Archives for February 2015

Struggling

February 24, 2015 by · 8 Comments

When I started this blog one of my goals was to be real about things.  So here goes:

I’m struggling today.  I’m struggling big time.  Being a Mom is so darn hard.  There is nothing horrible happening in my life right now.  In fact I feel bad even writing this post because from an outsider my life is about as good as it gets – two healthy babies, a great husband, 12 weeks of stay-at-home-momming it – yet despite this I’m struggling today.

Last night was a long night.  Mitchell can’t get to the pantry because of the baby gates so I spent about 5 hours being his personal line chef.  He spent the whole night crying because he was hungry to then crying because he was full.  In between he would shower both of us in a spit-up bath to try to find the happy medium.  It took him the whole night to find it.  Poor little guy.  By the time I got to bed it was time to wake up and I’m yet to brush my hair or wash my face.  Our plans for the day got scrapped and instead I chugged the largest cup of coffee I could find and we shifted to survival mode.

So now I’m using the always amazing nap time break as a chance to eat chocolate and get real on the blog because I have a feeling I’m not the only mom who has struggled like this.  I have a feeling I’m not the only Mom who has felt overwhelmed, exhausted and just downright ready for a break.  And I have a feeling I’m not the only mom who feels bad feeling even feeling this way because we’re so darn lucky to even be Moms.

So when these two little ones wake up I’m hitting the Reset button on the day.  I’m going to brush my hair (thank God!), throw out the frustration, push past the tiredness, turn on Pandora (because who can resist being in a good mood when 80’s music is blasting?) and make sure that my babies have a better mom for the second half of the day than they did during the first half of the day.

Reset button

I don’t know what to tell you to avoid these struggles, but I think the days like this make the other times even better.  But if you’re struggling today hang in there.  Drink a coffee, find some chocolate, turn on some tunes, or just lock yourself in the bathroom for five minutes and breathe.  You are not alone (literally because I’m guessing your kiddos are banging on the bathroom door by now).  But truly, you are not alone in feeling this way.  Being a mom is just about the hardest job on the planet and it may not come with a manual but we all have a reset button… you might just have to look for it buried beneath your layers of burp cloths.

XOXO

Erin

 

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Valentine’s Day – Getting our craft on!

February 14, 2015 by · Leave a Comment

It’s Valentine’s Day, ooh la la!  Who spent the day sipping champagne and nibbling chocolate?  Me neither.  But I did spend the day with Denny and our favorite little ones.  This year was a little different from past years.  We substituted the wine for coffee, the hot stone massage for play-doh, and the surf n’ turf dinner for two for a pizza party for four.

But the holiday fun started a few weeks ago when we decided to get our Valentine craft on.  I’ve been loving this time at home with my babies and we’ve been trying to take advantage of our extra time together to be creative.  Over the past few weeks Makenzie has been enjoying painting so we try to squeeze in a few hours a week between lunch time and nap time to get messy.

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Painting pal!

There’s no doubt that I still have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest, or shall I say Painterest (see my thoughts about Pinterest from my last maternity leave) BUT occasionally there is an idea simple enough even for me to do.  This week we busted out the red and pink paints and made these:

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Lots of love!

 It was so fun and so simple that we made a total of three and then sent fun packages to the grandparents.  The prints probably won’t hang in the Guggenheim, but they’ll always have a special spot on my wall and in my heart.

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We have a little heart breaker who will be waking up shortly for a midnight feeding.  But until then, have a happy Valentines Day from these two little Loves to your little Loves!

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I heart you!

XOXO,

Erin

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Tears to Target

February 10, 2015 by · Leave a Comment

Dear M & M,

The other day I cried all the way to Target.  Yep, I was a blubbering, embarrassing, snotty mess of a Mom. But it wasn’t because I stepped on the scale earlier that day for the first time post baby…  although I did that and based on the number I’m concerned there’s another baby in there.  And it wasn’t because I watched the final episode of Parenthood… although I did that too and it made me a weepy mess.   But I shed tears all the way to Target because I was leaving both of you for one of the first times.

I know it sounds silly because what spit up-covered, sleep-deprived Mom doesn’t crave the thought of roaming the aisles of Target all by herself, but I really just missed both of you.

You two have done something to me that can’t be explained.  And today, as I turn another year older, I realize how appreciative I am because you make me wiser.  Just this week you taught me that I can soothe a screaming infant while having a Play-doh picnic.  And right after that you taught me how fun it is to play Ring Around the Rosie.  And a few hours later you reminded me that 3am is a pretty amazing time of the night when you’re sharing it with the right company.  And maybe these aren’t transferable skills to be added on my resume but with each of these lessons you teach me how much a Mom can love her babies.

Completely cheesy?  Yes.  But completely and utterly true?  Absolutely.

Makenzie and Mitchell, thank you for a really great Birthday!  I love the adorable card.  I love the beautiful purple flowers picked out by my favorite little purple-loving girl.  And I love the snuggles and hugs you shared with me all day long.  But most of all, thank you for the chance to be your Mom.  I realize you didn’t necessarily decide this, but having you in my life reminds me that of all the places in the world I’d love to see and visit – the hot beaches of Aruba, the mystique-filled streets of Italy, or the quiet kid-free aisles of Target –  the best place and only place I want to be right now is with both of you.

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Snuggling with my two favorite little ones after their afternoon naps.

I Love you both like crazy,

Your (slightly old and kind of sappy) Mom

XOXO

PS  For those of you wondering I made it to Target and even managed to pull it together enough to buy some more yoga pants and $50 worth of other stuff I didn’t need.  Gotta love Target!

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Mitchell Dennis – All about the name

February 5, 2015 by · Leave a Comment

This little guy is three weeks old today!

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Little M!   (Infant photo sneak peek courtesy of Jessica Popovich Photography)

 It is unbelievable how fast it is going.  With Makenzie’s first few weeks of life we were so nervous, so exhausted and so worried about every little thing that we barely had time to enjoy our snugly newborn.  But this time is completely different.  I feel overwhelmed with happiness every single day.  Some days are challenging but they are all very happy.  Makenzie even notices and will often look at me and say, “Mommy, happy!”  It melts my heart that she can acknowledge the level of gratitude Denny and I feel.

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Buddies

But back to the name…  It took us a long time to commit to the name and a lot of people asked about how we decided on Mitchell so here is the background.

Ultimately we wanted an Irish name that started with M.  We wanted a name that had a solid nickname (if it was a long name), and we wanted a name that was classic yet strong.

On our way to Pittsburgh Thanksgiving we were going through Irish names and Mitchell came up.  Denny loved it immediately.  He kept saying that Mitch McGee would be an awesome name for a pitcher or for a golfer.  I didn’t initially love the name as much as he did, but I liked it enough to add it to the possible list.

Fast forward about 7 weeks to delivery day.  We narrowed the list to 6 names:  Mitchell, Nolan, Cameron, Madden, Dennis Jr (DJ) and Brennan.  All are great names but Denny kept going back to Mitchell.  The more we talked about it the more the name grew on me.  Maybe it was because of Denny’s love for it, or maybe it was because Mitch is a classic, yet not overused name but I started to see our family with a little guy named Mitch.

During our 17 hours in labor and delivery we started to see all sorts of little signs that our son would be Mitch McGee.  Denny checked the OU baseball team roster and the person with his baseball number, #33, is a Mitch.  Our wonderful OB resident told us that her Dad’s name is Mitch.  And also, Mitchell is a form of Michael, so by using the name it is extra special given my awesome Uncle Mike in Florida.

At 11:06 Mitch (still nameless at the time) finally arrived and we were in love!  Between his handsome wavy hair, those amazing dark blue eyes, and the excitement I saw on Denny’s face when he talked to our son, I just knew he had to be Mitchell.  When Makenzie arrived to meet her little brother we had a family meeting (although both kids were pretty clueless of what was happening) and the decision was made.   Our son would be Mitchell Dennis McGee!

As for the middle name, there was no doubt it would be Dennis.  It’s not too often that a girl marries someone with the same first name as her dad, but since I was that girl it meant that we had two amazing men to name our son after.

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Mitchell Dennis with Papa (Dennis)

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Mitchell Dennis with Dad (Denny)

Aside from the Name Game… you know, the Mitch Mitch Bo (fill in the blanks) game – we love the name.  We’re not sure where our son will go in life but we feel pretty confident that Mitch McGee will be a good name to take him on whatever path he chooses.

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