Six Months Old and Getting....small?

Miss Chloe recently celebrated her 1/2 birthday. It's hard to believe that 6 months' time has already passed. Gone are the days of newborness, screaming in the car, and projectile vomitting.

Chloe is now a really relaxed and chill baby. She does such a good job riding in the car now that we often wonder a). is she with us / did we remember to put her in the car and b). is she feeling okay, breathing, etc. She shrieks in excitement and when she's getting peeved and has recently discovered her tongue, which is almost always wagging around outside of her mouth. She's found her feet, but she doesn't play with them much. Chloe is a drooling machine, although baby has no teeth yet. One would think she would get some any day now by looking at the buckets of slobber soaking her bibs, toys, and hands. She loves to watch Camdyn and Cam loves to hold her. They are the cutest thing together.

Chloe weighed in at 13 lbs. 13 oz at her well visit on Tuesday. This places her in the 15th percentile for weight. At the 4 mo. visit she was in the 50th percentile. I guess we have a case of the incredibly shrinking baby. Her doc assured us that she is perfect, and is in the normal range and that the downshift in her weight ranking is not cause for concern. We can start rice cereal whenever we want, but he warned that we should hold off on fruits for awhile. Chloe still gets all the nutrients she needs from me! On the height chart, Chloe measures 25 1/4 inches and is in the 25th percentile. This also is a shift from the 50th, guess baby girl is just going to be more on the petite side. She's my little itty bitty.

Happy 1/2 Birthday Chloe Belle!

Time Well Spent

This is Camdyn at approximately 8 months old (and me at damn near 29). She was crawling, weighed over 20 lbs and would be walking a month from the date that this picture was taken. In those days, when I was new to mommyhood, I thought that time was standing still. I felt like the exhaustion, demands, sleep deprived nights would last forever. Now, I realize that they didn't and they won't and that time clips by at a pace that makes me want to put a harness on it, dig my heels in, and tug my body weight against it. Suddenly, my chubby, delightful, baby girl is a spirited, energetic, talkative 3 1/2 year old. She is her own little person with her own thoughts, ideas, and agenda. She has an imagination that makes me wonder what in the world happened to my own. She engages in pretend play all by herself and when I find myself staring at her and wondering how she got to be so independent already, she'll look at me and say, "Stop watching me, mom. Go away." "Sorry sweetie, didn't realize I was staring."

So, I know that babies don't stay babies forever and I look at my newest baby girl and realize her baby days are numbered. In 3 days, Chloe will be six months old. Last night, she was in her jammies and snuggling against me while we were all in the bathroom supervising Camdyn's tubby time. I asked Chris, "What if? What if this is the last little baby we'll ever have and hold?" His response, "That'd be great!" His position on 2 is the limit does waiver from time to time. Truthfully, I don't really know if I could keep up with 3 kids. My two little girls have me spread thin and stressed out most of the time, but I think the realization that Miss Chloe Belle is rapidly approaching toddlerhood now has me a bit disturbed and forlorn. Chloe is already rolling over (both ways) she's starting to sit on her own, she tried to eat my quesadilla last night and if she develops like Camdyn, she'll be walking in 3 months time. They morph so quickly and I question if I've changed as much as they have. Of course I have, I've tasted the sweetest part of life, the part that makes you want to live forever, the part that makes you realize that life is fragile, people are valuable, and that families are God's greatest gift to us. Not only am I just older, I'm mommy. I'm the most important person to two little people and they depend on me, love me unconditionally, and at this point, think I can walk on water. Of course all that has changed me...profoundly.

My mom had an old counter-cross stitched or crocheted wall hanging that adorned our basement walls for years when we were younger. It was fashioned out of 1970's olive green, orange, and mustard yellow yarn. It pictured an old fashioned woman, bun on top of her head, holding a swaddled babe in a rocking chair and it said the following:

Cleaning and Scrubbing Can Wait til tomorrow

For Babies Grow up We've learned to our Sorrow

So Quiet down cobwebs and Dust go to Sleep

I'm Rocking my baby and Babies don't keep

Yes, I recall that from memory and I totally get it now. I am understanding how it feels to watch your children grow and thrive. How every moment, stage, and age is fleeting and the time evaporates faster than water on the sidewalk under the noonday sun. I can't stop it, I can only savor it and remember it. So, I take tons of pictures of my little girls, I have them on video doing things that are less than remarkable, and I enjoy it. I enjoy them and motherhood (even the yucky parts).

I guess instead of wondering where the time has gone, I should be celebrating the fact that it's all been time well spent.

You're Pis*ing me off!

Spoken from the mouths of babes. I battled myself over whether I should write about this situation, and then decided that this must happen to everyone eventually, so why not. We can't all be perfect all the time.

It was about 7:45 last night when Camdyn uttered the subject phrase barely above a whisper. She was sitting next to me at the kitchen table and she was trying to convince me that she should be able to watch Go Diego one last time before bed. I was holding my ground and supporting daddy's "No TV it's bedtime" standpoint when she whispered, "it's pissing me off - the TV." I wasn't sure I heard her correctly and I asked her to repeat herself. I was really hoping she said "ticking." She repeated herself and I said, "Camdyn, that is a daddy word. We are girls and we don't use those words." I then moved her upstairs for bedtime, hoping that this was just a fluke.

Now her teachers have advised me over the years not to focus on negative words or behavior and to correct them and then quickly move on and redirect them to something else. Awhile back Camdyn picked up the phrase "Oh MY GAWD" at school and repeated it incessantly. Man, I thought that was bad...now this is worse. At least in that instance I could blame the child at school whom Cam picked the phrase up from. This time, it's daddy's words she's copying. On occasion, after Camdyn has come out of her bed for the 10th time for a hug or a glass or water, Chris will reach his boiling point and those words will fly out of his mouth before he realizes it. We're human and as Sugarland says "pshhhh - It Happens."

So, now we are upstairs and we brushed teeth and pottied. We read a story and Camdyn is begging me for more play time. I tell her no and that mommy makes the rules and that it is bedtime. Her response, "You are pissing me off!" Humph. This time said in the appropriate context and in the appropriate tone of voice. Oh dear. So, I had to try hard to keep from laughing, because this is not funny, but somehow I was stifling a grin. Why? I guess because she has no idea that the words are bad, but knows what context to use them in. Accolades to her for that. However, it seems grossly beyond her capability at 3 1/2 years old. So, I remind Camdyn that those words are not for mommies and little girls to use and tell her that the next time she uses them, her beloved Khan Kuay elephant is going to be put away for a day. She didn't utter those words again and went to bed (sort of).

I debated telling her teachers this morning about this and then decided that I would just look shocked and floored should they ever witness this or approach me about it. After all, I don't want to dwell on it. So, carry on.

As for daddy, I shot him a look to kill and he realized that this is the byproduct of his frustration. Although we all get frustrated, he's going to have to pick better words. Children using inappropriate language is the farthest thing from "cute" and seems to rob them of their innocence.

I'm sure that elementary school will bring more of these scenarios. Oh the joys....