Tag: baby

Things I am Ungrateful For – part 2

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By popular request,  a new list of crap that bugs me:

– Anti Meth commercials: They are big right now in  Arizona and consist of a recovering addict telling horrible stories of what they did while under the influence of meth. Do they REALLY think there is an addict out there or potential addict saying “wow, that sounds terrible, I better stop this”. My guess is that the addict or potential addict is saying “that won’t be me!!”. I’m not against anti-drug ads, just  this one.

– People who think the kids playground equipment is a great place to practice yoga: No sir, you “downward dog” is not at all freaking my child or me out. By all means, continue your creepiness.

– Parents who think their kids are geniuses: I think all parents think their kids are bright, I know I do. But I’m talking about the parents who think their kids are Harvard bound at age 8 months because, and I quote directly from a parent at swim lessons “Tommy is so smart! He made up his own sign language for milk!!”. Tommy is not smart. Tommy is hungry and is doing anything to get your attention and if patting his head is getting your attention, then that’s what he’s doing.

– People who give you a dirty look because you don’t let them go ahead of  you: Normally, I will let someone with less groceries in their cart go in front of me. But when the kid is teetering on melt down, my cart is slammed with food and I know we’ve got less than 20 minutes to get home, get cold stuff put away, and get a snack before nap time, I will not be letting you in front of me. Deal with it.

And now for something I am grateful for – good friends! Please check out Stephanie’s blog and enter for a chance to win a beautiful necklace. See the blog for details: http://www.babycross.wordpress.com.

Monkey Dance

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Baylie slept until 7:40 this morning. She hasn’t done that, well, ever. Maybe this whole “no morning nap” thing isn’t so bad after all…

Bay loves music and to dance so I thought I would find some cute kids songs to put on the Ipod for her.  I went to ITunes and typed in “kids music”. I disturbed a little by the lyrics of some of the kids songs – i.e. do you know all the words to “Pop goes the weasel”? I do now and they’re weird. It turns out it’s about drinking too much and having to pawn your good coat. I kid you not, look it up.

So I figured if we’re going to listen to something we can dance too and the “kids” songs are about drinking, we might as well listen to something that is actually enjoyable, even if it’s about drinking. Que my running playlist and the classic Beastie Boy’s Brass Monkey.

Brass monkey. That funky monkey…

Thankfully she makes the gestures for when we sing “No More Monkeys  Jumping on the Bed” and not like she’s tipping up her cup.

Nap Time No More

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I knew this day was coming. I’ve been fighting it for months. But apparently now at 17 months, Baylie has won and so she no longer takes a morning nap.

Now, I know all the non-moms are saying “Yeah, so?”. But all the moms are giving me a solomn, sad and knowing nod. Because the end of a morning nap means there is only one nap in a day instead of two. The whole day’s routine now has to be adjusted and new events and activities planned to fill the void left by the lack of a nap.

Even though Baylor no longer needs that morning nap, I still very much want and need that morning nap! Well, nap time any way. It’s at that time I do crazy things like shower, dry my hair and attempt to look like a human, laundry, dishes, ironing, dog washing, house cleaning, blogging, bill paying, connecting with the outside world, etc. And other important things like go to the bathroom without an audience / assistant waiting to pull out the toilet paper for me.

The upside is that with this new phase of circadian rhythm is that Bay is content to entertain herself for longer periods of time. On a good day it  means she will play nicely in her room while simultaneously watching Baby Einstein and without taking a header off of anything. On a not so good day, it means this:

 

 


So farewell morning nap. You will be missed!!

Well This Can’t Be Good…

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Last night, I opened a two pack of Halloween sized Starburst and found two lemon Starbursts. Disgusted, I threw them back in the bag and pulled out another. Same thing. Then another and again, found two yellow Starbursts. Realizing that this was surely a sign of the apocalypse, I moved onto the Snickers.

In an effort to conserve some money this year, I am rationing out the candy. No more “help yourself!” to all the rug rats that come to the door. Instead, my costume is going to be the crabby neighbor lady who is sipping wine on the front patio and doles out no more than 2 pieces per person to those under the age of 12 and over the age of 2. No multiple handfuls for the 15 year olds that come with the creepy and often downright terrifying masks. Or worse, no costume at all. And I am for sure turning down the adults holding the 3 month old baby’s bag and trick-or-treating “for the baby”. Keep walking sista. If you want some candy, confiscate it from your other kids.

And because I am still scarred from my beautiful Pottery Barn bowl being stolen off our front stoop in DC, I will not be leaving a bowl of candy on the patio once we’ve turned in for the night. I will, however, consider hiding in the bushes to spray any smart asses who think it’s funny to bang on the door after we’ve turned the patio light off.

Happy Halloween!!

It’s 7:30am And I’m Ready to Throw In the Towel

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I woke up to a phone call with a family member needing some obscure item at 6:30am. This would normally not be a big deal, except today for some reason, Baylie had slept past 6am and through PW leaving for work. And therefore I got to sleep past 6am, that is until the phone rang. The most annoying part? The person clearly knew I was asleep and didn’t say “hey, sorry I woke you up” just rambled on about what she needed and did I have it.

Peter has a big seminar today and left some notes at home so that was the second call at 7am. This shouldn’t have been a big deal, but the kiddo was crabbing in the background looking for more milk/banana/Bear and made it super fun to try to read off notes over the phone. She had also just tried to “help” feed the dogs and dumped an entire cup of food on the floor and in their water bowl.

Lastly, Baylie is teething, again. And because the lovely little tablets that make her less cranky have been recalled, we’re doing this cold turkey. She doesn’t want to eat, but is crabby because she’s hungry. She wants something, but doesn’t know what. She wants your attention so she is grabbing the remote off the counter, my purse off the chair and dumping it, and prank calling random people from my cell phone.

Again, it’s only 7:30am.

I’m hoping that a run to the park and some play time will help.  Or at least keep me alive until nap time…

I Heart Sesame Street – Even if Katy Perry is Inappropriately Dressed

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First, I don’t actually think what she was wearing was all that bad – I have that shirt in purple (only kidding). Just in case you’ve been living in a cave:

http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/a-line/sesame-street-pulls-controversial-katy-perry-duet/624

But this is not the point of today’s blog. The point is that my sweet Baylie Bay has discovered Sesame Street. She’s previously only ever been interested in Baby Einstein and would never pay attention to anything on TV (except for the Geico commercial where the little piggy screams “wwweeeeee!!!”. She loves that one). It’s probably because it’s almost always on the Today Show and even I don’t watch it, I just need people speaking in full sentences with actual words in the background so I don’t lose it.

However, this morning when I put on channel 8 just to see what she would do, she was transfixed. Maybe it was because they were doing laundry and this has been one of B’s favorite activities since she could stand and move things from the washer to the dryer. Or maybe she’s just ready to move beyond colorful toys and classical music, by Momma is in heaven. A half hour of quiet time outside of the meer 2 hours of nap time a day is golden. It means a shower, hair and makeup without having to wrestle my mascara away from her. A chance to get dressed all at one time instead of pulling Bay out of the dog water dish while trying to get on jeans. Ahhh, serenity is a shower in silence.

On a side note, we packed up the Pack n’ Play yesterday and put it into storage where it will wait for the next kiddo. It was a little bittersweet. 30% of me was a little sad to see the bed that Bay slept in for the first 2 months (ok, 5) of her life leave our bedroom. The other 70% of me was shocked that our room is SO MUCH BIGGER without a pack n’play, two dog crates and a sound machine. You see, Bear and Travis did not take kindly to Ms.B when she first arrived so we reintroduced crates, which they actually really like. And in fear that they would feel neglected if moved to the office rather than sleep in our room, we put their crates in there. And because two elderly dogs make a lot of noise in their sleep (snuffling, farting, snoring) and so do babies (snuffling, farting, snoring – no one tells you that they make TONS of noise even when they sleep!) and Peter talks in his sleep (I, however, am totally silent and keep to my side of the bed and in no way steal the covers and wrap myself up so that Peter can’t get them back), we had a very loud sound machine to drown out all the noise so everyone could actually sleep.

Now, the crates are gone. The pack n’play is gone and the sound machine has moved to Bay’s room with her. All that’s left is silence – which in our world means only a slightly quieter din – but to us, it’s heaven.

Cheap Fun

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I found this at Buy Buy Baby this week and it is a HIT – not only with Baylie, but with Bear. Naturally, Travis is throughly terrified.

It is an awesome combination of a tent and a tunnel, what more could a 16 month old toddler and an 11 year old dog ask for?! They come apart and can be used separately and  inside or outside – or put the tunnel inside to get to the tent outside; the possibilities are endless. Also, the tunnel makes an awesome, vertical hiding place for Mommy – which is a huge hit with the kiddo. It’s the perfect excuse to get out and enjoy the fall weather – and at $19.99 plus your handy 20% off coupon (also, Buy Buy Baby will take Bed Bath and Beyond coupons!), a cheap way too.

Also – each of the pieces break down and fold flat – like your windshield cover. Easy storage – bonus!

http://www.buybuybaby.com/product.asp?SKU=16695491&

I love that it looks like they are having a deep conversation…

Buddies

Bear Bear coming out of the tunnel

“Mommy, please stop taking my picture.”

Give A Little Bit…

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I’ve been reading a lot lately about doing little things to be more green, charitable and in general, kind to others. One of the things I think is so important in that category is community service. I think the perception is that this has to be a huge chunk of your day or week, but in reality, there are so many charities and organizations out there that need volunteers, but not for crazy amounts of time.

When we were kids, my mom, myself, my sister and our dog, Prince, volunteered with an organization called Pets On Wheels. We would take Princey and go to a nursing home for about an hour a week and just walk around and visit with people. We never stayed that long with any of the residents, but just long enough to talk about Prince or Ali and myself or whatever was on their mind. They always seemed grateful to talk about something other than why they were there.

I rejoined POW after graduating college and then again when we moved home to AZ from DC. And now I take Baylie with me to visit – she alternates between whipping Travis with his leash, shaking hands with the residents, looting their lunch trays and waving goodbye – most of them love it and I bail out before any of those that don’t love it say something. Travis sits sweetly next to each person we visit and accepts the pats and scratchies. I love teaching her that serving others is not only an important part of life, but a necessary one.

So if you don’t currently volunteer, consider finding an organization that is in need of volunteers and fits your time frame so that you can stick with it. Look for those that involve your pets or your kids so that you get to pull double duty: time with your family and time giving back.

Here’s a few websites to get ideas:

http://www.petsonwheelsscottsdale.com/ – please note the much less tired and younger version of Travis and myself on the “young volunteers” page. And yes, I still count as “young”!

http://www.crisisnurseryphx.org/nursery/ – the crisis nursery can be a tough place to volunteer due to the situations that many of the kids are in. But they are always in need of diapers, clothing and toys.

http://az.willsforheroes.org/ – Peter volunteers with Wills for Heros. If you have legal experience, are a notary or a law student, they need you!

http://www.jaaz.org/ – Junior Acheivement is an amazing organization that teaches kids about business and entreprenureship at all academic levels. They need volunteers to help get items donated for chairity events and also help out in their super cool “JA Biz Town” (been there and I want to stay and play every time!). Bonus: many of the planning meetings have cocktails!

Check back with your favorite grade school teacher. Chances are they are still there and still teaching and in need of some help in the classroom. My sister Ali and I fulfilled our high school community service requirement spending 2 hours a week at our grade school. We would grade papers, clean out closets, read stories, whatever the teacher needed. And who doesn’t love a 1st grader giving you a drawing of yourself and saying  “thank you!”?

http://www.volunteermatch.org

http://www.iparticipate.org

Because really, who doesn’t want a visit from this guy?!

This Is Why I Don’t Get Anything Done

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Reasons I don’t accomplish much in a day other than keeping everyone alive:

1. Baylie dumping dog food into the water bowl and Bear T. Dog bobbing for it. Both of them and the floor covered in water.

2. Nothing is as fun as a messy room. As soon as Mommy cleans it up, Baylie messes it up.

3. I call a handy man to fix the pull out trash can and he calls me two days later and wants me to go online to find the replacement.

4. Leaky diapers.

5. Baylie and I plant two flats of petunias. Baylie pulls most of them out while my back is turned watering the pots.

 

It’s a good thing she’s so stinking cute. And yes, she’s playing with a tube of toothpaste…

What Did You Call Me?!

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I realized the other day that Peter and I have a lot of stupid names we call Baylor. They are all funny names that have come up from the various stages in her life and the activities that happen during those stages.

For example, when she was first born I made the mistake of calling her “crib” in the hospital (which is more like a big, clear plastic bucket) her crate – as in the dog crates we use at home. I found this hilarious but the nurse did not. We found ourselves calling her Puppy for a while after that.

She was also referred to as the Drool Monkey for a while. The drool part is obvious, don’t ask me where the monkey part came from. We were sleep deprived and found stupid things hysterical. Angel Baby evolved to Angel Puff and then to Puffer until she started eating Gerber Puffies and then that stopped.

We’ve always affectionately called her Baby Man Hands because she has well, really big hands for a kid. And they seemed really large when she was very small. She has always been Toots McGoots and Stinks McGinks for obvious reasons.

And lastly, she is Crayon Eater. While sweetly coloring with Peter last weekend, she randomly picked up her crayon, observed it, and then bit off the tip. And so, a new nick name is born.

(Bear is really trying to look pathetic in this one…and you see where the Puppy name comes in..!)