I was the perfect parent.... before I had children.

Before I had a baby, I had all these visions of how I would do things when it comes to parenting.... mostly looking at others, and thinking "Ohhh, I am going to do that with my baby when I have kids" or, "I am NEVER going to do that with my children..."  And then you actually have a baby, and reality hits you... and those visions or ideas you had about parenting all went out the window...  here are just a few:

1. S T Y L E

I am not going to lie.  When I was first pregnant with Silas, and people would ask, "Are you hoping for a girl or a boy?" you know the answer would always be, "It doesn't matter as long as I have a healthy, happy baby!" ...but secretly I was kind of hoping for a girl.  There were a lot of boys in the family already, and girl clothes are WAY cuter, amiright?  Obviously, those reasons are not super important at all (and I am totally loving having a little man).  When I did in fact find out I was having a boy, I decided that I would dress him like such a little dapper stud-muffin, and found images like these on Pinterest for his style inspiration....

HAHAHA.  I laugh in the face of those pictures now....  most days I am lucky if Silas' outfit even matches, or he is not wearing sweatpants.  A couple of things:  cute STYLISH clothes can be expensive, and they are just going to get dirty, and the kid is going to grow out of them in about 30 seconds.  Why bother?  Also... I mean, does your one year old really need a sports jacket, or a cardigan?  Heck no.  And those shoes?  Can he even walk in those?  Don't even get me started on Silas wearing hats...

2. T E C H N O L O G Y :

Pre-Silas, often times when Jordan and I were out at a restaurant etc. I would see parents with young children sticking an iPad or a cell phone in a child's face immediately after being seated to keep them entertained. Really? I was almost disgusted by this.  Have we done this since having Silas?  YOU BET.  We don't don't do it all the time, and we never do it right off the bat, but if he is getting antsy and he wants to get up or starts whining, it has been such a lifesaver.  You learn you would rather have him quiet and sitting still than causing a raucous and disrupting the whole place, annoying other patrons.  Maybe there are better ways to do that, but we find this to be very helpful.  And.... everything we do show is educational (or nursery rhymes) and we DO limit his "tech-time".  He uses the phone and iPad at home as well (mostly ABCs, numbers, and other word apps - he actually has learned a lot from these). 

3. P U B L I C   A P P E A R A N C E :

We have all seen it.  That snotty, yet crusted nose kid out at the grocery store with stains all over his clothes.  Well, maybe not that extreme, but y'all know what I am talking about.  Gross, I would think... I would never let my cute kid look like that out in public.  But ya know what?  Kids get dirty.  They don't care if something is on their face or they have some pasta sauce on their shirt... in fact they actually like to rub that sauce, or grease, or banana goo into their shirt and pants at every meal.  I know there are moms out there that DO make sure their child looks perfect out in public...with the most adorable, pristine outfits with immaculately clean faces.  Me?  I gave up on that at about month 4 or 5.  If things are REAL bad I never leave the house before an outfit change or a wipe down, but if Silas has a little smudge of something on his shirt, or if he got some gunk around his mouth from eating snack in the car, I really don't bother with it much.  And he has definitely been at the grocery store with a crusty nose before... and I just don't really care that much.

I am sure there are other things as well in which I had previous intentions of how things would happen, and things changed, but that is life.

Hence why I am not the perfect parent, and never will be.  Maybe I thought I was going to be before I had children, but you never know what you will do until that child actually comes along, and you change your mind, because kids are not easy.  I don't think it is being lazy or not trying, I think it is just realizing what makes your kid happy, while keeping you sane and not worrying too much about every little thing.

Oh, and I am probably going to have to read this book....  because, yeah.....

Natural Born Chiller

Silas is officially a year and a half!

I would not say he is "talking" much more per say, but his speech is developing more and more.

Currently, he loves to say Matt.  Matt Matt Matt (two of my friends are dating guys named Matt).

He babbles a lot and is using consonants more often... sometimes you can ask him to say a word and he will try to repeat it.  Sometimes.  And when he says "Bye Daddy" in the morning when Jordan leaves for work, it's pretty much the cutest thing in the world.

He has begun the "toddler picky eating stage" where one day he will like something, the next day he will not.  When you put food on his tray he won't eat it, but if you feed it to him he will.  When you try to feed him something he knows he does not want he squints really hard.  Blueberries are still probably his favorite, but who knows.....maybe next week he won't touch them.

I really am not sure when he will kick the ripping paper phase because he still LOVES it. I don't get it.  It's a win lose situation for us parents because it will keep him busy for a good 10-20 minutes if we need it, but then we have to clean up the hundreds of small shreds of magazine spread across our floors.  Another negative coming out of this situation is he does not know what paper is okay to tear, and what is not okay.... which means just board books for us as of now and you better not leave and dollar bills or important paperwork lying around.

Silas has also been getting up way too early for his own good (throw in some 18 month sleep regression as well which entails middle-of-the-night SCREAM crying).  He usually goes to bed around the same time give or take a half-hour.  For the longest time, he was getting up between 8-9... then it changed to between 7-8 for a few months, now it is between 6-7.  This morning I woke up on my own around 6:15, just lying there HOPING he would sleep a little longer.  I got a half hour more sleep before I heard him.  And I know it's not that early, but you best BELIEVE I like to get my 8 hours of sleep if I can, so it just means an earlier bed time for myself.

When Silas is not whining, he is a pretty cool dude... a natural born chiller.

 "Please mum, NO MORE PICTURES!!"

Sesame Street: I Can Remember

Now that Silas is a little older, he is tuning into the television more and more while it is on during the day. I figured I should probably have him watch something somewhat educational rather than stick to my favorites which are the TODAY show and The Price is Right :/ Our new line-up includes Curious George, Daniel the Tiger, and of course, Sesame Street.  

The other day, while watching Sesame Street, there was a clip where a young girl goes to the store to get a few things for her mother... "a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter". The clip is about remembering.  I thought nothing of it at the time, but when in repeated later that week, it resonated with me....  "Was that a clip from when I watched Sesame Street when I was little?" It seemed so familiar....  So I of course turned to Google to look it up.  Turns out, the clip "I can Remember" was recently remade from an older version.  I knew it!  

I remembered.

And here is the original for your viewing pleasure....