Teach Me How to Mommy

She's too high right? Right now the baby needs a helicopter parent.   She needs to be near me at all (or at least most) times.   I don’t have to worry about holding her too much – that’s my job.   I actually should swoop in if someone else is holding her and she’s crying.   She’s mine to feed, snuggle and love.   Period. How freeing. Yet, when your kids begin to change from toddlers who toddle to “big” kids who talk, run and play independently then the waters get a bit murky.   With a five and close-to-four year old, Jerry and I have been trying to figure out what kind of parents we want to be when our kids need us a little less.   Sure we want to be helicopter parents.   We want to know if their feelings are hurt.   We want to be there for all of their big and little accomplishments.   We want to discuss all their academic gains (and flubs) with their teachers.   We want... But we also want them to figure things ou...

I thought I'd have at least fourteen years before... Today my son walked into his preschool class without my help.  He went directly to his "bros" and started to talk about Star Wars (which he knows nothing about).  After I followed him and demanded a kiss I watched him wipe it off and continue playing. On the same day my daughter revealed that she has a boyfriend.  A what?  "A boyfriend, my friend and I sharing him."  Lucky guy.  At least she has good taste. It's happening too quickly, just like everyone said it would.  Luckily I have a brand new baby who needs me for everything and doesn't have the coordination to wipe off the million kisses I give her all.day.long. P.S . In other news, my daughter promised me she would stop growing when she turns five, my son still spends most of his day without any pants on and the baby still needs to nurse every three hours.  The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Ok, well  maybe just don't... Last Thursday I woke up to a snow day (yeaaa) and the stomach bug (booo).  Jerry went off to work and even though I am NEVER like this I was resigned to have a really chill day with the kids.  I let them watch an extra show in the morning and instead of moving from one activity to the next I tried to kind of stay put in one area and have the kids play around me.  Heck I was 39 weeks pregnant, right?  You can't really go outside when the snow is coming in sideways, right?  Everyone deserves a day to just not be "super", right? Well that day was here.  I still made the kids their meals, we ended up doing a fort and we did eventually venture outside and walk to the neighbor's house, but I was working at about a 25% capability level. The only problem is, when it came to 3:30 and my regular one cup of coffee a day ritual, I couldn't stomach it.  I tried three times to sip it and it wouldn't go down.  I knew my ...

This site has a lot to do with mommy-ing, but we are not too proud to mention that we couldn't do it on our own.  It takes a village, sure, but it also often takes a good dad.  So today, on this utmost important day we'd like to recognize how good we have it (most days).   We know what a good Dad is, because we had two. The bar started high - but watch our guys reach it. For instance, even though today was "his day" I disassembled the car seats on a whim.  I saw crumbs I couldn't get to and it was making me crazy.  I meant to start with just taking the covers off, but it lead to taking one seat out and apart, and then naturally the other.   The positives:  My car is really clean and the kids will no longer stand up and have sprinkles and cracker crumbs stuck to their bums. The negatives:  It took my husband over an hour (in the dark) putting them back together.  I heard a lot of aggressive mumbling, but none was ever directly...

With the help of two troops of wonderful family Jerry and I left for the weekend to celebrate my beautiful friend's wedding day.  Off to Cape Cod we went while our children were showered with love, gifts, sleepover treats, adventures and cousin time.  After checking in with them a few dozen times, I made some time to have fun.  A lot of it. If you put twelve of your closest high school friends in one house for a weekend there are a couple things that are guaranteed: 1.  You'll get no sleep.  I mean that.  One night I did not sleep.  The last time I did that was, well it was last year when John refused to sleep.  Let's just say it took me the whole week to recover. 2.  You end up reminiscing about the same memories you reminisce every time you see each other.  You also make a lot of promises about getting together again soon (let's make it actually happen). 3.  It's a good thing that snap chats disappear after 24 hours. ...

We all give dads a bit of flack.  Wait, I don't want to speak for you.  I give my own husband a lot of some flack.  He's really awesome at a lot of things, most importantly being a dad.  Yet, you know, he still finds time to watch football, take a quick snooze and drink some beer.  For some strange reason I can't find the time to do that in my life, so I tease him.  He's a good sport, plus I think a few jabs here or there are worth it as long as he still gets what he wants. Sometimes it dawns on me just how great I have it.  He's home every night and when he walks in the door his on "dad time".  There's no time to change, put up his feet or even go to the bathroom - it's time to be dad.  I do it too so I know that it can be hard, but never do I hear a complaint. Many dads do this so I am not ready to give him a gold star.  But not every dad, would do this.... This is my husband's favorite tv.  He researched it forever...

Like everyone else on the planet Amy and I are trying so hard to adjust to the school schedule that we  almost missed the fact that today is our One-Year Blogiversary! One year ago (today) we took the plunge and started this thing.  Throughout this year we have learned a lot about each other and also our "fans".  We are different, but the same.  We love our kids with our whole hearts and we make a lot of mistakes.  We are way too hard on ourselves, but we are also doing a pretty job of enjoying this chaotic time in our lives.  We are moms doing our best.  We are all living it, Amy and I just write about it. Doing this blog is an extra thing on our to-do list, but it's become a necessity.  It's added a whole new layer to our friendship and it is a major source of stress relief (a rewarding one at that).  We plan to continue forever.  Yes, that's right this will live on and on and on.  How else will we survive these turbule...

And all of a sudden my "baby" is two . He can have a conversation, he's almost out of diapers and he can tantrum like a champ.  I guess those "emergency bottles" I've been keeping in the back of the cabinet have no use.  The extra pacis hidden in the junk drawer can be thrown away.  All clothes that end in "months" and not "T" can be given away.  My baby is now a boy. He seems fine with the change, it's me that's struggling. I've always been a bit out of my league with him.  His love for trucks, diggers, John Deere and overall destruction has forced me to become a real boy mom.  It might not be what I am used to, but I really "dig" it now. It's been quite a roller coaster ride.  I tend to forget the 10 months of no sleep and focus on the hours and hours and hours of snuggles and love.  But, I guess most of all when I think of John I think of his smile.  Happy Birthday big boy!

Sometimes first days of work involve unpredictable doctor's appointments, double ear infections, and a run-in with one of the very first students I've ever had.  They can also harvest the best, deepest, most heart-felt hugs of your life. Had a full-circle moment when the medicine I needed to treat Lucy's ear aches was given to me by one of the first students I ever taught. She was in my third period class in 2008 and sat in the front row.  But she was a tough girl.  She was not mean, not disrespectful, but always skeptical and always making sure I did just what I was supposed to do.  She was always there, but didn't always smile.  She is someone I'll always remember (whether she helped me at the pharmacy or not). When she saw me she smiled big and said, "I was just talking about you earlier."  Earlier?  As in it hasn't been over 5 years since I've seen you last?  She's doing well and she helped me get my kid better.  Who knew that the ...

Determined to make this week still feel like summer, I tried extra hard to make my afternoons with the kids really fun.  Whether it was going swimming or going to a welcome back to school bash, every afternoon I had something planned to help ease the pain of our new schedule.  I exhausted myself (and them too) but I think they caught on to the sentiment - mommy isn't going to be here every hour, but she will be here when it counts.  Well, at least I hope that's how they feel. So, what happens when you plan an evening adventure to an outdoor eating venue and it's closed (until April)? You end up watching your son pour out a salt shaker while you order Wendy's for them on a random Tuesday night.  I don't do fast-food so this was a big deal, but the kids were hungry and it was getting late.  Surprise, surprise they ate well.   Also, not that I should have one but the frosty I had was out-of-this-world! I wrote last week about how going...

Amy and I are not saying good-bye to summer just yet.   We will do that in video form later on, yet the time has come for one of us to return to work (and that’s me).   ·                  So while my husband is downstairs in the basement with a bunch of men creating fantasy football teams (no seriously, it’s what I am currently dealing with), I am reflecting on the best summer of my life.   Much of it was chronicled on the blog and I don’t want to be redundant.   There’s plenty I didn’t do, but I also don’t feel like talking about that either. ·              Instead I am choosing to attempt to permanently etch this summer into my brain.  The two thousand +  pictures I have help a lot.  I am choosing to let them run over and over in my mind while I sit through endless meetings tomorrow.  I am choosing to get excited to see my co-workers ...

I know it's important to "make the time".  I've been working on it all summer.  But what if time is kind of running out (or at least running low). Recently anyone I come in contact with asks the big question "When is baby number three coming?" Wait, just joking (no one EVER asks that).  It's: "When do you go back?" It's soon ok.  It's Monday.  It hurts when I have to talk about it, but thanks for asking. Instead of wallowing, I've been squeezing every good minute out of this week.  We've done lots of fun stuff and then also some regular stuff, but we've done it all together.  I've noticed that Lucy has gotten just a bit more special attention this week because of the nature of some of my errands (haircuts, etc.).  So, on this night I told Jerry I was taking out our son and we would be back when we would be back.  I said bye to my favorite girl and headed out with no plan. We just ended up at the park, a perf...

Just a quick note.  Amy and I planned one last mombloggers night before we start back to work.  Well, maybe we can fit one more in...but this one will be hard to beat. We started the evening by grabbing a quick drink at J. Tims.  I parked about a mile away from the door, yet we still found seats.  The quick stop was made even sweeter by meeting up with Bobby (our friend's husband).  He was such good company.  We had quite a #sess on our Olympics obsession.  Who knew you could spend an entire happy hour on how amazing the women's gymnastics team is? Their skills, their smiles, their make-up, their voices, THEIR BODIES! My God those bodies! No, this is no exaggeration this is exactly where our seats were.  Ouch! Anyways, even though we were 15 minutes early the only seats left were the ones in the front row.  We considered another movie (What the F is Sausage Fest?).  We also considered going back to the bar.  But the purp...

This morning the kids and I went to breakfast and then went to a local store that has fruits, veggies, some farm animals and cute little Melissa and Doug things.  We go often - it's one of those regular joints you can always add to a morning or afternoon to "stretch it out a bit." The store connects to a warehouse in the back where they keep flowers and materials.  The doors were left wide open to this area.  John saw it first and noticed three (THREE) little toddler tractors and battery-operated cars.  They were John Deere and Mickey Mouse and were obviously for a little boy just John's age.  It obvious to me that they were for the worker's kids.  You know, they weren't put there for my kids - although in my kids' eyes I hadn't taken them to a little market, I had taken them to Disney World. I am the adult so I could tell customers probably weren't allowed back there, but to my kids the doors were open and there were toys.  It's a pl...