Tag Archives: Kids

29

Jun. ’14

Everything changes

This week was a big week here. Both kids are starting to show that they are growing up. Molly got on a school bus and rode to kindergarten camp and has her first loose tooth. Charlie decided he is now going to wear underwear. We are officially a house with “kids”. No more babies, no more toddlers, we have kids.

Part of me is super excited to embark on this next path. Full school days and no more diapers??? Could it be? We’ve reached the point where we have time to get something done and I don’t have to feel guilty as my child runs by with a diaper down to his knees. (Honestly, after five years of changing diapers, I’ve become lazy). We are on the road where I no longer feel like I’m herding cats into the pool and everyone is carrying a bag. I’m not going to lie, I LOVE IT. However, I see them growing and I want to cherish each and every moment now. I want to hold onto who they are and enjoy it because I know that soon it will be Charlie loosing teeth and Molly will be running off with friends at the pool, only coming back to me for ice cream money.

Wanting to enjoy this moment in time made me realize that I’ve had a parenting shift. Not that I wanted to rush through the babies years, but like almost every other parent, we are waiting for the next milestone. When a baby rolls, we wait for the crawl. Once they crawl, we are excited for them to walk. There’s always a next step. First baby food leads into first finger foods and self feeding. I spent 6 long months waiting for Charlie to sleep through the night. Each of these milestones are exciting and they happen fast. I thought I would never forget their stats at certain ages or the dates they crawled, walked, ate, slept, etc and now I can’t even remember (nor do I try) when these things happened. I just think, “eh, it happened”. We waited impatiently, then the milestone happened and before I could truly enjoy where we were, I was already thinking “what’s next?”.

I once had a yoga instructor tell the class that we can’t enjoy our present if we are too busy holding onto the past. I think the same goes for looking forward into the future. The past five years have taught me that the little people I put to bed tonight are not the same people that will wake up in their beds tomorrow. They will be a day older, a day smarter and a day more advanced. So instead of trying to remember each “milestone” or look forward to the next, I plan to take this moment and enjoy it because everything changes.

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28

Aug. ’13

My Kids Eat Jelly Sandwiches

Dear Parents Magazine,

While I appreciate your monthly reading material that comes to my house, I’m having difficulty following you on Pinterest. I guess I usually just flip through your magazine, reading an article here and there and just looking at pretty pictures along the way. You always have the cutest babies and toddlers.  However, on your Pinterest page I’m forced to read your captions on Pinterest and then I realize that I’ve been missing a lot of shenanigans while flipping through your magazine. For example, this jewel of a pin you had last week:

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Now, I’m not saying that this isn’t a cute idea. I mean, probably to get my kids to do this would suck about a good hour of our day which I’m always looking for activities that occupy little hands for more than 10 minutes but I think you are overlooking a big problem in our house. My kids eat sandwiches, yes, but fancy ones? No. Charlie would’ve thrown all the Cheerios on the floor and proceeded to tap dance on them to create a nice sandy floor to roll on. Molly would end up screaming and in tears over the fact that her masterpiece wasn’t good enough and demanding that I sprinkle her Cheerios for her. Oh, and I also wouldn’t do it up to her standards so there would be more tears. This time from both of us. I’m sure at this point Charlie would be bored of his Cheerio dust and decide to mess up what Molly has been working on for 20 minutes to get “just right”. This leads to more tears, usually followed by “mean actions” and a time out. Did I mention my kids don’t eat vegetables? Charlie’s would be on the floor with his Cheerios and Molly would be telling me 800 times “I don’t like that” and insisting it be removed, then crying because her flower doesn’t have a stalk or leaves. Skip ahead through a few more arguments and time outs and we are now way past lunch time, nobody has eaten and I’m half a bottle of wine in and it’s only noon.  So, while I like your idea of fancy food, I have to admit that my kids aren’t fancy and if it’s all the same we’ll stick to our plain old grape jelly sandwiches.

Sincerely,
Jamie, mom to Sensational Kids.

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05

Aug. ’13

How To Get Things Done: Elefun Edition

Being a working mom is hard. There is a constant struggle of trying to get things done and spending quality time with your kids. After all, once they are in bed I have cupcakes to eat and my dvr’d 3 week old Chelsea Lately isn’t going to watch itself. Therefore I try to incorporate work and play. Today I managed to empty and load the dishwasher in less than 30 minutes. Amazing, I know. I was so proud of myself, but I owe a lot of credit to Elefun. So here’s how it works:

1. Play 1-2 rounds of Elefun with the kids
2. Load up the butterflies and while they are distracted, run like hell to the kitchen.
3. Unload 3 plates
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 several times
5. Show kids how to load butterflies themselves, run like hell
6. Realize it’s been quiet for a good 60 seconds, sneak a peak to make sure everyone is still breathing and/or not coloring on the walls
7. Start loading dishwasher
8. After getting the silverware in, see the Wild Card run by with a bare bottom yelling “bare bum!”
9. Chase Wild Card for several laps and try to wrestle new diaper on
10. Realize the kids have moved on from Elefun and distract with Alphie, run like hell
11. Quickly throw remaining dishes into dishwasher and hope none of them really need to be rinsed.

And done. One less thing to accomplish after bedtime and since I got some exercise in, I can now have 2 cupcakes. I call that a win-win-win.

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01

Aug. ’13

The Summer I didn’t Shower

My mom has blessed us with taking care of our children while Stampy and I work. We know how lucky we are to not have a day care bill. Believe me, we know this. However, with this blessing comes comments like this:

Noni: Did you give the kids a bath yesterday?
Me: No
Noni: Jamie! They had sunscreen on, they went to the pool yesterday!
Me: eehhh

These conversations happen a lot. Weekly in some cases with new reasons why I should have given the kids a bath. So, with that being said, let me tell you about the summer I didn’t shower.

I was 17 and in between my junior and senior years of high school. My days went something like this:

  • 5:00am: wake up
  • 5:30am: drive to pool #1
  • 6:00-8:00am: swim practice
  • 8:00am: wash hair at pool shower. (note, did not take off bathing suits to wash my hair) After washing hair, change into different bathing suit.
  • 8:30am: drive from pool #1 to pool #2 for swim lessons, swim team #2, and lifeguarding. (note: drove ONLY wearing bathing suits. Apparently this is also the summer I didn’t wear clothes)
  • 9:00am-10:00pm: complete various jobs of teaching swim lessons, coaching, lifeguarding and cleaning pool. In the hot humid Maryland summer.
  • Go to bed, repeat.

Also learned this summer is hair brushing is optional. I’m pretty sure I didn’t own a brush this year. Thankfully I had lots of scrunchies.

So there you have it, the same woman who worries that her grandkids do not get bathed did not worry that her daughter did not shower for an entire summer. (and based on my history, it’s probably not surprising that I don’t bathe my kids too often)

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25

Jul. ’13

Why I Shouldn’t Garden

For several years Stampy and I planned on having a garden. The idea sounded wonderful. Lots of fresh veggies, maybe some fruit bushes, and lots of fun working out in the sun. Oh, and the kids! How the kids will love our garden. How could things possibly go wrong having a family garden?? Everyone helps, everyone gets to benefit in so many ways from the responsibility of having our very own garden. It’s like we forgot who our kids were. We were just like our bright-eyed bushy-tailed selves deciding to have kids in the first place. Stampy built us a great garden space and I took over planning what vegetables we would grow. The kids were 18 months and 3 1/2… they didn’t realize anything was going on other than the fact that there was dirt to play in!! We are now 2 years into gardening and I’ve realized that maybe, just maybe, we shouldn’t garden.

10 REASONS WHY I SHOULDN’T HAVE A GARDEN

10. I hate weeding. Seriously HATE. This is why I don’t do flower beds. Apparently weeds don’t have a preference between flowers or vegetables.

9. I work full time, I have 2 kids, a house to clean and a garden. I’ll give you 3 guesses which comes last on the “Things To Do” list. (hint, it isn’t work, kids or house)

8. I spent more time saying things like “Not the green ones! Pick red tomatoes!” or “You’re stepping on the lettuce!” or “Stop throwing grass clippings at each other” or “do not use the tomato stakes as swords” than actually working in the garden.

7. I hate bugs. However, bugs love me. It’s not a good relationship. They even bite me through my pants.

6. I didn’t plant any squash this year yet I have more squash than I know what to do with. I planted 4 pepper plants and have no peppers. Today I found a pepper plant growing in the watermelon plant (also not something I planted this year) and I pulled it thinking it was a weed.

5. Not having time to weed means not having time to pick vegetables.

4. Not having time to tend to the garden goes along with not having time to can, freeze, sauce or any other kind of preserving that goes along with having vegetables. However we have 8 tomato plants. I didn’t do the math.

3. I don’t actually understand how to maintain plants. I sort of just thought I would plant them, they would grow, produce vegetables and that would be it. Apparently there is watering and pruning involved.

2. I spend more time on Pinterest, pinning things for the garden than I do in the garden

1. Our kids won’t eat vegetables.

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