Honest Scrap Award

Since I have now been tagged twice to do this I am going to skip what this blog is supposed to be about (a baby blog) and just blog about me! I figure it's been almost a month at this point - what's a few more days???

What's the Honest Scrap award? Well, I am supposed to write 10 true things about myself and I was tagged by Christina and Rhyme and Reason, so here goes...

1.) I spent my first 2 and a half years after college as a traveling sales rep driving all over Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. And had some really, really crazy experiences. I got stuck in the mud in Louisiana, followed a truck filled with dead pigs down a two lane road in West Texas, met lots of really sweet people, crossed the Mississippi River at sunset (which is beautiful), and did it all by myself. At the beginning I never thought I would be able to do it but by the end I actually enjoyed it. And then spent the next three years traveling all over the country as a national sales manager which had it's own set of challenges...

2.) I love office supplies. I could spend hours and hours (and thousands of dollars in Staples). Specifically, I love pens. If I find a pen that I like I will buy at least five of them and put one in my purse, one in my desk, one at home, etc.

3.) I hate winter. There is a small part of me that misses the Northeast but I miss the people more than the actual place. I just can't imagine living in a place with real winter again. In Dallas we flirt with winter. As in, today we have a high of 45 but tomorrow it will be 70! I can deal with that. Always the possibility of spring around the corner. But no warm weather for months - no thank you.

4.) I have always wanted to be a runner. But I HATE running. Some people honestly look like they love it. Who are those people? How do they like it? What is the secret???

5.) I am one of the most uncoordinated people you will ever meet. I always have at least one bruise, bump, cut, or scratch fro running into something.

6.) I am a really big fan of the Eagles although I really don't get the fuss over college football since there is no even playing field to evaluate all of the teams on. I don't get how you can have a national champion when everyone doesn't play on the same level.

7.) Excluding alcoholic beverages, if I could only drink diet coke or iced tea for the rest of my life that would be completely fine with me. That's how addicted I am to both of those. Isn't that sad?

8.) Between KC and I we have kind of a crazy family tree. I have two regular (for lack of a better term) sisters who share the same mom and dad. They are both younger than me. I also have a younger half brother from my dad's second marriage. Then I have a younger step sister from my dad's third marriage. I also have two older step sisters from my mom's second marriage. One of which we talk to and one of which we do not. Are you keeping up?? KC has one younger regular brother (the one who got married in the Dominican last year) and two younger step brothers from his dad's second marriage. Did you get all that?

9.) I can't watch people embarrass themselves, even on television. I have to turn away. I can't explain it. It's the weirdest thing and I have no idea why it makes me feel so uncomfortable but I just can't do it. If there's a shrink out there reading this - any ideas?

10.) Growing up we didn't play school; we played office in our house. We would drag out chairs and tables to use as desks, phones, notepads, the whole thing. Our living room has french doors that I would sit behind as the president of our "company". My middle sister Ande was the secretary and the baby sister Kara got to be the messenger. Apparently we could not think of any other roles in a company other than president, secretary, and messenger.

I'm not really sure who I would tag since everyone I would tag seems to have already done this except for Kara - so here's an assignment for you Bear - add it to your list!

To the jerk in 8B

Karma is a bitch - especially yours after the pouty, 'woe is me' display you put on last night. When I boarded the plane with Sam BY MYSELF I was hoping she would be an angel. Maybe even sleep.

Sam is the child that you looked at with complete disgust numerous times last night. I know the seat next to the baby wasn't your first choice. I apologize for the fact that she was overtired, and wired from 5 days of fun and just couldn't wind down to sleep even thought she was completely exhausted. I didn't want to sit with a crying, fidgety baby on my lap for over three hours anymore than you wanted to sit next to one.

I'm sorry she sneezed in your direction. I try to at least put my hand over her mouth when she appears to be in the verge of sneezing or coughing but I'm not a mind reader and at times get caught off guard. The rolling of your eyes and glare were unnecessary. I felt bad enough.

The constant sighing and sifting of your weight was something else that I felt bad about at first but after an hour I wanted to tell you to GET OVER YOURSELF. I know you want to read your The Undercover Economist in peace and type your emails without a soundtrack of "yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah" Face it you're stuck on a plane with a baby and her mother. We'll get there when we get there. You making an issue out of it isn't making the plane fly any faster.

By no means did I expect you or anyone else to entertain my child. But somehow the sweet gentleman behind us found the strength to at least smile at her when she looked at him. She attempted on numerous occasions to smile and babble to you which, like everything else, you found offensive. Don't worry you are the last person I would want to engage with my child. She might come away with a permanent frown.

Feel free to upgrade next time. The chances of sitting next to a baby in first class are significantly lower. And I really hope that whatever poor girl you marry knows what an arse you are when it comes to kids.

PS - if anyone still reads this blog I apologize for the fact that my first post in 2 weeks is a rant. I'll be back to my normal cheery self by tomorrow. I promise.

When it rains it pours

Sorry for the absence of posts this week. I have about 6 in the draft folder I just haven't had a chance to finish any. KC was traveling for the first part of this week so it's always a little crazier when he is gone but this was too much. I was trying to get some laundry done on Tuesday and when I went to change the loads the washer and dryer wouldn't do anything. They are both electronic and I had no beeps, no lights, nothing. So I trek into the garage, over boards, and behind furniture to flip the breakers hoping that will do the trick. The washer is now working but no dryer. I go through this routine no less than 3 times and still no dryer. So the wet sheets head to my MIL's for drying and all laundry is placed on hold for the time being. The funniest part - it has not rained in Dallas for what seems like months. We have had temperatures in the triple digits. If this was still the case I could just hang the laundry in the backyard and let it air dry. But no such luck, it has rained off and on for three days now. Seriously.

To keep the adventure going I get into the car yesterday morning to head to work and all I get it this clicking noise. So after a call to AAA they head out to jump the car and promptly tell me that I need a new battery so don't turn off the car head right to the store. Car running I head inside, put up the dogs, grab a purse, some wipes, and a toy for Sam and head to Wal-Mart. No problem, they say it will take about an hour. I am thinking I can easily kill an hour in Super Wal-Mart. Sam and I peruse the school supplies, do a little grocery shopping, and then she starts crying loudly. She had abandoned her toy in favor of chewing on the cart handle and hit her mouth. Out of the seat and into my arms, resting her head on my shoulder. No trouble, just a little harder to shop with one hand. Look down and what do I see but blood on my shoulder. She must have cut her mouth on the cart handle when she bumped it. After grabbing some ice from Subway and a mesh bag from the baby section we calmed down a bit.

That was the end of the drama in my house yesterday. Sam was so tuckered out by the end of the day she feel asleep in her high chair at the dinner table (evidence below). Today is KC's 29th birthday. Birthday post coming later!

Seriously more teeth?

Don't I deserve a break? Sam has had a runny nose since last Wednesday. No fever, or coughing just a lot of snot. It has caused some trouble sleeping (what doesn't?) but since it didn't seem to bother her too much I figured she just had a little cold and it would pass. It hasn't so this morning my MIL took her to the doctor. She still isn't running a fever and doesn't seem fazed in the least bit - not nearly as grossed out as her mother is but I am attributing that to the fact that she doesn't have to look at it. She's fine. Saline drops and an elevated bed were prescribed. This all thrilled me. I was 99% sure they were going to say that but I wanted to make sure we weren't working on an ear infection. Good news.

Bad news - she is on the verge of 2 more teeth cutting. Like right now. Keep your fingers crossed I make it through this week. Remember the last bout of teething? I do. KC leaves for a business trip tomorrow so it will be me and Sam and her two new teeth...

See how innocent she looks here..... We don't look quite this cute at 2am.

Under Pressure...

I read this statistic the other day and it freaked me out about being a parent and shaping my child (aka permanently warping her).

"In the first five years of life, 85 percent of the brain is developed," said Armstrong, the psychologist who examined Danielle. "Those early relationships, more than anything else, help wire the brain and provide children with the experience to trust, to develop language, to communicate. They need that system to relate to the world."

Not only does it make me doubt 90% of what I am doing it makes me think of the million other things I should be doing. I was already a little concerned that since I still work full-time (sigh) I wasn't spending enough time with her period. Not even factoring in that I should be working on baby sign language, or vocabulary, or shapes, colors, numbers, letters, the list goes on and on. I promised myself I wouldn't be all crazy about things like classical music classes at 3 months but I should be focusing on the basics, right?

And then I worry, does she get enough hugs? Will it inspire self confidence? Does she get so many she won't be independent? If I always cave to her will she get spoiled? If I don't will she feel unloved? (At this point it is completely fine to think I am bonkers. KC is used to this and knows how to deal with me when I go a little crazy. Again, a lucky, lucky guy.)

If there was a step-by-step manual this would be so much easier.

Am I the only parent freaking out about this?

Uniqua, Pablo, Tyrone, Tasha, and Austin = my new BFF's

Ahhh, the Backyardigans. I apologize to anyone who thought we were BFF's. I'm sure we were but I have to drop you in place of the people that can calm a screaming child in just a few short piano notes. Or distract a fussy baby from the fact that while she may feel entitled to the remote/phone/necklace I am wearing she is not going to get it. I still love my old BFF's but you just don't have the power.

This is what the power looks like.

And now you see why they are my new best friends.

This is one of my favorite videos! And we managed to capture a milestone on video. You can tell by the look on KC's face when he realizes she is clapping for the first time!

Thinking Outside The Box

I am a linear thinker. I look at the animals below and see bath toys. And that's all. Since my mom arrived these things have been everywhere. I am pretty sure we now have one in the bath, one in the highchair, one in the pack and play, one in the car, one on the changing table, one at Grandma's, and possibly one in the bottom of my purse. She loves them. They are just the right size for her hand and they fit in her mouth. These were a present from Grandma Di when we were in the Dominican and have been a hit in the tub ever since. Who knew they would be a hit everywhere else?

Playing with Mom-Mom

And at Grandma's

In the bath

And after the bath.

President, Not Princess

I am not a big fan of the "princess" or "diva" things. It took me a long time to make peace with the massive amounts of pink things that you receive when you have a baby girl. I have never been a pink (or purple) person. But there are a lot of pink and purple things out there for little girls, some of which are adorable. Now Sam wears pink and purple on a regular basis and (of course) looks so cute.

It's not that I am a big tomboy. I like getting dressed up. Getting a pedicure is one of my favorite things in the whole world. I wear dresses and skirts more than pants or shorts. I make a mean key lime pie and Sweet Home Alabama is one of my favorite movies. But the princess and diva thing I just can't get on board with.

Apparently I won't have to. I love this website and can't wait to get one of the shirts for Sam. I can't decide between the "President Not Princess" and the "Doctor Not Diva".

It can't get any worse, right???

There are some pretty disgusting descriptions in this post so if you are eating or just don't want to read about someone else's gross day - stop now.

I have said that no less than 10 times since yesterday at 5pm. I got home from work early, so excited to be able to put a load of laundry in before going to my MIL's house for dinner. KC stayed over by work to play in the work softball league. I was greeted at the door by one of our labs - not a good sign. Apparently they had broken down the gate during the day and done god knows what. There was no evidence of any wrongdoing so I am hoping for the best (and keeping my fingers crossed that I don't discover something a week or two down the road).

Then I walk into the kitchen. And into a puddle of water. The freezer door is open about a foot. Unless the dogs learned how to open a freezer door (in which case I am calling David Letterman immediately) KC or I must have left it open that morning. Within 5 minutes Loni (MIL) comes over with Sam and we start to clean up the disaster that is now my kitchen. KC's first question was "There wasn't too much breast milk (aka liquid gold) in there, right?" The large supply of frozen breast milk is in the freezer in the garage. So I only lost about 10 bags. But if you have ever pumped you know how painful losing even 10 bags is. While I fed Sam and started cooking the 4 packages of veggies, a pound of chicken, and 2 pork tenderloins (the things that couldn't be savaged and were not too disgusting to throw out) Loni actually cleaned the freezer. Now our freezer is bright, shiny, and clean like the day we bought it. Seriously, my MIL rocks.

Unfortunately the whole time this is going on Sam is not herself. She is really clingy, and always seems like she is on the verge of crying. Emily said that she didn't really want to play with the other kids she just wanted to be held all day. I am wondering if her teeth are bothering her. She is eating ok thought so who the heck knows what is going on.

After KC gets home we put Sam to bed. She doesn't go down easy though. By 11pm she is sleeping in our bed again. We would get her down and then she would wake up screaming. The hardest part for me is that even when I was holding her she was crying. We blamed it on teething and then we blamed it on the prunes she has had the last 2 nights so really we don't have freaking clue what we are doing or why our daughter is miserable. (Yea - mother of the year!)

This morning I wake up thinking today will be a good day. It has to be better than last night. Sam is still pretty subdued, just laying down talking to herself while we get ready. Usually she is all over the place, playing with toys, trying to crawl off the bed. I leave our room to let the dogs out and can't find Raja. I am looking everywhere and then I open the door to Sam's room (pretty much the only no dog room in our house). Usually the dogs are really good about not going into her room. When we are playing in their they usually hang out in the doorway but not crossing into the room. I guess the door was left open when we got Sam to come sleep with us and Raja decided to make herself at home in Sam's glider, her white, chenille glider. Not too bad, just get rid of the dog hair. But one of her paws was bleeding so now there is a bit of blood on the edge of the chair. I almost lost my mind. Needless to say Raja is spending today in the laundry room. We're done right? Bad evening, bad morning, day has to get better, right???

Sam's is sitting in her highchair waiting for us to get our act together, get lunch packed, pack her bag with bottles, etc and get out the door. I can tell she is pooping so I pick her up to change her diaper before we leave. Here is the disgusting part. Not only has she pooped through her diaper but it is dripping down her leg, into the chair on the floor. There is also a huge amount in her high chair. It was the most disgusting thing she has done so far BY A MILE. You can only imagine the scene, I am holding her about a foot away from my body trying not to get poop on my clothes while trying to get her to the changing table where KC has laid a trash bag down for her but trying not to get poop on her carpet. If I wasn't so panicked about the whole thing it would have been hysterical. We ended up taking everything off of her and taking her into the bathtub where I hosed her down while KC held her up. Note to self: Prunes are off the list of acceptable foods in our house.

Finally, we get everything in the car and are heading to Emily's. Late for work and really sick of the day and it is only 7:45am. About half way there Sam lets out a cry and then we hear the puke. We pull over to see that she has thrown up all down the front of herself. It's on the car seat, her outfit, the toy she was playing with, lovely disgusting sweet potatoes and corn from the night before.

Could this all be from teething? I have taken her temperature twice in the last day and each time she was fine. She did give Emily a big smile when we got there so I am hoping that she is feeling better.

And I am really, really hoping that this day gets better.

We no longer believe in bedtime

At first Sam was a pretty good sleeper. From 2 months to 4 months we would sleep for a solid 7-9 hours a night. I thought I was in heaven. Smugly, I figured I was one of the lucky ones. And then we took the swaddle off. Sam loved being swaddled from birth. We used a hospital blanket and then discovered the Swaddler (which I think is the BEST thing in the world besides TIVO and Weight Watchers). Swaddling for dummies - I loved it. Then she rolled over.

Our pediatrician told us that since she rolled over we needed to take the swaddle off since she might roll over in her sleep and would be stuck (picture upside down turtle here). The first night was hell. We woke up every 45 minutes or so. The fact that KC was out of town on business made this night that much more fun. We didn't wake up every 45 minutes for too long. About 4 nights after we started the no swaddle routine we were doing much better but not as good as before. It's never been the same.

3 months later our sleeping is still hit or miss. I am bringing this up because last night was awful. Awful as in "are you kidding me kid? You're freakin' 7 months old. Aren't you over this by now?!" Every night it could be a great night (2 nights this weekend we went down so easy and then slept until 6am - 10 hours) or a horrific night.

We/I do almost every single thing they tell you not to do - she falls asleep nursing or rocking, if she cries we go get her, and when we are really desperate, like last night, she sleeps in our bed. Sleeping in our bed is something I hate. But offered a choice between no sleep and some sleep, even at the price of our bed, I will take some sleep.

We tried to let her cry. The first night we really just left her alone and watched the clock she cried so hard that when I went in after 5 minutes - actually 4 and a half - she was hoarse from crying so hard. And of course that made me cry. I just couldn't do it. So, I am not sure Ferber is the answer for me. But I don't know what is the answer either.

Suggestions are welcomed (please, please help me). Suggestions other than "stop doing all of the things you know you shouldn't do" are welcomed. I can beat myself up on my own.

What stinks the most? Not knowing. Not knowing how to fix it or how well she will sleep that night. This is the same problem I had with the third trimester of my pregnancy. I can't stand not being able to put it on a list or make up a schedule or put it on the calendar. I am the person who makes up an excel spreadsheet for EVERYTHING and then emails it to everyone so we are all on the same page. I have standard packing lists saved on my computer, schedules for when we go home to visit to make sure we have enough time to do everything, a notebook with me at all times to make sure I don't forget anything. Reading this I sound like the least fun person ever. KC is lucky to be married to me, isn't he?

I think she's pretty cute but...

You may think there is another baby in the DFW area that is cuter than the Peanut. Of course as her mother, I would disagree with you but everyone is entitled to their own opinion (even if it is wrong). So as the mother of the cutest baby in DFW, I did something I though I would NEVER do. I entered her in a cutest baby contest. Am I crazy? Do normal mothers do these things to their child? I figure if we don't win (or make it into the top 100 - a definite possibility. There are some really cute kids in this town) I just won't tell her. What she doesn't know can't kill her self esteem later in life, right?

If you do decide Sam is worthy of your vote the photos are organized by name (She is listed under Samantha Chewning) or you can just look for her picture. To try to tame any cheating that may happen, you have to enter your email address and then confirm your vote via the email they send.