Every Tuesday, I like to give you a small glimpse into the linguistic wonders of my family life. I have a hilarious husband, and two wonderful but sometimes misspoken children. I know you will enjoy hearing things I hear daily as much as I do.
Me, in reference to my belly moving: I don’t think I remember the baby moving this much this early with my other two.
Hubby (deadpan): Maybe we will finally have one with some personality.
EK’s breakfast of choice one morning this week: A brownie from her aunt Lala, blueberries, and sausage. (Weirdo.)
7:15 am, EK, shoving a princess dress in my face (rude awakening, am I right?): Help me! Mom! Help me! Now! (As if her very life depends on getting into that dress right this second.)
Hubby, preparing for his gig, singing T-Pain’s “Buy You a Drank”: Baby girl, what’s your name?
EK: My name’s Ella Kate! (Then proceeds to sing the song the rest of the night.)
My friend Lauren, at our house for dinner: Can you lean out the window and tell Uncle Drew it’s time to go home?
EK, leaning out the window to the porch: Uncley Drew! Time to go hoooooome!
Me: What do you want for lunch?
EK: A soomie. (Smoothie)
Hope you enjoyed today’s little funny sayings. What does your toddler say that’s hilarious?!
That moment when my toddler plugs her headphones into the freshly painted wall.
That moment… you know the one… that moment when you can laugh, or you can cry.
That moment when you get home from work, and your adorable son is just waking up from his nap. You, still in your nice clothes, rush in to scoop him up for some snuggles. That moment when he’s giggling, glad to see his mama, nuzzling your neck a little bit. That moment that for some reason, you decide that instead of the normal post-nap diaper change, you just want to carry his sweet self around for a few minutes. (You can see where this is going.)
That moment when you think you’re a little damp. That moment when you realize damp isn’t covering it. That moment when you realize it isn’t just pee. That moment when it’s a whole lot of everything, including breakfast and last night’s dinner, on your arms. And your dress. That moment when you peek back into the crib, and it’s all up in there, too. That moment you realize you’ve gotta do some serious laundry, but you and your adorable, sweet, snuggly, smelly son need a shower, NOW.
I’ve written posts before about how my son can go from adorable to covered in some sort of bodily fluid in less than two seconds. Zero to sixty in no time flat. But what is more indicative of motherhood than that? Like when your toddler is being so cute, having a little pretend tea party, but throws a tantrum when her request to switch to real tea is denied. Or when the switch goes off in your kid’s brain, from “I’m having a great time at dinner with my grandparents!” to “I’m really tired. Get me out of this high chair, let me run out the door to where the car must be, and home into my bed, and I MEAN NOW!” Those moments are bound to happen, and of course at the least convenient time. It’s just a passing moment. It seems like a serious situation when you’re in it, but it’s gone and forgotten as soon as it came.
If it wasn’t for moments like these, I wouldn’t have hilarious things to write about, or to post on Instagram or Twitter. I wouldn’t have anything to compare the cleaner moments to. I’ve got a messy, keep-me-on-my-toes sort of motherhood I’m working with, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
my two chunkers, with their buddy Styles, who refused to smile 🙂 As a continuation of my breastfeeding journey with EK, my journey breastfeeding J was much easier. Already, I knew the pain I’d feel in those first few days – and I was prepared mentally this time. So that was less of an issue. He had a MUCH better latch than she did, and so we started off much better. My milk came in more quickly (while I was packing to leave the hospital, in fact!) and so he got the full effects of that more quickly.
However, he was a sleep-nurser, which in turn made him a little less efficient. Therefore, he didn’t gain as much weight, so the pediatrician was worried about him, so I was worried about him, and we went through everything we could think of to keep him awake, get him to eat instead of pacify, and get him to gain some weight. That basically turned into me pumping and giving him some bottles more often (he’d finish a bottle without stopping, just not nurse for very long without sleeping) and eventually supplementing formula.
He continued being a good nurser once he started gaining weight and we were doing bottles as well as nursing. It didn’t take him much longer to find a rhythm, get the benefit of breastmilk as well as formula, and be a chubby babe just like his sister was. He continued doing bottles with breastmilk and with formula while I was working, and nursing while I was home until he was 8 months, when I had stopped making very much milk (I had stopped working by then) and he just weaned himself. He stopped being interested in nursing and just wanted bottles, and my milk dried up. Since he was so old, eating food as well as taking bottles well, and was clearly not having any weight troubles anymore, I didn’t press the issue and let him make his decision.
I don’t have any regrets about this process. I don’t regret giving him bottles and formula to help his weight gain. I don’t regret letting him wean himself at 8 months. I don’t regret a moment of our journey. He’s a healthy, sweet boy, and we have bonded and have a wonderful relationship. I have loved every moment getting to know him more and more, and I know that our initial bonding with breastfeeding helped that along, but isn’t the only thing that mattered in our relationship. Bonding can happen without breastfeeding. Bonding can continue after you stop. Make the best choice for you and your baby, and whatever that looks like, good for you!
If you’re like me, at 29 years old, you’ve been to a billion baby showers, possibly including your own. You’ve known young moms and old, had at least one close friend have a baby, and needed to hit up the local baby store for a set of bottles or a sweet, monogrammed blanket.
This is like a mini-throwback from my shower before EK was born. These are my college girlfriends!
That being said, those gifts are sweet: bottles, blankets, teethers, etc. They’re thoughtful, useful, and probably from the mom’s registry. But there are a few things that, as a mama who’s attended some baby showers, I’ve learned are really great gifts that new parents love, even if they aren’t quite as cute in the gift wrap.
On the heels of the success of my “10 Tips for Soon-To-Be Moms“, here are a few unconventional but awesome baby shower gift ideas.
1. Stain remover. I really love the BabyGanics Stain Remover (find it on Diapers.com) personally, but Shout and OxyClean also are winners. I always include a bottle of the BabyGanics with whatever I get the new mama.
2. Clothes in bigger sizes. Yes, those newborn outfits are cute, and yes, the tinier they are, the cuter, somehow. BUT there are two reasons to stay away from the tiniest clothes you see: 1. Everyone else is buying them, too. While newborns probably have lots of costume changes, no mama needs 59 outfits for the first week of the baby’s life. 2. Babies grow really, really fast. And some babies, like my J, never wear newborn sized clothes anyway. He was a little long and a little porky for most of the newborn-sized clothes I had, so he jumped straight to three months size. I’d love to have gotten more cute clothes in nine months size and up, even all the way to 3T! Kids always need play clothes, and if you’re worried about sizes for the right seasons, just get t-shirts and leggings (girls) or jeans because those are can be worn in every season.
3. Restaurant gift certificates. Whether for a date night before the baby comes, or after, or for take out during the first few weeks where life is a blur, providing a meal is always a good thing.
4. Laundry detergent, dish soap, or hand sanitizer. These are great gifts, because we go through TONS of it in the baby’s first month or two. Dreft or any natural brand (insert second BabyGanics plug) is great for laundry, natural dish soaps (Honest Company, Mrs. Meyer’s, etc) for paci/bottle/teether washing, and hand sanitizer for every single soul who walks through your front door. Sorry germs, ain’t nobody got time for that.
5. Diapers or wipes. Some mamas have a huge bias when it comes to these (brands, cloth diapering, etc) but it’s easy to ask them what their plan is, and offer to contribute to it. Even if you’re cloth diapering, it can be an expensive undertaking. And just like clothes, diaper sizes change often as well, so don’t get two jumbo cases of newborn sizes… go all the way up to 4 or 5 if you want. I promise. They’ll be used.
6. Don’t be afraid to go gender neutral. This is important especially for bigger ticket items. It’s super cute that your baby girl’s carseat is covered in pink flowers, but when your second baby is a boy, and you have to buy a new one, that’s a big bummer. This also applies, in my book, to things like burp cloths, muslin swaddles, crib sheets, bath towels, socks (Yeah, I said it. What’s wrong with white?), and toys. I know, you can get teethers and noisemakers that are all princessy, or all have trucks on them, but why can’t you just get the ones covered in giraffes?
7. Baby food pouches. For the most part, these things stay good a long while, and they’re great even for moms who want to make their own baby food, because you can find things that might be out of season, or that are a little more expensive fresh for the same price – not to mention they are GREAT for being on the go. Choose simple, though, and get pouches that have only one or two ingredients (just peaches, or plain ol’ applesauce) instead of blends, and always go organic. (I like the Plum Organics brand a lot, just by the way.)
8. Housecleaning service. I don’t think it’s too forward to pay for a few hours of a housecleaning service so that mama can worry not about her floors and toilets during the first month or two post-partum. She’ll just thank you later.
9. Wine, booze, coffee, and chocolate. It may sound silly, but after nine months without any (or with very little) of these things, it’s a welcome change to enjoy them in moderation – you know, except the chocolate. Don’t bother moderating the chocolate.
10. Salon gift certificate. Maybe a facial, a massage, or a pedicure, but definitely a winner. If you’re brave, you could add a clause about keeping that sweet little snuggler while she gets pampered!
What else would you add? Anything else super useful that gets overlooked?
This week has been pretty hilarious, and I thought about taking a few of these out to save them for next week, but hey, she’ll say more hilarious things between now and then!
Hubby, relentlessly tickling EK: Ha! I got you! I got you!
EK (amid gales of laughter): Stop it, Daddy! That tickles! Stop it! Daddy! THIS. IS. NOT. WORKING!
Every morning when EK wakes up: Good nooning, Mommy! I need some breffast!
Upon bringing me an imaginary bowl of “soup”…
EK: Try the soup, Mama! It’s not spicy.
Overheard in J’s room…
EK: No! I sit in the bum-bum! (code for Bumbo)
EK (upon finding a bowl of Smarties I had tried to hide from her Easter eggs): Yum! These made my throat feel better!
Playing with her tea set:
EK: I can’t find a doonk!
Hubby: Are you trying to say spoon? Because that’s not even close.
(In response to her delicious lunch her dad made) EK: You’re a good cooker-man!
Me: (small chuckle)
EK: I said, “you’re a good cooker-man”, Mom!
Me: (obligatory big laugh)
After Hubby leans on top of EK to kiss her goodnight: Ow! Daddy, you hurt my boobs! (Guess my sore boobs have been a topic of conversation recently. Pregnancy fail.)
And, for J’s debut on “Things Toddlers Say”31:
J, to the (perfect) tune of the Alphabet Song: A, A, C, C, A, A, C… (He’s a prodigy.)
What were your favorite quotes from this week? What has your toddler said?!
I’m linking up with Becky at Choose Happy and the other fantastic bloggers for another week of “Currently”, where we just talk about what’s going on in our lives. Join us, and let us know what you’re up to!
Thankful for || my mother-in-law and our friends Lauren and Drew for coming over on Saturday to help us get things out of our storage unit and into the basement! My m-i-l was kind enough to play with kiddos while the rest of us made 400 trips from the unit into the house with our arms full of boxes or furniture. It was a lovely, productive afternoon!
Excited about || fully moving in, getting the rest of our furniture for the new space (and/or rearranging what we’ve got, and buying something new for an old space!), and getting ready to host the masses for EK’s birthday! My college girlfriends are coming to town, as well as my family, to celebrate EK’s third birthday the second weekend in April. The clock is ticking to get things ready for houseguests and a party!
Listening to || this arrangement of Give Me Jesus by Sarah Watkins and Chris Thile. I sang this song yesterday during church, probably a little less bluegrassily (yeah, I made that word up for this sentence), but I still thought it was beautiful.
Loving || the fact that J is singing wherever he goes, all the time. He sings mostly Happy Birthday and the Alphabet Song, with only two or three real words, but it is so heartwarming to see both my kids loving music so early.
Feeling || BIG feelings. No matter what my feeling is (happy, sad, angry, etc) I’m literally feeling it times a million. Thanks, hormones. Here’s to extra tears, random frustrations, and ridiculous laughter. Pregnancy – the struggle is real.
Thanks for following along with me currently!! Link up with us and join the fun!
Today is the day. The day that I read scripture before my kids woke up (rare). The day that I resolved to parent with grace (again). The day I made a nice, big, healthy breakfast for everyone. The day I made a really, really great cup of coffee. The day I got a quick workout in after dropping my daughter at preschool.
It is also the day EK “needed five more minutes” before doing every single thing I asked her to do. The day my son took every item out of every drawer in my kitchen. The day Hubby didn’t feel so hot. The day it was so rainy that my motivation to get things done died at the start.
If I laid out every day like this, a moment-to-moment “things that happened” or “things I did”, how disappointed would I be? How many days would I say I had missed the mark, or wasted too many minutes or even hours? I doubt I would be impressed by my daily productivity or nominating myself for the “best executed day” award. (Thank goodness that’s not a thing, by the way.) I probably would no longer even be happy about the things I did accomplish.
But the things I did accomplish go without mention. The fact that my kids are clean, dressed and well-fed, the snuggles and kisses, the number of times I sang the alphabet song, and the fact that I took a shower. These things are on a list of “things moms should do without recognition”, even though these seemingly simple things are the hardest things I do all day. No one knows as well as I do the struggle it is to get pants on my son, or to get ten uninterrupted minutes to wash my hair or shave my legs. There are days that I feel like I should get a medal for doing those things!
Today, in fact, is that day. So, in honor of whatever your today held, here’s your medal – a medal and a hug for getting dressed today, for washing a dish or two, for getting the groceries, even though you forgot the eggs. Here’s a medal for any outing you made with the kids. Here’s a hug for any moment you were covered in some sort of bodily fluid, and a hug for any time that you’ve heard more cries than laughs. You deserve it.
I want to start a series. I don’t know often it’ll be added to, or what I might put in it, but I’d like to call the series of posts “My Journey as a Mother”. Instead of snarky things my toddler says, or cute things I’ve baked with friends, I want it to be honest and personal, about my unique journey as a mother. Since my kids are so young, I doubt I’ll ever truly run out of things to talk about, and I can add things as often as I feel led to write about them.
Something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently (as I’m preparing for the birth of my third child) is something I don’t think I’ve blogged about at all – breastfeeding. This can be a really hot topic, one that many women/mothers/caretakers feel passionately about. I don’t want anything I say to be a “persuasive article” or “offensive rant”. I just want to share my story, my struggles, my successes, and my hopes for the next breastfeeding journey on which I’ll embark.
When I was pregnant will EK, it was a no-brainer that I would nurse her. It’s widely accepted as the healthiest thing to do, so of course it would be what I did for my daughter. Where her birthday fell during the school year (mid-April), I knew I would have several months of potential nursing before I would have to go back to school in the fall and likely into a routine of more pumping than nursing. I was looking forward to April-August being able to mostly nurse, and introduce bottles and scheduling a pumping routine as I went back to work.
This, as you might imagine, wasn’t how my perfect plan worked out.
EK had trouble latching right off the bat. I know now that I didn’t do everything I could have, but she also had a few problems as well. I’ve already accepted this and moved on from it with no guilt, so I will suffice it to say that nursing, after a painful, tedious six weeks or so, just didn’t work very well for the two of us. However, being a mama who wants to do the very best thing for her children, I decided the exclusively pump. This turned into the longest five more months of my life. At first, my supply was good, I was even able to freeze some milk, and never worry about my baby being hungry. She never shied away from a bottle, and seemed very pleased to be fed by whomever offered the bottle to her (just an early glimpse of her hungry-hippo nature that still exists). I got more sleep when Hubby was able to feed her a bottle at some point during the night (or late night before he went to bed, as it often was) and we didn’t know any better than to think this was our best possible situation.
But after a couple of months of pumping several times a day (and sometimes during the night if I got too uncomfortable) for almost 45 minutes each time (looking back, I’m appalled by my slow letdown and need to go through several letdowns to get what my baby needed), I was growing tired of the chore. I was eating oatmeal everything, drinking water like a camel, drinking a dark beer a day, using warm compresses before I pumped, and everything else I knew how to do to up my milk supply and make it worth it to keep going.
It seemed like the harder I tried, the less milk I made. The more I tried to find times to pump at school or during the night, the less milk I got at each pumping session. It was truly disheartening to feel like I was failing at feeding my child the “natural” way. Finally, after a few months of “supplementing my milk with formula” I released myself from the pump’s shackles.
I cannot TELL you how this freed me! Pumping several times a day wasn’t bonding with my baby. It was hardly getting her anything she needed. She was eating enough by the time I stopped at six months that I was barely getting a bottle’s worth in an entire day. It had been such a struggle to force myself to keep going, when I wasn’t yielding enough to nourish her. I was becoming emotionally wrecked about it, and I just couldn’t shake the feeling I was failing. But when I finally let it go and switched to 100% formula (well, she had started purees by then as well) it was a load off of my shoulders and my heart.
And let me tell you – this gal was healthy. (Does the baby in that photo up there look like she’s not getting enough to eat?!) She IS healthy. She is smart, beautiful, well-adapted (as much as toddlers can be) and we do not have a lack of bonding in our relationship! I can confidently say that I made the best choice for her, the best choice for me, and the best choice for my poor Hubby who would lose me for several hours a day to the pump. We were all much happier when we made the switch.
So here’s a little encouragement: breastfeeding, while widely accepted as “healthiest” and “best” and “why wouldn’t you do it?!” isn’t for every mother and every baby. If it was easy, we’d all do it. If everyone was able to be with their baby 24/7 and was blessed with great supply and didn’t have any problems latching and was never treated as inferior by a lactation consultant (that happened to me, also) I’m sure that all mothers would breastfeed. But folks, it just isn’t that way. And that’s okay. Thankfully, there are many ways to have a healthy baby, just like there are many ways to deliver a healthy baby, and there are many ways to raise a baby. Let your mama instincts take over, and do what you believe is best.
I’ll post a little bit about my journey breastfeeding J soon. I hope you were encouraged by my experience with EK.
Did you choose to breastfeed? What was your experience?
I was excited to attend a baby shower over the weekend for a friend who is due with her first baby in June. There were a total of 6 of us (out of maybe 17 or 18) at the shower that were pregnant. Even knowing that a shower is typically a lot of gals around the same age, I felt like that was a lot! But it was SO fun to see gals in every stage of life – and several stages of pregnancy – getting together to celebrate my friend and her new little life she’s expecting.
I think one of the most important things we can do is celebrate pregnant women. Celebrate women in general, obviously, but there are so many unique ways that you can celebrate and bless women who are expecting. Whether or not they have supportive families, if they got pregnant on the first try, or tried for years, new lives are worth celebrating. As a mother of soon-to-be three, I believe that feeling celebrated for every single one of my pregnancies was really special for me. It wasn’t necessarily a shower or gift or party that made me feel special – it was friends’ and family members’ reactions to our announcement, and meaningful things they said (and are continuing to say) throughout.
Women need encouragement. Expecting mamas and new mamas often need it even more. They need to know that they are made for what they’re doing, that they will figure out the best way to raise that little one. Does that mean it’ll always be easy and come naturally? No. But it does mean that we should encourage all mothers in their journey.
I saw something recently about how a mother who had experienced a long journey with infertility and finally was blessed with children through IVF felt the need to defend her children against someone who said her children were “synthetic”. Who on this earth has the right to say that to anyone? To suggest that babies, children, humans are anything but God-given and made of DNA and cells and souls just like “the rest of us” is the most awful thing you could say. So many mothers today are faced with insecurities and fears, not to mention the ever-growing plethora of choices about every single thing to do/be/get for your baby… why would one then start attacking the babies themselves, saying terrible things about how or when or why they were brought into the world?!
So this is where I feel a call to be encouraging, supportive and just plain loving to mothers of all experience levels, all walks of life, and all kinds and numbers of babies. Whatever the reason you become a mother, you should still be celebrated, supported and encouraged. If you know a mama, or a woman who is expecting, do something nice for them. Say a kind word, pop a note in the mail, or pick up their coffee. If you’re close to them, get them a gift, throw them a shower (or sprinkle!) or pray with/for them. I guarantee you, each of them needs a little love, a little encouragement, or just to be seen, known, and loved.
It can be hard… pregnancy, waiting for an adoption to go through, enduring fertility treatments, having little ones, or struggling with teens. All of those things can be hard on a woman, and I know that sometimes a little encouragement can go a long way. That nice thing you do for the mom? It’ll benefit the child, too.
There’s a word my daughter said for weeks before I truly understood its meaning. J and I both have humidifiers in our rooms, and she kept pointing to them, asking if she should turn on the “fire”. At first, I thought this was because you can see the mist/vapor coming out of it, and she was associating “smoke” with “fire”. I finally figured out that she was muttering a syllable before “fire” and it was really just an attempt to say “humidifier”. Mom fail.
Overheard in the kitchen this morning…
Hubby: What do you want to listen to?
EK: Rock and roll!
Hubby: Don’t have to ask me twice. (Puts on Pink Floyd.)
Me, seeing EK search through the junk drawer: What are you looking for?
EK: I gotta put some chappick on.!
(I’m sure everyone with a kid knows why I hide my chapstick – I don’t want spit on, rubbed into everything, and then turned up into the lid irrevocably.)
First thing in the morning, when EK climbs in the bed with us:
EK: (to Hubby) Wake up, silly boy!
Upon receiving some Lucky Charms I had bought for St. Patrick’s Day:
EK: I’m gonna eat all the ush-minnows (marshmallows) first!
And now, for my other toddler, who might not use many words yet, but can sure as heck do silly things…
That’s our living room floor – covered in metallic Sharpie. EK never misused the art supplies unless she was tattooing herself. Our son, however, skipped art supplies and went for the same junk drawer mentioned above… and proceeded to give our Pollock-esque floor a little Picasso. Alas, it probably isn’t the last time. FYI though, nail polish remover got it off our vinyl floor!
What has your toddler said (or done) recently that’s worth a laugh?Does your kid do a little art on nontraditional materials?
Today is the day. The day that I read scripture before my kids woke up (rare). The day that I resolved to parent with grace (again). The day I made a nice, big, healthy breakfast for everyone. The day I made a really, really great cup of coffee. The day I got a quick workout in after dropping my daughter at preschool.
There’s a word my daughter said for weeks before I truly understood its meaning. J and I both have humidifiers in our rooms, and she kept pointing to them, asking if she should turn on the “fire”. At first, I thought this was because you can see the mist/vapor coming out of it, and she was associating “smoke” with “fire”. I finally figured out that she was muttering a syllable before “fire” and it was really just an attempt to say “humidifier”. Mom fail.
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