Happy Thanksgiving!

We are having our inaugural Thanksgiving family feast this year.

I have been tasked with cranberry sauce. My trial run a few weeks back proved successful, so I'm hopeful that it will come out well tomorrow.

Here's the recipe I'm using. Let me know if you use it, too and how it works out!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Day in the Life Vol. 2

The first Day in the Life Guest Post follows!

I am a mother of two beautiful, energetic, happy, exhausting girls ages 3 ½ and 10 months. I work as a consultant 3 days a week and I am at home with my daughters the other two days. I look forward to my two days at home with my daughters, but they are definitely “harder” than the days I am at work.

A typical day at home with my daughters starts around 6:30 a.m. I try to get up and shower before my youngest is awake and before my husband leaves for work. My youngest wakes up around 7 a.m. The three of us have breakfast together while my husband gets ready for work. He leaves around 7:30 a.m.

The morning is usually one of favorite times because I love eating breakfast (it is the one thing I can actually cook successfully!) and everyone is happy and excited for the day. We usually have pancakes or French toast but sometimes I try to mix it up by making scrambled eggs. We take our time in the morning- eating, talking, listening to music and dancing. After breakfast we have some play time and get dressed.

My youngest goes down for a nap around 9 to 9:30 a.m. Even though I try hard to limit TV time for my oldest, she LOVES TV, so I usually let her watch a show or two while my youngest naps and I get ready for the day or do some cleaning. Super Why and Word World are our favorites right now. I try to make myself feel less guilty knowing that she is watching something that is helping her with letters and reading.

Then comes rush time… my oldest does gymnastic one day and swimming the other day. No matter how early I start getting ready we always seem to be late. We must get my youngest up for her nap, bottle ready, snack for the oldest, oldest on the potty, shoes and jackets and finally out the door. After gymnastics/swimming we rush home to have lunch. I try to make the lunch earlier in the day so we can sit down and eat right when we get home. Lately it has been peanut butter and jelly for my oldest and I have started eating it too because it is just easier to make two at once. My youngest is still eating baby food and then will pick at some table food.

We rush through lunch because a physical therapist comes to our house to work with my youngest right after lunch. We discovered that my youngest had a stroke at or right before birth, and she is not able to fully use her left arm, hand and leg at this point. She is a left side hemiplegic. She has been getting physical therapy twice a week and we are seeing progress. She recently started sitting up and rolling over- we are so proud of her! The therapy session is about 45 minutes and is equivalent to an adult doing 45 minutes of cardio, so my youngest is usually pretty tired afterwards. She will then take her afternoon nap while my oldest and I have some special alone time. We might do Play-Doh, coloring, reading, cooking, puzzles, games.

My youngest will wake up by 3, have her bottle and then the three of us might go for a walk or run some errands. We start getting ready for dinner around 4:30 and my husband is home around 5:30. Then we have usually eaten and cleaned up by 6. Then it is play time, bath time, get ready for bed and stories. My husband usually puts my oldest to bed while I put my youngest to bed since I am still breastfeeding her at night. If all goes well, both girls are in bed asleep by 7:30. Phew! Then my husband and I have a couple hours to ourselves, which I usually spend doing work, catching up on email, doing laundry, going for a walk or maybe even relaxing every once in a while. Then it is in bed by 10:30 or 11. Love it!

Oh, Erica

Let me preface this post by stating that I am an Erica Jong fan. When I discovered Fear of Flying in college, it felt like a light bulb went off in my head. It was possible for a woman to be sexual and intellectual in a way that I had never encountered. Instead of just putting the book back on the shelf, I passed it around to all my friends so we could discuss the Zipless you-know-what. I referenced the book in my often-referred to college paper on Jewish mothers in literature. I even tried to get MacDad to read it, but that didn't go too well. I not only read Fear of Flying, but the two lesser-read sequels. So, I'm a bit familiar with her.

It seems my literary idol has created a brouhaha on the internet by slamming Attachment Parenting (AP) in a Wall Street Journal essay. She claims that AP imprisons motherhood and is creating a backlash to the feminist movement for which her generation of women passionately though.

My first thought when reading her article -- the things Jong complains about modern mothers doing are not that hard. Take for example, her issue with making your own baby food. MacDad and I made our own baby food. My reasoning was that I wouldn't want to eat my meals out of a jar, so why should he. Also, we make ourselves dinner almost every night, so steaming some peas and blending them is not so much more work compared to the rest of the meal.

Is making your own baby food such a big deal and something to feel angry about? That's just silly. Same goes for her issues with breastfeeding and reusable diapers. If you use formula and disposable diapers (which I do), fine. If you choose to take the AP approach, that's great too. These activities should be encouraged. It's hard to argue that they're not better for the baby and the environment. However you raise your child, ultimately, it's your choice. That, from my impression, is the point that Jong and her feminist compatriots were fighting for. And, therein lies the difference between her generation and mine.

I get the feeling that Jong didn't necessarily choose motherhood. Having children was the way of life when she was an adult. It was assumed that being a mother was the course your life would take. Now, though, I think that women consider their options more thoroughly. Even though I'm a parent, MacDad and I thought through our decision and intentionally created a family. I don't view AP, or parenting in general as a chore (for the most part), but as a privilege. I'm happy to spend time with my son and to provide for him to the best of my ability, whether it be emotionally, physically or financially.

So, Erica Jong, you have let me down. I do not feel as though I have given up my life for my child, I feel as though he has enriched it.

Everything on My DVR is Depressing

As referenced in my previous post, I watch tv for an hour per night. Because of an operator error on Sunday night, Dexter did not record at its regular time. It's been looming on my dvr since Sunday night at 10 p.m., along with an episode of Giuliana and Bill and Where the Wild Things Are. Each night since, I've scrolled through these options and passed, instead watching dreck like Top Chef: Just Desserts and the soon-to-be departed Life Unexpected (sad).

Why haven't I opted for more serious fare? Dexter creeps me out. I enjoy it, but not when MacDad is out of town. Ever since (SPOILER) Rita bit it in the bathtub, I can't sleep after watching Dexter wrestle with his dark passenger. And, after the Trinity build up last year, this season has been a bit of a let down. But, that's what I thought at the beginning of last season, so I'll stick with it. When MacDad comes home.

I don't generally watch Giuliana and Bill, but after learning about her miscarriage, I thought I would check in on them. The circumstances around her miscarriage were very similar to what I experienced this summer. I was curious as to how they would present the events and am glad the couple chose to address the miscarriage publicly. On last week's episode they announced their loss, and this week they're dealing with the emotional aftermath. In the preview, many of her emotions echoed my own. I'm fairly certain there will be tears when I watch. I'm too tired to cry at 9 p.m.!

Where the Wild Things Are has been on two dvrs for about two months. I fondly remember the children's book and am interested to see how Spike Jonze adapted the material. I watched the first five minutes of the movie after I initially recorded it and cried hysterically. An alarmed MacDad and MacBaby came inside after playing in the back yard to find a very weepy woman. Something about watching a lonely little boy made me sad. I projected Max into MacBaby, hoping he never feels that alone in his life.

Tonight I'm set wtih 30 Rock and Community. Right after that I'll get around to my stockpiles shows. . . as long as MacDad is in town to deal with the fears and tears.

A Day in the Life

Something I often wonder about is how other people get themselves and their children together, get to wherever they need to be, do a great job once they're there, then take care of all the evening duties, get a restful night sleep and get up the next day to do it all over again.

I'm going to share how I do it, or attempt to anyway. I'm hoping this will be a series of posts, with other moms (or dad's) letting readers know where they succeed and how their routines can improve. So, here goes.

Weekday

Usually, either my or MacBaby's internal clock goes off promptly at 7 a.m. Since I'm still nursing and MacBaby is still sleeping in the bed with us, he attaches himself to me. Around ten minutes later I detach. If MacDad is home, I leave the two to cuddle and gently remind the elder male to get the boy dressed. If MacDad is travelling, I take the boy into the bathroom and put him in the Pack 'n Play while I shower. Lately, I do so without any screaming involved.

When shower is over I take the boy out of the Pack 'n Play and plop him on the bed so he can watch Curious George/Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That, depending on how late we're running. If MacDad is at home, I yell at him to get the boy dressed. Otherwise, I get myself ready, then go into the boy's room, get his clothes and come back into our room to get him dressed. This whole routine seems to take an enormous amount of time and I'm always running behind. Every day. Even when I skip washing my hair.

Once we're dressed, we go downstairs, where I surreptitiously sneak a banana into my bag. If MacBaby sees it, he'll want one too. We put on the necessary accouterments for the weather (shoes, jacket and hat) and walk to the car. Most of the time, he does not try to run away.

Drop MacBaby off at my parents house. Take him inside so he can see his eggs cooking. This is a very exciting development in his day. Whether or not he eats the eggs, he's very excited to see them and talk about them. Go to work. A few hours later go to my parents house to have lunch with MacBaby. Usually, he's very excited to see me. It's wonderful. Then, back to work.

Nighttime choose your own adventure style: When MacDad is in town, I pick up MacBaby after work and we head home for a well balanced meal (usually) and ice cream (sometimes). We used to eat out all the time before MacBaby, but now we never eat out during the week. When MacDad is home all week, we try to do all of our grocery shopping on the weekend and plan our meals, ideally with us rotating nights cooking. While one is cooking, the other is playing with MacBaby. Or, we watch him cook on his play kitchen, stirring spices and water in his pots. This can get gross.

After dinner, MacDad and MacBaby play for a while and then I give him a bath while MacDad cleans up the kitchen. No exceptions to this part of the night. I am always in charge of the bath. I think it's because I somehow always leave the big pots in the sink, which annoys MacDad, so he figures he may as well get the washing out of the way. After the bath, I put MacBaby in his pjs and MacDad comes up for book reading. Depending on how tired MacBaby is, there are one to many books read. Then, I nurse him till he falls asleep.

When MacDad is out of town, MacBaby and I have dinner at my parents house. Mostly because I'm lazy about cooking, plus he's already there. After dinner a family member will usually come over to help me with the above routine, plus the weekly taking out the trash and the nightly feeding of the dogs. Sometimes my sister will sleep over to assist with the morning duties as well.

Regardless of who's in town or sleeping where, my routine after MacBaby falls asleep never fails. I watch tv for an hour. If MacDad is out of town, we chat on the phone. Sometimes by the end of the week I fall asleep somewhere around 9:30, but usually I make it to 10, then call it a night. Usually MacBaby will wake me up a few times in the night requesting a drink of water, then he'll go back to sleep a few minutes later.

There you have a full 24 hours in the life of the MacFamily unit during the week. I'll save our weekend activities for another post. Any suggested ways we can cut down on the chaos and find more down time to enjoy?