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A friend just messaged me about being pregnant with number three. Did I have any tips on preparing oneself? I had to laugh a little because my pregnancy has been so rough in so many ways that getting it through and done is the biggest part of preparing myself for three, four & under! Then I thought about it a little more. How did we know we were ready for another life, or the possibility of it? How was I crazy enough to embark on throwing up for weeks and weeks on end? And then the capstone: wanting no pain meds for labor?? The answer is that you have to leap, always, when you’re open to more kids. There will be unknowns and unexpecteds. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. There will be floods of joy over your porous heart. Porous because they keep stabbing you in it. I also hate being pregnant, but know it’s not a disease and I’ll get over it (as my paternal grandmother used to tell my mom and her five miserable pregnancies). How I’ve actually prepped myself for three kids? A few of the following, but lots of ice cream, lying in bed when I could be productive, and letting my husband play rough house with the kids right before actual bedtime. 1) Get help. Now. My family is awesome. They’re really about as close to perfect as you could get. Devoted & doting grandparents, super involved aunties & uncles, and many…
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When I was out of town for the weekend, I indulged myself at the airport bookstore. Twice. Once on the way there, and once on the way back. The first time I was prudent, and bought The Power of Habit, just the one book. On the way home, after several delays, I bought two books for me and two for the kids! I bought How Children Succeed by Paul tough and The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. For the kiddos, Go, Dog. GO! by P.D. Eastman & The Big Book of Words by Richard Scarry. I love Eastman and Scarry. Such great writers! In the past few months, I’ve also read The Whole Brain Child and am working on To Learn with Love. The Whole Brain Child offers dum dums like me insight into how children’s brains develop and how to approach the terrible brain purges of the two-three-four year old from a scientifically pragmatic perspective. It was a quick read (as are all of them) and well worth it. To Learn with Love I’m still working on. I am a very fast reader, but that sometimes means I skip and skim and this one I really want to digest. It’s about a large family’s experience as Suzuki teachers, and watching their children grow in the method. I talked a little about the Habit book when purging my closet of dresses, but in more depth, I want to share a few things I gleaned. Our habits are ingrained, and the neuropathways get set…
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Okay, so death is not really on the line. Maybe more like screaming and shrieking to death. That’s probably the biggest risk involved here. And my hearing. My sanity? My own patience? Anyone with two kids aged over 1 and over 3 have witnessed this: SuperBoy playing happily with one truck. He zooms it. He shoves things into it. He talks to himself about what it’s doing. He proudly tells me what it’s doing “going to mass and then to the baseball game to bring the players their communion.” Doo dee doo. SweetPea enters the scene. She had been happily coloring all over a coloring book from the 80’s (90’s?) from the thrift store. You know, long stripes of crayon in an erratic fashion. I glance over at it and wonder “should I be reinforcing circles, counter clockwise? Is this another example of her happily learning and experiencing on her own or am I supposed to intervene. If she were at pre-school, would a certified teacher be correcting her?” Then I decide that’s part of why she’s not at pre-school. And that if I get up, everything will hurt. She pops up and over to see where his truck is going. Suddenly it happens. She shrieks before she sweeps. Like an eagle. Out of the sky. Onto its tiny mouse prey. And the tousle starts. NO NO IT’S MINE! he shouts as she full-body embraces the truck, splaying over it like that mean kid who licked all the cupcakes at the party so no one…
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I’m on a kick. A cleaning kick. No, not like I’m actually scrubbing the bathrooms, silly, but more like organizing and purging. That closet at the end of the hallway? Done. Those dozens and dozens of unused hangers? Gotten rid of. My clothing from college that I literally had in a plastic bag called “college favs”? Done. The mounds and mounds of children’s toys? Purged. Even the ones I like. We just don’t need 17 wooden puzzles for the same age & skill set. Now it’s on to clothing. This is tough. I have accumulated a beautiful lawyer wardrobe. Suits, skirts, blouses, lovely, lovely. I’m not ready to give those up as they were pricey and well-fitted. But when will I wear them again? Those ones are on hold. The real kicker are the dresses. College dresses {were they that short? were they that tight?}, the intermittent print phase {mostly designer hand-me-downs from my glamorous new yorker of a sister}, and then living in Vegas. Ah, the Vegas phase! When I clerked for a federal judge in Vegas for a year, many many moons ago now, I was living out there alone–with just two new girlfriends to my name {Love you, E & S!}. So aside from eating Twizzlers and watching cable TV for the first time in my life, a lot, in the early evening, I shopped. Designer Fashion Clearance was its name, and wow. Couture affordable! I picked up a few Manolo shoes, Jimmy Choos, and a few…
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Someone asked me over the wedding weekend what it meant that I wrote a “parenting blog.” Do you write your blog everyday? Do you chronicle your parenting? Does it include how-to youtube videos? were a few of the followups. It took a few minutes to sort through my own mind of what it is I’m doing here, and why, and how to answer this polite person who was genuinely interested in unearthing what on earth I meant by “parenting blog.” Or sometimes I respond to the question And what do you do? with the answer that’s simplest: I’m a stay-at-home mom, expecting my third. Or I do the whole: I’m an attorney who’s on hiatus home with our children (which begs the question of when this hiatus will end). Or sometimes if they really seem to want to know what I do, I say all three: I’m a stay-at-home lawyer mom taking a break from legal practice who runs a natural parenting blog and organic goods etsy shop. It’s so convoluted, they usually have only one follow up question: what’s etsy? In response to this person’s question, and my own that I pose in the title, I had to eat a bowl of mint chip ice cream (hey, Fat Tuesday is tomorrow. Our Jesus-induced diet of Lenten no sweets is coming up in just mere hours), survey my very dirty studio floor, the insane amount of indoor seedlings my husband is growing right next to my computer and practically on top…
Read More— 1 — It’s happening. This awesome gathering of women called the Edel Gathering. In Austin. And I’m GOING! Whew, thank you side monies from crafting delightfulness on etsy. You’ve made it happen. Thank you! It’s a conference for mommy bloggers, most of the presenters are Catholic so people like Jen, Grace, Hallie, and co. GREAT stuff, people! Me & BabyLoves will be traveling and compared to traveling with my older kiddos, I know (fingers crossed for no colic) this will be a breezie time. It looks like some great women from law school will be there–I haven’t seen them in soooo long! Hurrah. — 2 — Valentine’s Day is here and I haven’t done anything special for my man. We did color him a picture yesterday. Does that count? I don’t know. He had SuperBoy give me my present this morning (after he’d gone to work and mr. stay in his room til 7am obeyed the greatest of all commandments). Can I say SO PRETTY?? We have dinner plans & then a concert we’re attending/helping at. I have a few hours to figure something super sweet, romantic, and special for him. I did buy a maternity red dress. NEW. Isabelle Oliver. Maybe this will cut it? Consider me actually showered and hair did. — 3 — The greatest family invasion ever is happening this weekend. My sister, her two sweeties & husband, my brother, his snuggle boy & wife, finally. All of us under one very happily filled up…
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