After years of trying to lose weight, I learn that I’ve been doing it all wrong! According to this article, researchers are finding that people who drink moderately (that’s only 1-2 drinks a day for you boozers out there) have a lower risk of obesity than those who drink heavily or don’t drink at all. I’ve been doing it all wrong – I should be drinking more, not less!

It all makes sense to me. Think of the French. Lovely people, and my God they’re thin! What do they do everyday? They drink a glass of wine with their meals! If a glass of wine can take on a French pastry and win, that’s enough proof for me. Also, the Italians are another perfect example: a little alcohol keeps the pasta pounds at bay.

Of course, the study researchers say that the findings don’t prove that overweight people should take up drinking to lose weight. I say that’s just what the government is making them say to keep people from being regular drinkers. It also covers their asses, so people don’t drink and do something stupid and sue them. Besides, I’ve given diets with far less plausible evidence of success a try (“Eat all the high-fat food you want and lose weight!”), why not this one? And it’s not like they’re telling people to go out and get smashed; one to two drinks a day (consider a drink is 4oz. or 1 shot) is not a lot.

So, if you’ll excuse me, mommy needs a glass of wine right now.

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Originally uploaded by A Mommy Story.

For her first birthday, we bought Cordelia this adorable little chair that was just her size. Our hopes were that she would sit in it instead of screaming for us to pick her up and put her on the couch. Being on the couch inevitably led to her falling off the couch and hurting herself. She needed furniture that was less dangerous.

And as toddlers are well-known for, she showed us that she wasn’t about to do what we want her to do. She preferred to stand up in the chair, sit on the arms, and generally use it every way possible except the way that involves her butt on the seat. As for it being less dangerous? Oh no, she found ways to make it dangerous! Leaning back while standing on the seat to tip it over, sitting on the arm and falling off backwards – Cordy has proven that there is no such thing as a safe piece of furniture.

Over the weekend, though, we saw her sitting in her cushy chair. As in, butt-on-the-seat. I was shocked. She looked at me, grinning her “You didn’t expect that, did you?” grin, then said “Sthit.” She then stood up and sat back down, repeating “Sthit.”

It appears she has learned the word sit (or I suppose it could be shit, as Aaron is known to say that a lot around her), as well as the action of sitting down. We applauded her and praised her, which led to more Sthit-ing and sitting.

The next new trick was the old “where’s your nose?” game. For months we’ve been pointing to our own noses and hers and repeating, “Mommy’s nose. Cordy’s nose. Daddy’s nose. Kitty’s nose.” She usually just looked at us like we were some weirdos with a nose fetish. However, this weekend we asked her “Where’s your nose?” and she pointed to it! Yay! The little girl has given into the urges of society and mimicked it! Wait, that’s not supposed to be a good thing…

Just to add to her language explosion, today she was reading a book while I changed her diaper (getting her started on bathroom reading early, I guess), and she lifted the book up to look at me and said, “Bouuuuk.” She now knows the word book, although she pronounces it in a haughty, over-enunciated, strange accent: “Booouuuuk.”

It seems she’s been holding out on us, vocabulary-wise.

So today Aaron was ready to hand in his parenting badge and quit. On a long drive we had a conversation of short, annoyed sentences with long silences inbetween each. During this conversation, I learned that Aaron felt like he will never be able to do anything simply again because we have a child. Everything takes more work, and half the time we don’t get to do what we want because we have a baby. While I realize it had been a tough weekend for him (he got some daddy-daughter time both mornings while I was out working or volunteering), I admit I was surprised by what he said.

He told me that all we did this weekend was made incredibly difficult because Cordy had to be considered. We went to lunch with his father on Saturday in a market that can only be described as a zoo, and had to restrain a cranky toddler while begging her to eat something more than goldfish crackers and the napkin. He wanted to drive two hours to visit friends and game with them (staying the night), but couldn’t because I needed him to watch Cordy this morning while I was volunteering. And we agonized over going to a holiday party today because we weren’t sure how Cordelia would handle it (and, for the record, she threw her best tantrum yet for the entire party, then spit up all over me, prompting an early exit).

OK, maybe I can see his point a little. But part of me was also angry at him. “Kids are work! Kids require you to be selfless!” I said to myself over and over, but I didn’t voice these comments for fear of setting off a big fight (I hate confrontation, especially over dumb crap like this). Part of me wanted to say, “Well, tough, you can’t give her back now, so shut up and deal with it.” I didn’t understand his frustration, because it doesn’t affect me that strongly.

Why do I seem to handle the crimp put on our social life more than him? Can it be something deep down in the mommy genetic code that makes a woman more capable of being less selfish and doing whatever needs to be done for her child? I’m not saying I don’t long for the way it was from time to time. I miss hanging out with friends, going to the movies or dinner at the last minute, and sleeping in until 10am (oh, how I miss sleeping in until 10am!). But I don’t get angry about it, and certainly not at Cordy. I know it’s all part of the parent deal – a cute, loving, pain-in-the-ass and inconveniencing child. I’ve come to terms with the fact that arranging a date night involves consulting the schedules of all of our friends and family, balancing that against what movies are showing and what time Cordy will go to bed, charting the phase of the moon and synchronizing watches. It’s more work, but we still get to go out every now and then.

Luckily, Aaron’s trip to the “pity me” party didn’t last all that long, and on the way home from the holiday party we both peeked into the back seat and our hearts melted looking at our little angel, sleeping peacefully snoring loudly in the backseat. I think it was just a moment of weakness for him – he is a good daddy and I don’t think he would give up his little girl for anything.

Hi, I’m Christina. I currently reside in Columbus, Ohio. No cow-town jokes, please – I’ve heard them all before. Sharing this house with me include my husband, Aaron, and our two children, Cordelia (7) and Miranda (4). A couple of lazy, heat-seeking Siamese cats are often seen near the fireplace, too.

My background:
Long before I was a mom, I had dreams of being a professor of history, with my focus on Elizabethan England. For 10 years I played the reality show version of the Renaissance as a performer at the Ohio Renaissance Festival, where I met my husband. Grad school didn’t go how I wanted it to, though, and soon I was working from home as a tech writer. Life was pretty good.

Enter parenthood. I soon quit my job to pursue a part-time job at a local university and a larger role as a mommy. Two years later, I became a stay-at-home mom when Mira was born.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that once I switched to part-time, I also went back to school for nursing. I graduated in June 2009 and became a labor & delivery nurse as soon as I got my RN license. I now work for a call-in service that helps new parents with questions about caring for their baby.

Why blogging?
Starting my blog was an attempt to not only chronicle my child’s life (the empty baby books still taunt me), but also to find other moms who could reassure me that no, I’m not crazy, and yes, whatever my child is doing has happened to someone else, too. Since then, blogging and social media have brought me a wealth of new friends, and a community that is sometimes scary and awe-inspiring in how unified and supportive it can be. Has my life changed because of blogging? Yes, and in most ways for the better.

More?
I can be reached at amommystory [at] gmail [dot] com if you’d like to send me e-mail. I love mail, as long as it isn’t spam or a message telling me how much I suck. I’ll admit that while I try to keep up on my e-mail, it’s hard to respond to everything. And sometimes that response comes slowly. (Sorry, mom. I swear I’ll e-mail you again soon.)

You can also find me on Twitter, where I’m @mommystory.

If you’re interested in my opinions on products and services relevant to parents, check out Mommy’s Must Haves. PR folks, please direct your inquiries to that site. I’m currently accepting offers of products for reviews, although due to my full time nursing job, I’ve cut down the number of products I’m reviewing at any given time.

Those interested in advertising opportunities with this site should contact me at amommystory [at] gmail [dot] com for more information.

Today I was speaking with my brother-in-law’s girlfriend (BIL’sGF), and CNN was on in the background. We both stopped at one point when they were reporting about some horrible thing happening in the world. No, I don’t remember what it was, since after awhile all of those news stories just blur together. Why can’t they add a few more happy stories to the news? Ah well, that’s another post entirely.

Anyway, BIL’sGF then said, “I don’t know if I’d ever want to have children in a world like this.” This comment made me look at Cordelia and wonder if Aaron and I really thought about the world we’d be bringing our child into.

I know the state of the world pretty much sucks right now. Terrorism, wars, religious clashes, school shootings, rape, young girls being kidnapped and killed…the list goes on and on. Add to that the greater than average number of natural disasters over the past year, and it would make anyone wonder if someone or something really thinks humanity should just be wiped out entirely. How could I be so selfish as to create another life and introduce it to the cruel and evil world we have now?

But then, I don’t really think things are necessarily the worst they’ve ever been. There have been plenty of moments in history that could make the short list of People Behaving Badly. Some refer to the “good ol’ times” when children had respect for their elders, families were together more, people knew and talked with their neighbors, and kids walked uphill in the snow both ways to get to school and were happy for the bags tied around their feet for shoes. I think these people are still stuck believing the spin of the 50’s. It wasn’t all Happy Days, people – they just wanted you to think that.

I mean, there are plenty of problems with today’s world. Yes, kids need to learn to show a little more respect. But who is responsible for teaching them that? The village can do all they possibly can to raise a child with values and morals, but if the parents of that child aren’t teaching and reinforcing those values, it’ll be lost on the kid. I realize you could debate the “who’s responsible” argument until the end of time, but most people agree that the parents share at least part of the responsibility.

So why did we bring a child into this mad, mad world? Because we plan on teaching her those values and morals to make her a good person. We choose to take the roles of parents very seriously, and even though we don’t have total control over how she’ll turn out, we can do our best to make sure she’s one of the “good apples” in the bunch.

Personally, I commend many of the parents I’ve seen online and in person. Those parents who clearly see the task ahead of them, and choose to face it rather than hope that society will do most of it for them. For parents like these, I say that you did a good thing by bringing a child into this world. The more dedicated parents we have, the more good people will hopefully come from it, and then just maybe those children will grow into adults who will change the world for the better. Even if Cordelia doesn’t grow into the person we hope she’ll be, we have to cling to that hope and do our best to teach her right from wrong and to be an independent thinker. And when the day comes that she sets off into the world on her own, we’ll know it was all worth it.