Finger Sucking and Toe Kissing Baby Stuff

toesWe do the weirdest most wonderful stuff to babies and I’m trying to figure out when and why that stops.

When you hold a baby, who’s only wearing a diaper, it’s almost impossible not to kiss their tummy. Or better still, we raspberried their bellies, making that famous prolonged fart noise.  We called those “Zorberts”  The babies would squeal with laughter. Their grins eating their fat faces and the result was hysterical, contagious happiness. I think I kept on Zorberting the kids until they were five or six and even then those ten second fart noises on their tummies made them laugh until they almost cried.

Why did that stop? It was fun and funny. But I’m thinking if I Zorberted 25 year old Jack’s hairy belly it wouldn’t be a cool moment.

When babies have jelly on their fingers or  play with your lips, the first thing you do is start sucking on their fingers, right? Again the result are peels of exquisite laughter. It’s beautiful. Trust me,  I don’t want to suck my kids fingers anymore. And after baby-hood, finger-sucking only takes place during early dating, right?

Toes, baby feet, they make me absolutely crazy. Baby feet look like uncooked biscuit dough and have an almost unworldly softness. the softness of baby feet have made me tear up and I don’t know exactly who. Who hasn’t kissed those fat soft baby feet over and over? Cause it’s one of the best things in life.  Do I want to kiss my ten year old son’s feet now? HELL NO! I think the almost primal need to kiss baby feet stops the moment they start walking. The fat softness disappears and they start to smell. No kissing required.

And when we hold a baby we all, almost instinctively, smell his hair. We hum and rock. We loose ourselves in the unmatched innocence and beauty of the new born. Babies are like prayers in our hearts, released, we are able to talk to God in a language we don’t know.

There was one thing I did to my babies, I don’t know if anybody else did and I’ve always was afraid to ask. When my kids had stuff on their faces, chocolate or jelly, stuff  like that, I would sometimes lick their face clean, like a cat licking her kittens. Obviously, this isn’t something I would do in public, I didn’t’ lick my kids in Wal-Mart. but if Mary had Jelly on her cheek and there wasn’t a rag handy, yeah, I’d lick her face.

To this day, all my kids think licking people is the funniest thing.  If Lexie and I are posing for a picture and Jack is in the room. odds are he’ll sneak up and lick one of us just as the shutter clicks. The ultimate photo bomb. Apparently, my wolf like licking warped them in some weird way.

I miss all those baby moves that resulted in sheets of laughter. But I guess Zorberts are gone for now. Until the next generation joins us and then the finger sucking, toe kissing, face licking will start all over.

 

 

I’m Going To Have A More Selfish New Year and You Should Too!

I’m going to be more selfish in 2011 and if you are a parent, maybe you should be too.

I’m not saying you should go play golf or spend the day at a spa  if you can’t afford to buy groceries. But one of my New Year’s resolutions is to do something nice for myself every week.

In my world money is tight, so when I buy groceries for the week I generally have $150 dollars   to spend. If I go over $150 stuff has to go back on the shelf.  (I only carry cash when I’m shopping). And usually the stuff that goes back is mine, the shrimp, moisturizer, new mascara, pesto…I hold those things back unit I find out if  we can afford them. 

Well, next Saturday when I go shopping, I’m putting Sandor’s giant jar of dill pickles back instead of my olive oil. Sometimes, I’m putting Lexie’s lacy tank top back on the rack before I give up my twelve pack of Fresca and chipolte salsa. 

Alex walks 10-15 miles a day at work.  He really needed new pair of ugly chef  clogs two months ago but he put off buying them until after Christmas.  As a result his back is screwed up. Well that’s absurd and obscene.  The kids never would have noticed one less present under our engourged Christmas tree and they would be miserable if they knew he was in pain.  It’s time to be a little more selfish.

This week, on a whim, I got a pedicure and it made me so happy. It had been a long long time and that’s just goofy. I work hard, I’m a pretty decent mom, I should get a pedicure when I want one.  But there’s always that voice stopping me, reminding me of all the things the kids need.

Well, everyonce in a while I’m going to tell that voice to “shut the hell up”. I deserve pesto, shrimp, a new sweater and pretty toes.

And the truth is, the kids want me to get stuff for myself. Sandor likes it when I show up in his second grade class room looking nice. Lexie’s friends always get excited when they spend the night and Alex and I get dressed up to go out. 

Trust me, kids don’t want to see their mom in public with scraggly hair, wearing funky old sweats and flip flops. Nobody wants to see that.

So this year, I will be more selfish, just to make my family happy.  I’m such a good person.