Lessons in Motherhood

You know how Mommy birds chew up food and spit it out for their babies? Isn’t it just a little ironic that it’s the exact opposite for human babies? Well, human toddlers I should say. I can’t tell you the number of times and the wide variety of chewed food that Hailey has spit into my hands over the years. Just off the top of my head I know that I’ve recently held chewed banana, peanuts, apple skin, and various meat products. The latest thing is gum. Why in God’s name Luke thinks it’s a good idea to give a two-year-old gum is beyond me. Yet, there I was in the car today holding a chewed up piece of gum. Gross. Kids are gross. There’s just no way around that very simple fact.

Being at home with two girls for even a few days over the past few weeks gives me an all new respect for stay-at-home Moms. I’ve always thought that being a stay-at-home Mom would be more difficult for me than being a working Mom. I’ve said repeatedly that working makes me a better Mom, and I truly believe that. I guess I never realized just how much harder staying at home was. I’m honestly getting the hang of it now. I’ve been able to take the girls on multiple outings all by myself. I’ve also learned to multitask with them so that I can feed Sophia and entertain Hailey at the same time. I’ve got a decent rhythm going. Still, it’s exhausting. If stay-at-home Moms were fairies, they would be patience talent fairies (a rare talent, indeed). Yes, I’ve been watching a lot of the Tinkerbell movie, and you would get the reference if you live with a 2-year-old. Anyway, I wonder what my fairy talent would be? Disillusioned fairy? Impatience fairy? No…has to be Moo Cow Fairy.

Sore Throats Require Ice Cream, Right?

Hailey has strep throat. Apparently, she’s on the lower edge of the age at which you can get strep throat. This is no surprise since her mother had strep throat about 10 times a year when I was little. Ok…maybe it wasn’t 10 times a year, but my Mother told me yesterday that when I was Hailey’s age I pretty much had strep throat non-stop for an entire year. Great. Luke’s comment was “Oh that would have been nice to know when I married you.” Yeah, this marriage is a sham because I didn’t disclose my minor illness history. Anyway, I hope that this isn’t the beginning of a trend because she doesn’t have any grandparents close enough to deal with this.

Sometimes when I hear Hailey’s call for “Mommy” in the middle of the night, I wonder to myself “who is this mythical Mommy character that she wants?” Surely, she is not referring to me. She could not possibly expect me to get out of my warm bed to attend to her lost glow worm, dropped blanket, unquenchable thirst, etc. I heard the call again this morning around 5:00am. Keep in mind that I’ve had a chest cold for a few days now so I’m not sleeping or feeling well. Regardless, I went in to find Hailey searching for her glow worm, which I quickly found and returned.

My general rule is that I will go into her room one time to be sure that there isn’t an emergency, but after that she’s on her own. For some reason, I broke the rule this time. We proceeded to play the call Mommy game for about an hour. She was complaining that her stomach hurt, which if fairly typical when she’s hungry or has to poop. After eliminating those two causes, I finally made Daddy go in. At that point, Daddy brought Hailey into our room to “sleep.” What ensued were 2 hours of screaming almost hysterically about her stomach, ears, and neck hurting. While I considered the possibility that she was really sick, I thought that the more likely scenario was that she could not sleep and wanted some attention. She got attention, Tylenol, milk, a bagel, and three episodes of her favorite show.

By the time real morning came (8:00am), she seemed fine again. She didn’t feel particularly warm as if she had a fever. She was smiley and talkative. I thought the earlier 2 hours were a fluke so I let her go to school. About 3 hours later, I got a call from school. Hailey has a fever and needs to go home. Argh! So now Hailey and I are home sick, AND I feel like a horrible mother for ignoring my child’s symptoms. I AM that mother who people curse for sending their child to school sick. What a horrible, crappy, cold, yucky day. Thank goodness Sophia is fine, so far.

We tried every shape available.

Of course, she likes the one that I like the least.

Well, she will take a binky, but only for a few minutes and only under very specific circumstances. Still, I’ll take anything at this point. Her insatiable appetite is wearing me out.

I took lots more pictures this weekend. I’ll try to get those posted up this week (in between feedings, of course).

Hailey came home from school with pink eye on Tuesday. Of course, she couldn’t go to school on Wednesday or Thursday, which meant that I had both girls at home with me for two days. I have to say that it was a fairly eventful two days even though we didn’t actually do much. Here’s everything that we survived together…

• 2 Severe thunderstorms
• 1 Trip to the doctor
• 1 Sophia poop explosion in the middle of CVS
• 1 Sophia melt down in the middle of CVS
• 3 sets of eye drops every day
• 1 Bout of pink eye for Hailey
• 1 Bout of pink eye for Mama
• 1 Josie bite to Hailey’s forehead (not severe)
• 2 Baths – one for Hailey/one for Sophia
• 1 Timeout

It doesn’t sound like much, but this stay at home Mommy stuff is really hard. By the end of today, I was pretty desperate for Luke to come home. I think that it would have been better if the weather had been nicer today so that I could have taken the girls out somewhere. However, the rain was pretty bad, and I don’t quite have the 2-kid-confidence yet to venture out under those conditions. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually.

Here’s my hand for some size perspective.

Satisfied customer after the Mommy buffet

With the second one, you think that you should know what you’re doing. Here are 10 things that we definitely forgot about between #1 and #2… 10. How quickly you become exhausted 9. The consistency of baby poop 8. The unpredictability of baby poop 7. How often they have to eat 6. How precious they are when they’re asleep 5. How demanding they are when they’re awake 4. How much laundry is required to keep them in clean, dry clothes 3. How quickly you become exhausted (wait, did I say that already? Too tired to read back to see) 2. How difficult breastfeeding really is 1. How sweet and cuddly they are

Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that I was trying to take a binky away from Hailey? Now, I’m desperately trying to get Sophia to accept a binky as a legitimate substitute for me. This kid wants to eat non-stop. Well, not necessarily eat, but at least suck on something. Oh and that something HAS to be me. Anything else is out of the question. I believe they call her a “grazer.” It makes for a very tired Mommy Moo Cow. Here’s the face that I get when I don’t give it up quickly enough. I swear, this child is going to suck the life out of me. Just take the binky instead, just this once. Mooooo!