Opened Eyes

If you saw my last post, then you now have visual proof that Lucy has eyes. I know that a few of you that have met her were not fully convinced of this, but yes, when Lucy turned 2 months old, she finally woke up and showed the world was born with eyes behind those lids! Now that she is three months old, she is getting more and more lively. For a while, everyone teased me that I was just carrying around a doll, but I can now prove that she is real :-)

Everyone always teasing about Lucy not having eyes, reminds me of a little story of when I was pregnant with Jack.

I was pregnant with Jack and every night I would read from one of my many pregnancy books and I would tell Jay what our little tike was up to now that he was x many days old. One day, when I was about 8 months pregnant, Jay asked me how old the baby would be before he had eyes. Puzzled, I told him that the baby did already had eyes. Jay then said (and I swear this is true), "No, I mean, after he comes out, how long before he can open his eyes?" Me-"Huh?" Jay-"You know, the lids will be closed for a while, how long until the baby's eyes will open?" Me, laughing, " He will be born with them open, he is not a kitten!". I teased Jay about this mercilessly for quite a while, but I guess he wasn't too far off...Lucy had eyes and the ability to open them, she just chose not to show this skill very often! Jay was predicting the next child!

Note to reader: I swear this story is true. If you see Jay and mention this story, he will no doubt deny it. You will just have to decide for yourself who to believe. And for you to make an informed decision I will divulge the following, I inherited the exaggeration gene from my mother and Jay's memory has more holes than my colander. Probably neither of us are remembering the story the way it actually happened!

Happy Girl

If you needed something to make you smile today, then this is just for you.

Lucy is becoming much more alert and active, she is so much fun! She is always full of smiles, I still can't believe what a happy baby she is! The whole time that I was pregnant with her, Jay and I feared, "What if this one is so wild it makes Jack look mild?" Lucy wasn't even a week old before we realized that we had nothing to fear; Jack is definitely our wild child and Lucy is our mild child.

Ta-Da

This video was taken during Christmas 2009. (I just finally figured out how to get video from Jay's phone onto my computer.) The story behind it is, Jack was given a step-stool from Nana and Papa and Jack decided it was a stage. He had recently been taught to say "Ta-Da" after he does something cool and he thought that standing on the stool was a pretty cool trick.

I think this has to be one of my favorite videos of Jack, I am so glad that Jay had his phone handy to capture this! Although, it wasn't exactly hard to capture this video, as this video might only be about a minute long, Jack actually did it for about 45 minutes!

Helicopters

There are some new buzz words out there that parents are hearing everywhere, "helicopter parents" and "free-range parents". It is basically comparing parents who stand over their children monitoring everything they do and parents who stand on the side lines and let their children make their own choices and their own mistakes. Helicopter parents are at obvious risk of having children that are overly dependent of their parents and unable to make decisions for themselves. That being said, I hope that someday I can graduate to being a helicopter mom, as I am currently a Zamboni mom. I have not ever heard of a Zamboni mom in any of the parenting books, but my sister and I have both decided that is exactly what we are; we are out in front of our children paving the environment to be exactly what we want for them, not allowing for any troubles or wrong choices in their path. I am not saying this is the right way to parent, or even what I ever thought I would be as a parent, but it is what I have turned into. Recently, while Jack and I were at the ball pit (yes, I was IN the ball pit with him!), a little girl asked me why I wasn't working out with the rest of the mommies. Yes, I need the work-out, but I couldn't stand the idea of leaving Jack with some stranger hired to watch the kids. (And when I say "watch", she was actually sitting nearby, texting on her phone the entire time, not even sure how many kids she was actually "watching".)

Having a 4 year old question your parenting skills really makes you wonder where you went wrong. So, there I was, in a germ infested ball pit, trying to explain to a four year old that I actually like playing with my son. And then I started to wonder, am I in this ball pit for his own safety or my own sanity. There were two dozen other moms who felt quite comfortable leaving their children with the gym's daycare and I wouldn't even consider it. The kids were happy and no one had lost a limb despite not having mommy within an arm's reach.

The criteria for watching my children used to be that I had once been in that womb but my criteria has now laxed into people who I have known for over a year and that they would be willing to die to rescue my children. As far as leaving my children with people that the gym has hired, well, I don't think I will be ready for that hurdle for a long time, but soon, hopefully I will come out of the ball pit and let Jack experience it without me protecting him from every ball that is thrown in his direction. (And if you know Jack, you know that I am in there for the protection of the other children as well. )

Hopefully, by the time Jack enters college, I will have graduated to a level above helicopter mom and allow him to leave home to live in a dorm. I know I still won't be ready to be a free-range mom by then, as I do plan on making Jack and Lucy go to the same college so that Jay and I can relocate to the city of their choice!

If you haven't met my children, I am sure that after reading this post, you are picturing very needy and reserved kids. Well, let me assure you that despite my parenting, Jack is one of the most independent, outgoing and active kids I have ever met. Good thing that nature triumphs over nurture!