Mommy Ever After » Enchanting Parenthood

Happy half birthday.

mommyeverafter — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 23:36:47 +0000

Today, my son turned six months old.
His half birthday.
I had such a hard time finding the words that I wanted to use to express how I am feeling. I want to do him justice. But these six months, man,
they’ve changed my entire life.
And without a doubt, this little (huge) guy has changed my life for the better
and for good.
I look back to the post I wrote for my daughter’s half birthday, three and a half years ago, and I am such a different person now. I am no longer a new mom. I don’t mark every milestone as fastidiously. I don’t plan princess parties to mark each month’s occasion.
But I love no less.
No less at all.
So in thinking, this is what I want to say about my son and his half birthday:
There’s this thing that I do with my daughter.
It’s like when I grab her hand from the driver’s seat in my car,
but even more powerful.
I hug her, hold her tight, breathe her in, and all of a sudden, the rest of the universe disappears.
I enter a new place.
This place is home to me. It is my place in this world, where I feel most at peace and most right.
When it comes to my son, the second child,
I feel as though I haven’t fallen prey to many of the common stereotypes. For instance, I still take a boat load of pictures of him, I still am tickled by each new thing he learns or does, I still honor his schedule,
but I realized, just yesterday, that I had yet to create a place in the world for just us.
I tested it.
It was in the middle of the day, right before we were set to pick up my daughter from school. And we weren’t busy playing on the floor or wrestling with a bottle. I was holding him and talking to him and all of a sudden, the urge to hold him close came over me.
And so I did.
And just like that,
home.
My place.
It is my place to be their mom.
These six months have been the hardest of my life, but not at all because of my son. His presence has brought me such joy.
He has blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair and smiles coyly, playing games already.
He sits with great facility, rolls all around, giggles at his sister, and on this past Easter Sunday, squealed with delight while eating smoked pork butt.
He is gentle. He is soft. He is sweet. He is round.
He is home.
And so while I may be in a new place, it is a place better than I could have ever imagined. I love my family in a way that I never thought possible.
And even though it’s been hard,
even though a lot of crap has happened,
I feel so blessed,
so lucky,
that I get to call them mine.

The post Happy half birthday. appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

I guess I named her well.

mommyeverafter — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 11:03:16 +0000

Last night my daughter decided to dress as the Disney Princess for whom she was named…
wearing an old Halloween costume…
from when she was six months old.
Now, my daughter is amazing; she is an old soul, so precocious and astute;
But man, is she stubborn. And insists on method acting.
So if she is playing Peter Pan, I am Wendy. And if I mistakenly refer to her by her name, she freaks out.
I describe it, sometimes, as living with a terrorist.
My husband says he does not negotiate with terrorists. I do. A little bit. Because besides being smart and witty and creative
she’s so darn cute.
But in any case, here she is, sleep in her eyes, cuddled up next to me, in a size 6 month sized Princess Belle dress.
The terrorist has won this battle; here’s hoping I win the war.
Ahhhh parenthood.

The post I guess I named her well. appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

Far from being over.

mommyeverafter — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:01:37 +0000

This week, I had the privilege of witnessing a magical event;
The day was beautiful,
crisp and sunny,
and my class, as well as many others, enjoyed the weather outside on the playground.
As I supervised my children, scanning my eyes back and forth across the tot lot, another teacher called for my attention. She told me to look over to the area by the sandbox.
There, I saw my daughter
having her back rubbed by a 4 year old boy.
He then rubbed her head, sweetly.
She smiled and beamed.
He then began teaching her how to play catch with him.
He would throw the ball to her, she would miss, he would rub her back and tell her it was OK and then give her some instruction, with a smile.
She would throw the ball to him to, and each time she did, she would giggle and he would praise her.
This went on for fifteen minutes.
Fifteen minutes,
which in Toddler is 7 and a half years.
It was incredible.
They played and played, not because I was there watching, but because they were enjoying each other.
And then, he hugged her,
and after he did he came running over to me.
I was prepared to thank him,
to compliment him on his kindness,
but he interrupted my thoughts
as he leaned in to me and said, “I have a feeling she may have a poop.”
It was the best thing ever.
And so, I learned many things while watching my daughter and her new friend in those fifteen minutes,
not the least of which being that my fears about my daughter and older boys are far from being over.
In fact, I have a hunch that they have only just begun.

The post Far from being over. appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

You know you have a girlie girl when…

mommyeverafter — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:46:01 +0000

You know you have a girlie girl when…
She goes to Rosh Hashana dinner with lipstick on her teeth;
She says “gown” instead of down”;
You lose sight of her in the mall and find her here:

You can always spot her in her hiding spots because of her pink, sparkly shoes. (See above.);
She loves to brush her dolly’s hair. And her Sesame characters’ hair. And her own hair. And, this morning, she tried to brush her cup’s “hair”. And then, I spotted her going towards her giant bouncy ball, waving her hair brush. I had to look away;
Her giant bouncy ball is pink;
She is named for a Disney Princess;
She won’t leave home without her vintage Gucci “Pock-book” and Abby Cadabby;
She sits on my lap, every morning, as I put on makeup, and as I brush and paint, she smells my perfumes and makes faces in the mirror and plays with every potion she can get her hands on;
She almost always refuses to give out high fives, but will show you her shoes every. single. time.;
She cries, hysterically, if I try to change her diaper, but squeals with glee if I try to put her in a tutu;
So, yes, that’s how you know you’ve got a girlie girl…
Or, at the very least, what I know about the girlie girl that I call mine.

The post You know you have a girlie girl when… appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

In other milestone news…

mommyeverafter — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:31:25 +0000

So, today, my kid, who now walks and talks and builds blocks and rolls over (and sits and heels….come on, keeping track of these things was much easier when she was, say, 4 weeks, and her skills were limited to things like holding her head and focusing her eyes. Anyhoo,)
had a day filled with milestones.
She learned how to say “Foofa”, the name of her favorite character from Yo Gabba Gabba. (It should be noted that before today, all characters from YGG were called “Muno”).
She split her first double stuffed oreo with her Zeyda.
She handed my debit card to the Home Goods cashier and said “please” and “thank you” to her.
She sang along with me, as I belted “Take Me or Leave Me” at the top of my lungs, as we blasted Rent during an unexpected thunderstorm.
And, she took a cylindrical Lego over to the dogs’ water bowl, filled it up and drank from it. Dirty, nasty dog water. Out of a Lego.
So yeah, you What to Expect folks out there, how you like me now?

The post In other milestone news… appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

“I love your hair!

mommyeverafter — Sun, 29 May 2011 01:34:45 +0000

You look like a Princess! It’s like you’re my fair maiden!”
-Reason #11224 why I’m so glad he’s mine.

The post “I love your hair! appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

Birthdaypalooza

mommyeverafter — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 11:11:13 +0000

I may have mentioned that my baby girl and I have birthdays exactly one week apart.
In fact, my mom and I were both given the same due date when we were pregnant.
My little one just happened to decide to stick around in the womb for an extra week, so she was born at 40 weeks exactly. She had to make a grand entrance, after all.
And so, this weekend is the start of our week long celebration.
You know how we feel about birthdays in this family.
What I’m trying is to say is,
cue the marching band,
strike up the drums,
call your favorite Princess
and break out your tutus,
because Birthdaypalooza 2011 has commenced.
And,
go!

The post Birthdaypalooza appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

On family dinner.

mommyeverafter — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:50:57 +0000

To me, family is everything.
Ev. Er. Y. Thing.
My family is why my heart beats and what makes me smile.
There are few things in my life that I cherish as much as our family dinners.
You see, in my close, connected family,
one of the ties that binds us is comprised of what is in front of us; what is on our plates; what we are putting into our bellies.
We love us some food.
I may have mentioned this before, but when either my dad or I have enjoyed a particularly stunning meal,
we call each other for what we call the “Food Run Down”.
We go, course by course, detailing the marvelous foods we’ve just tried.
And, don’t even get me starting on our Thursday morning post- Top Chef -phone calls.
We love food.
We love each other.
Love love love.
Family dinners have become all the more precious to us as of late, as they have become a bit more infrequent. Hectic schedules, new commitments, and many other new ch-ch-chaaaanges have made our family dinners a bit more hard to come by.
I don’t have time to sit, slaving over the hot stove, preparing an elaborate feast.
I have baby lips to kiss, and husband shoulders to embrace.
And then I found it.
The key to family dinner happiness. Buitoni. *
Say it with me. Buitoni.
Buitoni=Family dinner bliss.
Buitoni believes in using simple, high-quality ingredients to create extraordinary meals. They have over 40 varieties of all-natural pastas and sauces. With a commitment to simple preparation, the brand recently added a new line of Premium Frozen Meals for Two.
Oh, and can you guess where I first heard about this magical brand called Buitoni? Where else? On Top Chef.
In case you’ve been living under a big ol’
oh,
I don’t know,
meatball,
Buitoni is the $200,000 grand prize sponsor of Bravo’s “Top Chef All-Stars.” My favorite show. Obsessed. Just like the cheftestants are being challenged to create world-class dishes on the show, Buitoni is challenging its Facebook followers to test their own culinary savvy for the chance to win monthly prizes in the Masterpiece Challenge.
And now, here it goes. The food run-down:
For Shabbat dinner, we made Wild Mushroom Agnolotti.
The preparation consisted of boiling it. For 4 minutes. That’s it. Left me with plenty of time for lip kissing and shoulder embracing.
But, was it good?
No.
It was amazing.
Truly.
Absolutely, completely delicious.
Ineverexpectedinamillionyearsitwouldbesogooddelicious.
In fact, it was so darn good that it warranted an immediate Friday evening call to my dad,
for the food rundown, of course. All I had to do was fix a nice mozzarella salad, sautee some spinach, and serve the delicious Wild Mushroom Agnolotti, and I was set.
Bellies were full,
hearts even more so.
That Sunday night, my husband and I were in the mood for a quiet dinner at home,
so I elected to make the Buitoni Shrimp Lobster Ravioli with Garlic Butter Sauce.
Again, all I had to do was boil it. It was a cinch.
And, it was delicious.
My favorite Top Chef cheftestants were right; this stuff is really, really good.
And, it left so much time for the fun stuff.
The family dinner lovin’ stuff.
The food-rundown, full belly, baby kisses stuff.
Buitoni gave us the family dinner back,
and for that, I will be eternally grateful.
And, for that, I will be making sure to have a Buitoni meal in my shopping cart the next time I go to the grocery.
Or two.
Family dinners are just that important.
So, the food rundown is this:
Family is excellent.
Baby kisses are superb.
Daddy shoulder embraces are the tops.
And, Buitoni is a wonderful, delicious, nutritious and easy way to be your own Top Chef,
one family dinner at a time.

* Product Sample generously provided by manufacturer. All reviews and opinions are 100% my own.

The post On family dinner. appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

“I have a new Princess name for her–

mommyeverafter — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 02:27:24 +0000

“Sleeping Cutie. We need to give her kisses to wake her up.”
-The best daddy ever.

The post “I have a new Princess name for her– appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

Um, hello,

mommyeverafter — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 22:25:56 +0000

what in the world has happened to this game?
And better question,
mom, do you still have mine?

The post Um, hello, appeared first on Mommy Ever After.