diary of a bewildered mother

Welcome to Diary of a Bewildered Mother!

Click here to read my blog, or keep scrolling to find out a bit more about our family.

[This is where a family photo would go if we’d actually taken one this year. Instead, have a photo from 2013. Warning: contains real-life children.]

Disclaimer: I’m a mom of two VERY ACTIVE small boys who need 24/7 surveillance, and I’m also working part-time from home as a writer and editor. I’ll be honest, I don’t blog here much anymore, nor do I really want to. Every breathing moment is spent with my kids, writing, or editing. When I have a spare moment (which is not often, I assure you), I should be doing laundry or dishes, not writing about my children. I love these kids to pieces, which is why I’m a stay at home mom, but I’m an INTP mom. Translation: I’m an introverted, critically thinking, daydreaming, unstructured mom, and the ideal mommy blogger is an extroverted, hands-on, emotionally attentive, organized mom.

But, you know, stay a while, and if you’d like to be notified of new posts, subscribe by email. If you’re in the mood for weekly-ish parenting zingers and funny kids quotes, follow me on Facebook.

Notable Posts to Get You Started

If you’ve come here for a particular reason, use the search bar or tags to find what you’re looking for.

To read about my pregnancies, my birth stories, my love story, or to read from a particular year, see the menu options for relevant links.

Or you can read all of my posts here, with the most recent one on top.

Most Recent Posts

Click here to read my most recent posts, most of which will be about the house we’re buying.

I wrote three posts in 2014 based on current events and their significance to parenting. They are:

Here are my top posts of all time:

And here are my top posts of 2013, with some updates and descriptions.

#1—Potty Training in One Day: Day Zero (Preparation)

This will probably remain my top-viewed post, ever, thanks to Pinterest. Yes, I potty trained a then-2-year-old Champ in about 1.5 days.

A month later, he went to preschool for 3 weeks, and the teachers NEVER TOOK HIM POTTY. You can imagine the consequences. (I really don’t want to think or talk more about that terrible, terrible place.) Once I got him over a few new phobias, Lion was born, and I was nursing around the clock. Some days were awful. Some days were good. Some times he forgot, sometimes he refused to go, sometimes he just wanted more attention.

Champ is 3 now, and he very occasionally has accidents. We keep him in a cloth diaper or even a pull-up at night (the latter especially when we are traveling), but he wakes up dry, unless a babysitter gave him something to drink right before bed, or he was dying of thirst (he’s pretty melodramatic at times—gets it from my side). TV is the biggest distraction because he watches shows on Netflix, which doesn’t pause for more than 15 seconds between episodes, let alone stops for commercial/potty breaks.

All of that is to say, there will be obstacles. Note, also, that many children have little or no control of their bladder overnight even if they are trained during the day. 1 out of 10 seven-year-olds still wet the bed. Be patient, be loving, be kind. Potty-training is an opportunity to grow as a family through difficult times.

I do still think that this method WORKS, and it’s the method I’ll follow in 18 months when I’m training Lion.

Other posts in this potty-training series technically made the top 5 posts of 2013, but for the sake of THIS post, the rest of my “top 5 of 2013” will feature independent posts.

#2—Grace for the Introverted Mom

This post is only a few weeks old and is already the #2 post of the year and #4 post of all time here on Diary of a Bewildered Mother. I’m so glad I’m not the only introverted mom to feel this way! We should make T-shirts or something. And by “we,” I mean someone else besides “me,” if it’s ever going to get done this decade.

#3–Surviving the Third Trimester

Written 10 days before Lion was born, this post features home remedies for common ailments like water retention, swelling, carpal tunnel, itchy skin, restless legs, and heartburn.

#4—Geek Kid Costumes

In which I review the geeky costumes I have subjected my family to since 2010.

#5—Speakeasy Gender Reveal Party

Details about Lion’s 1920s-themed Gender Reveal Party.

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Soon, it will be my 4-year-anniversary on the blog! Hard to believe it’s already been 4 years since my newlywed husband and I decided to make a late-night drugstore run and got the first shock (of many to come) in our marriage. Eventually I’ll compile a list of all the posts of 2013 for you, like I did with the other years (see the top navigation menu of my blog—the archives). I’ll also post my motto for 2014. But, you know, if I never get to it, you can find my 2014 motto on my Facebook page.

Till then, I’ll leave you with my…

diary of a bewildered mother

Welcome!

Welcome to Diary of a Bewildered Mother!