Mother's Day Tribute

With Mother's Day approaching I thought I'd share this little gem I found.

Borrowed From "Charming the Birds"

At My Place, Every Day is Mother's Day
By Scott Simon

My wife doesn't work. She's a full-time mother. She luxuriates in bed until 6:30 a.m., when our 2-year-old chants, "Mama, Mama!" like some ancient war call, and she trudges into the kitchen with our baby on one shoulder to use her free hand to heat milk.

I stay in my office, writing, procrastinating and checking baseball scores until I need another cup of coffee.

My wife tries to go to the bathroom. Our 2-year-old clings to her knees. Using a bathroom with a 2-year-old on your lap should be a rodeo event.

Our 6-year-old gets up and chirps, "Mama! Mama!" My wife holds our 2-year-old in one arm, our 6-year-old with the other, and heats up more milk with her third hand.

I come into the kitchen for more coffee.

She dresses our daughters. It's like trying to put tuxedo shirts on two squiggling ferrets. My wife walks our daughters 10 blocks to kindergarten, but it takes half an hour because our girls won't step on cracks, stop to look in every window and stomp in every puddle. She has to pull them along like sacks of nails.

When she gets back to our apartment, my wife can finally relax. She does laundry; pays bills; stays on hold with the credit card, Internet and phone companies for 45 minutes because the bill is wrong, while our 2-year-old swings from her neck like a chimp; resets the wireless service; changes diapers and light bulbs; buys food; picks up toys; cleans the fish bowl and hermit crab habitat; organizes closets; cleans what our cat coughs up; schleps to the storage locker; tries to take a shower but can't because our 2-year-old can't find her stuffed dog; picks up our 6-year-old from school and takes her to ballet; makes three meals and innumerable snacks; calls our mothers and sends them photos of their grandchildren; and wipes up milk, water and diaper spills the way Red Adair put out oil fires.

I help by calling my wife a couple of times a day to tell her how busy I am and ask, "Um, darling, can you find my red socks?"

She has four minutes a day to herself and eats only Cheerios that fall on the floor. She works 15 hours a day with no breaks or mandated meals, 365 days a year with no real vacations. Our daughters feel free to cough up and sneeze things into her hands. If Samuel Gompers heard about my wife's working conditions, he'd say, "Organize and fight!"

Instead, she knows that in these times it's a gift to be able to be a full-time mother. You know: just to be home with the kids.

Good Find #3!

I'm finding all sorts of helpful tips today!

From http://www.rookiemoms.com:

Kerry and her husband Rob, are the authors of the new book, How to Have Your Second Child First: 100 Things That Are Good to Know… the First Time Around (Chronicle Books).

When our mutual friend Lisa introduced us, I told Kerry that I am frankly too lazy to review her book since it’s no longer possible for me to have my “second child first”, but that I would like to know if she could share some advice with some actual rookies. “How about what to pack your diaper bag, or what a new mom should stock in her car?”

Here’s what she said:

Stock Up

It’s a classic new parent moment: You open your diaper bag at a restaurant, and realize it’s got a thousand things in it—but not one actual diaper. Or you drive to your old office to show off your newborn, and realize you have spit-up (or worse) on your shirt. These are but a couple of examples of why you should keep your car stocked! By keeping a few things in a cardboard box on the floor of your trunk, you have a constant insurance policy….and you don’t have to pack a bunch of stuff every time you leave the house. Want to stay longer than expected at a friend’s place but it’s almost baby’s meal time? No problem. Breasts leaking on your way to a job interview? You’re covered. Here’s what experienced parents advise keeping in your box at all times (and don’t forget to restock!) I guarantee it will save you more than once.

• Five diapers
• Full-size pack of wipes (to clean hands, faces, and clothing, as well as bottoms)
• Hand sanitizer
• Bottle of water (for drinking, dealing with messes, or mixing formula)
• Baby blanket (for warmth or to use as a changing pad)
• Nonperishable snack (if baby’s on solids), such as a couple of wrapped teething biscuits or zwieback toast
• Nonperishable snack for you (like an energy bar or trail mix)
• Sustenance for one meal if your baby is not breast-feeding exclusively (i.e., bottle and dry formula and/or one jar baby food with spoon and bib)
• Change of clothes for baby (make sure it’s size- and season-appropriate as the months pass)
• Change of shirt for you (and spare breast pads if nursing)
• Towel (for any number of things, from drying off playground swings to mopping up spit up; this is a great way to recycle your ratty dishtowels)
• Extra pacifier, if your baby uses one
• Extra favorite toy, book, or lovey, to pull out in a pinch

Going out on foot with your stroller? Don’t lug that huge diaper bag around with you. Keep two diapers, a zip-top bag of wipes, a blankie and/or small folding changing pad, and an emergency five-dollar-bill (in case you need coffee or a cookie) in the stroller basket at all times, so you can head out in a flash—without feeling like a pack mule.

Another Good Find

"8 Things People Never Tell You About Having Kids"

Find them here!

Before Bed Tips

I found this list on another site, planningwithkids.com. I don't have 5 kids yet and my life though busy at home isn't busy outside of the home yet either but I think this could be a good reference in several years. I do have a list of things I do before I "turn out the lights" for the day, I clean up the kitchen table, the kitchen counters, sweep kitchen floor, clean high chairs and pick up toys. That does seem to help me start out fresh the next day or at least not feel swamped as soon as I get out of bed! Anyway here's this list for reference.

1. Set Table For Breakfast.

We set out the place mats, bowls, spoons, glasses, cereal boxes so all that is required in the morning is for the juice and milk to be taken out of the fridge. This means that everyone can serve themselves as they get up.

2. Prepare Lunch Boxes.

This is by far much easier to the night before than in the morning. You can see my process in detail here at Preparing School Lunches.

3. Complete Notices.

The children have a folder where they place any notices from school when they arrive home. I will fill them in as required and place them in their lunchbox for collection. It is their responsibility to then see that it makes its way to school.

4. Ensure Clean and Available Uniforms/Clothes.

We don’t actually put the clothes out for the school kids, but Mr I and I will will make sure that their uniforms are in the right spot for the children to get them. I will work with the preschooler to lay out clothes for the next day. He is at a stage where he is very particular about what he will and won’t wear. Having them organised the night before means that if he wants to wear his “motorbike t-shirt” that I have the time to calmly find it for him. If I leave this to the morning, I find that this sort of demand more frustrating and time consuming and it starts to build up stress in the house if it takes me some time to locate the desired t-shirt.

5. Un-stack Dishwasher.

Depending on what I have cooked and who we have had to visit, our dishwasher can do 2 -3 cycles in a day. Almost always we put the dishwasher on after dinner and Mr I then empties it before bed. As one of the kids jobs is to stack the dishwasher in the morning, it is so much easier if it is emptied.

6. General Tidy.

With 5 children, I have realistic expectations about the tidiness of our house. One thing I find really helps is to try and start each day with a relatively tidy house. This doesn’t mean perfection, but means all things back in their place, so when the toddler makes his way into the lounge room for the first time in the morning and starts tipping out the blocks, it is just one layer of toys on the floor!

7. Empty The Bin/s.

We have three small bins inside: rubbish, recycling and compost. It is most likely that one of these will need to be emptied and Mr I does a check of these at night. Having them emptied means less running around for me the next day.

8. Check The Calendar.

As dates for events come in, they all go up on the family calendar. Checking it regularly means that I have a better idea of what is coming up and can then make the appropriate plans.

9. Make To Do List.

I find that once I have written down my to do list, I automatically feel more in control of what I have to do the next (few) day/s. It also means that I can plan the best way to prioritise the activities that need to be completed and reduce the level of running around that I do.

10. Wind Down.

This is a new one for me. I am now trying to turn the computer of 30 minutes before I want to go to bed and having time to just potter around, read etc, before I hop into bed. This should mean that I go to bed calmer and feeling more relaxed.

What is your night time routine? What things do you do, to help make mornings easier?

Housewife.

Collecting Satisfactions.

Today I learned that after an "owie" Mama's kiss makes everything better.

A Good Daddy

I love how much this man loves his babies.