The Mom Crowd

I know, I know I am writing another post on morning sickness. It is seriously consuming my life right now and that is what I am thinking about almost 90% of the day. Here are a few things I have learned since I have been sick.

Only time really helps morning sickness pass. It wasn’t until I was 20 weeks pregnant with my first that I continually felt good and I was not going to throw up or be sick to my stomach. So now I a counting down the days until I feel better. It will be the last week in October when I am 20 weeks with my second. I can’t wait.

Playdates and friends help pass the time. I usually feel okay in the afternoon. I have been scheduling my afternoons with friends so they can help me watch Ace. I think she enjoys leaving the house and I enjoy the company. Although, I am not much company to my friends as I lay like a lump on their couch.

I have learned to appreciate the work I did around the house. Since I have been out of commission Daniel has had to take up almost every chore around the house. I really did not realize that I did so much. I can be hard on myself and I never thought I did enough. Just making sure Ace had clothes to wear and taking care of her meals.  Also, taking care of the laundry and going grocery shopping. I picked up the house when I could. Some of the house hasn’t been cleaned in a while, but it is okay.

Putting first things first. It is one of the old Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, but it is true. Since I have limited energy and time and I have had to let some things go. That isn’t easy for me to do. I am usually a suck-it-up-and-do-it-anyway kind of person, but not now. Blogs have gone unread, toys aren’t picked up, and phones aren’t answered. Really all I can do is make sure I am feeling alright and help take care of Ace.

Chloraseptic Sore Throat Spray is awesome after throwing up. I hate it when you get done throwing up and it still feels like you got a chunk in your throat, but really it is your uvula feeling beat up. I have drank something cold to calm my throat, but then I just throw that up too. Then in my one moment of genius I remembered my Chloraseptic Sore Throat Spray. I used it and it numbed my throat for a few minutes and it helped to take some of the throw up taste out of my mouth. I keep it handy now.

So that is what I have learned so far. I also really appreciate my husband a lot. I hate that I can’t help him more. I know he is tired, but this is just the way it has to be for now. Okay, I am going to go back to my couch now and get some rest while Ace is napping. I hope all you have a good week! Today is the first day of school in our school district. Hopefully some of you will be getting reprieves as some of your kids go back to school soon!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been playing the album “No!” by They Might Be Giants during mealtimes.  Most lunches, in particular, I’m home alone with the kids, and musical stimulation is necessary for me to not go crazy with boredom.  (The kids are cute & all, but not exactly great conversationalists.)  I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. 

This album came out in 2002 - well before my kid-making days - which explains why I’m late in discovering it.  But what a fun discovery!  There are 17 tracks, but I’ve chosen a few favorites and why we like them.  Scroll down a little further to hear the songs instantly as you read about them!  They are all very short.

“In the Middle” - A cute little ditty that doubles as a public service announcement to tykes who want to cross the street. 

Don’t cross the street in the middle of the block
Use your eyes to look up
Use your ears to hear
Walk up to the corner when the coast is clear, and wait, and wait
Until you see the light turn green

I find myself doing a choreographed jig to this one when I’m making the grilled cheese.  (Yes, I think I can dance.) 

“I Am Not Your Broom” - The most TMBG-like.  In other words, totally random and silly, and not so musical.  Sure to get everyone’s attention.  Last week, it actually came on while I was sweeping.  Lucy stood there processing it all.  It was so funny.

“Bed, Bed Bed” - Its percussion beat had all three of us pounding on the table and dancing in our chairs.  Pull out the pots & pans and watch the family drumline fall into place!

“John Lee Supertaster” - Starts off with a funny spoken intro, and launches into a cool tune that sounds right out of the Ocean’s 11 soundtrack.  It’s perfect for a puppet act, which I’m trying to get my husband (a puppeteer) to put together.  Motown-style background singers and a superhero for a character?  What’s not to love?

“I Am a Grocery Bag” - Like it’s straight off a Beck album.  Ask the kids to list how many items they can recognize in the song.

In the special “Grooves for Mom” category:

“Sleepwalkers” & “Lazyhead &  Sleepybones”

“Where Do They Make Balloons?” (Eli, my 1-year old, busts a move to this one; evidently he likes the mellow stuff.)

And my personal favorite:

“Clap Your Hands” - it’s SO incredibly funky and fun, I dare you not to dance!!  This one has Lucy begging, “Again??!!” over & over.  I feel like I’m in 1960s motown when I hear it.  Air organ playing!!

Listen for yourself!

SeeqPod - Playable Search

Other albums my kids enjoy:

Lisa Loeb & Elizabeth Mitchell - “Catch the Moon”

Rockabye Baby - “Lullaby Renditions of U2″

Do you have these albums?  What other pop favorites of yours have made kids’ albums worth hearing? 

Music is a big deal at our house. We enjoy dancing together as a family and just letting it loose. At times however, it has been a little tricky to find music that we can all agree on. When my second child, Isaac, was 15 months old, I discovered Johnny Cash and listened to him non-stop for months. It rubbed off on Isaac because by the time he was 17 months old he would ask for “Cash” every time we got in the car. Or “Bob”, for Veggie Tales music. And if you didn’t play either “Bob” or “Cash” he would throw a fit. We probably erred on giving in too many times to his fits–mainly because we thought it was cute that he was so particular about his musical choices. Eventually he opened up to John Mayer, “Jesus” music, and when he was 2 he got on an Elvis kick. He still requests Elvis frequently, but now that he is almost 4 he is much more willing to try new music. Thank goodness! We often joke that he will grow up and be a music critic.

Earlier this summer, I was preparing for some long car trips and since we have made it somewhat of a tradition to listen to some new fun music, we asked friends for some suggestions. We got lots of great ones. My sister-in-law sent us some Sandra Boynton books that have cds to play along with them. Isaac also loves books so getting music that has books to go along with it is right up his alley.

The Sandra Boynton books, Philadelphia Chickens and Dog Train, are a collection of several different genres of music–swing, rock, folk, lullaby, jazz, chorus, country etc. The songs are performed by a slew of celebrities and musicians–Spin Doctors, Kevin Bacon and his brother, Blues Traveler, Meryl Streep, Laura Linney, Kevin Kline, Kate Winslet and so on. Sandra Boynton somehow captures the heart of children as well as their behavior and puts it to music in such a way that kids and adults like it.

My favorite song from Dog Train is Tantrum by the Spin Doctors. The beginning of the song:

No No No, I don’t want to, I don’t want to

No No No I don’t want to, No No (repeat)

Leave me alone, leave me alone

LEAVE ME ALONE (long pause)

Don’t leave me alone, don’t leave me alone, DON’T leave me alone

Anyone who has kids knows this scenario all too well!

The great thing about these books/cds is that the music is good, quality music that is fun to sing along to AND the stories in the songs will make your heart smile. My kids love the song about a guy who has 15 animals all named Bob–except for his turtle named Simon James Alexander Ragsdale III. And they crack up when they listen to (Don’t Give Me That) Broccoli. They think it is funny that whole song is about a kid who doesn’t want to eat his broccoli and then actually tries it at the end of the song and likes it!

There are two other books (Blue Moo and Rhinoceros Tap) that come with cds we haven’t listened to yet, but I bet they are as good as Philadelphia Chickens and Dog Train. If your kids like books, music and funny stories I think they will get a kick out of these creative songs. And you will enjoy them too.

I am obsessed with the Olympics! I am having so much fun watching the best in the world compete against one another. I am also amazed at how many moms are competing in Beijing right now. I had the privilege to meet Olympian and Mom, Liza Hunter-Galvan from New Zealand last month. She is joined by many moms in Beijing right now. Jennie Finch, Melanie Roach, Lisa Leslie, Lindsay Davenport, Kate Markgraf, and Tina Thompson are some of the other moms competing in Beijing while their little ones cheer them on.My very favorite Olympic mom is Dara Torres. Not only do I love her name, she has overcome that battle all moms fight in “losing the baby weight!” I actually went for a swim at the gym this week and have decided to add swimming to my work-outs because I want a body like hers. With her two year old, Tessa Grace cheering her on, she has won three silver medals in Beijing, bringing her total Olympic medal count to 12! How many people can say they’ve competed in FIVE Olympics? She’s an amazing athlete!!

Here’s some sites I’ve found talking about the Olympian Moms:

Olympic Moms Head to Beijing Slideshow

NBC’s Olympic Mothers Slideshow

ESPN-Athletes Balancing Motherhood and Olympic Dreams

Plenty of Olympic Moms in Beijing

Who is your favorite Olympic Mom? What has been your favorite Olympic moment?

Some of you moms scrapbook, others dabble in photography, others lead book clubs, others garden for your “me-time.” My “me-time” is spent in a classroom as a college student and I love it!

When I became pregnant with my first child, both myself and my husband were college students and working full time. I was majoring in education and my husband was a business major. During my nine month pregnancy, all of our energy was poured into getting my husband finished with school so I could stay at home when our child was born.

When my daughter was born, I was able to become a stay-at-home-mom like we hoped for. However, our lives were not filled with play dates, breastfeeding, library visits and pajama days as I expected. They were filled with physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, doctor appointments, and tube feedings. Her health issues and developmental delays opened my eyes to a world I never knew existed! Before her arrival, my knowledge of speech therapy was for people who stuttered or had lisps, or elderly people who suffered from strokes. Through first hand experience, I learned that speech therapists not only help with language delays, but they also are big time players in children who have feeding disorders like my child did. As my daughter grew and developed, we walked through some major feeding difficulties. We also introduced sign language to her to help her be able to communicate and are still working very diligently on verbal language. After the birth of my son, it became very clear to me that I wanted to be a Speech and Language Pathologist. Through talking with new moms going through similar feeding difficulties and sharing our experience and watching my child’s language develop, I have developed a passion for child development, specifically language and feeding development. I spoke to my husband about going back to school and received an enormous amount of support and encouragement from him. Darah’s speech pathologist, Angela was so sweet to give me all the nitty gritty details of the education program, tell me what speech pathologists were paid, and has cheered me as I have dived into finishing my degree!

Going back to school has been important to me for many reasons. One reason being that I really don’t like leaving things unfinished. I started college and it’s very important for me to finish it. I also want to set a good example to both of my children. I expect both of them to go to college (Darah too!) and I want to make sure they know that I do as I say. Another reason this specific degree is important to me is I really feel like it will help me parent Darah. Her speech is one of the most important things to me and I really want to give her every opportunity to be well spoken. It’s also important for me to be able to work if I ever needed to. I am watching my mom have to enter the workforce after being a stay-at-home mom for 25 years and have been sad at the difficulty she is having. She doesn’t have the option to stay home anymore, but finding a job that will balance out child care costs for my very young siblings still living at home has proven to be nearly impossible.

It’s amazing how much better of a student I am now that I have some age, wisdom, discipline, and experience on me that I didn’t have as an 18 and 19 year old!

Here’s some tips that have helped me as I finish my degree:

• You’re a mom first! Just like with any extra curricular activity, I have had to make a conscious effort to not allow my school to take over my responsibility and privilege of parenting Darah and Connor.
• Online! Online! Online! I had about 38 hours that I needed before I could start my true speech pathology courses. I took all but 8 hours of these online in a span of a year. Unfortunately, of the 14 classes I have left, I can only take 2 of these online now. However, there are plenty of degrees that you can finish completely online!
• RateMyProfessors.com! By going to this website, you can type in any school in the country, the teachers name and find out the nitty-gritty of the teacher by student reviews. If you need to take a hard course, you can use this tool to know which teacher will be the easiest! Way valuable!
• Sleep when you’re dead! I’m kidding. Make sure that you don’t push yourself too hard and you recognize your limits. I’m an “all-or-nothing” kind of gal, and have had to try to pace myself. I’m really not good at pacing myself, but have a husband who has said “slow down” when I’ve needed it. If you have been out of school for a long time, or are just starting college, start out by taking one course online and start gaging what you can handle
• Apply for financial aid! Even if you will not qualify for free assistance, a lot of schools use the government’s FAFSA to determine scholarships that are based on academic merit and not financial need. Hunt for local and national scholarship opportunities!
• Be careful about loans. We are having to get loans to pay for my college, and while I believe that college debt can be a smart investment, do not take more than you absolutely need. If you cannot afford to go back to school without taking out lots of loans, then maybe you should take less courses at a time and pay cash for them. The luxury of being a stay-at-home-mom college student, is there really isn’t a hurry for me to finish, other than the rush I have placed on myself.
• Recruit some cheerleaders! My husband has been my biggest cheerleader through this process. I also have some amazing friends who have been cheering me on as I take finals and check off more courses necessary to finish my degree. Without my support team, I think it would be very easy to give up.
• Just do it! I talked about going back to school for two years before I finally did it. I had valid excuses, however it took that first trip to the counselor’s office to really get me to start. Making that decision was the hardest step of this whole process.