This link was my motherhood status in 2009. I was the mom of a two and a half year old and a seven month old baby. I remember it almost clearly. It was really the hardest job in the world, but together with my husband and the help of my parents, we made it! I almost can’t believe how we were able to travel by plane and survive the airport in those days. Dex and I were always positive thinkers and could not give up our lifestyle. No matter how hard, we did it. We went there and we did that! We packed snacks and baby food and breast milk and all sorts of toys and pacifiers and baby bottles and diapers and extra clothes and bibs and vomit clothes for mommy and daddy and strollers and car seats. Every day at that point was a struggle to get out of the house! It was literally a whole morning affair to get anything done and ready for the outside world. Sometimes, I was too tired to get out after the whole preparation for it! 

Now three years later, I am in such a different state of thought. I have an almost 6 year old and an almost 4 year old! I feel like I have survived the hardest part of it all.With every age that they add every year, I feel like the challenge is always different, but still a challenge in and of itself. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mommy’s out there, especially to the first time mom’s who is at the beginning of their journey. I’m not a fan of Hallmark Holidays, but I gotta go with the flow on this one! It is a deserving holiday to be celebrated! I always say that I have been blessed. This is the reason. My two girls are truly the best gift a mom (and dad) could have on this Mother’s Day! Enjoy the beautiful meaning behind this day! 

Once upon a time, a husband and wife slept together in their beds- in peace and quiet. They went to bed past 2am on a regular day before their scheduled day to work. On most days, when they went out, they went to bed much later for a couple hours and got ready to start work at 7am. When they didn’t have work, they would sleep until 2pm and then maybe take another nap later in the afternoon and then get ready for more fun when the moon came out. Then they had a baby and all that changed literally overnight. There was no warning of what was to come. They brought their baby home from the hospital and it has been that way since. They never slept alone in their beds again… UNTIL NOW. Yes! Five years and 10 months later, the husband and I have finally slept in our beds, ALONE, for the last five days and counting! I never thought I could get to this point! Although “sleeping in” until 9am is considered a blessing, I am happy to take this step for now!

We never ever intended on having our newborn baby sleep with us. Of course every parent dreams of their first born’s nursery, but ours was very far from that dream. We had just sold our town house at that point, moved into an apartment with our dog Tyson, our newborn baby, my parents and my brother. We stayed there for about a year waiting for our house to be built. We did two moves in one year of having our first born. Talk about whoa! Jasmyne never got used to being in her own room. I was determined to make sure my 2nd baby did not follow into her footsteps. She was well trained to sleep from 7pm until about 730am all by herself in her own room. That in and of itself was hard work. It was like living through a strict army schedule. We had to be home by 6pm everyday to get her ready for bed. My brother stayed in the room right next to hers and shared the connecting bathroom, so every slight noise he made was a nightmare for us. That soon fell apart with our love of being out of the house too! Basically Dex and I traded our privacy in the bedroom to be able to keep our late bedtime and also afford a later wake-up time on our days off. Fair enough, right?

Well all that needed to change when Jasmyne started Kindergarten. She obviously could no longer afford to sleep late, so either Dex or I had to start sleeping early with her in our bed. It was almost a paper-rock-scissor game that neither one of us wanted to lose. Believe me! We are both not meant to sleep early at all. So when we moved to our new house, I had a plan. We bought their beds and started having them feel comfortable in their own room that they were going to share with each other. My chances of them sleeping in their room doubles if they shared their room. Three months ago, we started the process of them sleeping in their beds while we slept on the floor. YES! Three whole months of sleeping on the floor and enduring worsening back pains! After two months, they both finally stopped coming down to the floor to sleep with us. We advanced from the closet light staying on to buying a fish tank with a nice dark blue light to be used at night. Then we bought them fishes to keep them company at night. This week we started our sticker prize calendar and it worked like a charm. They look forward to what the next prize will be. For every night they stay in their bedroom, they get a sticker in the morning on that box. They can’t move forward to the next box unless they work together as a team and stay in their bedrooms. IT WORKED and I can’t believe it. It’s been five days and counting. Last night was a little hard due to the thunderstorm, but they still stayed in their room. I am so proud of them, especially my little 3-year old. I couldn’t expect that from Jasmyne when she was that age. They are really looking forward to reaching the end when they can have a shopping spree at Toys R Us. In all honesty, they are super excited because they have only been to that store once, which was for their shopping spree of 2 toys once they stopped coming down on the floor to sleep with us. I can’t say that we will ever get back our “sleep until 2pm” back, but I honestly don’t even want that back. I just want to be alone, in bed, with my husband without feet sticking in my face or finding myself almost falling off our king sized bed because my two little ones have taken over. Please pray that we continue to move forward in a positive way. I have been able to achieve more of what I need to do at home and at the same time, sleep somewhat earlier because I no longer have to sneak out of our room after they’ve fallen asleep. The best part is I can finally watch ID (Investigation Discovery Channel) all night long. Yahooooo! Good night everyone!

Speaking of Kindergartner, I had to Google spell check that one. How ironic, huh? Yes. I am very excited for my little big girl. She started school on the right foot and is an extremely happy child. She is always excited to get the day started and be with her new friends. I only hope and pray that she keeps this enthusiasm going. I was very nervous about her first day of school. I had all these negative thoughts flowing in my crazy head about all the things that could possibly go wrong. I don’t even want to put it out here because I may make it obvious how crazy I was. We had so much fun “back to school” shopping and I may have gone a little over board. New shoes. New book bag. Matching pencil case. Cool little gadgets, that believe it or not, were in her school supply list. On a side note, I don’t ever remember having such things as “the school supply list” when I went to school ages ago. Anyhow, it was quite helpful and at the end of the day, her backpack was much too heavy for her to carry on her own. This is no joke. Thank goodness her teacher emptied it out and left most of her supplies in her own personal cubby. They also have school uniforms, which saves me a ton of money and time deciding what she should wear. It didn’t fail though. I bought her all sorts of pants and uniform dresses and shoes and socks and such. I couldn’t help it. We are now on Week 2, and we are all still ever so excited to drop her off in the morning and pick her up and wait for her stories of how her day went. It gets better and better each time. 

My journey has just begun. I’m looking forward to the next decade of “firsts” and all the adjustments we have to make as parents. I wish to build her a great foundation, which starts NOW! Good luck to all the first time parents out there going through this change with me. Let’s make this good!

Pic 1: Jasmyne excited on the school playground area on her first day!

Pic 2: Jasmyne is first in line. She’s starting off on the right foot alright. LoL! By the way, I shaded everyone’s faces for privacy.

Pic 3: Jasmyne is one of the shortest and most petite girls in the class. These kids are huge!