Movement

Felicity is really getting around these days!  She is a woman on the move!  It's a big pain!  Ha!

She is crawling and pulling up to stand and even cruising a little and it's super exciting.  She is not napping more, like I thought maybe she would but again, she is too good a night time sleeper for me to complain.

My friend Kate just had a baby, her first, and it is bringing back some memories.  It's so hard, he is just one week old and I was thinking today about when Felicity was one week old.  Then I was thinking how different it was when she was a week compared to when Anthony was a week old.  When he was a week old and he had basically not slept at all and screamed all the time, I was so scared and so miserable.  When Felicity was one week old, I was just fine - she was fine, and sleepy, and even though she cried I knew it would come to an end.  I wish I had just KNOWN the crying would come to an end with Anthony, or had faith in it, or something because actually he ended up having so many fewer problems than Felicity did anyway!

It's so hard to believe, right, that she had six ear infections in her first six months?  That she had fevers all the time and screamed and cried and I had to sleep holding her sitting up so she wouldn't yell?  That we had to take her to the damned urgent care all the time?  Now she's so healthy that I have completely missed her nine month appointment with her pediatrician, ha!  I do feel so lucky and grateful that she is so healthy and adorable now.

I took her to the Childwatch today at the Y and she was there for about 30 minutes and she did fine. One thing bugged me though and I think maybe this is because I'm a stay at home mom.  I don't expect people to, like, RAISE her or anything at a childwatch but they put her in a swing and I was like, really?  She is TEN MONTHS OLD.  Can't she just crawl around like I saw some other kids her age doing?  So next time I'm going to mention it.  Otherwise, I'm really happy that she did so well, no crying or anything!  Yay Felicity!  It's all I can ever think, Yay Felicity!

What's So Great About Felicity

Felicity is ten months old, finally.  What's So Great About Her?  What ISN'T?

• She's an excellent sleeper but I can't talk about it.  
• She is freaking adorable.  
• She is so, so happy, like seriously MOST of the time.  Ninety nine percent of the time she is over the moon happy.  
• She is so cute, people can't stop looking at her when we are out at the store and stuff.
• She will sit on a blanket at the park while I chase her sisters around, or push them on the swing, or whatever.  
• She is saying things!  I don't know what they are, but things!  She is a clear genius.
• She claps her hands for almost everything - like if you say "say Mama!", she claps.  If you say "sign more!" and sign it, she claps.  The whole time she waggles her eyebrows and tilts her head adorably.  
• She is a great, if messy kisser.  What she lacks in neatness she makes up for with enthusiasm. 
• She is completely lovable.  All you can do is love her.  I want to eat her up with a spoon.  

Iron Man

Felicity is some kind of non-napper, I'll say that!  This morning she woke up at 7:30 or something and she napped for one hour this morning, from like 10:30-11:30 and then - that was it - for the day!  She FINALLY went to sleep tonight after 8:00.  The other kids never ever could have made it that long but I always have to remind myself that she sleeps straight through in the night in a way that they didn't at her age.  Veronica didn't sleep through the night until she was like 15 months old!

Tonight I said she was nine months old but Mike said we may as well start saying 10, she'll be 10 months on Friday.  She started crawling this week, she is pulling up to lots of things, and she is cruising around on things, as long as the things are veryvery close together.  She eats everything, but super messily, so who knows how much she gets.  We try and give her one puree a day, usually prunes, which helps her be, ahem, regular.

::Claps Hands:: enough about that!  She is good, she is still pulling the heck out of my hair and she also bites me a LOT and BOY does it hurt.  But she is so sweet and funny, all is forgiven.  When she knows that you're looking at her, she tilts her head all the way down to her shoulder and smiles adorably.  Laura came over today and she was so happy to see her, but she was doing the weirdest thing.  It was like she was waving, but over her face!  Like she would smile and then drag her hand down from her forehead, over her nose, and over her mouth.  Poor stupid baby, I think she thought she was waving!

She claps and does 'so big!' and is all around just fine.  Phew.

Oh I am awful

One post a month!?  About my sweet Felicity?  Maybe it will get better when the other two girls are back in preschool.  They'll be gone three days a week and we can't wait!  Ha!  I'm feeding Felicity a snack and I updated the other blogs, so I thought I'd better try and do hers too.  It's not going great so far, she likes attention.

You know, Felicity really doesn't have it all.  I didn't breast feed her, she only gets one nap a day, Veronica lies down on her ALL THE TIME, it's hard out there for a baby!  I read all this crap about 'having it all' and I think, who does?  WHO DOES?  That Yahoo CEO or whatever is going to have her first baby at 37 and she's going to take maternity leave for a few weeks but she's going to work the whole time and I think what?  Who?  If you are working the whole time how can you be taking leave?  What about the baby?  Are you going to breast feed while you're working?  What about when you're crying from breast feeding?  Or is that just me?  Do you have hormones or is there some way they get wiped out for rich people?  For WORKING WOMEN?  I don't know.

I think about having it all a lot lately, because of articles like this, or this, or this one, which I actually really liked.  It seems like such a load of crap to me, but I don't think I'm even supposed to think about it, because since I don't work (much) OUTSIDE THE HOME, I'm not trying to have it all.  I've given up!  But I think, having thought a lot about it lately, that I have it all in a way that women who work outside the home don't.  Maybe because I've given up?  Maybe I know The Secret?  The secret is this - it is stupid to think about having it all when it is physically, literally impossible to have it all.  You can't be at home with your kids and giving them 100 percent of your attention AND be at an office, or even in a home office.  It just doesn't make sense.  I can't even give these fools 100% of my attention when I am with them and not even thinking about another job.  I'm typing this right now, with Felicity in her high chair to my right!  Her life is FLYING by me as I complain about it on the internet!  Ha!  Just kidding, mostly.

It's just so, so stupid and pointless.  I can't have it all, I can't find someone to pay me for 40 hours a week AND stay home with my kids anymore than Felicity can find it in her schedule to take three good naps a day, not even two!  I can't get the respect that Whatshername from Yahoo can get because I don't go to an office every day, any more than Felicity can get Veronica to STOP LAYING DOWN ON HER.

But I have it better than Felicity has it, because at least I made the decision to stay at home and get no damned respect.  She didn't decide to be the fourth child, with her crazy mother.  But I look at it like this - my brother John is the fourth of four, my cousin Margaret is the ELEVENTH of ELEVEN.  They are fine!  Good looking, smart, happy, fun.  So I'm hopeful that even if Felicity doesn't have it all now, and even if she is a little overtired, she will end up just fine.  And hopefully in the fall, when the others are all in school, I can document her success a little bit better.  Like she is standing!  And crawling a little!  And is super cute!  And can sign and say "Dad!" !!