Thoughts on Mothering

So I wanted to start a site where I could just ramble my little thoughts.  And maybe some big thoughts.  Not sure how often those come along now, seems I’m always just humming another Laurie Berkner tune…

A quick bit about me: I’m an oldest of three girls, happily married to the most wonderful man who I met ten years ago, with our little 1-and-a-half year old (1.5 just looks wrong) girl.  I went to college to become a teacher, and have taught in various settings around RI and MA for the past 8 years.  I really love Biology and outdoor education, so I’m looking to get my masters in one of those, probably Biology.  I also really enjoyed teaching Health class to middle and high school students the past 2 years, so another option is there for me.  Too many choices, and I’m a Gemini, so I’ve never been good at decisions.  Except marrying my husband and becoming a mom.

But then, motherhood is all about choices.  Natural childbirth or drugs?  Vaginal or c-section?  Which birthing classes?  Pre-natal yoga or pre-natal fitness class?  Cloth or disposable dipes?  Breastfeeding or formula?  Cosleeping?  Which carriers?  Cry-it-out?  Organic?  My head is spinning just thinking of what we had to go through to get where we are today.  Thankfully, I’m confident that we’ve done a pretty good job.  Our daughter is happy and healthy.  She loves spending time with other children, and family and friends.  She is learning so much every day that it amazes me.  Just through osmosis she suddenly has all these new words and actions (who on Earth taught her to pick her nose, is what I want to know!).  It’s just really fantastic, and I feel so blessed that I get to stay home with her to see all this and help so much with her development.

Now, I am always questioning “What more can I do?”.  But I generally don’t stress over it.  If I feel we should work on letter recognition we bust out the Bananagrams tiles, or watch some Sesame Street clips on youtube.  If I want her to work on sharing I watch her more closely during play groups, and ask her to share a certain toy or something.  I make sure to be very clear in thanking her when she shares with me or anyone else.  The sweetest thing, the other day she got 4 M&Ms as a treat, and on her own offered one to me.

Anyway, that’s my quick little intro.  I think right now I can commit to posting once a week, about some topic or another.  If you have any specific questions or topics you’d like to know my thoughts on, please feel free to ask!  And, thanks for reading.