The Burp Rag Chronicles

EyeCam

There are times I wish that I could take pictures of things with my eye. Like a screen shot of life, a still on my brain's computer.

I was sitting in her room, feeding Cameron her last bottle for the day and (hopefully) sending her off to Dreamland. As she was eating, I was watching her wiggle her toes. Her hands grabbing my monstrous fingers. Her cheeks bob up and down while taking slurps of milk. Her big, beautiful, blue eyes looking up at me and the rhythmic breathing all babies get when they are serious about eating.

I tried to grab some shots with the little snappy camera, and I just couldn't grasp what I wanted with one hand. Even if I could, there are about three thousand little nuances that photos just don't grab. At least my photos, anyway. I guess if a photographer could fly, go between walls, and have perfect lighting each time, they could do it. But... I am not that person. That was when I wished I could just take a screen grab of life at that precise moment, capturing the things I could not with one hand and poor lighting.

She's grown so much already, I'm always amazed when I stop and think about her, or even babies in general. We laugh and joke that all they do in the early months is sleep, eat and poop (which is absolutely true, by the way) but in reality they are busy turning milk/formula in to a person. A little person, that some day will walk, eat dinner on their own, drive, and talk back to you (not in that order, the talking back happens so much sooner...). A little person that has gone from a lump o' nothing to a cooing smiler who has distinct preferences for things.

Sydney told me today to "go away" when I came into the living room with her and Jarrod. We were all dancing our no-rhythm-having dances to the radio and she cuddles up to Daddy and tells me to go away.

Normally I let that stuff roll off. Kids say stuff like that all the time, and they often show a preference for one parent. I know that it flip-flops at the drop of a hat. But my soft core got kicked in the head by a three year old's instruction. Her mean instruction. So I went to change Cameron and get some laundry folded. She apologized (naturally, at J's instruction) but it still hurt.

*sigh*

I kind of wished I could take a snapshot of that, too. One day when she is grown (or maybe not so grown) something will happen to break her heart and I wish I could show this to her. Not in a "serves you right" sort of way (though the meanie in me kind of feels that way, too! *lol*) but more of a "this is life" sort of way. We get hurt. Intentionally, unintentionally, physically, emotionally - the whole lot - by people we love. So how do you go about teaching them about that? That the words she might say to someone can hurt their feelings? How do you teach them to have empathy for other people and to "put herself in their shoes"?

Happy Anniversary... to Me!

Wow, we were married seven years ago today. Trippy.

We celebrated the day bright and early with Jarrod waking up at 6:45 to shower and get ready to go to a doctor's appointment. He's recently had surgery on a Thing on his back, so the stitches were coming out today. He was very, very happy and I think he didn't necessarily want another anniversary gift - the itching coming to a halt was gift enough.

So the girls wake, naturally in time with one another - let me tell you that makes for GREAT timing (not!) because I am juuuust sitting down to feed Cami or I am in the middle of changing her diaper or something and Little Miss Impatient yells "Daaaaaadddddddyyyy!!" to come get her. And yes, she more-or-less always yells for Daddy. But when Daddy is out of town for work or in the shower, I get the visible let-down of, "Oh, you're not my Daddy. But at least you've come to release me from the prison that is my bedroom, you've earned a grumpy, forced smile, Old Woman."

I digress, as I often do.

So I saddle up the girls and head to the pet store, the bank and the grocery store. About halfway to the pet store I realize I've forgotten the check for which I was going to the bank to deposit. Dang it. The cats are on their last 4 pebbles of food, so I better get that done first. I get the kibble, the girls and I trek around Petsmart looking at the kitties, the birds, the hamsters, and head back home. I get the cats fed and grab the check to deposit, then we're off to the SAME area we were just in.

Cut scene to HEB. I grab the couple of things we forgot on our normal "weekly" outing (don't fret, they never made their way to the shopping list... I just totally spaced on them!) and head to the greeting card section. Sweet, they have a funny one that is totally us! Done. I go pay, get cash back so that I can hit the lottery ticket machine on the way out.

Yes, I bought us Lotto scratch-offs for our aniversary. Seven of 'em. At least they were the $2.00 tickets.

I get to the car, when Jarrod and I decide via text messaging that the girls and I should head over for lunch. Yum! I am starving! Yet, we can't think of where to go to eat. Banter back and forth, eventually deciding on T.G.I.Friday's.

Go, eat, back to work, we take the tour to see people with the kiddos (Cam is growing like a weed so people like to see how big she has gotten!), Cam eats, we head home where I get that baby into a real bed for a real nap. She's not having that, I think I might have gotten 30 minutes from her.

Melidy calls me to tell me that my cake is ready! I'm stoked, she makes such good cakes - definitely found her talent, that one. I'm saddling the girls up to go pick it up from her. Head home, eat an impromptu dinner of chicken sandwiches. Get Cam to bed late, about 8:30. Dammit, now it's Syd's turn... and she needs a bath. NEEDS IT.

Alright, get her taken care of. She's bundled up, in bed, ready to sleep. Score!

Jarrod is now falling asleep in his chair, presumably from the buttercream. A buttercream coma is the BEST way to leave this earth. So I send him to bed. I figure I'll be done in about... 3 hours. I do my straightening up at night - wash bottles, make formula for the next day, clean toys up, throw stuff away that has accumulated, that sort of thing.

Whew, I'm tired. I would have liked a relaxing day, but you get what you get. :)

Oh, I won $12 of my $14 spent on Lotto tickets back. Go, me! ;-)

Happy Anniversary, J. I love you very much! Seven years is just the beginning. :D

Three Months

In three months, Cameron has:

• slept through the night, routinely, for an average of about 8 or 9 hours. Lately, it's been more like 10 or 11 hours, without waking to eat.
• gone from eating about 2 oz. of formula every 2-3 hours to eating bout 5 oz. every 3-4 hours.
• accidentally rolled from belly-to-back at about a month old. She hasn't done it since then so I don't really count it as rolling yet.
• graduated from X-Small diapers to Small in the Fab Fitteds. She is officially in the Medium GADs.
• has smiled.
• has laughed at Mommy's stupid noises.

In three months, I have:

• read about two pages of Eclipse. I am officially 1/3 + 2 pages into the book.
• figured how to cast-on a knitted hat, but have yet to start a second row.
• somewhat kept up with housework.
• gone grocery shopping.
• been to playgroup without incident.

Small victories, you take what you can get.

Slow Going

I've been a little absent the past few days, sorry about that. Life's been hectic and I've been doing a lot of heavy thinking - which has left me little energy/time to blog.

But I did want to post a couple of picture updates, it's been a while. :)

"Thanks for entrusting my life to my older sister. Very reassuring. Thanks."

So there is a near-picture perfect image of our girls. Generally, this is all I can get from Cameron when it involves a camera. Usually she will get so entranced by the light indicating that the thing is on, she won't smile. But she does give plenty of them - mostly when we go fetch her in the morning from sleep.

That girl is such a crack-up, she is definitely taking after her older sister in that. She's also pretty predictably fussy (I guess the "usual" colic hours are hers, too... between 5-8 p.m. she is pretty much a turkey) and a horrible napper during the day. But, I can handle 30-minute naps if I get 11 hours of sleep at night. And I do. And so does Jarrod. And no, we're not ignoring her cries over the baby monitor.

I've kind of let her take the lead in when she goes to bed at night. She's kind of set her own bedtime of no later than 8:00, and trust me when I say that things get ugly if you let her stay up. I am actually thinking 7:00 might be a good idea because that last half hour or hour is just her complaining and being irritated at pretty much everything going on in her circle of vision.

More antics to come at a later point, but I am tired. Tomorrow is Jarrod's first band gig and it's going to be a late night. I'm hoping my mom will help me a little tomorrow - I'd like to take a nap before I go there. They play until 2:00 a.m. :)

Monkey Farts

A while back I fell in love with Hyena Cart. It's basically a place where Work At Home Moms can get a jump start on their home-made goodies. I've gotten many goodies on there - wool wash, diaper wipe solution, cloth wipes, mama cloth... lots o' goodies. Love it, and I feel good that I am helping to support WAHM's. :)

So I got exposed to this fragrance called Monkey Farts, which is pineapple, banana, coconut, something. It's yummy. Well I got some wipe solution that is scented like that, and after a few days Cameron had a red "diaper area." Seriously, it looked like she had a red diaper on after I took the old diaper off her. She wouldn't complain after I'd wipe her, but when I put her in the bath tub - where she has NEVER complained about being - she's scream holy terror the whole time.

So I tried to think about things I've changed. I was trying a new home-made laundry detergent Kim made and it's lemony scented (which, when mixed with my lime BacOut, makes my laundry room smell like Sprite! *lol*) and I'd tried the new wipe solution. However, she was only red where the diaper was, and not her entire body from clothes. So it couldn't be the detergent.

Sure enough, when we went back to my old boring wipe solution, which is three ingredients, the pink started going away. The next day, the redness is gone, though she still had some residual rough patches of skin. Today, she looks fabulous. She has a little bit of peely skin on her leg (poor baby!!) but it looks 3000x better.

So, I guess I will stick with my homemade wipe stuff. It doesn't smell all purty, just like a clean baby, but at least she doesn't get all red and peeled from it. It sucks, I love that fragrance.

Today we went to Cornyval for their annual Wristband Day. We did it last year, as you recall. Lots of the same rides, and a couple new ones. Tasty carnival food, too. We got sausage on a stick (for me and Jarrod... Mmm, the Knights of Columbus sure know how to grill that stuff!) and Sydney got a corn dog. Oh, how I wanted a caramel apple.... but that would have put the hurt on!

Anyway, remember how last year I rode the ride called the Tango? It was there again this year, but another year and another baby have not treated my body well. I don't remember it hurting quite so badly - you sit on this tiny little seat which is mostly you sitting on your pubic bone, with dangly legs. It hurt me. That ride is also clearly not meant for men, either.

So, we decided that we're getting too old for that stuff, and next year one of us gets an arm band and Sydney (there are some rides she needs an adult to accompany her) and we call it a day. It was fun though! I rode a couple other rides that were fun, we ate junk food for a while, then we went home where I discoverd I got a slight sunburn on my forehead. And forearms. Nothing serious, but enough.

So we left, stopped at Sonic during Happy Hour for half-price drinks (and got HUGE Route 44's... we were THIRSTY!!) and came home, then everyone crashed a little. Man, the heat takes a lot out of you!

So that was our weekend. Exciting. ;-)