whole parenting family
The other night, we’re doing dishes and watching the baby on the monitor, listening to our favorite band’s new album, and I turn to AA: Is this how you thought you’d live your life? He snorted and kept scrubbing the few plastic dishes we use that I refuse to put in the high heat of the dishwasher for fear it will ignite their secret BPA ingredients and kill my kids. Then he asked me what I thought my life looked like in theory versus practice, which is a way better way of stating my same question. No surprise. He’s definitely the brainier of us. And I’m more rigid. I explained my present life in my mind looks like this: Homemade food eaten by children wearing all clothing that I’ve made or sourced organically, while they gently play with their wooden toys and share kindly as I look on, showered, clothed, and knitting from a very comfortable yoga position I’ve mastered. Maybe I’m reading aloud from A Child’s Garden of Verse and maybe we’re all doing crafts. He laughed so hard starting with the part where the kids are only wearing clothing I’ve made and going all the way through. I joined in and we moved on to the greener pastures of intellectual discussion like how many shirts I needed to iron for his week at work. This got me to thinking, how closely am I living to how I’d like to live? How far off am I and what’s holding me back from actually living…
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Toddlers. So cute. So lethal. Cue the long exhale. When I was first a mom of a toddler I died a thousand deaths, each and every day. I agonized over what to do when he protested naps. I texted my husband a billion times If he doesn’t stop screaming I’m going to die//can i die from listening to his whining//breakfast for dinner again–we fought all day and I’m too exhausted to cook//will he ever grow up or will he whine at college?? It was so hard to accept that my toddler couldn’t accept the word “no” nicely. It was so hard to hear the streaming of whining emanating forth from his frothy mouth. My brain face palmed a dozen times a day. You see, I was still freshly off the working woman wagon, and I wasn’t fully immersed in kid world. I really thought I could control his behavior. I really really was wrong. I wrote a lot about my struggles. Two Year Old Terror. Tantrums Rule My Life. Emotional Voice Finding. Power Parenting Doesn’t Work. I read a lot. I talked in my mom groups about it. I cried to my mom. I whined to my husband. I vented to my sisters. And now that it’s my second go ’round with a two year old? It’s so much less frustrating! I do get irritated of course, but I rarely feel hot white rage of powerless agony. She’s different than he is, too. SweetPea is her own breed of spastic and has…
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It’s that most wonderful time of the year//New Year!!! Linking back to my blog posts & writings from the last year! I look at 2014 and my last New Year’s post and marvel. A third baby. Lots of blog and etsy momentum. Traveled quite a bit. Watched my husband tackle hard challenges at work and whomp them. Watched my son read! Listened to my daughter comfort her baby brother. Gaped while that baby crawl up the stairs much to my horrified pride. Tried out sewing on knit fabric, a totally scary leap for me, thanks to my sweet friend Grace’s encouragement. I also look at lots of home projects we did. The new bathroom. The features in Design Mom and Apartment Therapy. The articles for What to Expect, Verily, and I Believe in Love. A few fundraisers including one for the marvelous Monks of Norcia {oh I wish I could be a monk with their group! Such an incredible person is Father Cassian Fulsom and the kids are in love!}. New wall hangings by my friend Kelly and a more focused motif in both kids’ rooms. Many closets cleaned out and wardrobes turned over. But I also look at what I want to do better in 2015. Read books for me. Sew my mending pile. Clean my house more regularly. Sleep. Write better and edit more clearly for Blessed is She. Tackle healthy eating with my full attention. Let’s get specific. Right here. Right now. :: 1) clean bathrooms. I…
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In light of BabyLoves turning a full 7 months today, going on 18 months practically speaking, we’re running a Freshly Picked Moccasin giveaway!!! The team over there is so lovely and so generous as to send me a pair of my choosing to tell you about, and for one of you lucky folks to make your own selection as well! Check their beautiful site for styles ranging from everything your heart desires for your daughter to everything you ever dreamed of for any bebe. The unique design of these means there’s a hidden elastic band so these cannot come off. I mean, cannot. I mean, the baby who kicks and kicks and the toddler who flails can’t drop them at church under the pew or under the restaurant booth table. No losing shoes. WIN. And the bottom of them feels like leather butter. No exaggeration. Incredibly soft & durable. These are going to survive my baby’s antics, yes indeeeeedie. I selected the AMERICA ones. Above all their fabulous style lines, this one called to me right away. You see, my little brother is in the Army and he’s Godfather to both our boys so for his littlest Godson, of course this was the perfect fit. It also goes great with the festive holiday leggings I just made mr size 18months. And the wool shirt he shares with his pint-sized older sister {{they’re on sale!!}} My brother is the apple of all our eyes, as he’s the youngest of the five and has four older…
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A few months back I posted a pic to my instagram account of BabyLoves chilling in his Go-Pod. People asked what is that? where did you get it? how do you like it? Let me tell you: not only do I love the one I bought a few years back, but I LOVE that the president of KidCo agreed to give one to a lucky one of you. What a nice company! But first, allow me to tell you what it is not and what it is. It’s not an exersaucer that takes up your whole living room and has strobe lights. It’s not a walker (THOSE ARE NOT SAFE!!!). | | >>> see those spindly legs in the background? Not the potty toilet, the black plastic legs. That’s what the bottom of it looks like. There’s even a canvas down there to catch the spit up or other bodily fluids. It is a baby stashing device that also folds up and can be carried along anywhere or stored easily in your closet. Think: sports event chair. Canvas sack et al. Yup, same here. It is soft and comfortable so that they can either bear weight on their legs, or just laze backwards. It does have loops for you to latch a zillion toys to so the baby won’t go insane while you run to the freezer for some gelato. Or do laundry real quick. Or wipe your toddler. My sister originally told me about it years back. I used it sparingly…
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I’m still a novice spouse myself, almost six years in. So don’t take anything here as word from on high. In fact, take it with two fistfuls of salt because what you do with your spouse is probably totally different than what I do with mine with respect to this. But given that I have a blog and love to feel like an expert {NOT}, you get my take on this. For the first time in our marriage these past few months, I felt guilty like I was really neglecting my husband. I mean, I kept the kids alive and I talked to him. So that’s good. Right? But him as a person and me as as person were not resonating on the same level. We were like two robotic puppets (now there’s a weird image for you) going through the motions of gathering together our energies and household, but not actually connecting. That’s in part why I wrote my last post about seeking common experiences outside of family life and work life, outside of talking over drinks or snuggling in the bedroom, or for the cosleepers among us, snuggling somewhere other than the bedroom. I thought about this idea of not connecting. Then I thought about vows. Then I thought about how SweetPea thinks vehemently believes one of Santa’s reindeer is named Victim. Then I thought about Grace’s last post about Bash’s talking. Then I thought about how Bridget had her baby, Anders!!! Then I circled back to vows.…
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