Happy Father's Day

Just a quick message to wish all the dads out there a wonderful Father's Day!  I have been blessed to have an incredible father and an amazing father for my children.

I hope that everyone takes a moment to honor the father figures in their lives today.  A father does not have to be by blood alone...it takes much more to be the man that earns to the title of Dad. 

Thank you Chad for being such a wonderful father to our babies.  They both love you so much.  I love to watch you with our kids and see the joy that you bring them every day. 

And to my own Daddy...you are my mentor and friend as well as my father.  I am so lucky to have been able to look to you for advice, assistance and love.  You have given me wings while always giving me a soft place to fall.  My children think the world of you and I am so happy that we are close so they have the opportunity to learn from you as well.  Thank you for all that you do and thank you for showing me how to be a better person.  I love you!

(And thank you for always eating my food...no matter what a flop it turns out to be!  It is supposed to be a banana cream pie!)

Vote for Truman!

On a whim I entered a few photos of Truman into the Parent Magazine Cover Contest...and it looks like he was chosen as one of the photos that is in the running for the weekly winner.  The contest has judges but they also allow people to vote on photos.

So...VOTE!  Early and often!  I personally think he is the cutest kid in the contest but I may be a bit biased!

Click on the link below to go to the photo and then vote!

Thanks in advance.  I would love to show my little trooper to the world and get the word out about developmental delay at the same time.

http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/326892

Enter by clicking the link above or by clicking here--Vote!

Truman vs. The Ravioli

I think it was a tie. 

Lola Comes Home!

Our new baby came home this weekend!

She is just too adorable for words!  Scout and Truman love her completely and I am pretty much head over heals too!

Trying to fight the evil hose!

Phog is warming up to her.  He is a little overwhelmed by her energy!

I'm so happy to add our little Lola to the family.  Now if she will sleep through the night...I will love her even more!  I feel like I have a newborn again!

My newest baby!

Our new puppy came for a visit last night!  She is right at 7 weeks now so she should be able to come home to stay in about a week or two.

She has already gotten bigger!  Of course "big" is relative when you are talking about a dog that will only weigh between 10 and 12 pounds!  She is full of energy and loved playing with Scout and Truman.  Phog (our golden) wasn't too interested yet but he did stand guard over her for several minutes.

We have decided to name her Lola.  If I would have had another daughter I would have named her Lola...so I think it fits!  And "whatever Lola wants, Lola gets!"

This is her sister...she is a bit smaller and a little more tentative than Lola.  Her current owners call her Wine because she has a little whimper when she gets lonely.  Our dog was called Cheese...get it?  Wine and Cheese?  Yea, I like Lola better too!

I can't wait for her to come home permanently!  And yes...I do plan to buy her clothes and carry her around with me.  It is my right as a small dog owner and a mommy at heart.  I currently have no plans for a dog purse but don't hold me to that.

Crawling!!!

Truman is crawling!!!  This is an incredible, amazing, holy crap, oh my Lord, thank you little baby Jesus moment for the Booth-Meyers family!

We never thought that this would actually happen.  He has always had such low muscle tone in his arms and upper body.  Crawling requires that he put a lot of weight on he arms (well not a LOT he is only 21 pounds!) and he has always just crumpled when he tried to be on all fours.

Last Saturday he popped up into the all fours position randomly at an auction when I put him down on a table.  That evening he made a few attempts to move in the all fours position but he was still struggling to stay up.  It was actually pretty amusing to watch...he looked a little bit like one of those robot dogs.  He would get a few jerky moves forward and then lay down to rest.

By Wednesday at tiny-k he was really starting to figure it out.  His physical therapist was so excited!  She had planned an entire session working on the all fours position to help him to go from his stomach to a sitting position.  He has always just tried to play with toys while he was still on his tummy making his neck and arms very tired.  Instead he popped up onto all fours and then leaned back and sat ALL BY HIMSELF!  Whoo-hoo!!

He has been working hard all week until this morning when...cue drum roll...he crawled all the way down the hallway!!  He then turned around and crawled back.  The grin on his face was priceless.  Now there is no stopping him.  We sit him down and he crawls away.  SO AMAZING!!

I guess it is time to put up the baby gates.  We bought them when he was about 6 months old because Scout started crawling at 5 months.  Now at 15 months we finally get to use them!  CAN YOU TELL I AM EXCITED???

He is still pulling up like crazy.  He now can actually crawl to something to pull up which makes him a very happy camper.  I feel like walking is right around the corner.  If he walks before 18 months he is technically not delayed.  We also started speech therapy.  Often when a child is working hard on muscle motor skills they will lag on speech.  He is loud (after all he is half Booth!) but he doesn't have many words yet.  He says "up!" and "out!" and "dada," and my dad swears he says "Boppo" (the grand kids name for my dad) but I'm not so sure!   He only says "mama" if he is crying...which is just wonderful to hear.

I'm sure in a few weeks I am going to be a little less excited about the crawling thing.  He has a bit of a daredevil spirit so I have a feeling he will be getting into a lot.  He is all boy.

For now I am just going to revel in this major accomplishment.  I'm so incredibly proud of his determination!

SAHM vs. Working Mom

WARNING: I am writing about a touchy subject...I am not trying to upset anyone--just getting some things off my chest.  You have been warned! :)

I think that every mother deals with the stay-at-home mom (SAHM) vs. the working mom (WM) battle at some point.  It is such an emotional subject and typically it can cause the calmest of people to suddenly become a intense crazy person.  Why?  Because we all feel the need to justify what we do. 

And I am here to say-STOP!  Every time a woman justifies her decision to stay home or to work outside the home we set the feminist movement back about a hundred years.  It is time for women to simply support each other and stop judging.  I am so tired of listening to women tear each other down based on a career choice. 

Let me start by saying I really dislike the "stay-at-home mom" and "working mom" titles.  Do SAHMs not "work" and do WMs not do anything at home?  But for general understanding I use the terms because I don't really have a better suggestion!

I am a working mom.  I also was a SAHM after Scout was born for almost 3 years.  I did work part time during that time but I did it when my husband or other family member could take care of Scout.  After Scout was ready for preschool I decided to go back to work full time.  The extra money gave us the opportunity to buy a bigger house, nicer cars, pay for a great preschool program, take vacations, etc.  We survived on one salary...but two was so much easier.  When I got pregnant with Truman we had already locked ourselves into some of these expenses and so I knew I would have to go back to work much earlier. 

The truth?  I love my job.  I love feeling like I have made a difference within my business.  I like getting dressed up every day and going to work. I like to use the "adult" side of my brain.   I feel like I have really accomplished something and it feels really great when my daughter talks in a proud voice about her "mommy's important work."     

Also the truth?  I miss my children daily.  Sunday nights are so hard knowing that the next day I will not be with them every second.  I think about them constantly throughout the day.  I worry that I am missing out on so much of their childhood.  I wish that I was with them when I am not and I think about work when I am. 

I don't think I am made to be a SAHM.  I know several women who just fit the SAHM world.  The ideas they come up with, the activities, the incredible meals, etc., are so inspiring.  I typically get stuck on the "what do I do now?" and we end up staring at each other.   

For a long time I tried to be both...I tried to do all the things a SAHM would do while I worked full time. I felt like I had to somehow justify the fact that I worked to other moms.  I would volunteer for everything, bake things from scratch, take Scout to all of the classes, etc.  I would talk down about myself by trying to make my job seem less important to me than it really was and it still didn't matter to many of the SAHMs that I was around.  I heard all of the nice ways to judge another person--"I just can't imagine being away from my kids like that."  "It is so much more important to give time than material things that I could buy if I worked."  "My kids won't remember a big house but they will remember the time I spent with them."  Blah, blah, blah.

Now on the other side of things I would also hear the judgment from the WM crowd.  "What do they do all day?  I get it all done and I work 40 hours a week."  "Wouldn't it be nice to get to play all day?"  "I would never let myself be dependent financially on my husband.  What would they do if the suddenly had to work for a living?"  AHHHHHH!!!!!

All of the nastiness has to stop! 

We could all relax a lot more if we stopped looking over our shoulder trying to figure out how to one up each other.  I have enough guilt without another woman deciding to place additional pressure on me. 

My SAHM guilt --was I doing "enough," I couldn't buy her whatever she wanted, I was tired and needed a break, etc., etc., etc. 

My WM guilt--I am missing so many things, I don't have the time to do it all, I can't take a break at all now because I am already gone too much, etc., etc., etc.

I'll step off my soapbox now with one last thought...I hope to raise my children with the idea that the sky is the limit.  I want them to believe that they can accomplish whatever they set out to do.  I want them to live their dreams, whatever those dreams may be.  Maybe Truman will be a stay-at-home dad and Scout will be a CEO.  Maybe they will both decide not to have children (I hope not because I am going to be a incredible grandma!) or have 10.  I imagine that most parents feel this way about their children.  Why don't we give each other the same opportunity?  We should let others be who they dream of being and not stick our opinions where they don't belong.