Why does time have to fly by when you are having fun?
It drags on and on when you are doing something you don’t want to do (like exercise), and yet speeds up when you are having the time of your life.
Apparently, I’ve been having a blast lately, because I’ve suddenly turned around, and I’ve realized I don’t look like the person I used to be. I am not even exactly the woman my husband married.
I am someone quite different now. Ten years ago, I probably wouldn’t even recognize myself as I am today. I am a mother with two kids — a little bit older, hopefully a little bit wiser, but definitely changed.
Your parents always tell you that life after kids will be different. But you shrug it off. What do they know anyway?
You’ll be the person who changes the limits. You’ll be the parent who has it all — the career, the exciting hobbies, the parent of the year award. Yes, life is going to happen for you.
Sometimes I wonder about the shadow of my former self. Before I was married, my great love was a 16.1 hand, bay Thoroughbred named William.
Children possess a natural gift. The ability to love, no questions asked. You will find the kids in your life will hold you up on a pedestal for nothing else than being their teacher, being their friend or being their parent.
You didn’t do anything special to get on that pedestal — just being a part of their lives was enough.
But, at some point, we have to tell them the inevitable truth. Parents make mistakes too.
As humans, we are perpetually flawed, and I think it’s good not to hide this fact from kids.
Children can feel substandard in a seeming world of perfection.
But, let’s face it we are far from flawless. Adults just get better at hiding it. We like to brush things under the rug and act like nothing is wrong.
But it may actually be healthier just to throw a tantrum every now and then, as my five year old does when something doesn’t work.
Sometimes life is hard, and we make the wrong choices, or things just will not — as much as you try — go your way.
It’s kind of funny that today a line is drawn between working moms and stay-at-home moms (or dads).
After reading an article about how children of working mothers are better off, I began thinking.
The funny thing is we all work … obviously we do different work. But the thing is no matter if you are a working mom, or if you stay home with your kids, you’re a parent full time. That never changes.
Balancing your family life with whatever you have going on is when things can get hard. It’s how you handle these challenges that really counts.
Who knows whose children will come out better on the other side?
Every family is different; I feel you just have to make choices and decisions that are best for your family.
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard things like, “Kids today are so different. They know so much more.”
“Yes, but they spend so much time playing indoors. We certainly don’t live in the same world as we used to.”
I do see that children today know a lot, but I think children aren’t so different than they ever were … they just now have cooler gadgets. We all do.
Life at my house — post Jurassic World, that is — will never be the same.
The big screen has once again captured the hearts of my children as it brought dinosaurs back to life, and spun them into a modern-day-world. Just as Jurassic Park thrilled me back in my elementary days, the new movie has gone above and beyond to incorporate what we love most about dinosaurs with our world, as we know it.
Yes, we’ve already been to see the new movie in the theatres … twice.
Now I get to listen to the sound of roaring all day and night. I just hope everyone else in our general vicinity (wherever we happen to be) appreciates my little dinosaurs as much as I do. All I can say is, yes, they have been practicing their dinosaur sounds. They are quite good, and quite loud. I apologize in advance.
When we are not pretending to be dinosaurs, we’ve been spending most of our spare time learning more about dinosaurs.
All of this reading has made me think a lot about time, and even more about family.
It is said — you are what you eat.
It’s hard enough getting the message through to yourself, but getting kids to eat right, can be even trickier. So, to make this concept easier for my two boys to understand, I explain:
If you want to swim like a fish, jump like a chicken, grow tall and strong like a carrot, vibrant like a strawberry and wholesome like yogurt, that’s what you need to stuff in your face.
My boys literally eat me out of house and home. They are quite skilled at jumping, climbing, reaching and sneaking for food. The boys eat and eat and eat — everything and anything they can get their hands on. I’ve never seen anything like it. I refer to this time as: the feeding stage, because they are quite like The Very Hungry Caterpillar on his quest for food. And as caterpillars, we know they go about mindlessly eating whatever is in front of them.
My three-year-old boy is delighted with the way he looks.
He squeals with pleasure as he looks at pictures and videos of himself. He even enjoys staring at his own reflection in the mirror.
Obviously, he’s impressed with what he sees. He admires the way he looks, and I love that about him.
In truth, I could learn something from him.
In life, there are plenty of times you will be knocked flat on your face. You’ve got to find the strength from within to pick yourself up and always try, try again.
And I’ve learned if you are going to ever be successful, you’ve got to at least embrace who you see in the mirror, and accept your individuality and yourself.
