From the mouths of babes

Moms like me are living in the era of Pinterest. I remember when Pinterest was first debuted I thought, "Screw you Facebook! This is so much better!" Then I would spend so much time pinning different ideas. Everything from recipes to clothing to family picture poses and more. (This was before Addison came along, mind you, so I had so much more extra time.) Then Addison was born and I started looking at Pinterest for other things. That's when my love of Pinterest started to change. If you're a mom, then you're going to relate to what I am about to say. You get on Pinterest and suddenly you feel like "mom of the year." There are links for everything...Potty train your child in just one day, 25 crafts for Christmas with your toddler, lose your baby weight in just 7 days, 30 different scenes you can make with your toddler's food to get them to eat. And don't get me started on some of the birthday parties I've seen. Who has the time and money for all that?! I start thinking, "Well we've been potty training for a couple months now. Wonder why I can't get it done in a day? 25 crafts for toddlers?! I better get my booty to the store and get to buying the materials! Loose the baby weight in a week? Oops...making pictures out of Addison's food?! I'm doing good if I can get her to sit still long enough to eat the food much less make her plate into Picasso's masterpieces!" You know that feeling too, huh? I remember one snow day I was going to bring Pinterest to life in my kitchen with my then 17 month old. We were gonna craft, bake, you name it-if it was part of pinterest we were doing it. Well long story short, we spent most of the afternoon running around town gathering different materials I was going to need in order to be supermom and by the time we got home Addison and I were exhausted and didn't have interest. That's when I started thinking, "What am I doing this for?" Addison doesn't care if we complete every craft mentioned for every holiday. She doesn't care if she has a bathtub that glows during bath time (well, maybe she would like that one). It's not important to her that she has various stations that she can visit in our house if we are stuck inside for a snow day. One of the craziest ones I remember seeing was to bring the water table inside and fill it with rice or beans, then hide things in the beans/rice for sensory play. Who is crazy enough to fill an entire water table with rice then put it in the house for the toddler to play with?!

Then Addison started giving me gentle reminders (without even knowing it) that I don't have to have something elaborate for us to do every single moment of every single day in order to be a good mom. She wants my attention, my love, she wants my hugs and she wants me to listen to her. She wanted me to actually play. Not half way. Not looking at my phone every now and then, but to be present with her and play. She has started telling me all the reasons why she thinks I am a good mom, so I wanted to share some of them with you.

You're a good mamma because...

You hold my hand when we go down stairs.

You give me hugs.

You play blocks with me.

You change my clothes when they get wet.

You are so much fun. 

You give me medicine when I am sick.

You change my diapee ( what she calls her diaper).

So you know what? I'm not going to worry about all the things these mommas on Pinterest are up to. It doesn't matter to my baby. She loves me for the little things we do, not the elaborate ones. She's impressed whether we are working a puzzle together or doing something from my Pinterest boards. I am so glad her little mind thought to start telling me all the things that she loves about me as a mom. It was such a great reminder that to her, it's the little things that make the biggest difference. To her, I'm the best mom in the world!

riding her tricycle to the pond to feed the ducks on a random, warm winter day

date day with mommy to see Paddington

we got just a dusting of snow, but it was enough to play in. We were throwing snow balls and she squealed and said, "Mom, you're so much fun!" It's those moments, my friends!

This little girl is amazing and I am so thankful I get to be her mommy. Now off to play and make memories!