the every day stuff

It’s funny how the memories that I want to bottle up and save so that in later years I can take the top off, take a little sniff and be transported back to that moment aren’t necessarily the ones that I can blog about, point to and have the whole world sigh with me in understanding.


Last night for example. Ethan is teething [and as a side note if you’re not a parent and want an idea of what living with a teething toddler would be like, just imagine putting something rather sharp in your shoe and walking around like that for several days. Then just when you’re getting used to the constant pain, go ahead and stick a fork in your eye for the grand finale. Then the next morning however, instead of being in even more pain, everyone wakes up feeling fine and life continues until the next little white enamel razor begins to erupt.]

So, back to my story, even though he wasn’t feeling well he went down for the night pretty easily around 7:45. It was a short-lived victory. A little after nine I was falling in and out of dream-land (mostly in) when he started crying. When I went in to get him, it took me 10 minutes of talking and rubbing his head to get him to slow his sobbing enough to crawl over where I could reach into the crib and get him. This is not typical. Normally his crying is more of a whiney thing and all he wants is to be in mommy’s arms.

If there was ever a disadvantage of having a child who sleeps through the night, it’s that on the rare occasion that he wakes up before morning, he is convinced that it IS morning and no amount of convincing or denying him the morning routine is going to change his mind. For Ethan, morning means heading straight to mommy and daddy’s room for some milk and cuddling, and usually falling back asleep for a few minutes or a few hours – depending on the day. He makes his wishes clear by repeating over and over “milk-milk….daddy…milk-milk” and if it’s taking too long “bed-bed”. I held out on him for a little while but finally the dad took pity on his little man, vacated his video game spot in the bedroom and sent us in to lay down.

With the Motrin kicking in and his world set back on its axis again, Ethan was asleep in a matter of minutes, sprawled across the middle of the bed with only his feet strategically touching my back. When Darrell came in an hour later I decided to risk moving him back to bed, and surprisingly we were successful. Darrell carried him and I followed to make sure he settled in okay. And right then, standing there in his room, listening to his breathing return to normal as he settled in, I knew this was one of the ones I wanted to save forever. Not because teething is so much fun or I felt like such a good mother at the moment (quite the opposite, really). There was just something indescribably awesome about standing there together with our helpless, hurting little man and knowing that we’d gotten him through, at least for the moment and we'd done it together.

I know I've been absent from the whole blogging scene. I’ve just looked back and realized just how much I have failed to write about and it feels weird to jump back in "in the middle" but if I try to catch up I'll never start again.

Two Little

We had our ultrasound this morning, and happily found out that Ethan is going to be a big brother. 

Here are the ultrasound pictures.  The first pictures is the one with the "goods" (they're circled) and the next is a view of the baby's face looking at you and waving.  It didn't scan as well as I would like.  The third is a close-up of a foot, and then the legs crossed kind of at the ankle.

I guess I haven't blogged much about this little guy yet. (I haven't blogged much at all though, have I?)  He was a slight surprise (though not an unwelcome one) so it took a while to figure out his due date --May 1-- and get the good news out.  We had to absorb it ourselves first!  I've been calling him squishy (think Finding Nemo).

Little Squishy's weight was estimated at 11 ounces today, which is exactly on for gestational age.  The tech said everything looked fine to her and we'll hear the doctor's final determination within a few weeks. I expect nothing but good news.

 

 

 

Salvation Army Pennies

Tonight I hurried through the walmart door to get Ethan out of the cold, passing the Salvation Army Bell Ringer with barely a glance.  And I felt guilty.  Especially when I realized that everyone around me was doing the same thing.  The thin, older gentleman with a scruffy face and worn clothes just kept ringing and smiling and greeting, but no one was greeting him back. 

I started wondering what must motivate the Salvation Army volunteers and I realized I have no idea, and want to find out.  But mostly I was thinking about what we're teaching our children when we have no time to stop and dig a few pennies out of our pockets for the less fortunate.  I looked down and my rosy cheeked, bundled, obvlivious little one-year old and knew that he had no idea.  I knew that he would have no idea what was going on if I had stopped.  But what stopped me, was the fear that next year I would be looking at my two year old and thinking same thing, and feeling but ignoring the same guilt.  And the year after that, a three year old and so on.

So, even though he had no idea what I was talking about, as we started our grocery shopping adventure, I had a little talk with Ethan.  I told him about the people who needed our help, and promised that on the way out of the store we would stop, dig some change of out mommy's wallet and I would show him how it all worked.

And we did.

Freezing cold though it was, Ethan smiled, waved and watched as I poured a handful of change into the red bucket and exchanged holiday greetings.  But I think he understood the bell-ringer's enthusiasm, and the way the air seemed to change a little as he waved goodbye and we hurried to the car in the crisp wind, high on the feeling of holiday giving and the anticipation of the holidays.

I think we started a little tradition tonight.  I can't wait until he is old enough to proudly put his own pennies in the bucket all by himself, and can experience all of the joy that such a simple act can bring.  I hope that Salvation Army Pennies are only the beginning of developing him into a generous, caring and unselfish little man.

There's nothing like being a mommy...

Really.  There's nothing like:

• ...getting your nose quite forcefully wiped with the (formerly clean) sock that someone just noisily blew his own into.
• ...being fed goldfish after goldfish and watching his joyful smile as you crunch each one.
• ...sitting in the walmart aisle for 20 minutes playing with walk/ride toys trying to figure out which one he likes best.
• ...getting bopped in the head with a big roll of birthday wrapping paper that he insists on holding.
• ...getting a slightly slobbery but totally unexpected baby kiss.
• ...waking up 45 minutes before the alarm and not being allowed to go back to sleep until you're both fully dressed, sitting on the couch with baby and you both fall asleep while taking 'just a minute' to cuddle.
• ...hearing "Momom" come out of his mouth, whether he wants something or is just stating a fact.
• ...watching him head to the kitchen with a diaper and feeling your heart swell with pride that he's picking up on the correct use of the trash can.  And then following to find him dipping it in the dog water.

All of these snippets have ben brought to you from our day today... and it's not even over!

Teeny Baby Pancakes

It's such a well-known fact that it's become cliche: at some point, kids decide they're ashamed of their parents and want nothing to do with them.  Of course, I'm going to be an exception to the rule.  But, today while I was cooking Ethan breakfast and singing him a made-up song about 'Little Teeny Baby Pancakes' I started to get an inkling of why I too would be that parent someday.

For now I'm content to sing him silly songs and watch him bounce his little teeny baby bottom up and down on his little teeny baby legs while I do.

And, we're back - The obligatory Introduction

I'm not sure this blog needs a lot of explaination. It's my long-overdue way of continuing to blog after a semi-traumatic privacy invasion event over on The Diary Of A Bean. Although, expecting privacy on a semi-public blog is a bit odd, I just didn't expect it to be found. I irresponsibly placed the link in a location where it was found by someone who isn't invited into my personal life.

SO I don't know if this is the best solution but I've made a new account and imported the old one over here.  Like the old one, this blog is public but the link isn't published and it shouldn't be searchable. I do encourage my friends to share it with friends. I don't intend to post a lot of secrets here, and I'll try to refrain from posting anything that will upset the people who aren't my friends...

The matter of the name: The name of this blog will probably change again couple of times. I've put of starting it for so long because I didn't know what to call it. Maybe I'll should have a contest for the best name.

The Blog is Dead

Or so it seems, right?

I have been away for so long. The increased security has made it difficult for people to read, and thus discouraging for me to bother writing when I know no one may even read it anyway.

It's not that nothing has happened though. Oh no. So much has happened. So much that when I think about trying to catch up it gets discouraging, and I find even less motivation to write. So... the lazy Blogger's solution?

Lists. Again.

Florida.

Disney, Universal Orlando - the whole works.

It was awesome.

We'll go back.

Never again in July.

Summer is over.

Girls have gone back to their mom's.

The weather is changing (amazingly enough. Usually Fall doesn't arrive until Halloween.)

Ethan is 10 months old.

He is Amazing.

He has 4 teeth.

He crawls (Finally...the commando crawl has served him well all this time.)

He eats "table food" as much as we will let him.

He says "momomomom" and "dadadadada" more specifically each day.

He pulls up and cruises along everything.

He 'facebooks' almost as much as mom and dad do.

Can you believe this kid??