Day (Not) Off

I’d like to thank those of you who added your thoughts to my last post. It was a lonely, hormone-fueled weekend, and it felt comforting to know I wasn’t alone in wanting to escape from my “domestic bliss” now and then.

I took a vacation day from work today. While a day off is very needed, relaxing wasn’t on the agenda. My new babysitter started today, and I stayed home to go through the routine with her. She’s a friend of ours who was looking for extra work and money for when she and her boyfriend move to Boston this summer. In the past, she has watched the children of other friends, so I feel very comfortable leaving Cordy with her.

M is one of those people that kids naturally like. She’s full of child-like energy that kids are magnetically attracted to. She’s young and hasn’t been worn down by having a child around her 24/7, begging for juice and cookies, waking at 6am, and testing every rule every minute. In other words, she’s a perfect companion for a hyperactive toddler two days a week.

And while Cordy is normally shy and cool towards anyone she doesn’t know well, she happily played with M and had no issue with me leaving for an hour to go to a chiropractic appointment. When I returned, they were in the kitchen eating lunch, M having just taught Cordy the “peanut butter jelly” song. Cordy liked her enough to even spare her the afternoon poopy diaper on her first day.

I think she learned the routine pretty well today. I didn’t realize how strict a mommy I am until I listened to myself spouting off all the rules. Some are for Cordy’s protection – no food with cinnamon, since she’s allergic – but others were less critical, such as no going upstairs unless it’s naptime, no shoes on the couch, and crayons must be put away when done, or no TV for the rest of the day. But I’m still soft on some things: sandwiches must be cut into triangles, because it’s Cordy’s favorite shape, she’s allowed to play with daddy’s poker chips if she keeps them at the table, and snacks can be eaten in the living room while watching TV. It was tough to remember all of the rules, and I’m sure M will forget some of them, which is OK, because they’ll form their own way of doing things.

So we have a good babysitting arrangement for the moment. However, M will be moving away in June or July, so we still must continue to look for daycare for Cordy, but the search isn’t so urgent now. Tomorrow I’ll go back to work, and M will have her first day on her own with Cordy. I hope it will go as smoothly as it did today, and Cordy won’t prove to be birth control for yet another young friend of ours.



Gross Moments in Parenting #37

I’ve started seeing a chiropractor in the hopes she can help turn this baby using the Webster technique. However, this means making frequent visits, when I don’t always have a babysitter. “No problem, bring your daughter!” the office told me.

I was nervous about this, but did it anyway today. The office is very child-friendly, with a large basket full of toys, and a cute painted wooden table, with small cubby-holes built in the top of the table to hold crayons. There was a chance Cordy wouldn’t realize it was a doctor’s office and freak out.

We walked in, and she saw the toys right away. I let her wander over to the table as I signed in and spoke with the receptionist.

“Wook! Crayons!”

“Yes, Cordy, I see. There are crayons.”

“And fishies!”

(not paying full attention) “And fishies. That’s nice.”

*crunch, crunch, crunch* Uh-oh.

I snapped my head around to see what she was doing. “Cordy, what did you just eat?” I can only imagine how bug-eyed I looked. How did she find something to eat?

Cordy gave a big smile and exclaimed, “A fishie!” She then reached back into the crayon cubby-hole in the table, looking for another treat.

I could feel my stomach churning. “Oh, sweetie, we don’t eat food we find laying around. Yuck!”

The receptionist gave me a sympathetic smile. “It’s OK. I think the Goldfish has only been there since this morning.”

Gee, thanks. That’s so comforting.

The ninja toddler strikes again, this time spotting the one shred of food in a waiting room and getting it into her mouth before I could notice. Ick.



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When Sleep Wins Out

Cordy came down with a cold over the weekend, and along with the fountain of snot and coughing came an inhuman resistance to authority. She’s been more grumpy than normal, and suggestions of doing anything that might be good for her are met with a hissing “Nnnnnoooo!”

The other night, she was clearly tired, but any attempts to convince her it was bedtime ended in screaming. Seeing the pure exhaustion in her face, we knew it was only a matter of time, so we let the issue drop, expecting her to fall asleep on the couch when she finally couldn’t take it anymore. But she knew the couch meant bedtime, too, and so she continued fighting her body until she could no longer fight.

This is where she gave up the battle:

When you’re sick and very tired, you can fall asleep anywhere.

***************

In other news, I had the unpleasant experience of being in a minor car accident yesterday. Nothing like a fender-bender while pregnant to scare the bejeebus out of you. You can read the whole story over at Family.com.



Names That Didn’t Make The Cut

As many of you know, Cordelia’s name came from Shakespeare – King Lear, to be exact. We’re considering going with another Shakespeare name for baby #2, although looking back through the plays, there are some names that probably won’t make the short list.

Unfortunate Shakespeare names for girls:

Ophelia (Hamlet) – Beautiful name. And I’d put it on my short list in an instant. But let’s be honest: mommy already suffers from a mental disorder (depression), and we really don’t need to encourage it in the kids.

Juliet (Romeo & Juliet) – Again, not a good role model here.

Desdemona (Othello) – She was innocent, but let’s not pick a name with domestic violence attached to it.

Volumnia (Coriolanus) – We’d just be encouraging fat jokes with this one.

Regan (King Lear) – Sorry, I lived through that president. Try again.

Goneril (King Lear) – I have a strict policy on no names that sound like STDs.

Violenta (All’s Well That Ends Well) – That name is just asking for a girl with a chip on her shoulder.

Hymen (As You Like It) – Forget the policy on STDs – no names that sound like anything dealing with reproductive organs.

Mopsa (The Winter’s Tale) – This is an especially bad name if she inherits the same mop of hair that Cordy has.

Dorcas (The Winter’s Tale) – No explanation needed, I think.

Maybe we should branch out to the works of Marlowe or Jonson?

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