ah, my daughter..

I take care of her all day, wake up with her at night, feed her, change her, hold her, hug her, read to her, watch endless noggin/sprout/pbs/nickjr with her, comfort her, dress her, bath her, play with her, clean her, wash her clothes, take her out, buy her things, wipe up her drool, cut her nails, put orajel on her gums, keep her out of trouble, and on.

And that's sort of "fine" with her.. but the second dada comes home it's squeals of delight and crawling all over the room following him around. Mommy who? Kind of breaks my heart- a bad way.

$2.50 ruined my day

I woke up early enough that my husband hadn't left for work yet and I actually got to take a shower without worrying that my daughter would wake up.

There were hardly any cars out when we got out for the day (10am!). I kept getting green light after green light on the way to Target.

When we got to Target the parking lot was about 1/4 of what it normally is like on a Saturday.. the same for inside the store. I found everything I was looking for and had a mountain of coupons. My daughter was super good in the store- didn't cry or fuss at all. AND the cashier actually asked if I had a bag to use when I checked out..

But then when I got into the car and looking at my receipt I realized the cashier had missed scanning $2.50 worth of coupons I had given her. And that just ruined my entire day.

the things my daughter does..

A couple of days ago she was as close to crawling as you can get without actually crawling, but now she has started moving her legs independently of each other.. so I guess that makes it official! 

She has also started pulling herself up to a kneeling position in her crib and looking like she wants to vault over the side of it. Suppose that means it needs to be dropped again.

more on mother's day

If you want to know more about why my mother's day was the "worst mother's day ever"- I will elaborate only a little.

I got a card "from" my daughter and a framed picture of her. I tried to explain to my husband how much this first mother's day meant to me and how much I had been looking forward to it (and maybe a little show of appreciation for all I do and all I went through to bring said daughter into the world). The response I got made me more sad. So..

I took my daughter to the park and we watched the ducks for a little while, but it was a little too windy and we left. The woman at the drive thru at the bagel place (where I got my breakfast from) was the only person that day to wish me a happy mother's day.

Etc.

However, my parents sent me a card. And there cards from my grandmother and sister (and her family) waiting for me at the post office on Monday.. and that was nice.

here's some hand sanitizer in your eye!

My daughter would not take a nap and was doing "backflips" and "somersaults" in her crib, so I figured she must need her diaper changed. I checked. Yup, she pooped. 

I took off the dirty diaper and cleaned her up. Then, before I put the new one on I went to get a little sanitizer for my hands. There must have been a little dried up on the spout because it shot a stream straight towards my eye. 

I stood there for a second with my right eye closed. Nothing. Thank God I shut my eye in time, I thought to myself. Wait. No. OMG that hurts! I half keeled over on a nearby chair. That lasted about 5 seconds.. then I ran to the bathroom. 

I washed my eye out until I was finally able to open it. I went back to my daughter (who was in her crib this whole time.. don't worry) she was having a fantastic time in her crib playing with the new diaper that hadn't been put on her yet. She was also having a great time rolling around in all the pee she had let go while I was washing my eye out. SO much pee in fact that it ran off the crib mattress and onto the floor!

TGIF no?

and today at the park..

Daughter and I went to the park today. And every SAHM in a 20 mile radius took their kiddies to the park too. I had to drive around looking for a spot for 10 minutes just to take a 20 minute walk. Arrg. Who knew going to the park was so stressful?

so it's come to this has it?

Soo.. I have a baby. And I signed up for pretty much every reputable offer I could find before she came (and a few after).

What this means is that I get coupons and offers in the mail many times a week. A lot of it is for brands that I am not using. For months I was just throwing them out.. but then I started to wonder how I could find someone else to use them. For example, I decided to go with Similac, but I was also getting Enfamil coupons (one was for $11 off).

[Amusing side story: When I say "I decided to go with Similac" I mean I picked a brand without too much knowledge of the differences. Then, when I was recovering from surgery, drifting in and out of consciousness, and the nurse told me my baby was hungry and asked me which brand I wanted her to be fed.. I could hardly remember my own name never mind what brand of formula I wanted my baby to eat. She rattled off a list, I said something like "what's the difference".. the response was "nothing", so I guess I repeated the only one I could remember.]

And apparently it has come to this..

I signed up for some baby coupon swapping nonsense. Ya, that's right. I seem to now be collecting coupons and trading them with people via the usps. 

But it's kinda neat if you think about it. I've already gotten a few emails and at least one woman wants to send me $7 worth of similac coupons for a couple of Johnson's and Pampers coupons I know I'll never use. Spend 42¢, save $7.. sounds good to me.

First it was being inspired by families of 4 and 5 with insanely low grocery budgets. Now it's collecting and trading baby coupons with strangers. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Or something.

or not

I emailed someone with a couple of questions I had about the potential job. The email address of mine I used was in gmail. 

If you have a gmail account, you know how you can see the first line or so of the email even before you open it? Well, the response I got started with the word "unfortunately".. so you can figure out the rest of how that went.

I was a little sad, I'll admit. Okay, more than a little. But on the bright side, I'll still get to spend all my days with Daughter. For now anyway. Too bad no one sends me a paycheck for doing that.

well, it's a job

I had a job interview this week. Well, I actually had two.. at the same place. I was called back for round two.. that's good right?

This is the first interview I've had since Daughter arrived in my life, which makes it 100 times more complicated. At first I was somewhat looking forward to playing"grown-up" for a few hours, but then I realized I didn't actually have any interview clothes that were in the house and not packed in boxes lost forever in the garage. Oops. 

Eventually I managed to put together a fairly decent outfit.. but when they wanted me to come back.. I had to go buy new everything.. and that was so much harder than I thought it would be having to drag Daughter along. Poor thing, but she did pretty well.

Anyway.. the initial sort of excitement started to go away after the first interview. And then it reeally started to go away as I prepared for the second interview and I realized having this job would mean not spending all my time with Daughter. And that started to upset me. 

I thought about spending 40+ hours a week at some office. I thought about driving for 10+ hours a week back and forth to some office. I thought about all the stupid grown-up clothes I would have to wear all week at some office. I thought about how this job was sounding more and more like the job I left a year ago for many reasons, including that I hated it and everyone I had to be around during it. 

I thought about all of that as I walked really really slowly back to my car after the 2nd interview. When I got into my car.. I just sat there for awhile. I thought about all that.. and then how much time I wouldn't be spending with Daughter.. and I was so very very sad.

new bag!

ah! I finally, finally got a new bag. I have been carrying around the same (wintry) bag for like 2 years now. Don't get me wrong, I really really like it, but it is wool.. and that seems a little weird for the spring/summer. I also noticed recently that the bottom corners are starting to wear out a little bit.

Daughter and I went to Target on Friday (after her check-up) to buy her first jars of baby food! And on the way by the bags at the front of the store I saw there were new (Spring?) colors of those canvas Converse bags they rotate around for the last year or so. I have been looking at them for awhile.. every time new colors come out.. I have to look. I almost bought a blue one once, but when I saw the striped one, I had to have it- and now I do. It is a little lighter weight than the ones they have had previously, but I think that's another reason why I like it. Actually, I almost didn't buy.. just because.. I don't know.. that's the way I am. But then I was unsnapping the inside and I looked at what was imprinted on them.. and I took it as a sign. It said "orion" all over them.. my cat's name! He was sending me the "just buy the G**damn bag already mom!" message.

dragging daughter

When I drag Daughter all over the place - in and out of the car/carseat over and over.. I wonder if she hates it or loves it. Somewhere in between or a combo of the two maybe?

babble

I get emails from BabyCenter each week about where Daughter is in development, etc. I got one recently  that said "At this age, about half of babies babble, repeating one syllable — such as ba, ma, ga, or other consonant-vowel combinations — over and over. "

Yup, that is exactly where we have been for the last few weeks. Daughter is into one that sounds like a combo of "da" and "tha".. very cute.

i won!

Ahh! I am SO excited.. I actually won something on the Ulimate Blog Party run by 5 Minutes For Mom.

It would have been really amazing to get my hands on that fancy mixer (even though I bet I wouldn't ever use it- not a baker). I won the most selfish of prizes from what I selected as things I wanted- gift card to Old Navy. 

Actually, I used to shop there a lot for myself, but the last 6-8 months has pretty much been 100% for Daughter. Oh well.. maybe she'll let me get one thing for myself.  : )

something I learned on Tuesday

The front brakes on Daughter's stroller do NOT work.

How did I come to learn this you are wondering? Well..

Daughter and I went to the mall, since we hadn't been in several weeks and it can be a decent place to walk around, while protected from the "elements", for awhile. I got Daughter's stroller out, set it up next to the car, pushed down one of the front brakes, and crawled into the back of the car to get Daughter out of her seat. I crawled back out of the car holding Daughter only to discover that the stroller was not right next to me anymore. Where was the stroller? Taking off across the parking lot along with much gusting wind. Thank God the stroller was empty (no bag or child inside) and I was already holding Daughter. I started to run after it, but stopped about half way to it as it was about to run, full speed, into a car that was backing up. 

"Oh shit!" is I think what probably came out of my mouth. Then, I don't know why, but about a foot away from the car the stroller came to a dead stop. The car drove away (ya, thanks for the help), I finished my crazy run across the parking lot, retrieved the stroller, and headed back to the car. Obviously somewhat embarrassing, but also pretty funny. 

more gabba

Yeah.. more Yo Gabba Gabba coming my way! Uh, I mean more YGG coming Daughter's way. Although.. we haven't even seen the new episodes from this year yet. : (

car seat search part two is ON

Daughter is on the verge of outgrowing the height limit of her carseat. I have mixed feelings about this.

Mostly I am excited I guess- I'm getting really tired of hauling her around in that infant carrier. BUT one of the things I like about her infant car seat is that it fits in her stroller and it faces me so I can babble to her when we're walking around. Outgrowing the infant carseat means no more facing mommy when in the stroller.

So next up is the convertible carseat I guess. And while I am not looking forward to paying (up to) another couple of hundred dollars on one, I guess the convertible one will be with her for a few years and not 5 or 6 months like the one we have now (I wish I knew more about this stuff when we bought the first one). I don't have too much info on the safety and crash info, but the first one I saw online was one from Britax in cowmooflage. Cute, huh? 

I suppose "cute" isn't really a good reason to buy something that is designed solely to keep your child safe. BUT when I looked at the Britax models at Target, I saw that they are made in the USA. And then when I found two sentences of (free) info online, the Britax's are apparently on the top of a lot of lists. So now I can say the "cute" is just an added bonus.

YGG live??

Yo Gabba Gabba live??! --->http://www.babble.com.au/2009/03/20/win-tickets-to-yo-gabba-gabba-live-in-concert/

When are they coming to this country???

I guess it's better that they are not starting in the US, because although it seems like Daughter already really likes this show on tv.. I don't know how much she would appreciate the live version at this very early stage in her life.

How about in 6 months or so? Come to a city near me and we'll be there.

talking to myself

I got this in an email recently. It seemed all too appropriate for me.

on tuesday

Daughter and I went to Target on Tuesday (surprise).

And even though I left 2 feet of space on the belt between Daughter's diapers and the items of the person in front of me, the cashier still asked the woman if they were hers. She looked at me and Daughter, then back at the cashier and said-"I ain't doing no diapers!"

A) I love the English language

B) could not a simple "no" or "no they are not" have sufficed?

the binky daughter

Daughter used to have so many binkies, but the green ones were always her favorite. Husband first gave her one when we were still in the hospital and it's been a binky, binky world ever since.

But this week I've noticed we were down to two green binkies.. and then only one. I explained to daughter not to throw the last remaining precious green binky on the floor because then it would be a "dirty binky". How is it your child has the ability to melt you brain and make you instantly sound like a dope to all non-parents to said child?

Anyway, this afternoon I watched daughter take the last green binky out of her mouth, throw it through the bars of her crib (hitting the floor), and then start screaming hysterically. I rushed over to her to say "ya, I saw that!" She stopped crying instantly, having forgotten that most of the time "mommy sees all".

Well I couldn't very well leave the poor kid without any binkies at all, so I moved everything out from under her crib and slithered under it on my binky recovery mission.

And I am happy to report that the mission was extra successful. I recovered not one, but TWO green binkies! The daughter was pleased.