Follower-Mom

When it comes to my parenting, I tend to be a follower. Not in the crazy sense, where if I hear that some lunatics out there refuse to vaccinate their children, I'll follow suit, but more just the little things.

For example, when I heard that other moms had started turning their children's carseats from rear-facing to forward-facing sooner than the recommended age of 2, I was all like, "Yea, eff the American Pediatric Society! What do they know?" and proceeded to turn Harrison's carseat forward-facing right then and there. To be fair, the minimum weight requirement for a child to be facing forward in the car is 20 pounds, and he was like 21. So that was that.

Worked like a charm

Or when I heard that breastfeeding is God's gift to babies and formula is the devil, my decision was a no-brainer. Formula-fed babies are clearly under-developed and less intelligent than breastfed ones.... HA! But no really, not that I had a real specific devotion to or opinion of either option, but my mom suggested nursing because she was a fan back in the day, so there I was, easily convinced and lactating away. Wait, no now that I think of it, my decision to BF was solely based on how many calories it burns a day. You all knew that already though.

Really though, really?

So now that I have an almost-13-month-old on my hands, who barely makes 2 consonant sounds a day, I find myself becoming a follower once again. Sure, every mom freaks out when their child is "behind" developmentally, especially now with the glories/horrors of the internet to instill it even more in us that every other mom has a child-genius, who is saying "mama" and gesturing at their Giver of Life at 6 months old. Sidenote: Impossible. Sidenote: can you tell how frustrated I am with the Moms of Social Media lately?

Not that Harrison is really showing a lack of brain function, since he was ahead of the game at walking and motor skills, and the rumor is that boys tend to develop language more slowly than girls. Even so, there are Internet sources and blogs that have 15-month old children getting evaluated by speech therapists. This is a frightening fact. Even Harrison's pediatrician said at his 1-year well visit that it was perfectly normal for him not to be making consonant sounds, or showing any signs of speech. That made me feel a lot better... until she said that at his next well check-up, if he hasn't progressed, they might need to look more into it. And a month later, we are still at NOTHING.

Being the follower-mom that I am, I consulted my friend, who is a Speech Pathologist, about Harrison's status. While she assured me, as did the pediatrician, as well as my mom, that Harrison is fine and his speech will come in time, I am still having a minor freak out. Because if there's anything you need to know about moms, it's that we are bound to freak out about our children on some issues (some moms more than others).

I have conversations with my bear... Does that count?

The moral of this story is that Harrison needs to talk soon, for all of our sakes. I can tell he gets frustrated when he wants something and can't convey it, and I need a break from the crazy thoughts that float around my head like, "What if Harrison needs speech therapy?", or better yet, "What if Harrison is deaf in one ear and can't hear us talking, which in turn is preventing him from learning to talk himself?!?!" You get the picture. I'm a freak.

joke's on you. 

In life, are you a leader or a follower?

Excuses are the way to go

I'm really good at making excuses, so here are my various excuses for why I haven't been blogging:

1. No internet.

Still. You may be wondering how I'm even writing this, since I have already established that it's not coming from my phone, and that will remain my little secret. No internet also means no TV, which logically would mean I would have more time to blog, but I've actually been extremely productive at important tasks (cleaning, cooking) without the TV to distract me.

2. Big, rented house.

Because we are renting, I have developed a new OCD-like tendency to clean. Prior to moving into this house, I was not one for cleaning. Not to say I was the messiest person ever, but I could definitely tolerate slight-to-moderate messes (ask any/all of my life roommates). However, I feel an overwhelming responsibility to make sure the house is spotless at all (ok, maybe most) times.

Actually, I'm the clean one around here

I have this fear that the owners are just going to show up one day to evaluate the state of the house, which would never really happen because the owners are Dave's cousins, not psychopaths. In any case, I find myself unable to do other activities, such as write a blog post, until all the cleaning tasks have been completed. Not a bad compulsion to have developed, and yet, I can still whine.

3. Harrison.

Obvi. He really puts a damper on my freedom, I'll tell ya. He's always been a crazy human, but lately, his craziness has reached new levels. What I mean by that is that he runs. He runs now. So he runs around the house wanting me to chase after him, he runs around the lawn ready to throw himself in the creek just to make sure I am on watch, he runs from one toy to the next because his attention span is like 5 seconds, he just runs.

Too busy running to care

You'd think this would mean he is tiring himself out more, leading to more naps, but actually, he has begun to resist his afternoon nap entirely, and that's a problem. I couldn't blog when the kid was taking two naps a day so... get ready for absolute hibernation over here. But really, Harrison is just such a ball of energy now, that I think I get more exhausted running after him than he does running himself. And I hear it only gets worse.

4. Employment.

That's right. After a year of the bliss/house arrest of being a stay-at-home mom, I have returned to the work force. Just part-time. I got a serving job so that we won't have to worry about childcare, since I'll be working nights and weekends opposite of Dave. This obviously means I will be seeing Dave a lot less than previously, which sucks, but the awesome part is that I get to leave for work exactly when Harrison's witching period begins. I've dealt with that shit for a year and now it's time to pass the torch. It really is perfect- just when I'm ready to either throw Harrison out a window or pull a Britney and shave my head off, I get to leave!

You don't love me anymore?

Now that I have an income, we will finally return to the civilized world of TV and internet.

TV?!?!?!

Hopefully I will learn the skill of time management better, so that blogging will not be put on the back burner. Mainly just so that I don't have to hear you people whine about it :) However, I am running my first-ever Fantasy Football team this year and I get pretty competitive about stuff, so all of my free time could possibly be devoted to that.