My life has always been sweeter thanks to the teachers in it.  My mom was a classroom teacher and elementary school prinicipal for more than 30 years.  My dad went from teacher to principal to superintendent by the time he was 28 and stayed in the same district for decades.  My sister is a second grade teacher.  My husband is a teacher.  Having educators for parents meant when I played school it was the real deal.  I could use actual classrooms and materials.  The school gymnasium was an indoor playground and snacks from the cafeteria were free.  Now Charlotte is reaping similar benefits.  In the picture above, she and my sister were in a Santa parade last week.  Since "Aunt Bird" is also a cheerleading advisor, she let her niece carry pom-pons and join in the fun.  Pretty cool that a 2-year-old gets to hang with the second and third graders!  Perhaps the best perk of all is that when Mommy is working many a holiday and summer afternoon, I can feel good knowing Daddy is home with the kids because he has summers and every holiday and snow days OFF.  He gets to be there when I can’t.  No, I would never trade the teachers in my life.  They truly have taught me a lot.      

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 4

Since Charlotte left with Nana and Papa, I have accomplished a lot.  Friday and Saturday, I got ALL of my Christmas shopping done and this morning more than half the gifts are wrapped and under the tree.  No, I am not bragging or sharing these details to make you feel behind.  The reality is when a 2-year-old is not sharing your space you can actually focus and complete a variety of tasks with little interruption.  Thanks to the swing, jumper, Bumbo chair and Boppy pillow for their supporting roles where occupying the 4-month-old still here is concerned.  Back to Black Friday.  Dave, Thomas and I breezed into Toys R Us right after the doors opened at 5am.  I have taken part in many a day after Thanksgiving shopping trip and I must say this year was the busiest.  Every aisle in the store was filled with not just shoppers but shoppers with their hands full already in line.  That’s right.  The line snaked through nearly every aisle like a Disneyworld layout.  Thanks to husbands everywhere, like Dave, who waited and waited and waited as I ran around frantically searching for the on-sale kitchen, buy-one-get-one child safety signs and the all-in-one nursery center.  Then it was off to Target.  Again, we walked in right after the doors opened.  And I got it!  The last Little Tikes digital camera on the shelf.  Then the store employee told another shopper there were more in the back.  Guess it wasn’t necessary to rush!  But all that exertion made the IHOP breakfast that much sweeter.  Six hours later we were home.  And I took a 3-hour nap.   

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 4

Like the fact Thomas slept through our Thanksgiving meal… Charlotte’s visit to Papa and Nana’s house starting today… Not cooking a thing because we ordered our meal from a local store and my husband did the rest… Having Friday off for the first time in 13 years… Eating at home and then coming to work and eating again… Pouring over the newspaper store inserts to map out our early morning shopping plan… Sleeping in this morning until 7:20am–the latest I’ve slept in weeks… Looking down at Thomas when he stopped nursing to discover him smiling back at me… Feeling Charlotte’s arms wrapped around my neck as we watched the Macy’s parade… Having a job to go to even though I have to work on a holiday… Having two living parents, a loving husband, two wonderful children, a sister who’s a close friend and a lot of caring and supportive people in my life… the elastic wasitband on my black velvet pants!    

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 4

Charlotte has convinced herself that she likes Santa and the Easter Bunny.  She has told me many times recently, "I like Santa."  The sad part is she is already showing signs of being freaked out about people in masks and costumes.  I have the same issues.  In fact, I have cried in haunted houses–when I was in college!  The above photo was achieved thanks to two things:  Santa read a book to the kids before the lap stuff had to happen.  She did not have to go it alone thanks to her calm little brother.  Unfortunately, she will someday soon want to hide when she spots Chuck E. Cheese or another costumed character.  As a child,  I was in hysterics when the Tazmanian Devil appeared during a Warner Bros. show at Great America.  Even Porky Pig sent me into hysterics at a Santa breakfast.  So the poor girl seems doomed to fear things that she keeps reassuring herself are "just pretend".  At a recent UNI men’s basketball game with Daddy, he observed Charlotte could not take her eyes off Panther mascot T.C.  "That kitty was nice," she later told me.  But she screamed when he got close!             

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 4

For all the nursing moms out there… some day we will get some sleep!

Students in an advanced biology class were taking their mid-term exam.  The last question was, ‘Name seven advantages of mother’s milk,’ worth 70 points or none at all.

One student wrote:

1.) It is perfect formula for the child.
2.) It provides immunity against several diseases.
3.) It is always the right temperature.
4.) It is inexpensive.
5.) It bonds the child to mother and vice versa.
6.) It is always available as needed.

And then, the student was stuck. Finally, in desperation just before the bell indicating the end of the test rang, he wrote…

7.) It comes in cute containers.

He got an A.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 4

Her name is Amber.  She is a school secretary, but more importantly, a wife and a mother.  Yesterday she approached me in a Burger King play area to tell me she enjoys my blog.  I learned in our short conversation and time spent watching her help Charlotte up the levels to the slide that she has three children.  They are 4, 3 and 6 months–two girls and a boy but not in that order.  The prospect of three little ones that close in age is scary enough to me–yet Amber seemed so happy-go-lucky and calm.  She looked all of 25 and was small enough and thin enough to easily scale the indoor play structure.  Then she told me the heart stopper.  Her husband was just sent to Iraq for his THIRD tour of duty.  She tells the kids Daddy won’t be home for the holidays this year but he will be home for Thanksgiving next year.  Suddenly as I sat there with my husband and Thomas watching Charlotte play with her children I realized that I have nothing to complain about.  I hope she reads this.  Women like her set the bar for the rest of us–they just never get the credit.      

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 4

I’ll admit it.  I never felt much of anything with either delivery.  I had two C-sections.  Charlotte’s came about because the week she was due (already estimated to be 8 pounds) I was informed that my pelvis was so narrow for a baby her size the chance of a vaginal delivery was 10%.  So I sat in the hospital for hours waiting for any dilation to happen (pills were inserted to get labor going).  All the while, I was watching TV and checking my email as rollercoaster-like lines on the monitor were showing contractions I could not feel.  It was actually surreal compared to all the horror stories I had read or heard.  Hours later and still no change, we decided to do the C-section.  I am not ashamed to say I was so thrilled with the process and outcome that I elected to do it with Thomas. 

The whole experience (both times) was virtually painless and I was awake the entire time.  In fact, I held both babies minutes after they were born and carried them in my arms back to my room.  Thank the Lord, I never had to take painkillers after I left the hospital.  And I do not have a high pain tolerance.  Don’t get me wrong, I know major surgeries are risky and that many C-sections result from emergency situations.  But I never really had a birth plan or the strong desire to have a baby naturally or drug-free… so I wasn’t disappointed.  In fact, I was happy with how both births turned out.  Charlotte was 9’2 at one week late.  Thomas was 9′.5 at one week early (scheduled on this date because of his size).  Pretty big kids + fairly little scar= Satisfied Mom.      

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 4

Live simply, Love seriously, Care deeply, Speak kindly, Leave the rest to God~

The above words were at the bottom of a news release emailed to our newsroom.  Normally, I probably would have missed something like this below someone’s name, company address, etc.  But I took the time to read this, apparently for a reason.  God knew what I needed today.  I am tired.  I know I look tired.  And I have been behind schedule and a bit scattered since the moment I was jolted awake by a hungry baby at, I don’t know, around 5am.  I know eventually Thomas will sleep through the night.  And some day Charlotte will be annoyed at me for waking her up.  But some of the days in between are challenging and I know many of you can relate.  So I thought you’d appreciate how well the phrase sums it all up in such a tidy way.  Do what you can, sincerely, and it will all fall into place.  Of course you’ll fall on your face a few times getting there, though!         

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 4

My husband is kind enough to always tell me what a wonderful mother I am to our two little ones.  I never get tired of hearing it, especially in light of recent events.  Please keep in mind when you read the following that I am never intentionally trying to put either child in harm’s way–but did I mention the oldest one is a toddler?  Yesterday, Charlotte was running around with a small plastic bowl of graham crackers.  Thomas was playing in one of the baby contraptions sitting around the living room.  My husband was downstairs taking a shower.  (I mention that because he later pointed out that he never lets her eat away from the table to prevent things like the following.)  Charlotte was spotted crouched down by Thomas pulling her hand away from his mouth.  "I gave him a cracker," she proudly told me.  "What!" I gasped and you can imagine it went south from there.  Turns out I don’t think much, if any, cracker made it through his lips–but she sure knows how to get me out of my seat quickly.  Fast forward to this morning.  Charlotte was in the tub and Thomas was in there, too, in a baby tub.  He peed.  Charlotte was bothered when it hit her arm.  I took Thomas out, walked five steps to his room and told her to let the pee water drain.  Upon my quick return she was not just playing in the pee water, she was in the process of swallowing a large gulp of it she downed from a cup filled with it!  "Great," I calmly said, " you just drank your brother’s pee."  If you had told me years ago that phrase would ever leave my mouth and that my reaction would be so mild, I would have thought you were nuts!  Now I’m the one who’s nuts.  I’m a mom.         

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 4

A friend in Arizona emailed this.  Can you relate?

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT !

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.

2. Grandchildren are God’s reward for having your own children.

3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.

4. Children seldom misquote you.  In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn’t have said.

5. The main purpose of holding children’s parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.

6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 4