Archives for April 2014

A day at the park?!

April 24, 2014 by · 2 Comments

Holla toddler Moms,

A relaxing day at the park sounds lovely, right?  

You mean toddler Moms don’t get to relax like this at the park?

Wrong!  Grab your sneakers, the diaper bag, your SuperMom cape and perhaps some Xanax.  It’s playground season!  

And maybe I’m just a Rookie Mom but the park is a scary place.  Let me tell you why…

:: High-Low game ::

The playground for a toddler Mom is actually like a giant chess board.  One wrong move and it’s game over.  From my experience (or lack thereof) there appear to be 2 schools of thought when monitoring your tiny tots at the p-ground.

Theory One: Stay High – Some experts suggest that you stay directly behind that toddler as they run across the bridges and up the metal steps.  The good news is that you are one step behind them if they lose their balance.  The bad news is that said toddler is always just one slide away from complete and total freedom.  Undoubtedly your oversize Mom butt will get stuck going down the slide and in this time your kiddo could potentially sprint across the playground.  Fail!

Theory Two: Stay Low – The competing theory is to stay on the ground as your toddler races through the metal jungle gym.  Theoretically you will be one step ahead and you’ll be there to scoop up your kiddo as the bottom of the slide.  But being on the ground isn’t ideal either… one wrong move and your kid is on a breakaway through the twists and turns of the playground.   Do you climb the ladder and chase them, or try to run around the playground and then anticipate which slide they’ll go down?  Either way it’s playground Checkmate.

playground 2

How fast can you race around the perimeter of the playground? Not fast enough!

:: Bad example bullies ::

Got a toddler who loves to imitate everything you do and say?  Perfect!  The playground seems to be a breeding ground for bad-ass tweens that like to jump from the 10-foot platforms and run the wrong way up the slide.

bully with words

Grandma’s gonna love your kiddos new vocabulary!

:: Drop-offs ::

Speaking of 10-foot falls, why MUST all playgrounds have those large openings to allow kids to rappel from the metal playground sides?  Seems fun for Spiderman, but what about our wee baby toddlers?  These are NOT cool!

toddler mom heart attack zone

So there you have it.  Call me crazy… call me overprotective… call me a helicopter parent… but I think the playground can be a scary place for toddler Mom.

Will this fear stop me from visiting the slides and swings with my fearless tot?  Heck no!  But I’m going to have to strategize a little better when it comes to staying one step ahead of Makenzie.

And as for the saying about a Day at the park… I’m pretty sure this false representation of a relaxing day was created by the same person who coined the phrase sleeping like a baby.  Maybe they should change it to sleeping like a toddler Mom!   Nighty night!

 

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Need some wine after your trip to the playground?  

The bottle is always half full at Mommy McBlog

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Happy Easter!

April 20, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

It’s been a fun few weeks of visiting & visitors!

Makenzie can’t get enough of the warm weather.  She is constantly bringing us our shoes and coats so that we can go “Out, out!”  It’s going to be a fun summer!

Our girl is finishing up her nap and I have a feeling we’ll be heading back out into the sunshine soon.  But, I’ll let some pictures fill you in on our recent fun…

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This girl is getting so big and she’s so happy for spring.

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We’ve been visiting all the local playgrounds. Kenzie is fearless and even likes to go down the slide headfirst. I’m terrified!

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A few weekends ago we had a chance to go to Erie to meet up with our favorite cousins. Ryan, Kenzie and Jack are triple trouble.

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Nana and Papa visited last weekend and Makenzie loved spending time with them.

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We headed to the mall for Makenzie’s 1st visit with the Easter Bunny.  Here she is all dressed up & ready to go…

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Unfortunately, Makenzie didn’t love anything about the Bunny. She preferred to stay in the safety of Nana’s arms. Here she is pointing to the Bunny saying, “No, no!.” Maybe next year.

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At least the Easter egg hunt was a success. Kenzie did great and loved eating the snacks inside the eggs.

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In addition to some fun weekends, I took advantage of a few vacation days and we had some Kenzie/Mommy days.  We went to our 1st music class with friends on Thursday!

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Then we jumped in the car for a quick trip to see the McGees.  Kenzie and Mamaw spent time being silly with bubbles!

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Connor jumped in on the fun and got crazy with bubbles too!

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Thanks to Connor, Kenzie found all the Easter eggs during her 2nd Easter egg hunt of the season.

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And what’s an Easter without a trip on the choo choo at the zoo? Makenzie liked the animals but the train was without a doubt the biggest hit of the zoo.

 

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And luckily the Bunny didn’t take offense to the meltdown Makenzie had at the mall when she met him and he visited her anyway.

We hope your Easter celebrations have been just as fun.

Love from the McGees!

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Truth be told…

April 10, 2014 by · 1 Comment

I’m throwing out my “keeping the bottle half full” rule and replacing it with a tall glass of Pinot Honesty.

Truth be told…

Tonight is annoying.  Tonight I am cranky.  Tonight I am NOT a happy camper.  And tonight I have no legitimate reason why.  So I called in the big guns to deal with my medical semi-emergency.

Cue my girl, Doc McStuffins.

The Doc is In!!

Time for my check-up!  She’s gonna check my ears, check my eyes and find out how much I’ve grown.  Sure enough, Doc found some symptoms:  irritability, worried husband who thinks he did something wrong, fatigue, and general urge to run away by myself to Target even if for just 30 minutes.

Doc thought about it and then realized the diagnosis:  A General case of Sick-of-being-an-adult-itis.  Yikes!  This is one for the Big Book of Boo Boos.

According to Doc, Moms occasionally feel burned out after day in and day out of busy schedules, never-ending to do lists, a house that doesn’t clean itself and constant meal planning, baby bag packing, dishwasher emptying, and general need for making decisions.  

Luckily it’s very curable.  The treatment includes: sweat pants, a two-hour liquid diet of Riesling, an early bedtime and a round of take-out the next day to avoid a nasty flare up of ‘what the duck is for dinner tonight-itis’

So on that note, I’m checking out of life and pretending to be my 20-year-old self for just a few hours.  I’m gettin’ ca-razy and I’m going to bed without my shirt ironed, without my K-cup placed strategically next to my to-go cup, without my lunch packed and without a dinner plan for tomorrow.

Will I regret this night of irresponsibility tomorrow at 5:35 am?  You bet!

But by then my nasty 12-hour cranky-mom-atosis will be gone and I’ll return to my regular condition of Incredibly Thankful for all the awesome things we have going on in our world.

Once in awhile, feel free to let your bottle be half empty (especially if it’s your favorite bottle of wine).  It makes you a human.  And even Super Moms need to rest their capes once in a while.

 

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Cranky, Party of one… your early bedtime awaits!

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Lucky Charms and an awesome Friday

April 5, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

::  Today was very blog-worthy.

It was nothing momentous but everything wonderful about being a Mom.  ::

Long before Makenzie, long before Denny and long before I knew much about anything, I knew I wanted to be a Mom.  In fact I spent my entire life dreaming about it and practicing my Mom skills with every Cabbage Patch Kid in Trumbull County, Ohio.  In my dreams I envisioned rocking and singing lullabies, chatting and giggling in the car, exploring and visiting fun places, and living every moment in bliss.

Then I became a mom, and the bliss lasted about half a day.  To be precise it lasted 5 hours until I tried to breastfeed and I realized this whole Mom thing was wayyyy harder then I envisioned in my dreams.  Cue reality.

I think I’m getting better each day, but balancing being a mom, wife, employee, sister, friend, housekeeper, chef, birthday gift getter,  bill payer, thank you note writer, blogger, and everything else is not an easy feat.

But today was different.  Today I took a vacation day (thankfully I have an incredibly supportive workplace that allows this).  And today I threw responsibility out the window.  Today I woke up and cuddled with Makenzie.  Today I went outside at 7:50 am simply because Kenzie wanted to.  Today I did a whole bunch of fun things just because they’re fun.  Today was a great, incredibly awesome, memorable, very fun day.

Makenzie and I had a blast.  We ate Lucky Charms.  We waved at neighborhood puppies.  We cruised around in the Cozy Coupe.  We left the dishes in the sink (well at least until nap time).  We walked around Target… yes, we ditched the cart and we both walked because Kenzie wanted to.  We jumped on the trampoline at Rolly Pollies.  We sang songs in the car.  We ignored the time.  We ate at McDonald’s and fed each other french fries.  We (well I) didn’t beat myself up for forgetting a bib.  We came home and left our shoes by the door.  We read books.  We had a picnic.  We had one of the best days I can remember in a long time.

We didn’t do much, but at the same time we did everything that matters.

Today life was good and simple and fun.  In fact it was better than the dreams I envisioned because it actually happened.  And I’m not sure Makenzie will remember this day but I’ll never forget it.

And Kenzie girl, if you read this someday, thank you for the fun today.  I hope you know just how much I love being your mom.  It rocks!  Let’s do this again soon.  xoxo, Mom

 

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