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!

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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?!

It’s Time for School!

Every ad is for back to school. Every insta-story is a kiddo visiting classrooms, trying on new clothes for the school year, or first day photos. School starts this week or next week for lots of kids and teachers. 😄

I’m here hugging and snuggling my 2-year-old as tight as I can for our weekly movie night hoping to freeze time and not have the next few years fly by me when I am the one sending him to school.

I’m so very thankful I’m not yet in the shoes of parents sending them off to school in our world right now. I believe every generation has moments of “this world is scary.” Our current world is certainly not the first pandemic, but it is what we’re living in here in 2021.

It’s a matter of what each generation had to deal with at the time they’re currently in.

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I love watching my son grow and see his personality develop. I am wondering where the last 2 years went though. We transitioned him to a “big boy bed” this week and my mama heart is really struggling with him growing too fast! 😥

I commend so many of you with the worry and stress on your shoulders as we near this school year so fast with so much uncertainty.

The last 17 months has been a whirlwind of a life for any of us let alone parents of school aged students and the teachers they have.

Kids absolutely adapt quickly and tend to go with the flow in most cases. It’s us as their parents who struggle with the new things and changes and uncertainty of our world.

We only want the very best for our kids and what they have to see and deal with each day. Of course, we worry! If you didn’t, I’d question that.

I hope you’re all understanding, calm, rational, and kind to everyone around you during this coming year. Not a single person can say this past year has been easy or knows what is ahead. But we can all work towards making sure our kids are safe, healthy and we are all kind, not only our kids.

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While I hold onto my toddler hoping to pause time, I commend you moms and dads out there preparing to send your children onto the bus and into a new school year soon. I also want to hug and give major high fives to the teachers prepping for another year ahead while you help teach and mold our children!

Whatever is coming for the plans of this awfully weird world we are in, keep your head up, stay flexible, remember to have fun, and take all the pictures. You made it through 2020 and most of 2021.

You got this and will handle this school year even better!

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and memorable school year ahead!

Find Your Calm

Recently we have been able to stop by a few friend’s homes for unplanned visits.

The only preceding plan was a text message asking if they were home so we could stop by.

My personality doesn’t let much in life be unplanned. Having a kid has taught me how to be more flexible and go with the flow more often. It’s something I needed. I make list after list of what to buy, what to do, what is planned every week.

It is exhausting.

These recent stops at our friend’s homes have been visits my soul and mind needed and for my husband and son too.

We sat, we chatted, we laughed, we did nothing, we watched my son or our kids all play together.

The picture at the top of this post relates to one of our most simple conversations, seeing a rain storm coming. This image reminded me of that conversation and truly how simple the time was with them.

It was calm.

The unplanned and simple moment(s) it was at each place is what I would love more of in my life and think everyone should have it.

Sure, my life and personality wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t plan and make my lists.

But the calmness is necessary to ground ourselves again and recharge our own batteries.

It’s what I hope we can instill in and teach our son that it is so important to slow down and enjoy what is and who is around you.

Rushing and planning seems to be the most common way of life in this crazy world. I hope he can see that the calm moments with friends is also what we need in life more.

One of the moments I want to remember forever as I talk about this calm we experienced is that my son went running, yes, running, into an open field after tiny white butterflies.

He went after them for 30 minutes and our friend’s dog chased him too. There were 5 of us watching him and laughing while he took the simplest thing around him and without a care went after each one he saw. The simple and most calm thing to watch, a child enjoying life in the moment.

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All the news and talk of Simone Biles prioritizing her mental health this week is a great example of how stepping back and taking care of yourself is so important.

I don’t need to reiterate what most of us read over and over, but man is she someone I cannot wait to teach my son about. Not only the best Olympian in her sport but a woman who has proven that she can exceed everywhere, even in her own mind to ensure she is #1 to herself and not to everyone saying what she should or shouldn’t do.

What an example of putting yourself first. She needed that calm for herself.

The point of adding her to this is that she made it clear to the world that everyone needs some calm around them. The fact that she was on the largest stage in the world and had the most pressure ever, in the Olympics, riding on her shoulders and could recognize how important it was to find the calm in her life before she injured herself is a great example to anyone.

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I am thankful we have had recent visits that I am able to reflect on this way and want to work on bringing more of that to my son’s life.

The hustle and bustle we all pressure ourselves into make time move too fast anyways.

Go find your calm.

Take a day or evening of no plans, stop by a friend’s home, take a hike, sit with your kids, have a picnic outside and enjoy that time. Just be there.

If you can look back at that moment and realize you truly enjoyed it without any stress, thoughts, and a breath of fresh air, you found your calm.

I hope we can find more and prioritize it in our lives and teach my son how impactful it can be.

Reading Together Every Night

Our son has recently started to want to read a few books with us every night before bed as part of his bedtime routine. This is new to us because he never really enjoyed it much before now.

Of course, you’re told to read to your children from day one, so they are introduced to many new words and many other reasons that will help with future learning. We would try here and there but it wasn’t in the plans for him at first. He is a man with a plan and on his own schedule. Things have since changed!

Each night in the past few weeks when we go to bed, he walks to his room saying, “mama, book!” and I pick him up to choose a few books from his giant selection we have. It makes my mama heart happy knowing he developed this love for books.

I really love how many books we have to pick from and the variations of the books that we have! This was a wonderful idea we used for his baby shower. We had everyone bring a book instead of a card. It’s money well spent in the long run, rather than wasting it on a card that most people do not save!

In case you haven’t seen that before, books instead of cards, it’s a great tip to pass along to anyone you may know who is having a baby shower coming up! There are all kinds of cute templates to include with a poem in the invitation. 😊 It’s so sweet to see who got him each one too when we read them as a little reminder of how much he is loved.

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Now these nights give us an extra snuggle with our sweet two-year-old while he sits on our lap to read and browse through his books. He likes the task of being our page turner for me while we read each book. Sometimes he wants to go a little faster than my mouth can read those words!

I see him becoming more interested each evening in the types of books he picks. They have to be his choice though, not ours. Typical toddler.

I really enjoy when he interacts with some of them as they may ask where something is and he points to it, or if a flap is involved in some of them to find something or touch & feel/tracing books. They have him interact and learning as I get to see that little brain work and learn.

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Another fun tip to add more books to your child’s collection that I wanted to share is Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. We signed up when he was born and it is for all children from birth to the age of 5 years old no matter the family’s income. We have received and enjoyed a book with him each month since signing up!

All it takes is a quick search on the site to see who is participating in your area to send out the books. They send you age-appropriate books to your home for your child each month. We enjoy each one we have been gifted and learn together. Some you will have heard of and others are new to us. Each one is special and something we all look forward to receiving!

Take a moment to see if there is availability in your area for your children or children you know! Click here to go to the site.

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For someone who isn’t much of a reader herself, I am really enjoying this new routine with my son every evening. I hope it continues as he grows, reading together every night. We both interact with the books whether it’s different voices I make with the characters or him making animal noises and honking his horn while we read any of the “Little Blue Truck” series, it is so much fun each evening.

It opens both of our minds to our imaginations and more importantly gives us time together after our crazy days.

That is what I find to be the best part of it all, time together.
I encourage you as a parent, grandparent, friend, aunt, uncle, or anyone who loves a little one to spend your time with them reading together every night.