ifevolution on Momaroo

Friday, 21 August 2009

Before the Blog
It’s now officially a month that I am blogging. Yes, a month. My first post , dated July 14th is titled “I Have an Addiction”. Little did I know then that post would start off a brand new addiction. Blogging.
I really do wish I had discovered “blogging” a decade or so ago. There are so many things I wish I could have preserved with words. Photos are great, as are videos. But nothing preserves an event or time better than your fresh thoughts, in words, on “paper”.
A post I read on Natural Mommy Loves Prada had me thinking about all the things I would have written about:
- The words my son mispronounced when he was younger:
  Osange instead of Orange
  P.U.S. instead of U.P.S
  Deem Mopot instead of Home Depot
  His name as Kyle Me-ann instead of Kyle Ian
- The 10 day road trip I took with just my dad, before I got married. Just the two of us. We explored Nevada, Arizona (my birthplace) and Utah. Winging the entire trip and talking about everything in the world.
- The big surprise party we threw my dad in my yard for his 60 3/4 birthday instead of the one we had originally planned for his 60th birthday. He had learned he had cancer two weeks before the original party and needed to begin chemo right away.
- The day my son was born and all that led up to it. Five years of fertility treatments, 8 IUI’s, multiple surgeries, 3 IVF’s.
- The story of the month it took me to get back home after my son was born., which I think I will write about some day anyway.
- The dog days and nights of a colicy baby as well as the other milestones and firsts of early motherhood.
- The many ups and downs of my marriage.
Those of you who have long been blogging are fortunate. You have this amazing diary of ups and downs. Of firsts and lasts, photos and fresh memories. No hazy memories for you. I am sure there are things I have long since forgotten that I would have loved to be able to reflect on again. Cute mispronunciations that have long since escaped my very peri-menopausal brain.
I envy you all.

Wednesday, 12 August 2009

I Shut My Mouth (With a Glue Gun)
I'm heavily involved in my town's football program. My son is in the PeeWee division, going into 4th grade. Tonight was the first night of sizing kids for equipment. My son came with me.
Tonight:
- When he wanted to goof around playing football (no equipment on) with kids 3 and 4 years older than him, I shut my mouth.
- When I saw him "guarding" a kid forty pounds larger that him, I shut my mouth.
- When I saw him get tossed by another kid who was 6 inches taller than him, I shut my mouth.
- When I saw him begin to hang out by where I was working, I shut my mouth.
When we were relaxing before bed time tonight, he told me that one of the kids "straight armed" him (I didn't know what it meant either, don't feel bad) and that he wanted to cry, but "sucked it up".......I shut my mouth.
Another milestone......he is sucking up the urge to cry. Now I'm the one that wants to cry....another piece of his "babyness" is fading away.

Saturday, 08 August 2009

It's the Simple Things

8 August 2009 No Hands
Life gets so crazy and we all tend to get so caught up in our own little worlds. I know for me that during the week I get little time for anything outstide of my work, son and household.
My parents retired about 3 years ago and moved to an adult community. They absolutely love it and now have a more active social life than I do. And even though they now live closer to me than they did before, I don’t get to see them very much.
I am lucky. My parents are still young and healthy and active. Who knows how long I will have with them being this way? And my son completely adores them….I want him to enjoy as much time as he can with them.
Today, my son and I spent a rare Saturday night by my parent’s house and I realized how much I miss being with them. It made me see that I need to make more time for fitting into THEIR lives….it’s my turn to accommodate them the way they did for me while I was growing up.
Sometimes I think we complicate our lives more than we need to. We don’t have to attend every barbecue and birthday party. Life will still go on if we don’t run every errand, straighten up every room and master every meal.
In the end…it’s the simple things we will remember and smile about. It’s something like remembering how much your child loved their grandfather that really matter in life. Isn’t it?
It’s the simple things that we need to do really well, don’t you think?

Tuesday, 04 August 2009

Fun, FUN Dessert
This popped into my head tonight and I had to post it before my peri-peri-perimenopausal brain forgets it, all together. An amazingly fun and kid friendly dessert.
I used to “team up” with my son on playing a joke every time we’d have company over. I haven’t done this with him in years and I’ve gotta bring it back out before the summer vanishes.
You can do this a few ways, but the version in this picture consists of:
- 2 or 3 or more flavors of ice cream. The larger the pot/planter you use, clearly, the more flavors you need.
- Chocolate cookie wafers
- Props such as a garden shovel, flowers or plants (plastic ones are fine), gummy worms, plastic lady bugs, etc (you get the concept)
- A pot or planter. You can use tiny ones for single servings or larger. Any size you want. Just make sure that the base does not have drainage holes in it. If it does have holes, you’ll want to line the bottom well with foil or plastic.
Simply crush the cookies to look like dirt and start layering the interior of your pot. Alternate between crushed cookies and ice cream. I’ve even used bananas and other fruit as layers. The possibilities are really endless. Obviously, make your final layer…..the dirt.
You can use this same idea with a sand pail and shovel. Just use Nilla Wafers for the sand.
My son loved being in on the “secret” and he’d tease the guests that we were having sand or dirt for dessert. He loved being the one to carry it out at dessert time. Great memory.
If you use this idea, I hope you’ll come back and share a picture of it with me. In fact………I’d like to make this a contest. Let me work on a good prize for the winner.