Call me old fashioned?

In many ways I consider myself a modern Woman. I believe in equal rights; I don't believe for even a moment that Women who chose to work outside of the home once having children are any less Motherly or love their children less than those who stay at home; I even voted for Obama and while his performance has been less than stellar, I still don't think the other yahoos would have done any better. I won't bore you with all of things I believe, that is getting off of my true topic anyway.
Last night while watching Lady Gaga perform Edge of Glory on the season 10 finale of American Idol, I was bothered by her performance, it grossed me out a little. She was all but having sex on national television with one of her male dancers. I actually like Lady Gaga and I feel that some of her music actually has a positive message for this generation, but this performance took it too far for me and I asked my self "why is she doing that, what good can possibly come of that?" She's on the EDGE alright, but I don't know if it's the Edge of glory. She's always "pushed the boundaries" and hey, you know what, I get it, I've never been a big fan of rules myself, but when is it just too much? Pushing the boundaries just for the sake of pushing the boundaries is dumb! I'm all about standing up for what you believe in or for people you believe in, but we live in a society that I feel has taken it too far.
I don't want my daughter to grow up in a world where "anything goes", we need to get back to a place where right and wrong exist and children grow up with morals and respect their elders. I don't want things to revert to the 1950's way of living, I could never live up to those standards, but isn't there a happy medium somewhere? Maybe we should all start wearing WWJD bracelets again!

Parenting: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

   Example: Jekyll- Hailey woke up from her nap, so excited to see me, she was all smiles and giggles, I can't give her enough kisses when she's this cute! Hyde- I proceed to take her to the changing table, she's poopy (no big deal) but, as soon as I have removed the tabs from the diaper she furiously kicks her legs and lands both feet and a good portion of one leg in her poop. I struggle trying to hold both wriggling little legs together suspended in the air while I grab a wipe to clean her off before she inevitably tries to stick one of her feet in her mouth, she then reaches down and grabs a handful of pooh! All the meanwhile she is carrying on and fussing as though she hasn't been fed all day. She tries swiping at me (particularly my hair) a couple of times with her poopy hand. Don't freak out, I got her cleaned before any pooh covered extremity made it to her mouth!
   This is just one example of many occurences where a "switch" is flipped and my normally happy go lucky- easy as can be- could never do a thing wrong- daughter becomes this angry, demanding, nothing you can do will help, 20 pound savage. I'm not complaining or whining, growing up IS hard to do and sometimes as adults we forget that, and in these "Hyde" moments I try to think about how she must feel being completely dependent on others, and not having the ability to understand "give mommy just a minute sweetie". During the transition from being a carefree couple to parents, we have had our "Hyde" moments as well, I don't imagine even for a second that at the age Hailey is now, I could possibly comprehend exactly how she feels and thinks, it would be helpful if our memories went that far back, but they don't.
  I am definitely not saying I have a difficult child, in all honesty I feel like I've won the baby lottery, she truly is a very happy girl and I thank God for that everyday. She's so smart and easy going and when she does get upset, typically she very quickly forgets whatever grievance she had. My Mommy guilt is kicking in full force right now for even having written this post, lest anyone should think that Hailey is a heathen, it couldn't be farther from the truth. It's really my emotions, feelings and experiences that are the true " Jekyll and Hyde", not my daughter, she's just busy being a baby and learning about her strange new world!

This is not a new phenomenon or revelation to those of you who have been parents for a while, but it's a strangely wonderful awfully confusing beautiful new world for me!

Baby Shoes, grrrr!

Over the past 8 1/2 months, my confidence in mothering my child, basic child care and knowing what she needs has grown and tremendously, but there is one exception to this, at least only one that I can think of right now... I am a retard when it comes to putting shoes on her!! I never get them on right, and when I do, they stay on for about 2.6 seconds. While I am putting her little shoes on I feel like I am going to twist her ankle right off or just break it, I get so mad at myself while trying to put her shoes on, it's one area of child care I have most definitely NOT mastered! So today while we were out and about she had only one shoe and one sock on... my Grandmother would gasp in horror, actually she would gasp in horror at me just taking her outside in this "frigid" weather! I think I caught a few questioning looks from older women. So, I guess the moral of this post would be, when it comes to parenting, I'm still wearing my baby shoes, but I'll get to wear big girl shoes some day!

Thank you for reading this pointless post... BABY SHOES SUCK : P

8 Years!

Today is Matt and I's 8th wedding anniversary, wow how the time flies! In a lot of ways it seems like yesterday that we tied the knot, but when I think of all the things we've been through and done together, how could it all possibly fit into 8 short years?

I'm so lucky and above all else, thankful, to have met the love of my life so early in life and to still be enjoying our growing relationship everyday. When I think about everything we have been through, I know without a doubt that I am a lucky woman, Matthew has always been my rock and he has always supported me and my hopes and dreams. He believes I can do anything and he will do anything to help me achieve my goals! I know that had I gone through any of the hard times with anyone other than him, the relationship would not have lasted.

Matthew just also happens to be an amazing Father. From the very beginning he has been up in the middle of the night with Hailey, always willing to change a poopy diaper, there is nothing he won't do, he is always there by my side, or being the nice guy that he is and letting me sleep! In fact I think he is far better at being a parent than me, well, at least some of the time, ha ha!

To all the single people out there, God Bless You, I don't know how you do it! If it wasn't for Matthew, Lord only knows where I would be and I don't want to be anywhere but here with my little familia. Matthew, Thank You for 8 incredible years, I know the next 8 will be even better, I love you!!!!

SidRock?

You might be wondering, what is SidRock? Well, at first I was trying to come up with a clever name for our family blog, and remembered Matt's old "gaming name" and then SidRock began to take on a whole new meaning... If our little family washed up on a deserted island, I think we would call it SidRock, kinda like Plymouth Rock, or Fraggle Rock, you get the idea.
So, this blog will be devoted to what is going on, on our little island, our family. I'm sure there will be a few rants as well about things that interest me or tick me off, imagine that, HA! I want to share my honest unfiltered opinions and experiences about life, marriage, and parenting as I see it.

To all of you fellow Gleeks, this will be my version of Sue Sylvester's "Dear Journal" moments!