Kidding
Dead giveaway. If you crane your neck to look past the baseball cards, unfolded underwear, used tape, and assortment of half-colored workbooks, and those weren’t the signal we have kids, welcome to my bathrooms. We live in a big ole house with lots of bathrooms. Some are rarely used. Some are frequent favorites. But nearly all of them have one of these fifteen characteristics of people-with-kid-bathrooms. 1) hand towel on the ground. It may be clean; it may be dirty. You just don’t know and don’t dare risk using it. It literally could have been anywhere. It’s also slightly damp. 2) garbage can missing. It was loaded with unmentionables and taken out to the kitchen to be tossed with the rest of the garbage . . . last week sometime . . . and hasn’t made it back. So meanwhile, there’s a pile of used q-tips, wet-ones, and hair balls in the corner. 3) toilet paper not on roll. It could be behind the toilet, on the back of the toilet, or set in the shower. But it’s not on the roll. 4) stool near toilet. If you’re an adult, please, do not use the stool. It needs to be wiped down. Just kick it with your foot out of the way so you can make it to the toilet, semi-unscathed. 5) suspicious crusting near toilet paper roll holder. Someone may have tried to wipe himself while waiting for a slow old mama to get the wet wipes to finish off a…
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We share a birthday, this newly minted 5 year old and me. I love that she was my birthday present my last year of my 20’s. She is sweet, fierce, smart, and kind. Her birth story is here (my one and only water birth–though I wish they all could have been!). Each day, SweetPea bounds into my room, even as her feet drag across the hallway carpet and her murmuring about “I’M TOO TIRED TO BE AWAKE” is less than a whisper. The bounding starts are the door handle’s creek. She clamors into bed to check on her sister. Where is she? Oh HI! This enraptured love of the baby that we share, this longing to snuggle her face off, this smelling up all her baby smells, it’s pretty special. Also I found out I was pregnant with SweetCheeks on my birthday last year so that’s extra nice. Today we’ll eat a special lunch, take an extra long nap, and pound some serious sugar for our bday cake. Our gifts for her were pretty simple this year. These that Grace told me about, this desk for her doll, this outfit, and I’m almost done making her a horsey-pink-knit-skirt out of this material. And books. Half-Price books for the win! She’s still super into Little House on the Prairie books (second read aloud through) and Boxcar children. For me, Sunday morning I was served a Starbucks hot cocoa in bed along with breakfast so I really can’t beat that!! #husbandwinning **Chunky baby wanted…
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Last Sunday was a real doozy. I awoke to my little nursling snarfling her way across our king-sized bed to find her liquid gold, checked the clock, and listened for the daily howling of my wolf pack. Happily surprised to find out it was already 6:50 and the howling had subsided, I nursed and started my mental check list. Mass. What time should we go today? How messy is the kitchen? Did I sweep the floor to combat the ant invasion we’ve been experiencing? Is that pee on my shirt or spit up? Is her diaper leaking? Am I leaking? After a happy milk-guzzling sesh, we both made our way out into the hallway, pausing to hear the howling and wrestling in the kitchen. Kids + Dad = happiness. Why don’t we just get dressed real quick like and go to the 7:30 mass? It’s the Old Rite, low mass, and fairly quick. We usually go to the 10am orchestral Latin New Rite. Can’t be that rough and we’re all awake and seemingly stable mental places. **seemingly** So off we went. The kids dove into semi-church clothes and given the early hour, I didn’t enforce our usual “dressiness on Sunday” standards. We were going to cruise in & out so Jesus would forgive me if my daughter wasn’t wearing a dress nor my sons their bowties. You can see where all my optimism is headed. Right off that cliff. We arrived at our century+ old church, the most gorgeous in all the land in my…
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Many days, I’m hustling MonsterTot to the toilet while SweetCheeks is in the sling, hoping like a tornado chaser to catch the big storm (poop) before it’s gone (in his pants). I’m spelling out words for SweetPea’s construction-paper-cut-and-stapled-into-a-book while wiping a huge spitup out of my hair and onto the hem of my bathrobe. I’m pulling snow pants on a squirmy, reluctant toddler while the baby is bouncing in her little chair, a-gooing with her big sister. Lots of juggling goes on day-to-day and the big kids need more schlepping around to school & activities & playdates than when I had my third baby and the oldest wasn’t even four yet! I’ve been on this path with a newborn four times now and each time I marvel that while she is the easiest member of the family to parent, she’s also the most needy. Here are our six top tricks to keeping life with an infant easier. A few of these are feasible only because I’m not working outside the home, so take that into consideration. 1) Nurse on demand. We feed on demand–that means whenever my baby squalks or squeaks and doesn’t have a burp or diaper, I offer to nurse her. Sometimes she drinks a ton of milk, sometimes she just soothes herself. Yes, I am a human pacifier, and yes I’m okay with that. Using a pacifier before 8 weeks old can really impact amount of breastmilk you produce for the long term. Here’s an article about it. Basically,…
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What a stunning thing it is to be able to witness a sacrament for your kid. AA and I were marveling on the drive home from SweetCheeks’ baptism that it is a privilege to be the parent, the one who helps guide, the one who makes early on decisions to help steer a child’s life. Our baby girl was baptized a few weekends ago and it was a joyous affair! Our dear friends from childhood are the godparents and we couldn’t feel more blessed. One of the best parts of the whole thing was the thrill on my children’s faces as they watched their sister’s sacrament. We prefer the Extraordinary Rite for baptism and the rituals feel extra compelling as the salt and oil and expelling of demons comes with extra zest. I totally forgot to change out her orange wool socks with the sweet crocheted unicorn ones we had, and of course, also forgot the beautifully made white blanket from my grandmother so she was half-wrapped in a jersey stretchy swaddle. Details, details. My friend Ryian lent me her baptismal gown and it fit her like the little chubby doll that she is! Our pastor is a dear friend and offered a beautiful baptism, as per usual. We’re blessed!
Read MoreI’m hopping over with Kelly and her gang for seven quick takes from the week. Is it Friday already? My brain is so mushy I can’t even stay on task over here. I absent mindedly put my chai tea in the dishwasher with a full mug, wiped my nose with the baby’s socks, and told the kids they could play with perler beads–unsupervised. #mombrain 1) Laundry has multiplied. Like by a million. I know babies poop and spit up their way through many outfits in one day, but I could do the laundry twice a week and be fine before. Now there are mounds everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It’s making me a little crazy. I’m finally well enough with my pelvis issues that I can carry laundry baskets around so I have no excuse to not get on it. But how can adding one tiny person to the family make this big of a difference? I’m amazed and agog. 2) I vascillate between wanting to do nothing but stare at the baby and do everything in the house at once. Probably normal postpartum hormones. Sometimes I want to do everything and then in an instant, I realize how tired I am and that I should just lay down with the baby snuggled in. She’s so big that she can easily side-nurse and snuggles like a little snuggle bug. The kids want to crowd in anytime she’s on me so sometimes when it’s nap time for the middle kids, it’s dedicated solo snuggles…
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