Mommy Musings

The past few weeks have been a little tough around here.  We're all adjusting to Emmy being back at school.  She is struggling with the fact that kindergarten is harder and different than preschool.  She is also seeing Skip a lot less than in the summer.  Charlie is missing her big sister during the day.  Skip has been working a lot, and strange hours, and missing his girls.  I have been alone with them a lot, struggling with the early wake-ups, making sure Emmy is doing homework and has everything she needs every day.  I've been working on a little homeschooling with Charlie, and trying to get things done around the house while carving out a little time for things I like to and want to get done.  It's been tough. So Friday when Skip was off, he wonderfully gave me a little break.  He let me sleep in until 7:15 and took Charlie with him to drop Emmy off at school so I could get ready in peace.  When they got home he took Charlie to run s...

Tomorrow my first baby starts kindergarten.  I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it.  Most people in the same position as me, seem to be very sad about how grown-up our little ones are.  Honestly, I am so busying during the day breaking up fights and trying to reign in all.the.sass that I barely have time to think about how quickly time is passing.  Plus, I've finally realized that in the grand scheme of life she is actually very little still.  I'll save all the crying for when she graduates high school. Some parents are having a tough time being away from their kids all day, as opposed to half-day as most preschools are.  Well, Emmy's pre-k 4 class was a full day, 5 days a week, so this really doesn't change much.  She does wear a uniform now, but that's really the only big change...well that and homework. I'm not throwing a "yay the kids are going back to school party" because I still have Charlie home with me {the school we go to did away with...

I seem to be surrounded by pregnant ladies or those who just recently gave birth.  First babies, second, third.  Real life friends and online buddies.  I swear something is being pumped into the water. I love all things baby.  I love their sweet newborn smell and the way they curl up and sleep on your chest.  I love the tiny little clothes and impossibly small newborn diapers.  And as rough as my pregnancies were, I also loved the ever growing belly and the sweet baby kicks from within. It seems my entire Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds is filled with pregnancy bumps and those sweet newborn shots.  I love each one, seeing families grow bigger by a person, bigger in love.  It makes me remember the days of a baby moving inside me, those precious first moments of bringing home a new member of the family. But that chapter of our family has been closed.  Our little family is now complete.  There won't be any new babies brought home. ...

In parenting there are good moments and bad.  There are amazing wonderful moments and ones you wish you could erase from your memory completely.  As I mentioned to my cousin {who is only weeks away from becoming a father for the first time} the other night, being a parent can best be described as a roller coaster. Friday afternoon I experienced one of the low moments.  The girls and I had a birthday party to attend for the daughter of one of my friends.  It was going to be at a local children's museum we'd been to several times before. I'm going to be honest with you though, I had been dreading the party for a few days prior.  I knew the place was super fun for kids, and the girls and I were both excited to see our friends, but as Skip was working that afternoon, it would be a solo mission. Now before the eye rolling starts, I know how ridiculous it sounds that I was dreading taking the girls by myself.  They're older and there is only two of them . ...

As I mentioned the other day, Charlie has been waking up in the middle of the night for about the past week.  I'm not exactly sure what's causing it, but she's always been my trouble sleeper, so I'm pretty used to it. As much as I love and need my sleep, I am finding joy in these middle of the night hours spent with her.  The first night it happened, she started crying around midnight.  I went in her room to see if I could comfort her a bit.  After getting her some milk and a fresh diaper, Charlie requested I read a story to her.  I had her get up out of bed, and chose her own book for me to read.  This is what she came back with.    Obviously Charlie doesn't remember what this book is about, but I do.  Tears pricked in the corner of my eyes as I gathered her in my lap to read it.  As I read the soothing words over and over, the tears slipped down, just as they did when my grandma would read this story to me as a little girl. Once the st...

When your children are babies, your primary job as parents is to keep them happy, healthy, and safe. As they start to grow, you need to begin teaching them things...how to walk, talk, feed themselves. Once they have mastered those skills, it is time to delve a little deeper into their education.  Letters, numbers, colors, shapes.  We are our children's first teachers. Before you know it though, there comes a new stage in your relationship with your child.  One that comes much much  sooner than expected.  The one of "letting go". Try as we might, we cannot keep our children in the protective bubble of our arms and homes forever.  They need to learn to grow their wings and assert their independence a little.  They need to test the waters and try some things on their own. Let me tell you.  This stage is one of the more scary ones I have experienced so far as a mom.  It goes against all my instincts to let Emmy start to venture off on her own. ...

In the first few months of Emmy's life, I was borderline obsessed with reading as much about babies I could.  I would spend hours combing the library for the latest book on development, feeding, sleeping, etc.  I was shocked when I heard other, more experience, mothers tell me that they didn't read any of the books.  But how would they know when they're child was supposed to roll over?  How did they know how much to feed them and when?  How would they get their baby to fall asleep without all the knowledge out there? As Emmy grew, I found myself reading fewer and fewer parenting books.  Though to be honest, it was more that I was just exhausted after chasing a toddler around all day, than I felt like I didn't need them. Then I got pregnant with Charlie.  There was very little reading of any kind going on during those nine months, mainly because reading made me never-ending nausea even worse.  But I also didn't feel the need to find out what each...

The week before last, just before I woke up with the flu, Charlie woke up one night around 10:30 pm crying.  I ran up the stairs, since this isn't a common occurrence around here anymore { thankfully} .  Poor girl wasn't feeling well.  She was all stuffed up and congested, so sleeping was really difficult, even though she was exhausted. So I picked her up out of the crib, and curled her into my lap as I sat in the rocking chair.  I kept her head elevated and she promptly fell asleep in my arms.  I then proceeded to sit there for the next hour and gently rocked her back and forth.  {and yes I took pictures...I know how few and far between these moments are!} As I rocked, I'd be lying if I said tears weren't slipping down my cheeks.  It has been so long since I got to hold one of my babies while they slept, rocking them in the chair.  I thought about the probably hundreds of hours I have spent sitting in this spot over the past 5 1/2 years. I first ...

So as I mentioned briefly on Friday, we had to break Charlie of her pacifiers this weekend.  By society and doctor standards, she is really too old to have one at two and a half.  But that isn't why we had to take them away.  For the past few weeks, Charlie has been chewing on the nipple part of the pacifier. And twice in the past ten days, she has managed to chew the tops off the nipple.  We've caught it both times, but may not always be as lucky.  So the paci had to go. I waited after naptime Saturday {mainly for my own sanity} and the just cut the top off her remaining pacifier.  I didn't make a big deal out of it, or even draw attention to it.  Just cut it and left it off to the side. It was a little over an hour before Charlie even noticed it was cut.  When she brought it to me and said it was broken, I just said yes it was, and left it at that.  She didn't seem too broken up about it. Fast forward to bedtime.  As she was gathering ...

The past two weeks have felt like forever, and are really taking a toll on me.  Both girls rotated the croup, and it took Charlie almost three times as long to kick it.  Which made her whiny, fussy, and be even more clingy with me that before.  I literally couldn't do anything unless I was holding her...and since she was sick, that meant we did nothing.  My house was a mess, I never left Charlie's side, even to run an errand, and the whining hit epic proportions.  We spent the last two weeks doing a lot of cuddling: A decent amount of TV watching: A few late night parties: And a whole lot of comfort food: But thankfully this week is going slightly better.  No Charlie won't let anyone other than me change her diaper, give her a bath, or put her to bed.  Yes, it seems like she screams more than she doesn't.  But things definitely are a bit better overall.  One, everyone is healthy {knock on wood} and two, I'm starting to figure out some of Cha...

Do you ever have those weeks that you're not quite sure you're going to survive, at least not with all your brain cells intact?  Well I'm currently in the middle of one right now. Our whole family has been rotating germs and sickness for the past two weeks.  We've dealt with colds, sinus infections, and the croup.  Last night Charlie woke up screaming from 9-11:30, almost every hour after that, and during nap time today, so she's probably coming down with something again too. My kids are at an age, Charlie specifically, where whining is their favorite form of communication.  And when they're sick, they're whining seems to explode tenfold.  Throw in me not feeling well, and the whining seems 10x more annoying.  So we're all just whining, annoyed snotty messes over here. The trouble is that when the girls are sick, they obviously just want their mom to snuggle them.  Which is something I love , don't get me wrong, but I would also love to ...

I feel like parenting, as with most things in life, comes in waves.  Sometimes you are rockin' it and feeling on top of the world.  And other times you feel more like you're living with tiny dictators and you can't do anything right.  Guess which stage I'm in now . There is such a hard balance when it comes to parenting.  I want my girls to know they are special and loved more than anything else in this world.  But I also don't want them growing up spoiled and getting everything they want.  It's so challenging to know when to give in and when to stay strong. We're dealing with two different issues right now, one from each of the girls.  I tend to get a little wordy on the subject, so I'm going to split this up into two different posts.  The first situation is from my Charlie.  When she was a baby, she really wasn't that clingy.  We sure did spend a lot of time together, but that's only because she refused to sleep, like ever.  But ...

I read this article, blog, whatever you want to call it the other day and when I was finished I practically stood up and shouted, "Finally!"  To summarize, JJ Watt gives her opinion on being pro-vaccine for her children.  She backs it up with facts on how immunizations are really only effective with herd immunity, and that the theory that shots, specifically the MMR, cause autism has been disproven time and time again.  JJ Watt uses this article to "come out" as pro-vaccine, and encourages the rest of us to do the same.  The anti-vaccinators are the ones you hear all the time.  Now it's our turn to take a stand.  So that is what I am doing today.  I vaccinate my kids, and I'm proud of it . I try to stay out of the mommy wars as much as possible.  It doesn't affect my life if you co-sleep, formula feed, or clothe diaper.  Your choices on how you raise your child, doesn't affect my child in any way.  Except when it comes to vaccines....

Even though I still regularly refer to Charlie as "the baby", in actuality we are only hanging on to the baby stage by our finger tips around here.  Other than the fact that Charlie sleeps in a crib, isn't potty trained, and still uses a pacifier, we're all "big kid" around here. I'll admit it, I often get wistful when I see tiny baby clothes in the store or I hear another pregnancy announcement.  I'm still somewhat mourning that stage in our lives.  It's strange that it's over forever for us. But at the same time, this new period in our lives is equally fun and exciting .  It is such a wonderful feeling knowing our family is complete and whole .  There is a freedom that comes with having a toddler and preschooler.  It is way easier to go out...and requires way less stuff!  I can communicate with my two girls now instead of having one-sided conversations with a newborn.  I can really play with the girls, or get things done while they indep...

The past few days have been pretty rough on me.  I've been sick and Skip has been working so much I practically forgot he lives here.  Yesterday afternoon was the last big push as Skip is finally off today and tomorrow.  But even though the end was in sight, I was struggling yesterday.  On top of being sick, I pulled a muscle in my neck, and had a migraine that just wouldn't quit.  And that lovely time from 4:00 till bedtime was just beginning. But rather than let the girls whines get to me, I knew I needed a change of scenery to shake things up for a bit.  So we quick put on our shoes, and I grabbed my big girl camera as we headed out to the backyard.  It was warm....breezy...and the lightening was just perfect.  It was exactly what we all needed to get through the rest of the day. Sometimes all you need is a breath of fresh air.