Doorknobs and Discipline

Oh my, Oh my. Parenting has reached a new level in our house and Kris and I are still adjusting, well, I'm sure Marin is adjusting too, butshe won't remember. Lets start with the first:

Doorknobs. Marin, our smart cookie, can reach the door handles and pull the doors in our house open now. THIS REALLY SUCKS! (Am I being too candid?). I have relied on the doors as easy baby gates, in a sense, and now they are worthless I say! She has easy access to everything now, including, but not limited to: toilets, toilet paper, dog food, dog water, cat litter (ew, I know!), my food storage which includes her favorite, rotini and elbow macaroni. What is a mommy to do?! I don't have to kind of handles you can put the baby proofing stuff on, so now what, eh? This also leads to our next issue:

Discipline. The other night Kris and I were trying to eat dinner and Marin would come around and scream at the top of her lungs to be picked up. So we would pick her up and she would scream until we gave her a bit of our food which she promptly spat out. Then she would scream for the fork so she could "play" in our food. Ok, THIS momma says NO! I only let this little charade happen for one ride and then Kris and I looked at each other and Marin went off to her room. She did NOT like that. Of course, it was complicated by the fact that she could let herself out and scoot her little bum down the stairs. I looked at Kris and said "I have no idea wha I'm doing here, I just don't know what else to do!". He agreed. While we have a lot to learn about discipline and what works for Marin, it's time to get the wagon on track. Marin is not so little anymore and we are realizing she understands what you tell her, and when she just blatently ignores you. This is going to be SUPER fun.

The weekend brought some great surprises too. I won the weight loss challenge at work! Although quite a few people dropped out, I still brought home 300 dollars! Then, my biggest triumph yet. For almost 2 years, I have been fighting for a policy at work that would end up owing certain employees quite a bit of pay. This has been going on for almost 2 years and I felt like I have been going around in circles and getting nowhere. Well, before my trip to NY, I had a meeting with the Chief Nursing Officer for the hospital that went surprisingly well. To make a long story short, last Friday, the Director of HR and the Chief Nursing Officer themselves came to the unit and personally handed out checks for retro-pay for the last 2 years. UNBELIEVABLE! I almost fainted when they told me what had happened! It just goes to show you, stand your ground and when you're right, you're right. Ok, I need to get myself moving and make some dinner.