Sugar and Spice

Pumpkin got her first cold and mommy had her first broken heart as a result. It was so extremely sad to watch her struggle to breathe and to wipe crusties from her little eyes. I laid awake for two straight nights just listening to her cough. And you guessed it, I went completely psycho-mom worrying about her. The first day of full-blown sickness Pumpkin was grumpy, wanted to be held, was tired but wouldn't (or couldn't sleept) and just generally had the ickies. I tried to accomodate her and love on her as much as possible. Late in the afternoon, however, something happened and I couldn't figure out what it was. She simply would not stop crying. I held her, I walked her, I offered her toys, I kissed her. As I was frantically bouncing her from room to room in my arms, I realized that for some reason she stopped crying when I got near the kitchen. It didn't even dawn on me WHY the kitchen made her stop crying. I was just convinced she had some serious internal ...

I have used the word "love" before many times in my life. I love God, I love Aaron, I love my family and friends, I love diet coke. I had experienced all these different kinds of love. And particularly since I was an English major and consider myself somewhat well read, I was certain I knew all about love - I had read it, written it, said it, and lived it. Little did I know that on May 6, 2010 my entire world would change in one little 6 pound 12 ounce instant. I will tell you up front that what I'm going to discuss here is something that cannot be explained. Parents know it, the rest can only imagine. To paraphrase the late Justice Stewart, it is one of those "you'll know it when you see it" kind of things. However, I will make an unavoidably weak attempt to explain it for purposes of filling up Blog space. The enigma to which I refer is the love of a child. From the minute her dimpled face was on my chest for the first time, still covered in goo and scream...

Our first out-of-town trip with Pumpkin to the Big Easy this weekend was just that. In fact, it was downright fun and it was pretty hard to drop her off at school this morning after such a wonderful weekend with her. First, in the car she was an absolute angel and slept the ENTIRE way both there and back (including during all three stops that Aaron and I had to make on the way back). On the way there I was afraid she might wake up, so I stuffed myself in the back seat next to her carseat. Of course, she slept the entire way so I was stuck in the backseat alone while Aaron was driving Miss Daisy up front. When we arrived in the Big Easy, we took her out into the Quarter in her Snugli. She LOVED all the new sights. And I have to say, it was a succesful trip to the Quarter despite the fact that I had to change her on the floor of a restaurant bathroom (on a pad, of course). Hopefully this is the LAST time she is laying on a bathroom floor in the Quarter! At the hotel, she couldn't hav...

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...