Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Home Hair vs. Work Hair

This morning I scared myself. I almost left the house with 'home hair' and forgot to put on my 'work hair.'  It's like the hair equivalent of leaving the house with your slippers on.

Since becoming a mom, I've gone to work with various stains on my clothes, spit-up being the most common, nose boogies too -- sorry for the gross-out factor, but it's true.

I've found myself trying hard to be taken seriously in very important meetings at work, only to look down and see a slap-dash smattering of various gooey crud from my little angels. Thank goodness I wear a lot of print shirts these days! Plain white T's are out for me.

I can get through a day with small spots on my clothes. What I can't do is leave the house with my hair in a big ol' knotty mess piled atop my head. That little gem I save for my family.

My poor husband.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

My Mom is My Google

I'm a Google girl. Not so much Yahoo or Bing, but when I want to find something, I Google it. I love to scour the Internet for an answer to some question that must be located rightthissecond.

But, to be honest, my first instinct for many things, at least when it comes to cooking, is to call my mom.

For example, I realized, much to my embarrassment, that I've never hard boiled an egg.

[pauses to let the laughter die down.]

It's time to give my daughter egg yolks and the best way to feed them to her, with no egg-white contamination, is to hard boil the egg and then separate. Easy, smashy food for a gummy mouth to figure out how to eat.

My mom is currently on vacation, so I'm waiting to call her, and haven't even considered Googling it. For me, I just want to have that knowledge from my mom. I love that something as simple as hard boiling an egg is something that can pass down through generations.

If I Google it, I'll be bombarded with way too many opinions on the method and time involved in this simple skill. I don't want all that. I want to filter out that noise.

I want my mom.

Friday, June 24, 2011

And Now I Know

Alternative title: Holy crap; it only took 10 minutes?!

So, my husband and I finally had to do something we never imagined we'd want or have to do. We hired a company to mow our lawn once a week.

I don't know about you, but I grew up in the country and from what I know, you don't hire people to do things you can do yourself. Wait, I think there's an appropriate Dwight K. Schrute quote here: "I can and do cut my own hair."

Anyway, we have two young kids, both in diapers, both with little desire to nap on the weekends, but we were managing. And then our lawnmower broke. And we caved.

But here's a little secret... I friggin love having someone come and mow my lawn. The yard looks great and it has given us more time as a family on weekends and has completely diminished our stress about which neighbors might be giving us the stink eye if we let another weekend go by with no lawn mowing.

I am home today, having skipped work to stay with my daughter who has a cold+fever, and so I happened to be witness to the miracle of hired help. Three of them, two mowers, one for each part of our lawn, and one dude doing the edging work.

And it only took 10 minutes.

And it is worth every penny.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Chiefy Poop

In the long list of slightly wrong words for things, my son came up with a winner tonight.

He said, "Mom, I want to watch the guy say 'c'mon, c'mon'."
Me: "You mean the guy who eats cheesy poofs?"
He: "Yeah. Chiefy Poop."

[mom and dad do everything they can to stifle the guffaws bubbling in their throats.]

I think he means the guy in Toy Story 2 who eats cheesy poofs, then falls asleep and spills them on the floor.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Soothing a Newborn

This topic is lovingly dedicated to one of my best friends who is about to receive a new baby into her life. I love you (you know who you are :) ).

Skin-to-Skin

Even if your baby isn't hard to console, having a naked baby lie on your naked chest is one of the most soothing and natural things in the world. For both of you.

It promotes healthy sleep, it helps regulate a baby's breathing and it soothes him to hear your heartbeat. This is some of the best cuddle time for both parents with a newborn. I hope every new mama gets to snuggle with her newborn like this.

Here is my testimonial... My son was screaming his head off on day 1 or 2 or 3 (can't remember which anymore). My husband and I were at our wits end with no sleep and I didn't know how to calm my baby - we tried the usual stuff, of course. I finally remembered hearing from someone about skin-to-skin and took all his clothes off (except diaper), took off my shirt, and laid him on my chest. Heartbeat to heartbeat. He quieted immediately. And I mean immediately, and settled in for some much-needed sleep.

My husband, who was sleeping on a mattress on the floor at the time, popped his bleary-eyed head up and said, "Wow. What the hell did you do?"

For us it worked. Maybe it's not for everyone, but it was wonderful and necessary in our house. With my daughter, she didn't practice screaming her little head off nearly as much as her older brother, but we still had our naked cuddle time.

Sigh... Coo... Bliss. Some of my favorite memories from the first few weeks.

Recruiting Weather

I live near Seattle. Have I mentioned that? If you don't live here you probably think it rains every single day. It might surprise you that it doesn't. Not exactly.

What we do have on an irritatingly near-daily basis is gray sky. You see, the sun doesn't shine all that often. But when it does shine? Watch out, world!

The increased happiness around these parts is palpable. Everyone is smiling, a spring in their step; we just can't help ourselves. We ditch socks and boots for pedicures and sandals and greet one another with contented bliss and knowing nods of, "Yessss. This is why we live here."

I call it our recruiting weather. I'd bet good money that someone is visiting our fair city today and in the middle of some back-and-forth debate about whether or not to pack his house and move to the Pacific Northwest. Maybe he even visited during a 'gray cloud month' and thought to himself, "Wow, it really does rain all the time. "

But if you're here today, sir... gotcha.

It is beautiful here. The land is peppered with about a million variations of greens and yellows and blues. The lakes, the Puget Sound, all glisten with sparkling gold atop a blue blanket of yummy water.

Welcome to Seattle. It's nice to meet you.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Three More Months

Cause for celebration, we've reached the 9 month mark in our baby girl's life and that means we're rounding the corner to no more bottles, steadier naps, and far cheaper daycare. Hooray, right?

I find my cheers coming up a little short, for this also means my little baby is growing up.

This tiny, fragile being is turning into a laughing, smiling soon-to-be-walking little girl right before our eyes. She's driving the unstoppable train of rapid growth and all I want to do is stop the momentum for a second and stare into her blue eyes and memorize her. I want to commit every inch of her to some cannot-be-erased memory.

And, yet, the now is amazing and thrilling to watch, and I don't want this stage to end either.

It's overwhelming how deeply you can love another being. I can marvel and grin at her advancement while simultaneously grieving the loss of each stage she's left behind with alarming ease.

Blessed am I to bear witness to this daily evolution.

And I will celebrate the end of bottles and I will sigh in contentment for longer naps and I will respond with enthusiasm to her babbling chatter.

You go, girl. I'll be here watching.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Sleep - Try to Get At Least Eight Hours

Oh, sweet elusive sleep. If only I could order you from a website and have you express delivered to be here the day before yesterday. I'd set up a recurring order asap.

Have you ever read an online article about how to be less tired, less stressed, all-in-all a better 'you'? They always say something like, "oh, and by the way, get those 8 hours of sleep."

But I have yet to locate in any of these articles any mention of, "oh, and btw, if you're a parent of a young child, you won't be getting those 8 hours."  Or even, "we're so sorry that sometimes small children won't let you sleep for 8 hours (at least, not in a row)."

Nope, they just skip right on by that subject. It's like if you take a health assessment a few months after your baby is born and they tell you that your height-weight ratio is a bit 'off' and have you tried eating less, moving more? Yes, thank you, I have. Have you tried asking the question, "oh, and btw, have you recently given birth?"

I can only laugh when I read these articles. Clearly, they are not meant for me. Not yet, anyway.

But I know sleep is coming. I believe it. I have to, or I'll crack.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

The Circus

We're a family of four. Two of the four are under the age of three. This means, when the four of us go on the road we have to bring a whole lotta crap in tow.

There are diapers and wipes and clothes and extra clothes and blankets and books and bottles and special brushes to scrub the bottles and, well, it's not exactly traveling light.  I call this "the circus."

This past Easter, the circus went out to my mom's house. We love, love, love spending time out there and enjoyed ourselves by dying easter eggs and hunting for easter eggs and signing songs and seeing old friends and reveling in a sunny trip to the ocean. It was all wonderful. But the getting there and the getting home took its toll.  Since when did a 4-hour trip become a 7-hour trip?

And so I said, "Honey. Let's not take this circus on the road again for a while."

There was no objection.

So, we came up with a new plan. The "divide and conquer" plan, where, if we go anywhere, we try to split us up into two's. Don't worry, alarmists, it's not mom+dad and son+daughter.  :)

Today I got to take my son on a little road trip up to Bow, WA (near Mt. Vernon) and then onto Bellingham. We ran and laughed and played and ate cookies instead of dinner and had the time of our lives. I had one brief moment where I looked around for my husband and daughter, as if I'd misplaced them, but mostly when I thought of them, I just smiled, knowing they were as happy in their camp as we were in ours.

I loved spending this focused time with my son. I loved getting out of the house and exploring new ground and taking an adventure with my son, Turbo the Wonderkid.

Divide and conquer totally kicks the circus' butt.

Friday, June 17, 2011

3, 2, 1... Negotiate!

In the past few weeks my husband started using the, "I'm going to count to 3" tactic and, I have to say, it's working surprisingly well with our 2 1/2 year old son. Nice parenting, dad! :)

Tonight, here is what I overheard as the two of them were in the living room while I finished up with dinner. After some comical back and forth about whether or not there would be a bath:

Dad: "I'm going to count to three. One..."
The Negotiator: [ignores dad]
Dad: "Two..."
The Negotiator: "No! Just only say 'one,'" as he runs to the bath.

Apparently, my son likes it when he follows the rules at "one."

A little overachiever in the making?

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Why Didn't I Think of That?

My daughter is 9 months old, eating like a champ, and I've finally gotten into the swing of making a lot of her food. I did end up doing a lot of jar food for a couple of months, but that's because sleep had gone bye-bye in our house and I was tired with a capital YAWN.

But, things are smoothing out now and I'm steaming peaches and sweet potatoes and mixing that with some veggies and even some chili powder and cilantro for some extra flavor. I have Dr. Susanna to thank for those flavor ideas! Here is one of her yummy jars of food:

But the thing I have just figured out (can you say "Light Bulb Moment"?), is that I should just make or buy soup and puree that.

Soup is so yummy, a complete meal in and of itself and if you make it, you can really control the salt and pick the best veggies.

Big ol' stockpot, here I come!

C'mon, Little Tomato!

One of my very best friends in the world is about to adopt a little baby and the birth mother is due soon. I'm getting so excited for that phone call (or text, or skywriting, or however else I get to find out).

Love you guys! xoxo


*"little tomato" is in loving reference to a favorite album by Pink Martini.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Amazing Gloria

For some reason, I chose tonight to start saying grace before our evening meal. I grew up in a house where we said grace before dinner and I've always liked the tradition.

My husband, my son and I sat down before the best tuna casserole in the land (thankyouverymuch), and without really thinking about it, I said, "Let's hold hands and say grace."

Two little eyebrows shot up.

"Bless us, oh Lord, and these they gifts which we are about to receive, through thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen."

A quizzical glance from my son, followed by a rare silence.

A few bites into the meal, he says, "Let's do more Gloria."
me: "you mean Grace?"
him: "yeah."

OK. "Dear Lord, thank you for my darling family, my husband, my son, my daughter. Amen."

Finally, a cute little, "Amen" to my right, followed by, "I said 'Amen.'"
me: "Good job." (it's always good to offer praise for learning a new skill.)

And, so, tonight's dinner was an entertaining feast, where we thanked the Lord for our milk, our favorite Woody & Buzz Lightyear cup, our dinner, my son (several times, at his request)... all followed by increasingly enthusiastic Amen's.

"Mom, I like Gloria."

Me too. Amen to that.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Beautiful Mistakes

I love it when kids get something just a little bit wrong. :)

While singing the ABC's - or the ABCD's, as my son calls them - there are 2 X's in my kid's rendition.

"A, B, C, D.... Q, R, X, T, U, V, W, X..."

I would never dream of correcting this beautiful and innocent mistake.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Conversations With a Toddler

I have loved witnessing the evolution of my son's language development. A year ago he was barely pronouncing single words like "ball" and "water" and "gat" (for cat). Single words only, no phrases, no context.

Then came strings of words together, with "want dat," or "no diaper."  Soon to follow were complete sentences.

Some days I swear he'd wake up in the morning and not only have new words in his vocabulary, but also a new way of forming sentences. I have to say it makes me a little envious how he can accomplish 'work' in his sleep, while my sleep is still very fragmented and not nearly as restorative. I usually wake up with one single thought: "Oh, crap, is it morning already?"

Tonight was another great example. Two examples, actually.

First was as he left the dinner table without asking to be excused (we're working on manners). Both my husband and I called out to him and asked him to come back, to which he replied, "I hear you," and kept on walking.

Then, when I was pretending I couldn't find his favorite Thomas the Train book, he says, "maybe we should ask Dad."

Blows my mind that he knows how to use 'maybe' in a sentence. Perhaps it's totally normal and on track, but it's my first kid so I get to be impressed and marvel at the breakneck speed of his ever changing self.

Bill Cosby Wisdom

Kid: "Dad, can I have a cookie?"
Dad: "No, son, you cannot have a cookie."

2 minutes later, Dad sees Kid reaching for the cookie jar.

Dad: "I thought I told you no cookie!"
Kid: "Well, I was just getting a cookie for you dad. Do you want a cookie?"

This last line is delivered with a sing-song pitch and an earnest, hopeful smile.

-----

Boy, do I get this now. Bill Cosby was right.

My toddler-soon-to-be-preschooler son has been using this enormously cute sing-songy voice with us for the past few months, and it's sooo hard to resist. His face is full of hope and belief that a smile will convince his parents that we should give him a cookie, or let him redecorate the kitchen with crayons, or hand over our checkbooks.

Where do they learn this? Did I unknowingly teach him when I attempted to sound over the moon with things like, "heeeey, let's try some broccoli. Mmm, yummy!"  Or do they just know?

Last night my son said to me, "Mom. Mom. Mom." (have I mentioned the hilarious repeats too? :) )

"Mom." [dramatic pause while I wait with bated breath] "Do you want to have ice cream?"

Where's my checkbook...

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Proof of Dreaming - Part Two

One morning last weekend my son slept in until 8:45. He's 2 1/2 and usually wakes between 6:30 and 7:15, so this was a rare treat for mom and dad and, as it turns out, maybe a little time for him to extend his dreams.

When I went in to check on him, he was awake but lounging in his bed. I can only guess that he was still halfway in dreamland because he said to me:

"Mom, Smiley* was wearing a hat. And a mask. And glasses."

[pause]

"Tell her, 'no thank you.'"

He'd apparently had a dream about his little sister and in that dream she was dressed up in some kind of getup with a hat, a mask and glasses. I chuckled a bit at first, but then he got serious about not wanting her to continue with this charade.

"Tell her 'no thank you'," he insisted again. So I said, out loud, "No thank you, Smiley."

Since that morning, he's repeated his insistence of 'no masks, no glasses, no hat' and I have to wonder what kind of dream he had that keeps coming back to him.  Was it funny? Was it scary? Was it strange?

I got a little clue the very next morning when he talked about the dream again. The new clue?

This time he said, "gumdrop glasses."
To which I replied, "You mean like the Gingerbread Boy?"
"Yes." And he smiled.



*Names have been changed. Click here for details. :)