Morjes!

Welcome to my blog. I write about fitting in, sticking out, and missing the motherland as a serial foreigner.

Snot nose, and my worst motherhood moments

I came home from the grocery store today, looked in the mirror, and realized that I had a clump of dried, crusted-on baby snot on the end of my nose. It's a shame, too, because I had actually put a little thought into my appearance before I left the house. That is to say, I put on a sweater over my shirt, which was stained with spit-up and additional globules of infant boogers. Magdalena had her shots yesterday and so she's been a little goopy-nosed and clingy today. I spent a lot of time holding her in close proximity to my face, which explains how the snot that was not my own got on my nose.

Also today, standing in line at JC Penney (before I had dried baby snot on my nose) (at least I think so), the grandma lady behind us was commenting how cute my girls are. She asked Miriam about her baby sister and to my complete shock and surprise, Miriam answered her. Miriam almost never talks to grown-ups she knows, much less complete strangers. What was even more unsettling was what she chose to tell this stranger: "Yesterday, baby sister fell off the bed."

Well, it wasn't yesterday - to Miriam, anything that happened before the last period of sleep (be it nighttime or a nap) is "yesterday" - but it did happen. It was about two months ago and it was one of those things that just happened and I still feel terribly guilty about it. The grandma lady was very nice about hearing this strange confession from a 3-year-old and told me about a time back in the day when her own baby fell off the bed at about the same age. The way she talked about it, I could tell she still felt bad about it.

So far, that's been my worst motherhood moment with Magdalena, allowing the circumstance to occur that she could fall off the bed. With Miriam, it was the time when I bit her in the head. Yes, you read that correctly. She slept in our bed for most of her first year and one morning, very early, I was having an extremely vivid, realistic dream that there was a small monster right next to me. I must have been in very deep sleep (at least that's my excuse) because when the monster moved and startled me, I woke up, but not quite enough to realize that it was my daughter and not a monster in my bed. And then I bit her on the head. It was as bizarre an experience as it sounds.

So there you have it. My worst mothering moments. What are yours?

Also, have you ever gone to the store with baby snot on your nose?

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