I had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend with you both. We did lots of fun things I will write about later this week.
Boom boom decided he wanted to spend as much time with mommy as possible so you stayed up all night from
Sunday to Monday morning! I prefer snuggles during the daylight hours Mister so let’s not repeat this ok! Good thing you are super cute!
PS sorry to those subscribers who might have received this post twice… Sleep deprivation is my only excuse!
This week Time Magazine ran an article titled “Are You Mom Enough?” My answer to you both is absolutely! Regardless of what you two think, especially in your teenage years. I might label myself a holistic mom but I still vaccinated you both, I did not use cloth diapers (though I wish I could), I did not breast feed for years and we definitely did not cosleep . I am not an attachment parent but I do find my baby Bjorn and my new Baby Ergo to be some of the most useful parenting tools for my clingy baby (Boom Boom you know you like to be held). I am Mom Enough!
Being a Mom today just like any other decade, century…etc. it is tough to be a Mom. I am pretty sure Cave Mama’s competed with each other on which one had a more awesome kid or was a better parent. It is beyond competition, as a Mom we want to do what is best for you. What was best for you A may not be best for you Boom Boom and what is best for your friends may not be best for us.
This article focused on three things breastfeeding, cosleeping, and babywearing. Cosleeping was absolutely never an option. I have a very strong opinion backed by your doctors that this is not only not right for us but is certainly a risky choice. Given our family history of SIDS it puts a baby at higher risk because you are not sleeping on a hard enough mattress, there are blankets and other risks. My decision to never cosleep I think makes me Mom Enough!
Breastfeeding is the hardest thing I have ever done, harder than being pregnant or recovery from birth. I get up early to pump, I stay up late to pump. I got up every single night either of you woke up to nurse you back to sleep. You both enjoyed the comfort I gave you when you were young. “A” you were done at 9 months but I tried for another four weeks, I was not listening to you or my body. At 10 months harmony came back to our lives and I stopped. Boom Boom you are eight months old now and still nursing when I am with you, you have rejected formula and showed signs of allergies so we will continue. Physically I do not think there is anyway I can go beyond a year and I hope you are on the same schedule as me. Are there other Mom’s were not even a day was ok for them and their baby yes! Are there other Mommies you will see that are still nursing your friends until they are alot older yes! But I am Mom Enough for you two!
What can I say about babywearing? “A” you would have none of it, so I was I Mom Enough to realize that you much preferred your space? Yes! Boom Boom you LOVE to be held, you love to snuggle, you love to be touching someone… but I stop short from saying I am babywearer. I wear you when you want my comfort but I have to do things around the house. As a Mom my role is not just to hold you, I have to take care of the house and your sister and sometimes that means giving you what you need while doing something else. I doubt that is definition of babywearing. I am Mom Enough to see what made both of you happy!
Regardless of what you see me doing there will be millions of times in your life where your friends Mom’s will seem to have it more worked out than me, do something better than me, cooler than me but just remember I love you and that is Enough!
Filed under Story
We are now a family of sidewalk artists. We spend a good part of the afternoon on Saturday decorating the driveway with our sidewalk chalk. We had a blast!
Filed under Uncategorized
As Earth Day approaches I have been thinking a lot about how much my commitment to the environment means to me as your Mom to keep this world clean for you and your kids but I also think about how my commitment has evolved over my entire life.
I think I was born an environmentalist. I think Grandma and Grandpa inlfuenced it in a very indirect way. They did some green things but not to be green and I always wanted to take it a step further.
Great Grandma Julia might have had the biggest influence on me but she was not an environmentalist either, she was widowed single Mom in the Depression who had to provide. She told me about the victory gardens she planted during the war so they could have food to eat and not take away from what could be sent to the troops overseas. She did not buy tons of new things, she made fresh whole foods (many of her recipes are still the best foods I have ever eaten) and she even cleaned with environmentally safe products (home made cleaner).
Grandma and Grandpa saved old t-shirts and towels to use as rags and while we did have paper towels in our house we did not use them as often as people do today. We always dusted, washed the cars and our bikes with the rags. We saved our margarine containers to use for our paints or arts and craft products.
My neighbors even influenced me, my next-door neighbors Mom growing up was so cool (she was a kindergarten teacher) and she used to give us the stuff that was left over in the house to use for arts and crafts. They got new shades for a room and she gave us the old one for us to paint and decorate to make a banner. She even let all of us neighborhood kids take over her kitchen to make apple pie from the apples that had fallen on the ground at the local rose garden down the street. Today when us neighborhood kids get together as adults we talk about those apple pies, they did not turn out that good but it was a great memory.
As a child I remember the day the town dropped off our first recycling containers, they were black plastic with the town emblem on them and there was a place to write your address on them since everyone would have the same one. I remember sorting our glass by color, this was before comingling. We were definitely one of the first towns to have recycling. I still occasionally see some people in town with those same recycling bins out on the curb!
When I was in either second or third grade I won a poster-making contest about recycling. I wish I had picture of my poster but it was basically two drawings one of a dark yucky world with garbage everywhere and one of a green meadow and pretty flowers on the top it said “if you don’t recycle” and “if you do recycle.”
In my teenage years, I used my babysitting money to be a philanthropist for the environment and gave money to environmental organizations. In my college years when I was studying to be a teacher I did several projects on incorporating environmental education into mainstream lesson plans including math, science, reading..etc. I recently found a copy of a huge semester long project I did on this topic and I wish there was a school I could send you kids to that would do anything close to what I proposed. In graduate school when I studied public policy and non-profit management I always dreamed of working in an environmental organization.
In my personal life, I recycled as aggressively as I could given the limitations of my municipality. I eat organic as much as I can, in fact I started drinking organic milk as exclusively as I could since my environmental economics class in spring 1997 when I first learned about rBGH.
I started a blog about living a more ecofriendly life before I had you guys and still have it today though I struggle to find time as full-time working parent to write there and spend time with you guys as much as I want to do both.
When you guys were born I really kicked it up, I b-feed which is one of the most physically demanding things I have ever done other than pregnancy. Make you organic baby food and send it to school in glass containers with a stainless steel sippy cup.
I hope I raise you kids to realize the importance of protecting the environment and you live an environmentally conscious life.
Lessons to learn
Filed under Mom Facts, Mom' Childhood, Photo
You are teething and we knew it at midnight last night but this morning you would not know it.
