Step2

Believe it or not, becoming a first time grandma has been a bit of a learning experience. As a new mother back in the day, I would call my mother almost daily with, what do I do about___, is the baby ok if he is ___ or why won’t he stop crying, the list goes on. I don’t know what I would have done without her and the knowledge she acquired after raising three kids herself. And of course, she always had the right answers.

Well things are different now. Parents today are reading more books, (and there are many with different parenting approaches – in my day we only had Dr. Spock), blogging with other parents and reading articles online about what babies should be doing at every stage. Needless to say, to us older more mature parents/grandparents, some of the techniques that these young parents (my son included) are using today make you want to scratch your head and go, what? Oh, and don’t offer your opinions if they are to the contrary – they do not want our opinions or our advice. My son made it very clear that he did not want any advice, as they were getting it from so many directions, including friends that never had children. I told him that I am entitled to my opinions and if he didn’t like them, he didn’t have to follow them.

Since it was made clear to me that my advice was not welcome, I have made a concerted effort to not give any out of respect for my son’s wishes. (Of course I slip every now and then – it’s such a natural instinct for us isn’t it?) What I have learned from this is that rather than telling them what you think they should be doing, I find it is much more effective to show them or make subtle comments. And then low and behold, I will see or hear him doing something that I did or subtly mentioned in passing. Needless to say, because of the distance between us, these cases are far and few between (although Skyping helps). My son has even thanked me at times for the way I would turn my granddaughter’s tears to laughter during a Skype session.

I believe our children want our advice, it’s just in how we present it.

Sharon became a first time grandma in February of 2011 and had the pleasure of celebrating her granddaughter’s first birthday in San Francisco where she lives with her oldest son and his wife. Sharon welcomes the opportunity to spoil her granddaughter after having raised two boys. Sharon is an avid lover of the arts and has dabbled with oil painting and enjoys interior decorating as a hobby. She is the Customer Service Manager for Step2.

I thought I would put together a top ten list of things I have especially enjoyed about this summer and maybe you have too! Some of these are usual reasons for enjoying summertime, while other reasons are more personal to me, especially this summer.

10) Wonderful, hot, glorious drought, boating weather.

9)  Staying up late – this meant longer days with my kids, an extra bed time story, and more bath time.

8) Loosing a first tooth – Ryan lost his first tooth this summer, specifically August 2. He just tugged it out when he was brushing his teeth. He didn’t care about his tooth fairy money. He wanted to keep the tooth.

7) Blond curls – enough said.

6) Toddler pronunciations like – “sandbok,” “uside,” “shooooting star,” “baving suit,” “waydee bug,” “pop-i-cle.” These are the ones I don’t need to translate. There are many more but I’d have to do some serious translating.

5) Tiny feet in flip flops, crocks and bare feet.

4) Ok, this is really sentimental, but I love seeing the sunshine reflect off Brady’s eye lashes.  I can see a hint of red in his eyelashes and I want to just kiss them!

3) Hunting for ladybugs, grasshoppers, caterpillars, spiders, salamanders and frogs. We haven’t found any frogs yet this summer but are doing really good on everything else.

2) Tanned backs and white tushies.

1)  Watching “firsts” happen, first events that can only take place during the summer. Such occurrences as: catching a fish, going tubing, jet skiing, riding a roller coaster, camping, and riding on a Ferris Wheel.

These are the highlights of my summer, what were your summertime favorites?

Sara is an on the go – down to earth Momma, married to a Marine and the mother of two get dirty wild and crazy, play in the mud boys. She loves Michael Jackson, dancing and spending time with her family. She is honored to be able to teach her little guys about the world around them, about kindness love and the human spirit. For fun, she loves to make jewelry, shop, ski and spend time outdoors getting dirty with her boys. Sara is a Sr. Product Manager at Step2.

Prepping for high school, my Mom was quick to warn me about peer pressure; what it is, why I didn’t need to give in, and how to avoid it altogether.  I survived those years and while I’m certain that from time to time I was a victim of group think mentality, for the most part, I was my own person and confident in my decisions.  Recently, I have found myself wishing I could tap into the confidence I had as a 14 year old, defending my decisions that 14 year olds are presented with, and apply them to the personal decisions I’ve made in my parenting style.

The decisions that we all must face as a Mom are so difficult and they start from the moment of conception.  I remember constantly comparing myself against the acceptable standards of “normal” on so many things:

• When is the right time to share my happy news?
• Should I find out the gender or wait?
• How much weight should I be gaining?
• Natural birth or epidural?

We all know that it doesn’t stop once your child has arrived either.  I find myself measuring against others in terms of childcare decisions, healthy food choices, TV or no TV, the right way to put my son to bed…it never ends.  Not only are there so many choices about how to raise our children it seems like there are so many people out there with opinions on what is right for our children.

One thing is for certain, no two Moms are exactly the same any more than two children are exactly the same.  As I consider the impossible standards and endless judgments that I feel are constantly being placed on me, I have to wonder if they are real or imaginary.  I had never considered this possibility until recently.

Last week, our inbound call center phone lines were down here at The Step® Company and I spent much of my afternoon fielding questions via Facebook.  One Mom had quite a few questions so I offered to pick up the phone and give her a call (after all, our outbound lines were working).  While on the phone, she was so apologetic for her children in the background.  I tried to reassure her explaining that I completely know how it is, I am a Mom too.  After changing a DVD for her little one, she followed up with, “After this we will have learning time”.  When she offered her children a snack of peanut butter, she followed up with, “Do you want some natural peanut butter and whole wheat bread”.  Just when I began to judge my poor decision of having served processed PB & J to my son the night before I stopped myself and developed a new internal dialogue.

What if this Mom was worried that I was judging her for putting her kids in front of the “dummy box”?  What if she thought I was horrified at that thought of peanut butter with sugar and additives?  Of course, neither of these thoughts had even crossed my mind as I was too busy measuring myself against her superior parenting tactics.  I will never know for sure if her comments were for my benefit, for hers, or if neither were at play.  But what I did decide after that conversation is that it doesn’t matter.

I’m doing the best for my kids just as she is doing the best for hers.  Just as I know it is not my right to judge others most people aren’t out there judging my decisions either.  If they are, then good, I’ll give them something to talk about.

Last night, as I went into my son’s room to grab some PJ’s (not while I was putting him to bed, because, “gasp” – he still sleeps with us) I smiled as I read the quote I’d strategically placed over his closet.  In the words of the great Dr. Seuss, “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind”.

About Tena

Tena and her best friend (and hubby) had their first child in July, 2011.  Their little guy has a congenital heart defect and he is one tough little cookie; don’t ever think about calling him sick though – “his plumbing is just different.” Tena is an animal loving vegetarian and is excited to teach her son about compassion and the importance of volunteer work.  She secretly hopes her son will be left handed like his momma. She is the Online Marketing Director for Step2.

Ashley was scheduled to post for our “We’re Moms Too” series today.  However, today is a special Mom Day Monday.  Ashley went into labor on Wednesday, August 8^th.  Her water literally broke minutes before her surprise baby shower here at The Step2 Company.  Luckily, we had invited her husband up to participate in her shower.  He arrived moments after her water broke and had the baby shower been a minute later, she would have missed it!  She grabbed a piece of cake and then headed to the hospital.

I have no doubt that when Ashley returns she will have a fun story with more details to share with all of us.

We all become a Mother in our own way and we all have a story to tell.  Isn’t it funny how the birth of another baby reminds us of our own experience?  When Ashley left that day, it gave the rest of us around the office permission to recount our own special moments and share our own stories for the second, third or fourth time.  No matter how old our kids are, what ups and downs we have gone through with them, there is something so special about the experience leading up to the first time we hold them in our arms that no one can take away.  The memory lives fresh in our minds and is still sweet and vibrant.  Time stops.  Your heart swells.  Your purpose of life is so much different.

I believe holding our babies for the first time is our initiation into “the club”.  The moment you realize you could love someone more than you thought was imaginable.  I am so happy for Ashley and her husband.  I know she will be an amazing Mom.  She is one of us, the proud, the tired, the relentless, the make it happen at any expense, ready to take on the world for our children, she is a Mom.

About Tena

Tena and her best friend (and hubby) had their first child in July, 2011.  Their little guy has a congenital heart defect and he is one tough little cookie; don’t ever think about calling him sick though – “his plumbing is just different.” Tena is an animal loving vegetarian and is excited to teach her son about compassion and the importance of volunteer work.  She secretly hopes her son will be left handed like his momma. She is the Online Marketing Director for Step2.

Written by Sara R.

My youngest son Christopher, who is 14, is the only member of our immediate family that is left-handed.

I started reading a few articles on left handed people and found some very interesting facts. Here are just a few (there are some negative facts out there but I prefer to focus on the positive):

• Only 10-15% of the population in the world is left handed
• Four out of the last seven U.S. Presidents are left handed
• Left-handed people are more likely to pursue creative careers
• Left-handed college grads go on to become 26% richer than right handed grads
• August 13th is known as Left Handed Day
• There are grants and scholarships for left-handed people

Christopher’s personality fits that of a left-handed person. He’s creative, artistic, independent and a quick thinker. Some famous people who are left-handed include Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi (one of Christopher’s favorite people), Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Mozart, Beethoven, Paul McCartney, Prince Charles & Prince William and Bill Gates, just to name a few.

I never gave it a second thought about how different it must be for him and how it can be quite frustrating at times. I do, however, set his place at the table with the napkin, fork and glass on the left side.

Last year for his Christmas gift we purchased a left-handed bow because he loves archery. We had a hard time finding one.

Lefties are usually better with hand-eye coordination. That explains the reason he won the archery championship in summer camp this year! ?

When I sat down to interview Christopher on what he felt was an annoyance, if any, being left-handed, I wasn’t prepared to hear what he had to say. He started off with “Well, my first grade teacher tried to get me to write with my right hand. She would make me stay in for recess, put a pencil in my right hand and have me write the alphabet. Once I was finished, I could go out for recess”.

Wait! What?! Are you kidding me? She really made you do this?? UNBELIEVABLE! “Why didn’t you ever tell me this?” I asked. He replied, “I didn’t think it was a big deal because she only had me write the alphabet once and then I was allowed go out for recess.” It seems this happened every day for half the school year! He quickly commented that when she compared his writing from the first time he did this exercise to the last that there was no improvement in his right-handed writing.

He also went on to tell me when he was in 7th grade one of his teachers would criticize him for leaving two inches to the left of his paper. Christopher did this because he said it was more comfortable to leave some space for his hand when he had to write from a spiral notebook. Writing is a bit of a challenge for Christopher because he tends to drag his writing hand across the paper which in turn smudges his letters.

He might be left handed but he is all right with me. I read somewhere left-handed people are “a special expression of God’s creativity.” I totally agree!

Written by Tiffany

Three years ago, when Alex was in daycare, one of the other mothers commented that she believed her son’s packed lunch had been mixed up with Alex’s lunch.  As a result, each child had consumed the other’s lunch.

When I asked her why she thought the mix up involved Alex’s lunch, she quickly said, “Because I don’t feed my child things from a can.”

I rather dryly replied, “Oh…and clearly you think I do.”  I watched as she shifted uncomfortably and turned from pink to a bright red color.  Usually, I go out of my way to make sure people don’t feel uncomfortable.  However, in this case, I was okay with her discomfort.

She had no idea that I had once taken a Lunchable, removed the packaging and put the cheese, crackers and meat in separate containers to avoid violating the overpriced daycare (I mean child enrichment centers) “no Lunchables” rule.  She didn’t know that I had mentally fist pumped the air because of my cleverness at besting the school.  The idea of her commenting that I would pack a canned item for my child (clearly, I would disguise it in other packaging) was too much!

My mom did an excellent job of always making sure my older brother and I ate healthy meals.  She fed us low-fat and low sugar cereals, made sandwiches on wheat bread and had us drink two percent milk long before these items were in vogue.  She chose Jif, because hey, that’s what “choosy mom’s” chose.  Actually, Jif was about the only brand named item she purchased but that’s a story for another day (the tagline swayed her).  She always made sure dinners were balanced.  We didn’t really know what dessert was.

I do my best, but my cooking skills are somewhat limited.  It’s not that I can’t cook because, as my mom says, anyone who can read can follow a recipe and cook.  It’s just that I’ve chosen not to build my skill set in this area.

I live vicariously through cooking shows.  Alex enjoys watching them with me (Hell’s Kitchen and MasterChef are favorites – I think he likes Gordon Ramsay’s charm).

As a result, I could successfully fool you into thinking I could cook and was a “foodie.”  My “training” has taught me how to toss around expressions like “flavor profiles,” comment on the “sear” of meat, and remark on “knife work” with the best of them!

Lest my son be deprived of experiencing different foods, when we dine out we play a game called “taste test” based off of the popular “Hell’s Kitchen” challenge.  I have Alex shut his eyes and then feed him something.  He then has to guess what it is.  By playing this, I have been able to get him to try many foods that kids typically shy away from.

Once he has tried something, I’ll buy it and we’ll try cooking it at home.  Cooking together has become “our thing” and we have cool Iron Man “chefs” aprons.

A few days ago, Alex and I made perfectly seasoned and cooked Tilapia (nice crunchy crust), steamed broccoli with a light cheese sauce and a stunning rice.

Gotta love Gorton’s and steam fresh veggies.  Foodies beware!

About Tiffany

Tiffany is the mother of a curly haired six year old boy who wants to be Batman when he grows up! When she is not engaged in an intense light saber battle, watching Transformers (cartoons and movies), asking her child not to jump from the top step or being told, “you’re playing action figures the wrong way, mom” she contemplates how wonderful it would be if her child were a twin or triplet.  Tiffany is the Human Resources Manager for Step2.