Sticks and Stones

We all know the saying; we said it as kids when someone said something mean.

But it isn't true.

Words do hurt.  In fact, if my experience holds true for others, words that hurt have way of sticking with you more than the kind words do.  Words matter.  I'm sure each of us can think back to a specific point in elementary school, middle school, high school, college maybe, or even home or work where someone said something that hurt you, and you remember those words well.  And though we all would be ashamed to admit it, most of us have probably said something to someone at some point that hurt them badly enough to stick with them. 



This video hit extremely close to home for me as the mother of three girls.  It breaks my heart to know that this could be Caroline or Charlotte or Camille one day.  I've quoted some unknown mother before saying that having kids is truly like having your heart walk around outside of your body.  It's so true.  When someone hurts them, it hurts me and though my instinct is to do anything I can to protect them, I know I can't protect them from everything.  I'm sure that's how this girl's mother feels too.

Seeing this video brought to mind not only how the words we say matter, but also that the words we don"t say matter.  When we don't take the opportunity to say something encouraging or kind or supportive, we may be missing the chance to give someone exactly what they need to keep going.  There are people who pass this girl each day who may not know her pain and may not say anything hurtful to her, but maybe if just a few people had something positive to say, it could make all the difference in the world.  Going through tragdy in my life has taught me that even if it's uncomfortable, it's so much better to say something than to avoid.  Take the risk.  Press in to other people's lives.

(video via Matthew Paul Turner)

Confessions of a Mama

I ate eight Thin Mints last night.  With a glass of wine.

Picking Camille up in the afternoons is harder for me than dropping her off.  I can't not think about all of her day that I missed.

I've cried at two TV shows so far this week: Parenthood (Oh, Crosby and Jasmine and Poor Julia and Joel!) and Top Chef (Richard!).

Once, when Caroline was a baby (a baby who did not sleep particularly well), after getting up with her what seemed to be about every half hour one night, I yelled "Shut! Up!" from bed.

When I was in the check-out line at Target last night, I caught myself searching for news about Brad and Emily on the cover of People and Us.  Pathetic?  Yes.

Six Months

Now that Camille is seven months old, I thought I'd go ahead and give an update from her six month check up.  Yep, that would be one month ago.  She weigted 16.5 lbs and was 26 inches long.  She's eating solids now twice a day in addition to her bottles and I haven't found a food she doesn't like yet.  Even green beans, which neither Caroline nor Charlotte would touch as babies.  Developmentally she's semi-on-track.  She's nowhere near sitting up, but she rolls around the room if you'll let her and shows signs that she's trying to add some scooting to the rolling.  She has gotten back on track with sleeping through the night after keeping mama guessing on her sleep schedule for a few weeks.  She sleeps from about 7:00 or 7:30 until anywhere from 4:30 to 6:30.  If she wakes up super-early, she'll go right back to sleep for a little while after her bottle.  All in all, she's doing really well, she's truly a joy to have as part of our family.  And truth be told, now that she's eating and sleeping in a pretty regular routine, she's probably the easiest member of our family to manage.

Ice Cream

Every night at dinner we have "dinner question" time.  Either Jeff or I think of a question that we all have to answer and Caroline usually chimes in with at least one question too.  The questions range from asking about your favorite movie or subject in school to what your dreams were about last night.  It's a good way for us to talk to the girls without just asking "how was your day?"  That question inevitably gets the response, "Oh, I don't remember."

Caroline thinks that "dinner question" is a lot of fun - both the answering and the asking.  Charlotte, on the other hand, is stuck on our very first dinner question from several months ago.  The first time we asked it (and possibly a few times since), the dinner question was "What is your favorite dessert?"  Charlotte answered "ice cream."  Which, by the way, she wasn't even allowed to eat at that time because of her milk allergy.  We've slowly been easing milk back into her diet (with pretty good success), so she has been eating ice cream since then - but at the time she had probably only had ice cream once or twice in her life.  Ever since that night, no matter what the dinner question, she answers, "ice cream."

Charlotte, what do you like to play on at the park?"  "Ice cream."  How about your favorite friend at school to play with?  "Ice cream."  It never fails.  I think she gets that it's funny now, so I think she does it for the humor factor at this point, but for a while I think she just thought ice cream was the answer to everything.

And she may have been on to something.

The headless sister?

I posted this on Facebook last weekend and I finally got around to uploading it to YouTube so that I could share it here.  Laugh and enjoy.