Today is Groundhog Day – a minor holiday that has taken on new meaning to me since becoming a mom. As great as being a parent is (I’ll spare you the cliches), it can also be very routine: Every day, it’s wake up, feed the kids, dress the kids, take the kids to school/daycare (or, on the weekends, entertain the kids), pick up the kids, feed the kids, bathe and undress the kids, put the kids to bed, go to bed, and on and on and on… It occurred to me at some point after having Zoe that being a parent is actually a lot like the movie Groundhog Day, during which the main character (unhappily) wakes up to the same day over and over again. The sameness of raising kids can really get to you, similar to the way the repetition got to the character in this silly movie.

And so today I feel not like honoring Punxsutawney Phil or Wisconsin’s own Jimmy the Groundhog, but instead all the moms and dads who deal with – and survive – the (at times, tough) routine of raising kids. We may not have a glamourous job, but at least we’ve got creatures way cuter than a groundhog to show for it!

-M

I told Zoe yesterday morning that Uncle Dan’s birthday was coming up, and she got very excited. (As mentioned before, she’s a big fan of birthdays.) “I wonder what he’s going to wish for!” she said, before asking, “Can we go to his birthday party?” When I said he wasn’t really having a party, she said, “Oh, I guess he’s going to celebrate on his own.”

Happy Birthday, Dan! You’ll have to tell Zoe what you wished for…

-M