Kinley's Weekend

Remember when I said that Spring had found Chicago?!  Well, it must have gotten lost again.  This weekend we dealt with temps in the 40s and icky rain.  It was not a very pretty weekend.  At.all.  And we didn't get to take our morning walks, since I'm a weather weanie and I didn't want to freeze Kage.  She would have thought I was nuts out walking in that weather.

So we stayed in both mornings.  I think that she enjoys the walks more than I do.  She gets so bored when we stay in.  It kind of breaks our hearts when we see her off by herself playing.  Her dad always says "look, she has no friends."  And that statement just kills me.  But then I'm like, well, it is 8:00 on a Sunday night.  Even if she had a million friends, they wouldn't be here right now.  But it does make me sad to see her all alone playing in her room.

The realization that I am done (D.O.N.E.) with having children sets in.  I know that I don't want any more and I'm for sure about it.  I just feel sad for her.  There will be so many nights (and days) of her playing all by herself.  I feel like a creep.  But think of how much more I can give her by it being only her.  I know, I know...those of you that grew up as only children tell me that it's just not the same.

But I'm 32, having another child at this age doesn't seem appealing.  If I had started in my early 20s, that would be different.  I feel much too old for starting again with another baby.  Kids are tough!

Maybe it's more specific to say that toddlers are tough.  Whew.  She exhausts me.  And dare I say that the "terrific twos" have arrived early?  She is pushing every boundary she comes to....  and she is very familiar with the time-out.  We have a 'spot' that she has to stay in for one-minute (thank you Super Nanny).  It doesn't phase her.  She used to fa-reak out when we put her there but last night, she visited her 'spot' twice and sat there patiently. 

She looks so darned cute in time-out.  I know I shouldn't take pictures but
I couldn't resist.

The first time-out was for standing on the couch and trying to hang from the mini blinds.  The second, was for climbing onto the coffee table and running across.  Both times we did the whole "Kinley, 1.  Kinley, 2.  Kinley, 3." method.  She just laughs at us when we get to 2. 

After the second time-out, she got right back up on the coffee table.  So this obviously is not working for her.  We'll be discussing it with her pediatrician at her 18 month appointment.  Seeing how much she pushes us now, makes me wonder how fun this will be when she's 13!

Since the weather was so yuck on Sunday, we decided to take Kin to the local children's museum.  It is a very nice museum with tons of hands on, interactive stuff, but OMG was it packed yesterday.  And kids are rude!  And parents are rude!  When your school-aged child knocks down a toddler trying to beat her to an activity, you'd think the parent would say something to their child--or at least apologize to the toddler's parents.  But nope.  They just watched it happen and said nothing.  I almost kicked the child in the shin.  No joke.  But, despite the crowd.  We still had a really fun time.

Admission for the three of us was $26 and the family yearly membership is $100.  So they said that when/if we want the annual membership, we could apply that day's admission to the yearly price.  Nice.  Most likely, we'll do the annual.  I can see myself taking her several times this summer.  I'm sure it's not nearly as full during the week days.

Running through the mirrored tunnel.

While playing in the 'baby zone' of the museum, we met another family that had a 16 month old daughter.  She wanted to play with Kinley so badly.  She kept bringing her toys to share.  This is when I realized that Kinley was a 'mean kid.'  She was being so rude to this little girl.  At first she was ignoring her efforts to share the toys.  Then, she would grab them from her really rough.  And then she would grab them and then throw the toy.  I was so embarrassed that she was acting so mean.  I could tell that the other parents noticed it as well.  I always said that I would not have a 'mean kid' and here she is right in front of my eyes.  I felt like such a bad parent.

But what can I do?  I always tell her 'nice hands' or 'be a sweet girl' and things like that.  Ugh.  So much re-training to do, I guess.

I wonder sometimes if she's not around other children enough to know how to play.  But then she does go to 'day care' and plays with two other children.  But they are both boys....so maybe they play rough like that as well?  Maybe I need to find her other girls to play with....  I'll need to work on that.