Tonight when I was giving my 16-month-old her nightly bottle, I started thinking about breastfeeding versus bottle-feeding. I’ve done both with all of my children, and have gotten more than my fair share of unsolicited advice.

For example:
“Everyone” says you should breastfeed now, but I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t the only mother single-handedly supporting the formula industry before we switched to cow’s milk. (As far as I know Similac and Infamil are carrying on just fine without my bidnass.)

But if you breastfeed for too long, “everyone” says you are a hippie-granola-mom and you need to wean your baby.

If you let your baby suck a bottle for what “everyone” considers too long (which varies according to region) you will get told off at the bank like I did when Aubrey was only 14-months-old.

“She needs to get off that bottle.” A woman rudely told me as I waited to cash a check.

I WANTED to pull the bottle out of her mouth, hand her to the lady and say, “Show me.”

But instead I said with a smile, “Thank you, perfect stranger, for your unsolicted parenting advice, but we’re really hoping she’ll be drinking martinis out of it on her 21st birthday.”

I’m so over the whole prideful mommy “MY baby was drinking out of a cup at 6-weeks-old and making smoothies for my husband and I as soon as she could crawl.”

Your babies are YOUR babies. I won’t tell you how to raise yours, and I’ll ask you if I need help raising mine. But as long as Sadie Plum isn’t walking into middle school drinking a Red Bull out of her Playtex Ventaire… I’ll be satisfied.

Sometimes it’s hard to sit down and be funny, to try not to offend anyone with my sense of humor (some people are easily offended) and to stay upbeat.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the number of “Mommy Bloggers” out there in cyberspace and I wonder if it’s worth it. I don’t want endorsements, product reviews or so many ads on my home page that you get confused as to where to look.

I want to write. I want to make people laugh. I want to let other moms realize we are all in this together and this thing called motherhood really is fun, when you don’t take it so seriously.

I don’t want to go to a conference about how to market myself, or have to trick people into reading what I write here.

I want to write. I want your feedback and I want to discuss. I want to be a place where moms can come to share and laugh and to know they won’t be judged.

Those are my deep thoughts for the day. What are yours?

I can’t believe it’s already Easter. This time last year Sadie, and my blog were infants. We were still in South Carolina, not knowing where our next move would take us…or for how long.

I joke around about most everything. I am able to make fun of myself and laugh publicly at my mistakes. But if there is one thing in my life that is no laughing matter it is the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross for me.

It may sound hokey to you. But I can tell you that my relationship with Him has revolutionized my life.

He has given me peace when there was no peace. He has given me His strength when I didn’t have my own. He has given me joy in the midst of depression. He has made a way for me and my family when there was no way.

He is more than a historical figure. He is everything to me.

As I anticipate the reflection tomorrow will bring, remembering the most important day my faith holds dear, I just want you to know God wants good things for you.

If you have a need, if you are looking for joy, peace, wisdom and rest…I know where you can find them and I would be glad to pray with you or for you. (You can email me privately at zebandrobin@hotmail.com)

Thanks for hanging out with me here, and making Robin’s Chicks such a fun place to be! Don’t worry, tomorrow my silliness will overtake my good sense!
XOXO

Just checking in with everyone, we had a very tumultuous trip to the beach, which included 3 cases of a stomach bug, 2 horrid coughs, 1 swallowed penny followed by a trip to urgent care and the ER for emergency surgery. We had a 7 hour drive yesterday with a feverish and hacking baby, and we are finally and blissfully home! I have so much to tell you all, lots of funnies from the beach and a Super (Silly) Mom interview with one of my favorite writers OF ALL TIME, Susan Reinhardt- but for now, I’m climbing into the bed with my babies to sleep as long as they will let me! I miss talking my peeps, and I’ll be blogging like crazy this week to catch up!

Thanks to everyone for praying for Baby Sadie, God went over and above in answering them!
XOXO

Spring Break AIN’T what is used to be. It’s 9am on a Thursday morning and I already have sweat trickling down my back from cleaning, climbing in the attic to find swim suits, and packing. It’s very different from “Gulf Shores or Bust 1995”, (and HOLY crap that was 15 years ago!) but I’m looking forward to it all the same. Even though it means there is a road trip involved and one of my kids will inevitably throw up in the car.

Me and my girls will be spending the week with my Momma, Shuggie at the beach. I’m really looking forward to seeing my sister, my nephew and just the blessing of being able to spend time with my Mom without anything on the agenda other than playing with the kids.

How about you? I’m just wondering what all my Chicks will be up to for Spring Break this year..

I’ve decided to start a new housekeeping trend…still working on a name for it, maybe…Sweep-A-Meal-Later.

See here’s my problem- after my kids eat one meal it is impossible, impossible, to sweep the food up off the floor. For dinner tonight we had grilled chicken, broccoli and rice and all the little spilled and far-flung tidbits just balled up and got stuck to my socks, but did NOT end up where I wanted them…in the dust pan.

After much research (read: slackassery) I have discovered the same is true for Cheerios. Wet Cheerios simply refuse to be swept or vacuumed up, and I’m not bending over a bazillion times a day to get all those little pieces. For several reasons:
1) If I wanted to bend over I would go to the gym,
2) When I DO go to the gym the backs of my legs are sore and I DON’T want to bend over and pick up all that crap
3) I’m pretty sure I would eventually black out from the sudden and extreme changes in my blood pressure…it’s a health risk, y’all. AND
4) Why should I worry about it when I can simply Sweep-A-Meal-Later and vacuum them up in 5 seconds flat with my handy-dandy cordless vacuum, like it’s my job? (I mean, I get that it IS “my job”, but you feel me right?)

All that to say this, if you come to my house in the morning and there is still rice and broccoli on my floor, or you come by at lunch time and there are Cheerios plastered about, it isn’t mere slackassery you are witnessing, my friends.

No.

It’s a genius with a plan.

PS Sadie published this post before I had finished it, so if you read it and broccoli was misspelled or whatever, Sadie says, “Oops, sorry.”

Just wanted to recap the past week for you in case you’ve been wondering where I’ve been:
Emma-sick, ear infection, antibiotics and diarrhea
Huzband-sick and muy exhausted
Baby Sadie-teething, ear infection, antibiotics
Me-sneezing for the last 48 hours and trying to main line vitamin C

The weekend:
Saturday: tried to catch up on sleep the entire family missed on Friday night, when Emma and Aubrey BURST into our bedroom in the middle of the night screaming. Zeb and I sat straight up in the bed…as did Sadie, in her room. Apparently Emma was trying to sneak into our bed and got busted by Aubrey who didn’t want to be left alone in their bedroom. Emma was crying because Aubrey was chasing her. Aubrey was crying because Emma was leaving her. It was tons of fun.

Sunday: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! We celebrated by taking our kids to two different churches in less than a ten hour span. (Which, all sarcasm aside, was the bright point in a really sucky week.) The kids went to bed hopped up on sugar and wild. Sadie woke up no less than three times.

Monday: Today, Emma came home from school with someone else’s dirty underpants in her backpack. They were in a Ziploc bag with someone else’s name written on it. I was confursed. But not near as confursed as I was when I walked in on Emma in the bathroom a few minutes later and found her WEARING someone else’s underwear.

As Emma would say, “It’s a miss-ah-ree.” And one I am much too tired to try to solve.