July 2014 - Tales from the Mommy Trenches

Monthly Archives: July 2014

The girls go to the Horse Park

My in laws have horses, and my children are obsessed with them. It is not hereditary because horses terrify me. I used to always see the girls at school with neck braces and casts from horseback riding related injuries, and figured being in close proximity with the equine was hazardous.

We have a lovely horse park nearby, though, and I do have fond memories of going to feed the horses there when I was little, so when some sweet mom friends invited me to go I didn’t hesitate. I knew the girls would get a kick out of it. And such was the case. read more

Wren sits up!

So this happened today. Just thought I’d share with you.

She had been popping back up in her car seat for a couple weeks now, so I figured, hey our bed is cushy! Let’s give this a whirl, kid.

She sat proudly for about ten seconds, and then this happened.

Good job, little bird! Daddy and I are looking forward to following your accomplishments in the field of sitting, in addition to your many other talents. We love you and your sisters so much.

The Stay at Home Mom Complex

There seems to be a general attitude that your average stay at home mom does not have very much to do during the day. She is a lazy creature, slovenly in appearance, who lives in a messy home and lets her children run amok. She spends most of her time whining about how tired and unappreciated she is. Little does she care that she was the author of her own undoing by having all of these children in the first place! Doesn’t she know that without children she could be dining with her friends, gossiping about men and wearing Louboutins? But I digress. read more

Abuelita’s Arroz con Leche (rice pudding)

It all began when I was in eighth grade and was responsible for bringing a Cuban dish for a party we were having in Spanish class. My mom pulled out an old dog-eared recipe card holder full of her family’s old recipes. She found my great grandmother’s recipe for arroz con leche and handed it to me. It seemed simple enough, so I made it for class and brought it the next day. I figured I had stumbled upon something important when my fellow students politely picked at all the other dishes and my arroz con leche was inhaled by everyone immediately. So, I started making it every year for my family for Christmas. I had to wrap it up in little containers to give them out individually because if I put it out with the other desserts at our Christmas dinner, people would complain about it being gone before they could have some. After a few years, my cousin surpassed me in cooking skills and I was more than happy to pass the baton in making the arroz con leche every year. read more

DIY Sandbox for the kids- Updated with Instructions

We (and by “we”, I mean Scott) spent our Saturday building a sandbox for the girls. Ruth played in a neighbor’s sandbox a few weeks ago and has been talking about nothing else ever since. Every morning she was waking up and asking me if she could go play in the sand. So my devoted husband built this sandbox with little benches attached that fold down to make the sandbox cover. Perhaps I can get him to post the step by step on how to build it if you’re interested. I must say, he made it look easy.

Ruth was in it playing before they even finished filling it up with sand read more

How Thursday with the Pediatric Cardiologist went down

So I have had a day to process what happened at Wren’s appointment yesterday and spoken to a few of my friends and relatives who are in the medical field. Honestly, I spent yesterday in shock. I went into the appointment confident that her heart condition is mild and they would tell us no further action was needed and send us on our way. I didn’t even tell my husband to come with me because I figured the appointment would be unremarkable. But when the doctor starting talking not only surgery, but open heart surgery as a necessity for Wren, I couldn’t process it. read more

Wren’s cardiologist appointment

I went to the pediatric cardiologist with Wren today hoping for some good news. We found out three months ago that she has pulmonary stenosis, but possibly it was going to be mild enough to not require surgery.

Well, the outcome was not what we expected. Apparently the narrowing in her pulmonary valve has gotten worse, not better. And the doctor said that it would get worse as she gets older, and eventually the right side of her heart is going to be working too hard to compensate. (To all my readers with MDs, I hope I’m explaining this correctly). Eventually, she will need surgery to correct this. Probably using a patch instead of a catheter. read more

How to not get your baby to take a bottle

I considered myself an authority on most things mommy (when it comes to babies) when my oldest became a toddler. However, the more children I have, the more I feel like I have no idea what the heck I am doing. Take, for example, my youngest child, Wren. Wren is six months old. She has taken a bottle once in those six months. It was a wonderful evening in May. Daddy took her from me so that I could cook dinner. She was hungry, and I handed him a bottle. She drank the whole thing after screaming for only about five minutes. The thing is, she hasn’t done that since, and Scott does not remember what special magic, if any, he worked on her. read more

Abuela’s Picadillo Cubano and our first grocery outing!

So I took all three girls to the grocery store today for the first time. I loaded Wren in my Ergo and walked in with the two toddlers. Traffic stopped all ways as I crossed the street with my little ducklings. We are hard to miss.

When we got inside, of course all of the race car carts with space for two to be buckled in were gone. Murphy’s law of parenting strikes again! Not to be discouraged, I rallied and put Rose up front and Ruth in the part where you put the groceries.

We were serenaded by the usual chorus of “She’s got her hands full!”, but other than that, our trip was mercifully uneventful. The girls were very good and enjoyed themselves on our little outing. read more

How to have the perfect mommy blog

I have always loved mommy blogs. They are the only blogs I read, really. I have studied the art of the popular mommy blog intently, trying to unlock their secrets because I wanted to someday have a mommy blog of my own. I eventually compiled a list of trends I saw in all of the popular mommy blogs and melodramatically decided that I could never have a blog, because I met none of these standards. The list I have compiled is as follows:

1) Forget your camera phone. You need a professional grade camera to haul around taking photos of your kids. And your children must be able to pose in the middle of whatever adorable thing they are doing. And they must be immaculately clean and sporting the latest fashions. They also tend to nap in picturesque places (like outdoors or in your chic bed) or cuddle with adorable animals while napping. Bonus points for taking professional grade photos with your iPhone. read more