Natural Disaster

We just had a 5.9 earth quake in DC, which is pretty significant. In talking with friends on FaceBook (since all cell service has been knocked out) it is amazing how many different our initial assumptions were to what was happening: gas explosion, tree falling on a home, unbalanced washing machine, and living so close to DC, bomb.

I think I was most struck at how as a mom I felt so incredibly powerless to protect my baby. It took a while to even register that it was an earthquake, but as soon as I did, I had absolutely no idea what to do.

It made me realized how horrible it would be to be a parent through a natural disaster. I have experienced first-hand a tornado, hurricanes, blizzards, extreme ice storms, a mud slide, drought and intense floods but this was my first natural disaster as a parent. And as scary as any show of nature's power can be, it is especially scary when you realize that you are responsible for another tiny soul, and are completely powerless to protect them.

I have never been so terrified in my life.

LETGO

So evidently my girl has developed a bit of a cult following with all of her crazy antics. I wish I had done a better job of capturing them here over the last year or so, rather than in FaceBook posts, but let's just say she is acrobatic, ornery and fearless, which has become in my opinion, the dangerous trio.

I have a friend who loves sharing Sterling's exploits with others, and has proposed developing a "League of Extraordinarily Twisted Gentlepeople and Others" or LETGO. This is essentially a group of people who share S's love of the ornery, and want to keep up to date on what she is currently into.

Is it odd that my kid is going to have her own cult following before her second birthday?

OSM: Baby Stripper In Training

So evidently Hip Hop scored a major victory in the Hickman household today. John's observations when playing the following music genres for Sterling:

• Children's Songs: She claps her hands
• Hip Hop and Old School Rap: She dances and stops her feet
• Heavy Metal: She strips, consistently

Guess which style of music daddy has removed from the repertoire?

Friends

Friends really do make life worth living. I take that back, people who love you make life worth living. It is amazing how much of a difference a few good friends can make in your life.

Motherhood especially brings that to light, being a new mother alone can be one of the scariest, most confusing, emptiest experiences in life. But with a few good friends by your side, it completely changes the entire experience. Things that would otherwise bewilder you become bonding opportunities with your friends. No matter how crazy or off the wall your kid is, one of your friends can empathize.

I have tried motherhood both ways, both without and with friends, and I will say that it is my friends who keep me sane. Who give me reason to gather up my little monkey with all her ephemera and get her out of the house, no matter how rainy/cold/muggy/hot it is outside. Who help me see humor in the moments that would otherwise have me in tears. Who come and take the monkey out for the day when I am sick and exhausted with morning sickness. Who make me home made funnel cake and drop it by just because. Who listen to me as I try to process the monkey's newest mayhem, and help me see it for the genius that it is. Who make this whole adventure of motherhood so much fun.

So thank you my wonderful friends, your love and support are worth more than I can ever say and I am incredibly blessed to have each of you in my life.

Number 2

S is now 14.5 months old and it is amazing how parenthood has settled on us. As we prepare for our next addition to the family in 3 months, I look back over where we were at this point with S and I feel so incredibly different.

There isn't the fear this time, the whole "what if I hate parenting, I mean pregnancy sucks way more than I expected, what if we pick the wrong stroller/car seat/crib/diapers, which of our parenting decisions are going to land our kid in community college and therapy rather than the ivy league and executive leadership, what if I hate parenting, how am I going to juggle parenthood AND a business, how will our relationship survive a new baby, can I possibly survive child birth, WHAT IF I HATE PARENTING???"

The good news is that most of those concerns have been pretty much laid to rest. We both love being parents, child birth was much worse than I expected, and yet somehow I survived to prepare for it all again, J and I are stronger than ever through our connection of being parents to the Most Incredible Kid In The World (official title), I sold the business so that I could dedicate myself full time to tantrum and poop patrol, and yes, we made all the wrong choices in baby gear and yet she still survived.

I wonder, if anything else, perhaps baby #2 might get short changed in the process. After all, up until now his sister is still the primary focus of all our attention. We haven't even started on his room yet, but I can guarantee you that we are looking at a $200 Ikea crib this go around rather than the gorgeous, high-end Restoration Hardware canopy crib that his sister has single handedly destroyed. I haven't so much as cracked a single development book this entire pregnancy, although I regularly resolve to. And I don't have hours to spend lovingly touching my tummy while he kicks, I am doing my best just to keep his sister from crushing his head in while he is still in utero. I am sure she will do enough damage once he gets here :)

Responsibility

My amazing hubby took Sterling out for a puppet show and lunch this morning. I am totally at a loss with what to do with myself! I am so accustomed to having someone to be responsible for, that it feels crazy to have a whole open day ahead of me :)

OSM: So THIS Is What Nasty Looks Like...

For months now my BRAND NEW Lexus has had a nasty "rotten milk" funk. Today I took apart the back seat looking for the culprit. Think I finally found it, wedged so far under one of the front seats that I couldn't barely touch it from the back.

What is this? For those unfamiliar, this is a plastic baby bottle that has evidently imploded from some kind of heinous scientific reaction caused by moldy milk and heat.

And to clarify, Sterling hasn't taken a bottle in nearly 4 months. Yep, it's that nasty...

Mayhem In Motion

In the Hickman house, this is how we use rolling toys to get up on things we don't belong on.

Look closely at what it is that has so enticed her to get her up on the table.

Know what that is? Yep, it's a dirty diaper...