This Entry is a Whole Lotta Nothin!

Carrot makes a great styling product. All it took was one handful of carrot and one swipe for Sawyer's smashing hairdo. Lately, his favorite food is a mix of carrots and zucchini. About half of Sawyer's diet is homemade stuff that I steam or bake, then puree, then free in ice cube trays until solid and drop in ziploc bags. The other half is jarred food that I buy at the store. He's really got this gag reflex that just doesn't want to go away. Plus he doesn't like to chew things up well enough. Sometimes he does, but sometimes he just swallows things whole. Every time I think I've found the perfect finger food for him, he ends up swallowing it whole and gagging it all up. Guess I could be pushing finger foods, but he's almost a year old! He's pulling up now. Obviously this opens up a whole world of possibilities. When he joins me in the bathroom, he can flush for me. So I've got that going for me...which is nice.

Coming back from our trip we all had jet lag. Sawyer's lasted the longest. Of course as adults we can force ourselves to stay away certain periods of time and try to sleep when we're supposed to and that does speed the process. This isn't so with a baby. For about a week and 3 days I put Sawyer to bed at the usual time and the routine of it would put him to sleep. A few hours later he'd pop up awake and crying. At first I thought he should just cry it out until I realized that it wasn't like he wanted me for comfort. He really, really couldn't sleep and it was kind of cruel to force him when it was hard enough for me to sleep when it was time. So I'd go in and get him. We'd play out here in the dim living room while Pat slept and I'd just wait for the signs that Sawyer was sleepy and put him back to bed. That meant he was sleeping until around 10pm and then awake until....the first day he was awake until around 6am. Each night he'd pop up around the same time and then go to sleep again a little earlier than the morning before. Wednesday night it was 1:30am and then the next 2 nights he slept from 7:30pm to 7:30am - victory! Right now it's 9:35pm and Sawyer's woken back up and he's crying. He'll have to cry it out this time.

Sawyer's birthday party is March 30, on a Sunday afternoon. It was going to be that Saturday but someone warned me that a lot of birthday parties were being planned in our playgroup and to check it out. I hadn't received any invites and now realize I should have just sent mine out for the day we wanted. Within minutes of sending out a "anyone planning a party on March 29?" email, I got a few replies and was sorry I asked. So Sawyer's is the day after another boy's party. It's funny how this stuff brings out a smidgen of that nasty, awful, mommy competitiveness. I thought to myself, "What if the other party is better?" "What if that mom does a Tonka truck theme and then our Tonka truck theme won't seem fun?" "What if people are tired after that kid's party and the next day no one comes to ours?" I've since put that away because it's STUPID and am now focusing on our rsvp's which have come out to 31 people. That includes babies. What have I done? We had to invite the playgroup, and even though there are 2 new people in playgroup, you can't exclude them right? I really really want everyone to come, but am a little worried that maybe more isn't merrier. What if all the moms are grumbling in the corners about how ridiculous Kelly was to invite all these people and overstimulate these poor kids. More than half of the guests are adults, I should add that. [crying has stopped, oh yeah!] Maybe it will be that fun chaos that I always enjoyed at other people's parties growing up. Maybe when kids grind cake into the carpet and a nameless cutie in our playgroup pummels another kid (AGAIN), I'll actually be convincing when I say, "Oh it's absolutely no problem! Those silly kids!" This makes me wonder if I should accept that maybe I'm not that cool mom who's okay with carpet that resembles a Monet and to not pretend I am with a fake, teeth-clenched smile. R. Kelly's song says, "If I can see it, then I can be it." Well perhaps I can fake it, and then I can be it! That's it! I'll just force our little family through this nutty party and we'll have no choice but to surrender to the kids and all the destruction and mayhem they bring. They are pretty cute.