Christmas& Hanukkah

Wishing you all the merriest of holidays!  

We are celebrating with latkes and Christmas cookies.

"Lighting the menorah?  nbd."

"What's that, you say?  I get to celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas?!  Heck ya!"

9 months 3 days

9 descriptions of my 9 month old:

1.  Feisty as hell:  No description needed.

2.  Independent: He knows what he wants, when he wants it.  If this need is not met instantly, he pitches a fit.

3.  Silly:  He loves to growl and be chased.  One of his favorite activities is wrestling with his papa.

4.  A bruiser:  Literally.  This cruising business is dangerous.  He currently wears his 2nd(!) shiner.

5.  Active:  Even as he sleeps, this little one moves.  But the moment he wakes up, it's all over.  He goes from deep sleep to rapidly crawling across the room - all within 5 seconds.  

6.  Musician:  When T gets out the guitar, J laughs and claps.  We put him in front of the piano and he goes to town.

7.  Dancer:  Grooving is this baby's thing!  Even the rhythm of the washer makes him stand up to bounce and sway.

8.  Pointer:  He is constantly pointing at everything and saying, "Da?"  I like to pretend he's asking me what something is, so I tell him.  

9.  Lover:  Clearly he loves his mama and papa.  But he loves his cat the mostest.  The poor little kitten has no chance.  I often am running to rescue her from his "love pats" and bear hugs.

We finally got around to photographing and designing our holiday card.  Who knows when we will actually get these in the mail, but in a way I'm happy we procrastinated patiently waited until now to take the picture.  I wanted those two beautiful pearly whites to shine for all to see!

2 day countdown to Hanukkah, 1 week to Christmas.  Happy Holidays!

I totally get it now.

Before J, I was so judgmental.  Being a teacher and working in a school for the last 8 years really makes one feel like an expert on families and parenting.  While it has given me excellent experience, knowledge, and a window into parenting - I never knew what it was really, truly like to have a child.

Nannies
In my line of work, in the area where we live, nannies are not the exception but the rule.  Parents work ungodly hours to be able to afford a particular lifestyle.  In our program I, more often than not, interact with the nannies/au pairs.  I hate it!  It breaks my heart not to see a parent dropping of their child.  It breaks my heart to watch a child run into the arms of the nanny at the end of the day, instead of their parent's.  While I am glad that there is a bond between so many, there is still something so fundamentally wrong about it.

I swore that would not be us, but here we are.  J is picked up by his nanny in the morning and taken to the other family's home.  He smiles when he sees her, she greets him with hugs and kisses.  I am thankful that he loves her and is loved by her.

Our massive student loan debt is the ONLY! ONLY! reason why I am still working.  Otherwise, I would stay at home and raise our child.  But this is a necessity for us at this time, and so this is what we do.
Judge me! you young teachers who dream about staying at home with your children one day.  Just know that you will be in the same boat as I, mulling of your preconceived judgments and feelings.


(Let me tell you this one thing: I sit her blogging/working from home today.  It is a glorious feeling to know that my child is safe and loved, while I enjoy some coffee, music, the wafting scent of an Anthro.pologie candle, and productivity.  There, I said it.  Today I am THRILLED we have a nanny.)


Television
Our students often have very intelligent, engaging conversations with each other.  Unfortunately, it often revolves around a TV program.  A few years back, I asked one student, "Well, what's going to work?"  In response (and I kid you not!) the entire classroom erupted in song/chant:  "What's gonna work? Teamwork!  What's gonna work?  Teamwork!"  This song comes from the popular program, Won.der Pe.ts.  Wow.


My general rule of thumb is still "no television before age 3."  Now that I am faced with reality - I make an exception - when I have to trim J's fingernails.  This little man never stops moving!  Unless, the television is on.  So for the 3.5 minutes it takes me to trim his fingernails, he has been enjoying Ses.ame Stre.et (thank goodness for Net.flix)!


I'm sad that I judged.  I'm sad that I had blinders on for what I expected all parents to be.  While I do wish to strive for perfection, I understand that I am bound to fail in my own expectations.  It is hard to look back at myself before I was a mom, and see how stubborn I was in my opinions.  I really think I did a disservice to myself and those parents by judging how they raised their children.

After all, we do the best we can do.

I do the best that I can do.  And I totally get it now.

exhausted conversation between parents

After a 10 minute struggle to keep chattering J from crawling off his floor bed at bedtime...

E:  Sometimes, I wish we still had a tiny-ass immobile newborn.

T:  You wish we had a tight-ass mobile unicorn?

Yes, I wish that too.

sick be gone!

Slowly, little man is starting to recover.  The croup-y cough disappeared after 24 hours, thankfully.  It seems our multiple walks in the chilly morning and evening air helped this.  However, we still have the worlds most obnoxious amount of snot clogging up his nose!  Nursing a congested baby is so frustrating for all involved.  J latches, sucks for approximately five seconds, pulls away, cries out in frustration, then repeats until let-down (which is inevitably delayed due to him pulling back).

Regardless, today has been better.  And this, my friends, calls for an impromptu snack photo shoot.

cough, cough

Last night, J officially came down with croup.  A small cold had been brewing the last few days but last night it came to fruition with loud, honking, barking coughs.

Poor boy.

Unfortunately, T was at work and there was no one to help talk me off the freak-out, panic, manic ledge that comes with motherhood.  Instead, I texted T many times giving specific details on J's illness and how it was expressing itself.  I went so far as to make a voice recording on my phone of J's coughing and send it to T.

This recording turned out to be the perfect way for T to diagnose J with croup - the classic barking cough that accompanies this illness.  To confirm his diagnosis (remember, T is a pediatric ER nurse), T played the soundbite for the Attendings, Residents, and other ER nurses.  Their response?  Textbook croup.

With T's medical background, knowledge, and access to treatment, we have all that we need to treat J without a trip to the ER.  Thank. God.  Now, the poor boy is finally napping after waking himself up repeatedly with nasty coughing.  I am working from home today, albeit exhausted from little sleep last night.  I want my healthy baby back.

Has your child ever had croup?  

I hear it gets worse before it gets better and can last up to 10! days!  

How did you make it through?

P.S.  Look who turned 8 months a couple of weeks ago!!!!