Nothing

It’s been a while since I posted and there are so many things running through my head that I need to post!

 

First off, the Super Bowl was wonderful.  I wish the Cardinals had won, but oh well.  The best part was after the Super Bowl when a special one-hour episode of The Office aired.  It was one of the funniest ones yet.  And I also got teary eyed – moments were utterly painful.  If it was your first time to watch, then it was a great intro into Office life.  It was painful, uncomfortable – just plain wonderful!  Did anyone see it?

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Next, my dear friend Patrick sent me Milk to watch over the weekend and we watched it Friday night with Brandon.  I love the way it was filmed – it looked like it was straight out of the 70s.  However, I really didn’t care for the movie, which surprised me!  I love every actor in it, the story fascinates me, and yet I felt nothing watching the movie.  I feel that there was a lot that could be edited out.  And then there was a lot more that could be expanded.  It also felt incredibly long.  Granted, we took three or more breaks during the movie, but that’s not a good thing!  I don’t agree that it should be up for as many awards as it is.  Having said that, the performances are wonderful and Sean Penn as always is at the top of his game.

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On Thursday night, our dog Gracie got sick.  Gracie is a huge dog – please see pic below:

Anyway, she started shitting blood.  No joke.  I looked it up online and they said it’s fairly common in dogs.  I have never seen this!  It wasn’t tons of blood, so we decided not to take her to the emergency vet, but take her to our vet Friday morning.  We woke up on Friday to a blood bath.  DISGUSTING!  Poor little angel.  We took her to the vet.  They said it could’ve been anything – stress, something she ate, constipation – anything.  They gave her special food, a shot, and antibiotics for a week.  We haven’t had an instance since.

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This weekend, we got Hubby an Xbox 360 for his birthday.  We also got Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero Aerosmith, Gears of War, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  I’d say we cleaned up.  Well, while we were at Best Buy picking all this up, I had an incredible moment with Bugaboo.  I was distracted by something and I caught her out of the corner of my eye staring at me (she was in the shopping cart).  I looked at her and she had this really peaceful look on her face.  She was staring into my eyes like never before.  She had a half-smile.  Of course, my heart started melting.  I felt like she was telling me how much she loved me.  She looked so incredibly happy.  It’s like that moment you realize you love someone – she had THAT face.  I smiled at her and we were about an inch apart.  Then she leaned forward a little more, puckered up, moaned for a kiss, and that was that.  It was honestly one of the best moments I’ve had as a mother.  Highlight of my year right there.

 

With that, I conclude my Seinfeld-like post about nothing.  Well, nothing and a precious little girl.

Nutritional Guide

Bugaboo eats all kinds of things at her daycare.  Pancakes, waffles, or cheese toast in the mornings; vanilla wafers or animal crackers for snacks; mac & cheese, hot dogs, fish sticks, or chicken nuggets for lunch.  Milk is served all day.  There’s also plenty of fruits and vegetables with each of these meals.  At home, we feed her pretty much the same things, except we might throw in a glass of juice here or there.  I would say, the child eats pretty well!  I mean, she gets all the nutrients she needs, she LOVES her vegetables, and fruit is like chocolate to her.  What more could a baby need, right???  Well, according to Gerber.com, we are sucking on the feeding.

 

I checked it out this morning for my friend Cathy b/c she was unsure when to move on to 2nd Foods for her little boy.  I noticed there was a spot on there for “toddlers.”  According to them, we should be giving our child whole wheat everything, reduced fat milk, and low fat yogurt.  WHAT?!?!  Aren’t kids supposed to have the whole milk with the white bread?  And low fat yogurt?  You’ve got to be kidding me!  I was reading this and immediately thought, “Oh my gosh, my child is not getting enough iron or grains or anything!  I’m failing as a parent!!”  I even wrote the hubby with a new meal plan and a grocery list.  Hubby asked me to wait a bit before buying all new food (we just stocked up on Gerber Graduate meals).  He says it was to save money, but perhaps it was b/c he thinks his wife’s crazy.  And I have to admit: Gerber sucked me in, but I’m out now.

 

My little Bugaboo is a healthy child who gets to enjoy her whole milk and white bread.  Everyone I know enjoyed that as a child.  I’m not going to worry about low fat anything with my 15-month-old toddler.  We don’t need to start a complex so young in life.  She has a great appetite, she loves fruits and vegetables, and she’s willing to try just about anything.  Sure, her favorites are peanut butter & jelly sandwiches or cheese ravioli, but why not let her enjoy those things as long as she’s able?!

 

In other news, my friend had her baby and she’s cute.  Whew!

Payback’s a bitch

We had our big Hubbard Family Christmas gathering yesterday, and I must say it was a smashing success!  We had the whole group – our family, plus my mom, her sister, and their dad, 6 of my cousins and their families, and my mom’s best friend (who’s been adopted into our family).  There were 3 kids under the age of 2 and then one 6-year-old.  Bugaboo went down for a nap that morning, but I made it really short so that hopefully, she’d go down for a nice nap in the afternoon while we ate our lunch.  That was a mistake…

 

Bugaboo is at an age where what’s hers is hers and she doesn’t want to share.  It’s to be expected and it’s perfectly alright – in fact, I think it’s great!  She’s establishing her territory and it’s giving us opportunities to teach her about sharing and helping her understand that it’s still hers even if someone else is playing with it.  Anyway, yesterday, two of the babies were playing with her stuff.  One had her favorite musical train and the other had her set of drums.  I was holding Bugaboo.  She wasn’t crying, but she was staring at these two ragamuffins with a look like, “It’s alright, you’ll get what’s coming to you…”

 

Later on, Bugaboo was playing with a big bouncy ball that my cousin gave her for Christmas.  She loved this thing and the higher it bounced, the better.  She bounced it between me and her daddy.  Then the babies came into the picture.  Next thing we knew, she was pegging one of the kids with the ball, and then turned her sights on the other.  Babies are much quicker than the fastest of adults, and we got to her by the time the second baby was pegged.  See the smile in the pic below?  This was shortly before it happened – she knew what she was doing… 

 

Bugaboo gave us a look like, “It’s done,” and didn’t bother them again.  The babies were alright, but looked a little shocked.  Needless to say, no one played with Bugaboo’s toys after that and she was perfectly content. 

You better watch out…

Last weekend, we took our daughter to see Santa Claus.  I knew there was a chance that she’d be scared of him and hate us for life, but I thought we’d maybe get one picture of her at least looking bewildered.  That didn’t happen.

 

We arrived at the mall along with a hundred other shoppers since Christmas is just around the corner.  My best friend, her husband, and their baby were meeting us up there.  The hubby and I scouted the mall to see where Santa would be, and we found him right outside of American Eagle.  He had a big red chair, a mailbox, some packages, and a little house behind him.  The line wasn’t terribly long, so we went ahead and got in it.  Bugaboo immediately wanted to get out and walk around.  This would be fine if she’d hold onto our hands, but she wants to be independent.  So, her walking around consists of her constantly running into people, waving to strangers, pulling clothes off the lower shelves of stores, and screaming in delight the whole time.  Everyone watches the cute little girl in the blue dress and think, “Oh, what a happy little girl.”  Then her daddy would pick her up and she’d scream as if she’s being kidnapped and people would look at him like, “Why are you making that sweet little girl cry?”  I’d walk around with her and found myself constantly apologizing to people like the man in the wheelchair who had to maneuver through a tiny space to get past her; or the family who had to all separate because Bugaboo went straight through the middle of the group; or the man who really wanted to be alone, but instead had this little bundle of joy in his face, waving, saying “Hi!”  All I had to do was stand in front of her and hold my arms out for a hug and she’d run the other direction.  Soon, we caught on that we needed to get in people’s ways so that the little one would turn around and go bother someone else.  Needless to say, we were not popular outside Santa’s house that day.

 

Finally, we decided to put her in the stroller, let her cry it out (the mall was loud enough and the Christmas music kind of drowned her out) and let her drink juice and eat animal crackers.  We underestimated the wait time and it ended up being an hour and a half.  The last part of that was Bugaboo screaming at us, bucking if we held her, and hitting us to put her down.  Meanwhile, my best friend’s baby was looking around, smiling at strangers, and never made a sound.  Granted, he’s only 4 months old, but still.

 

It was time to see Santa.  Bugaboo was crying because her daddy dared to hug her.  I was trying to pull out the cameras and get ready for a tantrum.  The greeter tried to cheer up Bugaboo, but she was having none of that.  In fact, the only time she calmed down was to give said greeter a dirty look.  The greeter left us.  We went to Santa and for some reason, it was decided that I should put her on his lap.  I put her down and the tears started.  I ran back to the camera and tried to get her to smile, but we ended up getting pictures of her reaching out to the camera with her arms as if to say, “HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!”  We got some of her pulling as far away as possible from him as if to say, “You stink!  I hate you!!”  And then we got the one of her all tense with her mouth wide open and the tears streaming as if to say, “Why don’t my parents love me?!?!”  It was awful.  Scarring.  Traumatic.  And that’s just how the daddy and I felt.

 

Afterwards, we bought our picture to remind us that next year, we need to get her used to Santa before throwing her on his lap.  She rested her head on my shoulder as we checked out, but I could feel the resentment.  In fact, that night was one of the worst sleeps yet – first she threw up all over herself and the crib and then she woke up screaming at about 3 am.

 

We all need those pictures of us screaming on Santa’s lap, right?  Right??

 

Oh!  And afterwards we went to Friday’s for some lunch with the best friend, husband, and baby.  The baby was crying when we got there and they were trying to calm him down.  When I looked at Bugaboo, she was looking at the baby like, “What the hell is wrong with you?”  Then she looked at me, smiled, and stuffed an orange in her mouth.  Ah, that’s my little bugaboo…

Emma, where’s your face?

It’s buried in the mattress, that’s where!  Emma slept on her belly for the first time last night.  I’m not sure when she turned over in the night, but when Adam and I woke her up this morning, she was face down.  She heard us and got up on her hands – it was quite exciting!  The other day, she was able to get up completely on her knees and hands.  I’m telling you, people, it’s just a matter of time before the child is crawling.  And now she’s sleeping on her belly – time’s flying by too quickly!!!

The little diaper

Last night, I was getting something out of the linen closet in the downstairs bathroom when I saw i: a spare diaper from when Emma was a newborn.  It was so tiny!  And it used to be big on her!  I just can’t believe how tiny my little angel used to be.  Seriously – I got a little teary-eyed.  And then I heard the little voice telling me that maybe it was time for another one.  Honestly, I would if I could, but there are many reasons why now is not the right time.  One, we’re going into a recession (we’re already in one) – probably not the best time to add to our financial woes.  Two, I got uterine irritability before and I will most likely have it again, which means I won’t be able to lift Emma.  I need to wait until she’s at least walking.  Three, I don’t want to be pregnant over my 30th birthday in September.  Four, I want a little more time to enjoy these milestones with Emma.  I think those are pretty good reasons.  Oh, and I can’t be big over the summer again – that was TORTURE last year!  So, I’m thinking we’ll try again next summer.  We’re aiming for a little boy this time…