Momcapades

Okay. Confession. I’m not good at blogging. Duh. Obviously since this is my first post in weeks. Rather than kid myself into thinking I’m going to do it daily, my new goal will be weekly. I think part of my problem is setting too high of expectations, (which is totally uncharacteristic of me – NOT) and then I don’t do it because I missed a day, or two days or ten days. So now that I’ve been cleansed of my inferior blogging skills, on to my post.

As most of you with two children can probably attest to, Piper worships her big sister and will do or try anything that Maddie does. And yesterday, while Maddie was napping, all on her own, this is what Piper wanted to do…

She was having a snack and started acting like she needed to poop. So casually, I asked her if she was pooping. She looked at me, turned and walked into the bathroom. I followed her and found her trying to take off her diaper and hold her dress up. She started patting the toilet seat for me to put her on it. So I did and probably the most hilarious thing that happened was that she peed while she was sitting on it! I almost fell over.

Obviously, she had no idea what she was doing and looked at me like I was crazy when I started cheering for her for peeing. Funny we parents do that. She sat there for about 10 minutes and then got tired of her butt sticking to the potty seat and asked to get down.

Apparently my older brother potty trained me, so if Piper wants to learn this from Maddie, that would be awesome. Now if I can only stop her from wanting to dive off chairs like her big sister…

Okay, I know it’s been weeks since I last posted and I promise I’m still alive. We’ve just had two rounds of viruses, an ER visit and several cake and cupcake orders (pics below), which have all contributed to my slacking off. Currently however, for the moment, we’re healthy and enjoying the sunny weather — mostly from indoors though. I’m not a fan of the hot, hot weather. Funny that I live in the South.

Anyways, nothing else is really new except I’m trying to transition Piper from two naps to one. Any advice would be welcomed!!! She’s doing okay, but instead of one long nap in the afternoon, she’s taking a short, one hour one. Obviously not enough sleep for a 15 month old. I ended up putting her down this morning because she was visibly getting overtired. I can’t remember how I did this with Maddie and only seem to remember it being super easy because she was extremely laid back as a babe. I think Piper’s old enough…any advice??

I promise there will be more frequent posts from now on!!

I’m having one of those days. You know, one of those days when working outside of the home, back in my former career, seems more than appealing. It started with Maddie basically yelling at me when I didn’t wake up David the “right” way with her. Then, instead of apologizing, she was more concerned with if I had picked out a dress for her to wear and a dress for Piper to wear. Follow that with demand after demand for things like waffles, apple juice and Dora.

I even threatened to go back to work and her having to go to daycare and she said, “well, I just want to go to the YMCA’s Adventureland.” What?!?! Obviously, not the tears and pleading for me to stay home with her that I was looking for.

As I stand in my kitchen this morning, I am slightly overwhelmed by the dishes left from last night that I was too tired to do, my desire to go work out at some point, the suitcases that still need to be unpacked from last weekend and the ultimate responsibility of raising two daughters who are confident in themselves and God’s love for them, compassionate to all people and full of a desire to serve others before themselves. (Okay, that doesn’t really compare to last night’s dishes. But when it rains, it pours you know?!)

It’s days like this that I am especially thankful for friends, family and Jesus. Without the love and support of our family and friends, and without Christ’s love, I may be tempted to throw in the stay-at-home mommy towel. However, I don’t think that I could really ever trade in the finger paints for powerpoints. Besides, I know that the dishes will get done and that I’ll get to the gym at some point. But the suitcases are another story…I may just leave them for our next trip!

So Donald Trump isn’t the only one firing people these days. Maddie has hilariously put her own spin on the phrase.

Picture Maddie, naked, running into the room, turning around, spreading her cheeks (yes, butt cheeks) and saying “I fire you!” with a total Southern accent. It is absolutely one of the most random but funniest things she’s ever done. She may need to show Donald her technique for the next season of the Apprentice…

For whatever the reason, sometimes as moms we don’t take the time we need for ourselves. We get caught up in the craziness of diapers, finger paints and laundry that we forget that we need some attention too. And, I was no exception.

Recently, I realized that the only nights I had spent apart from Maddie in three and a half years was when I was pregnant with Piper and hospitalized for dehydration, and then when I delivered Piper. I couldn’t believe it. That seems crazy. But, that changed this weekend, I finally did it. I spent a weekend away from my family. And let me tell you…it was AWESOME! Of course, I missed David and the girls a ton, but it was so good for my soul to spend some time with great friends, good food, wine, lots of doing nothing and two nights of uninterrupted sleep. We watched TLC and did cartwheels on the beach. We got cat calls from a housekeeper who thought we were teenagers, laughed at crazy stories about our dysfunctional families and had great conversations about life, kids and everything in between. There were no expectations for the weekend except to have fun celebrating our friend Becca’s 30th birthday.

Every day we have with our children is a precious gift, and as I’ve said before, I wouldn’t trade in the craziness for anything. But, I think that taking a break, even if it’s just a few hours on a weekend, to recharge is crucial to us being good moms. It’s energizing to be able to sit quietly, or in the company of good friends, without being climbed on, whined to or spit-up on. Not to mention being able to pee sans kids!

Thanks again for a wonderful weekend and to David for supporting this much needed break. Now it’s time to plan the next one…any ideas?!?

Asparagus. Most of us eat it, but do you know how it grows? I didn’t. I hadn’t really ever thought about it. And when I did think about it, I figured it grew on a stalk, a whole bunch on each one. Boy was I wrong. David visited an asparagus farm for work today and he sent me this picture…It just looks funny, doesn’t it?

It’s been more than a week since I posted anything and it’s because I’ve been consumed by my side hobby/biz – cake making. Over the last couple of years, and with some sweet encouragement from friends, I’ve gotten more and more into it. I had my first weekend of being double booked and survived. At times, however, I wasn’t sure the cakes would survive Maddie, but they did. Each were delivered to very happy customers. Check them out! The one was for a friend’s baby shower and designed around the book 10 Little Ladybugs. The other was for our friends’ daughter’s baptism. I’m working on the decorations for a little one for my friend Becca’s 30th birthday and will post a picture of that when it’s done too!

Yesterday was Mother’s Day, and while it’s totally a Hallmark holiday, I will admit to loving the special attention from the fam. The day started with the largest coffee from the best coffee shop in town, Krankies, and continued with love from my girls, gelato with a fellow mom sans kids and dinner with sweet, sweet friends. My heart was full yesterday. And hopefully the hearts of everyone else that we ran into, thanks to Maddie. She wished girls, boys, babies, moms, dads and folks without kids a Happy Mother’s Day. It was hilarious. Most people didn’t know what to say and politely laughed at her silliness. But she genuinely wanted everyone to just have a good mother’s day – regardless of mom (or not-mom) status.

While my heart was smiling yesterday, there are other moms around the world aching for their children. Children they have legally adopted and have not received home yet. These moms are waiting, praying and hoping to bring them home soon. Some dear friends of ours have opened our eyes and hearts to the world of adoption and the joys and struggles that come with it. Through them, we have read blogs of others who are called to expand their families through adoption. This Mother’s Day, one mother is pleading for help in bring her daughter, Marta, home from Ethiopia. She has been legally adopted by this family but is not being allowed into the US. Please read the story here and pass along to everyone you know. Help their family bring Marta home. Pray for our government to unite this daughter with her family and to do it quickly.

Mr. Sandman finally visited our little Piper, and at almost 13 months, she FINALLY slept through the night!! After hearing that, you may be feeling sorry for us, or you may be thinking we should have nipped the issue in the bud much sooner, but regardless, we’re super pumped that she finally did it.

It’s crazy to think that I haven’t had a solid night’s sleep in over a year. I would be lying if i told you that I wasn’t envious of David’s work trips at times because even though he’s sleeping in a maybe-not-so-clean hotel room, he’s getting to sleep nonetheless.

And it’s not that we didn’t try to get her to sleep. We tried many tactics – pacifiers, rocking, an extra bottle, crying it out. Several times we discussed and devised “cry-it-out plans” that we were going to stick to for a week or more, but in the middle of the night, sleep deprivation takes over and you’ll do whatever it takes to get that crying baby back to sleep. I think one problem we had was that Maddie slept through the night at eight weeks, so we were totally unprepared for anything different. We just figured that’s what all babies do. (This is the point where you laugh.) After more than a year of interrupted sleep, we now realize that is NOT what all babies do.

You may be wondering how we finally got Piper to sleep through the night. Well despite our pushover tendency to hold and rock her back to sleep, we finally had enough and stuck to letting her cry it out. After three nights, she seems to have gotten the hang of it. Either way, I think we’re finally seriously committed to getting some sleep and are willing to listen to some crying (and screaming and banging) to get it. We’ll see how tonight goes!

So Piper has starting giving kisses and it is easily one of the best things ever about parenthood. I totally forgot about this monument from when Maddie was a babe. If you ask Piper for a kiss, about 75 percent of the time, she pushes her head forward and sweetly touches her lips to yours. It melts my heart! And in case you were wondering, the other 25 percent of the time, she headbutts you – sometimes pretty hard. Obviously still learning. It’s amazing how much babies learn everyday and something as simple as a little kiss can be so huge.  Now we just need to work on the headbutting…