Going private

It's been brought to my attention that I am offending certain people by mentioning them on this blog. This has never, ever been my intention. My purpose for starting this blog was to share the story of my children with the people to whom I believed it mattered. Since those people have made it extremely clear that they no longer wish to be a part of my story, I have decided to make this blog private.

I need this space online, somewhere to put my words on paper and make them real. I need a place to talk about my days, my hopes, my disappointments, and my failures. I hope that those of you who still wish to read The Daily Bailey will send me an e-mail letting me know, and I will e-mail you the password to view the blog. I apologize, because I know in this day and age it is annoying to have to remember another silly password. But it's been made clear to me that certain people are very upset by my blog and find it offensive. Point taken, action decided upon.

If you still wish to read our story on The Dailey Bailey, please send an e-mail to:
barbara.bailey927@gmail.com

Thank you to those of you who love me, support me, encourage me, and most of all read my words. It means more to me than you will ever know.

Always,
Barbara

No, nope, nuh-uh, no way

No. It's a word that most toddlers learn right away. It's an important word. It's just that I never realized how MUCH I would be saying "No!" as a mother.

Sometimes, it's necessary. Crucial even. "No! Don't let go of my hand in the parking lot!" "No! Don't touch the hot stovetop!" Or even, like today at the mall, "No! You may NOT lick people, Ava!"

But other times, I have to wonder, is there really a point? Would I really be the WORST mom in the world if I just said YES? Sometimes, saying no makes things so much harder for me. It causes tears and tantrums, it makes me feel like I'm being "mean" even if I am really just being "cautious." Sometimes I fantasize about an entire day of yes...

Yes, you can have chocolate bars for breakfast!
Yes, we can watch tv all morning!
Yes, I'll buy you that awesome new toy!
Yes, we can eat Doritos for lunch!
Yes, let's skip naps and play video games all afternoon!
Yes, let's have ice cream for dinner!
Yes, let's stay up late and skip baths!

My kids would think I hung the moon if they ever had a day like that. But, instead, I spend what feels like MOST of my time saying no to my kids. And I can't help it, it makes me feel bad. Guilty. Even if I am saying no for their own good. Even if I am protecting their teeth and their appetites, protecting their brains from too much media stimulation (whatever the heck that is, lol), protecting their healthy sleep habits. I know I am strict, but to some people it just comes across as "mean." And I hate that.

I follow these parameters, these "guidelines" that someone, somewhere, somehow decided are the "right" way to parent. I limit tv time. I enforce a schedule. We have meal times and snack times, and I try (but sometimes fail, admittedly) to feed my kids healthy foods. I encourage good manners, I discourage fighting. But in the end, all it really feels like is a string of no's. "No, no more tv right now." "No, please don't fight over that toy." "No, we do not hit people." "No, please stop pulling on the cat's tail."

I'm working on it, I really am. I'm trying to be more positive and optimistic, trying to spin disappointments into unexpected delights. And I know that by next week, I won't remember this day of "no!" and it will feel like a million years away, because that's how these things go. All I can do is sigh a big sigh, give my kids hugs and kisses and remind them that, "Yes! Mommy loves you!" and remember that some moms are "yes" moms and some moms are "no" moms, but we love our children all the same.

"The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes." ~ Tony Blair

Summer lovin...

Probably one of these days I'll shut up about how much I love summer here. Probably by September, lol. Until then, you will all have to suffer through my Odes To Summer.

Really, what's not to love about summer? I just had no idea how much I would LOVE summer in northeast Ohio. Being so close to the lake is wonderful. There is almost always a breeze from the lake that keeps even warm days feeling cooler and more refreshing. The beach at Fairport Harbor is amazing, and we're having the best time playing there. We've even been heading down there in the evenings after dinner just to play at the playground and watch the sailboats and jetskis. Last night there was a man on a self-propelled hang glider (which was SO COOL!) and he was tossing down parachute men to the kids on the beach. So much fun!

I haven't taken any new pics this week, but here is a photo collage I made of some of my recent favorite pics of the kids. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and all the dads out there have a great Father's Day! I'm very much looking forward to celebrating with the greatest dad I know, my husband:)

More weekend fun

I have a confession to make...I'm kind of in love. With Cleveland.

I know, I know, it's not what you expected. In fact, more than half of you (ok, probably ALL of you) are scratching your heads right now and saying, "Cleveland? No, surely she meant... somewhere else..." But no, I assure you, I meant Cleveland.

I feel a little bit like Liz Lemon in the "Cleveland Get-Away" episode of 30 Rock, where she visits Cleveland with her boyfriend, Floyd, and falls in love with the city. You probably desperately want to watch that clip now. Lucky for you, it's right here! http://www.hulu.com/watch/856/30-rock-cleveland-get-away

There are just so many great things to do in this city, and even though we live in Painesville, it's really just a short 25-35 minute drive from pretty much anywhere in the city. It's no New York, or Chicago, or D.C...but sometimes I think that's a good thing. You get all the fun of being a tourist in your own town, without the crazy traffic and hassles that can go with a bigger city.

We had a fun weekend. Saturday afternoon we went to Geneva-on-the-Lake (NOT Cleveland, the other direction actually, but since it's a post about the weekend and it was fun, I want to include it!). It's a small town about 20 miles east of Painesville and every summer they open up the main "drag" and it's filled with street food and souvenir shops and arcades and just fun stuff. Completely up my alley:-) We played putt-putt and Aiden loved it! Sunday we went to the Museum of Natural History again (we're really getting our money's worth on our passes!). The kids had a blast, and we even got to watch the animal keeper feed the raccoons, the bobcats and the red fox! On the way home we made an impromptu stop at a cool park with a splash pad, and the kids had a great time:)

In living color...

As promised:)

Out & About...

All this great weather means us Baileys have been out and about, which is always a good thing in my book. I guess I'm just not much of a homebody, which doesn't bode well for my being a stay-at-HOME-mom, but my kids get to go a ton of fun places, lol.

Last weekend we spent two awesome days at a nearby beach, Fairport Harbor. The little boy running with Aiden in the pictures below is a friend from Progressive's son, Evan, who was born just one day after Aiden! They had a great time enjoying the sand and sun together:)

This morning I took the kids to a playground near Cleveland called Preston's H.O.P.E. You can read about it here http://www.prestonshope.com/ if you like. It is a HUGE fully handicap accessible playground, and it is completely free to the public. It is set up like a little town, complete with kid-sized buildings like a bank, a fire-station, a schoolhouse, a barbershop, etc. The kids had a great time, despite Ava being very fussy (she's cutting her molars). On the way home we stopped to get Burger King (I should have packed lunches, hindsight is always 20/20, right?) and the BK actually had an aquarium where you could sit and eat and watch the fish. Cool, right?

I hope everyone enjoyed all the great weather as much as we did! It is over for now in Northeast Ohio--we have rain predicted pretty much every day for the next week. Bummer.