Do you ever read other people's blogs and start feeling really badly about yourself because you'll never measure up to the perfect mother/cook/organizer/ect that so-and-so from myperfectlife.blogspot.com is? I do, I feel that no matter whose blog I'm reading, I tend to be amazed by all that they seem to accomplish. I've always wanted to make my blog about the reality of mothering. But somehow, most of the time, I only post about the really great moments. I think it's good to focus on those moments, but I also think it's so refreshing to read about real moments from moms. Moments that make me say, "I get them! That has totally happened to me!" So, as an additional post to my duck experience listed below, I thought I'd give you some of the real stuff that happened.
Brigham is 2 months old. He won't take a bottle and he HATES to be under a blanket, so feeding in public is a little difficult. This means that I have roughly two hours to get anything done before I have to be home again (or in the car trying to keep Eden happy stuck in a car while I feed him). By the time I change his diaper, change his poopy clothes, tackle Eden to get shoes on her, pack snacks, water, camera, diaper bag, and wrestle both kiddos into their car seats, our time has dwindled significantly.
By this time on duck park day, I decided that it wasn't worth it to try to get our stroller into the car. We have a small car and we have to take apart our double stroller in order to fit it into the trunk of our car. Brigham was already crying in the car, Eden was saying every 3 seconds..."ducks?" and our time barrier was dwindling. So we got in the car and headed on our way. About 5 minutes before we get there, Brigham falls asleep. About 5 minutes before we get there, I get lost. They had totally redone the off-ramp and connecting streets since I lived here last, so it took some driving around to find the right street. The whole time I was singing Old McDonald (our car radio doesn't work and let me tell you that I was down to singing about the bees with a buzz buzz here and a buzz buzz there) and reassuring Eden that yes, we were going to see ducks and that we were almost there.
Finally we pulled in and Eden was THRILLED. She heard the quacking as soon as we pulled up and proceeded to yell, Ducks! Ducks! Ducks! Which was totally adorable and completely woke Brigham up. I grabbed the camera, opted to leave the diaper bag in the car, and got both kids out of the car. Brigs weighs about 20 lbs with his car seat, but I knew I needed somewhere to put him down so I had to bring that with me. Once we started feeding the ducks, I had to hold brigham because the ducks were trying to peck his toes if I put him down and Eden decided that she wanted to swim with the ducks after awhile. So, I ended up holding both of them after about 30 minutes. It's a good thing that I've learned something from being a mother of two...I brought some smarties in the diaper bag which worked great for talking E into walking back to the car with me when it was time to go home. So yes, the duck park was wonderful, but it was also a lot of work and we had a lot of moments that made me laugh at how I keep doing these outings once a week.
In the end, I keep doing them because Eden loves her time to explore new things and I think that she deserves to have those moments even though it's definitely not easy to do with a new baby. Also, don't worry, I'm in the market for a double umbrella stroller that will fit in my car easier. That will make my life much more enjoyable-I just have to wait for Brigs to get big enough to be able to sit in it.
I hope you enjoyed this issue of real mothering..."what really happened at the duck park."
