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Dear electronic friends I haven’t met in person, A la Bonnie, I too am going to post a little open letter to the universe toward you. I have my baby with me. Yes, he is big. No, he will not take a bottle. Yes, he will spit up on me and I will wipe it off my arm with my dress, possibly flashing you. Yes, I will be wearing a dress mostly because I cannot bear the squeeze of clothing postpartum. No, he does not sleep in a pack n play. Yes, he nurses all the time. I might flash you with the upper body parts doing so. I’m sorry if he screams on the airplane, in the hotel room, in the bathroom, in the conference, or any other time. I can’t help it. I love to meet new people. I promise not to glom onto you, though, so don’t worry if I chat happily for a few minutes with you. I may knit at the same time we’re talking. I’m making blankets for my etsy shop to pay backwards for these trips. You may not like to gab with a knitting, baby wearing mom. If so, sorry again. I cannot successfully put my hair in a knot top bun without having the front look flat and greasy. If that’s all I could muster in the hotel bathroom while bouncing my baby before coming down to the conference events, I’m sorry. For you, that is. I’ll just be glad it’s…
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Just don’t. But let me back up and tell you about our epic morning first. We were up & at ’em bright and early with SuperBoy coming in before he’s supposed to (7am) at a lovely 6:40. I had just packed AA out the door with lunch, bfast, and a snack, scarfed down a bowl of cereal, Mom’s Best, the fake golden grahams? Yup. SuperBoy wanted to attack BabyLoves with his overpowering love for him. Lots of Here’s the Twins’ yearbook from two years ago. Let’s talk about each player. I love you SO much. You can play baseball just like me, if you want to . . . . Cue SweetPea and her stinky godzilla poopy night diaper. The girl’s been potty trained for 4 months but still opts to poop at naps & nighttime in her cloth diaper. Mama!!! I MADE A POOPIE!!!!! The morning starts off on rocky prickly ground as the big kids argue over who is going to touch and talk to the baby. There may be pushing and indignation. She always wins the screaming contests. I convince them to be nice to each other with the promise that their favorite family friend, Mr. J, who is a recent high school grad and doing small projects for us around the yard & house, will be here soon. Sunscreen on. Bug spray on. Kids in the queue for the toilet. {{What? Your kids are still getting bug bites? Aren’t you using Molly’s bug spray? It keeps even…
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What I really want to write about was our epic family vacation. Epic. Staycation for our immediate family, ca-y-cation for those out of towners who traveled with their wee ones to join in the party. 6 kids under 4. 11 adults in the house. We all fit, somehow. And no one died. But while I’m editing the photos and weeding out all the ones where no one is looking at the camera, or my mom cut off the heads of some, find me on other places on the internet. Do you follow I Believe in Love? Well, you should. It’s an awesome project. I wrote for them about coping with being the at-home parent, but that it’s not a competition for who suffers more between AA&me. Read it here. And I partook (partaked?) in a baby gift guide with a couple of things from my etsy shop. See the gift guide here. Scroll. Keep scrolling. I’m number 5, the chenille wipes. Love those wipes. Most importantly, know that I haven’t put away my clean clothes for a month so they’re in a big pile on the floor of my closet and I can’t find a thing to wear. I rummage and rummage but only encounter AA’s work socks and my hoodie sweatshirts. Where are my nursing tanks? Where’s something that doesn’t smell like cottage cheese / baby spit up?? In closing, I’m going to this amazing conference/cocktail party in Texas next weekend. I’ve been planning for it for . .…
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Not that I’ve ever done this: mombard someone? Are you guilty of it? You read every book published about pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, attachment parenting, vaccines, homemade organic baby food, cloth diapers, cosleeping, and maybe even elimination communication for when you don’t want to use your cloth diapers, and now you’re the pro. The expert. The one dispensing advice. You know you’ve mombarded someone if the following is familiar. And oh-my-gosh, we are all so self righteous and judgmental of other moms! Scenario number 1: Friend says: Oh, I’m just exhausted. This newborn is keeping me up all night. You think: She’s a new mom. She doesn’t know about night nursing. She doesn’t know about absorbent cloth night diapers. She doesn’t know about baby led sleeping (aka no sleep but nursing all night). She doesn’t know that if she just nurses and cosleeps her monster will be come an angel. I know everything because I’m a mom of multiple. You say: “Oh, it’s so hard. But really it only gets easier if you nurse all night and cosleep.” Friend thinks: Jerk. Scenario number 2: Friend says: “Oh, baby food is so expensive. And I’m back to work so it’s too hard to make. I’m exhausted.” You think: She’s a working mom. She should schedule making all her baby food on the weekends. She should also buy only organic products, preferably from the farmer’s market, so even if they’re not certified, they’re local. Carbon footprint et al. She should get those cute…
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Do you know Kendra from Catholic All Year? She’s so electronically lovely (I can only say this because I’m still just an electronic friend). Her blog is inspirational, funny, and great. Her weekly link up of “Answer Me This” is a great virtual cocktail party Sunday nights. Or mornings. Depending on how badly the children were at church. SuperBoy (4) has morphed from perfect altar boy wannabe to monster and SweetPea (2) has always been devilish. Without further ado / / / / / / 1. How did you get your name? I love my name story because it’s a little wild. Wild for me, that is. I was baptized Ellen O’Leary, but as things would flesh out, my parents named me Ellen to call me Nell. Because Nell isn’t a real Catholic name. It’s a nick name. But Ellen O’Leary was a great aunt on my dad’s side, I think. And my folks loved the name. Because we’re 75% Irish but look all of our 10% Dutch. It took years for me to figure out my name was really Ellen. Probably until I was in kindergarden and then had to correct teachers the first day of school for the next 13 years, oh, yes, and substitute teachers all the time. After consulting with my parents’ feelings, I legally changed my name to Nell upon high school graduation. To forgo the awkwardness in college and future life. 2. Do you have a set time for prayer in your day? Oh…
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This sweet friend, L.R., from law school & her husband emailed me the happiest news! After suffering loss and hoping to have a baby make it past the first number of weeks, they are 20 weeks along in their parenting journey!! She had shared about their losses in a previous guest posting. Read more of the Birth & Parenting Series here. —– Praise be to God: We are Expecting It’s finally our turn to make this amazing announcement! What you maybe don’t know is what a long journey it has been. During that journey I made a promise to God that, if He ever gave us this chance, I would give Him the glory; so He set about making sure I knew that He truly deserved the honor when the time came. Though we’ve been married almost 9 years, we didn’t really start trying to expand our family until about 3 years ago. As we came up on a year of trying and as I was beginning to grow frustrated and discouraged, I was thrilled to see our first positive pregnancy test on Easter Sunday 2012. The excitement was short-lived, however, because it was over in less than a week. Since I didn’t even make it to 5 weeks pregnant, I later learned that I had experienced what is considered a chemical pregnancy. It was a heart-breaking loss but I tried to take comfort in knowing that it was possible for us to conceive and believed that the next time would be…
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