Bring June Home

Just when you thought maybe you were beginning to materialize into a halfway-decent human being, one of your best friends tells you she is adopting a little girl from China with Down syndrome. This did not come as a surprise to me because from the moment I met Allie almost two years ago, we bonded over our shared love of being 6 feet tall, motherhood, and our passion for the special need's community. When I sat across from Allie, as she recounted their meeting with June, the light and love in her eyes was that of a mother describing her child. Our world needs more people like Allie and her husband, Rob. Their patience and love for their boys is evident within the first few moments of meeting them. Everyone talks about the importance of doing good, but here is a young couple taking action, by opening their home to a little girl that needs one. Please take a moment to read their story and if your heart compels you, donate below to bring their daughter home.

https://www.youcaring.com/juneolson-733621

They have me Outnumbered

Now that I have two completely mobile, completely toddler children, I feel completely outnumbered. Being the overachieving mom that I am, I signed both my girls up for a gymnastic class through the city. In the past, I’ve managed to keep Madeleine contained in the front pack, but this time I knew I’d have to bite the bullet and pay the extra $50 to have her participate too. One of the benefits of having my kids ridiculously close together means I can take advantage of classes clumped by their age groups, even if I have to get special permission. Luckily, powers of persuasion is one of my mommy super powers:

Poop goes in the potty.

No officer I wasn’t talking on my cellphone while driving, I was handing my daughter goldfish in the backseat. But aren’t they just adorable?

In all of my planning I didn’t actually think through the two of them and one of me concept until we arrived for circle time and it all went to hell in a circle shaped handbasket. Having children under the age of 3 sit for any period longer than 30 seconds requires a lollipop the size of their head or some sort of sparkly glittery disco ball which plays any music that makes adult's ears bleed. Believe it or not stretching will not hold my kids attention, especially when there is an obstacle course and trampoline directly behind where they are “sitting”. Once we actually got to play, all of the other moms were very concerned about “the baby”, the only mom not concerned was me because I know my second child can tumble with the best of them. Between Charlotte having to use the potty, Madeleine taking a spill down the trampoline and me not being able to tend to two children at once-- I was beyond thrilled when it was time for bubbles. The bubbles lured them into the same location for two whole minutes, which was just enough time to pat myself on the back and squint my eyes so the looks of sympathy could be blurred into looks of admiration. We left without any meltdowns and without having anyone say to me every mom’s least favorite phrase, “looks like you have your hands full”. They might have me outnumbered, but that just means twice the fun. 

The Kids are Alright

In the past few weeks I’ve had the chest cold from hell, my wisdom teeth removed and then topped it all off with food poisoning. I have been out of parenting commission this week (thanks to my amazing husband) so I've been binge watching Shameless with some scary versions of parenthood. I've had nothing but time to ponder the new year and my own personal goals for what I’m trying to achieve with this uphill battle called "Motherhood". I’m terribly flawed with too short a fuse, but I have an entire ocean of love for my girls that could never possibly run dry.

This morning I picked myself up from my food poisoning coma and took the kids to a Music Together class after Stroller Strides and I left feeling giddy with all the good mommy feels. My children were dancing with colorful scarves while 16 other kids were giggling and spinning around them to music. Next everyone picked up their pots, spoons and homemade shakers which was an effective means of exorcising any last 2016 demons that may have been still lingering in a 10 mile radius. It was a level of organized hippie chaos that I had yet to experience.

I had great plans as a stay at home mom to make sure every day we'd engage in some sort of enriching activity whether it be music or dance, sign language or gymnastic, my children would be as well rounded as the drum circles we would most definitely be a part of. Haha, my child-free self was so organized and delusional. In reality, we have done gymnastic, playgroups, Stroller Strides and park outings (to name a few) but everyday isn’t a pupu platter of prefrontal cortex development and I’ve made my peace with that. I give myself a parenting gold star if I survive the 30 minutes it takes us just to get dressed for this 30 degree morning weather. I am confident I’m helping to build the necessary neural synapses in my tiny humans whether it be with a book, a kiss, or on that rare occasion we make it to a rhythmic toddler drum circle, where baby-clothing is optional and it’s BYOD (bring your own drum).