Seeking the formula for parenting

Blogger Content: September 2006 - April 2010

Flexible Links

My Blogging Inspiration
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants

Flexible Affiliations


Parent Bloggers Network
- Crazy/Hip Blog-Mamas+
(Random Site)
A Member of Bust's Girl Wide Web
Parenting Blogs - Blog Top Sites
blog search directory
Search For Blogs, Submit Blogs, The Ultimate Blog Directory

Sunday, August 12, 2007

The Number for Planned Parenthood

This past week the boys and I have had the privilege of staying with Suzanne, her hubby, and a bunch of friends in a two family home in Ocean City, New Jersey. Suzanne and her hubby generously rented it for the group. We were about a quarter of a mile away from the beach and boardwalk. The boys and I had a terrific time.

Unfortunately, the Big Giraffe could not come with us on this trip. However, as much as he may have wanted to go, I think he secretly relished the idea of having the house to himself. More importantly he had seven nights of uninterrupted sleep.

After originally committing to going to the Jersey Shore, I began to have second thoughts. Looking forward to 8 hours of driving each way with the two boys was enough to make me feel like I needed to breathe into a paper bag. Fortunately, due to my laziness to my brilliant foresight and planning, we got off to a very late start, which actually worked out for the best. We didn't hit any traffic on the way to the beach. Plus the trip actually coincided with naptime, so the boys slept through most of it. I'm probably the only person to ever be grateful that Newark Airport books more flights than it can handle because we got at least a good half hour out of pointing out all the different airplanes that were coming and going and comparing their relative "sizes". I think I'll toast to the Newark Airport with my first glass of wine when I go out tonight with the moms in my playgroup.

Suzanne and her hubby were terrific about helping me out with the boys. I have always respected single moms, but I definitely have a newfound respect for them and parents whose partners work long hours. Being in charge of mealtimes, snacks, bathtimes, and bedtimes, not to mention entertaining them for 8 days was a lot. Everyone pitched in to help me. That is particularly appreciated given that, with the exception of a terrific mom named "D" who helped me out immensely, no one else had kids. "D" and her 5 year old left on Tuesday afternoon. We were there from Saturday to Saturday.

Since no one else had kids, no one else has experienced the joys of living with children and all their meltdowns cuteness. I had several conversations like this:

Person without kids(PWOK): Why is OS crying?
Me: Because he wanted to eat applesauce with his brother's spoon.
PWOK: But he has a spoon that looks identical to YS's.
Me: Exactly, but it's not the one he wants. Plus the fake fruit on the wall looked at him funny. No, I am really not making that up.
PWOK: I just remembered I have something in the dryer upstairs. (Sounds of thuds as person ran away to peace and quiet.)

This was another one of the week's greatest hits:

PWOK: Why is YS crying?
Me: Because he's tired.
PWOK: (pause) But why is he crying?
Me: He always cries when he's tired. That's his form of communication.
PWOK: All the time? Like every day?
Me: Yes, multiple times every day.

PWOK then ran away with a look of horror on his face.

And of course the last one:

PLO: Jittery little fellow, aren't you.
EWOK: Warble, chatter, warble.

Wait a minute! I said PWOK, not Ewok!

I am pretty certain that the calls to Planned Parenthood in NYC this week will increase based solely on my children. At one point there were 20 of us staying at Suzanne's house and several other witnesses to my kids' crying at the beach, the boardwalk, and in front of the alleged haunted house in the center of town. (OS's major meltdown at that last location gave credibility to the legend that the house sucks out all happy feelings in a demeantor-like fashion.) I'm sure more than one person scheduled a vasectomy or a tubal ligation not to mention prescriptions for birth control pills.

I was warned before driving home that traffic away from the Jersey Shore actually gets worse as the day gets later. I therefore took the opposite approach and got up very early with the boys. Most of the drive went very well. No problems in Jersey. No problems in the Bronx. No problems in New Haven. No problems in Hartford. After more than 6 hours flying through some of the most notorious urban areas in the Northeast when it comes to traffic, we were laid low by the metropolis of Worcester. The last twenty minutes of the drive were horrible. There was some construction near my house causing big backups. I wanted to jump through the top of the car or better yet out of the door. We were so close to home, yet so far away. And let me tell you, both of the boys were also apparently outraged about the construction and they made their feelings very, very clear to me.

If this is what it's like with two, what would three be like?! On that note, I should go and look up the number for Planned Parenthood for myself.

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: As wonderful as children are, they can be quite a handful. Know what you are getting into first.

Labels: , , ,

posted by Alex Elliot @ 5:37 PM   8 comments
8 Comments:

  • At 8/12/2007 7:18 PM, Blogger super des said…

    ha ha! I'm sorry I missed the shore, but maybe not that sorry!

     

  • At 8/13/2007 1:57 AM, Blogger Lady M said…

    Wow, you're a super mom for managing the whole week.

    There was a commercial that was floating around the internet a while back where a dad was chasing a toddler through a grocery store, packages going flying, things being split, huge fits of screaming and crying. Then the camera zoomed in on a box of condoms. Good ad.

     

  • At 8/13/2007 7:34 AM, Blogger soccer mom in denial said…

    Lady M - I never saw that ad but it sounds brilliant.

    AE - I've done drives and flights alone with various combinations of my kids. Aside from the boys needing to go to the bathroom ALL THE TIME we usually survive.

    And I'll be honest, two is much easier than three!

     

  • At 8/13/2007 10:31 AM, Blogger CableGirl said…

    Ah yes, my all time favorite. They cry because of being tired. I wish it were possible to reason with a 9 month old. I find myself frequently saying things like, "You wouldn't be so tired if you just went to sleep at nap time!" and then promptly smacking my forehead in a "duh!" like maneuver since I'm obviously delusional trying to reason with her.

    Lady M- That is a brilliant commercial. Seriously though, as I think we all know, no matter how prepared you think you are, you're never quite prepared for what hits. lol

     

  • At 8/13/2007 11:11 AM, Blogger Suzanne said…

    Personally, I thought both kids were very well behaved the whole week. In fact, Huisband and I were so happy with the week, we are definitely going to do it again next summer. Just not in that house, now that we have been accused of trashing it, which is completely insane. We'll find an even better place.

     

  • At 8/13/2007 3:52 PM, Blogger Worker Mommy said…

    So funny. Well maybe not in the midst of it but in the re-telling anyway!

     

  • At 8/14/2007 10:45 PM, Anonymous mayberry said…

    Imagine! Crying multiple times a day!

    I agree with Lady M--you are a Supermom!

     

  • At 8/20/2007 3:12 AM, Blogger Jenn in Holland said…

    We often jest around here that if we had had ANY IDEA what it was really going to be like, this parenting thing... we may have run screaming for some peace and quiet too!
    Who knew, eh?

     
Post a Comment
Home
 

My Profile

Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
See my complete profile

Flexible Media Appearances

The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, Fox TV, August 3, 2007

Flexible Feeds

More Flexible Parenting

Grasshopper New Media Parents
Just Cause
Birth Days

Flexible Categories

Previous Posts

Archives

For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

Powered by Blogger
© Formula Fed and Flexible Parenting


Creative Commons License
Formula Fed and Flexible Parenting by Alex Elliot is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Template Design based on one produced by isnaini dot com