At Our Wits End

There is no doubt that I was spoiled by my first child. Now, the first year was hard. She was never happy. I mean we even had to eat in shifts because she did not like to sit down. However, after that I must admit that she has been an easy going and enjoyable child for 99% of the time. 

My second has been the exact opposite. The first year was great and then she turned one and all hell broke lose. Everything came in extremes. She is extremely hyper or extremely happy or extremely loving or extremely mad. The worst, however, is when she is extremely sad. 


Now let me be clear this sadness is not due to some sort of manic depressive disorder. Nor is it due to some sudden loss of a binkie or beloved toy. There is actually no predicting what will bring on the tears. It could be that she doesn't want to go to bed or doesn't want to brush her teeth or is told no about something or sometimes there is absolutely no reason at all. 


For example, today we got home and I told the girls to go wash their hands while I made them a snack. The next thing I know she has flung herself on the floor of the hallway and the tears have begun to flow. Why you might ask or I might want to scream as I fall to my knees throwing my fists up in surrender? I don't know. Maybe she wasn't hungry. Maybe she liked grimy hands. Maybe she was tired and thought the floor would be a soft place to lie down and found it was not. 



Whatever the reason, the crying continued behind closed door (she chose to seclude herself in her room) until I went in 20 minutes later to offer a snack and for some reason it stopped. This is not always the case. We have tried everything! We have timed out, taken away things, rewarded her for good behavior, praised her, spanked her, tried hard to avoid all triggers like land mines laying in wait of destruction of the peace of our household. NOTHING WORKS! We have had 2 hour long crying fits! 


Today I even created a chart with her help. We chose all the things we wanted her to do without whining and crying. I even searched for over 30 minutes for pictures of the Disney Princesses sleeping, getting dressed, and even brushing their hair. She gets a smiley face every time she does something without whining or crying. However, at bedtime she lied about going to the bathroom and did not get a smiley face. Once again, all hell breaks lose. 


We tried everything to calm her down. We hugged her. We threatened her. We took things away. We pointed out that she could still get another smiley. Alas, nothing worked. Eventually, I lost it and started my hyperventilating hormonal crying, which seriously frightened my husband who is trying very hard to keep me from going into preterm labor. He took her outside to calm her down, which made her even louder, and we are still amazed that DFACS was not called as it sound like she was being seriously hurt even though no one was touching her. 


Now, in the calm after the storm, I have searched many sites about what to do. There are all of these suggestions about what to do to prevent tantrums. None of which are helpful to us seeing as we are already doing them all. There are all kinds of suggestions about what to do during a tantrum. None of which help us because we have tried them all to no avail! 


Now the real problem. Yes, she seems to be at her wits end, but now so are we! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! This will be a really bad problem to still have in 8 weeks when we have crying baby to add to the mix. 

What's in a Name?

What's in a Name

So I am 32 weeks pregnant!! Which is great, although I feel a little apprehensive because it was at 32 weeks when I went in to preterm labor with my second darling. We have the nursery ready and all of the 0-3 month clothes have been washed. Speaking of that why do you think that you can put clothes into a box completely clean and after a couple of years in the attic they come out stained? Its like there is some little, mischievous leprechaun up there peeing on everything:)We had to throw away so much! 


Anyway, we have the nursery ready. We have the clothes washed and put away. Last weekend, we bought anything we were lacking, like a Pack-n-Play because the last one met an unfortunate end after my 30 birthday party when someone..... tried to take it down quickly and then really "took it down" like a Bambi's mother on doe day! We have diapers and wipes. What we don't have is a name!


Naming is getting quite ridiculous. It becomes a Facebook epidemic every time I post something complete with multitudes of comments and suggestions that even seem to leak onto other people's walls. It was so funny to me how one time I went to comment on one of my dear friend's walls and found a whole discussion about this little girl's name. I am so lucky to have so many people who care:)


However, that does not solve the problem that the only name this kid has is Lady A. Yes, her name must start with an A. We have an Aubrey and an Addison and multitudes upon multitudes of monogrammed clothing. Anyone who knows us realizes that we are way too cheap, I mean thrifty;) to let those clothes go to waste. 


We have tried Adalyn, Abree, Alivia, Aniston, Archer, Ansley, Alli, Alaina, Alana, Amberly, Analeise...and countless others including Axel Rose;) However, we cannot agree on any. Every time we come close one of us, usually me, changes their mind.  


It is no surprise this is happening. It was very difficult to name our first 2. We actually found the name Aubrey in the boy's section of the name book, and it took forever to come up with Addison (and Brian still pouts about her being name for an adulterous ho on Grey's Anatomy;)'. 


I would like to blame it on Brian whose number one response to name suggestions is " H- No!", but I must admit I am just as picky. I mean "What's in a Name"?...EVERYTHING!! Alas, it looks like we might be in the hospital naming this kid unless we just decide to predetermine her future as a pop star or a duchess and leave her name as Lady A!

Our Awesome Trip to the Publix

Our Awesome Trip to the Publix

Before I begin to reveal the secrets of one of our most successful shopping trips ever, I must be honest. I did not do any couponing for it. My hubby did it all. He slaved and cut and printed and organized. I just split up the list. Hey, it was totally worth it! We spent a total of $110 and saved $145!!! Go ahead stand up and start the slow clap. It deserves it. However, you might want to wait, because when I tell you what all we bought you might want to start an encore.

First so that you can truly appreciate I will bestow upon you our list of items:

2 Stouffer's Family Style Entrees
1 box of Pampers Swaddlers

4 boxes of Nutrigrain Bar 

Pampers wipes

1 package of Pull-Ups

2 Pam Sprays

4 Marie Callendar Meals

3 gallons of milk

4 Juicy Juice bottles

4 Zephyrhills Water (12pk)

Bananas

Grapes

Blueberries

Pepsi Max

1 box of Huggies Supreme diapers

2 Gorton's Popcorn shrimp

Crab Meat

2 Planters Honey Roasted Peanuts

2 jars of Classico Alfredo sauce

1 32 oz Kraft Velveeta Cheese

1 box of Cosmic Brownies

2 boxes of Pepper and Oil Triscuits

2 Skintimate shave gel

2 bags of Doritos

2 pounds of Ground Beef

Squash 

Zucchini

Asparagus

2 packages Strawberries

2 dozen eggs

Rotisserie Chicken

All for $110!!!!

So here is what we do (or in this case what Brian did).

1. Visit Publix site or use Publix circular to make a list of what you need that is on sale. Focus on Buy One Get Ones (BOGO).

2. Look in coupon box for any coupons for items

3. Visit Southern Savers.com and look at their Publix list where they have all of the coupons there are for all of the items on sale. 

4. Print as many coupons as you can. Again, epecially for the BOGO's.

5. Make sure you visit the other store sites, like Food Lion, Harveys, Target, and Rite Aid for any of their coupons.

Helpful hints:

•  If you have BOGO's and then you have a coupon for 1 item then print 2 coupons because you can use two. 
• If you have a manufacturer coupon, you can also use competitor coupons for the same item.
• Sometimes they only take a limited amount of competitor coupons, which is why we split up our list and shop in two different carts.

Here are some of our monumental savings for this week:

1. Zephryhill water- We bought 4-12 packs for absolutely free. How? They were BOGO at 2 for $3.79 which made them $1.90 each. Then we had a coupon for each for $1 off each 12 pack and then a Harvey's coupon for $ 2 off. 

2. The Huggies Box of diapers was originally $19.99. We had a $3 off Publix coupon, a $3 off Food Lion coupon, a $2.50 off Target coupon, and a $2.00 off Manufacturer coupon. So that was $19.99-$10.50=$9.49! (Important: They will sometimes only except one competitor coupon for an item, but sometimes, if you split them up, it will work).

3. Gorton's Popcorn shrimp were BOGO at $2.74 each. We had $1 off each and then $1 off 2. Plus we had another competitor coupon for $1 off each. So we got those for $.25 each. 

4. Pampers box was $19.99- $7 off Target-$2 off manufacturer

Plus, we got really lucky. A woman who was leaving handed us a $5 off $30 Publix coupon as she was leaving and we had $2 off Harveys coupon for fruit and vegetables. 

All in all our trip to the Publix was pretty AWESOME