Every Child Is Special - Mine Is Extra Special

I bet you think I'm going to go on and on about how precious my daughter is. How she's the most beautiful little girl...well, she is...but that's not what this post is about.

Since Calleigh was 5 months old, she has put her hands in my armpits for comfort. Yeah! I know. Weird!! She is turning 2 tomorrow and as I type, she is digging in my pit. Some days I don't mind...but sometimes it drives me nuts!!

I've had to adjust things a bit. Like waiting until just before we leave to apply deodorant. There's been a few times where she's had her hand in my pit and then put her hand in my Husbands' mouth. It's funny for me...not so much for him.

I'm not sure how to get her to stop this. It seems like she does it more when she's got her soother in. So, my only idea here, is doing away with the soother. If you're a parent who relies on a soother at times, you know how difficult it is to part with. For the child and the parents!

When we've been out shopping, walking and playing, I have never seen another child with their hands in their moms' pits. What is this? Is it me? Is this just my daughters' "thing"? Man is she going to be embarrassed when this is what I remember most about her growing up! Although, the things I am remembered for as a child are far more irritating to hear about. Mostly destruction of many, many different things.

New Years - Meh

I've never been big on partying for New Years. I realize it's the end of a year and the start of a new one, but I feel like some people just use it as an excuse to lose themselves in alcohol and nurse themselves back to health the first day of the year.

Now that we have a child, New Years seems to be even less important to me. We were excited when we had our daughter because it was the start of a new beginning for us. The journey of parenthood. Other life occurrences bring on excitement as well, graduation, marriage, birthdays...but they are something to be celebrated. New Years just doesn't feel the same as other special moments in our lifetime.

Yeah sure, I get that it's the start of a new year. A time where people make unreachable resolutions, just so 90% of them can make the same one again the next year. I laugh at these people. New Years isn't the time to do this. We need to make life changes on a weekly basis. To eat healthier, stay fit, spend more time with family, improve our relationships...funny how the beginning of the year is the only time people actually try to make these commitments. Then, the resolution flops and we feel as though the whole years is in the pits.

Think positive throughout the year, enjoy family, friends by your side and love in your heart. Add some laughter on the side and you're good to go.  :)

Birthday Grump

So I realized this year, that I always get a bit grumpy the week before my birthday. I'm not sure why. I don't feel like I care about getting older. I've never been the type of person to dread my birthday.

Maybe it's all the birthday attention. Don't get me wrong, I like attention, just not all of it. The second reason, could be the birthday song. That song makes me angry, I can't help it, especially when it's sung to me. I feel like it's so gay and childish. Sure, I sing to kids when the cake comes out all lit up with colorful candles. But I turned 32 this year. Not old - not young. 32.

Next year, I plan to tell people that 33 is the cut off for that damn song. No more! Just give me cake. If you must add candles that's fine. But no singing! I don't even need gifts anymore. Just friends and family. Ok, maybe I need at least one gift. One gift, friends, family and I'm good to run full speed into the next year.

Petting Zoo

After weeks of teaching Calleigh animal sounds, I took her to a petting zoo. I didn't think of it until I saw this happening. But it was amazing to see her put the sounds I taught her, together with the real animals. Kids are just so smart and learn so fast!

Even thought she was excited to be there (what kid wouldn't be excited about a huge open space?!!), she was a bit nervous when the animals would approach her. She ran after them, but as soon as they turned to come towards her, she had her guard up...in the form of fists tucked into her chest.

Mistakes - Sorry 1st Child, They're Coming Your Way

Baby girl woke up today and greeted me with orange goop all over her and her bed this morning. Ahh motherhood. This is what it's all about.

This is the second time in two weeks that she has gotten sick. Last time, I learned some valuable lessons.
1) If child doesn't want to eat - take baby steps and feed them bland things like bread, crackers and flat gingerale. Applesauce will not b your friend 20 minutes later.

2) The day after severe sickness - do not feed child dairy products even though child appears better. yogurt and milk will unexpectedly catch up with you.

3) Do not take child on an outting. Assuming child is better because it hasn't evacuated it's stomach in a few hours is a big NO. This is how you end up frantically changing said child in a store and trying to get an employee to come clean up the sour/half digested milk your child has spewed onto the carpet. (yeah, the store was carpeted - Jysk should rethink flooring options).

This time around, I cancelled all plans and fed her rice crackers AND gravol. Thanks God for gravol!

Packing on the pounds

Before I was pregnant, I was exercising and losing weight. I felt great! But exercise came so much easier then...when I didn't have a 1 year old chasing after me. (I say chasing after me - because, since she learned to walk, that happens more often than me, chasing after her).

Now that it's been 15 months since I gave birth to Calleigh, reality is setting in. This is about the time when a mother starts feeling lumpy and dumpy. My daughter is all about skin. I'm guessing it's just her comfort thing. But she always has her hand/arm in my shirt. This makes for a lot of stretched collars accompanied by food stains, baby finger prints and drool smears. Some days I feel like a bum. Sloppy, unkempt and lumpy.

After she was born, my weight proceeded to melt off over the next 4 months. Then I went back to my old eating habits, and BAM - I gained a little unwanted weight. But, instead of being a Debbie-downer about it, I keep reminding myself that no one forced me to eat all that chocolate, cookies, chips and other horrible things for my body. I did that on my own and if I am unhappy with my weight, I've got to take responsibility for my actions and do something about it.

When you're a mom, you can either give up on doing things for yourself OR work around your child. So, I have started exercising immediately after I put my sweet baby to bed. Then, I work on some graphics jobs and crawl into bed around midnight. This might not be great for some people, but it works for me.

So, if you are struggling with something, and thinking about it just stresses you out to the point where you feel like you should just give up - think about how important it really is to you. Could you live without it? Is it vital to your sanity that you resolve it? People may think I'm crazy for asking myself questions. But that is exactly what I do. Sometimes out loud. It doesn't make me crazy. It makes me capable of handling what comes at me.

Juggling My Life

I wish I could say settling into my new role as Mommy has been easy, but who's life is easy?!! Things wouldn't be interesting without bumps in the road. Not that my beautiful daughter is a bump in my road - but she certainly makes things interesting.

That old saying "hindsight is 20/20" makes a lot more sense to me now. I remember hearing that expression as a child and thinking "what language is that?" and passing it off as something that meant nothing. Just something people said to fill space. Well, it didn't mean anything then, but now - now I see what the fuss was/is all about. Looking forward to what my life may be like is definitely easier than looking back and seeing what I could have done better, prepared for...or just left out completely.

When my daughter was 11.5 months old, I went back to work. Before her, I was employed full-time, paid by salary and had way more time and money to "play with". Now, I work part-time, am self employed and we are scraping by. It has taken some adjusting. I was kind of pushed into being self employed...but it was a good thing. Something I would have struggled to do on my own.

I find my day to day thinking is centered around when my daughter will nap so I can get some work done. Mommy life is a little tougher than I thought it would be. Apart from the bad nights, where our little one wakes up a lot and I get frustrated easily with tiredness and a few profanities, I think I'm a good mom.There are always things we feel we could have done better, but what's the sense in dwelling on them? Just acknowledge the room for improvement and try to learn how to adjust your thinking/actions accordingly.

Life will always be a juggling act, even more now that I have a child. But it is a welcome activity. In order to live and grow, we need to accept that things change, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better. But living life day to day is the only way to live for me. Otherwise, I might get caught up in larger than life struggles and give up all together.

Sit back, relax, enjoy the people in your life and when you are faced with one of life's many bumps along the way, try to break it up and deal with it in pieces so it doesn't overwhelm you. You'll breathe easier and sleep better...unless you have a baby waking you up every couple hours at night.  :P