Three Years

Today is my three-year wedding anniversary with my husband Tim. While that is traditionally the year of leather I will choose to skip that option and try to rectify a wrong from last years' present. For our anniversary last year I gifted Tim with a Dessert of the Month. This gift worked out really well combining my love of cooking with his love of eating - good times were had by all involved. However, there were some questions as to the adequacy of the December dessert. I made this, without the amazing Brown Sugar Brandy Sauce. Before we start the new year I have made both cake and sauce today in an effort to start the year with a clean slate.

Happy Anniversary Tim, thanks for another great year.

Soggy Cow

Matilda has reached the stage where everything goes into the mouth. While her hands seem to be a favorite item for sucking, the plush purple cow is a close second. Cow has gone quite rapidly from soft and fluffy to rather soggy and crusty around the edges. However, Slashfood has brought to my attention a rather nice replacement for Matilda's current beefy companion in case we need to replace him.

Life Lesson # 327

• When you poop in the tub it will severely cut short your bathing experience.
  

Matilda has gone from hating baths to loving them. So much so that she now protests when we take her out too soon. Imagine then, how unhappy she was this morning to discover that after a nice relaxing poop she was promptly removed from the tub. I am not quite sure how to convey to her that in order to continue enjoying her bath she cannot exercise her bowels.

The Little Critic

So Matilda must be a natural born film critic, no surprise considering her father. She agreed with the critics and much preferred An Inconvenient Truth to Friends With Money. Mommie & Me went very smoothly this time and I got to watch about 95 of the 100 minutes. Al Gore was a very persuasive, clear speaker and even had some great jokes. My only quarrel is that it should be classified in the horror genre, not documentary.

World Cup Junkie

Matilda and I have been watching way too much tv since Friday. The RD Mama household got cable in order to participate with the rest of the world in watching several games a day for the next few weeks. It is hard to get much of anything done when you watch 4 1/2 hours of soccer a day. However, if you start at 6 a.m. it does lead to more napping in the afternoons! Matilda has been wearing her soccer ant onesie to get into the World Cup spirit.
She likes this ant best, since he wears number 10 like all the best players on each team: Rosicky, Ronaldinho,Totti, Zidane, and all her other favorites.
I like the referee Ant waving his red card best of all!

Bob, The Other Man

I have to admit that I am falling madly in love with my new running partner, B.O.B. This is not to say anything negative about my previous running partners. Sarah and Tim and all the others I have had over the years have been wonderful. In fact, they could all keep their end of the conversation up way better than Bob. However, aside from this small fault, Bob is wonderful. Bob is my new crush and he has so many nice qualities. Bob calms Matilda effortlessly and lets her nap while we jog.

Bob has a nice view for me while we jog.

Bob has fancy shocks for a smooth ride. And Bob is a Sport Utility Something so I feel like I can keep up with the other mothers and their snazzy SU Somethings at Mommie and Me.

I am in love with Bob. Don't tell Tim.

Breastfeeding Humor Never Gets Old Around Here

Now that you can witness the power of breastmilk working on our own little chubster, I thought you might feel the need to make a more public statement on breastfeeding. Tim voted for "that's my baby's lunch you're staring at..." and I am getting him a "Why wouldn't I want to see more breasts in public?" bumper sticker.

Or you might simply be curious about your legal rights associated with breastfeeding. My favorite perk in California is the excusal from jury duty. I am quite curious about Missouri's law and would like to know who gets to define what is discrete enough..... nipple out for 10 seconds, 30 seconds, whole boob out? Who's to say?

Strangers

"Awww, she's so cute! Can I carry her?" -a teenage-ish gal shopping

Carry her where you might wonder?? We opted not to find out and declined her generous offer of relieving Tim of his 12-pound load.

"Does she know you?" -an elderly woman waiting at a bus stop

I think she probably meant does she recognize me yet, but I like to imagine it the other way. No, she doesn't know me; she just walked up and strapped herself onto the front of a stranger.

Hopefully (if the strangers can keep up their end of the deal) this will be an ongoing series of unusual comments. Babies make people do funny things.

The Happy Spitter

We have ourselves a spitter. Initially we were very disturbed by the amount that M spits up, however, the pediatrician assured us not to worry. Dr. Kramer said that there are two types of spitters: happy spitters and problem spitter. The happy spitter gains weight and is not bothered by their spitting, whereas the problem spitter gains poorly or get upset when they spit up. It is clear from the photo what type we have.

I like the way my Breastfeeding Answer Book states it: "in a healthy baby, spitting is a laundry problem, not a medical problem." Laundry is definitely a problem, and convincing M it is better for us to wipe the goop off her face. She gets more upset by the wiping than the actual process of spitting up.

704

When first presented with this enormous box of wipes from the generous Wilson family at our baby shower we wondered out loud about how long they would last....... well folks, now we have an answer.

One month, exactly.

We started using wipes when M turned one month and Saturday when she turned two months we returned to Costco to restock. Let's just say that is a lot of butt wiping!

Two Thumbs Down

So we ventured out for our first Mommie & Me screening this morning. M gave Friends With Money two thumbs down, although I tried to convince her it is not really fair to judge the movie if she didn't watch the entire thing. I was hoping she would nurse/nap for the duration of the show but she slept from 8:45-10, which did not bode well for our 10:30 show time. She quietly enjoyed the movie for about the first half. After that M began not-so-quietly voicing her complaints with the plot and tried to convince the other babies to revolt with her.

I actually think she may have just been bored with the dark room. Each time I took her out into the lobby she immediately stopped crying and was content to look around. Either that or she was pissed to find out there would be no popcorn for her in the near future. We will try again next week and see how she fares.

Pork

M had her two month check up today and the pediatrician confirmed our suspicions: she is a porker. She went from the 15th percentile weight-for-age at birth to the 80th percentile currently. Combine this with her shorter than average stature and you've got one fat baby on your hands. She is currently 11lb 5oz and 22 1/2", up from 6lb 4oz and 18 1/2" at birth. It appears she has mastered the art of eating and I am afraid anything that gets too close to the mouth is in peril.

She also got her first four immunizations today and took it all pretty well. The nurse was so speedy it was all over very quickly. Rather than looking upset, M just looked stunned like she wasn't sure what had happened. She screamed bloody murder until I managed to shove a boob in her mouth. She nursed for a millisecond and has been asleep since, going on 3 hours now.

M vs The Diaper Man

So last week M completely beat the diaper delivery man in their weekly race to the Wednesday exchange of our dirties for a fresh new bag. As you can see M was not convinced her new pile of 80 would be sufficient for the week. I am happy to report that the diaper man won this week and we had 5 diapers left when he arrived. However, we still seem to be a long way from decreasing our weekly par from 80. According to the diaper service generally at 3-4 months customers are able to decrease from 80 to 70 per week, not really the progress I was hoping for.

As of 3pm today we have 77 for the week: the race is on.

Starting is Hard

So after years of using blog surfing as a proven method of avoidance to any dreaded task I thought I should try things from the other side. I imagine using this blog as a kind of journal of my days with M, commentary on foodie things that interest me, or possibly something else. We will see where it takes me. And if I can manage to keep up with posting regularly. Today my new idea of implementing a regular napping time for M has worked brilliantly allowing me to try and tackle this first post. We will see if she is so cooperative in the future. When I told my mom about this new napping scheme she laughed so I am not sure how best to interpret that!