Saturday, December 22, 2007

Cara Mama - Early Christmas

Cara Mama,

I had so much fun this morning when we got to open presents with Grandma and Grandpa! The crinkly bag and paper were my favorites! What do you mean there are books, clothes and toys? They aren't nearly as fun as the BOX! And we are going to do this again in a few days? Will there be more bags, paper and boxes? Yeah!!!

I hope Grandma and Grandpa come back and visit again soon. That was fun!

La Tua Figlia,
Pumpkin

Friday, December 21, 2007

Cara Figlia - When It Runs, We Catch It

Cara Figlia,

I'm sorry you have this cold. I know it's hard on you because you don't feel good and don't know why. Luckily, it's not so bad, as colds go. But that runny nose... Oh boy! It keeps running, and you HATE having your nose wiped. I don't much enjoy wiping it either, but it has to be done. Otherwise your snot runs right into your mouth, and that's just gross.

When I get close to your face with a tissue, you turn your head side to side, away from the tissue, and cry and scream. I feel like the worst mommy ever, but I have to wipe the snot up! I'm not actually trying to torture you or hurt you. I try to be gentle or make it a game, but you still hate. every. second.

I hope as you get older, you will at least understand why I'm doing it and not freak out quite as much. I can only hope.

Ti Amo,
Mama

Thursday, December 20, 2007

It's That Time of Year

Between having a lot to do at work, running holiday errands, and visiting inlaws, I don't really have time to post today or even visit all my favorite blogs. But please feel free to browse the previous posts. Perhaps you would enjoy the Questions of the Week. Go ahead and answer one, if you haven't already. Even you, my dear friend who thinks my hubby is funnier than I am. ("It's not that your posts aren't funny, it's just that whole 'hazy fogger' thing was SO funny." I know he's funnier than I am, but I'm still going to give you a hard time.)

I hope everyone else is getting it all done. I'm not sure how I will. We still don't even have up any lights or a tree, and we still have to address all the envelopes for the cards! At least I finished the shopping...

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

That Bites!

It's happened before, but never like this. I thought I understood how painful it could be... But I didn't know it could hurt that bad! I didn't realize that it could go from being so sweet to very!suddenly!very!painful!

That's right, the Pumpkin bite me while I was nursing her to sleep last night. She's had a cold and she's been teething, so I'm hoping it was just due to her uncomfort. During previous teething bouts, she has bitten, but in those cases she started slowly and I was able to feel it coming and stop her quickly. This time, it was sudden, it was hard, and I was not smooth in my movements to stop her.

Out of the blue, she bit down hard. I yelled out and jerked sharply. She bit down harder in her surprise at my yelling and movement. I proceeded to yell louder and poke her in the cheek in my effort to get my finger in her mouth and pry her off. I finally was able to fish-hook her jaw with my finger and pull her away from my breast.

And she looked at me with a look of surprise and fright her bight eyes, made the most perfect open-mouthed frown, and burst out crying as if I had done something to her!

Meanwhile, my nipple was throbbing in pain, and I was in a little bit of shock. But as a mom, I immediately put that aside and held the baby to my shoulder to calm her down, telling her it was alright and we'd nurse again in a minute. After we both calmed down and my nipple felt a little better, we were able to finish our nursing session, with her peacefully drifting off to sleep.

I had heard that baby bites could be bad, but I hadn't realized how bad. I had read what you are supposed to do (don't show a big reaction and calmly disengage the baby from your nipple), but I did not do that. In fact, I was so the opposite of calm, Londo came running up to the nursery to make sure I was okay because he'd heard my yelling through the baby monitor. I'm hoping that next time I react faster and better.

Who am I kidding, I'm really hoping that I scared the bejeezes out of her and there won't be a next time!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Daddy's Take: Home for the Holidays

So, the Holidays are upon us. Now, I need to make a disclaimer before we move on. I hate most Christmas music. I love Christmas, mind you, but the music makes me nuts. I chalk it up to having spent roughly 2 years working in the mall. (I know some of you out there are feeling my pain right now.) I worked in a couple of different clothing stores, and they each had in-store stereo systems. They each had the same collection of Christmas music. So, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, from early November (yes, that early) through mid January, I had to listen to the same 4 CDs of Christmas music. I firmly believe this is what's happening in Gitmo right now.

However I now have realized that with Pumpkin's first Christmas coming up, I have an overwhelming desire to sing her every single Holiday ditty I know! She has, if only temporarily, given me the joy of Christmas carols again (I owe you one Kiddo.)

I find myself looking forward to this Christmas more than any other I can remember. I get to wake up in my own bed, next to my lovely wife, and bring Pumpkin downstairs to open her presents. For a brief moment, I will not be a Crotchety Young Man.

It's a Christmas miracle.

- Londo

xxx

Monday, December 17, 2007

Question of the Week - Passing on Your Traits

Thanks to everyone for sharing the names you loved on last week's QotW. I loved them all! (With the exception of Londo's names... We will talk later...)

Here's another QotW related to kids, as this is a mommy/parent blog:

If you could pass on any physical trait and/or character trait to your child, what would it be? What would you not want to pass on?

Here are my answers: I would love to pass on my eye color to a child of mine. So far, it looks like the Pumpkin will not have the same shade as me, although she does have my eye shape, and her eyes are really beautiful. But I got my eye color from my mom, and I would love to pass it on to one of my children. As for my character trait, I hope to pass on my love of animals.

What I don't want to pass on is my acne-prone skin (how am I still breaking out at 31?!?!) and how I deal (or should I say not deal) with frustrations.

How about you?

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Cara Mama - But I Wanted to Play!

Cara Mama,

I don't understand why we couldn't play last night. After all, you, Daddy and I were up for over 2 hours anyway. Why did you guys keep trying to get me back to sleep? Wasn't it obvious that I was awake and didn't want to sleep or nurse or be rocked or even lay down? We could have just played. It would have been much more fun.

Sure, Daddy eventually got me back to sleep. But I think we would have all would have been in much better moods if we had gotten up, went downstairs and checked out the toys. I don't know what you mean by "middle of the night" or "going to lose it." But at least when I finally went back to sleep, I only woke up one more time and then slept in until 7:30! Aren't I a good baby?

La tua bambina,
Pumpkin

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