Bad Mommy

Being a mom is not easy and often we do things without even knowing that hurt our children.  I hate when this happens, as I know it happens to parents all over the place. Luckily, I haven't done anything damaging to Tia, but whenever little things do happen, I just beat myself up over it.  Yesterday morning when I was changing her, I noticed a big burn mark on her shoulder blade. Instantly, we thought of daycare. What happened?  Was there no incident report?  I took her to daycare that morning and inquired about it to them and they had no idea.  When I showed them them the mark, I noticed an identical one on the other shoulder blade. It looked like rug burn and then it hit me. I did that!  I put a 12 month onzie on her and it must have rubbed all day long to cause that. My poor child.  I know she is growing like a weed, but she has long legs and short torso (like me) and I figured her shirts/onzies still fit her just fine. Boy was I wrong. I am sure many of you have done similar things without even knowing.  I remember when I first had Tia. She was a couple months old and I was on maternity leave. I put her on the couch leaning up against a pillow.  I had done this almost every day and she never moved an inch.  I had one arm on her leg and I leaned down to grab a diaper. It was just out of my reach and I leaned an inch or two further. I got the diaper in hand, but when I turned to see Tia she was in mid air, doing a somersault onto the floor. Luckily for me, it was the perfect roll. She rolled into it and did take any force to her body.  She just landed, looked up at me with bright eyes and wailed out a bit. I scooped her up and held her tightly. She instantly stopped crying. I really don't think it hurt her, but more scared her. In fact, it hurt me so much that I went and rocked her for hours upon hours that day and just cried to myself saying what a horrible mom I am.  I knew that moment that there were going to be many instances in Tia's life where I do things that may hurt or scare her without even realizing I'm doing it.  Parenting is not an easy task and I know it takes work and diligence to stay on task. I know Chris has the same issues when he raises his voice some times. Tia instantly gets her feelings hurt. I know it just kills him to see his baby sticking that lower lip out that starts to quiver then all of a sudden, she looks down, puts her hands over her eyes, and starts to cry. Oh it is sooooo precious.  And it melts your heart instantly.  As the sermon series at Church right now says, love hurts, and sometimes we do hurt the ones we love. Sometimes we have to in order to teach them and lead them in the right direction.  I know when Chris raises his voice, he is being a good parent to show her that she can't do things wrong and I know when he sees the tears, it hurts him, but he knows he is just doing what a parent should.  I know lots of parents want to be friends with their kids and I believe there must be respect first as a parent, then friendship can only be allowed after that respect is established. I think some people have this harder than others. I can actually think of a particular mom and child combo off the top of my head and the mom never disciplined and just thought by giving the child everything they wanted, they would be happy and grow up great....but it took many years later for the mom to realize that she created a monster and it has taken the child that much longer to integrate into adulthood. I know there is no RIGHT method to being a parent, but I hope Chris and I can bring a good level of parenting to our family so they grow up respecting us as parents and one day as they grow into adults become our friends too. Guess we'll see!

Bribed by Food

I know that I love food.  Not sure about any of you, but my whole life, I just love eating food and I think about food all the time.  I have been lucky and have had a pretty good metabolism that has allowed me to eat whatever I want. Although, as I get older, it definitely isn't as easy to keep the extra weight off without more exercise, but I still have big cravings for food. I love all kinds.  People say that I'm super picky, which I am. However, even though I don't eat raw vegetables and most seafood. I love so many foods out there. Yes, mostly bad for me foods but hey, it's yummy.  Tia loves the food she loves. She is very very picky too and this girl looks at something and shakes her head no.  She loves Mac-n-Cheese, Grilled Cheese, pasta, and bread.  Yes, all carbs!  Every morning at daycare it is a struggle to let me leave without a dry eye on Tia.  She clings to me and doesn't want me to go or she wants to go with me. Most days, they'll bribe her with cheerios and she'll go running as if I wasn't even there having her cling to my leg a moment ago. I sneak out.  I do walk out from time to time and let her cry but I have to admit, it just breaks my heart when that happens.  So I tend to lean towards the bribe her with food route.  I don't think she likes bananas (I don't) but I'm not sure.  The teachers today had to bribe her with a banana and she went running after it.  That girl is just so stinking cute!

12 Week check-up went well.  I've lost weight, but probably because I've been sick.  Everything else looks normal.  Baby's heartbeat is 150 bpm.  We'll find out the gender in a couple months - yay!

Pippy Long Stockings

I think we all know that Tia does not have much hair.  But every now and then, it looks long enough to play around with. Daycare put her hair in pigtails the other day and it was the cutest thing ever.  They were the smallest pigtails you ever saw and of course my camera was out of battery, but let me tell you with the plaid pants she had on, she looked just like Pippy Long Stockings.  Chris said when he picked her up from daycare, he had to look twice and even picked her up and said 'oops this isn't my child' but then he looked again and it was. He instantly called me to tell me he can't wait for me to see her hair. It was super adorable. Right now, she has a baby mullet going on.  Not in a bad way, but in a super cute way. She has barely any hair on her head, but the back of her head has these little curls. So cute!  I was bald until I was two, so it doesn't surprise me that she's the same way.  So cute!

She's a Hambone

We were at a family gathering this weekend and one of the guests said 'I don't think I've ever met a 1 year old with that much personality.' Chris and I were smiling from ear to ear because we certainly know how much personality she has. She was flirting with all the men which was hilarious.  She would run by and tap one guy's hand then run and hide.  She'd look at another guy and tilt her head and then he'd do it back..she just loved that.  She was analyzing everyone from girls to guys to kids to everything in site.  She is addicted to stairs and even though she can go up the stairs, we just worry so much about her going down. But after a while we decided to just let her try.  That girl was able to walk completely down the stairs almost by herself.  She went step by step standing up the first time - boy was I scared. She barely held on and these steps were super tall. Then she went down on her bottom.  The best was when she wanted to do it like us big people and she tried to hold on to the top of the railing.  So cute. She went up and down, up and down, up and down.  We bought one of these battery operated mice or gerbils. I forgot what they are called. Zhu-Zhu pets or something. We bought it a long time ago and just put it away because she didn't care much for it. I brought it out this weekend and she loved that thing. She was giving it kisses and loved chasing it around. The best was when Chris would put it on the floor and tap the button, it would go for a while, she'd scoop it up and hand it back to Chris to turn on all over again.  Chris finally said, you do it. She puts the pet on the ground and pushes the button as if she already knew what to do. Chris's mouth dropped wide open and he was like, well, I didn't even have to show her. What is funny is that she is at that stage where she repeats everything you say or do.  Another party goer said she had a pretty wide range of words for her age. That she does.  We do love that she can communicate whether it is with words or sign language. She gets her point across.  She is just so darn adorable and Chris and I just love how loving she is.  She'll hug anyone who is sad, even if she doesn't know them. She loves blowing kisses and interacting. She is just at a really fun age.  Chris dropped her off this morning for me and said she walked right over to her cube drawer, opened it up, put her blankie and Binky in it, then shut it.  He said he was so amazed. Love that little girl!

Tia is So Sweet

I'm telling you, I know every parent says this, but my goodness, Tia is the sweetest ever!  She just does things that melt my heart.  I love taking her to school in the morning and watching her interact with the other kids. I also love all of her little mannerisms.  Not a day goes by that we can't believe she is only a year old and with such personality.  She has opinions, thoughts, words, actions, love, and she cares.  If you are hurt or sad, I've seen her run over, no matter who it is, and give that kid or person a big hug and leans her cheek in for a kiss too.  I love seeing how caring she is.  She's a diva too, don't get me wrong.  She knows what she wants and when she wants it. She is a night owl who never wants to go to bed. She loves talking and boy can this girl dance.  She has moves and I'm not just saying that. She has rhythm to the tempo of the songs, etc. She is getting big and I just can't believe it! I love her sooooooo very much! (as I know so many others love her too - she is very loved)

My Friends Crack Me Up

I have a good friend who is due soon and so since she knew we were trying, she told me she'd give me all of her ovulation tests.  I was super excited because, those things add up.  The night we were supposed to see each other, she wasn't feeling well and had to bail.  So she gave the tests to a mutual friend of ours who would see me soon.  This friend had them in her car for days and forgot about them.  One day, she was cleaning out her car when she stumbled upon them. Not remember where they came from she started interrogating her husband 'did you get someone pregnant?'  He, of course thought she was nuts and so she finally told him that she found a big bag of pregnancy tests in her car. She asked her husband who had been in her car. He said her teenage son and a neighbor's teenage daughter. Then she immediately thought, well if it wasn't my husband, could it have been my teenage son or worse the neighbor's daughter. So again, she went to her husband pleaing 'Please tell me you got someone pregnant...out of all the scenarios, you are the best case scenario...I can't imagine my son or worse yet, the neighbor's daughter needing these...oh please tell me you got someone pregnant'.  When I heard this, I was laughing hysterically. These are the types of things we put ourselves through. I mean, we always think the worst and I am just imagining the husband thinking that his wife lost it and worse that she thinks he cheated.  OMG! So funny. Of course, she finally realized who the true owner was of these ovulation tests and passed them along to me along with one of the funniest stories I've heard in a long time.

Baby Norris #2 = Sickness for Mommy

With Tia, I remember there were only a couple instances where I was sitting at my desk at work and I had a sudden urge to get to a bathroom quick. It didn't take me long to get on a regular snack routine and voila, no more sickness.  Tia was a pretty easy pregnancy. I mean besides the sore feet and tiredness, I don't remember anything that left me thinking that I never want to be pregnant again.  With this baby though, I've been sick from day 1.  So hard to explain because I don't actually get sick. I just have the symptoms as though I'm constantly carsick with that motion feeling 24/7 and at any moment the sweat bullets are going to start showing and I'll need to pull over.  OR you feel like you are majorly hung over and there isn't enough coffee or aspirin to help.  Yes, I've had a couple instances where I ran to the bathroom, but nothing but a couple dry heaves happened.  I've just never experienced anything like it before.  I hate being car sick and that I am often, but having that feeling all the time is just unbearable.  My doctor gave me a medicine called Zofran which is for cancer patients and supposedly not harmful for my baby.  I have taken it a couple of times and it gives me major diarrhea.  It is like a no win situation, especially when you are at someone's house that you don't know for a party and you are 'stinkin' up the bathroom and everyone knows you've been running in and out. Boy was I embarrassed and of course, I left the party early.  It has definitely affected my Paid Time Off. I have taken numerous days off because I just couldn't bear it.  I am praying that as I get into the 2nd trimester that it disappears. I have heard both sides of the story - some girls say they were sick the whole time and the other say only in the first trimester. Let's hope for first trimester only!!!  A couple of times, I get the major cramping where it feels like the entire stomach... from my boobs to my hoo ha is one solid cramp and nothing feels good but laying down in the fetal position for hours.  I hate complaining about it and I feel that is all I do...so I wonder if it is payback for giving some people in my life a hard time when they aren't feeling well...or possibly it just means that baby #2 is doing great and getting what he/she needs from mommy, even if it means mommy is sick. I can't wait to see how the rest of the pregnancy goes.

How NOT to Tell Your Husband When We Conceived...

When we knew for sure that we were pregnant by me taking 4 pregnancy tests.  We were trying to figure out the exact date of conception.  Since we knew pretty early on, we figured we'd be able to pin point it down really easily.  A friend had given me some really good ovulation tests that we had been using for months.  During May, we used one that showed a circle if you were not ovulating and a smiley face if you were.  It was a 20 day test and I started taking them early in May.  So when Chris asked me when I think we conceived, I said, 'Remember when you were out of town' and he gave me this wide eyed look and said 'when I was out of town, you mean I wasn't there when we conceived?' and we both laughed.  I said 'let me finish'.  'Remember when you were out of town, it was either the day before you left or the day you came back'...and he said 'yeah right...I remember when I was out of town'.  So word of warning to you ladies. Never start a story about when we made a baby out with 'remember when you were out of town.'  So after taking the ovulation test for days, it finally said 'smiley face' and we of course knew it was game time.  I just remember thinking to myself that I'm glad it wasn't one day off because Chris had a business trip and we would have missed our window.  So we had a good laugh out of it for sure!  Mid-May is when our bundle of joy Part II was conceived!

Big News

I started this blog back two years ago when I found out I was pregnant with Tia who was born on December 19th, 2009.  She has been the biggest topic on this blog regarding the pre-birth, birth, and post-birth experiences of our little angel.  Now, we'll have two big topics on the blog.  Tia, along with Baby Norris #2.  That's right...WE'RE PREGNANT!  We are due February 5th and are very excited.  We have been trying for quite some time now, since November 2010 and it took more time than expected, but we are finally pregnant.  It is amazing how different this pregnancy feels than with Tia. Of course, with Tia I had little to no cravings and did not get sick at all.  One time I did run for the bathroom in the beginning, but once I got on a snacking schedule, I was fine.  This baby is quite different. I've been literally sick every day from the beginning.  We were pretty sure we were pregnant from week 2 or 3, but of course we had to make sure. When we called our doctor, he made us wait until we were 8 weeks before we could come in.  What a long wait that was...trying not to spill the beans and of course I was sick most days and still am.  I know it is all worth it though.  I can't wait to meet our baby #2. He/She will just be a great addition to the Norris family!

Home with Daddy

I'm heading out of town for the Thirty-One National Conference today and will be gone through Saturday.  Tia and Daddy will have plenty of quality time together.  I am sure she'll be looking and asking for me, but I am confident they will have a blast together.  She loves her daddy so much and I love hearing her say 'dadee' in such a sweet voice.  Yesterday, I was driving home and they pulled up next to me.  She was in the backseat in her carseat and she was peaking over the window to see me. I just saw Chris sitting there. She had the same expression and it was super cute. I know she is getting a little tan and definitely has some of my features, but she definitely has a lot of Chris to be proud of too. Our sweet miracle!

Tia is a Night Owl

My whole life I was a night owl where I'd stay up late every night and sleep in every last possible second.  It wasn't until (1) my longer drive to work and (2) Tia's birth that I had to change my sleep habits to accommodate my new priorities.  I started to go to bed by 10pm at the latest and get up around 5:30am every morning. In fact, when I was in college, I never had a class before noon. I loved my sleep and for a very long time, if you asked what my favorite pass time was, it was sleeping...and often even now, I have that same answer.  Chris is also a night owl too.  He may be worse than I am. He is up later than mid-night almost every night and he sleeps in to the latest possible second most days a little after 7:00am.  Luckily for him, I take Tia to school every morning so I get her up and changed, etc. He does put her to bed though.  Now Tia is becoming a night owl too.  She hates going to bed now. If we ask her if she is ready for night night, she'll shake her head no.  Before, we would ritually put her to bed by 8pm. Then we crept it until 8:30pm at the latest. Now she is pushing us to almost 9 and some nights she still does not want to go to bed. She also is starting to sleep in more and is super groggy in the morning. She has become super clingy and hates when I leave her at daycare. She clenches onto me and does not want me to leave. She bawls her eyes out when I leave too - I hate that!  I think she is just tired because she looks tired in the mornings now. I think she'll be just like me and Chris - night owls and 'not' morning people.  But she is still so darn cute no matter what time of day!

Water Baby

Tia loves the water.  Here are some cute pictures of her at Lake Mary in Ste Genevieve on Grandpa Norris's boat.  She just loved being out there!

Lamby Out, BeeBee In

So for Tia's entire life, she's hugged and held onto this cute little lamb head attached to a mini blanket that says Tia on it. We even bought another one because she never wanted to be away from it.  In fact, in the morning, I would try to hide it under her covers so she wouldn't see it and want to take it to school with her.  She'd look around for it and even cry if we left the room without Lamby.  Then she'd hold onto it for dear life and wouldn't let it out of her sight or out of her tight clench.  I would change her and literally she would hold onto it with one hand, I'd put her other arm through the shirt. She'd transfer Lamby from one hand to the other, before I was able to put her other hand in.  I thought it was absolutely adorable, but always bad when we couldn't find Lamby.  All of a sudden a couple weeks ago, she didn't want Lamby but was saying 'Bee Bee' that's Baby in Tia language.  She was looking all over the house for it and then she spotted this cute little perfectly round teddy bear that is pink and purple.  It is really a plump bear but perfect for her size.  She picked it up and rocked it like a baby.  From that day on, she could care less about Lamby. She only wanted BeeBee.  I have to admit, I love hearing her say Baby in her sweet little voice. When she can't find BeeBee, she'll rock her arms back and forth with pretending to hold a baby. I love it.  So it is out with the Lamby and in with the BeeBee! The only negative factor is that we don't have a spare, so if we lost BeeBee, we will be in trouble!

Real Biting Versus Fake Biting

The past couple months, Tia has been bitten at daycare.  Of course, as parents it alarms us and I hate seeing her have bitemarks, etc.  My biggest fear is that she would pick up the bad habit.  I think within one month, she was bitten by 'friends' at daycare at least 6 times.  The poor girl, but I talked to several people from moms to parents to daycare workers and all of them said the same thing...it's a phase and most kids grow out of it.  Now if it was one culprit then it can be addressed, but if it is everyone then it is hard to give ramifications to the parents of those who are just trying to soothe their growing teeth.  Every now and then I'll see Tia almost bite my arm when she is trying to pull herself up and it is almost a ditch effort to grab on where she can, but she never bites down.  I was just dreading the day when we'd get the incident report that Tia has bitten someone...and of course, as expected it happened.  We predicted that she'd pick up the habit and luckily it has only been a couple times the past months but I just always pray she doesn't become a true biter and ultimately get herself kicked out of school.  Last night, however, we sat her down and I said 'Tia did you bite someone today' and she actually nodded her head yes.  I think Chris and I were stunned from that alone. Then I said, you know that is wrong, no biting okay. Her eyes saddened and she gave me that look that she knew it was wrong and understood what we were saying.  She leaned over to Chris's arm and kissed it as she does when she sees someone crying or hurt.  It was really sweet. Then a few minutes later, she leaned her head down on my arm with her mouth open wide. She went to bite down and more kissed my arm, then pretended to take a bite out of my arm, chew it up and said 'yummy'.  Chris and I weren't sure what just happened. Then she just kept doing it over and over and laughing at the same time. Yummy as she was pretending to bite on my arm.  And her soft kisses on my arm were just so sweet. We weren't sure whether it was something to be alarmed about or whether it was normal. But at least it wasn't real biting and we hope that will become the norm 'pretend biting'.  She is just getting so big and hard to really know what is going on in that head of hers. One thing is for sure...she  understands what we are saying and repeats everything!

Some Big News

Sorry for the recent lack of blog entries...there is some big news brewing that will soon be announced.  Because of this news, I've had lack of time and a few other things going on that have made me neglect the blog. BUT I'm excited that soon enough, most likely, Monday, I'll be able to announce the news.  I did want to point out that sometimes I have this weird feeling when I look at Tia and I realize that, wow, that's my kid. I know she is almost 19 months now, but I will just look at her think to myself how big she is getting and how much she looks like me and Chris, but at the same time.  I just love seeing her mannerisms come out and of course Chris and I will blame each other saying 'that's your daughter' and laugh because everything she does is super cute.  I had to give her bigger shoes today..she has been in size 3 for some time, but they just don't fit anymore.  I put on some cute Converse this morning in size 4 and of course they looked super long....yes, Lisa, they looked like Skis.  Chris even joked about it and he was afraid that she'd fall trying to walk. But she needs to go to the bigger size.  The poor girl has sweaty feet like I do, plus they are thick.  Chris calls them 'yabba dabbas' because they seem like they are about 2 inches tall (from the bottom to the top). I've been squeezing her into her size 3 shoes for a while and I just decided to go ahead and give her the next size.  I think she'll get used to them and hopefully she won't fall that much.  She is so interactive too. It is amazing that she is only 1 year old (19 months).  She has conversations with you, understands what you are saying, has opinions, attitudes, and has her own personality.  She just seems big to me and so tall.  I try comparing her to the other kids in her class and her feet did look bigger than the rest, even the boys.  She seemed as tall as the rest of them, when she used to be the smallest. I guess I just need to accept that she is my big girl now.  Even the next grade level teacher asked me this morning when her birthday was because she would be moving up to her room.  Crazy! So exciting and proud too though!