who wants to hear from a hunky aussie bloke? (a "daddy chats" vlog)

{This is the final post of the Moms Who Work series.}




Have you met this man yet? The one with the cute Australian accent?

He is my husband... my hunk-o-spunk.


He is the man I adore more than any other man on earth. He looked like this (bright-eyed and suntanned) when we took our trip to Spain last year. (This photo still makes me drool.)


{It's no wonder we came home with an extra family member from that trip... our little souvenir named Levi.}


In wrapping up this series, I asked Ryan to comment on the subject of Moms Who Work. (I didn't ask Levi to comment... but he did anyway.)


This is what they had to say...




What a treasure he is... wouldn't you agree? (Oh, and Levi too.) And what a breath of fresh air to hear from a man with a well-balanced perspective on motherhood (in my opinion at least).


I hope you enjoyed this little video... my first ever vlog. (Well, Ryan's first-ever to be precise.)


We're going to be doing "Daddy Chats" vlogs every now and then on the Memos so that you can hear from a dad's perspective on different parenting topics. So this is the first of (hopefully) many times you'll get to check out my man, hear some good daddy wisdom, and swoon over his good looks and adorable Aussie accent.


Oh, and just so you know... Ryan got all gadgety with this video and added in the intro and closing, complete with the little blurbs of music. I told him to set the bar a little lower so I wouldn't have to measure up next time... but he insisted. He's gadgety like that. And creative. (Plus he'll take any excuse to "play" on his macbook that he can get.) So thanks for that babe. It looks awesome. 


Dear mommy-friends, this brings the Moms Who Work series to a close. What stood out to you most from this series? What is your "take home" message?


grateful to be a mom who works,

The Moms Who Work series:

• All moms work hard  
• How to be a stay-at-home mom without losing your marbles 
• Mom on a wire: finding balance and sanity in a home with two working parents
• You have spoken: the best and worst of being a working mom (away from home)
• How I became a pediatrician turned stay-at-home mom
• The pros and cons of being a work-from-home mom
• From home to work or work to home: speaking up about the transition process
• Back to work: tips for how to prepare for the transition after maternity leave
• Are stay-at-home moms 1950ish? (readers speak up about the best and worst of being a SAHM)
• 4 ways single moms are thriving 
• 8 tips for running a business as a work-from-home mom 
• Mom hat, student hat: important tips for studying moms 
• Hey honey, why don't you stay home with the baby while I go back to work? 
• What you wish others knew about being a mom
• Who wants to hear form a hunky Aussie bloke? (A "Daddy Chats" vlog)

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2010 
do not reproduce without written permission

i think we need a padded doorway

{my little jumping joey}

Do you ever get to the end of a day, absolutely exhausted from cleaning, organizing, cooking, washing, diapering, laundering, folding, planning, grocery-ing... and a thousand other "-ings"?

That was my day today: a full and extremely productive Saturday.

In fact, it was one of the most productive days I've had in a very long time. You know the ones... where you cross a few things off your "to-do" list that have been collecting dust on that piece of paper for a couple of months? {ahem}

That probably never happens to you.

No doubt you're much more on top of things than I am. {grin}

But enough about you. Back to me.

It really was a monumental catch up day around the house. Only another week's worth of those and I will be able to obliterate that dreaded list completely. But let's be honest... it's not gonna happen. So I'll just be pleased with today.

Pleased and exhausted.

To end a day like today, it seems appropriate to throw myself on the couch and be waited on. But since that's mostly likely not going to happen, the least I can do is end on a light note... Hence my reason for sharing my new favorite giggle video.

In my humble opinion it's a minute and a half very well-spent.

And you're wondering about all that rambling up to this point? That was actually my intro to the real reason for this post: incredible Levi cuteness and out-of-control baby (and mommy) laughter.

I dare you not to laugh along with us...




Dear mommy-friends, as most of you read this you'll be just starting your Saturday. May it be all that you're hoping it to be. I, on the other hand, plan to be enjoying my Sunday on the other side of the world... in my pj's until noon. And on that note, have I told you lately that I love you? Yes, mommy-friends, I love you. Thanks for sharing life with me.

tired but happy,

Have you registered your blog here yet?

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2010
do not reproduce without written permission

some precious baby bliss... still celebrating six months with my boy

For those of you wanting to get to know me a little better... here's a look into my family. I can't watch this video too much because it just gets me all emotional and makes me want to have another baby. And despite what my husband thinks {grin} I'm not ready for that quite yet. Speaking of Ryan, he's the clever chap that made this.

Have you registered your blog here yet?

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2010 
do not reproduce without written permission

tantrums, teething, and turning points... oh my!

mile•stone (mīl′stōn′) 

noun

1. a stone or pillar set up to show the distance in miles to or from a specified place.

2. a significant or important event in history, in the career of a person, etc.; a turning point.

I have a love-hate relationship with baby milestones.

When Levi was just 12 days old he rolled over for the first time. I was completely shocked and would have thought I imagined it had my husband not been right there witnessing it with me.

Two days later he did it again.

Of course after that he didn’t do it for weeks and weeks – until closer to the “normal” time babies usually roll over. He did it very sporadically for a while, but then one day in his 13th week he rolled over 8 times in one day. Then I knew it was legitimate: my baby was a roller.

I also remember the first time he sucked his thumb.

I remember the day he graduated from accidentally swiping at things to purposefully “boxing” at them.

I remember the first time he slept through the night.

I remember when he discovered that his hands actually belonged to him... and when he discovered his funny little toes.

I remember his first actual tears. (That was a tough one.)

I remember his first smile... the first giggle... the first outright laugh.

I remember the first time he cried a very identifiable “angry cry”... and his first little “tantrum”.

I remember when he started loving story-time and when he learned how to fall asleep on his own without being rocked or nursed.

I remember when he started grabbing and pulling things into his mouth... and when he learned he could not only take his paci out of his mouth, but put it back in again.

I remember when he started lifting up his legs and bum in anticipation of his diaper being changed… and his first time sitting “by himself” in the Bumbo.

And then there was teething.

This is Levi’s newest milestone.

After a very fussy week with the worst night time sleep we’ve had in his whopping 4-month-long life… we discovered it – a tiny white something barley sticking out of his top gums. That night we used teething gel and, sure enough, he slept normally again. The evidence was in. The verdict was then official: my little darling was teething.

As exciting as these little milestones all are (and of course there have been a hundred more), they also mean that little bubby is not as little any more.

They mean that my sweet boy is becoming more and more of his own little man, and less and less of that dependent little babe that snuzzled into my neck and fit easily into the length of my forearm.

Watching our children grow and develop is so exciting. We have our proud moments. We have our amazed moments. But we have our sad moments too.

Although I was excited to realize the cause of our little one’s restless, cranky week, I was also disappointed. Even though I already knew it, it drove home the fact that he certainly was no longer a newborn… and even his infancy is fast disappearing before my eyes.

I’m not ready to say good-bye to my little gummer yet.

This week was my fourth time to go through his dresser drawers and pack away tiny little onsies and baby jeans that he’s long outgrown already. I unpacked more of the clothes that, just weeks and months ago, looked so big and seemed so far away.

As stir-crazy as I go sometimes being a stay-at-home-mom, it’s in these moments that I’m reminded that I’m right where I want to be. This time goes so fast and I want to be around as much as possible so that I can burn all of it into my mind and onto my heart.

So yes, we’re now onto teething.

I’m glad my little gummer is doing so well. I’m glad he’s healthy and growing and developing (fast!) into a more “mature” baby.

But I’m also sharply reminded that once a milestone has passed... there’s another one right around the corner... and there’s no turning back. And with each milestone—each turning point—the distance from that sweet birthday gets farther and farther away, and easier and easier to forget.

Dear God, help me to take it all in. Help me to enjoy these precious moments with my little baby boy while I have them. Help me to record and remember. Yes God, help me to take it all in.




p.s. This was the first time that Levi ever boxed – one of my favorite little milestones. As small a feat as this seems now, I remember at the time thinking he was so clever. He was nearly three weeks old and I just happened to have the camera rolling. Perfect timing.

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oh baby, baby... what's that you say?

"This child has lungs!" I'm sure that every parent has had this thought about their wee little one... Perhaps while you stand in line at the supermarket? Or at 3:00am in the morning when you're staying with your in-laws?

They say that communication is key to good relationships, but when it comes to babies that's easier said than done!

Although our bub is not talking yet--as in saying words--he is definitely learning more and more about how to communicate. It's so fun watching him develop his collection of sounds and test out his range, pitch, and vocabulary... if you want to call it that. :)

But it's not only his--uh--verbal exploits that help us understand him, it's also his body language.

Since becoming a mommy, one of my absolute favorite parenting resources has become the Baby Whisperer series by Tracy Hogg. And although I'm not intending to write a complete book review here at the moment, I will say that as I've read her books and browsed the message boards on her website, I've learned soooo much about this whole area of communication with our baby.

One of the basic things she writes about is how important it is to take a step back and listen to our infants - not just how they cry, but what their faces are saying, their arms, their legs, their mouths, their eyes, and their body as a whole. Some of it is very intuitive, some of it is far less obvious, and all of it comes from years of observing thousands of babies. Her books are full of incredible tips about how to decipher your baby's language and--in knowing what they're saying--learn how to care for them better. 

Increasingly I'm learning what Levi is "saying" to me, and that gives me more and more confidence in my ability to meet his needs - something every mommy wants (especially us first-timers).

But communication is a two-way street.

Not only does Hogg give some great tips on how to listen to your baby and learn what he is saying, but she also talks about how to help your baby understand what you are saying. It all comes back to the process of learning two-way communication.

Nearly every mommy I know instinctively talks to their baby about what they're doing (we love those running commentaries, don't we?!). And who doesn't get a thrill out of making "oohs" and "ahhs" other noises back and forth with our precious little people? But as important as those things are, Hogg also points out another level of communication that may not seem as obvious -- namely, how routine can help to communicate to our wee ones what we're doing, what is coming, and what we expect of them.

It's easy to forget that these little ones want to understand us just as much as we want to understand them.

One of things that my husband and I have implemented since reading Hogg's books is to give Levi a wind-down routine before nap times and bedtime. We check his diaper, swaddle him (though he's busting out of his swaddle blankets more and more these days), draw the curtains, read him a story, and then put him in bed. We literally do that for every nap. (And our bedtime routine is similar.) Not only does this help him transition from play time to sleepy time (focusing on the pages and hearing one of us read in a soft, low voice definitely calms him), but it also "tells" him (and prepares him for) what's coming next.

By the end of this little routine he's prepared to be "left" in his crib and he knows that once his nap is over... mommy (or daddy) will alway come back. It's evident that he understands this because he doesn't cry when we put him down. Nine times out of ten he smiles, chats to himself for a couple of minutes, and then drifts off to la la land. (This wasn't always the case... but more about sleep training in another post!)

Although he can't tell us now, I'm convinced that this short, simple routine has helped him understand what's happening in his little world... which in turn helps him settle and know what role he has in it all. I believe it helps him feel at peace and secure.

It's helped me too. I'm learning how to respect the fact that my baby is a little person and that--even at this tender young age--he needs some level of understanding, as minimal as it may be.

As a parent, it's a given that I want my children to be grow up and learn how to be obedient to us. I want them to follow our instructions and trust our decisions for them. But I also want them to grow up feeling like mommy and daddy have taken the time to communicate with them - the why's, the how's, and the what for's (when it's relevant and age-appropriate of course). We want them to be raised in a family that communicates--not just instructs--and we believe that there's no such thing as starting too early with instilling and modeling these principles.

It comes down to valuing the individual and demonstrating love and respect toward people... yes, even little children. (*gasp*)

All that to say... we do a lot of talking to our baby and we do a lot of listening. We're trying to become parents who are experts at communication, not just with each other, but also with our children. We've got a lot to learn, and some days are harder than others when it comes to understanding what Levi is "saying", but it feels good to know that we're positioned to grow.

And.... having said all of that... of course we love to practice our "ooo-ing" and "ahh-ing" and gurggling with our son as well. That part of communicating is important too.... and so much fun!!

This is a "conversation" I had with our adorable Levi about three or four weeks ago on his three-month-birthday:



Here's to the joy and struggle in the process of learning how to communicate with our kids!

every mommy needs a giggle video

Some mommyhood days are tough. Ok, let’s be honest... that’s an understatement. Some mommyhood days are downright awful! The baby won’t sleep, the house is a mess, the boobs are sore, and the headache is crackin! Those are the days when the giggle video needs to surface.

Here is my current favourite giggle vid of my little guy. Whenever I need a laugh or a pick-me-up I play this one another time and my heart swells with pride, love, joy, and wonder all over again.

Watching your baby (or any baby!) laugh and giggle is like medicine for the soul. I don't know about you, but dose me up!

introducing our gorgeous son: levi scott booker

My clever husband made this!