Motherhood Uncensored

2009 - The Year of the Mom

Visit Parent Bloggers Network to see if you won!

Last year I:

-Moved to Little Rock, Arkansas

-Was featured in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette with this awesome blogger (thanks to another cool blogger)

-Got knocked up again

-Endured an entire month of stomach flus and colds

-Flew to Philly for MIL's 60th birthday

-Forgave my husband

-Weaned Drew by heading up to Camp Baby and the Today Show

-Moved back to Atlanta

-Enjoyed five minutes of fame in San Francisco

-Turned 32, got really sick and watched ER docs staple Drew's head on Mother's Day

-Got my iPhone!!!!!!!!

-Remembered why I'm writing this damn blog

-Had a 20 week u/s with an echogenic foci

-Made another trek to Philly for TLNG's 1st birthday (and discovered my MIL's extra long chin hairs)

-BLOGHER!

-Blogged the Recession

-Saw my first born start school

Proudly promoted Sleep is for the Weak

-Got a book deal of my very own

-Had the beautiful Margot Laine

-Tried to make sense out of this Mom of 3 thing

This year I hope to:

-continue to try to make sense out of this Mom of 3 thing

-finish my book

-go on vacation

-lose the baby weight

-spend more quality one on one time with my kids

-create an actual work schedule

-be a better wife and parent

-give back more

-visit and connect with new and old friends at Blogher '09

-find an offline hobby (something, anything) that doesn't involve my children and Rock of Love reruns

-not have any more kids

-take better care of myself by making sure I prioritize even the smallest things (shower, bathroom breaks, sleep). Nothing is so pressing that I can't take a minute to pee. And I want to leave the house (no matter where I'm going) looking presentable. That means I will be ceremoniously burning all my gaucho pants. Anyone care to join me?

As part of 2009 - The Year of the Mom, I'm hoping you'll share what you're going to do to prioritize yourself - whether it's less blogging time or more blogging time, a pedicure a month or a shower a day.

Write a post on your blog about how you're going to take better care of yourself in 2009, place the button (see below - courtesy of Heather) in your sidebar (as a reminder and invitation to other moms), and send me your blog post link (motherhooduncensored@yahoo.com). I'll place your link on this post and enter you to win one of five $100 Spa finder Gift Cards courtesy of Parent Bloggers Network.

And get this - each winner will receive a free one-year to Sitter City ($100 value), a fantastic online community of babysitters, nannies, and petsitters. I've found all my sitters through them - it's really a great service.

(If you want to sign up for Sitter City, use the code "2009MOM" for 10% off!)

[Contest ends January 31, 2009, Midnight EST. Only one entry per blogger per blog - so if you have more than one blog, you can only be entered once!]

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(Idea for this post structure from GGC)

It's Time for Me

Year of the Mom 1

Taking time for me

Priority Acceptance

When I Finish This Beer

2009 - The Year of the Mom

Better Late Than Never

9 for 2009

The Year of Me

Resolutions

Living the Selfish Life

2009

2009 - The year of the mom

...and you can't make me

Happy New Year!

How I plan to take better care of myself in 2009

How to make a better mother better in 2009

I'm trying to be better and stuff

Me - Version 2009

Nine in Nine

Observe the year of the mom

Priorities

Reflections of the year that used to be

The Resolutions

The Year of the Mom

Year of the Mom 2

Year of the Mom 3

Year of the Mommy

Etiquette, Bitch - The unbuckled kids in the back seat

My husband and I were discussing how quickly Quinlan's school mate's mom was able to get her kid in the car and drive off. We'd have Quinlan just barely belted in and she'd be zooming off down the school drive.

Then the other day he rolled down his window to say good-bye and we realized that he doesn't wear a seat belt.

Now, I know there are probably way worse parenting offenses than not buckling your kids in to their car seats, boosters, or heck, even just a regular seat.

Like child abuse.

It pains me every time we drive down the highway and see young kids who are clearly of car and booster seat age rolling around and sticking their head up over the center console between the front seats. I just don't get it - are they too busy to get them buckled in before them leave, or do they not want to fight with their toddlers to buckle them in?

Or can they not afford a booster seat? (which, hello, is the law...)

Now, I will be the first to admit that I've done a modified Britney Spears or Nicole Kidman on a few occasions and I've driven home with my kid not buckled into her car seat. It really only happened when I just had Quinlan, because now she plays seat belt police and yells from the back if for some reason I've forgotten to strap in one or more of the kids.

But those times were clearly accidental and by no means caused by my own laziness (or because I was being chased by the paparazzi).

Ha.

I mean other than it being complete neglect on the parent's part, I think it's just plain dumb. It's the one time you can legally strap your kids down and force them to sit in one spot. What smart person would pass that up?

Here are a few other rants of the Etiquette Bitch (Mom-101's brain child), including "Baby on the Bar" and "The Poopy Diaper at the Gym."

All I want for Christmas is my two pink eyes

Yeah, well, you know it's bad when you wake up with stuff oozing out of both your eyeballs but you don't care because your throat doesn't hurt and your voice is back enough to return to yelling at your children.

I ran myself over to Urgent Care on Friday afternoon just to make sure I didn't have a bacterial infection (Hey Dr. Google. Fuck you.). Turns out, it's just a bad cold, plus two pink eyes which just has to run its course. Apparently with viral pink eye, the antibiotics don't do anything but prevent it from turning into something bad.

I spent a good hour in a very seedy looking medical clinic to learn that tidbit. You should have seen the look on the doctor's face when I mentioned breastmilk in the eyeball. She nearly wrote me a script for psych meds.

So, here's hoping I just got exactly what the kids had, well, except about 140x worse.

And I've learned my lesson. I need to take it easy. It's quite obvious that my body figured the only way I would ever slow down was if I got massively sick.

Got the point, Universe.

So, I'm calling it. 2009 - The year of Mom.

Who's with me?

Silent night. Literally.

My voice has left the building. My daughter told me I sound like my husband's sister - which is hilarious because I sort of do - except her husky voice is from smoking.

Gotta love that one.

We're enjoying just another oddly warm and wet day here with sugar cookies, banana bread, and chicken soup, all of which we made yesterday amidst chipping away at the gaggles of presents already under our tree.

Dear in-laws, Thanks so much for listening to us when we said please don't buy that much this year.

We're anxiously awaiting the arrival of the huz and Santa tonight, at which point massive toy construction and editing (since my children have enough stuff to clothe and entertain an entire village of children) will commence. 

Wish me luck parenting these three kiddos alone with no voice.

At least it gets me out of calling the in-laws today, right?

Merry Christmas!

How are things in Guatemala?

"Daddy, make sure to wave at Santa from the plane!" my daughter told the huz as he headed out the door for a two-day to Guatemala, his Christmas gift glistening from his tie.

We knew a trip over the holidays would be avoided only by an act of God. But considering we must have done something really nasty to incur the wrath of two straight months of illness, we figured He'd overlook our request. And so, we've made the decision to celebrate our Christmas on December 26.

I admit that I was a little disappointed to have to reschedule. Granted with everything going on these days, it's probably a blessing in a pretty obvious disguise. And while my kids are too young to count and really won't know any better, I still felt like maybe they'd be missing out - the excitement of Christmas eve, the rush on Christmas morning.

The magic.

Even though I'm a non-practicing Christian, there is a part of me that believes that the birth of Jesus is inherently intertwined with the Christmas magic. And while I realize that technically Easter is the most important Christian holiday, to me, Christmas is one that I feel most comfortable embracing and sharing with my children. The story is beautiful, touching, and well, magical. 

So when you move it up a day, it just doesn't seem to have the same ring. I mean, we all know how the day after a birth is. "And Mary stuffed her burlap underpants with leftover swaddling blankets and drank extra wine to deal with the uterine cramps."

Not so magical. 

And "Twas the Night of Christmas and all through the house, mommies were trying to figure out what the hell to do with the 25 loud ass toys from the in-laws that won't shut off."

Yeah. No magic there either.

But then I realized that it doesn't really matter when we celebrate, so long as it's a day where we'll all be together, sharing our love and our germs under the bright lights of our slightly off kilter Christmas tree. 

Now that is magic.

Merry Christmas, everyone!