Lots of Mamas

I grew up in a small community where it was okay to call down rowdy kids, no matter who they actually belonged to. I've always felt like I grew up with 10 Mamas and 15 Grannies.

So I was really excited when Biscuit was able to get a taste of that on Easter Sunday. We went to the sunrise service at Mama's church. I didn't know if Biscuit would get too loud during the service, so Mama told me that when we got to church, we should bring him out to the fellowship building to hang out with her until the service was over. Mama is a member of the food committee, so she and several of my "other Mamas" were preparing breakfast for the church congregation.

In the past few years, the food committee members have realized that since sunrise service is so early, it's a lot easier for them just to order biscuits to serve for breakfast. The closest Bojangle's is about 20 minutes away from the church, so Mama and one of the other ladies drove over to pick up the biscuits. (The manager at Bojangle's said they had orders for 900 biscuits for Easter morning and that wasn't counting the customers who were coming in.)

So when Jeff, Biscuit and I arrived at church, we walked out to the fellowship building to find Mama, but she wasn't back yet. Two of the other ladies said a quick, "Hey, Kim," then immediately ignored me and started staring at and talking to Biscuit. (It's okay. I'm getting used to being ignored!)

I told them that Mama said to leave Biscuit with her, but I guess I would take him into the service with me since she wasn't back. They told me really fast that I was not taking him anywhere. I was trying to ask them if they wanted me to stay, but before I could even ask the question, they told me to just go away.

After the service, we all walked out for breakfast, and there was Biscuit, in the arms of one of my "other Mamas" surrounded by all the rest of them!

Jeff and I had a nice breakfast, and I had plenty of time to catch up with friends and people I hadn't seen for a while.

Fancy Easter clothes

I wanted to get Biscuit a nice outfit for Easter. We were planning to go to Easter sunrise services at Mama's church. But I couldn't believe how expensive fancy baby clothes were. There were seersucker suits for $25. There were embroidered overalls for $22.50. I just couldn't see paying that for an outfit he'd only wear once or twice.

So I got really excited when I went into Old Navy and the guy at the front of the store said that for one-day only, each item in the infants section was $5.

We got Biscuit a pair of grown-up-looking khaki pants, complete with little slit pockets on the back. We also got him a blue and white striped oxford shirt with yellow stripes on the placket and a navy sweater vest with yellow and white stripes around the neck.

We have to wash all of Biscuit's clothes before he wears them, and because his shirt and pants were 100% cotton, I had to iron those little tiny duds. I made a good attempt at it, but honest to goodness, my iron was bigger than the pants and shirt!

When we got to Mama's house (in S.C.), she pulled out her starch can and finally got all the wrinkles out. The whole ensemble was so cute. Biscuit even had a hand-me-down pair of navy slip-on shoes, so he was ready to go.

We got up early Easter morning and, of course, it wasn't early enough. So as we were rushing around, we didn't have time to take pictures of him. I told Jeff not to worry, we could take some when we got back home.

I was in such a rush, I forgot to pack bottles and formula in the diaper bag. So we stayed for the sunrise service and breakfast and then headed back to Mama's house. Since we knew Mama and Daddy wouldn't be home from church for a while, we decided to take a nap.

I just put Biscuit down in his fancy clothes so I wouldn't have to re-dress him for pictures later. He woke up hungry, so Jeff started giving him a bottle. ... And then it happened.

Jeff heard the grunting noises and then he heard the other noises. Biscuit's diaper had exploded and there was poo EVERYWHERE ... all over his new pants, shirt and sweater vest ... all over Jeff's shirt ... all over the pillowcase on the bed (we're still not sure how that happened).

So I can tell you that he was looking sharp on Easter morning, but I don't have any proof of it. We're planning to dress him up again so we can take some pictures. I'll be sure to post a couple here.

Growing like a weed

Baby clothes come in 3-month increments, so it should be obvious to me that babies grow fast. But it's amazing how one day they fit into an outfit and the very next day, it's in the giveaway bag.

We love to put Biscuit in the footed, zip-up sleepers. They're easy to put on, you don't have to worry about him keeping his little tiny socks on, and best of all, Biscuit seems to be comfortable and happy when he's wearing them.

So the other day, when we got Biscuit home from day care, Jeff started changing his diaper and clothes. I told him that the little blue sleeper he was trying to squeeze Biscuit into was a little tight the last time he wore it. But Jeff said, "Nah, it's fine," and zipped Biscuit right up.

A couple of hours later, I took Biscuit in to change his diaper. As I unzipped his sleeper, I noticed a red line down his chest. The outfit that Jeff said was fine had left the imprint of a zipper all the way down Biscuit's chest and belly.

Needless to say, Jeff took all the Gerber 0-3 month sleepers and put them in a bag for our friends' little boy Walker.

So of course I took the opportunity to say "I told you so." But then out of sheer guilt, I had to admit something pretty funny to Jeff.

Last week, I was trying to dress Biscuit in one of the same zip-up sleepers. He was wriggling around while I was trying to wrestle him into the outfit. I said, "Boy! Straighten your legs out so I can get you dressed." He kept squirming around, and I told him again, "Griffin. Straighten your legs out."

Then I realized, he couldn't straighten his legs out. The outfit was too short for his legs!

Razz-a-ma-tazz

We don't live by "The Books," but we do try to consult them periodically to see what kind of progress Biscuit should be making.

Most of the books that we have list the specifics of child development month by month, but because Biscuit was born three weeks early, he's usually about three weeks behind where he should be.

A couple of weeks ago, I read the chapter on four-month-olds, and I couldn't figure out one thing he should be doing ... razzing.

What is razzing, you ask? Check out these videos, and you'll see!

The family tartan will be worn with pride

I wrote this column for the newspaper and thought since it includes Biscuit, it would be good to post it here.

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My family has a checkered past.

And those checks are blue, red and green.

I’ll be wearing that blue, red and green plaid next Monday, not as a fashion statement, but as a tribute to who I am. Or at least where I came from.

April 6 is National Tartan Day. And with my Scottish heritage behind me, I’ll be wearing the plaid pattern, or tartan, that represents my family, Clan Ross.

There are a lot of rules and traditions about how and when tartans should be worn — as kilts, scarves or banners. But all those aside, I just like that I have a physical symbol of my ancestry — an ancestry that begins for me with my Granny.

It’s her tartan that I’ll be wearing next week. It was something of hers that I really wanted after she passed away in January.Granny was never overly concerned with our distant past. She couldn’t tell you about the military victories or losses of Scotland or the holiday traditions and rites of passage. But when it came to our family’s history, she was the one who knew everybody — and everybody’s mama.

She was my last grandparent. And she was the only one of my grandparents who got to know me as an adult.

The best thing about Granny was that, even though she had some definite ideas about what she wanted for me, she never pushed me toward anything. I told her I didn’t want to get married or have kids. But when I came back years later and introduced her to my husband, she never said I told you so. She just told me how happy she was that I had found someone of my own.

And when I told Granny I was pregnant, she was over the moon. She couldn’t wait to meet that new baby.

Granny got to meet my son a little over a week before she died. Something pushed me to take an impromptu trip to Georgia to see her and show off my pride and joy. Two days later, she was taken to the hospital. She didn’t come home.

Speaking in Southern drawls that slowly replaced the Scottish brogues of our ancestors, many of my family members told me that they believe she was just hanging on until she could meet my son. She had talked about how she had lived a full life and that there wasn’t much left on this earth for her.

I don’t know, maybe that’s true.

But I do know that the first time she laid eyes on my son, her whole face lit up. And when she reached out to grab his little hand and he smiled at her, I nearly lost it.

I’m still sad about losing my Granny. But I know that I have all the things in my life that she ever wanted for me.And just as she taught me about family, I’ll pass along our history to my son.

I’ll start next Monday when I wear a little bit of blue, red and green.

Kim Mills also has embraced her Scottish heritage by tasting haggis and taking bagpipe lessons. Contact her at 373-7014 or kim.stacksmills@news-record.com.

Still, after 36 years ...

Griffin is getting over his first ear infection.

He wasn’t acting like himself last Friday night, then his cheeks got red. So I took his temperature, and it was 101.5. I gave him some Tylenol a couple of times during the night, then we went to his pediatrician’s office Saturday morning. They have office hours from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays, so that was a big help instead of having to take him to a doc-in-the-box or the ER.

The doctor said that other than his right ear, was looked fine. He kept talking about what a good baby Biscuit is and how cute he is. I asked Jeff, I wonder if he says that to everybody or if he just took a liking to our Biscuit!

We had to give him Tylenol every 4 hours Saturday through today, and we got an antibiotic that he gets twice a day through Tuesday. We’ve had quite a time getting the medicine in him, because he isn’t used to having anything in his mouth but a bottle of formula. But we’ve gotten way more in his mouth than he dribbled down his chin, so I figure we’re doing okay.

But the oddest part about the whole experience is that the first couple of times I tried to give him his antibiotic, I gagged. I thought it was weird because I wasn't upset about giving it to him, and the medicine didn't really have a bad smell or anything.

So I told Mama about it, and she said that I got the same medicine when I was little and had ear aches, and that they had to force the medicine in me. All I can figure is that I must've really hated it, because here it is 36 years later, and I STILL don't like being near that medicine.

He won't go nekkid

We were so lucky with our baby showers. We were truly overwhelmed by everyone's generosity. We're also hooked-in for hand-me-downs from friends with boys a little older than Biscuit.

But even so, when I decided over the weekend to do a spring/summer inventory, what I found just blew me away. Here's what Biscuit has:

31 short-sleeved onesies
8 one-piece short-sleeved rompers
14 pairs of pants
5 pairs of shorts
3 bathing suits
1 bathing suit coverup with a hood
6 hats (3 bucket hats, one baseball cap and one floppy sun-blocking hat)

Can you throw a shower every couple of years until they leave for college?

Biscuit on film

Right now, I have two options for taking video of Biscuit: My mother-in-law gave me her old video tape recorder, and my point-and-shoot digital camera has video built in.

I was happy to get the camcorder from my mother-in-law, because I was afraid to spend the money to buy a digital recorder unless I knew for sure that I would use it. And I wanted to use the video setting on my point-and-shoot camera to see how difficult it is to upload video online.

After realizing that I've learned to pick up the camcorder pretty frequently, and it's really, really easy to e-mail video or post it online, I think we're ready to buy our own.

Here's Biscuit having some tummy time in our living room floor. He's really finding his voice these days. He's learning to make all sorts of noises, including ones that are so loud that he scares himself. He jumps at the sound and looks around like, "What was that?!?"

Grabbing on

Biscuit has just started to grab things - toys, his bottle, his burp cloth, my hair (ouch!).

So I took a little video of him having a good ol' time hanging on to his burp cloth.

The Bumbo

Biscuit's Bumbo seat is great! We got it as a shower gift. It's a thick foam chair with a high, stiff back, so it puts him in the position he'll be in when he learns to sit up.

So far, he seems to enjoy hanging out in it ... well, as long as it's not for more than 10 minutes!

"It's just a bit of poo!"

Biscuit fell asleep about 7 p.m. last night after fighting tooth and nail to try to stay awake. So when he woke up about 10:15, he was quite ready to eat. I was tired and ready to go to bed, but Jeff was finishing up some work stuff.

So I changed Biscuit into his night clothes (a short-sleeved onesie with a sleep sack over it), fixed a bottle and settled into the rocking chair in our bedroom. I had my Boppy around my waist and a burp cloth on my shoulder, everything moving right along as usual.

Then I heard this grunting noise and thought, “Oh great! He’s going to mess up his diaper, and I’m going to have to change it. I’m tired. I’m sleepy. And the last thing I want to deal with is a diaper full of poo!”

I always wait a minute or two before I change a messy diaper, just to make sure the job is done.
So I got up from the rocker and spread out one of our waterproof changing pads on the bed. I started to unzip the sleepsack and felt something wet and slimy on my hand.

HULL BREACH!!!! HULL BREACH!!!!!

The inside of Biscuit's onesie and sleepsack were covered with liquid poo! It was all over his legs and feet.

So I did what any good mom would do, I yelled for my husband. “Jeff! Help!”

Jeff came into the bedroom, and I swear, two grown, college-educated adults stood there dumbfounded for a minute before we could even begin to take care of this mess. There’s a line in the movie “Johnny English” where Rowan Atkinson says (in a very proper British accent), “Oh, do get it off. It’s just a bit of poo.” And that line was more than a little appropriate for that moment.

So we formulated a plan of attack, which included about 10 minutes of getting the poor child undressed while trying to contain the mess. Then he had to get a bath at 11:15 at night!

Meanwhile, I just happened to glance up at Biscuit's face, and he had this HUGE grin on his face.

Right then, I knew that although the past couple of weeks have been really rough, and I’m tired, stressed out and generally all-around grumpy, having this little critter has made such a huge difference over the past four months. He has changed my whole outlook on life.

Roll over, Biscuit

We took Biscuit for his 4-month checkup on March 9. As we were waiting for the doctor to come in, I put Biscuit on his stomach on the exam table. He swung his arm up and rolled over for the very first time.

The doctor came in and started asking us all kinds of questions, then he said, “What about rolling over?” I said, “He just did.”

He said, “When did he start?” And I said, “No, you don't understand, he JUST did. As in, he did it for the first time a couple of minutes ago while we were waiting for you to come in.” He laughed and said that Biscuit must have known he was going to ask about rolling over and just wanted to go ahead and get it out of the way.

Biscuit on wheels

We took Griffin for his first stroller ride on a recent Saturday at Bur-Mil Park. They have nice, paved walking trails that run alongside Lake Higgins. It's very pretty, and we took lots of pictures.

And if you take a look at the picture to the right, you'll see why Jeff doesn't get to push the stroller anymore!

Then my friend Sadie (she has a 1-year-old) and I took our boys to the mall Sunday afternoon. And I can tell you that learning to operate a stroller at the mall is a whole new set of skills.

First off, Sadie knows where all the elevators are. (And just so you know, the department store elevators are way more stroller-friendly that the ones in the middle of the mall.)
Secondly, some of the racks in the stores are so close that you can barely get a stroller through, much less if you have a kid old enough to start grabbing things.

And lastly, getting the stroller, kid, diaper bag, any purchases and yourself in and out of the car is quite an adventure all its own!

But I think after spending the day there with an experienced stroller-handler like Sadie, I'm ready for a trip on my own.

LOUD NOISES!!!

There's a line in a Will Ferrell movie where during an argument a guy yells, "LOUD NOISES!!!" So of course Jeff and I say that to each other all the time ... when the TV is too loud, when a car with a loud radio goes by or when we can hear someone's personal cell phone call across the store at the mall.

Well, now Biscuit is expressing his distaste of loud noises.

Jeff and Biscuit stayed home together yesterday and when I came in from work, I asked how their day was. Jeff said, "Well, he only cried twice, but both times, he cried so hard that his face turned red, and there was a second's pause before he caught his breath."

I asked what in the world made him so upset, and Jeff said, "I sneezed while I was feeding him."

It's really weird but for the past week or so, Griffin seems to be bothered by the sound of coughs and sneezes while he eats.

So this morning, Griffin sneezed twice in a row while we were getting him dressed for day care. Jeff said, "Boy! I sneeze once and you freak out, but you sneeze two times in a row and that's just fine!" Biscuit just looked up at him and smiled his biggest toothless smile.

Talking to Biscuit

I love to hear Jeff and Biscuit talking to each other. Granted, Biscuit doesn't so much talk as he coos, yells, squeals and babbles. But still, they often seem to be having conversations that make perfect since.

When we first brought Biscuit home, Jeff said he didn't know what to say to him. I told him that it didn't even have to make sense, he just needed to let Biscuit get used to his voice. So I was happy one day close to Christmas when I heard Jeff just talking away to Biscuit in the living room. I walked quietly through the kitchen to eavesdrop. Then I realized that Jeff wasn't talking to Biscuit, he was reading to him. And what was he reading? The instruction manual to the GPS he got as a gift from his parents.

In this perfect sing-songy voice, Jeff said, "Before you use you Garmin GPS, you first have to let the battery run completely down."

But like I said, it doesn't matter what you're saying, just as long as you're talking.

My sick boys

As a first-time parent, I worry about everything. Is Biscuit warm enough? Is he too warm? Did he eat enough? When do I need to increase the amount of formula he gets? When do we start giving him cereal? When do we start with baby food?

So when Biscuit caught his first cold at day care, I spent a week worrying about what to do to help him get better. I used blankets under his bassinet mattress to elevate his head while he's sleeping. It's supposed to help him breathe better. I used saline drops in his nose to break up the congestion. I've been using a humidifier at night to add moisture to the air he breathes. I've read chapters in books and entries on Web sites about babies and colds. But still, I wonder, should I take him to the doctor? Is there something else I should be doing?

My mama said that all mamas have those thoughts - first-timers or not. So I'm trying to relax and depend on my instincts. But everyone who knows me can tell you, I'm not really good at relaxing. I usually leave that to Jeff!

But I'll tell you, I have never seen anything more pitiful than my sick little boy ... well, unless you count my now-sick husband!

Biscuit woke up all smiles this morning. I could tell that he's feeling better. So now that my little baby is okay, I'll turn my attention to my big baby! Feel better, Jeffy.

How was your day?

Biscuit is about 3 1/2 months old now, so we're starting to establish some routines with him.

One such routine is our "how was your day" conversation. When we get home after I've picked him up from day care, I take him out of his car seat and lay him on my bed. Our bed is pretty high, so I'm able to lean over at the waist right beside him. I tell him about my day while he coos and smiles and laughs.

But the best part is that he always reaches his hand over and touches my hand or arm. That makes me happy.