Sewing, Sailing, and a Visit from Big Sister

I can't believe it's nearly Christmas. But since moving to Florida I've found that sunny days just melt into new sunny days and then all of a sudden...

Crap! I haven't even started Christmas shopping!

But anyway I finally finished up some baby sewing for Hans' cousin who is due to have a baby boy this January. I found some very nice hand towels at Target that I made into bibs. Have you ever caught the silky hairs at the back of an infant's neck in the string ties of a bib? It's not fun for all those involved believe me! These bibs have a simple ribbed neckline that pull on and off Baby with absolutely no trauma. I've made tons of these over the years and some women have told me they were the only ones they ended up using full time.

You can see how big one actually is here (I have my little onesie, booties, and more folded bibs lying on top of one). This covers an infant's clothing very nicely during a feeding (and the pukey follow up!) and also provides a lot of cover for a toddler in a high chair.

Complete with diaper bag.

We've managed to get out for a couple of sails since we've been here. Now that Hans is working full time that only leaves the weekends and in order to sail, it's all about weather. A few weeks ago we had a fabulous day in the gulf with our new friends Carolyn and Mark. I met Carolyn through this blog and you just have to love the internet! Just a few years ago this never would have happened.

After the holidays we hope to get out a bit more. What's the sense in having a boat if you don't use it?

Here's Carolyn trying to relax which is sometimes difficult when you have a kissing machine of a pit bull along for the ride.

Very soon after our day at sea Hans and I went to New York City for a few days. Poor Hans had to work but I managed to stomp around (more like limp around on my very hurty feet!) the city and got to visit the garment district. And if anyone happened to be watching the Today Show while I was there, yes, that was me waving at you from Rockefeller Plaza. I had a great time and the ladies of the Today show are even prettier in person, they really are!


And right after we got back, Baby Girl decided to pay us a visit. She originally wanted to surprise me but there is so much involved in getting our guest berth ready, Hans had to let the cat out of the bag. She is a college soccer coach now and was able to use her break to visit us (not that she wasn't on the phone or texting constantly about recruits, meetings etc...).

Here she is taking a snooze with her baby brother Wilbur. Poor Wilbur ended up being left behind way too many times while Baby Girl was here because unfortunately pitties aren't permitted to prance about the many places we ended up visiting.

"You always did like her best!" Wilbur pouted.

We ended up taking a trip to The Pier and Baby Girl insisted on feeding the Pelicans. For five bucks you get five fish and let me tell you those five fish created quite a scene as pelicans came out of nowhere for their free meal. That man is holding a net behind her head to ward off any more renegade pelicans because in the heat of the moment a particularly famished (greedy) pelican slammed into Baby Girl's head and nearly knocked her off her perch. It was too stinking funny and I only wish I'd gotten a picture.

Oh the life a busy young lady. While she should be taking a note from Wilbur and relaxing, she's on her phone yet once again and her I-Pad is sitting at the ready for even more work.

I feel bad because I'd promised Baby Girl that if she ever got to Florida I'd make sure to get her to Disney World so she could finally experience the Tea Cup Ride. I won't go into details but when she was a tiny little thing the Tea Cup Ride was just within her grasp and it was rudely taken away from her and she's never forgotten it. It didn't happen on this trip either but hopefully she'll give me more notice next time and as far as I'm concerned she can ride it till she pukes!!

She deserves it and I'll make sure to take along a big bib.

Oh what the heck, one more contest before Christmas!

Today is Vet Tech Girl's twenty third birthday.

Of the three times I was in the hospital having babies, this one was my favorite. Her birth was a thousand times easier than my son's and I was up and walking in just a few hours. My mother brought in a huge tray of her homemade cookies, and doctors and nurses would drop by all day long to pick out their favorite. It was Christmas time, everyone was in a very festive mood, and my roommate was a friend of mine who'd also been in my Lamaze class.

As a matter of fact we ended up with about four of us from Lamaze in the hospital at the same time and we had a ball! This was when you actually stayed in the hospital for more than a few hours after giving birth. Heck, three years earlier I was in for five days when my son was born.

And even though Vet Tech Girl was Ugly Baby Girl, I still loved her to pieces!

Don't worry! She's a beautiful girl now but I wasn't so blind as to not be able to see that she was an ugly baby then!

She had what are referred to as 'stork bites'. One was between her eyebrows which is a common area. One on the back of her neck at the base of her head, and she had a huge one on her tail bone that scared the heck out of me! The one on her tail bone is the only one that didn't go away but it did end up fading a lot.

She had broken blood vessels all over her face and even in her eyes. And speaking of eyes; hers seemed to work independently of each other which was very disconcerting because oddly, they reminded me of pin ball machines!

I will never forget when my roommate's husband came in our room one night. Their baby was a little pink dream with blond hair (She's still pretty, she ended up with black hair, and I can't believe she's now a young mother herself!) We both had our babies and Husband came over to me and said "Oh, let me see the baby." I pulled the blanket away from Ugly Baby's face and he stopped in his tracks, cleared his throat and said, "Well, isn't she nice."

I laughed at his reaction and told him I knew she was ugly and I didn't care.

Our girls ended up in school together and my daughter, who started out with pitch black hair, ended up becoming a very pretty, black eyed blond.

My other daughter has coppery brown eyes and blond hair, and I'm also a brown eyed blond but Vet Tech girl's eyes really are almost black.

But anyway, everything was rosy back then and babies are sweet but... twenty three years ago I certainly never envisioned this; opening my mail today and reading a letter complaining about a past due account and how the bank is very upset with me, and that they want a payment now....blah, blah, blah!

Because that's what I get for co-signing a student loan!

Vet Tech Girl's birthday present from me is getting the bank off her butt!!

And I thought stork bites were bad!

Parenthood is not for the weak at heart. It really isn't. Here is one of my earlier posts on this subject.

So, what the heck, let's celebrate my daughter's birthday with one more contest.



This is a bag of my own design.

Now keep in mind that it's just a fun bag, something to take out to lunch or dinner. It only has one magnetic snap to keep it closed so it's not very secure.













Although you can use it as a wine bag. We have a french restaurant we love to go to and you have to bring your own wine. This would work for something like that.

BTW, the wine is not included!

Anyway I'd like to get this in the mail before Christmas so I'm going to have a deadline of Tuesday, December 15, at 5:00 PM EST here in the US.

What do you have to do?? Go ahead and just leave a comment that you'd like a chance to win.

If you have a birthday story, or a baby story that's different or funny by all means please share it!!

Keep in mind if you're outside the United States it most likely won't arrive before Christmas (if that matters to you).

Happy Birthday, Happy Holidays, and Merry Christmas, one and all!

Oh Baby, Baby

While attending an adult function recently (no whining children running around), a lovely childless lady, just a few years younger than myself, expressed her concern about not having any children.

Put it this way; she's over 40 and her biological clock is in overdrive.

I'm lucky. This is one area that I don't have to agonize over. As a matter of fact I don't have to agonize over it, times 3.

"Oooooh, I just loooove looking at adorable, baby clothes." She cooed. "They're so cute and I just loooove them!"

I tried not to cringe.

"What if I'm missing out on something? If I never have children, how will I know?"

What does one say to someone in this delicate situation?

I can tell you what I'd could say.

Well, first of all, your adorable infant will outgrow those cute baby clothes while it is actually wearing them. (Envision the Incredible Hulk as an infant).

Even if the adorable baby clothes don't split at the seams, they'll be worthless after the one time they're worn anyway, as I don't believe a detergent has been invented that truly removes baby poop and puke.

So much for that fun.

A quick trip to the store? Packing up all the necessary gear involved in any trip with a baby (half an hour), The baby's hungry (45 minutes), taking a nap (hopefully 2 hours), suffering from colic? (too many hours). Maybe tomorrow.

Then you get to worry about the Well Baby visits to the pediatrician (something like 16 visits a month, I swear), which involves an ungodly amount of vaccinations, your child doesn't seem to fit into any standard, government, percentile growth charts, and you're left shaking with fear that your bundle of joy is somehow lacking.

You can be guaranteed that your child will spike a fever of 104, at five past five on the one Friday night that you and your spouse decide to 'leave the baby with grandma' and instead, you spend your entire Friday evening in the emergency room.

They are only terrible two's if you allow them to be. Who's the boss here anyway.

You find out at your child's parent-teacher conference, that he's 'not motivated' and this is in the first grade! Be prepared to hear this for the next eleven years.

You don't want your child to miss out on anything that might keep him/her from leading a successful life so you end up shuttling children to and from: dance classes, hockey practices, ball games, and recitals. If you have more than one child you can be guaranteed, that their events will occur simultaneously and at different ends of the city.

Be prepared to do this shuttling on your own as your spouse has better things to do (golf and/or visiting Mom).

Speaking of money (weren't we?) none the aforementioned activities mentioned above are free. Let's see; dance recital outfits for your budding ballerina cost appoximately $75.oo each and guess what!? She's in 3 separate dance sequences (for about a grand total of 3 minutes, you do the math!).
Your hockey playing son's team can't be bothered to play with the local teams. NO! They have to go out of town every weekend and play with kids who also can't be bothered to play with their own local teams. Let's see; hotel room for two nights, breakfast lunch and dinner for 2 days, hockey fees.... Again, you do the math.

After all of this running around, along with working a full time job, you're supposed to have time for laundry, scrubbing bathrooms, sweeping, monitoring homework (who's done theirs and who's lying about having done theirs), packing lunches, and sex (what's that?).

Adolescence rears its ugly head and communication with your surly child grinds to a halt. Your son slouches about and speaks in monosylables. Your daughter 'talks' in ear splitting decibles and you wished she spoke in monosylables.

Two seconds after having turned sixteen, your child will clutch in sweaty teenage palms, a drivers license. And if you didn't get a full nights sleep when they were infants, you will never get a full nights sleep now.

Your son, who sleeps until noon (why couldn't he have done that as an infant?) now only converses with you in grunts, will mindlessly drive around with his pimply faced friends doing God knows what, and you'll find yourself scanning the local newspapers daily for mention of unsolved teenage vandalism.

Your shrieking daughter will drive around with her shrieking friends, and will arrive home at any given time with scuffed bumpers, dented fenders, and for the grand finale she will total your car. "It wasn't my fault!" (Black ice in July? I don't think so).

Then the magical day occurs.

The baby is off to college. (For sanity's sake I won't go into the college choosing process).

Baby can't wait to live the college experience. Finally, Baby will be acknowledged for the adult that he/she is. Intellectual conversations will abound! Freedom to live on their own (with your money) will be unlimited.

As for you, you breath a huge sigh of relief. You've done your job, your baby is out of the nest, and except for college loans you're pretty much done with this parenting thing.

And then your child, your child with the gifted IQ, your child who couldn't wait to be on her own, will burst into hysterical tears (after just one semester), in the middle of the family Christmas dinner to announce that "College isn't for me!"

And that's when you realize that being a parent is forever. You are serving a life sentence. When you're ninety, you're going to worry about your children and there's no getting around it.



And that's it.

Parenting is not for the weak.

And it's tough enough to go through when you're relatively young but I don't want to spend my IRA on college when I should be enjoying MY retirement.

That's what I could have said.

But I didn't.

I have a wicked sense of humor.