This was originally supposed to be 10 Lists of 10 Things from 10 Years of Parenting. And then life. So now it is 11 Lists of 11 Things. Here is motherhood for me summed up as I reflect back.

11 Bloggers Who Shaped My Parenting

These are the women who shaped my parenting starting before I was even pregnant. Some of them gave me a vision for homeschooling and parenting before I had Caroline (Lanier and Anna). Some of them changed the way I thought about the parent-child relationship. (Karen, Brenda, Karen, and Sally). One of them turned on the proverbial light to start understanding my 2e child (Pamela) and others helped me figure out what it mean to parent a gifted/2e child (Colleen and all of the GHF bloggers). One with an only child creative daughter also gave me the opportunity to take my blogging to the next level (Jimmie). Caroline has no idea how much she owes these women for the life she has because they have made me such a better mother in so many ways.

• Lanier at Lanier’s Books
• Anna at Pleasant View Schoolhouse
• Karen at That Mom
• Brenda at Coffee Tea Books and Me
• Karen at Spunky Homeschool
• Sally at Sally Clarkson
• Pamela at Red White and Grew
• Colleen at Raising Lifelong Learners
• The bloggers at the Gifted Homeschool Bloggers
• Jimmie at iHomeschool Network and Jimmie’s Collage
• The bloggers at iHomeschool Network

11 Best Parenting Decisions We Made

Sometimes you don’t realize how important a decision will be in your life until you look back on it. These are the best decisions we made even though at the time we had no idea how much they would impact our parenting and parenting philosophy.

• Planned c-section
• Rocking Caroline to sleep (not fully realizing early on why she couldn’t self-soothe but knowing it was true)
• Bottle feeding
• Moving out of the city to a quiet cul-de-sac in Cute Little Town when Caroline was four and a half
• Letting Caroline play Minecraft as much as she wanted and realizing the importance of not making it educational
• Choosing relaxed homeschooling
• David working from home and my working from home
• Embracing my introversion and not apologizing for it
• Hiring babysitters to work and to get a break
• Joining a homeschool co-op that we love and offers so much for our family
• Reading a book about twice-exceptional children

11 Baby and Toddler Products We Loved

We didn’t buy everything but we weren’t minimalists either. These were the things we are very thankful we had. The exact ones we had have changed over time, but these are the items most simliar that are available now.

• Angelcare Movement and Sound Monitor (This is seriously AMAZING and gave me much peace of mind!)
• Wipe warmer
• Bed railing guard for big girl bed
• Swing with music and mobile
• Pack and play with built in changing table and bassinet
• Changing pad with curved edges
• Robeez shoes (Caroline has a pair of white and black saddle shoes and people fawned over them every time we went out. LOL! You can see them a bit in the photo with this post.)
• Binkies and binky clips
• Convertible crib with drawer
• Floor playmat with activity gym
• Carters Sleeping Gowns (LOVED THESE!)
• Dutailier Glider (SO nice!)

11 Ways We Ignored the Opinions of Others

I pretty much do my own thing. I research, I read, I listen, and then I make my decision. It’s probably great for my child and great for writing posts that bring traffic to my site (Classical Conversations Negatives and Why We Didn’t Join), but less great for fitting in to the village.

• We bottle fed
• We did not potty train and waited until she was ready
• We trusted our doctor and had a scheduled c-section
• We decided to have an only child
• We did not swaddle
• We did not co-sleep
• We stopped going to church
• We hibernated for a winter
• We homeschooled in the afternoon
• We didn’t teach Caroline to read
• We gave Caroline a lot of time to play and be creative

11 Favorite Toys

It is hard to narrow it down to specific toys so I’m including categories of toys that Caroline has enjoyed.

• Stuffed Animals
• Dress up clothes (We had a chest of dress up clothes from Costco she loved!)
• Play kitchen, food, and dishes
• Puzzles, especially Goodnight Moon and Infantino puzzles
• LEGO Friends sets especially her two favorites – the school and Stephanie’s house
• Tinker Toys (We have THREE of these huge sets because she made so much!)
• My Little Pony
• Littlest Pet Shop
• American Girl Dolls
• Lids to milk jugs and apple juice and all kinds of containers carried around in a Winnie-the-Pooh gift bag
• Extra remote controls that became “phones”

11 Favorite Clothing Items

I adored dressing Caroline when she was little. She always looked darling. LOL! Around age four it became apparent that comfort was going to be the overriding value in her clothing choices. I honestly do not know how we would have survived without Lands End, especially their leggings. Caroline has lived in them the past several years.

• Carter’s fleece footed sleep and play
• Carter’s dresses
• Carter’s bodysuits
• Stride Rite sandals and Stride Rite shoes
• Gymboree tights
• Dollie and Me sets
• Lands End leggings
• Lands End dresses
• Lands End pajamas
• Lands End shorts
• Lands End shirts

11 12 13 Favorite Books

It is absolutely impossible to pick just 11 favorite books. We have probably a hundred favorite books and it might even be tough narrowing it down to one hundred over the past eleven years. Here is a cross section of favorites from different ages.

• Baby Says Peekaboo
• Noisy Farm (I think this one has as much tape holding together as book.)
• See How I Grow
• Fisher Price My Little People Farm (Lift the Flap Playbooks) Board Book
• Goodnight Moon large lapbook board book
• 10 Minutes to Bedtime
• The Little Red Hen
• Richard Scarry’s Good Night, Little Bear
• Eloise Wilkins Stories (especially “Little Mommy“)
• Cobble Street Cousins series
• Daring Do series (One and Two and Three)
• Chronicles of Narnia
• Calvin and Hobbes Anthologies

11 Circumstances I Thought Would Break Me

Yes, I really have felt like motherhood might break me at times. It has been much more difficult than I expected for a variety of reasons.

• Lack of a village
• Feeding a child who had to be rocked back to sleep two to three times a night for months on end
• Homeschooling early elementary
• The Binky
• Attending church (actually, not attending is more accurate)
• Caroline learning to write
• Homeschooling middle elementary
• Not understanding what my child needed
• Homeschooling later elementary
• The financial pressures of having a gifted/2e child
• Homeschooling a 2e child and needing to learn almost everything on my own to help her

11 Things I Wish I Could Do Over

We all have parenting regrets. Here are a few do overs I would love to have.

• Get Caroline tested for writing issues sooner
• Never spank even once
• Take twice as much video of the first three years
• Get help for myself physically right away
• Unschool until at least third grade
• Understand Caroline’s giftedness much earlier on
• Start creating products and monetizing my website earlier to relieve the financial pressures
• Celebrate Halloween sooner
• Buy a really good camera and learn out how take good pictures
• Have local adult friends before becoming a mother
• Never spank (yes, this one is on here twice because I regret it so much and I didn’t understand the Red Zone at that point)

11 Best Moments

There have been so many great moments. These are some special ones that come to mind.

• Being told we were having a girl at our ultrasound
• The first time Caroline laughed
• The first hug from Caroline
• Taking Caroline to her first carnival
• Watching Caroline enjoy a strong relationship with my parents
• Singing Christmas carols to Caroline so she can sleep
• When Caroline decided on her own to write to Jane O’Connor, author of Fancy Nancy, after completing her dysgraphia OT (and she got a personal letter back!)
• Testing results confirming that Caroline is 2e as I suspected
• Caroline opening her Caroline American Girl Doll from my parents
• When Caroline told me she is so glad she has a mom who understands her
• Seeing Caroline help lead worship with her GEMS group

11 Posts That Best Explain My Motherhood Experience

I tend to write about the challenges and not the euphoric experiences. But these do sum things up pretty well.

• Everything Changes
• Getting Spirited Children to Sleep and Related Challenges
• Raising a Spirited Child and Feeling Like a Bad Mother
• Of Eosinophilic Esophagitis, a Gifted Child, and a Husband Trying to Keep Up
• Parenting and Homeschooling as an Introvert
• The Loneliness of Homeschooling a Gifted Child
• When Homeschooling is Hard – The Day I Called the Public Elementary School
• 6 Ways Having a Gifted Child Changed My Life
• Embracing the Journey of Parenting a 2e Child
• Parenting and Homeschooling at Godspeed
• Children Who Struggle with Church – An Update

And the bonus list…

11 Best Things about My Daughter

Caroline is a special daughter. Especially over the past year, she has blossomed and really come into her own in ways that are wonderful to behold. There are so many things I could put on this list, but here are eleven of them.

• Sense of humor
• Creativity
• Generosity
• Sensitive heart
• Imagination
• Enthusiasm
• Cleverness
• Problem solving ability
• Strong sense of self
• Curiosity
• Persistence

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