Growing Up

We have a queen sized bed. Both my husband and I toss and turn a lot at night. These two things have always kept us from trying "co-sleeping." Our bed isn't that big, and I am afraid of squishing our child. Sam and I occasionally took a nap together when he was very small and not mobile yet. But he always did fine in his bassinet and transitioned easily to his crib. So, I never thought much about co-sleeping. Sam just made a year and is walking practially running everywhere all the time. I had a week or so off of work during the holidays, and Sam waited until then to start teething again and get a double ear infection. It...

I recently had the revelation that my kids are no longer babies. Of course, I have noticed minor maturity changes in their conversation topics, television show choices and Christmas list items. But a few weeks ago, one specific incident made me admit to myself that my babies are no longer “babies.” That incident was when my son slashed his finger with a kitchen knife and NEVER cried. I mean he never cried when it happened or when he saw all the blood or fleshy part of his finger or when he received 6 stitches. He took it like an (cough cough) big boy. At first I was a little taken aback by this, but then I realized a whole new...

The morning of my son’s Christmas program at daycare, I found myself catching vomit with my bare hands. I quickly realized that even though he had been practicing “Jingle Bells” (very loudly) all week long, he would not be able to sing it with his class. And the thought of this made me sad—almost to the verge of tears sad. I felt silly for getting so worked up over something that happens yearly and knew that he would be up on stage next year. But it really got me down. I felt like I was missing one of those milestones that I expect to sit back and laugh at how cute he is and how big he's gotten. So...

This will be my 30th year on this beautiful place we call Earth! I would be lying if I didn't say that I've been having some mini mid-life crisis moments happening already (is a black sequin dress still an acceptable option?). The strange part is I have always felt 30 would be my YEAR! You know how there's a specific age that you've always just resonated with? 30 is it for me. Even when I was younger I would always think about "when I'm 30" with a sense of peace and excitement. There are a lot of things I've learned in 29 years. I can say that as I approach my 30th birthday, I'm happier with myself than I ever...

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...