Newborns and their sixth sense

K is over two weeks now and we are settling into a good rhythm.  B is home from work for the rest of the month and we have been relishing our time together as a family.  It will be so hard to adjust once he goes back to work!

K has figured out nighttime is for sleeping (sort of) and we've figured out how to get a few hours of sleep in a row at night, a huge blessing!  She's also figure out how to interrupt every attempt at taking care of me!  It's been said before, but newborns have the greatest sixth sense.

Mom wants to eat? Start crying to be fed.
Mom wants to shower?  Start crying to be fed.
Mom needs to bring big sister to daycare?  Start crying to be fed.
Mom just fed me and thinks she can have a moment to herself? 
     Start crying to be fed, again!

It really is uncanny, how sharply tuned this sense is!

She really is an awesome baby, so I can't complain!  She seems to enjoy tummy time, only cries to eat, loves to snuggle, and is overall so good natured. Miss T is being awesome as her big sister too, always wanting to "help".  We are so impressed with how well T has adjusted, so beyond our expectations!  T has recently learned a few new songs too, including "You Are My Sunshine" and this one that I was able to catch on video...

Yep, that is the "Clean Up" song, love it!  And that is a 24-piece jigsaw puzzle that she is currently mastering and cleaning up in this video.  The girl is a genius!

Gah!

Ok, I thought it was bad when my December looked like this.  But now my days are even worse!

Today, fexample, (taking a deep breath...):
drop T off at daycare this morning
came home to take the dog out one more time
made the spinach artichoke dip for one of three Christmas parties tomorrow that I will bake at 5:00 am tomorrow morning
ran into work to get an experiment started by 9:00 am because it has specific timed steps throughout the day (at 10, 11, 12, 1, 3, 4, and again at 9 and 10pm)
pick up T after work
come home
get ready for B's holiday party (fancy event, I'll be posting my first "What I Wore" post, complete with my DIY bead and ribbon necklace and sweater to cardigan refashion)
go back to work after the party (yep you read that right)
come home and collapse.  Phew!

Oh, by the way, I'm 24 weeks pregnant, still getting sick, trying to resubmit a paper, write my thesis and defend my thesis next month. 

Ok, that's enough of my pity party.  Thanks for letting me get that out!

On a positive note, we are nearly finished getting the Christmas cards mailed out, the above mentioned spinach artichoke dip looks amazing (had to stop myself from eating it raw), and I get to go to a fancy dinner party tonight.  Woohoo!

Because I need to add some cuteness to my otherwise self-indulgent vent storm, here is T singing happy birthday on the way home yesterday!

Here's she comes...

We officially have a walker.

Yikes!  Really?  How?  When?

While B and I scramble to shore up all things evil and dangerous (stairs, TV, cabinets, etc.), we forgot to let our dear fuzzies in on what was about to happen.  Poor babes.  Joey, Mollie, and Druha are so in for it.  Prior to her new found mobility, Miss T would squeal with delight whenever the animals let their down and came near her.  Now, she can go to them!  Her favorite activities, it seems, are grabbingguards  ears, poking eyes, and stepping on warm furry bodies!

This is what we see:



This is what the poor pets see:




Time to work on teaching empathy and gentle treatment of our furbabies!

On a side note, yesterday, Miss T received her 15 month shots. She was very unhappy about it. Actually, she didn't want anyone near her, which was a first! However, I'll be totally honest that even though my heart breaks for her when she feels yucky for the next 36 hours, I do enjoy the extra amount of snuggling that I get as a result. ;)

I'm a changed woman!

and  much smarter one at that!

I've joined the elite ranks of smart phone users.

Woohoo!

I am totally loving my new iphone4 in white. GORGEOUS!

I really tried not to get too excited about it.  yeah, yeah, so I can send an email as easily as a text message now and there are a bazillion apps to choose from for anything I could possibly think of.  yawn.

And then, I purchased my phone...



Oh man!  I love this thing!  I'm really trying not to go app crazy and am limiting myself to only free apps, but WOW! 

I love how it looks!  I love how it feels!  I love how it sounds!

Did I mention that my battery on my iPod died yesterday?  Never fear, my iPhone is my iPod now too!

I just ordered some screen protectors and a beautiful green case for it so I can protect my little investment.  Ordered yesterday on Amazon, shipped yesterday.

(side note: have you checked out Amazon Mom yet?  Do it!  Free shipping, free Amazon prime upgrade, discounts on diapers, wipes, etc. all delivered to your door!)

Anyways, what apps have you found indispensable?  I have weatherbug, ESPN scoreboard (for B), fb, cnn, southwest, and skype.

Yeah, did I mention I can skype from my phone!!!  Yeah facetime!

Any other suggestions for a newbie?  I've already included a pin code lock.  Never mind my phone getting stolen, Miss T  has placed a few too many calls on my last phone - at 6 am!

The Sponge

A couple of months ago, I decided hubs and I needed to clean up our mouths. 

We don't swear or anything.
We used to.

Man, I used to sound like a truck driver (sorry truck drivers!). 

My dad could make the burliest truck driver crumble with his mouth and that's where I learned it from.
I remember sitting on the school bus with some friends one day back in first grade.  They were talking about how they can't raise their middle finger.  I was all "It's easy, see?  My dad does it all the time!"  I didn't realized they meant they weren't allowed to.  My bus driver didn't take so kindly to my faux pas and I was picked up by my dad in the Principal's office that day.  He told me how there are words that only mommies and daddies say and sometimes gesture.

Well, I don't want to have that conversation with Miss T.  I was to be a role model to her, so that she can be like me as much as she wants to and it's ok.  So, not that we curse or anything, but I figured, any words that I don't want coming out of her mouth - they shouldn't come out of mine either.  Even such benign words as dumb or stupid.  I would never want her to say something like that to someone and hurt their feelings.
Anyhow, so we started "cleaning up" a couple of months ago.  I figured, why wait until she is parroting us, why not prevent the issue all together.  Well, it's a good thing, because that little 13month old girl is a sponge.

Yesterday morning we were playing with her "cell phone".  It's cute, pink, and makes noise. 

She just presses the buttons and hands it to me.  Yesterday, I pretended that I answered a call and had a little conversation.  When I got home, hubs was so excited to show me Miss T's new trick.  He had been playing with her phone in a similar way that day too.  He would ring her phone and she would hold it up to her ear just like I did that morning!  Yep, she's a quick study, that one!

Hmm, I think I may need to be a little more careful in the car from now on... :)



Don't you love how she freezes when she notices the video camera? silly girl!

Mommy Guilt

Through several conversations I've had this week, I starting to think there is an epidemic called

Mommy Guilt!

Why is is that no matter what we do,
we always feel like we are coming up short and failing

our husbands,

children,

careers,

and ourselves?

Why do we put so much pressure and demands on ourselves?

In a conversation with a fellow co-worker the other day, we discussed how we felt torn between our careers and our families.  Both of us have invested a lot of time into our education.  Both of us felt that while we weren't excelling in our careers, we also weren't succeeding as mothers. 

I sometimes even feel like I'm failing at both. 

She told me a story of a friend of hers, a successful laywer,
who took an entire year off when her son was born. 

I thought "whoa". 

What courage! 

What bravery! 

What love!

In our minds, however, to do something like that would "kill" our careers.  So, in the meantime, we gush over our babies when we are with them, provide the best care we can while we are working, and beat ourselves up for it every day!

As I mentioned before, I was able to participate in a round table discussion about breastfeeding and coming back to work.  I truly identified with some of the other women there.  "Jackie" was committed to breastfeeding her daughter for one year and then she was "off duty"!  "Sarah", a fellow student, was so relieved to hear about our school's president making policy that supported staff and student rights to breastfeed.  I was truly touched by two of the other women there.

"Cindy" was 11 weeks along with her second child.  With her first, she had been able to take that mystical year off.  Now with her second, she was working full time as a dental assistant and going to school for nursing.  You go Momma!  But that ambition was coming at a price.  She spends 12 hours a day away from home.  Yet, she wants to give her new baby the best she can, while providing a better life for her first.  Cindy was going to have to make a lot of sacrifices to make this happen.

"Nadia" has a one year old daughter at home and is starting to think about "number 2". However, she was concerned about nursing, with all the issues she had with her first.  Having a c-section and then an inverted nipple, her daughter had become a lazy nurser, then her supply dropped, and Nadia made the heartbreaking decision to give up nursing after about a month of exhaustive efforts.  As she tells her story, Nadia says things like "I messed this up", "I did this wrong", "It's my fault".  Watching her tell her story, my heart was breaking for her.  Now, in law school, Nadia has class all day and is trying to figure out how she'll manage maternity leave if she can't be in class and some of the lectures aren't recorded, never mind how she'll juggle the demands of studying, nursing and getting in some sleep as well.

I'll be the first one to admit that before being a mother, I had absolutely no understanding of the demands that is placed on those shoulders.  Now, as I look at the moms around me, I see them wearing their Mommy Guilt like blanket, weighing them down, suffocating them.

"You're doing a great job!!!!"

I want to tell each and every one of them!

But can I say that to myself?

Yes, I can. 

When I look at this smile.

When I hear these giggles.

How can I be failing as much as I think I am when she looks like this?

Momma, look at your children, their smiles.

Hear their giggles.

Even if they can't say the words yet,

they love you,

they adore you,

and they think you are amazing.

(just like I do!)


-Melissa

One of those days...

I was having one of those days today. 

You know, the ones where the littlest thing is the biggest deal in the world and you either need to scream or cry. 

Today it was my birthday cake. 

Yes, my birthday was 11 days ago.

 It's been a crazy month and this is the first chance I had to make it.  I baked it last night and let it cool over night.  For once, I was actually going to let it cool completely before trying to frost!  Try as I might, baking is not my thing.  For all the other crafty, homemaker type things I can pick up with relative ease, baking is not one of them, my cookies are hard, my brownies are burnt and my cakes, well...

As I was trying to remove the cake from the pan, of course it falls apart into pieces. 

OK, I can deal with this. 

I pieced it together and placed the second half on top.  Luckily, that came out in one piece.  As I tried to frost the thing, the frosting wouldn't stick to the cake and instead, just picked up layers and layers of crumbs.  What should have been a white frosted red velvet cake looked more like a

red massacre cake. 

 So much for making one of these for valentines day! 

The massacre was the last straw for me and I started crying.  I know it's stupid, but I was so frustrated.  I served B and I two pieces anyways
(I was determined to enjoy it if it killed me!)
and sat at the table with Miss T.  She was done with lunch and had had 100's of puffs by then.  Then this happened...

What can I say?  She lights up my life and makes me laugh so hard I was crying and my cheeks hurt!  I'm going to have to keep that video on speed dial or something just in case one of those moods hits again. 

Who can resist that smile and that laugh?!

Here's part two of that drumming episode.  She was really getting into it by now:

Best Birthday present ever!

Since turning 30, birthdays really aren't a big deal to me anymore. 
(They really weren't before either.) 
See, I'm blessed with having a birthday that falls immediately after the Christmas season when everyone needs a break from
shopping,
wrapping,
gifts,
bills
and family. 
My darling husband has always made it a point to treat me very well on my birthday and has given me amazing gifts - Tiffany jewelry, snowboard, etc. 
This year, the big 33, was no exception. 
True to our form, I received my birthday gift early. 
Neither one of us can stand to wait to give each other gifts on the correct day. 
This applies to birthdays,
Christmas,
Valentine's Day,
and anniversaries. 
This year, my wonderful husband got me this awesome watch -

I absolutely love it and have worn it every day since!  However, this wasn't the gift I was thinking of in my blog title.  Nope, it's a close second to the other gift I received, this one from my beautiful baby girl. 

Apparently, Daddy let her know how we do gifts in our family and I received this present one day early.  Daddy was right on par in getting the whole deal on video too.  Check it out...

Yep. 

You heard it too, right? 

And it wasn't in the middle of

screaming.

crying,

whining. 

My baby girl finally said a version of mama! 

Sure it was more like mumumumum, but I'm from New England, and there we say Mum (we like to stay true to our redcoat roots over there even if we were mostly to thank for kicking them out of our country!). 

I'm not lying here, the first 20 times I watched this, I choked back the tears (ok, I let a few fall!). 

Thanks baby girl!  I love you! 

(I love you too B! Thanks for capturing this!)