Saturday afternoon, after consuming some fruit and cheerios along with five ounces of a juice and water blend, Punky decided it was time to rough house on the floor with the couch pillows. Needless to say a half hour later, I had a fruit/cheerio/juice/water mixture in a puddle on the kitchen floor. No big deal, it happens sometimes. I cleaned it up, I cleaned her up, and we continued the day.
About an hour later, we sat down for an early dinner of stew that had been cooking all day in the crock pot. The smell filled the entire house, and it was too tempting to wait any longer to eat. Given Punky’s episode and that fact that it was still over two hours away from her usual supper time, I didn’t think she’d be interested in what we were eating but I was wrong. She seemed to really like it, and wanted more and more.
She had some of everything: carrots, potatoes, celery, venison, and some broth. She ate a fair amount, but then I cut her off because I was worried about her stomach being upset from before and I didn’t want a repeat. As the hours passed, she seemed fine.
Her usual dinner time finally arrived and I figured I would just give her more stew since she seemed to love it. It was taking her forever to chew and swallow every single bite. Suddenly she was acting like she hated it, and it almost seemed like she was having trouble swallowing it. Thinking she was maybe just sick of it since she had some only a few hours earlier, I got some jarred squash to give her instead.
She didn’t want that either. Three spoonfuls into it, she stopped opening her mouth for more. I was stumped. She never refuses food. No matter what it is, when it is, or how gross it looks, she eats it all with minimal effort on my part.
As she sat in the highchair fussing a bit, her dad discovered the root of the problem. He opened a kitchen drawer, the one that Punky opens a thousand times a day, and there it was: all the stew she ate the first time around. Gross.
Somehow she managed to spit it up and into her favorite drawer without any of us noticing. Then it seems she politely closed the drawer. Maybe on purpose to hide it, but I doubt it at this age. I’m just glad he discovered it before days went by…
I guess she just had a sour stomach that day. Poor baby. No wonder she refused that second round of stew…given what happened the first time she probably thought I was trying to poison her. I still have no idea how she managed that stunt without anyone noticing… little sneak…
On another note, the xmas tree is up and decorated. What a long project for a tiny little four foot tree. It’s cute and will definitely serve the purpose again this year. Punky seems to care less.
We have it up on a table in the corner of the living room in an attempt to keep it out of arm’s reach. Once, before it was even decorated, she crawled over and stood up at the table. She stretched all she could and managed to grab the tip of the lowest hanging branch. She quickly let go, made a terrible face, and crawled away from it on the double.
It must have had the same sensation on her hands that grass had on her feet this past summer. She doesn’t like it and that’s that. We may as well have set it up on the floor and said the hell with finding a table. She wants no part of it. I thought the twinkling lights would fascinate her, but she doesn’t seem to be amused. I guess in reality she has toys that light up and twinkle those very same colors…and play music at the same time…so what’s the point in staring at a dumb tree that feels yucky?
Yesterday, enjoying my sudden burst of holiday spirit, I decided to start wrapping presents. When I began, Punky was napping and I proceeded to toss stuff all over my bedroom…including her unwrapped gifts. When she woke up a while later, I didn’t give a thought to the contents of my bedroom or the wide open door.
While I was distracted in the kitchen for a minute, she made her way in there. As soon as I noticed the silence, I went running. Sadly, she saw everything.
When I reached the doorway, she was standing up against a huge box full of unwrapped toys. The Wonder Pets flyboat caught her eye and she was leaning over the edge of the box trying to reach it. Another toy caught her attention and she walked along the side of the box to see if she would have greater success grabbing that one instead. She couldn’t lift it with one hand to pull it up and out of the box, but she did manage to hit a button and see some flashing lights.
She had that excited look that all kids get when they see something they really want. Even though she had no clue what it really was, in that moment she wanted that toy. She wanted to touch it, explore it, taste it… I picked her up and whisked her out of the room, handing her a boring old toy as I sat her down on the floor. She looked at me like I was the meanest mama in the whole world. Sigh.
I closed the bedroom door and Punky quickly forgot about the treasures lurking behind it, yet I couldn’t help feeling sad. I know she’s not even a year old and she won’t remember, but I still feel like I ruined her first xmas in a way. She saw the goods… She found Santa’s stash… And she has one hell of a memory.
When we open her presents xmas morning, I really hope to see that excitement in her eyes. With any luck, she’ll have forgotten her accidental preview. She’ll never get another one…if I can help it.
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