May 27, 2007
Happy Birthday

Well, it’s official. At 1:17pm today my baby girl turned one year old. I can’t believe how fast this past year has gone. I’ve always heard parents say that time flies faster and faster as you get older, but no one ever specifies that adding babies into the mix speeds it up exponentially.
We had a little family party for her and did the whole lunch and cake thing. Karis was overly tired and grumped about for the majority of the festivities. I enjoyed having a house full of happy revelers. It’s funny, but as I videotaped a few moments throughout the day I kept trying to get shots of Laura and Jesse to document what they look like today. I keep thinking about Karis watching the footage years from now, marveling that her grandmother was once so spry and her father so youthful. When I was visiting my mom this past month I took pictures of her with Karis and wondered what Karis would think of them later. I still feel a hint of surprise every time I wander across a picture of Gloria holding me as an infant. She still had dark hair then.
Another quirk I’ve noticed about myself lately is that seeing babies makes me all mushy. It’s a different kind of mushy from a few months ago when I had a baby of my own. Back then I would see a baby and it would make me think of my baby and want to hold her and snuggle her. Now I see a baby and ask myself where my baby went.
I was watching a movie yesterday, Nanny McPhee, and there is a darling little baby in it about 9 months old. Every time she came on screen my heart would skip a beat and I would quickly glance over to Karis and admire her round rosy cheeks and the chubby curve of her delicious thigh.

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May 16, 2007

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April 23, 2007

Karis and I returned home Saturday from 10 very long days away from The Boy. We went to LA to see Ella and Aunt Dani, and then drove up to Sacramento to visit my family and meet the new baby. The trip started with me going to the wrong airport! I failed to double check the airport call letters and assumed I was supposed to go to Dulles. When the kiosk couldn’t find my flight info I asked an attendant for help. She clickety clacked on her keyboard and said, “Oh, yep. You’re at the wrong airport.” After my initial “Oh my GOD – you’re kidding!” I took the whole thing in stride and she managed to get us on a direct flight to LAX instead of Burbank landing at the same time. I reveled in our good fortune. The airport was a ghost town. No lines ANYWHERE! We went right through security and had essentially an entire terminal to ourselves to crawl around in. We also had the luxury of an entire row all to ourselves for the flight.
When we landed Dani drove us to Ella’s and we pulled up right as she was getting out of her car from school. Wendy and John hadn’t told her I was coming just in case my plans changed, so it took her a minute to realize that I was actually standing in front of her gate. I got a big hug followed by a delightful afternoon of visiting with The Beans and family. It was so sweet to see Ella and Karis play together. The last time they saw each other Karis had been too little to be much fun.
Before heading to Dani’s for the night we gave Ella and Karis a bath together. It was surreal to see my Ella Beans and my daughter together in a tub splashing and sharing mermaid dolls. I never would have even dreamed up that scenario 3 short years ago!

The next morning David took us to breakfast while Dani slept in. Karis flirted with David the entire time, sharing her special toys and munching on pancakes. David is wonderful with children. He talked to her and explained things to her and kept me in stitches for most of the morning. The drive up to Sacramento seemed to take FOREVER. It was like we were lost in a time warp. We finally got there around 8:30pm. Dani got to meet the family and I got to see baby Kurt. He seemed SO small to me. Everyone kept trying to convince me that Karis had been that small when she was born, but I just wouldn’t buy it. Maybe he seemed so small because he was skinny. Karis had been an inch shorter than him, but a whole lot chubbier.
The following days were a whirlwind of visiting and going through my old storage unit packing stuff up to ship to the new house. We had a nice dinner with Dad and Ginger. I actually saw Ginger a few times this visit and she was always a delight! She was sweet tempered and helpful. Little Gloria was a delight as well! She was helpful and loved loved loved to play with Karis and go on errands with me. She is growing in to such a mature, sweet young lady. Bob spoils her shamelessly, but with the spoiling comes good parental guidance, so the result is a very happy, not-shallow-and-snotty little girl.
Mom and I spent a late night going through old photos from the seventies. I learned a few things about mom that I hadn’t known before. She was such a hottie! She’s still quite attractive, but there’s no denying the beauty of youth. She was a stunner in her day.
It was so wonderful to come home to The Boy. He had cut his hair short – my favorite look on him these days. He had been so worried that Karis wouldn’t remember him. She looked at him a bit unsure for the first 15 seconds or so, then it all seemed to come flooding back to her and she started babbling to him, telling him all about her trip I’m sure.
The next morning The Boy kept taking her outside to walk around the yard and get fresh air. They ended up sitting in the back yard under the open window I was sitting near. I could hear him talking to her and her excited babbling in response. I peeked out at them and smiled as Karis crawled and wobbled all over her father. A sudden welling of tears blurred the scene and I pulled back from the window. I love my family so very much and am so grateful for the privilege of witnessing such sweet moments.

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April 5, 2007
Birthday boy

Emily had a healthy baby boy yesterday.  It was my father’s 58th birthday, and new baby Kurt’s 1st. I was so disappointed to have missed the actual birth, but I’m excited to see him in just a few short days.
Yesterday also marked Karis’s first visit to her new pediatrician. Dr. Kadowitz is an upbeat young woman with a sparkle in her eye. We loved her. The office was clean, they saw us right away, and the nurse was sweet and no-nonsense at the same time. Karis let the nurse draw blood and didn’t even squirm.
The last 4 days have been uncomfortable for little Karis to say the least. She’s getting four upper teeth in at the same time and has been struggling with postnasal drip. Last night found her burning with fever and whimpering with diarrhea. I put her in bed with us, which usually results in her sleeping like the dead, but even that didn’t help. She still woke up every hour or so screaming in discomfort.
Today has been filled with nursing, snuggling, crying and napping. She seems most comfortable leaning against my chest as I sit in the glider. I’ll sing “Once upon a dream” to her softly as she drifts into a fitful slumber, smelling of cherry flavored Tylenol and despair.

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I took Chi Chi to the grocery store this afternoon to pick up some more Tylenol. She’s taken to sticking her fingers in her mouth to press on her gums, and then ends up gagging herself. She has done this a few times in the past, but last night she really got into it and wouldn’t stop shoving her fingers down her throat and throwing up. Well, she started doing it again as we waited in line at the check out. A man walked up behind us just after she finished vomiting white foam all down the front of her. “Stop it.” I said calmly. She stared at me with a serious expression on her face… then promptly stuck her fingers in her mouth again. “STOP IT!” I said firmly as I wrestled her fingers from her mouth – too late. Another wave of foamy white vomit soaked down her chin. The man quietly backed up and went to another line. Karis puked two more times before I managed to pay for our groceries and head for the car.  The biting wind must have been very cold on her wet chest. A strong gust took her breath away and distracted her enough to forget about gagging herself during the short ride home. I hope this charming little habit loses it’s appeal sooner rather than later.

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April 3, 2007
Happy Ocean Dollar store

So I’m killing time today and wander in to the Happy Ocean Dollar Store at my local mall. This is one of those cheap bin crap stores that sell everything for a dollar or less…except this store doesn’t sell ANYTHING for a dollar or less. This store is run by a very industrious Chinese family. The father could be heard clear in the back of the store extolling the virtues of ceramic pig mugs to a customer at check out that was apparently on the fence about whether or not he REALLY needed a ceramic pig mug. The cheapest thing I could find in this treasure trove of polyester glittered flowers and plastic cutlery was a photo album. The front pictured two very much in love young people strolling along a beach at sunset. It read; “Wolds can not say how much…” and then at the bottom, “Happy Valentimes day!” Read carefully – I copied the spelling letter by letter. Oh, and the price for this gem? $1.49 …………..there are no wolds.

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March 13, 2007
How sweet it is

It has just come to my attention that Hershey’s has a new chocolate syrup bottle design. Gone is the pull up cap from yesterday, replaced by a sanitary, easily operated hinged flip top. Rejoice fellow germaphobes, rejoice! There is not a person reading this that can honestly claim to have never sucked the syrup off the old style push up Hershey’s cap – not a one! When you eat ice cream topped with syrup from a contaminated Hershey’s cap, you’re eating ice cream that has been contaminated by every cap that cap has been with and so forth and so on. So thank you Hershey’s for this long over due re-design! The only 100% effective way to avoid ice cream contamination is to abstain from eating it in the first place, but thanks to the new flip top cap enjoying cootie free chocolate syrup just got a little easier.

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March 5, 2007
Buried treasure

I was changing Karis’s poopy diaper last night before her bath when I noticed a little something extra. Buried in her recycled carrots and peas was a small round metal object. I fished it out of the diaper with a Q-tip and washed it off. It appeared to be a washer or grommet of some sort. I shook my head in exasperation.
How is this child still alive? More to the point, how is it that she can eat small bits of hardware from God-knows-where but she can’t handle eating tiny pieces of cooked carrots without triggering her gag reflex?
People tell me I’m over reacting when I get upset about finding little surprises that have literally traveled through my daughter’s digestive tract. I don’t scream or faint or anything, but I do give a sigh of gratitude that whatever it is has made it out the other end with no detectable problems. You hear all the time about little Junior swallowing a penny and how funny it is a few days later when it gets passed – but rarely do you hear the horror stories I’ve witnessed first hand. Well, I’ve witnessed them happen to beloved family pets, not babies, but their obsession with eating EVERYTHING they can get their paws on is the same.
What may seem like harmless dental floss or pretty Christmas tree tinsel to you, is actually a deadly obstructer when it is eaten and becomes tangled in one’s bowels.

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February 20, 2007
My what big teeth you have!

Karis officially has her two bottom teeth in. They broke through her gums today and she delighted in grinding them against my inquiring finger tonight in the bath. She LOVES her bath time. She squeals and splashes and even dips her face right in to the water, sputtering in surprise when it tickles up her nose. The Boy was watching her stare in fascination at the water falling from the spout and he commented that being a baby must be like being on E 24-7. Everything is new and amazing. I laughed at the comparison. Life as a 9 month old certainly seems to be filled with sensory delight.

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February 12, 2007
All choked up

My God this child has hawk vision! She can find the tiniest piece of filth that most people would require a magnifying glass to see. She has mastered the pincher grasp and immediately puts any scrap she finds into her eager little mouth. What she lacks in dexterity she makes up for in perseverance. If it doesn’t make it into the mouth the first time, try try again!
Today her fascination with small chokables partnered with her mother’s inattentiveness nearly cost her her life. And NO, I’m not being melodramatic. I sat her down in front of the full-length mirror by the bathroom while I brushed my teeth. Next I put her on the bed to change her diaper before we left for another round of house hunting. While I was changing her she rolled over onto her belly in an attempt to scoot away. I flipped her over which caused her to laugh. Her wide smile revealed a dull grey rod tucked up against her cheek! I immediately made a grab for it. It turned out to be a spring about an inch long, similar to what you would find in a pen or mechanical pencil only wound much tighter. (I found out later it was part of The Boy’s electric shaver, which had been dropped on the bathroom floor the day before.) I finished diapering the little trash compactor and gave a silent thanks that we avoided choking, bowel obstruction, punctured intestines…
Three hours later found us riding around with the realtor looking at town houses. Karis was fidgety and bored with the toys I had brought so I gave her my hat to play with. She loves to touch the yarn tassels and I let her play with it all the time. Just as we were arriving at our destination Karis started choking and gurgling. I checked her mouth but didn’t see anything. She spit up a little drool and finally got her breathing under control and I assumed she had just inhaled extra saliva or something. Not until we were back in the car on our way home and she started choking again did I realize what was going on. I looked over at her as she was hacking again and saw what I thought was a rubber band in her mouth! I pulled it out and found it to be a piece of yarn from my hat tassel.
How is it that I successfully kept numerous children safe and healthy for over ten years while working as a nanny yet I can’t seem to keep my own child from eating mechanical parts and offering her unsuitable toys?

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