Or maybe clean bowl club? Either way the baby is now officially moving into solids.  She is also now moving forward when she crawls. Not backward, not side to side, not scooting around but crawling. Full on crawling. Hold me now.

{And yes I just posted an update that is essentially what I ate for breakfast baby style. Why? Because I could.}

I am sure by now everyone has seen this commercial from Volkswagen. In fact, I believe they are the world’s smartest car company for knowing how to tap into our collective childhood memories with Star Wars meets cute kids and now Star Wars meets cute dogs. However, I am posting this in case you are one of the five people remaining in the world who hasn’t seen it.

Just think: the world outside our doors may be in turmoil but at least we have barking dogs to entertain us.

One Saturday late afternoon…

Ring

Ring

“Beth your phone is ringing.”

“Oh, is that mine.”

For a second I thought about not going to see who was calling and letting it go to voice mail. It had been a hard day and I already felt worn out. But instead I reached for my phone and saw that Alice was calling. I answered it.

She sounded tired and frazzled. She sounded like I felt.

Her first words were:

“What are you doing? Do you want to get coffee with me? Please, it has been a really hard day.”

My answer was “Nothing, yes and yes!”

Mike looked at me curiously when I hung up, hearing me say “Sure where should we go?” was probably was a clue that I was thinking of getting out of the house and it wasn’t even dinner time yet. But then I told him the full extent of our conversation, which included more than the coffee & yes. It included the need to share the experiences of mothering with another mom. One who understood what it was like to get dressed in what you thought were clean clothes only to realize after you are in public that your pants have a small dirty hand-print on the back and you didn’t realize it but everyone else does and by the way that chubby kid hand-print is on your butt. Or what it is like to NEVER go to the bathroom without someone intruding, someone asking for food (hello! I am in the bathroom) or someone deciding that is the moment to tear apart your entire living room. Or…well you get the picture!

Mike said he understood when I told him why. After all I am home all day with the kids and my day is one of constant “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!” while I try to home educate them, run a home and have some semblance of a career. He is aware that while his work isn’t easy he does get to leave, talk to grown-ups if he so desires, he gets to have quiet bathroom breaks, and he has some sense of peace in his car (no one is shouting while he drives “HE IS LOOKING AT ME!!!” or singing the Phineas and Ferb theme song at the top of their lungs…just sayin’).

So, I got ready and within an hour she and I were sitting there in the cafe drinking our coffee. As we talked about everything under the sun from faith to education to hobbies to our kids we both relaxed more into our chairs and felt recharged. I am sure those around us could see the frazzled mom vibes starting to melt off of us.

At one point while we were talking I told her that I was so happy to have her call. It had been one of THOSE days. The kind where you think maybe if this mothering jig was a reality show it would be “Survivor Island.” And your day is right at the point where someone is going to get voted off this motherhood island and secretly you hope it is you. It is not that you don’t love your kids, because you do. You would give up everything for them and in many cases you do, willingly. Still every momma needs some time to hear herself think! Coffee with a good talk and a mom who has been there was the perfect break.

As she heard me talk about how it was perfect timing her smile got bigger.

Her next words…

“You know what? It is good to know I am not the only one who has days like that and it is good to know I am not alone. I love my kids but today was just a really hard day.”

And you know what?

She was right. As we finished our coffee it was good to know that there was someone else, like me, who had hard days and days where she needed to find space to breathe. It was good to feel like I wasn’t alone.

I am so glad I answered my phone.

If only Mike & I had found this guide earlier how much easier our transition to parenthood would have been!

From the hilarious satire Safe Baby Handling Tips by David & Kelly Sopp.

The first 6 months just flew right by us.  I cannot believe she is now 6 months old. Where did the time go! She is starting to scoot everywhere, loves to laugh and she is insanely curious about everything.

We took the tree down. Packed everything all away. Well almost everything, we will keep our lights up for a bit and the Nativity will sit out until Candlemas.  Because we rock it old school like that.

And now we are back to our ordinary days & rhythms. The season of settling into enjoying cold days and colder nights. Learning & growing during the day.  Curling up at night with a book which is now in the form of either the old fashioned page turner or on the iPad (Yes, I have gone to the dark side & given into reading books on it) or watching a movie.

And kids running around with laughter echoing everywhere during the joyful chaos of the day.

D-man is still in love with his Alphie robot.  He even wants to take him to bed and cuddle. Like I have said before it’s better D-man learn to take orders from robots while he is still young given soon robots will be our overlords.

I have heard you aren’t supposed to expose them to bright lights or feed them after Midnight.  Oh, wait. Was that advice for kids or the Mogwai Gizmo? Hmm…I should probably check on that.

“Mommy, look it’s Maarwee!”  she says with a big grin and in her not so quiet five year old voice.

“Who honey?” I asked her, as she pointed at the screen with excitement.

“Maarwee!!!! Mommy, Maarwee! She is singing. She’s from Jack’s show {Jack’s Big Music Show}.”

I paused. I watched to see the woman on the TV to figure out the name my daughter was saying with such glee. Then it hit me. I remembered.

“Oh, Mary! You like her?”  I asked her with my own smile crawling across my face as I took in her excitement.

“Yes, I just love Maarwee!”  And then she began to sing right along with Maarwee! While she danced her Raggedy Andy doll across the air as if he were Fred Astaire.

And I couldn’t stop smiling as I watched her.  Ya know, once she starts saying Mary the right way I am going to miss her sweet lisp and these moments.  More than that I am going to miss her being this little.

My oldest walked out of the bathroom after showering and changing.  I stopped what I was doing, cup of coffee half way to my mouth, and took a good hard look at him.

“Did you wash your hair?” I asked.

“Yes. I did.” He was looking at me perplexed by my question. After all he just got out of the shower, washing hair as part of the whole washing process is customary.

“Are you sure?”  I asked him again, trying to give him an out, because looking at his hair it was clear something was amiss.

Pray-tell, what was amiss one might ask?

Why, you see the front half of his was surprisingly dry for a kid who JUST finished washing it.  Lightly misted, maybe. But for all intents and purposes it was DRY. That is going to stand out to a momma.

“Um, yah…I washed it.” Was his answer, he wasn’t budging.

“OK, so how did you wash you hair? What soap did you use.”

“I used the shampoo on the side of the tub. I washed it like this {hand raises to demonstrate how}” And then it makes sense.

“Alright, you did great washing the BACK and very top of your head. How about the front?”

There I saw his hand slowly move to the front of his head, eyes getting wider as he moves from wet hair to dry hair {hair that at most was lightly misted from the shower}. And it dawns on him.

“Oh, man I washed it. Just not all of it. But some of it still counts right? I mean I did wash my hair, some hair is still hair, right?”

Ugh, yes and no mister. Yes and no.

I also need more coffee to deal with this.  Lots more coffee.