Sox-ed it to 'em!

WE DID IT AGAIN!!! Congratulations to an awesome team and to all my fellow Sox fans! Now I can finally get to bed at a reasonable hour...

It's so easy

It's so easy to second-guess oneself as a parent. In general, I think I do a pretty decent job as a mom, but it doesn't take much to make me question myself. Theo has been cleared to start drinking whole milk now that he is one. The problem is that he hates it. He refuses to drink it. Yesterday I got all cocky thinking I had solved the problem: I'll make him a milk smoothie! I threw some strawberries and milk into the blender and then proudly served it to my son. I got the same turned up nose I've been getting for the last week. He's also stopped eating as well as he used to and he definitely rejects the things I cook him myself. Here I am trying to be supermom, making my kids food, and he hates my cooking already! All it takes is one comment from a mom with a great eater and my self-confidence is crushed. I'm friends with another mom in my building whose son is a few months older than Theo. One afternoon they stopped by and her son was clutching a scallion pancake she had made. Yesterday at the playground she mentioned that her son had eaten a giant bowl of grits. Grits! Theo would spit grits right out of his mouth. It's so frustrating. He won't even eat pasta for goodness sake. I thought all kids ate pasta! I am trying to tell myself this is a phase and that soon he will begin to like more food. Of course, it also puts more pressure on me to be a better cook. The older he gets the less I will be able to fall back on jarred baby food which he will still gobble up.

Well, guess I better go get started on my next attempt: broccoli and cheese sauce.

Birthdays

My little man turned one year old one week ago today. Hard to believe it's been a full year since I went into labor, struggled for 32 hours and then suddenly had this teeny tiny person in my arms that until that moment, was an unknown entity, a little force of energy, balled up inside me. Now he smiles, hugs, kisses, laughs and, on my birthday, this past Tuesday, walks. What a great birthday gift. Somehow he knows. On Father's Day he said "Dada" and on my birthday he takes his first steps. This morning he was in his high chair and I was in the kitchen getting him something for his breakfast, when he pointed at me and said "Mama". It's not the first time he said it but it still takes me by surprise and melts my heart each time I hear it.

My own birthday was eclipsed a little by my son's but that's OK. We gathered over the weekend and had some drinks and went to see Fuerzabruta. On my actual birthday I watched the Red Sox lose to Cleveland. The Red Sox hate my birthday. It's the one curse of an October birthday - baseball postseason. If you care about baseball and your team makes the playoffs, you risk having your birthday blown if they lose their game that day. I'm still holding out hope that they recover but now they have to win 3 in a row.

So, another year of birthdays coming to a close. Only a few more left for the year before the cycle begins again in January.

My little boy

I love my little boy so much. He's such an amazing little man. I know I had a part in making him but now, two days shy of 1 year old, he is definitely his own person. I've been enjoying cuddling him so much because I see how quickly it goes.

Daddy's home!

It doesn't matter that he got home at 2am and was too tired to get up with Theo at 6am as he had promised. He's home and that alone is enough to get me through the day.

Exhausted

Day 5 of 5 as a single parent. Rich will be home tonight but probably long after Theo and I are both in bed. My day started at 4:45. Yes, A.M. Theo slept intermittently until 6am but just as I was about to fall back to sleep he would start crying again - first a wet diaper, then a dirty diaper, then hungry, then ready to get up. The worst part of these early mornings is that it shortens my patience. I'm so tired that it's hard for me to dig deep enough when he is being whiney. And wouldn't you know, he has another cold now so he is very whiney. I have a mountain of housework to do before all the grandparents come for his birthday and I have been trying to get some of it done but he's taking such short naps I'm getting nowhere fast. Or yesterday I allowed myself a nap so I spent 20 minutes cleaning up the kitchen then tried to sleep for 30 minutes. It was fitful at best and then just before my alarm was set to go off, Theo woke up leaving me no time to eat lunch.  Now I'm just feeling paralyzed. I should be either sleeping or cleaning, but I'm too tired to clean and I'm afraid to try to sleep because what if he wakes up? Then I will still have a dirty house and I'll be just as tired. So instead, I sit here writing this dumb blog entry. Lucky you.

First of many

I had my first publicly embarrassing Mommy moment today. Let me preface this with how the day began: Theo woke up at 5:45 already cranky. He was whiney and clingy, then he fell and hit his head, he grabbed poor Lucy with both hands and was pulling her towards him with a firm handful of her fur and skin (other than trying to escape she didn't utter one sign of complaint - amazing) and then his morning nap ended after 45 minutes so he woke up still cranky and clingy.

I decided to head up to the Farmers' Market for some apples and pears but I needed some cash first. I went into the bank to get cash, gave Theo his bottle which he was still working on and realized that I had left my wallet at home. Now, ever since findings were released that plastic bottles release carcinogens, I switched to glass bottles. Until today, they have held up very well being dropped from the stroller or even the highchair. Well, a perfect storm gathered consisting of the bank's floor, a bottle sick of being dropped, Theo's increasing strength and his foul mood. Just as I was realizing I had left my wallet behind, I hear a loud crash and realize my precious, adorable son has thrown his bottle out of the stroller and it has shattered. Then Theo started to cry. I picked up the glass, offered him his water instead and kept hoping for a helpful employee to come over and tell me not to worry about a thing. I heard someone utter something about a mop so after I picked up the glass and saw no one other than a security guard staring at me, I just turned around and left leaving a big splatter of organic formula milk right in the middle of the floor. I turned around, took Theo to the playground and spent the rest of the afternoon trying not to cry.

Oh, did I mention Rich is out of town? So yes, I have been single parenting since Wednesday and am on my own until Sunday. I just have to hope that this afternoon is better with the benefit of his second nap.

Awesome celebrity sighting

I love, love, love Mary Louise Parker. From Fried Green Tomatoes to Weeds she is the real thing. This morning I was walking home from an early breakfast with another mom and her daughter and there she was, at the NE corner of Washington Square Park, with her nanny, her little boy and her new adopted daughter. She has amazing skin, even at 8:30am and two kids. I so desperately wanted to tell her how much I love her work but unless circumstances allow otherwise, I don't talk to celebrities when they are with their families. Funny thing is, tonight Karen and Ralph are coming over for a little catch-up Weeds marathon.