1 Mother 2 Another

I feel it’s only fair to take a moment and give you my point of view on the whole Check-Up Time Elmo thing, since Maddie’s entry (see previous blog) came across a bit harsh.

So here’s my side of the story.

A couple days before Christmas, I was busy opening all the boxes we’d been sent by out-of-town friends and family. One box, sent to Madeleine, came from Amazon and I thought I knew what was inside. Opening it up, I found a pre-wrapped gift. As I started to pick it up, I heard a very distinct and unforgettable voice say, “Are you giving Elmo a check-up?”

I swear, I about peed in my pants from fright.

Opening up the enclosed packing slip I discovered that no, it was not what I’d thought, and yes, indeed, it was a Check-Up Time Elmo sent from dear Uncle Daniel. Which is fine; Maddie loves Elmo and this gift seemed a sure-fire hit.

What I didn’t know was that this Elmo could also be known as “Chatty Elmo Who Talks Without Provocation.”

Dear Uncle Daniel:

Thank you very much for my new Check-Up Time Elmo. It is one of my favorite presents I got. I like it way better than the TMX Elmo my parents worked so hard to find for me. I carry it around everywhere. I make it ride my bouncy horse. I carry it with me during night-night time and cry when Daddy makes it not make noise.

I especially like how much Elmo talks and sings. Mommy must like it too, because she said that his song gets stuck in her brain and she can’t get it out for hours. Daddy seems to really like it because he said he wants to make a tape of the song and send it to you to hear over and over. I hope he does so you get to see how funny Elmo is.

So anyway, thank you so much for my favorite new toy. You are the best godfather and get me the best presents.

Love,

Your niece Maddie

Is anyone as excited as I am about Christmas being just around the corner?

I feel like a kid again, and it’s at least partly because I’ve acknowledged this year that having a child means everything takes more time. That means both cutting back on my “to-do” list, and planning further in advance. So I gave myself a generous deadline for getting boxes mailed, spaced out the holiday baking, and so forth. Which means that as I write this, I’ve only got a couple more hours of wrapping to do. The sheer luxury of so much time before Christmas!

Even more fun than having several stress-free days ahead, though, is watching Maddie as the date draws nearer. Not that she’s got December 25 circled on her mental calendar; I’m not crazy enough to think she really understands what’s coming up. But she senses that something’s building, something big is just around the corner, and I love watching her anticipation mixing with her toddler need for instant gratification.

As I near the holiday baking finish line, I’m amazed at how different this year is from last year.

Last year I had a six-month-old, incapable of independent motion. This year it’s an 18-month-old who won’t stand still. And both have their pros and cons.

Maddie’s hit this phase where everything she gets her hands on becomes immediately and intimately hers, and Lord help you if you try to get it away from her.

I saw this coming in Maddie’s older friend Naomi, and so was a bit ready for it. But still, you don’t really know what you’re going to do when your toddler begins sobbing and clinging to every single object in her path, from toys to trash.

Today our temperature outside hit a near-balmy 60 degrees. We’ve been enjoying this warm weather as much as possible, aware that all too soon we’ll have snow days keeping us from the park.

But as nice as it’s been outside, I look around my life and feel completely Snowed Under.

Do you know how some women walk around saying that before they had kids, they were good-looking? Well, before I had a child, I was organized.

The older Maddie gets, the more she begins to interact with kids her own age. When we first started hitting the playground and having play dates, she was around a year old and didn’t really play with other kids; she’d play next to other children or watch them interestedly like they were on television or something.

But now that Maddie has been hanging around with her playground pal Naomi for six months, there’s a definite relationship forming, and I think Maddie’s officially got her first BFF –

Best Friends Forever.

We’ve hit that stage in
Maddie’s development where the answer to every question
– even if you haven’t asked a question – is
“no.”

I think Maddie’s weaned, and it just
sort of happened.


For the past few months Maddie has been pretty much weaned anyway;
she’s been only nursing to go to bed, and then if she wakes
up crying in the middle of the night. She’d been a rather
good sleeper this fall, so it was only a nursing once or twice a
month in the wee hours.

So we headed off to meet Santa today. To fully understand the Santa Buildup Phenomenon, read yesterday’s post (which for some mysterious reason just showed up a couple hours ago). To summarize the Big Meeting, I offer you these few words:

She came. She saw. She cried.

Truly, what other ending could there have possibly been?

Maddie’s heading off to meet Santa
tomorrow. Well, they’ve actually met once before, but she was
only six months old and probably doesn’t remember him. So in
an effort to keep Maddie’s upcoming meeting with Santa from
devolving into a traumatic, frightful event, we’ve spent the
past week or so re-introducing her to the jolly guy, with some
interesting results.

This weekend we moved one step closer to
Christmas Preparedness: we got our tree.


And there’s nothing like having a toddler around to remind
you of just how weird the whole “tree in the house”
thing actually is.


I don’t know about you, but I spent a lot of my adult
childless life listening to people say, “There’s
nothing like having a child to show you the true joy of
Christmas.” They were trying to say that Christmas just
isn’t really fun until you watch a child go through Christmas
morning, and I couldn’t help but think how wrong they were.
Truly, I had a pretty good time waking up on Christmas morning,
walking out to see our heavily-laden tree filled to the brim with
gifts, and realizing all those gifts were for either me or my
husband.


In short, I was pretty happy not to share.

Maddie had her 18-month well-baby visit on
Wednesday and impressed the doctor with her cool; she kept a wary
eye on the doctor the whole time, but didn’t start crying
until it was shot time.


Ah, yes, did I mention the shots?

As I explained yesterday, I’ve
discovered a gaping hole in the chocolate world – an
unexplored area, if you will. Specifically, no one had really
delved into the world of chocolate from the point of view of a
pregnant or post-partum mommy.


As we all know, we’ve got specific cravings and wants when
the hormones are raging. So I made it my mission to find the best
of the best from small chocolatiers all across the country. For
more details on my criteria and how I narrowed the final list down,
see yesterday’s blog. But for now, let’s get to the
chocolate.

I have to make a couple disclaimers here:


First, if you don’t like chocolate, I’ll see you in a
couple days. Best to stop reading now.


Second, this research was done as a service to you, the readers. I
didn’t conduct it as an excuse to eat a lot of chocolate.


Ok, that second one may not be entirely true. But moving to the
point of this article –


I’m an admitted chocoholic. Worse than that, I’m a
snobby one – I love those expensive, dark chocolates with
fancy names and ridiculously high cocoa contents. When I was
pregnant with Madeleine, I remember being shocked and dismayed that
I spent my whole first trimester NOT WANTING CHOCOLATE. Honestly, I
thought it’d be the worst part of the pregnancy; how could I
be robbed of one of my biggest joys? But no matter how I tried, the
thought of chocolate didn’t get me excited.

This is going to be one of those blogs
Maddie hates when she becomes a teenager. I can almost hear the
cries – “Mo-om! Did you have to write about
that?” It’s also going to be a TMI blog if you’re
not into talking about body functions.


Since you’re a parent, I’m assuming you’re way
past that and this is fine.

So we’ve been “out of the
closet” with this second pregnancy for about two weeks now,
and have run through most of our daily friends and family. From
here on out, it’ll be the
running-into-the-casual-acquaintance scenario, where you
can’t casually bring it up without sounding self-centered so
you wait to tell such people until you’re visibly pregnant
and not just possibly getting heavier. I know you know what
I’m talking about.


I remember telling everyone during the first pregnancy, and how
excited we were to spread the news. We told parents and respective
best friends right away, then kept our cards close to our vest
until we hit that crucial 13-week check-up. You know, the one where
you hear and see the heartbeat and everyone breathes a sigh of
relief that it’s gone well so far. Man, those first three
months were hard to wait through. Several times I was tempted to
blurt it out to a friend or client – “I’m
pregnant! I’m sorry, what were you saying about your new
couch?” But I remembered my several friends who had
miscarriages during their first trimesters and couldn’t
imagine having to go through that painful explanation over and over
again.


So I kept quiet.

Just a head’s up that the weekly
poll is going to be, um, monthly I guess. I’m on a tight time
schedule with all the holiday baking and shopping and merriment
going on, so the pregnancy symptom poll will be staying up until
January. Feel free to keep voting, and I’ll let you know how
it turns out in a few weeks!