“Three More Minutes, Mom”

My son is nearing his third birthday and I’m struggling to accept how fast time really moves when you have a kid.

Everyone tells you it moves fast. We know this, but then you blink and there goes another year.

I know there are many moments as parents we struggle to push through saying, “oh my gosh, when does this end?!” for whatever reason. Then we guilt ourselves wondering why we wished time away.

I hate wishing time away, I do.

However, back to me sitting on the bedroom thinking about time with our children. I’ve realized how much time he gives me to sit with him, even if it is in silence while he falls asleep after I’ve read him his bedtime stories.

His recent quote to us is, “three more minutes, mom, okay?”

He has no real concept of what time is and how long those 3 minutes are. He got that from us always preparing him for what’s happening next. We always tell him, “Hey, we’re leaving in 10 minutes.” Or “bedtime is in 5 minutes!” If he knows something is coming, the tantrums and meltdowns are much more minimal than if we spring something on him.

It’s our way to prepare and plan for him so he can understand and accept the next thing to happen. We like a plan as adults too so why shouldn’t we provide that to him as well?

Every night when I take my son to bed, we have our routine. We read a book of his choice, say our quick prayer, and go to sleep while I hold his hand. The moment we finish that prayer, he always says to me, “stay in my room three more minutes, mom, okay?”

Instant moment to melt into the floor as his sweet voice asks that.

But I do sit there and wait for him to fall asleep. Of course, we have the days he springs up and realizes I’m leaving and freaks out. Other moments, I can sneak out quietly and shut the door without being detected.

What I realized though, is even if I’m in his room for only 15 minutes every night, just me and him, alone in the quiet, we get almost 4 total days a year of simply time together.

Obviously, there are nights it is much more than those 15 minutes, and some are much less. However, the point I’m making is to stay for those “three more minutes.” They add up.

That gives me almost 4 entire days of time with solely me and my son in 1 year. That may not seem like much to some but as they grow and time flies on by us, those 4 days of time stay with us as we watch them sleep, giggle when you read their favorite book, or simply cry for you to stay a moment longer.

Stay three more minutes moms and dads. That time adds up. You won’t regret it.

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Bomb Squad

I’ve come to the conclusion parents of toddlers could all be viable candidates for the bomb squad. Parents of any age kid actually. All phases bring new tactics.

If you know, you know.

If not, let me explain my thoughts.

These tiny humans are elite explosive devices. They can be triggered at any second. At times they appear to be no harm and an innocent matter. But always destructive when they implode.

From the moment they’re born we treat them as a very delicate bundle so we do not break them. That is absolutely expected and rightfully should be how every parent is with the tiny babes.

We have found every creek and crack in our wood floors in our home since he has been born. Truly, since our son was tiny he was a great sleeper. The sleep regressions have all come and gone in their due time. They are pretty spot on with the timing!

This recent one is a doozy.

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I have had a lot of time sitting on his bedroom floor to think while he falls asleep. That is when I determined a parent could be a bomb squad member.

The patience we have waiting for them to calm and fall asleep is amazing, most nights. Sitting so still and speaking so softly to them.

When holding their hand, you have to move so incredibly slow to not wake them from the feeling of your hand leaving theirs. That is tactical. I have had some nights I literally lift one single finger at a time ensuring he won’t wake at each movement.

Exiting their room in a stealth like fashion so you do not step on a creeky piece of floor to wake them. We have to move slow and steady as if we are tip toeing around landmines because that’s what they are.

Parenting takes skill and tactical moves. Like when I crawled out on all fours the other night and my husband was laughing so hard once he caught me. No video evidence because I silently threatened him as he laughed.

In reality, our real bomb squad members are amazing at what they do and for good reason. I’m not knocking anyone’s job.

As a mom who overthinks while awake during the trying times, I think of ways to lighten the stress of the situation.

Nights are tough right now for us. It is a phase, I hope, like the others we will soon have behind us. Until that time comes, we will see what other fun thoughts I can come up with!

Traveling Tales

We recently took a trip out west to Colorado to enjoy skiing the beautiful Rocky Mountains. They’re a favorite place of mine to visit and stare at since it looks like a postcard every way you turn. I was so excited to take our son because well, it’s Colorado and a vacation with the family!

Our travels bring a list of things I can share with you. This is not a blog about “travel tips” per say, but more of a relation to not sweating the small stuff. At the time, they weren’t small, but looking back on them as I write this, they were.

I plan. We’ve determined that in other blogs I have written. This past year I have become much more lax in that regard and simply am learning to go with the flow of things the best I can without being hypersensitive to planning every single detail because realistically, it was messing with my anxiety and I could not continue to live like that.

Well, that caused some turmoil for our tip. Whoops.

Let’s start at the beginning. My best friend met us to take us to the airport and drop us off with all of our luggage. I stuffed my rear end in the back seat with my kid and all our crap while we drove out. I was so confident we had all that we needed for this trip and we were ready to go.

Meanwhile, I was panicking inside since the night before because of all these mask rules still and my son is 2 years old, meaning he’s legally required to wear one in airports. This was also a 4-hour flight for us and I was concerned about how well he would do.

We had practiced wearing a mask at home the week before and talked about how we would wear it. He is a great kid when we give him prep time for anything. If we don’t spring anything on him, he’s game for it!

We hop out of the car at the curbside check in and begin to gather out stuff. That’s when my husband and I realize we forgot my son’s winter jacket. In the middle of January, on our way to Colorado for a ski trip. I forgot his winter coat.

We had both assumed the other had grabbed it on our way out of the house. He was dressed in a t shirt and a warm zip up sweatshirt for the flight as we did for ourselves too. He wasn’t naked.

It gets better.

As I begin to check us in curbside, the employee asks, “how old is he?” I tell him he is two. Panic comes over his face for us. My dumbass failed to understand he rules of the “magic of 2” for flights. He was required to have a seat and my understanding was that he could still be a lap kid on the flight.

That whole “go with the flow” attitude just bit me in the ass. I booked these tickets months ago assuming it was all ready to go!

My poor husband was already stressed about the coat, and I see his face shift from calm to “oh, shit” as I watched him peel his layers off from sweating. I was now sweating and panicking even more inside, hiding it from him and my son trying to keep things calm like I have control of the situation.

Fast forward a touch and we had the kindest employee inside at the ticket counter help us. He was able to book him a ticket and match our price, so we were not gauged for an honest mistake. I am so very thankful for his patience and kindness in that moment! He was a dad himself and was so understanding with us. I’ll be forever thankful for his calmness and helping us out at that moment!

Now we get into line for the security checkpoint. My son is rocking his cute dinosaur mask like a champ. As we get closer my husband and I pull out our boarding passes and our IDs. My husband freaks out looking for his driver’s license. *face palm*

Here is where some of my overprepared-ness did come into play! I always pack our passports for travel in fear of needing them. I looked at him and told him calmy, “I have the passports, it’s fine.”

He continues to freak out on where his ID is. Finally, he finds it. Somehow, he tucked it in behind another card that he has never put it behind before. Either way, it was all good.

We are three for three on issues and not even to our terminal. However, that was the end of them!

A refreshing moment while all of this was happening was when a mom and her young son were ahead of us. My son and hers became quick friends over what he was watching on the tablet. It was a cute and quick friendship that helped them both go through security easily. They were also on our flight when we had passed her and she offered me a kind, “good luck!” for the flight.

We survived the airport and flight with no major issues at all. In fact, he did amazing on the flight! The best part of the day was when we arrived at my friend’s home and enjoyed a beer after that anxiety driven day, celebrating that we made it.

Now I have no real fun stories during the week in Colorado to offer. The trip was great. We all enjoyed our time out there making memories and skiing the beautiful mountains. We had even purchased a new coat my son absolutely loves at Walmart that he’ll probably fit into next winter.

The next story again comes during the travel part!

We had packed up with my parents in their rental car and stuffed all of us into it to begin our excursion back to Denver for our flight. My son had his chocolate milk and asked to watch his tablet. It was a 2 hour drive, so no problem!

Well, we have a tablet holder in our car at home that holds it to the headrest, so he is looking up at it and not down. Apparently, he gets car sick looking down. We never knew until this drive.

Picture this, the back seat was me, my mom and my son in that order in the car. As I’m talking to her, looking at her in the direction of my kid, I see everything unfold in slow motion.

Vomit projects from him and goes everywhere. He has not spit up since he was an infant. Honest.

He begins to freak out because it scared him. My husband was driving and he is trying to find a safe place to pull over on the highway. My mom and I begin looking all over the tightly packed car for anything to help us begin cleaning up. I’m hopping out of the car as he is still coming to a stop to get to the other side to begin consoling my kid.

Here is where I wish we had video surveillance of the situation unfold.

My dad was not sure what to do or where to go as we all began to scramble. I had only asked him to open all the windows because I started gagging from the smell of rotten milk puke. My husband quickly finds new clothes in the trunk for my son. My mom is pulling out wet wipes to begin cleaning up. I am unclipping my son and getting him out of the car. We stripped him as quickly as we could and put new clothes on him.

We must have gone through a half pack of wet wipes cleaning the car. To boot, this was a rental. It was everywhere!

In a matter of less than 10 minutes, we had this whole situation under control. I had placed my son in the front passenger seat for a few minutes too while my mom and I had finished finding what we could to clean up the rest. Realistically, there is only so much you can do on the side of a highway, in a rental car, with wet wipes to clean a car.

I had to sit next to him the rest of our drive so he would remain calm because he was pretty scared from what had happened. I mean, I dislike puking more than anything and it hasn’t happened to him in a long while! But we made it without any other issues. We found a great restaurant in Denver to enjoy lunch at and all settle again.

Our flight home was uneventful but perfect for our little guy. We made it home safely and all in one piece!

The moral to this entire blog is simply that, shit happens. Planning or not, you have to roll with the punches thrown at you as a parent. I’m not even telling you to remain calm because well, I didn’t for that last event on our trip and yet we made it out fine!

They’re all memories in our minds that we can finally laugh about. Every moment is not the best but, they’re moments we make it through!

If they didn’t happen, our vacation wouldn’t have been nearly as eventful! I wouldn’t have anything to tell you other that was worth of being told in this blog. It would have sounded like an Instagram post of perfect pictures not showing the reality of traveling on a family vacation!

What fun is that?!

Cold Season – Our favorite remedies

We’re nearing the end of October and my little guy got hit with the first cold of the season last week. ☹ No, he doesn’t have COVID. I know it’s hard to believe we can have real colds and not have COVID. (Take it easy, I’m simply making jokes here because things have been so tight among everyone this past year and a half.)

I remind myself what one of his pediatricians told us when he was an infant. “A cold now, is one less cold when he will be in school.”

I hope that’s right because daycare life has those little ones sharing all kinds of nasty germs.

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Every time he gets a cold, my mama heart breaks because there isn’t a whole lot I can do but provide my love and the remedies we know of. I wanted to share our plan of attack against a cold to maybe help ease your worries and make things a touch easier too. Maybe you can let me know your tricks and tips if you have any I don’t mention!

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First thing is first, I called my mom. 🤷‍♀️ So what if I’m in my mid-thirties, my mom knows best! So call your mom, grandma, aunt, bestie, whomever has better advice than yourself or someone you simply trust to talk out what’s going on.

The main item for colds and fevers, acetaminophen and ibuprofen are always the go-to OGs of any cold and flu. Since he started this cold out with a low-grade fever the other day, that’s how we kicked off fixing this. Certainly, ask your pediatrician for proper dosage. My tip here is grabbing the big bottle of it. I recently found Amazon has their brand, Basic Care, for half the price of regular children’s Tylenol and Ibuprofen! As parents we’ll go through a lot of it and any type of cost savings is great.

A humidifier is my other tactic! The cold this time is all congestion and cough. Poor thing lost his sweet voice and had a lot of mucus going on. I make sure we have this running anywhere he is in the house. Of course, I’m not chasing him with it as his little legs find energy to go room to room.

I typically have it running at night in his room with the fan on to keep it through the air and then out to the living room while he bums it on the couch in his jammies.

Be sure that you clean this regularly so there is no mold build up. Ours has been going all week long so we have to give it a good cleaning!

Kid’s vicks for his chest and feet at night. It’s actually called Zarbee’s Naturals Baby Soothing Chest Rub. This stuff is the ticket for nighttime with him and when he started to swing back around. He fought us having it put on and would yell, “YUCCCCK!” It smells so good to me, but I’m sure as a toddler he thinks it’s gross. It helped him breath easier and clear up some of the congestion he had going on. I noticed it helped him sleep better too!

Fluids. Whatever they like to drink, go buy it. He has insisted milk is his favorite this time and sadly the poor boy was not eating much. I had even tried to bribed with “ice cream” that was fruit and yogurt blended together, which is typically his favorite, but it was a no-go.

Milk it is and whenever he wants. If he is drinking, I’m totally okay with that. He isn’t wasting away! Plus, me and him crushed a whole sleeve of crackers just the other day for lunch. That was a win!

I like to make homemade vegetable or bone broths too. Another cold he had last year; I was able to get him to sip on some of that to feel better. It warms you and has tons of vitamins. This time I wasn’t as lucky, but I do always have it on hand for cooking and sipping for us. We use it for ourselves when we don’t feel well.

And the best medicine for any cold is sleep and snuggles with mom!

We all know how much we enjoy extra sleep when you feel like crap. One of the days he was home with me it was a full PJ day and that’s the comfort he needed while he lounged. He got a few hours of a solid nap in that day too.

It was so hard to get him to sleep easy through the nights when that cough first set in. All of those remedies were able to ease him a bit and get us through. He still isn’t 100% since coughs can linger but he is back in daycare and we’re all sleeping a bit better knowing he is feeling better.

Let me hear some of your favorite remedies when you or your children are sick. Everyone has some to share! I hope everyone stays as healthy as they can as the season is among us.

Been a Minute

It’s been a short minute since I’ve wrote a new blog.

I owe no one an explanation. I’ve come to deal with that thought a lot about who I am as a mom, friend, daughter, etc.

My mental health needs attention. So that’s what I will take time to handle accordingly. I am absolutely okay.

I stepped back from social media by deleting the apps from my phone as well as reeled it in a bit on my time with my family.

My family does not deserve me staring at my phone while I’m with them when we are already away from each other for most of the days at work and daycare.

They don’t deserve a woman in their life who is comparing herself to the other moms in the world, wives on tik tok, or models in ads.

They deserve me to be in each moment with them at home. Even if we are sitting on the couch watching a movie together, it should be that. All of us all together on one couch watching the same thing. Not each of us on our own devices.

Others do not get full access to me either. My priorities are simply that. My priorities.

Nothing else should make me question if someone gets privileges to my life and dictating when and how I do something.

No is a complete sentence. I rarely use it and feel rude if I do, but it is. I should feel no repercussion and guilt for saying it when I either don’t have time to do something or cannot allow it in my space when there are a million other things I want or need to do.

I have many thoughts and ideas on this blog to share with you all. I have to believe someone else reading this has felt or is feeling the same way I have lately and that’s why I wanted to share it with you.

It’s certainly more in depth than the words you read above because my anxiety is real. The amount of pressure I put on myself is far too much. I will continue to put myself first in the best way possible while still doing this blog because I love sharing mom life with you all!

There are many of you who inspire me and help me so sharing that along the way is fun for me to do. But not without ensuring my mental health and family come first.

Have a wonderful day and weekend ahead!