Lessons in Motherhood

While I was searching Craigs List for Sophia’s cribs, I encountered several women who had held on to their cribs for years after their children were no longer using them. With some degree of self righteousness, I laughed at these women. What were they thinking storing that junk in their garages and attics for years? Unfortunately, now I understand. See, I’ve been a bit emotional lately about all things baby. Sophia is four months old now, and she’s growing up too fast. I just can’t imagine that this might be the last time that I have a baby in my life. I may never be pregnant again, never experience the thrill and exhilaration of birth again, never nurse another child, and never again wake up every morning to that wonderful baby smell. I love being a Mom. I love every part of the journey (except the whining).

Why am I worrying about this right now? I have no earthly idea. There’s no reason that I couldn’t get pregnant again, except for the frightening prospect of having 3 teenage girls in a few years. Well, actually there’s a lot of reasons – way more than my logical brain can ponder at this moment. Why am I such a big emotional mess??? Can you get post partum after 4 months?

Grandpa taught Hailey a joke…

Hailey: Knock, knock
Mommy: Who’s there?
Hailey: Amos
Mommy: Amos who?
Correct answer: A mosquito bit me
Hailey’s answer: A butterfly bite me.

File under “what?!?!?!”:

Mommy: Guess what? Your friend Kellen is coming home from his Mimi and Papas tomorrow.
Hailey: And then he’s going to marry me?

Here’s Hailey reading to Sophia…

Here’s what happens when the reading turns into “singing”…

I took Hailey to the doctor on Thursday. Although the doctor is still quite certain that any serious illness would have materialized by now, she wanted me to take Hailey to get some lab tests done to make sure. She felt like the labs would probably come out normal, but it has been a year and 5 fevers since we did them before. I planned to take her to get the labs done on Friday and even drove all the way to the Children’s Hospital, but the fever had broken by then. I couldn’t justify putting her through the trauma of getting stuck with needles if there would always be a doubt in my mind whether the normal results were simply a result of the fact that the fever had passed. What this means is that the next time we encounter the fever of unknown origins, we’ll have to take her for the lab tests right away. I can only hope that this is the last time.

Hailey loves to dot her sentences with statements about time. “Yesterday I ate yogurt for breakfast.” “Tomorrow we’re going to the pool.” “Today I’m going to have my birthday party.” The only problem is that she had yogurt today, she went to the pool yesterday, and her birthday party is in a few weeks. It gets a bit confusing.

One day I thought that I would straighten the whole thing out with a little explanation of time. A few sentences in to my brilliant solilique I realized that time is really hard to explain. Today is today, tomorrow is tomorrow, yesterday was yesterday…what???? I made several attempts; Luke made an attempt that sounded just like mine but he claimed was better. Guess what? Yesterday we’ll try again, and today maybe she’ll get it, but tomorrow she didn’t understand.

I’m really writing this more as a record keeping action. I’ve documented just about every fever she’s had since the beginning, and I’m trying to see if there’s a pattern over time.

There’s nothing a Mommy likes better than to be pooped on and puked on in the same day. That was my special treat today. It started at a colleague’s going away party with all of the people from my office. I had Sophia with me, sitting on my lap. I didn’t hear anything to tip me off, but all of a sudden my belly got very very warm. I looked down and sure enough, the little one pooped out the back of her diaper, through her onsie and onto my shirt. Check please!!!! Of course, being the seasoned Mommy that I am, there was no panic and no running out the door. Nope, a quick trip to the bathroom to clean her up. Then some improvised cleaning of my shirt, followed by tucking the shirt in to hide the stain, and we’re back in business. What!!?!?!? Sit around with poop on my shirt…yeah, I’ve experienced worse (like catching puke in my hands and holding it for multiple L.A. blocks, but that’s a story for another day).

Speaking of puke, after I left the party (covered in poop), we headed to the airport to pick up Grandpa. Within a few minutes, Hailey was puking all over herself in the backseat – car sick, and no, I was not driving like a maniac. I calmly pull over the car, which now contains my poopy shirted self, my pukey shirted daughter, and my totally oblivious baby. No need to panic. A quick wipe of the car seat, a stripped down toddler, removal of some chunks under my fingernails, and we’re back on the road. Ah, what a day! If only Sophia could have pulled out a peeing when her diaper was off episode, I would have hit the trifecta. As my friend Meggan says, I earned my Mommy card today. Thanks, girls!

16 weeks already!! Where has the time gone, little one? I can’t believe that you are getting so big so quickly. In just the past few weeks, you’ve started acting less like an infant and more like a curious, active little girl. You’ve started reaching for objects, and of course, trying to shove them in your mouth. Everyone swears that you must be teething already, which is a distinct possibility that your Mommy is not willing to come to terms with yet. I’ll believe it when I see that first little bit of white poking through, until then I’ll ignore the possibility that you could even be old enough for such silliness.

We are giving Hailey her first ever kids birthday party this year. It’s not that she’s been totally deprived in the past, it’s just that we’ve always either traveled for her birthday or done family parties or both. However, now she wants to have a birthday party with her friends. Yeah, I don’t really know how to do birthday party. Unfortunately for everyone (most especially my husband), this is one of those situations where my inner Bree VanDeKamp seizes control of my usual rational self. I’m already in a panic. Do I invite all the kids from school or just the kids I like? Do I provide goodie bags? Do I say no gifts so we don’t have a million little toys I don’t want? What do I feed all of these rug rats? Where do I have said party? Oh my. So many questions and not much time to plan. Pressure, pressure, pressure!!!!

Hailey swam by herself (well, with the use of a life vest) for the first time this weekend. She is taking swim classes twice a week, but was still very hesitant to swim without the use of a parent or other flotation devise. Even with the life vest on, she wouldn’t let go. Well, this weekend, she finally took the plunge, and I’ve never seen her so proud of herself. Here’s a little clip.