Tag Archives: mother

Fresh Content Day 43: Life with a Toddler

I know it’s crazy, but I don’t bring up my son a lot on social media. I do here and there, of course. I don’t ignore the fact that he exists. But I have several friends who would love to have children of their own, but for one reason or another, the Good Lord hasn’t provided them with that blessing yet.

I was in their shoes once. My wife and I tried for years to start a family. While we had our struggles – including losing one pregnancy about twelve weeks in – our friends were having their first kids or their second kids. I’d be lying if I said we weren’t hurting. That behind the smiles and tears of happiness there was also anger and tears of sadness. So with those memories always in my mind, I never want to feel like I’m rubbing it in my friends’ faces that I have a child while they wait for their prayers to be answered.

So on Day 43, when I didn’t see any headlines today that brought with them some inspiration, no new trailer to break down, and nothing left to say about tornadoes (sorry Jay), I turned to my wife and said “what should I write about tonight?”

She said “write about living with a 15-month-old.”

So…let’s see. Our son is up and running and playing. He loves to be outside. We have a playset in the backyard that was here from the previous owners. We ordered a toddler swing for it so he can swing anytime he wants to.

I’d say overall, he’s pretty good with our two dogs. But he accidentally stepped on Lucky’s tail last week. She didn’t appreciate that. He made it up to her by dropping food from his high chair down to the floor. I’d say all was forgiven after that.

As I said, he’s more mobile now. We’ve had to make adjustments to how we store things, like our/my expansive movie collection. It used to be in alphabetical order. Now I’m just happy if he hasn’t chewed on any cases that day.

He likes to play ball, either rolling it back and forth or picking it up and bringing it back to us, so we would roll it and he’d go get it and bring it back. Yes, our son is good at playing fetch.

Some days he doesn’t feel so good. A couple weeks ago he had a temperature for a few days straight. It’s times like those that I’m happier than normal to be married to a nurse, because when I would have freaked out, she kept a level head, and “Lil Man” pulled through just fine.

It’s amazing what we have found that he enjoys. I mean, he’s a little kid, so Mickey and Elmo are right in his wheelhouse. But we also will watch The Muppet Christmas Carol every week. It’s a good show to capture his attention, and as such, I now have many of the songs set to memory.

Here he is watching The Muppet Christmas Carol during dinner.

Lately, he’s been practicing for Easter Sunday. We went to two Easter Egg Hunts (you read about one ten days ago) and will do Easter and Grandma and Grandpa’s on Sunday, complete with a little egg hunt there. So he’s been picking up things and putting them in his Mickey basket (he doesn’t know he has a Yoda basket for Easter).

Here’ what I know…we have a super little boy who likes apples almost as much as he likes saying “apple.” He says “appy” because he’s a happy kid (or because he’s going to be the next great app developer…I’m all right with either). He runs to meet me at the door when I get home from work. He doesn’t like it when mommy leaves for work in the evening.

Truth be told, we couldn’t ask for a better child. He makes us laugh every day.

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Fresh Content Day 13: My Mom’s Birthday

So I’m going to preface all of the following with this statement, sure to be controversial:

My mom’s better than your mom.

Today is her birthday. So I’m going to dedicate this post to her.

My folks, probably mom in particular, didn’t receive the recognition they deserved for all of the stuff they did, not until years later anyway.

I remember being young (4-5) when mom worked nights, and my older sister was in school. I remember the lunches with the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and the “s’more” from the microwave. I remember sitting on the family room floor with her as we played He-Man.

As I got older, I remember being a more integral part of the Christmas cookie production process, and even getting to help ice the beloved cut-outs. I remember being in second grade and on a school field trip to St. Louis’s The Magic House and telling the entire bus, “Hey everybody, today is my mom’s _____ birthday!” In my defense, I was 7. I didn’t know that you aren’t supposed to announce women’s ages.

I know that now.

Over the years, I gave my mom her fair share of headaches. You know that line “I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it?” I heard that a lot…that and “you want to live to see your next birthday?” And it wasn’t because I was some demonic kid…I just did a lot of little things (or didn’t do the little things I was told to do) that caused unnecessary tension in our relationship. I was a typical teenager. But even before that, I remember being 9 or 10 and mom asking me “what happened to my sweet little boy?” *GUT SHOT*

As I got older, I found new ways to irritate my mom. I got a tattoo up in Sturgis, SD and came home and showed the family. Mom was not amused. Then she found the one on my back that I sometimes forget about and was none-too-pleased. I was in my 20’s for those particular shenanigans.

I remember vividly mom finding my stash of beer in the trunk of my car and storming into the house with it. I was 19. She was pissed. My dad’s response was “of all the beers, why Natty Light?” (I was in college, dad. I was working two jobs and it was cheap.)

But through it all, mom has always been one of my biggest supporters, and always wanted what was best for me. I’m very fortunate in that regard. I know I’m blessed in ways many people are not, and for too long I took it for granted.

So happy birthday, Mom. Sorry for all the times I made you worry about me. I hope you have had a wonderful day and, even though you won’t read this, likely, unless someone emails you the link, just know that I love ya.

Disclaimer – the tattoo in the featured image is not mine. That’s a Google Image Search.