Great Night for Family Fun!

Tonight was a great night. The past few weeks – make that months – have been a little difficult at my house. My 3 yo daughter has hit her stride. She’s been argumentative, angry, forceful, demanding, intense, disagreeable, stubborn and downright frustrating. My 19 mo has been learning from her – only the bad behaviors.

Tonight though was a dream. My husband made dinner and got the baby. I got my big girl and when we got home dinner was almost ready. We had 20 minutes of play time then we had dinner. My girls actually ate 90% of their dinner w/ no screaming. Then we had dessert and more playtime.

It was just the 4 of us in the playroom. Stacking cups, posting shapes, making up games, dancing, crawling on eachother and having fun. It was the best night we’ve had in a long time.

I just wish I knew what happened. Did we turn a corner? Did she really have a great day at school and it carried over? Did I learn how to work with her to make her behave better? Was the temperature just right?

I don’t know, but I want more of it!

* Andrea is a local mom of 2 beautiful girls. Check out Andrea’s resource site here: PARENTise.com !

Not again…?!?

I have officially done it again. I’ve waited really long to send thank you notes to the guests of our last birthday party. I typically do them later than I’d prefer, but – I think that 2 months is probably too long. They will get done this weekend.

The problem is that I really like to write thank you notes. I enjoy telling people what it was about their thoughtful gift that was appreciated. I love stationary – real stationary like this one from Paperluxe, and I can even picture myself sitting at my desk and writing a note that looks fabulous on paper and stuffing it into an equally beautiful envelope (with a liner), addressing it in elegant handwriting and putting one of those personalized stamps on it. When I’m really using my imagination I can even see myself putting a faux wax imprint over the seal.

You see, I give it a lot of thought. I have two downfalls. The first is that my hand writing is awful. I blame it on not having attended Catholic school or maybe growing up in a generation where computers were used to do my writing. Whatever it is – it’s awful. Secondly, with 2 kids, a full time job, a side business, a spouse and an extended family – I just don’t have time to pull all of the details together to make the cards what I want them to be.

I call it failure of perfectionism. For me if one of my elements is off – it ruins the whole project. So if I don’t have the right stamps or the right cards or envelopes, etc. I don’t like to start – because I know I’m not going to like the end product.

This year – I’m making a Resolution to do better. I’m going to cut myself some slack and not stress when one piece of the puzzle doesn’t fit just perfectly. This year – this decade – I’m going to get my thank you notes out on time!

What about you? Any resolutions to share?

Andrea is a new contributor at Chester County Moms. She lives in Berwyn with her husband and two daughters. Andrea works in Human Resources and is learning how to balance work, family and entrepreneurship. You can see what Andrea’s up to at http://parentise.com where she is working on creating a database of information built from the expertise of parents like you.

The Sickly Season…

It starts in late September – right after you’ve settled into the routine of daycare/pre-school. The first signs are a runny nose, maybe a slight cough…nothing to serious – but it seems never ending. The runny nose doesn’t go away in a few days, the cough gets worse. Maybe there is a slight fever – again, nothing serious – just seemingly never ending. I call this the “Sickly Season”. It last from September until March (at least in my house).

I have hopes that as my kids get older, this season will no longer affect us, in the meantime I just hope that we get lucky. You see, my kids are in daycare and pre-school. My little one stays with a wonderful woman in her home a few days a week and with my mother-in-law the others. My older one is in pre-school. My husband and I both work full-time.

This season wears on my husband and I – partially because the kids are sick – and the midnight and 2am wakings just aren’t fun. Partially because never knowing when a fever is going to hit that requires up to 2 days out of school and care is really difficult when you’re trying to build your career.

During the “Sickly Season”, I rely heavily on the flexibility of my job and the kindness of my mother-in-law to help out. Sometimes everything falls into place and the stress is kept to a minimum. Two weeks ago, my baby girl’s both had the flu and the little one had pneumonia – yet everything worked out fine.

However, having relied on everyone to help out during that time period means that I’ve worn out my favors for next week when my daughters school has parent teacher conferences on the same day that my in-laws go on vacation. I have 2 meetings that day that can’t be missed and my husband has to be at work. My best friend can’t watch my baby girl for me due to her schedule, etc. We seem to be out of luck.

In the end it will all work out, but I find myself looking forward to the end of the “Sickly Season”.
I know we’ll figure it out – something will just have to give. How do you manage the struggle between work and home, kids and career? What gives for you when you’re put between a rock and a hard place?

Andrea is a new contributor at Chester County Moms. She lives in Berwyn with her husband and two daughters. Andrea works in Human Resources and is learning how to balance work, family and entrepreneurship. You can see what Andrea’s up to at http://parentise.com where she is working on creating a database of information built from the expertise of parents like you.

Join us in welcoming our new Chester County Moms Blog Contributor Andrea…

It Takes a Village…by Chesco Mom Andrea

Growing up I was never much of a joiner. I played soccer, was on the debate team, etc…but I didn’t do things like join a sorority or affinity groups. After becoming a parent however, I realized that the old saying, it takes a village was true. For me, it became a necessity to reach out to other parents and learn about their experiences, their thoughts and ideas.
I’ve found that while I may not be a natural joiner, joining a community of Mom’s, a community of parents, has been incredibly fruitful and helpful.

I use my community to help do research on what to expect with my kids at different stages in life. To help me plan for what comes next. To find out what’s going on in the community, to figure out what the best things to do with the kids are, and even just to vent about everyday frustrations.

Without my community of parents, I probably would have lost my mind by now! I’m super excited to join the Chester County Mom’s community. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you and to hearing from you!

Andrea