If the post -its aren’t enough, let’s talk about the actual amount of desk that is visible. Sheesh. I need an assistant. Or, like 5 more hours of nap time.
Tag: moms
Sweet Sweet Sleep
Last week, out of the blue, Baylor started waking up at 4:50am. I was woken up out of a deep sleep by a very loud voice shouting “MOMMY!!! AWAKE!!!!” over the baby monitor. I promptly turned the monitor down a bit and attempted to go back to sleep, praying that she would do the same. No luck.
This has gone on for the last two weeks. Bay wakes up, attempts to wake us up and then we all spend an hour + trying to get back to sleep. It’s made for some amazing melt downs (from each of us) and some extra super dark circles under my eyes.
I stomped into Bay’s room one morning, tired and crabby. I was sure I couldn’t take the forced, early mornings anymore when the sweet face standing in the crib proclaimed “Mommy. Teeth. Hurt.” I asked her which tooth and she pointed to the new white molar stabbing through her gum. My heart broke. Her early mornings were obviously coming from painful new teeth causing her not to be able to sleep – or get back to sleep.
Suddenly the early mornings didn’t seem so bad and getting her to feel better became the priority. With some extra nap time and a little Tylenol, she is finally sleeping a little later. Not like 8am sleeping, but you know, a mom can dream.
Rain Rain….
You know what is great? When it finally, finally rains. Like a good, soaking rain.
You know what is not great? When all of your clean bedding was air drying on the patio. Including the down pillows. And you don’t remember until they have all been soaked by the awesome rain.
Laundry? FAIL.
What I Learned on Vacation
We spent the holiday weekend in Coronado, CA. We’ve take a trip there, long or short, every year since I can remember. It’s our happy place and it’s so much fun to get to share it with Baylor.
We met my mom, sister Ali and her husband Gary (or Jerry as he was known for most of the trip) and my step sister Nancy and her kiddos Blaise and Madi. It was a big group with high expectations for doing as little as possible. Which we did quite well.
Our first day on the beach, we pulled our wagon full of toys, boards, towels and snacks to the perfect piece of sandy paradise. We ran out into the water, caught a few waves, threw the football and then settled in for some gossip magazine reading. I kept waiting for B to run over to me and demand a new activity, snack or some other form of entertainment, but it never came. I watched her and Madi contently dig in the sand. They dug, poured, washed, filled and held the sand. All while silently enjoying each other’s company.
It occurred to me that not only does Bay really love Madi, but the reason she was so content to just play was because it was just play. No one was asking her what color the shovel was. Or how many buckets had sand in them or if the water was hot or cold. There was no overt learning going on, it was just quiet play. I realized that had I been sitting there, I would have been making it a teaching moment – and not that that is a bad thing, but sometimes we just need to sit and dig.
So the next day we did just that. No talking. No fuss, just patted sand castles into place and washed them away with a watering can. All while just enjoying the sound of the waves. Lesson learned: less talk and more play.
Scottsdale Moms Blog
Today I am so excited to share with all of you an article I wrote for Scottsdale Moms Blog!
I met Joy (a co-creator of the site) a few weeks ago and noticed her email address was @scottsdalemomsblog. I asked her what the site was and if they took contributing writers. Several conversations, ideas and weeks later, my first article on nursery decorating is up! I’m hoping to write more kid related Do It Yourself articles for them too. Don’t worry, you can get your fill of snarky mommy stories in The Goon Room like always – this will just be for my creative, less sarcastic side!
If you are a local mom, be sure to subscribe to Scottsdale Moms Blog and also like them on FaceBook. They have amazing playdates, great giveaways and insightful articles, all new and fresh every day. Enjoy!
Momversation
While at a Scottsdale Moms Blog playdate last week, I was standing in line to get a balloon animal for Baylor. Yes, I was standing in line, Baylor was running amok near the wild animal table. She pretends to like the animals, but really, she’s just there for the hand sanitizer. I had an eye on my wild woman and was chatting with my friend/neighbor and another mom who were also waiting in line.
After a few minutes, I stopped to let the ladies I was speaking with know that I was in fact listening to them, I just needed to keep both eyes on B so that she didn’t free the Chinchilla or something more creepy crawly from Jungle Jill. They both laughed and said “I haven’t had a conversation while looking at the person I was talking to since my oldest was born!”. It dawned on me – this was not a conversation, but a momversation.
A momverstaion is a conversation between two or more mothers that A. does not require eye contact with anyone but your kids B. is paused more than once to wipe a hand, pick up a crying kiddo or yell “stop with the hand sanitizer already!!” only to be picked right back up like nothing happened and C. can be had doing any kind of activity including nursing, feeding, changing a diaper, etc.
It is a skill that is honed among moms. It’s difficult to learn and requires much patience and practice. Especially when there is a severe drought of sleep in the household. But it is a necessity if one ever wants to have a meaningful conversation with a friend, husband or anyone for that matter. So next time you’re talking to a friend who is a mom and she does not look at you, just know that she is using her honed skill of multi tasking, or momversating.
I have been talking and texting with a friend and former coworker over the past few weeks. She just had her first baby, a sweet little girl.
Our conversations brought me back to when Bay was born. I was a basket case. Between 24 hours of on and off labor, 8 hours of actual labor and an emergency c-section left me wanting for nothing but a glass of wine and a nap. A really really long nap. And yet there was little lady who needed me so completely. My hormones were bonkers. I was sleep deprived (which has never been a good look for me) and overwhelmed by the change and lack of predictability. fortunately I am married to the greatest husband and father ever and he not only talked me off the ledge, he helped me through the wide variety of emotions I was feeling and took a night shift.
All this made me think of why I want to write a book. I think there are so many books, blogs, etc out there full of moms who are glowing from the moment the cord is cut. Moms who are instantly in love with their babies, whose kids sleep “through the night” at a week old and those that breast feed with the greatest of ease. But what about the real side of being a new mom? Why is no one talking about being totally freaked out about the whole thing? About loving this little person, but loving the idea of sleeping for 14 hours juuusstt a little bit more? Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my daughter, but I will be honest saying that I had a break down when we came home from the hospital because I didn’t love her enough. I felt like I should have been feeling something that I wasn’t feeling. And how I was afraid to tell people that I was only breast-feeding a little because I was afraid of the judgement and or “tips” from the listener.
Six months after Baylor was born, on Christmas Eve, she slept for 12 hours straight. It is to this day, the best gift I’ve ever had. When I came out of the sleepless haze, I started talking to friends with kids and realized I wasn’t alone in my feelings. Again, I asked; “why isn’t anyone talking about this??”.
Maybe the answer is that even if warned, lectured, schooled, we can’t really know what it’s going to be like until we’re in it. But I still want to know why there aren’t at least warnings – at least beyond “yeah, you’re not going to sleep for awhile”. But maybe it’s the lie that we tell ourselves that makes us go through with it. Like why you even entertain the idea of having a second child – you lie to yourself. “The second will sleep amazing because they have to” or “We know what we’re doing now!!”.
Either way, I think society puts too much pressure on new moms (and on moms in general) to do it all and with clean and blown out hair too. I think it’s time we start standing up and saying “this part really sucks, literally and figuratively and it’s hard!” and cutting each other and ourselves some slack when we can’t do it all every day. I think if we can embrace the days where we don’t get a shower or brush our teeth before 3pm, it will make the days where we say “I did it!” feel so much better.
A few very funny and oh-so-true mom quotes:
If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? ~ Milton Berle
Raising a kid is part joy and part guerilla warfare.~ Ed Asner
Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease. – Lisa Alther
Things That Shouldn’t Bug Me But Do
1. When it’s too hot to open the doors or windows. Which means every time I make a meal, the house smells like it for hours. And change hours to days when it involves turkey tacos or Brussels Sprouts with bacon.
2. The inability of some parents to master the parachute at The Little Gym. It is not complicated: grab handle, lift up, step forward and pull parachute behind you, sit down on handle. The result? A super cool tent like thing that is supported by the air trapped under the parachute. Call me a 2-year-old for thinking it’s neat, but it totally is. Which means I get mad like a 2-year-old when a mom can’t figure out how to follow 5 steps, thus letting out all the air and ruining it for everyone.
3. Caillou the cartoon. Not only is the kid annoying, but Baylor is obsessed with watching it. While the main character, Caillou, is pretty whiny, my main issue is with his parents. They are model parents with infinite amounts of patience. They never get upset, yell, scold or do any other normal parenting thing. They make everything fun, ignore bad behavior and are always dropping what they are doing to appease Caillou. I am waiting for the day that the kiddo says to me “Caillou’s mommy wouldn’t say ‘your behavior makes mommy want to drink'”.
Again, another topic for Baylor to discuss in therapy some day.
Where’s the Tome – 1st edition
In case you missed last week’s post, I will be illustrating the travels of Baylor’s Gnome – or Tome as she calls him. Get excited. He goes to some funny places.
I think I might be having more fun than Baylor with this story line. The kiddo had Tome going for a dip in her pool…I may or may not have suggested he talk to Barbie. And is it me, or is he smiling??
Ranch Burgers and Grilled Zucchini
Peter’s mom, Marilyn, has a bountiful vegetable garden every summer and this one is no exception. She brought us great and HUGE zucchinis and lots of grape tomatoes, my favorite.
Tomatoes are a no brainer, we eat them straight up, caprese salad, etc. But zucchini is always a toughie. Besides bread, I’m a little stumped. Feeling adventurous, I sliced the zucchini long ways into strips, about a quarter inch wide. Salt, pepper and a little fresh garlic and grilled them up. The result as delicious! The garlic gives them a little spiciness and they go great on the side of turkey ranch burgers.
Ranch burgers are not my invention, but rather those at Hidden Valley. I tried the suggested recipe and the result is great. It’s an easy and fast dinner that even the munchkins like – 1 packet of dry ranch dressing and 1 lb of ground turkey. Mix well, form patties (go bigger, they shrink when cooked) and grill ’em up. Double the recipe and have plenty for lunch the next day.
Also I’ve gotten a comment from a reader who I actually know and like (although his comment made me question our friendship) regarding the simplicity an often the use of ingredients that are pre-made (i.e. Lenten Deliciousness). This person questioned whether or not it should really count as a recipe when it is simple to make and my answer is this; when you have a toddler crawling up your leg, a sink full of dishes and a very small window before all hell breaks loose due to hunger and bed time, and you have to create a delicious and healthy meal, you call me and let me know if my “recipes” count as recipes. Ok?
Tonight I tackle cake pops for Baylor’s family birthday diner tomorrow night. Pictures and play by play to come. Hopefully they are great pictures and a happy story and not something along the lines of the Whopper Brownies.
The Goon Room 
