I made this card just for you and anyone who suffers from the affliction known as parenthood.

‘Snapshots & Snippets’ a brief, or sometimes not so brief, look at a moment in time. A glance back and a peek forward with an abundance of gratitude for the present.

Best mom in the world: Guess what kiddo, we’re going to Tahoe this weekend!

Skeptical kid: We are? Who’s coming with us?

Somewhat average mom in the world: Your friend Tali and her parents, and two other nice girls and their parents.

Concerned kid: Is Grandma coming?

Clueless mom: Nope kiddo just us and our friends.

Panicked kid: Aren’t ANY grown ups going?

‘Snapshots & Snippets’ a brief, or sometimes not so brief, look at a moment in time. A glance back and a peek forward with an abundance of gratitude for the present.

Bunnysaurus: Mom how old am I?

Me: You’re two.

Bunnysaurus: But I’m almost three?

Me: Yes, it’s almost your birthday.

Bunnysaurus: MY birthday? Are we going to have a huge cake? Will it be big enough to feed Grandma and Grandpa, and my brother*?

Me: Sure why not kid.

Overheard her singing (loudly) this morning (if 5am can even be considered morning)…

Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday to Aliza…and Mama…and Papa

Z dnem rozhdenya tebya**

The kid that hates to share is suddenly cool with sharing her cake and her birthday? Yeah I’ll take it.

*there is no brother, she’s referring to her cousin…well he’s technically her uncle….but like an uncle once removed…no wonder the kid is confused!

**we start in English we finish in Russian

‘Snapshots & Snippets’ a brief, or sometimes not so brief, look at a moment in time. A glance back and a peek forward with an abundance of gratitude for the present.

Today’s episode of ‘Snapshots & Snippets’ is brought to you by the emotions LOVE and GUILT.

You love your littles fiercely and you love your creative pursuits hard, and you know there is only so much time in the day for each of your passions.  This is the tough thing about being a person who loves many things, every once in a while you are forced to make the difficult decision to squeeze in a little more time with one while seemingly neglecting the other. These situations may trigger emotions of guilt. But guilt, as you will see in a moment, is a useless emotion.

A hypothetical scenario…

You’ve reunited with your darling child after a long day of work, aching for those moments of snuggling on the couch together and reconnecting, but all of a sudden you are struck! Struck with sheer brilliance! So you choose to pour your inspiration onto the page, (or in a dazzling email to your boss) and you choose to hand your child your iphone.

Oh the guilt you will feel, the hand wringing, the second guessing! You may even say this in a chat on the Facebook,

“I haven’t seen my kid all day and I’m letting her play on my iphone while I work. I feel like an asshole.”

Your Facebook friend, wise and experienced as she is, may suggest that the guilt you feel over this decision might not be worth the brilliant idea, she may say

“Go play with your kid ASSHOLE.”

(I’m paraphrasing here)

You realize, (of course!) this brilliant idea will still be here after you put your kid to bed and you power everything down to be in the moment, to savor each second together.

You go over to your precious child, hug her, wrap her in a blanket, kiss her cheek and snuggle next to her.

She looks at you, with the kind of look that you didn’t dare give your parents until you were at least seventeen, and says, “I want to watch this by myself.’

You are momentarily wounded, but you recover and choose to respect her decisions, you’re even proud of her for voicing her desires so clearly. So you move down to the floor and look up at her, wait for eye contact, stare deep into her eyes and tell her, with full present engagement, I LOVE you.

She looks back at you with the same sincirety and says I love YOU.

Your soul soars and exactly .025 of a second later, she, maintaining that sincerity you found so admirable a moment ago, finishes (you off) ‘now go away’.

See mommies? Guilt is absolutely useless.

I tried to do Wordless Wednesday.

I tried to do my own version of “Hump Day Nuggets“.

I was so jealous of the immensely talented Smacsky who does this kind of thing every single day.

And now I’ve done some soul searching and distilled the essence of all of those ideas into something all my own.

‘Snapshots & Snippets’ a brief, or sometimes not so brief, look at a moment in time. A glance back and a peek forward with an abundance of gratitude for the present.

This week I’m ever so grateful for this city, and for gems like Land’s End.

The stillness gave her the sillys in a major way.

Feeling so blessed.

Stage one: Disbelief.

Mom, are we really going to do this?

Stage Two: Jazz Hands!

HOLY WOW WE’RE REALLY GOING TO DO THIS!

Stage three: Love.

This is the best idea ever, I love it!

Stage four: SQUEE!

I really, really love it.

Stage five: And then?

I think it’s time we consider getting my ears pierced.

I’m on an elimination diet. During the holiday season.

I can’t eat:

wheat

corn

soy

dairy

eggs

citrus

nightshades

sugar

alcohol

coffee

Let’s just say I am less than pleasant to be around.

And I have a hypothesis about my former cheery, upbeat demeanor. It was all coffee.

If I survive it I fully intend to blog about it.

Wish me luck.

Wife: Honey, does this dress make me look fat?

Husband: How should I know? Take a picture and post it on Facebook.