Thursday afternoon, I finally took Sabrina to have her blood drawn for some tests her pediatrician wants to run.  I have been putting it off because I have an aversion to 1) waiting 2 hours for 2 minutes of face to face time with a medical professional and 2) causing my child pain.  But, being the grown up, I finally bit the bullet and took her to the local children’s hospital where we spent 2 hours waiting for a bored phlebotomist to take 3 viles of blood while I held my sobbing child.  A mother should never have to hold down her child while someone hurts her.  It is wrong on every level.  I couldn’t stop myself from crying as I tried to soothe my baby.  The trauma aside, I can’t say I left the hospital with a very good impression – thought I would send a couple of memos so they understood my displeasure.

Memo to the front desk/check-in clerk:

After explaining to you that the computer wouldn’t let me check in because we didn’t have an appointment (blood work is walk-in), you insisted that I could still use the computer to check in.  Let me remind you of our witty exchange:

Me: I’m sorry.  We’ve never been here before.

You:  Never?

Me:  No.  Never.

You:  Like, never ever?

The raised eyebrow I sent your way was a result of my being bowled over by your mastery of the English language, not by the long suffering sigh you let slip upon learning you would need to fill out a form.  Thank you for the kind welcome to your facility.

Sincerely,

Mom who would like to nominate you to Mensa

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Memo to Nurse Meanie:

I understand that you would rather not have multiple children running amok in your exam rooms.  However, this is a CHILDREN’S hospital.  That denotes that on occasion, you might have to put up with a few children during the course of your day.  Your suggestion to the dad with the sick 4 year old child and healthy 7 year old child that he leave his 7 year old unattended in the waiting room was unconscionable.  When he objected in his limited English, your insistence that “no one would take her” was very comforting for him I am sure.  How dare you try to bully a dad trying to do the right thing because it would be more convenient for you?  I silently cheered when he again insisted that she would stay with him and you were forced to relent.  Perhaps you need to work somewhere that the short people don’t f-up your day by being around?

Sincerely,

Mom who thinks you are a bitch

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Memo to Robotic Phlebotomist:

Thank you for being so kind and so warm while taking my child’s blood.  Those warm words that you spoke: “Child’s birthdate?” kept me calm during the rest of the procedure while you silently took my child’s blood.  The bored look in your eyes while you watched my child sob and her mom cry really took the edge off of an unpleasant experience.  Not wasting time by reassuring us both you were almost done or soothing my daughter before you stuck her with a needle instead of quietly chuckling when she began to cry really puts you at the top of my Christmas card list.

Sincerely,

Mom who hopes to see you in a crosswalk on my drive home

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Memo to White Trash Momma in the waiting room:

While I applaud your ability to point out to your 8 yr old son that “I am the parent.  You are the child”, I respectfully would like to point out that sentiment might hold more meaning if you acted like the parent instead of the child.  Your son never raised his voice yet you were screaming at him for the 45 minutes we had the pleasure of your company in the waiting room.  While we all enjoyed the constant refrain in your lovely twang of “If you do that one more time, I’m going to pop you one”, can I also point out that idle threats do nothing to change a child’s behavior?  Perhaps if you would put down the cell phone for 5 minutes and have a conversation with or play a game with your child, he wouldn’t be so restless while hanging out in a hospital waiting room.  Just my 2 cents.

Oh and loved the wool dress pants, AC/DC t-shirt, and crocs – fabulous look.

Sincerely,

A mom who wishes she had the guts to say something in person

A photo from Sabrina’s actual birthday – we celebrated quietly at home with cupcakes.  The Happy Birthday song was sung many times as Sabrina is too cute when she dances.

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I’ve been contemplating this post for 3 days and still don’t know exactly how to put it into words. Her birthday was very bittersweet for me.  I have so many conflicting emotions.  I am so amazed at the little girl she is becoming: happy, social, inquisitive, willful, active and so many other wonderful traits.  I am so proud of everything she is learning.  But I am so sad that she keeps growing so quickly.  I missed the first 7 months with her and I just want to freeze time right now.  I want her to stay my baby but each day she looks more like a little girl.  I feel like the days, weeks and months are racing by and I will turn around tomorrow and she will be in kindergarten and then college.

I also spent time thinking about Sabrina’s birth mom and foster mom on her birthday.  One gave her life and the other gave her a foundation.  I can’t imagine how either of them were feeling.  I know her foster family was thinking of her since we received the email from them.  But I wonder if her birth mom did something special to mark the day or if she just worked to largely ignore it because it was too painful.  I ache for these women who made it possible for this amazing little girl to be in my life.  Their pain and sacrifice have brought such incredible joy to us.  Their selfless acts have enriched our world.  I just wish they could know how much we (Steve and I) appreciate our daughter (our meaning mine, her birth mom’s, and her foster mom’s).

Happy birthday my darling Sabrina.  You can’t imagine how many people in this world are sending you love as you turn 1.

I received word that Sabrina’s foster family was hoping to hear how she was doing and wanting to wish her a happy birthday.  I was so touched that they were reaching out to her/us.  I sent them an email with some photos.  I hope we can stay in contact a bit so that Sabrina can have some tether to her beginnings.

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I did something very painful today.  I went through my shoes.  I forced myself to get rid of those that were out of style, in bad shape (no matter how much I loved them), designed by someone who hates women and make me want to cut my feet off when I wear them, and just plain “I don’t care how on sale they were – what was I thinking?”.  Between the initial soft purge before the move and this purge, I have shed 15 pairs of shoes.  Now I have to find my way to the DSW that is in a neighboring burb…on second thought maybe I’ll wait until the house sells.

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Speaking of the house, several of you have asked in the comments and email.  Yes it is on the market.  Wanna buy it?  I haven’t talked about it because it raises my blood pressure considerably when I think of my beautiful house sitting empty and unloved (okay, actually it is the mortgage payments and lack of bids on the house that stress me out).  It has been on the market for 2 months.  About 8 people have looked at it.  No bids.  When we were in PA this weekend, I was shocked by the number of houses on the market.  It seemed as though every 3rd house was for sale.  That doesn’t bode well for ours selling.  I have no idea how long we can continue paying rent and mortgage on 1 income.

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I’ll leave you with something that made me laugh.  At the hotel this weekend, an Asian couple got on the elevator with us.  We are often asked if Sabrina is from China.  This couple didn’t say a word to us – although they spoke to each other quickly in a language which sounded like Chinese.  But the woman, in a very exaggerated manner, looked carefully at me, then Steve, then Sabrina.  She repeated this about 1/2 a dozen times.  It made me laugh.  I wasn’t sure if she was too polite to ask (but rude enough to stare) or if perhaps they didn’t speak sufficient English to ask.

Steve has restored my archives…I still have to go back and clean things up a bit (formatting got really screwy so please excuse that – I’m not going back through 1000 posts to fix that) but I am so happy they are back!!! Thanks honey.

The first photo I took on our trip was for the moms out there. We stopped at Sheetz for gas and some food. Most moms have faced the bathroom dilemma. You go into a public bathroom to use the facilities. Do you juggle your baby while trying to do your business (getting your pants on and off can be difficult one handed) or do you put them on the disgusting floor? Most of us do the baby juggle rather than risking the scary floor. But Sheetz has solved this for us – I heart Sheetz (very sad that we don’t have them in TN) for many reasons but this might be the best reason yet:

You know you are a dedicated blogger when not only do you devote a paragraph to public toilets but you take a photo in one so you can post it for others to see. I got some seriously weird looks from the other women in the restroom that night.

The drive home is just too long with a child. Mapquest estimates 9 hours. Somehow that turns into 11+ with Sabrina. We hit town at 3am (kudos to the Holiday Inn which didn’t charge us for the first night since we arrived so late). Sabrina had been sleeping on and off in the car and decided that she wasn’t interested in sleeping until 4:30am.

It was a gorgeous weekend in the burgh! The weather was perfect – 78, sunny, no humidity. It was wonderful seeing the family. Sabrina had a grand time being the center of attention all weekend. Steve and I saw a movie. I giggled like a little girl with my tub o’ popcorn and gallon o’ diet pepsi in the dark theater (Bourne Ultimatum…2 thumbs up). Sunday morning we went to my favorite brunch place which of course made me very happy. (I have archives now! I can link to things I’ve talked about before!) We wandered around The Strip a bit and then headed back to Steve’s parent’s house for Sabrina’s birthday party. It was a wonderful weekend. The weather and being with family and being able to go out on dates reminded us why we were so sad to leave the burgh. That and the fact that they don’t broadcast Steeler’s games in Nashville.

Sabrina was excited to learn the Holiday Inn didn’t charge us for Friday night:

Pap-pap couldn’t wait to get his hands on the girl

Thanks to Aunt Lulu and Uncle Pat for watching Sabrina Saturday night so we could see a movie

I got to wander around my favorite shop in the strip district – Roxanne’s Dried Flowers. It smells heavenly and they put together the most amazing wreaths and arrangements. I could drop serious cash in there…if I had serious cash. Normally a dried flower shop wouldn’t trip my trigger but something about this place just draws me in.

My happy little family – 27 attempts and I don’t think we were all looking at the camera and smiling at the same time in any of them.

The cutest birthday box I’ve ever seen (my mother in law tells me Hallmark just came out with a whole line of these cute things)

Grandma and Aunt Lulu helping Sabrina open her loot

It somehow took even longer to get home than it did to get to Pittsburgh. We met up with Grandma Freida and cousin Ricky for lunch on our way through Ohio. Unfortunately, my memory stick was full and battery was dead so I didn’t get any photos.

So that is what I did on my summer vacation.

We had an early celebration for Sabrina’s birthday while we were in Pittsburgh.  Today is the day though…my baby is 1.  More on our trip later…and perhaps a wonderfully reflective post for my daughter’s birthday but for now just some photos.

She wasn’t sure what to make of the cake, candle and singing.

Grandma tried to help her get in the spirit of smooshing the cake but Sabrina wasn’t having any of it at first.

She tentatively started poking at it after I fed her a few bites with a spoon.

She decided that not only was cake a good thing but that she was perfectly able to shovel it in her mouth all by herself.

This look is called Drunk on Cake:

Happy Birthday silly monkey.