Vegas Baby!

Imagine walking into a casino and hitting the jackpot the first time. Wow! You'd think you had the magic touch and that everyone else were losers. Being a parent is sort of like a slot machine. You may come up a winner in the sleep and eating category but your baby has poop issues. Or if you have a good pooper, I bet you had trouble potting training. Or if your baby doesn't have any issues yet, hold on because you will hate the toddler years. Still none? Good luck with the teenage years.


You get lucky once and awhile. Elle is a great sleeper most of the time. Thank goodness. This mama is too tired for anything like Ryan threw at me as a baby (or even sometimes now). I am not a better mother as you may have said in your mind. I have done nothing at all different. SHE is different.


When you only have one child and your child is a good sleeper, you think you are the master of all things sleep. If you have an eater, you think the parents of the bad eater are wimps. And if you are parent of a child that hates the vacuum, you Google. Yep, you Google to find out that you are not alone.


Elle is DEATHLY AFRAID of anything that makes white noise. Yes, sensory issues the experts would say. I have tried a bunch of solutions that I found online. I hit rock bottom yesterday when a surprise guest showed up at 9 am at my TRASHED, and I mean TRASHED house. Floors unvacuumed for a least a month. Breakfast and lunch stuff everywhere. I wanted to die. If you know me, you know there is nothing worse than people seeing our house a mess. Yes, the spoiled life of a housewife in Ohio. Such troubles. But really, it makes me absolutely crazy.



I hit rock bottom with the mess. I introduced Elle to the evil sweeper. I let her touch it. We covered our ears to show it would be loud. I told her I was plugging it in. And we vacuumed the front room together quickly while holding her and singing. And I gave her four M & M's to bribe her to do it again. And guess what? It worked. And mama is much happier. She didn't even cry. So today, we are onto the living room and tomorrow, my bedroom. One room a day until she is used to it.

So I write this so that other mothers with 15 month old babies will find this online. You can vacuum your house with a baby that hates vacuums. Just try. And for the mothers out there with other kid and baby issues. Please know that experienced mothers know that we all struggle with something. My husband and I always try to remind ourselves that this is a stage. It will pass. They won't go to college in diapers. Well, at least we hope.