HOLIDAY BABIES
This blog article can also be read at DC Metro Moms Blog. I’m a contributor…it’s a great site!
Ahhh, Christmas cards, holiday baking, presents… birthday parties to plan.
Birthday parties?
I’m alluding to the extra ‘fun’ predicament of having a child around the holidays. My son was born exactly one week before Christmas. If you have already leaned closer to your computer screen – you definitely have a holiday baby. And you are awesome! Good job getting everything and everyone in your family taken care of this time of year
AND making your child feel special all at the same time! I know, I’m indirectly complimenting myself… But holiday mommies need a little pep talk this time of year!
I never thought about the ins and outs of the December birthday; I’m a June birthday (good planning, Mom) and my husband is a July birthday (nice planning, Mom-In-Law). But now I have a different worldview- and we’ve made the decision… (drumroll, please) to decorate for Christmas the 19th, the day AFTER my son’s birthday this year.
It is a big decision but one my son seems to think is very logical. Okay, he’s three. But it’s his special day and this is what he wants. He is incredibly excited for his birthday this year because as he once again, logically puts it, “I’m turning Four!”
So we have up no decorations. He doesn’t care. And we’re lucky enough that my husband is taking off that next day, the 19th. We’re getting up and going out and getting a tree, bringing it home and we’ll be garlanded, wreathed, ornamented and mistletoed by lunchtime.
It could be more of a logistical nightmare- I know a wonderful young mom who had HEALTHY twins last Christmas Eve. When we all heard, every other mom around said, “What a special Christmas gift!” I thought so too, but secretly my next thought was, “That’s going to be logistically tough.”
Another friend of mine has four of her five children’s birthdays within a month span, starting the first week in December… and her husband’s too.
I don’t know if I feel guilty about not decorating now OR if I think I should feel guilty. It’s an experiment. We’ll see how it goes.
Since becoming a ‘holiday mommy’ I’ve quickly learned I’m not alone. I have gotten great advice from everyone and anyone who is born or has a child born this time of year. Most importantly, I’ve learned to make your child’s birthday completely separate from Christmas… if you can. And just make your little guy or gal feel special.
I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR Tips, Advice, Rookie Mistakes and Success Stories from ‘holiday babies’ moms’ out there! Every holiday mom I have ever spoken to has a story!
It is a busier than usual time of year to plan a birthday, but I would have taken my little guy on any day of the year!
THANKSGIVING
This poem can also be read on DC Metro Moms.
I’m a contributor…Great Site!
THANKSGIVING
Thank you for little hands and little toes,
Little fingerprints and a little nose.
Thank you for hair to comb and birthday parties to plan,
Mittens to lose and toy planes to land.
Thank you for family.
Thank you for friends.
Thank you for the autumn leaf colors and all the blends.
Thank you for life and imperfection.
Thank you for holiday candies and confection.
Thank you for little pajamas and toys about our house;
Thank you for laughter during the day and at night-
Quiet as a mouse.
Thank you for reading books and a roof over our heads,
A Winnie-The-Pooh toothbrush and a big boy bed.
Thank you for smiles and giggles reigning,
And Thank you (finally) to an end of potty-training.
Thank you for jackets, but temperatures not too cold…
And Thank you for all the memories I’ll have,
Long after I’m old.
OUR FIELD TRIP TO THE NATIONAL MALL
This Blog article can also be read on DC Metro Moms. I’m a contributor… Great Site!
In keeping with suggestions from online parenting guides, and PBS, and articles in the weekend paper, and even blurbs on the sides of cereal boxes, I decided to do something fun and educational with my 3-year-old son. We take ‘field trips’ together. During the long days of August when NOTHING was going on in this town, we tried to do a field trip once a week… now it’s once a month.
We got in the car and went down to the Mall. My son loves cars… and trucks… and planes… and rockets, really any mode of transportation. So I’m thinking, ‘What could be better than The Air and Space Museum ?’ Nothing… or so I thought.
I don’t know when you last parked down at the Mall, but parking is surprisingly easy. They added parking all along the service road that borders the Mall, the entire length of it. And if you want to take Metro- you’ve got the stop right there.
I pulled into a space only about a block away from The Air and Space Museum. No meters and ‘rock star parking’…cool! We walked across the little service road to the sidewalk and immediately saw a beautiful fountain in front of the National Museum of the American Indian. It had many levels and an edge big enough for a 3-year-old to walk along. He loved it (at this point I knew, maybe he’s not going to be as excited as I thought to see Wilbur and Orville Wright’s plane).
I finally coaxed him away from the super cool climbing fountain and we went into the Air and Space museum. As you all know – it is gigantic. It’s cool for adults and maybe 6–year-olds, but my son couldn’t really grasp that the huge cylinder which must have looked like a cylindrical building to him, was part of a rocket. He did however, like the models of rockets that were smaller.
We walked around a little more. I think we stayed a little over an hour and that included a trip to the Air and Space museum McDonald’s. The happy meal toy was a NASA rocket – nice touch McDonald’s and NASA.
We then started to leave; he told me he was ready to go. But wait, he was so impressed with the purse/bag x-ray machine that the guards showed him how it worked.
We made another stop at the fountain, crossed the street and my son yelled, “Mommy, look!” It was literally a bus and truck put together, I’m sure to haul artifacts around the Smithsonian. I believe it was a government vehicle.
“It’s a… BusTruck! I’ve never seen one of those before!” And he just stared.
When my husband got home from work and asked what we had seen and learned on our ‘field trip’ my son immediately started in with a description of the ‘BusTruck’… no planes, no rockets… the BusTruck.
So once again, I tried to give my son an educational experience, and he gave me the education.
But he’s a fun teacher!
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