There are 4 of us. I am married to CR, Little Bit is our 3 yr old daughter and ET our almost 6 month old son. CR likes to have fun, he is the free spirit. I am the nerd. CR and I are small business owners. He does home repairs and I spend all the money...I mean, I am the Office manager :) Little bit is our monkey. I often find her hanging from the top shelf yelling "Look at me, Mommy!" ET is starting to show more personality. He laughs a lot and lights up every time he sees Little Bit. She still doesn't realize it's because of her that he is laughing. I usually have to tell her; then she will acknowledge him and he giggles and giggles at her. I love to watch them interact. My daughter is not quite used to NOT getting all the attention yet. Often she will wait until she knows where I am going to put ET next, then goes and sits there. I am irritated at this point. I tell her to move. Usually she complies but only after she's given me a dirty look. I guess eventually she will get used to the arrangement. Sometimes I know she does things just to get a rise out of me. She was in the walker the other day, looked right at me waited for my reaction. I didn't give her one. It lost its appeal and she got out and found another way to entertain herself.

We taught her to say Excuse me when we are talking and she has something important to say. I wish I never had. Without fail, every night at dinner while CR and I are trying to go over the events of the day and plan out what we need to do with our evening, she uses it incessantly. Last night she used it, the said "When it's your birthday can I open your card from Great Mimi because I think it has money in it?" I guess she doesn't know what important means yet. Should I teach her that children are to be seen and not heard? I don't see that going over too well with her. I think it would just quench her spirit. I am so frustrated by the end of the day with her incessant questions (the same ones over and over) the never ending "Mommy watch this'" and "Come play outside with me" that I just want her to go to bed without a big fight. Unfortunately, I think we are going to have to go back to ignoring her if she gets up after we put her down. Seems like it was the only thing that worked when we had this same problem a few months ago.

I was super frustrated two nights ago going over how I can't get anything done during the day because I use all my free time to play with the kids, feed them and clean the kitchen for the next meal. I have finally realized that if I try to get any housework done while Little Bit is awake, it is fruitless. She makes a mess in other places and only acts out more if she feels she isn't getting enough attention. Anyhow, my loving and all knowing CR suggested I make a schedule and stick to it. I have used Fly Lady's techniques in the past (search Yahoo groups) and had great success. Laziness got me out of the habit. I dug up my control journal and for the past two days am happy to report that I am "flying again" (simply put, doing everything I need to do on a regular basis and having an organized check system to accomplish it.) It's a great feeling, you can't imagine the difference it makes to go to bed with a shiny sink! My control journal has as part of my bedtime routine to shine my sink and sweep the kitchen floor. Because I did both of these, I was able to give ET a bath in the sink first thing yesterday morning and when he grabbed the box of cookies at dinner and threw them on the floor, it wasn't a big deal because I had swept it the night before. We picked them up and at them anyways. I little dirt never killed anyone.