Here Come Freckles!

Before I read this post by Girl's Gone Child, I never even thought about the fact that people aren't usually born with freckles. Apparently, they just appear randomly as kids are growing up. I knew that I used to get "summer freckles" that would appear when I was out in the sunshine all summer long and disappear with the onset of fall and winter. As for the other freckles I have all year long, I guess I just figured I was born with those.

The Pumpkin was not born with any freckles or birthmarks. She has this pale, rosy skin, almost translucent in some places it's so pale. As I've mentioned before, she most definitely gets this from her father. My skin is the olive of my Italian relatives, the yellowish-green undertones which tans with relative ease in the sun. I wondered if my children would get my coloring or my husband's. The first child definitely has Londo's skin color and blue eye color. She has the same shaped features as I do, but his coloring. And his skin is full of freckles--yet I never thought about her freckleless skin for her first year of life.

When the Pumpkin was about 13 months old, I noticed two spots on her arm. I'll be honest, I originally thought she had some dirt on her and tried to wipe it off. Imagine my surpise when they didn't come off. I then worried that she had some sort of rash or something, but when I looked at them in the light, I saw that they were brownish. Then it dawned on me--those were freckles! Adorable, yummy little freckles!

Last week, I discovered two more that are just starting to fade into being. One is on her leg and another is on the side of her ribs. I am beginning to suspect that she will be a freckly girl. I can't imagine that her skin will change from this pale, smooth, rosy, clear skin into pale, rosy skin sprinkled with freckles, but I am looking forward to discovering each and every one!

We are Weaning

The Pumpkin and I are weaning.

I don't want to go into why right now, but it is for a good reason or I wouldn't be doing it. In fact, I'm not really ready to wean, and I'm not sure the Pumpkin is either. We are down to nursing at bedtime and in the mornings, and sometimes she barely even nurses (especially in the morning). But then other times, she really seems to need that time and closeness with me.

There are times when she has asked to nurse that I've said "Not right now," but those were times when she didn't really need it. It was just like something she thought of because I had my shirt and bra off and it came to mind or she was up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. Those times it was more like, "Hey, what if we nurse?" not "Hey! I want to nurse!" When I said not right now, she practically shrugged and went about her business.

But those weren't the normal nursing times. It was not disrupting our routine. It was not something she was looking forward to at that specific time. (Okay, I'm totally tearing up right now.) Unlike this morning.

This morning, I coslept with her for an hour before we got up. She woke first and played on the bed, and then she got down and played around on the ottoman. Then she turned to her glider where we nurse every morning (and at bedtime). She looked back and me and inquired, "Nurny?" (This is her latest version in how she says nurse or nursing.) I said to her, "Not right now, honey."

She got an upset look on her face. She walked over to me and tried to take my hand. "Nurny!" She said more forcefully. "Not right now," I answered. Then she walked back to the glider and pounded it with her hands and exclaimed very frustrated and upset, "Nurny!!"

I went to distraction at this point and asked where her toys and books were. Luckily it worked. Once we both got up, I took her downstairs and fixed her a sippy cup of milk. But it's not the same. It's not the same milk, and more importantly it's not the same bonding, special, cuddly, comforting time for Mama and Pumpkin.

This is one of the hardest things I've ever done, and we've just started. I'm exceptionally frustrated that I am even doing it now. I put it off as long as I could, though. Now, unfortunately, it's time.

Did I Just Say That?

Things we never thought we would say, until we had a child:

-I don't even care if you drool in my mouth, I want a kiss!
-Why won't you just sit and watch TV?
-Thank goodness it's Monday and I can go back to work!
-I got to sleep through the night--all the way until 5:00!
-Dogs are not for sitting.
-We might as well have another. We're not sleeping anyway.
-I have never loved anything in the world more than this child.

Question of the Week - You've GOT To Get This

Let me warn you all... I'm completely into the Olympics. I'm held in it's thrall. I'm spending my days wishing I could watch more and read more about it. Especially gynmastics. I do love gymnastics. I also love swimming and enjoy diving and beach vollyball. You know what else I love? All those sappy commercials that make me tear up (Go World is right!) and inspirational stories that make me wish that everyone could win gold medals.

The reason I call this a warning is for three reasons:
1. Next week's Question of the Week will be about the Olympics, so you all better be watching at least something if you want to give an answer.
2. I will likely be referencing the Olympics in blog posts from now until closing ceremonies (and maybe after).
3. When I should be reading everyone else's blogs and even writing my own posts, there is a good chance that instead I'm reading Olympic news stories and/or watching the Olympics. Sorry if I'm not around as much as I'd like to be. Just when I'd finally caught up on my Reader and was discovering new blogs, too, and trying to really participate in Blog the Recession. If only blogging was an Olympic sport...

But I do have a non-Olympic related Question of the Week for this week. I had a whole story about a coworker's babyshower and a good friend's upcoming due date, but I'm busy reading about Olympic gymnastics. So let's just get to the Question of the Week already:

What baby/child item did you originally think was unnecessary but is now vital to you?

Mine is the video monitor. When Londo first mentioned wanting a video monitor, I told him I thought it was unnecessary. I totally blew it off and instead bought the audio monitor that I had already researched and picked out. It turns out that since we live in such a busy area with neighboring houses full of babies and toddlers and all the monitors to go with them, our audio monitor got constant interference. So we needed a new monitor.

I decided to just give in to my husband's pestering compromise with my husband and try out the video monitor he'd been researching. If it worked well and we thought it was worth the cost, we'd keep it. If not, we'd return it.

Not only have we kept it, I truly think it was one of the best baby/child purchases we made, especially for our particular child. I may have mentioned that my lovely daughter has not been the best sleeper over the last 17 months of her life. Well, with the video monitor, we are able to see if her fussing is just her getting comfy and going back to sleep or her standing up and waiting for us to come get her. Since she's not one who can get herself back to sleep (darn her lack of self-soothing capapbilities!) and we aren't going to do CIO, the video monitor keeps us from guessing about when we really need to go in. It's been fantastic for us!

How about you? Do you have a purchase that you rolled your eyes at but later came to regard with reverence? Which underdog baby/child item moved ahead to win the gold in your house?