A few observations from this week and life in general.
1. The preteen girl section at Target looks like bedazzled pole dancer wear. I’m scared of E growing out of the little girl section.
2. Little girl clothes are amazing because when the dresses get too short they become shirts. Pants turn into capris too. When boy clothes get too short, they look like ragamuffins and make you feel like the worst mom ever.
3. Kids in footie pjs are the cutest thing ever. I especially love E in them with her cockatoo hair after taking her bow out.
4. Seeing a baby in footie pjs with a big visible load in their pants is surprisingly more hilarious than gross.
5. My kids are unable to poop quietly… unless we are about to go somewhere. If we are about to leave I won’t know until just before trying to load the car. If we are in public everyone in a 5 mile radius will know.
6. People telling me to cherish every moment makes me angry. I know they mean well, but better (and more realistic) advice for a mom is to cherish your children each day. Relish each stage of development and appreciate your little people. If you choose not to cherish being bone tired, covered in poop, and and one tantrum away from a personal meltdown, you are not a bad mom- you’re human.
7. My daughter turns into a crazy mix of super sweet and super rough when she is sleepy. Kisses abound but I often get my glasses yanked off.
8. Little girls cultivate a love of shoes early. E is our little shoe thief and gets mad if a pair isn’t for her.
9. You have to have a sense of humor to be a parent. I can’t imagine making it day to day without being able to laugh at kid antics, gross happenings, and my own failures.
10. There really is a huge attitude shift from the first to the second child. I am so much more laid back about things with E than I was with K as a baby. Poor first kids will always be the experimental kid.
The sleepy cockatoo:
Mama Miller Parenting 
Your #2 is so true: When I’ve taken Nate anywhere in public, only realizing later that his pants are too short for him when he stands up, oh! I feel like the worst mother- I can’t even notice that my own son has grown in front of me. Your#6: is so true too: everytime I complain about something, my mom says: cherish these little moments with him, I get so mad sometimes, specially when I’m exhausted, sleep deprived and like you said covered in poop! 🙂 Thanks for sharing what many of us are thinking! 🙂
It really bugs me! It is usually in response to a status on Facebook about one of my kids antics. A sweet older lady from church will tell me to enjoy every minute because it goes too fast. I usually post our struggles in good humor. Writing about it helps me see it with fresh eyes. I don’t mean it as a complaint, but as a way to laugh about it and show our family in its raw human state. This is one of my all time favorite article/blogs about “carpe diem” and “cherish every moment”: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/glennon-melton/dont-carpe-diem_b_1206346.html
Thank you! I read the article! all true! CARPE DIEM !!! 🙂
My daughter loved shoes at an early age too! She was open to all the different kinds of footwear that I put on her! The other day I tried to put cowboy boots on my 2 year old son and he flopped over backwards in a fit and when I asked him what was wrong he got up and went and retrieved his sneakers! Obviously, boys only require 1 pair of shoes and they need to be comfortable!!!
Poor K had to wear corrective shoes for his entire first year. The tendons in his feet were too tight and the shoes helped hold them in place to stretch his tendons. They were awful! He hated them. He cruised around furniture but didn’t walk on his own until after his first birthday when the said he didn’t have to wear them anymore. After those straight jacket shoes, he could get out of any shoes! He finally is ok with shoes again but gets stuck on one pair at a time too!