I'm In Love, But I'm Not Crazy

The best thing that has happened to me this week was this bundle of joy:

This is Maxwell. Isn't he so handsome?!? Technically, he's my cousin but since his mama, Rebecca, and I are so close, I'm officially "Auntie Amanda". I can't even express how thrilled I am with him already. Before we had Amelia, I was so nervous around babies because I had never had any experience with them. I would hold them more out of obligation post birth, but my comfort level with kids was pretty limited until they were up and walking around.

Now that we've had Amelia, I am obviously way more comfortable with taking care of babies and knowing their needs. I walked into that hospital room Thursday afternoon, demanded him from his grandma, gently scooped him up, and proceeded to rock him and pat his little bottom for two hours, minus the time I allowed Jon to hold him and when little Baby K (my nickname for sweet baby Max before we knew his gender and name) needed to nurse.

I am seriously excited to get back to the hospital today and hold that little bundle of love. I very reluctantly offered to not visit yesterday due to my cousin's exhaustion and recalling how hectic it can be with so many visitors at the hospital. I've taken a personal day on Monday so I can help out with little Max while his daddy is at work. All of my immense love for this wee one is leaving many people to ask:

"Do you officially have the 'itch'?"

They aren't talking about an STD, I'm sure. The answer to either scenario, though, would be a resounding NO.

You dear sweet people have been trying to talk me into getting knocked up again the second that Amelia had her first birthday. That's great for many mama's but it's not for me. Although I do indeed find it sexy to see my husband hold an infant, I have no great need to procreate just because I've been within ten feet of a baby recently. We do have plans to hopefully add to our family in the future, but it's not now.

In fact, I was just reflecting this week how nice our lives are at this point. As a friend's bachelorette party nears, I know I can go out without worrying about Amelia's feedings or how she'll sleep while I'm gone. She is down to one afternoon nap so going out to do things is way easier to plan, or even do spontaneously. Also, most nights Miss Amelia is sleeping all the way through. She has never been a great sleeper and it took her about a year or more to get to a place where she was not exhausting me with frequent feedings or needing to be cuddled throughout the night. As such, I'm in no hurry to add a little screaming infant bundle of joy to our family.

Instead, I'm happy to be the doting auntie, rescuing my cousin from baby/hormone induced insanity, providing meals that she won't have to cook, and being a loving caregiver that she can trust when she and her husband need a night out. When they arrive home, I will gladly hand Mr. Max back over and head home to a full night's sleep. This, of course, is why people are so anxious to become grandparents. They enjoy all the fun of babies and children without all of the work! As an auntie, I'm looking forward to the same privileges. And when we do decide to add to our family again, I know Rebecca will do the same for me, as she did when Amelia was new to the world and I was a frazzled mama.

I also know that when the time is right, Amelia will be an awesome big sister:

With all that said, here's to enjoying life. It's not about what everyone else wants for you, or even what we hope for in the future. It's about what we love, enjoy, and cherish with our friends and family today <3

One Ticket for Common Sense, Please

Last Tuesday, my friend and I headed out for dinner and a movie. We have been BFF's since third grade and recently have developed the ritual of a Tuesday night get together about once a month. We find a restaurant that has great deals (like the $2 off wine and 1/2 off sushi we enjoyed last night-- well, I did, she hates fish) and then head to our local movie theater which shows flicks for $5 on Tuesdays. It's a great mommy night out, we get to catch up on each other's lives, and we also get to see a cheap movie. You can't beat it.

So, after our meal , we headed to the theater to see Mirror, Mirror. We arrived right as the movie was beginning and took our seats. There were about four other groups of people already seated. We plopped down in front, put our feet up and were ready to enjoy the acting of Julia Roberts.

About five minutes into the movie, I heard a very familiar whining sound. It was for sure a toddler whine. My mommy ears perked up a little bit, since I can't seem to turn the darn things off, and listened for an emergency. Oh, wait, I thought, this is my night off. MY NIGHT OFF FROM TODDLER WHINING. Alas, there was no escape, because what appeared to be a mom and a grandmother had brought two very young children to the theater. If I had to guess, I would say one was ten to eleven months and the other was around 2 years old. Grandma walked to the entryway of the theater with the toddler (not OUT of the theater, just away from the seats), attempting to calm him. Then the baby started and mom took him down to the exit as well. Then all four of them went back to their seats. Repeat this about four or five times and you have the routine of the evening.

Perhaps the highlight of this child wrangling within the theater was when the grandma sat in our row, whispering into the toddler's ears threats, pleas, and promises, in an attempt to get him to sit still and watch the movie. When verbal attempts were ineffective, she placed her open hand across his forehead and forced him backwards against her chest in an attempt to lessen his movements.

Yes, lady. That's a good idea. Actually, what you should have brought was a toddler straight jacket because there is no way in hell a two year old is going to sit through an hour and 45 minutes movie. In a theater. Without cartoons in it.

While my initial feeling was annoyance that my attempt to escape little ones for the evening had been foiled, it quickly faded into feeling empathetic towards the tykes that I was trying to avoid. I am all about reasonable expectations for children. Boundaries, rules, and consequences are essential, but when you fold in something that your child is literally incapable of achieving, you are setting your kid up for failure. Can a two year old really sit quietly in a movie theater for almost two hours without disturbing others? No. Frankly, I know very few adults that can even accomplish that.

I am pretty opposed to age restrictions in businesses. Last year when one of the biggest controversies in the parenting world was restaurants that forbid children younger than six years old, it made me a tad livid. At the time, Amelia was about six months old and reaching a golden age where she was no longer fussy and would sit happily in her car seat while we dined. So for a business to say "Hey, you brought a baby, your money's no good here" really ticked me off.

Of course, one bad apple spoils it for us all. I'm sure that businesses consider permanently kicking out little ones when some parent lets their child squall even though the best bet would be to leave. Again, where is the common sense here? Amelia is 18 months old now and her tolerance for sitting is lower than it was last year. So what do we do? Stick to restaurants that are louder and have quicker service. That leaves us limited to mostly Mexican food and bar & grills. When we did attempt a nicer place a few weeks ago (a sushi place), Amelia picked that evening to throw a fit, who knows about what. So as my husband spoke to the waitress about getting our food to go, I walked around with Amelia outside. See? Common sense.

As a final thought, I have to wonder, was this night out even fun for mom and grandma? It made me sweat a little just watching them go in and out and begging the kids to be quiet. Personally, I would have spent the money on a rented movie and a cheap bottle of wine and stayed in for the evening.

I imagine in about a year (this would put Amelia at 2.5) Amelia might be ready for a mommy/daughter date to see a 75 minute cartoon based movie. As a lover of all things childish, I can't wait. But until then, Amelia will be at home with Daddy when I need to escape to see a movie.

What are your thoughts? What is the youngest age you would take a child to a movie theater?

Sunday Hodgepodge

My lovely little peanut has been so excited about the weekend that she's decided to wake up at the butt crack of dawn both days (that would be 5:15 a.m., folks). Perhaps I tempted the slumbering fates that be when I decided to stay up till midnight or later both nights. Either way, here I am, watching Sesame Street with her before the sun even rises.

Because I am barely awake enough to type, I thought I'd share a few links for your reading pleasure. The first is my guest post on The Random Blogette from Friday. I share the reasons that I started eating a plant strong diet (that would be mostly meat, egg, and dairy free), as well as some resources for those interested in eating more meatless meals.

I was also briefly featured in this SparkPeople article about the contents of one's fridge. Scroll down to the bottom, and that's me! I use SparkPeople to track my daily calories and fitness and sent in my fridge photo in an attempt to win a Kindle Fire. While I didn't win that, I did manage to win three free e-books on health and cooking. Yay!

Next, my dad is experiencing his own published fame today as he is featured in The Toledo Blade! He shares his marble collection and how he came to enjoy collecting his beautiful glass orbs. It truly is a sight to behold and holds a special place in my heart because we often go to many local art festivals together in the summer. Usually I even get to put my two cents in when he is trying to determine which marble to purchase. I also get to sit around and listen to his sarcastic banter with Larry and Bret, two of his favorite (and local!) artists from Hot House Glass.

Finally, something that I found so true and quite funny. It's a humorous piece about what stay at home moms actually do during the day. If you subtract the baby, and add a full time work from home job, this is what my day is often like. It tickled my funny bone so much that I made Jon listen to me read half of it out loud.

Are you linked out now? Good, because I'm ready for a nap! I suppose since we are up so early I will be making us banana pancakes and counting down the hours till we take an afternoon snooze. Lord knows I need it! Oh the joys of motherhood :)

Wrapped Around Her Finger?

I think it's safe to say that life in her house is back to it's semi-sane nature. Jon and I are getting along better, I haven't cried hard enough to make my eyes puffy since this weekend, Amelia slept well last night... I'm sure this will last about two days.

Anyways, last week I had a training for work that required me to be in the office for a couple days. When I have a good babysitter at the ready, I sometimes enjoy the break in routine. Mostly I enjoy being able to eat my lunch without having to feed another little person. Lucky for us, I did have a friend who was happy to entertain my little monkey all day, so off I went to work. And then she started texting me pictures like this:

And this:

I know, right?!? How cute is she??? The next day produced equal cuteness:

Of course, being absolutely adorable can be rather tiresome:

You may notice how her face is all squished up in many of these pictures. This is because my friend tells Amelia, "Say cheese!" and she does with much gusto, and this produces the look that you see above. I think it's hilarious.

By the time my training was over, I was quite ready to be back to working from home. It's probably a good thing that I had some separation to make my heart grow fonder of her because she promptly swung into a pre terrible two's stage. Everything is either hysterically funny:

Or makes her absolutely miserable. Yesterday when she was tired, she crawled underneath the dining room table and started sobbing. I didn't take a video of that, so you'll just have to take my word for it. When I was toddlered out last night, she crawled all over me and demanded full attention, to which I replied "When do you think Daddy will be home from work?" This morning she was smacking my leg and begging to be up on my lap within thirty minutes of waking up. To which I replied:

"Don't you want to go play with your daddy?"

To which he replied: "Daddy has to leave for work in fifteen minutes!"

I clarified that it would be perfectly acceptable for her to help him get ready rather than play together. Whatever will get her out of my hair, husband.

At least she still has one of us finding her irresistible:

Mama's Gone Crazy!

Do you ever have one of those fights with your significant other where you fantasize about doing horrible things to him?

That happened to me yesterday.

That fight was also followed by car trouble which resulted in me missing my sanity time at the gym to go pay $150 for a new battery instead.

I was not a happy camper. In fact, I cried for two hours yesterday morning. While this probably sounds overly dramatic, I will admit that I still have times where I do not handle stress very well. And, if crying till my eyes are swollen and disgusting gets out all my angst, then so be it.

The unfortunate part is that I now have a daughter that witnesses all this. As I sobbed and yelled at my husband on the phone, she was toddling about playing with her toys. At some point, she approached me with a cup of peaches, stating "Peach! More!" So I dragged my miserable self into the kitchen for a spoon, tried to suck it up and stop crying, and placed her on my lap. While I had calmed down somewhat, I was still crying a little. Amelia poked one of my tears, as if to say, hmm, Mama's eyes leak sometimes too! Ever the counselor who is looking for teachable moments about emotions, I told her, "That's right, Mama gets sad sometimes too."

To which she replied "More! Peach! More!"

My gratitude about such a morning is that I have oodles of strong, supportive women in my life that are willing to drop everything and do whatever will help. I had at least two offers of taking Amelia off my hands for a few hours so I could have some me time. But I have to admit, I didn't need it.

Amelia stayed the hell out of my way all morning. She was probably the best behaved she ever has been.

I imagine she was thinking "OMG, my mommy has lost her damn mind, I'm staying out of her way!" Or, maybe sobbing uncontrollably does not lend itself to want to cuddle with the crazy lady.

Either way, I was thankful that I could just be my emotional self and had I needed some time to be alone, I could have had it. Today things are back to 'normal', if there even is such a thing, and I'm counting my blessings instead of used tissues.

Young At Heart

Amelia is a Sesame Street addict. We have 22 episodes saved on our DVR and she's seen them all multiple times. Although only 17 months old, she can sit through an entire one hour episode without moving. I can generally judge what kind of day we're having by how many I let her watch by dinnertime. When she was sick recently, I believe we hit a record number of four episodes in one day. I have them all memorized. I know all the songs. And actually?

I love it.

When I envisioned being a mom, all of this 'childish' stuff was exactly what I was looking forward to. Watching cartoons together. Coloring. Playing tea party. I enjoy all of it. When I can take her to her first Disney movie at the theater, I'm pretty sure I will be giddy.

There are rare occasions where I realize that she isn't even paying attention to her cartoons, and I can watch real grown-up TV where they talk about current events and so forth. It takes me about five minutes to turn it back to PBS Kids.

Not because she's whining over it. More because I want to know which cartoons are playing at the moment.

What can I say?

I guess I'm just young at heart.

Here are a few of our (my?) favorite Sesame Street clips:

Who doesn't love Adam Sandler?

NANANANANAAAAAA!!!! Cracks me up every time!

Set your piggies free... we should all remember to get outside and let the grass tickle our toes :)

(Almost) Back in the Groove

This was the post that I started earlier this week:

I've had it. Completely had it.


Little Miss Typhoid Mary, as I am officially now calling her, has given me her rash. I suppose it was inevitable. Luckily we still have some cream that was used to treat her and so now I am anxiously waiting to rinse all this crap off me in eight hours. It isn't as painful or itchy as I imagined, just annoying. And, in the back of my mind, I keep thinking there are worse things that could be happening to us right now.


Despite that, I've had it. I pretty much had a mommy temper tantrum this morning.


My husband listened patiently and promised me sushi as soon as we are well. He apologized profusely for needing to be gone the entire weekend to come due to work. He said all he could think of to get me to calm down and look at the sunny side of life.


Things will be sunny again, right?


Yes. Yes they will. I mean, they have to. Today marks a full week of dealing with fevers, rashes, body aches, doctors appointments, prescriptions, benadryl, tylenol, cancelled plans, whining, and meltdowns. Some have been Amelia's. Some have been my own.

Oh, motherhood. You are indeed a rollercoaster. I will also admit here that I am the mom in my cousin's post who was plotting to create a benadryl induced family nap.

Just admit it. You've thought about (or done!) it too!

We've both recovered from whatever crappy virus that we had and I'm now incredibly behind in housework. Sometime during this week our outfits consisted of maternity pajama pants for me and a red Christmas sweatshirt with rainbow striped pants for her. That was the day that I considered going to a thrift store and just buying us new wardrobes, but alas, I have rallied what's left of my energy after not sleeping for the past three nights (thank you, toddler teething) and done three loads of laundry. It all sits in basement, begging me to fold it.

And yet, here I sit, playing games on Facebook and drinking wine. The healing scabs on my face indicate that I've earned it.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again... Amelia's lucky she's cute, or I'd sell her to gypsies: