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	<title>WIRL Project &#187; kids</title>
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	<link>http://www.wirlproject.com</link>
	<description>What It&#039;s Really Like.</description>
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		<title>Let Kids Be Kids!!!</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/let-kids-be-kids/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/let-kids-be-kids/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 09:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ashley]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love/Relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Style/Beauty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bruise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bullying]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dirt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dirty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[explore]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[get dirty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Girls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[let kids be kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Little Girl]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mean]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Motherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Playing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Playing Outside]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sweat]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=6256</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you can, think back to your younger years, maybe when you were grade school age, or even younger if you can. What were you like? Did you have fears and worries and doubts or anxiety?? Kids can be cruel. Let&#8217;s face it, adults can be cruel too. The world isn&#8217;t by any means a perfect place, it&#8217;s far from it. But as a parent, you want to try to instill good morals and selflessness and sensitivity. You want your child to be kind to others, to not make fun of another kid because of their clothes, toys, or choices even. Often times we hear about kids getting bullied in school or kids committing suicide because they had no friends, nobody who understood them or cared enough to try to get to know them. It&#8217;s sad! I have an almost 3 year old daughter and she loves princesses, but she also loves getting dirty, and sweaty and running around covered in filth and food. She almost always has stains on her clothes because she likes to get into things, she likes to &#8216;help&#8217; her daddy fix things (which usually ends up with her covered in cuts, scrapes, and bruises). And you know what?! I&#8217;m fine with that. I&#8217;m okay with the way she is. She&#8217;s happy, outgoing, lovable, kind-hearted, sweet, selfless, hysterical, and most of all&#8230;she&#8217;s my daughter. &#8230;she likes to &#8216;help&#8217; her daddy fix things (which usually ends up with her covered in cuts, scrapes, and bruises). And you know what?! I&#8217;m fine with that. I&#8217;m okay with the way she is. Normally when we take her places, within 5 minutes she is covered in sweat, her face is beat red, and her clothes are barely hanging onto her body. She&#8217;s amazing and adventurous! I love the life in her eyes and the gentleness of her soul. To me, she&#8217;s perfect. But there are still those people that make comments. I have had people refer to her as a &#8216;hobo&#8217; because of how she&#8217;s dressed. They&#8217;ve said she looks like she belongs &#8216;in a trailer park&#8217; because she was outside, in just a diaper, and someone told her she was a &#8216;hot mess&#8217; because she was sweaty and wearing raggedy, dirty play clothes from Wal-Mart that were covered in food of some sort! In what world do people think it&#8217;s alright to speak to a not even 3 year old like that, let alone a little girl?! Self esteem can be broken so easily. It really angers me and even breaks my heart to know that one day I&#8217;m going to have to answer some pretty tough questions from her and I pray to God that I can be strong enough to be honest with her and at the same time sensitive to the subject at hand. I pray that we will raise her right and she will be strong enough on her own to stand on her own two feet and know that people sometimes say hurtful things that aren&#8217;t true. They&#8217;ve said she looks like she belongs &#8216;in a trailer park&#8217; because she was outside, in just a diaper, and someone told her she was a &#8216;hot mess&#8217; because she was sweaty and wearing raggedy, dirty play clothes from Wal-Mart&#8230; I, of course, do not know what the future holds, but I pray for the future of ALL of our children. That they be kind and wise in their words and actions and that their parents teach them the difference between right and wrong. And parents, even though a child may not fit into your perfect mold that you have set, please also be kind with your words and actions and consider that child&#8217;s feelings before saying such hurtful things. Just let kids be kids!! It&#8217;s okay!!]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Thoughts on &#8220;The Scissors&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/thoughts-on-the-scissors/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/thoughts-on-the-scissors/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2015 17:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alessandra Macaluso]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health/Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love/Relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Big Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[boy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Complete]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Complete Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crazy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fun]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Girl]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[love]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mistake]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Multiples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pregnant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scissors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Second Child]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snip]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Surgery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vasectomy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=7567</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It wasn&#8217;t until I was in my twenties, that I learned I was a mistake. I was sitting at my parent&#8217;s dinner table. We were just chit-chatting about life, school, and other, you know, normal, non-life-altering conversations that could make you re-think your entire being, when it casually came out. &#8220;A mistake?&#8221; I said. My dad looked at me like I had ten heads. Then, in his thick Italian accent, and very matter-of-factly, he said: &#8220;Well, we had-a four boys. Then, we finally had your sister &#8211; our girl!&#8221; He paused, put his hand on mine, looked right into my eyes and said: &#8220;Why de fack would we want another one?!&#8221; I stared at him blankly, wide-eyed and slow-blinking. My mother piped up, in her strong New York accent: &#8220;But we&#8217;re so glad you&#8217;re HEA!&#8221; Umm, what &#8220;de fack&#8221; just happened?! Anyway, I&#8217;m thinking of this a lot today because I am 18 weeks pregnant, and yesterday was the day we found out what&#8217;s cooking. Turns out, it&#8217;s a BOY!! One of the first things people have said to us over the last 24 hours after hearing the news is &#8220;Yay, now Greg can go get snipped!!!&#8221; I think this is funny, and totally get why people say that &#8211; it makes sense that someone would want a boy and a girl. Maybe we never looked at it like that because I am the youngest of six children; 4 boys, then my sister, then me. My husband is one of four children; an older brother, a twin brother, and a younger sister. So I guess our parents kind of took the concept of a &#8220;complete&#8221; family and ran with it. And this extends beyond our parents; one aunt and uncle had six kids, and another had four. There were so many first cousins running around on any given family party that I don&#8217;t even know how anyone kept track. Our families didn&#8217;t have babies, they had litters. In our case, our choice to have another baby was not a mistake; we knew we were ready to grow our family. Truth be told, Greg actually wanted another girl, and we both really were convinced that a girl it would be. It&#8217;s not that he has anything against boys, it&#8217;s just that he is a little worried about what kind of boy he would produce. Him and his brothers were off the walls growing up, so he is a bit terrified. But it doesn&#8217;t matter &#8211; we&#8217;re having a boy! A little boy!! So yes, one and one. For now. Because we never even talked about, you know, the snipping. I mean, what if we&#8217;re not done yet? What if, after another year or two, I&#8217;m not ready to hang up the &#8216;CLOSED&#8217; sign? What if our upbringings get the best of us and one day, after I finally begin to feel like myself again, and the two miraculously are sleeping and eating and on manageable schedules, I drink too much cheap wine, go bat-shit crazy and decide I still want to birth a litter under the stairs? THESE ARE THE THINGS I JUST DON&#8217;T KNOW YET. I have no idea if that will be the case, or if it would even be possible. Maybe two is our magic number. I do know that, after having Penelope, as much as I love her, there were moments where I couldn&#8217;t even imagine entertaining the idea of having a second child in the first place because WHAT WAS I TAKING CRAZY PILLS?! I thought of women who had multiples and was in awe. I still am. Because babies are a lot of work. I mean, I knew it, but you don&#8217;t reeeeeeally know the ins and outs, the messy, tired, repetitive, taxing parts of it until your little one is here. Of course, you made the decision to have a child. Of course, you are going to do your best to take care of this tiny human with a fierce kind of love and determination you never had before, the kind that trumps getting poop on your finger, spit-up in your hair, and makes you constantly second-guess if you are even doing this right, for crying out loud. My mother had all six children within eight years. That&#8217;s not a typo. Let&#8217;s just say it &#8211; she is a special kind of crazy. I often ask her, &#8220;What were you thinking?&#8221; and each time, she shrugs her shoulders and her response is always the same: &#8220;I wasn&#8217;t!&#8221; When I ask her how the heck she handled all of us, she just says that she still has no idea, and that you just do it, you don&#8217;t have time to think about it. My aunt Angela had an entirely different response than the norm when I shared the news. Instead of reaching for the scissors, she said: &#8220;Yay! Then next time, whatever it is will be a sibling of the same for him or her!&#8221; Wait &#8211; what? Next time?! &#8220;We&#8217;ll see how two goes first,&#8221; I said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know how you guys did it!&#8221; But she gave me the best response. She said: &#8220;All I can say is, if you like it, it works, no matter how many there are. Don&#8217;t think of it as work, it was a lot fun. Nothing is like a house full of little kiddies. I would have had two more.&#8221; At this point, I&#8217;m just thankful for happy and healthy. I feel so content with Penelope, and all I can think about is watching this tough little cookie give her little brother a run for his money. This, to me, right now, feels complete, but we will see what the future holds. My point in this little rant in which we run to put the scissors away, is this: a &#8220;complete&#8221; family is exactly what that is &#8211; to you. Maybe it&#8217;s a boy and a girl. Maybe it&#8217;s two little girls, or two little boys. Maybe it&#8217;s one child. Maybe it&#8217;s ten. Maybe it&#8217;s none. Maybe it&#8217;s you and your husband, maybe it&#8217;s you, your wife, and two dogs; maybe it&#8217;s you and your non-wedded partner for life; maybe it&#8217;s the two of you, your pet iguana named Fred, and a boat. Maybe it&#8217;s simply, beautifully, YOU, living your life to its fullest and doing just fine, thankyouverymuch. &#8220;I would have had two more. Don&#8217;t think of it as work, it was a lot of fun.&#8221; I&#8217;m raising my non-alcoholic beverage to you, putting the scissors in the drawer, and saying that, no matter what your situation, let&#8217;s make it fun. &#160; This post was originally published by Alessandra Macaluso on Punkwife.com. ]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why Millennials Have a Bad Reputation</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/why-millennials-have-a-bad-reputation/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/why-millennials-have-a-bad-reputation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2015 08:00:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Sara Brennan]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work/Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dream job]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Entitled]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Entitlement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Experience]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Millennials]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Need]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Open Dialogue]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Study]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Want]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=7186</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Millennials seem to have a bad rap. Many, especially baby boomers, tend to say they walk this planet with a sense of gotta-have-it-now entitlement and a lack of work ethic. They&#8217;ve also been referred to as lazy, addicted to social media, and carefree. But is this really the case, and if so, is it their fault? In my opinion, millennials didn&#8217;t really have a choice. They were born into a &#8220;everyone gets a ribbon&#8221; world and they&#8217;ve always been taught that it&#8217;s okay to lose, as long as you tried your best. While trying your best is a childhood lesson that should be instilled on all the youth of America, I believe that taking away that burn from losing, or not coming first, did a disservice to these children (now young adults). Millennials were also brought up to believe they should &#8220;follow their passion&#8221; and that they could &#8220;be anything they wanted to be&#8221;, which again, is a great lesson to be taught under the right circumstances. But, telling children they can accomplish &#8220;whatever they put their mind to&#8221; isn&#8217;t great advice unless you&#8217;re willing to back that up by coaching them to see the value in hard work, putting them through the school of hard knocks, forcing them to earn what they want, and teaching them that sometimes you do fail. Are the parents of these millennials to blame? I don&#8217;t think so. It seemed to be a &#8220;thing&#8221; or a &#8220;trend&#8221; that parents were following lead by child psychologists, daytime TV, magazines, and talkshows such as &#8220;Oprah&#8221; and parents were just doing what they thought was best for their kids. Parents of millennials wanted to put their children in a protective &#8220;bubble&#8221;, never allowing anyone to hurt their feelings or make them feel &#8220;bad&#8221;. Of course we don&#8217;t ever want our kids to feel sad or bad, but sometimes there are life lessons that come from skinning your knee or being pushed down by a mean kid at school. With all that being said, I don&#8217;t think anyone &#8220;messed up&#8221;, however I think it put these young adults in a situation where they have a lot of catching up to do. It&#8217;s funny, because I&#8217;m sitting here writing this thinking, &#8220;&#8230;By definition, I AM a millennial&#8221;, but when I compare myself to other millennials, especially those much younger than me, I see many trends and personality traits that I somehow don&#8217;t have. I don&#8217;t think I personally am the &#8220;typical&#8221; millennial kid, but don&#8217;t take that as an arrogant thing to say. I have my own faults and things I wish I did differently growing up, but I just don&#8217;t see myself sharing many of the traits I&#8217;ll mention in this article. So do you want to know what I REALLY think of millennials, the traits they possess, and what I think they need to do to get &#8220;caught up&#8221;? Read on. Millennial Traits Explained:  1. Millennials Want Everything RIGHT NOW! Yes, they do, but they&#8217;ve grown up that way. This generation grew up with personal computers, Google, internet, and mobile phones. My goodness, they CAN get everything right now! This is great because they&#8217;ll never have to visit a library ever again, but it also means they have no idea how to use a glossary or table of contents of a book, the Dewey Decimal System at libraries, or how to appropriately craft a &#8220;works cited&#8221; page for their research papers. How do you explain to a millennial that Wikipedia is not legit? They don&#8217;t get it! Believe me, I saw this first hand as a middle school teacher. 2. Millennials Want a the Dream Job STRAIGHT Out of College. Their parents told them, if you go to college you can do anything you want. Yes, this is pretty true, but something crazy happened between the years that their parents went to college and these millennials did &#8230; everyone started going to college! Now a college degree is the norm and you need to have A LOT of extra stuff outside of just having that degree to look appealing to companies who are hiring. Gone are the days of breezing into your favorite school or job because you have a 4.0 GPA. Aside from excellent grades, extracurricular activities, volunteer hours, sports, band, musicals, languages spoken, and academic teams are becoming requirements to get into colleges and universities and more importantly, to get that &#8220;dream&#8221; job. While in college you must study hard, get good grades, continue with the liberal-arts lifestyle, and oh yeah, you need to find a way to get (say it with me) &#8220;work experience&#8221;! Yes, you must actually prove that you can get, hold, and keep a job before companies are willing to offer you one. How do you go about doing this? You work! You take time away from hanging out with your friends and you replace it with a crappy, pay-your-dues kind of job. It&#8217;s not always fun, but it gives you experience OUTSIDE of the classroom, which is invaluable in this day and age. The real world is REAL and it will come knocking, so as millennials (and parents of millennials), it is in our best interest to get our ass into a part-time job and get some experience! 3. Millennials Are After the &#8220;Experience&#8221; (and I don&#8217;t mean work experience). As I mentioned before, this generation was brought up where the losing team still gets a trophy and that it&#8217;s the &#8220;experience&#8221; that mattered most. This is not always the best approach. Kids need to learn that failure is a part of life and I believe the earlier we squash this, the better. When I look back at my own life, I think I&#8217;ve learned the most from the times I&#8217;ve failed and felt really terrible about it. I recently read a book written by an author whose father asked her on a regular basis, &#8220;What did you fail at today?&#8221;. It seems odd because we so often want to ask our kids, &#8220;What was fabulous, fluffy, and beautiful about your day?&#8221;, but when we challenge them to tell us about what they struggled with or failed at, it makes the conversations a little more meaningful and allows for more teachable moments. The real challenge here is not for the child, in my humble opinion, but it&#8217;s for the parent who needs to be ready to handle whatever the child is willing to throw at them and use it to demonstrate how the child can use this experience to handle other adversities in their future &#8211; a real parent is courageous and willing to do this, a scared, lazy, absent parent would shudder at the thought of this conversation. 4. Millennials Communicate With Their Elders in An &#8220;Open&#8221; Dialogue. I&#8217;m not really sure when this happened, but &#8220;respecting your elders&#8221; somehow became uncool during this millennial time. In fact, the &#8220;elders&#8221; (or parents) seem to want to be seen as &#8220;cool&#8221; and therefore started becoming more open to discuss all areas of life with their children, even areas that used to seem taboo. Our kids now know when we need a cup of coffee, are on our periods, had a bad day at work, or even want or NEED a glass of wine. Kids are drawing pictures of mommy holding a martini glass or drinking her &#8220;mommy juice&#8221; because they see it and talk about it first hand. Since when was it acceptable for our kids to know EVERYTHING about our lives? It&#8217;s not. I believe that this open dialogue is what is hard for the baby boomer generation wrap their head around. Gone are the days where we don&#8217;t sass back to our parents or curse at them, if you&#8217;ve ever seen any of the troubled kids on Dr. Phil, you know what I&#8217;m talking about. Blame it on social media, blame it on our children having access to our lives like never before, but do keep in mind, as you&#8217;re sharing something intimate or personal with your child, that it could be influencing their decision making and life choices as well. And finding humor in our bad parenting choices, is not always funny. 5. Millennials Feel Entitled. Reality shows like &#8220;My Super Sweet 16&#8243; or &#8220;Keeping Up with the Kardashians&#8221; may have helped millennials believe that they too deserve the trendiest clothes, the best makeup, the sexiest cars, and the wildest parties without ever &#8220;earning&#8221; them. I mean they deserve it right? Their parents work hard so they can have this nice stuff &#8230; yeah. Many millennials travel the world and &#8220;experience&#8221; life before they&#8217;ve even gone to college &#8211; how do they pay for it? Their parents! I get it, many parents of millennials grew up during tough times and they want to provide a better life for their own children; as a parent, I really do understand this. However, millennials these days tend to live rich lives on a very broke budget &#8211; they have the newest iPhones, clothes, gadgets, fake boobs, computers, Playstations, etc. but have never had a job! Ask them about their resume and they have NOTHING to show. Ask them about work ethic? They don&#8217;t get it! They know their parents work hard, but that&#8217;s about it, they haven&#8217;t experienced it for themselves. While parents are busting their ass to provide for their kids and trying to do the &#8220;right&#8221; thing, it&#8217;s actually backfiring them and teaching them the complete opposite lesson! And we sometimes wonder why our kids don&#8217;t &#8220;take care of their stuff&#8221;, well, if you aren&#8217;t personally invested in something, it doesn&#8217;t have as much meaning. Make THEM work for it and they&#8217;ll be singing a different tune. &#160; The points I make here are not to degrade millennials or parents of millennials, as I said before, I, myself, am one (by definition). After years of experience as a middle school teacher, personally knowing a lot of millennials, and becoming a parent myself, I&#8217;ve experienced many of these traits first hand. I can honestly say that millennials are really an awesome generation of people. They can grasp new ideas and concepts faster than any other age group (my toddler son can attest to this) and they can build and create new, great things more efficiently than any other demographic. They definitely have the world in their hands, but they also have a bad rap &#8211; but that doesn&#8217;t mean we can&#8217;t easily take some steps to rectify our reputation. I believe we, as millennials and parents of millennials, can readjust and quickly see some drastic improvements if we are willing to step up our game, take life into our own hands, and get a little fire under our ass to prove all the nay-sayers wrong. &#160;]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>What &#8220;Working Out&#8221; Means To Me&#8230;.</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/what-working-out-means-to-me-2/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/what-working-out-means-to-me-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 20 May 2015 01:00:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Heather]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health/Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Gym]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Workout]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=6330</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I choose to stay active and eat healthy because that is what makes me feel good. It is NOT easy. It is very hard to get into this lifestyle, but trust me&#8230;.once you are in it, you won&#8217;t look back. Now, I haven&#8217;t ALWAYS been active and a healthy eater. I have 3 kids, so you can imagine how many times I had to restart my &#8220;Healthy Lifestyle&#8221;. Everyone is different, so what works for my body, may not work for yours. But, for my body, jogging helps me A LOT!! Like I said, I have 3 kids. If I don&#8217;t jog in the morning (and it HAS to be in the morning &#8211; it helps me start my day off right), then I am not normal. haha&#8230; Weird, I know. Just missing a day of jogging turns me into another person. I put on my choice of music, which is dance, techno, hip hop &#8212; yea, I am one of those people you see jogging, with the music blasting in their earbuds. Hey! It works for ME. I have to feel energized and that type of music just gets me going! Working out, gives me energy to chase around my 10 month old and wrestle with my 3 year old and run my 9 year old to swim practice and girl scouts. Now, I am not one of those marathon joggers. I jog slow and stop a lot. I also belong to the UFC Gym and do kickboxing and strength training. I think I like that a lot because it makes me feel like I belong to a team. Everyone encourages you and makes you feel good. They don&#8217;t try and be perfect or sugar coat crap. They are all there for one reason&#8230;to work out! You just go in, get your shit done, chit chat for a bit, and leave. Boom. Done. If I feel like people watching, I will go to the gym and do some cardio while watching other people that are supposed to be working out, chatting, or flirting with people. It is actually quite entertaining! You should try it some time! So, I work out for me! I don&#8217;t do it to impress anyone (other than my hubby) but ME!! It makes ME feel good, gives ME energy, and keeps ME in a good mood &#8212; and a little wine keeps me in an even better mood!   &#160;]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Two&#8217;s Company, Three&#8217;s a Crowd? Or, Maybe NOT.</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/twos-a-company-threes-a-crowd-or-maybe-not/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/twos-a-company-threes-a-crowd-or-maybe-not/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2015 18:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Heather]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[3 Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[3 kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Multiple Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[My story]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Three's a Crowd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Two's Company]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=5693</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#160; So, while I was at a mommy meetup group today with my kids, one of the moms said she heard that having 3 kids is easier than having just 2. I almost spit my water out, after hearing this nonsense! I told her that was a lie. I have 3 and can tell you it isn&#8217;t easier. You are outnumbered! That means, one of you has 2 and the other has 1! Maybe when they get older, it gets easier? But I can tell you, it isn&#8217;t easier right now, while they are young. It is also a lot more expensive! You have to think about 3x&#8217;s that college tuition (I am hoping my kids all get scholarships! I can have hope, right??). Let&#8217;s rewind back to when my husband and I only had the 2 kids&#8230; I never imagined myself even having 3 kids. Never really gave it much thought. I just figured we would deal with the 2 we did have and get through that &#8212; until I got a little older and the thought was in the back of my head. I have to admit, I thought about having regrets as I got older. But, then I talked myself out of it and thought there was NO way I could have 3! It just wasn&#8217;t what I wanted. Then, BOOM! SURPRISE!! That little white stick read positive! To be honest, I was a little sad, scared, anxious, did I say scared?!! 3 kids. Wow. There were days when I broke down and cried from being so tired and thought, &#8220;How in the world can I handle one more kid?? I can&#8217;t even deal with these two right now!&#8221; I even began questioning my parenting skills and started to think maybe I wasn&#8217;t cut out to be a mom of more than 1 kid! (Keep in mind, all these thoughts were while I was pregnant&#8230;we all know how that goes). I was just scared period. Scared of the &#8220;unknown&#8221; lol. I was about to enter into the craziness. Or, as a good friend told me, &#8220;Shit just got real.&#8221; Now, my 3rd child is 9 months old and I couldn&#8217;t imagine my life any other way, nor would I have it any other way! Just when I thought my heart couldn&#8217;t hold anymore love, it does! My 3rd child has changed me for the best. Actually, ALL my children have, but my 3rd has made me really change my view on things. I don&#8217;t care so much about the little things, I am not afraid to speak up or say how I feel, I don&#8217;t spend time on the nonsense anymore, and I can honestly say, because of all this craziness in our house, I manage my time so much better than ever before. Maybe everyone, with 3 kids doesn&#8217;t feel this way, and that is ok. They don&#8217;t have to. That is them, this is me, this is MY story.]]></description>
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		<title>Children Bodily Fluids 101</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/children-bodily-fluids-101/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/children-bodily-fluids-101/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2015 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Andrea Curtis]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Baby]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bodily Fluids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boogers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Child]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Motherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Poop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Potty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Potty Training]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Puke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Runny Nose]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Warn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[What It's Really Like]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wipe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wiping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WIRL]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=5512</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#160; The other day my 4 year old told our roofer proudly she could wipe her own bottom now when she poops. I was only slightly surprised she said this to him knowing her personality. I laughed it off and began thinking about the ugly process of teaching her and her two older sisters how to properly wipe. No one prepared me for this! I thought of parenting as moments in hallmark movies. Boy was I off. Granted there are moments of pure joy. But on a daily basis. We deal with bodily fluids with young children. There is no dealing with Children&#8217;s Bodily Fluids For Idiots book. So heres my cliff note version of dealing with children&#8217;s bodily fluids 101: Wiping. I can&#8217;t help you with boys, I&#8217;ve got all girls. I literally bent over and demonstrated the process and the importance to wipe away form their vagina. I showed them about how large of piece of toilet paper to use. My first daughter was a disaster, she used tiny pieces of toilet paper, getting poop on her fingers and wiping the wrong direction causing an infection! They don&#8217;t know this stuff, so I have to teach her!  When is comes to diapers and poop, Huggies dealt with poop the best for us. Unless you want to get a whiff of poop next time your tuck your hair behind your ear, don&#8217;t stick your finger anywhere near the edges to check for a bowl movement. Just assume the worst. Puke! Puking is the worst of all bodily fluids. Although it&#8217;s not as common, thank God. It&#8217;s the most disgusting. They don&#8217;t understand they are about to erupt like a volcano, they just stand or lay there as it comes pouring out of them with a confused look on there face as they see us running with a look of disgust and fear all at once. When my girls were little toddlers the fast approaching or hovering buckets scared them and confused them. In turn the buckets didn&#8217;t help much until they understand. Dangling them over a sink or toilet is just not realistic for a bouncy toddler either. Since I am not a fan of scrubbing puke out of carpet, fabric, bed rails, and carseat buckles I have come to this&#8230; we stay at home in a practical designated area; usually the family room. I make a play area of layered towels, only allowing hard and easy to clean toys. If they want to sit on my lap, I drape a towel over both of us as if it were a blanket. When puking begins I pull the sides of the towel vertical to prevent spilling over the sides. When vomit session ends I roll up her vomit contaminated towel and wash it. During sleeping times I made beds of towels layered on the floor and I would sleep near by. It was so much easier to clean up and get them back to sleep. Making a bed over and over on a puking night, is horrible. Keep it practical keep it easy. Snot and Boogers!! It&#8217;s all the time! They are either teething, have a cold, or allergies. Snot is gonna happen. Nose picking is gonna happen. We have all blown our noses and still couldn&#8217;t get that wretched dried nasal mucus, so as civilized adults we quickly retrieve it and dispose it and promptly washing our hands. We have all done it! So how can we expect our little humans to not reach for an aggravating piece of dried nasal mucus in their nose. It&#8217;s what we do with the booger thats important. Yelling and asking them to not pick their nose may just lead them to hiding the evidence by eating it! (retching sound) That is not ok with me! I keep those little packs of tissues everywhere! In my purse, my van, the diaper bag, in each room in the house. Every time I catch them digging for gold, I hand them a tissue. Now they come find me, &#8220;Mom, I have a booger!&#8221;&#8230; Hey I prefer it than scraping boogers off of walls and furniture. Someone should warn us parents about this stuff. There are books that share about what toys are good for fine motor skills. What about this stuff?! This is what its really like.]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Whine Time = Wine Time</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/whine-time-wine-time/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/whine-time-wine-time/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Apr 2015 09:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Heather]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Glass of Wine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mommy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tantrums]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Whine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Whining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Witching Hour]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=5481</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You probably shouldn&#8217;t be reading this if you are against drinking or think that drinking a glass of wine around kids is bad parenting. By the way, if you do happen to feel this way, I highly disagree with you and think you probably need a glass of wine yourself.  And, if you don&#8217;t even have kids but have an opinion about this, then you won&#8217;t even be heard, because you have NO idea how it is.  Just for the record&#8230;I swear, I am not an alcoholic!! Ahhhh&#8230;a glass of wine&#8230;the wonders it does for parents. For instance, my 3 year old, 9 month old, and 8 year old were coming up on witching hour..usually around 4pm everyday is the time they start having tantrums and start with the whining. &#8220;Mommy, I am hungry&#8230;Mommy, I am bored&#8230;Mommy, he took my toy&#8230;Mommy, the baby is crying too loud&#8230;Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!!!&#8221; I look at the clock and think to myself, &#8220;It is 4pm and a glass of wine sure would taste so good right now&#8221; But then reality kicks in and unless I could grow a third arm, that just isn&#8217;t happening. I only have two hands and can barely keep up with these damn kids. How can I even pour some wine right now?? Or, run out of the house, without them knowing I am gone?? The whining drives me nuts! I know I am not the only one that craves for that delicious glass of wine. You see, when my kids start whining, my mind starts thinking about what people are doing that don&#8217;t have kids. They must be going to to happy hour after work, or maybe going to the nail salon or even going to the bathroom&#8211;ALONE!! I love my kids&#8211;A LOT, but damn!! What the heck did I do before they were born?? Oh, I know&#8230;I slept!! Whine time for the kids pushes me for my wine time later. I don&#8217;t remember liking wine so much with my first child. Maybe it just started to happen the more kids we had. Don&#8217;t feel guilty having a glass, or two of wine, because YOU deserve it!! Life is too short to worry about what everyone else thinks and worry about the little things &#8212; like the damn whining!!]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Nine is the New Thirteen</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/nine-is-the-new-thirteen/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/nine-is-the-new-thirteen/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2015 10:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Hollie]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[9 is the new 13]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[teen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tween]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=4189</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We are on the edge at my house. A very delicate, confusing, frustrating edge. You see, I have a nine year old. And not just any nine year old, but one of the female kind. We are teetering on the edge of being a kid and coming into her own, and let me be the first to tell you: it’s maddening. I understand it’s a struggle, and people warned me, but honestly, I thought all this drama was saved for the teenage years. Not the pre-pre-teen years! SHE IS NINE!! When did nine become the new thirteen? Why didn’t this mom get that memo?! You’d think with the endless emails and pieces of paper sent home from the school that clutter up my inbox and counter top, one of them could have mentioned that nine is the new thirteen? All I can gather is that it’s very hard to be nine. Not the same way that it’s hard to be three because that one is different. When a child is three and tantrums are every other hour, the in-between hours are filled with cuddles and I love yous. Not when you are nine. The in-between hours of tantrums of a nine year old (yes, tantrums!) are filled with sassing and “why does everyone hate me?!” Just yesterday she was three. And I thought three was tough. But three has nothing on nine. Nine is a whole new scary beast that creeps up on your perfect little angel and eats them up and spits them back out in a form you do not recognize. I miss three. Every once in a while there is a glimmer of hope that my beautiful baby girl is still in there when she wants to cuddle on the couch or asks me to do her hair. Just as I realize how nice it is to have my baby back, she turns on me and screams…”WHO ATE ALL THE BLUEBERRIES?!?” She is beautiful, talented and caring. She’s not the “mean girl”. As a matter of fact, she is one who shuts down the mean girls at school and welcomes the new girl with open arms. I’m so proud of her. I thought I was doing everything right as a parent. We always think that, don’t we? But I fear that I’m doing it all wrong. That I’m an epic failure as a mom because I now have the sassy nine-year-old. Sure, sassy thirteen-year-olds people understand. But nine?!? I’ve clearly done something wrong. When she screams at me that I “don’t love her like a daughter!” – that is what makes this age different than thirteen. What does that even mean – I don’t love her like a daughter?!? I miss three. Thirteen is different from what I can remember. It’s hormones and boys and friends. This is different. It’s a conflicting age because while they want to be big, they still have the emotions and insides of a kid. A missed problem on “Extra Math” (don’t get me started on the Extra Math drama!) can result in a full, toddler-style meltdown. But then in the next moment, a tongue full of sass comes flying at me from across the room and almost takes off an ear because she can’t stay up all night. Who is this girl? I miss three. I have a feeling that this is just the beginning. We have many more years ahead of us to figure out and navigate together. They’ve always told me “big kids = big problems”. But she isn’t big! She is little! She is my baby!! This is the time that a parent’s patience is really tested. You thought the toddler crying in the hall from a drop-down tantrum because you wouldn’t let her stick something in the outlet was testing. This is different. This is one of those trials of a mom that we will all go through and come out the other side…in a decade or so. At least that is what I’m telling myself. This article first appeared on BabyGizmo.com.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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