he hee

It makes me giggle knowing that the meal I consistently fail at is grilled cheese!

case in point...

Crossroads

image credits

    I love how the parenting gig rides just like a roller coaster. Just when you think you've survived the last drop, you find yourself teetering over the edge of a bigger one. And I've only got one kid, geesh! I often find myself struggling and second-guessing the decisions I make as a mother (duh, isn't that part of the job description?).

     Right now the big issue is whether to push Riley in school or hang back and let her develop into her own kind of student. She has always been advanced for her age, but socially she has been a bit of a follower because she wasn't often around other kids her age. So, now that she is in kindergarten I have noticed a (very slight) decline in her interest in academics and a (slightly stronger) interest in talking and playing with her peers. I KNOW this is just kindergarten but I also know that academic habits are established early. 

     Of course I want her to have strong friendships AND strong academic skills I just have to figure out how to balance my approach so that I'm not pushing her too hard towards one or against the other.

    I also don't want her to grow up feeling like I will only accept perfection. I grew up feeling like those were my parents expectations for me (I still feel that way), and although I now know that they just wanted me to be my best, the stress of having that on my shoulders was/is exhausting (and I'm grown!). It will be hard to cheer for Riley when she brings home B's on her future report cards when I get myself into a week-long grouch fest if I even bring home one on a paper. Hopefully those grouch fests will be enough to motivate me to be different for her sake.

Whipping Something Up!

LB's class had their annual Months of the Year Parade last week. Each student (aka their parents) were to create a costume that represented their month, LB was assigned February as her month and I had just the thing! To represent the month I took this:

And these:

And paired them up with her Santa hat and dress from Christmas, along with some pink tights, a heart shaped wand and Valentine-y embellished shoes.

All together those elements created the cutest Valentine Princess costume I had ever seen.

Of course being the novice blogger that I am I do not have pictures of the completed costume, but rather this lonely picture of the only thing that survived the day:

Cute, no?

One Small Step... One Giant Leap

As a mom, I constantly find myself analyzing our days and wishing that I had done things differently. When life gets in the way its tough to always have a smile on your face and I certainly don't drop everything I'm doing and play with her as much as I'd like. I know I'm a good Mom, but I think all moms wish that they were BETTER than themselves. So, generally I spend a lot of time reflecting on how I could have done today better. 

But this weekend I had a small mom victory. Riley and I were house sitting at a friends and we were sleeping together in the guest bedroom. All of the sudden I wake up around 4am to this warming sensation on my back. My kid just peed the bed and more importantly all over me and herself (whom I'd just bathed!). As soon as I realized what had happened I began to mentally panic: this is not our house!, are there covers on the mattresses?, does she have another pair of pjs?... on and on. But then a great thing happened. Before I woke her to clean her up I took a deep breath, put a smile on my face and subconsciously decided not to make a big deal out of things. I made a palette on the floor, gingerly cleaned her up and laid her back down (the next morning she was non the wiser!) and started scrubbing the uncovered mattress. After everything was in the wash and I finally got to lay back down I still had that smile on my face and I fell asleep knowing that I couldn't have handled the situation any better.