I Don't Know WHAT I'm doing!

Okay, after seeing what was going on last night, I feel so stupid. You're probably wondering what in the world I'm talk about. Can you say "dumb mom"? As you may know, Dr. Lunsford advised me to add a little bit of cereal in Colton's bottles. In my defense, this is the first time I've fed cereal to my baby through a bottle for reflux problems. I started putting cereal (3 Tbsp. - 3 oz. of milk) into Colton's bottle early yesterday morning. As soon as Colton would wake up (CRYIN'), I'd make him another 3 oz. bottle with cereal. By late yesterday afternoon, Colton was really getting mad at me (throwing a fit). I didn't know if it was the cereal, different bottle or what was the matter. By 8:00 PM last night it finally hit me, he's probably not hungry. Colton decided to stay awake more often yesterday, wanting to play and not necessarily wanting to eat. Oops! At 2:00 PM, I could tell he was feeling like a chunk of lead. I guess I've been on this routine where all he wanted to do was eat and sleep. Who knew he wanted to get up, look around and play? I couldn't figure it out for the longest time because he would cry, so I thought he was hungry. Then I stopped, figured up how many times I was feeding him. Oops! TOO MUCH! I was staying with our originial feeding schedule without the cereal = 3 to 4 oz. every 3 to 4 hours. Yeah, he got his tummy filled to the brim.

You know, I feel the cereal is helping with his spit up. He didn't spit up over half the time compared to times past. I'm hoping the cereal will continue to help with his reflux problems and I'm going to have to relax when it comes to feeding times. Shoo! Before Colton went to bed for the night, I kept apologizing to him. I told him that as long as he cries, I'm going to think he's hungry. If I think he's hungry then I'm going to try to give him a bottle. He grinned and talked back to me as if to say, "sure I forgive you, you clueless soul."

Katie's Birthday Plans
As you know, I've been debating about postponing Katie's birthday party. Well, I spoke to Sandy the other day about it and she gave me a good idea. Her and Doug both have suggested that I order Katie's birthday cake/cupcakes. It's the only way I'm going to pull this party off without going completely insane. So, I think I've decided to order plain white cupcakes. The plain white cupcakes will allow me to still place ballet slippers in the middle of the cakes. I want Katie to have a small 6" single layer cake just for herself. Doug seems to think I might be able to pull off baking and decorating the cake the morning of the party. Since it's such a small cake, I'm hoping it won't take long to cool. Working with fondant icing, it's very important that the cake is completely cool. Please pray for me!

I took advantage of Katie staying with Leslie yesterday. I drug out all the Groovy Girls gifts and got them all wrapped. I've been deciding if I should get the Groovy Girls bed or sleeping bag. I originally wanted to go by Target and purchase a couple for the dolls. I may wait and if she likes the dolls, then get the sleeping bags/beds. I know she really needs a new duffle/overnight bag. Right now, she is using whatever duffle bag we have in the closet. I told Doug the other day that she needs one of her own, especially since she'll be starting school this Fall. Who knows if she'll be invited to a sleepover. Today, Peggy is coming by to watch the kids for me while I go update our car tags. I plan on stopping by Monograms Plus and purchase the bag on the way back home. I just hope they have some in stock.

Katie has been driving me crazy about going to the Disney Store. She does this every few months. She has these stuffed Disney Princesses (like the Groovy Girls) of Belle, Ariel, Cinderella & Sleeping Beauty. Well now she wants Jasmine and Snow White. We haven't been there in months, so who knows if they still make these dolls. She is so sure the Disney Store sells the stuffed Jasmine and Snow White. I thought this would be a good opportunity to bring back the "Rewards" jar. She's been slacking on the good manners and doing chores. The main problem I'm having is she completely ignores me. I've heard of this happening to moms. I don't know if it's because I'm around her 24/7. The spankings and time-out chair don't seem to be working right now. I've gone back to taking things away from her or take priviledges away. It seems as if all I'm doing is disciplining her and not praising because there hasn't been much to praise about lately. So, I'm hoping the resurfacing of the "Rewards" jar will bring back the good manners, lots of praise and very little discipline. The jar came out the day before yesterday and she ended up with 3 rocks. By last night, she has zero. She was so upset and dramatical about her rocks being taken away. How did she lose all 3 of her rocks? She was messing around with my jewelry and I told her to leave them alone. I don't mind her looking at them, but I was afraid she was going to drop my earrings and lose them. I didn't think she would deliberately disfigure them all together. As soon as I saw my poor earrings, I told her what she did wrong, spanked her and sent her to her room. Doug was coming through the door from work when all of this unfolded. I told him what she did and how she refuses to mind me. He suggested that I take all 3 of her rocks out of her "Rewards" jar. I called her into the Kitchen to witness what was about to happen. I explained to her again why I was taking her rocks (her not listening and minding momma). The Drama Queen came out and she went whaling back into her room. Later, I was putting some things away. She came out of her room, "mom, I want to tell her something." I stopped and got down to her level to listen to what she had to say. "Why are you so mean to me?" she asked. I told her that I don't want to be mean, but I have to because she won't obey me. I went on about if you don't obey your mommy or daddy then things are taking away. I asked her if she understood and she confirmed that she did. I hugged her and told her that I loved her. Boy, she didn't like having those rocks taken away. She wanted me to put them back. So, I told her that she will just have to earn them again. "How?" she asked. I gave her a list like: clean your room, say "thank you" and "please", no jumping in the house, no jumping on the furniture, no running in the house and mind mommy and daddy. Right off the bat, "isn't my room clean?" Yeah, it was clean because she had been gone all day and it wasn't messy. "Can I get a rock for cleaning my room?" she asked all bright eyed. Ugh! GIRLS!