Thursday, March 26, 2015

Traveling with Kids. (alternate working title: Graying Early)

Currently the Slater family is headed down to Chicago, a roughly six hour trip by car (don't get any ideas, robbers! My mom is house sitting. She once threatened to snap the necks of my guy friends if they tried anything. Case our home at your own risk). Would you like a little snapshot of how its currently going? Sure you do! Come, join me on the journey of Dan and Emily's collective melting brains.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Enough

I'm at Culver's right now. By myself. On a Friday night. No, Dan didn't stand me up. But he did send me out. After a week of sick kids and three nights straight of a baby who wanted to Rock (in my arms, in the dark) and Roll (me, nearly off the bed) All Night, I was becoming a real sweet treat to be around. I'm not sure if it was the 3am under the breath grumble cursing (that got increasingly less under the breath as the nights wore on), or the forlorn texts about much time I spend cleaning up other people's bodily fluids (too much), or the gem of a tantrum that had me angrily declaring, "I'm just looking for some freaking sympathy here!" (to be clear, I was the one throwing the tantrum), but somehow he picked up on the subtle clues that his wife's head might start spinning entirely around if she had to be in the house one more minute.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Honesty Hour

I feel a little silly and foolish about this whole blog business.

Okay, a lot silly and abundantly foolish.

And vulnerable and weird and also my skin is starting to itch just thinking about it. Its as if my inner voice is clawing at my brain going, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? TAKE THOSE THOUGHTS OFF THE INTERNET, DUMMY!" (my inner voice is pretty loud and also a little bit of a jerkface)

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The first warm day

When I was in 3rd grade I wrote a little poem that was published in the local paper. It went something like this:

The best thing about Spring is that the snow melts
Flowers bloom
Baby animals are born 
But the very best thing about Spring is that the snow melts

 Hating winter is deep in my (achy, frozen) bones, y'all. It is not new. I felt it just as strong at 8 as I do at 26. 

Today in northern Michigan it hit 50 degrees. In October that would be a painful reminder that summer is behind us and winter is fast approaching, but in March? Oooh, girl. In March, its a sweet, sweet song. It beckons us to roll our windows down and forget our bulky coats. It calls for dancing in the tiny patch of grass in the front yard. Its so much sunshine that you're sure you'll be drunk on it or blinded by the end of the day (and it will still be there at 7:30pm and all you'll be able to think is, "Is the sun supposed to stay out this long? Its been winter for so long I don't know how it works anymore."). 

It is melting snow. 

(which 8 year old Emily ranks above baby animals. It is that good)


Thursday, March 5, 2015

One of these things is not like the other (or the other)

When my first kid was born, I was twenty years old and didn't have a clue what I was doing (I'm not trying to be humble here, I literally had no idea what I was doing. I buckled her into her car seat wrong --like, scarily wrong-- for the first few weeks of her life until someone saw and gently corrected me). Luckily for me though, this brand new little life force was fairly easy to figure out and keep relatively calm and happy. Don't get me wrong, I still endured all the new parent trials (no sleep, eating whatever I could shove into my mouth at any given moment, hygiene that would make even a medieval peasant shudder, etc.), but I was lulled into a false sense of security and self righteousness way too quickly. Look how great I am! Look at this beautiful child with her schedule and her calm personality which is obviously a sign of super cool, laid back parents. Parenting is so easy!

And then.

Dear Lord, and then.

Then my second baby came.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

The (crazy, hard, beat you down) days mama said there'd be.

Yesterday was a hamster wheel day.

I moved, moved, moved all day long, but at the end looked around and saw no progress. Honestly, the only way to gauge that the day had actually happened was by my exhausted body and the way my brain felt like it was going to melt out of my ears. And these are not generally indicators of a great day.