What Makes Them Extraordinary

Every parent knows those little things about their child that make them extraordinary.  I'm no exception, but I usually don't talk about that kind of thing on my blog. Today I'm indulging my mama side and I'm going to share with you a few secrets about why, in fact, my boys are extraordinary. They are different from each other, but they share something very profound in common, the courage to get out there and truly live life.

For Wylie it's his ability to connect with any living being around him. He looks deeply into peoples eyes and tells them everything he knows.  He asks lots of questions.  He likes to be close, leaning up against you close.  When he laughs you can see all of his teeth, and his eyes squint closed, and the freckles on his nose dance.  He is quite simply full of light, and he has been since the day we met him.  Because of this people are magnetically attracted to him.  He is smart as a whip, and kind, and he brings out in other kids what comes so easily to him, a confidence and ease that tells the world they have a friend...

And Jasper. He is effusive, confident, and reserved all at once. He will try hard at everything. He puts himself out there. He is almost refined... he sits with one leg crossed over the other in JFK repose while watching cartoons. He eats the most incredible things for a person so young...he slurps oysters, eats daring sushi, game meat, Brussels sprouts, and prefers coconut water and dark chocolate. He is as complicated as his palate and he always has been, since the moment we met him. He is emotionally charged, sporty, and dramatic. He loves a stage, and he loves quiet time alone. His favorite person is Wylie. And at 8 years old, he still climbs into bed with us most mornings to cuddle. 

I'm letting you in on their extraordinary lives, as part of an amazing campaign by Stanford Children’s Health and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Stanford Children’s Health and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford has been the top-ranked children’s hospital in Northern California for over a decade, and are the largest Bay Area healthcare provider with an exclusive focus on children and expectant women. They know that what makes your kid extraordinary isn’t just the epic stuff. It’s the little things. The small moments that maybe only you see — and quietly celebrate every day.

Did you click on the boys names to see the special videos I made for each of them? Your kids are extraordinary too. Show them how much you enjoy every moment together by creating a special video of your own!

And thank you for indulging me today...

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

What's Really Going On

I haven't been posting a lot lately, because we've been going through some stuff...good and bad.  For several months, my little guy, Wylie, has been complaining of headaches. Totally disturbing, right? We were forced to schedule an MRI, something that required him to be completely anesthetized, in order to find out if something was up with his brain. We had to take an early morning trip back to Oakland to have him put under for the scan.  It is not really all that fun watching your child with tubes up his nose, completely knocked out. The procedure went well, and much to our relief, about 10 minutes into our post-MRI ice cream party at Fenton's, his doctor called to tell us that the radiologist found no brain abnormalities. This doesn't explain the headaches, but I'll take it. As you can imagine, I've been operating at a high stress level. I got sick. Really sick. I'm still on really powerful antibiotics to treat a double ear infection brought on by a bad cold. I just haven't had the time to produce new project based content for Poppy Haus for the past few weeks, and I'm feeling a little melancholy about that.

There's something else, something I've debated about even sharing at this point, so as not to jinx it. We just made an offer on a house, and holy crap the offer was accepted.  This is something that we were pretty sure was never ever going to happen for us. We live in the Bay Area, where we've always been pretty much priced out of the market, even here in Petaluma. If all goes according to plan, we'll soon be the proud owners of a small,1968 split level ranch with a big old yard for our boys to run wild. It will need so much work done to make it right, but I've been waiting for this opportunity since, well, since forever. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

xo,

Heather

My So Called Life

I was thinking for the month of May, because we celebrate mom, I would share a couple of stories about moms. I'll start with me.

I think that my favorite thing about Poppy Haus is that I get to write a little everyday.  When you spend the majority of your time making light sabers out of cardboard tubes, discussing the yuck-factor of green beans, refereeing fights, often while in a state of mild sleep deprivation from the never ending series of nightmares and stomach flu you start to go batty, and at least for me, my brain gets a little mushy. This last part accounts for most of my typos. The act of writing something, even if it's instructions on how to make oatmeal pancakes forces me to consider my words, and taps into the part of my brain once reserved for term papers and event proposals.  When I was a little girl, I used to make colored pencil paper books about the things that interested me, like dinosaurs or ponies. I'd put little facts about them under the detailed drawings. I liked to take pictures with my 110-film camera and make photo-journals of our backyard.  In 1986 when the space shuttle Challenger exploded, much like Punky Brewster, I was heartbroken, so I sat down at our Commodore 64 and typed out a story about the accident from the perspective of a kid. You wouldn't know it from meeting me, but I've always been little bit shy, and I think from the beginning, I've felt more comfortable expressing myself with written words.

I haven't talked about this much before, but I've found that one of the drawbacks of being a stay-at-home mom is that you don't have a professional identity, as in "I'm a writer", nor do you ever have the need for an out-of-office reply on your email.  It's a non-stop job being a mom (employed or not), and it's mentally taxing, but when you don't get to change gears and identities when you walk out the door in the morning you lose the ability to step out into the world on your own.  I shower, I promise you, and I try not to wear yoga pants unless I'm actually doing yoga, but some days I don't get to do much more outside the confines of our house than drive my minivan around and go to the grocery store.  It's also really gratifying to bring home the bacon.  As it turns out, being a mom is not a paid position.  

We made the decision that I would stay home with the kids after Wylie was born.  Before that I had been working just short of full-time managing a showroom in San Francisco, while co-managing a small business in the off-hours, often late at night, or on the weekends. Now with two kids, the expense of full-time daycare or a nanny-share, an after-school program, coupled with the the logistics and costs of activities, lessons, and summer camps, seemed to outweigh the advantage of the money we'd retain after doling it all out every month. The hassle of negotiating the morning routine myself considering my husband's early work day and erratic evening schedule (he's a high school principal) sealed the deal.  I would be a stay-at-home mom. I would eventually give up the business that I'd been working at for several years. I'd like to say I did it for them, but really I did it for myself. I was burnt out trying to make it work, and life has been easier ever since I committed to staying home. Even though we can't take big family vacations or have a gym membership, and we've had to put our plan buying a house on hold, I think it was the right decision.

I'm also convinced that writing this blog has actually made me a better mom, and a much happier person. I get to spend my time at home with the kids, but I also get to create something of value that gives me a little bit of that other identity I so crave.  The simple act of writing a little every day, taking pictures, working on recipes, designing projects and sharing them with people is a very satisfying way to make my way through this experience staying home while they are very young. I also like that I get to collaborate with my kids.  They love to make things, and to see themselves in the pictures, and they are mostly good sports when I ask them to wash their hands and put on a clean shirt to taste a bowl of soup. It seems that they like living this way; our house being half test-kitchen, half Etsy shop. And while I know this time as a young family is fleeting, we will always have this to look back on.

xo,
Heather

A Soft Spot

What you are observing here is my carpet, a tiny digger, and some real dirt. Fortunately it was dry dirt. I should be mad, but here's the thing, I really love vacuuming. It's methodical and relaxing, and totally unlike cleaning the bathroom. I also love my boyfriend Dyson and the Sting looking guy who invented him, and I love having a carpeted home. I find it decadent to lay on the floor and read magazines, and I love the warmth underfoot when I step out of bed in the morning. There was a time when I refused to consider looking at an apartment that wasn't completely hardwood, but now I can't imagine life without carpet, which I'm sure has something to do with having kids.  Don't get me wrong, I still need a little hardwood with an accent rug in my life, but more for aesthetics, not for living. What do you think?  Carpet or hardwood?