Moms are snot gross!

Everyone knows that babies are messy and that upon becoming a parent there will be drool, vomit, pee, and poop with which to contend, but I don’t think anyone considers the snot. Maybe it’s because babies come from the hospital complete with a nasal aspirator and one assumes that with that no one has to touch a single snotty thing. One would be wrong.

Sometimes babies sneeze and snot flies forth like projectile vomit. Sometimes while they sleep, snot gets rubbed all over their face and sometimes their sinuses get so backed up it coats their eyelashes. Sometimes toddlers like to multi task. At around fifteen months, Sophia discovered that when she sucks her thumb her index finger only need to be extended and it fits perfectly in the nostril. She would pull out little boogies and not even know it sometimes.

A few months ago at dinner Sophia had a boogie just above her top lip. Kurt was eating when he noticed and called it to my attention. I hadn’t sat down yet so I went over and without hesitation picked it off her face with my fingers. “Eeeww, mom’s are gross!” Kurt said. I went to the trash and flicked it off then washed my hands before sitting down to eat. What’s the big deal? After being shit on a little boogie is nothing.

I guess Sophia noticed that I picked a boogie off her face because a few days later she came up to hand me something small from between her fingers. Usually I get bits of paper so I took it without any thought. It was a little baby boogie. I’ll treasure it always honey…Where’s the trash can? Don’t worry the trash doesn’t go out for few days.

Sophia is getting over a cold she had last week. The first night as always, we didn’t think to turn on her humidifier and the next morning we had the snot face to contend with. Unlike her colds last year, this year Sophia has REALLY long hair. She had the ends of a thin lock inhaled into her nose and over the night her mucus membranes worked overtime to seal the lock in place. When she was younger, I would simply use a washcloth and warm water to loosen up all the dried snotty goodness. This time I gave the hair a tug and out came the snot cork. Getting the snot out of the hair and keeping it out is a completely different story.

Yep, she’s sick again. I really hope I don’t get this one. On Wednesday Sophia was very calm and quiet, more so than usual. We were standing in line to pay a Comcast bill that was due on that very day. The person in front of me was staring at Sophia and said, “oh, it must be close to her nap time.” Shows how much she knows. Sophia just woke up. I hoped that maybe it was just her teeth causing the calm before the storm. She currently has four and I can see two more top ones on their way out. No such luck. Thursday I heard sneezing and by Friday the snot flow-eth over. Thursday also marked new milestone. I saw Sophia using walls, as in flat vertical surfaces to navigate the room. Later in the day, Kurt and I both saw her use her Radio Flyer Scoot About to stand up and push it across the room. She’s been pulling herself up and using objects to move around things for quite a while, but it’s always been stationary objects with grippy ledges to hang onto.

She has also experimented with standing unassisted in the past. She stopped trying that for a while and now she’s picking that up again and doing a lot better with it. She can stand for about twenty seconds and then she’ll either grab onto something or do a slow controlled butt crash to the floor. I do mean a controlled crash. She’s a very careful baby. Very gentle too. Except with the cat. She actually pats the cat very softly for an infant/near toddler but she also likes to grab fists full of fur or the occasional ear.

Not-a-nanny captured a picture of me handing seven month old Sophia a weed pretty little flower and even then Sophia took it very carefully and examined it thoroughly.

So Friday Sophia was sneezing and snotting all over the place. Yes, she has made snot a verb. She’s a gifted girl, don’t question her. Friday night was lovely. Every hour. Really, every hour. Every FRICKIN’ hour after her bedtime she woke up. Until 3am. She skipped 3am and 5 am. But I’m so greedy I’m not even grateful for the extra sleep the baby sleep tyrant bestowed upon me.

Saturday morning Kurt and I captured some video footage of her Radio Flyer Scoot About milestone. (click on the picture to see the video)

And here she is using the Scoot About properly.