Our Lives With the Mini Mundys: Perks of Parenthood

First of all, I would like to apologize for my lack of postings recently. Life has been pretty insanely busy the last little while, and has not left much free time for blogging. And on top of being busy, we have been dealing with some pretty intense behavioural issues, that have had us pretty much pulling our hair out. (And wishing that I wasn't pregnant so I could be adding alcohol to my daily diet) To be honest, most days in the past couple weeks have left me feeling so frustrated, that had I sat down at the computer to write something about my kids, I probably would have gone to craigslist and posted them for sale rather then blogged about them. Scratch that, I would have listed them for free.

But things seem to have somewhat settled down, and I once again feel like I can safely write about them. And maybe perhaps in sharing about what we have gone through, it might help one of you get through your day with out posting your kids on craiglist, knowing that YOU ARE NOT ALONE!! Kids have issues, some are worse then others, but they all have them! We all deal with them. It's just one of those things in parenting that we just have to get through. And we do, we always do. And there are always better days!

Anyway, if you are interested in hearing all the gory details, read on. If you dont want to taint the glorious vision you may have of the Mini Mundys (or even the Big Mundys for that matter), I suggest you just stop now, or skip ahead, as I promise I will end this post on a positive note!

So here we go... Our normally sweet as candy, heart melting little girly, has been replaced by an unreasonable, emotional, tantrum throwing, full on terrible two year old who will meltdown without any warning and for no particular reason, at the drop of a hat. Yeah, it's been fun! There was actually one particular weekend that I can honestly say was the worst weekend I have had in my last 4 1/2 years of parenthood. I felt completely powerless. A feeling that I am not too fond of, as I like to control, well, pretty much everything. There was even times that I looked down at my ever growing belly and thought, "What am I doing?! A third, have I completely lost my mind?!" It pains me to even write that, but it's the honest truth. And honesty is the best policy right?!

This particular weekend started out with some big family fun on friday night. (which I will fill you in on at the end of this post) Maybe the late night or the fact that she was feeling a little under the weather contributed to what was to follow, but non the less, it was terrible. Saturday mid morning, marked the start of the first meltdown. This one, maybe the worst. It lasted for upwards of 2 hours!!! Seriously, 2 hours straight of relentless, unconsolable screaming at the top of her lungs. It continued for the rest of the weekend. Every few hours, another meltdown ensued. By the end of the weekend, I was so emotionally and physically drained that I honestly felt like running away.

Here's the thing about Madisyn, she is an incredibly stubborn, strong willed, sassy little thing. (I seriously have no idea where she gets it from. It must be her dad. ) She had mastered the art of manipulation before she could even talk. What she lacks in size, she more then makes up for in attitude. She is a tiny controller. We often sit back in amazement and watch her manipulate a situation into going her way, all with a bit of a hair flip, a flutter of eyelashes and a mischievous grin. She will be trouble, we know it. In about 12-14 years things will get VERY interesting. At least we have a few years to prepare... All that being said though, she really is one of the sweetest little girls. She is generally an absolute joy to be around. She just has a bit of a dark side, you could say. When she gets mad, she gets REALLY mad. Like run for the hills, lock up your children kinda mad. She is capable of tantrums far worse then we ever saw from Josiah at this age. BUT, they are generally very few and far between. Which was why this particular weekend sent us into such a tail spin. It was sooo out of character for her to have tantrum after tantrum. We were at a total loss as to what to do, or how to deal with it. It left us feeling completely helpless. A feeling that as a parent, is absolutely horrible!

Another thing about Madisyn is, she is a daddy's girl through and through. Almost from the moment she so 'gracefully' came into this world. She has him wrapped around her little finger so tightly, it is almost sickening. So when comfort is needed, without hesitation, she will always go directly to him. That is until this one glorious weekend when she decided to forsake all others and turn to her mommy. Wow, did I ever feel honoured. Actually to be perfectly honest, it made me want to run in the opposite direction. I was the only one she wanted. Although there was nothing I could do to stop the screaming and carrying on, she still clung to me for dear life while doing it. It was awful. This may have something to do with the impending change our family is about to make. She may be starting to understand that she is going to be losing her spot as baby of the family. I don't really know what it is, but regardless of the reason behind it all, it has not been fun.

The tantrums themselves seemed to have tapered off in frequency and perhaps even in severity. But they are still continuing to happen far more then they ever had before. And like I said before, they come on without any warning and for almost no reason at all. The last 3 weeks have been an emotional roller coaster for us. I think more tears have been shed in the Mundy household then ever before, and not just from the Mini Mundys. It doesn't help that I am nearly 8 months pregnant. But we know that this too shall pass, or at least thats what we keep telling ourselves. Lol. So until then, we will just continue to cope as best we can.

(If you happen to be surfing craigslist and come across a posting for a child that seems all too familiar, you will know that we are just having 'one of those days'!)

It is times like this that are hard for us as parents to remember that parenting, like almost any job, although incredibly hard at times, does come with it's perks. Aside from the obvious ones like the hugs and cuddles (on good days) and the whole unconditional love thing, there are also some other pretty sweet perks that I feel deserve some recognition. For example, you get to use your kids as an excuse to go to events like DISNEY ON ICE!!!! Ok, let me rephrase that. You get to experience with your kids some of the greatest moments of childhood. You get to once again see the world through the eyes of a child, and it really is a much better place from their point of view.

So thanks to my wonderful mom, we all got to attend Disney on Ice when it was in Abbotsford a few weeks ago. (This was the big family fun I was referring to) As a kid, I was lucky enough to see it a number of times in Calgary. Some of my fondest memories of my childhood. I guess technically that was when it was just called the Ice Capades. So when we saw that it was coming right to Abbotsford, we knew it was something we couldn't miss.

It was AWESOME! Seriously an amazing show. All 5 of us thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a bit of a gamble, as the show didn't start until 7:30, which is right around bedtime. But they both did amazingly well. Actually Madisyn may have even done slightly better then Josiah. Her eyes honestly didn't leave the ice from the moment it started. She was in absolute awe of the whole thing. Josiah was equally as thrilled, but a little more chatty as he wanted to talk about every single character as they came out on the ice. But really I was so proud of both of them and how well they did. Being the Toy Story fans that we are, I think its safe to say that was our favourite part. (Well aside from Colin. I think he preferred Cinderella. Lol. Maybe he will blog about that) But we truly enjoyed the entire thing from start to finish. It was an absolutely PERFECT family night!!

Here they are waiting for the show to start, with their arms full of gold, I mean, Disney merchandise. But for the cost, it may as well have been gold.

No excitement here!

Enjoying her snowcone in a cute but entirely impractical Minnie cup. With an even more impractical straw/spoon. But its all about the experience!

Eyes glued to the ice

Our attempt during intermission at a family photo. Madisyn was too concerned that she was going to miss something on the ice to actually look at the camera.