This is one of the ones I banged out before delivering. Note the large belly and peek-a-boo bra. Why does Sprout have commercials? Isn’t PBS? This vid talks about the ones we saw on there.
I don’t like my daughter to see commercials in general. I TiVo and fast-forward through most of them, but sometimes they creep in… what do these ones tell her about the world we live in?
I, like other mothers, was bracing for my kid’s spring break. I thought I would hate it. I’ve been spoiled by Vivien being in school from 9 (if I get there on time) to just before 3 (pick up later, and you are in trouble). Now I haven’t been at peak work/writing production during the break, but now that it’s about to end I’m a bit wistful. In all she will have been off for 2 and half weeks.
I mentioned to a mom friend that I like spring break.
“You are the only one” she quipped.
I found Vivien was better behaved, and we had less conflict on her break. My mom , a former nursery school director, thinks Viv’s school is too crowded and that it can promote aggressiveness in kids. I also thought maybe our conflicts come from me not focusing enough on her, especially with a new baby. She gets mom time, and then she is more reasonable. It’s not only I who have noticed; my husband and Dolly (who helps me when Mark works at night) has also noticed a sweeter kid. So, do I send her back to school?
Well, she likes her buddies there, and it’s paid for. And I really want to lose these 15 pounds, so I am going to use some of her school time to push Rex around in a stroller. Other than that, I might consider a little home preschooling.
I was just reading Modern Love in the NY Times Style section, a major favorite read of mine. In it, the woman recounts how she yells at her husband in public over some minor infraction, something that had built up over 20 years of marriage. As she collected herself, she realized what it must be like to be him. I think that is a great way to live, to see the world from their eyes. Unfortunately, in this vid, the moms and I once again go after the hubbies anyway. Hey, I can’t take the high road all the time… or maybe any of it.
Argh, I know! It’s only been 7 weeks, but I’m feeling impatient to not have what looks like a small butt on my lower belly. I know it took 6 months to lose weight with Viv, but I’m worried. And it doesn’t help that I have recently done a red-carpet event staring up close at Anne Hathaway, Nicky Hilton, and the like, and that I just did a shoot with Kim Kardashian (she is selling shoes now at Shoedazzle.com). I feel big and old.
[Sidebar: you can be thin, pretty, and rich, but the humor and charisma meter pin won’t budge. The worst offender recently was Nicky Hilton. Honey, don’t act all shy and meek; you are at a public event for Pete’s sake.]
But I digress. I started trying to do a decent walk everyday. And some mornings I say I will go to an exercise class, but by the time I feed Viv and nurse Rex, class has begun, and I stay seated in my milk-soaked gown. Maybe I’ll just play a lot of hide and seek with Viv.
I took Vivien with me to the Fashion Team today. It was great. She needed some mom time since I think my hospital stay pushed her away. She modeled (will air this Sunday at 7 p.m. and then repeated Monday at 7 p.m. on the TV Guide Channel). She hung out for a couple of hours with another kid whose mom is our supervising producer. She was a gem. Mark was minding Rex.
Rex had a very hard time settling last night, but then did well. And while sleepy, he has been much more himself today, nursing normally. I’ve become a hand-washing Nazi. I’m too freaked not to. My sister-in-law and mother-in-law were here in the evening along with Dolly, a woman who helps me in the evenings when Mark is gone and without whom I would probably become a heavy drinker. My friend Arlene came over with her two girls who play with Vivien. With this full house, I said to Arlene, “Let’s get out of here. I need a drink.” A mile away is my husband’s restaurant, and I figured we were good for an hour. We sat at the bar and drank a dry, French white wine and ate a lamb sandwich. My sister’s friend Mimi and her husband Guy walked in. I had just finished telling Arlene everything. Mimi had emailed while Rex was in the hospital. As I was talking about it, I suddenly thought, “I can’t talk about it anymore.” I recounted calling my brother-in-law from the ER to ask them to look after Vivien, and when I got the part about Kevin saying, “What can we do to help?” I finally started to cry. I hadn’t cried during the whole thing. The wine, the sympathetic faces, the relief.
I was just looking at Rex as he slept and prayed we won’t ever have to go back there. My heart soooo goes out to parents who have sick kids. Seriously sick kids. Words fail me to express what that is like for them.
I think I’m going to be more ginger with him for quite a while.
Now that Rex is feeling better, I can turn to more light-hearted subjects… like, why are there no coffee carts in the park? Come on, Mompreneuers! This is a gold mine!
I banked this vid before Rex’s birth, but I thought it mighty timely considering the health scare we just had with Rex. I was spoiled with Vivien. She didn’t get ill till she was 11 months. But others in the family did, and thank GOD my baby missed this one.
Mark took the overnight shift, and I was able to go home and crawl into my own bed with Vivien next me. In the middle of the night she said, “Momma, I’m glad you came home.” Woke up early, but had the best sleep in many nights. I got up twice to pump, but I wasn’t the sentry for the night; and I didn’t have an overweight, sullen nursing assistant barging in several times a night with a nose ring snorting, “I gotta take his vitals.” And who says we can pronounce the death of charm? I perhaps.
Yesterday, we would find out the results of all the cultures. My mother-in-law arrived so I could either spell Mark or take our boy home. Just when I was getting ready to go Mark called and said, “They diagnosed him…” I held my breath. “…as a cutie, patootie.” It was funny, but I could have hit him. “Is he okay?”
Yes, he was, and we could take him home. I was sure he would pass out when we got to our own environs, and he did. But he isn’t himself. He is cranky and sensitive, which he wasn’t before. If he loses his latch instead of allowing me to reattach him calmly per usual, he flips out and starts crying. A cry that sounds like to me, “Oh, forget it lady, just forget it; you f–ed up and I’m not interested anymore.” And it takes a while to calm him.
The one thing that is better about him is he developed a puffy redness under his eyes while in the hospital. I assume from the stress and crying. So that looks better. Maybe the entire trauma has taken its toll, or maybe the antibiotics they gave him bother his tummy, ’cause I have had more spit up than usual. I dunno.
So grateful to be home and back to small problems. I glimpsed some kids in there that could break your heart.
On the Fashion Team, we get various guests. Most are nice people. But every once in a while we get one (and by we I mean me and my co-host Lawrence Zarian) we hope puts us in their pocket and takes us home. That’s how we felt about Jane Kaczmarek: candid, witty, warm. She was talking about advice her mother gave her when we were taping, and it was funny and right on, so I asked her to share some of this grand dame’s sage words with our Cool Mom viewers as well.
Thanks to everyone for dear comments and prayers. So far, tests coming back negative. Last night was tough. He woke up a lot, and since it was night two of little sleep for me, the nurses tried to soothe him and take him out of the room a couple of times. He is much more tender. No wonder. In the early morning he wouldn’t nurse, which I really don’t like. After I walked with him a while (as in in a circle in the room), he started to calm. He really liked the over-the-shoulder in the rocking chair. I know he will like it when dad comes back, as that is what Mark does a lot of with him.
When they inject the antibiotics through the IV, he cries. I know that it feels weird. I can’t believe he goes through this when he can’t raise his own head yet. Some of the nurses are great. I rarely see a doctor. He’s supposed to get out of the hospital on Wednesday. His fever his down a bit, but I push for regular Tylenol as it helps him be more comfortable. Ready to do a Shirley MacLaine a la Terms of Endearment if needed. “Give my kid his medicine!”
Came home for a nap when Mark spelled me. Going back now.