Thursday, August 29, 2013

Bad mom?

I'm sitting here, watching "Tia and Tamara", and they are talking about guardians for their sons and parenting styles. I've been thinking about parenting styles for a few days now. Some people have made me feel like a bad mom for some of the choices that I've made.



Truth: Gabe eats mcdonalds, pizza, hot dogs and Mac and cheese. He doesn't eat a single vegetable. (maybe the occasional potato). Our lifestyle, the hours we work, doesn't always let us make a yummy, homemade meal. He also spits food out anywhere. If I put something he doesn't want to eat in his mouth, he's spitting it out.

Truth: I haven't taken him to the dentist. It's not a big deal. He's not even three.

Truth: Gabe isn't potty trained. I want it just as much as the next mom, he's not ready and I don't want to push him.

Truth: We still cosleep. I'm not always happy about it, but it is what it is. I'm not going to run down the hall every ten minutes if he is having night terrors. I need my sleep too. There will also come a point where he doesn't want to do it anymore. He won't be little forever.

Truth: I'm not super concerned with preschool. I don't know if there are requirements for our district school. He won't be going for a year so...

Truth: I laid off the milk for gabe for awhile. It seemed like every time he had milk he told me his belly hurt. I know that kids need milk, but I was giving his tummy a break.

I think that it's horrible that other moms judge


each other. I'm not telling you how to raise your kid, so please don't judge me. If I have judged you, I'm very sorry, it wasn't intentional.
-jen

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Wordless wednesday

This week is kinda sucky, Molly is leaving in a few days and I'm kinda heartbroken. If anyone else is having a sucky week, here are some adorable pictures of gabe to cheer you up!




























-jen

Sunday, August 18, 2013

20 things about me

This has been floating around blogs and instagram, so I thought that I'd share 20 that you might not know about me.




1. Sometimes, I crave coffee just from watching other people drink it, like people on tv. I know, it's really strange, but when I see a mug of a hot beverage I immediately think "coffee would be good right now"

2. I LOVE sweets.

3. I lived at home until I was 25.

4. I didn't want to go away for college. Big places with a lot of people make me very anxious.

5. Going places I've never been before also makes me anxious, so does calling people on the phone.

6. I have a love/hate relationship with my hair. I like it short, but then you can't do anything with it. When it's long, it is up in a messy bun everyday, but at least I can do stuff with it.

7. I call my mom on the way home from work every day.

8. I am typical Chicago driver, aggressive. I taught Molly to drive, she's aggressive also.

9. I hate taking pictures. I'm not very photogenic. I should take lessons from my sister in law.

10. Certain songs bring me back to special moments. "American Pie" reminds me of my friend Courtney and high school.

11. I didn't go to a single dance with a boyfriend.

12. I hate sports. I hate watching them and playing them.

13. I don't know how to swim.

14. I love shoes and makeup!

15. I danced from age 5-26

16. Jorge and I have been together since we were 19. We got married when we were 27.

17. I love to cook, I rarely have the time.

18. I like the idea of being crafty sometimes more that actually doing it.

19. I always wanted to be a teacher (until I worked at a Montessori school)

20. I was in 4 different colleges for about 7 years, and have no degree.

-jen

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

I feel so blessed

I'm not super religious, and I'm not nearly as good at putting my feelings into words as some other mamas, but I am feeling so fortunate and blessed.



Whatever was wrong with gabe's belly last weekend seems to be better. I'm not even sure what was wrong in the first place, maybe just gas? I was so appreciative of everyone's comments and concerns on instagram and Facebook. It means a lot to me that people that I do not even know in real life (instagram mamas) or people who I don't really get to hang out with, we're concerned with how gabe was feeling.



I'm also feeling really blessed because Jorge alsoseems to be feeling good. Friday and Saturday were pretty crappy, and I was worried that we would be taking a trip to the ER again. However, Sunday he woke up feeling great. He and gabe spent the morning outside trimming the bushes, something he hasn't done in over a month. It was great to see him so happy, so positive.



The last reason that I'm feeling blessed is my mom. While it really sucks that we weren't able to go to Florida for vacation, it is really great that my parents could go. My mom is doing so well that she was able to fly to Florida and take a vacation! I don't think any one of us thought this would be possible at the beginning of the year. In September, there will be a re-evaluation of her cancer and I'm sure more chemo or radiation is in her future, but for now, things are looking good. She's even going to do the craft fair at portage park this fall!



Thank you to everyone who was concerned about Jorge, concerned about gabe, and my mom. You all make me feel very loved and blessed.


-jen

Monday, August 12, 2013

Gabe-isms


Gabe's quite a character sometimes. Sometimes it's hard not to laugh when he's doing something wrong because it is actually really funny.



This weekend gabe started the dreaded toddler question "why?" he actually says, "but why not?" more than why. This is one of my least favorite toddler phases and all I can hear myself saying is, "because I am the mommy and I say so". Ugh.

He loves to says "I'm first". He wants to go down the stairs first, go to the car first.

He loves to say "I fine". When I ask him if he needs his diaper changed, "no, I fine"

I've already said how particular he is about what music we are listening to. He heard daft punk on the radio the other day when I didn't even have it turned up at all!

A weird saying of his, that I'm not sure what it means or where it came from is "that's four-nines" he will say it about the strangest things so I'm not really sure...

He doesn't do well with ice cream, but he will bite and devour Popsicles.




Lately, he's been really weird about water. He has an awesome pirate ship water table that he didn't want to get out and I can only assume its because of the water. He didn't want to go in lake Michigan. He hates sprinklers. He even hates the mist setting on the hose. Goof.

He still has an aversion to almost all fruits and vegetables. He will eat strawberries, bananas and apples (sometimes). He refuses to even put in his mouth any stone fruit or any other kind of berry. He refuses melons and grapes and regular oranges (mandarin oranges are ok). I don't think there is a single veggie that he eats. He won't even eat mashed potatoes. He did eat chorizo and eggs (!) last week though.

-jen

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Wordless Wednesday

I haven't really blogged in awhile because of time, and honestly I haven't really wanted to. Here are a few cute pictures of gabe from the past few weeks.






















-jen