Wordless Wednesday: Home of a Hypocrite

The home of a woman that swore that

the kids would never take over her house...

More Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom

Daddy To The Rescue

Baby has had his fair share of ouchies in his short life. At least a couple of times a day, he falls on his butt or hits his head on the floor, a chair, the kitchen table, a toy, or anything else that might be in his path. Just this morning, a preschooler stepped on his hand at daycare as he was crawling around where he shouldn’t have been.

But we’ve never seen blood before.

Until last night.

Baby was pulling himself up on the end table to get a better look at our pet rat, Mickey. Baby loves to watch Mickey. Mickey’s habitat is on the only table that we have left in the living room. All of the other end tables and the coffee table were removed as soon as Baby was born so the world would be safe for him. Naturally, Baby is drawn to that only remaining table.

As he stood up against the table, his socks slipped on the hardwood floors, and he fell down. His face hit the table leg on his way to the floor. Mommy was only two steps away, so she calmly picked him up to offer a big cuddle.

Then she saw the blood in his mouth.

Mommy ran frantically into the kitchen where Daddy was washing dishes (that’s right, ladies. He washes the dishes and he’s MINE). By this time, there was blood all over Baby’s face and hands. There was blood all over Mommy’s sweater. Mommy and Baby were frantic.

Very calmly, Daddy got a washcloth and started wiping the blood from Baby’s mouth. Being the genius that he is, Daddy got a small flashlight to examine Baby’s cut. Baby was so fascinated by the flashlight that he forgot all about the blood.

In the end, Baby was fine. He didn’t need stitches and he came away from the whole incident with only a swollen lip.

And if Mommy didn’t love Daddy the most in that moment when he calmly reassured her that Baby would be fine, she loved him even more when he later admitted that his hands were trembling and his heart was racing at the very thought that his Little Buddy could need stitches.

There is nothing in this world that is sexier than a man that loves your baby just as much as you do.

Lovey Addiction

Baby is at the age when most kids choose a transitional object, also known as a lovey. A lovey is a unique item that a child carries where ever they go. A lovey can help a toddler find comfort in a chaotic world. A lovey can soothe a sick baby, calm a nervous child, and provide a tangible substitution when Mommy and Daddy aren’t available for a cuddle.

The basic rules for parents to follow regarding loveys are:

1. Encourage your child to choose a lovey that you don’t mind taking with you everywhere you go for the next few years.

2. Once your child chooses a lovey, buy a few identical loveys and store them as potential replacements. There is nothing more devastating to a child than losing a cherished lovey. There is nothing more devastating to a parent than not being able to find a replacement lovey.

Mommy and Daddy agree that using a transitional object is a healthy coping mechanism for a toddler, so Mommy and Daddy have been encouraging Baby to find a lovey. They bought Baby his very own boy baby doll. It is soft and has a rattle inside. The baby doll is just the right size for a Baby hug. The baby doll is wearing a cloth bib and holding a cloth bottle, which are both interesting objects to chew on. If all else fails, the baby doll also has a manufacturer’s tag that can be chewed on.

Baby loves his baby doll, which he has affectionately named “Oops”, but Oops is not his lovey. His Build-A-Bear is not his lovey. His GloWorm is not his lovey. His Winnie the Pooh Lovey Blanket is not his lovey.

His lovey is a ladle. His lovey is a small, yellow, plastic ladle that was part of a toy food kit that his older sister received as a gift TEN YEARS AGO.

He found the ladle yesterday and he held it for 4 HOURS. He carried it throughout the house, ate dinner with it, got his diaper changed with it, and fell asleep holding it.

This morning, he got dressed with it, ate breakfast with it, held it in the car, and screamed at the top of his lungs when Mommy tore it from his iron grip at daycare this morning. We certainly can’t risk losing the lovey at daycare!

Now, Mommy and Daddy must find a replacement lovey. How hard could it be?

P.S. If you have this yellow plastic ladle in your toy box, I will offer you a bazillion dollars for it.

The Last First Holiday

Yesterday was Baby’s first Valentine’s Day. It was also Baby’s last first holiday. Every holiday for the rest of his life will be a day he has already celebrated. Mommy is such a sentimental fool!

In celebration of his Last First Holiday, Mommy absolutely couldn’t resist buying him the appropriate My First Valentine’s Day bib. Daddy was quick to point out that Baby doesn’t wear bibs for drooling anymore and that the bib would probably never be worn, just like the My First Christmas bib that Mommy bought that is still hanging in Baby’s closet with the original tags on it.

To prove him wrong, Mommy posed Baby for some photos in his bib. Now she can justify the expense and Mommy and Daddy have genuine Valentine photos to cherish.

Mommy also got the Thumb in the photo. This photo serves the dual purpose of validating the purchase of the Valentine bib and documenting the state of the Thumb. Despite several daily applications of Lansinoh and Vitamin E Oil and the protection of Baby’s puppy mitten at naptime and bedtime, the kid is still finding time to mutilate himself. .

At least now I can prove that I’m not making up this drama just to fill my blog. Evidently, Thumb Sucker’s Dermatitis is a very real condition. Bet you didn’t know that!

My Name is Dawn and I’m an Addict

It seems silly to me that after all this time I’m still hiding behind my anime avatar. Granted, she does have perfect hair and wide, bright eyes, which are two things that I don’t have most days. Evidently, sleep deprivation and personal hygiene just don’t mix well together.

I suddenly feel a need to be totally and completely honest with both of the people that are reading my blog regularly (that would be you and me). So, wouldn’t it be a good idea if there were a picture of Mommy on this blog?

I got this brilliant idea last night as I was browsing through our family photo collection. My Dad and his wife bought Baby a Baby’s First Photo Album for his birthday. Since they are flying from Florida, they had it shipped to our house and I’ll add photos of Baby’s family before I wrap it up for his party. I was browsing through our photos last night trying to pick a good picture of Mommy and Daddy together that we could add to Baby’s album and I actually found a good photo of me. This photo was taken the day after Baby was conceived. Mommy and Daddy were on vacation in Portland, Oregon. It was the best week of our married lives and it only seems appropriate that Baby is a souvenir of that trip.

So in an effort to be more honest and less anonymous, I am changing my profile picture to an actual photo of myself.

My skinny self.

The way I remember myself before Baby added 20 pounds and 200 stretch marks to my midsection.

The way I still look in my mind.

Why Jesus Loves Sheep

Having a Baby is like Christmas morning all year long. You will be showered with gifts before the birth, to celebrate the birth, to celebrate Baby’s first New Years, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day…you get the idea. And don’t forget the first birthday. Some of the gifts you receive will be things that you could never live without. Other gifts will be things that make you wonder what folks were thinking when they went shopping.

We received one of those “this is cute, but not so practical” gifts when Baby was born and dutifully put it away. Now that Baby is older and getting about, I realize that this gift wasn’t impractical after all!

A very kind, thoughtful, and insightful friend gave us a Feel Better Cold Pack Lamb by Gund.

It is a plush lamb with a plastic ice cube in her belly that is used as an icepack. Now that Baby is crawling, climbing, and falling, falling, falling, we need to use an icepack a couple of times a day. Baby is terrified by a traditional icepack and a bag of frozen peas is too interesting to use on a bruise. When Baby takes a tumble that results in a red-faced, open-mouth-scream-without-sound kind of ouchie, we just go to the freezer and get “Lambie.” As soon as Baby gives Lambie a hug, he forgets all about his ouchie.

That’s What Works for Me!

Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer is in Africa this week, so you can find more WFMW tips at Don’t Try This At Home.

Symptoms of Addiction

There is nothing sweeter than holding a sleeping baby in your arms and inhaling the sweet, warm breath of that child every time he exhales.

I wonder how Mommy got Baby’s cold?