Technology is SUCH a blessing for a mama

Bubber is almost two months old – how the time flies! Seems like just yesterday he was in the hospital with a fever of 103 despite regular infusions of Tylenol. (That wasn’t yesterday. That was a month ago. He was 3 1/2 weeks old and scared the hell out of me.)

Bubber has been sleeping in a bassinet next to my bedside since we brought him home. We kept a small desktop lamp on so that at any time during the night I could glance over and make sure he was still breathing. Furthermore, it meant that for his 1 AM, 3 AM and 5 AM feedings I could roll over, pick him up, feed him, and roll back into bed with minimal disruption.

The great thing about our house is that the master bedroom is separated from the kids’ bedrooms by the kitchen and living room, so any noise will cause minimal disturbance to sleeping parents. Of course, that’s also the bad thing; when Bubber wakes up crying I’ve got to leap out of bed, dash out of the bedroom, negotiate my way across the playroom (which means I damn well better clean up the toys before I go to bed, or I’ll have new feet piercings), run behind the couch, and burst into Bubber’s room before he wakes up Little Gronk.

Anyway, Bubber’s move to the crib has been fairly successful. I moan and petition the gods when he starts crying five minutes after I finish the feeding (which means I have to jump out of bed and run over to his room to replace the binky) but thankfully that’s pretty rare.

As for the technology bit, I want to say that VIDEO MONITORS ARE TEH AWESOME. During the first week when you leave your tiny baby in that enormous crib, it’s hugely reassuring to be able to watch him rolling around or sleeping peacefully. Plus, when they get bigger, you get phenomenal pictures like this:

Blow it out your mousehole, Mickey.

Good afternoon all, and Happy Monday! It was a VERY busy weekend at Lissaville South. At this point in our lives, that means that we had events on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a trip to the in-laws’ house (about 75 minutes from here) so that the local aunt-and-uncle could coo over Bubber and dance with Little Gronk. (Yes, dance. More on that later.)

Did I mention that I’m officially a minivan mommy? Her name is Circe and she’s a Honda Odyssey in Dark Cherry Pearl; that was the closest I could get to red. I was bound and determined that if I was going to go Minivan Mommy at age 33 it would be a non-boring color. I made the dealership trade with another shop 100 miles away to get the good one 🙂

Unfortunately, I’m now spoiled for life when it comes to vehicles. There is SO. MUCH. ROOM!!! And a backup camera. And a sidemirror camera!! (That one is especially joyous; my night vision is blurry and I have trouble figuring out if I have room enough to change lanes on the highway.) And stow-and-go seats and three different a/c zones and SO. MUCH. ROOM. I love this car. I’m never giving it up.

Anyway, thanks to Circe car drives are pretty pleasant… until one or the other of the boys wakes up and goes off like a fire alarm. Can’t be helped.

Sunday we went to a park to attend a birthday party for a friend of ours. (The dad went to school with Mike and was the best man at our wedding; their oldest just turned three.) Little Gronk had a great time climbing on the playground equipment and even more fun figuring out the Magic of Juiceboxes. He didn’t mind playing with the straw – and, incidentally, consuming some fruit punch along the way – but the real ecstasy came from squirting it onto his shorts. (We tried to get him to squirt it onto the ground instead. Nope – had to be on his clothing!)

Thanks to two days in a row of a disrupted sleep schedule and added to a bit of GI distress, Gronk was an absolute pill that afternoon and got put to bed almost an hour early. Thankfully, he slept peacefully and was his usual cute, charming and sweet – if demanding – self this morning.

Which leads me back to the dancing.

We usually have TV on in the mornings. Mike turns it to Mike and Mike for background noise (I tend to put it on the classical music channel). Gronk sometimes waves at the ticker and tells it “bye-bye” – so cute! – but otherwise ignores it. We’ve tried him a few times on Monsters Inc. and other cartoons, but the only time he’s ever watched TV for longer than ten seconds was when he was sick.

Until now.

There’s this show called the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. And each episode ends with the Hot Diggity Dog dance.

Gronk thinks this is the greatest thing ever invented in the whole wide world.

And if you are in the room, you WILL celebrate with him by dancing. That’s just the way it has to be. If you try and demur, you will get tugged by the hand and pushed from behind until you are in proper position; then you will get indignant stares and imperious gestures until you dance, monkey, dance!!!

If he didn’t have such a huge, gleeful, delighted grin on his face, we’d mind it more. 🙂

A few finishing notes:

– Our two little boys had two diaper blowouts apiece on Sunday. Parents of older kids, don’t you miss those days??

– Gronk has discovered the TV remote (aka the Magic Wand) and now demands it whenever he sees it. Crap.

– Bubber’s hair is just ridiculously awesome. Everyone says so.

– While I’m haunted by the theme song and Hot Dot Dance music, the rest of the Mickey show isn’t nearly as bad as I feared. They actually have a storyline each episode; they also do little counting exercises and other games that are non-stupid. Finally, compared to Teletubbies or Barney the Bastard Brontasaurus, Gronk is practically watching Masterpiece Theater.

Adventures in Parenting – Dinner edition

The Little Prince (formerly BabyKitty2012) has been waking up between 4:15 and 5:15 AM completely starving. The one time he’s slept through until six a.m. was the night when he absolutely, categorically refused his goodnight bottle and instead ate two helpings of solid food. I therefore decided to feed him extra dinner last night in hopes it would do the trick.

It was a little difficult to start with; he kept making “Uh! Uh! Uh!” sounds and refusing food. I quickly figured out that The Answer was a) give him his own spoon; b) hold the food container on the tray so he could access it; c) let him smear bits around and dab with his own spoon while I shoveled in the rest.  Once Mama caught on, he DEVOURED the whole squash serving in less than two minutes. Excited, I called for another food container from the cupboard and started spooning in turkey and sweet potatoes. He was LOVING it!! Nom nom nom nom nom . . . And then . . . (experienced parents, you know where I’m going with this) . . .

Halfway through the second container of food, he looked up at me and coughed. Then coughed again. And then THIS happened:

A *HOSE* of orange liquidy food fountained onto the high chair tray as I shrieked “Oh my god!” He coughed. And then did it again. “Oh my GOD!” I yelped.

A third projectile puke.

“Baby! Little Prince! Oh god!”

A fourth, though the volume was definitely decreased at this point.

A shout from the garage. “Is everything okay?”

“No!” I called desperately. “Mike, I need you!!”

A fifth upchuck. Not much orange stuff left.

“Oh, poor baby!”

A dry-heave or two, and he was done. He whimpered and held up his arms to me asking for a cuddle, as orange vomit puddled on the tray and flowed down his shirt.

“Oh, HELL no,” I informed him gently and lovingly.

Mike came hobbling in.  “Oh my god. What do I do to help?”

“Run a bath,” I told him succinctly.

I gingerly removed his shirt and bib and added them to the disgusting high chair, carried him into the bathroom, stripped him and popped him into the tub. Then the happy, laughing, cheerful baby had a wonderful time playing with his toys and talking with his da-da while I cleaned up the natural disaster in the dining room.

A half hour later I gave him a bottle and put him to bed. He slept until 4:20 this morning.

The lesson? You CAN have too much of a good thing. Next time, I’ll wait before I give him the second helping!!