1st Mother's Day

This was my first Mother's Day on the other side of the equation! I'm now a daughter and a mother! I was probably more excited for it than I should have been. I've never been great at these holidays with my parents. I generally get my mom a card and the family spends the day together with grandma sometimes too. And that's exactly what we did this year! It was a beautiful day to spend some time outside at the Picker's Market and then to Grandma's house we went for some chili and conversation.

And did I mention we were matching?! Ha ha! I had planned for Hazel and I to match, but then Erin said the dress she was planning to wear was going to match us too. SO I decided we should probably get mom in on the coral color action so we could all match for a picture! Then Hazel had a bit of a blowout on her romper and had to wear her backup onesie.

 

My kids (Hazel and Norbert) let me sleep in until 7 and then brought me apple struessel pancakes. I got a card from them signed with their paw/foot prints, and a card from my husband (not signed with his footprint, though that would have been awesome!). They also got me some new gardening tools. Such sweeties!

But this Mother's Day has gotten me thinking more about our parenting. Right now I am a mother, but I think this is going to be the easiest part. I think it just gets harder from here. Birth was tough, and as a reward we get a little snuggly newborn.  At this stage, it's the bare bones of parenting. Making sure all of her needs are met. If she has a clean diaper and a full belly, we're doing a great job! We're looking out for her basic necessities. And sure we DO go above and beyond this (sometimes we actually put clothes on her... Kidding. Kindof). We make her smile as much as possible. Expose her senses to new things... different music, smells, pictures. But it's all pretty simple. Right now the best thing we can do is love her.

I don't think that part of parenting changes at all. The best thing is always unconditional love, but eventually there will be a lot more to it. We really haven't embarked on building her character yet. Teaching her manners. Instilling values and morals. Helping her become her own person.

What kind of rules are we going to set? What will we do when she misbehaves? How will we handle discipline? How will we navigate this crazy world of technology?

I have done zero research on parenting styles. I'm not sure that Tyler has done any either (I'm not counting techniques to get a baby to sleep). And honestly, I probably won't do a lot of research on it. We are pretty laid back people so I think our parenting will be pretty laid back too. Sure, at times I know I'm going to want to look up different ways to handle certain situations like potty training, but for our overall parenting style I'd rather create one of our own. I'm going to wing it!

Eventually, I could change my mind and decide I want to do tons of research, because this is ALL NEW and we really don't know what is in store. We're open minded, and I could totally do a flip flop if needed. But for now, I'm happy to figure out my own set of parenting values and go from there. Sometimes I do come across bits and pieces of parenting advice that speak to me (like the quote below), and in that case I will add them to my philosophy as we go.

All this rambling is me saying that I don't know what kind of parents we're going to be yet. And that is more than okay! We love our daughter and that is the most important thing.

Current status: New Mom.

Parent: for almost 2 months.

1st Mother's Day: Awesome!

Parenting philosophy: Love and new experiences.

{  By William Martin  }

In other news... On Mother's Day our baby robins left the nest and we are now empty nesters. They grew soooo fast, and I can't believe they're gone already! In the morning we were oggling them and saying how we couldn't believe how big they were. Then, later in the evening, we took a peek and they were GONE! I immediately panicked thinking that they had gotten blown out of the nest during the evening storm, because though they were big, they did NOT look ready to fly yet. It made me very sad for such a Mother's Day travesty. But Tyler did a quick google search and learned that robins only stay in the nest for approximately 8 days and then leave, even before they can fly. They start learning their life skills from the ground. It was comforting, but I wasn't totally assured until I actually saw them hopping around in the back garden yesterday. I even watched one "climb" a tree! The mother was still there watching over her babies too, and she was even still bringing them snacks!  Go little robins, fly on!

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