Caged Baby

Yes, there is a child in there. She put herself in there. She is the Box Baby, remember?

*********

Just trying to entertain myself because I'm starting to get a little nervous about my race tomorrow :P

The Mom Post

To Mothers Everywhere:

Happy Mother's Day!

may you be treated to whatever you wish... whether it be ...

• burnt pancakes and cold toast both dripping with the love with which they were made :), 
• a day to lie in bed while reading trashy magazines with no interruptions save wiping a few butts and finding the really important missing sock (because moms do those things best), 
• going for a run or other form of exercise when you want to... right after you change the poopy diaper and make sure the snacks are served,
• ... fill in the blank... what is your fantasy Mother's Day? Or what do you think it would be if you were a mom but you aren't.

I spent yesterday evening looking at my kids' baby pictures... more specifically, birth pictures. They made me cry. It always amazes me how in love with my kids I am, how in love with being their mom I am, how I can't imagine my life any other way.

I'm sharing my little trip down Memory Lane.

Big G and me...

where my momming all started :)

Baby Baby X and mommy...

my first little girl!

The Q-Man...

despite the fact that I look pained, it was the the most fun and easiest birth up to that point.

(yes, I said fun)

Miss C was very purplish-grey at birth,

which totally freaked me out as none of the others had been.

I truly thought something was wrong.

But within 20 minutes, she was alert and pink and perfectly amazing :)

I loved having my babies. I love being their mommy. Anything more I would say right now would be redundant and cliché.

And my breakfast was just delivered!  Time to eat :)

happy, happy mother's day 

to all you moms out there!

and to those of you who are waiting for baby wishes to come true... I'll be thinking of you with love and hope in my heart :)

Bad behavior in the grocery store...

Not the kids ...

me :-(


Monday is grocery shopping day.  I have been working to make it a once-a-week-ONLY event.  I have been very successful with this for the past 6 weeks or so, although by Sunday it's pretty slim pickin's in the pantry.  (what can you make with quinoa, cocktail onions and mustard?  mmmmmm).

Okay, so.... back to my purge confession...

I had dropped of the kids at school and ventured to the awesome grocery store across the street with Miss C in tow.  She is a super cutie...

She is 19 months old and talks crazy good and sings and is fun.  She was cutely singing "up and down" in a sweet and quiet voice while I was checking out the apples about 3 feet away.  All of a sudden I hear

 "SHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I turn around immediately and see this old guy slinking quickly away.  I look around sort of bewildered at what I think just happened.  Another customer catches my eye and very sympathetically nods her head as I ask out loud, "Did that really happen?"  She says, "That was SO wrong..."

As I am standing there, somewhat shocked that someone would get all up in a BABY'S face and essentially scream "shhhhh" at her, the old guy turns and looks at me and sees the expression of disbelief and disgust on my face.  He makes a mocking face at me as he approaches.  I tell him to stay away from my baby.  He tells me to keep my baby from screaming in the store. "I'm trying to shop here," he growls.  I say something about her being a baby and that he probably was one, too, at one point.  He loudly tells me he doesn't need my crap.  So I called him an a**hole.

Not good.

There was a mini-escalation, in the middle of which I went looking for a manager.  I wish I had just done that from the beginning.  Or better yet, just realized the dude has serious issues and just walked away.

I feel better now.

Lesson learned.

Thanks for listening.

Perspectives...

What is this?

This ....

Is an excellent hiding place....

If you are very small....

And not afraid of the dark.

Pretty much everyone, from very young (see picture) to quite old (yours truly), would agree on that.

Where they don't agree is that this...

Is NOT a bathroom.

Even if you put a potty in there.

And especially if you don't...

This is the cleaned up picture ;-)

Lullabies

Everyone has a bedtime routine of some sort.  Sometimes I think bedtime routines are kind of like lucky socks.  You know, you win a game wearing the lucky socks so you always make sure you have those same socks on so you'll win again.  Or something like that.

Bedtime routines are usually a little more reliable than lucky socks, though.

One thing I have always done for my children is sing a song (or many) right before the final "good night."  This has always struck me as funny because I really cannot sing.  My lack of vocal musicality has been such a disappointment to me for as long as I can remember.  In third grade a classmate pointed out to the teacher that "maybe we all shouldn't be singing" while looking directly at ME, and since then I can't even happily sing along, oblivious to the fact that I am out of tune... I hear it!  And can't do a darn thing about it.  Such a bummer.

One of the wonderful things about having kids is that they think we parents are rockstars!  Just because!  So I can sing my off-key renditions and the kids are delighted.  No sneers, no snickers, no hurling of rotting vegetables.  In fact, there are copious tears if the song is not sung.  They will even try to weasel EXTRA singing from me!

Each child has had favorite songs, and there has always been one tried and true that we finish off with... until now.  Miss C is not into our usual finale (Barney's "I Love You"... I know you're thinking, "the girl's got taste"), and she does not want to hear any of the commonly-sung toddler bedtime fare.  Her current preferences are "Happy Birthday to You," the clean-up song (clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere...) and the theme song from Bob the Builder (which she has seen once).  A couple or three times through and she is reaching for the crib.  Not sure if it's because she feels drowsy or just wants me to stop.  Hey, whatever works, right?