First

Rug burn. My poor baby. She may need a bit of coverup for her party, yes? *sigh*

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Working Mom vs Stay-at-Home Mom

I have friends that are both working moms and stay at home moms. You ask a working mommy and they will say "I miss being home with my baby. I feel like I am missing out on so much". You ask a mom who is home with the kiddies and they will say "I miss the adult interaction. I feel like my entire day consists of cleaning bottles and changing diapers and trying to keep the house in one piece". As a stay at home mom myself who has always been a workaholic prior to mommyhood, I feel the effects of the latter statement to the core. I miss the hustle and bustle, the having a goal at the beginning of a day, the having somewhere to be, and yes, I very much miss the conversations that go beyond words consisting of "bottle, diaper, please don't touch that" and the like. However, if you ask me what I would do differently, I wouldn't have an answer for you because I wouldn't change anything. I cannot imagine leaving my baby in someone else's care and it has very little to do with my need to micromanage details (surprisingly). In staying home, I experience her first everything. I was here to see the first time she rolled herself over, crawled, took her first tentative steps with her walker, her first tooth cutting through, her first smile, her first belly-full laugh. I get to experience the different person she is becoming everyday. While it does not change the fact that I miss being an individual, it makes every moment of my decision to be home with my baby the right one for me. Right now. My goal is to one day re-claim a small piece of my individuality, but for the moment, I am mommy with no regrets.

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Preview

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Excuse the quality. Rather, the lackthereof... It's a picture of a picture!

Hi!

"You likey me pigtails?"

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Holidays

When we were first married, we initially agreed to split the holidays to every other year and while Husband tried to support me on this, his mother always found a way to have us for the holidays every year anyway. So it became holiday afternoons with my family and the evenings with his which (kind of) worked out. Apparently, this also is a problem now. How do married folks (with kids) split holidays? I used to love the holidays. Really, I did. I hope when my children grow old, I don't make them feel this way.

Boring

"Mommy, this is boring"

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Part 2 Update

Okay, so all day I bordered against "no" until I started looking it up again (thanks, Google) and after many many many many calls to find what seemed like the right place (I say "right" place because realistically, you can take your child anywhere to get it done), I finally got somewhere with a children and baby friendly "shop". Options were along the lines of Claire's or Piercing Pagoda, where let's face it, those mall type of places just cannot be very... sanitary (at least that's how I feel). Next up were tattoo parlors and while they're an excellent choice for adults who want their ears pierced because they have the proper tools and training to do it, I wasn't about to walk into a tattoo parlor to have my 10 month old daughter's ears pierced. My first choice was to go to a pediatrician, and while I've spoken with several doctors who do this regularly, it was a service available only to their existing patients. If I so chose, I could have changed pediatricians, but I wouldn't change Leah's pediatrician because someone else pierced infant's ears. That just wasn't a good enough reason for me. So finally, after all night of debating and doubting, I spent all morning telling myself to forget about it. About her last naptime, I again changed my mind once more and of course, that's when I stumble onto a search (thanks, Google again) that shows a "baby friendly parlor" in Port Washington. I set up an appointment for a consultation because I'm not sure what to expect. What a shock, it really is a kiddy shop. There are cars and bucket looking toy things they use for seats to cut kids' hair, they have a back room they use for parties with toys, lights, music, the works. And can I tell you what a superstar Leah was? The first pierce, she didn't even bat an eyelash. It popped in, she just looked up at me as if to say "hey, what'd she do that for?" And the second one she cried because she was getting mad that I was holding her head down and not giving her the bottle she saw me holding. I felt like my head had a heartbeat I was so scared. But this one? She was crying because I wasn't letting her eat. Go figure. So today she reached 4 milestones. She cut through her 6th tooth, she got her first haircut, got her ears pierced (which by the way were package sealed individually, sterile, in what looks similar to surgeons' instruments and even got a fun little certificate for it!), and learned to work the Poland Spring cooler... (that hairstyle? Yeah, she'll never have her hair done that way by me, but I thought it was too funny not to share).

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Earrings

Little is getting a pair of rather very purty earrings for her birthday. Question is, do I pierce her ears or do I not? I debated this when she was 4 months old and opted against it because, it was going to kill me or so I was convinced it would, I didn't want to be bawling my eyes out in public, and I got a lot of mixed feedback on the issue. Now at 10 months, I'm flirting with the idea again some. Feedback? I'm bordering closer to no, but I want to know what other people think about this.

Butt Butt

This is how she sleeps.... I risk waking her some nights taking pictures of her sleeping with her butt up in the air because I really just can't help myself! Used to be during nap time only. Now it seems to have become her favorite sleep position. I know it's cheesy, but she's mine and gosh darn it, she's cute.

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Oh Shut It, Please.

I love how people who don't live a day in my life love to preach to me what kind of day I should be having and/or what I should and shouldn't be doing with my baby. My husband from time to time will do it. The "that's too much for her", "should you be letting her (fill in the blank)", "you can't do (fill in the blank)" but you know, he's her father. To be fair, I am with her 24 hours of my everyday. I do have my own rhythm going on. In fact, I do know exactly the portion to give her to eat, I do let her do things that maybe you wouldn't - like eat off the floor because I make sure to keep my floors as clean as they will get and think it's okay to not live in a bubble, I let her play with a paper towel while I'm watching her to make sure she doesn't eat it because she has fun with it, I may give her things to play with that you wouldn't because I don't see the harm in it, but sometimes he wonders as a dad and that's okay (mostly) because he's her father. But let's talk about those people who aren't me or him. How do you know how much she should or shouldn't be eating? How do you know what she can and cannot eat? How do you know she's allergic to it? How do you know my floors haven't been washed for a month? How do you know I don't wipe her toys down everyday? How do you know that the paper towel I gave her is a dirty one and it's going to give her rashes (I, by the way, have never even heard of that)? Gee, you must be super smart. How did you get to be so smart? When you have your kid, I hope you can tell me how you keep your entire house sterile all of the time so that nothing your child ever touches is tainted with *GASP!* germs. =) Just to be clear, I don't wear my shoes in the house, my floors are vacuumed, mopped THEN steamed at least once if not more times on any given day so PLLLL to that.

Look at me!

All day she walks back and forth back and forth but she doesn't yet know how to turn herself back around... so I spend all my days doing the turning for her.... haha happy mommy day everyday

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Winner Mooo

So it is, hands down for the Moo Moo "O" face. She has the funniest expressions. Cracks me up. This picture will be hanging in the middle of the living room all shiny and pretty. After all, the entire house is really HER room.........

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Happy 10 Months!

This was all she would give me. Now that she's 10 months, she thinks she's too good for the every month stickers. Pffft.

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