Why I Stay Home

Ultimately it boils down to the fact that I am a control freak.  No, really.  I've been working on it for a long time but the truth is I like to control my life, to every degree possible, as much as I can.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start at the beginning.  Before I got pregnant, I worked at a Child Development Center.  I really liked my job and I made really good money.  When I got pregnant, I decided that I would take 6 months of maternity leave.  I felt sure that I would eventually want to go back to work.  I just couldn't imagine myself staying home all the time with Hannah.  At the 6 month mark, I went back to work as a flex position, like a substitute teacher.  I lasted 3 days.  

My infant room.  I'm pregnant in this picture.  

My birthday, 2007

Our neighborhood walk.  Staying home allowed me to enjoy the little moments with Hannah.  Granted, David and I had many discussions about my not working, before I went on maternity leave.  It was going to be a big reduction in our monthly income and I wanted to make sure we'd be ready.  And it was a change, but it was as traumatic as I feared.  David supported me from the beginning.  We had less money to walk to our local pizzeria but we had less time to do that with Hannah.

Love this face

At the pool.  So I stayed home with Hannah.  Got together with my girlfriends 

weekly.  Went on day trips through Italy.  

Out and about in Italy

Four and a half years later, we're still managing with me being a stay at home mom.  It's not so cut and dry though.  I'm a full time, online, college student.  And it's much, much harder because of job changes David has gone through.  He still supports me though.  Love this face.  

Even when it looks like this!

I find that I really enjoy being a stay at home mom.  Even though it makes me crazy sometimes.  Sometimes I just want to scream "leave me alone!"  But most of the time I take joy in the small moments.  Like lunch time with Hannah, as she tells me about school.  Every moment with Riley, they change so fast at this age.  She used to have hair.

Now she doesn't.  It happened over the course of 3 days!

At this point, I like the control I have over my day.  And Hannah and Riley's day.

I can't imagine giving CONTROL over them, to someone else.  They might mess up 

my parenting.  Joking.  But not really.  

I read this article: 5 Reasons One Parent Should Stay Home this morning.  That's where the idea for this posting came from.  Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying I think other people should follow this.  This is simply my reasons.  I am grateful a million times over for having a husband who not only supports, but encourages, this desire I have.  

I do plan on going back to work.  I'll have my BS this year!  (YAY!!!)  Right now, I'm studying for me Personal Training Certification.  I hope to take the test next month, another post on that later.  

But for now, I'm going to enjoy all the little moments.  

Stuff That Works

Hannah has had a cough for weeks now.  There's nothing else with it, just a yucky cough with normal colored mucus coming up.  And just the other day, I started to feel the cold symptoms come.  So I went to the drug store to look for something to kick it in the butt before it goes raging out of control.  I really prefer to stick with herbal remedies so when I saw this, I decided to try it.  Yep, Hannah and I are taking it, and it works.  And tastes really good.  

In other Cernock news, it's going to be a busy day today.  David's working on the outside of the house and this afternoon we have 2 birthday parties.  One for Hannah's friend, Kyle, and one for my friend, Noelle.  In between will probably be some school work.  And slaw dogs.  We're making them for lunch with my dad.  We don't get as much time with his as we would like, so we try to make the time we do get special.  Then tonight we're going to party it up, kinda.  As much as two kids and mom and dad can!  

Have a happy Saturday. 

Daddy Fun

David and Hannah were watching America's Funniest Home Video's recently.  I think that's where Hannah got the idea.  She began doing the "jump up, tuck knees, land on Dad's stomach."  It was good times, at least for me and Hannah.  Which lead to Hannah hanging on to David's legs while he flings his legs up.

And here's the other puzzle.  David drew the picture with black marker and 

Hannah colored in it and added a few things.  

I wanted to put some mod podge over the puzzle pieces to preserve them but David thinks it'll mess up putting the puzzle pieces together.  So I'm still working on that one.  

Success

In getting the pictures off my iphone!  Ya see, every once in awhile it's good to restart your laptop.  It's something I don't do as often as I should.  And apparently I just needed to restart my laptop and now all works well.  

Hannah and Riley on Sunday. 

They're watching PBS Kids

Biter Biscuits, there's nothing better for a teething kid

When there are no biscuits, tigger will work

Hannah's school went to see Beauty and Beast, so Hannah dressed 

up as Belle.  Moments like these, I think: How did I raise  child that turned out like this?"

This was one of Hannah's Christmas presents from Santa.  I really like it.

I helped create this one.  

It's a Create Your Own Puzzle.  I'm going to put a glaze over it so that it lasts longer

The pack came with 2 blank puzzles.  I asked David to draw a picture on the second

for Hannah to color in.  I helped Hannah with this one.  

Putting it together.

So there's the girls' update.  Off to wake up Hannah.  Happy Thursday!

Excuses, Excuses

     Sorry for the absence!  My in laws were visiting and David and I have been preparing for a possible job change for him.  Between visiting and finally finishing all the little stuff in the house, I didn't have much time to blog.  A short recap of the last week: we ate at the best Thai food in Fayetteville.  It came highly recommend, by some people in the Asian community.  It's The Big Apple.  There are so many things I liked about this place.  It was huge!  With 4 different "sections."  There was a lounge section, a sports bar section, a restaurant area and an outdoor area.  The best part had to be that at 630 pm on a Saturday night, there was only one another full table in the restaurant part. If you have ever dined in the Fayetteville/Ft. Bragg area on a weekend, you know what a challenge it can be to find a restaurant without a wait.  We also headed to Best Buy Saturday night to spend our reward zone points.  If you don't participate in Best Buy reward zone points, and shop there, you should!  I spend $55 in reward zone points.  Best Buy gives you money to spend.  And it's not little, piddly amounts either!  We picked up some Three Stooges for me and The Lion King for Hannah.  And still had enough to get a $25 dollar gift card to iTunes.  We also watched The Wizard of Oz with Hannah.  It was her first time watching it and she loved it.  That was our exciting week! Not really that exciting, huh.  In other news, I created a two week meal plan.  I've tried before but this time I put more time and effort into creating it. So far it's week great.  I have two leftover nights in it and one "free" night.
     This week's menu includes:
           Monday - Crockpot Parmesan Chicken with Creamy Avocado Pasta
           Tuesday - Mushroom, Spinach and Tofu Korma, Food Network Magazine, with Roasted Grape Sweet Potatoes
           Wednesday - Greek Quesdillas, made with leftover chicken from Monday
           Thursday - Sausage, Lentil and Kale Soup
           Friday - leftovers
            Saturday - free night
           Sunday - Sloppy Joes
            Monday - Mexican Lasagna
           Tuesday - Venison Stroganoff
           Wednesday - Spanakopizza
           Thursday - Sweet Asian Chili Stir Fry
            Friday - leftovers

By the way, those roasted grape sweet potatoes were AMAZING!  Ok, now I gotta go figure out why I can't get my photo's off my iphone on to my laptop!

Happy Wednesday! 

Raising Children

I want my children to grow as uninfluenced by society as possible.  I want them to be what they want to be, not what popular culture tells them they should be.  This couple wants that as well, and went as far as parents could go to accomplish it.  I've read about them before, and now they're in the news again, revealing the gender of their 5 year old.  I'm sure where I stand on this.  It seems extreme but I completely agree with a lot of their points.  Especially after reading Cinderella Ate My Daughter.  Some points that stand out to me are below.  My thoughts are italicized.

"Stereotypes seem fundamentally stupid. Why would you want to slot people into boxes?"  I could not agree more.  I hate the assumption that Hannah loves the color pink or barbies just because she's a girl.  

On a macro level she hopes her son sets an example for other parents and makes them reconsider buying their own sons trucks or forcing their daughters into tights. She's seen how those consumer trappings affect how and who kids play with in the sandbox.   Again, I really want Hannah and Riley to be their own person.  

Still, his mom is intervening. While the school requires different uniforms for boys and girls, Sasha wears a girl's blouse with his pants. I would fear that this would set my child up to be picked on in school.  But I, nor does she, know this will happen.  Nor do I know how she will respond if this happens.  

"I don't think I'd do it if I thought it was going to make him unhappy, but at the moment he's not really bothered either way. We haven't had any difficult scenarios yet." See, nothing yet.  I'm very curious to how she would handle a difficult situation.  

"To have a sense of self and personal identity is a critical part of normal healthy development," Dr. Eugene Beresin, director of training in child and adolescent psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, told ABC News. "This blocks that and sets the child up for bullying, scapegoating and marginalization." But as parents well know, bullying is hard for any child to avoid. It's more important to raise someone who's confident enough in himself to overcome peer pressure. It's also important to have his parents have his back.  Maybe Sasha's early years will be character building, maybe he'll have a higher emotional quotient being raised with dual perspectives on gender. Or the reverse could be true: Sasha may have less of a formed identity because of his upbringing, and feel angry at his mom for dressing him in flowery shirts and telling the world about it. Then again, maybe he'll get over it. I agree with Dr. Beresin but I also think that Sasha will not have missed out on much of this thus far.  

My final thoughts are this: I hope this child and his parents are followed over the years, because I am very curious about the outcome of this.  

SOPA/PIPA Blackout

Please View: http://theoatmeal.com/sopa

6 Months

Here's our girl, right on track developmentally.  Plus a few photo's of Hannah over the last month.  

She's a finger sucker.

Almost Angry

Happy Face

Talking to Me

She's chewing on everything

She's much more content since surgery.  

Hannah at her ballet recital

on her playmat

ballet class

 Mad Face

Hannah and Riley

Dancing at ballet

More finger sucking.  

bundled up for the Brookfield zoo

chewing on her spoon

Hannah, so stylish

Playing with Riley

Feeding her

Gnawing on a carrot stick

Watching the Simpsons

Domino and Riley, still buddies