Thursday, May 16, 2013

"Your baby looks like a boat" (aka Why I go to Work)

I started working again at the beginning of the year. When people ask me how it's going, I usually say it's going "Okay." It's definitely not great; for how few hours I'm working it's a lot harder than I thought it would be, and it's getting harder and harder the older Mariah gets. I don't really have consistent childcare. Matt comes home early once a week, when the classes are at my house I try to put Mariah down for a nap right before my students get here, and when I teach at the preschool I just bring her with me. Some days it goes fine...but there have been days where she fusses and cries for a whole class, blows out of her diaper, or just wants to be held. Either way, I feel bad that I have to adjust her whole schedule just to get in a couple hours of work during the day. And, now that she's mobile, it's almost impossible to keep an eye on her and teach at the same time. But the stuff the kids say keeps me coming back for more.


Driving up to my students' home for the first time after maternity leave. I pull up, and the two boys are standing on their front porch shouting: "HEY!!!! WHAT DID YOU NAME YOUR BABY??"
When I got closer I told them: Mariah. 
(Huge disappointment)
"Awwwww! We told you to name her Lumie!" (Apparently this means snowflake in Finnish and was the name they were really championing for at the end of my pregnancy)

"You look skinny! I mean not really skinny, but at least compared to how you looked the last time we saw you!"

I thought the awkward questions would cease once the baby was born, but turns out breastfeeding is another source of mystery and fascination for kids.

"Can you stay here and play with us?"
"No I have to go home and feed my baby!"
"Why can't your husband just feed her?"
"She's still really little so only her mom can feed her right now"
"OHHH I know what you mean...*wink!*"

"What's the baby gonna have for dinner?"
"Milk. Milk for breakfast lunch and dinner."
"Milk from the booboo?"
"Uhhh yep. anyways."
"So you mean she's gonna have booboo for dinner?

"My family did something illegal, I don't know if I should tell you."
"Ok."
"We turned on the sprinklers and we all ran around naked in the backyard. Even my dad."

"Did your baby's hands shrink?"
"Nope"
"I think they did because last time I saw her, her fingers were *thiiis* much longer" (demonstrating about a millimeter difference)

"Are you gonna tell Mariah stories about me while I'm gone?"
"I wasn't planning on it."
"I think you should. If you want you can practice while I'm here. Tell her a story about me as a fairy."

I teach one student at her grandmother's home, and with about 5 minutes left of class, she whispered to her grandma, "Go lock the door."
Her grandma said, "Miss Emily has to leave in a few minutes."
"I know, that's why I said lock the door, so she can't leave."

When Mariah was dressed in her blue and white striped onesie, one of my preschoolers told me, "Your baby looks like a boat."

A 6 year old told me, "I don't know if I really need to learn this, because when I grow up I'm going to live in Bangladesh and own a tiger and be a world class soccer player."

One of my 4 year old students has an imaginary baby friend who, coincidentally, is the exact same age as Mariah and likes to do everything she does. He told me his baby's name used to be Lizzy, but then she changed it to Lillian, and now it is Ruby. Every week he asks me what Mariah likes and what she's doing now, and then he says something like, "My baby is doing the same thing!! She's crying right now because she misses me, but I can't play with her since I'm working." I asked if he was the baby's brother or the baby's dad and he said, "I'm the baby's mom, silly! She has to eat ya know!"
Last week, he told me his baby was in the hospital because she broke her leg when she was learning to crawl. Sad.

Mariah LOVES one of my students who comes over to our house for class every Tuesday. She waves her arms in excitement and giggles and smiles just looking at her. It is hilarious watching the two of them feed off each other. It's so funny to me that my students already see Mariah as "one of the kids."


My preschoolers seem to alternate between treating Mariah like their little protege and treating her like their own baby sister that's bugging them. Some days they get really intent on trying to teach Mariah how to use an abacus, and other days they whine to me, "Miss Emilyyyy, Mariah's looking at my paperrrrrr."
Guys, she can barely control where her eyes look, let alone use them to read and cheat off your book. 



Tuesday, May 14, 2013

7 months


7 months baby!
Mariah has her two bottom teeth, is in size 2 diapers and 6-9 month clothes, is blabbering and shrieking constantly, learning to crawl around and getting into mischief, and her hair gets longer every time she wakes up.

Mariah likes:
Saying mama, dada, and baba
Whispering
Giving big slobbery kisses (on command!)
Scooting all over the room (not quite real crawling yet, but she gets around fast pushing with her toes)
Sitting in a high chair at restaurants!
Eating. New foods lately: millet, strawberries, spinach, grapefruit, green beans, mangoes...I'm starting to lose track. She eats everything with total nonchalance, like she's been eating it forever. She prefers the sweeter fruits and veggies. She's getting better with finger foods also.
Swishing her spit in her mouth (weird)
Spatula, measuring cups, remote control, water bottle, rattles
Putting things into our mouths, the most entertaining for her is putting her pacifier or my hair into my mouth, and then laughing maniacally
Sleeping! KNOCK ON WOOD. I honestly feel like a new woman this last week. (I wrote this last week. Last night she was up at 10 pm, midnight, 3 am, and 6 am. Heaven help me.)
Being outside. We take her on a long walk just about every day.
Biting. Her favorite things currently are my collarbone and shoes.
One of these mesh feeders, we put frozen fruit in it and she is a happy camper feeding herself.

Mariah does not like:
The back of my head
When I take away shoes from her mouth. I have to draw the line somewhere.
When feeding time is over
Any of our feeble attempts at babyproofing

 Camera bag snack

Sometimes she gets frustrated with her crawling efforts and goes into superman while flailing her arms and legs.


Playing with Aunt Natalie and Uncle Jeff

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Breekend- Sunday

Aside from bringing some sunny skies and warmer temps with them, Jeff and Natalie also brought some magic baby sleeping dust with them. Ever since they came Mariah has been sleeping for 11-12 hours straight through the night. Thanks guys, we appreciate that. While they were here, we of course celebrated Jeff's 27th birthday (on the same day as Mariah's 7 months :), had our fav Kneader's breakfast, drove up the canyon, and Natalie and I got lots of q time chatting while the boys golfed. Before they left on Sunday afternoon, we visited the cemetery to find the gravestone for Natalie's grandfather and some of her other relatives. I think we read every single gravestone there before we finally found the right one.




We miss you guys already!!! Sure love you.






Sunday, May 5, 2013

Breekend- Saturday

A couple of months ago, Natalie told me she was hoping to surprise Jeff with a birthday weekend in Salt Lake. Never missing an opportunity for a surprise, I jumped on the wagon and didn't say peep to Matt about it. The {white} lies were starting to eat me up inside, but it was all worth it to see his face struck with genuine confusion and glee at the airport when we went to pick up my "cousin" and instead ran into Jeff and Natalie. Good to get these bros together. On Friday they golfed, and before their second round at the course, we spent Saturday afternoon at Temple Square and City Creek.









 This city finally feels like home.




These viking bikers were rad.
(Breekend= Bro Weekend.)