A Harsh, Cold Dose of Reality

I should know by now it doesn't pay for me to get too confident in my parenting abilities. Just when I start to think, "Hey, look at me go! I'm rocking this semi-crunchy attachment parenting gig. I delivered a very large babeh (born in the caul, no less) sans pain relief, I do the extended breastfeeding thing, I cloth diaper, I wear my baby in my funky but not too hipster-ish carrier, I read lots of books to my kids..." and then BAM! I'm smacked right back into reality, when we're down to the absolute last cloth diaper because I haven't done laundry in *cough cough* five days. Or when my 8-month old daughter screams like I'm putting her on the rack because I had the audacity to try and feed her pureed (homemade!! organic!! in the babyfood maker!!) avocado. Yes, you read that correctly. My daughter is rapidly approaching her ninth month on this planet, and she pretty much refuses anything except the boob. I'm not concerned....yet. According to my pediatrician father in-law, her reaction is fairly normal. It's just such a change from Tony, who tried to steal a French fry from me at four months old. (Not that there was ever any question of paternity...but yeah. He's Will's kid all the way).

Alessandra did a fantastic job of decorating her shirt with pureed carrots, don't you think?

I may have had all these grandiose ideas of what kind of a parent I would be, what sort of children I would raise, all the healthy, flavorful meals I would prepare for them on a daily basis, the imagination-enhancing toys they would play with...yeah. Not that I don't try my best, but on days like today, I was all too happy to sit back, nurse my sweet baby girl for what seemed like the hundredth time since last week, serve Tony "toast with yellow butter!" for dinner (hey, at least it was wheat bread, right?), and to my great dismay, allowed Tony to watch Holiday Buddies (or Christmas Buddies. Or Santa Buddies, or whatever that ridiculous movie with all the dogs is called) because I had important business to attend to. And by "important business," I totally mean goofing off on Pinterest. 

Kids. What can I say. They'll humble you to the ground, and lower your expectations like none other.