A mother's rage

I had a good night's sleep last night. Julia slept through the night for the first night in awhile and Sydney went to bed without the usual bed time battle. Life with two kids was getting easier. I should've known better.

Before bed last night, I checked in on the girls as I always do. When I went into Sydney's room to tuck her in I thought there was a strong smell of grape chapstick, but I figured Sydney just put a little on her lips before bed. I woke up this morning well-rested and happy. I plucked up Julia from her crib and we went to Sydney's room to wake her up. Again, the chapstick smell. Dismissing it again, I smiled as I watched the girls hug each other good morning. I think to myself how nice a morning this is already. Then I pull open the curtains to let some sunlight in the room.

A dark cloud came over the Chen household as I HIT THE ROOF. SMEARED all over two panes of glass was chapstick. On top of this mess of chapstick was a picture of an apple tree that she colored in crayon. She used the chapstick as glue. That's why she was so quiet last night instead of the regular bedtime battle. I have no memory of what happened next. Thankfully Hollis took over and everyone is still alive.

All Dressed up and Refusing to Sleep

It's always a bedtime battle at our house. Every single night. We read books to Sydney, play a quiet game with her, get her one last drink of water and then leave, fully expecting her to drift off to sleep on her own while we clean the kitchen. From downstairs we typically hear: her jumping up and down on her bed; some crashing noises as she tries to pull things down from the closet, electronic sounds from her leap pad and if it's really really quiet, we start to wonder what she's up to. This is what we found on one occasion.

Julia licking her chops for more.

We went out to dinner last night at FUDDRUCKERS! It was stressful because Julia refused to eat her dinner. We tried everything from baked beans, bread, hot dog, chicken fingers, to fruit cup. We even tried to get her to drink some chocolate shake because she's still not drinking milk and at least there's *some* calcium in a shake, right? She ended up chewing half the food and spitting it out or throwing it on the floor. Exasperated and tired, we wolfed down our dinner and grabbed the free cookies that came with kids' meals to eat on the car ride home. Apparently, the cookie was a big hit with Julia. The chocolate chip cookie was as big as her face and when we pulled into the driveway there was barely a crumb left. Cookies are healthy, aren't they?