Quiet time...or not really.

Maya is not going to bed well at night these days. She's still in a crib, which contains her, but she can't seem to fall asleep until nearly 9:00. We think, perhaps, that it may be time to give up her nap. Oh, how I love the nap. I really, REALLY don't want to give up the nap, but methinks it must be done.

What then, to do in lieu? Jordan has her 30 minutes of quiet time after lunch (during the beloved nap) and I get a wee bit of time to putter, rest, read or do whatever. It makes sense then that Maya should start having quiet time, too. It doesn't seem fair, somehow, to make her stay in her crib (thereby containing her) and I don't like her to feel like she's shut in her room with the door closed. The gate? I guess I could recruit it from the doorless shoe and coat closet downstairs, but that would entail resizing and affixing daily...yep, too lazy! Shutting the door wins out. Incidentally, Mike doesn't see the problem with closing her in there, but I feel like it's not fair, as she can't do doorknobs yet. Mother guilt works again (see previous post!).

Anyhow, I put her in there today after Jordan "explained" how to do quiet time and all was relatively quiet for a while. She was chattering away and calling for me periodically, but I managed to ignore that for the most part. It wasn't until the calling got a bit louder and more, well, excited that I began to pay closer attention. Turns out she was calling, "Me ba you poo-poo, Mommmmmmmyyyyy!!!" For those who aren't fluent in Mayanese, "Me ba you" means "I helped you" or "I will help you" or "Can I help you?"

Since I wasn't in the bathroom, I could only assume that the poo-poo in question was somewhere in HER room...Never have I sprinted the hallway so quickly. Upon opening the door, I was accosted by the smell of the poo-poo and greeted with a grinning face upside down between two very naked little legs and a, well, less than clean bottom. All was still in the diaper, thankfully, along with 3 or 4 wipes. So proud, but the type-A brain in my head was reeling with the possibilities of where those little hands could have been while she was waiting for me to come to her rescue. Lysol wipes are my friends...

Quiet time. Who thought up THAT name, anyhow?

Mother's Day reflections...

"The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one." - Jill Churchill (writer)

So, Mother's Day was spent in a flurry of way-too-big breakfast, presents, swimming, picnic and the park, barbeque dinner and dessert, baths for two filthy little monkeys and a fairly early bedtime (not for me, though, as "Grey's Anatomy" happened to be on!).

I spent a good deal of the day wondering if I was acting in a manner appropriate to the day - did I appear as though I was relaxed and enjoying my family? Did I manage to curb my eye rolling at Mike's overly organized picnic packing? Was I laughing and playing with the girls more than usual?? I really don't know.

What I did realize, though, is that I spend an awful lot of really quality time with my family on a daily basis. I realized that, while not making breakfast or getting everyone organized was a really nice treat, Mother's Day is not all that unlike other Sundays in my life. Granted, we weren't "doing things" around the house and yard as we usually do, but that really didn't seem to matter. The four of us just really enjoy spending time together and it doesn't need to feel contrived because the calendar says that it's Mother's Day.

I have also realized that for all the mother guilt that seems to riddle my friends and I, we totally have it together and are on the right track with our kids. I have such a wonderful group of mom friends that I respect and admire and their children are truly a pleasure. Now, we're not the Stepford Wives, by any stretch, but I think we tend to be overly hard on ourselves. Here is a somewhat abbreviated list of qualities that make my friends amazing moms:

1. Those of us who stay at home rarely lament the fact that we're not at the office.
2. Those of us who work do an astounding job of holding it all together.
3. We support our spouses in their work, hobbies and needs just as much as we do our kids.
4. We genuinely enjoy spending time with our children.
5. We strive to fill their bellies with wholesome foods.
6. We strive to fill their heads with wholesome knowledge.
7. We are not contributing to the couch potato generation.
8. We love to sit and read with our kids.
9. We realize that our kids need us to be their parents and not their best friends.
10. We promote healthy self-esteem and do our best to lead by example.
11. Whether or not we actually DO anything about it or not, we all realize that we need to take time for ourselves and our marriages in order to be recharged for the kids.

Whew - that was a little bit of a self pep-talk. With that, I should go and enjoy Jordan's time while her sister slumbers....

The houseguests are gone...

Well, the raccoon saga is finally over. Why do I have mixed feelings about that?! I think the final straw was momma falling off of the roof the other evening. Mike and I decided that, if she were mortally wounded, we'd have to figure out a way to get the babies out anyhow.

He made the call Wednesday and, sure enough, there wasn't a peep to be heard on Thursday. We chuckled at the thought that she had beat us to the punch and moved them out. Still chuckling as the guy came and checked it out up there and it turns out we were right. She had left behind one poor little soul, though, who was unceremoniously put in a box on the roof to endure the day. Our pest control guy wasn't too hopeful that she'd come back for it and, sadly, she didn't. At any rate, our gable is now secure and our roof vents sealed off, so we shouldn't be having any more animal visitors - not up there anyhow.

On the happier side, Maya is now drinking from a "big girl" cup and has conceded to let me do something with her hair (provided, of course, that the hair accessories are yellow).



Jordan is loving the warm weather and all the outdoor play she gets to do. With the outdoors, however, comes a wealth of scrapes, slivers and assorted ouches, so the drama has begun again for us. This girl most certainly does not have a future in the health care field! I can honestly say that I have never seen a four year old get queasy over a teeny tiny drop of blood...I think she gets that from her grampa!

At any rate, I am off to enjoy the sunshine and the rest of quiet time! Oh, and MY sunglasses are not quite as cute as the girls' !!