Sittin Pretty

Little Bean is growing so fast. It wasn’t long ago that I was staring into those vacant little angry newborn eyes. Now my little newborn has been replaced by this happy, smiling baby who has recently decided that Sitting is the new best thing (besides sucking her toes, of course). What could be better than having a whole new perspective where things aren’t always hanging over your head. I can understand such a desire, and I’m certainly pleased that she has acquired this new talent. Given the right circumstances, she can pull herself up, but not straight up from the ground yet. If I sit her down, however, she can stay there for quite a while with no complaints. I’m starting to feel that there’s so much variety in our lives now. If she’s fussy, I can distract her, sit her up, lay her down, flip her over, or dance a jig. It’s just one big party over here! In fact, I’ve decided that given how quickly she is acquiring new talents, this stage of babyhood is just terrific by me.

Mommy Milestones: Part 2

Not wanting to leave a promise unfulfilled, I will continue with the details of that fateful night. So where was I. . .the utter horror? After deciding that this crucial step–that is, leaving my four month old Bean for the first time– must be taken, I couldn’t possibly turn back. So, I picked a Yoga night, talked Matt through Bean’s normal bedtime routine, and got a few things together to hit the gym. Of course, it certainly wasn’t that easy. Basically there was about a thirty minute period of time consisting of me running around like a crazy woman as I yelled out specific instructions in random order in the hopes that Matt would remember all of them. Once I finally got out the door for a little “me time,” I realized that all I could hope for was to not wreck the car or dissolve into tears at having left my baby. I managed my first driving experience in Augusta without incidence, and once inside the gym, quickly called Matt to inform him of my safe arrival. Of course, what do I hear on the other end?  CHAOS. Matt’s voice was somewhere between anger and sheer panic as he chased the dog around who had just peed all over our bed (and the rest of the house) while overfilling the bathtub for a Bean who was in his arms, screaming at the top of her lungs at life’s injustices. Meanwhile, I, the helpless one, was thinking “it’s only been FIFTEEN minutes!” I told my poor husband that I was going into the class and would leave my phone in the locker room, since I didn’t figure Yoga was very interruptable. Fast forward through the high intensity, sweaty, power yoga (great! by the way). I ran to get my cell phone, and what do I see? Too many missed phone calls to count. After a little over an hour, the world had obviously ended, and Matt was kind enough to call and warn me. I returned his call and heard that same screaming Bean and couldn’t help but feel horrible for my poor husband. He proceeded to tell me how the rest of the night went: Bean screamed, took a bath and calmed down, tried to eat the water, got very hungry, Matt then gave her her first bottle (I tried to give him a little emergency milk), evidently their was not enough breastmilk in there , though, because she drank it in one gulp, threw the bottle across the room, and screamed some more. After the screaming was finally over, Matt managed to get her in bed, and she even fell asleep! That’s when the phone calls started because, he was really calling to tell me to come home quick because HE DID IT! She was actually in bed, asleep. But alack and alas, she woke up half an hour later screaming again, and now I just needed to get home quick! Despite the fact that the evening didn’t really go off “without a hitch,” I will say that Matt is now putting Bean to bed every night with no problems, and she is more and more in love with her daddy every day. So all in all, I’m glad we both reached Parental Milestones, and life is getting easier all the time.

Mommy Milestones: Part 1

Every mother hears the unavoidable questions about their baby that center around those oh-so-crucial “milestones” in Baby’s life. Everywhere you go, and everyone you talk to will incessantly pester you about whatever “milestone” they feel will be most applicable to your baby’s age. Of course, if your little one is even the slightest bit delayed from reaching that milestone in that arbitrary time-frame, God help us all! Fortunately for me, our Bean hasn’t had any snags to speak of, so we can all wipe the sweat off our brows and continue living and breathing, but I wonder sometimes; what about the “Mommy milestones”? Surely all of us Moms out there, especially first-timers, have a few things we will be accomplishing for the first time, and I have decided that we should get a little credit for it every now and then. After all, I am confident that my perfectly healthy baby will sooner or later learn to do every little thing that us humans learn to do in order to live a normal life. In other words, she doesn’t have to try too hard just to be normal, but ME on the other hand? All those little motherly things that I have to do come with a lot of conscious effort and serious critical thinking! I have to make real decisions. All this to say that I decided to take a Yoga class a week ago. That meant that I had to LEAVE. I had to go BY MYSELF to a place other than home in order to do a thing without Bean. The utter horror is indescribable. I am convinced that the pit of my stomach will never be the same. This was the first time I have left Bean. Even though it was with her father, a perfectly capable Daddy, I still was more than a little unnerved by the whole event. But I’ll leave the details of the night for another time, and I’ll just say for now: GO ME.