terrible twos

Blunt Moms is Sharing My Terrible Twos Woes

December 5, 2014 by amushro

Now I am fully aware that this face is adorable. Like so adorable it’s a wonder I can control myself to not eat those adorable cheeks. The struggle is real, people.

But even though we are approaching the three and a half mark, the memories of the “terrible twos” STILL haunts me. *shivers in fear* Even though her tantrums have somewhat subsided, she makes sure her opinions are heard with So. Much. Sass. Seriously, I have no idea what the teenage years have in store for us, but it ain’t good, I tell you that.

I really love the ladies over at Blunt Moms and I am thrilled that they ran my “Terrible Twos Aren’t So Bad and Other Lies I Tell Myself” post. So if you are a terrible twos survivor or you are knee deep in tantrums, head over and give it a read and share your expedience! We can all get through these tantrums together!

Easing the Parenting Power Struggle with MomAssembly

July 31, 2014 by amushro

Here are a few things I know about my three-year-old daughter:

1. The type of day she will have can be judged by how crazy her hair is when she wakes up in the morning. For instance, if I see this mop, I know it’s going to be a rough day…for everyone:

2. She has been described as a “free spirit” in dance class (read: has no need for the dance teacher and makes up her own dances). And while she isn’t the best listener when she should be tap, tap, perching, she makes a tutu look good:

3. When it comes to standoffs with her, they are often epic, one sided, and hard fought. I’m talking full on, code red, hide yo’ wife, hide yo’ kids meltdowns. And even though I pull out my Mommy-bag-o’-tricks, she can break me by 9AM. And while I thought age two brought some interesting “quirks”, I was not fully prepared for the tantrums of a three year old.

Most days I can handle the tantrums, and I’ve learned what does and doesn’t work for her

Stern Mommy voice works.
Idle threats do not.
Bribary works sometimes but the spoils must be worth her while.
Negotiating is worthless
Tantrums are always worse when she is tired or we have to get out the door in hurry

Because we all want a happier house, I’m learning that the best offense is a good defense. So I’m looking for ways to make life in this house a little more peaceful.

There is no doubt in my mind it that it truly takes a village to raise a baby; however, I really think that village is for us as moms, not just our kids. So I’m so glad to have found MomAssembly and to have them as part of my village.

We’ve all been to tons of parenting websites, right? And I’m sure your searches were the same as mine: some good info, some bad info, some REALLY bad info, and lots information from people that have no idea what they’re talking about. However, at MomAssembly, I have access to over 70 hours of expert parenting videos taught by nationally-renowned experts. When I was checking out the videos on preschoolers, the newborn and infant videos covered so many topics like sleep solutions and feedings that would have been really helpful when I was a new mom. They even have videos just about our health and well being, because if no on takes care of mom, this ship is going down!

Because my house is a madhouse, I can watch videos on my computer, notebook, or my phone and can switch back and forth because the video player always starts where I left off, not matter what device I’m using. Don’t you just love when technology just makes your life easier?

When I saw a course called Parenting Without Power Struggles: Raising Children Without Bribes, Threats, and Negotiations or Meltdowns, I assumed they created this course just for me. Turns out, lots of moms are in the same boat. I LOVE the ideas I’ve learned in this course and already it’s making a difference in how we deal with tantrums. Here is a clip from part of the course:

The ladies behind MomAssembly have really created something special here, friends. Jill Spivack and Jennifer Waldburger have nearly two decades of experience as family and parent educators. They are the co-founders of Sleepy Planet Parenting in Los Angeles, where they offer guidance, support and community to help moms address the entire constellation of parenting interests, including everything from sleep, feeding, and child development to sibling issues, marriage and refining one’s individual parenting philosophy

So listen, mom, join this village and let MomAssembly help you. For only $7.99/month or $3.99/month the whole year, you’ll have over 500 classes and over 50 downloadable handouts & workbooks at your fingertips. And you can add up to 4 family members and caregivers to your account for free. Not sure you can commit? That’s cool, because both options come with a 7 day free trial. Most videos are under 10 minutes, so take that ten minutes to hide from the kids, maybe drink your reheated coffee and get some great tips for surviving this motherhood gig.

How about trying out MomAssembly for a month for FREE? My first ten readers who sign up will get a month trial for free.

Click here to sign up

*Please note that you actually have to sign up for a plan and enter your credit card – but the card will NOT be charged until the end of your free trial. You will receive an email from Jill or Jennifer notifying you that you are the winner!*

While I was compensated for this post BELIEVE me, I can use all the help I can get raising my kids and all opinions are my own!

This is Three and a Brown Owl Animal Hopper Giveaway!

July 7, 2014 by amushro

There is a laundry list of things I get wrong when it comes to parenting: veggies at dinner…sometimes, too much iPad time, and always eating my kids’ dessert when they aren’t looking. But there is one thing I always do right, and that, friends, are birthdays. Birthdays in this house are a big deal. A BIG, BIG, BIG deal. I’m a firm believer that if your Mamma doesn’t make a huge fuss over your birthday, then who will? Now I’m not talking about some crazy party that the final bill could rival a wedding, but a day that is filled with so much joy that the birthday baby is just ready to burst with fun, love, cake, and pure birthday bliss. It’s cupcakes for breakfast, being sung the birthday song at least 25 times, and blowing out candles on a really fabulous cakes while wearing a special birthday outfit, and a party that screams “It’s My Birthday and It’s All About How Awesome I Am!” After all, this fabulous girl is three!

When my gal was nearing the end of her ~~terrible twos,~~ twos and we were looking ahead to three, it was time to start planning. One thing that I love about my fun, fearless, and fierce Little Mamma is that she loves what she loves. While she can sing every song in Frozen (just ask her and she’ll do it), her first loves are Mike and Sulley from Monster’s Inc and the Minions from Despicable Me. Three is a big birthday, so there’s no need to pick just one–so we went with all three of her favorite characters as the inspiration.

And what would a party be without a cake? When we have birthday cakes, we go for fabulous and delicious from the amazing Whitnee at Cake to Crumbs Bakery. She creates extraordinary and super yummy cakes every year for my kids. We didn’t have a single cupcake or piece of cake left–bummer, right? But that just shows how delicious her cakes are, and seriously, can you stand how adorable! Usually the birthday girl gets an icing flower on her piece of cake, but my gal requested Sulley’s eye–gross but fitting.

Always knowing exactly what she wants, she wants, she picked her party location at Pump it Up where kids jump for joy on six HUGE inflatable. As soon as we arrived for her party, she was off and bouncing away, but Hubby and I did get to sneak a quick picture of her

Early on in our birthday party circuit, I learned that party favors can be a bit of a waste and simply annoy the parents of the party guests. So this year I went for simple and found these adorable Sulley hats. I wasn’t sure if the kids would even like them, but couldn’t stop laughing when I saw all of the party goers eating their pizza and wearing these adorable hats. Here is my main man who worked up a sweat jumping and needed a little apple juice.

The best part of this birthday party was my birthday girl’s face the entire day. Pure Joy! She bounced her little heart out, blew out her candles on the first try, and crashed the minute she hit the car on the way home. Always a good sign of a great birthday party.

Since my gal loves to jump and bounce, she was thrilled when the nice people of Brown Owl sent her the Elephant Animal Hopper to bounce her little heart out and in celebration of my gal’s birthday, they are giving away an Animal Hopper to one of my readers!

As soon as we handed her “Rocky” the elephant, she was off and bouncing. She even started singing a little song all about “Rocky.” The toy was really easy to inflate and watching this crazy lady play proves it’s durable. Added bonus, she can even play with “Rocky” outside, and since the cover is removable and washable, we don’t have to worry that “Rocky” looks dirty and gross. What a perfect gift for a kiddo on the move!

Want one of your own? My readers will a get 15% off when buying (they are normally $39.99) by using this code: OLJFRZFJ

Click here for Rocky the Elephant or here for Carlos the Frog

Find Brown Owl Toys on Facebook too!

You can win one too! Enter here for your chance to win. The contest ends 8/10/14. Good luck!

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Terrible Twos are No Big Deal and Other Lies I Tell Myself

July 16, 2013 by amushro

We are just a few weeks into the “terrible twos” and let me tell you, friends, one of us isn’t going to make it to three. If I were you, I’d put my money on the little one.

I used to think the term “terrible two” was a gross exaggeration. Simply put, this was a term created by someone who liked alliteration and innocently wanted a funny phrase for the little ups and downs of their child’s second year of life. Come on, I already had a two year old, and we sailed through that year pretty much unscathed. Sure there were some rough patches, but all in all, two was a good year with my boy.

But those of us who mock, roll our eyes, and refuse to heed the warnings of other mothers will get a swift kick in the uterus from Mommy Karma, a testy and unforgiving biotch.

Some of the confusion may have been in the name “terrible twos.” Let me offer some more descriptive and effective terms for this stage of life. How about “Dear-God-why-is-she-screaming-again-I-think-the-windows-are-going-to-burst two. Or “Don’t-make-eye-contact-just-give-her-whatever-the-hell-she-wants-and-run two.” No? How about “If-my-husband-thinks-I-am-having-another-baby-anytime-soon-he-is-as-crazy-as-this-child-that –has-thrown-herself-on-the-floor-and-is-losing-her-shizz-right-now two”.

Every morning I hear the same little voice calling for me from her crib, “Mommy, where are you?” But I never know who I am going to get when I pop my head into her room. Sweet Mimi, sleepy Mimi, silly Mimi, grumpy Mimi, shepard for the devil Mimi. Even if you get one Mimi out of bed, there is no telling who she will be when you get downstairs. When her dad says good morning to her, any of the following can happen:

She leaps into his arms and sings a song of job to entertain her dad
She bursts into tears and yells that no one is allowed to look at her
She screams for chocolate milk and throws the cup at you if it isn’t pink, doesn’t have enough chocolate, or if you looked at her when warned not to do so
She quietly sits on the couch and watches TV
All of the above in a five-minute span

I’m exhausted and the magic light that is the age of three is so far away. I’m assuming that when she wakes up on her third birthday (in 345 days) she will be normal again, right? RIGHT?

You never know when and where she will unleash the terrible. A few days ago while at the beach, Monkey was catching a few waves with his boogie board. Mimi marched down to the water and morphed into an out of control screaming banshee. She was in full on major meltdown and I tried everything in my mommy bag of tricks—snacks, drinks, toys, a million dollars—just please stop screaming. I tried to give her another boogie board– she didn’t want it. I traded with Monkey and tried to give her his board–she didn’t want it. Turns out, she didn’t want to “boogie”; she was mad that her brother was having fun, and she, apparently being a part of the fun police, needed to put a stop to his fun.

Is there a terrible two rehab facility? Somewhere where Dr. Drew sits down with two year olds and talks them through these trying times. Now that would make an interesting reality show. Maybe this is a two part therapy and the mommies attend some sort of spa to relieve our tension or receive a lobotomy, whichever is needed most. If this sort of place doesn’t exist, I am creating one today.

Who’s coming with me?