[MrsSmith]

At my house, Go, Dog. Go! is the current book most likely to get "lost" behind the couch....... previously, it has been Hop on Pop, Put Me in the Zoo, Hooper Humperdinck? Not Him! and dare I say it?..... even Green Eggs and Ham! *evil grin*

This is where our memories go, folks - this is why we can no longer remember critical things like where we put our keys or what we went to the grocery store for.... because our brains have now been filled with things like "Mr. Brown, Mrs. Brown. Mr. Brown upside down. Pup up, Brown down. Pup is down, where is Brown? WHERE IS BROWN? THERE IS BROWN! Mr. Brown is out of town. Back, Black. Brown came back. Brown came back with Mr. Black. Snack, snack. Eat a snack. Eat a snack with Brown and Black...."

Sadly, I could go on, and on and on.

Oh, and Lisa, the worst part of all is when they're old enough to ask for books by name! Emma now will begin requesting "AGAIN, please!!" before we've even read the last page of a book.......

We're not bad moms, we're just clinging to the shreds of our sanity!

Hope you're feeling better soon - nothing worse than being sick with a toddler around!

Heather

[MMC66]

You are SO not a bad mom!!!!!! I remember lying on the couch with my eyes closed trying to recote my daughters favorite books hoping she wouldn't notice that I wasn't reading them

That's the joy of having a one year old - you can do stuff like that and they are none the wiser. Now with Alzheimers kicking in and my kids becoming teenagers - I'm sure they're hiding stuff from me

Hope you have a better day today

Martha

[kllee4]

I also hope you feel much better soon but I have gotten a huge kick out of this today. Thanks for the laugh. (That will probably come back to bite me one day, I'm sure!)

And, no, my vote is also with everyone else........you are certainly not a bad mom. I would've done the same thing! Take care of yourself!

[lambeausam]

Yesterday, I told my 6yo he had to take his library book back to school today and exchange it. As proud as I am about his developing reading abilities, I just couldn't handle hearing..."Mary wore a red dress, a red, dress, a red dress..."

Add me to the "Bad Mom" club.

Sam

[spaypets]

Sign me up for the bad parent club. I hid books I hated (there was one that was just pictures of food--it wasn't even worth memorizing--I never would have bought it--it was a hand me down).

I entertained myself by memorizing Good Night Moon when I read it for the 1,000th time. You never can tell when you might be called upon to recite a poem!

That stuck on one book over and over phase lasts until they're about 2 or 2.5, I think. DD will be 4 in November. I've got a big book of poems and she delights in hearing new ones in addition to her old favorites. I'm also reading her Uncle Wiggley--a new chapter every night--it's so exciting!

Feel better, Lisa, and don't feel guilty.

[crick]

Ah Lisa...tell dh there is indeed an evil mom (me)on here who hates reading books over and over again and hides them even when she's NOT sick....

Hope you feel better soon!

[sunnyandi13]

Lisa-
Goodness, I hope you're feeling better soon!! It's so hard to deal with an active little one when you feel like something picked off the bottom of your shoes!

I haven't adopted yet, but my (former) FD was a real book hound at the tender age of 2-1/2. Which, initially suited me just fine, as I am also a bookworm and loved encouraging that in her. However, I realized that we needed some new books in the rotation when not only had I memorized them, "A" did too!

It got to the point, though, where I told her she could "help" me read and I would say one line and she would repeat the one that came next. Of course, it was a real hoot when we would get done with story time and she would proudly tell my DH, "I help MommyAndi read!" And I do have the memories of rolling down the highway with her and both of us repeating together one of her favorite stories. ("Left foot, right foot, feet, feet, feet. Oh, how many feet you meet!" or "Miss Mary Mack, all dressed in black, with silver buttons down her back." )

Yours might be too young, but since my FD also knew her numbers and was beginning to understand counting, I would tell her how many times I was willing to read a particular story (usually three was my limit) and would have her count the times so she wouldn't fuss when we stopped!

Hope you feel better soon!!

[Sleeplvr]

Don’t feel bad about hiding the books.

I have hidden books… 8 silly monkeys jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Mama called the Doctor and the doctor said. No more monkeys jumping on the bed!
Mr. Brown can Moo! Can you?
The Cat in the hat
The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss.

Videos/DVDs…. Elmo, The Wiggles & Barney.
I learned my lesson on hiding the videos. We have an open rack with all the Videos in alphabetical order. Little Man J, our first foster to adopt child, went through and pulled every one of the tapes off it and threw them on the floor in an attempt to find that darn Elmo video. I had hidden it somewhere else in the house because he knew exactly where it was on the storage rack.

All of this was done in the attempt to get him to read another book or watch a different tape.

Hope you feel better.

By the way. My Dh supported me on hiding the books. He does the bedtime stories and hated reading the same books over and over. He would end up reading two books so he could add something new to the mix.

[LisaCA]

thanks ladies for your confessions makes me feel better. Also gives me permission to hide them when I'm feeling well .

dh stayed home today (very reluctantly). He is off shopping at Target (apparently I forgot to buy dishwasher liquid). He actually said to me this morning "i guess I should bring her too?" Geez. the dumbest electrical engineer on the planet. I'm too sick to say anything but "yep," accompanied by a dirty look.

without looking at the weather he dressed her in a longsleeve dress (It should be 87 degrees today, just like yesterday), so we had a quick change of clothing .

still, I shouldn't complain (much ) since he's home with her and I can just lie here drugged up, occasionally surfing the internet.

and Leaabc123, I love the suggestion. I shall do just that this weekend (he he he ).

[purplekelli]

Oh, Poor Lisa! Sorry you're under the weather. I know what a drain migraines can be. It usually takes me a few days to recover and feel like myself. You are most certainly NOT a bad mommy!

This afternoon, instead of hiding the book from your baby, how 'bout hiding the tv remote from your husband. That should be hours of fun!

Get some rest!
Kelli

[Kelli]

Okay, little miss "perfect" mommy, I told you I wanted to be one of the first in line to gloat when a little "bad" came out of ya. And here I am! Really though, it's not bad to want to maintain your health and hold on to your sanity. I hope you're at 100% real soon!

I did some fall cleaning a couple of weekends ago, and I stumbled upon some "Barney" videos that I had hidden. I remember looking for them one afternoon when she had a friend over and I wanted them to sit quietly for a moment, but I couldn't remember where I had placed them. Their loss was my incredible loss! Unfortunately, I can't get away with hiding too much these days (like all her little friend's birthday party gift bags with candy) because her memory is as sharp as a tack. She'll also tell us "it's not nice to spell" so we're really up the creek without a paddle these days. Apparently I'm not slick enough to get away with some of the "bad mommy" stuff like I used to be.

Kelli

[mommy3]

Lisa -- this thread has been so honest -- I love it. I wanted to add that actually it's recommended that we rotate our children's toys (and books, ha!) every few weeks or so and then they are all "new" and wonderful again. I've not been great at that, but when things get lost and then found (for real, or thanks to me 'cause I get sick of them), the things become brand new favorites all over again.

So, my vote goes with you, 100%. And the child psychologist (ha) agree. I do love the image of a a crazed toddler, looking for a book they are NOT going to find. Ahh, mommydom, esp. when we are sick! I hope you are on the mend, susan

[ginadc]

Hee! We aren't parents yet, but this so reminds me of my DH's experience with his much-younger (13 years) brother. For some endless period during his toddlerhood, the only video Jeffrey wanted to watch was "The Ewoks Battle for Endor"--over and over and over again. You can imagine how that drove a 15/16-year-old brother crazy! I'm sure he considered hiding that thing.

[sneezyone]

When my baby sister was 6 years old (she's 10 years younger than me) we drove from Arkansas to Washington state to visit family for Christmas. The ENTIRE way, there and back, we were forced to listen to Wee Sing Dinosaurs!! Nearly 15 years later, I can still recite the words to some of those tunes!!! Even in her sleep if we turned that tape off, she'd know, wake up, and complain for us to put it back on!!

Just so you all can experience a smidgen of the anguish of that nighmarish trip during which we also got stuck for the night in Yreka (yes, that's Y-ree-ka),CA; the Siskiyous closed for a time...

Denny the dancing dinosaur
loved to dance he loved nothing more.
So when the dancing contest came to town
he was the first to put his money down!

I wanna dance doo doo doo doo doo doo,
I wanna dance doo doo doo doo doo doo.
Let me put on my size 44 shoes
and show me to the dance floor, I can't lose!!

[sandymomof2]

In our house, we read books everynight, but it hasn't been the repeat request during the day. Unfortunately, it's DVDs - especially The Wiggles! ACK!! We have several DVDs from when our 4.5 year old was younger, and for the past week and a half, our 21 month old dd has become totally addicted. She's just starting to talk, and is constantly asking for "Weeh" (her word for Wiggles). Prior to that it was Barney, but not to this extent. And, here's my confession -- over the weekend I bought tickets for the 4 of us to see The Wiggles in NYC. About $260!! I (with some friends but without dh) took our older daughter to see them when she was younger, so I figured it was only fair to let our younger dd have the same experience, except this time I'm making dh go too! He escapes hearing them all day so fair is fair! I have to admit it's really cute watching dd try to sing along and do the dances with them. Her current all time favorite is Top of the Tots - lots of singing and dancing, and very little talking. If I ever tried to hide the DVD I'd just hear screaming all day since she doesn't understood the concept of "lost".

(note to self - time to buy some earplugs...)