Bachelor and Childbirth

Stay with me on this. This could be my most thought provoking and deeply profound post to date. Here are a few ways I've found The Bachelor is like pregnancy and childbirth. 

You get giddy when you find out its coming. When you find out "who" it is, you're elated. Then, you're in for several emotional episodes (pun intended). So many highs, followed by crying fits for seemingly no reason at all. It's coming down to the wire, and you're hoping it goes your way. The final day has come and you feel so much anxiety, joy, fear. Your girlfriends rally in excitement. Then it takes a turn. A painful turn. What?! What is this?! Nooooo!!!!! I'm never doing this again!!!! 

And yet, we all do. We forget the pain we felt. We have more babies and watch more Bachelor. Gluttons for pain, I tell ya. Women. Sheesh.  

Big Deal. Well, for me.

Today was a big deal. AKP lost her first tooth. And then her second. (If you're not a parent, you can stop reading now because this will lull you into a coma-like sleep that us parents only dream about.) You see, AKP is a little dramatic; and by "little" I mean I've never seen such emotion. Her tiny teeth have been wiggly for weeks and this morning we saw a slight appearance of blood. This showing of bodily fluid lead to a trail of pink-stained paper towels and tear-soaked tissues all over our tiny home for nearly an hour until I finally yanked it out. Yep. I just did it. And she was ecstatic. Then, an hour later, she realized she could be brave enough for the second one to come out as well. I said, "Honey, we told you it wasn't going to hurt but for a second. And now, you get $10 for your teeth. The tooth fairy brings $5 for the first tooth only. Every other tooth gets $1. But because you are so brave and can do the first two in one day, you get two $5 bills! How cool is that?!" So she let T take a turn with this one and he didn't disappoint. With one fail swoop the second tooth was gone and she was sticking her little tongue through the tiny hole in her teeth. She had a very good incentive in the second tooth-pulling. Santa brought her an American Girl doll, Rebecca, and she is dying to buy her all sorts of clothes and accessories. Knowing she would have enough money to buy her something was the only reason tooth #2 didn't come with tears. 

Fast forward to this evening during bath time. She was talking about how brave she had been in letting us snatch out her hanging-on-by-a-thread teeth. I said, "Baby, I am so proud of you for being such a big girl. And mommy and daddy told you it wouldn't hurt. We were right, huh?" And she said... I'll never forget it... she said, "Mommy, you're always right."
*Gasp*
I know.
This is the moment I've always heard about. The moment your children experience some sort of accomplishment or milestone and you get credit for being amazing. I could do nothing but beam with pride. We shared the sweetest moment of mother/daughter bonding that could have only been more perfect had she not been soapy and naked so we could have hugged.
I tried to screenshot this image in my mind so I could remember her words forever. I know it's all downhill from here. In ten years it will be "You don't understand me!" "I can't help who I love!" "High school isn't the same as it was in Y2K!"
Anyway, I'm cherishing the sweet moments now. I know the crazy is yet to come.

She even wrote a note for the tooth fairy. I'll translate: Dear Tooth Fairy, I love you and I hope you fly home safely. Thank you so much for my 10 dollars and it didn't hurt. Love, Anabelle

Starting Somewhere...

I have wanted to blog for a while. Facebook statuses only hold so much of all the awesomeness I have to say to the world. Ok, not the world. And some of it is not so awesome. But hey, I have to start somewhere. So this is me... starting somewhere...