Becoming Effective

 With each new developmental stage or milestone that C.orben reaches I have found that I go through a period of adjustment where our norm changes, as does my energy level and general feeling of "I got this Mom and wife thing down". The most drastic has hands down been with the start of C.orben crawling and pulling up on things. He is hyper and he is fast! He was suddenly able to get into everything and the majority being things he shouldn't get in to. Obviously this now requires constant supervision. Gone were the days of setting him down while I grab something from the other room real quick and he's very rarely content with being placed in his exercauser anymore. Now there is the constant fear for his safety... he can pull over lamps, pull on and chew electrical cords, he's able to grab things off of high surfaces, find small things and put them in his mouth... it goes on and on. Then of course there are the numerous things that he can destroy. Also with this stage came sleep issues. We're starting to get back to normal but still... Ahhhh! One.Tired.Mommy!!

During this transition I still have been great about keeping the house picked up (clutter stresses me out) and generally clean, but I haven't kept up with my real cleaning and regularly cooking meals. There were also some things that I had started with C.orben and those got put to the side as well. Now that the transitional dust has settled and I have set some goals for myself: 

• Keep up with the housework schedule
• Make meal plans
• Use sippy cup for feedings 
• Give C.orben more finger foods
• Put C.orben on the training potty more often

1. My housework schedule works really great for me as it allows me to spread the housework out over 4 days instead of trying to do it all in one day. I really regret getting away from this. Here's what I do:

     Monday: Clean the kitchen, wash windows, dust

     Tuesday: Vacuum, mop, febreeze

     Wednesday: Laundry, wash sheets, disinfect surfaces

     Thursday: Clean bathrooms, disinfect trashcans

2. I love making meal plans. I enjoy the process of it; looking up recipes and writing a shopping list and I'm a super dork that enjoys creating a cute little weekly menu and putting it on the fridge. Plus it makes life so much easier and eliminates the annoyance of trying to think what to make last minute or buying ingredients and then forgetting that I have them.

3. I had been really great about offering a sippy cup often and we had even started the process of bottle weaning. As of now sometimes he will drink his formula from a sippy cup and sometimes it just pisses him off. If he's thirsty he will drink his water from there with no issue. I'm going to get back to trying to replace his 2:30 bottle with a sippy cup.

4. At home finger foods usually consist of cheerios or puffs. {Praise God for cheerios and the highchair. This usually buys me a few minutes to get things done}. I'm not quite sure why I stopped making a conscious effort to give him more regular food at home. I'm sure part of it is we have been really busy with errands and running around that we eat out a lot lately and purees are easy! The eating out will be stopping. Whenever my husband and I eat we will give him pieces of our food, but I want to start preparing an actual finger food meal for him to eat from his highchair. I don't see him still eating purees at a year old, so I need to start doing more to transition.

5. I don't necessarily practice Elimination Communication. I don't see how I would figure out when he needed to urinate early enough for me to put him on the potty. What I do practice though is when I notice that he's starting to poop I put him on the training toilet. I would like to start putting him on there 30 minutes to an hour after he's had liquids to see if I can catch urine. That would be exciting! My motives are not to potty train my baby... I think that would be ridiculous and I'm not ready to give up my cloth diapers ;). My motives are so that when it comes time to potty train him the toilet isn't anything new, different, or scary, but something that he's use to and I figured why not! Plus, cleaning poo out of a training toilet is easier than a diaper and putting him on the toilet certainly can't hurt anything. At the very least maybe he will potty train before 5 like his mommy. Yup, that's right... I wasn't fully potty trained until 5. What's up with that?!

He's so going to kill me for this when he's older, but it's too cute to not share.

Another obstacle that I'm facing in getting things done is mommy guilt. I feel guilty when I'm doing things other than interacting or playing with my child. I know I need to get over it. He certainly doesn't need me up in his face 24/7. I do try to do a few things during his nap, but right now I usually use that time to get dressed for the day, wind down, relax, and get something to eat. 

It's very important to me that I feel effective at home. Being a mom and housewife is my vocation now and I want to be good at my job. I feel so accomplished and a great sense of pride on days where the house is clean, dinner is made, and I've packed my husband a lunch for the next day. Not to mention that my husband is the hardest working person that I've ever met and his plate is beyond full. I honestly don't know how he manages to get everything done and not explode with the stress. Your jaw would drop if I told you everything he has going on right now. I would really like to make sure that he's well fed and that there is at least one thing he doesn't have to worry about. Plus you know men... left to their own devices they just eat crap!