Baby Crazy!?!

When it comes to us having another baby I have found that people are of the following camps:

"What the heck is a baby" Camp - Most of the people attending this camp are friends or family who can't imagine having one baby, let alone more than one! Sure, they think Lily is cute and they don't even seem to mind that we have to bring her to dinner but they probably couldn't care less if we have more babies. 

"HAVE MORE BABIES RIGHT THIS MINUTE" Camp - OMG please stop yelling campers! Not surprisingly these campers love children, some even have a few of their own.  Ultimately what unites these happy campers is the ability to hand Lily off and send us home (oddly enough this often coincides with blood curdling screams and smells normally associated with a landfill). I can say with 100% certainty that these campers do not mind in the least that I will have to be pregnant all over again in order to fill their order. 

"Can you imagine being pregnant again right now, bahahaha!" Camp - Ha. ha ha. ha ha ha. These campers just can't stop laughing (and sometimes crying) at the thought of having another baby right now.  They jump and shout in astounding unison..."you guys are nuts".  

I made the mistake of saying that we are using the Michele Duggar style of family planning to some friends recently.  Actually a few of the people there were just meeting me and the look on their faces was priceless! No, this does not at all mean that Matt and I want 20 children! I just meant that we are leaving it up to God and biology as to when we have our next baby.  Lily has been such an easy baby.  She sleeps (A LOT), she eats (anything), she plays (sometimes by herself)! What's more, I had a great pregnancy. Yes, we had a scare that I would never wish on anyone. In the end Lily was born healthy and the memory of what Matt and I call "the worst day of our lives" is becoming increasingly distant. I can say without feeling guilty (because this is my blog after all) that I loved being pregnant and thought overall... it was easy.  I don't even have a good labor horror story! Talk about boring.  All that being said my heart really does go out to women who have horror stories, especially those that involve copious amount of vomiting.  I really HATE throwing up and I am grateful that I don't pee when I sneeze.  If I have any reservations at all they are the result of the tiny pessimist inside me that says "You can't be so lucky a second time, it is mathematically impossible". 

Stupid tiny pessimist, why are you so negative?? 

The poop face

16 year old Lily, I apologize in advance for this post.


There are lots of things about being a mom that surprise me.  The love I feel for my daughter.  My ability to function (mostly) on 3 hours of sleep. The reckless abandon of my own hygiene, sorry Dingle.

One of the most surprising things has been how much I love Lily's "poop face".   I don't just think its funny, it literally fills my heart with love!  I have been trying for over a week to capture it, but the pictures just don't do it justice. The grimaced tight lips, the watery eyes, the flared nostrils...it is all so adorable!  Oh and the noise she makes, I love that too!  And no I am not talking about the toots themselves (although those are cute) she makes this quiet little grunt...so dainty!

All about Dingle

I know what you're thinking, "what the heck is a Dingle?"  And why is it capitalized?? Actually if you are reading this than in all reality you are one of my three friends and you know exactly what a Dingle is.  Or should I say who Dingle is?

Here he is in all his glory!  Isn't he handsome?

  

Matt earned the nickname Dingle (as in dingleberry) in 2003 and much to his chagrin, it stuck!  HA - see what I did there! 

A few random factoids about my husband:

• He not so secretly loves"girly drinks" with extra pink and fruit please! 
• He went to MIT but hardly ever admits it
• He is tall and whenever we see other tall men in public I make him stand next to them to determine a winner
• He is tolerant (see above)
• He BELIEVES that coffee will cure whatever ails you

There you have it.  Now I can rattle on about Dingle and you won't have to wonder what the hell I am talking about.  Feels good! 

Trying to control myself

Three months ago we said things like:

"Please, don't go overboard."
"She is just a baby."
"There is a three gift limit!"

Two months ago we said things like:

"She doesn't need a whole bunch of stuff."
"She could use some clothes, I guess..."

"We're not getting her anything...ok maybe one thing."

Last month we said:

"Did you see those cute things over there!"
"Oh, look at page 3...hmmm"
"She would LOVE that!"

Today I had to go to babiesrus.  No I really did, I had a coupon for a FREE case of diapers (that I earned by buying 9 previous cases of diapers of course) and it was going to expire tomorrow.  We're talking about $41.99 people!  So I put Lily down for a nap and headed out to buy nothing*.  Get my diapers and come home!  I spent an hour in the store.  I found myself saying over and over, "Lily doesn't need this!"  But oh how I wanted her to have it!

I settled on three small toys.  Can you guess which one I am most ashamed of??

*Matt had a good laugh at this statement after I posted this entry.  Did I forget to mention that Matt was home when Lily went down for her nap??  Please do not call social services.  I did not kiss my baby goodbye and leave her home alone :) 

A story involving a cart corral, oh boy!

This happened a few weeks ago but I still can't let it go...

I took Lily out to do some Christmas shopping.  It was a Thursday and a RIDICULOUS number of people were out and about.  It wasn't just moms and old people either, why more of these people were not at work I have no idea.  Anyway, the parking lot at the store was packed and I had to circle around a few times to get a space.  The space I did get was to the right of a cart corral.  I parked pretty close to it so that I would have room on the other side of the car to get Lily out.  I unloaded Lily (in her infant car seat) into a cart and off we went to shop!

We came out of the store to find some donkey had parked their car next to us at such a ridiculous angle that I couldn't open the back door of our car wide enough to put Lily's car sear back in the car!  Seriously, the angle of the car in the space was just stupid. They had left about 4 feet between our vehicles at the nose and about 4 inches at the trunk. Yes, I was angry but even more than anger what I felt was helplessness.  I hadn't left enough room on the driver's side for her car seat.  It was cold out and there were still a million cars circling the lot.  So there I am by myself with a cart full of stuff and my baby I can't get back into the car!  Inevitably a car pulled up to us and put its blinker on to indicate that he (yes it was a man...i'm not sure why this bothered me) was going to claim our spot.

Admittedly, I was panicking a little bit.  I had a ton of stuff in the back so climbing in through the trunk was not really an option. It's not like I could get in my car and back out with Lily sitting in the shopping cart parked in the cart corral.  A woman was arrested a few years ago for leaving her sleeping daughter in the car while she put money in the salvation army bucket for crying out loud! (http://greensboring.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7773)    And there was no way I was going to ask a stranger to babysit. I was seriously considering asking a passerby to move my car for me...AND THEN THE GUY WAITING FOR OUR SPOT BEEPED AND DID A "MOVE IT ALONG" HAND GESTURE!!  I think for a split second the anger I felt would have given me the strength to lift the first donkey's car and throw it through the windshield of this second donkey's car!  I can see the headline now: "Crazed woman in parking lot finds strength of 10 Grinches, plus TWO..."

I waved the driver off and as he passed he gave me the finger. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Second donkey if you are reading this, you acted like a real jerk and I hope Santa brings you dog poop for Christmas.

In the end I channeled my anger into dragging the cart corral away from my car and put Lily in through driver's side, which was no easy task but I got it done.  The entire event lasted all of 10 minutes but I hated every second of it.  I'm not really sure what the moral of this story is but I already feel less angry and even laughed a few times at my own jokes.  HA.  Okay, I have officially let it go...

Officially a "mommy blogger": ewww...

Hello there!

Recently I have been reading a few blogs on a regular basis.  Most of the blogs I read are written by total strangers and are referred to as "mommy blogs", believe me I think they hate that title as much as I do.  That being said that IS what they are; blogs written by moms about their children and their day to day life.  While that may sound painfully boring to some of you, reading these blogs has really helped me to feel less isolated as a SAHM...isn't that a fundamental part of being human, seeking connection?  Anyway, I read these blogs and they are funny and I can totally relate and there you have it, a blogger is born!

**edited**

On a family walk, minus the kitties...
if only they would wear their harnesses,
oh the fun we could have!

So who exactly is this blog about?  Our family consists of a mom (that one is me), a dad (my charming husband, Matt), and a baby (she is called Lily).  We live in a lovely home near the ocean with our dog Colby and our two cats, Shark and Blackbeary.  The kitties, who are referred to as "the babies" have been with us since they were 6 weeks old, they are brother and sister and have never been apart from one another, ever!  We adopted Colby in March of 2009, I tried to pick the runt of the litter...Colby is 75lbs of pure Golder Retriever.  He and I have some issues, but we are working through them.  I love you Colby, I do...I think...just kidding I totally do... just stay over there :)

The real star of the show is Lily.  Born April 3rd 2010 via unplanned c-section.  (Notice use of the term unplanned as opposed to "emergency"...let's lay off the panic button people.)  Our little bundle of joy is just that.  What's that, you want to hear a cliche?  Ok, here goes!  Having a baby changes everything.  There it is.  Welcome to my blog about how having a baby has changed everything, make yourself at home!