Not Fighting Fair

Eleanor is a hair-puller. And glasses stealer. And face pincher.

How am I supposed to discipline her for that? From what I've read, she doesn't even understand the word "no" and won't for a few months. Mostly it happens when she's nursing, so I'm a little busy. And it's not like we're playing, and I can just stop and do something else.

Am I fooling myself, thinking it will get easier once she understands what the word "no" means? Or will it just be that much more frustrating when I tell her to stop something, I see the comprehension in her eyes, and she does it anyway?

A Northeastern Ohio Blessing

I'm familiar with the Irish blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be ever at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the rain fall softly on your fields.

And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

Right now, we're in the midst of another lovely Cleveland snowstorm. On the news this morning, they mentioned that the Cleveland record for snowfall in January is 43 inches. As of 9 o'clock this morning, we were at 39, and it's not done snowing yet.

While lifting the heavy shovel for about the 200th time, I came up with my own Cleveland blessing:

May the snow be light
May your shovel be wide
And may spring come tomorrow.

My Brain Is Old

I went to the optometrist the other week. I was pretty excited to go, because my contacts have been giving me headaches ever since Eleanor was born. And now, 6 months later, I'm finally getting around to doing something about it.

After the eye exam, the doctor asked me whether I had any interest in switching from my usual, day-wear contacts to contacts that you can leave in day and night. I said "no," and explained how I don't wear my contacts all the time, they're mostly for sporting activities, etc .....

As I'm listening to the words coming out of my mouth, I am silently acknowledging to myself that it's all a load of crap. I mean, technically it may be true. But the real reason I'm not even considering overnight contacts is that I think they're unnatural. Contacts that you can wear at night?!? That's crazy!

I am completely okay with the general concept of contacts, because they've been around for most of my formative years. But wearing them for extra long periods of time, especially at night, was definitely against the rules. So even though an optometrist is recommending them as a viable option, I can't wrap my head around the idea.

And this is one way that I know I'm getting older. Because scientific advances are starting to seem too far out there for me to really believe. I can almost feel my synapses slowing down, my gray matter hardening into the well-traveled paths of thinking.

Next thing I know, you'll probably be trying to tell me that information can be transmitted through the air, and that any qualified individual can become President of the United States. I may nod and smile, but I probably won't believe you, though.

One Hand in My Pocket

Why do baby clothes have pockets? Real, functional pockets?

And maternity clothes don't?!? Do clothing makers really think babies need pockets more than pregnant women do? What exactly are they going to put in there? Eleanor has jeans and hoodies with tiny, adorable little pockets. I ended up with three pairs of maternity pants with fake pockets. A line of stitching that suggests the presence of a useful pocket, which in actuality does not exist.

A pregnant woman may not be able to see her hips very well, but that doesn't mean she can't feel her way into a pocket for a tissue or some loose change for the vending machine.

But babies? Their hand coordination is terrible. They never remember where they put anything. And they're not even ALLOWED to touch anything that is small enough to fit into a baby pocket. What kind of crazy world are we living in?

Family Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed lovely holidays.

Our holidays were wonderful. We hosted Christmas Eve at our house for my family. Christmas morning was quiet and relaxed; probably one of our last Christmas mornings when we don't have to worry about assembling various toys, keeping Santa's gifts separate from our own, etc.

It felt like a real family Christmas. Eleanor wasn't that bothered about the whole thing, although she did enjoy getting new toys to play with (eat). Gomez is like the young child—she's up before anyone else, racing around the house. But again, that's her usual modus operandi.

Beckett is the teenager. He stayed under the covers as long as possible. After Eleanor's first feeding and once everyone else was up, we called for Beckett to join us downstairs. No response. I finally had to go into the bedroom and pull the covers off him before he would stretch and wander downstairs. I gave him a huge bone, said "Merry Christmas," and that was the last we saw of him all morning. The rest of the family gathered around the Christmas tree to open presents. Beckett disappeared to the other side of the living room to lay under the coffee table. We could hear sounds of gnawing and licking, but that was about it.

Christmas afternoon we went out to my parents' house. By this point we were learning what Eleanor's favorite part of present-opening was: the wrapping paper. She kept trying to eat it. Well, and every present we opened .... including a globe from my sister, which seemed fitting. What can I say? She knows what she wants and goes after it!

We had Christmas with Keith's family in Cincinnati over the following weekend, and New Year's Eve was a quiet night in, watching a movie and drinking a glass of wine.

The hardest part of the post-holiday letdown was Keith going back to work. He was off from the 24th through the week of New Year's, so Eleanor and I had gotten used to having him around all the time. I went through a mini-version of my first traumatic realization that I would be home alone with the baby all day long when she was about a month old and all of our wonderful helpers had to return to their usual lives.

But we made it through. And now the weather is frigid, inches of snow cover the ground, and there's a winter storm advisory for several more inches tonight/tomorrow. Ahhh, winter! I think I'll take a cue from Beckett and hide under the covers all weekend.