Monthly Archives: October 2014

Wren: 9 months

I’m going to do Wren’s monthly update a day early since Rosie’s birthday is tomorrow and two posts in one day sounds exhausting!

The little bird is nine months old! I know I feel this way about every age, but nine months is my favorite.
IMG_2955.JPG

IMG_2954.JPG

For this post, I gave up on trying for lovely photos with lots of white space. I am no photographer, and I knew I wasn’t fooling anyone.

Milestones: You are sitting up like a champ now, and sleeping through the night pretty regularly (Alelluia!) You wave, shake your head no, and clap! You also said “Ma,” today, much to your mama’s excitement. You are getting up and army crawling a bit, but seem to have no inclination to get up on your hands and knees. Every time I try to get you to do it, you fall on your face (sorry!) You are also honing your pincer skills while you are killing some puffs! You can hold your own bottle and fruit pouch (that is more of a milestone for me). If you are holding onto something, you can stand for a bit. My children tend to be more brains over brawn. You also cut two little bottom teeth! read more

How my mom lost the popularity contest but won at parenting

People talk about peer pressure among kids in middle schools all the time, but seldom talk about peer pressure among moms. Trust me, it’s a thing. Even though my oldest is only three, I am already feeling it.

I am certain that the older my children get, the worse it will be. Take my mom, for example. She was what one would call a strict parent. (60 years ago, she would have been an ordinary parent, but I digress.) We didn’t spend the night at friends’ houses until we were in high school, we never saw movies with a rating above PG-13, and sometimes not PG-13 movies, depending on the content. I am still proudly one of the only people I know who hasn’t seen “Titanic.” When I was in seventh grade, it was because of the premarital sex scene. When I finally could watch it, I was a history major who knew the historical inaccuracies would drive me crazy. An aristocratic seventeen year old flitting about the ship unchaperoned and risking an illegitimate pregnancy fathered by some penniless guy she had just met? Really?! I digress again (I tend to do that. Hence the blog). We weren’t permitted to watch TV on school nights and our curfews when we could drive were embarrassingly early. My first bikini I was permitted to wear I finally purchased at age 14, and makeup was forbidden until 15. And then the crimes against makeup I committed were unforgiveable. Glitter eyeliner for daily wear? Why?! My first high heels were also at 15, and I tottered around in them until college when I had to walk the campus too much for that to be practical. My first date was at sixteen, and the guys I went out with always had to talk to my father first and have me home by 9:00. read more

15 Things to say other than (ugh) “You’ve got your hands full!”

Once I had Rose a mere thirteen months after I had Ruth, the common refrain that seems to be the soundtrack to my life these days began. “Looks like you’ve got your hands full!” Now that I have two toddlers and a baby, I can’t leave the house without at least one person saying it to me. I don’t think it is usually said with malicious intent. I just think people feel the need to say something when I start to notice the fact that they are staring at us, mouths agape. At this point, I am so dang tired of hearing this, I just thought I would offer some alternatives to this expression. If you see a mother with more children than is considered socially acceptable, feel free to use them. I am certain she would appreciate the refreshingly new comments. read more

Our Epic Candler Park Adventure

Now that I have slept on it, I feel much better about yesterday. I can laugh about it, even. But yesterday, I was feeling very angry at myself for overdoing it. We just get so bored being cooped up in the house all the time! But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning.

There is a really fun group of moms that my good friend Christy introduced me to. Christy has since moved to Boston so that her husband can get his MBA (nooooooooo), but I seem to still be attached to her mom friends’ email list for play dates. Not sure if this was intentional or not, but they are so much fun and so kind, I always show up when they plan another play date. So far, they haven’t seemed to mind me crashing their play dates and we get to get out of the house and do something fun with people we enjoy, so win-win! read more

Conversations with Ruthie

We spend many a pleasant early morning conversing in the bathroom while Ruth does her morning business. She is always the first to rise (other than Daddy) and yells from her crib, “Mommy! I have to go peepee!” She knows that phrase is sure to get the fastest results. I record our conversation this morning for your viewing pleasure. To set the scene, she has her plastic toy horse in her hand that was once the childhood toy of her Abuela.

Ruth: Making clicking noises with her mouth. “Mommy, do you hear that?” read more