Adventures of the Stay At Home Mom

First Attempts

2012-02-10T11:09:00.000-06:00

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Holding it Together

2012-02-10T08:00:00.000-06:00

Continuing the saga that has become our roller coaster lives lately, Jonathan left our house shortly after 5am yesterday to fly partway across the country to visit with family and attend his grandmother's funeral. While we are all glad that she is no longer suffering, she will be deeply missed and I wanted nothing more than to be able to support my husband at the funeral. But remember this? Yes, Queen of the Snot Rockets, herself. In as much as her cold is more or less gone, something about her ears is still off so we didn't dare risk taking her on a plane, knowing that it could potentially do more harm than good at this point.

So I'm being the supportive spouse... from a distance.

This was definitely not what we had planned, but for better or worse, this is how we're trying to keep things together for the next few days. And with Daddy out of the house, there is a lot that needs holding together, especially when one parent is responsible for a little person whose singular response for EVERY SINGLE THING right now is NOPE.

So we had to get creative and, with a little help from one of my Facebook friends, we came up with one of the easiest and most convenient art projects I could possibly imagine. It starts with this.

It took a surprising amount of convincing to lure the little man into even touching this paint concoction.

But then we decided that it wasn't poisonous.

So it quickly became fun.

And the best part about this kind of project? The cleanup. Anyone for painting tomorrow?

Beware

2012-02-08T07:30:00.000-06:00

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Land of the [Omitted] Home of the Brave

2012-02-07T14:05:00.000-06:00

I don't have time to write this post today. I have a mountain of laundry, errands to run, and a massive list of posts that I've agreed to write, but I'm laying all of it aside right now because I can't just stay quiet about this any longer. It's time to write, to get it out, and to speak up in a place where so many are silent.

This morning, I awoke, grabbed my phone, and clicked through to the various blogs that I follow. One blogger that I read regularly is another stay-at-home-mom. She gave up her career to care for her children and seems like a genuinely wonderful person. So you can imagine my surprise and disappointment when I read her blog this morning and was informed that anyone who doesn't support gay rights and gay marriage is prejudiced and hateful.

Careful to keep my retorts to myself, I left the following comment on her blog:

I appreciate the point that you’re trying to make [name omitted for privacy], but I wanted to offer the other side of the coin as well. Personally, I don’t believe that gay marriage is right and yet I have friends and relatives that are homosexual. Just because I believe what the Bible says concerning homosexuality doesn’t make me hateful or prejudiced, especially because I believe the entirety of that book (what many churches around our nation have forgotten). Just because we don’t agree with the choices of others doesn’t give us an excuse not to love them and see their worth as people too.

So frequently, churches and anti-gay activists under the “Christian” label get so caught up in condemning the act itself that they end up also condemning the people who are just trying to find love. But there are those of us out there who don’t support homosexuality, but we still love and value those people.

For me, I will be teaching my children Biblical values- which will include the fact that God does not condone the act of homosexuality. To many people, this automatically makes me a hateful and prejudiced person. But hand-in-hand with that Biblical lesson will be the importance of unconditionally loving one’s neighbor which, in my opinion, is a far more valuable lesson than whom one should or should not marry.

I knew that my comment wouldn't be received with raving applause, but I hoped that it would, at the very least, be thought-provoking and would provide a much-needed balance to the post. Instead, I met with pitchforks and torches.

Prejudiced. Hateful. Bigot. Discriminatory. Multiple comments from multiple people, telling me how wrong I am and what a terrible thing it is for me to teach my children these Biblical principles, and for what? Being uncompromising in my beliefs; refusing to bow to others to make them comfortable.

Jonathan and I believe every word of the Bible, including the parts that make us unpopular in modern society and, up til now, I've stayed quiet about this particular topic here on the blog because I don't believe that this is the right place for a heated debate on whether or not our state should vote to change the gay marriage laws in November. I'm happy to discuss what we believe and why we believe it if anyone is interested, but not in a public forum where people feel that throwing stones is acceptable if you don't agree with the beliefs of others.

Our great country was founded on the principles of religious freedom. Today, I learned that we no longer have that luxury, at least where the Internet is concerned. While I don't like being labeled as a bigot or a hater, I can deal with it. The thing that disturbs me far more is the fact that my children will grow up in our home, being taught our ideals and beliefs- and they too will be labeled. They will be ridiculed and laughed at, scorned by friends, and told that they are too stupid to think for themselves all because their religion is different from others.

And it breaks my heart.

Apparently religious freedom was too much to hope for in America. Perhaps one day we will find it again, when we learn to love everyone and respect each other, no matter what our beliefs.

Toddlerhood Summarized

2012-02-07T07:30:00.000-06:00

Jonathan: Nathaniel, it's bed time. Please put away your toys.

Nathaniel: [Tantrum voice] NO. No! No! No! Aaaahhhhhhhh!

Jonathan: Nathaniel, you need to obey. Please put your toys in the bin.

Nathaniel: Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

Jonathan: Nathaniel-

Nathaniel: HUG! HUG! HUG!

Jonathan: Do you want a hug? Come here. You can have a hug.

Nathaniel: NO.

Jonathan: You don't want a hug? Okay.

Nathaniel: No.

Nathaniel: ...

Nathaniel: HUG! HUG! HUG!

Panic and Paradise

2012-02-06T07:30:00.000-06:00

It's been a week since I've been around here and, in all honesty, it was incredibly relaxing and just what we needed in our house after the way things have gone down lately. On that note, to all of you who have been so supportive in thinking of us, praying for us, and sending little notes of encouragement- thank you. Truly, it's been so wonderful for us.

Some of you have already heard, but much of it started out as we were facing this:

A snotty, miserable baby and another round of sickness, which put our grand total of continuous sick time in this house into well over a month. That was when the bad news began rolling in like a freight train.

First, we learned that my grandmother had been hospitalized with a stroke. It was shocking and completely unexpected. We didn't know if she would pull through, so I spent the next few days away from my sick baby and camped out at the hospital with family. As my grandmother slowly began to stabilize and make progress toward a recovery, those days away from my littlest one came at an unexpected price and my milk supply (just beginning to recover from a bout with Benadryl) tanked again.

So even as I began drowning myself in water and considered hooking myself up permanently to a breast pump, we got more news. Jonathan's grandmother's health was also failing. So we packed up our kids, doing our best to contain the germs, and went to see her one final time.

Because he's a wonderful husband, Jonathan had planned an anniversary trip for us months ago- and it coincided perfectly with all of the trauma and stress that had suddenly landed on our families. With everything that happened within a week's timeframe, neither of us expected that those plans would even be in the realm of plausibility, but our families pulled together- everyone laying out their schedules and what they had to contribute to the situations- and they made it possible for us to take a little time to focus on our marriage and celebrate the three years we've been man and wife.

We really do have the best family.

So with their blessing (and the promise that they would call if there was any emergency or sudden change), we were able to spend a couple days away in our version of paradise.

I will be back later this week to share more about the trip, but for now just wanted to let you all know that we're still hanging in there and that we so appreciate your understanding as we go through this challenging time.

Still Here

2012-01-31T06:30:00.000-06:00

Those of you who have liked the Facebook page associated with this site have probably heard by now, but for everyone else- things have gone from crazy to downright madness in these parts. We have multiple family members in the hospital now, some who are expected to recover and some who aren't. And while we struggle to understand what all of this will mean for our family in the coming months, Jonathan and I are trying to follow-through with plans that were set in place months ago for a little time away from life to focus on our marriage.

We'll be back next week with (hopefully) good news about everyone we love, scads of pictures, and a few sweet new finds to share with all of you! Cheers!

Can't Say No

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

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Imperfectionist

2012-01-24T10:39:00.001-06:00

I seriously considered deleting this post because I hate the very idea that I might disappoint people whom I deeply care about. But this blog has never been about creating the image of a perfect mother and her idyllic husband and children. Unfortunately, I think that's the idea that can be portrayed from time to time since all of you are only privy to a very small glimpse of our lives. So here's to honesty today, brutal and uncensored.

I began the new year with the goal of being healthy. I wanted to ditch some bad habits and embrace my inner tree hugger, especially where exercise and food are concerned. Unfortunately, it isn't that easy because I do not have a good relationship with food. In fact, that is one relationship that's quite bad.

College, a prime breeding ground for heartbreak and late-night pizza deliveries, gave me a freedom I had never previously experienced with food. I would go an entire day without eating and then binge at night, justifying an entire day's worth of calories in the evening because I was hungry and my boyfriend of the time (who would not later become my husband) was somewhat less than a stellar influence.

I wish I could say that this eating pattern was a rare occurrence, but it became part of my routine. Then, slowly, it evolved into something more. I broke up with the aforementioned boyfriend. I didn't get along with my roommates very well because we had virtually nothing in common, including our ideas about doing dishes. And then I got lonely and with that loneliness came food. Ridiculous, excessive amounts of food. The kind of food that you don't want people to watch you eat, so I would squirrel away in my dorm with my laptop for company, and snarf down the equivalent of a heart attack on a plate in less than ten minutes.

Somehow, over the years, that habit persisted. Eating by myself while the kids were napping or once everyone was asleep. Indulging in an amount of food that was both dangerously unhealthy and costly to our family. No one knew. It was my little secret... except for the jokes I would make here and there about my undying passion for everything Wendy's.

For whatever reason, I was surfing the Internet recently and came across information about binge eating disorder. Seeing my actions described on the computer screen, slapped with a label, was enough to stop me dead in my tracks. I had begun 2012 with the goal of becoming healthy, but I had buried this little secret under a smile and a quasi-healthy diet while in public for the last seven years.

It was time to be done.

So I did what I had to do, I gathered my courage, kissed those french fries goodbye, and shared it with my husband. As he is the very picture of health, fitness, and sexy abs, I spared him the gory details of exactly how much food passed my lips when he wasn't looking, but I took the step of being open and honest. And what I gained was someone to be my support, someone who won't condemn, but will help me break the habits that have become so ingrained over the years. And someone who will hold me away from the cheeseburgers, kicking and screaming, if that's what it takes.

Looking back, if I could do things differently, I would. These habits are deeply-rooted and will take time to break. Unlike so many other people, I can't point the finger at my upbringing or some traumatic event in my past and whine about how it made me eat because my parents did everything right in teaching me about eating and being healthy; I made this bad choice all by myself. It wasn't the first and it won't be the last. Now, at the age of 25, I can see what I have ahead of me. I have a loving husband and two beautiful children. I want to be around for them, to see my kids go off to school and to embarrass them on prom night. I want to grow old with Jonathan and tease him about his gray hair. And I know that repeatedly abusing my body is not the way to do this.

So I'm beginning 2012 with the resolution to be healthy, to break this habit and to retrain myself to see food as fuel for my body instead of using it as an emotional crutch.

And as for those french fries, I won't be giving them up completely. But next time I head through the drive-thru, for the first time in seven years, I will be practicing self control because I want to be healthy and do the right thing for my body. Because when it's all said and done, all the food in the world isn't worth passing up the opportunity to tease my husband about getting old.

Bullhorn not Necessary

2012-01-24T08:00:00.000-06:00

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Snapshots

2012-01-23T07:30:00.000-06:00

We are living in the land of a toddler, which means that things are really good around here. Except for the days where diving into a vat of boiling Diet Pepsi would be a welcome reprieve from the tantrums and screaming. Thankfully, the little man is learning that we rule with an iron fist (especially when it comes to the refusal to negotiate the terms of nap time), so the days of smiles and happy faces are pretty common.

Our lovely little lady has excelled at beginning to eat real foods. This time around, we're making baby food ourselves (more on that to come) and Evelyn was kind enough to give some positive feedback for our first attempt at mashed avocado and banana.

Nathaniel adores his little chair and it goes everywhere with him on the main floor. He hauls that thing up and carries it with him to sit by his toolbench, in front of the TV, or (my personal favorite) for some extra height to be Mama's helper while I'm making dinner.

We don't have an independent sitter just yet, so our options for playtime are a little limited. Thankfully, we can always rely on the trusty high chair for some good ol' playtime, especially when it doesn't put us at risk of accidentally being trampled on the floor by a toddler with his chair.

Sick Day

2012-01-20T11:04:00.003-06:00

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Oranges

2012-01-20T07:30:00.000-06:00

Now that the little lady is getting older, we realized that it was time to start introducing a few solid foods. Up on the menu are awesome things like carrots and avocado, but since we have fruit with nearly every dinner, one night we decided to experiment and hand over the goods to our littlest one (while supervising carefully, of course).

Before we knew it, she had dehydrated an orange slice and was grabbing for more. Looks like it's time to start making some baby food!

Lately

2012-01-19T14:13:00.000-06:00

Lately, I feel like we've been running around non-stop. We went from Christmas into the New Year into celebrating a birthday into being sick and then celebrating another birthday. And then we just got home at midnight last night after spending the day up north with my sister, so we're existing today in a state of zombie-like grogginess.

First of all, thank you for all of your prayers and kind thoughts for my sister. Her surgery went smoothly, though it wasn't exactly the results that we were hoping to see. (If you want more details, head on over to her blog and check it out.)

Secondly, several of you have been contacting me on Facebook and Twitter to ask about the Oreck giveaway. The winner has been chosen and, thanks to Evelyn, you can see it below.

Congratulations Adrienne and thanks to all of you who participated! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm either going to take a nap or bust out my vacuum. Right now, it's a toss-up between the two.

For Her

2012-01-17T20:24:00.003-06:00

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Tooth Tools

2012-01-17T11:30:00.000-06:00

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Life, According to My iPhone

2012-01-17T07:30:00.000-06:00

Peeking through the playset at the park. Tummy time with the ever-essential seahorse toy. Checking in on the baby, toddler style. Rocking new leg warmers from Willow Wardrobe. Enjoying those baby blues. A birthday treat (25 now, y'all!). A Christmas present. Pretty much the best onesie ever, compliments of my sweet sister. Giggling his way into pajamas that actually fit! An outdoor adventure in January, made all the more fun with baby snuggles.

Tribute

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

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Vikes

2012-01-13T14:53:00.000-06:00

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Kicking Off 2

2012-01-13T14:41:00.002-06:00

I promised that I would be back later this week to spill the beans about the grand ol' birthday party that we had this past weekend. Now, despite the fact that I have yet to take down the birthday decorations or put away the last of the cooking utensils from said celebration, I'm here to share!

Like last year, we kept the party small since we were pretty limited on space- we invited immediate family and both kids' godparents to rock the house with us. And despite the fact that we had to push the party back a week thanks to a little number that I like to call Vomiting in the Toilet, we still had a pretty packed house.

As we had hoped, the toddler was pretty awed by the decorations that had been lovingly created (and then re-created).

And he was practically beside himself when he saw the CAKE! with CHOCOLATE! and MCQUEEN!

Nathaniel had a fabulous time playing with his party guests, but opening his gifts was clearly the toddler highlight. When he got to the gift that his Daddy had made for him, it was all over- he no longer had an interest in tearing off the wrapping paper. IT WAS ALL ABOUT PLAYING.

Nathaniel was even kind enough to demonstrate how to use a power drill to his little friend, Aoife.

But what was probably most surprising to us as parents was the fact that Nathaniel actually knew how to use some of the tools. Apparently, little eyes have been watching. It's like Big Brother... only significantly less creepy.

It was a great party and we felt so blessed to get to spend the day celebrating the little man with our closest family and friends. And, to top it all off, there was only ONE tantrum all day long! And would you believe me if I told you that it was because he was so excited about his toys that he didn't want to stop to eat cake?

Wego Land

2012-01-11T19:57:00.001-06:00

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Oreck: So Easy a Toddler Can Do It

2012-01-11T15:24:00.000-06:00

The last few months have been filled with toddler tantrums, new discoveries and the joy of introducing Duplos for the very first time. Amidst all of the fun and games, the hubs and I have been trying to teach a few life lessons like the value of hard work and that we don't steal our sister's toy fox to make her cry. Along those lines, we've also started enforcing a few rules like having a clean bedroom before putting on our footed pajamas and climbing into the toddler bed for a good night's sleep. But with all of the new developments around here, my very favorite one has been the toddler's absolute and undivided passion for vacuuming.

After getting wind of how desperately I hate cleaning my floors, the nice folks over at Oreck decided to help me out in my efforts to teach the toddler the meaning of the word chore and how it doesn't actually have to be something that involves a tantrum. They graciously sent out their newest vacuum cleaner, the Magnesium.

And as if the name alone wasn't enough to make me want to bust out a cleaning move, they also sent out their Ultimate Handheld Vacuum Cleaner in an effort to entice me into cleaning my staircase.

The first thing I noticed about the Magnesium was the weight. At a mere seven pounds, this baby feels just like that... a baby. It's easy to transport and with the carry handle in the back, I no longer have an excuse to leave it downstairs and ignore my living room floor. So with my lack of excuses, I plugged it in and started weaving my way across the carpet, only to have my toddler follow me around insisting that he wanted to HELLLP PEAS!

The result is a child who has not inherited my feelings toward cleaning, as seen below. In fact, he insisted on being the one to clean his bedroom, at least until he forgot that he had to move backwards with the vacuum at the 28 second mark.

As you can see in the video, he never ran over the cord thanks to the nifty little cord clip on the back of the vacuum. And the vacuum itself was clearly light enough to be maneuvered by a small person. AWESOME.

As an added bonus, changing out the bag is just as easy as unzipping the front of the vacuum. And no, I did not let him change the bag by himself. YOU'RE WELCOME, INTERNET.

But I know what you're all just dying to ask, How does this baby hold up to a freakish amount of postpartum hair loss? Many of you will remember that after having my first little one, I wrote about losing half of my hair IN CLUMPS. Yes, clumps. It wasn't pretty. This time around, I'm doing my best to avoid a Mr. Clean impression but I've still lost about forty percent of my hair. That, my friends, is no small feat for a vacuum to tackle. Not really knowing what to expect, I attacked the worst of the mess, my bedroom floor. After going over the floor once, I literally got down on my hands and knees and looked at the carpet close-up, searching for any leftover hair.

There was none. I was giddy.

So with clean bedrooms, I knew that it was time to face the inevitable, my staircase. My last vacuum weighed about a hundred pounds so dragging that piece of junk up and down the stairs was tantamount to being forced to listen to the Barney theme song. On repeat.

I threw the strap to the Ultimate Handheld Vacuum over my shoulder and attacked my stairs with the hose. The various attachments made it easy to clean even the tiniest of spaces and even I have to admit that it was awfully satisfying to see the dust disappear from the corners of our stairs. Maybe just satisfying enough that I will keep up with the cleaning from now on.

So whether you're battling hair loss that rivals that of Yule Brenner or trying to get Cheerio powder out of your carpet, Oreck will do the job for you. And just because they wanted to spread the love, they're offering one of you the new Magnesium upright vacuum AND the Ultimate Handheld Vacuum too!

To enter, just visit Oreck.com and leave a comment below along with your email address, telling me one thing that you learned about the Magnesium vacuum. And for an additional entry, tweet the following and leave a separate comment with your twitter handle below:

Vacuuming- so easy a toddler can do it! Enter to win the @Oreck #giveaway from @Alyssagamlin: http://bit.ly/AyPkGB

This giveaway will run from January 11 through January 17 at 12:00pm CST and is only open to residents of the lower 48 U.S. states. The winner will be selected via random.org and will have 72 hours to respond to email notification before another winner will be chosen.

Good luck and happy cleaning!

The fine print: I was not paid to write a post about Oreck or their fabulous products. Oreck Corporation provided the prize for the sweepstakes but is not the sponsor of the sweepstakes. I was provided with a free upright and handheld vacuum package for the purposes of this review but that did not affect the content of this post. Everything I wrote is my honest opinion about Oreck and their products.

Handyman

2012-01-09T14:50:00.001-06:00

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Foxy Lady

2012-01-06T13:40:00.003-06:00

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Laments and Hot Mamas

2012-01-06T06:30:00.000-06:00

Tonight, as I sit staring at a clock that reads past 2am and a pile of unfinished birthday decorations, I can't help but to lament the tragic events of this evening. It's my own fault really, for choosing decorations that are so bright and colorful, so absolutely irresistible to little toddler hands, but here I find myself redoing all of the painstaking sewing after a pair of little hands accidentally demolished the birthday decor. Welcome, 2am. I've missed you old friend.

On that note and with the fair warning that I've ingested far more Diet Pepsi tonight than I care to admit, I wanted to share something that the toddler recently told me which I plan to hold over his head long after his high school years are over. You see, we've been really emphasizing caution with the stove and hot food lately. As fun as it would be to make an emergency run down to our hospital for a burn, we thought we'd save that excitement for later in Nathaniel's life... at least until after the birthday hype wears down. With that in mind, we've been practicing copious use of the word no and emphasizing the need to blow on steaming food before we eat. This is, actually, relevant to the rest of the story.

Earlier this week, I was sitting on the sofa nursing Evelyn with the typical carefree toplessness that comes with being home alone with a baby. As Evelyn enjoyed her lunch, I sat watching Nathaniel play with his toys on the floor. Suddenly, he stopped playing and walked over to the couch, pointing at my bare side, and hollered HOT, MAMA! with the enthusiasm that only a toddler could muster.

After the initial flattery quickly wore off, I realized that he must be talking about my stretch marks. Sure, they've started to fade from the angry shade of red that they once were, but oh boy, they're still there! Amused, I asked Nathaniel why he thought my side was so hot. But instead of answering, he responded with an emphatic BLOW! and began blowing on my side with all the might of his little lungs.

So on those days that I'm feeling particularly frumpy, at least I know that my son still thinks I've got it.