Stop Thinking You're the Only One

I've talked with people recently who admit to feeling overwhelmed by housework, read about moms who feel like they're letting themselves or their family down if they don't keep a neat home. I am definitely in the same boat 99.9% of the time.
I follow a couple of blogs with tips on staying organized, mostly so I can bitch about how type A they are and what a miserable life that must be. And occasionally I'm like "oh I should go alphabetize my socks right now too!" But most of the time I get super jealous and feel bad about myself and what a failure I must be.
I have my moments where I am ambitious and I get shit done. But even on a Saturday when I have extra help at home, it still takes a really long time to do what takes others 10 minutes.

My whole point here is if you feel like you can't stay on top of it, you're not alone.
So here. You can start feeling better now:

Mud room. Absolutely no organization to it. Drives me nuts.  Makes me anxious to share this.

Family room after moving all the random stuff onto the coffee table (instead of just putting it away) to clean the carpets.

At least the carpet is clean.

The things tossed on the stairs "so I can bring them up next time I go upstairs." hahahahahaha

Oh yeah. Don't we have a playroom down here? yup. It's bulimic. 

Maybe If I just move everything to the bottom it won't look as messy.

If you're looking for something, it's likely it's stuck on the fridge.

Ugh. the kitchen table. We eat our meals here. HOW? By moving that pile someplace else, that's how.

And it turns out I'm a mess too. I have spit up all over this shirt. Notice the finger prints on that mirror.
DEAL WITH IT.

Just because I'm sharing these things doesn't mean I don't care about the mess. I do, and I clean it up when I feel like I can. But you know what? My girls are fed. 3, sometimes 4 times a day. There's bowls, plates, bottles and sippy cups laying around to prove it. There are toys strewn about because mommy told you to just go play with your toys already, we spend time playing and reading together. 

With people posting, sharing, pinning, instagramming everything these days, it can be easy to feel like you don't measure up to it all. 

But dude. This is my house on a normal day. Not a tornado day, not the day of cleaning, just a normal day. Sorry if you're disappointed.

No I'm not.

I just hope I made you feel a *teensy* bit better about not always being on top of it all.

Do you think that social media has an impact about how you feel about yourself, your home, or your possessions? 

I do. But then I just read the confessions on Scary Mommy and decide I'm normal. 

Just a Day in the Life

Every Monday around 1:30 I start to question my capability of being a mother. Coming off from a weekend where I had extra help makes Mondays all the more challenging.

Today was extra monday-y because Charlotte was testing me more than usual. I'd ask her to do something for me like "can you pick up the paci that I just dropped?" and she ignores me. So I said "Charlotte. You need to listen to me when I'm talking to you." dead behind the eyes.
"Kay. One more time. Please pick up the paci for mommy. Lena needs it." So she picks it up and THROWS  it.

Lena has been taking short naps (30-45 minutes) and shrieks until she's fed. I just can't imagine she's that hungry after 2 hours, but I always offer her a bottle, and she drinks 3/4 of it, and wants more later. When she's not supposed to be napping, she is a peach. Very smiley and easy going. But holy crap. If you pop in and offer her a pacifier after she wakes, you'd think that she got her finger slammed in a door. She will not calm down until she gets fed. Rocking her and attempting to soothe her just fuels any fire. She eats so much now that she gets bottles, I just can't believe she can be that hungry. So I feed her, and all feelings of me wanting to run away from home go away as soon as she's not wailing.

Today at lunch, Charlotte told me she wanted macaroni and cheese. Well, in so many words. I figured out what she wanted, and she sat in her chair and waited. Well, saying she waited is giving her a lot of credit. She said "keeze!" (cheese) about one million times while getting more angry and impatient. The kitchen was an absolute disaster, I had to change Lena and get her down for a nap, all while ensuring the pot didn't boil over. Both the literal pot and the figurative pot of my brain boiling out of my ears and eyeballs.

After her mac and cheese, Charlotte asked for some yogurt on a "plate".
wrong move by mom #1: I put it in a small bowl.
So when she spazzed, I took it away from her. She stopped crying and I asked if she wanted it back. She said yes.
I gave her a spoon and she pushed it away.

I didn't realize I picked out the evil kind.
(the internet is so great.)

wrong move by mom #2: put yogurt in spoon and attempt to feed her. got some in her protesting pie hole.
She then took her hand and scooped the yogurt out of her mouth. And then ate it off her hand.
What in the crap, sister?

Like I mentioned in a previous post, she really is quite easy, but of course since I put that out into the universe, it gets blown up in my face.
The last few days during nap time I hear her chatting a majority of the time about rockets. Probably talking to her home base on Mars.
Last night I put her to bed and an hour later she's yapping away. I go in and tell her to go to sleep and she says "okay mommy." and I don't hear a peep.
I think skipping sleep is catching up with her and that's why she has a love/hate with me and yogurt. Also, she's 2. She has a love/hate with everything at any given moment.

I've been asked by a couple of people recently if I want to go back to work. I can't help but think they're hinting that maybe I'm no good at this mom-thing and I should let someone else take over.
That's the sneaky postpartum depression remnants messing with my brain, because if I step outside of my brain (not literally possible), I recognize that they're just asking. Maybe suggesting that I get out of the house or something. But I can't help it. So then when I have nutso days where I feel like I'm losing it, I'm worried I'm not cut out for the job.

Winter is especially tough because we spend all of our time inside. The conditions are not ideal for a stroller walk, and to play with Charlotte in the snow while the baby sleeps doesn't give us very much time once all the snow gear is on.

We do have a vacation coming up in a couple of weeks and it will be really nice to get away and have family members that (hopefully) enjoy spending time with the girls so it makes my job a lot easier. I'm more anxious about how Lena will do on the plane this time around vs when she was 10 weeks and sleeping in my arms. I plan on having a lot of bottles ready as that seems to be her favorite thing lately.

Sorry for the lack of any interesting pictures. I do have a cute little video I shot with #vine (yep. I just hashtagged that.)
It's supposed to loop over and over, but I can't get it do it here.

My favorite is when she dances down by Lena. What a cheeser. 

I know I can't possibly be alone when I feel like I'm going nuts staying at home with my kids, but what kind of odd behavior do your children exhibit that try your patience? 

How to Assemble an Exersaucer (Alternatively Titled: I am an Idiot.)

When Charlotte was an infant, we assembled her ExerSaucer Triple Fun Jungle when she was between 4-5 months. With Charlotte being our first child, it was always so fun seeing when she'd be ready for the next piece of gear. Sorta weird, I guess.

I remember it being a huge pain in the ass. Like with all the baby stuff, I would think "how hard can this be? idiots have babies all the time." Every piece of equipment was a giant pain to assemble. Apparently they want it to be "sturdy" and "safe". So roughly 2 years ago, I put the piece of junk together, and I'm fairly certain it took over an hour. I may as well have molded the plastic in the factory with all the other steps I needed to take to build it.

Charlotte played in it for months. It was great having a place to put her away from a hyper dog (she was younger and more rambunctious) and then once she was walking, I could take it apart and it could be yet another toy.

So certainly taking it apart should be easier than assembling it, I assumed. I assumed wrong. After her first birthday, I went to pull it apart and began yanking and tugging every which way, but there was an actual way to do it, and I had to look online to figure it out. And of course, when parts and pieces didn't stay attached, I was all "I'll remember where I put that when we have another kid someday." HAHAHAHA
idiot.

Now that Lena is the same age as Charlotte was when we first set it up, I thought we'd give it a try. Honestly, I didn't even think of it until recently and figured she was still way too small and we'd wait a few months. But she basically lays on the floor or sits in our laps, and I can tell she really wants to sit up on her own. The top portion was still assembled and looked like this:

So all I needed to do was pull it apart at the middle and jam it back on the base. That's all. 

WRONG AGAIN.

I had to take the whole damn thing apart down to bare bones. But I only learned that after each and every step was half assed. I don't know why I don't learn.

Here we are after FORTY FIVE minutes of sweating. 

Each step required me to undo it and do it again a different way. I am so stupid. But finally. After over an hour, I was able to get the thing figured it out. 

And guess who loved it?!

THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!

The only problem is now we have another giant piece of gear in my family room that is not easily hidden. But I guess that's what a house looks like when you have kids.

I will defeat that butterfly.

I really hope I have it assembled correctly, but I wouldn't be surprised if it buckles under the weight of my 12  pound baby.

Do you need instructions when assembling an item or are you a gifted individual unlike myself?