My Alligator Purse

I am a sucker for Christmas. I love the holiday and will begin decorating on December 1st. I will leave our house lights on until we are the last house on the block. So as the holiday approached I starting tivoing all the family Christmas movies and specials I could find. A few of my favorite were the Charlie Brown specials, The Santa Clause, The Santa Clause 2, and Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. The kids really took a liking to Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. My daughter epsecially liked the ice skating short with Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse. Later that month Grandma purchased Lainy Ann 2 new stuffed animals; ice skating Minnie and ice skating Daisy. She slept with them for weeks and carried them everywhere.

So as we started our drive north for Christmas, the car laden with Santa gifts, my daughter announces, “Santa Clause is bringing me pink ice skates.” (more…)

Her first fall.

Her first fall was actually in the house. She has been riding the bike around inside the house. She barely has room but she is making it work. I gave her a big hug and reinforced how good it was that she was wearing a helmet and told her to get right back on.

But a week later at the park she fell again. We were on the other side of the park when my husband ran across to rescue her. She was fine. Just a little scared. Each time she falls I am afraid she is going to throw in the towel. And when she doesn’t I am so proud. But I keep having to remind myself this is part of growing up. She needs to learn to fall and get back up. I hate it. At 3 1/2 I can’t protect her. And its just going to get worse.

The bike is still inside the house. We don’t have a very good biking area and until the weather improves it will stay in our house. So Lainy Ann walks around the house cleaning everything out of her way (she puts stuff away rather than just shoving stuff), straps on her helmet and rides around the house for a little bit. The funny part is that her brother rides on the bike too! He sits on the fender of the rear wheel and holds onto her around the tummy. And they just keep going around and around the house. They have such a great time together. I think I need to get him a helmet too.

I’m not going to presume to know what is right for you or your family. But we have had three children and I think I am getting pretty good at this ‘baby thing’. All of our kids have been different in their needs, demeanor and their parents experience.

So here is my list of must-haves. It is from the experience of living in a suburban life-style with three young children in a small house with little storage. We have purchase more things than are on this list, but those items became broken, were inefficient and/or were quickly discarded. The items below are the tried and true items of our house, the items we are willing to store in our not-so-big house for long periods between babies.
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It didn’t happen overnight as I like to let myself believe. Instead it has been happening every day for the last 5 1/2 months. William has been growing up. He mastered nursing, then thumb sucking, sleeping through the night, cooing, kicking, raspberries, and grasping. But yesterday he sat on his own. I can prop him into the gorilla pose and he will sit for a few minutes, until he gets so excited that he is sitting that he kicks his legs and falls over. I may cry. I was so happy when the other two kids showed signs of growing up. But this just makes me sad. My baby is growing up.

My first two kids were born naturally. My water broke around 37 and 38 weeks and 12 hours later my babies arrived. The twins of course were induced since they were still. That took a long time since my body was not ready to deliver at 18 weeks, but it was uncomplicated.

But when I was pregnant with William I was a wreck. I had come to terms with his ‘death’ several times throughout the pregnancy; when I had cramping several times in the first trimester, when he would stop moving in the 2nd trimester, before every ultrasound where I thought the doctor would find his heart had stopped, and once as I frantically drove with tears streaming down my face to L&D when I was 38 weeks pregnant and he hadn’t been moving regularly.
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Last night we lost power. It was pretty amazing. First the lights dimmed, then they shut off completely. I am always amazed how dark it really is without any lights, no digital clocks glowing, street lamps shining from outside. And so quiet; no hum of the several computers in our home or of our Tivos. So still. It reminds me why people went to sleep earlier before electricity and why they lived their lives with the sun as their clock.
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