This post is a pretty accurate representation of how I’ve been feeling lately — mixed up and kind of all over the place. My mind races with ideas, none of which I think are any good. I’m so caught up in my head that I feel uninspired, and this lack of inspiration or creativity has been making blogging a challenge.
Confession: I’m kind of getting bored writing all the time about motherhood.
To make matters worse, I’ve also been feeling uninspired as a mom. Levi has been taking fewer and shorter naps, which means I need to find more ways to entertain him during the day. (We can only browse Target or run to Costco so many times in a week.) If I were more creative I would come up with art projects and games to occupy our time, but I’m feeling totally clueless about what to do with a 14-month-old boy. And anyway, he’s not walking yet, so our options seem a bit limited.
I believe they call this the doldrums.
Despite experiencing the doldrums, there have been moments of sweet happiness and joy. Like this weekend, when we popped by the Henry Doorly Zoo for an hour and checked out the aquarium for the first time. Levi loved watching the penguins swimming and goofing around. Or when my little guy messily spread refried beans all over his place mat at Rivera’s, our favorite Mexican restaurant, and then put his face on the table to lick them up. Serious cuteness.
I was going to end this post with a list on links to other interesting articles, but I think I’ll just share an assortment of photos from my iPhone instead. Randomness.
PS: I welcome your advice, opinions or words of encouragement on how to beat the doldrum and on what I should be doing with my life. (No biggie.)
I feel ya PJ! It’s hard to be home with the littles sometimes and stay busy.
I always feel like I should be doing MORE with Harper. More educational stuff or more outings. Now that it’s cooler I’m glad to be able to be outside a bit. The zoo is awesome in the fall and winter because of all the indoor stuff.
As for what you should be doing with your life…step back and look at your life. You ARE doing what you should be doing. Everyone says they’re only babes once and for such a short time. As moms we hear it all the time from everyone but after awhile it’s easy to forget. When you’re bogged down in the day to day where everyday rolls into the next and it all seems the same…but it’s true…they grow fast and this stage will be gone. 🙁
Thanks, Erin! I definitely feel the same way about Levi. I worry that I’m not doing enough educational activities with him, and I do need to make an effort to get down to the zoo or the children’s museum more often.
Oh, PJ. This is so familiar! There seem to be so many more hours in a day when you’re responsible for entertaining a little one.
I think this was about the age that I started seriously considering part-time day care for Walden – I was just totally out of ideas of what to do with him and I was worried I was holding him back some how! It took me 8 months to get around to actually enrolling him somewhere (tomorrow is his first day! Eek!), and now I see how little I had to worry about that. They get to be so much fun… then they’re suddenly Big Boys!
There are a ton of ideas of things to do at home at Pinterest. Yes, some are dorky, but you never know… my guy has been playing with a shoebox full of popcorn kernels for MONTHS and still asks for it every morning.
And if there’s a sandbox out there in Omaha somewhere, go get thee a bucket and shovel and dump truck and go!
When he drops that morning nap, consider a drop-in daycare thing at a gym. It was a real sanity-saver for me.
I wish I had advice on the “life” part. I’ve just finally found peace in putting my worry about that for myself on hold. 🙂
I actually wouldn’t mind sending Levi to daycare once or twice a week. I’d definitely be more productive at work and other household duties if I had some alone time! But there just aren’t any good options for that right now. We’ve tried Fit and Sit at the gym a couple of times, and Levi had a very hard time being separated from me (uh-oh!). I have to get braver about letting him cry when I leave so we can go at least once a week.
Truthfully, Pinterest crafts intimidate the crap out of me, but I do need to start coming up with creative “activities” for us to do together. Guess I need to start looking…
As soon as he starts walking, it’ll both get better and get worse! 🙂 The zoo is a great idea, along with a local museum — ideal if he’s walking. Also, do you have any children farmsteads? We have a place called Deanna Rose Farmstead and it’s basically free. Maybe you have something similar. Also, check out if there are any children’s storytimes at the local libraries and consider doing something like Kindermusik. It runs around $50 a month so it’s not the cheapest activity. I work outside the home full-time, but I take a “long lunch” on Fridays–pick up the little miss from daycare and hit the 45-minute Kindermusik once a week. Lastly, is there a mothers’ association in your city or even neighborhood/community? We have one, and it’s pretty heavily geared towards moms at home during the week. Morning coffee meetups, playdates for various age groups during the week, etc. I am actually in the process of organizing a Saturday playgroup for those of us who miss out on all the fun stuff going on during the week! Something to consider.
Thanks for these great suggestions! We definitely enjoy the zoo and are considering getting a membership to the local children’s museum. It’s small but fun. I hadn’t thought of visiting a chicken homestead; I’m definitely going to research that. We take a weekly music class similar to Kindermusik, so one morning a week we have a set activity!
PJ, me too!!! This age is so wonderful and so hard all at once. It’s waaaay more fun than the early baby days (IMO) and they are so sweet and excited about the world around them but they can’t do a lot yet so it’s hard to fill the days. I’ve put Lorelei on a “schedule”: Monday we go to a weekly playgroup, Tuesday is library story time (she’s really too young but she likes to be with the other kids and it gets us out and doing something), Wednesday is the grocery store and a day to schedule time with friends, Thursday swimming lessons, Friday we go to a toddler open gym, and Saturday we have music class. That way, every morning we are “busy” with something and then filling the time before and after isn’t so hard. And after her nap in the afternoon we play or go on a walk or head to Target 😉
Thanks, Courtney! How long a nap does Lorelei take every day? Right now we take a music class on Wednesday mornings, but I need to find activities to do during the other four mornings. Unfortunately, nearly all of the library story times are at bad times for our schedule!