S Club Mama

Moose was born July 1, 2007 all perfect and beautiful, like all other babies are to their mothers. I spent the rest of that summer, feeding, sleeping, changing diapers, and loving on this sweet little piece of creation that God gave me. In September 2007, I started my senior year of college. Everyone (everyone and their dog, to be exact) told me that the first day of daycare would be hard and then it would get easier. I had arranged for a friend to watch Moose most of the time, but when she and I had a class together he would go to the school daycare. The best circumstances we could afford (we paid this girl just next to nothing, literally). Note to everyone (and their dog) who said it would get easier: you were WRONG! For me, it got harder and harder and harder. Months into my semester and I was miserable leaving my sweet baby in the care of anyone but myself. I didn't know if he was fed on time, if he cried when I left, if he watched tv all day. And I hated that. I wanted to ...

I have been blessed to be a full-time SAHM for about 4 years now. I never thought that would be me - sitting at home, watching soap operas, folding laundry. Well, minus the soap operas, that's me! And I love it. Even the tantrums and poopy pants don't negate the time spent cuddling, reading books, dancing, blowing bubbles (and bubbles and bubbles and bubbles). The smiles given at just the moment when you think you can't stay in this house any longer. The well-timed movie quote that either cracks you up or lifts your heart. I know those moments can come after work hours, but I really love that I can have the quantity of time I do with my children. My boys aren't perfect; far from it, but there's not a job in the world I'd love more than this one. However, my time with them is numbered (unless #3 comes along...). Squirt turns 3 this summer; Moose will most likely be going to kindergarten next year (what???). That's 2 years at home. And then what? I've th...

I get very irritated when people (mostly other women) insinuate that staying home is easy or boring. I have a childhood pal who just had her second son. Via Facebook, she asked if anyone wanted to take the rest of her maternity leave so she could go back to work. I commented, saying to enjoy the time (heavens knows there will be a post at a later date when she wants nothing but to be home on any given day). She said that she loves her sons but there's only so much tv that a person can watch and only the same 5 hours of cleaning to do. *brakes screeching* FIVE HOURS OF CLEANING? I'll be honest here, I do not have a spotless house. I have a lived-in home. There is clutter and some messes. However, even if I cleaned my house from top to bottom, I honestly do not think there would be 5 hours of cleaning time in the process. I'd be getting close to that, but I would not reach 5 hours. Perhaps if I added in laundry time...but I can't help how slow those devices work. I do...

It's very frustrating when people don't acknowledge being a SAHM as a job. Both of my in-laws have made mention of me needing to get a job at one point or another. Sometimes on forms you have to mark one of three boxes: full-time, part-time, don't work. When introductions are made, there's always the "do you work?" line. And usually if you answer "yes, I stay home with my kids" you get weird looks. There are various other areas where it's been made known that I don't have any income of my own or that I don't have an "outside" job. Well, let me tell you something. My job is tough. Not every day or every moment, but many days and many moments. Take today for example. It's going to be a 16 hour day when all is said and done. Then I will basically be on-call for the other 8 hours of the day. How many people can say that? My boss likes to yell at me lately. The good thing about this job is that I can send him to time out (most pe...

Is today Monday? Are you sure? It can't be because I had a great day today! Mondays are never this lovely (especially Mondays when my hubby isn't going to be cuddling with me that night). We did nothing special today. Got Squirt's formula switched out (Neutramigen was giving him diarrhea so went back to Gentlease). Exchanged a DVD I got for Christmas. Got some groceries we needed. I received a call on our way home from my friend, Chelsey. She works for a local radio station and had some backstage passes for Sesame Street Live that she wanted us to have. How sweet is that? My Moose is going to get to meet Elmo! I cannot wait until Saturday! After our second attempt at going home, we made a pit stop at our friend Elli's house. Her sister had given her some hand-me-downs and she'd gone through them for clothes for her older son. She had 3 garbage bags full of even more clothes from sizes 4T (what Moose wears) all the way up to 8T (8s? I'm not sure about that)! What...

My mom went home last night; she felt like she wasn't helping so I didn't need her (moral support goes a LONG way, though). So anyway, today is my first day alone with the boys. It's going fairly well. Squirt slept from 4:15-7:15 (wow), I think slightly because at 4, he acted hungry then just slept so I brought him into bed. Anyway, so Moose woke up around the same time. Squirt was SO patient while I got Moose up and changed him, then changed Squirt, then got Moose's breakfast ready, and THEN fed him. Moose has done well, too. He is still loving in Squirt but I can tell he's slightly jealous (or just unsure about all of this) - he's thrown a few fits and tried to get me to play Guitar Hero (yes) while I was feeding Squirt. It's so hard to tell him no, I can't, but I really can't do that AND feed the baby (plus, I don't necessarily like playing GH all the time). He's had a few timeouts and a few scream/crying matches. Big A has told me a few t...