Parenting from Scratch

I’m just testing some WordPress themes for another project. Things will go back to normal(ish) soon.

Well, I finally (!) had my wisdom teeth pulled today, at the ripe old age of 30. While the oral surgeon kept telling me during the consultation that I should have had these out way earlier, I’m rather glad I waited until I was a full-fledged grown-up (admittedly, it would be a touch easier sans toddler).

My wisdom teeth weren’t impacted or anything, so it was a pretty basic tooth-pulling extravaganza. I think the real advantage of having waited is that I was totally able to handle having them out without going under general anesthesia, which is awesome, because “going under” kind of freaks me out. From start to finish, it took about 40 minutes, most of which was spent giving me shots to numb me up. Apparently they have to put adrenaline in the shots, which was kind of trippy. I started shaking a lot and felt weird, and my heart was racing. I thought I was freaking out, even though I wasn’t freaking out at all. Oh, and they let me pick out what music I wanted to listen to. Coldplay, of course. Perfect background music for such an event!

Trevor and Sadie brought me to my aunt and uncle’s house, where I am currently convalescing. My old bedroom is now the playroom for the grandkids, so I’m not having a full-on nostalgic moment, but it does feel nice to “come home” for a couple of nights. I can’t talk properly, of course, but I’m otherwise fully functional. Well, I’m also quite limited in what I can eat. Trevor’s going to keep Sadie at home, because I can’t nurse her while I’m on the hard stuff. I hope she takes it easy on him! The peanut butter malt he was sharing with her when they left me will probably help take the edge off.

I can feel the narcotics taking their hold, so I’d better sign off now. Here’s a picture of me all laid up. Don’t I look like Jacob Marley? Sadly, this isn’t the worst picture taken of me ever in my life…

I was worried Sadie would freak out seeing me like this when I came into the waiting room. Bah! She pointed at the ice pack and said, “I want one. This yours?”

So here’s a little secret. Remember when I mentioned that we’ve let Sadie watch a bit more “TV” than we’d planned to at this point? Well, a certain member of the household (who shall remain unnamed to protect the guilty) has been exposing Sadie to the lawless ways of bootleg movie watching.

Namely, Rio. Sadie affectionately just calls it “Birds.” in an attempt to both right a wrong and test the waters a bit (and, honestly, I’ve been missing The Movies quite a bit myself since parenthood), we met up with Ashley and Margie to see Rio in the theater.

It went about as well as could be expected of a couple of toddlers. We made it through about two-thirds of the movie, and without any major scene. Were our cinematic neighbors thrilled we were there (and then gone, and then back, as the girls could not seem to decide)? Probably not. But it’s not like this was the opening show of Harry Potter or something.

Oh, and it turns out Rio is a 3D show. Sadie wouldn’t wear her glasses after being terrified by the Ice Age squirrel thingy short. Which means she watched almost a whole movie all blurry-eyed. Ah, well.

I’ve been busy working on Sadie’s birthday party this Sunday, and I’m definitely getting excited. It’s going to be much smaller than last year, just family and a handful of friends. Since Sadie’s favorite movie is Charlotte’s Web (considering she’s only seen three movies, this isn’t too surprising), I’m doing a sort of Wilbur-Charlotte themed party. Sadie’s not quite old enough to anticipate her party, and usually when we ask her whose birthday is coming up, she’ll say “Mimi” or name one of her cousins. Or one of the pets. But I know for sure she’s going to be thrilled when the party actually happens.

Have I told you about how much this girl loves a party? There have been several times I’ve pulled up in our driveway only to hear, “Noooo…. Partyyyyy” from the back seat. We actually drove around the neighborhood one Saturday, calling people to see if we could come “party” at their house. Luckily we were saved by our dear friends down the street who were more than happy to let Sadie party it up before they headed out for a movie.

So! I’m pumped about the pink pig and spider web cupcakes I’m going to make. And I spent part of last night making black spider webs to spell out Sadie’s name and hang up on the wall.

I’m glad that we’re going low-key this year. There won’t be a ton of other kids for Sadie to share her toys with (she’s still fairly territorial), and I’m planning on making some homemade play dough and having a little play dough activity table set up. Add a few snacks, and that’s it!

The big news will be whether or not Sadie like’s her present from her Dad. If you know Trevor at all, you might be able to guess what’s waiting in the trunk of his car for her… (Mama will try to remain calm, cool and collected about this milestone.)

World, meet Tommy Baby (aka Teeny Tiny Baby). Sadie found Tommy Baby at an estate sale a few doors down the other day and insisted on taking him home. I believe he must have been a somewhat large Baby Jesus for a Mardi Gras King Cake. Because why else would someone make/have a tiny naked baby? Lucky for us, we scored Tommy Baby for free!

The comparison between Tommy Baby and Big Baby (we’ve dropped the “Too”) is comical. And Sadie’s love for Tommy Baby is in no way correlated with his minuscule size. We thought we’d lost him the other night, and I wasn’t sure what we were going to do. I’d not considered Big Baby’s monstrous size as an asset, but now I see she’s much harder to misplace.

Oh, and Sadie’s started this funny thing where, when you ask her an open-ended question, sometimes her answer is just “No.” How are you today? “No.” How old are you going to be on your birthday? “No.”

Are you doing anything for World Water Day?

Here’s my contribution: http://blog.heifer.org/2011/03/world-water-day-lets-unite-for-clean.html

Now I can capture adorable moments like this:

Somebody is REALLY into birthdays these days.

Thought I was having implantation bleeding and morning sickness. Instead, it’s an early period and a stomach bug.

Oh, and a SUPER cranky toddler.