Giggle

Inspiration for the day...

While at Laura Monahan's photography workshop on Friday night she showed the following video her daughter created.  Her daughter goes to school with Jack Jablonski (#13) and she painted for him. Please take 2:17 to watch this, it is beautiful.

940 Saturdays with your Kids, then You're Done!

A few weeks back I was sitting in the waiting room for my quarterly lab only doctor visit and I read in a magazine that we only have 940 Saturdays from birth to age 18 with your kids.

940 Saturdays. {really?!}

It captured my attention and I continued to read.  Again, this was a few weeks back when I read this in March issue of Parents (if I'm remembering correctly) and it has really stuck with me. Partly, because I couldn't remember the number of Saturdays we {only} have with our kids. So tonight I googled it and found this article posted today in the New York Times:

March 16, 2012, 4:31 pm

Childhood: 940 Saturdays, and You’re Done

By KJ DELL'ANTONIA

Nine hundred and forty Saturdays: I didn’t do that math, Dr. Harley Rotbart, author of “No Regrets Parenting,” did. Between the day your child is born, and the time he or she turns 18, you get 940 Saturdays — and 260 of them, Dr. Rotbart just reminded me, are gone by her fifth birthday.

My office is littered with “parenting books.” If we went by sheer number of pages of advice available, I should be the best mother around — something that the kindergarten teacher who, just this morning, told me that if I’d just bring her a comb, she’d do my youngest daughter’s hair, would be the first to say I’m not even in the running for — and that was before we both spotted the giant hole in the same child’s pants. The books, as abundant as they are, aren’t helping.

But Dr. Rotbart’s “No Regrets Parenting” is something special, and something a little different. Dr. Rotbart has nothing to say on the importance of grooming. He’s a pediatrician looking back on parenting his own children, and I think he would let both braids and pants slide. The result is a book that’s less about parenting minute-to-minute, and more about how those 940 Saturdays, or Mondays, or whatever moment you’d pull out of your week, add up.

Dr. Rotbart (who wrote “My Son, the Groom” for Motherlode a while back) has had his Saturdays. His children are grown. But while he’s obviously aware that children don’t stay children forever, he hasn’t fallen into the “Carpe Diem” trap of what the Momastery blogger Glennon Melton wrote so passionately about this past January: that whole, infuriating idea that young parents should “enjoy every moment” because it goes by “so fast.”

Dr. Rotbart knows that the days are long, and that telling a parent to “seize” them — when child A is singing “Come on, vamanos! Everybody let’s poop!” and child B is hitting him with her “Dora” doll in the drugstore aisle while child C wants to know what a “Tampax” is and child D just took off toward the Band-Aids — is just asking to get punched in the nose. It’s the years that are short, as anyone who has ever looked at the calendar and tried to figure out how it got to be March already when it was just New Year’s yesterday can attest. Dr. Rotbart writes to help us turn painfully long minutes into funny moments, and he does it practically, in one- or two-page essays on everything from ice cream sundaes to college counseling. It’s short, it’s sweet, and it’s more about being a parent than it is about actually parenting the kids themselves — no star charts here.

But even without Dr. Rotbart’s book, you can appreciate his powerful reminder of the inevitable passage of our time as active parents just by reading the title of this post. Nine hundred and forty Saturdays. One of them is tomorrow. So, what are you doing this weekend?

Really, we only have {940 saturdays}.  Zach turns five this August so as stated above in the article 260 of them will already be gone. After August 23 we'll only have 680 saturdays left before he turns 18. Crazy isn't it?

I haven't read the book above; however, I may pick it up and read it as it does sound like a good read and will have some good advice on parenting and living in the moment and creating memories for your kids to think back on.

Honestly, looking back at my own childhood I don't remember it all. I remember many bits and pieces both the good and the bad.  Personally, it is the everyday moments and memories you want to create for your kids. And I don't think you need to do grandiose things either. It can be simple things like...

• Going for a walk every night after dinner -- rain or shine. If it's raining put on the rain boots and jump in the puddles!
• Laying in the grass at night and pointing out the constellations and if you can point out the planets too even better.
• Catching fireflies [My grandpa Mike would burst the bodies of fireflies and smear them on you and you would glow in the dark just like the little beetles butts...but you can just put them in a jar and release them before you go in for the night.]
• Reading books each night before bed
• Being creative together - coloring, building with Lego's, playing with playdoh, painting and so on.
  
• Letting your kids kick your butt playing Wii.
  
• Turning up the music and dancing your butts off in the living room
• Inviting friends over and just hanging out and playing and barbecuing
• Soccer and baseball games, dance lessons, gymnastics, swimming in the pool.
• Taking oodles and oodles of photos of them to capture the everyday moments {giggle}
  

And the list could go on and on. You get the idea.

But I also think as Zach gets older after he turns five of those 680 saturdays we have left with him he will want to spend time without mom and dad. He'll want to do sleep overs at friends houses during the elementary years and when he becomes a teenager staying home with mom and dad on a Saturday will become few and far between due to friends, school, activities and so on. 

So in the end you really do not even have all of those 940 Saturdays.

As a parent is my job to make the time I spend with my kids memorable -- the every day simple moments are really what matter most.

Humm....tomorrow is Saturday. I wonder what we'll do?

December Heat Wave

It is currently, December 26, 2011 in Woodbury, Minnesota and the above is the current weather outside. Yes, it is 52 F outside in December in MINNESOTA!

So out of curiousity I decided that I would use Weather.com to check the current temps in other cities around the United States. I thought I would look up places where we know people.  Those in RED are warmer and those in BLUE are colder than it is here. The one city in black our temps are the same - imagine that!

• Cary, NC: 52 F {my sister Brooke lives in Cary, she is on her way to Minnesota though}
• Ft. Lauderdale: 79 F {Dave's parents are currently vacationing in Florida -- it's 43 F back in Monona}
• San Diego, CA: 67 F
• Seattle, WA: 43 F {My friend Carmel lives in Seattle - sorry I doubt it will be 52 when you are here in January...but one could hope!}
• Duluth, MN: 46 F {My parents live in Duluth and this is where I grew up}
• Atlanta, GA: 51 F {Dave's cousins Bridgett and Bob live near Atlanta}
• San Francisco, CA: 48 F {My friend Liz lives here}
• Rogers, AR: 37 F {My cousin Dan and Molly live here}
• Bradenton, FL: 77 F {Dave's friend Dave G lives here}
• Phoenix, AZ: 62 F {My college friend's Christie & Brad lived here until this August they are now living in Minnesota}

That's all the temps I'm going to take the time to look up. But what is the temp near you right now at 3pm on December 26? I'm just curious!

First Snow of this Season...

The first snowfall of the season always kick starts the holidays and my urge to decorate for the holidays. And when I say holidays I should say Christmas. 

I LOVE Christmas and I love making our home festive for the holiday season even more! If it twinkles, shines, glistens, or gleams I want it in our home. If it's sweet even more so!

Of course the decorated tree in the great room is the focal point, but I like to spritz a bit of razzle dazzle throughout the rest of our home - the banister, the windows, fireplace tables and more.

I do have a rule - no Christmas decor goes up before Thanksgiving. However, this year I'm feeling the urge to forego the rule and be like the stores and start getting the house all festive for Christmas. 

I feel like baking cookies and making puppy chow and other holiday favorites. I feel like dragging out the Christmas tree and turning on the Christmas music and decorating the tree. I'm excited for this holiday season and I'm not sure why.

Perhaps it is because work has been rather stressful lately with the big merger and all the uncertainty in the air.  It also doesn't help because of my position I tend to know a bit more of what is going on, yet I need to parade ignorance as others are questioning and asking me. I've been keeping to myself at work a bit more than I typically do because of this.

So why not lighten things at home and create a fun and festive atmosphere? Besides I may need a bit more time to decorate this year as it is only the second Christmas in our new home and I'm still trying to figure out what and how I'm going to decorate for Christmas.

Then there is the one little cute snag in all the decorating - Elaina. She is now toddling and very inquistive and I have a feeling the she'll be drawn to playing with the Christmas tree. All those bright and shiney ornaments waiting to be taken off the tree and chewed on and examined. So I won't be able to hang all of my ornaments this year.

Hummm....this may require some more thought and planning. *giggle* So instead of decorating today I decided to play outside in the snow with Zach. We had a grand time making snow angels, running through the snow and playing in the 'forest' behind our house.  Hey - snow and the holidays bring out the little kid in me!

Do Mommies Get Sick Days?

I am sick. I have been sick since Friday night. I started feeling icky on a "Mommy's Time Out" while hanging out with Nancy at the MOA. We were going to go to a movie after finishing up some last minute shopping I had to do for Elaina's professional photos this next week - but I wasn't up for the movie - I needed to cut my evening short and go home.

I am feverish, have body aches, I'm tired, and my throat feels full but it doesn't hurt. I don't know what I have. Could be a bug. Could be that October and my exhaustive schedule has just caught up with me.  To know for sure I'd need to go into Urgent Care and get throat culture to rule out strep throat.  But I didn't feel up to going yesterday. I was feeling too feverish and tired to go.  I'd have to sit and wait in an uncomfortable waiting room.  So I'll wait and see if I'm still feeling this ill on Sunday - was my thought yesterday. I'm no longer feeling feverish, but still have body aches, I'm tired and my glands are swollen - but my throat doesn't hurt.

Dave [did] get up with the kids yesterday morning but Elaina was crying for so long in her room that I ended up getting up too and gave her her bottle that Dave had just finished making. I just can't sleep if the kids are crying. After I finished bottling Elaina I went to sleep on the couch while Dave fed Zach and then got him ready for the Halloween parade.  I remember him asking if it was OK if he left Elaina with me while he took Zach to the Halloween parade. I don't remember what I said, but I'm sure it was something like "sure." or "that's fine." Dave was smart and put Elaina in the pack and play.

I know she fell asleep because I got up to run to the bathroom and on my return trip to the couch she was curled up asleep in the pack and play. However, she wasn't sleeping the entire time because she had fun with the container of wipes and pulled them out and scattered them like Kleenex pulled from a box all over the floor. OOPS!

Dave was great yesterday and let me be sick and nap on the couch pretty much all day. By evening I started to feel a little better. I made dinner. Nothing fancy - just Halloween Kraft dinner. (Elaina LOVED mac and cheese by the way!) I gave Elaina a bath and then camped out on the couch again after the kids went to bed.

Kids were up at 6am today and so was mommy. I could have nudged Dave and told him to get up with the kids. But I always feel guilty doing that. I'm awake already might as well get up no matter how crappy I feel. I'll feel better after the ibuprofen kicks in right?

So why do mommies feel like they can't take a 'sick day'?

Why can't we lounge under the covers of our comfy bed and pass in and out of consciousness without interruption of cries, little voices saying, "mommy" and husbands asking questions until we are feeling well and whole again? Oh and all of this accomplished without this mommy feeling a shred of guilt.

Is that possible?

Nope. It's not. Why? Because it is written in the mommy contract - that contract you signed between the labor pains and the c-section. It is written right there Mommy's don't get sick days. Kids & husbands yes, but mommies no.

Now it's not because our husbands do not let us take a sick day. No it's not that at all. Dave was great yesterday letting me pretty much be sick. I only did a few things yesterday. I would have done more if I wasn't dizzy every time I stood up and wasn't so blasted tired.

No, we don't get sick days as mommies because we don't think that we can. I WANT to get up when I hear Elaina or Zach crying. I'll wake up out of a dead sleep the moment one of them starts crying and get up to see what is wrong. I WANT to comfort my children and let them know that mommy cares and loves them. No matter how I am feeling or how tired I may be. We mommies put how we are feeling aside, no matter how crappy we may be feeling, so we can put our kids first.

Then there is the fact that I feel LAZY taking the time to heal. Yup, you read it right I feel L-A-Z-Y taking time to let my body heal. When I was awake yesterday I kept thinking, I should go upstairs and put a load of laundry in. Zach needs uniform pants washed for next week.

There is always something to do being a mommy - laundry, folding and putting laundry away, picking up and cleaning the house, playing with the kids, reading books, we need groceries, meals need to be cooked, dishes need to be washed and put away, diapers need to be changed, sheets need to be washed and changed and the cycle continues. Did I mention I work full time too?

By actually taking the time to be sick yesterday I'm now behind at home. If I'm sick again today Zach won't have uniforms for school next week. So I'll keep popping the ibuprofen, drinking plenty of fluids, take a bath and I'll feel better soon. I have to - I'm the mommy, I don't have time to be sick.