Bad Mommy

Babykins gave me a huge scare today, which not only added a few gray hairs to my head, but got me thinking about the "Bad Mommy" moments I've had in the last 8 months.  If you've recently had a baby, or are thinking about having one soon, read on and know that you will eventually do something stupid, and you're not alone.

Three weeks after moving to Hawaii, we moved into our apartment.  One of the great draws for the building is its security.  Along with friendly security staff, everyone must use a key card to enter the building and work the elevators.

Our first week there, I took Babykins on a walk, double checking as I left that I had both my apartment key and my security card.  We took a stroll through the local mall, then went back to the building, heading for the disability entrance on the ground floor.

For some unknown reason, the disability entrance has the heaviest gate ever.  I swiped my key card, pried open the gate, shoved through the stroller containing Babykins, and felt the gate pull out of my hand.  Just as it slammed shut, I saw with horror that both my key card and cell phone were inside the building with Babykins, while I was locked outside on the sidewalk.

I was panicked.  There were no security guards around, and the only other way to get into the building was through the open lobby one floor up.  I couldn't leave Babykins alone that long, but I couldn't just stand there hoping someone would happen to go through that entrance at 10 AM on a work day.

Luckily, I'd noticed the grounds crew working a few feet down the sidewalk, and after explaining the situation in very poor Spanish, starting to cry, and finally dragging one man with me and pointing to my infant on the wrong side of the gate, a worker took pity on me and used his security card to open the gate and reunite hyperventilating me with a smiling and completely un-fazed Babykins.

It has by far been my worst "Bad Mommy" moment to date.

In a side note, I finally noticed about a month later that right next to the gate is a buzzer that calls the security office.  To quote Homer Simpson, "Doh!"

Have a "Bad Mommy" moment of your own?  Make me and every other new mom feel better.  Share it in the comments section (but nothing that would require us to contact 1-800-4ACHILD, please).

yteixnA noitarapeS

Being in Pennsylvania surrounded by family has given me the opportunity to do things I normally can't do.  I've gone to lunch with friends, gone out with my sisters, taken showers that didn't revolve around Babykins' nap schedule, and today Hubbykins and I are going to the movies.

These activities have left Babykins in the loving care of family for up to 2 hours at a time.  My aunts are always happy to remind me of the time they babysat me as a 2-year-old and I cried for 2 straight hours.  This is definitely not Babykins' problem.  She loves playing with everyone and hardly notices that I'm gone.

The problem is that Babykins has reverse separation anxiety.  In the living room with grandparents and aunts, she plays, she giggles, she crawls, she coos.  Not a tear in sight.  The moment I walk in the room, her bottom lip quivers, her eyes scrunch up, and the crying begins. 

I'm not sure why the reverse separation anxiety hits.  Is she punishing me for leaving?  Is she sad that the fun time is over?  Or is she just reminding me that she is firmly in charge.  If that's the case, she can stop crying...I'm sure I won't forget anytime soon who wears the diapers in this family :)

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

Thank you so much for my first Christmas.  I had a great time!  First, I got to wake everyone up early.  Then mommy and daddy let me crawl all the way to the tree and pull out the paper that was hiding under it!  Did you know there were toys inside that paper?

I love playing with all of my new toys.  My shakers make lots of noise, and my lap top is just like daddy's!  I don't know how you knew just what to get me.  Please give your elves a big, drooly kiss for me.

Later that day (after mommy made me take a nap - boo!) lots of new adoring subjects came over to tell me how cute I am.  I graced them all with a smile, and even let some of them pick me up!  I bet Queen Elizabeth never lets her subjects pick her up.

That night, silly mommy and daddy tried to put me down for a full night's sleep.  I was very tired, but I was just too excited from the day.  I got up lots during the night to remind them about all the fun we had!

I heard about something called Christmas in July.  Could you send me a brochure?  I want to be ready.
Love,
Babykins

P.S.  Wasn't I the cutest baby ever in my fuzzy "Baby's First Christmas" jammies?  I'll wear them again next week in case you want to come back and leave more presents.

Santa!!!

Last weekend, we joined the age-old tradition of taking small children to sit on an old man's lap.  Despite the freezing weather, we bundled up Babykins and took her to meet Santa (we had the opportunity to visit Santa in Honolulu, but it just didn't seem authentic - plus, it's slightly odd that Hawaiian Santa wears board shorts and has his jacket open).

Dressed in her Nittany Lion snow suit, Babykins was the cutest baby in line.  We popped her on Santa's lap, where she grabbed his hand and told him all her Christmas wishes.  Ok.  She might not have talked, but she did grab his hand and pose while the official photographer, Auntie MO, Daddykins, and Grandpa all snapped away.

After a minute, we saw the little chin start to quiver and the eyes scrunching up in preparation for a good cry, so we scooped up Babykins and were on our way.  The entire experience only lasted a few minutes, but it was a magical start to the Christmas holiday.

Tonight we're preparing to place out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer.  Babykins may not understand the significance, but Mommykins is sure looking forward to the snack.

Wood Floor Wasteland

We have arrived safely in the frozen tundra that is Pennsylvania and snuggled down in my parents' home with no intention of leaving the heated house. While Hubbykins and I have overindulged in Christmas cookies, Babykins has had to face down the Wood Floor Wasteland.

My parents have a beautiful, new wood floor in their living room, with an area rug in the middle.  While it's gorgeous to look at (and fun for me to slide across in my socks), it posed a serious problem for Babykins when we arrived.  Not only is Babykins new to crawling, she has only ever experienced crawling on carpets, or on tile with bare knees.  So when her toy rolled off the area rug onto the wood floor, she didn't think twice about chasing after it.  Seconds later, she had wiped out, her pants-covered knees skidding across the wood.

This didn't deter our intrepid crawler, who doubled her efforts...and promptly slid backwards.  Unworried, she quickly decided she didn't really like that toy anyway, and turned her attention to other toys that were safely lying on the rug.  This quickly led to the Wood Floor Wasteland, where once beloved toys slowly languished outside the reach of Babykins.

This contentment with playing on the rug quickly ended, however, when the Christmas tree lights went on that night.  If ever there was something that would motivate Babykins to brave the Wood Floor Wasteland, it's the sparkle of a hundred lights and ornaments just waiting to be pulled off the tree.

We watched her square her shoulders, stare down the tree, and slowly move a knee onto the wood.  It took a few tries, but by dinnertime, Babykins had learned how to anchor herself with her hands while sliding her knees forward.  By bedtime, she was able to quickly and stealthily propel herself from the rug to the tree, little hand outstretched to wreak havoc on the lower branches.

Babykins still prefers the ease and safety of the area rug, but it's no longer surrounded by an effective wood moat, and breakables in the house are no longer safe.  She may not have brought her Adventurer Vest with her to Pennsylvania, but Babykins is still conquering all in her path.

Baby Genius

Babykins is obsessed with all things that belong to mommy and daddy - especially electronics. She'll move heaven and earth to get her hands on our laptops, and no remote is safe. In an attempt to watch an entire show without the channel suddenly changing on us, Hubbykins finally started just taking the batteries out of our remotes and letting Babykins play with them.

Auntie MO saw this on her trip here and sent Babykins a fabulous gift - a Sesame Street remote control. It's very realistic, with a number pad, volume control, and fast-forward/rewind buttons. We waited to give it to Babykins until the TV was on and she made a grab for one of our remotes. We were hoping the re-direction would cause her to fall madly in love with her new, personal remote.

And she does love it. But the other day, I watched her mental gears turn and realized we have a baby genius on our hands.

I had a show on, and Babykins was sitting on my lap playing with her remote. I watched her push a button, then look at the TV. Nothing happened. She looked down at her remote, pushed another button, and looked expectantly back at the TV. Again, nothing happened. She tried one more time, this time banging her little hand across as many buttons as possible. She looked back at the TV. When she saw that once again, nothing had happened, she threw down her remote and made a bee line for the real remote.

I hadn't expected her to figure this out, and she'd captured the TV remote and pushed every button before I was able to catch up. That's OK. I wanted to watch Elmo's World, anyway.

Pros and Cons

In the last 2 days, Babykins has gone from timid crawler to fearless explorer. Yesterday morning I sat her down in the hallway for a minute, and got back just in time to see her reaching her little finger toward the electrical outlet.

Which leads me to the major con of a crawling baby - baby proofing (and really, who needs proof that there's a baby in the house, anyway? If you need proof, just look at the insane pile of toys littered across our living room). After the outlet scare, Babykins and I made a trip to the store and spent the afternoon turning our apartment into an invincible fortress. The problem is that Babykins isn't the only one who can no longer open our kitchen cabinets. All of the pots and pans I used to cook last night are still sitting on the counter because it's so darn hard to open the cabinet, I've decided to wait and see if I can just re-use them for cooking tonight.

The positive, though, is that I'm learning much more about Babykins' personality. Before, I would guess which toy Babykins wanted to play with and put it in front of her. She would occasionally fuss for something different, but for the most part, she played where we placed with the toys we gave her until we changed things up.

Now when Babykins gets tired of a toy or her current location, she looks around the room, zeroes in on something interesting, and crawls over to examine it. It's fascinating to watch her decision process and see what she chooses to play with. I never would have guessed that the thing that would most grab her attention this morning would be her car seat.

I'm not at all surprised, though, that 9 times out of 10, the thing she finds most interesting is the one thing I didn't want her to play with. Electronics, beware! Babykins is coming your way!