Child or Children?

Funny Story: When J and I got married, the Justice of the Peace was taking us through our vows perfectly until it came to the part where J was supposed to repeat “I take you, Samantha, mother of my children..” and instead said “I take you, Samantha, mother of my child..” (Haha right?) The Justice of the Peace was put a little off guard so when it was time for me to repeat, he was sure to correct himself.  ”I take you, James, father of my child..” and I instead said “I take you, James, father of my children..”!  Needless to say there were lots of chuckles and it served as a cute moment in what was becoming a rather tearful ceremony.

Fast Forward 3 years: Child, Children, Child, Children! Oh my.. 

J is very set on only wanting one. Now I am stuck in my head wondering if I only want TWO because he only wants ONE or if I really want two. Humph.  How important is it to me? How important is it to G?  These are decisions that seem too important for a pros and cons list; but I literally cannot sort out emotion from intellect when it comes to this issue. Any help in this department? I need it!

Oh Happy Day (Evening)

Today is going to be a great day (evening).  Craig and Kristin are coming down this afternoon with Craig’s mom.  Why is that so wonderful? Craig’s mom is going to babysit tonight so we can go out to dinner! You know, that thing couples do ALL THE TIME b.b. (before baby)!  I am dreaming of a long shower alone, blow drying my hair and putting on makeup withought Gianna holding on to my leg, getting dressed up without fear of pea stains and getting out of the house sans diaper bag.  I don’t care if we are going to Chronic Taco, I am wearing a dress.

Leis and Cakes and Polynesian Dancers, Oh My!

I can’t believe how fast this first year is going by.  It honestly feels like just yesterday I was bringing Gianna home from the hospital, and now I’m planning her FIRST birthday party!  I’m really trying to not go overboard but it is just so exciting and I l o v e throwing parties.  Do any of you watch Tori and Dean Home Sweet Hollywood?  This week they showed their son, Liam’s, first birthday party and it was a REAL party.  They took their monkey theme all the way with appearances by real chimpanzees!  Is that normal?  Is this what my guests are expecting?  We are doing a Luau- do I need to book Polynesian dancers?  This is Orange County, you never know.

Corny Love Stuff and Playdates

I was just upstairs rocking Gianna to sleep and I couldn’t help but think, “I made you.”  Sometimes that is so.. surreal.  To me she is just perfect and it is overwhelming when I think about how much I love her.

On a lighter, and far less cheesy, note- yesterday Gianna and I had a playdate with our friends Barb and Makayla.  Makayla is 16 months now and it is c r a z y to see how “child” like she is.  That baby is no baby.  Basically in 5 short months Gianna will be walking and talking and playing and (here is the key) not wanting anything to do with me!  I’m all for independent spirit and a little free time on my side, but no hugs and cuddles and lazy mornings?  That is just too much for me to think about right now.  Gianna was fascinated by Kayla.  Usually Gi gets frustrated when I try to make her walk instead of crawl but because Kayla was walking, she didn’t mind.  Kayla was standing and playing with toys, so Gi stood and played with toys.  It was adorable.  I would’ve taken some pictures but my stupid camera has seen it’s last day.  It has become a toy, that’s how bad it is.

I’m going to go TRY to download a video of Gianna playing and talking to herself to post here. Check back!

4th of July

Don’t you hate when you have great expectations and nothing goes as planned? That was this week for me.  I’ve had a 4th of July BBQ (well, it was actually on the 2nd) planned for months with the mommy mafia and I was so excited.  Gianna and I were supposed to host it at our pool and if the weather held up we could do some swimming with the kids too.  I even had a super cute outfit picked out for Gianna that I bought like six months ago  Then for the actual 4th of July (this was the best part!!) Gianna and I were going to go down to main street with Melanee and Ryder and watch the parade from Ryder’s grandparents lawn ON MAIN STREET.  How sweet is that?  I have been excited for months about that part.  I think most of the excitement came in part due to the fact that last year my fourth of July was not so great and I really wanted to make up for it.  You see, last year James and I had been here for less that 2 months and James had to travel for business.  Then on the 3rd, while at work, my very pregnant self started to have some cramping and spotting and the doctor put me on BED REST.  My 4th of July basically consisted of Law and Order reruns and feeling sorry or myself while I listened to fireworks.  But enough of my sob story…

This year would be different.  This year would be fun.

Kind of…

Unfortunately Gianna didn’t have the same ideas.  The day before our party she got sick.  Really sick.  I’m talking 103 degree fever sick.  Since the doctor had no advice except to wait it out (gee, thanks) I left Gianna with her daddy while the BBQ still went on.  It was cute, but not the same with out my bebe.  The next day she started to feel better so I thought for sure we’d be able to at least make an appearance at the parade.  Plus, I found out that they were having a breakfast in the park from 6- 10 am and I really wanted to go to that.  Who knew so many people would have the same idea?  After 30 minutes of searching for parking, James found a spot RIGHT BY THE PARK!! SCORE.  The only problem was that the line was, no exaggeration, 100 people long.  100 people, at 8:30 am on the 4th of July? You people are crazy!!  Now if were just me and Gianna, I would have sucked it up, but James.. well, anyone who knows him understands.. needless to say, we left.  In the meantime, Gianna had a total meltdown.  I guess she wasn’t all better after all.  Her fever was gone, but now she had a rash (?) and was still very cranky.  Basically the rest of our 4th was spent waiting out her naps, watching the Yankee game, briefly trying to go to the pool and watching movies.  So much for great expectations.

Update: Gianna seems to be all better today.

Ten Months- Gianna Stands

Gianna stood today.  Granted it was only for about 4 seconds but, hey, standing is standing.  I don’t know why I am so excited about this but I am.

Must go write this in her baby book. Ten Months- Gianna stands. 

The Early Bird Gets.. to go to the zoo?

Yesterday started like any other normal day at 5:00. That’s a.m. people. Lately James and I have been working on Gianna’s sleep habits and “the book” (“the bible”) says not to ever go to them before 6:00 a.m. because they will just start waking up earlier and earlier for the pleasure of your company. Now I know I am pretty darn exciting to hang out with but really? I tried my best to wait it out but eventually the cute talking to herself turned into cries for us. And so I rose…

…And stumbled my way, bleary eyed, into my beautiful daughter’s nursery, opened the door to see her standing in her crib, smiling and saying “hi”. I smiled and life was good. I grabbed her up and brought her into the rocking chair with me and our snuggly blankie where she let me cuddle with her for a half hour. Life was better. After said cuddling time she perked up and was ready for the day. This is my usual cue to get daddy so that I can go back to bed for a bit- did I mention that I got up at 5?!

..Into my room we go and quietly sneak into bed where I let her go crawl to daddy’s side and let her wake him up cuddle with him.  Today he was not amused and so we were outcasts sent to go downstairs to play, quietly.  Gianna got busy emtying her toy box one one toy at a time while I brewed some much needed coffee.  Time check: 6:15 a.m.

After some more of the same James made his way down here because we had woken him up he couldn’t sleep anymore.  Having him up too freed up some of my time to, you know, brush my teeth and things like that.  Then we fed her, changed her, played with her and before you knew it the time check read 9:00 a.m. and it was time for her nap.  Down she went and I was so amped up on coffee that I had time to fold laundry, start a new load, check my email, do an accounting extra credit problem, and pack our bags for the day. 

Oh yea? Did I mention that our Mommy Mafia was meeting at the zoo at 11 a.m.?  Luckily, Mel and Ryder were coming to pick us up at 10:00 a.m..  When Mel called to say she was on her way over I grabbed everything I needed to bring with us and ran to get the mail.  On my way back from the mailbox she was pulling up so I dropped the mail and the keys on the kitchen counter, packed her car and grabbed the baby from her nap.  We were off.

I was pretty impressed.  Maybe I should get up at 5 every morning.  I had done more in those 5 hours than I sometimes accomplish in an entire day. Hmmm…

After passing our exit because we were talking the directions were horrible, we eventually made it to the zoo just a teensy bit tardy.  But hey, it’s a mom’s group a teensy bit tardy is practically early.  

That’s when the real fun started.  We saw Lamas and Rheas (which look exactly like Ostriches) and monkeys, oh my.  Then we settled in for our usual lunch on a blanket in the shade while the kids crawl all over each other.  I don’t think I had the opportunity to report the temperature: 90.  That’s degrees.  Holy hotness.  Needless to say, by the time we were done everyone was pooped.

We packed the kids back in the car and headed to home sweet cool and breezy Huntington Beach.  Along the way Gianna started getting cranky and I started dreaming of cold showers and nap time.  As we pulled into my development, I realized something.. did you catch it?  Need a hint? Paragraph 5.  Second to last sentence.  Yep, my keys were on the counter in the kitchen.  In the famous words of Homer Simpson, “dope.”    Time check: 2:00 p.m.

Luckily Melanee and Ryder welcomed us into their home for the afternoon.  I felt bad for Melanee, I’m sure she was dreaming of cold showers and naps too, but there we were- stuck.  And so we spent a looong afternoon entertaining two infants who were too sleepy to, well, sleep. We played with trains, ate, and watched Backyardigans.  We went to Rydie’s room and Gianna taught him well.  We had bookshelves 101: How to pull every book of the shelf and onto your feet, Advanced Laundry:  The art of pulling each piece of clean laundry out of the basket without falling in, Standing (the one Ryder taught): Mastering the art of letting go.  We were both spent.  Time check: 4:50 p.m.

Finally James was on his way home so Melanee dropped us on the curb like the Vagabonds we were.  Samantha, Gianna, Carseat, Diaper Bag and Toy Bag. Phew. After a couple trips I had all of our belongings on the front porch and we waited for Daddy… and Waited.  At least he showed up WITH dinner.  Time check 5:15 p.m.

We ate, I rocked, she slept. Time check 5:56 p.m.

The rest of the night went as expected.  I tried to keep my eyes open until 9:00 p.m. when I just couldn’t do it any longer.  Oh and for those of you who were wondering about that funny little theory of “the bible” … you know don’t go to child until 6 a.m. or they will wake earlier for the pleasure of your company… well, I guess it isn’t called “the bible” for nothing.  She was up today at 4:30 a.m.