Is it Tuesday???

I am asked, "Is it Tuesday?" every single day by the older girls.

Of course it's the older girls asking. If Leila was asking, I'd be on TV showing off my talking 5 month old. I actually had a nightmare about Maddie talking when she was a newborn. In my dream, I was all excited about it and then my pediatrician gravely told me that it meant something was horribly wrong and we'd have to go the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Good thing it was just a dream...

Speaking of St. Jude's, I can NEVER watch their commercials EVER. I cry. A lot. Can't take it.

Anyway, back to "Is it Tuesday??" or as Eden says, "Is it Monday, Friday, Too-day or Sat-day? Nana comin' ov-a?" Because they really don't care about what the calender says; they just want to know if our weekly dinner guest will be coming over.

My mom always comes over to our house every Tuesday. I cook dinner (something low carb, diabetic friendly) and then my hunk of a man and I go on a little date for an hour and a half.

It's a wonderful tradition and I love it. So do the girls.

Last night, as I was finishing up dinner, my Mom was holding Leila and chatting with Seth and I. Somehow we got onto the subject of how I am somewhat of a weirdo in my family. Have you ever read the "Fancy Nancy" books? It's about a little girl who is quite fancy and girly and frilly, unlike the rest of her family. Her mom and her sister are more casual, sporty, not fancy. Well I am just like Fancy Nancy. I always begged for dresses when my mom was inclined to put me in jeans and t-shirts. I wanted my hair in 2 pigtails, just like a rock star as my Mom recalls. (I have no recollection.... or plead the 5th. Either way I can not confirm nor deny.)

I remember as a little girl having a friend about my age who was delightfully girly just like me. And her mom was too. In fact, her mom was so frilly that whenever I went to my friend's house, and if we were to go out somewhere, her mom would actually have me change my clothes. Because I didn't match most of the time. Like hardly ever. Now in my Mom's defense, she did not purposefully send her little girl out the door every day in mismatched outfits. I was very opinionated about what I would wear and if I declared I wanted to wear the purple stripped shirt with the green polka dots pants, my Mom let me have at it. (Not that I actually owned either of those particular articles of clothing, but just to give the idea.) In fact, once, Mom even let me wear my PJ shirt to school. She warned me I'd get teased. But I just knew everyone in the second grade was dying to see my totally awesome teddy bear PJ shirt and I would be an instant social success for being bold enough to wear it.

Mom was right on that one.

So while I do take responsibility for some disastrous wardrobe choices, many of my fashion blunders as a youngster were a result of these two words: Puff Paint*.

*3D fabric paint. Came in every color of the rainbow. My mom liked the glittery bright ones.

My mom was a puff painting maniac. She was THRILLED when we came home with a stain on our clothes. "That's the perfect spot for a puff paint flower!!!" For several Christmas', everyone in the family (and yes that includes grown men) received their very own customized, wearable work of art. My Uncle Dave was crazy about his black Hanes t-shirt with "Dave" written on the front left side and a clever little poem on the back of the shirt, telling the world that as much as he loved trains, he loved his wife more. Boy, do I wish I could remember that little poem...

And what did little Kayte's t-shirt say? You're gonna love it. And you're gonna be amazed that I was not beat up every single day at school.

It was yellow. The front left said "Kate." And the entire back of the shirt read:

"Future leader of the free world".

I'm not joking. Not even a little. As I shared this (now) amusing information with Seth last night, my mom STILL defends that yellow shirt. Apparently, my pre-school teacher prophesied that I was bound for the US Presidency. Just goes to show that you've really got to be careful about what kind of fluffy compliments you tell parents of pre-schoolers. Or... maybe.... maybe she was right! Hey, people, I can even run until I'm 35. I'm just killing time 'til then.

That is all. Just wanted to tell you about Mom's puff paints and my possible candidacy.

Love,

Updates...

I thought I would bring you up to speed on things I have mentioned recently....


♥ I appreciated everyone's comments on my whining post about being tired. ☺ I've come to the conclusion that Leila is probably going through a growth spurt and needs some extra nourishment. And I also think she would benefit from getting nice long naps instead of the many many tiny cat naps she tends to take. Getting into that deep REM sleep helps her disposition a whole lot. Since making 3 nice long naps a day a priority for her, she is much happier and I hope she's learned better sleep habits. She still is up a few times to nurse at night.

♥ Spring cleaning:

Wah wah wah waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh

That was that sound you hear on game shows when the contestants completely flop.

Some deep cleaning has been done but I'm pretty sure it stayed cleaned for exactly 3.8 seconds. And no spaces were cleaned completely all at the same time so I never got that ultra satisfying moment when I could look at the whole house, or even just one room and know: This is clean. I really enjoy that moment and it's been a long time since I had it. ☺ Oh well. Will you all still be my friend if there is crud underneath my stove and shoe-dirt residue on the floor of the closets?

♥ Baby weight. A good report here. Only a couple pounds above pre-Leila weight. I really like the Pilate's class I take weekly, and as much as it does help the waistline, I am almost as equally pleased with how much it helps my back. Toning those muscles has helped with the constant dull pain that I almost had been so used to I didn't notice it. The class I take is mostly older ladies so there are some weeks when I leave a tiny bit embarrassed that I was struggling so hard that my limbs were trembling to do an exercise while the 60 yr. old next to me seemed to not even break a sweat! But of course, the older ladies in the class do have the unfortunate tendency to um... release gas doing some movements too. Of course, everyone just pretends we didn't hear a thing. And pray we aren't next. ☺I've also been eating healthier lunches and snacks (low fat cottage cheese and fruit or tuna salad on whole wheat...) If I remember correctly, it took 3 months to loose the baby weight after Maddie, 4 months after Eden and 5 after Leila. So if I have a 4th baby and start freaking out about not losing the weight, remind me of this so that I chill out until the 6th month.

♥ Maddie's asthma. After several experienced moms suggested cutting dairy from her diet, we have finally done so. It's been about a month, but I haven't really noticed much improvement. I want to give a little more time.


Love,

Sleep

We're not getting enough of it around here.

After a few months of nice long stretches at night time (about 10:30pm until about 5am), Leila has regressed back to wanting to nurse every 3 hrs. around the clock. I'm struggling to keep up with this new schedule she has picked for us. :/

After my post last week about not being tofu, I'm feeling rather tofu-ish. Being tired makes chocolate-like behavior extra difficult. It almost seems like I'm back to newborn stage... Leila is simply not content unless being held, AND being held in certain ways. Thinking that she was over 4 months and needing more substance in her diet, I started her on rice cereal last week. She gobbled it up fairly well for a beginner, but it didn't seem to agree with her tummy. After two episodes of vomiting (not spitting up... VOMITING) I have put the cereal away. Yesterday, I tried peas instead. So far, no problem but neither is she any happier. Maybe she has a cold? Everyone else I know does. I don't see any other symptoms other than grouchiness and an apparent inability to sleep well unless being cuddled.

By now, someone out there is probably debating whether they should comment and tell me that I'm spoiling her. Part of me would agree and part of me says phooey on that. Babies like being held, and I like holding babies. But I do need to put them down sometimes. I know: she needs to develop her self soothing mechanisms and cultivate healthy sleep habits. I'm just not going to let her cry it out. Sorry. Not saying crying it out is wrong. I have done it in the past... but it never was necessary until the other girls were much older. In both cases it happened like this:

Somewhere between 1 and 1 1/2 yrs. old, the girl would get sick. Of course, I'd take care of them throughout the night for a few nights. Then, after the sickness had past, baby girl decided she rather enjoyed visiting all hours of the night and wanted to keep it up. And mommy, seeing that they were no longer sick, would put them in their cribs and say night night, see you in the morning. Little girl cried for 5 minutes, figured out that I wasn't coming back, and went back to sleep.

So, at 4 months, I'm just not doing it. She wants to nurse, and she does go back to sleep after nursing but not for as long as I like. I planned to make the whole first year breast milk only, but formula (offered by someone other than me....) is becoming more tempting by the minute. I have frozen breast milk defrosting right now, and a bottle and bottle warmer set out on the counter. Let us see if Seth catches my drift. ☺

This morning, I was feeling beyond tired. I was feeling blue. I know I'm in desperate need of a good night's sleep when my normally optimistic view of life takes a downward spiral. Not only did I feel tired, but my life was dismal and sad and I was a pathetic wife and lousy mommy and my house is in disarray and the dog died. Well, we don't actually have a dog but if we did, it would have died this morning. So naturally, I made a pot of coffee. ☺ After two giant mugs of Dunkin' Donuts, I had way more caffeine than I could handle. Instead of helping, I was now irritable and shaky. Booo.

Around 2, I put Eden down for her nap, sent Maddie to "help" Daddy run errands and laid down with Leila in my bed. I am never comfortable co-sleeping but I figured desperate times call for desperate measures. I nursed Leila to sleep and tried to doze off myself. Instead I just laid there thinking how pretty she looked. Then I just had to take a picture. There, I thought. NOW I'll sleep. Nope. Too jittery. Gotta get up and get that picture on my blog RIGHT NOW.


Thus, here I am.

It reminded me of this picture of Maddie from last June. My kids looks so beautiful sleeping. They should do it more often.

Almost as soon as I sat down at my computer, Leila sensed I was no longer in the bed with her and commenced wailing. She is now happily snoozing again... in my lap. Hopefully I didn't scare your comments off. Please do leave your suggestions for a unsatisfied little sweetie. Just don't tell me anything a weary mama couldn't handle. Thank you. ☺

Love,

Why?

Do babies learn to make "raspberries" at the exact same moment Mommy is introducing peas into their diet?

Love,

Just TRY not to say "ahhhh".... I dare you!

Love,

Peculiar

Stubbornly protruding from among a soft bed of auburn fuzz, one lone white strand, coarse and unyielding, takes it's stand with the sole purpose of irritating and puzzling me.

Yes, this is Leila's scalp you are looking at. And yes, I plucked that peculiar little hair as soon as I finished taking it's picture.

Love,

Things I've decided to do....

In no particular order, the things I have recently decided to do:

1. Buy winter boots when I find them for a decent price. It's only been 11 yrs. since I spent winter in California, so it's about time, don't you think?

2. Buy a half (or maybe a quarter) of an antibiotic and hormone free cow in the fall. Must find freezer too.

3. Buy vitamins for myself and hubby. We are way too young to so tired and sick all the time.

4. Save up for a SLR camera. It may take me 14 years but I need the time to decide what kind to buy anyway.

5. Block out the memory of Eden eating dog food off the floor in WalMart today.

6. Put hand cream on my hands before writing #7.

7. Make meatloaf for dinner tomorrow.

8. Never cut my hair above my shoulders again.

9. Clean and refill the humidifier in my bedroom tonight.

10. Vacuum the living room.

11. Omit #10. I'll do it tomorrow.

12. Stop procrastinating, starting tomorrow.

Love,