MommyBlog

No Nap Joe returns.   Ah… I knew it was too good to be true… I think he knew that I had made major plans for those sweetly anticipated two hours, and decided to test my love for him.   Kenny’s alter-ego is not ready to disappear yet.

In other news, Kenny ate his first steak today!   I knew that he was a red-blooded carnivore like his dad and me.   (Ok, he didn’t really eat a whole steak, but he ate quite a few little pieces of sublimely grilled ribeye in amongst the Cheerio feast.)   Perhaps there is epicurian hope for him after all!

I am struck today by the absolute blessing that  our life is.   Despite the typical Maryland muggy, sticky weather, our little piece of land here on the water is always breezy and lovely.   I can tell that even Kenny is taken by the beauty around us.   In his minute of fussiness today, we walked outside and watched a blue heron take flight off our dock, counted the speedy power boats and watched Dudley trample through the lawn in search of his next canine adventure.   Kenny was immediately  calmed and peaceful and back to his happy self.  

And speaking of undeserved blessings, my handsome husband is downstairs and I feel like we’ve hardly had a conversation yet today, within all the busyness and playing with Kenny.   So I’m signing off to go attend to  my  other  identity: a doting wife, enraptured with her loving husband.   Oh, that I had another whole day just to spend with him in these quiet hours after Kenny goes to bed.    

We returned from the UK on Saturday, and I finally feel like we’re starting to get back into the swing of things here at home.   The trip was incredible ~ more than I ever expected; inspiring, captivating and challenging in heart, mind and body.   I’m tempted to sit and chronicle all of the amazing experiences we had at the apologetics  summer school at Oxford, but I want to stay focused with my main objective in this blog ~ writing about being a Mommy!

One of the speakers made several specific mentions in his talk on the workplace to housewives and the necessity of those who choose this vocation.   I can’t tell you how much that meant to me… and meant one thousand times more today when I was madly scrubbing a toilet or two during Kenny’s naptime!

Now that’s a phrase I am all-too-ready to get used to saying… “Kenny’s Nap Time.”   My sweet parents, glory halleluiah, actually got him to take a morning nap every day while we were in our classes at Oxford.   So I figured, if they could do it, I could do it, and wouldn’t you know it – today was day 3 that he has taken a TWO HOUR nap for me.   I’m treading on foreign soil here, folks, and I’m ready to embrace it for all its worth.

He is changing so much every day… I can hardly believe that he’s 10 months old.   His little personality is developing at breakneck speed.   He’s started this new thing when he’s “mad” at me, (presumably because I won’t let him, 1) Dive head first into the toilet bowl, 2) crawl through the doggie door, or 3)  chew on the sole of my running shoe) whereby he’ll start fake-crying and stubbornly crawl into the nearest corner and howl like he’s lost his cheerio stash.  

It’s all I can do not to laugh, race to scoop him up and cover him with a thousand kisses.   He is a charmer to beat all I’ve ever seen.

And speaking of Cheerios, I’m starting to fear he will turn into one, because his average daily consumption of those crunchy little O’s is bordering on obsessive.   At dinnertime today, when presented with a tiny warm bowl of lovingly prepared homemade carrot puree, he screamed like a banshee, tears of unspoken frustration streaming down his perfect face, only to stop with the flip of a switch when he saw me pulling the Cheerio box out of the cabinet from the corner of his big brown eye.   The little scammer.   But I wonder: Can a 21 pound boy live on breast milk and Cheerios alone?

On a new note, thanks to all who are visiting, reading and commenting on this brand-new blog.   I still have quite a bit of work to do on it, pictures to add, and little things to tweak, and I’m grateful for all the encouragement!   I am hoping to expand this over the next several months  from more than just my personal blog to a functioning website community.   Hang in there with me!   If my little sweetpea keeps up this nap thing, I’ll be able to really get this thing going.   Please pass the link on to your Mommy friends and keep reading!

 

Here we are, day 3 in Oxford (after a day and a half in London), and I am so proudof my little boy!   Not only is he learning to yell, “Da DAAAAAAAAAA!” with an English accent, but he is sleeping well through the night and took a nap yesterday!   Ok ~ sleeping well is much more than I can say for Casey and I.   Our hotel (use this noun more as a suggestion than a true definitive term) is called “EuroBar” and is, in fact, a Bar with a cafe and 8 rooms upstairs.   Have I mentioned that it’s World Cup, and yesterday England was in the quarter-finals?   Imagine hundreds of very drunk, very angry Englishmen storming through the streets, after losing to Portugal in overtime.   Imagine a hotel room with no A/C, 90 degrees outside (I thought it would be COLD!) and open windows all night.   Kenny is a champ among little guys for making it through!!  

 Now he is enduring Mommy and Daddy enthusiastically typing at the (un-airconditioned) local internet cafe, sweat dripping from his precious, perfect brow.   I love that kid!

But enough is enough, Mommy!   He’s ready to rumble, so I’m signing off.   This is a great town, though, and there is much more to write.   Stay tuned!

Kenny is napping AGAIN!   Having this blog to look forward to during “naptime” has suddenly caused me to develop some super-powered baby mojo, and I have actually been able to get him to sleep and down in the crib without a peep!

We are leaving for England tomorrow and there is much to do, but I can’t resist stealing a few minutes to write… that’s what this is for, right?

(For all of you who are finding this site, please note that my writing here will be quite limited for the next 10 days or so during our trip, but please continue to post comments, submit stories or write to me!   I will continue blogging as I can.)

Life as a stay-at-home wife/mommy is so much fun.   Like, fun-house fun, carnival fun,  and funny-I’m-going-cuckoo fun all rolled into a 24/7 job with no lunch break.  

Since I will be writing here about  my  life and  little boy, let me clarify why I will never use the phrase “Stay at home Mom” or “SAHM” in my posts… I am and will forevermore be, first, a Wife.   Isn’t it interesting how our grandmas and moms all refered to themselves (if they didn’t work outside the home) proudly as a “Housewife” in their day?   There was no such phrase as “Stay at home Mom.”   Where did that come from?   I got married, and so my first attentions will always go to my amazing hubby.   Then, we found ourselves with sweet little Kenny, and I am honored to be able to stay at home and raise him.   So I’m a woman, a wife and a mommy.   What Joy this life is!

So here’s a question for all you moms out there… when you really have to get things done, i.e. pack for a 10-day trip to England, clean house, do laundry and on and on, what do you do with a 9 1/2 month old ball of energy that crawls faster than a sprinting weimaraner,  walks himself not only around the furniture but behind that little space by the couch that you can’t even fit the vacuum into, is starting to figure out that the doggie door might be fun to wiggle through and who wants, more than anything, to reprogram your TV by teething on the universal remote control?   Do you let him play in the floor while you keep one eye on him and the other on the dog trying to  bury his bone into your suitcase while you fold his tiny, sweet little pjs?   Do you put him in the pack-n-play and pretend not to hear his cries of “Mommy, why aren’t you playing with me?”   Do you try to race around while he’s napping and get it all done so that you are 100% focused on him when he’s awake?  

I always struggle with this.   I LOVE playing with Kenny.   He is a real hoot.   I would be content to do nothing but play all day with him.   But remember that mini-essay up there about being a wife first, and all that about running the household?   When do you guys get that part done?   I so often find myself stuck somewhere in the middle and not doing the housework well and not playing with Kenny with all of my brain, and the poor dog is no longer even playing second fiddle – he’s stuck in the back by the xylophone player.   This Mommy stuff isn’t for wimps, that’s for sure…

So I  need to get back to the housewife part of my life now and get us ready for this trip!   By the way, we are going to Oxford to attend a week-long summer session with Ravi Zacharias and his evangelism team.   Click on the RZIM link to the right if you are interested in reading about it.   I am sure I will have many stories to tell of our trip, my parents (who are coming along to keep Kenny company) and much more.

And that really is true about the dog door… he discovered it this morning and it’s all I can do to keep him away from it… hm… maybe he can teach Dudley how to use it…

I am overwhelmed.   What a gift this is!   There I was on the 24th of June, frosting cupcakes for my birthday party, in the process of chasing Dudley the weimaraner around the kitchen to wrestle cupcake number 3 out of his slimy mouth, when Casey yells down the stairs, “Hey Kristjana… can you come up here and look at this for a minute?”

Our son, Kenny, aka “No Nap Joe,” had decided to settle in for an actual mid-day snooze, and I was blissfully baking cakes (ok, blissful except for digging the remnants of the gooey chocolate ones out of Dudley’s mouth) and Casey was upstairs going over scripture that we planned to read for Kenny’s dedication ceremony, which was to take place at my birthday party on Sunday.   I deftly secured the remaining cakes on the highest point in our kitchen and came upstairs to see what he had come up with.

He started into some strange banter  looking  for  “Mommy Blogs” on the web, typing in random web addresses and going on about how there needed to be something started that could be not only a blog, but also a community for moms, and on and on.   And to be frank, my mind was starting to wander…

“I wonder how much longer Kenny will sleep.   I need to finish the cupcakes, mop the floor, fold the laundry, clean the guest bath…”   when suddenly he typed in “mommyblog.com” and I thought, “nice color sceme…” and then saw a cartoon of the many beautiful faces of my little boy growing on a tree!   And me!   And Casey’s Happy Birthday message!!   This was for ME!

I am often sweetly asked, “What kind of hobbies do you have?” by other stay-at-homers, and they are most often met with  a blank stare.   Hobbies?   When do they do hobbies?   “You know, when your baby is napping?”   So that’s it!   Ok, well, my  baby doesn’t really nap.   He will occasionally doze in my arms, or go down for what I call the “20 minute special” but a nap, in any real sense of the word, is not something I can count on.  

I’ve been recently remarking (ok, more like wistfully wishing) to Casey that I had a “time-out” or break during the day where I could do something that was just ME.   Not housewife (which I think is a great occupation; I love being able to stay home), not Mommy (which is the coolest invention next to marraige!), but ME: Kristjana Cook.   I’ve been needing  a creative outlet – after all, we were created by the foremost and perfect Creator – the need for such an outlet in is our DNA!

(more on all those thoughts ~ from staying at home to wife and mother to being creative as a result of being Created ~ in later posts…)

And here it is.   Not just an outlet or a hobby; not a start-up scrapbooking kit (I’d be so awful at that!) or a sewing machine, but a real, live, living website!   I love how Casey always thinks BIG.   And this is huge.   I can’t wait to see where this goes and what becomes of MommyBlog.com.

This is a dream opportunity!
And would you know… my baby is NAPPING right now.   Sleeping.   Mid-day.   Even smiling in his sleep.   Imagine me taking a huge, delicious breath and  smiling from ear to ear.   This is going to be so much fun.

To anyone who is landing on this site, please note that this is a gift for my wife Kristjana for her birthday on June 25th, 2006.   Stay tuned…

Dearest Kristjana,

Happy Birthday Boo!

Welcome to MommyBlog.com!   This is your website, the website community for Mommies, hosted by the world’s best Momma. Honey I am so excited to give you this gift, more than maybe any I have ever given to you.   Because this gift will change daily.   It is one that you can mold create in the way that you see fit.   You are free to create, like you were made to do.

I could not resist buying this domain.   It was a fun project.   I found the domain name for a reasonable price. I found a cartoonist named Dr. Arun in India, and an incredible Web Designer named Eileen in NY.   I hope, my dear wife, that this will be an avenue that will connect not only you to Mommy sanity, but many Mom’s around the world.

You are a brilliant woman.   I know you have felt a bit isolated from other adults, adult conversation, etc.   There are millionsof Mom’s that feel the same way.   This could be an intimate site where our friends/family catch up on things.   Or, this could be read by millions.   It doesn’t matter to me.   You have the talent to take it as far as you want.   I have no expectations.

But I do want to encourage you.   I will free you up taking care of Kenny so you can write.   Once this launches, other Mom’s sites will be hoping for your input! You’re the CEO of this site.   We can update it, get a new cartoonist, a new look, etc.   From a business standpoint, you already have a lot of people coming to the site.   This could be a MySpace for Mommies.

You are the love of my life…   Have fun.   Happy Birthday!