FYI

Sonogram today - it's a girl.

A Plea

I object to modern maternity wear. Let's be honest folks. There is only a very, very small percentage of the female population who looks close to normal as a pregnant person. There are those who carry babies very inconspicuously and wear their normal clothes the whole pregnancy, perhaps fastening their jeans with a ponytail elastic through the button hole rather than actually buttoning them as their only concession to gaining any bulk. For these people, maternity wear on the tight side is passable. For the rest of the common hoard, my plea is, please don't wear tight maternity clothes. I especially am appalled to see all of the women at church in skin tight lycra shirts with a huge belly. I have no desire to see the outline of your belly button. As church members, we're not supposed to wear skin tight clothes normally, so why oh why would this rule be suspended in case of pregnancy? Come on people, not even Heidi Klum can pull off the tight maternity look. It looks ridiculous.

You Want a Cheese Stick? You'll Need a Password

I never thought I'd be one of those moms. The ones that padlock the refrigerator and have a monitored alarm system on the pantry. The problem is, or at least one of the problems is, that I compare the behavior of my children to that of myself and my siblings. And it doesn't really match up. Sure, we raided my mom's stash of candy sometimes. However, we never tore open a bag of chocolate chips with our teeth, causing them all to fly hither and yon throughout the kitchen, and then stuffed handfuls of them into our mouths as if those chocolate chips were the first nourishment we'd seen in days.

Obviously, there is a big difference here in my own experiences as a child and those of my children. I was accompanied through my childhood by a sister four years older than me and a brother eight years older than me. There isn't much a two year old thinks to do that a six year old doesn't already know is a bad idea. Also, my mom was only dealing with one toddler at a time.

My kids are each a part of the Three Toddler Musketeers - All For One and All For Messes. They seem to encourage one another to new heights of toddler creativity - primarily concerning food. This is so strange to me, because it's not as if my kids don't eat. They get three meals a day. They get AT LEAST two snacks a day. I'm not opposed to treats - they all get their share of candy, popsicles, and high-calorie baked goods. I just don't understand this all-consuming quest of theirs for MORE MORE MORE. Even as I speak they are plotting a plan of action to find the chocolate chips that started this whole reflection, which were duly taken out of their possession and removed to an undisclosed location. I just heard Lily say to CT "Let's be secret agents and find those chocolate chips". Maybe that's why they do it - knowing I will take it away and then they can turn it into an elaborate sleuthing adventure to find out what I did with their spoils. In which case I guess I need to teach them how to play "Clue" at a young age.