Hurricane Checklist for Moms

Well, if you live anywhere in the northeast U.S., it looks like Sandy is on her way. She may already be here for some of you.

If you've managed to beat the grocery store crowds to snag some water, milk and bread, you might think you're prepared for whatever Sandy has to bring. But if you're a mom, especially a mom of young children, you might not be as prepared as you think.

Here are a few extra things you might need to get you through Mother Nature's latest challenge:

1. A babysitter. If the power goes out, your typical live-in babysitter will not work. (And yes, mother who claims your child never watches TV just so you can get something done or catch a few minutes of peace and quiet... I'm talking to you, too.) But don't panic. The schools are all closed, so the local teenagers are just looking for something to do. Go ahead and give them a call. What high school kid in their right mind would turn down money and entertainment when the alternative is sitting at home having quality time with their parents?

2. Towels. You know all that water that you just stocked up on? Whether it's in bottles, gallons or bathtubs, kids will surely find a way to spill it. All over the place. So make sure you have plenty of towels for the real flood that will happen when a 3-year-old discovers a bathtub full of water.

3. Earplugs. At some point during a day at home with no power and young children looking for ways to release their pent up energy, you will want these. You may think that you would never use earplugs to drown out your children. But I have news for you. You will be stuck inside your house all day with no power, bored children and a teenager. It is bound to get loud and crazy at some point. Probably most points. Trust me... It will be a worthwhile investment. Plus, the babysitter will come get you if there is a true emergency.

4. Peanut butter and jelly. With all that bread you're now stocked up on, your kids will surely need something to put on it. Since you shouldn't risk opening the fridge in a power outage, you'll need something that can be kept at room temperature. And don't forget extra since you have the babysitter to feed too.

5. A bottle of wine. Or two. Once the kids and babysitter are all tucked in for the night, you'll be ready for some. Red wine would be optimal because it doesn't need to be refrigerated. But if all you have is a bottle of white chilling in the fridge, this is the one time it is advised to go ahead and open the fridge.

Do you have anything to add to the list? Feel free to pass along any other suggestions that might help other moms survive Sandy.

1 + 1 = 15

Over the weekend, Alec went over to a grandparent's house to play and spend the night. Immediately after he left our house, something very strange happened. My day became amazingly easier.

Now before you start thinking, well duh!, let me continue.

Obviously it's easier to take care of one child than it is to take care of two. But the strange part was that it felt like a whole bus-load of kids had left the house, not just one.

I had time to do laundry; I had time to play with Chase (like actually play with him - for more than 30 seconds); I had time to clean and do dishes; and when that glorious time called "nap time" came for Chase, I even had time to skim a few pages of a magazine and relax for a while.

I felt like in just a few hours with one child I had accomplished what normally takes me at least a few weeks to accomplish with two children.

I don't know about other moms with more than one child, but in my house I feel like I have about 15 kids, not just two. I mean, I know I'm outnumbered if Chad isn't home (and even when he is home we still feel outnumbered). But I'm only outnumbered by one tiny person. And sure, Alec and Chase each have their challenging moments, but overall they're both really good kids. So how can it really be that much harder to take care of two kids than it is to take care of one?

One sweet little boy

 +

One more sweet little boy

 =

Seriously? I left the room for a minute. ONE MINUTE! The only toy that we keep in the dining room has been scattered all over the floor. Chase has found and is playing with something he shouldn't be (a mute to Chad's trombone). Alec has located and turned on the central vac and is attempting to suck up his little brother. And where did Chase's pants go? There HAVE to be about 13 other little boys hiding somewhere. That is the only explanation as to how all this could happen in just ONE MINUTE.

Take laundry, for example. Doing a load of laundry with one boy is easy. He helps me sort the lights and darks into piles and then helps me put the laundry in the washer. When I'm folding, he plays nicely with his train table.

But add my other boy to the mix and it's a whole different story. I have laundry of all colors flying everywhere while the boys fight over who gets to put the clothes in the washer; then I have Alec pushing buttons on the washer while Chase runs around sporting Alec's (dirty) underwear on his head proclaiming he is Captain Hook. By the time I'm ready to fold the laundry, I realize that a red bathing suit has managed to find its way into the load of Chad's white dress shirts that are coming out of the dryer.

And how about those toys? When I actually take the time to straighten up the basement playroom, it takes my two boys all of 30 seconds to have every single toy out and thrown on the floor. Forget playing with the toys... The mission is simply to destroy the basement as quickly as possible. But with only one child around, the basement actually looked fairly neat for a whole ten minutes!

Bedtime was another time where I really noticed a significant difference.With Alec gone for one night, I was amazed at how easy bedtime seemed. Even with an extra ten minutes of snuggling Chase, I was still downstairs in time to catch the final round of Jeopardy. I think Alex Trebek was probably in his 40s the last time I saw this game show.

So what gives? Obviously one plus one does not equal fifteen. So why does my life get fifteen times harder when both kids are around? Why does having two children around make me feel like I'm responsible for caring for an entire football team of toddlers?

I suppose I can only hope that the pink dress shirts, destroyed basements and sacrificed game shows will all pay off in a few years when my two boys will be making my life fifteen times easier by helping around the house. Apparently Alec already has a passion for vacuuming, so that's at least a start. Hey, I can dream, right?

The Great Flu Shot Debate Solved

No, I'm not talking about the heated discussion you get into with the other mom at the playground over whether or not you are getting flu shots for your kid(s). I'm talking about the debate that goes on in my head that also happens to be pretty heated.

Every year at this time, I am forced to make a decision that I just can't seem to ever feel good about. Do I get the flu shot for my kids?

Normally I am very pro-vaccine. I have followed the vaccine recommendations set by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and I have no doubt that I am doing the right thing by having my children receive most of the vaccines that are available and recommended for them. Whooping cough, polio, Hepatitis, tetanus, etc. In fact, the only one that bothers me even a little is the chicken pox vaccine, but that's a blog for another day.

But back to the debate in my head... Here is what happens in my head every year at this time:

I should get the flu shot for my boys because my pediatrician recommends it. But...

It doesn't protect against all strains of the flu, so they could still get the flu anyway. But...

They've gotten the flu shot before and have never had a problem with it. But...

You've gone your whole life without getting a flu shot and you've never gotten the flu. But...

Wouldn't you rather get it for them and know you did what you could to protect them than end up with a child who gets hospitalized with serious complications from the flu when you could have done something about it? But...

Alec and Chase have pretty good immune systems, so why inject them with something that you aren't 100% sure about? But...

I think you get the idea. This goes on and on, day after day, night after sleepless night. And when I finally do decide whether to get or not get the shot for my boys I am still not sure of my decision. I feel like I'm back in high school taking a multiple choice test, and I'm stuck on a question where A and C could both be the answer. I might as well just flip a coin and let the coin decide.

I thought maybe blogging about it would help me come to a decision, but it seems all I've done is put my debate in writing, which is possibly even more confusing. I did, however, realize that there actually is a way to avoid the whole debate. If only I could figure out a way to become a bear, I could hibernate and avoid the whole flu season altogether.

I'm a super big "what if" person, which is why I think I have such a hard time with this decision. I knew being a parent would be hard, but it's these kinds of decisions that I feel are one of the hardest parts about being a parent. It seems like whichever choice I make will be wrong. Both choices have risks, and both choices have benefits. Usually I can easily justify the risks for the benefits, but this is one of the few times that I can't. Or can I? See what I mean? I literally drive myself crazy over this same decision every year.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Since blogging about it didn't help me come to a realistic decision, maybe your input will inspire me (though I have a feeling the responses will be just as opposite as the thoughts in my head!). Maybe I better seriously consider this becoming a bear thing...

Where Have I Been?

Well, if you've visited my blog in the past few weeks, you've probably been less than impressed. The same old post on motherhood-induced insomnia has been sitting there staring at readers for almost a month now.

I really thought that once school started for the boys I would be overwhelmed with time to write (without distractions). I mean, with those five glorious hours, I should have at least enough time to crank out two posts for the week, right? Ha - I guess the joke was on me!

Those five glorious hours have turned into a mad dash to catch up on things that I have let slip because I've been chauffeuring two boys to school, soccer practice, piano lessons, gym play time and fall activities.

We also squeezed in another trip to see my mom, which fortunately went nothing like the last trip to her house.

And over the past month I've learned a very valuable lesson about preschool. When your child gets "homework" in preschool, it's really homework for mom and dad. So evenings (and occasionally a rushed morning when I forget about the "homework" the night before) are now spent cutting, coloring, coming up with words that start with the letter C, and planning themed preschool snacks that look like circles, puppies, fire engines and more. Sure this is the same stuff we do even when the boys aren't in school. But now I actually have to do it on some kind of a schedule since the boys are in school during the time we would usually do this kind of thing. Let me let you in on a little secret... Preschool is really practice for parents.

On top of all the chauffeuring, road trips and homework, I am still trying to keep up with the other important things that need to get done, like checking facebook and watching all the season premiers on TV.

Needless to say, I haven't had much time to focus on writing since school started. So my apologies for the lack of posts over the past month. But I have plenty of posts ready to write, so stay tuned! New posts should be popping up very soon... just not tonight because I will be busy coming up with more "C" words and planning a dinosaur snack (ok, and watching Grey's Anatomy).

Motherhood-Induced Insomnia

When I was pregnant, it seemed like everyone had some advice they just had to share with me. They were sure to offer tips on everything from diaper rash cream to breastfeeding in public.

The biggest topic of advice usually centered around sleep. Sleep now, while you still can. Sleep when the baby sleeps. Sleep with the baby. Don't sleep with the baby. If you do sleep with the baby, don't sleep on the baby.

But there was one piece of advice about sleep that somehow everyone seemed to leave out. People somehow failed to mention that once you become a mother, you won't sleep the same again. Ever.

I remember being about seven months pregnant with Alec when the motherhood-induced insomnia began. I would wake up somewhere between 2-3am and be ready to go. I would just lie in bed for a few hours until I would finally fall back to sleep around 5am. I got to know every crease in our ceiling in the dark pretty well. Now, five years later, it seems not much has changed. Here is what happened to me last night.

11pm: Fall asleep
2:29am: Wake up to Chase yelling, "Mommy, Mommy" because he wants me to go cover him back up. Lie very still in hopes that Chad might get up first.
2:32am: Chad has not gotten up yet. He is lying very still too. Hmmmm.
2:33am: Sigh loudly as I drag myself out of bed and half sleep walk over to Chase's room.
2:34am: Change Chase's diaper and tuck him back in.
2:37am: Head back to my room, sneak back under the covers and roll over to go back to sleep.
2:38am: Realize that I am now wide awake and there is no sign of sleep in my near future. Attempt to sleep anyway.
2:48am: Get frustrated because trying to sleep is not working. Check facebook on my phone to see if anyone else is up at this hour. Nope. Roll back over to try to go to sleep again.
3:03am: More frustration. Start thinking about all the dishes and laundry that I didn't get to. Consider going to do them since I am wide awake. Almost laugh out loud because there is no way that is going to happen.
3:05am: Roll to my other side. Maybe that's the trick.
3:29am: Still wide awake. Extra frustration because I have hit the 1-hour mark. Begin calculating how much sleep I could get if I fall asleep right now.

3:31am: Roll on to my stomach to try to sleep.
3:42am: Realize that my mind is on overload thinking of pretty much everything from the permission slip that I need to fill out for Alec's preschool field trip to the lady who almost ran her cart in to me at the grocery store. And those damn dishes. And laundry.
3:43am: Decide that I will blog about this tomorrow. Realize that tomorrow is really today. More frustration.
3:44am: Time to try sleeping on my back as a last resort.
3:55am: Still awake. Maybe someone has posted something interesting on facebook in the last hour. Nope.
3:57am: Realize I am starting to get hungry. Is it too early for breakfast?
3:58am: Practice some sort of deep breathing technique that seems like it should make me tired. It does not.
4:29am: Still wide awake at the 2-hour mark. If I fall asleep now, I can still get two more full hours of sleep. If I add that to the three-and-a-half I got at the beginning of the night, that's almost six hours.
4:55am: So much for six hours of sleep.
4:56am: More unproductive thinking followed by several more attempts to find the magical sleep position.
5:17am: Start debating whether I should just get up for the day. While debating, I drift off to sleep after nearly three hours of motherhood-induced insomnia. Debate solved.
6:45am: I hear the toilet flush and find it unusual that Alec has gotten up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.
6:46am: Reality sets in. It is not the middle of the night. It is almost time to get up.

Sadly this is not an uncommon kind of night for me. Ever since that last trimester of my first pregnancy, I have developed a complete inability to fall asleep once I'm awake at night. So no, sleep will never be the same for me now that I have children.

I'm not sure why people felt the need to leave this one piece of crucial advice out. Not that it would have changed my mind about having children. But it sure would have been nice for someone to tell me that once children enter the picture, sleep pretty much leaves the picture for good. Or at least it really changes for good. That tip would have been much more useful than the one about not sleeping on my baby. I mean, how can I sleep on my baby when I'm not even sleeping?

Chad must have taken this picture of me after a night of motherhood-induced insomnia.

Side note: Speaking of Chad, I feel that I would be a terrible wife if I didn't own up to the fact that Chad is often the one to deal with the middle-of-the-night kid wake up. Fortunately we have two pretty good sleepers, so we don't have to deal with this often. But when they do wake up, Chad is frequently the first to get out of bed. I'd say I'm just better at fake sleeping, but in reality I just have an awesome husband!

Musical Card Land

Today I went to the card store to pick up a few cards. Six cards to be exact.

I remember when I used to be able to take my time, leisurely searching for the perfect card for everyone on my list. Now, when I take Alec and Chase with me, I'm lucky if I manage to get cards that are even for the right occasions, let alone the perfect cards.

I entered the store with Chase in the stroller, Alec right next to me, and my card list in hand. I didn't waste any time getting out the goldfish snack for the boys. That should at least get me through four cards.

Wrong. Half-way to my first card, Chase decides to dump all his goldfish out of his bowl onto the stroller tray. I pause to pick up the ones that had landed on the floor. When I look up I don't see Alec. I have a moment of panic before I hear about 17 music cards going off. I have found Alec. He has found Musical Card Land. I avoid making eye contact with the other customers as I help Alec find the homes of at least ten of the music cards. I let him keep some to keep him entertained. This buys me enough time to get one card.

Now Alec is tired of the cards he has and wants new ones. I tell him he can stay in Musical Card Land while I look for my next card. I quickly grab a second card while he is entertained. Did you know that Musical Card Land is a better babysitter than TV?

Time to find the third card on my list. Chase has finished his goldfish. He now wants a musical card too. He picks a Mickey Mouse card that does not make music. He is not happy. He wants Mickey Mouse to make music. We head back to Musical Card Land to search for a musical Mickey Mouse card.

After finding something that will work, Alec claims he has found the perfect card that he wants to get for Grandpa. I have to explain to him why Grandpa might like something other than a Justin Bieber card. Alec reluctantly gives in, having no clue who Justin Bieber even is. Chase is now tired of his card. I still only have two cards.

With a new musical card for Chase, and Alec on the hunt for another perfect card for Grandpa, I am able to get two more cards from my list. Now I'm up to four cards. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I only need two more cards.

Alec has found a new card for Grandpa. It is a Goofy card. This will work. One card left!

Alec is done with the music cards. Chase has somehow managed to pull at least ten cards off the shelf. I have no idea where they came from. I begin searching for their correct locations. Alec decides Chase needs the stroller shade down. Chase does not want the stroller shade down. They begin to argue over the stroller shade. I can see the looks I am getting. As the boys argue over the stroller shade, the stroller begins to rock back and forth. I manage to grab it just before it crashes into a giant display of Christmas ornaments. Yes, Christmas ornaments. In August.

At this point I decide it is time to go. I grab the closest birthday card I can find. Great Aunt Gertrude will just have to be happy with whatever the card says. I head for the counter to pay.

While in line, I look at the last card I have grabbed. It has a monkey wearing underwear on its head. Oh well...at least it wasn't a Justin Bieber card.

Five Glorious Hours

 

It sure doesn't seem like it's been three months since I was frantically forming my Summer Survival Plan. But here we are nearing the end of August, and the kids and I have managed to survive.

Even though neither of my kids are officially going to real school this fall, this is still a very exciting school year for me. This will be Chase's first year of preschool. This means that for five glorious hours every week for the next nine months, I will be child-free!

I love my kids, but I can barely contain my excitement for those five glorious hours. I am overwhelmed by the possibilities of what I will be able to do... I can read a magazine. I can finish a cup of hot coffee. I can make a trip to the grocery store and actually remember to get what is on my list because I won't have the distraction of a 2-year-old pulling down every item from the shelves (and I'll make it home without any extra items that may end up in the cart from said 2-year-old). I can blog. I can clean the house (though the probability of this one actually happening is not very good). The possibilities are endless.

As much as I love summer, I am anxiously awaiting the start of the school year and those five glorious hours of me time. Here's how I can tell that the first day of school is just around the corner:

1. The amount of TV my kids watch is directly related to how many days are left until school starts. The closer school gets, the more TV they watch. After being with them all day almost every day this summer, it has become all too easy to just say, "sure, you can watch one more show." I just can't help myself. It's like an addiction.

2. That neighborhood kid (you know the one) is basically living at my house (and every other house in the neighborhood except his own) now. He is just as ready for school to start as I am, and he has become like an extra child to all the neighborhood families because he is bored at his own house.

3. I am suddenly finding myself fearing all the crazy new pig viruses and flus that are out there now. It's just a matter of time until my kids will be spending more and more time indoors, trading these germs with all their friends.

4. I keep catching myself turning my head the other way when I see one of the kids do something they shouldn't do, just so I don't have to yell at them yet again.

5. I have football fever. And Bachelor fever. And Grey's fever. There aren't many TV shows that I watch on a regular basis, but I still have a few guilty pleasures. I'm definitely ready for some good Steelers games and the start of my Fantasy Football league (let's go Team Yinz Double YOIs!). I am anxiously awaiting the announcement of who the next Bachelor will be. And I can't wait to see which of Seattle Grace's best surgeons will make it out of the woods alive.

Which ones will make it? The Grey's Anatomy season premiere is September 27!

6. Any attempt to make a last-minute back-to-school purchase is a failure because all the book bags, pencils and notebooks have been replaced with Christmas decorations.

7. I am desperately trying to cram in all those things I planned to do over the summer. One more playdate, one more day at the pool, one more bottle of wine on the deck with Chad after the kids have gone to sleep...

Are you ready for the school year to start? What signs do you see that summer is coming to an end?