Let The Journey Begin...: My Mommy Confessions

Before you have a child, everyone has an idealistic view of how they will raise their perfect little angel. Well, the minute you get that angel home and he screams the entire first night, all of your so called rules go right out the window. And if they don't, and you are the mother that makes her own baby food, never yells at your child and keeps them entertained for hours on end without the use of any electronic devices - more power to you. Here are my mommy confessions, that my childless self would have cringed at.

1) We feed B-Man processed food:

Now that Bryce is eating anything and everything, it is impossible to keep up with his appetite. We try to make a healthy dinner most nights, but there are those inevitable nights where we just haven't made it to the grocery store, don't have time to cook or just plain don't feel like it. So guess what Bryce eats, boxed mac and cheese, frozen pancakes or waffles, frozen pizza or (gasp) frozen chicken nuggets. Now we do try to buy the ones with low salt, no hormones, organic, etc...but its still processed food.

2) He doesn't always eat what we eat:

Did your mother ever say to you, "you eat what we eat or you don't eat at all"? I can't ever actually remember my mom saying that, but they say it on sitcoms, so some mothers must have said it. This saying obviously can't apply to toddlers, right? Maybe I will say it to Bryce when he is 10, but right now, if he isn't digging what we made for dinner, guess what, I pop in a frozen pizza and let him go to town. Because if he doesn't eat what we eat, and doesn't eat anything, that just means we are going to be waking up with a very hungry boy at 2am. And I like my sleep.

3) We let him watch TV:

Some pediatrics association somewhere out there has said kids under 2 shouldn't watch TV. Well that is impossible. Besides the fact that it keeps his attention and keeps him out of trouble for like 15 minutes, he also laughs his head off at it, and its too darn cute not to let him watch it once in awhile. Even if it means that I go to work in the mornings with the Mickey Mouse, Jake and the Neverland Pirate, Henry Hugglemonster (insert other Disney show here) theme song in my head. We have even gone so far as to letting him watch it on a DVD player in the car for longer trips (like to Costco ha ha), because guess what - then he doesn't scream his head off to get out of the car seat. We even bring the IPad to restaurants and let him watch it when he gets fussy. Judge away young couple next to us, but your welcome cause now you don't have to sit next to a whining toddler.

4) We let Bryce's naps times dictate our schedule?
If you ask me to do something during Bryce's nap time, that involves bringing him with me. I will say no. Naps are essential in making this little guy happy. I find this one funny, because childless Kelly, really didn't think much would change schedule wise. Now I find myself calling friends saying, "Yeah I know we were supposed to meet at 1:30, but Bryce is still sleeping...how about 2?" And then a half hour later call back and say, "He's still sleeping, I am NOT waking him up. How about 3?" Ha ha. Your good friends will understand, whether or not they have children. The saying is true - you NEVER wake a sleeping baby/child (unless, maybe, you are sleep training because they have their days and nights mixed up). And its inevitable, that he will take a 3 hour nap on the day you had plans, when normally he never sleeps past 1:00. I was bad at being on time before kids. Now - forget it :)

I know there are many more that I have. What are your mommy confessions?