Monthly Archives: July 2007

Monkey

Now we are six…

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Oh the time flies. On a Friday the 13th in July, six years ago, I gazed down at a 9 pound 1 and a half ounce infant with awe and shock that something so small and perfect could belong to me. I fed her, snuggled her, watched her play with her first balloon, saw her read her first newspaper with Da, and made up lullabyes. I rocked her to sleep in a rocking chair, and cuddled her to sleep on the couch, often napping with her. I took piles of photographs of her with her fuzzy duckling hair, her rock star baby sunglasses, her deep blues eyes, and her rosy cheeks. I co-slept with her for years, I nursed her for a year and a half. I took her to the mall’s play area (affectionately deemed the petri dish) and watched as she scrambled around on waffles and bacon. I danced with her to Laurie Berkner and ran with her at the park. I watched my mother play endless fairytale games with her.

I helped her crawl and then walk. I gave her her first and only baby food (peas) and her fist adult food (Split pea soup). I gave her boy toys and girl toys, and felt I had done well when she declared that she wanted to be a bulldozer driver when she grew up, while all the girls around her wanted to be princesses.

I sang with her to song after song, hung masterpiece after masterpiece on the fridge, and watched improvised dance moves performed in my living room. I took her swimming for the first time, read her stories, took her to law school classes (where she raised her hand and participated more than once), and watched her grow.

And here we are, six. She can read and write, and keeps several diaries full of her secret thoughts. She wants to be a lawyer when she grows up and plays with her case files while watching Legally Blonde (her favorite movie). She is a big sister, who can help care for a baby, no longer being one herself. She will be entering the first grade in a few months. She held hands with a boy at her birthday party, and she is currently sitting across from my office at her own desk answering her own email.

How fast it all goes.

Thank you to everyone who sent her emails. She was thrilled to get her own phone and email account, and loved that she already had so many messages. She is trying to respond to all of them, but has to hunt and peck, so it may be a while.

parenting

The moments that make it worthwhile…

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Okay, so life is normally insanity, or drudgery, or both. My days stretch into weeks, with nothing to separate them, as I sweep, mop, cook, clean, change diapers, shop for groceries, and entertain children.

However, from time to time, moments stand out of my weeks and make it all worthwhile. Here are the moments I had this week:

Otter’s first real laugh. Two days ago I tickled under his arms while changing him and got a solid baby giggle. I repeated my actions two more time, each time receiving a smile and laugh. I could have tickled him all day, but I am sure if I did it would result in not getting a laugh, and would closely resemble torture.

Otter’s first stuffed animal was purchased today. Monkey and I chose a “classic” Eeyore and handed it to Otter in the store. He widened his eyes, wrapped it up in his arms, and squeezed. He has been squeezing it ever since.

Monkey, upon getting an Icee at Target, described the frozen treat as “Delectable, Delicious, and Delightful.” She informed me that was from “The Upside down show” therefore vindicating the hours I have let her fry her brain on T.V.

Chloe, my PTSD cat, who had never purred in the entire 5 years I have owned her, due to her traumatic past as an abused kitten, jumped on the bed for petting today, and purred at me for a good twenty minutes!!

All these things make the rest worth it, and I was blessed to have so many of them this week.

Pets

Too many cogs, too many wheels…

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So here I am, new house, new baby, new town, trying to get some semblance of normalcy into my life by enjoying a relaxing day at home with the children, and maybe taking a small trip to Ellen’s for lunch. It was a plan ill fated from the beginning.

Otter was an upset baby today, not a happy baby. He was a crying, screaming, fussing, unhappy baby. Therefore the morning lacked the longed for relaxation. Doubly longed for as he was a fussy baby all night and I haven’t seen the deep side of sleep in what feels like 50% of forever (as my mom would say.) To make things worse, every time I try to sleep in I am awoken by a. the baby b. Monkey or c. Lee, looking rather as though I am a bad person for sleeping in while he heads off to work. (It’s okay, I look at him like he is a bad person when he is sleeping at night and I am up with Otter, of course, he can’t see me, so it has less effect.)

Anyway, the morning is spent attempting to console the inconsolable child. Then we all bundled into the car to go to Ellen’s, where I spent two hours trying to console the inconsolable child. Our landlord was coming by to show the house to a visiting religious leader/friend of his, so I went home to let him in, while Monkey stayed at Ellen’s.

But my day gets better…

Ellen called to say she was bringing Monkey home in a few minutes. After I hung up, the landlord arrived with his guest. While they were coming in the door, Bella got out. I had a hold of Andy, and was carrying the grousy baby, but Bella was sitting pleasantly by my side, like her well behaved self. While the landlord was coming in, she calmly got up and sauntered out the door before tearing hells bells for freedom.

So here I go, 20 pound baby in arm, racing in fitflops down the street yelling for Bella. (The fitflops really do work by the way, I am quite pleased with them.) She disappears, and my ragtag team of me, Otter, landlord, and landlord’s honored religious leader visiting from India go searching for her.

A random cabby tells me he hit her when she ran across the street, but that he had just began moving and didn’t hit her hard. He points out the direction in which she ran. He spends a good 20 minutes trying to help me find her, in between frantic calls to his boss and assurances to me that he wasn’t speeding. (I wasn’t even wearing my “cross me and I’ll sue you” t-shirt they gave out on graduation day!)

At this point I was terrified for my sweet Bella, who spends all day every day following me everywhere I go and is an integral part of my life. I went home to get my car, and my daughter, and we left to go find her. I called Lee, he headed home, and I began driving up and down streets in search of her.

Then I got a call from the landlord telling me she was home but hurt. Apparently a nice man got her to cross the street while a cop blocked traffic and she limped in through the back door. I drove home, relaying the message to Lee on the way, and found my sweet dog, lying on the kitchen floor, with a bloody mangled paw. She looked up at me with eyes that said “make it better mommy” and collapsed in a heap at my feet.

I set the baby in his pack and play, laid out a blanket, coaxed her onto it, and gave her a bowl of water. Then I sat with her and petted her until Lee got back.

Lee raced her to the vet and, $600.00 later, she is now sitting at my feet with a cone around her head and a paw wrap. There is nothing broken, no internal bleeding, just a bloody mangled paw. (Sadly that $600.00 was our extra travel home money, so it is looking like just the visit in August and hopefully christmas. Also, Lee probably won’t make it home for the wedding in August, so it will only be me and the children. Sigh.)

I feel like such a bad doggy mommy. I was holding onto the flight risk dog, Andy, and the baby, because Otter screamed every time I set him down. Bella hasn’t run off in years, so I didn’t think it would be a problem. There were simply too many cogs squeaking on my wheel for me to handle, and hers is the one that fell off.

Sorry girl. I promise to slather your painkillers in peanut butter to make them more palatable.