D – Page 10 – Jocelyn Rau

November 8, 2011November 7, 2011

1 year

As of today, that’s how long I’ve been back at work after having D. 1 entire year. Hmm, how do I feel about that?

Well, I’d still much rather be either working from home or staying home period so I could be with her full-time instead of having to use daycare. So there’s that. Fortunately we do love her daycare, and I know she has a great time there, as evidenced by her smiles and waves good-bye most every morning. Plus she’s learning a lot, so I’m definitely not complaining about the caliber of daycare. It’s just needing it period that I’d rather not have.

How is work? Well, in some respects it’s better than when I first came back. As in I no longer feel like I’m fighting for my own goddamn job every single day. In other respects it’s worse, as in see paragraph above… So I guess the answer to this one is my standard “Work is work.”

How is D? Awesome, of course. The difference between November 8, 2010, and November 8, 2011, just in her alone is astonishing. A little photographic comparison for you… Then:

And now:

For those 2 pictures from last year I had to search all the way back through my text messages from R from that day, which I found amusing. All you working mamas know how heart-wrenching that first day back at your desk and away from your baby is, so here’s a little peek at how I was feeling that day:

A whole year, eh? Crazy. I will tell you 1 thing that hasn’t changed since that first day back last year, though, not even in the slightest. The moment I get to leave work to go pick up D, see her smiley little face again, and know we get to spend the rest of the night all together at home is still the highlight of my day. I have a feeling that won’t ever change, either.

November 4, 2011November 10, 2011

A whole new (messy!) vocabulary

Since becoming parents, a whole slew of new words has begun populating our everyday vocabulary – breast milk, breast pump, breast any-kind-of-paraphernalia (those more so in the first months than now, but still never before D was born), diapers, wipes, butt cream (what, you used that one before you had kids? ok, then i’m the weirdo), onesie, teething, jumperoo, peekaboo!, spit-up… The list is quite lengthy, but I think you get the idea.

There is one word, however, that has unfortunately become more prevalent than the others. A word that has been the focal point of many a conversation and has caused load upon load upon load of laundry. Really, all from a single word? Yes really, all from a single word. What word could possibly have such an impact in its singularity, you must certainly be wondering by now? That word, my friends, would be poopsplosion. Yes, you read that correctly. Poopsplosion. As in poop-splosion. What the? May I have a definition? Absolutely!

poop.splo.sion [poop-sploh-zhuh’n]

noun

the act or instance of baby poop exploding out of a diaper and onto everything/one in sight – clothes, changing area, car seat, furniture, walls, floors, the baby, you.

Can you use it in a sentence, please? Why, surely!

“I picked up D only to discover her entire back and legs were covered in fecal matter due to another poopsplosion.”

Poopsplosion.

Our first encounter with this lovely word came roughly 3 weeks after D was born. And looking back on it, I’m actually quite surprised we made it that long before coming face-to-face with the dreaded poopsplosion. We had gone to my mom’s house for the better part of a week, and both my sisters and my dad came into town to meet D for the first time. It was a lovely visit, really. You know, first-time grandparents and aunts and all.

All went swimmingly, too, until shortly before it was time to come home. Babies seem to have magical timing, don’t they? I had been holding D on my lap and turned her around to go up onto my shoulder, when I noticed a damp sensation on my hand. Well that’s odd, I thought. Did she spit up or drool on me? Upon further inspection, I realized it was neither of the above options. Rather, a tell-tale yellowish stain began creeping its way across the back of her onesie. Oh no! Is that what I think it is? Yep, it’s what I thought it was. Poop.

Quick, let’s get her changed before it gets worse. Ha. Ha ha. HAHAHAHA! Nice try. Before I knew it (and of course before i could get her into the room we were using as the changing area), there was bright yellow breastfed baby poop engulfing my sweet baby girl. Up her entire back, out through the leg holes of the diaper, all around to the front of the onesie, on her legs, on her socks, in her socks, on her arms (what? yeah, i don’t know either). POOPSPLOSION!!

Needless to say, tiny little D went right into the sink for a nice warm bath, poopsplosion clothes and all. Don’t worry, she was quickly separated from the mess and given a new, clean bathing vessel, but we just wanted to try to contain the monster as soon as possible before the poopsplosion could claim any more victims. And thus, dear readers, began our lives with a new word – poopsplosion. I’d love to say that we and the poopsplosions parted ways after those newborn and breastfed months, but not even close. In fact, we’ve had a couple encounters as recently as this week. There is a very good reason we have to keep a spare outfit on hand at daycare. Twice this week D came home in different clothes. And you know what that means… More poopsplosions and more laundry. Hooray!! (insert much sarcasm here)

So there you have it. Our first (of MANY!) really messy moment with a baby, and our introduction to a new vocab word all rolled into one. Lucky us! And now I’m curious – what about you? Have any messy moments that stand out in your memories? In my experience, the poopier, the funnier!

I received information about Clorox’s Bleach It Away campaign and am sharing my messy moment for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls. To learn more about the messy moment program, check out www.BleachItAway.com. Sharing your story on the Clorox fan page gets you entered for the chance to win $25,000 and daily prizes, and you can grab a coupon for Clorox® Regular Bleach.

I’m also linking this up with Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop.

November 3, 2011February 1, 2012

15 month stats

15 months this week (Tuesday, to be exact), wow! D is turning more and more into a little person every day, and that tiny baby who burst into our lives last August is quickly becoming a distant memory. Which kind of makes me sad. I absolutely loved the newborn stage – teeny little girl, depended on me and R for every single thing, could snuggle in and sleep for hours in the crook of your arm. But I have to admit, seeing the person whom D is becoming is amazing. She has the funniest, most incredible spirit, and watching her learn something new every day just fills me with pride. Like hey, we made that little human, and maybe we didn’t so bad after all.

So what’s new in the life of Miss D?

We just had her 15 month checkup yesterday, and she is 32 3/4 inches tall, weighing in at 23 lbs. She loves stepping up onto the regular scale at the doctor’s office all by herself now, too.
*Almost* has a couple words. When asked, “Who says moo?” or “How does the cow go?” she’ll reply “Mmm…” We just need to work on getting those Os tacked on there. And when prompted with, “How does the puppy go?” she’ll say “Woof, woof.” Ok, it sounds more like “fff, fff,” but we totally know what she’s saying. Unfortunately the “thank you”s we heard a few months ago are now nowhere to be found, something we need to work on reviving. Actual words can’t be far off, though, what with the sometimes endless rivers of chatter that flow from those little lips.
LOVES her books. I think now more than ever, actually. I brought an old CD rack down from the attic a few weeks ago and loaded it up with all her books in her bedroom, and she will go in there time after time and empty the entire thing, just sitting there reveling in a pile of books. It is beyond cute to hear her reading them out loud, too, as the “bdyips, bdyips” and “bdyaps, bdyaps” make up countless stories. She does have a couple favorites, which she so hopefully carries out to you so she can climb up into your lap to have read. I love it.
She is great at entertaining herself, which I also love. The other weekend R bought a set of those interlocking foam play mats to cover the floor, since we have no carpet in our house and the floor gets kind of cold (not to mention hard). They’re the alphabet and numbers from 0-9, and I cleared out an entire corner of our living room to lay them. We finally put away her playpen (the jumperoo made its way up to the attic a few months ago) and had enough room to use this new corner play area to hold all of her toys and things in the living room. It’s perfect, and she will sit over there and toodle away quite happily on her own (yes, toodle, i may have just invented that word too). She has a couple Magna Doodles, her little push toy, inflatable beer bottle (wonderful example we’re setting), kickball, corner pillow for lounging, shapes for stacking and putting through the correct holes in their respective boxes, gumball machine toy, whatever random pieces of this and that she collects from around the house, and of course more books.
She will let us know when she’s hungry now by going over to her highchair, grabbing onto the tray, and acting like she’s trying to climb up it. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before she does this when we’re not looking and pulls the whole thing down on top of her. Not looking forward to that one.
Is primarily still a champ sleeper. Her bedtime is usually somewhere between 7-8, and yes, she still takes a bottle of milk at bedtime. It’s not quite as necessary as it has been, because there are nights where she’ll be so tired we can just put her in her crib and she’ll fall right asleep without it. Most nights, however, she’ll start doing her sleepy eye-rubs and maybe get a little whiny, so we’ll give her her bottle, she’ll climb up and lie between R’s legs in a blanket on the couch, and drink her milk until she falls asleep. Or sometimes I’ll rock her in her room with the bottle, just depending on what we’re doing and how tired she is. I know we need to give this last bottle up soon, but she still loves it and I don’t think this nighttime routine is hurting anything. She’s been waking up a couple times in the nights lately, but I think that’s due to growing pains. At least I hope it’s due to growing pains and not a new non-sleep schedule she’s picking up, because that just doesn’t fit into my need-sleep schedule.
Loves participating in all the activities at daycare – finger painting, water color painting on the easel, story time, finger plays, songs, and most especially playing out on the playground. There have been days when her class is outside playing when I arrive to pick her up and she won’t want to go home. Stinker! One day she tried to eat wood chips to avoid coming with me, another day she tried to permanently attach herself to the wooden rocking boat in her empty classroom so I couldn’t carry her out to the car. At least she likes daycare, right?
This girl L-O-V-E-S to be outside. Which is awesome. She adores riding in her little seat on R’s bike, and when he picks her up like that from daycare they’ll often head to a park afterward to play on the playgrounds some more. Unfortunately those days may be over for the season, but they got a ton of them in this summer and fall which was so great. She loves going on walks in the stroller, as usual, but even more so is thrilled by just being turned loose in the yard to run around on her own. She plays in the grass, crunches leaves, picks up rocks, the whole shebang. And if you try to take her inside before she wants to go? Hoo boy, look out! You will instantly have a writhing, crying serpent in your arms. Fun. She’ll also stand guard at the front or back door if one of us has gone outside and dared leave her behind indoors, pining away for her chance to get back out there. Maybe someday we’ll have a bigger yard so she can really run free. Because right now she tends to try to escape down the sidewalk as far as she can get. Which doesn’t bode well for the next few years, seeing as she’s only 15 months old right now and all.
Puppies remain her favorite animal, with I think cows now coming in a close second. Obviously she hasn’t and doesn’t see many cows up close like she does dogs, but the cows mooing in books are some of her favorites.
Bath time is still a blast for her. Again, trying to get her out and dried off becomes a game of skill, wrangling a slippery, squirmy babe.
She gives the best hugs and kisses, and when she snuggles up against my neck as I’m holding her on my shoulder is when I want to freeze time forever.
This girl dances like no other and rocks out constantly. Whether she’s in her highchair, on your lap, standing in the bathroom, or just running around as usual, as soon as she hears music come on she will start bobbing and swaying. In fact, it is mandatory that we turn on the speaker in the kitchen when she’s in her highchair. She makes the rules, remember?
Still doesn’t have a “lovey” or anything else she always sleeps with, but she does love to hug her plush toys tight and then throw them in the air to do somersaults. Funny little girl.
I swear she’s learning how to snap her fingers. She will move her index fingers and thumbs together while she’s dancing, much as you do with your middle fingers and thumbs to actually snap. Hers don’t make noise, obviously, but it’s impressive to see her doing the motions nonetheless.
She’s in size 3 diapers (4s for overnights) right now, but I think will soon be moving up to 4s. Her clothes are pretty much all 18 months minimum. She still wears some 12 month onesies and tops, but the pants are all too short if they’re smaller than 18M now. Guess she’s got my long legs.
Eats all regular food, and has started learning to feed herself with a spoon. I know they work on this a lot at daycare, but when I hand her the spoon at home it gets used more as a prop, with her hands still doing most of the shoveling in of food. And I learned at her parent teacher conference Tuesday afternoon that only at home does she swipe her hands across her tray when she’s done eating to fling all the food that’s left onto the floor; they never see that at daycare. Awesome. Thank you very much, Squeaker.
Has started learning to drink out of cups with no lids. They’re just the little tiny Dixie cups at daycare that they drink water out of throughout the day, but still. That’s a pretty big step. She has liked to drink out of our cups at home for months, but that generally results in one very wet little girl. I may have to get some of the little Dixies for her to use outside of school for practice.
Has 14 teeth, with 1 just about to poke through, if it hasn’t yet already. I haven’t checked since the other night, when it was just barely still hiding under the surface. All the new ones are eye teeth and molars, so I can’t blame the girl for being a little crankier than usual sometimes.

I think that about covers it. A lot of the above is probably a little repetitive from recent months, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch of stuff, but it’s hard to condense everything into a few bullet points when you’re dealing with such a multi-faceted child as D. 😉

November 2, 2011December 19, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

D's new milk vessel - the best 49 cents I ever spent

I’m linking up today over at a different Wordless Wednesday site. Check it out if you’d like to see more…

October 31, 2011October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

So yesterday was the assigned day for trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Does anyone else have this? Designated times and days for trick-or-treating? Personally, I think it’s dumb. I mean I know they do it for safety and stuff like that, but really? It kind of takes the fun out of the holiday. When we were younger you always went trick-or-treating on Halloween night, no matter what day of the week it was, after dinner, with your parent who waited on the sidewalk while you went up to every door you could manage before your feet got too tired or your pumpkin got too full of candy or that parent who was so patiently tagging along decided it was time to go home. Now for us it’s always the Sunday before Halloween, or if Halloween happens to be on a Sunday then I guess we luck out.

And what really stinks about having trick-or-treating this way is that you always get inundated with people who bring in carloads of kids from all different areas of the city to simply clean up on getting all the candy they can, every day they can. That’s not fair. You don’t live here, I’ve never seen you before, and you’re neither wearing a costume nor bothering to say “trick-or-treat”! That’s the part that really annoys me.

But anyway… Yesterday was D’s first time trick-or-treating, and it was so much fun! Last year she was still just a wee lass and sat on Daddy’s knee to help pass out candy as a little moo-cow. This year, however, she was big enough to walk around to a handful of our neighbors’ houses with Daddy and get her own candy in her little orange pumpkin. She was Little Red Riding Hood, and Daddy was her Big Bad Wolf. Love!!

Friday morning - I was a ladybug for trick-or-treating at daycare!

P1090551 — 1 of 3 ladybugs that morning (but still the cutest!)

Happy Halloween!!

October 27, 2011October 27, 2011

I’m crazy pumpkin head – give me some candy!

Unlike my husband, who holds this as his favorite holiday, I’ve never really been a big Halloween fan. Maybe it’s because I’m extremely uncreative (if that’s a word) and can never think up nor really feel like putting together a good costume, whereas he is the master. I mean, I always liked Halloween parties in school and stuff, and admire people who go all out on the decorations. You know, dry ice for scary smoke; bowls of jello, spaghetti, and grapes to represent various guts and body parts; robotic mummies and witches all over the place to bend over or jump out and scare you at just the right moment; spooky music. It’s just never been my thing to try and set up all that paraphernalia.

I’m more the simple pumpkins and mums on the front porch type. And although I’m the biggest wimp on the planet, I will admit that even I do like a really good, seriously frightening horror movie this time of the year. As long as there’s someone sitting next to me into whose lap I can jump, or a giant blanket under which to hide myself at the really terrifying parts, that is.

Carving pumpkins has never been the highlight of my year either, as I hate grabbing through all the innards and usually just go with a traditional smiling jack-o-lantern face. This year, however, I decided to spice things up a bit with the carving. We had a couple carving kits leftover from years past that I busted out last night, and we now have some pretty sweet-looking pumpkins on our front steps. And no, I didn’t suddenly get all artistically talented or anything; they were stencils. R did do D’s free-hand, though. See, I told you he’s the creative one in this family.

A little pumpkin? For me? Thanks! (pay no attention to the overflowing recycling bin in the background. *ahem*)

Clothes get in the way of pumpkin carving

Bonus pic - D's new play corner in the living room

p12 — Mommy's (pattern was really called pumpkin head)

Didn’t they turn out great? It only took a couple hours to get them all finished because I had to give D a bath in the middle and then her incoming molar caused a scene at bedtime, but I’d say it was worth it. I did enjoy seeing D playing with her pumpkin this year, so that got me a little more in the Halloween spirit. And instead of real candles, this year we’re using little flickering pumpkin lights so we don’t have to worry about them constantly blowing out. Geniuses at work, I tell ya.

Happy Halloween!

October 18, 2011February 7, 2014

What a week it was

As you all know, last week I participated in the Week in My Life project with Mel from Adventuroo. After those 7 days of continuous posts, I figured I should do a little recap of sorts.

I took pictures (lots of pictures!). I made notes. I kept track of times. I paid attention to details I may otherwise have glossed over in the general day-to-day. I spent hours putting everything together so I could share these little moments of my life.

So what did I take away from all of this work?

I love being a mom. This should come as no surprise, seeing as I’ve talked about how having D has changed my perceptions in so many ways time and time again, but realizing that my posts from the week almost entirely revolved around how we spent our time with D really solidified in my mind and heart that my role as Mommy is what’s most important to me.
I want to be able to stay home with our children, and I’m going to work very hard these next couple years to hopefully make that happen someday.
After learning so many stories of SAHMs this week, I find myself trying harder to do what it would take to be a good one. More play time with D; more instructional/educational stuff for her so I could actually teach her something worthwhile if she weren’t at daycare each day; more hands-on with her toys to really be engaged with her; lots of reading books, which she now loves; lots of talking to her and with her, even without real words yet.
I am so blessed to have in R a partner who wholeheartedly loves raising and nurturing our little family as much as I do. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a culinary master either, so we don’t have to live on the bowls of cereal that are about the extent of my skills in the kitchen.
We want to take more advantage of nature. We live in an area with so many wonderful state parks, that after our little hiking adventure last week we realize we need to use them much more often. Sitting around the house on free weekends is great and all, but D loves to be outside and I think a weekly or even biweekly jaunt would be fun. Like our Saturday or Sunday morning time – head to a park, play around for a little while, come home and relax. Sounds totally doable.
R and I need to give each other more hugs. We’re constantly smothering D with hugs and kisses. Can’t forget about the adults in the house, too.
Even if I’m not continually taking pictures each day anymore, I should try to really capture the everyday mentally. Watch D’s little face because her beautiful expressions change daily. See her mouth trying to form new words and sounds and feel my heart almost explode at what an amazing little person we’ve created. Soak in her smell because nothing smells better than warm baby. Hear her contagious peals of laughter and tiny quick footsteps padding around the house. Watch in utter adoration as R picks up his baby girl and feel my heart overflow with love for those 2 – my family.

I can honestly say I never would have thought to do something as intense as this Week in My Life, but I’m so glad I did. Thanks again, Mel! You’ve helped me remember something that can easily get pushed into the background – I love my everyday, and every day of it most definitely is a blessing.