Sweet Baby Jo is 6 months today. Six months ago at this exact moment she was brought into this world so precious and small. Now she is practically a teenager. She is sweeter than Splenda, calmer than still waters, and louder than thunder. Her raspy little voice melts my heart and her rolly polly body makes me want to eat marshmallows.
Rolls herself everywhere.
Loves baby food.
I swear.
Cute as can be.
That boy loves animals, whether they are real or not.
You really want to know what a REAL mom I am? For starters, our house smells of lysol and clorox wipes. That can only mean one thing….someone has a stomach bug. Can you guess who? Duder? Yessir! That little guy gets EVERY stomach bug known to man.
Stomach bugs mean the ritual of cleaning all the toys and disinfecting every. stinkin’. touchable. surface. And trust me, our kids may be short but they touch anything and everything within their little reach. Then there is the trying to keep the sickie away from the right-now-non-sickies. This is a chore in and of itself. I do not take this task lightly.
I have one more set of toys to go into the dishwasher to be de-germed and at least two more loads of laundry. But of course everything could change if someone else starts puking.
Know what thought came to my mind last night as I picked up the toys left behind after the little people were all snug in their beds? ”It has been a long time since I have had to clean all the toys.” Boy did that one bite me in the behind. And my Awesome Husband reminded me that I did just pray that God would give me one month without vomit and He did (April, you were so sweet to me). But come on!!!!!! Two months would have been golden! And whenever my kids get sick with a stomach bug all I can do is wonder why my kids have to puke while other people’s kids just get sick with the “cuddle bug.”
So right now I am taking a five minute break from the hand washing, toy sanitizing, child cleaning, puke catching, to hopefully keep my sanity.
And this my friends is what REAL motherhood is.
We don’t have a swing set. We have been trying out some different parks but we have a few favorites. One being Bever Park.
Mama-daughter love.
Tractor playing.
Goat fightin’.
Slip slidin’.
Fun.
I kid you not. Duder can throw the biggest, nastiest tantrums I have encountered. He goes from sweet and a little bit sassy to BAM! on the floor kicking and screaming. Depending on the tantrum and the circumstances surrounding it, we either a) ignore, b) ignore and turn away and laugh, or c) put the child in timeout or he gets a small pinch on his butt cheek/upper thigh.
He may seem all innocent but don’t let those big brown eyes and cuddly guy fool ya!
Nug’s first real friend (I define it as real because she talks about this person by name quite often and this was the first non-family person for her to talk about) is moving away:( His mama was a good friend of mine and his daddy was a pretty neat guy himself. But they are moving up North where I pray that God pours out his amazing and plentiful blessings upon their whole family!
We are sad to see them go, we really are. But it’s not goodbye forever, it is as Nug always says, “See ya waiter!”
Back in the day.
What a sweet little guy!
Friends for life:-)
Nug – 6 months.
Sweet Baby Jo – not quite 6 months.
You know you are a REAL mom when…
*Your favorite kitchen utensil is a pizza cutter because that thing cuts everything easily and fast.
*You look at other people’s babies and their babies seem to stay babies forever but yours grow up too fast.
*You have the following conversations with your two year old:
Me: “We need to go to the nursery.”
Her: “I don’t want to go to Sam’s Club.”
Me: “We are not going to Sam’s Club. We are going to nursery.”
Her: “But I don’t want to go to the grocery store.”
Me: “You know you are not supposed to dump water out of the bathtub. I would like to know why you did that.”
Her: “I would like to know too.”
What goes through her mind, I will never know!
Should be napping but instead is sitting on my lap while I type one handed. And it’s my fault she isn’t asleep. I totally messed with her nap today because I made mention of the word zoo and the kids freaked out with excitement. Now that Sweet Baby Jo naps are more regular it leave little time to actually do anything. I decided to throw nap time at home out the car window and headed to Old McDonald’s Farm with all little people in tow. We had a blast and Sweet Baby Jo did her baby thing by hanging out in the stroller all smiles:-)
So now I sit here with my pant-less, hair-less Jo wondering if it was worth the quietness I get during nap time for a whole hour. Regardless of the quiet I am missing out on, the spontaneous fun we had was totally worth it (although Nug was slightly disappointed that there were not going to be pandas and zebras and giraffes but perked up once she saw the ducks)!
My Awesome Husband and I have made it our unspoken goal to make sure our children (namely our daughters) know that they are beautiful. We tell them both each day that they are beautiful. We say it loud and whisper it softly into their ears, “You are so, so, so beautiful.” We look them deeply in their eyes and say those words. And my eyes get a little wet when I say it because they are beautiful and I know one day they might doubt that when their innocence is gone.
In this world, we are surrounded by what the world deems beautiful. And honestly it sucks. I never want my daughters to think that they are not thin enough, tan enough, tall enough, blonde enough. I want them to know that they are enough just the way they are because they are beautiful. Who are we to decide what is beautiful anyway? God made each of my children and they are beautiful regardless of how many freckles they have or if their teeth are crooked or they wear glasses or have acne.
I think one of the biggest reasons girls doubt their beauty is because their mom doubts her beauty. I doubt my own beauty even though my husband looks straight into the depths of my soul and declares me beautiful. I doubt my beauty even though God calls me His beautiful bride. But I am finally starting to believe that I am beautiful because I was hand crafted. And they are beautiful because He knit them in my womb.
They are beautiful.
They ARE beautiful.
And so am I.
