Drama Queen!

Amidst our usual Monday morning rush of feeding the baby, getting showered, and trying to down a cup of coffee as quickly as possible Todd and I found our baby girl calling out to us in her crib looking like this:

I could not believe my eyes. She was standing up in her crib looking all proud and excited! I sat her down gently and waited to see if she would do it again. Sure enough, she popped right back up and gave me another eager smile.
Then in the evening, I put her in her crib while trying to get some chores done because I did not feel like digging her out from under the desk because she keeps crawling under there to chew on cords. Pea started crying and finding her standing there with tears running down her pink face just brought the drama to a whole new level.

*Edit: Here is a photo Todd e-mailed me of Olivia under the desk. Now I understand why some parents resort to strange things like keeping their kids in playpens that always remind me of dog kennels...

Muse Monday

"The babies are amazing... They begin each day all warm and sleepy, smelling of promise."
-Julia Roberts, in a letter to Oprah Winfrey

image via: Google

Saturday Morning

"You can't do that anymore, you're a mom."

In general, I am a person that is not easily offended. I can take heat and I can dish it out, too. Nothing really shocks me and I appreciate honesty. However, there is one thing that gets my head hot and my tongue sharp. If I am venting, or expressing myself, or perhaps even picking my nose please do not tell me, "You cannot do that anymore, you are a mom." If you come over and our bed is not made and my hair is greasy, do not share your two cents on how I need to be 100% all the time because I am a mother. And if you are not a mother yourself, do not be offended if I have a quick and heavy response for you.

Sure, it's difficult to remember that we aren't perfect. Motherhood comes with natural superpowers that not only improve your reflexes but also make your heart swell and expand so much that you can patiently and lovingly hum your daughter to sleep when the pain of childbirth and breastfeeding have left you sleepless and in physical pain. It's easy to forget that mother's aren't perfect when we do not even notice that we have spit up on our shoulder or puke in our hair because we were too busy tending to a fussy child to even care because at the same moment we are also making doctor appointments, putting away laundry, and trying to figure out what the weird red spot on her arm is. If you ever stop and truly think of the staggering reality of all that creating life entails it's enough to make you want to run under a rock and hide.

So, if you catch me quietly whisper a four-letter word or want judge me over an extra glass of wine, please remember that I'm not my own boss anymore.


image via: thesoapboxuk.com

Well, good morning.

Thankful Thursday

Some people take great pride in having all their ducks in a row, all the steps in life perfectly aligned. Boy meets girl, boy marries girl, then they buy a house, and then they have babies. Somewhere in between all that organization there was a university degree and an important internship and most likely the perfect proposal. Well, that is surely not my life.
Our story skips chapters and goes back to revisit them later. Instead of meeting at the right moment we started our life together when we still had so many plans for the future, so many cracks to fill. I have mentioned before that in such a short amount of time we have lived a small lifetime of adventures. Two was a great number in our lives for a while. Two of us, two cats, two bodies on a tiny Lambretta scooter riding to morning classes at CCSF, two jobs, and two cities that held our memories. A little too soon our two grew to three and now here we are.

So what am I thankful for? I am thankful that even with the pressure of finishing college, raising a kid, trying to keep a leash around our personal ambitions, and finding time to enjoy life we still go to bed together at the end of another long day and we are still in love. Still on the same page, still thisclose, our bodies fitting perfectly into each other as we lay side by side in the dark. No one could ask for a more supporting partner or a more involved father. Some people have all their shit figured out but at least I know I have everything I need and the rest will come in stride.

Poop

Am I really the only cloth diapering mom that gets really super excited about solid poo that just neatly plops right into the toilet? Wonderful.