These things can be tricky sometimes

Ask a silly question...

Mommy: What is that piece of chicken doing in your mouth?
Ellie: Is wif da girl and da odder girl and they're playing!

Reboot

The other night I had a minor meltdown of sorts. Addie still isn't sleeping like she did before she got sick three weeks ago and I'm tired of being tired. At 1:30 AM on Wednesday, I had enough.

The interesting thing about parental meltdowns (at least the minor kind - I'm not going to claim I understand the real ones that result in real consequences) is that you have to pick yourself back up and continue on. This baby needs you regardless of whether or not you'd rather sleep. You keep going.

As it so happened with us, it ended up being a nice sort of mental reboot. After lots of internet searching, searching for records of how Ellie was at this point in her infancy, combined with a little bit of soul searching, we were able to start all over.

Last night I didn't try to get Addie to return to her normal routine. I fed her and comforted her every time she woke up. She still woke more times than I'd prefer, but my attitude had changed.

Isn't it interesting how it sometimes takes one very horrible day (or in my case, night) to force you to step back and re-examine the situation (or in my case, my attitude)? It only takes one bad moment for you to remember that it is only going to get better from here.

Look what I found!

My hands!

Wordless Wednesday XXVI

Getting Ready

This might have been the quickest Ellie has ever gotten dressed for me...

Ellie: Hey, Mommy. Let me tell you some-ping.
Mommy: What's that?
Ellie: I'm getting married today.
Mommy: Oh?!
Ellie: Yeah. I'm getting ready for my prince.
Mommy: I think that's a good idea.
Ellie: I'm getting ready for my prince jus like my prince is getting ready for me.
Mommy: I'm sure he is.
Ellie: Hurry hurry!
Mommy: Do you want to wear a dress for your prince?
Ellie: Yeah! And he likes flowers in my hair.
Mommy: Ok, we can do that! Let's hurry!

...

Mommy: Ok, we're all ready for the day.
Ellie: And my prince!
Mommy: Should we go see your prince?
Ellie: Yes. Dere he is! Hi Prince! It's good to see you. (starts to head down the stairs). Mommy, I'm holding my prince's hand!
Mommy: Oh? What's his name?
Ellie: Prince Venna.
Mommy: It's nice to meet you, Prince Venna. He's cute.
Ellie: Yeah. Prince Venna, do you wanna dance wif me? Yeah? Ok. (heads off and twirls across the room). Mommy, I'm married now because I live apply affa!

Smile Picture - FAIL!

Sacrificing during pregnancy

On the radio station's "other people's problems" the other day, a woman wrote to ask how she should handle her husband wanting to be more intimate with her than she wanted. She was also pregnant.

Multiple (I repeat, MULTIPLE) guys called in saying that they had an agreement with their wives that they could have an open relationship (sleep with other women) during their wive's pregnancies. One guy even said that they hired a lawyer and wrote up a whole legal agreement where he promised not to fall in love and if she ever got suspicious about him cheating AFTER the pregnancy was over, then she would get 90% of his worth.

I think that's crazy! Many other callers called in to say that a woman sacrifices so much during a pregnancy and it's so difficult. The DJ would respond with "but it was your choice to get pregnant. You CHOSE to make those sacrifices."

Isn't the decision to have children one that is chosen by BOTH husband and wife? Isn't a pregnancy something where BOTH husband and wife need to make some sacrifices? She sacrifices her comfort to carry a baby for 9 months. Is it really that much to ask him to sacrifice his "comfort" too?

I'm not sure what responses I expect to hear back, but I was surprised enough by the topic that I figured it was worth writing about. It never ceases to amaze me how people view life's situations and solutions with such variety.

Euphamism for nookie

My good friend Jen might appreciate this (and might need it today)...

Mommy: Daddy is my prince.
Ellie: Why?
Mommy: Because he loves me and I love him and we're going to live happily ever after.
Ellie: I wanna live apply affa too!
Mommy: Some day you will meet your prince.
Ellie: And I marry him!
Mommy: Yep.
Ellie: And den he hold my hand and my odder hand and we spin and spin and spin!

Doula Potential

Ellie was a little backed up the other day and it was hurting her to poop. When she finally did manage to poop, I found myself right there by her side. The strange thing about it was that I ended up reminding myself of my birth doula. During the 10-minute poop, I said things like:

"Keep pushing, Ellie, it's almost there!"
"I see the poop, Ellie! I see it! Here it comes!"
"You have to push through the pain, Ellie!"
"Look at me, Ellie, look at me! You can do this!"

Needless to say it was a little surreal. I don't think she appreciated my coaching help as much as I appreciated my doula, but maybe that's because she wasn't very attached to the poop after it came out. =)