Sneaky Peeps

As a mama, I make up a lot of phrases and words.. For example, nap time is called "Seepy Seepy Nap Nap". As soon as I say it, Paige grabs her binky, makes a beeline to the stairs and then to her crib for a nap. This phrase shouldn't be confused with "Seepy Seepy Night Night" which means it's time to start our nighttime routine of bath, storytime and bed. Another phrase is "Poop da Doop" which translates to - Did you poop in your diaper? "Crocodile Rocks" are her Croc shoes that she wears every day. And an all time favorite - "Sneaky Peeps." Sneaky Peeps are the peeps (aka: urine) that sneaks out at unexpected times, like during a diaper change or in the bathtub.

So over the past few days, I've been having some Sneaky Peeps of my own : )  What's worse than having a cold and sneezing every five seconds? How about having a cold when you are 37 weeks prego with a baby sitting on your bladder? OMG - I could deal with the occasional  "incident" when I would laugh too hard or sneeze unexpectedly. But after sneezing 5 times in a row yesterday, my pelvic muscles completely gave up and WOOSH! - sneaky peeps. All over the floor. (I wish I was making this up, but anyone who is or has been prego knows I'm not...) Luckily I was at home and in my bathroom (although not on the toilet) when the sneaky peeps reared their ugly head. And luckily I still have ugly linoleum floors in my master bathroom that are easy to clean and disinfect.

This latest sneaky peeps incident was horrifying. But at least I was alone. The last time something similar happened (but not nearly as voluminous as this incident) was during my last pregnancy. I was driving somewhere with Daniel and we started laughing. Laughing hysterically. And then it happened... I peed. Just a little. But it was enough to soak through my jeans and onto the seat. I immediately stopped laughing and had what I imagine was a shocked/horrified/embarrassed look on my face. Daniel asked what was wrong, and all I could mutter out was, "Ummmmm... I kind of peed." To which Daniel responded, "You peed? Like, in your pants?" And then he looked over at the seat. Without another word, he immediately busted a U-turn towards home. I ran upstairs to shower and change and he cleaned the car. And never was it spoken of again - until now. I can joke about it, but he still isn't allowed to : ) But we did secretly laugh when we sold that car last summer. Oh, the memories!

In other Sneaky Peeps news, I witnessed something truly unnerving this morning. It was 7:30 a.m. and Paige had just woken up. Being the "always thinking about my child's education and enlightenment" mama that I am, I noticed the garbage truck pulling down our street and decided to hold her up to the window so she could watch. We saw them take our neighbor's garbage and put it in the truck. Paige clapped as the garbage disappeared into the truck. And then one garbage man came moseying over to our house while his buddy got the other neighbor's trash. We watched him take off his gloves. Mess around with his pants. And then... OH. MY. GOSH! The garbage man started peeing on our curb!!!! I stood there horrified, still holding Paige up to the window, not sure if I should bang on the window to let him know he was caught or stay silent. I stayed silent - shocked silence. And a few seconds later he zipped up, put his gloves back on, and emptied our garbage into the truck. Paige began to clap. Then he put our garbage can into the middle of our driveway (rather than off to the side where it had been). And I realized he did that so that he wasn't putting our garbage can into his pee puddle (how thoughtful...). And then I thought about how every once in a while I find our garbage can in our driveway rather than at the curb and... EWWWWWWWW! He does this a lot! Our garbage man is a Sneaky Peeper! And I thought our grass wouldn't grow there because of the dogs... PUKE!!!!!!

My Pep Talk to Me

I wrote a post in February about staying in the positive: Keep It Movin'

But every once in a while, I need to remind myself of this concept. I need to remind myself that I am in a much better place now than I was years ago, when I held grudges, felt helpless in how some people treated me, and let others make decisions about how and when they were going to insert themselves into my life. I think I've done a pretty good job over the years of cutting out the negativity, the drama, and the foolishness - and ultimately taking control of who I surround myself with... who I let (and consciously don't let) into my life. And now I apply that to my immediate family (probably even more so than with myself) - if you can't respect me, my husband, or my children... if you try to bring negativity to us... if you choose to live your life in a dishonest way... if you try to manipulate, control or bring us down...  BUH-BYE! SIONORA! ADIOS!

My BFF Oprah Winfrey (oh, she's your BFF, TOO?! ; ) ) says it best with some of her favorite quotes:

"When you know better, you do better." - Maya Angelou

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Alfred

Einstein

"Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past can be changed." - Oprah

"Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher." - Oprah 

"Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down." - Oprah

I truly appreciate my close friends and family. I appreciate their honesty, sincerity and the positivity they bring to my life! And like I said in my post in February:

Negativity and the like can only slow me down... and I've got too many good things going on to get tied down in that nonsense. Interested is being a part of the positivity? Join in! Not interested in change and letting go of the nonsense of life? Sorry, but I'm just gonna "keep it movin'" right by ya.

My Southern Belle Says Dawg and Cawll

We are big fans of Nick Jr. around here. Yo Gabba Gabba, Wow Wow Wubzy, Wonder Pets - Nick Jr. is our channel of choice. Not that we actually watch it, but it provides great background noise during playtime. The only time Miss Paige really tunes into it is when her favs - Moose and Zee - pop up between programs. She watches their memory and matching games and shouts at the TV like she really just found the matching puzzle piece. Gotta love her enthusiasm : )

So today, Moose and Zee were doing a rhyming game, and the word to rhyme with was "DOG". No problem, right? WRONG! Well, wrong if your mama is a transplant from New York and still has an accent on certain words - coffee (caw-fee), talk (tawlk), hall (hawll), water (war-ter), etc. Dog happens to be on of those words (dawg). So when the options came up as a rhyming word for Dog, I panicked. Here were the options: House. Car. Frog. The obvious answer is Frog - duh. But when you say "Dawg" for Dog and don't say "Frawg" for Frog, they don't rhyme. I don't say "Frawg". I say "Frog". The next set of rhymes came up, again to match up with DOG. The options were: Shoe. Cat. Hog. OH JEEZ! I don't say "Hawg". I say "Hog".

And then my mind started racing... am I setting my children up for failure when it comes to rhyming? And what about spelling?! Ok, that is a little dramatic. But it never occurred to me that having Miss Paige mimic my speech patterns could have a negative effect. Will her teachers think she's crazy? Will they try and correct her speech? I saw a Dateline once where they featured adults who "mysteriously" began speaking with English accents (a la Britney Spears circa 2006). She is already saying Dog, Call and Ball with a NY accent. Ay yi yi.

So now I have a dilemma: Can I change the way I speak, when the accent is already ingrained in me and it's use is subconscious? Do I need to? Can I just explain to her that Mommy says things differently (as does one half of her family tree!)? At the end of the day, does it even really matter?

I remember in first grade having a teacher's aid tell me I was writing my lowercase cursive "o" incorrectly. I was writing it like my sister did - with a little loop dipping into the "o" rather than just having it go straight across the top. I remember informing her - yes, at the wise old age of 6 - that I wasn't doing it "wrong" - just differently. And in my mind, that was fine.

I know in my heart Paige isn't going to have long term issues if she happens to say some words with a NY accent. There are a lot worse things in the world that she could do: like root for the Florida Gators or Auburn Tigers : ) Just kidding... (although my husband, Daniel, doesn't think there is anything funny about that). GO GEORGIA BULLDAWGS!!!