Mommy Talk

I took the kids to the market today. It was just a short little shopping trip and they loved it especially because we got one of the carts that has the car you get to drive. Both of them sat happily through the entire shopping trip. Besides Lexi climbing out of the side of the car and Hunter poking her in the eye, I would say it went rather well. We have had much worse, you know the kind of shopping trips when you grab the kids and just leave your half full shopping cart stranded on some random aisle of the store because all you know is that you have to get out of the store that second or you are going to lose it!

Anyway, I checked out, took the kids to the car, loaded my groceries into the car and went to grab the kids. When I turned and looked at Lexi she gave me her most mischievous smile and held up a small candy! We did not buy the candy and I knew she thought we were getting away with something. I gave her a very serious look and told her, “Oh, no Lexi we could be in BIG trouble! Did you take that from the store without paying for it?” She nodded yes and slowly began to get more serious. I told her that we needed to go back into the store and pay for the candy, so we would not be in trouble any more. Lexi was dead silent as we walked back to the store. When we got to the front door of the store she looked up at me with tears rolling down her cheeks and her bottom lip quivering and said, “Mommy, I don’t want the police man to get me!”

I took her in the store and told her that no one was going to take her and that we were just going to go get in line and pay for the candy. We got in line and she pointed to where the candy went on the shelf and said, “I don’t even want the candy anymore!” She was so upset we ended up just putting the candy back on the shelf and walking out of the store.

Recently we had a friend who gave birth to a baby boy who unfortunately was still born. I cannot even imagine what our sweet friends went through and was amazed at the strength they showed through the entire experience. When we were leaving the baby’s funeral we were talking to the older brother of the mother that lost her baby boy and he said, “Go home and hug your kids!” It hit me really hard and over the last few weeks it keeps coming into my head, “Go hug your kids!”

I get so caught up in all the little things that I think I need to do during the day that sometimes I miss out on what is really important. Laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, running errands… all those things are always going to be there to do, but my kids are only little once and I should enjoy them.

We have been potty training our little two year old and it has not been easy. I am sure that any parent who has potty trained their child knows how frustrating it can be at times. I was venting some of my frustrations to my Aunt and she gave some great words of advice, “She won’t go to kindergarten in a diaper, don’t worry so much about it!” I overheard her give my cousin the same advice when she was telling her how she was afraid her five week old baby was getting too attached to his pacifier, “He won’t go to kindergarten with his pacifier, don’t worry so much about it!” How much do we miss while we are worrying about something silly?

Here is my new years resolution for 2010: I will enjoy my little ones while they are still little! No more running around like a crazy person trying to be the Mom with the cleanest house and the most organized life. We will have toys scattered around the house and I will be on the floor with my kiddos playing with those toys. I am sure I will still worry about silly things, I am a Mom, but I will try not to worry to the point of having anxiety over every little thing like I sometimes do. This year is going to be a great one, filled with memories that I will treasure forever!

I would be crazy to miss out on this!

My one year old son, Hunter, has a obsession with the TV remote control. It must be a man thing! The first thing he does in the morning is find the remote and and he has been known to fall asleep holding the remote against his cheek like a stuffed animal. It’s funny because Hunter does not like to watch the TV at all and he could care less if we put in a kid movie for him, but he has this fascination with the remote control!

The other night my husband and I had put the kids to bed and sat down in front of the TV ready to relax and watch The Office. Well, our remote was mysteriously missing. We spent 45 minutes tip-toeing through the entire house looking for the remote. We were going through all the bedrooms, even the ones with our sleeping little ones, trying to think like a one year old would. We were just about to give up when my husband looked behind our toy basket in our living room and found the missing remote. This is not the first time we have had to hunt for our remote and I’m sure it will not be the last!

Lately my two year old is really in to naming things. Instead of the usual “What’s that?” that most two year old’s say, she says “What’s that name?”. I blame this on the dog, when we got our puppy we kept asking Lexi what we should name it. We have also had a lot of babies born in our extended family recently, so there has been lots of baby naming going on.

Anyway, this means that every day I have to name at least 50 of Lexi’s toys, book characters, and anything else interesting that we happen to see in passing. Lexi is so funny, because if you say a name that she doesn’t like she will say “No” and you have to name it again.

One day my mommy brain just couldn’t think of any more names. Grandma had just given Lexi two new puppy toys and they were lacking names. I was thinking and thinking, but I had nothing. Finally I just read the top of the little doggie house the puppies came with, Fisher Price. So, I told Lexi that the puppies names were “Fisher & Price”. She was very happy with these two names! Now usually the names I give to everything don’t stick and the next day we end up giving them new names, but not with “Fisher & Price”. Lexi loves these two puppies and their names have stuck. It is so funny to watch my little girl introduce her puppies “Fisher & Price” to anyone who will listen!

In 2007 we had our baby girl, in 2008 we had our baby boy, in 2009 we… got a puppy!

Crazy? Maybe a little, but so much fun too! We got a labradoodle this summer, her name is “Cash”. Raising a two year old, a one year old, and now a puppy is exhausting. So many mouths to feed, messes to clean, and don’t even get me started on all the poop! If this puppy didn’t make my two kids so happy I would be having serious issues. But, my kids adore Cash! Sometimes they love her too much. They squeeze her, hug her, pat her, pet her, pull her tail, kiss her, ride her. (I swear this isn’t puppy abuse right?) Cash is a great puppy and is so soft with the kids even through all this torture. We have been doing lots of puppy training, but I feel like we need to train our kids on how to enjoy their new puppy! Any tips on having a puppy and little kids?

My one year old, Hunter, has never crawled. He actually started walking pretty well 4 days after his 1st birthday. But, he is still a little hesitant about walking, mostly because he can “scoot” much faster. Hunter has a special way of getting around that involves scooting around on his butt. I searched “butt scooting baby” on YouTube and was surprised at how many other “Scooter Baby’s” are out there. Thank you for letting me see that my son is not the only baby out there that prefers this type of transportation! It is funny everytime you see it, believe me I still laugh out loud almost every time I see my little Hunter scooting around!

Here is one of the videos I found…

My sister had a baby about three months ago, she did a post on her blog, Managing Mommy’s,  a few days ago that was awesome! It explains what every mom goes through after she has her first baby. Here it is…

Oh, and a big thank you to Kristen for letting me post this on my site! Check out her website ManagingMommys.com and see how she has managed having a baby and getting back to work.

Post Pregnancy Bliss

You’ve just had a baby; you feel a sense of euphoria, you love the way it has changed you and you have accepted your new body and well life is just perfect! …..yeah right! Like Megan mentioned in a comment before, the period after you have a baby isn’t really talked about and guess what, it’s hard and it just plain sucks sometimes! So I want to talk about it! I think there is this idea out there that once your baby is here, everything is supposed to be wonderful, and why wouldn’t it be? You have a sweet, innocent bundle of joy that many people, who maybe aren’t as lucky, envy you for. Babies are a great blessing but there’s a little bad mixed in with all that good. Plus everyone is always telling you to enjoy these times because they grow so fast, which is true, but that doesn’t mean it is all smiles and giggles. There’s a lot of poo, pee and spit up to deal with, let alone feeling like you’re completely crazy because your emotions are worse than when you were pregnant, you might have a hard time breast feeding or choose not to and there’s guilt with that because BREAST FEEDING IS BEST and then every time you turn around you feel like someone is JUDGING your parenting skills and evaluating what kind of a parent you will be. Oh and you’ve just realized those 30 to 60 pounds you’ve gained WASN’T all baby weight! You can’t fit into any clothes, you feel too young to be a mom and even if you can find something to wear to go out and maybe even get a babysitter, well you just might not want to, either you’re too tired or you just plain feel DEPRESSED and want to sit at home and do NOTHING (where’s the spontanaeity?). Yes, I said DEPRESSED! Even if you don’t have to deal with full on post-partum depression, I think every woman feels parts of it after having a baby. It could just be because youre down because you’re frustrated or all of the hormones; nothing you do makes you feel any better and you find yourself staring at a blank wall for who knows how long and getting extremely frustrated every time your sweet baby cries or fusses. You’re supposed to be this super mom you’ve always imagined right? But really most days you don’t even want to get dressed, let alone shower… (or work on losing all that baby weight). Most of this has nothing to do with your baby, yes they can be frustrating sometimes, especially if you have a fussy baby but most of it is because you had the baby and even though the best thing you’ll ever have came out of that and yeah it’s WORTH IT, it’s hard and it takes a while to feel normal and like yourself again. Also, I don’t think I have gained back the 15% of brain cells I lost when I was pregnant… When does that come back? Or does it…?

A few weeks ago I felt like I had no girlfriends and that they were all just so different from me and I think part of me really wanted someone to talk to about it all because it’s kind of a shock. But this last little bit I’ve realized how many AWESOME girlfriends I do have and how many are going through the same thing! I realized that I had isolated myself a little by not making an effort and so I started making more of an effort but mostly I just plain got lucky and have been able to hang out with many of them lately. I don’t have 1 group where we always hangout and do everything together, I have a lot of different girlfriends; single, married, pregnant, married with kids, etc. and they all are great for different things. Some of them I talk to on a regular basis, some I don’t see for years at a time, some I see once a year, some I only see at group gatherings, but I can talk to all of them and it’s never awkward, I love it! Anyways, so lately I have talked to some of them who have had kids recently about different things and was so glad to know they had some of the exact same feelings and struggles! So thanks for listening, sorry I’m a little crazy!

Oh and guess what, I was looking for an image that could maybe back up my theory here, I googled a few different mom and post pregnancy things and they are all showing off the euphoric feeling I talked about… What’s so scary about being honest?

We recently discovered my lil’ guy has food allergies. Hunter can not eat milk, eggs, wheat or nuts. A few months ago I was babysitting my two nephews. I was feeding the kids french toast and scrambled eggs. Hunter is such a little begger when it comes to food and he was eyeing the scrambled eggs. I didn’t even think about allergies, Lexi ate eggs very early and never had any problems. Well, about two minutes after Hunter ate the eggs his face swelled up like a balloon. He has reacted to food and other things before so I gave him some Benadryl, but his face just kept swelling. I ran and picked him up and he started throwing up everywhere. I didn’t know if his air way was getting blocked off, but I didn’t wait around to see that happen. I told the other three kids I was taking care of that we had to get into the car and take Hunter to the hospital. We made it to the hospital, I walked in carrying Hunter with three other little ones trailing close behind me. They got us right in to see a doctor. His air way was fine and his oxygen levels were good. When we left the hospital the tears finally started running down my face. My six year old nephew said “Why are you sad, Hunter is okay?”. Hunter was okay, but every parent loses it sometimes right? Anyway, I called my pediatrician and he had me bring Hunter right in. He checked him out and said that he was fine, but that we should have some blood work done to find out exactly what Hunter is allergic to. This is how we found out what we need to stay away from. My pediatrician said that the trick is to keep him away from these foods and then the chances of him growing out of the allergy are better. Now the trick will be to keep a one year old away from all that yummy stuff! Wish me luck!

What’s in a name?

Naming a new baby is a huge deal and it is not always easy. I found this way cool website that helps with the process of deciding on a perfect name for a new little one.

It tells you the meanings and origins of names to help you decide. For example I looked up my kids names and this is what I found. The baby girl name “Lexi” is credited as being of Greek origin and means “Protector of Mankind.” And the baby unisex name “Hunter” is credited as being of English origin and means “One Who Hunts.” This information could have been helpful when I was picking the kids names out. Maybe they will grow into their names origins and meanings?

The truth is my husband and I came up with Lexi and Hunters names before we were even married. We went on a long hike and picked out all the names we liked for our kids. Now I just have to look up the meanings of those names and we can decide what to call the rest of our kids!

My baby boy, Hunter, has been teething like crazy! This little guy is only nine and a half months old and he already has eight teeth! That is hard on a baby as young as he is. He has been extra fussy lately, he just cries and nothing will soothe him. But, my husband has discovered the best teething trick for our baby. Drum roll please… APPLES!

I was up early this morning with an unhappy Hunter. He was just crying, and crying, and throwing his frustrated body all over the place while I tried to calm him down. Hunter is a Daddy’s Boy, so my husband was able to calm him for a minute, but he had to go to work. So, my husband handed Hunter back to me and then went into the kitchen and came back to me with an apple. He said that Hunter had been eyeing his apple and so I should have one and share it with him. Man was he right! It did just the trick! Hunter got that apple in his mouth and he was my happy baby boy again!

If we give him a whole apple that we have peeled, or just eaten part of ourselves, Hunter is a happy baby! He just naws on the apple and smiles at us with this look of “Thank you, you finally figured something to make my teeth feel better!”.

We watch him closely when he is chewing on his favorite new teething toy. I don’t want my little man choking on any of those small pieces he breaks off, so if you try this with your baby make sure they are used to eating some solid foods. Hunter loves it and it has made Mommy’s life much easier!

An apple a day keeps the teething monster away!!!