I’m a walker.
I’m a stroller pusher (although these days, Lucas would rather run up ahead).
I’m a comfort seeker.
I’m a park goer.
I’m a networker.
I’m a beach comber.
I’m a diva.
I’m a mom.
Linking up with Alicia’s Wordless Wednesdays.
Pushover
There are bribes to get in and out of the car, move from one activity to the next, bribes to brush teeth, put on and take off articles of clothing, do things and behave the way I want him to.
The dialogue varies from threats and time outs to special privileges, sweet treats and new toys.
The negotiations are clever and cunning and downright exhausting.
All day, every day scenarios like these play out in my home:
SCENARIO 1 – Getting out the door
Me: [Matter-of-factly] Lucas, we need to leave in five minutes, buddy. Let’s get your shoes on.
Him: grumble grumble something that sounds like: I’m playing cars right now.
Me: [Excitedly] Don’t you remember? It’s tumble class day!
Him: No tumble class!
Me: [Way over excited] C’mon, it’ll be fun, you love tumble class.
Him: silence
Me: [Questioning] Lucas?
Him: I’m playing cars right now.
Me: [Exasperated] Let’s get your shoes on. We have to go!
Him: silence
Me: [Defeated] I’ll let you watch TV in the car, if you let me put your shoes on and we get out the door.
OUTCOME: Shoes on and we’re off! Class goes pretty well but as usual, an hour is generally 15 minutes too long for either of us.
SCENARIO 2 – Running an errand
Me: [Nonchalantly] I need to go to the grocery store and get a few things, will you come with me?
Him: No, no grocery store!
Me: [Pleading] Lucas, we don’t have any milk and you finished your favorite cereal this morning. Plus, I need get some veggies to have with our chicken tonight. You can help me pick them out.
Him: No veggies.
Me: [Begging] Please. It’ll be a quick trip, I promise.
Him: No, no grocery store.
Me: [Defeated] What about getting a new car while we are at the grocery store?
OUTCOME: We are at the grocery store crossing items off my list and adding another car to our already out of control collection.
SCENARIO 3 – Taking a nap
Me: Why don’t we go in your room and read some books?
Him: No books, no nap!
Me: No one said anything about a nap. Let’s go read!
Him: No books, no nap!
Me: Why don’t you pick out three books for me to read to you?
Him: No books, no nap!
Me: Listen kid, you need to take a nap.
Him: No!
Me: Okay, why don’t we just lay down and watch TV?
Him: I need a snack.
Me: Okay, I’ll get a snack if you come read with me.
OUTCOME: A very long afternoon for two frustrated people because the snack of choice always contains sugar.
SCENARIO 4 – Eating
Me: What do you want for lunch?
Him: How about mac ‘n’ cheese?
Me: That’s sounds good.
Him: No, I want yogurt.
Me: Okay, what kind? We have vanilla, blueberry and peach.
Him: Peach
Me: Here you go!
Him: No, I want a waffle and a banana.
Me: What about your yogurt?
Him: No, I want a banana!
Me: Okay, here’s a banana. Do you still want the waffle?
Him: I want mac ‘n’ cheese.
OUTCOME: Nothing is eaten, everything is thrown away and I swear I’ll make him eat whatever I put in front of him for the next meal. It doesn’t happen. Ever.
Please tell me I’m not the only pushover mom out there.
Please!
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Top 10 Best Things About Going To Disneyland Without Children
1. No diaper bag to pack.
2. No maneuvering a stroller throughout the park.
3. Not having to ride It’s a Small World, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, King Arthur’s Carrousel, Mad Tea Party, or anything else that’s slow and safe and clearly made for people under three feet tall.
4. Not having to stand in ridiculously long lines to meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofy or any other character.
5. No over-priced souvenirs to purchase.
6. No temper tantrums, melt downs or crying fits due to heat, hunger, lack of patience, sweet treats or exhaustion.
7. Staying way after dark.
8. Other moms that have a Disneyland Passport!
9. Feeling 15 again, as I my laugh with glee on Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, California Screamin’ and Indian Jones Adventure.
10. Capturing pictures like this: 
This post was inspired by Stasha’s Monday Listicles, a linky right up my alley!
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Two Years Old
Letters For Lucas is two years old today!
I can’t believe I’ve been at this for two years.
There have been two redesigns, 682 posts, 12 guest posts, two blog conferences, many communities joined, countless photos shared, lots of self promoting tweets, tons of supportive retweets and some of the greatest friends made.
Over the past two years, I’m proud of how my voice has shone through in my writing and my writing has helped me explore my emotions regarding being a mother, sister, parentless parent and softie at heart.
I love my little space on the Internet. I love my readers and all the connections I have made through blogging, but the real reason I do this, aside from maintaining my sanity, is this precious little boy:
Lucas is the inspiration for every single post I write and I hope someday he enjoys reading Letters For Lucas as much as I enjoy writing it. I hope my words give him greater insight to all of his mother’s complexities and offer us hours of conversation.Here’s to another two years and beyond!
A very special thank you to Morgan for these lovely photos of Lucas. She captured him to a tee; all of his sweet, mischievous, wonderful, curious, M&M and dirt loving magic. Thank you!
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The Fine Art Of Relaxing
Never is it harder for me to relax than when someone asks me to.
I try. I really do, but it seems I wasn’t built with that gene.
A glass or two of wine certainly helps, as does a napping child, or a really great workout, but in large part I’m constantly in motion. I’d love to blame motherhood but the truth is, I’ve always been this way. I’m the most energetic person I know, a part from my son, of course.
I don’t know how to nap and hardly watch TV because I get too antsy. I piddle around the house late at night; organizing and reorganizing God knows what, making lists and perusing the Internet. Even writing, which has proven to be tremendously helpful, makes me anxious.
I’ve tried yoga and love it but find it difficult to stay focused and consistent with a practice. I’ve tried meditating, but always end up with a mind full of more things I think I need to do.
I drive myself nuts.
I drive my husband nuts.
I’m starting to see my wacky behavior in Lucas, which scares me. I’m hoping his intense energy level is due to his age, but he’s very very busy and thrives on moving from one activity to the next. The upside to teaching him how to relax is benefiting me as well.
I blame my father for my craziness. He was the same way, only worse! The man never sat down. With him, it was all about the next thing.
He hated dining out. As soon as the check arrived, he was reaching for his wallet and ready to head for the door. This was very frustrating growing up and even more so once I became an adult and wanted to have leisurely meals with him and talk about anything and everything.
Maybe with age or the strong urging of my mother, my father enjoyed collecting stamps and would spend hours cataloging his latest find. He would research the origin and delicately place his treasures in one of the dozens of binders that filled our entire guestroom closet. Those binders are full of the most exotic, colorful, beautiful stamps you have ever seen. Stamps he culled from all over the world. My father’s hobby helped calm him, helped him with the very fine art of relaxing.
Perhaps a mind numbing hobby would do the trick for me too?
What helps you relax? If you have a child, how are you teaching them to relax? If you blog, besides writing, what are your other hobbies?
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Dessert Is Served
With currently 34 boards and over 1700 pins, it was time I finally took the plunge.
It was time that I actually made something that I found on Pinterest.
I did and it was awesome, but don’t take my word for it…
Last Saturday night I had Cheryl, Deb, Monique and Morgan over to enjoy several glasses of wine have a BlogHer post mordem and with my husband out of town, Lucas served as my co-host. Dinner was ordered over the phone, everyone brought wine and I made dessert.
Behold Oreo Cookie Cheesecakes:
(From Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes)
This is HUGE for me because I don’t cook or bake, nor do I take very good photos of food. Please visit La Mia Vita Dolce for proper magazine style shots that will make you drool.
The recipe:
Makes 30
- 42 Oreo, cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
- 2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
- 1 cup sour cream
- Pinch of salt
- Preheat oven to 275° F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole Oreo cookie in the bottom of each lined muffin cup.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese on medium-high speed until smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Gradually add the sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in the vanilla.
- Drizzle in eggs, a little at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add in sour cream and salt, beat to combine. Using a large spatula, fold in the chopped Oreo cookies.
- Divide batter evenly among the cookie-filled muffin cups, fill each cup almost to the top. Bake, rotating muffin tins halfway through, until the filling is set, about 22 to 28 minutes. Transfer the muffins tins to a wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate (in the muffin tins) at least 4 hours (or overnight).
- Add a dollop of whipped cream and a mini Oreo for the coup de gras.
I defy you not to love these.
And if you’re not on Pinterest yet, what are you waiting for?! It’s super fun.
Julie of Dutch Being Me has come up with a fun idea called 52 Weeks of Pinterest, challenging everyone to do just one thing each week inspired by a pin they found on Pinterest. Check it out! The challenge begins the first full week of September and I am definitely participating.
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When Daddy’s Away
“You’re the yin to my yang, the ping to my pong, the normal to my crazy. Let’s be us together.” – The Big C
When Daddy’s away, there will be:
- phone calls on speaker phone and cute photos and videos sent.
- more time spent in jammies.
- pizza lunch dates, dessert after every meal and sitting at Lucas’ table for snacks.
- fewer time-outs.
- preschool drop-offs that require more than support than the front office coordinator is able to provide.
- requests to sleep in”Mommy and Daddy’s bed”.
- bedtimes that get dragged out past 9:00 and nightmares at 1 o’clock in the morning.
- tempers that flare and patience lost.
- too many glasses of wine consumed.
- more appreciation felt than ever expressed.
Lucas misses his daddy as much as I do. Only one more sleep until he’s home!
This post was inspired by Stasha’s Monday Listicles, a linky right up my alley! This week’s topic: Yin Yang was chosen by Zook Book Nook.
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How To Be The Best Blogger In The World
I’ve been blogging for almost two years and in that time I’ve learned a couple of things about how to be a good blogger.
There is a method to this madness, an unspoken etiquette that bloggers follow and some very important dos and don’ts.
For those of you feeling super ambitious, follow these tips and you may be crowned: The Best Blogger in the World! Please try to refrain from eye rolling until the end.
1. Write an informative, insightful, witty, fantastic post every. single. day., complete with links to others and professional photographs to illustrate your points.
2. Publish your fantastic post at midnight on the dot, if you live on the east coast and 9:00 PM, if you live on the west coast.
3. Promote your fantastic post on Twitter (multiple times throughout the day), Facebook, (which includes your blog fan page, your personal Facebook page, the Studio+ 30 and 5 Minutes for Mom pages and any other Facebook pages that will allow you to, Stumble your fantastic post and add a teaser to BlogFrog (or other favorite community site) and join multiple memes/linkies and/or blog hops that apply, even if it’s stretch. It’s called multi-tasking, people. Oh, and driving traffic to your site.
4. Reply to each and every comment your fantastic post receives. Bonus points if you do this within minutes of receiving the comment.
5. Follow every single person that follows you, whether it be on your blog or Twitter and engage. Hourly. Read their posts, comment on them and promote them.
Ugh.
Clearly, I’m kidding! There is NO WAY in hell anyone could do all this. Even with an extra 24 hours in their day. Though the “blogger guidelines” are unspoken, it sometimes feels like you have to be in people’s faces all the time just to keep up. It gets to be too much sometimes, doesn’t it? It does for me.
Truly, my only advice is this: write from the heart, be true to who you are and do your best to encourage, support and learn from others.
That’s it. Simple, right?
Blogging shouldn’t feel like a chore. It shouldn’t cause you angst or pressure of any kind and the minute it’s not fun anymore, you should take a step back and reevaluate why you do it in the first place. Why do you blog? I hope it’s not to be the best blogger in the world.
By the way, I did post this on the Facebook pages mentioned above and will Tweet it in hopes of RTs all day. I will try my best to respond to all of you IF you comment, I’m sorry if I don’t already follow you and I would have included a photo but I couldn’t get my son to cooperate. No, he’s not relevant to the subject matter, but he sure is cute. 🙂
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My Wedding Day
I started participating in Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop over a year ago. My first entry was a post called Second Chances, in which I wrote about my wedding day.
I loved everything about that day at the time.
Now my memories are bittersweet because the day after my wedding was the last day I saw my parents alive.
Always up for a celebration, my parents thoroughly enjoyed my wedding day and were happy to see me happy. It was a day full of toasts and laughter, hugs and tears of joy. There was good conversation and sunshine. Todd and I were surrounded by all the people we love most in the world.
Given there were only 27 guests in attendance and we got married at our home, the photographer we hired was a sweaty annoying mess, darting from here to there desperate for subject matter.
I suppose I can’t really blame him and in fact, today I’m grateful to him for capturing so many beautiful shots of my mom and dad.
Candid, non-posed shots that I will treasure always.
And then there are these:
Linking up with Natalie’s Down the Aisle.
Even though she only asked for our favorite photo – singular, I hope you understand why I couldn’t pick just one.
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Lesson Plans
My son has already taught me so much in his short 26 months on earth; lessons I didn’t even realize I had learned until after the fact, some I desperately needed to learn and many I’m still struggling to embrace. I know my teacher has only just begun and there is much more wisdom to be gained, but in 26 months, here’s what I’ve learned so far:
- Play, dance, sing, run, eat – essentially, do everything with abandon!
- Find pleasure in the small things. There is wonder all around us, whether it’s an ant moving along the sidewalk, a water fountain, an orange tree, a song I’ve heard a hundred times or literally stopping to smell the roses.
- Playtime and imagination are necessary for survival. Laundry, dishes and errands can wait, being silly cannot.
- Love. As boundless as I think my love for Lucas is, it grows each and every day surprising and touching me in ways I never thought possible.
- Roll with the punches, go with the flow and realize that plans change. Toddler time is different that real time and that’s okay. I’m learning to plan accordingly.
- Laugh more. Some words and sounds (typically of the bodily function variety) are funny.
- Patience is most definitely a virtue. This is one of those teachings I struggle with. Daily!
- Connection is key. Sitting down and communicating with others helps to see things from a different perspective and lets you know they care.
- Time flies when you’re having fun. Toddlers are only toddlers for a short period of time and every single moment should be appreciated.
- Every now and then, a time-out is in order. Breaks are good. Counting to 10, breathing deeply and full bodied Cabernets aren’t bad either!
What is your child teaching you?
This post was written for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop,
Prompt 4.) 10 Lessons your child could teach you.
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