What parenting REALLY looks like

Let's have some real talk for a minute.  I follow a ton of blogger and social media influencers that show a home life that "appears" to be clean and picture perfect. I mean lets be real, is your house really that clean all the time with 4-5 children under 9?!?!  Let's also discuss how all of the houses are white!  Everything is all white!  How do you have a ton of kids under 10 and a white house that is completely clean all the time?  

If this is in fact the case and your house is completely clean and white all the time with no help from the outside word, then you my friend are a much more organized person than I.  I find myself thinking "I am really dropping the ball here because my house if rarely organized and definitely not white."   Then after a few minutes of self pity I just think to myself "well we must have more time for fun then!"  

To try and help balance all the clean white fancy house photos out there, here is what my house looks like on the daily with 2 children under 3.  It may just make you feel better about yourself.  You're welcome :) 

Pretty sure I have dishes on the counter that need washed 90% of the time!

This is real life right here.  Dirty bottles, paint on the wall from the kitchen remodel from 3 years ago, and toys everywhere are my real life.  I'm pretty sure that toys only stayed put away for a hot 10 minutes before they are dumped all over again!

Happy Monday friends!

Life as a mom of 2

I had someone recently say to me "this baby must be a better baby than Wyatt because your blog has been pretty quiet".  With Wyatt I had so much content because he was a challenging baby for the first 2 months.  Feel free to relive that here New Mom Confessions.  This new lil nugget of joy (baby June) is the complete opposite of her brother.  She eats, sleeps, and goes through an abundance of diapers. Thats it.

 Look at those cheeks!

While it's not that this new baby is so great I just have no content to share, it's that sweet jesus there is no time!  Moms of multiples out there am I exaggerating?  This baby is in fact a great baby, her 2.5 year old brother on the other hand........  We are struggling.  Don't get me wrong, he loves his sister to death, the problem is that he would rather not share me.  

Toddlers have this awesome ability to be sweet and loving and then the minute your hands are full feeding the baby, or bathing her, or anything that involves you not being able to help them or give attention they turn into tiny assholes.  Yes, I said it.  You all have thought it.  He waits until I am busy to then throw a complete temper tantrum, need something right NOW, or just like mentioned above be a tiny asshole.  My cousin once told me that having one child is easy, two is life changing, and every one after that is just one more.  This couldn't be more true!

While it can be challenging taking care of the baby and keeping the toddler in line, I wouldn't have it any other way.  I mean she is such a good baby she makes it easy to want a third!  What ya think husband?.............

He can be precious when bribed with candy

I love you the mostest

I don't know if it is the pregnancy hormones, the fact that I will be going from a mom of 1 to 2, or just being a mom in general, but lately I have had this crazy fear of something happening to me at a young age and leaving my babies without me.  Now granted they have an amazing dad so I know they would be in good hands, but it just tugs on my heart.

It normally comes right after my son gives me the biggest neck hug ever and says "wuv you mommy", or when his dad gives him a bath and he insists I take over and get his jammies on him.  There are just some things that kids need their mommy for, right?

It got me thinking about ways to leave a remembrance for them no matter if i live to 40, 60, or 90.  I want them to always know how much I love them and to help remember the kisses, cuddles, and giggles.

My struggle is what are some creative ways to do so? I have a million photos and videos.  Do you put them on a CD, flash drive, save them to a cloud.  Hope that in 20+  years you are able to retrieve them off said device with the rate technology changes?  Just good old fashioned penmanship?  What if there is a fire?  AHHHHHH  these are my questions.  Share with me your ideas!!!!!

Lessons learned flying with a 1.5 year old

Happy 2017!  While one would assume this post would be about reflecting on 2016 and looking at goals for 2017, I thought I would post something more useful.  Useful, like the lessons I learned while flying recently with my lil nugget to Daytona Beach.

There is nothing better than an ice cream sandwich for lunch on the beach

Now lets remember one thing, this is my advice if you have a 1.5 year old that doesn't just sit in your lap content, like a precious angel child.  If you have one of those, congrats, and scroll on.

1.) My first piece of advice......just bring the car seat.  Strap them in the damn car seat.  I think lap child legit goes away at 1 year old.  My son hasn't wanted to snuggle with me since he was 8 months old.  You can only imagine how enjoyable it was for him to have to be contained on my lap for over 2 hours.  Pure. Joy.  There is something about a car seat that children instantly know to sit down and shut up.  It has a magic power.  I encourage you to take that power with you.

2.) Do NOT assume that if you have a late flight your precious angel will sleep the whole trip.  Wyatt is an early to bed type of kid.  By 7:30pm he tells you night night and is ready for bed.  We thought that with an 8:40pm flight this would be perfect!  Try again.  There is this thing called overly tired.  It does exist.  Huge bags under his eyes and all, he fought to stay awake the WHOLE flight because, well we would hate to miss something.

3.) Have 5 million different things to distract their short attention span to help keep your sanity and anxiety of them just screaming at the top of their lungs because they just want to run the aisle.  Toys, puzzles, books, coloring pads, and stickers were all attention keepers for us.  My kid has no interest in TV or an ipad.  NONE.  I find it to be a blessing and a curse all at the same time. While I love that he would rather play outside then listen to that god awful hot dog song from mickey mouse club house, this is an instance I wish I could capture his attention with a show for a solid couple of hours.  If your kids likes shows.....take a phone or ipad.  It will save you.

4.) Snacks!  If all else fails, you can buy some time with food.  All kids love food. Have a variety of snacks and that should get you.....15 minutes.  Ha!  For real though, snacks and a bottle of water because just the idea of getting to drink from a bottle of water is the greatest thing to a 1.5 year old.  I don't suggest drinking after them because there will be a million floaties from goldfish in there.

5.) Get an umbrella stroller.  Who wants to carry around a 50lb stroller through an airport when your kid decides he doesn't want to ride in it anymore.  We own a Bob stroller and love it, but it is not travel worthy.  It is heavy and can go rock climbing if you know what I mean.  With the helpful advice from my cousin who is a nanny and has had tons of experience traveling with little ones we got a Maclaren Volvo stroller.  It was worth every penny!  It weighs a whopping 8lbs, has a back pocket and basket, and is a smooth ride!  I highly recommend one!

They must be comfy too!

With all that being said, we ended up having a fabulous trip!  It only took one day to recoup from the late night flight and travel.  By day 3 he was good to go and happy as can be....just in time to enjoy a couple days and head home.  Ha!!

This was the flight home.  He had a cold so I gave him dimetapp, which also makes him drowsy.  I would suggest that as a flying tip but that would be taboo right?

I hope you have a great start to the new year!  If you have other flying tips with toddlers please share them!!  

Enjoy!

Attention NEW Moms: Behold the Power of White Noise

If I can share one thing I have found to be most useful in my journey as a new mom it would be discovering the power of white noise.  Yes, white noise.  That sound of static that drives most people crazy.  Wyatt is currently 13 months old and it still comes in useful.

For example.....
Wyatt is a product of a routine.  If his routine is off, he is off.  Yesterday he had a day full of fun and received a little to no nap.  When I put him to bed, like clockwork, 2 hrs into his sleep he woke up screaming.  This happens every time he doesn't get a nap or has a big day.  After 10 minutes of walking around the house trying to calm him down (to no avail), I walked in the bedroom, grabbed my phone, turned on the white noise app, and magic happened.

The app I use

He instantly stopped crying, laid his head on my chest and went back to sleep.  It is legit baby magic!  As a baby when Wyatt would start screaming on vehicle rides I would just turn on the white noise and he instantly stopped screaming.  I think it is baby hypnosis.

For all you new moms out there with screaming babies.  Get yourself some white noise and thank me later!  I owe my life to my friend Lisa for sharing this amazing magic with me and now I am sharing with you!  Good Luck!

A Lumberjack Bash

My lil nugget turned 1.  Thanks to pinterest, I quickly realized this birthday thing is no joke.  A theme?  It is clearly all about the theme.  I remember just hanging some streamers and maybe a balloon when I was a kid.  Those days are long gone.  So it got all pinteresty up in here:

Cutest lumberjack you will ever see

I mean if you are going to do a theme (ours was clearly lumberjack) one must have a photo shoot for the invite pic right?

Party day arrived!!  Full credit goes to my sister for writing out the sign.  However my creative genius came up with the "so plaid you came".

The food and decor was pretty spot on:

 the birch bark straws were definitely my favorite!

And last but not least, the glorious smash cake!

This creative genius credit goes to the very talented Kristy's Cakes at the Bake Shop

He would have ate it all if I would've let him

Next year I think i'm going to have the streamers and balloons make a comeback.  So much work for a couple of hours of fun he will only remember in pictures.  But it's cute right?!