can't make them eat...

When you have a baby you constantly worry if they are getting enough food. For me especially this was always on my mind. If you want to know the whole story you can find out about our challenges with nursing and weight gain here and here and here.

Now that Phoenix is a toddler that worry is even more prevenlent in my mind. He's a rambunctious toddler who never, ever, ever stops moving. Even in his sleep he is literally ALL OVER THE PLACE. So I worry he is burning more calories then he's taking in.

He'll go through periods where he'll eat really well. Al three meals and tons of snacks. And then as soon as it starts it stops and he's back to eating nothing for what seems like weeks (but in reality is probably only 3 days at most). 

I learned last week that part of the problem at dinner was he wanted our plate and utensils and prefers sitting at his table or in the booster at the big table instead of the highchair. Not even the toddler kind. So now he gets a small glass salad plate and a real fork (the small kind) and surprisingly he's pretty coordinated and we have had no problems with it.

I was just complaining to my mom last week that he went the entire week barely touching any of his meals. It was the week of the mah-jay snow storm all he choosing to consume was Cheez its. It got me thinking that maybe I should start buying like all the nasty organic cardboard tasting snacks since that's all he seemed to want to eat.

But would you know that Valentine night when we went on our family dinner date he ate his entire plate of chicken fingers and french fries. And in fact when his plate came he started exclaiming "Wow! 

Wow! Oh Wow!"

Blackberry Disney Channel TV shows saves this night out!

And then last night when I thought it might have been a fluke he whined to get out of his seat and carried his plate of quesadillas and juice into the living room to watch his choo-choo movie.

I normally wouldn't condone TV/Dinner watching like that at such a young age (although sometimes we do have dinner &  movie night) but he ate the entire plate so whatever it takes!

Do you have problems getting your toddler to eat? How do you delicately "force feed" them?

Silent Sunday- Happy Valentines Day

10 fun things to do with your husband

In celebration of Valentines Day I wanted to post some fun and cute things to do with your husband I found in January's issue of Cosmo.


Now don't go judging me. I don't subscribe to this magazine nor do I buy it in the store. I learned a while ago that Cosmo was kind of lame and recycled their sex tips all the time.


But I was at the hairdressers last month getting my hair colored (I need to post a picture) and read it and ripped out the section of like "50 ways to have fun with your guy".


Some were racier then I'd like to put here on my blog (considering my mom, grandma and mother-in-law read this) but my favs were G-rated.


Sometimes with the stress of parenting and household things my marriage can get stuck in a rut. It's fun to switch it up with new things every once in awhile.

1. Tune into a Travel Channel special one night and make a theme dinner to match.


2. Try to out-cheese each other with funny love notes, like "Some bunny loves you."


3. Use Rock,Paper, Scissors to decide pressing arguments like what to watch on TV.


4. Have cocktail night once a month, and try new recipes. We do something similar where we have like appetizers for dinner (or sometimes just cupcakes) these pot stickers are my fav and are very easy.


5. Make up aliases, and stick with them all night.


6. Bake his favorite childhood treat (ask his mom for the recipe)


7. Pick ridiculous ringtones for each other.


8. Make up stories about other people while waiting in line. (We do this)


9. Look at pricey real estate ads, and debate which property you'd "buy" (We actually just started doing this, because us buying a house is very, very close to happening soon!)


10. Try to throw as many cliched song lyrics into your conversation as possible, like "You are the wind beneath my wings."


Have fun!

Rip roaring winter boredom

How are you North Easterners doing with the snow? We're dying over here of pure boredom and sleeping on the couch (I'll explain in a minute). 


The snow finally died down yesterday evening but all night long we experience rip-roaring winds that sent the snow flying everywhere creating 10 FT snow drifts here in Frederick County. 

While watching the news (Which was on all day. And they interrupted my All My Children & General Hospital for it.) they start running stories about peoples roofs collapsing.


So what does my husband say at 11 as we climb in bed? "I think we should sleep down stairs...ya know...in case the roof caves in"


It's not like we live in house thats 30 plus years old with a decaying roof! It was built in 2006! I think we'll be fine.


But these death daggers is what sent him over the edge.

This is also the same man who has explained to me how I need to get in the refrigerator if there's ever a chemical weapons attack. 


::shakes head at my paranoid husband::


The sun finally came out today (and it was pretty warm I might add) but there was NO slow plow in sight so our over zealous neighbors dug out the entire cul-de-sac. Shawn and I just managed to dig out our steps and then we went in.

Yes we are using a boot leg plastic shovel. 

Never "upgraded" after this emergency purchase in December following our first blizzard. 

I am so ready to "wash" myself of winter and bring in spring!