Babies

Laundry. So many parents have told me, "The laundry has tripled since we had a kid" or "the baby has more laundry than anyone else in the family" and I would think- YEAH RIGHT!!! Let's say they have lots of laundry, they're SMALL! How much could it be! And brother! Why is there so much anyway! Who cares if they spill on themselves. I've come to realize the reason nobody else explained before. It is this: POOP. Babies poop thru their clothes, usually two layers, every single day. Often multiple times a day. And there's nothing you can do about it. I know most my sisters are mothers and already have this knowledge, but this is a NEW revelation to me. Oisin and I went thru 3 different outfits yesterday! He pooped thru is onseys TWICE!!!! I remember changing him and hearing a toot and looking over and thinking- NO!!!!! Not again!!!!! Before I nannied I was familiar with poop out of the diaper and up the baby's back- but the other day there was a first: poop up the front. I didn't know it could happen. I guess, why not if the other happens, but I've never seen it. It was worse, much more. It just looked worse. Who wants poop in their belly button? After having poop up the back, and later that day up the front- I'd wiped him all clean but I just thought, "Gross! I want to give you a bath! I want to take a bath too! I feel like I've been elbows up in poop though I know I haven't been!" How do they poop so much! It's like 1/2 their body weight sometimes! Why does it all come at once! Why can't it come in stages and stay in the diaper!!!! I use so many wipes! And just when you think you've got it all- you find some more. And I think, "How did that get on your shoulder?" And afterwards I'm sitting on the couch and I swear- my hands smell like poop. And I know they're clean but I swear I can smell it. Oh the woes of poop. Well, it's just the way it goes. I'm done with the poop talk now. I hope everyone could handle it.

Feeding babies. I'm holding a spoonful of rice cereal and Oisin decides in an instant to dive for it with his mouth open, but misses it (of course) and then it's up his nose. Somehow he still manages to breathe. This happens all the time. Food up the nose unexpectedly. And then I'm putting it into his mouth and right when I enter- BAM! He looks to one side fast and it's all across his cheek. Little by little it's EVERYWHERE!!! And it happens so fast. You'd think you'd see it all coming, but no. Babies are such messy businesses. Spit up. I never even know it happens, just suddenly it does. For instance, this was the worst. I'm holding him, walking around. He's front side out and I see him rubbing his eyes for awhile. He looks back at me with this huge grin and his eye lids and entire FACE is covered in spit up. He spit up and rubbed it all over his eyes. Oh it was so disgusting. He didn't notice, he was just grinning at me, but it was the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen. Spit up. It's so quiet. You just look down and see white all down your pants and think, "When did that happen?"

Those, I suppose, have been the biggest surprises for me. Work is going good. Some days are hard, of course, but I like being a nanny. Frasier is always on when I give him his bottle- it's AWESOME!!!! And then it's on for like 4 hours (don't worry, I am FAR from watching t.v all day). So I just watch while I feed him and rock him to sleep, but everyday I end up getting sick of it and turning it off too. I've finally gotten into a routine, I'm discovering new ways to entertain him. It's basically working out. My biggest problem is relaxing about the housework. I'm kind of obsessive about cleaning and making sure things are absolutely perfect. Somedays I'm really good about it, others I'm not. But I still haven't had a normal week yet. The first week was when we fell, so I was w/o him 1/2 the week. And then the next week he was all jitterish and then when things finally got better I got sick and am only just now feeling better. So every day, almost, something has been different than how it normally will be. So hopefully nothing goes wrong next week. Everyday it seems I figure something out to make things easier and sometimes it's really fun. At first I thought, "I never wanna have a baby in my life" but now I'm definitely looking forward to being a stay at home mom. 'Cause, really- it's just going to be better. I'll love my baby more and it will be my house, and i won't have to do the housework as often (because I don't clean as much as I do there) and it will be my baby, so if I want to have him eat or sleep earlier, I can! (they have this schedule thing they like me to stick to) Yeah, I think it'll be great.

Babies are really forgiving. Oisin just loves me. He really loves everybody, he's just that way. But I'll be cleaning or something and he's whining at me, or today I had to put away the groceries and that takes awhile and he got really upset, but as soon as I give him attention he just smiles and loves me. Babies don't know how to hold grudges or be mean. They just love you. I don't know. I think it's neat. They let you know when something's wrong, but as soon as it's remedied, that's what it is: rememedied- no reason to be mad anymore. Sometimes I think, "Will he not like me anymore?" But he always does. I think it's great. Even though he's small and doesn't realize how wonderful he's being, it's very Christ-like. We all should be that way. Looking at Oisin I think we came to earth that way but learned to be different. Anyway, enough of that.

We're both well again and excited to actually leave our apartment and do something fun this weekend! Ah, tomorrow's Friday, I'm so glad. It's so nice having the weekend together. Back home, I worked every saturday and had monday off when Greg's at school. So we only had sunday. What a difference to have 2 days off together. I am grateful. Ok, I'm gonna go. BYE!