Red Stick Mom

So, my baby is finally crawling! I say "finally" because he took his time, waiting until he was close to 10 months old. We did everything we could think of to encourage him, but as I've written about before, we just had to wait until he was ready. And he was definitely ready. He went from being pretty much stationary, not even scooting, to full-on, on-all-fours crawling, in about 3 days. And now I'm wondering what I was so excited about. Moms know that once your baby starts crawling, it's a whole new world. Gone are the days when you could leave your baby sitting on the floor with some toys for a couple of minutes while you went and...

I absolutely LOVE Christmas time. Yes, I am one of those crazy Christmas decorators who have their decorations up before Thanksgiving (gasp ... another elf apparently bites the dust). I love everything that the holiday season brings to my family and having decorations around just makes me HAPPY! Shoot, I'd have that beautiful lit tree up all year long if I wasn't such a clutter freak. Celebrating Christmas with all the wonderful components of it (baking, decorating, gift giving, spending time with family, going to church, etc) is the highlight of my year. My cut back on my children's gifts from "Santa" all began about 7 years ago. Back then, I had a 3 and a 1 year old. Christmas morning of 2007, I...

I'm happy to announce that we have FINALLY moved into our new house! It was a long and very difficult 5 1/2 months, and we are so thankful that it's over.  Everyone says that building a home tests your sanity, and I knew it would be difficult, but WOW that was hard. In Part 1 of my series, I focused on getting the process started.  Part 2 covered the financial side of home buying. Today, I have a few tips and tricks to make home building, packing and moving a tiny bit easier on you. Do your research. Before you pay someone your life savings to build your house, do lots of research.  We decided to move into a neighborhood in which...

Everyday our daycare fills out a handy form about Sam’s day. What he ate, when, and if he ate it all. Diaper changes. Naps. Supplies I need to bring. It’s great. I always give it a quick glance when I pick him up and usually ask the daycare teachers how his day was. We don’t talk long as I’m ready to be home, and their eyes are on the other kids in the room. In the mornings it’s easier to talk to the teachers because Sam gets there before the room is full, but I am also on a time crunch to get to work. So, most of the time we don’t exchange that much information. General pleasantries, and...

Brace yourselves... The Elf on the Shelf is coming!!! Or, he's already here for all of the moms who were actually on top of things enough to pull him out of the Christmas decor box on time. I mean, I don't know where in the world I even put my tree, but I'm glad you could find that tiny, creepy little elf in the pile of clutter in time for his arrival (or do your houses not have piles of clutter and that's why I'm so bad at the elf thing? It all makes sense.) But really though, as if I need one more thing to add to my list of ways I can fail as a parent! I don't know...