Being Mom – Page 4 – Muddling Momma

Category: Being Mom

10
Dec
2014

Keep Rolling

How is it already Wednesday? I try to post twice a week, but the past few days I have been consumed with our next adventure – moving! That’s right. We are heading out of Northern Virginia to Crofton Maryland. We will be closer to family, be able to afford a bigger rental and, well, not have to fight with Route 66 traffic which is slowly but surely stealing our souls.

We are really going to miss our apartment complex and the friends we have here, but at the end of the day, this is a great opportunity for us. Now we just have to secure daycare, a dog walker, transfer medical files, register our car … and in my case, worry that this move will be discussed in Mike’s therapy sessions down the road. How we RIPPED him from the only home he knew. Of course, I moved when I was about his age and remember absolutely nothing, but what is being a mom without having some sort of guilt? Boring. That’s what.

So instead of writing about moving woes, I will instead share some pictures from our fall family shoot with Keri from Bows&Burlap Photography. She’s affordable and amazing – which says a whole lot in this area.

31
Oct
2014

TDCLBlogtober2014 – My Biggest Fears

categories: Being Mom, DC Ladies Blogging

When the DC Ladies prompted bloggers to write about what they were scared of, I had no shortage of options. I should preface this by saying, I know my fears are irrational and it isn’t like they keep me up at night.

As I was trying to find a quote about fear, something light and funny, I got a bunch of motivational crap like ‘feed your faith to starve your fears’ and ‘do one thing that scares you everyday’. Blah. Why can’t you just be scared of something and move on? Perhaps I can be all whatever to those motivational sentiments because what I am scared of isn’t holding me back. So what am I scared of? Let’s get the normal parent fears out of the way first.

{Raising a Serial Killer} I think all parents worry their sweet bundle of joy will grow up to be a total sociopath. After a killing spree doesn’t the family usual tell the media outlets how sweet and funny their cold blood killer was?

{Something Bad Happening} Bad things are going to happen. I try to live in the now and realize that some bad things aren’t so horrible, like when I was laid off and got to spend more time with Mike.

{Seriously Screwing Up My Kid} Mike is 17 months and still uses a bottle for milk. Does this mean he will be swigging from a baby bottle at his high school graduation? Will he mistake my sarcasm to his dad as anger and tell his wife in 30 years that he had a screwed up home life? Will moving in January and putting him in a new daycare setting cause him so much stress he …. whatevers? I am coming to terms with the fact that he will probably be a little screwed up, but aren’t we all?

Now on to the fun, irrational fears.

{Horses} I have no basis for this, but for as long as I remember get close to a horse was a no go without getting sweaty and anxious. I have never ridden a horse or even really gotten close enough, until recently, to even touch one. This summer though I did touch a horses nose and just knowing he was looking at me made my heart race.

{Being Startled} If I watch you run down the hall and hide behind the corner and then you jump out as I walk by I will STILL scream like a little girl and bolt. Since most scary movies are based on startling viewers, I don’t watch many. I do like more psychological thrillers like The Others.

{Stopping Traffic} Good Lord I hate traffic. If you are familiar with the DC Metro Area, I live down route 66 and drive about 10 miles of it twice a day from the beltway. So many times ONE broken down car causes a massive back-up and by the time I get to the broken down car I want to get out and kick their tires. I am terrified I will be one of those people. And then a traffic copter flies overhead and I appear on the news and suddenly become the most hated person in Fairfax County.

So there you have it! Nothing a little therapy can’t cure, right? What are your fears?

04
Sep
2014

Why is it Not Friday?

categories: Being Mom, Toddler, Working Mom

Oh friends. Do you ever have one of those mornings where feel like it should be bed time by 9AM? That was my morning. Here’s how it went down in the W home this morning:

1AM – I suddenly find myself wide awake for no good reason. While staring at the ceiling, I realize I am hearing a helicopter. We are in the flight path for a major airport, so airplanes are so common I don’t even register the noise anymore, but a helicopter is another story. I peek out the window and sure enough – slowly circling our area. I do a little research, since I am wide awake, on Twitter and the local news and I don’t see anything of note. Hey Fairfax County? I just signed up for your new alert system and marked about 45 things I want to be alerted about. Perhaps you should have an option to get a text or email if there is a homicidal manic running around my community.

5:45AM – I wake up to spend some time chatting with S. before he leaves for work. The minute he leaves, Mike starts to stir. MUCH earlier than usual. I take a quick shower and get dressed.

6:15AM – I get Mike up and dressed

6:30AM – I make Mike a bottle of milk, put it on the stove and while my back is turned he pulls it down and it is perfectly times to get milk on both of us head to toe. We both strip down and he finishes his milk while I try to find something else to wear. This would be easier if I had done my ‘special wash’ last night like I intended. Oh, and if it wasn’t 97% humidity today.

7:00AM – We are ready to face the day! Mike and I take Charlie out for a walk, which is usually a fun and relaxing time. Again, the 97% humidity doesn’t make this morning much fun. Half way on our walk, we run into a neighbor and his dog Bacon (uh, huh). Apparently the dogs have met before and are nice to each other, but Bacon is high energy and is clearly in the mood to play. Charlie is friendly until he is ‘over it’ and I was worried about how all this energy would go with Mike standing next to me. Bacon’s Dad is chatting my ear off and then Charlie walks around Mike and knocks him over. Nothing terrible, but enough for him to burst into hysterical tears while the dogs are barking at each other and Bacon’s Dad continues his story about … something. I can’t even focus because I am waiting for my conversational ‘out’ while trying to get the point across that he needs to MOVE ALONG. It is easier to manage his one dog versus me trying to corral my circus. We finally move along. #awkward

7:20AM – We get Charlie his Kong so we can slip out without the typical beagle drama. We didn’t get far before I was sweating everywhere and Charlie was howling.

7:30AM – Quick stop for gas.

7:35AM – Quick stop at the ATM.

7:45AM – A crow flies into my drivers side window. Yep. A crow. I saw it coming, but I assumed it would swoop up. Apparently not. That’s not like a bad omen or anything right?

7:47AM – I drop Mike off at daycare. He seemed in a good mood since we spent the morning talking about his friends and the fun stuff he will do (which seems to help with drop off). He walks up the driveway with purpose, marches down the sidewalk, crawls up the steps like he’s been doing it all his life and then they open the front door. My little guy quickly turns around like, ‘that was fun, let’s go Ma’. I turned him around in time to see the waterworks start. Being a working momma isn’t always fun.

7:55AM – Yay! Momma time. My 40 minute commute means loud music or my Mike O’Meara Show podcast. Then I saw the big board telling me my 8 mile trip down 66E to the Beltway will take me 27 minutes. Insert Napoleon Dynamite ‘uggggh’.

8:45AM – Arrived safely to work but feel like I’ve been awake for twice as long as I actually have.

It can only go up from here right?

Oh hey! There is still time to comment on my Bloomers bra fitting review post to win a BraMaid!

12
Aug
2014

Craving Mikey Snuggles

categories: Being Mom, Working Mom

Sometimes being a working momma sucks. For no reason and every reason I missing this kid today. 6PM can’t come quick enough.

28
Jun
2014

Working 9 to 5, What a Way to Make a Living

categories: Being Mom, Working Mom

Well friends, I just finished my first week back to work after 3 months of catching up on bad TV. I have to say – it felt good. And exhausting. But good.

I am now an Executive Assistant, Personal Assistant, Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to the Executive Vice President of an insurance marketing company. This is obviously a pretty new position, so I am still figuring things out and cleaning out my desk from the last person who was part time. This is my first job where I am in the office five days a week and it is a big change. Thankfully the office is casual dress and I am hourly, so I work 40 hours a week and anything more is overtime. The staff is small since we are a remote office, about 10 people and then 150 or so at headquarters in Nebraska.

I know it’s only been a week, but I think S. and I are juggling pretty well. Nothing is really different for Mike, he is going to daycare about the same time and being picked up at the same time, the only change for him is more time with Dad, but that’s never ever a bad thing. Dad gets him from daycare, gives him dinner and starts a bath, which is usually when I get home. I get a good hour or so with the guys before Mike hits the sack. He’s sleeping so much better these days which is helpful.

I was so worried about this transition. I knew MIke would be fine, but me – I wasn’t so confident. But it’s been pretty nice, at least for a week, to have lunch alone reading my book, interact with my coworkers, commute for 45 minutes listening to my podcasts … I know some days will be hard, but frankly the only time I miss Mike is when I see other kids about his age on the street. I just make up stories in my head that they are with their nannies or on vacation because their momma works 10 hours a day.

I also realized pretty quick that our time together is much more valuable now. When I get home, no cleaning or anything other than Mike until he goes to bed. Everything else can wait. And with his morning schedule I get a lot of snuggle and play time before going to work.

Side note – I thought it would be nice to stick a funny SomeEcard about being a working mom, but wow. There is so much crap about who has it harder – stay at home moms or work outside the home moms. I’m not going to play into the mommy wars, so I am going to leave you with something else 🙂

21
Jun
2014

Looking So Long at These Pictures of You

categories: Being Mom

I got the pictures of Mike’s local birthday gathering last night that my friend Miranda took and she caught so many fun moments. I have a really photogenic kid. For the first time in a long, long time I looked at the shots of me and my internal conversation went like this:

Well that shirt does nothing for your arms and it’s a bad angle for a double chin, but damn I looked happy and Mike was clearly having a blast.

I’ve always been a bigger girl and struggled to keep my weight under control – I still do. I used to look at pictures and immediately hone in on the flaws, but no more. I am not going to be one of the mothers who hang behind the camera until they have lost the baby weight, covered their roots or changed out of the yoga pants.

I see pictures of my own Momma now and while she sees certain things, I see someone who is amazingly beautiful and perfect to me. She’s my mom. I see a moment captured that I will share with Mike and my future grand kids (God willing!). Those moments are important.

Everyone wants to take a good picture, but it’s not about me anymore and I get that. I won’t hide behind the camera – I don’t want to miss precious moments captured forever with Mike.

16
Jun
2014

Pinterest Gives Me a Tummyache

categories: Being Mom, DIY

I’ve read a lot of about mommas (and daddies of course) who find social media stressful because of seeing other people’s perfect lives, even though we know life is far from perfect. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I can’t relate to that. I love social media for everything – business, personal and snooping.

Since I accepted a job offer that puts me in an office starting next Monday, my OCD is on overdrive. Much like the last week of pregnancy I have to clean the house, organize closets, have lunch with friends and do everything I said I would do during my three month unemployment and, frankly, didn’t. So I started by reorganizing my Pinterest boards. You know. Since that takes precedent over folding clothes.

I quickly found out, not that I am lacking in the motherhood department, but I missed the boat on so many opportunities for pictures, fun crafts that only a baby can ‘do’ and traditions to start. I had so many good intentions before Mike was born and I totally missed the boat. Do I think this makes me a bad mom? No, but I am a little disappointed. I can’t go back in time and redo all Mike’s monthly pictures to be super cute with blocks announcing his age. Or capturing his little hands in the shape of a heart on a frame for the perfect Valentine’s Day frame.

What did parents do before Pinterest? They walked blissfully through parenthood without a reminder of all the creative things they missed doing. I guess there is always hope for baby number two. But probably not.

05
Jun
2014

Happy First Birthday Mike!

categories: Being Mom, Dear Mike

My Sweet One Year Old Boy –

Oh my gosh! It’s been a whole year since you arrived and made me a Momma – in fact as I am typing this I realize a year ago I was being prepped for my C-Section. They were worried that my blood pressure was so high and I was hoping they wouldn’t delay your arrival. I was leaving that hospital with a baby and thankfully it worked out to be my own. You!

I’ve spent some time reading old blog posts from the last year and it brought back so many memories. The one thing I hope you never, ever forget is how badly you were wanted and how incredibly loved you are by so many people.

The blog I wrote the day before you were born reflected how nervous I was. I was worried something would go wrong in surgery, something would be wrong with you or we would screw you up. A year later it’s obvious those worries, like many of life’s worries, didn’t happen.

Getting ready for you birth, we did a lot of things people joked we will never do again like go to brunch,see movies and make pottery. Which is funny now because guess what little guy? We’ve gone out to eat a lot since you arrived (and you are always the center of attention), we’ve watched movies (at home, on the couch after bedtime) and we even painted pottery for Daddy’s first Father’s Day! Some people say that life is over when you have kids, but life is SO much more fun with you!

It was really hard to picture what life would be like with you. We knew we wanted a baby, but I couldn’t picture YOU. Your eyes, hair or smile. Now I can’t picture life with you. I am sure Daddy agrees!

I remember telling someone from church that when I wake up in the morning, I remember you are there and it’s like Christmas morning. What new thing are you going to do? What are you going to discover? You truly are the best part of my day. Now that you are in a crib sleeping I like to watch you for a little bit on the monitor before getting you. You sing to yourself, walk around the perimeter and bounce. When I open the door I get the biggest grin. Like you are so thankful I am still there and you’ve been waiting all night to see me. If I live to be 1000 years old, that joyful, loved feeling will never leave me.

I’m not sure I can put into words how much I love you. How much you amaze me and make me laugh. But my sweet one year old? I’ll eat you up I love you so.

xoxo,

Momma

20
May
2014

8 Baby Products to Save Your Money On

categories: Being Mom, Product Reviews

Two things are obvious if you’ve been reading my blog:

1. I love lists. Like, love, love.

2. I am pretty realistic when it comes to spending money on baby stuff.

So, remember how I gave you guys my 5 Registry Must Haves? Today I am telling what you don’t need. As just like before, I bet a bunch of you will disagree wholeheartedly with my list and that’s cool. Different things work for different parents. Some of these products I’ve tried and some other products I pretty much knew I wouldn’t use and I haven’t missed. FYI – I tried to widdle this list down to 5, but I just couldn’t.

{Baby Food Maker} I covered this in my post about making baby food at home. Sure, the fancy mixers specifically for baby food work just fine, but so does the generic blender from the discount box store.

{Hooded Towels} If this doesn’t make it on your registry, you are going to get a gazillion for your shower anyway. What’s my beef with hooded towels? They fit Mike for about two weeks. Now they barely wrap around him and they all seem to be thin and flimsy. After figuring this out we bought a few bath sheets on Amazon and wrap it around him a dozen times.

{Baby Bathtub} We had a baby bathtub because everyone had one and it made sense. The baby has to bathe right? We probably used it five times. It took up a TON of room in our small apartment and was more trouble than it was worth. After Mike’s first bath in the tub in the sink, we started putting him in the tub with S. He liked it so much more – being held, moved around and warm.

{Formula Mixer} Stop being lazy. Really.

{Pee-Pee Tee-Pee} Anyone with a boy knows that being peed on is a given. If you make it out of the hospital without it happening, consider it a victory! I honestly thought the PPTP was a joke, but people actually USE these things! I see a few things happening – a strong stream and being stabbed in the eye with the pointy end or Mike getting curious and pulling it off. Here’s a common tip – save your money and cover your son immediately while changing his diaper.

{Bottle Warmer} We used a bottle warmer for a few weeks before realizing that Mike liked his formula warm, room temp or cold. The warmer added extra, unnecessary time to the process. Maybe we were just lucky.

{Bottle Sterilizer} We had one of these too and they are such a pain in the neck. Our bottles never fit right, it never fit enough, water ended up everywhere … it was exhausting. Now we hand wash the bottles in super hot water then run them through the dishwasher once a week.

{Pacifier Wipes} You might have picked up on the fact that I am not a germphobe. I will tell you that I had the best of intentions of using pacifier wipes, but they were never handy when I needed them. The few times Mike used his pacifier and dropped it (or any toy), I usually just wiped it on my shirt or stuck it in my mouth first.

What would you add?

16
Feb
2014

Dressing the 30 Year Old Me

categories: Being Mom, Working Mom

Phew! What a busy few weeks. You might have picked up on the fact that I have a new job I am starting on Wednesday. I am really excited, but also scared crapless for a lot of reasons. Lemme back up.

So the job is at the start-up Main Street Genome. I am still figuring out the ‘elevator pitch’, but they use data to help keep Main Street businesses open and thriving. I am really passionate and interested in entrepreneurship and start-ups, so this job is right up my alley. AND I am working (and creating) the Client Success processes now that they are launching. It’s almost like the job was made for me. It’s in the heart of DC, but it sounds like in a couple months I can telework, which would be awesome because I am more productive at home and it would save me an hour commute.

That said, it is going to be a HUGE adjustment. I’ve never started a job as a ‘mom’ and I am not sure what that looks like for me. Especially since Mike isn’t sleeping totally through the night and I will have to be functional during the day. I am so glad we have a great daycare provider who is happy to see Mike every day, but it just feels uncomfortable to me that I won’t get as much time with him. I am clearly the only one in this duo who will have a problem. It will just be difficult trying to figure it all out for a few weeks. Then I am confident it will all come together and we will have our schedule. For now I am enjoying the next 2 days at home with him.

The other challenge is how to dress for an office. The dress code is business casual and the times I have been in the office I’ve seen nice jeans and sweaters, maxi dresses and black pants and button down. It seems to be a young office, and I am having those high school flashbacks and irrational fears. In my head I imagine my new coworkers laughing at my skinny jeans when I turn my back. Dressing for 30 is hard! It’s a thin line between shopping at Talbots and Forever 21. Add in that I am plus size, losing weight and on a budget and it’s double frustrating.

I did pick up a few things – black skinny ‘jeans’, dark wash jeans, a few sweaters and some professional-ish shoes. I’ve never been a fashionista, but want to look somewhat put together. Even if the classic sweater has some hidden spit up on the shoulder.

What do you suggest I pick up?

Oh, and don’t worry. I have my ‘hide the grey and shape it up’ hair appointment tomorrow.