Subject: Random Musings of a Sleep Deprived Mommy

Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2000 10:20:47 -0600

Christopher had his one year old checkup this past week. The pediatrician

checked his blood count and determined that he is anemic and told me to give

him iron drops and come back in a couple of months to recheck him. I was

talking to one of my friends on the telephone; she said that she is

sometimes anemic and that it makes her so very tired and lethargic that all

she wants to do is sleep. The next thing she said was "Oh my goodness, how

are you ever going to keep up with Christopher when he isn't tired!!" Yes,

she has seen Christopher in action.

I am not easily embarrassed; therefore, my children seldom embarrass me, but

Christopher managed it a couple of weeks ago. We went for our weekly visit

to the library. On this particular visit, Christopher was yanking books off

of the bookshelf faster than I could put them back on. I finally had to

recruit Samantha to hold him down while I put all the books back and just

let everyone in the library endure the screaming for a minute. When we were

checking out, I was holding Christopher so he couldn't escape and cause more

havoc. Samantha was helping the librarian check out her books. They

sometimes let her stamp the date into her books. Christopher was thrashing

about and screaming trying to get down out of my arms. Then, and this is

the embarrassing part, he reached over and slammed his little hand down on

the librarian's keyboard ... and crashed her computer!! Who would have

thought that Christopher could crash the library's computer? Yikes!

Samantha went for her dental checkup last month. I mentioned to the dentist

that she has been occasionally complaining that her front teeth hurt. The

dentist checked them and said that they were starting to get wiggly and that

the adult teeth were growing in. When I said that I thought that she was

too young to start getting her permanent teeth since she only just turned

five the dentist replied "Sorry Mom, but she's growing up!" Why is it so

hard as a parent to accept the fact that your little children are growing

and maturing right before your eyes?

We had a nice Christmas vacation. We went and spent a couple of weeks in

South Carolina with Stephen's family. Stephen and I had to laugh on

Christmas morning. We were in the middle of opening the giant mound of

presents. Our nieces were just looking at their latest gifts. Allison had

just opened a whole set of Little House on the Praire books, Emily was

playing with her brand new Madeline doll, and Kathryn and her Daddy were

reading through the instructions for her new Amazing Ally computerized

doll. Meanwhile, Samantha was playing with her favorite new toy: a battery

powered screw driver complete with car and submarine to be assembled ...

except that she was trying to see if the Phillips head screw driver

attachment would fit into Amazing Ally's ear! I poked Stephen and said

"Look at our delicate dainty little girl trying to drill the brains out of

her cousin's new doll."

Christopher started walking unassisted over Christmas. I guess there is

just something about being at Grandma and Grandpa's house to make kids

decide it is time to walk! He doesn't talk yet, but he sure does

communicate pretty well. For example, we have a playscape in our back

yard. Now that Samantha has given up her afternoon nap, she usually runs

outside into the back yard as soon as we are done eating lunch.

Christopher, who loves to be outside, but has to wait until Mommy has

finished with the dishes to go out with him, stands at the back door and

SCREAMS and beats his fists on the door until he gets to go out.

Yesterday, Christopher told me that he wanted to play with his sippy cup.

He did so by very carefully pulling each one of my fingers off of the cup

and then gently pushing my hand down so that the cup would rest on his high

chair tray. In my totally objective, completely unbiased view, I thought it

was very clever of him!

We had a combined birthday party for Samantha's 5 year old birthday and

Christopher's 1 year old birthday. This was the first time that we had a

home party. In the past, we have had Samantha's parties at Gymboree,

Chuck-E-Cheese, and Little Gym. This year, I told Samantha that we would

have her party at the house, but I also told her that she could invite

everyone in her preschool class and her play group (WHAT was I thinking?)

Well, I can say quite honestly that our house survived the invasion of 25

five year olds and the party was a big success. My favorite part was the

birthday parade. All the children colored birthday flags when they first

arrived and then we got musical instruments and marched down to the end of

the street and back waving our flags, playing our instruments and singing

Happy Birthday. Stephen got it on video which I haven't watched yet. I'm

not sure I want to since I was leading both the singing and the parade -

maybe we can dub over it! (When I was a little girl, singing in the church

choir, the choir director once told me to just move my mouth.)

We signed Samantha up for soccer and Stephen up for assistant coach.

Practices will start in a couple of weeks and games a few weeks after that.

I can't wait to watch!

Christopher is still not sleeping through the night. Actually, he just

hates to sleep. He will slap himself in the face to keep himself awake. He

recently cut two teeth and was awake most of the night for about three

nights in a row. On the fourth night, he was only up once. My mother was

here visiting for the weekend. In the morning, she asked me how the

previous night went and I said that it wasn't bad because Christopher was

only up once. Samantha chimed in with "Gee Mommy, that must be why you

aren't crabby this morning!"

Take care!

- Tana (a.k.a. Mommy)