A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
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As a new mom and even as a seasoned mother people will solicit you advice. Some of it is great, some bad, and some bizarre. All usually unasked for and some of the time given by people you do not know or think even like you. Taking the advice with a grain of salt and graciously saying thank you to the current ‘know-it-all’ is good advice. Now I’m not the person to be giving any out. I’m a try and learn kind of gal. I give most things a shot, as long as they aren’t too far fetched. For example if I ask my grandmother and she has heard of it, gu...
Now that Little Brother is three months old I have noticed a lot of changes in him. Not only his looks but he has a more pronounced schedule too. A nice addition to how much he is growing is that he now wants to talk, watch, and play. He has gone from this tiny little bundle to more than doubling his weight and becoming so strong. He holds his head up so well and never wants to lay flat if he’s awake. I better hold him up in my lap like a big kid and let him see what every noise in the house is. He has taken to liking his bouncy chair with t...
As I have fallen into my role as the stay at home mom of two boys I find myself getting ready to go places earlier and ending up arriving even later. It is as if Murphy’s Law is playing some sick joke on me to see how much I’ll take and if I will eventually just give up and stay home. Determination makes me keep trying because it might take me two hours to get out of this house but I’m telling you the fresh air and outing we get for a whole half-hour or hour does wonders. Little Brother usually falls asleep in the truck and Big Brother just...
Last week Big Brother had a long awaited appointment. Over the course of two years we have been told by a few different people that big Brother couldn’t hear well. Headstart testers ( That’s what I call the testing people who do those series of tests on your child before they go into headstart), before that a daycare worker, and finally his new school suggested he be retested for his hearing. Even when Big Brother was born he was referred out to be retested for one ear. I took him in to be tested again as an infant and they said he was fin...
Before Little Brother was born I was already trying to think of ways to give Big Brother his one on one time. I knew that he’d need it. I also thought of how we could make it special. We have tried to get Big Brother to go out to errands and shopping with one of us when we go. The baby would always stay home, but Big Brother would always refuse to go. He just preferred to stay home with one parent and his brother while the other parent did leave to do the running around. The night before the Big Day I started to talk it over with Big B...
As I think about all the advice I’ve heard about kids from family and friends one that is standing out is the old line, “No two kids are the same.” Sure I agree with it but I can’t help but wonder if I am somehow making my kids the same. I can already see Little Brother two or three years from now barking demands at me just like Big Brother and see myself delivering. Over the last two months Big Brother has been taking it hard. He’s had a lot to get used to. His mother is not being able to cater to him during playtime and every other time like...
As I fall into a routine with two children I find myself feeling guiltier than ever. For a long time I was easily manipulated and run by Big Brother. All he had to do was make me feel the slightest twinge of guilt and I’d comply with his way. I’m a huge pushover and have only really become a rule follower in the last year or year and a half when not being in charge started to be a problem. I was receiving comments from people about his bossiness and my lack of. I always just enjoyed my son’s free spirit. He is extremely shy around other peopl...
A while back I wrote a column about Baby T’s quotes and even did a follow up one of even more. Well I thought it was time to share some more of the things that we have heard in our household. These are some particular ones that had me laughing so hard that medically I was “not taking it easy” like the doctor ordered. Any woman who has had a c-section knows what I am talking about. Since the birth of baby #2, I feel like I take more notice to the things that come out of Baby T’s mouth because I can see how much he’s grown since he was as small...
Hi, I am (insert your own name here). I used to have a name but now it is Mommy. I am the girl who makes sure her kids have matched socks but doesn’t care if her own are…As long as I am not going anywhere that I have to take my shoes off. I am the woman whose kid has covered the walls or cupboards or windows with possibly crayon and permanent marker. (In my case both over the course of 2 years.) Upon discovering the new masterpiece I declared to him how beautiful it was and how much I loved it because he was so proud that amidst all that scr...
As I lay me down to sleep. I pray my children do not weep. As I watch them close their eyes, I hope they dream of starry skies. I pray that if and when they cry, I will always be there to sing a lullaby. I am thankful for the help we receive, And I secretly hope my oldest stops wiping snot on his sleeve. As I lay me down to sleep, I pray my children stay asleep. Not for long as some may want, Just long enough for me to say it was a shot. As I close my bloodshot eyes, I dream and hope they grow into stand up guys. I pray my babies learn to love...
The second Sunday after welcoming the new baby I started to feel a little cooped up. I am still recovering from surgery but by my eighth and ninth day I felt so much better. I was walking around the house better and even bending over to pick up Baby T’s cars. I figured why not try an out to Wal-Mart? What was the worst that would happen? I’d have to either leave if I was too sore or drive a motorized cart. I forgot how long it could take to leave your house with a brand new baby in tow. You change them and their clothes. You just about get the...
Here I am about to spend my fourth night at home. I cannot believe it but I came home pretty early. On the second day after my new son’s birth, I was on my way home. I had expected to be at the hospital for at least three maybe four days. Surprisingly I wanted to come home the day early. All I could think about was my poor Baby T at home alone (well with his dad or his Tota) and about how if I could come home that extra day sooner Baby T would get the chance to spend two nights with his new brother and Mommy before heading back to school v...
I have finally been told after being driven crazy by my doctor that I have a birth date for the new baby. Last week I mentioned how they (the doctor’s office and hospital) were going to let me know. I got a phone call and a date given to me. Then two days later the hospital calls and gives me a date that is one day closer. Excited and relieved to know when I am expecting to meet the new addition to our family I started to let my immediate family know. Of course I had already told them the first date I was given and now was basically r...
As my due date approaches there have been a few surprises between a month ago and now, like my health, unpacking, and my actual delivery date. This is kind of a “moms only” article so if you’re a guy and bore easily now would be the time to flip the page. I have been so tired this pregnancy but I just shrugged it off thinking that I had a three-year-old who just turned four and if being his play buddy wasn’t tiring enough, his busy ways were. Like, “Oh you want a snack, ok…Wait let me get you a bowl first!” On the off day that Baby T would...
Here I am after a few weeks of quality time with Baby T. We had a good break, I could tell that as the holidays approached my little guy was ready for it. It was starting to be a fight to get him to school and bed. He would drag his feet so slowly across the floor to his boots that I felt like I was saying, “Hurry up, come on” fifty times a morning. Even his teachers had commented that not just him but all the kids in his class were in need of a serious break. The last week and a half before the two weeks off we had to keep reminding Baby T of...
Now that fall is behind us winter has loomed its freezing head. I have never been one for the cold. Christmas, skating and skiing were always my favorite parts of winter. Making a snowman on a mild day is fun to me. However the wet snow that makes you late for work, or soaks your shoes before you get where you are going never seemed like quite an even trade off. I mean I do love that “snowman snow,” the kind that is easily packable and stays put. For instance, you could walk through it and not get it in your socks and I like the sound of the...
Recently I went out to eat Chinese food. I always look forward to the prize part when you’re done your meal: your fortune cookie. I personally get a kick out of those little paper tidbits of wisdom. Sometimes they make no sense or are so vague they apply to everyone. Baby T’s dad didn’t have a fortune in his cookie that night which prompted the conversation about who gets to write those, and how do they come up with it. All because someone didn’t insert one into his cookie. I was just doing laundry and found my little paper fortune and I thoug...
Now that packing is behind us and settling in is ahead of us we have found ourselves in a waiting stage. Fortunately for me I got the assistance or I should say the labor force of my in-laws. My mother and sister in law pretty much packed my whole house the day before the move, making what I had packed seems to be the equivalent of a closet. Each time I picked up a bag or box they would instruct me to leave it alone. I felt sort of useless during the move. I was pretty much restricted to putting stuff in boxes or taping them. But mostly my job...
For the second time in Baby T’s short life we will be moving. Not that a move is such a big thing when you live on a reservation. Everyone will know about it and know where to find you after the fact so there is no need for forwarding an address or worrying that someone won’t know where you moved to. For instance, yes you have moved but you are technically still close to everything you’re used to like family, friends, and schools. Baby T will not have to change schools he will actually be much closer to it. Best of all he will finally get t...
Just when I thought Halloween couldn’t have come any faster I was faced with Baby T’s birthday. I honestly feel like he just had his third birthday two months ago. Summer was over and fall was here so fast that it didn’t even really sink in that the cold weather signaled it was that time of year again. As always we needed a recreation hall for all our family and friends. Our home is way too small for more than a few people so sticking to what works in terms of space was established a long time ago. This year was a much mellower party. Baby...
In the past Baby T’s sleepover place has always been Totagirl’s. We were so surprised that all of a sudden he wouldn’t stay overnight there anymore. He would ask us to go over and we’d call and bring him over. When it was time for us to leave he would simply just tell us he was going home with us and did. Hmm, we have had to drag him out of the house in the past. Baby T has even scored sleepovers during school nights. Totagirl’s house was our surefire source of a break and basically our only babysitter that could take Baby T for longer th...
I know I have already written about embarrassing things Baby T has lovingly subjected me to. Never on purpose…well if you don’t count the screaming out to strangers that I am not his mother. Now that Baby T is much older the embarrassment is almost what would happen if I were with a friend. Baby T and his dad never feel the embarrassment themselves, then only laugh when something occurs, finding it as funny as a bystander lucky enough to witness it would. Since the time Baby T could talk his dad has made him say the funniest phrases. The one...
It has occurred to me that all (well maybe some are perfect but most) parents tell little white lies. It never starts out on purpose but we eventually fib a little to get desired results. Like leaving a shopping center or maybe going in the house when it’s getting dark outside. Some of mine must be pretty believable because once in a while a family member will actually question me about it in front of Baby T and totally blow my cover. Fibs I have told in my own selfish conquest at sanity were started by Baby T’s never ending interrogation. It...
As Halloween approaches, so does the quest for “the” costume. Most kids are pretty specific I guess, knowing exactly what they want. Out of all the things they could be they know what. That is Baby T, a kid who knows what he wants and why he wants it. Baby T’s dream for this year is to be a ghost. Just like on the old cartoons, a simple sheet with three holes cut out of it. He even told us that’s what he needed, a white sheet. Imagine this, we don’t own an old white sheet. What kind of people are we? This baffled our poor kid. I do have to s...
Before Baby T could talk I used to wait and long for him to say his first word. And it wasn’t the first word I expected. Yes I was naïve and strongly believed that his first word would be mama or you know calling me something. Nope, it was bubba, then Tota, then dada then daddy. I was a slow fifth in the name game. Once he really began to talk, it was a great reward in itself. If I said something enough he would copy me. Before I knew it he was talking in full sentences. Even as I write about it I find it hard to remember how quiet he was at...
