Archive for March, 2010
If you wait until you can afford it…
Mar 25th
Life is expensive. Period.
It doesn’t matter where you live or what you do for a living, everything is just expensive. Houses, cars, clothes, eating out, vacations, yadda, yadda, yadda… It doesn’t help me that we live in a very high cost of living area. We’ve tossed around the idea of moving to a more “affordable” part of the country but that would likely mean a pay cut for Scott. If that happens then really what is the point in living in a less expensive area?
I was watching House Hunters the other night and there was a young couple, maybe early 20s, looking to buy their first house. They lived in Utah and their budget was $250,000 (roughly). I imagined what you could get here for that price and was laughing on the inside. Maybe you could get a 900 sq ft, 2 bedroom, 1 bath bungalow on a postage stamp sized lot. Then the realtor pulls into the driveway of a home that she is going to show the couple. It’s listed at $210,000. It looked something like this:
Four bedrooms, three bathrooms and over 3,000 sq ft. We paid more than that for our 2 bedroom 1.5 bath townhouse six years ago. I had a little teeny tiny bit of house envy. But I digress..
What I am really trying to get at here is when people say that they’re not going to do something (buy a house, get married, have a child) until they can afford it. If I (we) waited until I (we) could afford any of those things, then I’d still be single and probably living at home with my parents or maybe renting a 1 bedroom apartment somewhere. Like I said, life is expensive. We don’t use credit cards (now) and we don’t live beyond our means, but when we got engaged in 2003 we couldn’t really afford to pay for an engagement ring let alone a wedding. Yet somehow we made it happen. We saved and saved and made payments and eventually it was behind us. The same holds true for buying a home and having kids. You’ll never be able to afford either of those things, in my opinion, unless you are Mr or Mrs Moneybags. If you keep waiting until you can afford it, it will never happen.
I do not regret any of the expensive decisions that I (we) have made in life. I am 100% happy and content with everything that we’ve bought and done. But I know that if I waited until I thought we could afford any of it, I’d be nowhere near where I am today.
A battle I won’t fight.
Mar 24th
To say that Brinley is a picky eater would be an huge understatement. Her food groups consist of dairy, grains and fruit snacks. She won’t eat a fruit or a vegetable to save her life and isn’t a big fan of meat either. So where did I go wrong? I just can’t put my finger on it. She used to eat broccoli and green beans like they were going out of style. I remember the days when she’d eat an entire banana every morning with breakfast. I can’t pinpoint when she stopped doing this, but somehow it just happened. It’s definitely not for a lack of effort. Scott and I are constantly trying to get her to eat new things but she won’t budge. She eats what she likes and that’s it.
Am I worried about it? Yes and no. I worry that she’s not getting all of the nutrition that she needs because her diet lacks fruits and vegetables. But when I take her to the doctor for her well visits and her pediatrician asks me how she eats and I tell him. He is not the least bit concerned. She is growing and gaining weight just fine. I’ve asked the doctor before why she suddenly stopped eating the way she used to. His answer to me, “She’s three.” I’m convinced that it’s a control thing. I know she likes the taste of things fruity because she loves applesauce, fruit bars, fruit smoothies, fruit snacks, etc. She just doesn’t want to give me the satisfaction of her eating the actual fruit.
I’ve read and heard all of the suggestions for trying to get your kid to eat/try new foods and don’t think I haven’t tried them all. I’ve tried just putting things on her plate in hopes that she might try them but that usually results in her not eating ANYTHING on her plate. I’ve tried “hiding” things in her food. But if something that she is eating looks even remotely different than it did the last time she ate it, she’ll refuse it. I’ve tried bribing her to try new things and doing the “just one bite” song and dance. All to no avail. So please don’t think I’m a slacker mom who just gives her kid whatever she wants because I’m too lazy to try to get her to eat new things. Food battles are just ones I’m not willing to fight.
Another reason that I don’t worry about it is because I know that I was the same way as a kid. I can remember being an extremely picky kid. Every single day for 12 years I brought a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to school for lunch. Every.single.day! I wouldn’t try new things and I would only eat foods that I knew I liked. There were a lot of things that I didn’t even try until I was an adult, like shrimp and tomatoes. Now I love both of them. So I still hold hope that someday she will broaden her tastes and try new things. For now, I’ll just let her be a carb-o-holic!
Here is proof that Brinley used to eat vegetables:
Scott and I often show her these pictures to let her see that she used to eat green beans and broccoli. She still doesn’t buy it!
Not the hardest but still hard.
Mar 23rd
Being a parent is hard. I don’t think that there is any parent out there that will tell you it’s easy. Even if you have the most laid back, mellow kid, there are still things that will come up that are hard. There are things that will happen that you will never read about in any of the parenting books. If you’re already a parent then you will be able to resonate with what I am about to share. If you’re not yet a parent then take this as a forewarning of what may come. Now these are not the hardest parts about parenting, but they’re still hard in my opinion. I wish I had know about them before becoming a mom. They wouldn’t have stopped me from having children but at least I could have been better prepared. (This is just a brief list.)
- Picking up Cheerios off the floor ad nauseum – This wonderful chore happens around the time your child begins eating finger foods. I try to keep the food eating in the kitchen but somehow I still end up picking up Cheerios from the living room, bathroom and bedrooms. Why? Because as she’s eating them Nora drops cheerios down into her high chair and then they stick to her pant legs because they’re just a little bit slimy from her slobber. Once the sticky slobber wears off they fall off of her pants and end up all over the house. Oh and she also just loves to throw them off of her high chair tray. She must think I like bending over every two seconds to pick them up.
- Cutting finger nails and toe nails – Hopefully this won’t be an issue for you. It was a huge issue for us. For some reason Brinley though that getting her nails cut would hurt. I guess I can’t blame her. Cutting something usually does hurt. Well, she was so afraid of it that she would break down in hysterics whenever it was time to cut her nails. It got to the point where Scott had to sit on her to keep her still while he cut her toe nails. Please don’t report us to DSS. I promise we were not hurting her.
- Matching and folding tiny baby socks – This might sound trivial but it is a pain.in.the.butt! Not only is it hard to find the tiny socks in the sea of laundry that you have to fold but they end up stuck inside all of the other clothes. I can’t remember the last time I did laundry and was able to find a match for each sock. I usually end up with 3 or 4 that do not have a mate. I never will understand what happens to them. I truly believe we have a sock eating monster in our dryer.
- The wipes are always empty when you need them the most – Ok this irks me to the Nth degree! I have no idea how this happens. It never fails though. It seems like every.single.time there is a diaper blow out or just a very full diaper that the wipes container is empty. I keep telling myself that I need to check the status of the wipes before I take off the diaper but I never do it. Then I’m sitting there with a squirmy baby and a pile of poop with one wipe. Not fun. Let this be a lesson to you to check the wipes before you take off the diaper.
- Nothing is yours anymore, nothing – This usually pertains to food, but it can be anything. The best is when you make yourself a nice snack and just want to sit down to enjoy it and your kid comes over and swipes it right from your hand. It’s not worth trying to get it back because it will likely result in a tantrum and who wants to deal with that. Just let the kid have the cookie, right?
- You eat meals with a child on your lap – I can’t remember the last time that I was able to finish a meal with out one or both of my kids wanting to sit on my lap.
- No privacy – As with the meals, I can’t remember the last time that I was able to go to the bathroom without having company. Even if I somehow manage to get in there alone it’s only a matter of seconds before someone comes barging through the door. It’s not always a kid either. Sometimes it’s my husband. If I try to lock the door then it’s like I’m trying to hide something. I guess using the bathroom is now a family event in our house.
- Cleaning the crevices of the high chair – Do you realize how gross this is? When Nora is eating she usually will manage to grab a handful of whatever it is and shove it into her mouth. Most of the time half of it falls out, but as with they Cheerios, it’s already somewhat slobbered on. So then it falls down into the high chair seat. By the time she’s done eating it’s all wedged into the little crevices of the high chair and all slimy. When the meal is over I never have time to clean it right that minute so it sits there for a little bit. When it comes time to do the cleaning I sometimes forget what we had to eat and how gross it might be. Then I just stick my hand right in there and ewwwwwwwwww is it gross!
- Changing crib sheets period – This is just not a fun task. Ever. I hate it. The end.
Like I said, this is just a brief list. There are many more things that are just plain hard. What’s on your list?
My First Giveaway – Dolce Vita Mia
Mar 22nd
Last week I was looking at some pictures that a friend had posted of her kids. She has an adorable daughter who was all dressed up in green for St. Patrick’s Day. To complete her outfit, she had a matching green flowered headband in her hair. It was so cute that I asked my friend where she got it. She told me that she bought it from the etsy shop Dolce Vita Mia.
I immediately checked out the shop and fell in love with the headbands and hats. I love putting cute bows in my daughters’ hair but I’ve recently had to give away all of Nora’s baby headbands because her head was just getting too big for them. After seeing the headbands at Dolce Vita Mia I decided to email the shop owner, Mia, to ask her if she’d be interested in doing a giveaway on my blog. Within a few minutes she responded saying that she’d love to do it! Mia, the creative mind behind Dolce Vita Mia, and I have a bit in common. We’re both moms to beautiful daughters and we are both former third grade, inner city school teachers.
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About the Giveaway
Mia sent me one of her beautiful headbands to give away on my blog. It’s just beautiful. It is a bright pink elastic headband with a purple, jewel centered flower clipped onto it. It can be worn as a headband or the flower clip can be removed from the headband and worn alone.
Here is how you can enter to win this beautiful headband:
Mandatory Entry
Visit Dolce Vita Mia on etsy and take a look around. Come back here and leave me a comment telling me what your favorite item is from her shop. (1 entry)
Extra Entries
You may do any or all of the following to get extra entries for the giveaway. Be sure to leave a separate comment for each one.
-Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect (1 entry)
-Vote for me on Top Mommy Blogs by clicking here (1 entry)
-Follow me (@kwilliamson622) on Twitter (1 entry)
-Follow Dolce Vita Mia (@DolceVitaMia) on Twitter (1 entry)
-Become a fan of A Mother’s Work is Never Done on Facebook (1 entry)
-Become a fan of Dolce Vita Mia on Facebook (1 entry)
-Tweet about this giveaway (1 entry)
A winner will be chosen using Random.org on Friday, March 26, 2010 and will be notified by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. If you have any questions about this giveaway please feel free to contact me. Good luck!
Experience reading to preschoolers: Nerves, butterflies, success
Mar 18th
This is my first guest post on Kristin’s blog. Here goes.
Kristin mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago that Brinley’s school was looking for volunteers from family members that would like to read a book to the class. She asked me if I’d be interested and I said ‘yes’ without hesitating. I think it’s super important to be involved with all school activities and this would be my first real thing. I picked a Thursday (today at 9:30am to be exact) and I checked the box on the form to indicate that I would bring a book from home versus having the school provide a book. I’m lucky to work for a kick a$$ company that values work/life balance so getting in late wouldn’t be an issue.
I started getting Brinley excited a couple of days ago by telling her that I would be reading to her class. I was nervous about how she would react when it was time for me to leave so I said things like, “after Daddy is done reading I’ll go to work and you’ll be cool and won’t cry right?” She settled my fear with a “yup”. 
When I arrived at her school this morning I couldn’t believe how nervous I was. I had butterflies in my stomach and my heart started pounding out of my chest. I’m usually very comfortable with public speaking, but for some reason an audience of preschoolers was freaking me out. I wanted to make Brinley proud and have her classmates think I was cool. I realize this isn’t about me and that the kids probably could care less, but I hold myself to a ridiculous high standard in, well everything I do.
Brinley was so excited to see me. She took my hand and walked me to the library where all the kids sat on a carpet and circled around while I sat in a comfy reading chair. I chose to read the book “Winner’s Never Quit” by Mia Hamm, which is one of my favorites since it’s about soccer (which I love and played through my childhood) and it has a great message as the title suggests. The kids were great and they listened in closely to every word and I tried my best to read slowly and show them the pictures. Brinley had such a look of pride on her face that her Dad was in her school reading to her classmates a book that has only been shared between us at bed time.
When reading was over, the teacher said Brinley got to put a special sticker on a chart signifying that someone from her family came into read. Interesting system in that the kid who doesn’t have anyone come in to read feels like a real loser, but at least my kid will be proud! I bent down to kiss her goodbye while she walked into her class and she confidently and without a whimper said, “bye Dad”.
I drove to work with a feeling of great accomplishment and pride that I pulled it off and seeing Brinley in her school setting was a total pleasure. I look forward to being a part of her life in every way. I hope the kids thought I was cool.
