Sometimes, Everything Goes Just Fine

The articles blur together as I scroll through social media. (Reminder to self: just stop it already.) You know the ones I’m talking about:

“Preschool Changed My Kid...For the Worse”

“10 Reasons You Should Never Put Sunscreen on Your Child” and it’s companion, “10 Reasons You Should Bathe Your Child in Sunscreen”

“I Totally Regret _____ About My Parenting”

“Why Sleep Training (or not Sleep Training) Your Baby Makes You a Monster”

Okay, I’m paraphrasing here. But you get the picture. These articles are everywhere. They’re scary and overwhelmingly negative. When I see them, I cringe, roll my eyes, and (usually) avoid the clickbait.

But I wonder how this content gets out as I think of all the new moms out there, seeing this garbage as they scroll sleepily through their phones at 1:15 am. (And again at 3...and at 5:45…) Where’s all the positivity?

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One of my first solo outings with the twins was a moms’ event at my church. I rolled in with the double-stroller loaded down with two infant carseats holding my three-month-olds and hardly had time to wonder if I knew anyone else before another mom greeted me.

“Twins?” She asked, with a sweet smile. “Are they boys or girls?”

“One of each,” I told her.

“I have boy-girl twins, too!” she told me. “They’re three now.” We were quickly joined by another mom who had twin girls a month older than mine. We chatted all things twins: newborns, pregnancies, labor and delivery.  Despite the fact that a multiples pregnancy automatically puts you in the high-risk category, I was surprised to discover that each of our pregnancies and birth experiences had been fairly routine.

“This is crazy,” I remember saying, “I feel like all I was told throughout my pregnancy was how risky multiples are and here we all had pretty good experiences.”

“That’s because that’s all you hear!” the mom with three-year-old twins exclaimed, “Nobody talks about the normal stories. They only tell you the scary ones!”

Read the rest of this piece over on the Twin Cities Moms Blog.

Life Lately (Christmas Edition)

We kicked off our Christmas weekend with a cookie decorating party on Friday night. Actually, we kicked it off the day before as Caden and Brooklyn helped me mix and cut and bake something like four dozen+ cookies for all that decorating. What they lack in patience ("Get off the counter!" was basically my refrain for a good 24 hours or so) they more than made up for in enthusiasm, judging by the amount of flour on their clothes, sprinkles on the floor, and the fact that it was Brooklyn who decorated the better part of 50 Christmas cookies all by herself.

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As we drove home on Saturday from the Christmas church service Brooklyn pointed to the sky at the light of an airplane. "Look!" she said, "It's Rudolph leading Santa's sleigh!" 

"It is?" I asked, "But Christmas Eve is tomorrow night!"

"Yup," she agreed, "but they're out there." and her eyes sparkled as they continued to search the sky for magic.

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We hosted again on Christmas Eve. Some of my family, eleven of us, just small. 

Note to self: some of the lights near the top of the tree are not working. They did, and then they didn't, and then they did again, and now they decidedly do not. I know you're not going to do anything about it this year, but when you unpack the tree next year and plug it in and complain about the lights not working don't say I didn't warn you.

Attempts at a family picture. We...tried. We really, really tried. 

The benefit to hosting is really that we put the kids to bed upstairs and still get to enjoy things like conversation with other adults, another round of party food, one more cocktail and, yes, our Christmas pajamas. 

We might still be partying but we're going to be comfy, dangit. 

And then we get to clean up and do the Santa thing, collapse and call it a night.

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...Until approximately 6:07 the following morning.

You better believe the first thing I did after taking that picture was make sure the coffee pot got started. 

Caden crept down the stairs ahead of the rest of us, and keeps talking about how he peeked through the railing, "Just like this, mommy," and "Saw all the presents down there and you guys didn't know the presents were there but I did."

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If you ask him what his favorite present is, he'll tell you it's his rocket ship. He's been talking it up since October when the Lakeshore Learning catalog made its way to our house with said rocket ship emblazoned on the cover, and it's been on his mind ever since.

"Mommy," he told me as we drove home from our celebrations on Christmas Day, "I only told Santa I wanted a rocket ship. I didn't say I wanted two people and a car with it but Santa knew mommy. He knew I wanted those things, too." 

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Now it's December 26th. Brooklyn cried a little and got so sad last night as I put her to bed. 

"I don't want to go to bed. Then it won't be Christmas anymore and I like Christmas," she pouted. There really is no other word for it. Her lip stuck out so far and her eyes were so, so sad. I told her that she had her birthday in a couple of months to look forward to and new toys to play with in the meantime but she was adamant as I tucked her in that she still wanted it to be Christmas. 

Me? I look forward to the 26th just as much as the rest of it. Tyson takes the day off work, we hang out, and I achieved the goal I set out to accomplish today: to not change out of my Christmas pajamas. I'm still wearing them as I type this. #winning

The Day After Christmas is just as much of a holiday to me, filled with new toys and TV, comfy clothes, comfort food, and the signs of the holiday season still all around.

We have just a week of break before diving back into preschool and the regular routine on the 2nd. Though there are still a few fun things to look forward to in the next couple weeks: a Wild hockey game with my family, a visit to some local breweries with my cousin, New Year's Eve. (I mean, not that we have any plans since we're like 80 and have kids. Whatever.)

I'm going to soak up the remnants of the holiday season for the next week or so, and probably go stir-crazy with the kids by Thursday (hello sub-zero windchills). Cheers!