You know you're a Mom When

You'd rather sleep through New Years.

A text between my outgoing, younger sister and I.  My sister is a first time Mom to a 3 month old.


Although the Ruffians and I stayed awake for the entire New Year festivities.  I was secretly (or maybe not so secretly) being seduced by my down comforter and pillow.

-Shirley (Mama-Ruff)

The First Page

Actually, let me be literal here. TODAY is the first day, and if my 2013 printed blog book (which I'm just finishing up and ready to order) is any indication for 2014, then:

Today is the first blank page of a book that will be about 100 pages. 

Unless I blog more...

Which I would love to do....

I wonder what treasures the following pages will be filled with!  :)

-Shirley (Mama-Ruff)

New Year, Old Resolutions

I hope you had a Happy New Year!

It was quite a year for us with highlights being the start of this new blog and our trips to LA, Peru, Lake Tahoe, and Disney-world with two toddlers.  There was the cancer death of my sister's labrador, Mokee:  Qori's best friend, father figure -- all he knew and trusted.  I was too heart-broken to write about it.  Thankfully, Mokee's soul lived on a few months later when my sister gave birth to my first niece, Emily.  Also known as "Em" for "M" for "Mokee".

It's been a good year for me, not the best, but thankfully also not the worst.  I started this blog excited to enter into full toddler-hood life and leave the baby phase behind.  True enough, every day the ruffians get a little easier to handle and a little more independent.  I've even found moments lately to give myself manicures again!  Diego's speech is so good now, I question why he's even in speech therapy still.  And Tater:  he's picking things up so fast, thanks to his constant interaction with his older brother.  Although Ruffians will always be Ruffians, I feel like each day I get a little closer to something I can handle better as a mom.  A mutual, organic relationship with my Ruffians, and now that I think about it, that was probably what I really needed to set as my original goal/resolution for the year, and everything else would have fell into place. 

I'm not blaming my Ruffian-relationship for me not meeting all my resolutions last year.  Although they did make things literally impossible, there are other factors such as working mom life, my own devotion and energy, and my take on motherhood.  I won't lie, I don't think I've handled the first years of motherhood very well, and there have been days where I have a short fuse and displace my own anger and selfishness as resentment towards the Ruffians.  I'm working on that.  I love my Ruffians!  But, man - can they drive this woman insane most of the time!  I honestly have less than 5 minute bouts of time where the Ruffians decide to give me a break.  Not enough time to pamper myself, take a shower, think a deep thought, or even get out a blog post.  There is never any time for ME, and yet I still give myself personal goals every year thinking, "This is the year the Ruffians will give me more time for ME!"  Unfortunately, if I had to grade myself on my 2013 personal goals, I'd give myself a C or a D, which to me means I did not pass this year, and I must repeat the course.  I have faith that I can do it better this year, as my Ruffians start loosening the reigns, and I can get control of the carriage again.  Could 2014 be the year for ME?!!!  I'm a little timid about 2014, since Tater will be in his terrible twos.  Please all pray the best for me!

So I'm re-posting last year's resolutions below (slightly modified for goals I already met) to remind myself of what I thought (during my 5-minute bouts of time) was deeply important for me as a human being to feel at peace with myself for 2014:

• I will be more financially responsible
• I will pay down my debt by at least 50% by the end of 2014. I will use at least 50% of any bonus or tax return money to help pay off the debt.
• I will join the ASPCA (or other) charity by April and use part of my bonus money to provide a significant donation (succeeded last year but worth keeping up)
• I will create my priority wishlist of items (excluding clothes/shoes, because, well - come on... you know I would never be able to get to the other stuff on the list!) for 2014 and buy only things on the list for myself throughout the year (about once a month) if there's financial wiggle room. (Also succeeded last year and worth keeping up)
• I will get fit (lose the baby fast-food-friday pouch and tighten the glutes)
• I will walk down and then up at least 9 flights of stairs daily at work, when my work schedule permits
• I will run on the treadmill at least once a week. 
• I will do sit-ups and lunges at least twice a week. (I'm thinking I should do this while watching my reality TV:  Bachelor, Housewives of Whatever City, or Extreme Weightloss)
• I will eat more healthy:  I will drink more water instead of juice and eat healthy snacks like multigrain crackers and cheese, nuts, and fruit. 
• I will be more healthy with my cooking and provide more variety in my menus. 
• I will make more side-dishes of veggies, beans, or grains when it supplements the dinner menu.
• I will make things that I've never made before (casseroles, meatloaf, etc) or try to perfect things that just never taste right for me (e.g., beef chow mein - how the heck do cheap restaurants do it???)
• I will institute Meatless Mondays for dinner
• I will incorporate less rice in dinner, and if I do make rice, I will only serve myself 1 cup. period.

Diego and Mateo (aka: I) have a goal too:

   Get potty trained by the end of 2014 (Diego was 90% potty trained for a whole week last year and then he regressed.  I'd say he's 2% potty trained now).  This might not be realistic for Tater, but he's been surprising me lately with how fast he picks things up, and I'd really like diapers to be a thing of the past in my life! 

Bring it on 2014!

Shirley (Mama-Ruff)

Terrible-Two, Tater Tot

Tater, Tater, Tater!

Where do I even begin?  You turned 2 a couple of weeks ago before Christmas and unfortunately it was also one of my busiest days at work where I worked a full day and then  was on several calls through 1:30 am through the next day. But my love for you still miraculously found time to bake you a cake, and I still spent every moment I could next to you. 

So let me tell you a little about yourself at the two year mark.

You talk-- like really well!  This morning you said, "Where's my Elmo?  Oh!  There it is!"  Although it sounded more like "Wes my Almow? Oh Deh- is"  Those are full sentences in my book, little dude.  You're rockin!

You're becoming a picky eater like your brother was at this age, but you're not going on a Ghandi-like hunger strike like your brother did.  You'll still put any food in your mouth, but now you've learned to chew out the nutrients and discard the rest (usually into Mama's hands).  Sometimes you even walk up to our garbage, lift the lid and spit right into the can. 

You have a problem with the bottle, to which I mean you just WON'T transition to sippy cups. 

Bottles and your blanky - you still need both to take a nap.

Your tantrums aren't nearly as bad as your brother's were (yet - but we're still just starting off the year).  But you'll stand your ground, scream "NO!", cry and throw yourself on the floor to get your way sometimes.  And sometimes it works.

You really love Thomas the Train and stacking toys, but you'll also entertain your big brother by fighting with a pair of his Godzilla or Dinosaur toys.

Last year you were just barely learning to walk.  This year you are just learning how to pedal on your tricycle and jump with good balance.

When I sneeze, you say, "Bess you, Mama"

When you sneeze, and I say bless you, you say "Thank you Mama".

Any letter or number that you point to, you proclaim as the letter "E".

You and your brother fight by wrestling, but when shit gets real, you'll bite him.

You want to do things by yourself.  You want to feed yourself, you want to close the car door by yourself, you want to clean the table yourself with a napkin.  You often refuse my hand when we go on walks and get pissed when I grab your jacket hoody as an alternative to your hand (you don't get that cars and roads are dangerous). 

You love Mickey Mouse and scream, "Mickey!!!!!!!!!!" Anytime you see him. 

After I had you well trained as a crib sleeper, your Dad felt sorry for you sleeping alone a few months ago,  and invited you to our bed.  Since then you demand to sleep with us, and we're now a 100% co-sleeping family and the nursery is just toy storage.  --> This is probably another post entirely.

Happy Birthday Tater, as you enter into your terrible two's!  I just ask that you take it easy on your Mama for this phase.  Your brother beat me up pretty badly already. I'm still traumatized!

-Shirley (Mama Ruff)

Dear Santa: What will I do without you?!

Dear Santa,

It's been a crazy month, and I didn't get a chance to blog so many things since before Thanksgiving even.  But now that you're gone, Santa, I'm at a loss.

What will I do without you?!!!!!

Your power over my children was a godsend!  I threatened my children with coal at every turn, and the amazing thing is that they behaved every friggin' time.  I even enjoyed a stress-free dinner at a fancy restaurant WITH THE RUFFIANS at my side!  You are an amazing, jolly fat-man!  I love you!

Please stay, dude.

You're the best.  Don't leave me!  I need you.

Shirley (Mama-Ruff)

Pumpkin Mexican Wedding Cookies

A good friend on FaceBook tuned me into this pumpkin recipe to help me figure out to do with all those pumpkins we got.  It was another hit.

Just ask the boy below who NEVER eats with such gumption!

Amazing! - Shirley (Mama-Ruff)

White Elephant

It's rare that I ever make a cameo in a high quality, non-blurry photo taken by someone else.   So let's ignore the white elephant in the room, because clearly he was ignoring us as well. We're lucky he even glanced in the camera's direction!

He DID NOT want to wear his costume!

Luckily, with a bit of a struggle I was able to successfully get him in the costume later when we went trick-or-treating at the mall.

And he had fun.  What do you know?!  He's been talking about it all day.

We passed out candy afterwards.  Diego had fun when kids came up to our glass storm door.  But there was someone else who anticipated it more (after he got tired of barking, of course).

-How was your Halloween?

Shirley (Mama-Ruff)