the good, the bad, and the ugly.

the good.

Carly is so funny.

She says the funniest things.

I'm constantly laughing.

And she is so cute.

Yesterday I came home from the gym, had a quick dinner and then decided to have my new favorite treat: 100 Calorie Skinny Cow Ice Cream Bar. The chocolate chocolate ones. Yummers.

Now Carly is sweet all the time, but if you happen to have ice cream in your hand, she is really sweet. She will come up to you in her cute urgent little way, and burrow herself onto your lap, and in her sweetest and most polite voice say "Pease, mama. Ice cream." And you can't help but share with her.

And it ends up looking like this:

(please remember I literally just got home from the gym)

That girl is just as edible as the ice cream bar.

Less calories, too.

the bad.

I have recently decided that Carly watches WAY too much tv. I won't tell you how much because a) I don't want you to judge me, and b) if your kid watches more than that I don't want you to feel bad. I'm not against tv at all. In fact, Carly watches mostly education shows and she has learned things from them that I would never have thought to teach her (like, what a sloth is, for example). The amount of tv a child watches is a personal decision for parents, but I have felt lately like I lean on it too much. It takes zero energy or effort to prop that girl in front of Diego. I've been doing it too often and for too long. So I end up finding her completely zoned out like this:

So I recently decided to go on a tv "detox" where we just watch a lot less tv. I know I'm right, because sometimes the last few days when I say "Let's play!" Carly responds with "No! Diego!". We will have none of that. I'm still not down to as little tv as I want, but we have been decreasing every day. It requires me to spend less time on the computer, get up and shower before she wakes up, and figure out how to do dishes with her playing with the dishwasher racks, among other things. But it will be worth it. We'll both be happier.

the ugly.

Carly must have heard that she is almost 2, because she sure has spent a lot of time looking like this lately:



That would be her, screaming in her "time-out" corner. Carly actually responds really well to "time-out". But lately they have been a lot more frequent. She is in this screaming phase. She just doesn't listen to anything we say. And she is insistent upon doing everything herself. And when you won't let her do it (like, cutting a spaghetti squash open with a massive knife, for example) she screams and falls to the floor and throws a fit. I'm pretty much terrified to take her in public. We went to Hobby Lobby today and she was so out of control I thought I was never going anywhere ever again. But we had to go to JoAnn's too, and I ended up putting her in timeout in the bathroom (no worries, I didn't make her sit on the floor). Anyway. I know she is two. I know its normal. I know this too shall pass. And I know that Carly actually isn't that bad compared to some much more challenging children. I just thought I'd share my pain.

xoxo.