As a new mom, sometimes it seems like each milestone brings me back to the unknown.  I know babies are supposed to crawl, and then cruise and walk.  My daughter had been trying a few days to crawl, started crawling and then immediately started pulling up on EVERYTHING.  And even trying to climb things.  Don’t get me wrong I not complaining at all.  I’m thrilled!!!

But, I also feel like I don’t have a clue as to what I’m doing.  Again.  Welcome to Motherhood, right?  I can be sitting next to, holding on to her, and she still manages to bump her head?!?  My mother-in-law was like “Honey, just wait, until she comes in with a skinned knee.”  Wait, she’s going to get HURT?  Really, I knew this would happen, just not how I would feel.  So, I’ve pretty much been non-existent on my blog in the past week trying to readjust to my role as the mother to a newly mobile little girl.

And thanking God for the blessing He’s given me!

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This post is for my family who are far away and won’t get to see Mary James crawling.  So without further adieu….

Crawling Cutie from Erin Murray on Vimeo.

Teething biscuits.  Do they really exist?  I can’t find them anywhere!

My daughter has started teething (okay she’s been gnawing on everything for like four months), but now she can gum hard food.  Versus chewing on teethers, my finger, the cat’s tail, anything within her reach.  I know she would like something more substantial than a puff of wheat to smash between her toothless jaws.

I thought, Hey! I know! I will find her some teething biscuits.  Other moms told me of their greatness; how much babies love them, really helps with painful teething, yada yada yada.  On the hunt I went for these magical biscuits.

And on.

And on.

And on.

I went to our neighborhood Kroger.  Negative.  Tried Wal-Mart…um none there.  How bout Food Lion?  Nope.  I went to “the city” (man I sound country), which is a mere forty-five mintue drive, to pick up some items and decided to stop in a Publix.  A grocery store heaven if you ask me.  Why oh why can’t we get a Publix?  Real fresh fruit.  Actual choices.  Healthy food.  I’m salivating.  But alas, Publix failed.  NO toofer biscuits.  And for good measure I checked Kroger and Target too.  Big zilch in the toofer biscuit department.

And then it hit me!  The internet!  My friend!  There have got to be teething biscuits somewhere on here right?  The internet has EVERYTHING!  Well, Amazon didn’t have any in stock.  No Gerber Biter Biscuits, no organic teething biscuits, ZILCH!  They ensured me that they could e-mail me as soon as some of these amazing goodies came available.  What sweeties.  I did find a place that was selling organic teething biscuits but you had to buy like 144 of the suckers for around forty bucakroos – yeah, no thanks.

Did I mention I found one box of organic teething biscuits at Kroger eventually?  My daughter loved them.  Then I realized they had expired six months ago.  Well they still tasted good.  Now they are gone.

And yes I did try other food items for teething.  Melba toast – WAY too breakable, friggin hard, and didn’t dissolve quickly.  Random English tea biscuit/cookie – very messy, impossible to remove from hair, tasted fantastic…mmmm, but probably had way too much sugar!  And none had the qualities I was looking for (and had been told about).

I started to wonder if the teething biscuits were dangerous.  Or poisoned.  Or maybe every single baby in the world was teething right now?  Why such insane difficulty in finding these things?

In the end, Wal-Mart came through.  And yeah, yeah I know people hate Wally World, but when you live in a small town with very few options for groceries it can be a lifesaver.  I can see an old Wal-Mart exec sitting at his desk all Mr.Burns-like, tapping his fingers together…yes, yes that’s what we want you to think. Oh well.

And the teething biscuits?  Well this is what I finally found:

Mary James loved them.  I freaked a little when I discovered they were “A product from China” but I did some research and they checked out.  Phew!  So ends the saga of the toofer biscuits.  Yippee!

Today is my first “official” Mother’s Day.  Sure, I was pregnant last year, and not that it didn’t count…but it just feels more real today.

Our plans for today, included teaching our Sunday school class (2-3 year olds), going to big church, and then going to a Mother’s day buffet with all fourteen of us!  Even more fun – my parents were going to join us at our church.

Well…

My very bad, no good, horrible ear genes have descended on my precious daughter.  Again Mary James I’m so sorry to have bestowed my narrow ear canals and propensity for ear infections.

At her last ear recheck, about a week ago, the doctor noted some fluid in her right ear.  I was instructed to “watch her like a hawk” for any signs of an ear infection and to call immediately if a fever appears.  Well, yesterday morning I noticed Mary James seemed toasty (although I have been taking her temperature anytime she seemed remotely warm so I assumed I was probably over reacting again).  Turns out she had a fever of 102.6 F!  Waaaa!

I called the pediatrician office, knowing full well it was a Saturday and that they couldn’t see her… but he said CALL! So I did.  The doctor who returned the call (not actually my ped but one of his partners) listened to me explain what was going on, then asked me where I lived.  I told her and she said to bring MJ to the office so she could take a look at her ears.

It’s times like these that I LOVE living in a small town!!

After her examination, it was determined Mary James had the beginnings of an ear infection in her left ear.  This is ear infection number FOUR and we’re only at eight months.  Seriously genes…you suck! So another round of antibiotics was started, and of course non-steroidals for the pain and fever.

Speaking of fever…after we saw the doctor MJ spiked a whopping 103.1 F fever.  Hello?  Tylenol?  Yeah, could you start working a little harder? Seeing the thermometer register 103 F for my 8 month old stopped my heart for a second.  I know fevers are helpful (they help fight off bacterial infections) but they have a very high freaky factor in my book.  And um…evidently you are supposed to call the doctor for a temperature of 103 F (or above).  How did I miss that? Thank goodness my brother-in-law is a human doctor and our friend.

Mary James slept fairly well last night and had a great appetite this morning.  The fever has been running close to 102 F this morning, but no higher (thank you God).  Thus, MJ and I stayed home and daddy went to church.

It’s truly fitting.  Today on my first Mother’s Day, I am mothering.

Why yes!  We did kick out a cat with only one leg.  Hahahahaha!  Just kidding.

Meet McKenzie.  Mac is a male, NEUTERED, 5 year Siamese mix.  This frisky feline has been the star of quite a few blog posts.  From his issues with spraying urine on our lovely drapes, to finally being kicked out of the house, he’s quite the story source.  I must say Mac has adjusted quite nicely to the life of an outdoor kitty.  I often find him stretched out on a branch, lounging in the sun.

Did you know many individuals (especially bird enthusiast) are hard core believers that kitties should be indoor only?  I understand their thoughts…decreased/to no risk of disease, fights, car interaction, and of course no killing of the precious song birds. (Sorry if I seem callous…my bird loving mom is probably frowning.  Sorry mom!)

And really?  I think Mac’s heart was outside all along.

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I was at Target last week perusing the baby aisles, and saw this sign:

NATURAL FEEDING

Umm…what?  As in breastfeeding?  Or nursing?

I guess Target assumes the public would be quite mortified/embarassed/uncomfortable/shocked to see a sign that said BREASTFEEDING supplies.  Kind of the same shocked look when people realize I’m still breastfeeding my eight month old daughter.

Why does breastfeeding make some people SO uncomfortable?

Friday started out well.  Got up.  Fed baby.  Fed dogs.  Fed me.  Dressed baby.  Dressed me.  Went to the pediatrician and got the A-Ok on baby’s ears.  Small victory dance and war cry.  Die bacteria in ears.  DIE!  Yipee!!

Ate lunch.  Fed baby.  Let dogs out to do their “business.”  Yes, that kind of business.  No they do not go out in the backyard to conduct legitimate business such as trading stocks, solving global warming, or gee I dunno know, making money.  No they make poop.  Which stuck itself (literally) into the middle of my lovely afternoon.

And then the frustrating afternoon crashed into the middle of my day.

Mary James and I went to Lowe’s and bought some lovely flowers and a new hose.  With the gray lump in my skull, I reasoned that I could keep our ferns alive this summer by watering them.  Genius, huh?  Only one problem.  Getting water to said ferns on my front porch.  There is not hose within reasonable distance.

Again the gray lump worked!  Ding! I can use a Y-connector piece to run two hoses from the backyard water faucet.  I will simply run my new hose under the fence, under the bushes and onto my front porch.  Easy, smeasy.  Right?

I got home and I was SO excited to implement my plan.  But alas!  It looked like it was going to rain, and continuing raining for the next four days; so I had hurry to get the hose hooked up.  I put MJ in her crib with the crazy barnyard-blinky-loud-music thingy going, and brought the baby monitor with me.

I started by hooking up the new hose, stuck the other end under the fence, and then proceeded to pull the hose from the other side of the fence.  No go.  The hose looked like a massive ball of snakes writhing together in a big ole Celtic knot.  I then decided to straighten the 100 foot hose out in the backyard to un-kink it.  (Did I mention I bought cheap hose?)  Every time I un-twisted a section of hose another section would kink.  Over and over and over again.  It was almost funny.  Almost.

I then proceeded to yank the crap out of patiently pull the hose across the backyard.  And then IT happened.  I stepped in a ginormous, WARM, smooshy, stinky pile of dog poo.  Poo from the bowels of a hundred pound golden retriever who likes to eat small gnomes.  The poo engulfed my beloved Chaco sadals and made its way between my toes.

To demonstrate my displeasure (and maturity) I flung the putrid shoe out of my sight…right into a nice bed of prickly sweetgum balls!  So, now I was half barefooted.  And if you know anything about sweetgum balls they don’t mix nicely with feet (unless your the type that likes to dig out splinters).

I decided the best course of action would be to drag the hose to the frontyard.  I got the hose to the gate, and began to prop the door open with a rock nearby, we keep as a door stop.  As I picked up the rock, a plethora of ants spilled out of the ground and from the bottom of the rock, onto my hand and near my newly naked tootsie.

Can you guess what happened next?  Oh, come on!  It’s easy!

The sweet coos and squeals being emitted from the monitor were suddenly exchanged for ear-splitting shrieks of frustration.  MOMMMMMAAAAAAA! Where are yooouuuuuuuu?????

After rushing to pick-up my poor, tear-stained baby (who smiled and snuggled me as I scooped her up), I decided to wait until Ben got home.  And that’s where Ben found us.  Sitting in the rocking chair peacefully watching the rain clouds arrive.  Admittedly, looking back over the afternoon it was quite funny.  God definitely has a sense of humor!