Making Time for Mom (or Dad)

You see it everywhere: new moms and dads are reminded to “have a date night” or “take a bubble bath” or go out with friends. Every parenting book, magazine and website say the same thing. You want to take time for yourself so that you can be a better parent in the end. Have that date night with Dad so that you don't forget who you were BEFORE kids.

It all sounds wonderful, in theory. In reality it's not always so easy. As kids get older, they have activities, which tend to multiply. So your evenings and weekends seem to disappear before they even begin. Chances are you have things that occupy your “free” time, too, like volunteer work with your kids' school or church. While rewarding, it's still not really “me” time.

Even when you're part of a co-parenting team (I make no assumptions!) it's not so easy to get time by yourself. The bubble bath idea is probably the most laughable to me. I enjoy a good bubble bath now and then, don't get me wrong, but it happens about once or twice a year, if that. If the kids are awake, the possibility of me even peeing without accompaniment is next to none. I can only imagine me trying to take a relaxing bubble bath while Emma came in to tell me something she “forgot” about her homework, Charlotte coming in to ask me to watch her “big jump” or Andrew to whine about Emma or Charlotte bugging him. It's also quite possible that my husband would come in to find out whether I've given the baby his medicine (don't get me started on the topic of infant reflux right now...) or what he's supposed to make for dinner. Either that, or I'll be listening to him yelling from downstairs, “Your mother is trying to have a bath! Stop yelling!”

Once a month I do go out with a group of moms to a restaurant where we just sit and talk for a couple of hours. It is honestly my favourite part of the month, so rare is the chance for me to talk to adults other than my immediate family members.

It's not easy, though. I've been on both sides of the SAHM/WOHM conundrum, which is why I'm convinced that neither way is “better”. As a SAHM I work 24/7. There are no sick days, no vacation days, no statutory holidays. I adore my kids, but I'm so excited to leave the house without kids once in a while that it's really a little bit pathetic. Going to the grocery store by myself leaves me practically giddy. So time with adult friends is absolutely essential to my brain-cell retention.

That being said, as a WOHP (I'm including dads in this, since the majority still WOH) you still work 24/7, but now it's at two jobs. You get up, try and cram in some morning time with your kids (if you're lucky) and head off on your commute (which if you live in this area can be anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours each way). You get to work, try and cram in as much work as you can as fast as you can to avoid the dreaded overtime, make the commute back, and then as soon as you walk in the door you're at job #2. Kids are running screaming to see you, you have to try and gobble down your dinner in order to get the bath/story/bedtime routine going and you're still inwardly fuming over the idiot who messed up your day at work. The last thing that you want to have happen is for your co-parent to say “Hi, welcome home, I'm outta here!”

Date Night is probably the most elusive of all the me times in parenting. If it's hard to get a night for ONE of you to go out, it's a downright herculean task for both of you to go out at once sans children (see? I'm bilingual, too!) You may be lucky enough to have family around who are willing to babysit, but all but the most devoted grandparents don't want to be on call ALL the time, and it's not that common anymore for grown children to live down the street from their parents. Very few of my friends live in the same city as their parents.

Adult friends aren't always the answer, either. They either have families of their own and are just as busy as you are or they don't have kids and you suspect that they're not all that fond of being on-call sitters.

So then you're left with finding the hard-to-find teenage babysitter. Personally I've never had much luck with this option. I either find they're too young, or if they're older, they have “real” part-time jobs that limit their availability. Then there's the issue of having to PAY for a babysitter. Say you want to go to a movie. You're looking at $20 for tickets (if you're lucky), another $20-30 for snacks and then the sitter wants $5 per hour, and sometimes that's PER kid. In my case, to go to a two-hour movie, plus time back and forth I'd be looking at over $100 for a few hours out.

And then we'll end up spending the whole time talking about the kids anyway.

ME: “Did you sign C's permission form?”

HIM: “What permission form?”

ME: “For her field trip.”

HIM: “That wasn't her field trip, that was E's.”

ME: “No, not THAT field trip. That was to the museum. This one is to the apple orchard.”

HIM: “I didn't see that one.”

ME: “It was right on the fridge.”

HIM: “Where on the fridge?”

ME: “Beside A's painting of a yak that he did at nursery school.”

HIM: “That was a yak?”

ME: “Well, that's what he told me. Either that or a pumpkin. I'm not sure.”

HIM: “I thought we weren't going to talk about the kids tonight.”

ME: “Okay. We won't talk about the kids. Did you see the latest episode of Hannah Montana?”

So, to all those parenting experts who want us to experience life without our kids, I applaud the idea, but when are YOU coming over to babysit?

I thought so. Sorry Honey, date night will have to wait another 18 years or so.

Disney to Refund Baby Einstein DVDs

OK, this cracks me up.

Apparently there was a threat of a class-action lawsuit against Disney because the Baby Einstein videos claimed that they were educational. So they have decided to offer a refund of $15.99 per DVD purchased between June 5, 2004 and September 4, 2009. Of course, you have to have a receipt (because EVERY parent keeps receipts for DVDs purchased in 2004!)

Seriously? You bought Baby Einstein DVDs because you really thought that they were going to make your kid smarter? And then you were surprised to find out that your baby wasn't going off to college by the age of nine? Perhaps that's more of a statement on genetics than anything else.

I'm sorry, but there is only ONE reason to buy Baby Einstein DVDs: they are Baby Crack. They have an ability to mesmerize young children that no other can match.

And yes, young children shouldn't watch television. TV = BAD!!! You are doing your child irreparable harm by allowing them to be "babysat" by the television. You know what? SCREW OFF! (Sorry, was that too harsh?) There are times when television is the only thing that will allow a mom (or dad) to get anything done. There are days when I wouldn't even get a shower were it not for a well-positioned bouncy seat and an episode of Barney on Treehouse.

My younger daughter was a sweet baby who wanted to be held. ALL the time if she was awake. And I mean ALL the time. She would scream and cry and carry on from the moment she was put down until the moment she was picked back up again. At the time my husband worked night shifts, so on the nights he was working I had no backup in order to make dinner for myself and our older daughter, much less to eat. Every evening it was a nightmare. It wasn't until she was four months old that one night in desperation I put in one of the Baby Einstein DVDs that my brother-in-law had sent and put Charlotte down in her bouncy seat. I fully expected to hear shrieks of indignation. Imagine my surprise when instead a glazed look came across her face as the weird little toys danced across the screen in time to Bach.

So yes, I think this threatened lawsuit is a bunch of Baby Bull. However, in the interest of community service, here's the website you can get more information if you wish to get refunds on your Baby Crack... err... Einstein DVDs.

In the US:
http://babyeinstein.com/parentsguide/satisfaction/upgrade_us.html

In Canada:
http://www.babyeinstein.com/(S(ra1wsf55eapggg55vvgat445))/parentsguide/satisfaction/satisfaction_ca.html

Hmmm... while researching the links I actually came across this from the Baby Einstein website. Sounds like there's more to the story. Interesting.

Actual Conversation with a Three-Year-Old

Me: So which of the Imagination Movers is your favourite?

A: Smitty, Scott, Rich, Smitty...

Me: What about Dave? Is he your favourite, too?

A: Yeah, Scott. I like their pants, and their shirts, too. And their underwear.

Me: Their underwear? Really?

A: Yeah. Can I play on the computer?

Hallelujah!

A Toronto Star report says that a movement is underfoot to make the report cards at Ontario schools more understandable. In my experience so far, report cards are an exercise in frustration for parents. No longer do you see a subject, a letter grade, and a personal comment. No, that was apparently too easy, so in 1998 the Ontario government, led by my all-time favourite Premier Mike Harris (was that too sarcastic?) decided that all report cards needed to be standardized. The intention was to bring consistency between school boards in the province. In fact, I believe that this idea was supposed to make things easier for parents.

Instead, what we've had is robotic comments straight out of the curriculum that are more edu-speak than parent-speak. Teachers choose from a list of comments instead of giving any personal comment that actually tells a parent how their child is doing in that subject. I honestly thought maybe I was just stupid, reading my daughter's report card. I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent person, and I have a university degree with a minor in English. I can't be THAT dumb, can I?

Toronto school board trustee Howard Goodman says I'm not. He struggles to understand his own children's report cards, he says. He is now leading the charge for more coherent reports, inspired by retired teacher Tom Sullivan (who holds a Masters Degree in Education) who started his crusade after he couldn't understand his grandson's Grade 4 report. There are also concerns that if a former teacher or school board trustee, whose first language is English, can't understand the report cards, new Canadians may have a very difficult time with them.

Some actual comments from report cards:

“She systematically describes the relative locations of objects or people using positional language.”

“She is able to count using one-to-one correspondence with ease.”

“He explains how the particular characteristics of various text forms help to communicate meaning, with a focus on literary, graphic and informational texts.”

Aren't those helpful?

I was speaking about this to a friend whose kids are now in university, and she mentioned that her son, now studying Engineering, had a 99% in Calculus (or some kind of math... it's not my strong suit). His report card said, “A... should take advantage of additional help that is available.”

HUH? I could see how that extra 1% would be nice, but that sounds like he needs tutoring or something! His mother asked about it, and was told that the comment was applied to everyone. WHAT?

Sometimes I honestly think that they make changes to education because they're expected to, not because it's necessary. My oldest daughter learned to read using the Animated Literacy program. My younger daughter started Junior Kindergarten this year, and her teacher told me that they were told they were no longer allowed to use this curriculum. No new curriculum had been chosen, but they were absolutely NOT to use Animated Literacy anymore, because someone had decided that it wasn't the best way to teach reading. The teacher agreed with me that in a year or two they would probably change their minds again, going from Phonics to Whole Language to... who knows what? Is leaving something alone a sign of stagnation, or is change for the sake of change just politically sanctioned busywork?

However, I really do hope that the intiative to change the report cards go through. Even “translating” the current comment system isn't enough, in my opinion. Yes, it tells me what my child can do, or knows, but what are the specific things she needs to improve on? Does that mean that she's at the top of the class? I would love to see the personal comments that used to be on report cards when I was a kid. I'd much rather hear that my child is “a joy to have in class” than that she knows whether she's in front of or behind something. I'd rather know that he's a chatterbox and needs to settle down than that he can count one by one.

But maybe that's just me.

Awww... cute!

I know a lot of people like them. I'm not a huge fan of the Duggars (I know I wanted - and got - a big family, but that's just ridiculous!) However, this morning I saw People's article about the first Duggar grandchild, and I have to repost it, since that is just one CUTE baby. Plus, whether I like it or not, they ARE news, and certainly are a polarizing topic in the land of Mommydom.

Grouchy mom goes grocery shopping

Baby J is now over 19lbs (possibly over 20lbs by now, as that was a few weeks ago). Pretty heavy for a not-quite six-month-old who doesn't sit up, crawl or obviously stand on his own.

This morning after our weekly jaunt to Storytime at the library, we dropped in to our local grocery store (we'll call it Joe). I don't like dragging the infant seat around with 19lbs of baby in it, so as much as possible I leave it in the van. Since Joe has those carts with the infant seats attached, I decided to get Baby J and put him in one. He seems to like the view from up there, anyway.

Unfortunately, this particular store likes to leave those carts outside, and it's been raining quite a bit the past few days, so there was a nice little puddle in the bottom of the seat. There were a couple of employees outside unloading pumpkins, so I asked if they had a rag or something that could clean up the puddle.

"You can go into Customer Service and they can give you a roll of paper towels" one of them replied.

Now, perhaps this doesn't seem like that big of a deal. However, I'm already carrying 19lbs of squirmy baby and trying to wrangle two active preschoolers to keep them from taking off on me. Plus, with squirmy baby in my arms I'm supposed to take the roll of paper towels back outside and manage to pull of paper towels, while NOT dropping baby on the ground and wipe this out? Out in the parking lot, while making sure that my far-too curious 3-year-old doesn't take off to go look at pumpkins, or swing sets or who knows what else?

It just really irritated me, so I did something I don't usually do. I went to Customer Service, as directed, and proceeded to tell the Customer Service person what had happened. Of course they apologized all over themselves, and I think a manager was there to overhear. They asked who it was, but thankfully the woman didn't say anything to them in front of me (I would have been mortified) as she took the paper towels outside herself to clean off the seat for us.

I get that people who don't have kids don't always understand, but honestly, you can't just go inside and get something yourself to help out a mom with a baby in her arms? The pumpkins are THAT important that if they are not put out RIGHT THIS SECOND the entire store will collapse?

I wanted to suggest that perhaps if they were going to leave those carts outside it should be someone's job to go out each morning and check that they were clean and ready to go, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm kind of a wuss like that. Joe, however, does have some kind of contest going right now where if you submit feedback to your shopping experience online you could win $2000 worth of groceries. Now THAT would be a win-win situation (for me, of course!) so I just might do that.

Back to my quiet, meek mommy ways now. (My husband is snorting if he read that...)

Everyone else is talking about them...

I am a child of divorce. Not exactly uncommon in my age group. My family really does have it down to a bit of a science, though. My paternal grandparents divorced in the late 1940s, a time when it was very uncommon. My grandfather wanted to go back overseas after the war, to work with the League of Nations (later the UN). My grandmother did not want to take their very young son to war-torn Europe. My father grew up not knowing anything about his father. He was actually 26 years old before he ever saw him again. As my mother puts it, he didn't know if his father was dead, or in jail, or anything. I believe that he knew his name, and that was it. My grandmother was so hurt by the divorce that she refused to talk about him. In fact it was only in the last few years of her life before dementia took over that I ever heard her speak his name.

My parents were married for nine years before I was born. 10 months later my father decided that he wanted a divorce. It's kind of hard not to take that personally, I have to admit. However, after four kids of my own, I also tell all new parents the same thing: the first year after a baby will likely be the hardest one(s) in your marriage. If you survive that, you will likely be fine. Obviously no one gave them that advice. My father has since married three other times, all ending in divorce.

The one thing that I have to say about my mom (other than how much I love her for raising me completely on her own, since my father moved to the US shortly after they split up, and has been there ever since) is that she never badmouthed my father. In fact, she seemed very hurt if anyone said anything bad about him, including me.

Which, of course, leads me to the Gosselins. A completely overdone topic, but hey, I'm weighing in anyway because I think they're just exhibiting a bigger issue. I have never watched an entire episode of their show. I remember seeing them on Oprah once a few years back. I believe I watched about ½ an episode a year or so ago. That kind of reality show honestly just isn't my thing. I'm more of a “Biggest Loser” or “American Idol” kind of girl.

They are kind of hard to avoid these days, though. I honestly can't get over the amount of attention that these people are getting just because they're splitting up. They certainly never were on the cover of tabloids when they were (playing?) the happy not-so-little family.

Couples get divorced. It happens. It's no longer shocking to see a single mom or dad with their kids. What appalls me about this situation is that these parents (moreso Dad, from what I've seen, but both are guilty) seem to be more interested in bashing each other publicly than in their children's welfare.

Some might say that they've never shown much interest in their children's welfare right from the start, what with putting their kids in a situation reminiscent of the Dionne Quintuplets, but I could see a family who was struggling to provide for their eight kids wanting to make some “easy” money. All they had to do was live their lives, right? So assuming that these two actually had their children's best interests at heart to begin with, why wouldn't they continue to do that?

One of the most important things to remember when a couple with kids split up is that your children share DNA with the person that you can quite possibly no longer stand to be around. If you're badmouthing him/her, you're badmouthing half of who they are. Do they not think that their kids know what's going on? That Mom is accusing Dad of stealing the very food out of their mouths? That Dad is running around with a 22-year-old bimbo and saying that Mom emotionally abused him?

Even if by some miracle they are actually able to shelter the kids from this right now, and are keeping their opinions to themselves in private, do they not realize that these stories won't just disappear when all of this dies down? Ten years from now, a simple internet search will bring it all back to the surface again, and they will know, and they will hurt.

Not all marriages can last forever. Not all of them should. But when you choose to involve children in your relationship it becomes about something bigger than you. You have a responsibility to those kids to protect them from as much of the hurt as you can. How is slamming one of the two people that they love most in the world going to do that?

All I can say is grow up Gosselins, before it's too late. I'm kind of afraid that it already is, though.

On a side note, I don't particularly like Nancy Grace for reasons to numerous to count, but I have to say, this clip would have made me laugh, if it weren't so damned sad.

Elimination Communication: Parent-Baby Bonding or Parent Training?

I remember hearing about Elimination Communication for the first time. I admit, my first thought: “Don't you mean parent training?” I wrote it off as one of those crunchy mom things that I would just never understand, but hey – more power to them, I thought sceptically. It's one of those attachment parenting techniques that just aren't me.

The first up-close experience that I had with EC was when we had dinner with a friend of my husband, his wife, and their baby girl who was 2 months younger than my younger daughter. Their family is very much “crunchy”, but although I might have expected cloth diapers, I didn't expect to see a five-month old baby wearing underwear. I thought it was kind of cute, but I sure wasn't about to give up my... well, her diapers. On a side note, our friends now have a son as well, but I don't know if they continue to use EC techniques.

The idea still intrigues me, though, so I've read about it on and off. There are entire website dedicated to it. Likely the most popular is Diaper-Free Baby. There you can read about techniques such as how to hold an infant over the toilet (which I imagine must be somewhat of a challenge), links to local support groups and an online store in which you can purchase underwear that will actually fit an infant (not readily available at Wal-Mart, I must say!)

There is also a list of 75 benefits of EC. Now, I have to say, I find some of them a bit of a stretch, but some do make sense. Here's a sample:

Reason # 1: Reduces irritation of baby's skin
Reason #2: Reduces risk of diaper rash
Reason #3: Keeps chemicals off baby's skin

I think that, in all fairness, counting these as 3 different reasons is cheating a bit, but still, you can't deny that it is true. No diapers, obviously no diaper rash. For babies who have really sensitive skin, it certainly wouldn't hurt to try.

The environmental reasons are also very hard to argue with:

Reason #20: Reduces the use of disposable diapers, a major contributor to landfill.
Reason #21: Reduces the use of water and detergents used to wash cloth diapers.
Reason #22: Reduces the use of disposable wipes used to clean baby’s bottom.
Reason #23: Reduces use of plastic bags used to individually wrap dirty disposable diapers.

Some of the other reasons, in my honest opinion, are a little out there, such as:

Reason #16: Fosters greater security in a baby: “Mommy and Daddy listen to what I am saying and respond to my needs.”

Yes, babies need to feel secure, but I'm not sure that I believe that they care all that much whether they go in a diaper or on the toilet.

Reason #53: EC is “family focused.” It benefits the entire family rather than being solely “child centered” like conventional toilet training.

Umm... how is it family-focused? Perhaps I just need an explanation? To me it seems like you would spend more time focused on the baby's signals, thus giving you less time to focus on your other children (if you have any) and spouse.

For the most part, though, the reasons that the site gives do make sense, and the parent testimonials certainly seem enthusiastic (not that they're likely to put testimonials from family for whom EC didn't work). I don't know how it could possibly work full-time with 3 other kids, but the one thing I liked about the DiaperFree Baby website is that they pointed out that you don't need to practice EC full-time. According to them, it can also be beneficial in the long-term to even try it once in a while. The idea is that using the toilet just becomes second-nature to the baby, so you don't have to “train” them as toddlers.

I have to admit, the more I read, the more tempted I am to just try it and see what happens. (Although I can guarantee that Baby J would be still wearing his diapers, I'd just try to reduce the number of them that we use.) I'm curious to hear if anyone else has tried it, and how it went. I am not a crunchy momma by any means, but after four straight years of diapers, and still having my two older kids in pull-ups at night, the idea of reducing the number of diapers we use (and have to change!) sounds awfully appealing.

I still don't see EC becoming the norm in North America. Without having tried it, my guess is that most parents don't have the time, or don't want to spend the time it would take to learn the baby's signals. It's one thing to recognize the signal that the baby wants to eat, or has already "eliminated" but I still question the idea of a baby being able to signal that they NEED to go (especially when it comes to pee).

I suppose you can't know unless you try it for yourself, though!

Things I Used to Judge Other Moms for Until I Had More Than One Kid

I have no bigger pet peeve in parenting than the Mommy Wars. Honestly, we're running kids all over the place, diapering bums, cleaning up accidents, making lunches, feeding babies... do we not have better things to do than to worry about what every other mom is doing?

I guess that a lot of it has to do with our own insecurity. We want to know that we are doing the absolute BEST for our children. OUR children will grow up to be well-adjusted, well-nourished, safe, healthy adults. Those OTHER moms will be the ones whose kids grow up to be nerdy, or overweight, or God forbid, in jail or permanently disfigured because of a childhood accident. OUR kids will be Prime Minister or President. OUR kids will be doctors, lawyers, and business tycoons. THEIR kids will be the ones who work at McDonalds and live in their parents' basement at the age of 40.

The truth is, though, that we're all just doing the best that we can, in the best way we know how. Everyone's situation is different, and every child is different. You can have one child who's a perfect angel, speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese, never gets in trouble in school and always brushes their teeth without you nagging them for days, but your next child could have a learning disability, food allergies, talk back to their teacher or not sleep through the night until they're twenty-six.

So, in that spirit, here's my confession. When I only had one child, or even before I was a mom, here are some of my former judgements.

1. Your kid is three and doesn't sleep through the night? Are you kidding me? Why on earth are you spoiling that kid so badly? Cut those apron strings why don't you?

Yeah, that's the way I thought until I spent hours listening to a baby, then a toddler, screaming in the middle of the night while I let him “cry it out.” Fun times. My first baby slept through the night all on her own at 8 weeks old, so I was convinced that there was nothing to this baby sleep thing. Co-sleeping? Wouldn't DREAM of it! Then my second was up once a night until she turned one, but she too started sleeping through on her own.

Then I met Andrew. Sweetest little boy on the planet. World's WORST sleeper. From the moment we brought him home from the hospital he would rarely sleep for more than an hour at a time. He slept in his *GASP* infant car seat for about a month because he would sleep longer in there. I tried sleep positioners, propping up the top of the cradle mattress on an incline... just about everything I could think of. I bought an Amazing Miracle Blanket and lo and behold, in about 3 days he was sleeping through the night. It truly was a miracle, and I recommend them to anyone whose baby is having sleep issues.

Then he grew too big for his “Baby Burrito” as we fondly called it. I realized with trepidation that we would have to give it up and hope for the best. He was up at least 2-3 times a night after that. As his teeth started to come in it could be back to every hour. I was on the verge of a breakdown. We decided by the time he was nine months old or so that we needed to try CIO. Except that he wore us down. He could scream and scream and scream for hours. We finally won, and he was back to sleeping through the night. For about a month. And then I was back to our late night bonding sessions.

Fast forward a few more months. He was now about 18 months old. I was beyond exhausted. We had to do it all over again. We got him down to about once a night after more nights of hours and hours and hours, and occasionally he would even sleep through the night. He is now three years old. Miraculously most nights he sleeps through now, but we still have those once in a while wake up calls in the middle of the night. I used to tell people that my 3 month old slept better than my 3 year old, and sadly, it's mostly true.

2. Yelling at your kids in the middle of a store? Get control of yourself!

I think this one is true not only of people without kids, but also first-time moms. When your precious infant is sleeping soundly in their carseat while you placidly stroll through Wal-Mart you wonder how on earth any parent could possibly allow their child to have a temper tantrum in the middle of a store, and what terrible parent actually YELLS at their child in public?

This is, of course, not something that any mom aspires to. We want to appear calm, cool and collected in public, and truthfully we want that at home, too. However, when you have one kid who stops every five seconds because they're mesmerized by some bright, shiny object on the shelf, and another who wants to ride in the cart, and then wants to walk, and then wants to ride in the cart and... and then you have one of your little angels pitching a fit because they want the DORA fruit snacks, not the Spiderman ones, you might just find yourself forgetting that there are other people staring at you. “Allyson Petunia, you are in SO much trouble! You think I'm embarrassed by this you are WRONG! I said no, and I MEANT no and if you don't cut this out I'm going to (*insert idle threat here*)!”

The sad thing is, despite all of those other shoppers who now think your child is a demon spawn and you are an out-of-control mom who needs CAS called in, an hour later you and Allyson Petunia will likely be cuddled up in bed, talking about what happened and making up. Those judgemental eyes don't get to see that.

3. What a dirty face on that kid! Can't the mom just take TWO seconds with a washcloth? I would NEVER let my child be seen in public like that.

I certainly don't aspire to have my kids leave the house with dirty faces, or unbrushed hair, or clothes with stains or rips. Ideally my children would look absolutely adorable every time we leave the house. I love hearing how cute my kids are. It makes my day. BUT, I also am very sleep-deprived and often sleep in the morning until the last possible second before I absolutely have to get up in order to get whichever kids are going to their various places to those various places. Or sometimes I have to get up in the middle of the night, or I go to bed too late. So sometimes we are so rushed that I don't notice that Andrew has put on the pants with the holes (which I finally hid until I can get around to throwing them out now) or Charlotte has Toaster Strudel on her face. This morning, I admit, in the first week of October, Andrew went to nursery school wearing sandals. With socks. Black ones, at that. Oh well.

I'm sure there's more. I may do a part two one of these days! But the fact is that we are all doing the best we can. Let it go! Besides, feel sorry for those moms – obviously their kids aren't as perfect as ours are!

Feel free to comment with some confessions of your own!