Spoiler Alert

I don't know what it is but I have somehow managed to spoil my baby (see - he is four and I continue to call him a baby). It happens without thought. Maybe because, he is my baby or the fact that I feel guilty that the others were forced to grow up so quickly that I just want to treasure every single milestone with this last one. It's hard to let go, to let him grow. There are days when he tells me, "I will be a baby tomorrow." The poor kid. He wants to grow but knows how much I love to baby him. I knew. I did. That what I was doing was wrong. But I figured, how can too much love hurt him? But the problem is babying someone is not just love. It means he has not been taught normal things like picking up your toys, the word NO, and so on. Mine and Orion's lives were all fun and games until about two weeks ago when I realized what I have created - a walking, talking, spoiled monster (don't worry I still love him to pieces). But it has been a hard couple of weeks trying to undo all the damage. Poor kid thinks I'm being mean when I ask him to do an easy task. Something that Bella and Jarom could do at age one and for sure at age two. And now, here is Oey, crying and telling me he is going to run away because I asked him to put his toys away or to take his shoes into the house. And then the slap comes - "Mommy do it!" It is going to be a looooooooooong road to recovery. But I'm very hopeful and it helps that Matt is so proud of me for stepping up - more like waking up to what I have been doing.

Yesterday I had to call Poison Control!! We try to eat well-balanced meals so we don't give our kids vitamins. Well, we didn't. A couple weeks ago it was just Orion and me at Target. He spotted some superhero gummi vitamins and wanted them immediately. I didn't think there was much harm in getting him some so I looked it over and saw that they had gelatin in them, something we avoid. Plus those gummis looked just like candy. I didn't want him to think they were candy. So I found one that didn't have any gelatin and didn't look just like candy. He cried. They were not the ones he wanted. But being the good mom that I am I said, you can have these or none!! He took the bait. Long story short, we forgot about them until yesterday. I came out of the shower and noticed a chair moved over to the counter. Not a rare thing. I was curious what he had gotten to snack on. It took me a few times to understand him. It was a word he has never said before for a snack. Not pirate's booty, not trail mix, not pretzels .......... It dawned on me. VITAMINS!!! I asked him how many he had and he said a lot and that his tummy hurt. I rushed around looking for the bottle of vitamins. I found it on the couch. He had been popping them like candy and about 1/4 of them were gone. I don't know why he thought they were such a treat. I tried one and they are sooo gross. I definitely believed that his stomach hurt. Thank goodness after talking to the most helpful poison control guy we did the math and realized he should be okay.

Please wish me well on our journey. And I hope none of you have to call poison control and know the perfect amount to baby your baby.