Happy 5 Month Birthday, Smush!

Num Num Num

Kayla is getting teeth. TEETH! I know some of you are currently clapping your hands and going "Oooh, how exciting," and to you I say "Stop it! Stop it right now!" My baby cannot have teeth. She can't! She is Mush Face, my little toothless cuddle monster. She is the gummy, drooly love of my life. She can't have teeth! It totally weirds me out!

Yes, yes I know that EVENTUALLY, all babies get teeth and yes, I realize that eventually, those teeth will be of great use to her. Blah blah blah. She is growing up!!! Don't you see it??? First the teeth, then the back-talking and the riding off on the back of her tattooed boyfriend's motorcycle going "Ciao, ma. I'll see you when I see you." ("Ma" because the poor thing is growing up in Jersey. "Ciao" because she will clearly speak fluent Italian among her many other languages, well-educated genius that she will be - despite her affinity for motorcycle riding rebels.) ACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Clearly teeth are the gateway drug of maturity and rebellion. My little Snuzzelface...all grown up with TEETH!

Okay, okay, perhaps I exaggerate the severity of the situation. I have seen other 5-6 month olds with their first couple teeth and it is super cute. Those jack-o-lantern-esque little grins...adorable. But those were the "big kids". Kayla always seemed so far away from that stage. And now, here I am, on the eve of her 5-month birthday, and I am just sort of in shock that MY baby could have reached this stage. And the stages are supposed to be exciting right? They are. But, they're also a little bitter sweet, because as ridiculous as this seems, with every stage you think "Sigh...she's just a little more grown up." And, of course, I want her to grow up. But, I also want her to stay my little Snuzzler for as long as possible.

I get it now, Mom. I get why watching your children grow up is both thrilling and bittersweet. And yes, Kayla is only 5 months old, so it's a little early to be "getting it", but hey...I am precocious like that. Alas for my toothless Snuzzler...your new tooth-ful self is boggling my mind.

A Very Important Post

I am re-posting this for a friend. If you read only two entries in the blog below, you will understand how important this really is. Please, if you have any information or even just have a good way of getting the word out there, pass along this story and help Ed to find his lost journal. He and his wife are incredible people and they need a little good luck.

"Did anyone on/near Southwest Airlines flight 2743 (BWI-LAS-OAK) this weekend (Labor Day weekend 2010) happen to find a journal belonging to Ed Chaney ? He began it to write about his grief and his memories following the tragic death of his 17 month-old-baby girl Hudson. If we all post and our friends repost, maybe we can get this precious memory keeper back to its rightful owner. You can read more about the lost journal at http://hudsonsonegoodthing.blogspot.com/2010/09/lost-journal.html And if you have a lead on the journal you can contact Ed via the blog as well http://hudsonsonegoodthing.blogspot.com/ "

We're All a Little Mad Here

And so begins our two months of madness. Actually, in all fairness, you could throw August into the mix and consider it three months of madness since we will have been running around like crazy people since about August first...or actually since July first...wait...June first? Seriously, do we EVER sit still?

Here is our schedule for the next couple months:

August 27-29 - DC Visit
September 3-6 - Boston
September 16-20 - Phoenix, AZ
October 1-3 - Atlanta, GA
October 8-10 - Washington, DC
October 16-17 - Pittsburgh, PA
October 18-25 - Ireland
November 5-7 - Visitors to NYC

And don't think that the days not listed among this group are free. Oh no. On those days we have work and daycare and classes and meet-ups and dinners and lunches and I think I just popped a blood vessel.

Are we insane? Probably. I simply have no idea how Kayla is going to react to all these months of madness. Especially when we are now adding in a number of jetlag inducing vacations. A 5-month old with jetlag? Sounds like a rocking good time to me. And all this just when she is starting to think about sleeping for 12 straight hours. Awesome.

Before we had a baby, we always maintained that we would simply make our child a part of our lives rather than conforming our lives to match-up with the child's. Right...so that is all great in theory and, truly, we are still going with that theory, but the reality is that a baby is only so malleable and while you can encourage them to conform ("No, really, napping is overrated. Let's go out to lunch after yoga and then over to the park and then into the city for happy hour and then..."), you also learn quickly that sometimes forcing them to endure fewer naps and a crazier schedule simply means that you will suffer the brunt of the consequences later. (Hello Little Purple Devil screaming herself silly after a whole day of 10 minute cat naps) And so, it is with some trepidation that we launch into the next couple months of insanity. Who will make it out alive? Place your bets ladies and gents. Odds are in favor of the baby...secondary bets may be placed on the inducement of insanity in the parents vs actual death. Ding Ding Ding. Round One...

How Time Flies

I simply can't believe that Kayla is already 4 1/2 months old. Time is racing by and with every day I am more and more in awe of this little person who has completely changed our lives. She is beautiful, smart, hilarious, determined...how can I determine this all from watching her chug a bottle, bat at her toys and roll over (and over and over and over)? I am her mother. There are some things I just know.

Month 4 has been absolutely amazing so far. Kayla is changing every day and it has been incredible to watch her continue to develop from an infant into a baby. She is learning new tricks every time I turn around and her personality is really starting to shine through.

What is Kayla working on this month?

We're working on sitting up...



And we have perfected rolling over both back to front and front to back.

We're discovering our toes...



And are becoming ever more enchanted with The Baby in the Mirror.



We're just starting to giggle...

And we've learned that we can put our tongue between our lips, blow and create all kinds of fun sounds (and flying spit bubbles)



We're drooling like a crazy woman!

And we had our first taste of Prune Juice...



We fought and conquered our first cold (Do you know that this kid would go into a coughing fit, wind up choking and then finish it all off with a smile? My child is a T-rooper!). Helped along by our favorite new toy (courtesy of Daddy)



We now fit into our monkey hat...



We didn't before...



We have FINALLY met our Aunt Kim!



And we are learning that we have control over our universe...



I love watching Kayla explore the world every day. To think that everything is new for her...what an incredible way to live. If adults could only remember the wonder that the world held for them when they were 4 months old, we would all be in a much better place. I watch the way she gazes up at the leaves of the trees, not only seeing "leaves", but seeing the way they contrast against the blue sky, the way they wave in the wind, the way their colors vary from branch to branch. I watch her as she learns that she has control over her universe - that she can move things and change things and make things do what she wants. It is magical to watch her learn for the first time all the miracles that adults take for granted. She has feet! She has fingers! She can make sounds using her tongue! If I could bottle up her energy and enthusiasm and save just a little of it to give back to her when she's grown, I would. I don't ever want her to lose her wonder for the world. I feel like, though some days the day to day nonsense gets in the way, I have been able to keep a lot of that wonder myself. I used to force myself, each day, to stop and find one thing to marvel at - the sun's rays glittering in a puddle of water, tiny blades of grass all swaying in the breeze, the feel of a soft rain on my face...if there is one thing I want to teach Kayla, it is that this world is the most wondrous gift and that she should never forget that there is magic in every crevice of it; she has only to keep her eyes and her heart open to find it.

Is This Your First Time?

There are so many times as a parent that you do something and then think "Now, if that's not love, then I don't know what is." Let me put that more honestly. There are so many times as a parent that you do something disgusting and think "Now, if that's not love, then I don't know what is." You think that the first time your baby goes to spit-up/throw-up and instead of thrusting them away from you, you pull them closer, more focused on comforting them than on avoiding the nasty downpour. You think that the first time you get drool in your eye after playing an ill timed game of "SuperBaby". You think that as you first take your baby's temperature rectally, as you first get accidentally doused in pee, as you first bend down to wipe projectile pooh up off the floor...Tonight though, Chris and I discovered a whole new level of love. Tonight, we discovered...The Nose Frida.



Oh, Nose Frida...I had heard tales of you around the Moms Group campfire. You were to be the aspirator to end all aspirators. Moms talk about you in hushed tones, evoking your name as they would the name of a supreme being. Only one pharmacy in all of Hoboken carries you and they are constantly having to restock their supply as word of your wonder has spread throughout the mom community. And yet, somehow, in all that hype, I never once saw the most important note about you. Oh yes, I saw that you were fondly referred to as "The Snot Sucker", but I just never fathomed...

I mean, I saw the picture:



But my mind, refusing to believe what it saw, just turned that little tube sticking out of the woman's mouth into a stethoscope. I mean CLEARLY that woman is a doctor and that is her...wait...

When I walked up to the counter in the drugstore, Nose Frida clasped to my chest, excited to make my purchase and return home to save my daughter from the evil Phlegm Monster who is plaguing her, the Pharmacist looked up at me, smiled and said "Is this your first time sucking snot?" "Ha Ha," I laughed, thinking that he was referring to the same sucking motion that happens when one uses a bulb syringe. But then he began to explain and as he continued his explanation, my eyes grew wider and wider.

For those of you who haven't caught on yet, the way you use the Nose Frida is that you - YOU - suck the snot out of the baby's nose and no, I do not mean by squeezing a bulb. I mean by putting the end of a long tube in your mouth, inserting the opposite end of said tube into your baby's nose and then sucking. YOU SUCK THE SNOT OUT OF THE BABY'S NOSE - LITERALLY. Is anyone not horrified by this?? I mean, okay, when you get down to it, there is a very effective filter between your lips and the incoming snot, but still...EWWWWWW-WYYYYYY.

And I don't mean to pull all of the sympathy toward me. Poor, poor traumatized Kayla did not exactly love the Nose Frida experience either. And of course, for her, this came on top of having been waterboarded (i.e. turned practically upside down while we dumped saline drops into her nostril) and steam fried (i.e. forced to hang out in a steamed up bathroom for 10 minutes as the sweat began to pour down both her and her mama's faces, in an attempt to loosen up any mucous in her system).

But enough about her...

Tonight, for the umpteenth and perhaps most poignant time, Chris and I performed our parental duties (after a vicious match of Rock, Paper, Scissors to determine whose mouth was going to do the dirty work), then turned to one another and said "If this isn't love..." Even for a "seasoned" mom, who now doesn't think twice about diving in to clean up super stinky pooh and who barely bats an eye as drool drips down her shirt and skin, the Nose Frida...well, the Nose Frida was a whole new kind of love and Snuzzles...I just hope someday you appreciate what true love is.

Ariel Mermaid Duck

The past few weeks have been filled with "firsts" for Kayla. The first first, she met her first Europeans, Aunt Lucy, Uncle Franco and Cousin Devin.





This brave family flew from across the world, Lucy 7 months pregnant!, to meet little Kayla and show her some love. In honor of that feat, Kayla decided she had better perform a feat of her own and so...she rolled over!!! That's right, Kayla has mastered the art of rolling over and, not one to be satisfied with being average, she decided to master the more difficult task of rolling from her back to her front first. And she is SO proud of herself. She now starts to throw herself into a roll before you even get her down on the ground, arching her back and throwing her legs over, ready to show that she is, in fact, a marvel and a wonder.



I am not going to lie. I am mind-explodingly proud of this new skill. And I am also irrationally proud of the fact that she started off going in the most difficult direction. Being an overachiever, I admire her drive and desire to be exceptional. Oh okay, I'm just retardedly impressed by EVERYTHING she does, difficult or not. This is why I have 5,000 pictures of her doing nothing but reaching for a stuffed monkey. I am her mother. It is my job.

Other firsts: Kayla spent the last two weeks with her Svoboda relatives in Stone Harbor, NJ. This was Kayla's first time at the beach and though it's hard for a 4 month old to appreciate the fun of the beach, she did appreciate some of the bonuses to being near it. 1. She loved being surrounded by relatives who wanted nothing more than to spoil her rotten. I don't think she spent more than 5 minutes entertaining herself all last week and I certainly didn't hear any complaints from her about the constant love and attention. 2. With the help of her Grandpa, she discovered The Baby in the Mirror. Like most things baby, her interest in the Baby sprang up over night. One day she couldn't have cared less and the next she was smiling and giggling and 100% in love with the Mirror Baby (i.e. herself). 3. While Kayla isn't really old enough to go in the ocean (waves...jellyfish...seaweed...sun...), she is old enough to go in the pool and go in she did. I didn't even attempt to take her in the first week, assuming that the chilly temperature of the pool would make swimming a non-starter, but desperate for a new activity in the second week, I took her in and VOILA! Ariel Mermaid Duck! She LOVES the pool. LOVES. Even with her little teeth (okay, gums) chattering, she giggled and squawked and kicked and paddled her way through that pool, like a crazy little fish baby. 4. Keeping with the water theme, Kayla also took her first outdoor shower at the beach and apparently, that too, is an AMAZING find. She loves the shower. Like will let you hold her head under the spout as water pours down her face, before coming out a-sputtering and a-giggling, loves the shower. She is hilarious. I have never seen a baby get dunked under water and just laugh her way out of it as though it is a fabulously entertaining game. The kid is a water fiend. A true Water Baby a la Kingsley. That's right. English major whaaaaaat.

Photo Proof:

Pool Time




Shower Time (Typically taken with the theme song "Singing in the Rain" graciously performed by Mama)

Time to call Child Protective Services?

Apparently not!


What else...Kayla loves long walks on the beach at sunset, she loves bright green leaves against a bright blue sky, she loves listening to Uncle John make gasping noises, she loves Cousin Julie the baby whisperer, she loves Uncle Erik taking her for a Waltz and she loves...well, she loves snuzzling with mama at about 6am before the rest of the world wakes up. She may not have loved the beach - too hot, too sunny, too limited in terms of room to roll around...but she did have her own personal kingdom built there each and every day. Some day she will look back on that and be sorry she wasn't more impressed. At least she better. It took an army of at least four relatives to cart her "kingdom" down there each day!

Kayla's Castle

Perfect for the Princess' Naptime

Kayla's Private Lagoon

Slaves (read relatives) carried water in buckets across burning hot sand to fill the Lady's pool each day.

And just to up the adorable quotient...





Actually, there is just too much cuteness for one post. I'll have to head the next few posts with beach pics, because I don't want your heart to explode into fountains of puppies and fluffy bunny rabbits if I overload you now.

I can't get over the fact that Kayla will be four months old this Sunday. In some ways time has flown and in others, the last few months have felt like the movie Groundhog Day. I am realizing more and more that parenthood must be taken day by day. Trying to look at it in any longer reaching terms is far too overwhelming at this stage and maybe always will be. For now, I am just trying to hang onto Snuzzles and her wonder-baby ways. My mom used to sing me a lullaby that went "Cleaning and scrubbing can wait til tomorrow, for babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep." Those words now mean so much more to me as I watch Kayla get bigger and bigger every day. They also mean more to me now that I have become a serious cleaning-cooking-housekeeping slacker...but that's another story.