Baby Blunders

Last night I went to girl's night at a friend's house in the neighborhood so Daniel was in charge of getting Parker to sleep. I had a blast...as usual... but was excited when I heard Parker wake up this morning! I love my little buddy and this is probably only the 7th night ever that I haven't put him to sleep. He was super smiley, gave me a big hug and then it was time for a diaper change. I pulled his mismatched jammies down and had to do a double take..... is Parker's diaper on backwards? YES... it was. Clearly Daniel has not put Parker's overnight diapers on enough to know that the sleeping mickey is on the front and the diaper size goes on the hiney. It seemed so unnatural to me to pull the tabs off from the back to the front. I decided Daniel needed more diapering practice so he got to do it ALL day! :)

This got me thinking of all of the funny, 1st time parent baby blunders/mistakes we've made. Some didn't seem so funny at the time but they are now! In our 16 months of parenting, we've learned the hard way that:

- Swim diapers don't absorb! We put Parker down for a nap once after taking him to the pool but not putting him in the water... whoops! One soaking wet pack-n-play later and we learned our lesson!
-Playtex Straw Sippy Cups suck up milk on their own if you don't close the valve. We left a 1/2 full sippy cup of milk on the back of the couch overnight and the cup was empty when we woke up but the couch was soaked! I'll be honest... this has happened a few times.
-Breast pads are a must when nursing...even at night. My girlfriends came to visit when Parker was 8 weeks and I fell asleep without any on. 2 of the girls came into the bedroom the next morning and I sat up covered in breast milk. he he.
-Travel systems are a huge waste of money. Spend the money and get the stroller you ACTUALLY want. We've been through 5 so I feel like an expert. I could have purchased an Orbit for the money I've wasted on crappy travel systems. My opinion... Graco SafeSeat or Snug Ride and the BOB Revolution.
- The pediatrician's office makes babies poop. I swear it's true. Almost every mom I know has a blow out at the pediatrician's office story. I'm not sure if it's because of all the smells or maybe they intuitively know they're getting a shot so they get anxious... but seriously.. blow outs. I've taken Parker to see his doctor twice in only a diaper because he ruined his outfit. Lesson: always have an extra outfit in the car!
-Great Clips is not so great. Normally I take Parker to the kid's cuts place called "Pigtails and CrewCuts" but he only needed a snip so I took him to Great Clips. The lady was so impatient and snipped even when he was moving so she grabbed his face and forced it still. It didn't go over well and thus the 2 weeks lapse in pictures. Pay the extra $5 and go where they are used to cutting toddler's hair.
-You can't trust everyone to know baby "rules." At a BBQ when Parker was 2 months old, I went to the bathroom and left Parker with (let's call her...) Leslie. Leslie proceeded to let my 2 month old suck on potato salad (even though she is a mom of 2!). I figured a mom would know better... and I was wrong... and thus he was sick for days and I was sick I put him in that situation!
- Toddler proof trash cans either need to be invented or I need to know where to buy them! SOO... if you're a guy or don't like gross stories skip this one! I was in the shower one day and Parker was playing in my room/bathroom. When I got out of the shower I saw he was playing with something and I walked over to him to see what it was... it was the cardboard of a used tampon (gag... I know) that he had in his mouth and was saying "dun da da!" We do this with wrapping paper tubes and paper towel tubes... so why not tampon tubes? ha ha.. poor kid is probably scarred for life.
- Monkey see...monkey do. My dogs hump. Lets just throw that out there. They're both fixed and they do it as a game and usually we tell them no but sometimes, they just HAVE to do it. Eventually, I get sick of telling them no, let them do it and it's over... well.... Parker is Mr. mimic (you see where this is going).... and a few times I've caught him join in on the fun. He also randomly humps the floor... Whoops... Lesson: no means no and he watches EVERYTHING we do! Better watch my (and the dogs!) actions!!!

Well that's enough baby blunders for the day... can't divulge too many or it will make me sound like a bad mom! :) The good news is that I've never dropped Parker, left him in a car, etc.. these are but minor speed bumps in an other wards perfectly precious life!