Bodily Fluids

I'm writing this post at the tail end (I hope) of what feels like the longest period of sickness in my house. Before kids, I envisioned parenting as a sort of Norman Rockwell painting. Reading books before bedtime, sweet little hands baking with me, and lots of coloring and craft time. The reality definately includes these sweet moments, but truth be told, there are large gaps in between. Those gaps seem to be filled with two things: lots of loud noise, and bodily fluids.

It's amazing the way bodily fluids of the parenting kind seem to fill your life. BC (before children), I watched a girlfriend let her daughter wipe her nose on her jeans because no one had a tissue with horror. Now I sit, covered in various forms of snot wiped on my jeans, rubbed on my shoulder by a tired baby, with the addition of drool, banana, and some other form of spit mixed with food. You see, our house has been ravaged by a cold that just won't die. It started on an apparent field trip home from a preschool friend of Sophia's, and decided that we were the perfect family for it, so it stayed. One by one we have fallen prey to it's cough, it's amazing verosity and talent to produce large quanities of mucus, and alas, it's vomit inducing stomach bug.

I'm no stranger to vomit. I had morning sickness with all three of my kids. The last pregnancy led to no less than 30 weeks of nausea and vomiting. However, there is something to be said for being vomited on by someone else. In your hair, in your hands as you desperately try to catch it before it hits the carpet while simultaneously carrying the vomiting child to the bathroom, wiping vomit out of door hinges (yes, it got in there)... It's amazing because, for the most part, it doesn't bother you. Being a parent has given lots of gifts, aside from strech marks and saggy boobs. It gives you the ability to love without bounds. You know that love it there all the time, but at times like these, when I honestly have lost count at how many times I have been puked on in the last few days, it really fills you in a different ways. BC, if I had to clean up someone else's vomit, I'd be bitter and angry. Now, I am filled with compassion, pity, and impervious to the smell and able to see entire chunks of dinner within without being disgusted.

In addition to those sick-time bodily fluids, there are the other kinds. You know, the every day bodily fluids that starts with the first diaper, and if you have a boy, will continue to fill many conversations until they leave for college. On top of the sickness in my house, bodily fluids continue to fill other parts of my day because I have one baby in diapers, and one just recently potty trained child, which means my thoughts are all about who pooped and peed when, and how quickly I must run to get Maia on the toliet before she forgets she is wearing underwear. It's worth it, even if I do occasionally get peed on.

Ask any mother of a young child, and she will tell you, yes, there are lots of lovely moments sprinkled throughout the day that could rival any pre-baby fantasy of parenting, but all of them will say that those moments are dripping of bodily fluids.

Standing, oh my!

Goodness, I can't believe I am posting this. Miss C is standing! At 7 months old, she is far and above anything I have ever seen for a baby. She will most likely be walking by Christmas. She started standing 4 days ago, has progressed to holding on with only one hand, as you can see here, and today stood independantly for a few seconds before artfully landing on her bottom. Anyone want to start taking bets on her first steps?

Halloween

Here are the girls on Halloween evening. They were very excited to go. As you can tell, Sophia was Alice in Wonderland. Maia is Ariel after she is a human, and poor Celia is a unicorn, who is desperately trying to pull the hood off! It was a bit big on her head, so it kept falling over her face. After the picture, we just took the hood off. Our house is now full of candy, and the candy fairy will be sneaking in and stealing it a little at a time to help get rid of it. James took me to dinner the next day for my birthday to Ruth Chris, which was delicious, and a nice break from the girls. My girlfriend Inna watched the girls for me, and deserves special praise because Celia decided to cry and freak out after I left, and Inna had to deal with all her drama. So thanks a lot Inna for watching them! We are also being swept by a new, and much appriciated, craze, fairies. Specifically, Tinkerbell and the Disney Fairies. Since the movie came out, there has been a lot of fairy behavior, which is a nice break from the last 3 years of princess rule in my house! I'll gladly take smart fairies over oo-la-la princesses any day! So huzzah for the fairies! With cold weather approaching, I'll be happy to play fall fairies inside all day long! I highly recommend the Tinkerbell movie for anyone with a little girl. It's very cute, and may just save you from the grip the princesses has had on us all!

So many things!

My god, what a whirlwind these last few weeks have been! A few days after we returned from Dinseyworld, my lovely brother Josh came for a visit, then my mom got into town, my cousin Mandy got married and Sophia was the flower girl, and Celia started crawling and is now into everything, as you can see! We've been doing dance class and preschool most days of the week, and I am left panting in the dust! Every day I think I'm going to stay home, something happens and I am off somewhere else. Today I was on the southside and ordered a new crib for Celia, because her old one was recalled, and visited my grandparents while we were down there, so it was a nice bonus to the trip. Sophia is learning a lot at school, and I'm already getting the real insight on what being a mom of three girls will really be. We are already experiencing the "so and so won't talk to me today" stuff. I'm trying to realize that while as we grow older most women mature and don't do that anymore, all little girls will have to experience it and work through it themselves. I'll try and provide whatever gentle guidance I can, but it does break my heart to see Sophia the Bold become Sophia the Insecure now that she is in school. Maia is now asking to go to school as well, and it stings to see how quickly they are growing up and reaching out to the world. Parenting is the act of teaching a person how to live in the world without you once they are older, and if you are a good parent, you do that, but it is a sad and scary prospect. I think Celia learning to crawl has shown me not only though that they work so hard to leave you, but if you do things right, they will always be happy to come back, just like she does when she realizes I'm sitting close enough to crawl to. My, aren't I feeling sentemental today? Back on the track of news of exciting times in the life of us, we went to an orchard last weekend and picked our own apples and got apple cider. There is nothing on earth better than a glass of REAL apple cider, fresh and crisp, on a fall day. Delicious. We also recieved some suprise tickets today to the premire of the Tinkerbell movie for Saturday from Sophia's school, so lucky James gets to sit in a room full of preteen girls down to toddlers and watch it with us. He's a superstar. Speaking of him being a superstar, he got a promotion at work and now will be a manager in the Financial Reporting division. Yeah for James! No more travel either, so yeah for me! So congrats to my hubby for a job well done. Here are a few pictures of the recent fabulous fun we have been having. Enjoy!

Disneyworld!

We are back from our fabulous trip to Disneyworld. It was a memorable trip, if not a relaxing one! Every day the temperature was around 92, and when you add in humidity, which was over 70% every day and the fact that you are in a sea of cement, the temperature was more like 100+ degrees. Soooo hot. I could step outside and feel the sweat just dripping down my back within minutes. Even with that heat, we were able to enjoy most of the parks. We just had to come back to the hotel during the hottest part of the day, which worked out for naps as well. The girls had a blast, and were able to meet all the characters we wanted to. Every morning we had breakfast with Mikey, Donald, Daisy, Pooh, Tigger, or the princesses. So with that out of the way we were able to spend the rest of the day on rides and not hunting down Cinderella! With it being so ungodly hot, there were hardly any lines at all. We were able to just walk on all the rides with the exception of Dumbo and the new Toy Story ride, which just opened, so we were really happy with that. The girls loved everyone and everything, except the Mad Hatter, whom Maia saw and promptly freaked out, yelling "him bad!" We were on the dining plan, and the food was delicious, except when Maia vomited all over my dessert from either stuffing too much in her mouth, or just heat related. It's hard to say, the kid pukes a lot and very easily. Celia was pretty happy, b/c she spent a lot of time being held. She is super close to crawling. While we were there she started getting on her hands and knees and rocking, so it won't be too long now! I'm adding a few pictures of some sweet Disney moments for you all to enjoy. That's the magic of Disney, even with extreme heat, we still had fun!

Dance Baby Dance!

Wednesday was the beginning of dance class this season, and Maia was allowed to start class early because she so desperately wanted to join in this summer. Starting age is usually 3, but since she cried literally every time Sophia had class this summer, Miss Lori let her start. She is a natural, and danced just as well as the older girls. Here are some shots of her in her class, and Sophia in her new older girls class. Notice their fabulous tutus, which we made ourselves. Every girl needs a good fancy tutu!

First day of school

Today was the first day of preschool for Miss Sophia. The last week has been filled with a vat of emotions ranging from extreme sadness over my baby leaving home to pride in how very amazing of a young girl she is becoming. It was very very hard driving her to class this morning, and took every bit of courage not to swing back around home and keep her to myself for another year. I am so grateful that I have been able to stay home with my girls and watch them grow and develop every step of the way. It was a bittersweet moment when we walked into class and without looking back she stepped into the circle and started becoming part of the action immediantly. I know I have worked hard to raise her to be independant and to adapt to any situation, but it was sad when I left and she could care less! I know that this is going to be great for all of us. Celia is now able to take a nice solid morning nap at home without being dragged to gymnastics, and Maia will get some one on one attention that she so desperately needs. I am sure I'll spend the rest of the day on the verge of tears, but I will be much better the next time. It's amazing how quickly time goes by. Before you know it, I'll be blogging about her last day of high school...