3 posts tagged “baby”

It's my super ovulation time of year and it's making me nuts.

It took me a few days to figure it out. I was just craving babies -- stopping in the aisle at the market to ooh and ahh over teeny-tiny newbies, imagining myself 7 moths pregnant, imagining a sweet new bundle of love in my arms.

And then I'd panic. PANIC! I don't want another baby. Well, I do. I do. But I am half way to the nut house now with the 2 lovely babes I already have. I'm screaming too much, I'm tired, my apartment's a mess, I'm behind on stuff, and out of cash to spend. So, my logical brain puts a halt on all this craziness. For a minute or two. And then I catch myself staring at babies again, or noticing some guy in the store and think "aha. He'd make a good baby." CRAZINESS.

So I was telling a friend about this when I realized it's THAT time of year. This -- end of October, beginning of November -- is when I get pregnant. Instantly. Now my husband has figured this out as well, and refuses to get anywhere near me. I'll start to get a super-nice goodbye kiss and suddenly he'll pull away in a panic. "Stop!" He'll yelp, "I know you're tricks! I see you! I see you!" and then he'll run out the door, forgetting his lunch or phone or something, and won't return.

He's right, you know. He's the smarter of the two of us right now.

I am in baby shoe hell.

My 16 mo old has one pair of shoes, Bobux, with holes in the toes. They are otherwise pretty shoddy looking - cracked, faded, and scrunched. Sad booties, basically, but easy to get off and on and they work well for trashing through sand piles. Not so good in puddles, as they only have thin leather soles. These were free, from my mother-on-law. Have served us well. But she needs a pair with good soles that will keep her dry and help her climb things.

She also has a pair of beautiful berry suede Ecco mary-janes with little suede flowers stitched on them. They cost about $60 a couple months ago, and she has begun to fuss about them. Getting small. I didn't want them in the first place, but at the time they were the only pair of shoes I could find that fit her properly.

I saved all of my older daughter's shoes, but somehow I only seem to have one practically brand new Adidas shell top in size 5 1/2. No clue where the other one has gone. I did, however, miraculously manage to save both in a pair of navy blue leather, Stride-Rite mary-janes. She's been wearing them, but they seem a bit big. This was confirmed at the zoo today, when she lost one of them in the Orangutan habitat (it was saved when I fished it out with a long stem of bamboo). It had gotten loose in between two slats in the fence she was trying to scale.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to get her into a sweet pair of See Kai Run trainers. I tried some one a couple months ago, but the 5's were huge, so we got the Eccos. Went back to the store last week, but they were out of size 5 SKRs. Ordered some online thinking they'd be perfect now. Unfortunately, they are too perfect and look like they will fit about another 4 weeks. Maybe 6. Now, these are only $40 shoes. A bargain, right?

But I'm not really keen on spending $20 -$30 a month on shoes for this kid. I also am a bit embarrassed by shoddy hole-ridden mocs. What's a girl to do? I do have a pair of Berry sock/mocs for her for Christmas waiting in the wings. She could alternate those with the Stride-Rites. I was thinking of returning the SKR's for a size 6, but then realized they are way too easy for her to take off, now that she has become Master of the Velcro (and of keys and locks, but that's another story). So, I think I either have to suck up the $40, knowing they at least don't have holes, and hoping that she'll keep them on, OR, I have to just return them, and deal with the holes in the Bobux until she hits the next size of something, or Channukah. I was going to order new shell tops, as they are lace-ups and should stay on better, but they've changed the design over the last 4 years and now I think they look ugly.

It's mind-numbing, isn't it? I mean, this is so tedious and boring that I'm going on autopilot and not even listening to myself. Sigh. And my husband won't help me, either.

More upsetting, is the fact that this isn't about shoes for me.

Our baby has started speaking sentences. She is 16 months old and she is speaking in sentences. And I have witnesses, so it's not just me making stuff up, walking around crazy mama-ing that my baby's a genius. First of all, I don't want a genius baby. I want a happy, no rocking the boat baby. A simple baby that won't run me ragged and make my brain busy. A little smart would be nice, but I worry that the smarter you are the less happy you tend to be in the world, the more ripe for disappointment. That's probably not such a healthy attitude, but it's there nevertheless.

Anyway. The first was a few days ago. She was sitting on the couch, watching Stanley, and turned to me in the kitchen, a big smile on her face,

"I am watching TV!"

Sigh. She loves TV. I hate TV. Well, I love some TV, but I do not want my baby to love TV. I realize her crazy watching habits are all my own fault, but still. I am not comfortable with the whole idea. My first daughter did not watch TV at such a young age. Well, unless she was up in the middle of the night with my husband. Then, they'd be watching World Cup or something together. But there was no morning TV. No Barney or Sesame or Wiggles. No Little Einsteins or Stanely or Doodlebops or Caiou. Never Caiou. Ever.

My 5 year old was also on the couch watching TV and witnessed the whole thing. Still, I thought maybe I imagined it. Then, yesterday, we were visiting some friends and their dog nipped at her hand.

"Doggie bite me!" She yelped as the dog's owner and I were talking about it. "Yes, she did," I said. And my friend pretty much responded the same. Okay, that's two.

Then, this morning, when I went to pick her up from the gym's Childwatch, the babysitters were all a-twitter. "Tell her we make the kids smart!" One yelled, grinning. Then the other two chimed in, all excited that they had been playing catch when the baby caught a toss and blurt out, "I got it!"

Okay, so I wasn't even in the room to make that one up.

I'm kind of hoping that if I tell people about it, it will stop. And then I'll just look a bit crazy. But that's okay. I'm way more comfortable with her slightly ahead of schedule chattiness of "spoon," or "doggie kisses."