I'm alive....I think?!

A few of you have been checking in with me on the side to be sure I haven't fallen into the pregnancy hole of doom, and I'm happy to report that while my piggy toe may be stuck in the pit, I haven't fallen completely through.

Oh dear. What whirlwind of a time we've had here in the John/Abbie/Liv household.

Whoever thought up the idea of the 'terrible-twos' was an idiot, and chocked full of lies.

The 'twos' were a breeze for us. Couldn't figure out what everyone was talking about when speaking of those 'dreaded tantrums'. Liv has always been very compliant. Always been very polite-always saying 'Please' and 'Thank you' without having to be reminded. While she's a child full of personality and ideas, she's always just kinda gone with the flow on things.

Until she turned three.

It's like a little switch was turned on and she's turned into this incredibly stubborn little cuss. Hmm, can't imagine where she got that from. *cough* her dad and I.

I'm talking full blown tantrums out of nowhere in public-hitting and kicking and screaming so hard that she starts gagging. Fortunately it hasn't happened but maybe 2 times, but it actually brings me to tears as I write about it. I'm so pushed to the limit. It makes me sad. I KNOW we are doing all the right things with her. We've tried everything: time-outs, spanking, taking away cartoons, ignoring the behavior. EVERYTHING. We have always been so good about after spankings sitting her down and telling her how much we love her and that we punish her because we just want her to act like a big girl, and that just because we spank her doesn't mean we don't love her. We tell her how much her screaming and hitting makes us sad. I don't know what else to do.
At one point the other day, here at home, she actually brought me to full blown tears. And I'm not a crier in any sense of the word. I just reached a breaking point with her, and just crumbled.
I feel like it's a good thing for her to see me cry though. Immediately when she did she ran over and layed her head on my shoulder, like it really hit home with her. I was glad for that moment.
The thing is, after the tantrum is over, she is SO remorseful. She KNOWS what she did is naughty and she feels terrible and apologizes profusely. Bless her heart. It's like she gets so angry and just doesn't know what to do with it.

I love this little turkey more than words can say. I'm just dealing with the repercussions of thinking that I was exempt from toddler-dom. My bad.

On the plus side, Potty training has been frickin' AWESOME. And no, I'm not foolin' ya! Turns out all it took was to take her to her preschool to pick up her registration papers, and explain to her that they won't let her come in the doors in the fall if she is still going potty in her diapers. BAM! She's been potty-trained every since! hahaha Saweet.

My other reason for being scarce in the blogospere is this dang pregnancy. I'm sure you are tired of hearing how much I don't love being pregnant, but bare with me, just two more months of my babbling, ok?
The last few weeks have been REALLY bad in the pregnancy area. I've been so sick. The heat certainly doesn't do good things for me either. ugh.
When I was pregnant with Liv, starting at about 6 months along, I started dealing with dizziness and blackouts. Not fun.
Guess what has come back to play?
I can't go anywhere for a good first half of the day, because it is inevitable I will start getting dizzy at some point. It starts with me getting kinda dizzy and my body feeling heavy, then my vision goes black, then when it's done, I'm DRENCHED in sweat. LOVE IT.
I've also been feeling incredible pressure in my pelvis. Like her little head is just lodged there waiting to come out. FABULOUS.
Oh and lets not forget the awesome restless legs and sore hips and tailbone.

Shoot me now please.

SO, as you can see, I've had a bit on my plate the last couple of weeks, and bloggity blogging just hasn't been on the agenda for me.
I'm here though, I'm alive-even if only hanging by a thread-and I appreciate those of you who have been checking in with me. :)

If you REALLY care about me though, you'll just let me send Miss Olivia to wherever you are for a week.

Any takers?

ANYONE?!