I Always Have To Steal My Kisses from You

It’s not that easy to get Liam to give kisses. If you’re lucky, he might lean his cheek in the general area of your lips when you ask for a kiss, but you probably won’t get much more than that.

Today we bought some hydrocortisone cream for Liam’s eczema, and as soon as I had finished rubbing it on his red little toes, he kissed the tube of ointment. Twice.

Apparently he saves his kisses for the things he really loves.

Jealousy

I didn’t think it was that hard to say “Mama.” Aren’t there tiny babies that can say Mama? I think it’s one of the easiest words in the English language. So how come Liam can call my sister “Schmath,” but he can’t call me “Mama?”

Guilty Pleasures

Hot chocolate is one of the exceptions to my No Dessert on Weekdays resolution. Other exceptions include birthdays and holidays and that fall on weekdays, including Presidents’ Day. (Well what would you do if you had chocolate fondue leftover from the weekend and it just happened to be Presidents’ Day? Some rules are made to be bent.)

Ben got me one of these hot chocolate machines for Christmas, and I love it so much I want to marry it.



My brother-in-law recently introduced me to the concept of adding flavored creamer to hot chocolate, so I bought some French Vanilla creamer and tried it out in my machine this morning. It was so good that even after drinking hot chocolate on weekdays for my entire resolute life, I actually feel guilty right now.

Realizations

I wonder if it’s more fun to watch the Academy Awards when you’ve seen one or two of the movies being nominated.

Also, Michael Scott is married to Carol Stills in real life? Who knew?

The Scariest Moment of My Life

You know what’s freaky? When you're snowmobiling with your husband and your 1-year-old, and your husband stops the snowmobile to say, “Hey why don’t you stand Liam up so he can look over my shoulder instead of leaning off to the side?” and then you go to stand your baby up and his legs don’t work. So you turn him around to see what’s wrong with him and his eyes are closed. So for one second you think your son is dead, but then his eyes slowly open and he looks at you like, “Do you mind? I’m trying to sleep here.”

Seriously. The kid won’t sleep in the car or the rocking chair or any bed other than his own, but he’ll sleep on a bumpy, noisy snowmobile ride in 20-degree weather with snow falling on his face?

St. Valentine

About a week ago, Ben and I were lying in bed having our annual week before Valentine’s Day conversation. This year it went something like this:

Kim: We can’t really do anything on Valentine’s Day because I have mutual.
Ben: Good, then we won’t have to get a babysitter.
Kim: So what do you want for Valentine’s Day?
Ben: Maybe a new flash drive. What do you want?
Kim: I kind of want a brown hoodie, but I want to pick it out myself.
Ben: Cool, so I’m off the hook?

We’re really romantic like that.

The neat thing about picking out your own Valentine’s Day present is that if you accidentally come home with a pair of pants, two shirts, two sweaters, and a brown hoodie, it’s not your fault. And if you also end up buying a pair of shoes for your 1-year-old, that’s not your fault either. Honestly, who could resist these?

Great News

Now when you buy Gerber baby oatmeal, you get a recipe for Garden Vegetable Meatloaf right on the back of your box. Just add two jars of baby food and a cup of baby oatmeal to your ground chuck, and you can’t go wrong. From the words of Gerber, it’s “something the whole family will love!”


Sounds delicious, doesn’t it?

Spaghetti Spork

Last night as we sat down for dinner Liam pointed at something on the table and said, “This.” That’s usually his cue to give him whatever he’s pointing at, and usually we do exactly that because, why not? It's not like he asks for paint or guns or even lipstick all that often. And when he does ask for lipstick, he rarely takes the lid off before rubbing it on his lips.

At first I thought he was pointing at the spaghetti noodles, so I set a noodle on his high chair tray. He shook his head no, pointed more adamantly, and said “this” again. I went around the table handing him a roll, a piece of broccoli, a spoonful of sauce, and a cup of water. By this time he was getting really whiny and no longer using his dinner table voice to say “THIS.”

Finally I picked him up and carried him to the table so he could show me exactly what he wanted. He led me straight to the pot of spaghetti, reached for the crazy spaghetti spoon, and got a huge grin on his face. THIS was all he ever wanted.

Whose Idea Was It to Eat a Pig, Anyway?

I really hate the smell of bacon. Why must it spread throughout my entire house and linger for three days?

On Becoming a One-Napper

You know Liam, the kid who sleeps from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. and then takes two naps every day? He’s starting to show signs of ditching the second nap. And while I think it’s totally bizarre that he sleeps so much, I rely on his schedule and it freaks me out to think of switching to the one nap plan.

This could ruin my day for so many reasons. First, if there’s no nap 2, when will I take a shower? I’ve used that 3:00 time slot on more days than I care to admit. And secondly, I just scheduled three fiddle students for the nap 2 time slot. Without that second nap, those kids might never learn what it’s like to play in a bluegrass band.

Obviously, I’m going to have to find a way to keep my baby from growing up. Any ideas?