Learning curve, oh and poop

All of Eleanor’s poop looks just like this. Seriously.

 

So the other day I literally caught poop in my hand. Despite being the mother of two, this was a first time experience for me. Obviously I’ve been pooped on, thrown up on, peed on, had things throw at me, been covered in projectile vomit repeatedly… You know, the usual badges of honour that us parents wear.

But this was, honestly, a first.

Sometimes I think that I can communicate with my baby. She seems to understand me when I babble things like ‘Who’s a pretty girl? You are! Are you pretty? You ARE! Who loves Mummy? YOU DO! Who’s my sweetie pie? YOU ARE!!!!’

(Also, I have to admit…. It is slightly humbling to hear your older child talk to your younger child in the baby voice you use. It makes him look slightly psycho. He’s four. And so that would make me…??? Old and more psychotic. Great.)

She smiles a lot while I say these (and even more ridiculous) things. So clearly we are communicating. And so when I ask her things like ‘Please don’t poop on me. Or pee. Please don’t poop or pee on me.’ as I am carrying her to the bath, I feel optimistic. Since we’ve been ‘communicating’, we’ve have no issues. 2 weeks ago, I started feeding her cereal and since then, things are a little more up in the air. Bowel movements are a bit up in the air these days….

Ie: Feed cereal. Poop it out instantaneously. Feed peas. Poop out immediately.

So I guess my plan of ‘feed dinner, immediately take a bath after’ probably was not the most well thought out plan I’ve had in recent weeks. Other plans that are equally bad? Eating hard boiled eggs bought at 7-11 for breakfast, forget to wash hands and lick fingers that are covered in dry formula and accidentally walk through puddle that is actually ‘garbage water’ (as in that liquid that leaks out of a dumpster).

Naked bottom holding with long distance walking is for sure up with these other special plans. And also, total potential Olympic fodder for future games.

Anyways, blah blah blah she pooped in my hand. Then we both took a bath and I sanitized my hand.

Parenting: a constant learning curve.

xoxo am

 

Babies. Oh, and zombies.

This may or may not apply to parenthood.

Hey, so remember when I said something along the lines of ‘Gosh, second babies are a piece of cake!!” Well, as it turns out, this is mostly true.

‘Mostly true’ being the operative term for when that second baby is really little. The older and older wee second baby gets, the less like a piece of cake they become. They get more complicated, more along the lines of a tiramisu, or a baklava. Way more layers, more intricate and difficult and way sweeter too.

They are not content to just lie there and gaze adoringly at their mother. Although, in hindsight, this is mostly happening in baby magazines and not at all in real life.

They want to do THINGS. And they are unsure of what these THINGS are, and so there is a lot of crying while they discover what kind of THINGS they like to do. THINGS may or may not include: grabbing ones toes, stuffing hands in mouths, pooping, eating more, wiggling, rolling everywhere. You get the picture.

And while this has all been going on, I’ve been trying a lot of new things:

A mild form of the Paleo-diet.

Cutting out wheat from my daily intake.

Crocheting a damn blanket.

Major addiction to the Zombies! Run app for iPhone. (This is a sad addiction, but it’s pushing me to exercise almost daily. And I delight in being chased by zombie mobs. DELIGHT.)

My random delight in the fact that not only did I love John Carter, but my discovery via an awesome high school friend that it was based on books. Books that I’ve downloaded and am now obsessed with.

Hanging with my soccer moms. Weekly dinner parties have assured that, for practically the first time ever, I have a social life.

I’ve been gazing longingly at my laptop, dreaming of quiet moments to type away. I swear my laptop has been gazing back at me… It’s being dreaming of me stroking it’s keyboard again. There are a lot of distractions lately…

Zombies, fun elimination diets, cool old sci-fi stories, soccer moms….

Yup, life is busy and great.

And I promise to share more of it with you…

xoxo a.m.

Recovery: Or how to survive a birthday party

Hottie

So Saturday we celebrated our son’s fourth birthday.

I know! I’m wondering not only how we managed to survive four years of parenthood, but also how we managed to survive our first party where we invited some of his friends.

It is, frankly, a miracle.

Awards and such

I’m a slacker.

It’s my last week of maternity leave and I’ve decided to pack as much into it with the kids as I possibly can. Typical.

And then a very nice fellow blogger nominated me for a blog award. Which reminded me that I’d been nominated for one before BUT DID NOTHING ABOUT IT.

So my thanks MamaBearMatters! Thank you for nominating me. It really is just the nicest thing to have people reach out to you (especially people that aren’t your parents) and tell you that they enjoy reading what you’re putting out there. I appreciate your feedback and really enjoy your blog (check her out! She’s pretty great!)

And also, my apologies to Vicky the Northern Chicky! She nominated me as well and I promptly forgot. (You should check her out too!) Thank you!

The Versatile Blogger Award:

– Nominate 15 fellow bloggers (or as many as you deem worthy).

– Inform the bloggers of their nomination.

– Share 7 things about yourself.

– Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to them.

– Add the “Versatile Blogger Award” pic to your blog post.

Seven things about me that probably are mostly interesting to my Mum:

1) I am from Vancouver Island, BC Canada, have dual citizenship and have lived in Florida for the last 6 years.

2) I met my husband after University graduation when we both taught English in Hamamatsu, Japan.

3) I can still read some Japanese, even though it’s been almost been a decade since I lived overseas.

4) I wish I had the wherewithall to do cloth diapers, but I don’t and beat myself up about my contributions to global waste.

5) I’ve wanted to write a book FOREVER. Like since I was 8. This is me practicing. I’ve been practicing for almost 4 years.

6) I thought I had good taste in movies, but the cold, hard reality is that I have the worst taste ever. But since I don’t care, it balances out nicely!

7) Literally right after I gave birth to my daughter Eleanor, I joked with my doctor ‘Well, that was easy! I might have to do it again!’ I’d never seen my husband turn that colour before in my life. I was mostly joking.

I’m supposed to nominate several people but I don’t follow that many on here. This year is the most involved I’ve gotten in the WordPress community and I am enjoying it so much… So here’s a few of my recent finds. Hope you enjoy them too!

Doodling through Life

Living the Green Life

Sleeping Should be Easy

Dirty Rotten Parenting

I hope you enjoy! I know that I do…

xoxo a.m.