Alright - Break's Over!

Well, it's 2013.  I haven't posted on this blog for a year and a half.  That little girl in the pink bug has skyrocketed into a beautiful curly haired 2 year old and it happened so fast it feels like just yesterday I was blogging about her first teeth - and now she's got (as of last week) a whole mouth full of them.  There are no more bottles, no more binks, no more bugs in the middle of the living room.  Instead, there are sippee cups, the occasional "get that out of your mouth!" exclamations, and an entire half of the living room covered with dolls, play kitchen stuff, coloring books, little people toys, books and everything imaginable with Elmo on it.   Since my last entry we've moved to a bigger house (out of basic necessity - it's amazing how much room a child takes up in a house being she's the smallest person in it) and I've gone back to work full time.  She's started daycare, and can count to twelve already, and knows all her colors and maybe, just maybe, knows how to read "Ho Ho Ho."  Christmas was amazing - she didn't like Santa after meeting him, but she really liked him after she saw all those toys under the tree.  It will be fun to see what next year brings when she sees Mr. C. in person again...

Through it all, though, I"m still in amazement at how much I love this little girl and how much life has changed since she came around.  There are no more lazy days, no more spontaneous moments.  Moms are a skilled population - we can carry more at once, do more at once, sleep less than the average person and still function, and somehow become domestic goddesses, doctors, psychologists, teachers, chefs, artists, and chauffeurs all rolled into one person.  That being said, keeping up with anything is nearly ten times harder now than it was before I was a mom, and that's what inspired me to pick up the laptop and go back to the blog...I meant to use this to save my sanity and I didn't stick with it - my sanity has suffered.  I'm learning as I go, and feel the need to share the wealth of the lessons I'm picking up along the way...

Maylen is at Nana's tonight - it's bitter cold here in PA, and since Tuesdays and Thursdays are Nana's days to watch her, she decided a sleepover was best so Maylen can just stay warm and snuggly in bed in the morning instead of being dragged out in the cold.  Good idea for two reasons - first, Nana's reason is a really good one, and second - Mama needs some sleep!  

Introducing...Miss May Bean!

There's a giant pink bug in the middle of my living room with yellow legs and green feet, and sitting in a bouncy seat in the middle of it chewing voraciously on a flower shaped rattle attached to it's head is my chubby-cheeked princess, Maylen.  It's hard to believe seven months have gone by since I first met her.  Easily the seven best months of my life, even though the first couple weeks were a little hairy.  C-sections aren't so nice, really.  If I could have, I certainly would've endured hours of labor and pushing, and part of me even regrets that I didn't get the chance for all that.  But that's neither here nor there - the end result is the same...the ever-growing, ever-learning little girl I call my Sugar Pie, who at this exact moment is teething, tired and can't poop.  Somehow, though, she's still giggling and smiling in the giant bug, wearing a Feliz Navidad bib in the middle of June.

Becoming a Mom, of course, is the best thing that ever happened to me, but that's not to say it hasn't come with its frustrations.  But the frustrations are part of the learning process, and I'm pretty sure that writing a regular blog of the things I'm learning, the things I'm stressing about, and the things I'm rejoicing in will help my mental state stay at a good spot!  Plus, how fun would it be to share this stuff with other new moms.  I write this like i actually have a readership - maybe I will someday...for now it will probably just be my best friend leaving love notes at the end of each entry.  Tell your friends, will, ya Patti?  :)

Having a girl is incredible.  Ever since it occurred to me that someday I would grow up and be a Mommy, I've said I was having a boy. I only wanted a boy...I would have no idea what to do with a girl.  I was always a tomboy growing up, and i'm still a really bad "girl" myself.  I don't wear makeup, doing my hair means I brushed it, and I'm awkward at best in heels and a dress.  I still like to play in the dirt and watch zombie movies much more than going shopping for a new purse or hosting a jewelry party.  During the ultrasound where we found out what we were having, I swear Maylen knew what she was there for that day.  As soon as the ultrasound device hit my arching belly the technician said "it's a girl...she's showing me everything she's got!"  Maylen was in there, legs wide open yelling "hey! I'm not a boy!!  I'm a girl!! Hey!!!"  The tell tale three little lines in a row (which the technician explained would be a line and two circles if she was a boy...) were unmistakable at every other ultrasound i had.  She was always in there waiting in position to let me know she was still a girl.  But the idea grew on me immediately.  I was going to have a girl...heaven help me!

So the biggest thing I've learned as a new mom is that I have the capability to love another human being in a way I never knew I could love another human being.  It's mind blowing.  I would readily take a bullet for this little girl without thinking twice.   Seven months later, I still weep sometimes looking at her because i'm still amazed that she's here. But i'm trying not to make this blog overly sentimental and sappy, so i'll stop now and get back to the fun side of being a Mom.

So it's now three hours after I wrote the first line of my first entry...I've given Maylen a bottle, fed her dinner, snuck in my own dinner during a very quick nap, talked to Nana about why exactly she is constipated (I don't know the answer to that question!) and changed a diaper with (yay!) a big hard turd in it.  Let's hope that's just the beginning of the relief for my little cupcake, who is now laying on the couch with me giving her bink some kind of hell.   She's such a cutie!