Dr Mom and Toddler Translator in Training

If it seems like awhile since my last post, it has been almost a month. And what a month it has been.

We’ll start with the positive… I really like this stage of toddlerhood.  Alexa is quite the personality. She and I now communicate pretty well and she is developing a small vocabulary (Mama, More, All Done, Up, Hi, Bye Bye, See, and the newest on the list “Uh Oh”) and there are others on the horizon (like Nana, PopPop and book). Despite this short list of spoken words, she seems to understand even more words when asked questions.  She is quite fond of walks, visits to the playground and the zoo… and seems to be developing a love of books.  But my favorite is her new fondness for sitting next to her mommy and giving hugs. Just too cute!

Onto the more challenging… we just finished Alexa’s first major bout with a nasty virus and it nearly broke my heart to see her so sick.  Her temperature spiked to 104 degrees and her energy level was ultra low. To see my spunky toddler so weak and lethargic was just so difficult, especially since there was so little I can do for her (other than baby ibuprofen, lots of fluids, lots of naps and as much TLC as I could give her).  I know this is the first illness of many to come in her childhood, but the experience reinforced for me how unconditional a parent’s love is and how endless our worry can be.

So coming off this experience I went searching for a great parenting quote, and this one felt like a real keeper.  It deals with the long journey of parenthood, but given it’s back to school time it seemed the right one for this moment in time.

Somebody said that a child is carried in its mother’s womb for nine months.
Somebody does not know that a child is carried in its mother’s heart forever.

Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you’ve had a baby.

Somebody doesn’t know that once you’re a mother, normal is history.

Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by instinct.
Somebody never took a three-year-old shopping.

Somebody said being a mother is boring.
Somebody never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver’s permit.

Somebody said if you’re a “good” mother, your child will “turn out good.”
Somebody thinks a child comes with directions and a guarantee.

Somebody said “good” mothers never raise their voices.
Somebody never came out the back door just in time to see her child hit a golf ball through the neighbor’s kitchen window.

Somebody said you don’t need an education to be a mother.
Somebody never helped a fourth grader with his math.

Somebody said you can’t love the fifth child as much as you love the first.
Somebody doesn’t have five children.

Somebody said a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in the books.
Somebody never had a child stuff beans up his nose.

Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery.
Somebody never watched her “baby” get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten.

Somebody said a mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back.
Somebody never organized seven giggling Brownies to sell cookies.

Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her child gets married.
Somebody doesn’t know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a mother’s heartstrings.

Somebody said a mother’s job is done when her last child leaves home.
Somebody never had grandchildren.

Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you don’t need to tell her.
Somebody isn’t a mother.

Until next time…