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So I’m getting ready to put the Puffs on Tater Tot’s tray as a distraction for her while I get her meal ready and, God help me, I did not get them on the tray fast enough.  Good Lord!  I didn’t know my little angel could yell that loud!  When the first Puff hit the tray her hand shot out like it came out of a cannon and snatched up the Puff so fast I’m not sure it actually did hit the tray!  It was so funny to see her chubby little hands work so fast to get that Puff from the tray to her mouth.  Her little fingers snatched the Puff up into her hand which mashed the thing half in and half out of her mouth.  She managed to get it maneuvered into her mouth eventually but it took a while.  Subsequent attempts were much more successful.  Just don’t get between Tater and the Puff…it’s dangerous!

The Mommy’s Random, Occasional Surf Report for 12/29/06

The Tater Tot, The Daddy and I went down to the beach this afternoon and it was fun-looking but a bit messy. On-shore wind…kind of afternoon slop-ish.  But this Mommy would’ve taken it if it weren’t for the bum shoulder.  Yes, I’m still working that one out…

Today I got to go to physical therapy without The Tot in tow because The Daddy has a couple of weeks off for Winter Break (one of the bonuses of being a teacher!). It was really good to be able to focus on the therapy without worrying about The Tater Tot but I realized I just feel nekked without her.  It’s like I’ve forgotten to put pants on or something.  Strange how that happens.  (And, yes, I did actually have pants on!)

Tater has picked up a sign that I did not teach her.  I have been using the American Sign Language sign for “more” which is to tap the fingers of both hands together.  She has begun using The Daddy Sign Language sign for more which is to slap her open hand on the table.  Yes, The Daddy thought he was being funny by teaching Tater to bang on her tray when it was meal time.  She has taken it to the next level by leaning over her tray to the dining table and slapping it when she runs out of Puffs.  I have a hard time not laughing when I hear the slapping on the table with a throat-clearing sound that can only mean “Uh, Mommy.  I need a little service here!”

We’re home again!  There’s something really nice about coming home even if you were only gone for a day and a half.  We had a nice time with both sets of grandparents and Tater got lots of loot!  The Mommy and Daddy got some nice stuff too but this Christmas was all about The Princess.

The Mommy got her “Mommy” tee that’s on “The Mommy’s Ooooh I Want That List” for Christmas!  It’s really cute on!  Of course I had to wear it out to the after-Christmas sales today.  And I got bunches of gift cards so I can go shopping for free!  Gotta love spending other people’s money…

Tater was a real trooper the last couple of days having her routine all mucked up.  She took a little bit more soothing to get to sleep at nap time but, otherwise was great!  Unfortunately, the sound of ripping paper kinda freaks her out so opening presents was interesting.

On the way home I was super-tired (thank God I didn’t have to drive!) so I laid my head down on her lap in her car seat and she patted my face with her little hand.  It was so sweet!  Then she found my ear and did the same thing with it that she did with my belly button the other day.  It was funny.  Until she decided it would be a good idea to dig around in there!  OUCH! Of course that made her laugh so she wanted to do it again.  And again.  And again.  Luckily by that time we were pretty close to home.

So today is the beginning of my “It’s Not A New Year’s Resolution” resolution to take better care of myself.  After eating too much pie to actually tell you how much I ate yesterday (it’s just too embarrassing), I realized that I don’t feel good and it’s directly related to the crap that I’ve been putting in my body.  Imagine that!  Yeah, sometimes I’m kinda dense/stubborn/stupid.  So it’s going well so far today.  I ran most of our “walk” this morning.  There are too many hills to run the whole thing yet but I’m workin’ on it!  And I’ve eaten well.  Yay Mommy Now if I can just get through the evening without any ice cream.  I can’t promise that I can do that…

So, yesterday Tater and I were playing Jungle Gym Mommy with Mommy laying on the floor when she found my belly button.  As it turns out, as The Tot was growing inside The Mommy, so was The Mommy’s belly button.  It’s very strange how it appears so much larger than it was before The Tot came along!  Now, as most of you Mommies out there have experienced, it takes some time for that stomach skin to shrink back and it often doesn’t get all the way back to the way it was (not to mention the pounds of belly fat that were put on to sustain the pregnancy!).  Add to that the lack of any sort of ab routine and you’ve got a great place to park your spare change! 

She had me laughing so hard I about peed myself when she would look at me like “Oh my God, you’ve got one too!” and “But yours is so much bigger!”.  Then she would stick her little finger in it like she thought it was the greatest thing in the world.  She did that over and over until I had to make her stop because I had to stop laughing.  It hurt to laugh that hard!

Let’s just say also that The Mommy’s laugh is not the most delicate and lady-like thing in the world so Tater would look startled every time she made me laugh.  Which made me laugh even more!  Poor thing…

Popsugar has a cute pic of Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck and their little girl Violet out and about.  What a cute little girl! (Of course, not as cute as The Princess Tater Tot, though!).  She’s got quite the gene pool, huh? She’s got on a fun little hoodie, too!  Check it out for sale here.

Isn’t it funny how every parent thinks their baby is the cutest baby?  You don’t ever hear a parent say “Your baby is so much cuter than mine” or admit even just to each other that someone else’s baby is cuter.  For one thing, it’s just not right.  Every child has the God-given right to have completely and utterly biased parents!  It’s just the way it’s supposed to be.

Have you ever noticed that all those people who never see the light of day most of the rest of the 365 days of the year come out in droves the couple of days before Christmas?  They crawl out from the rock under which they have been hiding (and some of them for very good reason!) just to make my life miserable.  Okay, maybe not just to make my life miserable but they sure are good at it! 

These are the people who either drive 55 mph scaring the bejeezus out of me or 2 mph irritating the crap out of me in the Wal-Mart parking lot, take up two parking spaces in said parking lot, steal my parking space in the same parking lot, almost run me over in their zeal to get a spot in the parking lot go in the 10 items or less line with 20 items, and generally do not have a good grasp of personal hygeine.  Good Lord, people! You’re going out in public, take a bath!  And you’re just not fooling anyone with that liter of perfume/cologne you poured over yourself instead.

Then there is the general mayhem of shopping, even with “normal” people three days before Christmas.  Even shopping with people who are usually quite nice and are generally socially adept can be trying this time of year.  Oh, yeah?  Just try and get that last itunes gift card before I do!  I’ll bite your finger off!  Ok, slight exaggeration but you know the drill.  The last one of anything or the last of that size, color, etc will reduce normally sane people into animals.

This is why I usually do things online (oh, hey, there just happens to be a ”Stores” section right over there to the right! and generally have things taken care of by mid-December. And I did for most everyone except The Tater Tot and The Daddy (only the two most important people on my list!).  I only had a few things left to pick up and I kept telling myself “Oh, I’ll do that tomorrow” until there were very few “tomorrows” left and I had to get my Mommy Butt out there and do it today!  This will not happen next year.  Famous last words…

Today Princess Tater Tot was a party girl.  The Mommy and The Princess went to The Daddy’s school for his classroom Winter Break party and she loved it!  Of course it was convenient that she was trying not to fall asleep, too…

She yawned and fussed the whole way there but, once she got there and saw all the squirmy kids and adoring parents, she turned on the 1000-watt smile and kicked with excitement!  It’s amazing to me how outgoing she is.  Sometimes she’ll play like she’s shy by laying her head down on my shoulder when she meets somebody but she’s just not really shy at all  Usually she’ll smile and stare at just about anybody. People in the grocery store line, at the library, on the street.  Whether or not they want to be stared/smiled at!  It’s so cute sometimes when I can tell that someone’s in a bad mood or really doesn’t want to smile at her but they just can’t help themselves!  She is the ultimate mood booster.

On the way home, she fell asleep and slept in her car seat for an hour!  Yippee!  Except that The Mommy can’t lift her in her car seat out of the car anymore.  So we sat in the car and I read a book until she woke up. It was nice to not be able to do anything but read! 

Huh.  I was supposed to rest and elevate my foot today, huh?  Oh well, so much for that!  Luckily it feels pretty darned good today.  Looks uglier than sin but feels okay.

Now she’s to bed and so should The Mommy be.  See ya’!

Yes, folks, that’s right.  The Mommy got to make yet another trip to Urgent Care last night.  I swear I have been there more since becoming a Mommy than in the three years that we’ve lived here before that.  And I’ve had the same doctor three times in a row.  It’s a wonder he didn’t just say “You again?”.

“Why in heaven’s name did you go to Urgent Care?” you ask.  Well, yesterday morning, while The Daddy was holding The Tater Tot, I was on my way into the kitchen to make the Tot’s breakfast and (not looking where I was going), I smacked my foot into a wall  Yeah, just call me Grace. After writhing on the floor in extreme pain, we discussed how I would get this looked at.  Not being willing to expose The Tot to undue x-ray cooties or to hand her off to someone I don’t know who would be out of my sight while getting x-rays (stuff just happens, you know?), we decided that I would see how it goes and if I needed to go in.  By 4pm I knew I needed to go.  So, I handed Tater Tot off to The Daddy and high-tailed it to Urgent Care around 4:45.  Just as everyone else and their brother did, apparently.  But, to their credit, I was in and out of there in less than two hours, including x-rays!  Missed Tater’s evening routine but, what can a Mommy do?  Mommies have to take care of themselves so they can take care of the tots!

It turns out that it is probably not broken and that I need to keep it elevated and rest it.  Yeah, right.  With a 9 1/2 month old 4 days before Christmas when I’m not quite done with my Christmas shopping?  Good luck!  At least Tater Tot is not walking yet…

Well, we finally did it.  We went to visit Santa today at the mall to get Princess Tater Tot’s picture taken with him.  We arrived 45 minutes after Santa got there and, surprisingly, the line wasn’t that bad.  Of course it took a long time because of the tears and lack of smiles that tend to happen with the really little ones on Santa’s lap.  There were toys a-squeaking and parents acting ridiculous to get their kids to smile.  It was kinda funny until I realized that I would be one of thos ridiculous-acting fools in just a minute.

We finally made it up to the front of the line and Santa’s Helper asks me which package I am planning on getting.  Well, seeing as you are gouging me for the rest of my Christmas cash I guess I will take the package that has only 4 pictures for $18.  Holy cow!  I can scan the sucker in and make a gazillion copies for the amount they’re charging!  But I order 4 so that The Daddy can take one to the classroom, we can have one at home, and each set of grandparents can have one, too without any extra work for The Mommy.

In the back of my mind I think “I wonder if she’s going to scream and throw a fit?”  I can just see it now.  I sit her on Santa’s lap and she immediately looks at me like “Why are you giving me to this huge, hairy man?”  Luckily that did NOT happen.  She looked up at him with a smile like “Wow!  Look at you!  You’re hairy” and then looked at the camera.  She didn’t smile for the first two pictures but once Mommy started dancing around like a crazed idiot (or acting like she usually does–either description works), she smiled and *poof*!  We were done!

I paid my exorbitant fee and we went on our merry way.  Hallelujah!  The first Santa pictures are done and without permanent emotional damage that we know of!  It was getting close to nap time so we got a move on out of there (after The Mommy lingered at a few store doorways).  Once home, I rocked her as usual but this sneaky little girl realized that Mommy’s hair wasn’t in a ponytail like it usually is (just in case I needed to be in the Santa picture so Tater wouldn’t cry), picked up a strand and yanked as hard as her little arms would!  Ouch!  Oooh!  That’s fun!  Let’s do it again!  Ouch!  Grrrr…  Long story short, Tater skipped her afternoon nap today despite The Mommy’s best efforts.  Oh well…she wins again.