Mommy’s Groove

As he bounces up and down on the trampoline, I can see he’s thinking about all the instructions he’s received over time. Tuck jump, star jump, and seat drop with hands beside your bum. He bounces off the 10 tuck jumps requested by his gymnastics “coach” without out a thought. When she asks him to drop to his seat then bounce back up to his feet, he performs the move flawlessly. When she advances the move to include seat to knees and hands, instead of feet, he tries twice before getting the rhythm. When he looks up at me his faces shines with pride and I can feel him soaking up my verbal encouragement and my clapping. Read the rest of this entry »

You can see it in their eyes, the kids who have a sense of self and a sense of purpose. They are the ones who never fall between the cracks, they fit in where they shine and enjoy a comfortable social life. How do they get that way? Read the rest of this entry »

There are some decisions with which I will just never be comfortable. I don’t shy away from making choices generally, but there are some that just don’t seem to have an option that I can feel certain about. Read the rest of this entry »

“Unreachable” in the sense of being non-responsive, is not a quality in which I take pride. But it is a hard fact of my personality. Moving through the motions of organizing breakfast or working through a problem up-loading music, I know I can be unavailable to my family. I hear their requests for milk or queries about dinner plans but I am unable to break myself away from my focus to respond. It’s an ugly quality, but a classic one for an introvert. I want to be different. Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps I got it from my mother’s rigorous schedule for us kids, but I knew early on that my kids would be the early-to-bed, early-to-rise type. For me, the reasons lie in nature — both the human type and the environmental type. I wake up around the same time every day and want most to be in bed by 10:00 p.m. — sometimes earlier! But happily, the sun follows me, or I it, so aside from being different from the truly social-set, I never feel odd. Perhaps I’m not the best late-dinner party guest, but I’m ok with that. I shine brightest in the daylight!  Read the rest of this entry »

My daughter opted to attend her Dad’s hair cut the other evening. The staff was terrific about giving her a piece of paper, coloured markers and a seat at the “waiting counter”. She busily got to her art project while her Dad had his ears lowered. Read the rest of this entry »

Fifteen days of blissful gazing into the eyes of your newborn, resting, nursing and finding that Zen Momma place reads like an idyllic start to a new life together. But who can actually stay in bed for 15 days?? You’ve got new grandparents clamouring at the door, a bundle of joy to show off and your brain is accustomed to multi-tasking 16 things. Lying-in is not for you, right? Don’t write it off so quickly. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve got the kind of focus you want in an emergency: clear thought, process orientation and endurance. Those skills and that laser sharp focus come into play when I’m called upon to deal with a sick child or wedge a car out of a scrape (both of which I had to do last week). But that kind of thinking also comes to mind for me when I recall the first weeks with my babes. Read the rest of this entry »

When I looked over the island counter in the kitchen and saw two young beaming faces my heart melted and I was charged to sustain the joy they were feeling. They weren’t opening a Christmas gift or watching Dora walk through our house, they were watching my husband and I kiss. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve had a flood of memories of fecal matter strewn about the room since reading recent entries from Her Bad Mother. I love how shit stories connect mothers via the funny-bone where parenting styles might otherwise separate them. Read the rest of this entry »