We had a simple, quiet Saturday at home. We hung out, did laundry, vacuumed, cooked a yummy lunch and just enjoyed not having any plans until this evening. I did manage to take a few pictures.

Hudson has a basket of all of these little figurines of animals, dinosaurs, Sesame Street and Disney characters. He carries it around from room to room and plays with them and then we pick them up and put them back in the basket. These are his favorite toys at the moment.

Dumping them out and picking them up again. He loves all these tiny little toys. Fiona doesn’t seem very amused in the background.

She does a really good job tolerating Hudson’s antics. He tries his hardest to torment her, but she stays as patient as possible. She definitely lets him know when he’s gone too far.

This old boy is just the sweetest. He spent most of the day napping. He actually currently smells like he rolled in something dead. Yuck. But he does love our boys, especially Hayes.

I’ve been getting up early to do my quiet time and Bible reading, but today I did it during nap time. I am really enjoying it. I really had no expectations and I know this project is a marathon. I have to stick with it every day of the year. But I really am enjoying it.

And this sweet fella? He is such a joy! He seems to be on the mend after his third round of antibiotics for this ear infection. But he’s just so sweet. We’ve adjusted his feeding schedule a little bit so he has his last meal of solids around 4:30 p.m. He has started babbling more and is started to say “ba ba” for “bottle.” Love watching him grow!

I hope you all had a great Saturday!

I think moms who blog sometimes get a bad rap. We probably come off as complainers. We have an opportunity to put our feelings and worries out there and hit “publish.” For me, personally, it makes me feel better to just get it out there and get it off my chest. It’s better than lying awake at 3:00 a.m. as I worry about what happened and how it could have been handled differently.

Sometimes all you want when you write is to know that some other mother went through it. Someone to say, “me too!” It makes me feel better to hear it and I hope it makes her feel better to know she’s not alone.

We all know our kids better than anyone. I know their little personalities. I know that there is a true emergency if Hayes is crying. I know that Hudson can now make himself cry to get attention. Those personalities and quirks make them all different.

In those situations, the last thing I want to hear is, “It’s life, honey. Don’t overreact about it and don’t worry. In five years you won’t even remember this.”

I know comments like that are supposed to make me feel better, but they mostly just send the message that my perspective is “off.” And maybe it is. But I can guarantee that some of these embarrassing, challenging, make-me-question-how-well-I’m-doing-this-mommy-thing moments won’t be forgotten soon.

But maybe they’re right.

Maybe I will forget it and when I look back in twenty years, I’ll remember only the best. I’ll remember happy days and all the laughs and those tantrums will only be stories on my old blog.

I just think it’s a natural progression that I need to experience for myself. I hope that my perspective changes. Those precious little two year old moments will outshine the tantrums and the “scary mommy” memories will be extra hazy and fuzzy.

Right now I’m a young, immature mommy. I have so much to learn and I may even hurt myself a few times along the way. But, just like my stubborn toddler, I want to do it myself.

Can you believe it? It’s already time to place orders for spring and summer clothes!

One of my favorite ways to shop for my boys is through home trunk shows. One of my favorite lines is Shrimp & Grits Kids. These clothes are extremely well made, they’re classic, and they’re down right cute!

Lucky for me, my friend Margaret is now a rep for Shrimp & Grits Kids and she asked me to host an online “show” for her so I could show all of you the adorable clothes for spring and summer.

To see the online catalog, click here!

If you have any questions, or would like to place an order, email Margaret at mkpedler@gmail.com

Take some time to look through the online catalog to see sets for brothers and sisters, sisters, brothers, play clothes and church clothes. I cannot get over how cute everything is this season!

I love that there are casual versions of each pattern in addition to dressier styles. It’s going to be so hard for me to choose, but I’m on the hunt for some coordinating outfits for my boys!

To see the online catalog, click here!

If you have any questions, or would like to place an order, email Margaret at mkpedler@gmail.com

For some of us, all of our lives we dream of being a parent. In some cases we just dream of holding a sweet little baby. Or you dream of taking your child to his or her first soccer practice. But I know for me, I had little snippets of images in my head of what things would be like.

None of these images include tantrums in public places. Or a child that refused to get out of the car and went limp in the parking lot when you tried to go inside the school.

These images don’t include your child losing his breakfast on the way out of town on a long road trip.

And they don’t include trip after trip to the pediatrician’s office for another round of antibiotics for a never-ending ear infection. Why won’t it just go away?

They didn’t include dinner time frustration as you attempt to spoon-feed your 8 month old for the 90th straight day and he still refuses to eat.

But these things are reality. Kids are kids. Hopefully, other people struggle with their kids in the same ways (or similar ways) that I struggle with mine.

When we were visiting my parents, Hudson and I went to a basketball game with my Dad. It was Hudson’s first basketball game. We thought it would be a little slow with a light crowd, so let’s take him. He’ll love it, right?

He loved it for about the first five minutes, but then he wanted to walk around. He wanted to go see the mascot.

I decided to let him walk around the arena concourse, but in his simple little 2.5 year old mind, he couldn’t understand why we were going left when he wanted to go right.

And the tantrum of all tantrums began.

He cried so hard he couldn’t catch his breath. He went limp. He screamed and kicked. I squatted down next to him and asked him to try to tell me what he wanted to do, but he kept saying, “THIS WAY!”

Unfortunately, “this way” meant that he wanted to go onto the court, which obviously wasn’t happening. My basketball days were limited to seventh grade try-outs and I never hope to relive anything close to that.

I tried to get Hudson to just walk (or even run!) around the concourse to burn off some steam. But he wanted to go onto the court.

At this point, people were staring at me as I just walked with him. He weighs 38 pounds, for crying it out loud. I was whispering in his ear that he wasn’t behaving as he should and that he needed a time out.

I actually found a corner on the concourse and had him stand there where he continued to scream. People continued to stare. You know they’re just wondering, “I wonder how she’s going to handle this.”

And I had no clue how to handle it. I’d done everything I could think of that’s appropriate for public discipline.

I ended up taking him outside. It was freezing. But I thought we could both cool off and calm down. It just didn’t get any better.

Fortunately, after about twenty minutes, it was half time and my Dad emerged (hallelujah!) and we went home.

Hudson had just gotten himself so worked up– to the place of no return. At that point, he couldn’t breathe because he was crying so hard. His mind probably couldn’t even remember why he was crying.

Sitting here now, in my calm, quiet living room, I’m thinking of what I could have or should have done in that situation. I’m wondering if I’ve been in public and if I’ve noticed another mom struggling with a similar situation.

But when I’m in tense, loud, heart-pounding moments like that, all I can think is, “stay calm.” Even though there’s a screaming toddler voice in my ear telling me to do everything but stay calm.

No, that’s not at all how I pictured this motherhood thing when I first held Hudson. In fact, when I look at sweet, happy Hayes who so rarely cries, I think, “there’s no way he’ll ever be two and a half, right?” Ha!

It’s humbling. I hope we can avoid a situation like that in the future, but I’m sure it will happen again. My mind will race wondering what I should do while I sweat and pray that no one is looking at me. (Of course they’re looking at me!)

Thank goodness for teachable moments for Hudson and for me. It’s all just part of the parenting initiation, it seems.