Oh, Chalene. You’re so happy, but you also seem like you have the ability to be snarky. You’re cheerful, but you’re not the cheerleader fake perky type. You push, but you’re not obnoxious. You’re awesome. I enjoyed ChaLEAN Extreme’s weight lifting circuits, and I heard awesome things about your Turbo Jam series. It seemed to make perfect sense to integrate Turbo Jam into my postpartum fitness routine. After all, my postpartum fitness plans aren’t just limited to fixing the flab that didn’t tighten up after baby came out… my postpartum fitness routine is also intended to slim me down to at least the size I was for my wedding.
Postpartum Fitness and Becoming a Super Mommy
I’ve had so many goals on my quest to become a “super mommy” that I had to break them down in parts to make it more doable. Goal 1: Keep up the house. Goal 2: Cook dinner Goal 3: Take Norton and Eudora to the park every day Goal 4: Read Norton a story every [...]
A Breastfeeding Mom, Time Magazine, and the Mommy Wars
In the words of the immortal George Takei, “Oh, my.” A breastfeeding mom on the cover of Time Magazine. Of course a breastfeeding mom will generate controversy. We live in a society where a breastfeeding mom will be asked to cover up or leave an establishment for nursing, regardless of the age of the child [...]
When Did I Feed the Baby? (There’s an app for that)
I’ve found that the challenges of going from one child to two are much more difficult than the challenges of going from none to one. When going from none to one, there are theoretically more adults in the household to help out than when going from one to two. That means that there’s someone else [...]
Postpartum Fitness and Becoming a Super Mommy
I’ve had so many goals on my quest to become a “super mommy” that I had to break them down in parts to make it more doable.
Goal 1: Keep up the house.
Goal 2: Cook dinner
Goal 3: Take Norton and Eudora to the park every day
Goal 4: Read Norton a story every day
Goal 5: Focus on postpartum fitness and health. (Or, work out every day.)
A Breastfeeding Mom, Time Magazine, and the Mommy Wars
In the words of the immortal George Takei, “Oh, my.” A breastfeeding mom on the cover of Time Magazine. Of course a breastfeeding mom will generate controversy. We live in a society where a breastfeeding mom will be asked to cover up or leave an establishment for nursing, regardless of the age of the child or the legality of her nursing wherever and whenever in the first place. But a breastfeeding mom defiantly nursing her preschooler as he stands on a chair? That’s just designed to cause sparks to fly. And the caption of “Are you mom enough?” is enough to get anyone’s hackles up. If anything, it just adds fuel to the mommy wars.
When Did I Feed the Baby? (There’s an app for that)
I’ve found that the challenges of going from one child to two are much more difficult than the challenges of going from none to one. When going from none to one, there are theoretically more adults in the household to help out than when going from one to two. That means that there’s someone else to give you a hand (and a break) when getting overwhelmed. When there are two children and two adults, that means that there’s this perfect one to one ratio that reduces the likelihood of either parent actually getting some downtime.
Toddler Talking and the Jello Incentive
Norton has made great strides in toddler talking. Yes, he’s still dealing with a toddler language delay… but we’re overcoming it. He’s babbling more. He’s attempting words. Some things, like “puppy” and “bubble” and “ball,” are said perfectly. Some words (like “shoe” and “berry”) are less perfectly said, but still, it’s a huge toddler talking improvement. I even know what he’s saying some of the time.
There are, however, some things that can convince Norton that he wants to attempt to use more words. Usually, it’s because he wants something.
A Boy and His Pillow – Wordless Wednesday
A toddler transition object (or lovey) is not uncommon. I had a blanket. So did Andy. The husband had a teddy bear. But Norton? Well, he’s got a pillow. Or, more to the point, he has Pillow. Pillow goes most places with him. He seems infinitely more fearless when he’s carrying his best friend Pillow. Sometimes, Pillow is his sidekick when he goes out to take over the world (or at least the park).
A boy and his pillow, bravely marching off to explore the world.
Toddler Behavior and the Best Day Ever
A couple of weeks ago, I was lamenting being a mom to “that kid.” It’s hard work, and it often leaves me feeling like I’m failing or doing something wrong. Toddler behavior can be unpredictable and difficult to manage with even the most malleable of children; part of being a toddler is developing autonomy. This time, though, I didn’t feel like the mom to “that kid.” I wasn’t embarrassed, ashamed, or wondering if I was doing something wrong. In fact, Norton’s toddler behavior made it the best day ever for us.
From Overwhelmed Mom to Super Mommy
Just a little over two weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about being an overwhelmed mom who needed to remember that she can’t do it all. I have to say, what a difference two weeks makes. Last week, I started making the transition from an overwhelmed mom to… well, not exactly super mommy, but it’s getting closer.
I finally got my house clean. Or at least, partially clean. Last Sunday, I had time since the kids were cooperative to clean the upstairs. I cleaned both kids’ rooms, the living room, the bathroom, and the kitchen. I got all of the laundry folded and put away. It was good. I felt instantly relaxed because I wasn’t surrounded with chaos. I wanted to keep it that way.
Toddler Parenting Tip – Taking the War out of Washing Up
I don’t profess to be an expert on toddler parenting. Like most of us, I figure it out by trial and error. For ages now, I’ve been struggling with one seemingly simple toddler parenting task: washing up after meals. You see, Norton hates anything to do with getting his diaper changed, particularly wiping him off.
After lunch, Norton was just covered in his food. He’s usually a relatively neat eater and uses his spoon and fork, but this time… Ugh. He actually managed to get it in his hair. He was caked in sauce. Then I got an inspiration. Norton has recently discovered that he loves “washing” his hands. It’s not really a proper washing up so much as running his fingers under the water, but it keeps him distracted. When he came running at me with orange goo all over, I knew that the last thing that I wanted was for him to touch anything in my house. I’d usually give him a bath when he was this big of a mess, but Eudora was insisting on being held and played with. There really was no time to give him a bath right then and there… but letting him run around and yuck up the house wasn’t an option, either. So I cheerfully told him to go to the bathroom and wash his hands.
It worked like a charm. While he was standing on his step stool and running his little hands under the water, I grabbed some baby wipes and cleaned the food off of him. Amazingly enough, he didn’t scream, cry, or fight. It was just okay. I managed to completely de-gross him, and I did it without a single scream, cry, or scratch.
What kind of surprise toddler parenting tips did you stumble upon through trial and error?
The Baby Gear List and What I’ve Learned
I’m really enjoying going through and migrating my old posts. It amazes me how many of my ideas have changed in the last couple of years. When I was pregnant with Norton, I wanted to do everything perfectly and make sure that I’d gotten him all of the things that he’d need. I found this baby gear needs list on iVillage (can’t link to it because it’s no longer there), and I made my own edits.
It turns out that the reality of what I thought that I’d need and what I’d actually ended up using at some point in time varied greatly.
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