Thursday, October 13, 2011

Peanut Butter, Packaging, and Pushing

As a mom, the letter -- or word -- "p" is a common part of my vocabulary. I don't know how many times a day I say, "pee-pee"...

Does anyone have to go pee-pee?

Big girls go pee-pee on the potty.

We don't want to go pee-pee in our pants. That's yucky!

Where do we go pee-pee?

Yay! I'm so proud of you for going pee-pee on the potty like a big girl.

Be sure to tell me if you have to go pee-pee.

I'm going to go pee-pee on the potty. (Yes, I even announce when I am going to the bathroom these days.)

Thankfully, this blog post has absolutely nothing to do with pee-pee though! It just happens to be about three things that start with the letter "p" and I thought it was quite appropriate since I use the letter/word so often.

The first "p" is peanut butter, one of my favorite "p" words. Well, it's actually one of my favorite things of all time, if we're being honest. I like peanut butter so much, I think it should be in a food group all of its own. I can eat peanut butter by the spoonful. You can make peanut butter and honey sandwiches (I prefer honey over jelly). Apples, and bananas, are great with peanut butter. Peanut butter smoothies are amazing!

Thankfully, Coralyn is not allergic to the best food on earth. In fact, she is a girl after my own heart and enjoys peanut butter very much! Almost every morning (and every afternoon for a snack) she asks for bread with peanut butter for breakfast. If we are having muffins, no matter what kind, she wants peanut butter on top. Pancakes, even blueberry ones, aren't complete unless they are topped with peanut butter. And not just a little bit either. Oh no, she has to have "A LOT," as she motions with her hands just how much peanut butter she needs.

I don't mind giving Coralyn peanut butter. I figure it's a good source of protein and much healthier than other foods she could be asking to have. And so every day, usually more than once, we get out the jar of peanut butter. This morning was no different. Breakfast was vanilla yogurt, blueberries, and a slice of bread topped with peanut butter. Coralyn was eating away contentedly until the peanut buttery bread kept getting stuck to the top of her mouth. At least 5 times I had to reach into her mouth and gently remove the sticky mess. And so, this morning, for the first time in my entire life, I was not that happy about peanut butter.

I quickly got over my frustration, however. Coralyn just had a mini corn bread muffin for her afternoon snack. And of course it was topped with peanut butter! :)

The second "p" word is packaging. I am talking specifically about the packaging of children's toys. After helping Coralyn open several of her birthday toys, I have come to the conclusion that children's toy makers are not parents themselves. Otherwise they wouldn't make removing a toy from its package so extremely difficult! I think it took me at least 5 minutes to get Ariel (and then Cinderella this morning) out of her box. Coralyn was patient for the first 30 seconds or so, but having to wait to play with such an amazing toy...how can you expect that of a 2-year old? :) Of course as soon as Ariel and Cinderella were free from their boxes, Coralyn was handing me a box with not 1, but 3, trucks. She desperately needed them, right then! And so I began working on getting the trucks out of their box. 10 minutes later I had opened the box, unwound the plastic ties around each and every truck, lifted the trucks out of the box, then cut the previously mentioned plastic ties so that I could unwind them from the tires, and finally handed Coralyn her new toys. I could have been able to finish the project in 8 minutes or less, if I hadn't had 3 precious kiddos waiting eagerly and standing as close to me as physically possible while I did my best to free the trucks from their plastic bondage.

The third and final "p" word is pushing. Unfortunately, we are having to deal with this bad behavior. And pulling too. I know they both come along with being 2 and learning how to communicate what you are feeling with words rather than just pushing or pulling, or screaming, to get your point across. Coralyn has been struggling with this more frequently the past couple of days, and so we are working diligently on learning how to respond when someone does something you don't like, how to share toys, what to do if someone is in your way, and other various scenarios. We are memorizing (kid version), "Be kind and compassionate to one another..." We discuss how pushing and pulling make Jesus sad because He wants us to love others and treat them nicely. He doesn't like when we are mean. Time out and saying "sorry" are becoming all too common. BUT, we are working on it, and making progress. At least I thought so...

I was quite embarrassed to find out Coralyn was sent to time out multiple times in the church nursery last night during our Bible study time. And not only that, she decided that a great way to "get back" at the workers for disciplining her was to pee her pants. Which brings us back to "p" word number 1. :)

Speaking of which, I had better take Coralyn to the potty to go pee-pee right now :)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive