Christmas Musings

Sometimes Christmas can be pretty disappointing for moms. You work to make sure everybody has the perfect present, and boxes and packages of wonderful, charming magical things, and you get...a vacuum.

This can be difficult for those of us whose "love language" is gift giving.

One year, my sweet littles asked what I wanted for Christmas. All I really wanted was a card of small, sparkly earrings, that I could wear everyday. They were very sneaky, and went shopping with dear Miss K, who helped them wrap the gift. They sneakily told me that they put my gift in a big box, so I would never guess what it was! And I didn't! Because when I unwrapped it, it was a frying pan.

However, as they have gotten older the gifts have improved, and this year was pretty excellent. My Favorite Gentleman, who knows me well got me really good lotion (in a food scent--Mango Melon--not a flowery scent--urg!)and two pairs of the best socks in the world (which I LOVE and can NOT buy for myself because A) I really hate shopping, B) I really, REALLY hate shopping for socks, and C)I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hate shopping for myself--and I always have cold feet, so they truly are the gift that keeps on giving, and that make me feel loved and cared for all year long.) SmallDaughter went on a shopping field trip with her class that netted me a candle and a box of thin mints. I got other lovely stuff, and got to watch a movie with MFG (Sergeant York, which I really recommend, even though it is hard to find!).

In the "do I laugh or do I cry" category: While we were upstairs watching the movie, SmallDaughter poured the whole bottle of lotion onto the carpet, and opened up the thin mints, and fed them to the WonderDog, who (luckily) barfed them up on the carpet, too.

I spent the last half of the afternoon with my carpet shampooer. Boy am I grateful for the carpet cleaner! It has gotten a workout this week! Chocolate syrup (again--she just LOVES it!) and eggs, milk and flour at different times.

My Birthday

I had such an awesome birthday! I really can’t even express how great it was! It began with 8 solid hours of sleep—an almost unheard of rarity in my sleep-starved life! I had lots of birthday wishes from friends, acquaintances and various-people-who-love-me. That was great, and I am so incredibly grateful for it. It is nice to know I am loved (and not forgotten!!)

My charming son LargeBoy and his bestest friend made me THE BEST CAKE I HAVE EVER EATEN. From scratch. Chocolate with chocolate frosting (also from scratch, my own recipe—involving both butter AND cream cheese and 4 kinds of chocolate. Perfection. If you stop at stage 2 you can make it into Truffles (we did), and then if you go on, it turns into fabbity-fab-fab-fab frosting!). MMMMH. Yum.

I went out to lunch and running errands with dear friend K—yummy, yummy Mexican food. (She also gave me a cherry cheesecake—which I nobly shared with her). I ordered pizza for dinner (which contained the MAGIC INGREDIENT-- “I didn’t have to cook it!”) I haven’t had ordered pizza in a couple of months, so I really enjoyed it—plus I got the toppings I wanted instead of what makes everybody else happy! (It was my birthday, right!). Nobody seemed to mind--it all got eaten!

Best of all, my hubby came home! He is working out of state, so he leaves at about 3:30 Monday morning and returns days later (which day depends on the weather!)

I got some great gifts—a package arrived in the mail with a lovely selection of small (great for my purse!) Bath & Body Works yummy stuff in a great scent (food scents are my very fav—not big on floral!) AND a Reading Woman Calendar. While we were out shopping Best Friend K got me a new phone (because she has said LOTS of bad words about my old phone, which was actually HER old phone that was still better than the one it had replaced!). Sweet LargeGirl got me some adorable, sparkly earrings (I always love new earrings!). And Hubby gave me more B&BW lotion—because he knows I love it so!

We also went on a great date, to our favorite restaurant. We thought about going to a movie, but the only ones I wanted to see were at the “El Expensivo” theater, so we just came home and spent time together. I am reading his Christmas book aloud to him—Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. A truly excellent book (the first of a trilogy). After listening to last week’s reading-aloud, while he was gone LargeGirl swiped it and finished it in a few days. She is now on the second one, going gang-busters!

I have realized that gift giving is one of my “love languages”. I love to find the perfect gift for someone else, and I love to receive gifts, too. I must not be maturing, because many women my age freak out about birthdays, but I still love them!

My birthday--full of love, thoughtful gifts, friends and yummy food. I am possibly the luckiest woman in the world!

Getting Dressed

There are some things about the script for dressing a toddler that are fairly standard: "come back here, you naked monkey!", "No silly, that's not a hat, that's your shoe! Shoes don't go on your head!", "Where are your toes? There they are! Let's put a sock on those wiggly toes!"

While my script has all of those elements (especially about silly hats--EVERYTHING goes on her head first--pants, shoes, diaper--except for gloves, which go on her feet!), we do have some unique variations.

First of all, my toddler is now 4 feet tall, and weighs 50 pounds. I never had visible (or even useful!) arm muscles--but she has changed that! I have quite the "gun show" going, now!

The routine for dressing her goes like this:
Unzip the top of her specially made, escape-resistant jammies, but only down to the tape around her waist. Take out her left arm. Attempt to pin her right arm under my leg. Cut the tapes around her jammie sleeve (one at the wrist, one at the bicep), take out her arm, cut the tape off her night glove (which is not only dirty, but probably has at least one fingertip chewed off--a new development that I HATE!), make sure any open wounds are covered with A) Neosporin, B) A High-end, latex free bandaid, C) Several layers of medical tape. Then put on a new glove and tape it around her wrist.

Wow, that sounds tidy, when it is written down like that! The part that throws off reality, is that while I am trying to apply all of those things, SmallGirl is insistently trying to remove them (and she is faster and sneakier than I am!).

As soon as I have her glove on, I slide her (long sleeved) shirt over her head and put her arm in, then tape the sleeve down at the wrist and just over the wrist. Two layers of tape, going in opposite directions, to make it harder for her to peel off.
Repeat for right arm.
Tape her shirt around the waist. Cut the tape off the waist of her jammies and unzip the rest of the way. Change her diaper, trying to keep her from picking any leg wounds (there are ALWAYS leg wounds!). The second she is in a fresh diaper and liner, a pair of stretch knit pants are pulled on and taped around each ankle. I am deeply grateful that we finally got both ankles healed up, because they are the hardest wounds to deal with. Then, pull on a sock and tape it around the ankle. Repeat for the other leg. Then pull on her overalls and tape them around the ankles. Twice. Pull up the overalls and fasten them. Button the sides and pull any loose fabric to the back, then apply tape around her waist and chest (at least 3 times around).
Whew! Now you can put shoes on. And attempt to brush her hair (which reminds me, I have to schedule a haircut for her, she got nail polish in it last night).

All of this because with all of the exotic Latin and Greek based, long words that describe the conditions that affect her life (oral apraxia, hypotonia, epilepsy, developmental delay) the one that really affects every minute is CSP--"Compulsive Skin Picking". Related to Compulsive Hair Pulling. Not fun to live with.

The first time I asked a doctor about it the dialogue went like this:
Me: "she picks compulsively, even in her sleep. If you hold her hands, she will move her elbow or knee up, so she can still reach it."
Doctor: "Have you tried Band-Aids?"

!@#$%^&*!@#$%!!!!

We have tried EVERYTHING. From Duct tape (on the outside of her clothes, of course!) to Heavy Duty Anti-Psychotic Meds (NOT GOOD).
So far, the best option is cellophane tape. After having tried every variety, by every company, I can conclusively state that for this purpose the very best tape is the cheapest type Wal-Mart sells. (Which I am very glad about!--I buy 12 or 15 rolls at a time. You should see the checker's faces. And I get a lot of comments about "you must wrap a lot of gifts!).

This blog entry sounds pretty whiney and self pitying, but it isn't. I am feeling very blessed to have her in my life. She is SO funny. She was so cute this morning. I am glad to have scotch tape invented (I just LOVE whoever invented that stuff!) and to have clothes available so easily (she is unbelievably hard on clothes. The tape wears out the cuffs in no time at all.) I love that I only have to sew her jammies, and not every single thing she wears. I love being her mommy.

An Interesting Insight

*Warning--Religious Content--if it offends you--don't read it!*

Last month, I went with a friend to a special Relief Society Women's Conference, put on by our stake. The speaker was awesome, and one of the main points I took away from it, was that to God, NOTHING is purely physical or temporal--EVERYTHING is spiritual. While I have always known this from a logical standpoint, that night it really struck me emotionally, and I realized that I need to focus on making the physical jobs that I do routinely (specifically laundry and dishes) into something spiritual. I have been pondering and praying about this since.

Tuesday night was our Ward Relief Society birthday social. It was charming, feminine and enjoyable. We talked about the many different stages we go through as women, and the lessons we learn in each stage. I shared my laundry quest, and that Heavenly Father has helped me with my gratitude by seeing how blessed I am to have an automatic washer AND dryer (and when it stops raining, I can hang things outside). Miss P pointed out to me what a beautiful analogy doing laundry is--we hand over clothes (or a life) that are filthy, nasty and stinky, and it is given back to us, clean, refreshed, renewed, and made useful again.

I will be much more mindful as I do laundry, now. It blesses my family, and teaches me, too! I wonder what other lessons I will find from this quest.