Thursday, April 26, 2007

Parenting Tips by Nicole

I always say that I am going to carry around a notebook to write down some of the things Nicole says, but I never do. She comes up with some gems when she is distracted and tired; times when she feels the need to respond but doesn’t quite think about what she is saying. Her mouth is on automatic pilot.

Here’s a snippet from a conversation last night:

Me: Mina called. She wants to know if splinters will come out on their own.
Nicole: Sometimes. I don’t know. Why?
Me: Leif and Skye have a ton of them in their hands and feet and they scream every time Mina tries to tweeze them out. She doesn’t know what to do.
Nicole: She should just give them a stick to bite on or something and take them out.

Before you call child services, she wasn’t really serious. But still, I need to start recording these things, just for fun.

Speaking of calls, every 20 days or so, my cell phone voice mail reminds me that I have “One message about to expire.” I got that reminder again today. It is the same message I have saved since the fall from my IVF nurse. I have no idea why I didn’t manage to answer that call—as many of you know, the world stops when you are waiting for those blood work update phone calls from your RE office and your phone is glued to your hand. How I managed to miss that call, I don’t know. But it was pure torture dialing up voicemail and punching in my numbers and waiting to hear “Hi Jennifer this is Michelle calling…” all the while trying to determine from her opening tone if it is good news or bad news. Anyway, I have been reluctant to delete that message since it brought such good news (a rising beta, a properly behaving progesterone level) so I save it month after month. But every 20 days that message brings me right back to that fear.

I looked today at birth announcements. I still can’t believe that this is all happening. I feel like I am living someone else’s life. Of course, I can’t find any I like and think I might just make them myself, but I think that might be too much to handle in the first weeks after the babies come home. Look at me, all positive.

Tomorrow is my last day of grad school. It’s been four and half years and I am SO ready for the break.

Pictured above is Nicole with cake. She tells me all the time to not bake cakes or cookies or other such things because having dessert every day is a tad excessive. Yet whenever I make something she is in SUCH a good mood (food excitement) that it is hard to obey such orders.

6 comments:

K J and the kids said...

You Martha Stewart you. Be careful you might turn on Raz-ma-Taz.

Pushin right along there.
Need a belly shot.
Do you think you will do a naked belly shot ?
I know it's a lot to ask, but come on...:)

Carey said...

Congrats on your last day of grad school!! YEAH!!!!!

lagiulia said...

Congratulations on finishing grad school. That's really a great accomplishment, especially being as pregnant as you are!!!

Funny about the message from your IVF nurse. For some reason, I couldn't erase my RE's number from my cell phone contact list until well after the boys were born. Some sort of weird superstition or maybe gratitude. I don't know.

Hope you are getting the rest you need. Take care!

Ohmygod- I meant to tell you, I take a singing class at New School, and our accompanist is like 32 weeks pregnant with twins, and she TOTALLY doesn't look like it. She looks like maybe 25 weeks with twins, if that. It's shocking. And she's this tiny little woman too. I wish you could see her... it's like the 8th wonder of the world!

Anonymous said...

wooo hooo! high five on the last day of grad school.
I still don't get how you do ALL that you do & then go and make these amazing looking cakes?

Dee said...

That cake looks too good!

Love the parenting tip!

whatthef*ck said...

splinters do come out on their own. my son goes apeshit when i get near him with a tweezer. no point in even trying to get the really embedded ones. i try to spin it as cool that he is carrying around a little piece of wood in his hand. takes a few days or maybe even a week.

happy nesting!