Yo Gabba Gabba Cupcakes

When you're obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba, it's a good thing that your mom is pretty handy with piping frosting, so she can create these little precious babies!

For the record, Toddler's name is not Yan. Or Nay. Or Ayn.

Never heard of Yo Gabba Gabba? I wish I were still in that boat sometimes. It's a kids' show on Nick Jr., featuring five different characters, Muno, Plex, Brobee, Toodee, and Foofa. They play in a place called Gabbaland and learn lots of different lessons, as well as activities. The one thing I like is that it encourages the kids to get up and move, to dance around. Toddler loves it. He calls it "Yo Bagga" at the moment, which is really cute. His whole party was "Yo Bagga" themed, so he was just in hog heaven.

I did find the perfect yellow cupcake recipe for these, at the last moment, and I was super thrilled with how they turned out. They were a big hit at Toddler's party. Come next year, no recipe hunting necessary! Unless, that is, he develops the deep love and appreciation for chocolate that his mommy has. This year, he was really just interested in the frosting, with a few nibbles of cupcake. He chose to eat Toodee, the blue character, so he got the whole messy cake experience under his belt - last year, he barely wanted to touch his cake, he didn't want to get dirty! So without any further adieu, here's the recipe:

Perfect Yellow Cupcakes

adapted from Martha Stewart and America's Test Kitchen

Printer-friendly recipe

3 2/3 cups cake flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

24 tbsp (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 1/2 cups sugar

8 large eggs, room temperature

2 tbsp vanilla extract

3 cups whole milk, room temperature

3 cups of your favorite frosting

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then vanilla, until combined, about 30 seconds.

3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in one-third of the flour mixture, followed by half of the milk. Repeat with half of the remaining flour mixture, and the remaining milk. Beat in the remaining flour mixture until just incorporated.

4. Give the batter a final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure it is thoroughly combined.

5. Line three 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners and use a greased 1/4 cup measure to portion the batter into each cup. Bake the cupcakes on the upper-middle and lower-middle racks in a 350 degree oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 15-20 minutes through baking. Let the cupcakes cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Spread the frosting evenly over the cupcakes and serve, or decorate to your heart's delight and serve.

I could do without all the tantrums...

Sometimes I think I've got this whole mother thing down pat. And then, my munchkin will wake up from a nap and remind me that he's not as easy as I think he is. My toddler is going on 21 months old and has hit the terrible two's with a vengeance.

He's very willful, and pushing my buttons at every turn. He's obsessed with the things that he gets into trouble for doing - coloring on the furniture (during the two seconds that I turn my back to scratch an itch or to pat the dog or something) and trying to stand and run around on the couch. I'm frightened he'll hurt himself with the couch running, plus it infuriates me that he won't listen to me!

He's also obsessed with two television programs - Yo Gabba Gabba and Thomas the Friends. If you don't have a child, you haven't experienced the technicolor acid trip that is Yo Gabba Gabba. At first, I despised it, but it's grown on me over the last six months. It does strike me as truly educational, even if one of the creatures in Gabba Land looks quite a bit like a "dildo with some kind of STD" (as my best friend so wittingly put it). As for Thomas, or "Momas" as he's known in my house, my munchkin just loves trains. He's such a boy.

Recently, he's also become familiar with Blue's Clues, which he's also very into. It's "Boo's Coos" to him, which is adorable. When he draws at his coloring table, he insists on occasion that I draw a pawprint here and there, and he loves to try to sing the mail song. It's the first recognizable song I've ever heard him sing.

At the same time, he can turn on the charm and make me feel bad for cursing him in my head, and make me smile at the drop of the hat. He's taken to calling me Mommy now, instead of Mama, which is quite possibly one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. But when he's wailing it because he wants to watch another episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, it's not so beautiful sounding. I really could do without all the tantrums. If it weren't for them, I would have to say that motherhood is pretty darn enjoyable.

It blows my mind that his whole happy world can come crashing down just because he can't have a cookie. When he wants something, he wants it now. This crops up as a problem most nights at dinnertime, when I'm trying to prepare dinner. I don't let him in the kitchen when I'm cooking because I'm frightened that he'll find a way to burn himself, so he's usually playing in the living room, and inevitably, at some point, he will start chanting "dinner, dinner, dinner" and throwing himself at the gate. There are plenty of nights where I wind up trying to finish cooking one handed, while carrying Baby on my hip and trying to placate him as best I can.

My best friend and I took our kiddos to the mall play area a few weeks ago and she commented to me that it's no longer relaxing to take the kids to the play area, and she's right. It's downright stressful. Between their lack of social skills with older kids and their newfound obsession with climbing on everything in sight, despite their sometimes shaky climbing skills, it can be positively nail-biting to watch them play. You do the toddler mommy dance - do you step in? Do you let them fall and learn? It's so tough sometimes. And I'm sure it's not going to get much easier as they get older.

Sometimes it blows my mind to think that two years ago, my biggest concerns were work-related. Not even family related. My life has done a complete 180 in the last two years...and as much as I hate it on some days, I think I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Swine Flu Quarantine Day Five: Almost Done!

I'm happy to share to share with you all that the fever is finally gone. Phew. And it has been for 24 hours now, so we're officially clear to rejoin the general population! I am so insanely relieved that there aren't words to describe it. Baby is mostly feeling better at this point, although he still is a bit crabby. I'm chalking that up to cabin fever at the moment. We'll put that to the test tomorrow when we venture out into the wide wide world again for the first time in almost a week.

Today was another rough day in terms of sleep for Baby - another nap that was barely an hour long. I sure hope this isn't the start of a new pattern. I don't think I could handle that. An hour is not enough to get anything done. Seriously. I'm hoping it's just that he needs to get out and burn off some energy, and then he'll sleep better tomorrow. We'll see.

Anyway, this concludes the swine flu portion of my blog (I hope!), and I sure hope that none of you, my dear readers, happen to fall victim to the swine flu. Husband and I were fortunate enough to stay healthy throughout Baby's bout with it, so we're very thankful for that. Back to normal tomorrow! Yay! Or yippee, as Baby would say (it's his favorite happy word). Back to some good books and good food!

Swine Flu Quarantine Day Four

Baby has watched more television in the last four days than he has in his entire life. I've been pretty strict about TV, because he gets so sucked into TV show - always has - so we try to avoid it as much as possible. But, these last few days, he's just so...drained. He isn't napping well, at all - Husband thinks, and he might be right, that his fever seems to spike during naptime, and that wakes him up. His longest swine flu nap thus far I think was about an hour. Normally, he naps for two to three hours, so he's positively exhausted in the afternoon. Tonight he was falling asleep before he even hit the crib mattress.

Today, we watched "Cars" and "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh." He was totally bored by "Cars," but captivated by "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh," because he knows the characters very well. In fact, he sleeps every night with a stuffed Pooh from the Disney Store.

Husband came up with a brilliant idea to help Baby feel a little better - Skype. My best friend's daughter is Baby's best friend, and the two of them are very much missing each other. Husband thought they would get a huge kick of seeing each other through Skype. Unfortunately, my best friend does not currently have a webcam, but I do have to give Husband brownie points for effort on this idea.

Baby's still running a fever, so it looks like we've got at least one more day of quarantine. Yay. Can you feel my excitement? I don't know that any of us can take much more of this. I sure hope this is over soon!

Swine Flu Quarantine Day Three

Seriously, is the quarantine over yet? Not only are we are suffering from a serious case of the stir crazies, but if we don't get to leave the house soon, I might just eat it. Yes, I eat when I'm bored. I also bake when I'm bored. Thus far, I've made cinnamon muffins (yum - think a cinnamon roll in a muffin, minus the frosting) and a big Mardi Glade cake.

Yesterday, we skipped a dose of Motrin, because Baby was having a holy mother of God fit when we tried to give it to him before naptime, and sure enough, when he woke up, his fever had spiked back up to 102. So clearly, he's still sick. He was feeling pretty puny after that, so we parked it on the couch and tried to watch a movie with him. He really loved saying "movie," but he didn't love the movie he picked ("The Muppet Movie"). Ultimately, we turned on "Elmo in Grouchland," which he liked very much.

He's been awfully crabby. I think more because of the stir craziness than because he's feeling yucky, because I think once he's had the ear drops in his ears (once we survive that ordeal, that is), and he has some Motrin in his system, he feels mostly okay. I mean, he feels okay enough to color (or "cuggle" as he calls it) for long periods of time. He even demands that Husband and I try to draw some of his favorite characters on his coloring paper. Try, being the operative word there. Really. That child has far more artistic skill than his father and I put together.

Can't you see Muno and Brobee there? Oh yes, Baby scribbled all over them...

At least Husband is still home with us - and rightly so, from what I've read. Baby will be shedding the flu virus (according to the CDC) until 24 hours after his fever finally ends, so we're all potentially contagious until then. I mean, if Husband were off at work, and out of the house, I think I might just tear my hair out. Baby has these moments where he more resembles some kind of screaming banshee than my normally sweet little boy, so it's been tough these last few days. Really tough. Admittedly, I don't know how I would've done this if Husband were out of town. I know I'd just do it, and get through it, but man, it would be way harder.

Is it awful that I'm a little frustrated that the swine flu is keeping me from the Y? Probably, right? Well, I do own an elliptical in our guest room. I ought to roll it out and use it today, and not just use the swine flu as an excuse to slack off on working out, especially since I've been so good about it lately. And so bad about eating these last few days. Stay tuned to see if I manage to dust off the elliptical!!

Swine Flu Quarantine Day Two

There's a reason why they call it being stir crazy. I think we're all getting on each other's nerves at this point. The munchkin has been pretty irritable today thus far, he's had several fits over various and sundry things, like wanting to go for a walk around the neighborhood, then refusing to go with Daddy alone (because obviously Mommy doesn't need a break), then getting furious when we came home from our twenty minute walk around the neighborhood. Teeth brushing was also quite an ordeal this morning. He seems to be just having a really hard time expressing or deciding what he wants, and it's just as frustrating for us as it is him.

Then there was the fact that he was awake well before I was this morning - I got up around 5:45, flipped on the monitor, and sure enough, there he was, rolling around. Who knows what time he actually woke up, he fell right to sleep when we put him to bed at 7 last night (whereas he usually takes at least 45 minutes to settle down for sleep). I'm about to put him down for a nap, and hopefully it will be longer than yesterday's pathetic hour and a half. He certainly needs the sleep.

He still positively hates taking all the medicine he's on, but he hates the numbing ear drops for his ear infection the most. They require him to lay on his side, with the affected ear facing upward, both while the drops are put into the ear and then for a period afterward, none of which he's interested in. We've started to turn the TV on while we do this, which helps, but it certainly doesn't make the process easy.

I only wish there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Some kind of indication that he's getting better. That he's not just medicated to a point where he can function. And some kind of indication as to when it will be safe again for any of us to leave the house. I truly, truly despise all this uncertainty. Totally not something I enjoy, as I'm sure you guys well know. On the bright side, I will be posting a recipe tomorrow, so we will be starting to get back to normal in that respect. Wish me luck, bloggy friends!

Swine Flu Quarantine Day One

After a stressful morning during which Baby went from normal to practically catatonic within the span of five hours, we discovered yesterday afternoon that Baby has the swine flu. And an ear infection. When it rains, it pours, you know. So we are officially on Swine Flu Quarantine island, cooped up in the house with a sometimes-okay, sometimes-inconsolable toddler who doesn't understand why he doesn't feel good. Definitely not my idea of a good time. Then again, I'm pretty sure that Baby and Husband just as displeased with being housebound.

I must say, it was awfully scary to see how quickly things went downhill for Baby, but at the same time, I'm so relieved at how lucky we are that it's not worse. Baby is home with us, not in a hospital, he's responding well to the ear drops and antibiotics for his ear infection, and Motrin is keeping his fever at bay thus far.

The first several hours after diagnosis, but before medicine, were awfully difficult. Baby was just inconsolable, just wanted me and to be on top of me, mainly. We turned on the TV after the visit to the pediatrician, which is a luxury for him because we don't let him watch it much, but it seemed to be the only thing that would distract him from how he felt. He had zero interest in talking or playing, and was so tired that at one point he fell asleep on me. He hasn't done that since he was a tiny infant. And as much as I enjoyed being that close to him again, it was ridiculously uncomfortable, now that he's 20 pounds bigger than he was back then.

Once we got him started on the various medications and he was able to keep them down, things brightened considerably. This morning, he has been much, much better, albeit tired and definitely still cranky. But he actually wanted to play. He wanted to walk around, he wanted to play with his toys, so that was a big relief. I'm certainly hoping the worst is over, and that Husband and I can manage to stay healthy, so cross your fingers for us. I'll keep you guys posted throughout our quarantine, and then hopefully things can get back to normal!

My favorite age (and not at the same time)

I realized this week that Baby is quite possibly at my favorite age at the moment. Sure, he has his tantrum-filled moments, but I think I take most of them in stride so far, but he also seems to have a sense of humor. This child loves to laugh. He will come up to me and say, "Mama. Tickle. Tickle." He wants to be tickled, because he wants to laugh! So far, he hasn't quite learned the art of tickling other people.

We also have this cute little game - one of Baby's favorite things is the concept of up and down. I don't know that he entirely understands it yet, but this was one of the ways we started teaching him. One of us would lay down, and we would say "Mama down" or "Dada down." Now, Baby thinks it's a game. He'll push one of our shoulders, and says "Mama. Down" and expect for us to lay down. At that point, he'll totally body slam whoever's laid down. In my case the other day, I

think he may have actually bruised my ribs with his elbows.

My little man

By far, though, my favorite thing is the conversations that we have. The fact that he can have conversations is just so amazing to me in the first place. He was a late babbler as a younger baby, and I was constantly concerned about it. I'd bring it up at every pediatrician visit, and my pediatrician would always tell me to relax, that all babies do things at their own pace. It didn't help that I was friends at the time with another mom whose baby was almost six months younger than mine who was babbling far better. It just worried me. Then one day, he just started to babble. And then, he started to speak. "Dada" was his first and only word for a long time. I think "doggy" was his second word. Now, it seems he picks up more words every day, and he's positively mastering the art of mimicking how we speak. He just amazes me.

A month or so ago, we were doing some grocery shopping, and Husband said "Hi Publix" when we walked in, and Baby said it right back to him (Publix is my grocery store of choice). I was so proud, I had to walk up to one of the customer service managers, who I regularly chat with, and tell her all about it.

His quest for independence sometimes gives me a headache - especially last week when he fell down in the driveway and scraped up his arm because he was trying out outrun me, rather than climbing into his car seat. I understand intellectually that he's just learning, but sometimes it can be a little bit of a blow to the ego when he doesn't want anything to do with me. Then he'll turn around later that day and give me a bear hug for no reason (where he grabs me and grrrs like a bear - so sweet!).

Motherhood has been an insane adventure these last nineteen months, one I couldn't possibly have prepared for. Despite all the parenting books I have read (and continue to read), there's nothing like the on-the-job training (or lack thereof). I'm still learning every day.

So tell me, my reader mommies - what was your favorite age? Is the best yet to come?

But Mommy's Isn't Ready for Just One Nap...

Baby is almost eighteen months old now, and it's becoming painfully clear to me that he's ready to go down to just one nap a day. From what I've read, he's at the bottom end of the spectrum, and some kids as young as twelve months old make that transition. I think the reason Baby hasn't is because he wakes up so ridiculously early (for instance, he was up and babbling at 6 this morning), but that's because he gets so much sleep during the day.

The thing is, I kind of need that me-time for my sanity. Even if I'm cleaning during all of my baby-free time, it's still baby-free time. And going down to one nap is definitely going to lessen the amount of baby-free time I get. This is kind of not cool with me, I'm embarrassed to say. I'm so selfish!

Over the last week, I've been experimenting with the napping - laying him down some days for a morning nap to see what I happens. Does he fall asleep? Does he just have some peaceful quiet time? It's been a mixed bag. Some days, he has fallen asleep. Some days, he just cuddles with his blanket and rolls around.

So peaceful when he's sleeping...though he's only pretending in this picture

I don't remember having such a hard time giving up the third nap, way back when. Maybe I was still so sleep-deprived then that I didn't quite realize what I was giving up. Don't get me wrong, I will do what's best for Baby...just begrudgingly. And it will take some serious getting used to. I'm usually counting down the minutes to his morning nap, because I'm tired in the morning and because I'm not as much fun in the morning, so Baby is more prone to getting frustrated with me. Just because I don't wake up all perky and happy like the DJ on Yo Gabba Gabba. (BTW, that show is really kind of creepy, but Baby loves it, on the rare occasion that I turn on the TV. He sees Brobee and just starts flailing his arms around. Hilarious.)

So I think perhaps today will be our last 2 nap day for a long time, and only because our furniture salesperson screwed up setting up our delivery window for today for our new bedroom furniture (yay!). Au revoir to you, Morning Nap. You have been so wonderful for so long, you will certainly be missed.

Personal Training: Day Five...and then some

Boy was I relieved today that my arms got a day off - we worked our legs today.

Even though this was my fifth personal training session, it still felt pretty hard. We did some work on the evil box again, and added a new evil apparatus to our repertoire: the table. Think about the box, add about a foot of height to it, and that's what the table looks like. Yikes. We've seen very fit young men use the table in their exercise routines, mainly to jump right up onto it, like it's nothing, but what we did was very different. We treated it just like the box, and did step ups onto it, though vastly slower than we do on the box. It took a lot out of me.

Rumor is, we're doing arms again on Thursday. I'm totally not looking forward to it because of how sore I was for four days thereafter. Not to mention how wimpy I felt. I'm so surprised that my arms are so pathetic, given that I lug Baby around every day, and I found out yesterday at the pediatrician that he weighs a whopping 27 pounds now. And how did I find that out?

Well, it's Baby's second ear infection in about a month. He's been completely disinterested in food, save for yogurt (occasionally) and Cheerios the last few days, and he did the same thing before the last ear infection. So, I called the pediatrician yesterday, and discovered that indeed, he has another ear infection. I'm trying hard not to freak out about the fact that he's now had two of them in quick succession of each other, but I'm not doing a very good job so far...obviously, since I'm writing about it. I truly hope it's just a fluke and not a sign of things to come. Regardless, I'm glad we caught it before it got as bad as the one did, and that he's on the road to recovery before he gets too grumpy.


In brighter news, I made my first visit to our local IKEA store this weekend with a good friend of mine, and all I can say is wow. It was kind of overwhelming, between the herd of people that you got swept into as soon as you got into the store and the ridiculous size of the place. It was, as my friend said, kind of like going to Disney World. There was just so much to take in. And lots of it was freaking gorgeous. Lots of it was a bit too modern for my taste, but I still absolutely enjoyed the trip. And one more BTW, don't order things from IKEA's website. Shipping is killer. There was a comforter I really liked that they didn't have in the size I wanted, so I attempted to order it online...until I saw that shipping would cost me $20. Seriously??? Is it coming direct from Sweden??? Needless to say, I didn't complete the order. But, at the same time, I don't think you can go to IKEA to pick up just one thing, so I also haven't headed back to IKEA yet, especially since they surely don't have it back in stock yet.

My Husband Rocks Friday: The Father's Day Edition

It's Father's Day this Sunday, and being a father is one of the biggest roles Husband has, outside of being my husband, so I thought today for MHR Friday, I would ask Baby why he thinks his daddy rocks. Here's are the top 10 reasons Baby's Daddy rocks, in no particular order:

1. My daddy rocks because he carries me around on his shoulders and pretends he can't see me, and asks "Where's Baby?" until I lean down and make my presence known. Silly Daddy.
2. My daddy rocks because he's the one who started to let me use silverware - Mommy was too nervous.
3. My daddy rocks because he chases me all the time.
4. My daddy rocks because he gives the best baths ever.
5. My daddy rocks because he works so hard to take care of Mommy and me.
6. My daddy rocks because he's always laid back, even when Mommy's all high strung.
7. My daddy rocks because he gives the best bear hugs.
8. My daddy rocks because he sometimes lets me bang on his computer. Mostly when he's not looking.
9. My daddy rocks because lets me chew on his kntited coaster.
10. My daddy rocks because he's my daddy. He's awesome!

So there you have it, another edition of My Husband Rocks Friday. BTW, did Friday sneak up on anyone else other than me??? If you want to participate in My Husband Rocks Friday, make sure to visit The Great Adventure.

Sometimes being a mom is scary

This morning it sure has been at least. Baby woke up ridiculously early (again) this morning, and started crying pretty much from the moment I laid him down on the changing table to get him out of his PJ's, and didn't stop until he finally fell asleep for a short nap (before we head to the pediatrician's in a little bit). But that's not all.

He's been on a bit of a food strike the last few days. Suddenly, favorite foods like jelly sandwiches are tossed aside and rejected, and even pasta was rejected yesterday. As a result, he's not eaten much, so I thought for sure that he was just hungry. We sat down to a breakfast of oatmeal (because waffles and pancakes are very passe to Baby at the moment), which he tolerated about half a bowl of. That was pretty good. As soon as we sat down in the living room, though, he was a mess again. He was crying so hard that I think he was a bit hysterical. He didn't stop until I offered him his sippy cup with some water in it, but as soon as he decided he was done with the water, he went right back to crying. And it wasn't like "darn it I'm mad" crying, it was pathetic crying where he wanted me to hold him nonstop.

I thought maybe he was still hungry, so I offered him some Cheerios, which he dove into hungrily, and shoved a ton in his mouth. I should have tried to dig them out, but I didn't, he started to chew them, and then started choking. I totally froze. I didn't know what to do. At some point, I started patting his back hard, and screamed for Husband, who hadn't yet left for work, and ultimately Baby vomited all over me, but stopped choking. I handed him to Husband so I could clean up the mess, and just tried to keep it together. I failed in that respect, and totally freaked out about what could've just happened. Baby continued crying, and after I cleaned up the mess, I called the pediatrician and set up a sick baby appointment for later this morning. I laid him down for a nap, and it took him a little while to settle down, but he's quietly asleep now.

Crap, I spoke too soon. He's up from his nap and crying again already. I almost hope he's sick, just so the pediatrician can tell me something other than "it's just a phase." If this is going to be just a phase, I'm sorry, but I might need to do some bawling too. Wish me luck.

Tantrums, tears and screaming...oh my!

It's clear that we've entered the toddler years here in the Type A Mommy household. Baby is going on sixteen months old, so apparently the "terrible twos" are starting a little early over here (or things are going to get infinitely worse, which is just a frightening thought). Baby is pushing the envelope daily, whether it's pushing buttons on the TV (which Husband decided was a no-no) and smiling at me as I tell him "no," or having a complete and total meltdown because I won't let him go run around in the kitchen while the oven's on (another no-no around here, because the oven door will only lock when the oven isn't on). A lot of Baby's frustration, I think, is in his lack of ability to communicate what it is that he wants - when he wants something and we get it wrong because we can't figure out what he wants, he gets awfully mad. Yesterday, we visited our local mall's play area, which is normally an area that he loves to run around in. It has some safe things to climb on, which he normally loves as well. Yesterday, though, he was quite difficult. When we got to the play area, he was awfully mad that I picked him up to take his shoes off. Shortly thereafter, he had a total meltdown when the older kids who were there blocked the little log tunnel to where Baby couldn't crawl through it all the way. Poor little guy. He just wanted them to move.

Then yesterday, when we visited a friend of mine for some swim time, Baby got positively furious with me for lying him down to put him in a swim diaper. He got so very worked up, and did again when I laid him down to take the swim diaper off.

Hopefully, his language skills will soon catch up with his physical skills, but until then, I think I'm totally in store for more screaming and more tantrums. I'm trying valiantly to teach him more sign language, which he's picking up quite readily, to help him communicate more easily. If any of you moms have any tips on how to handle these super fun tantrums, please do let me know. Some days are easier than others, but there are definitely days where I just feel helpless, and I don't know what to do to help him chill out. Yikes. And I'm sure it's only going to get harder.

Our first trip to the Aquarium

We had our first trip over to the local Aquarium today. I had high hopes, given Baby's penchant for animals - but apparently sea animals are different. Perhaps if the Aquarium hadn't been so darn busy with some school field trips. It was awfully loud, and it was hard to get to many of the tanks because they were swarmed with kiddos.

On the bright side, we wound up outside at the Explore-a-Shore outdoor area - complete with splash park, huge shaded sand box, and outdoor restaurant. We wound up at the sand box, where Baby had an awesome time. He even started to grasp the concept of putting a shovel into the sand, pulling it out and having sand on the shovel. Smart boy. He even managed to connect the sand in the shovel to a bucket a few times. He loved watching the other kids, who were mostly bigger than he was, especially when they were running around. The best part about the sand box was that it was fully shaded, so it was totally comfortable, even though it was bordering on 90 outside. They had fans with misters throughout the outdoor play area, which was nice for us moms...except for those of us who didn't notice the fans with misters and parked our strollers directly under them (yes, me!). Whoops. Oh well, Baby didn't seem to mind.

Maybe if it had been quieter and less busy, Baby would have had more of an opportunity to check out the animals, but all the same, he loved watching the bigger kids. He's such an observer. He's a total people-watcher, everywhere we go. I think he still had a great time - no, I'm sure he did. I'm such a dork, I still marvel at the things that he enjoys and the new experiences he has. It just makes me see things in new ways, too, which I think is kind of cool.

Teething troubles

Yikes, it looks like Baby's got another molar coming in, if not two. He's got the bottom two molars in already, and he didn't seem too bothered by them. The new one(s) that's coming in though had his nose running and his eyes watering, and his fingers constantly jammed in his mouth yesterday. Not only that, but he was downright pissy yesterday.

Every little thing that went wrong, whether it was a toy that took more than a millisecond to do what Baby wanted it to do or if he would get into things he's not supposed to (i.e. touching the TV), he would have an all-out "I'm dying" crying fit. It was awful. I felt horrible, because I was really letting all the crying get to me. I felt kind of helpless. Like no matter what I did, he was going to cry his head off. I don't think I've felt that frutsrated and helpless since Baby was a newborn, and would cry constantly for no known reason.

It didn't help matters much that he barely napped at all yesterday, I'm presuming because he was so worked up and uncomfortable. He had a rough time falling asleep last night, but I didn't hear him cry throughout the night at all, so I think he did okay. I hope so. Regardless, I think I'm taking him to the pediatrician this morning. He was just so totally not himself yesterday. It worried me a bit.

We went to his Fun for Ones class at the YMCA, to get out of the house and because I thought maybe that would cheer him up (boy was I incredibly wrong). He just stood around the gym watching the other kids play. He didn't even want to play with the bubbles at the end of class. I'm almost certain all that's going on is his teeth, but I think I would like the assurance the pediatrician can give me that he's perfectly fine and will recover from this teething incident shortly. Who knows, maybe I'll get Baby out of his crib this morning, and he'll be back to normal. I'm so canceling the pediatrician appointment, if that's the case. I'm pretty sure that I'm not that lucky. Stay tuned!

Happy Mother's Day

I got the sweetest card in the mail this week for Mother's Day from my mother - and on the inside, she wrote that she was proud of me. It made me melt a little inside, and I almost felt that I might cry.

My mother and I haven't always had the easiest relationship. In fact, during my teenage and college years, it was really downright bad. Not because she was a bad mother or because I was a bad daughter, I'd just been such a good kid for so long, I needed to be bad and rebellious for a bit to get it out of my system. Since it had been stifled for so long, my rebellion was kind of severe. I snuck out of the house. I drank. I partied. I dated a guy 9 years older than me behind my parents' back for almost two years before I finally confessed about the relationship.

I smoked behind my parents' backs, until they caught me smoking at my college graduation. You can see it in their faces in the pictures from that day, how disappointed they were, my mother especially. It was kind of hypocritical, given that both my parents were smokers, but in a way, I understood that they wanted more for me. They always had such high expectations for me.

When my father died five years ago, I had to learn to get along with my mother. She was all I had left. My father was always the go-between, the mediator. Now that I'm adult enough to admit this, I was always (and still am) too much like my mother, and often that led to friction between us, and Dad always tried to buffer us from each other. Without him around, we butted heads a lot, but ultimately we forged a new relationship, an adult relationship. When I got married, I didn't feel as annoyed by my mother as I remember feeling as a teenager. I appreciated (most of the time) her input, her advice. Now, as a mother, I actively seek her input and her advice, even if I sometimes do the exact opposite. And her approval of me as a mother means the world to me. While I didn't always appreciate her at the time, I know she was a very good mother to me, and she taught me so very much. I was lucky to have her as my mom, and now that I'm mature enough to realize it, I try to tell her that as often as I can.

So, make sure your moms know how much you appreciate them this Mother's Day. This is the one day a year to make sure to thank her for whatever she's done to make you who you are today (though we should all do that probably much more often than we do). Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Virtual Girls Night Out: The Mother's Day Edition

Thank goodness it's Friday - I'm so ready for the weekend. It's been an interesting week, but given that Mother's Day is this weekend I'm not exactly feeling like the best mother in the world. Baby is toddling around today with a huge shiner - he fell, face-first, into the caboose of his ride-on train yesterday, and injured himself quite badly. He's okay today, outside of the shiner, thank goodness, but when I went out to Walgreens just now for a few odds and ends, I felt like everyone was staring at me (and Baby's face) and thinking what an awful mother I must be. Lovely. Oh well.

So, since it's Friday, that means it's time for another Virtual Girls' Night Out with Ann. She's picked an awesome song - Des'ree's "You Gotta Be" from the 90's. Do you remember that song? Go visit her to see the music video to jog your memory.

This week, in honor of Ann's new quest for personal fitness (and fear of the gym), she asks:
Have you ever had one of those visions of walking into a room and everyone is staring at you and you realize you tucked your skirt into your underwear? OK now, have you ever actually DONE something like that? Or anything along those lines?

I've definitely had visions of full-on personal embarrassment. Most were work-related, and involved either meetings with higher-ups that scared the crap out of me, or the first few times that I taught software classes at work and had to stand up in front of a group of people and seem confident and informed. The best part was when I pitched that the company needed to buy a new, $20K plus custom-built board room table, and I had to convince the COO and CEO of that fact. Yikes. As for actual personal embarrassment scenarios, I honestly can't think of any. Which probably means there's a really good story in my head somewhere, it's just buried under my millions of pieces of trivial knowledge, like song lyrics to cheesy 80's one-hit-wonders.

What about you? Any good stories of total embarrassment? You know you have one...share please! :) Oh - and make sure to join in on the blog-hopping VGNO fun over at Ann's!

P.S. - Don't forget about my comments contest - the wonderful visitor who comments the most on my blog this month will be featured in an interview with yours truly here on Type A Mommy at the beginning of June.

Must be PMS...

I think I'm a little down today. I've noticed that I've been more negative than usual, and that it's only 9:53 and I've already come close to tears because there are women parading around my neighborhood "preaching" (I tried to tell them this is a no solicitation neighborhood, and they told me they weren't selling anything, which is true, but they apparently need to look up the definition of solicitation because it's not limited to selling). I appreciate that people have and enjoy faith. I totally do. In some ways, I'm envious of that. At the same time, when I'm already not having a good morning, I'm really not in the mood to listen to you ask me about my faith. Really.

I don't really have an excuse for this crabby mood I'm in, except that perhaps I'm PMS'ing. Baby has been crabby today, too, because he woke up some time before 5:45, and I think was just really tired this morning. Not too sure why he was up so darn early, but hopefully it was a fluke. I like to get up early, so I can have some time alone before everyone else wakes up...but I only like to get up early to be alone. Not to play with Baby.

I decided that I wanted to treat myself to something fun today, in part because I'm in a crabby mood, and in part because I've felt like the last several weeks have included very few fun things for Mom, and with this weekend being Mother's Day, I wanted to do something nice for Mother's Day with Baby. Only problem is I can't actually think of anything. Sure, I could go to the mall, but how would that be fun? I go there every other week to visit the play area with Baby. Plus, it's not like money grows on trees to shop with (oh boy I wish it did). Then there's lunch, I could go out to lunch with Baby, that might be nice. But where would we go? Where would he behave? Where would we not get stared at when he has a fit? Some place probably that isn't too high on my "let's go there for lunch" list. So, the mall's out. Lunch is out. What else is there? Sure, I could go to a bookstore. But I have so many books I haven't read.

Are you sensing a pattern here? Every time I think of something, I talk myself out of it. Is this one of those things that inherently changed in me when Baby came out? There are so many, is this just another? That I just can't possibly let myself have some fun? I mean, sure I had fun with Baby at the spray park on Tuesday. And yesterday in his first movement class at the YMCA. But grown-up fun? Seems hard to come by because I won't let myself have it. Sounds like something I need to work on.

Off to go get a morning snack ready for Baby and to gather my coupons for grocery shopping. There's some real fun for you (dripping with sarcasm here!).

Swim diapers suck

Today was our first trip to the local spray park for "spray-ground" - well, not entirely local, it's in the next city over, but it wasn't too bad of a drive. Baby had an awesome time there, but dear old me here got quite a bit flustered before we even managed to make it to the car. Only I can master such an amazing feat.

When Baby woke up from his morning nap, I dressed him in his swim attire, so that we could hit the road right after we were done with his quick snack. He had on his swim diaper, swim trunks, and his rashguard shirt, and I parked him in his high chair for his snack of a little yogurt smoothie and some yogurt nibbles. He did great with his snack and seemed perfectly content when he signed "all done" to me repeatedly. So, I cleaned up and then unbuckled him. When I scooped him out of his high chair, I realized that the back of him was sopping wet. He was soaked.

Best I can tell, he must have peed, and the swim diaper didn't actually absorb any of it, so it must have gushed right up his back. The back of his swim trunks were soaked through, and at least half of the back of his rashguard was dripping. Lovely. So, I had to rush him back into his room, attempt to track down another pair of swim trunks and a rashguard that fit (I didn't do so hot there) and change him. Then I rush him out to the car, to get ready to leave, only to remember that I forgot his swim shoes.

So we rush back inside and get his swim shoes, and then high tail it back to the car. Baby was positively mismatched with his lime green rashguard and kelly green swim trunks, but he did have a great time at the spray park. At first, he was a little bewildered by the water, water everywhere, but ultimately, he had a great time picking up all of the buckets and and filling them up.

Phew. Now I need a nap, too. The heat out there was killer.

Baby is so not ready for one nap a day

Baby has been on a nap schedule since he was about four months old. Some people might think that I'm too strict with it, but Baby seems to really thrive on his schedule. I've tweaked and adapted the schedule slightly over this last year, but we're slowly approaching one of the nap-related moments I am dreading: dropping down to one nap a day. (The other one I'm dreading is the day when there is no nap at all. Yikes!)

For the last month or so, Baby has often skipped his morning nap and spent the time playing instead. Husband has commented that perhaps Baby is ready for just one nap. I've resisted, partly for selfish reasons (I need the down time as much as he does) but also for him. He seems pretty happy the way things are, but I gave in and decided to give the one nap schedule a try yesterday. It was a total disaster. I'm still recovering, but fortunately, Baby is no worse for the wear.

Normal morning nap time is 9, and around that time yesterday, Baby seemed fine. Better than fine, even. We made a quick trip to Target, and he really enjoyed that. He even enjoyed the car ride and didn't suck his thumb at all. We got home, and things were okay for a while, but by 10 or so, things started to melt down. I think he was confused as to why he was still awake, and every little thing that didn't go his way led to a meltdown. He would try to figure out which hole in his shape sorter the triangle block would fit into, and when he couldn't figure it out, he'd get red faced and sob. Then, Cat would run away from Baby to avoid Baby's infamous hugs (he throws himself on top of Cat and squeezes him really hard), and that would make Baby really mad, and he'd throw himself on the floor and cry. I finally put him down for a nap after he had lunch around noon, and I think he fell asleep before I even left his room, he was so tired.

Shockingly, though, the one nap was only two hours. I really thought he'd nap longer, especially given how tired he was. On a good two-nap day, his naps wind up being about 3 or 3 and a 1/2 hours. Needless to say, the afternoon wasn't much better than the morning. He was okay for the first hour or so, but after that, things went downhill.

Today, on the other hand, we went right back to the old schedule, and he seemed very relieved at that. We had a great time at the park today, and ran some almost-due books over to the library. He seemed like a much happier kiddo overall today.

I think he's just not ready for the whole one nap business. So what if he decides to babble during his morning nap from time to time? It's still restful, and I still think he needs it. Moral of the story? Mom knows best.