Field Trip to the bakery in DeWitt with friends

Playing

I have a really hard time following through with suprises so naturally Christmas often comes early around our house. I caved in and gave Liam this barn and animals (which I proudly scored at Goodwill for $3) which he has been playing with non-stop. Infact the first thing he says when he wakes up is "want an-mals"

He's already learned to be sarcastic with his mother- I told him to smile and this is what I got...

Just Chillin- eatin' pepperoni with his bunny in a box next to him.

Liam loves his Christmas Tree

Getting cozy with dad

Liam's new favorite game- playing on the Total gym in the basement

modern motherhood

The love of a mother is perhaps the most instinctual, powerfully binding form of love. From the moment your child is born your life is disrupted, and altered until it barely resembles its previous state. For any sacrifice made as a mother, the rewards are returned exponentially. There is nothing like seeing your child grow and surpass your expecations. There are few moments more precious than holding your little one as they fall asleep or receiving a hug and kiss from a child that thinks you can do no wrong.

On the other hand motherhood can become consuming to the extent that women get lost in their responsibilities and neglect themselves. While the desire to adore and nurture your child usually comes naturally, the domestic skills associated with house keeping are not so innate. Trying to make peace with your thankless daily routine of dishes, sweeping, removing stains, and cleaning toilets can be a persistent battle. While motherhood, as the pinnacle of feminine experience, can be empowering, monotonous housework can feel like bondage. It’s easy to feel like you are wasting away while doing chores at half speed (half watching your child.) All the while feeling guilty that you aren’t actually playing with your child and that your house isn’t cleaner.



There seems to be moms that represent both ends of the career/ domestic spectrum. While I resemble the traditional mom, I can’t say I fit that mold perfectly. I hate doing chores too much and can hardly wait to start grad school. I am a stay at home mom that loves going to work. I work just a few hours a day and I am blessed to be able to bring Liam with me to work. Through work I have met many friends and have been able to help hundreds of individuals. Using my education and developing my talents in the workplace is extremely rewarding. While I enjoy going to work, I am ridiculously protective of my child and hate the thought of him leaving my side and anyone else taking care of him, including going to kindergarten.



A book that I recently read, To Hell With All That: Loving and Loathing Your Inner Housewife by Caitlin Flanagan illustrates some of these issues. The book is directed at neither the career diva nor the domestic wonder. The book is written by an anti-feminist mother with, ironically, a high profile writing career. It examines the arguments for both “traditional” motherhood as well as the trap of domestic housework, with its capability to snare ambition and worldly talent. An excerpt provides some interesting insights:

“There is the deepest conflict about motherhood. Affluent working mothers stubbornly insist that no one question their commitment to their children, while at home mothers demand the world confer upon them the social cachet that comes with working outside the home, But these are mutually exclusive demands.

Few will admit- because it is painful because it reveals the unpleasant truth that life presents a series of choices, each which precludes a host of other attractive possibilities- is that whichever decision a woman makes, she will lose something of incalculable value. The kind of relationship between a child and a mother who is home all day caring for him is substantively different from that formed between a child and a woman who is gone many hours a week. The former relationship is more intimate, more private, filled with more moments of maternal frustration-and even despair- and with more moments of transcendence that comes only from mothering a small child.

Yet when a woman works outside the home, she uses the best of her mind and education, exerting her influence on the world beyond her doorstep. We respect women who stay at home with their children but it is the ones who work- the ones who spend their days taking part in the commerce and traffic of the adult world- who seem to have retained the most of their former selves.”

Since I am completely enthralled by the phenomenon of motherhood these days I thought that was interesting. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, I believe it is important that women live very deliberately while placing their children as top priority. We should be aligning our lives with the path that God would have us lead while in a manner that will leave us fulfilled without regrets.

leaves

These dogs are often packed around the house and keep Liam company at night.

Fall

Liam, like most kids, probably wishes Halloween came once a week. He fully embraced the candy eating, costume wearing, pumpkin saturated festivities and loved carrying his pumpkin basket around trick or treating to our neighbors. He was continually pointing at candy and saying "want dat. . want dat" He loved looking at himself in the mirror and seeing himself in a hat.


For pre- Halloween events he was an army man (MIA from costume: camo coat, & hat) Note the Nerd candy sprinkled all around him.

This was the best costume we've ever seen- a guy disguised as a heap of garbage. Our neighbor is a professor of sculpture at MSU and constructed this fully funtional garbage pile suit. When people came near, he'd move around.


We have been trying to teach him his name so he has been referring to himself as "Mi-mi" (which is supposed to be "Liam," not "me")

The past few days he's let us know he was done sleeping by making cat and dog noises when he wakes up.