Question & Parenting

Thanks Heidi for asking me another question. Answering questions really reminds me that so much has happened in the last few years. It is easy to lose a little bit of yourself when you become a mom but I will try to answer as best as I can:

Q: What would be the perfect way to spend a day all by yourself?

A: It is funny that you ask this question because my dear sweet husband has been after me to take a PERSONAL day since Mother's Day (when I didn't really have the opportunity to relax). He wanted me to take it on my birthday (May 18th) but I wanted to take the family to the beach instead. It seems like anytime our family is able to spend the day together I just want to take advantage of it. Now, if I were given an entire day to myself I think I would try and relax at a day spa (like the SALISHAN) but again, it would be much more fun to spend a day like that with a friend or my husband. Hmmm...I suppose a day to myself would actually look more like this:

• Sleep in until at least 9am
• Drink a cup of French Vanilla Coffee (something I rarely get a chance to drink at home)
• Work-out at the gym for 2 hours straight without feeling guilty for being away from my family
• Start working on a canvas painting


(An ink drawing I did a few years ago based on the creation of man)

• Drive to a lake and go kayaking

(Whidbey Island 2005 - my first time kayaking)

• Eat at a nice restaurant and try not to care that I am alone
• See a Broadway show
• And return home relaxed and rejuvenated

Or maybe I would just hang out with some of my close friends...

The rest of this blog is not exactly about ME but about parenting. Lately we have had some issues with keeping Maya in bed or for that matter, in her bedroom. When we were transitioning her from a crib to a bed, she would often open her door and not want to sleep. We remedied that problem by installing a plastic safety knob on the inside of her door. Over the course of the last few months, she has managed to remove this knob several times. Miss Houdini has somehow managed to engineer her way through all parental attempts to crazy glue, rope, and duct-tape this safety knob. So my motherly instinct kicked-in about two weeks ago and we have been operating under the assumption that if we keep locking her in her room, she could get scarred for life. This may be a long-shot but I just don't want my baby to feel like we don't want her around. In any case, this past week has been extremely hard on us because she just refuses to stay in her room. Opening the door nine or ten times at night has become somewhat of a game for her now. As parents, we feel we are at our wits end. We don't want to get angry with her but our lack of sleep has almost forced us off the deep end. The night before last, I got less than 2 hours of sleep. And for anyone who knows me well, you know that I cannot function without my sleep. So how do we solve this dilemma? Maya needs to be free to get up in the middle of the night to go potty, so how do we cope with new this transition in a loving way. Is there a way of parenting without the parents losing focus on each other? Is it time to call Diane Moore?