Warning: don't read if you have a weak stomach
I had a beautifully poetic blog post planned for today. How being Addison's mother has taught me to enjoy the moment-to stop and savor every life occurence instead of assuming it was merely a stepping stone to a bigger, more dramatic moment.
It was a beautiful blog post. I promise. I planned it out this morning while I was in the shower. (Confession, I do some of my best thinking while in the shower).
While I enjoy the luxury steam of our shower- Chubbs loves to play on the steps in front of the tub (separate from the shower), cruising along the bottom step and playing with her toys that I leave for her there. She loves shower play time.
Until today. When she decided to try something shockingly new.
I was busy thinking of synonyms for 'savor' and 'relish' when I happened to glance over at Miss Rocket Crawler. Within the 30 seconds that my eyes were off her, she crawled over to the toilet, pulled her self up (both of these things were not new, but she had never tried them during shower play time...she was sually too busy trying to get to my coffee cup from the top step)
and then I noticed her latest and greatest activity.
She had reached one grubby paw into the toilet, pulled out a urine soaked piece of toilet paper, and had began diligently gnawing and sucking-seeking optimum flavor.
Needless to say, the beautiful blog post flew out of my mind as I raced out of the shower (getting water, everywhere, btw), tore the soaked wad out of her mouth and hurried her over to the sink for a thorough mouth washing.
She was none too pleased to have her snack taken away and fussed and fought against the mouth rinsing.
Sigh. It was to date the most disgusting part of motherhood. (That coming from a g-tube mom who had way too many feedings go down way too fast and then come back up to plaster me in the face....this today was far, far worse)
Rookie mistake, leaving the toilet seat up, to be sure...but honestly I didn't think her short little arms were long enough to reach all the way into the toilet.
The rest of the day was beautiful, balancing just the right amount of moment savoring and relishing. We grocery shopped, and after the tenth time of turning her back around in the cart and saying "no" quite sternly- she finally sat obediently, staring at me with wide eyes and making funny faces to get my attention.
We played outside. We napped. We walked. We shared afternoon snacks.
I savored and relished every moment and considered rewriting this morning's post all over again.
And then, dinner time struck.
Now, Aaron works quite late, so we hardly ever eat before 8:00. Addison eats at 5:00 and is in bed by 6:00. Therefore, she ends up eating a lot of babyfood and fresh fruit/crackers/cheese because if I prepare something just for her, she will refuse to eat it and I end up throwing it all away. (Note, if eating at the table as a family, she eats what we eat fine...but I can't justify keeping her up that late)
Tonight we are having spaghetti and meatballs, so I took some of the sauce and some of the noodles, cooked them at 4:45, slathered them in mozzarella cheese and knew that I had a success on my hands. Delicious dinner for Chubbs.
It was a beautiful blog post. I promise. I planned it out this morning while I was in the shower. (Confession, I do some of my best thinking while in the shower).
While I enjoy the luxury steam of our shower- Chubbs loves to play on the steps in front of the tub (separate from the shower), cruising along the bottom step and playing with her toys that I leave for her there. She loves shower play time.
Until today. When she decided to try something shockingly new.
I was busy thinking of synonyms for 'savor' and 'relish' when I happened to glance over at Miss Rocket Crawler. Within the 30 seconds that my eyes were off her, she crawled over to the toilet, pulled her self up (both of these things were not new, but she had never tried them during shower play time...she was sually too busy trying to get to my coffee cup from the top step)
and then I noticed her latest and greatest activity.
She had reached one grubby paw into the toilet, pulled out a urine soaked piece of toilet paper, and had began diligently gnawing and sucking-seeking optimum flavor.
Needless to say, the beautiful blog post flew out of my mind as I raced out of the shower (getting water, everywhere, btw), tore the soaked wad out of her mouth and hurried her over to the sink for a thorough mouth washing.
She was none too pleased to have her snack taken away and fussed and fought against the mouth rinsing.
Sigh. It was to date the most disgusting part of motherhood. (That coming from a g-tube mom who had way too many feedings go down way too fast and then come back up to plaster me in the face....this today was far, far worse)
Rookie mistake, leaving the toilet seat up, to be sure...but honestly I didn't think her short little arms were long enough to reach all the way into the toilet.
Addison 1. Mommy 0.
The rest of the day was beautiful, balancing just the right amount of moment savoring and relishing. We grocery shopped, and after the tenth time of turning her back around in the cart and saying "no" quite sternly- she finally sat obediently, staring at me with wide eyes and making funny faces to get my attention.
We played outside. We napped. We walked. We shared afternoon snacks.
I savored and relished every moment and considered rewriting this morning's post all over again.
And then, dinner time struck.
Now, Aaron works quite late, so we hardly ever eat before 8:00. Addison eats at 5:00 and is in bed by 6:00. Therefore, she ends up eating a lot of babyfood and fresh fruit/crackers/cheese because if I prepare something just for her, she will refuse to eat it and I end up throwing it all away. (Note, if eating at the table as a family, she eats what we eat fine...but I can't justify keeping her up that late)
Tonight we are having spaghetti and meatballs, so I took some of the sauce and some of the noodles, cooked them at 4:45, slathered them in mozzarella cheese and knew that I had a success on my hands. Delicious dinner for Chubbs.
Turns out she was only interested in playing with and throwing the carefully prepared food:
She would give me this stubborn look after locating the noodles that I carefully hid back in her cheeks and dramatically spitting them out.
Refusing to eat, but liberally throwing and playing in it. Sigh. She is seriously the most fickle eater ever, and no amount of forcing food down the throat seems to do anything for her.
Addison 2. Mommy 0.
It was a beautifully savored and relished day, bookended by moments of frustration and catastrophe.
I guess that's just part of motherhood.
Thankfully, tomorrow is always new...with fresh opportunities to put down the toilet seat in time and new chances to encourage Addison to eat grown up food.
(Panicked question to self: will it be double the trouble with little brother since Addison now has a built in look out for her trouble making????)