Tonight was one of the not-so-great parenting nights. There is a Noodles and Company by us opening in a few days and we were invited to enjoy a preview dinner. For FREE! Win! N&C is one of H's favorite restaurants so we were pretty psyched. 

Cue a certain little girl who decided not to take a nap at daycare. 

As we entered the restaurant someone gave Ruby a ginormous Rice Krispie bar. I took it away from her, stuck it in my bag and told her she could have some after dinner. Two seconds later, when I was distracted by ordering food, she snuck the bar out of the bag and started opening it. I took it away from her which caused her to throw herself to the floor and start screaming her head off. I picked her up, spanked her (as best you can when attempting to hold a screaming, wriggly toddler on your hips, exposing your stomach all the while. Thanks for that one, Rubes). 

At the table she calmed down a bit but was no less intent on her goal of consuming the rice krispie bar. She was mildly distracted by the arrival of our pasta and ate a few bites after we again told her she could have the bar after she ate. Of course, to her eating two measly bites is eating a full meal, thus entitling her to eat the rice krispie bar. We pressed her to eat just a bit more and she completely melted down. We tried to talk to her and get her to calm down but that didn't worked so H carried her out of the (very, very crowded) restaurant kicking and screaming. I flagged down a server to get to-go containers. 

Of course when your kid is screaming at the top of their lungs in a packed restaurant (I'm talking the line to order was out the door) it seemed like it took H like ten minutes to get her the hell out of there. I was totally mortified and practically in tears. On my way out of the restaurants a woman in line for drinks patted me on the shoulder and told me, "Don't worry, it'll be okay" and gave me a sympathetic smile.  (I love people like this, btw) I thought I was doing a somewhat decent job at hiding the fact that I was upset but apparently not. 

As soon as I got into the car I burst into tears. I was just SO frustrated with the situation. Frustrated that she behaved the way that she did, frustrated that we couldn't get the situation under control, and dangit, totally friggin' frustrated that I just couldn't enjoy a dang meal isthatsomuchtoask! I know I shouldn't be so hard on myself. Realistically I am sure that a good chunk of my fellow diners have or have had kids and have been in the same boat before and are at least somewhat sympathetic or ate least more tolerant of those kinds of things. I just don't want to be the parent of THAT child or be one of THOSE parents who let their kids scream and scream and scream in public. 

So on the way home Ruby's in the back screaming (still) and I'm in the front sobbing. Poor Heath. He asked if there was anything that he could do but I just kind of shrugged. I hatehatehate doubting everything that we do with her when it comes to discipline. I just don't know if what we are doing is the right thing for the situation at hand or perhaps we are being too lenient but then I don't want to be too much of a hard ass either. Or I don't know if the punishment that we are doling out fits the crime or if it's totally pointless because she doesn't remember what she did/isn't developmentally able to understand what is going on. And I know you are supposed to be consistent but there are some days when I feel like I am sending her to her room every 5 minutes for one offense or the other, sometimes the exact same offense! ARGH!!! 

In the end we got home and put her immediately to bed after we had a talk with her. I know it wasn't pointless to have the conversation with her, even though I am sure that she'll forget everything we said. It'll stick eventually, right?? Please, for the luvva God, tell me that it will stick.

You know what she won't forget about though? That gd rice krispie bar. 

**the next morning I opened her door to find her naked and trying to get dressed. She looked at me and smiled and then asked, "Where's my treat??" Uh huh.**

Once again it's been so long since I've posted that a post of random topics seems the best way for me to catch up: 

• Ruby is in a new daycare now. Switching has been a lot more emotional for me than I thought it would. I cried a lot on her last day at old daycare. Her, not at all. I was sad for her because she was leaving her friends, several of which I'd consider to be her BFF's (they hug each other goodbye, say "I love you" to each other, talks about them constantly when outside of daycare).     Transition to new daycare has been going okay. She doesn't want me to leave in the morning and often asks, "Can you chill with me for a little bit?" The teachers say that she's doing great for being so new which is about what I expected. This daycare costs more-which sucks-but there are benefits for me as well. Online bill pay! No waiting at the front door for someone to let us in! (sometimes it's the little things)
• My brothers, mother, and unofficial sister-in-law were here last week for a visit. They were hoping for an escape from the crazy cold on Minnesota but sadly (for all involved) it ended up being pretty cold down here as well. As per the usual the few days they were here were spent running around like crazy nuts trying to accomplish a bunch of stuff in little time. I was off all week from work and when they left Thursday am I took that day off to recover from the craziness. 
• We chopped off Ruby's hair. Like pixie cut chopped off. I had wanted to do this the last time we cut her hair but H wasn't on board. He actually suggested the pixie cut this time around though. We mentioned to Ruby that we were going to cut her hair "like daddy's" (not the best comparison, I know) and she didn't seem to care so we went with it. I was freaking a bit as the hair fell to the floor at the salon but when all was said and done I LOVED it. Much better than her old Christopher Lloyd-esque hair before. It is SO much easier to deal with in the morning. That may or may not have been my motivation for the cut in the first place...

I know, I know, you are probably so OVER all of the new years posts. Tough nuts. Here is one more :) Looking back these were my hopes for 2013 and how things turned out:  

Being nicer to myself. Stop eating crap, exercise, drink more water, eat more fruits and veggies, etc. 

Well, that didn't work out so well for me did it? In fact, I gained more weight this year than I'm willing to admit, putting me at my heaviest weight ever. So, so grateful for being tall and hiding it fairly well. 

Simplify, simplify, simplify. Maybe I'll hire someone to mow our lawn this year, just to take something off of my plate. 

Yep. Didn't hire anyone to mow my lawn and I barely mowed it myself, leading to one helluva jungle in the backyard. It took me quite a few hours to get the back all cleared out towards the end of October. (in case you're wondering, H is allergic to grass and to the outdoors in general)

Spending more time with friends. Girls night has gone the way of the dodo and I miss seeing my friends! 

Didn't do to well on this either. I did get to welcome my friend Kelly back from NC though. 

Push myself when it comes to my art...even though I want to climb into a hole and never come out. I plan on entering a few art fairs and shows.


I did fairly well with this actually. Win! I entered and was accepted into the Woodland Art Fair. It was awesome. I was also accepted for exhibition in a show in Maryland. 

Vacation. No definite plans yet but we are looking at spending some time in Dublin in late 2013. Heath and I haven't been on vacation since Florida right before Ruby was born so I think it's about time. 

Sadly, a couple unplanned surgeries for H and unexpected kitty cancer (which resulted in the loss of our Oliver) meant that our savings account was basically demolished, canceling any plans we had for a trip to Europe. We did however, get to go to Asheville, N.C. in October while Ruby played with her grandparents in Pigeon Forge. It was a great trip and I'm so grateful for the chance to get away. 

So what's up 2014? 

Get my shit together. Hmmm. I guess I should break that down a bit, that is pretty vast…

Okay.

Eat out less. There are way too many fast food bags clogging up my garbage can right now. It's really quite embarrasing. I care mainly because of the bad eating habits that Ruby is surely developing right now. I should probably cut myself some slack considering that December was Plague Month but still. 

Gym. More. ASAP. I just renewed our membership so there are no excuses…other than the usual. I especially would like to do more yoga and swimming. 

More Art. After Woodland time in the studio pretty much flatlined. I've been in the studio a couple of times but very, very sporadically and not enough time to really get the chance to play and come up with new things. Probably the biggest thing I'd like to do this year is make myself a studio at home. 

On the advise of another artist I plan on applying to the Crafty Supermarket in Cincinnati. I'm also one of 9 artists participating in our local CSA(rt) program. Both of those events are in April so the year is wide open after that.

FInd Balance. I started typing something but ended up with an entire posts worth. So more on that soon!

Enjoy Ruby more. It's not that I don't enjoy her but I could definitely spend more and better quality time with her. Lately I feel like all she does is whine, whine, WHINE and it drives me crazy. Plus, she isn't a great listener. Therefore I feel like most of the time I am with her I am incredibly frustrated with her and just generally annoyed. One particularly bad night H made a comment to the effect of "I can't believe you are so patient with her" I've never considered myself to be very patient with her so that kind of blew me away. Honestly, I think I'd gotten to the point past anger to where you have no other choice to be patient otherwise things would just go down hill super, super fast. Anyway. I just need to focus on the fact that she is still super funny and adorable and try to work past those other times in a more productive way. 

Less social media. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this but I have felt a lot envy when perusing Facebook and Instagram lately. People on sweet vacations in warm places, eating at trendy restaurants, or just people doing things without having to worry about getting a babysitter. I don't usually feel like this and I don't like the fact that I was so I have cut back a lot on Facebook and haven't been on Instagram in about a month. I still read blogs and I would still like to continue writing on this one but I need to take a step back for a while. 



I'd ask what your plans were for the new year but chances are I've already read your blog posts :)