Eating, Sleeping & Watching a Movie

These are the three things that I have finally accepted I will never do again without at least a couple of interruptions...Ever.

Why? Because once you have your first child (and then the second and so on), this is how it goes:

Eating
Step 1. - No matter how hungry you are, first nurse your infant so she's content or asleep while you cook/eat.

Step 2. - While doing step #1, explain to your five-year old for the up-teenth time that she is just as important as the baby, but babies don't know how to wait when they are hungry.

Step 3. - While doing step #2, start thinking what you'll have for dinner.

Step 4. - Put baby down and run to the kitchen. Begin cooking dinner. While doing this you have two options: (a) let your five-year old help you in the kitchen or (b) lose your sanity while she repeatedly asks "how long till dinner", "can I help?", "what are we having?", "I don't want that", "it smells funny"...

Step 5. - Ask husband if he would prefer lemonade or iced tea. The answer, of course, will be whatever is not ready.

Step 6. - Prepare lemonade.

Step 7. - Set table, if five-year-old hasn't already and begin this daily routine "turn off the TV, wash your hands and come to the table". Repeat until they actually do it.

Step 8. - Sit down, be reminded that yet again, you forgot the napkins. Get up, get napkins.

Step 9. - Sit down, relax and get your first bite ready to eat. Get up, go get baby who has begun crying.

Step 10.- Eat as well as anyone can with baby in lap, or

Step 11.- Put baby in high chair and feed her first.

Step 12.- Enjoy your cold dinner.

This is pretty much the routine for sleeping and watching movies (let's not talk about sex).

The funny thing is, you don't actually mind. Kids come first, they are small, they need you, they crave your attention and company, they have the energy that you envy, their minds are inquisitive and their laughter is never-ending. If you see it this way, then eating a warm dinner, sleeping for more than three hours straight and watching an entire movie does not seem so important. You could do without that, but they cannot do without you. Their entire life, personality and view of the world depends on how you respond to these needs.

The more I realize that their existence is my responsibility, the more guilt I feel for ever complaining. When my children get to the age where they don''t need me, when they will not crave my attention nor my company, I want regret to be the last feeling I get.

So...Eating? I could use the diet. Sleeping? I'll sleep when I'm dead. Watching a movie? Their life is the most interesting piece of art that I will ever come across. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Victoria's Secret

In two days my baby will be eight months old. Eight Months! How did that happen so fast? I am less than a month away from my 31st birthday but I'm sure, positive, that just yesterday I was turning 30 and Vicky was still inside of me.

I happen to think that when you have children, time accelerates to double-speed and life begins to fly by. I can clearly remember the day I figured out I was pregnant, then the day I told Javier about it, then the day that the doctor confirmed it. And it may not be that big a deal since anyone can remember things like these, but that is not what I mean, it's not that I remember it's that when you're a mom, you can feel it. It doesn't matter how much time goes by (eight months, or five years in Eli's case), I can still feel the extreme and unexplainable joy of realizing that I was having a baby.

If I'm honest, I'll have to say that I was never too fond of babies when I was young(er). When all of my cousins were having babies and my sister and mom would gush all over them and insist on carrying them, I would step aside, smile politely and agree that they were "so cute". I was never mean or rude (I think) but I was sure that I was lacking the female hormone that makes us all adore babies..

But when I was pregnant with Elizabeth, I realized that there was nothing in life more important than taking care of myself so that my baby would be safe and healthy. I realized that I needed a crash-course in baby-care...and I approached my first pregnancy as if I were expecting a final exam in order to graduate. I read and read and read, I subscribed to all the baby magazines and websites I could find. While all of this was useful and I certainly enjoyed it, there's nothing like being pregnant for the second time.

I knew what to expect, I was not so afraid or worried. I enjoyed sleep whenever possible, I spent as much time as could with Elizabeth and Javier since I already knew how much time the baby would take up once born. I think I eased into my pregnancy, allowing myself to be happy and nearly worry-free. I also got to share it with my daughter and explain to her things that were so new and amazing to her, it gave me the chance to tell her all about the time I was pregnant with her and relive those feelings with someone who cared as much as I did.

I see Victoria now, at almost eight months and I just love to watch her trying so hard to take in the world that surrounds her...trying so hard to understand the new sounds, enjoying everything that is new to her and practicing her vocal abilities (loudly). I love knowing she is mine, that I made her and that all she knows is that she loves me back. And when I'm watching her, I realize that she knows something none of us knew. She knows that being second can have its advantages, that it can almost be much better than being the first. I believe that when she chose us as her family, she did so knowing that I wouldn't be the kind of parent that would be less caring or loving. She knew how much I needed her in my life to remind me how beautiful it can be. That is her secret. Could that be why she looks so happy all the time?

Where Babies Come From

I know every parent MUST dread this question. At least the kind of parent that, like me, is old-fashioned in most senses and doesn't really feel comfortable discussing certain areas of their bodies with innocent five year-olds.

For the past five years, I've made sure that my daughter knows that the doctor opened up my belly on December 9th, 2000 when she started kicking so hard that I could no longer keep her in. She likes this story, so do I and I'm sticking to it (even though her birth was natural).

Yesterday, while at the mall, Eli had to go to the bathroom and so did I. So I put her in a stall, and I went into the one next to it. Being five, she doesn't really care that everyone can hear the conversation she began.

-Mom, where are you?
-In the stall next to yours.
-Are you doing number one?
-Yes.
-I'm doing both.
-Ok [thinking that is waaaayyy too much information]

By the sound of her, she is having a bit of a hard time doing "both". Next thing I know, she says to me,

-I sound like I'm trying to push out a baby, right?
-[cough, cough] What do you mean?
-Yeah, it sounds like when a mom is going to push out a baby.
-What do you mean? Do youu know where babies come from?
-Yes, Discovery Channel!

...as it turns out, my daughter still believes babies come out of their mom's bellies, except now she knows that the doctors don't just open and pull him out, moms actually have to work hard and push until the baby is out.

She saw this in Discovery Channel...

Whew! That means I still don't have to get to that conversation I refuse to have. Maybe she can help me out when Victoria is old enough to start asking those questions =)