Papa Time

Jeff and Matthew spent the entire day together today while I taught a class for the Red Cross. They had so much fun together, a la Dizzy Dinosaur, and it's nice to know that Matthew is well-cared for while I'm gone. I had a great time instructing a class of 30 people, so I've filled by quota of adult-talk for the month. When I got home, Matthew was happily groggy from his second nap of the day and I got to give him his afternoon snack. Matthew pooped three times in his potty today, a personal best, so I pretty much have to give it to Jeff. (Not the poop, but kudos on being a wonderful father.) Unfortunately, when we went across the street to the park this afternoon, a bird pooped right on Jeff's nose, so he ended up getting poop anyway.

Now I'm pooped, so I'm going to bed. Happy Poop Day!

Happy Easter!

Today we celebrated Matthew's first Easter. I had visions of getting up early to attend Easter services at the Unitarian church around the corner, but I slept through my intentions. Instead, we lounged around during the morning and then headed out to Kapiolani Park for a picnic with our friends Nick and Denice.

Jeff was on picture duty today because I have very few pictures of Matthew and me. Unfortunately, both Matthew and I are very difficult to capture on film. I'm a moving target with a lot to say and Matthew is, well, a baby who doesn't care about posing for the camera. Here's a few of his attempts to get us both to smile at the same time...

When all of that fun was over, it was my turn to try to get Matthew to pose. This time, I wanted him to look cute with the Easter eggs I made this morning. It was going to be the sweetest Easter photo ever. It wasn't meant to be, though, since Easter eggs are apparently VERY interesting to babies. The following photo is one of many that captured Matthew sticking the egg in his mouth. Oh well.

Finally I got one beautiful photo of him with a sweet expression and a blue mouth. Awwww.

Matthew was so funny today. He really loves being outside and enjoying the beautiful Hawaiian weather. He especially loves to suck on his frozen pears. He's even figured out how to do it hands-free so that he's able to read "Squishy Turtle and Friends" while he enjoys his snack.

After a while, it was really hot and time to take a dip in the ocean. Matthew still isn't quite sure about the water, but he doesn't cry, so we think he's enjoying himself enough.

The best part is when you get out of the water, dry off, and go back for some more frozen pears!

Photo Shoot

I've been taking pictures like a crazy person for the last few days. I think it's because I can feel this baby stage slipping away. Not that I'm upset about Matthew's developmental progress, I'm just trying to document the cuteness before he's all teeth and speed.

Here he is with the beautiful rattle that his Nana gave him. He loves it because it's shiny and it makes noise. He doesn't love it because it's heavy and he regularly hits himself with it. Silly boy.

This next one is of him and his new favorite toy. It's a net in which I place yummy cold fruits for him to gum to death. I find it very effective at keeping him entertained, cooling him off, and providing teething practice on something other than my hand. It also completely grosses me out, so I try not to think about it too much.

Matthew is learning to cook. So far, he's mastered tasting, but that's about it. He's really good at making noises in the kitchen that sound like he's making dinner, though, so I might just let him go at it one night while I run to the Thai take-out place down the street. Then I can tell Jeff that I've mastered Thai cooking!

Oh yeah, and he's moving now. Check out the Matthew scoots video for a look at him inch-worming his way toward the camera!

Big Day

Matthew had a big day today. It started at midnight when he woke up and decided to scream for an hour or so. I think it's because my previous post mentions what a great sleeper he is. Or it could be his new tooth. What's that you say? A tooth? Yes! Matthew now has the upper portion of a very cute tooth sticking out of his bottom gum. That happened on Monday, and I haven't noticed anything specific to teething, but he has been a surly boy for the past week or so. I think he's using the tooth as an excuse, faking the pain, and trying to get me to rock him to sleep again like I did when he was sick. Last night, I tried rubbing his gums, but that only made him louder.

When it was time to get up, I had to jump up because I'm trying to catch his morning poop and not let him go in his diaper. I felt like lead this morning, but I got up, made it to the potty, only to discover I was too late. Oh well. We spent the rest of the day having fun. On Fridays, we meet some international mommies for a playdate in Waikiki. Out here, Alabama counts as a foreign country. A good time was had by all and Matthew was asleep in the carrier before I got to the car. He even slept the whole way through being buckled in to the carseat. So sweet.

Then we had a great time at the park across the street once Papa got home. Only Jeff would think to send the baby down the slide. Below is a picture of the two of them right before the craziness ensued. Matthew took the ride in stride and didn't complain until the third time when his shirt rode up and he got slide burn on his back. Ouch. Matthew loves the park, especially watching basketball, soccer, and the other kids playing on the jungle gym. Today he was particularly fond of a red tricycle. I guess I know what we're getting him for Christmas...

Potty Talk

This might be a little too much information for some of you, but I simply must share: Matthew used his potty today for the first time! What's more, we just got the potty yesterday, so it's not like I've been trying to get him to use it for weeks. What I have been doing for the past few weeks is cuing him to go to the bathroom while I hold him over the toilet. It works pretty consistently, but I have been wanting to get him a potty of his own to use. (He weighs almost 30 pounds now, so my back was really excited about the potty, too.)

This morning, I held him over the potty instead of the toilet and POOP, I mean, POOF he went to the bathroom. Then, this afternoon, I sat him on the potty while I made the cuing sound. Mostly, he just looked at me like I was crazy and I thought that he was just humoring me. But when I picked him up...I realized that he used the potty after all! Now all I have to do is figure out how to tell when he needs to go - I've been using intuition and timing until now - so that we can move this little big guy out of diapers as soon as possible.

Speaking of diapers, I HATE them. Seriously. I don't mean that they're a pain to deal with and stinky and all of that. I mean that I HATE them. Nothing enrages me faster than stumbling into Matthew's room in the middle of the night to find that he is crying because his diaper has leaked, again. I must have washed his sheets 20 times last week. I don't mind doing laundry, but I do mind paying money for a product that doesn't work. It baffles me that we can put a man on the moon, but we can't make a diaper that won't leak during the night.

I thought the hard part would be teaching Matthew to sleep through the night. Turns out, Matthew happily sleeps 12 hours a night. The trick is trying to get his diaper to let him do it. When we switched back to cloth, I tried the extra insert trick for a couple of nights, but that was ridiculous. Instead, I dress him in cloth during the day and put a super-overnight-we-promise-it-won't-leak disposable diaper on him at night. I'm still up once in the night, usually, to change his diaper and settle him back in the crib. On bad nights, I'm changing sheets, changing baby, and cursing the diaper companies in the softest, most calm voice I can muster.

When I'm ready to get back into working saddle, I'm going to look for work at a diaper company. Seems to me, work performance evaluations would be pretty insignificant there. If you didn't accomplish your goal of, say, stopping diapers from leaking, everyone would just say, "That's alright. You tried. And you did a pretty good job, even if the diaper still leaked. Let's call it an A+!" Some nights, I fantasize about taking Matthew's full "overnight" diaper immediately back to the store where I purchased it and asking for my money back at 3AM. But then I realize that the rage is taking over and I take a deep breath and try to get back to sleep.

So, that's why I'm so happy for Matthew's potty progress. Plus, Matthew's cloth diaper leaked the other day while I was talking to a cool new mommy at the mall, so I'm generally sick of the whole diaper thing. I'd much prefer Matthew just telling me that he has to go. And I think he likes the increase in potty talk. (What kid doesn't like a good potty conversation?!) After he peed in the potty, I snapped this shot of him pointing to the star of the show. Way to go, Matthew!

Lost and Found

A couple of days ago, I went shopping for clothes for the first time since I bought a bunch of nursing shirts 5 months ago. Suffice it to say that I can't fit into almost any of my pregnancy stuff, and I'm sick of wearing baggy maternity wear. So, I headed off to check out a couple of stores while Jeff and Matthew had some bonding time. In the middle of that night, I realized that I had lost one of my earrings some time that day. Even though they are one of my favorite pairs of earrings, I tried not to freak out. I figured I would find it around the house the next day.

It has been my experience that if you go searching for something, you probably won't find it. Plus you'll get all hot-and-bothered which will make you feel even worse. And then the thing you're looking for just gets a big laugh out of the fact that it won at the game of hide-and-seek and you are a super-sucker. I find that it's a better strategy just to act like you don't care about the thing that you lost. Then it feels silly for hiding and will eventually give up and come back to you. Plus, I usually don't want to admit that the loss of a material possession has affected me so greatly. The fact is that all the important things are still with me (or a phone call away) and I'm still very, very lucky.

But it was a very SPECIAL earring. I had it (along with it's partner) made for my wedding as the "something old". Each earring holds a diamond that was in my grandmother Martha's wedding ring and a pearl from earrings that my mother gave me in honor of my graduation. I wore them at my wedding, and for hundreds of days after that. (Anyone who spends any time with me knows that I own about three pair of earrings and that I wear one pair for months at a time.) So, you can imagine how upset I was at the thought of losing one. And it's always worse to lose one of a set because then you have the other one sitting there, mocking you with thoughts like "Oooh, I'm scared. Don't lose me, too. Just leave me in the jewelry box. I'm safe in here."

Yesterday, on my way to a facial at the Aveda salon, I decided to swing by the two stores where I had been the day before, just in case I lost the earring while trying on clothes. (I had called earlier in the day to have them check the Lost and Found, but no joy.) I didn't see it at the first store, but I did raise some eyebrows looking under the fitting room stalls to see if I could see it. At the second store, wouldn't you know that someone was in the fitting room that I had used and that the doors were floor-to-ceiling. Darn. I waited and waited, but the sloth never came out. Finally, I asked an attendant to check the room and call me if he found it. Genius that he is, he knocked on the door, and hearing no one, opened the door. And there on the floor was my earring!

This isn't the first time that I've been blessed with Lost & Found charma. A couple of Christmases ago, I found my car keys in the sand after they had been buried by a rogue wave. Jeff called me his Christmas hero after that. I don't know why I have this special talent, but it's times like yesterday that I'm grateful that I do. When I got home, I told Jeff that finding the earring was the best thing that happened to me that day - with the luxurious facial running a close second. Then, he showed me a video that he took of Matthew while I was away and I realized that THAT was actually the best thing that happened to me yesterday. Click on the Matthew gets dizzy link under funny videos and you'll see why.

New Blog!

Welcome to my new blog, Alabama Momma! I have had such a good time getting this blog up and running. I especially want to thank KC Design Girl for my awesome new blog header. She worked very hard to capture the essence of the Alabama Momma.

Other than the header and colors, there isn't much difference in this blog and my old one. You will find a few new link lists on the sidebar. My favorite is the list of links to videos of Matthew doing funny things. He is very good at blowing raspberries.

I also have ANOTHER blog: Alabama Book Worm! There is a link to it at the top of the sidebar, or you can go to www.AlabamaBookWorm.blogspot.com. There, I'm reviewing books that I've read and recommending good reads for adults and children. I hope you like it!

Thanks, again, to all those who voted for my new blog name! Don't forget to replace this blog with my old one in your Favorites list. I wouldn't want you to miss a moment of the craziness that is my life as a momma. More funny stories to come...