A to Z Challenge: M is for Mother

M was another obvious letter for me and M is for Mother.

Mother means many things to me when I think of the word. It is what I blog about and it is what my life is all about right now. Despite my overpowering love for my little man, the word mother brings even more to mind. I was a mother before I had W and while he is my priority, I'm still mom to my two dogs. Although they are not my number ones now, I still adore them and they are precious to me.

Although I have not spoken much of them yet, I have two puppies (although neither is a puppy anymore if we're going by age!) and I cannot imagine our family without them.

Murray is a seven year old Boston Terrier. I've had him since he was 6 weeks old and it hasn't always been easy. After picking him out from a little at 6 weeks old, I ended up picking the dog with Giardia! As with everything else, we muddled along and made it through the challenges of that. Murray eventually got well and has had my heart since the first day I took him home and he peed in the backseat of my car.

Toby is a two and a half year old Rat Terrier. J and I got him after we were living together and Murray couldn't handle living with us. Murray ended up staying with my mom who had other dogs at the time. He wasn't cut out to be an only dog and I was not cut out to NOT have a dog. So I went to a dog adoption event to look at another Boston Terrier and came home with Toby! He has been an amazing pet and I cannot imagine our home without him!

Murray eventually came to live with us when my mother did and so we are a two dog house now. They have their quirks but I love both of them to death. Before W was born, I worried a lot about how the dogs would react and read a lot about how to prepare them for his arrival. In the end, I didn't really do much to prepare them and so far they are great with him! I am the mother to some wonderful little pups!

Mother is also important to me in another major way and that has to do with my own mother. I have always been very close to my mother and I consider her my best friend. We are blessed to have her living with us and helping us take care of W on a daily basis. My mother didn't want to live alone and so J and I discussed the possibility of her coming to live with us. Although we didn't know how it would work out, we were all willing to try and it has been an amazing blessing to all of us.

Sometimes space is a bit cramped with all of us in our townhouse but we hope to move in the future. Still, we all get along and it has been wonderful to have an extra set of hands to help with W. He's also getting to experience an amazing bonding experience with his Grambo (yes, she has been dubbed the "Rambo of Grandmas") and I know she will cherish these days for the rest of her life.

So, in my life, M is for Mother in so many different ways.

About

I'm a thirtysomething (I remember when my mom watched that show) new mom to W, my amazing little man, who was born in December 2010. I've been married for nearly three years and met my wonderful husband, J, on match.com. Yes, internet dating can work. Actually, I know a number of couples who have found love and are happily married as a result of meeting online. I've always thought a little outside of the box. Our little family is rounded out by my mother (who is a blessing to us all) and our pups, a rat terrier and a boston terrier. We've got a pretty good thing going so far!

I got into blogging when I found out I was pregnant and wanted to document my pregnancy. I had dabbled in a blog about married life before then but that was abandoned when I turned 30 and suddenly heard my biological clock ticking. There were two things I knew even before we started trying to conceive. One was that I wanted to cloth diaper and the second was that I wanted to have a gender neutral bedding setting with primary colors. If we found out we were having a little girl I didn't want to go crazy with the pink (one of my favorite colors) and regret it later. So before I even got my big fat positive, I had purchased a bedding set and was researching cloth diapers. After the initial feeling of being completely overwhelmed, I got into the groove of reading blogs and discovered blog giveaways. From then on, I was hooked!

I planned on having a natural, med-free labor and delivery, cloth diapering, exclusively breastfeeding, and babywearing. Of course, I planned to do all of this while working full time! Not everything has gone exactly as I planned, but I'm learning to roll with the punches as I try to figure out my formula for motherhood. Now my house has been taken over by baby gear and there is always laundry to be done, but every day I'm putting together a new piece of the puzzle!