Confessions from a Thirty Something Momma

Three years ago I was lying in a hospital bed feeling like I had been run over by a truck and dragged a few streets.  After twenty hours or so of labor and one hour and fifteen minutes of pushing... I gave birth to a baby boy who weighed less than six lbs at thirty nine and a half weeks. He was five lbs and eleven ounces. Tiny and feisty.  And today he's three. Still small and still feisty. My sister used to call him "little Texidor with a big attitude." Whatever he lacked in size he made up for in personality. His terrible twos were indeed terrible. In fact they started about 14 months, not long after he was walking and running.  Yet somehow, all of a sudden, he's three. And it actually appears as if the worst of the terrible twos is behind us. I can see our hard work in consistency and providing boundaries is paying off. He's polite. He's respectful for the most part. He may put up a big fuss about doing some things but his obedience levels ha ve risen...

I was one month shy of my 17th birthday when I started dating my first real boyfriend. His name was David. He was 6'3", had black hair, and clear blue eyes. He was friendly, outgoing, and very sweet. Occasionally, I'd reference who my boyfriend was to someone, and they'd look at me and say, "oh, yeah I know who he is. The guys that stutters, right?" I'd stop and look at them confused. My thought process was almost always the same "Huh? Stutter? What are they talking about?.... Oh yeah, wait, he does have a stutter. " And he did. Funny enough though, I rarely noticed. See, the thing was, when I'd thought about my boyfriend who made my heart go pitter patter, I never even thought about the stutter. In fact it was the last thing I thought of. So much so that I forgot it was there. Even though I spoke to him all the time. Mainly because it didn't define who he was. His stutter had nothing to do with what he meant to me. The people who see...

I'll be honest. I am positive my kid(s) watch too much TV. Everyday varies and no two days are the same. I've been guilty of checking off in a questionnaire that my kids watch 1-2 hours of TV,  when in reality its closer to 3 or 4. On occasion, if we've seen that one movie three times in a row, as some days we do, we're probably at 5 or 6 hours. Like I said, I am positive they watch too much TV. So in an effort to avail myself of Mommy guilt and have better options for my children, I started googling indoor projects. I would take them outside to play for half the day, but as luck would have it I'm in the middle of a 3 day raining stint. So based on past experiences and what I've discovered the past couple of days, here is what I am learning: 1) Any indoor projects created take more time setting up and cleaning up that actual time spent on the activity. While the article or activity guide promises "hours" of play- I'm lucky if I get 30 minut...