Sugar and Spice

Just when I thought she couldn't get any cuter...she went and developed the most adorable personality in the entire world! Before Pumpkin was just an eating, spitting, pooping, crying and occasionally sleeping miracle and I loved her more than I thought possible. I didn't think there was a cuter kid on Earth and I certainly didn't think SHE could get any cuter. Boy was I wrong. I don't know exactly what changed, but all of a sudden this little amazing being became a PERSON. I mean, she was always a person, but now she has a personality. And, in my completely objective opinion (ha), if I didn't already know and love her more than life itself, I think Pumpkin is going to be the kind of gal I would choose to be friends with because she is not only cute, but pretty darn funny too. Her person-ness all started in her bath Thursday evening. I was showing her the rubber duck toy and saying the word over and over with exaggerated dictation. All of a sudden she started splash

As many of you know, when Pumpkin was first born I was a frantic mess. Every time she inhaled, I timed it and then Googled it to make sure it was "normal." I did not have time to nap, even in those early exhausted days, because I was constantly checking the Internet to make sure that both she and I were doing everything "right." Unfortunately, I realized too late that the Almighty Internet is a wealth of knowledge...and of useless crap. Anyone who wants can post anything they want on the Internet. Take this Blog for instance - I have no particularized knowledge about anything maternal, but I could start writing exclusively about how if your child is not snorting five packets of Kool-Aid each morning, she is doomed to be a terrible speller. Of course this is not true (or at least there is no scientific evidence to back it up), but I could write it here and, based on my writing about my own "experience" some new mother would be at Sam's stocking up on t

Literally. We dealt with a lot of crap this weekend. Pumpkin has been on a fairly decent BM schedule. One or two good ones a day and now, luckily for us, most of them while she is at school (YAY). This weekend, however, she was moving like crazy...and as you'll see, she wasn't the only one! Friday night we run into a "we ran out of diapers at the restaurant" emergency. Luckily, we were done eating and close enough to home we could basically hold our breaths till we got here (and, boy, did we need to). Unfortunately, we weren't close enough to home to prevent the entire car seat from being saturated with the contents of her diaper. We get home: I grab baby and make bathwater, Aaron rips the carseat apart and starts washing. Once she's clean, it's late, so I decide to dry the carseat in the morning, which I did. Too bad it wasn't as easy to put together as it was to take apart, particularly early in the morning. We do eventually get it - 15 minu

I learned today that July 14th is Pandemonium Day. A day to celebrate chaos and disorganization - two things I have tried to avoid my entire life and two things that now, with a 10-week old, are inevitable. The day started like any other, I drag my lifeless body out of bed and begin getting ready. No sooner has the mascara brush hit my lashes then my Pumpkin wakes up with a scream as though she hasn't eaten in weeks. In reality it had only been three hours, but that is neither here nor there because my baby was starving. The morning continues like any other in this new mommy life of mine, nothing too exciting or stressful. At this point, I'm still unaware that it is, in fact, pandemonium day. We get out the door without too many tears (from either of us) and arrive at the daycare. When we pull up I see lots of mommies and kids leaving the daycare. I check the clock, realizing in my exhaustion that it is not beyond me to be arriving at closing time without remembering I had bee

Aly laughed this weekend! I am the only one who heard it and she was half asleep, but I swear she laughed. Just a little "hahaha" and a big smile, but it was a laugh and it made my day...heck, it made my whole weekend. And I am just tickled she has a good sense of humor, because I also learned this weekend that I will soon have no friends. It sounds sad, but honestly I can't blame anyone for not wanting to be my friend. I will explain. My soon-to-be-friendlessness is not the result of those obvious things that one might think. I'm not going to be friendless because I either have to find a babysitter or, in the alternative, tote her along with me to dinners where she will inevitably, somewhat remarkably know exactly 60 seconds before the food is to arrive, resulting in me eating with one arm, chin holding a bottle, food dripping out the sides of my mouth. My friendlessness is also not going to be the result of my tireless tales of Pumpkin's latest achievements (no

I'm calling this blog "Raising Pumpkin" because Aaron calls our little girl Pumpkin Head. I started this blog for several reasons, one of which is to keep my mother-in-law up-to-date since she lives 1000 miles away. Another is that as I came into the office this morning near tears and frazzled, one of the ladies said my woes gave her chills and that I needed to keep a journal to remember all these things that I would laugh about one day. This is that journal. I hope it can be both an outlet for me as a mother/wife/daughter/sister/friend/lawyer and also bring some comic relief to these days when I just want to scream. So this was my first week back to work...and even though it was a short week, oh how long it felt. Day one was met with tears and nausea as I dropped Pumpkin off at her first of school. I was so worried that she would wake up and not know where she was. Aaron assured me that it wouldn't matter because she never knew where she was. So much for comf