"I Would Never..."

Yeah, go on. Give me your best shot. This came at me right after reading a link off someone else's blog which I can't remember now. Anywho, I must say that I love the preaching though because it'll be super sweet to hear how STUPID you feel once you realize all that you don't realize now. I love hearing it and I rarely correct those who preach on. There are a crap ton of things I didn't think I'd do with my kid. But preaching? Don't preach to a mama. If you have a kid that's not mobile or even better, if you don't have a kid period, don't tell me what you'd never do, but because ya know what? It's likely that it IS what you will be doing. There are tons of things I didn't think I'd do that I do now. There are also a ton of things I thought I'd do that I don't do.

Don't think you'll throw a cracker/cookie/squeezable food packet thing at your screaming toddler just to get your kid to shut up so you can hear yourself think for 45 seconds even though she hasn't had lunch yet? Don't think you'll throw them the phone/remote control/ipad/any damn electronic thing with a button that lights up because "OMG you're running out of things to play with. Oh wait, here, here's a spoon. Good. Go make some pretend food. That just bought mommy 3 extra minutes. I love you." Don't think you'll be eating things off the floor or off your kid because there's no tissue to be found? Good luck with it because my diet consists partly of regurgitated baby food and snacks. Sound gross? Make no mistake, it is. Slimy too. Your kid will eat whatever you make them eat? Spend an hour, slicing, dicing, steaming, cooking up a storm for your kid so that she can sit there eating Gerber Prunes and Baby Puffs instead of the chicken you just sliced and diced and steamed because she doesn't feel like chicken today. The same chicken she's been eating for months. At least prunes will make her system "go". You say you think you can control all her TV watching? Guess what, my kid doesn't watch TV at home, but you just can't make everyone turn off theirs every time you visit. What will you do when you walk into a Best Buy and they have 30 of them going at once? Call management? I'm not pro and I'm not anti-TV. It's just not something that occurred to me to do. Actually, maybe it's time. That buys me about 45 minutes a day! You'll never co-sleep? Shut up. When you haven't slept in 10 weeks and your kid is waking every 2 hours because you're her main food source, sometimes throwing the kid into bed with you for the extra 20 minutes of sleep will buy you your sanity. Literally. It's been 16 months and sometimes while putting her to bed, I'm passed out on the floor beside her before she's even asleep. Sometimes the things you thought you'd never do is only because you haven't done them yet. Oh and the pacifier thing? She needs it to sleep, dammit. Yeah it's bad. I get it. Sometime you just have to pick your battles. Don't judge me.









Girl needed something to do to keep busy while mommy showered!

So Big!

On a daily basis I realize how big she's grown. When it really hits me, however, is when I look back on the pictures I took throughout the day. She just seems so big in these. I think I just heard the cracking of my heart.






I mentioned not long ago that she broke one the legs off my glasses. Fortunately, I found a place that was willing to fix it for me. I paid $40 for the replacement and picked them up yesterday. The unfortunate kicker? I haven't seen them since. I took her for a walk briefly after parking the car in the driveway and still had it sitting on my head so between the car, a block and the front door, they've gone missing. If you run into my brain, can you tell it to come home that I've been looking for it all over the place? That'd be great.

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Oink

Some days I honestly feel like all she does is eat. All. Day.

Tunnel Baby

Someone got my brain working and I don't like to make my brain work. It's pretty messy up there as is. My current thought process goes something like this: "does Jellybean need a speech therapist?"; "is she behind?"; "I didn't know the magic number was 6 for 15 month olds. She's almost 16 months and she's only at two and half words! What do I do???". That got me thinking, does sign language count as talking? Does it? Because if it does, then Jellybean's ahead of her game. If it doesn't, I'll be making my next available appointment with a make-baby-talk-specialist. Thanks a lot, New Mom (I jest. I still think you're super cool!). Jumping topics, I was driving through a tunnel heading for the bigger city earlier tonight, and on the way in and out of the tunnel, to and from home, I had this sudden urge to cry (what is it about becoming a mom that make generally emotionless people so... emotional?). Maybe it was the lighting in the dark tunnel that resonated with me as life passing on by. It really does. Every minute you live, you never get that minute you just lived, back. It's gone. Forever. I love watching Jellybean grow and watching her personality bloom, but I'm also incredibly sad that with each step she takes to becoming her own person, a bit of her babyhood is being shed and left behind. This is contradicting because I'm all nuts over her not speaking 6 full words at 16 months now. Before I know it, she'll be telling me "no no no" instead of wagging her finger at me and I'm going to wonder what all the rush was, but it's about reaching milestones people. Next time, I'm taking the bridge. Yes. I'm crazy. Shut up (I'm not the only crazy though, right New Mom? Right? Hello? Damn).

Turn Around

16 months later, we are finally facing forward. My initial plan was to have her rear-facing until her 2nd birthday because that's what is recommended (or even older) - even though by law, your child need only be a 1 year old or over 20 pounds. Well, we're a little over a half year early and at the 22 pound mark now, but it's mother nature's fault and the carseat manufacturers fault too. I took her out today to run some errands. When I finally got her out of her seat, she was soaking wet in her sweat. I had the A/C blowing full in the car and I was freezing the entire half hour drive out. Enough sweat that had I wrung her onesie, I kid you not, it would've dripped sweat. In hindsight, maybe I should have because now the bottom of my bag has a wet spot, but that's an entirely different issue of the day. It's mother nature's fault because we missed Spring. I mean, Spring just never happened which would've given me an extra few weeks of feeling safe that she was staring at herself in the plastic mirror thing hanging off the headrest and the fault of the carseat manufacturer because the fabric on the seats are so darn heat absorbent. What's a mom supposed to do? Bake her kid in it? Anyway, so there she is. Happy to look out at the world. She looks happy, yes? And because I'm crazy, I drove on the right lane at speed limit because I want her to be safe, ya know? I have to say, it's certainly easier getting her in and out of the seat facing forward. I stuck a binky in her mouth thinking she would be fast asleep after running around all over the place for hours, but no, I just got suckered and couldn't take it back because my short little arms can only reach so far. That binky thing is going to be a battle in itself because her sleep depends on it, but that too, is a different issue. The photo where she's sporting my glasses? Well, that's just cool. If adults were to grow at the same pace as an infant or a toddler, how tall and large would we all average out to be?






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Bath Toys

They have tiny little holes that are supposed to squeak and squirt water out of them, right? I know that water left in the tiny little rubber critters is asking for mold to grow inside the toys that my daughter loves to chew on. That doesn't settle well with me. I would be more than happy to throw them all out, but she loves those things. Another idea would be to replace them weekly, but that of course is just a waste of time, money and time. Did I mention money? Yeah, none of which I'm rolling in. What I did was slit them down the middle so that I can clean them out with a toothbrush every other day and leave them soaking in clorox, drain them, rinse, drain, rinse, drain until my hands are raw and I'm satisfied that they're clean enough and the slits also allow for water to actually drain out of them faster thus less water remaining in them to grow mold except they no longer squeak and the squirty thing obviously doesn't work bc they all have slits straight across their bellies. I prefer to mutilate and violate rubber critters than I do moldy ones obviously, but shouldn't there be an easier way to do this?






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Anus-Hole Friend

Our core group of friends, we they are turning 30. That's right. One of those victims friends has a birthday coming up in about two weeeks and was clear of where she wanted to go. I, of course, being the fantastical friend that I am declined initially. INTIALLY!!! She has a thing with tardiness. It used to be one of my biggest peeves as well, but after the Jellybean, I became one of those annoying people who you can't get in touch with right away, have to wait on for hours to get a response to a text or IM, and days to respond to some emails. Why? BECAUSE THERE'S TOO MUCH NOISE IN THE HOUSE FOR ME TO THINK STRAIGHT! Whew. Anyway, I declined because I didn't want to be the sap that walks in 30 minutes after a party of 20 is already set to eat dinner. Well, that was my thinking. Then of course I get a follow-up: "Why can't you come? It's my 30th and I want all my friends to be there. PAUSE. STAB VAL IN THE HEART. PAUSE." Talk about feeling like an anus-hole, right? I realized after talking to her, I don't see any of my closest friends much. I see a lot of my mommy friends and yes, they're very close friends, but I forget sometimes how much I miss the friends I grew up with because I'm too busy being the new mommy me. This friend who gets to age first, I fell off bicycles with speeding down the hill of our old neighborhood (She did, not I. In fact, she scraped up the entire one side of her face actually and it was green for a good part of the school year from aloe treatment - good stuff!), face planted off swings with (again, not I, but she did), got our bicycles stolen by a homeless man (hers, not mine - come to think of it, she had some crappy days as a kid!) ate fruit roll-ups wrapped around pretzels with, grew apart from during college, dating, and living abroad years, and kinda grew back together as big peoples (until she deserted me and moved to the big, dirty, crowded, rat infested city that she finds awesomeness in, but that's neither here nor there). Did I mention she was my maid of honor when I got hitched a few thousand days ago? My point is, I will be going to dinner because sometimes, being a mom doesn't mean you get to make excuses for distancing good friends. Dammit! I said I would be there!

Team Uncooperate

We have hundreds of pictures of Jellybean as a newborn. Sleeping, eating, or in the bath. The SAME pictures. Tons of them overloading the files labeled by month on our soon-to-be-put-to-rest PC. That's all she did. Eat and sleep. Actually, she did other stuff like poopies and pee, but for the most part, her picturesque moments were captured in the sleeping, eating or bathing form. Once she started rolling over and sitting up, she did more, but it still relatively revolved around the same three activities. As she started to take off on her feet, well, that's where the pictures started to die out. There was no staying still long enough for a decent snapshot. She would be doing something cute and absolutely remarkable in my love blinded, tunnel vision eyes so I'd reach for the camera and she would just look up at me with a blank stare. Between her crawling, walking, and now running stage, we don't have nearly as many photos as the first few months of her life. I'm trying to work on it again. It's rather pitiful because most of them really are of the back, top or side of her head, too dark, too light, too blurry, or the "there's nothing there..." pictures. Sometimes I get lucky and catch parts of her face or with really funny expressions. Many of those times are after I regain my composure from losing my balance and falling over from her charging at me. I try people. I do.

"You're blocking my view, mommy!"

"hello? Hello? HUH-LO!!?!"

"I wanna see too!"

"Look mommy, new trick!"

"I'm checking my schedule"

"CHARRRRRRGE!!!!"

Today is Husband's birthday. His 35th birthday to be exact. Again. He's been turning 35 every birthday for the last 5 years, but it IS his birthday. He can be whatever he wants to be. Happy Birthday, Husband! You don't look a day over 25 ;).

Yeah, uhm, we need some new pictures of you because this is the best I can do. It's from October....

You Are My Sunshine!

My days are crazy, never according to plan, sometimes frustrating and other times just really fun. I started to run her ragged, to keep her active. The downside is that in order to keep her active, I have to be the one to chase after her which leaves me running myself ragged. I.AM.POOPED. But our days are full and she's happy. When baby's happy, mommy's happy. Works the other way too. Whatever day one is having, the other is likely to have, and I will say that a happy baby is key to just an all around easy, smiley, laugh-y day. Fewer tantrums means less hair lost, fewer tears means more funny faces, and fewer pouts means more kisses. Warmer weather and more sunshine definitely helps bunches. Look! Jellybean agrees!

idungetit

So apparently I've offended someone. I've yet to figure out how and why, but with that still in question, I don't care if you spank your child, I don't care if you don't. I don't care if you scream, yell, scold, give the silent treatment and ignore your screaming children or smother them with love for misbehaving. Maybe you step outside in your bra and panties in the cold to snap yourself out of your own frustration (this probably does not apply to dads - and if it does, well, let's not go there). My "issue" mentioned has nothing to do with anyone else's kid. It has something to do with mine. In fact, it had more to do with the hard time she was giving me at nap/night times and less to do with this other stuff, but here we are.

I love my child as much as the next parent and yes, I'll be pissed if your kid walks up to mine and hits her or takes her toy and makes her cry especially if it's a neighborhood kid I don't know. In much the same way, should it be my kid who hits your child or makes him or her cry by stealing her toy, she will be punished in some form and your child will get his or her apology AND the toy back. Will it always work? Probably not, but that's my goal. To teach my daughter that it's NOT okay to hit, it's NOT okay to be mean, it's NOT okay to bully and it's NOT okay to make other kids cry. She's a little young for all that right now, but it doesn't stop me from trying to teach her "nice nice" now. If you're okay with your son or daughter hitting, biting, taking things, and making others cry, well, while I don't care what form of discipline you choose or don't choose, I'd just rather my daughter not be on the receiving end of that behavior. I don't see how my feeling this way should offend anyone. I started this out ready to apologize, but I don't really think I'm sorry. Yep, no, I'm not sorry at all. I don't ever want my kid to be on the receiving end of a bully, but I also don't want her to be one either. I don't know why, in anyone's mind, that should be offensive. Are YOU okay with my kid smacking yours around only to see my approving - even applauding - it? I doubt it. Maybe your kid never misbehaves, but mine does. She DOES hit, she DOES take things, and she DOES yell and cry when things don't go her way - amongst other 15 month old stuff, and while it is normal, it is NOT okay and I do what I can to keep her from doing it. Try is all I can do. The question wasn't whether or not TO discipline. It wasn't even a question of the "right" or "wrong" way to discipline. It was "how" and I was referring to HOW do I get her to stop fighting me to go to sleep without taking it out on my stupid coffee machine for running out of water and HOW do I discipline her so I keep her nice and healthy because her behavior at times calls for the exact opposite.

P.S. she's been sleeping fine since the post because she likes to mess with mommy's head.

Good jeebus. I didn't really think anyone (aside from the obvious handful) read this stuff and to take it so personally, I should be honored - except I'm not. I don't like to offend people, but I also don't like being told that I'm wrong when I'm not. Granted, I'm wrong - A LOT! However, when it comes to my kiddy, I very rarely am. I'll bet my last shiny penny (I'm only a quarter-employed - that shiny penny's all I've got!) that every mommy knows their baby best. So let's leave it at that because it's getting late (or early) and I've yet another day to tackle. Giddy Up!

...

There's no title because I don't have any interesting things to talk about (today) not that any of my days are really all that interesting to anyone else, but myself. Her crazy screaming, kicking, slapping, fighting for an hour every night for sleep-time seems to have passed (for the time being). Now if only my bald spots from pulling my hair out start growing back, that would be super.

We had this kind of day today. How was yours?

Your Old Self

Ever run into someone from your past that leaves you feeling uncomfortable all day? I never have until today. Not for any specific reason and neither acknowledged the other. He saw me and I knew he did. I saw him and he knew I did. We didn't pause, didn't stop, didn't even meet eyes, and kept moving along with our day. It wasn't the person I saw that left me with this feeling of uneasiness. Not nostalgia, not the common "what would have happened if..."-s about it. It was most unpleasant, to say the least, which is the most surprising. Having run into this person didn't bother me. It was the uneasiness I was left with upon seeing him that bothered me more because I don't have a real memory that involves him that would trigger feelings so negative. I remember where I had been working at the time, the friend I met him through, what he did for a living (I think?), I vaguely remember him riding a motorcycle and owning a red bike. Most of that group of friends rode bikes. It was the cool thing then. I don't remember any specific incident involving him. He isn't an ex-boyfriend - had it been, the odd reaction would make some sense - and he wasn't anyone in particular in my life, noone special, just someone I knew briefly who happened to be a friend of a friend of mine at the time. He was a passerby, but all day I've been buzzing with this annoying nervous energy and just a general uncomfortable-ness that I can't even begin to explain or understand. I don't remember having had any feelings - good or bad - for him aside from just knowing him. Not quite friend, but maybe slightly more than acquaintance. I don't remember liking or disliking him to any extreme. He was always nice enough and we may have had some inane conversation over food or drinks in a group setting. He was a passerby. So then, why, you ask? If you can figure it out, can you tell me? I don't know and I have to go do laundry now.
***
Now the funny news of the day. My friend's husband had his car stolen a few days ago (that's not the funny part, read on). He had his golf clubs in his trunk which made the situation infinitely worse. Just ask any avid golfer. So, over the weekend he gets a call from a precinct telling him his car was found. Turns out the entire car was stripped. They even took his spare tire. What they left, were his entire set of golf clubs - untouched. So the thieves took out the bag of clubs, set it down to get to the spare tire, and placed the clubs back into the trunk. I don't know about you, but I'm still laughing.
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Good Mommy/Bad Mommy

So back to my emotional train wreck issue. Discipline. Specifically, disciplining a toddler who understands more than she let's on, but doesn't quite understand enough. My girl is sweet, very loving, spirited, stubborn, independent, sensitive, daring (another story for another time), generous (she's a sharer!), funny, clean (is that even a compliment?), borderline OCD (all doors and drawers must be closed AT ALL TIMES), she never took to lovies, she doesn't play with dolls and stuffed animals, she is much more interested in how something works rather than what it actually does, she's kissable, and oh-so-sweet. Except when she's not.

Let's jump the topic for just a second. Ever read "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother"? Go. Read it. It is not as the critics review it to be. She does not convey the message "my way is better than your way". It's actually an author simply re-telling her story and the reasons behind why she did it. It's part self-deprecating, part humorous, a little heartbreaking and also quite insightful. She is the definition of discipline to an extreme direction. Not something I am in agreement with entirely, but her book, I would definitely recommend to others.

Okay back on. I am not keen on spanking. It's proven to be quite ineffective. They stop doing what they are doing the moment you smack their hands, until they do it again. It also sends the message "it's okay to hit when you're angry". Somewhere I read an article that said "to teach a child that their hitting or biting hurts, is to make them feel it". I experimented a bit because at the time, it made sense, and you know what? It was a really stupid article and I may have permanently scarred us both. Anyway, moving on.

I don't believe you should be the "good parent" at all times. You can't because kids are wired to test boundaries and as someone put it "if you're a lamb parent and your child is a tiger child, he will just eat you alive" or something to that effect. Actually, the person who said this had a story of his own. I don't quite remember it exactly as it was written and I can't seem to find it now so I'll botch it up here in trying to retell it. I'm hoping it's okay as long as the message is understood. It was his own experience with his son at the playground when another child takes away his son's toy and refuses to give it back. The mother of the bully child, upon failing to discipline her child, simply offers to pay off the father for the toy her child snatched away from his son. The father, incredulous, takes his son off to the side and says to his little boy who is crying over the injustice of having is OWN toy taken from him, "Never treat another child the way he just treated you, because you don't want to make another child feel as horribly as you feel right now" as he walked away from what he called the "Lamb Parent" and "Tiger Child" having declined the mother's payoff - much to her embarrassment, I'm sure. I couldn't have said it better.

I am a firm believer in disciplining and directing your children. Even if at times it means a stern scolding and punishment equal to the consequences deserved for the act committed whether that be a time-out, getting all her toys taken away for the entire day, not being able to do the fun thing I promised we would do, or having to leave from a fun place because she is not playing nicely. Now that Jellybean is a toddler, she's no longer my helpless little baby *SOB!*, but she's not yet a child to reason with. It makes it rather difficult to discipline a toddle baby who doesn't understand entirely why what she is doing is wrong. Sure, she knows NOT to do it (and does it again or tries to anyway), but to explain the why is quite tricky. Well, I DO explain the why. She doesn't always know what the explanation means because I have to sum it up in short bursts of "No, Ouch!" or "No, Hot!" or "No, it's going to break" or "No, dangerous" - you get the idea. Not everything can be explained in one to three words. Empathy has not come into full-play just yet which doesn't make it much easier. I realize it's a phase and what has been working is staying calm and patient. She seems to calm down much faster than when she senses I'm getting flustered and agitated. I've succeeded in the last two days (a day at a time!). I don't raise my voice so loud even if I want to holler at the top of my lungs because I foresee a faceplant in the seconds to follow. I haven't punished her, but I have scolded her just enough. It tries your patience to no end and it takes EVERY ounce of self control you may not have even known you had not to lose it when it takes an hour and a half of piercing screaming/crying to get her to finally nap (which in this house has been unheard of until this week!) without reacting to it. However, the reason for the emotional meltdown is not when these things are happening because in the face of it, I'm a soldier. It's the after. After spending a full day of being in COMPLETE and TOTAL control, and she's in snuggled up for the night, I feel like I can burst into flames over something as simple as the coffee machine having run out of water. Maybe I'm taking it harder because in 15 months, she was the poster child who slept through the night since she was 4 months old, napped religiously for 2 hour stretches, went down for the night at 7pm on the dot every night until 7 the next morning, ate (too) well, never needed any form of medication, had two colds in 15 months, never even knew that she was teething aside from excessive drooling and never had an issue with any sort of transitioning. It was smooth sailing for the most part. Does it sound like I'm bragging? I'm not. Honest. I will be the first to admit, I had it pretty easy and was even secretly afraid to ask myself at one point if perhaps it had been too easy. That's not to say it's bad. She's a super happy, healthy, vibrant, and bright baby which is ALL I can wish for and am totally, totally grateful for. I just need some insight in trying to keep my child all those things AND alive because her incredible spirit sometimes poses a serious health risk.









But - BUT! BUT! Look at that FACE, right???

LICM

It is such a fantastic place to take kids over the age of 1 and under the age of 5. I love love love my Jellybean sometimes I wonder if I might explode. There are, however, some such days where I think this is the hardest job, the most difficult and frustrating yet most rewarding in the world. Parenting. It makes me want to cry. More on my emotional train wreck of the last couple of days later. All I know is that today, today was a fabulous day. - Posted using BlogPress

In Other News...

DishingforDana.com - isn't it amazing what a community of (non-angry; non-bitter) bloggers can do? Hi Dana - if you came over to check, I wasn't lying! :)

The Secret Life of a Stay At Home

My brother in law will tell me quite easily how lucky I am to be able to sit home everyday with my beautiful daughter. He's not wrong, of course, but he also hasn't a clue as to what some days are actually like. He doesn't see the tantrummy Jellybean. As far as he's concerned, she's just an abnormally happy and easy child. Again, he's right, but that's in comparison to what, as far as he knows, since he doesn't have a kid of his own? He once said to me "you're so lucky, you can retire in 10 years after the kids are grown (Jellybean would be 11 and a half in 10 years. I hardly think of 11 being all grown and what if we have more kids, but what do I know?). I see moms out to brunch in the city everyday after dropping the kids off at school. You could do that." - or something to that effect to which I had no reply. What do you say to that? He's forgiven (for now) only because he doesn't have any mini versions of him. I am waiting to shove that in his face come time. He doesn't know that I don't wear sweatpants in the house anymore because I leave the shades open during the day and if I'm cooking and Jellybean wants attention, she'll pull and pull and pull on them and I end up mooning my neighbors (which I have done on several occasions before realizing sweatpants are not okay and if I must wear them, to remember not to open the blinds). I don't think I would have made it as a working mom. I'm pretty certain that if I had to commute to work, do all the cooking, cleaning, washing, cutting, dicing, steaming, laundry, preparing for next day meals for the Jellybean AND ourselves after pulling in a 40 hour work week, I would about keel over so I have tons of respect for working moms, but make no mistake, we stay at home moms don't JUST STAY HOME. You want to know why? I spend my time putting back together our 104 pieces of foam mats on the floor back together because that's her hobby now - to pull as many apart as she can. I cook/wash x5 daily. EVERYDAY from 7am until her last meal at 5:30pm with about an hour and a half between each meal or snack. In between that, I sometimes find enough time to throw something in the microwave that passes as a meal for myself - usually whatever leftover from her meals usually while she is napping. She plays with every piece of toy she can get her hands in or on and all of it falls into a huge pile in the middle of the living room and while she helps clean, well, she's 15 months and still waddles so you figure out how clean, clean actually is. This is while I have the Jellybean wanting attention and doing everything to get it including trying to pull my pants down or look up my shirt until her nightly bath (read: pool party) for the last half hour of her day and then having to clean up after I put her to bed. Somewhere in there, we have our daily hour walk around the neighborhood which really means that she's walking for 15-20 minutes of the hour and being carried the remainder of the time because the stroller, well I use it as a shopping cart now. That's all on a good day without having to be somewhere or do something out of our usual routine. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I CHOSE this. That isn't the point of this post. The point is, I DO STUFFS and don't sit around kissing on my daughter's face all day even if that's really what I would like to be doing so when I hear someone say "it must be nice to be able to sit around at home all day" what I would like is to punch them really hard. In the face. I see why now, the rage and superiority wars between working moms and stay at home moms exist. Sadly, neither is easy any which way you try to look at it. It's called parenting. Why the high horsey? "NEIIIIGH!"


Leah had her first french fry. She didn't much like it, and promptly threw it over her shoulder just moments before we got this out of it. :)

Pretty Dresses

When I was pregnant and found out I was having a little girl, immediately my thoughts flooded with images of a little girl in pink, white, yellow, floral dresses with pigtails and flowers in her hair. The reality was not so much what I had in mind. Until now, anyway. When they are newborns, everything you put on their little body is a dress. Jellybean was born on the smaller side so even her onesies hung off her body like a dress. Then she grew the cheeks and still there was no getting her in a dress because they would constantly ride up her back. In fact, they would get so rumpled after a while that it wasn't even very cute looking. When she started to do the army crawl slithering thing, she would end up mopping up the house with the dress and while I love me a clean home, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind. When she actually started to crawl, if I put her in a dress she would catch the hem with her knee and do a faceplant. It was so funny and sad that I never put her in a dress after that first time. Even when she was learning to waddle around, she would fall a lot and be unable to get up because she would end up sitting on the hem and she'd cry because her weight is holding down the dress and the dress would be holding her down so that didn't work well either. NOW- now is a different story. By golly, I have me the little girl in the pretty pink dress that I had dreamt of while she was doing somersaults in my belly (beating playing the piano and nana and granpapa's house)!

SALE!

Who doesn't love sales? You know what I DO hate though? I hate that I put off buying something I really need or want, then finally suck it up to buy it, only to find out (the same day) that some other vendor is selling it for 50% off. I bought a hip carrying device which holds the baby up without the bells and whistles of an actual carrier (which has its great uses, but is a bit cumbersome for every day stuffs) and the thing was $80.00. I saw a mommy friend using it and I've always wanted it, thought about it and found reasons why I could do without it -- until yesterday when I really could've used it (my left shoulder wouldn't feel like it's falling out of its socket today). I got the name of the place mommy friend bought it from and ordered one earlier today. Guess what, I just sat down to do some more surfing on the product and what do I see? "50% or more off sale on items JUST FOR TODAY!". Ever go on steep and cheap? They sell one item for a set amount of time and move on to the next. They have things at ridiculous discounts like 65% off on some items. They have a baby site for this stuff and I just happened to catch it for the very thing I needed! So I sent an email to the place I initially ordered the hip-hangy-thing-device from asking to "please cancel, I am sorry for being a cheap jerk the inconvenience" and ordered it from here (click me!) for $39 instead of $80! I hope they oblige.