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Sophie’s Teeth Are Giving Me the Runaround!!

Heeeeelllllp meeeeee!!! At the ripe old age of 11.5 months, Sophie, my toothless wonder, has finally decided it’s high time to pop through some teeth. And it’s making both of us miserable! Joshua (who got his first teeth at 5.5 months) never acted like teething bothered him a bit, so this is a new experience for me (Like everything else with Sophie, who seems to think I did not get enough of the motherhood experience with Joshua.) Girlfriend is really trying to push those little razors through but it’s not happening! Her nose is running constantly, so her face is always covered in snot and drool, as are her bangs. Yesterday when I got her up from her nap her eyebrow was snot-glued into a very funky, unnatural shape. Yikes! She chews on her hands frantically, sticking her whole hand in up to her wrist and then gagging like she’s trying out to be a member of Future Bulimics of America. She doesn’t seem to want to chew on toys, just her hands or her spoons, but she does enjoy chewing on an ice cube in her baby safe feeder. She’s also, of course, more fussy than usual, and she’s taking shorter naps during the day and waking more frequently during the night. Twice this week she’s woken up ready to PARTY when she should have been down for the night. Thursday night she was up from 11:00-11:45 pm, and Saturday morning from 4:30-6:00 a.m. (she did have a low fever at this time, of 99.) On these occasions she was so wide awake that I just took her down stairs and let her play until she was ready to go back to bed. Thank God Bobby was home Saturday so I could catch a nap! It was the first one I’ve had in a long time. Probably a month at least, so it was great. I don’t know how I would’ve coped without it!

So, I’m trying to be reasonably patient, but as Joshua’s teeth appeared magically one day with no accompanying side effects, I have no idea how long I should expect this to last! I’ve checked and checked her little gummies and I still see no signs that she’s making progress! If any of you have some words of encouragement or advice I’d love to hear them!

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I Give Love a Bad Name

Last Friday I was at my laptop (shocker!) in our dining room and both the kids were in the room with me, Joshua coloring at the table and Sophia crawling around being mischievious. Eventually she wandered over to our window seat where I had my cell phone plugged into the charger and started going after it. I got up and walked over to her, said “No touch!” and redirected her attention to something else but she kept going back for it (stubborn little booger!) After about the fifth time, I picked her up, held her face close to my face, and said in a loud voice, “SOPHIE. NO. NO TOUCH!” Then I put her back down and redirected her attention (again). Joshua turned from his coloring, looked at me, and said, “Mama, I love you.”

“I love you too, baby.”

“Why don’t you love Sophie?” (He asks as he slowly pushes a knife straight into my heart.)

“(Horrified gasping noise!!!) Joshua, I love Sophie with all my heart!! Why do you think I don’t love her?” (I pulled the knife out of my heart and then picked up Sophie and hugged her tight to illustrate my point.)

“Because you yelled at her.”

“Baby sometimes I have to raise my voice to try and get you or Sophie to pay attention to me. I am just trying to keep you safe.”

“Oh.”

I wasn’t sure he understood so I took him over to the couch, sat with both kids and proceeded to explain how I would always love him no matter what, and that there was nothing he could ever do to make me not love him. I gave him hugs and kisses and tickles and tried to make us both feel better.

Then I tried to shake off the blanket of Mother’s Guilt that had come to rest heavily on my shoulders, and continued with my day. But that darn blanket is very linty, and I kept having to pick little pieces of guilt lint off of me for quite awhile.

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WFMW: Saving Money on Your Kids’ Clothes!

In last week’s Works for me Wednesday I showcased my thriftiness when it comes to groceries. This week I thought I’d let you in on how I save money on my kiddos’ clothes. To illustrate, I’ve got some super cute pictures of said darling kiddos from our pumpkin-picking excursion the other day:
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Don’t they look adorable and fashionably dressed? You are SO right, they SO do! Would you believe I got both of their jackets at Goodwill? I SO did! Sophie’s is from Baby Gap and looked like it had only been worn a couple of times. Joshua’s is a Circo (Target brand) and was new with tags when I bought it. I paid $2.49 for each jacket! Joshua usually has tons of hand-me-downs from his boy cousins, but this year he did need a few more pairs of pants, so I headed to Goodwill. There I got him several pairs, including the brands Carter’s, Gymboree, and the Children’s Place, and the most I paid was $1.99. If you’re a regular reader, you know Emily and I also frequent a couple of consignment sales in our area (you can read our accounts from this year’s sales here and here), and I also love to garage sale, but thrift stores (I like Goodwill the best because it is the most nicely organized in our area) are often a really good place to look for a specific item you need. In Joshua’s case it was pants, in Sophie’s case, it was long-sleeved full-length rompers I was looking for (I found two). Sure, they’ve been worn before, but in most cases they’ll still have as much wear in them as you need them to! So, if there are a few items of clothing missing from your kids’ wardbrobes, I suggest you hit your local thrift store to see what they have to offer. It works for me!
For more great Works for Me Wednesday tips, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

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