Tag: momlife

Posted in Mom life, Two Cents Worth of...

Raise A Good Person by Being A Good Person

Posted on by Carly Caracciolo

Do you ever hear the bad news in the world or one story hits you harder than another and you just wonder, “why? Why does so much bad exists? Why are there bad people? Why?”

I believe I question this more now as a mother than I did before he was here.

How are we supposed to shield our children from the world that surrounds us? I mean what we see on the news, the local events around us, and even those close to us we would like to protect them from.

No, I’m not perfect. I’ve grown a lot from who I was years ago and what I was when I was younger. I imagine most people have or at least I hope they have.

All I want in life now is to raise a good human. I want my son to be a good person. To be nice to everyone. To smile at someone who is having a bad day. To sit with the kid who sits alone at lunch. To help someone who needs a hand, like his dad always does.

I pray for him to be a good person. That’s it. Please be a good person. I don’t need him to be anything more than who he is and a GOOD PERSON.

I fondly and vividly remember my grandfather always telling me when I left his house as I said goodbye, “be good, and you know what I mean!”

There is so much people worry about with their kids being this or that. Worrying about the small stuff that in the larger picture, won’t matter. I hear people worrying about if they’re the popular kids, if they are advanced, if they’re the star, if they’re making straight A’s, or if they wear the best clothes.

Of course, I want him to be everything he can be and succeed in life. Being any of those things I listed above are not the things someone will remember him by as he grows.

I am guilty of judging people, I’m human. I try my best to not do that as I continue to grow.

We all think we could do better than another parent we see, especially before we were parents.

Truly, I hope every parent wants the same end result of raising their babies. For them to be good humans. Some parents won’t and that’s a damn shame for them, the parents that is. Simply because every child has the possibility to be and put so much good into our crazy world.

So much is out of our control. I think that’s what scares me most. I can only try my best to teach and instill being a good human into him. The rest is up to him.

Please do the same and do your best to be a good human and raise good humans.

We all know this world needs it.

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Posted in Mom life, Two Cents Worth of...

Communication

Posted on by Carly Caracciolo

Lately our son has been saying more words. It’s quite fun to have him attempt to repeat us and see how fast he picks up on a word… or doesn’t. His little mouth tries so very hard to pronounce the words we say to him.

Our favorite right now is “cookie.” I’ve been baking and he helps me, well, makes a mess while I make them. He has been asking for them since he sees them cooling and now my husband and I know a new language, toddler. He says “ckck-ckk” or something of the sort. It makes smile and laugh every time he says it but he continues to try again and again.

Since he has been growing and understanding things we have always tried to ask him to tell us what he wants when he begins his toddler jibberish. We ask him to show us and we will follow since obviously he isn’t fully aware of words or how to say them correctly.

When we ask him to show us or tell us it helps our communication. While we both may not know exactly what it is, he knows we are trying to help him rather than allow the tantrums to progress.

Truly, he understands quite a bit that we say and ask of him. He loves a task and having something to complete on his own. He will put his clothes in the hamper, sometimes confused with trash. Whoops. But he likes to throw things away too. He also really LOVES to cook meals and have us try them in his play kitchen. One of my personal favorites.

We know communicating with children isn’t the easiest for anyone but we do what we can as their parents. The best thing we ever did was teach him baby sign language when he was teeny tiny. I really didn’t have high expectations for it because well, I am a first time mom and only heard about it. How did i know it would be so beneficial to us? We worked at it and kept at it consistently. It has paid off for us all!

He says quite a few that really helps eliminate frustration among all of us and to help him get what he wants easier without as many tantrums. He can sign milk, water, more, all done, please, and thank you.

While that did help us and still does, we are enjoying the new stage of him learning his words vocally. I may regret that statement later on. 😉

My favorite part of communication with my son is laughter. He has the very best belly laugh that makes my entire world stop. He loves when we laugh at him and he begins to laugh more.

No one needs to know what you’re saying when you’re all laughing.

And right now, that’s the best thing we can do.

Posted in Mom life, Two Cents Worth of...

There is good in 2020. Just look.

Posted on by Carly Caracciolo

I’ve skipped a few weeks. I’m sorry about that. I tend to only write when something is heavy on my mind or heart about topics and I don’t want to just BS my way through a blog post for you if you’re going to take the time to read it.

I had to go into work this week and I work in the city of Pittsburgh. My company has been very understanding through this pandemic. My husband was off work and I didn’t have to rush our little guy to get ready and drop him off at daycare, so that was a huge bonus to the morning already.

Since I went in on Wednesday traffic was even lighter than it typically is right now so I took the time to jam out to some of my favorite songs from this year and enjoy my coffee. One of the songs that came on was, “Thank you Lord” by Thomas Rhett and friends. It really hit home for me on how I feel during this entire year. Give it a listen. Plus it’s a good song to dance to. 😊

I’ve had days I really struggle to wrap my head around what is going on. I’m sure most everyone has had days like this. Then there are days like Wednesday that really let me put it all into perspective.

What 2020 has made me more thankful & grateful for:

  • Our health. We have been very fortunate to remain healthy among everything going on and hope to continue to do so. All 3 of us.
  • All of our time with our son. Sure, he goes to daycare 3 days a week. But we aren’t rushing him in the mornings and he is not waiting on us in the evenings to pick him up. We have another 2-3 hours with him daily and that adds up to filling our hearts.
  • All of the home cooking we do together. My husband and I love to cook and we have taken the time to enjoy that together as well as have our son in the kitchen watching us.
  • My parents and in-laws still being healthy through this so we can share memories with them.
  • Black Friday shopping online with my Dad to keep tradition. While it may look different this year, we can still shop online and have a day to enjoy together just like we have done in years past.
  • The small things.
    • Christmas lights being up in our neighborhood early.
    • Smiles from strangers under their masks.
    • Hot coffee each morning.
    • My furry animals that love us unconditionally and still wondering why we are home so much interfering with their daily sleep schedules.
    • Movie nights with our son on the couch snuggling.

Making a list can be easy but keeping your heart open during this super difficult year is what we should continue to do. I’m sure you’ve seen everyone list something over the past few days on social media about what they’re thankful for because of the season.

My son doesn’t understand what is going on this year and assumes this all to be normal. Thankfully children are super adaptive to change but having all of this extra time with him in these early years make this mama’s heart so happy and full, even on the extremely difficult days.

I hope on your hard days during this year, you’re able to see the benefits of what it gave us. There is good in this horrible 2020 that a lot of you may have experienced.

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Posted in Mom life, Two Cents Worth of...

Slow down, Mama

Posted on by Carly Caracciolo

As I write this, it is 9:22 pm. My son’s typical bed time is around 8 pm. I just put him down to sleep 10 minutes ago.

Our play room looks like this.

I didn’t get to the workout I had planned to do when I put him to bed. I didn’t pack our stuff for this weekend. I didn’t do the dishes. I didn’t do the 10 other things running through my mind.

What I did do is sat with my son and watched Despicable Me the whole way through and put my phone down to enjoy the slow down and relaxed with him.

The intention was to put it on before his bedtime to wind down a little but we both got sucked in.

I had to and am still reminding myself it is okay to slow down.

I’m not good at it. My anxiety is high and mind are racing knowing I put things off BUT I slowed down and truly relaxed with my little man.

We sat and forgot all those worries for a little. I even watched this nugget hop off my lap and show me his best dance moves with the last scenes. THAT made my night and the entire time slowing down truly worth it.

Forgive me for the super dark video. If you can make ot hus silhouette, it’s worth watching!

Remember, it is okay to slow down, mama. It will all be there tomorrow.

Posted in Mom life, Two Cents Worth of...

Take the Damn Picture

Posted on by Carly Caracciolo

I continually get crap from my mom and mother-in-law for taking their pictures. Mainly because I will snag a photo when it is early in the morning or my mom will say, “I don’t have my lipstick on!” I see a moment that I love that they are sharing with their grandson though and I want to keep it and have it for him as well when he is older.

Here is the thing, I LOVE photos and I love freezing a moment. I wrote a post on freezing moments already but this one is about who is in them and creating those lasting memories.

I stared at several photos yesterday at my parent’s house that were of some of my most treasured people in my life. They have passed and all we have left are the memories and photos. It got me feeling all the feelings of missing them. However, we have those amazing memories that we can relive through a photo.

Take the damn picture.

Life changes and things happen we cannot plan for. I can keep memories forever though through photos.

Whether the two moms in my life continue to yell at me for taking their photo when they are in their “going out” attire or not, the moments we freeze are more valuable to me and I can chuckle knowing they were snapping at me for that.

I love having the photos of them right before bedtime where my son is hanging on to his grandma or the one where he is finishing his breakfast snuggling his nan. They are moments that are so sweet and I wish I had more of with my own grandparents who are not here any longer.

As I have tears in my eyes now thinking of my memories and wish for one more hug from my grandparents, even the extra ones I had, I know that the moments we freeze for our kids will be cherished later on.

Take the damn picture.

Here are some of my favorites of me as a little one with my grandparents and of them and who they truly were.

That rocking chair in the first two photos below is the same rocking chair my mom is now rocking my son in, in the picture above.