Ni Hao, Kai Lan!

In anticipation of Ramona being able to comprehend what I watch on television, I have started putting only child friendly tv shows on when we are together. Basically, we either watch sports or Nick Jr. As such, I constantly have the theme song from Ni Hao Kai Lan stuck in my head. It's very catchy. I don't know how often I'm sitting at my desk thinking, "Let's tiger tiger ROAR!" The Wonder Pets are also constantly banging around in my brain as well. I really need to start making sure I bring my Zune to work so I can listen to something else and not totally lose myself to mommy Meggie already.

When I first found out I was pregnant, I think that was one of the hardest things to deal with. Who am I? Becoming a mom just seemed like a huge change. It was like I was going to develop a new personality and do something completely different and I really didn't know how I was going to end up. I mean, my mom really devoted herself to us when we were kids and I couldn't imagine giving any less to my kids. (Really, sometimes I feel bad for Ramona because she has to have me for a mom and I got to have my awesome mom.) But I still wanted to be me, only better (and more child friendly.)

I think I've achieved that. I'm really taking care of myself a lot better than I have in long time. I've been eating really healthfully, brushing my teeth twice a day, showering on a regular basis, and occasionally even dressing like a real person! I still want to work on some things, but over all I think I've done pretty well at balancing Megan and Mommy. And someone else thinks so, too:

"Ma, you so crazy! I think I wanna be yo baby!" **What a mom, what a mom, what a mom, what a mighty good mom- a mighty mighty good mom!** (If you think that's good you should hear my other hits. Joe calls me the Weird Al of baby related songs.)

Bummer?

So, last week I was kind of bummed out. Just one of those crap weeks where everything seems hopeless and I get overly dramatic with my sadface. Then the internet seems to conspire against me and post sad things about sad people. (Honestly, I have read more about people losing their babies in the past month than I can handle. Just reading the stories makes me depressed, I can't imagine how these people go on in life. Nothing makes me hold my little fish tighter and thank God for every minute with her than hearing about someone else's loss.)

But, I really need to cheer up and realize things are not so bad. Obviously, I have my amazing little lady with me every day. And I'm not happy with my living situation, but- well, I mean, yeah, it's annoying to live in the middle of nowhere- especially when you live two hours round trip to the nearest grocery store or pharmacy so you only go there once every two weeks, and the last time you went you forgot to buy new deodorant AND it has started hitting 100 degrees. So you wear some old cheap deodorant that you found in the back of a closet that you probably bought one time when you flew somewhere and forgot to pack deodorant because it was only for a couple days and not a big deal, but now it's all you have and no matter how much you use you still smell and have giant pit stains from being outside for five minutes. Not that this just happened to me or anything. I mean, yeah, that part of it sucks, BUT I do live somewhere super beautiful where I get to come home for lunch every day to sneak an extra hour with my daughter. And my boss is really supportive and awesome about my family situation and childcare problems.

So, it's time to man up and just deal. I'm still on the hunt for the elusive midwest job, but I do have some perks out here. I can complain (and do!) but deep down I'm also very thankful for all the good things in life. I'm employed, in love, safe and healthy. All said and done I'm a lucky lady. Even if I'm kind of smelly and gross for the next week and a half.

6 Months

Today Ramona turned six months old. I can't believe she's been here for half a year. It's so crazy. On one hand it seems like she was born yesterday, and on the other, it feels like we've had her forever. She's so beautiful and sweet. She was really good at the doctor's today and showed off her new tooth. He said it looks like her second tooth is about to break out, too. I also gave her pears for the first time and she was a big fan. And the best news was that she doesn't have to have anymore shots until she's one year old. So all in all, a great day. Poor little lady was feverish from her vaccines again this time. Not too bad, but I gave her some tylenol and she went to sleep early tonight.

My trip to the dentist was not as full of sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows. He pretty much told me to stop eating lollipops in fact. He said I have some serious decay and need to take better care of my teeth. And my painful tooth gets a stupid root canal in two weeks. And then there is more repair work to do after that. So, I guess that's what happens when you don't go to the dentist for five year. Oh, well, at least it is getting taken care of by now.

Interesting crossover from dentist to pediatrician- the pediatrician told us to try to start Ramona on the sippy cup instead of a bottle soon because bottles are apparently bad for baby teeth. Who knew? So it's time to start looking at sippy cups. Of course I can't buy one until I get my new debit card, which was another huge mess today. Apparently some banking information at my bank was compromised so they voided everyone's debit cards, and had sent out the new ones a couple of weeks ago. However, they had my old address so I didn't receive it and had no idea what was going on. So, when I went to Ramona's pediatrician and tried to pay, my card was rejected. I just wrote a check (yes I'm old school enough to carry my checkbook) but was very confused. I called them when I got home and got it straightened out, but I probably won't get my new card for a week. Since I do almost all my shopping on line, it's going to be a loooooong week.

Yum

So we went ahead and let Ramona try some carrots tonight. She was very confused by the whole process. First I had the spoon of carrots in front of her and she was interested. She kept trying to grab the spoon, so that started the mess that ended up all over her. (Of course I didn't put a bib on her or anything, that would have required thinking ahead.) Then she got some carrots in her mouth and gave us her crazy eyes and spit most of it out. She spent the rest of the time trying to avoid me putting more carrots in her mouth while simultaneously grabbing for the spoon. She made it through four bites (although in the video I say it's three bites, so my stupidity is saved for everyone to see) and then we gave up for now. We'll try again tomorrow, and if she's not excited about the prospect, we might put it off for a couple more weeks when she's a little older.



One thing I really love about Ramona's pediatrician is that he realizes that every baby is different and really encourages us to do things when Ramona seems ready instead of following arbitrary guidelines. He's also really nice. The only thing that really bothers me about him is that he speaks quietly. This wouldn't be so terrible except that Ramona has screamed through every single doctor's appointment she's had, so I can never understand what he says and the appointment takes twice as long because I have to keep ask him to repeat himself. Even when she's not screaming I have a hard time hearing him (probably because I'm going deaf from Ramona screaming in ear.) I can sometimes hear about half of what he says and piece together what he was talking about, but it takes me a few seconds to figure it out. So every time he talks to me, I stand there with a quizzical look and then nod, so I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm really stupid and just pretend to know what's going on.

Anyway, next week is Ramona's six month appointment, and I know he's going to ask whether or not she's eating baby food yet, so now we can say we gave it a shot, but are still not positive she's ready. I'm sure he'll be satisfied and probably have some tips. I'm also really excited to show him her tooth. And speaking of teeth, I'm going to the dentist after Ramona's doctor's appointment. Sadly, I'm really excited about it. I'm such a loser that I love going to the dentist because the feeling of sparkling clean teeth is one my little joys in life. Dork! But also I definitely have a cavity and it's starting to make everything I eat taste like death. Today was my cheat meal for the abs diet so I ate one of my precious Easter Peeps and it tasted horrible due to said cavity. That won't do at all. If I only get one Peep a week, it better taste like 100% pure delicious uncut sugar.

Getting toothy

Ramona's first tooth has arrived! Just when I was beginning to fear all the things I had filed under teething were perhaps just her personality, it finally broke through her gums. Joe and I are both super pumped, and taking this as a sign that it is almost time for her to start eating food. She turns six months next week, and has been nomming on broccoli and carrots for teething purposes for about a week. It works like this- Ramona sees me eating a baby carrot. She thinks baby carrot means that it is a carrot for a baby. She must have it NOW! She launches herself off my lap to rifle around in the bag of baby carrots until she gets one securely in her hand. She shoves it in her mouth and gnaws on it for 30 seconds. She throws it across the room. I pick it up and eat it. (Hey, five second rule!) Ramona has already started getting a new carrot by the time I eat the old carrot. Repeat until I get tired of eating carrots with cat hair on them and put the baby carrots away.

Since she is already familiar with the idea of carrots, and because carrots have been recommended by all my friends with kids around her age, we're going to do some home made carrot mash for her first food. I'm planning lots of pictures and, of course, a video to chronicle the whole event.

Broccoli Thief

Well now seems as good a time as ever to start over in many ways. Last week I started healthy eating again. I also started keeping the kitchen clean on a regular basis again. We got a new computer, so I figured I'd start blogging again. I think of how quickly the past few months since Ramona was born have flown by, and I don't want to forget how things are.

Things with Joe are good. I wish we had more time together, but such is life at this time. He might be able to get a more consistent schedule at work so we would have the weekends together, so I'm really hoping that pans out. He's getting too little sleep which can be pretty grating with Ramona's new love of squealing. Oh, the squealing. In short, it's horribly annoying. I can not stand the squealing. But other than that she's doing great. She's getting really good at sitting up on her own, and we're getting ready to do her first visit with baby food soon. She's been getting more and more curious about what we eat, and I've been indulging her curiosity in small doses. Over the weekend she got a hold of my yogurt so I put a little on her tongue and she gave me her crazy eyes. Today I was eating some raw broccoli at lunch and she reached for a piece so I let her chew on it. She liked it! Then she kept dropping the piece I gave her and grabbing for my bowl. She's a total broccoli thief.