For Those Mommies Out There with Wonderful Friends!

This is a funny (but way true) article that I just read and thought I would share.


The Eight Friends Every New Mom Needs
July 8, 2010
by Peryl Manning of "Parenting Ad Absurdum"
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My husband and I chose, for some inexplicable reason, to make our home a good six hours from our closest family members. It wasn’t until I had kids that I realized what a poorly thought-out decision that really was. I have been lucky enough, though, over the last five years to gather together a really spectacular mom community that is as close to family as anything can be. I believe there are certain types of mom friends that every new parent needs, and they fall roughly into the following eight groups.

Mom friend superstars include:

1. The “there-in-a-pinch” mom friend who will do an emergency baby suppository run when your little one is glued to the toilet, and your spouse is out of town, no questions asked (and knows enough to recommend suppositories in the first place).

2. The “exactly-your-level-of-crazy” mom friend – one that you can call and confess that you had cereal and wine for dinner, and that your Tupperware drawer is trying to kill you.

3. The “all-baby-all-the-time” mom friend who will engage enthusiastically in any detail of your baby’s development; including his bowel movements/brilliance and agree on their peculiarity/outstandingness, even though she has three equally peculiar and outstanding children of her own.

4. The “baby-doesn’t-break-her-stride” mom friend – in fact the opposite of number three; who will drag you out for margaritas and ban all talk about family members under the age of 21 for the evening.

5. The “laid-back-playdate” mom friend who agrees that baked goods and feet up on the coffee-table constitutes a much better playdate than the local screaming/rioting community-center activity.

6. The “motivated-playdate” mom friend who will drag your lazy-mom self to the science-museum/toddler music appreciation/pre-school roller rink class.

7. The “repository of all information” mom friend, who reads all the latest studies on childhood development (so you don’t have to), knows the best pre-school in your area, the most highly recommended potty-seat, and will teach you tips like using your empty egg cartons to hold poster paint, and how to make live action puppets out of discarded potato peels.

8. The “well-rounded” mom friend who will talk with you endlessly about just how you’re both going to lose those last few pregnancy pounds (even though you’re both much too deep to worry about appearances); and totally gets how constant repeats of Golden Girls and the occasional Jerseylicious episode are essential to your well-being (even though you’re both far too busy and intellectual for television).

You may be lucky enough to combine two or more types into one, all-star, stupendous mom-friend. I am lucky enough to have a 1-2-5-8 mom friend. Precious and rare. You know who you are.

Peryl Manning is a freelance writer and stay-at-home-mom. She juggles her boys, her writing and her volunteer work with varying degrees of success, and is convinced of only one certainty: Parenting is really, really challenging. Her blog, Parenting ad Absurdum, is featured in the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

As most of you know I am also in the category of not having family anywhere near me and I actually have my "family" friends scattered around the country. I miss you all and I am so glad that you are only a phone call away. I am making new "family" friends though here in St. Louis and am excited to see how crazy we become together.

Pretty tired

This was our second day in Harlingen. She was pretty tired from playing with Lincoln and Liam. I am so glad that I caught this precious moment.

Sam is 3 months!

I can't believe Sam is 3 months already. He is getting big weighting in at 15 pounds. I am not sure how long he is now..but he looks really long. He is not sleeping great..which is hard because Isabella was a great sleeper. We are starting to try to just let him cry it out at night. I am praying that within three nights or so he will be trained to sleep through the night.
He laughed for the first time the other day. He has only laughed for me so Matt is not entirely sure that he has actually done it. I assure you that he has and it is really cute. I will try to get it on video soon.
He does not enjoy tummy time, but I am trying to do it a little more everyday. He spends a lot of his awake time in his happy place--the bouncy seat. He is starting to grab things. He loves to look at you and smile. It is so nice when they start interacting with you. Here are some recent pics:

1st Hair Cut

Well, I am a little slow with some things and Isabella's hair is one of them. I had put off getting her hair cut b/c it just wasn't that long. But the ends have really been bothering me lately. We were getting ready for our trip back to Harlingen and I did not have the time to take her to a salon so I decided that I would just do it myself. She really had a great time too.
Here are some pictures of what the finished product looked like. You can decide for yourself if I did a good job. The pictures aren't the best, but you get the idea.

Bubble Time!!

Isabella loves to blow bubbles! It has been her favorite thing to do outside since it got nice out. Her and her daddy thought of a new game to play. She goes out to our car and waits for us to blow some bubbles by the house. Once she sees some bubbles...she runs across the lawn (very fast) to try to catch the bubbles. Here are some pictures of her in action. Now that I have a video camera I will take a video of her doing it too. But for now..here are some pictures:

Sam at 2 Months

Sam is getting so big all of the sudden. He getting so long! I am curious to see what his stats are on Tuesday when we go in for his two month check-up. I feel as though he is finally coming out of the infant stage. I have come to realize I am not a huge fan of this stage. I am very excited that he is starting to interact with us more and smiling a lot. It feels much more rewarding during the day. Here are some recent pics:

1st Dance Class

Isabella had her first Dance class last week and it went really well...once she started moving around. The first half was tap and it took her a little while to start jumping around, but once she did she loved it. She is doing it around the house now everyday and can't wait to go back. The second half of the class is ballet and she did well with that too. I am sorry that I did not get pictures of her doing her ballet, but Sam was not too happy at that time and I couldn't hold a camera.