You know the old games we played as kids. "Never have I ever fill-in-the-blank", usually the goofier and more creative you can be the more fun the game is. I have fond memories of playing this game with my cousins in Wisconsin when we were teens. At that point in our lives my cousin James and I had our eyes set on the best music schools in the country and we spent the week giving each other a hard time about who was a better musician... or had a higher ACT score. Come to think of it, the only thing I beat him at was the ACT score. :)
Even before you conceive your first child, or even think about having children, you start playing a new game, "Never will I ever", and you begin making a mental list of these "I'll nevers" and store it away for that day in the distant future when your imaginary children finally become a reality. Oh please, like you don't have a list. Here's the list I had working in my mind before I joined the mommy club. Never will I ever:
6. use TV as a baby sitter
7. introduce solids before 6 months
Aaaaand we'll stop there because it's just getting embarrassing now. The strikethroughs are the ones that have already grown wings and flown out the window in Dane's first 12 weeks of life. I'm learning, painfully and slowly, that some things are just simply out of our control. I know! It came as a shock to me too! Whose idea was that any way?
One of these days I will write So Long, Judgment: a First-time Mom's Guide to Surviving the Newborn Phase. Thankfully we have survived the newborn phase and finally figured each other out. I read a mom-blog the other day where the author was talking about the subject. She rattled off her list of nevers and said: "My future self was laughing her butt off when pre-parenthood me made statements about what I was and was not going to do as a mother. Laughing. Her butt off." The author did not say butt, btw. I couldn't help but laugh because I now laugh my tail off about the things I said pre-parenthood.
One thing I wasn't ever worried about was nursing, especially nursing in public. I think breastfeeding is one of the coolest things a woman can do. How amazing is it that your body makes something that can sustain a life? If you're expecting or planning on kids in the future, please, please give nursing your best shot. It is HARD, truly the hardest thing I've ever done, I mean it's no easy task being someone's life source! (That being said, babies grow healthy and strong on formula too!) I had no idea there was such a taboo about nursing in public? I tend to blame it on the area in which we live, being a very rural, always-behind-the-times kinda place, however, after reading numerous mommy blogs and other articles, it seems to be a universal thing. Not only do I find it hurtful, I think it is absolutely ludicrous that Americans are fine with a billboard of a nearly-naked woman hanging in Times Square, but a woman discreetly nursing in public is frowned upon. I'll step off my soapbox for now (though there might just be more on this topic later), but I will leave you with two articles (here and here) that express my sentiments. I'm usually not one to "advocate" for anything but this really frosts my cookies. :)
He is a drooly mess these days. This weekend I gave my husband a haircut, per his request. It's okay to cry, I did. Why do guys hate fixing their hair? Tevie's was so beautiful! If Dane has his daddy's dark curls, he is NEVER getting a haircut. :)
As always, more pictures of the sweetest baby ever.
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| One reason I am beyond grateful to stay at home is because I am all too aware that before I realize it those chubby little cheeks will belong to a teenage boy who no longer needs to snuggle with his mommy. |
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| Our 0-3month onesies look like muscle shirts. :) |
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| sitting at the airport waiting on Uncle Gordy to arrive! |
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| enjoying the beautiful fall weather on a Sunday afternoon |
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| yes, we torture our baby in order to capture cute pictures. |
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