California, Back Where We Started From

Ok, we didn’t really start in CA, but roll with it.

We spent a wonderful long weekend in LA with friends, showing LC how to do it up Hollywood style. LC took to the whole lifestyle pretty well, including wanting to stay up all hours of the night, you know, like you do in LA.

She went to an NBA play-off game and received a free tee shirt, even if the Clippers blew a 24 point lead to eventually lost the game.

She went to LA parties.  (Or one party.  But still, it was very LA.) That’s Megan who graciously hosted us (with Wade!) and introduced LC to all that is LA, or at least North Hollywood.

Taking a toddler to visit your childless friends can highlight just how much your life has changed since becoming parents.  For instance, our friends were not interested in the daily 6am treks to the local bakery to get LC food and let her run through the hall to the bathrooms where her voice echoes. At this point in our “parenting journey”, we don’t even think getting up at 6am on a Saturday to be odd at all.

Thanks to Megan, Wade and Skip for a very excellent weekend.  We had a wonderful time and maybe next time we visit, LC will understand that the bakery is still open at 9am and there is no need to claim the good table at 6am.

A Motherly Conundrum

I have a puzzle for all of you.  How do I wash my daughter’s hair?  LC’s hair, as you can see in this photo yesterday, is growing quite long.  As you can also see in this photo, day care likes to pull it up out of her eyes and put it into pigtails.  Adorbs, right?  Well, what the photo does not show is the massive amount of sunblock and sand in her hair. 

And this is where my conundrum comes in.  When LC comes home with pig tails and a head full of sunblock and sand, I have to give her a bath.  She loves baths, but she does not love having her hair washed.  I’ve tried using a facecloth but now that she has more hair, it just doesn’t get the hair wet enough.  So I’ve started using a cup to get her hair wet, but she hates getting water on her face (not unusual).  I can get her to “look up” so that I can pour the water over her head and avoid her eyes, but as soon as I start to pour the water, she ducks her head down and the water runs into her eyes again.  I’ve tried leaning her back in the tub, but she feels off balance and starts to freak out – and it can be unsafe for me to hold a squirmy, crying baby with one hand as I wash her hair with the other.  I’ve showered with her, but she seems to get claustrophobic in the shower and spends most of the time crying and pushing at the door to get out.  That and it is again hard to wash her hair effectively while holding a wet, squirmy baby in my arms. 

So, what do you wisdom-filled internet have to offer?  Any surefire ways to wash the sand and food and all the gunk out of a toddler’s hair?  Lately every bath results in a baby-mommy hair washing show down – and then no one is happy at the end of it, but everyone is wet.  Most of the time her hair isn’t even that clean.  So, help!  Short of bribing her with cupcakes in the bath, I’m running out of ideas.

Bedtime

I love my daughter.  So, so much.  And it is hard that we have so little time together during the week.  The evening can truly be rushed and stressful, as we come home from work and day care, greeted by the pets with their demands, unloading the items from the day, preparing for dinner, changing diapers and placating toddlers who would like food, milk, books, tea parties and to go outside with the doggie (all at the same time).  There is comfort and enjoyment in the chaos and belly laughs.  But at bedtime, at bedtime there is relaxation. 

I am sorry to see our evening fun end each night, but there is really nothing better than the moment I can crawl into bed each night.  I can spy on LC on the video monitor.  I may do some work from bed, I may watch the Bachelorette and call it a night.  I may miss LC and I sure wish we had more time between when we get home and when bedtime hits.  But, the moment I climb into bed next to a sleeping beagle really can’t be beat.

Commercialized Mother’s Day

This may just be another way Mother’s Day is being commercialized but it made me cry. A lot. 

 

I think if LC could tell me I was doing ok, it would probably be all I needed on Mother’s Day. 

(That and for her to stop just saying “dada”.  A “mama” wouldn’t hurt you LC. )

Overwhelmed by Life

I am having one of those weeks/months when trying to get it all done is proving to be too much.  LC’s been sick, A and I have had cold symptoms for weeks, generally making everything more difficult to complete.  A is headed out of town again next week, which required reshuffling schedules and making this week a lot busier than anticipated.  We’re having work done on the house that we’ve been putting off for months but really needs to be complete.  All of this results in my having “worked from home” (or planning to do so) 5 out of 12 days. 

I’m very lucky to have a flexible job that allows me to work from home when I have a sick kid or have to supervise home repairs.  But being the one with the “flexible job” means you are the one who leaves in the middle of conference calls to pick up the baby from day care when she has a fever, the one who meets the contractor at home and who works from home almost 50% of the month of May. 

I feel pulled in many directions – to be a good mom and taking care of my daughter when she is sick, to be a good wife and pick up the slack when my husband’s career doesn’t allow him the same flexibility (or he forgets to mention an upcoming business trip), to be a good homemaker and manage the home repairs, dog walker, grocery shopping and lawn care.  But it is a lot.  And it is overwhelming. 

The big picture is by next Wednesday many of these distractions from our regular life will be done and we’ll be preparing to get away for a long weekend.  So for now I will focus on the short term-ness of this current stress, focus on climbing the hill in front of us and hope that the downhill on the other side is easy and relaxing.  And if climbing the hill currently in front of me requires a triple chocolate cupcake from Trophy Cupcakes, so be it.