Archives for November 2005

Darn Growth Spurt!

Pumpkin hit the four-month mark and must be in the midst of a growth spurt. She was up THREE TIMES last night. The first time wasn’t so bad – I was watching reruns of “Will & Grace” on Lifetime and some other channel. The second time (around 2 a.m.) was during Leno – I hate Leno.

Hubby got up with her the third time. Of course, that time, all he had to do was pop in her pacifier and she drifted back off to la-la land. The times I got up with her, she wouldn’t stop screaming until I fed her…

I am a walking zombie today – my eyes can barely focus, and I didn’t get anything done. The Princess even said to me, “Mom, you are the crankiest!” Nothing like having your own words bite you in the butt.

Deck the Halls…

We just finished putting up our Christmas tree not even an hour ago. Already, The Princess has smashed one of my favorite ornaments. It was the first, but it most certainly won’t be the last. Hubby had been putting up the tree and I was out of the room burping Pumpkin (how festive, right?), when I heard him tell The Princess, “That’s why I told you to be careful!” Then I heard her yell and stomp out of the room.

Evidently, she decided she had to do a somersault…. right over the glass bulb ornament that her former babysitter had made for me. It splintered into dozens of tiny glass shards (both Hubby and I cut ourselves trying to get the pieces out of the carpet). The Princess is actually quite lucky she didn’t cut her back when the glass smashed. Not even a tiny scratch on her – thank goodness!

The ornament certainly wasn’t our most expensive ornament (actually that prize goes to this gaudy ornament that was a gift from a former boss), but it was one of those meaningful ones. You know, the best kind. It was a baby pic of The Princess in a glass bulb with some sparkles inside and her name written on it in glitter. Yeah, I could probably make another one. Would it be the same? Not even close.

I attach a great deal of sentiment to the ornaments that go on the Christmas tree. I have a friend (you know who you are!) who has a gorgeous Christmas tree and all of her ornaments match (actually, as I type this, I realize I have two friends that do this… hmmmm…). It’s gorgeous. But not my tree. My tree is a giant potpourri of ornaments – some beautiful and delicate, some kid-crafted, some from when I was a kid, and so on. There are very few ornaments on the tree that don’t hold a special meaning for me.

I smile when I put my Starbucks ornament on (a gift from a secret santa at work last year). I have a gorgeous ornament that Hubby had made for me the Christmas after we were married. I have pictures of The Princess for all of her Christmases so far. I have an ornament she made in daycare last year. She even made a Dora the Explorer ornament yesterday. And, I got to add Pumpkin’s “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament.

All of it means so much to me, that I know I’m going to have to just put the cheap, meaningless ornaments on the bottom of the tree, so no more of my memories get squashed! ‘Tis the season for childproofing the Christmas tree.

Guilty Of The Worst Mommy Crime!

I am guilty of doing what all the books and magazines tell you as a parent NEVER to do: I am comparing my child to another child. Of course, the “other child” is also my child, which is why it feels even worse to me! Pumpkin is four-months-old today. Four months exactly. I made the mistake last night of looking in the scrapbook I kept for The Princess to see where she was at four months. That was a big mistake.

Of course, at this point, The Princess had been rolling over for about two weeks already, and Pumpkin hasn’t yet started. Already, I’ve been making myself crazy about the “rolling over” thing. I know that those milestones as they dictate them are just a suggestion, that every child is different, but of course, in my mind I think: “What am I doing differently now vs when The Princess was a baby?” Pumpkin is SO close to rolling over, that it’s really probably only a matter of weeks, but of course, it’s maddening to me – I put her on her belly for “tummy time” and watch her figure out how to roll, but she just doesn’t quite get it yet.

The Princess ate cereal (runny soupy rice cereal) a few days before she was officially four months old. She loved it. We tried it with Pumpkin this a.m. and she hasn’t lost the tongue-thrust reflex – she pushed it right back out! So, it will be another few weeks…

Why this surprises or frustrates me, I have no idea. Every kiddo is different, and I know that. I can tell already for their similarities, these two girls are very different. Example, The Princess was darn near bald when she was four months old — Pumpkin still has a full head of hair (and has since birth – save for the bald spot on the back!). The Princess was lactose intolerant (so much so that I had to stop drinking milk during the months she was breastfed), Pumpkin doesn’t seem to be (though she seems to get REALLY mad when I have spicy food). The Princess is more fair-complected, Pumpkin seems a bit darker, like me.

All things will happen in due time – I feel like the worst mommy, comparing these girls. They are both so amazing and incredible in different ways, and I actually look forward to Pumpkin getting older, and watching her personality emerge even more. All the other stuff will happen when it happens.

Tis The Season

Ahhh, Thanksgiving is now over and we are in full swing gearing up for Christmas. I can’t wait! It seems like in spite of all the family nonsense that happens throughout the holiday season (let me just add that it’s not usually my family causin’ the drama!), it is such a joyous day, over far too soon. I love Christmas even more now since the birth of The Princess – and now Pumpkin as well.

This year is the first year that The Princess really has “the gimmees”, and while I don’t want to encourage that material aspect of the holiday, there is something fun about being a parent and trying to find the things that your kiddos want to bring a smile to their young faces.

This year, the big thing The Princess wants is a “Baby Annabell”. It’s a $40 (!) doll that apparently drinks from a bottle, cries real tears, and wets herself. The Princess wants this doll SO bad and has been asking for it for months. My grandmother went out and got it for her immediately, and has been so excited because everytime the subject of Christmas comes up and “What do you want, Princess?”, The Princess always says, “An Annabell baby!” My grandma is so jazzed that SHE is the one who is getting the primo gift of the year for The Princess! It sure is gonna be hard to top that one.

Pumpkin – well, I’ve told people she needs clothes and diapers. Hard to get to enthused at this point – she’ll be nearly five months old on Christmas day, and certainly not opening any presents. Of course, her stocking will have such goodies from Santa, like: baby food, bibs, wipes, and a teething toy. Figured we would fill that stocking with things we needed for her anyway!

I sent my husband out to hit the stores yesterday for “Black Friday” – he scored some awesome deals (including a ten dollar DVD player!). I later hit the mall with my mom and both girls (I spend 30 minutes looking for a parking spot – it was utter mayhem) – and bought two things, a gift Princess had picked out for Pumpkin (how sweet, right), and a winter hat for The Princess. That’s it. I’m in the mall in the midst of madness, and I couldn’t even be productive.

I made hubby take us all to Target today and I left him with the kids while I went around shopping… Found some stuff for my mom, sister, and of course, The Princess. I love gift shopping! I think I’m at least 50% done! (And no, I didn’t manage to get my Starbucks while at Target).

What a weekend. I love this time of year!

Good Gracious, People!

Well, last night was the big night – went to see “RENT” — and yes, of course, I loved it (Note: the stage production is better, but the movie was pretty good).

We went to a 7:20 show and my husband had bought tix online a few days ago – thank goodness he did, because we walked into the theater and it was P*A*C*K*E*D! The usher pointed us to seats in the very front row and I was instantly peeved, because, well, have you ever watched a movie from the front row? Two minutes of previews and I had motion sickness! Hubby got up during previews and trolled around and made a few people move, so we were able to get seats a bit further back (thank goodness). As the previews played on, I was watching people come in, and this one couple came in with their kids. One of the kids appeared to be high school age, but the other looked to be about seven or eight years old. WHAT ON EARTH WERE THESE PARENTS THINKING?!

They did edit this movie down quite a bit from the stage production, but I still am not sure how it was PG-13. There is no way on earth I would ever bring a child that young to see it! And surprisingly, as the show went on, they didn’t get up to leave (they’d have had to walk past us, so we would’ve known if they had). Had it been me, and I had naively brought that young of a kiddo to the show, you bet your booty we’d have left! Probably within the first 15-20 minutes!

As we were walking out, I said to my husband, “I wouldn’t want to be those parents having to explain all that stuff to their kids on the drive home!” Sheesh.

Stupid people!

Frogs

Today, when I picked up The Princess from daycare, she had a ton of artwork from last week to bring home. Each week they have a theme and last week’s was family – so she had a family “tree” she had painted (the trunk of the tree was an imprint of her forearm, and the leaves were her hand prints — very cute actually), and a list of her family members (us!) and a cute little poem that they daycare had glued to the page… all that stuff (by the way, I don’t throw ANY of it away, and we have a file cabinet drawer full of her artwork).

There was also some stuff from today – of course, the theme for this week was Thanksgiving. On this one page, there was a little handprint turkey and then it said, “I am thankful for ___________.” And in the blank, they had written for her: frogs.

What?! She’s thankful for frogs?

I had to laugh out loud when I saw it. When my husband came home and saw it on the counter, he laughed out loud. He said, “You’re thankful for frogs?” The Princess nodded, “Yup – I like to watch them hop!”

Sometimes it’s those quirky little things that make motherhood so amazing. It’s funny how her 3-year-old noggin’ works!

"No Day But Today"

I’m so excited! Just found out that my husband has arranged for my mom to watch the girls on Wednesday night so that he and I can go see the movie “Rent” on opening night! This is a huge deal for me, one, because I can’t think of the last movie I saw in a theater, and two, because I’m the biggest “Rent” geek ever.

Originally, the movie was supposed to be out two weeks ago, but then, I started seeing ads for the movie saying it would be out 11/23. I immediately started dropping hints that I wanted to go – I’ve seen the musical three times (and would definitely see it again next time it comes to town).

I’m glad hubby got the hint and was proactive to arrange for a date night.

For those of you who have never seen “Rent”, I’m not sure how the movie will compare to the stage show. I can’t believe the movie is rated PG-13 – the show is pretty vulgar at times (language wise, and in terms of themes and all), so I’m not yet sure what has been omitted from the movie.

I’m just sooooooo geeked and can’t wait to see the show.

“There’s only us, there’s only this
Forget regret or life is yours to miss
No other road, no other way
No day but today”

I’ll let y’all know how it is!

She Is So My Daughter…

My mom bought new Christmas stockings for the whole family today. We’ve been adding to our mess of stockings every time someone new came into our lives (i.e. when hubby started spending Christmas with my family, when mom started dating her now husband and HE started spending Christmas with our family, when The Princess was born… and now, Pumpkin). Mom decided rather than just get a new one for Pumpkin, we’d ALL get new ones. She came over with ten (I’m not kidding, that’s our immediate family – TEN) stockings to choose from.

My sister’s was easy to pick out of the bunch, silver and blue and sparkly with beading. But The Princess took about five minutes deliberating. I kept hush about my favorite one (a pretty silver stocking with a bit of a sparkly look to it), just having that feeling in the back of my mind what was going to happen. My mom had picked two stockings that looked very much like they were intended for the girls – teddy bears, hearts, snowmen, that kind of thing…

But, after a very careful deliberation, The Princess picked my favorite stocking. My mom even tried to steer her towards one of the others, but I didn’t even try it. That’s motherhood for ya. Sometimes it boggles my mind – The Princess is such a daddy’s girl, but her taste is very much like mine. As she put it, “Grandma, you know I like sparkly things!”

Parenting Advice From Random Strangers…

I just got home from a quick jaunt to the grocery store with Pumpkin (The Princess is at daycare today). We needed some salsa and salad for our dinner tonight (Mexican lasagna, by the way) as well as diapers. We get to the checkout and the checkout woman starts ooh-ing and aah-ing over Pumpkin. I’m used to this – she’s a very pretty baby (I’m not biased or anything!). Of course, Pumpkin was up several times last night so she’s looking pretty exhausted today, as do I. The checkout woman told me, “She looks sleepy – I bet she zonks out by the time you leave here.” To which, I stupidly engaged the woman in conversation by saying, “I hope so – she’s been so sick she hasn’t slept much!”

And the dam broke.

Between telling me my total and asking me if I preferred paper or plastic, this woman proceeded to tell me that my baby would get a lot more sleep if I put one of my bed pillows in the crib. She said, “I know they say don’t do it, but I put a pillow in my youngest’s bed, and she slept like a baby (duh) from that point on!” Okay, apparently, before you can get a job running my groceries over the scanner and stuffing them in a bag, you get a medical degree with a pediatrics specialty.
She then went on to say: “Think about it, what does your pillow do when you put your head on it? It curves around you! That’s why it works so well for babies.”

(To which I was thinking, all the better to be suffocation hazard?! Dimwit!).

I just kept my lip zipped and grabbed the baby and the groceries and got out of there. Note: Pumpkin is now resting. Without a pillow.

Snot Sucker

That’s my name today, Mommy, a.k.a. Snot Sucker. Pumpkin has a severely runny nose and she’s pretty congested- so much so that she was up repeatedly last night. Consequently, we’re all exhausted today.

I have been alternating wiping her little tiny nose with Anti-Viral Kleenex (who knows if it really works or if it’s a clever marketing gimmick – I have so bought into it, so call me a fool, I guess) and sucking the gunk out with our nifty little nasal aspirator. Poor little baby.

I called the doctor’s office first thing this a.m. and they recommended Infant’s Sudafed. We trekked out to nearby Target (of course, only because they have a Starbucks in their store!), only to find that all Sudafed and like products are now behind the counter. Why? Because anything containing pseudonephrine is now more difficult to buy than illegal substances because of the surge of meth labs, I guess. Target didn’t have Infant Sudafed, the pharmacist said, because they haven’t become fully restocked on meds since this weird changeover due to the punks who have meth labs. Target called a nearby Meijer and found a similar Pedia Care decongestant that I was able to pick up.

I so did not want to be doing all this schlepping around with a sick baby and a three year old on the first snowy day of the season.

Pumpkin is finally resting and The Princess is playing in the bathtub. I should probably go sterilize the snot sucker before I have to use it again!!!