Opposites Attract

Ideally, I will post to this blog on Friday afternoons, but because of impending holidays, I'll post today. Enjoy...

Whenever I hear a joke about men and women being different I laugh along. But really, I have a hard time pin-pointing a specific difference between my husband and I that illicits feelings of frustration and angst. Not that it doesn't happen, I just don't think about it out of context. Until now.

I have observed on many occassions, that I like to brainstorm and think things through very carefully. I have to spend time with an idea or decision so I can think of every possibility and be certain that I am happy with my choice. My Hero likes to make a decision once he is given the options. To me, that is too late.

For example, if I am about to call friends to make plans I like to have all of my ideas/suggestions/times in place. I do this because once I'm on the phone and start coming up with a plan, I tend to go with whatever the other person suggests. Then once I hang up, I am miserable because I didn't insert my opinion. When I ask my husband, on the other hand, for his ideas/suggestions/times...he says, "Let's just call and see what they want" or something along those lines. NO! NO! NO! What's the point? When people come together to make a plan, everyone needs to have a say.

Perhaps this is just an illustration of my stressed-out, zany personality as opposed to his go-with-the-flow, chillaxed view. Yes, I did just say chillaxed. I'm hip. Whatever it is, it makes us different.

I can't help but wonder though, if it will work in my favor for extremely important decisions, like baby names. I start thinking of names long before I ever conceive. It is a tremendous responsiblity to give a human being a combination of consonants, vowels and a number of syllables that other people use to call their attention. Who wants to be called, "Blah" or "Plish" or "Gaaaaaaaaaa"? Nobody! It has to be beautiful, not bland.

When I bring up the topic, I watch as his eyes glaze over. In his mind, it is pointless to think about names if there isn't even a baby on the way. Once there is, in Missy's case, he doesn't want to waste time until we know the gender. Ok, It's a Girl! Maybe we should wait until we see her. UGH! The last thing I want to do in the hospital is pick a NAME.

If we are blessed with another baby, I've already devised a Word document entitled, "Names I like." It's on our desktop and I've already made him aware of it. When it is late at night and I can't sleep, I go on babycenter and look through their lists of names. If something jumps out I put it on my list. When I look at the clock and notice it is 2 am, I have to wonder if what I'm doing serves any purpose.

Here's the advantage. If I take the time to start thinking/wishing/dreaming/evaluating/editing baby names, long before there is ever a baby, I feel like I'm ready to fight for my favorites. Hmmm...maybe fight isn't the best thing I should do. It is after all a joint decision, but I must have a clear idea about my preference. Besides, I'm the one that is going to be hollering the name, My Hero will just be over there playing and laughing.

What about you? Do you think about names in advance or do you ask the nurse for a baby name book? How do you choose a name? Be sure to sound-off and/or visit my poll to the right.

Confessions of a stay-at-home-mom

The idea behind this blog came from thoughts about a post that was running through my mind for my family blog. I felt like I had a confession to make. The title came together from hearing advertisements last summer for the show "The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom." Every time I heard that title I had to laugh. The juxtaposition of the words "secret" bringing to mind thoughts of "sin", with a "Soccer Mom" bringing to mind a "saint" seemed hilarious to me.

So what's the confession? I'm a stay-at-home-mom by definition, but the thought of actually staying at home all day with my daughter, quite honestly...frightens me. When I came to this realization I wondered if I was being true to my title. After all, I'm a stay-at-home-mom, that's what I do. Granted, not all days are like this but thoughts of chilly weather, no car, nothing scheduled on my calendar, a messy house and a 2-year-old to entertain ties my stomach into knots.

I needed some confidence. I needed to feel capable of staying in my house all day and coming up with enough to do. So I made a plan, or more like a sketch of the days activities. No times were connected to each activity, just a framework. As soon as I started to panic at cries of boredom I glanced at my notebook and remembered puppets!! Yes, let's do puppets. We need a bit more spirituality...let's do a nursery lesson. I really need to get into crafts...let's color a thanksgiving book.

I realized that my daughter is now at the age where my day is no longer consumed with only doing things to her. Change her, feed her, change her, feed her, cha...you get the idea. Now, my day is consumed with doing things with her.

This girl is really challenging me and making me grow but I wouldn't have it any other way. In fact, yesterday I got a text message from a friend who happens to be a Radio City Rockette. She was telling me about the two television shows she would be on today. After reading her exciting news, I felt no pangs of jealousy that I sometimes had before. Instead, I asked her if she would ask Rachel Ray for some recipes for me while she was on her show.

What about you? What do you do to keep your little one entertained in-doors?