I recently saw someone use the hash-tag #MommyProblems on twitter, and got a pretty good laugh considering every single day I do something and follow it by stating out loud "mommy problems". So I thought I'd compile a list of my most recent mommy problems. If you're a mommy who hasn't experienced at least one of these, I'll be shocked. And I'll kick you in the shins.
Here are my top 10 mommy problems, in no particular order:
1) The "I haven't washed my hair in four days because every time I have a second to shower, I'm distracted by other things (i.e. Facebook, Blogger, Twitter) that I can't do while chasing a toddler" problem.
2) The "holy crap, I want to gouge my eyes out if we have to read ANOTHER round of 'Moo, Baa, La La La'" problem.
3) The "chicken nuggets and mac & cheese are fine for dinner...again...for the third time this week..." problem.
4) The "I had to scream to my husband to come finish putting the baby to bed last night because I had a diarrhea attack" problem.
5) The "babies should be born with full sets of teeth because molar teething is the devil" problem. (Also see: the "it's ok if the kid sleeps in our bed tonight if it's the only way he'll stop screaming and we can all get some sleep" problem.)
6) The "sometimes I still wear my maternity leggings or nursing tanks just because they're super comfy" problem.
7) The "my do-it-myself manicure is all sorts of screwed up because I had to chase the toddler before it dried" problem.
8) The "I keep forgetting to take pictures and videos of my kid because before I click the flash, he's trying to run up the stairs and subsequently dive off of them like Evil Knievel" problem.
9) The "my kid gets a bath every night because he has an affinity for running his fingers through his hair...during dinner time" problem.
10) The "All I can talk about is my kid because he's so freaking adorable-amazing-smart-sweet-hilarious-insertanyadjectivehere" problem.
#MommyProblems. #TheBestProblems.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
The haircut that didn't happen...
On Monday evening we geared up to have Nick get his very first haircut. After several months of anxiety on my part, I finally caved and agreed it was time. Not that I want to part with his sweet baby curls, because believe me, a huge part of me feels like I'll be cutting off his last little bit of babyhood and pushing him straight into toddler town. But let's be honest. He's already there. He spends minutes on end toddling around the living room in circles. He bangs toys on the floor with gusto, gets into things he knows he shouldn't, and has mini-meltdowns if he doesn't get his way...which is usually when he wants to read a book and we don't read it to him immediately, because "holy crap, if we don't read 'Ding-Dong, Elmo's Here!' RIGHTTHISSECOND I am going to explode!"
Not to mention we're all getting a little tired of being told "she is SO cute" when we're out in public. I'm sorry, did you not see the words "Mommy's little MAN" emblazoned across his all blue, extra-boyish attire? Seriously...I've never dressed Nick in anything REMOTELY gender-neutral (minus some of the seriously sweet, yellow & green, ducky & frog ensembles when he was a newborn, but seriously, who can tell a newborns gender?). Also, it's getting really frustrating having to wet his hair every morning to try and combat the serious bedhead he acquires during the night. And since he's only 14.5 months old, I feel like it might be too early (and considered a form of torture?) to employ the "shove his head under the kitchen faucet in hopes of taming that mane" tactic that my dad used on my brother from ages 8-16. Hey, whatever works, right?
Anyway, all this to say, we got to the barber shop - plopped Nick on Todd's lap, along with "Ding Dong, Elmo's Here!" to keep him preoccupied, and got to work.
Nick was only slightly apprehensive at first, but mostly interested in the cartoons they put on the TV for him, and ringing that dang doorbell on his book.
Scott (Todd's barber, and the only guy I'll trust to get near my sweet toddler's hair with a set of clippers) began by combing out Nick's hair. Which Nick loved, because he loves to comb hair. Naturally, Nick needed to hold his own comb -- and Scott happily obliged.
Scott even went so far as to show Nick the clippers he would be using, and let Nick touch them (on the non-sharp end of course).
Of course, Nick was perfect the whole time. But as I tried to snap pictures with our $1,500 camera (you know, the one we HAD to have the day before Nick was born, so we could document his every move, yet we end up using our cell phone cameras 9 times out of 10), the dang thing wouldn't work. Why? Oh, because the memory card was sitting at home.
We did what any logical family would do. Let Todd get his haircut, watched Nick toddle around the barbershop, stopping every now and then to put his hands on the floor and cover them in man-hair (Right? So gross. Mom of the year!) , and called it a day. But all was not lost because we did get to have dinner at the nicest chick-fil-a in the state - a total win if you ask me!
So, obviously Nick didn't get his curls cut off. And now I'm totally wavering on trying again. Not because I don't think he'll behave -- in fact I'm 100% confident now that he will be a champ for his first real haircut. I'm just wondering if this might be a sign..."don't cut off his curls yet! You're not ready!" kinda deal. For now, I'm not in any rush to get back to the shop and get his haircut.
But ask me how I feel again the next time someone calls him a girl. Betcha we'll be in that shop faster than you can say "Ding Dong, Elmo's Here!"
Monday, April 16, 2012
Do I even need to say...
... just how much I love this little face?
He makes my days sweeter, my life richer, and my world full of a love that I didn't even know existed until I met him. Thank you, God, for this little miracle. I am a lucky, lucky mommy.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Hello? Is this thing on?
I thought I had been taking a mini-break from blogging, until I just logged in and realized it's been two weeks since my last post. TWO WEEKS?! That's not a mini-break...that's a full on vacation!
It's not that I haven't had anything worthy to post...I have PLENTY to share. We've just been so busy - especially enjoying our little guy - that I haven't taken the time to sit down and put everything into words.
For starters, we have a full time walker on our hands. It's really like having a two foot tall drunk stumbling around the house, arms flailing, bumping into things and mumbling "dadadada" or "muh-muh-muh". Totally adorable. As soon as Nick figured out how to go from sitting to standing by only the use of his hands pushing off the floor, he was off and running. He's still pretty wobbly, but he has no fear and moves those little legs as quickly as they will go. And he's sort of over holding your hand. Now he wants to do this walking business all on his own...no help, please!
Nick is also chatting up a storm. Not that we typically know what he's saying, because it all sort of sounds the same. But he definitely has conversations -- in full sentences -- just in his own language. His first official word, aside from da-da, was "hola". Yup. Kid totally speaks Spanish. I find this awesome. And I give all the credit to his babysitter. He LOVES to say "hola" to people. It's only mildly embarassing when he actually does shout it in a public place, to a Hispanic person, who will then look in my direction, note my blond hair, Nick's red hair and blue eyes, and be totally confused. He is my culturally non-biased social butterfly!
In that same vein, Nick has still yet to meet a stranger. He loves everyone, and especially loves to give kisses. This may pose a problem one day when he heads off to school and can't figure out why the other kids aren't handing out kisses...but I suppose we'll cross that bridge later. I, for one, love his sweet side... and the way he gives kisses to Whinnie? Ugh - break my heart! It is so adorable. He L-O-V-E-S his puppy dog.
Sadly, Nick has been hit with his first true "sickness" in 14 months of his life. We've been so blessed to have such a healthy baby, and even this cold isn't all too terrible, so we're still counting our blessings. He has a bad cold that has been keeping his nose full of gunk. We ran out to Buy Buy Baby and picked up a Nose Frida. Grossest invention ever. But damn if it doesn't work! Only problem is, it's similar to a torture contraption (at least in Todd's opinion) and causes Nick to not just cry, but full on SCREAM and bawl his eyes out. I thought he was going to like it after the first use, which caused him to double over in a fit of laughter. But any time I've pulled it out since that first use, he instantly starts whimpering. Poor guy :( It's too bad, too, because it seriously sucks the snot out.
Other than that, we've just been keeping busy with life in general! The Schwass' came into town for a wedding last weekend and spent the night at our house. It was nice to visit with them, and just like every other visit we have with them, reaffirmed that we are both truly blessed to have such wonderful friends like them, and truly sad that we don't live closer to each other. That same weekend, my Gramma celebrated her 83rd birthday on the 1st of April. Nick, Todd and I brought her pink tulips and a balloon (clearly Nick's request) and spent part of the afternoon watching Nick toddle in and out of every room in their apartment. Again - extremely blessed to get to spend another birthday with Gramma -- she is an incredible woman, and truly the matriarch of our family!
My brother turned 32 on Saturday, so mom took him out to lunch on Friday and invited me to join them. We went to the Chart House right next door to my work -- so yummy! It was nice to spend time with the two of them and get to chat about anything and everything (and yes, if I'm being honest, get to enjoy a meal at a restaurant without worrying about if my toddler was going to start throwing a tantrum in the high chair next to me -- though I did miss him and wish he had been there with us!). Matt's 31st year was a difficult chapter in his life. Without going into detail, I will say I am very proud of my brother and how he has stayed true to himself. He is an incredible person who just like the rest of the world made some mistakes -- but he has persevered, and come out as an even better version of himself, and I'm proud to call him family!
Yesterday we celebrated Nick's second Easter with a beautiful (but windy!) day at my parent's house. We had a delicious dinner, lots of play time, and even a couple of cornhole games in the backyard. Both Whinnie and Nick enjoyed running around the backyard, and we wound up with two very tired babies when we got home. Nick was out before we even turned off of my parents street, and Whinnie actually went upstairs and climbed in our bed the minute we got home.
Our life has been busy, exciting, and - as is obvious from the seemingly 50 times I've used the word in this post - very blessed!
Happy Easter! Happy Spring!
It's not that I haven't had anything worthy to post...I have PLENTY to share. We've just been so busy - especially enjoying our little guy - that I haven't taken the time to sit down and put everything into words.
For starters, we have a full time walker on our hands. It's really like having a two foot tall drunk stumbling around the house, arms flailing, bumping into things and mumbling "dadadada" or "muh-muh-muh". Totally adorable. As soon as Nick figured out how to go from sitting to standing by only the use of his hands pushing off the floor, he was off and running. He's still pretty wobbly, but he has no fear and moves those little legs as quickly as they will go. And he's sort of over holding your hand. Now he wants to do this walking business all on his own...no help, please!
Nick is also chatting up a storm. Not that we typically know what he's saying, because it all sort of sounds the same. But he definitely has conversations -- in full sentences -- just in his own language. His first official word, aside from da-da, was "hola". Yup. Kid totally speaks Spanish. I find this awesome. And I give all the credit to his babysitter. He LOVES to say "hola" to people. It's only mildly embarassing when he actually does shout it in a public place, to a Hispanic person, who will then look in my direction, note my blond hair, Nick's red hair and blue eyes, and be totally confused. He is my culturally non-biased social butterfly!
In that same vein, Nick has still yet to meet a stranger. He loves everyone, and especially loves to give kisses. This may pose a problem one day when he heads off to school and can't figure out why the other kids aren't handing out kisses...but I suppose we'll cross that bridge later. I, for one, love his sweet side... and the way he gives kisses to Whinnie? Ugh - break my heart! It is so adorable. He L-O-V-E-S his puppy dog.
Sadly, Nick has been hit with his first true "sickness" in 14 months of his life. We've been so blessed to have such a healthy baby, and even this cold isn't all too terrible, so we're still counting our blessings. He has a bad cold that has been keeping his nose full of gunk. We ran out to Buy Buy Baby and picked up a Nose Frida. Grossest invention ever. But damn if it doesn't work! Only problem is, it's similar to a torture contraption (at least in Todd's opinion) and causes Nick to not just cry, but full on SCREAM and bawl his eyes out. I thought he was going to like it after the first use, which caused him to double over in a fit of laughter. But any time I've pulled it out since that first use, he instantly starts whimpering. Poor guy :( It's too bad, too, because it seriously sucks the snot out.
Other than that, we've just been keeping busy with life in general! The Schwass' came into town for a wedding last weekend and spent the night at our house. It was nice to visit with them, and just like every other visit we have with them, reaffirmed that we are both truly blessed to have such wonderful friends like them, and truly sad that we don't live closer to each other. That same weekend, my Gramma celebrated her 83rd birthday on the 1st of April. Nick, Todd and I brought her pink tulips and a balloon (clearly Nick's request) and spent part of the afternoon watching Nick toddle in and out of every room in their apartment. Again - extremely blessed to get to spend another birthday with Gramma -- she is an incredible woman, and truly the matriarch of our family!
My brother turned 32 on Saturday, so mom took him out to lunch on Friday and invited me to join them. We went to the Chart House right next door to my work -- so yummy! It was nice to spend time with the two of them and get to chat about anything and everything (and yes, if I'm being honest, get to enjoy a meal at a restaurant without worrying about if my toddler was going to start throwing a tantrum in the high chair next to me -- though I did miss him and wish he had been there with us!). Matt's 31st year was a difficult chapter in his life. Without going into detail, I will say I am very proud of my brother and how he has stayed true to himself. He is an incredible person who just like the rest of the world made some mistakes -- but he has persevered, and come out as an even better version of himself, and I'm proud to call him family!
Yesterday we celebrated Nick's second Easter with a beautiful (but windy!) day at my parent's house. We had a delicious dinner, lots of play time, and even a couple of cornhole games in the backyard. Both Whinnie and Nick enjoyed running around the backyard, and we wound up with two very tired babies when we got home. Nick was out before we even turned off of my parents street, and Whinnie actually went upstairs and climbed in our bed the minute we got home.
Our life has been busy, exciting, and - as is obvious from the seemingly 50 times I've used the word in this post - very blessed!
Happy Easter! Happy Spring!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Happy Hour
With as beautiful as this mid-March weather has been lately, we've been taking every advantage of sitting on our deck before the summer sun and heat roll in and scorch us. It's nice to be able to utilize the deck, considering when it's usually warm enough to sit out there, it's also usually summertime and already 90 degrees in the sun...and sitting on our deck, with zero tree coverage or shade other than our giant umbrella (which still hardly covers enough ground) in the summertime is painful, sweaty, and will cause you a sunburn in 60 seconds flat.
That being said, having an early spring AND having already had daylight savings time, we've been trying to spend some extra time outdoors in the evenings. It puts us all in a good mood, and (dare I say it) even seems to help Nick sleep better at night. So the other night, Nick and I decided to have a little mommy-son happy hour.
I posted on Facebook that Nick was the best Happy Hour date I'd ever had...which Todd pretended to take offense to. In all honesty, I think Todd was just jealous that he didn't get to take part (he was busy doing some heavy lifting and moving things around in the basement post Shandy Cup.)
But then my "date" started working on something big. As in, he pooped his pants. And it was getting close to bedtime anyway, so we packed up and called it a day.
He was quite proud! ;)
Shandy Cup Weekend -- and The Playground
This past weekend was Shandy Cup -- which if you have known my husband for any amount of time, you know means the weekend where he and his buddies hole up in someones basement with a keg, a 6 foot sub, a giant tub of cheese puffs, 5 TV's, countless Irish car bombs, minimal amounts of personal hygiene, and watch four straight days of basketball. We volunteered to host this year, under the stipulation that Thursday and Friday nights were to be kept to a minimum as far as their loudness was concerned, and nobody was allowed upstairs past the main level of our house. We even went so far as to invite all the wives and children over for a brunch on Saturday morning, that was quite successful ifIdosaysomyself.
The gorgeous tulips Barbara & Andy brought over for the Shandy Brunch!
I'm proud to report that nobody went upstairs except for a few times to use the bathroom (which was WAY embarrassing for me because I hadn't cleaned the upstairs - nor the upstairs bathroom -- so I'm sure any visitors to the third floor gagged at my dust, dirt, and lack of vacuuming). And aside from a short stint of my brother talking in a loud Russian accent on Thursday night (which was hilarious, mind you), everyone kept the volume to a minimum, and Nick slept like a rock, even with a basement full of buddies.
That being said, Nick and I still thought it would be a good idea to retreat to my parents house on Saturday night, and give the guys a little freedom to spend their St. Patrick's Day evening in a beautiful cloud of beer drinking, yelling, and farting glory. And judging by the fact that Todd didn't answer any of my texts until Sunday morning at 9:00am, I'd say they did just that. Or else they all passed out around 8pm. I guess I'll never truly know...
Anywho -- in escaping to mom & dad's house, we were spoiled with lots of snacks, snuggling, a delicious dinner at Outback, the ability to sleep in until 10:00am (for me!) and an evening of fun at the playground! It just so happened that mid-Outback dinner, Nick decided he was finished and proceeded to tell not just our table, but the entire restaurant, that he was displeased with being in the high chair, and squealed until our ears bled. So Boss picked him up, and took him outside for a little fresh air. Which is when they happened upon a huge, awesome playground, right in the middle of Fairfax! I'd say judging by the pictures, Nick was pleased with the outcome of his mid-dinner scream-fest.
We had so much fun - and I got so much sleep! - that we're thinking about spending every weekend at Gramma & Boss' house. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind. And so long as Todd got to re-live Shandy Cup each weekend, I don't think he'd mind too much either!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)