Year: 2006

  • Step 1…Admit you have a problem

    Yesterday marked the day that I have been dreading for 3 years. I knew it was coming and I agonized, strategized, and theorized on the best steps to take to overcome an addiction problem right here in my home.

    Hello, my name is Caroline and I am addicted to my pacifier.

    Oh, it started innocently enough. When they brought my little bundle back into the hospital room after cleaning her up, she had a huge pacifier stuck in her mouth. The pediatric nurse told me that she was the most laid back baby she had ever seen as long as she had her “paci” in her mouth.

    When we brought her home 2 days later, my mother-in-law tried to convince me that I should take the paci away immediately. “It’s best that she never even gets used to it”, she said. Trying to be the obedient daughter-in-law, I took the paci out of Caroline’s mouth, wrapped her up and placed her in her bassinet. My resolve lasted all of about 5 minutes of incessant crying at which point I decided my mother-in-law needed to hush her mouth with all that crazy talk.

    I can’t tell you the nights that P. or I spent with our arm hanging over the side of the bassinet holding the paci in her mouth. It was the key to sleep, oh lovely sleep. The day that Caroline learned how to put the paci back in her own mouth (and I can’t overstate this) was one of the best days of her babyhood.

    Like all addictions, it started so innocently but before you knew it, we were giddy with the power the paci could wield. Every naptime and bedtime I filled her crib with no less than 6 or 7 pacis to ensure that she would be able to find one and soothe herself back to sleep. At the pediatrician’s office when they asked to make sure we had gotten rid of the paci by age 18 months, I told them yes we had and technically it wasn’t a lie because we had gotten rid of it…right before we walked into the exam room.

    I knew in my heart there would come a day that it would all have to end. I began the build up to breaking the addiction early this summer. I explained that 3 year olds don’t have pacis because they are big girls, and big girls get to do so many fun things that they don’t even need pacis.

    She seemed to buy it and would tell complete strangers, “I’m going to be 3 and I don’t need my pacis anymore”. The girl talked a good game.

    I’ve been procrastinating for the last few days, knowing it had to happen but dreading it with every fiber of my being. In the end she decided that today was the day. We were driving home from my sister’s house and I asked her if she was ready to give up the paci. She said “yes Mama, let’s do it today. I want to throw them in garbage today.”

    We got home, gathered the pacis and with great ceremony marched out to the outside trash where she dropped them one by one into the trash can. Honestly, I was relieved but a little sad to see them go. Everyday she loses a little bit more “babyness” and becomes more and more a little girl. The paci has been such a part of her babyhood and it’s a little weird to think that it’s one more thing that’s done.

    As I rocked her and read to her tonight before bed, I could tell her resolve was crumbling a little. She looked at me and said “Mama, I don’t want to be a big girl”. It broke my heart just a little because I’m not sure I’m ready for her to be a big girl either. So I hugged her real tight and told her that I was proud of her and while she may be a big girl, she’ll always be her Mama’s baby.

  • Random things that have made me laugh this week

    There are a few things that have been said in my presence this week that are too funny not to share. I’d love to somehow weave them into a brilliant post, but my limited writing skills seem to have taken leave. So here they are in no particular order of “funniness”.

    1. My mom came to visit this weekend. She never quite finishes her whole thought on a subject. We were discussing my grandmother’s health issues and my mom says “Well you know she has a really good doctor. He’s tall and he’s from Pakistan.”

    No offense to any tall Pakistani physicians who might be reading my blog, but I’m not sure that those two traits alone qualify you to cut me open for any type of major surgery (or minor surgery for that matter).

    2. Gulley was over today and was talking about her cousin getting married. His parents are divorced and not really in touch with each other, so his entire rehearsal dinner will be planned by his dad. This is a man who wears a belt with the name “Russell” on the back, not because his name is Russell but because his Mama bought it for him at a garage sale. Not to mention that he currently lives in a solar powered cabin. Gulley said “It’ll be like having a dinner planned by Jed Clampett”.

    3. I was getting Caroline out of her carseat a few days ago when she looked down and saw a 3 day old barely inflated balloon on the floorboard. She said “Look Mama, that looks like your boob”. Nice.

  • A Book Meme

    Okay this is my first meme and I was tagged by Shalee, so here it goes. The thing you need to remember is that I love books, I adore books and for me to narrow anything down to just a few choices is next to impossible.

    1. What book changed your life? I know everyone says the Bible and that’s true for me as well, but as far as something that really changed how I thought about my Christian faith, I would have to say there are two books. The first is No Wonder they Call Him the Saviour by Max Lucado. I read it in college when I had really hit rock bottom and it truly brought me back to my faith in Christ. The second would be Abandoned to God by David McCasland. It’s the biography of Oswald Chambers and is an incredible book. There’s one epiphany he had that still sticks with me when I start feeling all high and mighty, that anything another human being has done, good or evil, I am capable of doing except for the grace of God.

    2. What book have you read more than once? Honestly, the list would be way too long because any book I love, I have read at least a dozen times. As a girl, it was anything in the Little House on the Prairie series or anything by Judy Blume. Now, it would have to be Gone with the Wind, Lonesome Dove, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Redeeming Love, and Julie.

    3. What book would you want on a desert island? Again, I know everyone says the Bible, so I’ll say Little Women. There is just something so comforting about that book to me. When Caroline first came home from the hospital I watched that movie over and over again because I just needed to feel enveloped in a peaceful, gentler time and the book gives me the same feeling.

    4. What book has made you laugh? The Nanny Diaries cracked me up the first time I read it but having re-read it since becoming a mom it makes me a little sad now too. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood always makes me laugh. The Girlfriends Guide to Toddlers’ is hysterical because I can relate to pretty much every page. When I was younger I loved the Soup books. Anybody remember those?

    5. What book has made you cry? I cry fairly easily at fictional characters, but here’s the short list. To Kill a Mockingbird, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (laugh & cry, that’s a good book), and Lonesome Dove.

    6. What book do you wish had been written? A mother’s complete guide to getting a child to give up their pacifier. I’ll write more about that later.

    7. What book do you wish had never been written? Books mean different things to different people, so I can’t say there is any book I wish hadn’t been written. Everyone has a right to their opinion.

    8. What book are you currently reading? The Strong Willed Child (I need it) by James Dobson and Letters to My Daughters by Mary Matalin. I’ve read it before but it has some great things to say about raising a daughter and it makes me laugh out loud at times.

    9. What books have you been meaning to read? I usually wait to get recommendations from friends but I have been wanting to read The Secret Life of Bees.

    So there you have it, my book recommendations. If you’ve read this far and are interested, consider yourself tagged!

  • Mama said there’d be days like this

    Last night Caroline decided that she wanted to spend the night with her Mimi and Bops, which is always totally fine with me. P. and I didn’t have any big plans so I just cooked dinner and we relaxed in the peace and quiet. I made homemade banana pudding and I have to say it was delicious. Best of all, I slept that long, hard sleep that you can only get when you know you’re not going to hear a little voice over the baby monitor saying “MAMA, come rock me!”

    This morning I went to pick up Caroline pretty early because I knew she’d con her way into the swimming pool and after a rainstorm last night, it was way too cold for a morning swim. Thinking I was just running over to pick her up and bring her right home, I brushed my teeth, threw on cutoffs, a Texas A&M 1993 SWC champs t-shirt (it looks as nice as you’d think a 13 year old t-shirt would look), and my flip-flops and headed out the door.

    As I was walking up the front walk at Mimi and Bops’ house, I discovered that I was wearing one hot pink and green flip-flop and one black flip-flop. Nice.

    If you’re picturing how shabby I looked, multiply that image by 1000 and you’ve got it.

    I quickly found out that Mimi had promised Caroline a trip to Shipley’s for donuts so I figured oh well, any place that opens at 4 a.m. has seen worse than mismatched flip-flops.

    Apparently our next promised destination was to an upscale baby store that sells satin pillows. Caroline’s satin pillow had “broken” the night before and Mimi told her we’d get a replacement first thing in the morning. Don’t ask me why I agreed to go there in my mismatched shoes. Lack of caffeine or sense, not sure which.

    Once in the store, Caroline is weighing the merits of each pillow very carefully. As she told the saleslady (who was very nice considering the tacky state of her clientele) “I have a little head so I need a little pillow”. We looked at pink pillows, yellow pillows, and purple pillows and then I looked down and saw a puddle where no puddle had been. Oh yes, the child of the very unkempt mother had tee-teed right on the floor. It was a proud moment.

    I apologized profusely, cleaned up our little mess, quickly paid for the pillow and got out of there with my dignity a little worse for the wear.

    This afternoon I had a meeting that was so boring that I can’t even do it justice with words. There’s an episode of Friends where Joey is telling Chandler how much he doesn’t like Janice and he says “she makes me want to rip my own arm off and throw it at her to get her to quit talking.” That was my meeting.

    But the good news is that tonight P. fried fish for dinner and he does make the best fish in the world and Caroline went to bed without a peep so that’s always a blessing. Who knows? Tomorrow my shoes might even match.

  • You’re no buddy of mine

    Grocery shopping has definitely become a different experience since I had Caroline. When it was just P. and me, we couldn’t have finished a gallon of milk in a month much less a week. So once a week, Caroline and I head to our neighborhood H.E.B. for a big shopping trip.

    H.E.B. has been so kind as to provide all sorts of things to make shopping “easier” for moms. The Wiggles car/cart that you can borrow for $1.00 is a fab idea except that it really holds a very limited amount of groceries which lest we forget, is the reason we’re at the GROCERY store.

    They also have a racecar cart that is the SUV equivalent of shopping carts. Trying to maneuver this thing through the aisles while being directed by a donut eating toddler requires super human strength, dexterity and patience. You can guarantee you’re going to take the skin off someone’s heel before your trip is over.

    Once we’ve loaded up with groceries and go to pay, we encounter the Buddy Buck. The Buddy Buck has quickly become the bane of my existence. Caroline is obsessed with the Buddy Buck. Our whole trip has become a running commentary on when we’re getting the Buddy Buck, how many Buddy Bucks, is the Buddy Buck machine working today.

    The Buddy Buck is a fake dollar with a picture of a grocery bag taunting you with his smug grin on the front of it. The Buddy Buck goes into one of those toy machines with the grabby thing (technical term) that grabs a toy and drops it down the slot. My problem with the Buddy Buck is twofold.

    1. To play the game I have to get Caroline out of the cart and she has to “DO IT MYSELF” which takes forever when you’re looking at a cart full of groceries that are melting in the hot Texas heat.

    2. Eight out of ten times the Buddy Buck machine isn’t working so I have to deal with the toddler meltdown caused by the unfairness of life.

    And just so you know, when the machine is actually working and you get the prize, the “toy” is a plastic bubble thing with a number sticker. Caroline puts that #8 sticker on her chest like it’s an Olympic medal.

    Gulley was at the store last week and she was telling me about how she’d had this epiphany of sorts that she just needs to be patient with her boys, that grocery shopping is a slow process that requires donuts, balloons, and Buddy Bucks. She was feeling really proud of her newfound attitude when she spotted another mom pushing a cart with a little 2 year old girl pushing her very own Little Tikes cart through the store following the mom. Gulley said the mom was loudly saying “Oh, you’re right, we DO need cheese. You are SO SMART” or “That’s SO SMART, we are out of peanut butter”. She said the whole process was unbelievably slow and painful to watch.

    Gulley told me this whole story on the phone later on that day and said she couldn’t believe the patience of that mom. So Gulley asked me “Would you load up your Little Tikes shopping cart and bring it to H.E.B. so that Caroline could follow you around and shop?”

    I thought about it and told her yes, yes I sure would…if it were the Apocalypse.

  • We partied like it was…well, like it was 2006


    Oh my goodness did we have a party here yesterday! It was 10:30 last night before I felt like I might ever be cool again and one thing I decided is if P. and I decide to have another baby, we’re shooting for a winter birthday.

    I really wanted to have Caroline’s party at home this year. Like Franc says in Father Of The Bride, “I just love zee weddings at home, they’re very cozy, very warm, very faboolous.” I realize it was a birthday party, but you get my point.

    So we set up some pools, a Little Tykes bouncer, and a bunch of balls. Add in some puffed cheetos and cupcakes and you’ve got yourself a little 3 year old heaven right here on earth!

    Everybody had a great time, especially the birthday girl,but I am not exaggerating when I tell you that after 4 hours in the hot, humid Texas heat setting up pools, serving cupcakes and organizing big party fun, I was convinced that I was on the verge of massive dehydration and a possible heat stroke. My face was beet red and sweaty from the heat, which let’s be honest, is really a quality you look for in a good hostess.

    My near death from the heat was worth it though because last night as I was putting Caroline to bed she hugged me so hard and I said “Goodnight Birthday Girl” and she said “Tanks for my party Birthday Mama”. Oh, she does melt my heart.