7 Reasons Co-sleeping Doesn't Work For Me

Ten Tiny toes tucked between my shoulder blades.

One not-so-small head aggressively pushing itself into the base of my spine.

A miniature hand "hugging" my throat.

A belly fetal positioned on top of my head, over my face.

Two pointy knees kneeding my chest.

Legs that warp them themselves around my feet like ropes.

And, dude Mamma needs more than 5.264 inches of space to sleep. So S-C-O-O-C-H yourself over!

Whoa...What?? I'm a parent?!?!

Holy smokes! This whole parent thing just snuck up on me when I wasn't looking. We had an awesome day for our buddy planned today. We took him to his first major league baseball game. Go O's!

The game was around lunch time, so I buzzed out to the concession stand to pick us up a couple of 'dogs and drinks. And..ummm...dude I paid for the stuff like a REAL parent...and I got extra napkins...and did up his 'dog just the way he likes...and HOLY SMOKES this is stuff "parents" do.

I know I've been doing this thing for awhile, but wow it walloped me over the head today.

We also took him to the circus with a few of his buddies.

Here I found myself again standing in line for dinner (highly nutritious day, I know) and I was standing next to other parents...insane.

Aside from the smack upside the head from Captain Obvious about parenthood. It feels good to have someone else's needs in mind. It feels nice to take care of him and provide him with spectacularly special days like this.

I can't wait for more.

The Village

I think it's interesting how before you have kids you have (well, at least I did.) a lot of opinions about things. How things should and shouldn't be done. As with anything in life when you start having opinions about something you know nothing about...you are likely to land off the mark on several things.

Now, that I'm a mom and I've been doing this for awhile I'm really starting to take notice of things in myself. Things I really want to do as a mother, things I'd like to change and things I can learn (both positive and negative) from others.

I've also started to notice decisions that my mom has made in raising us. Started to see the things I prize the most. And, different than before I am seeking to understand the things that I will choose to do differently. On many things I really feel like I can at least see where she was coming from which I don't feel like I could really appreciate until I was wearing my "mom" shoes.

In my days as a mother, or mamma as I prefer to be called--I really think having a "village" of great people to help raise your child(ren) is the thing I prize most. We have stayed in touch with 4 other families from our childbirth class and 1 that we met at the luncheon our hospital sponsors for mom's and their babies for the first year after deliver. This group of great families, of great mothers has been so instrumental to me as a mother. I have learned so much from these women in handling different situations and seeing all of our children grow and change in different ways as they become their own people. What I love best is that the dynamic of this group is so open and accepting of each other. We all at one time or another make different choices than each other in our mommy, professional and personal lives and folks are so cool about it. We aren't trying to "compete" we're just all trying to do the best we can. Trying to raise the best little people while maintaining our sanity.

I can't imagine a better group of people to have my son grow up with.

Mad love to the mammas out there!

Skool Days

My head is swimming these days with all the parenting decisions that are flying in and out of this head of mine. Trying to figure out school for our little dude Liam is exhausting. I can't believe that the average out here on the East Coast is to start your kiddo in some kind of instructional environment at the tender year of 2. I have been on the internet researching programs, but really it all reads like I'm talking to an adult in a Charlie Brown flick (Wah Wah Wah Wah Wah). It goes in one eye ball and then the internet vortex sucks all the information out of the other. Talking to parents really just makes the whole thing a lot more...um...not clear. Everyone has their thing and...then, there's always the option of keepin' on keepin' on and just maintaining his activities. (We do something every day.) I try to respect the little man for who he is. And, I really think he'd dig the whole school thing. I'm just not so sure I dig letting him go...someday he has to spread his wings.

We went to a museum today and he fake burped, made funny faces, did his famous "belly tricks", started laughing hysterically and just about anything else he could think to do to grab the 7 and 9 year-olds attention who were sitting next to him while he ate his lunch. He downed his sandwich because they were eating theirs too. So, I really think he'd thrive in the environment. He loves other kids and he LOVES making people laugh.

All this to say that I've been sticking my head in the sand trying to ignore the whole dastardly thing, but deadlines are fast approaching and forms are starting to take over any flat surface in my house. (sigh) So, this week we are going on our first site visit. It's like a date;

"Will they like me?"

"What if they don't?"

"Do I really care?"

"Do I let them know that I care?"

You see the all consuming madness.

Wish us luck!