So here goes...

So here goes my journey into the murky world of being a stay at home mom. Enter the world of temper tantrums and play dates, leave the world of a working mother. I am excited to be on this journey and slightly cautious as to what lies ahead. It has been five months since Elijah was born and I think I am still getting used to it. I have been on maternity leave for the last five months and will continue to be until March 20th. On the 20th I will be officially a member of the stay at home mom club. The biggest lesson I have learned being a stay at home mom so far has been that just because I am staying at home does not mean that my children will miraculously become perfect children. In fact I think the opposite has been true. Eden seems to be much more comfortable pushing her limits now that we are home. Her favorite time to explore: when I am feeding Eli. She knows I am stuck in one spot for a little while and she can create chaos. As a result she has been banned from my room and bathroom. Not that this stops her, but it makes me feel better.

And that leads me to my second lesson: Take joy in little victories and in your own delusions. Seriously no kids are perfect, and being the mother of a toddler is a lesson in accepting and taking joy in the tiny victories. For example I could get seriously frustrated that we have to visit the bathroom 12 times in a one hour trip to Target. But then Eden looks up at me and says "Mom, I listened to my body and I didn't have an accident." It makes the frustration of going back to the bathroom even though she just went ten minutes ago a little more tolerable.

My final lesson/mini rant is: Don't compare yourself to other mothers. Does it make you feel like a better mother to make super healthy lunches and snacks for your kids? Good for you, but don't look at me like you are going to call DCF because I gave my kids frozen chicken nuggets, hey I cooked them first. This is not to say that I don't try really hard to make sure that Eden eats well balanced and healthy meals. But I am not going to make myself feel bad because all she ate was two frozen go-gurts. At least it is yogurt. There is enough pressure and outside forces telling us that we are bad mothers. Do we really need to do that to each other? I promise that if you stop tsking at me because I told Eden if she doesn't start behaving that I would sell her on ebay, and I won't comment on the fact that your kid is making fart sounds behind your back.

I can't promise that my blog will contain any amazing insight into being a stay at home mom. In fact I can pretty much promise the opposite, but I will try not to sugarcoat the journey. Because someday I will find it in me to laugh at how yesterday at the park Eli had a blow out diaper. It might be funny that I discovered this because I picked him up and poop ran down my wrist. Until then I am going to take a victory in that it didn't get on my clothes, and that I am eternally grateful for hand sanitizer.