Welcome to Mockingbirdmom! I am so excited to be writing this, my first official blog post. I have been interested in blogging for a while, mostly because I enjoy writing. When I began brainstorming about a blog theme, I considered all the things I am passionate about, of which there are many. However, one subject was the clear choice for me: my daily momming. I have two boys, Wood who is 8 and Graham who is 5. I wanted to join an online community to engage in supportive and encouraging ways as well as share my insights, struggles, victories, and tips as I hike the mom trail. Full disclosure: I am no expert. Some days that trail is filled with amazing scenery, and cool nature experiences. Other days I have grizzly encounters and feel like I barely escape with my life. Many days I am the bear, just looking out for my cubs.
Barely in the generation X cohort, I am a lover of music and movies which I will probably quote often. I do have some hobbies including running and barre workouts, trying new recipes, writing of course, and I do love me some football. Again, I am no expert at any of these things (not that I really could be at football), but I do enjoy them. Honestly, I would say I am a sarcastic person (although I prefer witty), laid back, and I try to make sure we laugh a lot. Humor is an essential part of life. Not only is it more fun to laugh but well-timed humor helps me, as a mom, diffuse situations before they escalate. For example, my boys will run to me with “injuries” and sometimes start to cry or panic unnecessarily. After I assess the situation to be a minor scrape completely undeserving of any such reaction, I usually respond with, “Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry! Gosh, do you still think you can do your dance moves?” At this point, I usually get an affirmative head nod followed by a demonstration and then all is right with the world again. Any excuse to show me their moves. Not only do I want to make sure we laugh a lot, but I want to have fun, create memories and make the most of those moments that we all know will be gone before we know it. Instead of saying “no”, I want to find ways to say “yes,” when I can. I want to embrace the silly, perfect my light saber skills, read the book again, and pack 17 stuffed animals when we are only going across town to see Nana for the day. Why? Because I want to be relentless. For them. I know I am not alone. It is what we moms do. My mom made up a breakfast sandwich and named it after us. She also put cute notes in our school lunches. Those are a couple of great memories that mean a lot to me today.
That brings me to the point of my blog. You might be thinking, “Why mockingbird?” I am glad you asked. When I was little, my mom would sing the lullaby, ‘Hush Little Baby, Don’t Say a Word,’ to me and my sister. I love this lullaby and even have the book version that I have read/sung to my two. It starts off,
‘Hush, little baby don’t say a word
Papa’s gonna buy you a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird don’t sing
Papa’s gonna buy you a diamond ring’
If you know the lullaby, you know it continues through several more verses of various attempts to soothe a little one. I love the accurate depiction of the lengths we go to for our kids. If something does not work, we try something else, and if that does not work, we keep going. I love the pictures in my book because they show a family at their wits end. Frazzled, yet determined. I also love the end of the lullaby because sometimes nothing works, but even on those days we are still so full of love we could burst and we keep going, for our little ones who are the best in the world, right? I read somewhere that the mockingbird symbolizes the following: joyfulness, gratitude, cleverness, intelligence, playfulness, protection, security, and communication. I thought it was perfect. The kind of mom I want to be.
I should take a moment here to admit I can go overboard at times. I think I have an inner pre-K teacher that comes out occasionally. She has a craft closet. I have been known to go a bit over the top for birthday parties too. In my defense, I only have so many years to get away with that. At some point, they just want to go somewhere fun with their friends and all I will have is my memories of that dinosaur- themed 3rd birthday party where my baby and all his friends ran around wearing custom dinosaur tails made by my mother-in-law.
I have lots of goals as a mom. I want to raise my kids in a family of faith, to ensure they know they are loved no matter what, and to make sure they know I’m always here. I want to prepare them for life, teach them to be kind, loving and generous to others, and to find something they love to do that brings them a sense of accomplishment; just to name a few.
What I hope to do with mockingbirdmom is engage with my fellow superhero moms. It is a tough job, but an important one. Most of the time, it appears that no one sees your cape. I know I need all the help I can get. I have said it already and will say it again: I am no expert. I do spend a lot of time planning fun things around holidays, and when the pandemic came into full swing, I spent a lot of time working on activities for my kids. We all had to adapt in all sorts of ways. For me, my kids were knocking out the virtual learning so fast that their day was quickly swallowed up in video games or television. Nope. I knew that was not good for them and did not want their day to be consumed that way. So, my pre-K teacher emerged, and there I was spending hours on the weekend coming up with themes for each week and activities each day that I tried to make both fun and educational. My goal was to keep them occupied for about half the day so they could have some free time in the afternoon in the hopes of creating a balance. I realize not everyone enjoys (or has time) to plan such activities. I also must give credit where credit is due. I got a lot of great ideas from other creative teachers and moms on Pinterest and am extremely grateful for all the resources that are available online. So, I thought I could share some of the fun things that we came up with and our experiences and if others get ideas or benefit from it, then it has been worth it to me. I also plan to share other experiences like I mentioned at the beginning of my post. If there are recipes my picky eaters liked, I will share. Anything from toys, movies, games, clothes and books to quirky mom tricks, and I hope you will comment and chime in on things that work for you and your crew as well.
I have lots of nicknames for my boys (as I’m sure all of you do as well for your kids), but one such pair is Big Love for my oldest and Baby Love for my little one. A couple of years ago, I had a coworker who could make balloon animals and other things, and I thought it would be a good idea to have him make something for the boys. He made my little one a motorcycle. It was great, but he was three and the inevitable happened. It popped. So, the next morning, Baby love came up to me in his pajamas, with huge crocodile tears, the popped motorcycle in one hand and a wrench in the other that he had gotten from his daddy’s toolbox. He said, “Mommy, can you fix it?” Heart wrenching. So, I scooped him up and explained that while I could not fix this one, maybe I could make him a new one? His eyes lit up, and this seemed to make things better. Now, at this point, I had never actually done anything with balloons other than blow them up. Minor detail. It was Saturday, Wal-Mart has balloons, and I had YouTube. That was not the day he was going to find out I was not able to do anything. Several hours later, I had a blue, rather large balloon bicycle, despite some mockers; but the point is, Baby love was happy. I did not have to do that, but I did, and now, we have a memory that we laugh about, and it makes him feel special to hear that story. So, let me encourage you if that ever happens to you, you can do it! It is not easy, but unlike me maybe you will discover a hidden talent and be a hit at birthdays. Seems like I am adding my own verses to the lullaby,
“And if that toy balloon gets popped
Mommy will watch YouTube and give it another shot.”
We are all writing our own verses. Maybe it is just me, but the mom trail of 2020 has seemed a bit steep, rough, overgrown, and not well marked. So many moms who already wear multiple hats have ended up taking on even more. I would argue that even though at times the cape appears to go unseen, the most important people do see it. After all, who is it that your little ones run to? The one they know can fix it. The one who will try something, and when that does not work, try something else.
The best part is, even if nothing works, we still have ‘the sweetest little baby in town.’
Thank you for checking out my blog. Stay tuned for an upcoming post: An entire week of Hocus Pocus
