Friday Moments

Hey Gang,

Friday moments with Soule Mama again today. If you don't normally follow Soule Mama,  her hubs just had surgery so follow the link and send some well wishes.

If you have a moment or two to share, please leave a comment with a link.

This week we returned to swimming lessons.  My slow-to-warm son was back to square one with a new instructor. The conversation went like this:
Delightful, cute, teenager: "Hey Bud! Want to come swim with me?"
Big boy: "No."
Me: "Umm. You'll probably just have to drag him in against his will. Sorry."

He looks eager to get in, doesn't he? Guess again.

The wee one was busy being alternately incredibly cute, and incredibly horrible. The tantrums have reached epic proportions.

Kisses!

We wished for sun-shiny days...

"It's stiw wainin'."

And settled for puddle stomping and golfing in the rain.

Check out the sweet fog rising off the snow.

And what did I do with my second session of at-home-with-no-kids? Well, I organized the out-of-season and out-of-size clothing piles of course. When it comes to children's clothes, the variation within a single size is enough to drive this mama absolutely stark-raving-mad. Check this out:

These three are all the same size.

But despite the clothing industry's attempt to foil my best organizing efforts, piles were wrangled into bins, bins were labeled and moved to storage. Success!

Thank you for visiting today - I hope you have something fun in store for the weekend?

xo

A Break

Two mornings this week the boys will be heading to the home of a beloved friend/child-care provider. No, I will not give you her name and phone number, she's mine.

I need a break.

I need a few hours alone in my home.

I'm beginning to feel overwhelmed by the piles of out-of-size and out-of-season clothes, the too-small cloth diapers overflowing from a bin, the unwashed baseboards and walls sticky with fingerprints.

It has taken me far too long to admit that I need a break.

I feel as if I shouldn't need a break. These are my children and I am lucky to be able to spend these short years home with them basically full-time.

I should cherish these moments because they are short.

I will yearn for them the moment they are gone.

And yet, I drop them off anyway, run to my car - giddy and guilty when faced with the idea of a few hours alone.

I drive around without the radio on. I love the silence.

I eat lunch sitting at the table. I love sitting.

I tidy up and then it's time to go get them.

I barely got anything accomplished, and I am disappointed. It will take some practice - this taking a break thing, but I don't mind.  All great things take practice.

March

It's March in New Hampshire.

Yes, yes - I know. They rock.

In case you are unaware, March does not equal "spring" in our neck of the woods. Sure the temperature is generally above freezing around noon, but it's still cold, icy, muddy, and nearly everyone I know is complaining about getting water in the basement again.

But a month of dreary, rainy, muddy, cold days won't stop a certain boy:

He cares not about the water in the basement.

And what doesn't stop him, must therefore, not stop me, despite my strong feeling that the month of March should be spent indoors, sipping tea, ordering seeds, and giving the crock pot a thorough work-out before it gets put away until next fall.

Not only is it cold and wet out here, but check
out my attractive and flattering outerwear!

His brother, on the other hand? He's still holding out for spring.

Dude, it's totally cold and wet outside.

The only good thing happening in March (other than the aforementioned wet/cold weather clothing options) is my mother's birthday.

My mother told me in no uncertain terms that I was not allowed to blog about her birthday. Alas, I am as much a bad daughter as I am a bad mama. So here we go!

Things I learned from my mother:

1. No matter how large or small your purse, no matter how many organizing pockets it does or does not contain - you will always end up standing next to your car digging around inside it and swearing - unable to find the keys. This is a simple fact of life, like gravity. Don't try to fight it.

2.  Leave a treat in the mailbox on Valentine's day for your children signed "Your Secret Admirer." They'll never forget it.

3. If you cook a raw egg (shell intact) in the microwave - it will explode. No matter how many different cooking settings you try.

4.  When your child wants to walk to the bus stop "all by myself" - let 'em - just sneakily watch from behind the trees.

5.  Snakes are scary and if you see one while you are mowing the lawn you should chase it down and run it over.

6.  There's always more than one way to get something accomplished. Finesse rather than brute force can work wonders.

7. When someone gets struck by lightning - throw water at them.

8.  Laugh with your children. The huge mess from the garden-hoses-in-the-house water fight is long gone, but the memories remain.

9. It doesn't have to be square in order to be defined as a brownie, it just has to be chocolate.

10. Life is for living. Spend your money on memories, not things.

Happy Belated Birthday, Mom. Love you big as the sky.

Reading: A bit of everything

I have been reading so much lately - I have several things to share with you.



First of all if you haven't yet read Nora Ephron's I Feel Bad About My Neck go out and get it immediately. I highly recommend you listen to it as an audiobook because it is read by the author herself, and it is absolutely priceless. Perfect. Funny. Honest. I love, love, love this book and have listened to it no less than ten times.







But, with all that said - I am currently enjoying I Remember Nothing also by my beloved Nora, and I am enjoying it just as much. I could listen to this woman for the rest of my life and never tire of her wit.

You may have spotted me driving around, laughing maniacally, wiping tears from my eyes and nodding my head so emphatically I may develop a repetitive stress injury. This is what happens when I listen to Nora. "Yes!" I cry, "That's it, exactly!"

Dear Nora, I love you. Sincerely, Melissa



If you haven't read The Women's Murder Club series by James Patterson - it's awesome. If you have been reading the series, The 9th Judgment will not disappoint. It rocks. Shocking murders, brave heroines, and studly police officers - it's all good. I don't know how James Patterson, who I am fairly certain is a man, has managed to so accurately infiltrate the psyche of a close group of female friends, but he has certainly done it.





Okay, I have to admit I'm a little embarrassed about this one, so I've tucked it in with all the other good stuff I'm reading lately, hoping no one will notice that this is a book for teenagers. The House of Night Series is of the teenage-vampire genre. When I read them in public I subtly try to hide the cover so no one is aware that I am pathetic. These books are Harry-Potter-meets-Twilight with a dash of Sweet-Valley-High thrown in there. It's pretty bad, I'm not gonna lie - but the God's honest truth is that I've read six of these books in about 10 days and I can't put them down. This is like jelly-beans-for-the-brain and I have been loving every minute of it.




And finally, there's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. This is a really interesting book. The main character, Lisbeth is a computer-hacking genius with a photographic memory and seriously messed up childhood. What I like best about this (and the subsequent novels in the series) is that Lisbeth serves up justice - even though her methods may be just a wee bit outside the law. My only complaint about these books is that it was somewhat difficult to keep track of all the characters - because 1) there are so many and 2) they all have bizarre swedish names that start with B. But, Larsson does a good job periodically reminding you who a character is when they pop up. These books are definitely worth checking out and Lisbeth is in my top ten list of "coolest fictional characters."


What are you reading lately?

Hindsight

Warning: parenting spoiler alert.

There are lots of things I wish I had known before I had children. Here are a few that have recently come to light. I sense that this could be a repeating theme here at Bad Mama Moments, no?

I wish I had known that...

***

A hunter shoots and kills Babar the elephant's mother on page three of The Story of Babar.

Children's books often come with helpful labels like "Teaches numbers!" "Teaches letters!" but no where do they tell you "Teaches death!" which definitely would have been nice to know.

***

Bizarre toddler behavior has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with parenting.

Prior to owning my own three-year-old-child, I used to think that tantrums, yelling, kicking, hitting, biting, picky-eating, piss-poor-sharing, lack of table manners, and generalized-mayhem-making were the fault of lazy parenting and easily remedied with a few simple behavior modification techniques.

It is now painfully clear to me that there is almost nothing that one can do to change the behavior of a three year old. Instead you live your life as if you're carrying a live grenade. You do your best to manage, juggle, and generally keep the peace - but there's just no convincing a live grenade to play nicely.

***

My pre-children body is gone and it will never be back.

After I triumphantly lost my baby weight, I was dismayed to discover that things just aren't the way they used to be. There have been some major structural changes within my body that I was simply not expecting.  I will spare you the graphic details but suffice it to say that some things got larger, some things got smaller, and in general - everything lost its' structural integrity.

***

I think that about does it for today, I'm sure there will be more to come on this particular topic.

What about you? What has hindsight taught you that you wish you'd known before?

Saturday Shout-Out

Today I'm giving a shout-out to Full Circle Midwifery Care. My beloved group of midwives.

These fine ladies helped me bring all of my babies into the world, including the two who aren't with us now. I would not be where I am today without their love and support.

If you'd like to share your birth experience with Full Circle - I'd be happy to open up Bad Mama Moments to some guest posts - sharing the goodness of Full Circle with the world. Drop me a line at badmamamoments (at) gmail (dot) com.

Love you guys!

Friday Moments

Hey Gang - Friday moments with Soule Mama again today. If you have a moment or two to share, please leave a comment with a link.

This we got a lot accomplished.

First we assessed the broken ice dispenser on the fridge.

"It's bwoken" he says, then he charged me ninety five bucks!

Prepare yourselves gang - this next one's a doozey  -  The. Baby. Drank. Milk. I caught it on film! Ta-freakin'-Da! Months of bribery and cajoling all culminating in this one glorious moment.

Calcium intake: accomplished.
I can see hear his bones thanking me.

Then the big boy fell off the couch and gave himself a nice gash on the forehead.

He thinks the scar will make him look dangerous.

Then we played "dress up" which basically consists of me wearing a blanket on my head. "Mama will we-yah dis."

Why am I wearing that same green hoodie in every photograph?

And finally, in a moment of toddler-glory: we found the cat.

"Kitty!" he says, as if he is rescuing her rather than stalking her.

With all these major accomplishments this week - is it any surprise the house is a mess and the laundry is once again piling up? A mama can only do so much!

What's up for the weekend? You got any big plans?

Thanks for stopping by - Happy Friday!