Becoming a Mother Afterall

Okay, either no one is reading me anymore or everyone has upgraded their browsers to IE7 and has lost their user name and password to access this site. I am feeling a little whiney and pouty and I wish I could logically figure out a way to have unresticted readers without the worry that some freako will be looking at pictures of my daughter. I guess I could just use her blog for the pictures and give everyone the password to that . . . I don't know. I just miss the days when I felt like I had more commentary going on. Am I that boring now that I am a Mom?

Anyway, for those who guessed, great guesses! But her first "real" word was FISH! She has one of these aquariums strapped to the side of her crib and we are constantly pointing out her fish and saying, "Goodnight fish!" and "Good morning fish!" She picked up on it and "fish" is now her new word. :-)

I welcome any ideas on the password protection issue . . .

For a while now, Ainsley has said, "Mama" and whispers "Dada". There was a time she said them for no reason. She even went through a phase where she said "Mama" to her bottle. But for the past month or so, she knows who Mama and Dada are and she calls for us specifically without any hesitation. So . . . technically, those were her first words.

But this morning, after a few mornings that I was almost sure she was going to say it, she said her first real word, in a whisper, as if she was shocked it came out of her mouth, and then she looked and me and grinned, repeating it louder the second time.

Because it's Friday and I am bored, I am going to copy Cat's game and see if anyone can guess what the word was. (Hint: She said it to/about something in her crib.)

Oh man I am never friggin' moving again.

We are in the midst of boxes and paperwork and appliance shopping and paint samples and carpet pieces and where-the-hell-is-my-wallet?

My brain is on the fritz and we don't technically move until next week, so I should be posting more. Alas, I have nothing new to report. (Or maybe I do and just can't remember what I haven't said on here in a long, long time.) Ainsley has moved on to bananas. She digs bananas. Why are bananas binding and constipating for adults but make my baby shit like it is going out of style? We are having fun with her, she is constantly chatting up a storm, which consists of her tongue hanging out of her mouth and her saying, "mmmmah, lllah, llllllllll, sssssppppppppp." This must translate into something, but I have never taken babytalk classes before. Hopefully it means, "Mommy, I am happy. Give me kisses and more bananas." She also grabbed my boob the other night and proceeded to talk to it for about twenty minutes while I rocked her in the chair. I haven't been able to breastfeed her since she was about a month old, so this was rather amusing to us both and we nearly peed our pants.

More pictures soon. That is, when I get all of this under control. Ug.

I read last night in a Parenting magazine (yes! by George, I had 10 minutes to read a magazine article! - imagine that!!) that children begin to recognize their name when spoken by others as early as 6 months of age. I kind of began to wonder a little when I read this, mostly because we do call Ainsley by her name, but we also have a variety of other nicknames for her, none of which make any amount of sense, so please don't make me explain my reasoning in how they stuck. (I don't think I even know.) They include:

Boo-bah
Boom-bah
Fussypants
Ms. Fussypants
Mambo #1
Little lady
Stinky butt
The screaming banshee
Porker
Ms.-Fattie-but-cutie
Little Piglet
Chickie
Milky

So is my child going to think her name is Porker or Milky instead of the much prettier, much more normal Ainsley? Guess I better begin sticking her name into our conversations more in fear she will need therapy someday because we called her Ms.-Fattie-but-cutie.