Big Mistake. Big. HUGE.

You remember that line right?  It's the  scene from "Pretty Woman" where  Vivian (Julia Roberts) goes back to the shop where the women refused to help her... carrying about 20 bags of expensive clothes?  And you know that stupefied look that the saleslady had on her face?  I think I've seen that one recently.

When Cameron was first born, we had those moments of awe where we were just overwhelmed by the fact that something so sweet and perfect was now a part of our family.  I distinctly remember Ryan looking at me saying "He's so perfect" with a little tear in his eye (I'm sure he'd deny that part, but it's true.)  And he was so perfect.  So perfect that it sent a shock wave of panic through my whole body.  At that moment, I should have said "he's so sweet" or "he's so innocent" or "yes, dear he IS perfect."  But instead, I grabbed Ryan's arm, looked up at him with huge panic-stricken eyes, and said "we can NOT screw this up!"  That's a lot of pressure.

Sure, we're human, and we make mistakes.  Big ones sometimes.  But it's very overwhelming to think that you've been given this precious gift, and it's your job to not screw it up.  And that's how I felt in that moment.  Since that day, I've settled into parenthood a lot.  A LOT.  And I've relaxed.  A LOT.  I'm sure I've made 1,000 mistakes already along the way.  Like this morning, when I was feeding Cameron his yummy mixture of peaches and cereal.  As soon as I put the full spoon into his mouth, he decided to practice blowing raspberries.  It was so unbelievably cute, and let's be real here, caffeine had just kicked in, so I laughed.  I laughed hard.  And every spoonful of cereal after that was accompanied by the raspberry sound, with the appropriate spray of cereal/peach blend.  (Yep, I'm looking for a maid to come clean the cereal crusties off of my kitchen walls now.)  That was today's mistake.  Well, I hope- it's still early.

And we've had MANY mistakes in the diaper department.  We have a rule in the Orrick household that "no butt goes undiapered" which developed from a few of these mistakes.  At first Ryan didn't understand why I had a stash of washcloths in the diaper caddy.  Until he got sprayed in the eye.  Now he gets it.  In fact he "gets it" so well that I have gone to change Cameron's diaper before, and found the washcloth still in the diaper.  True story.  (Once I found it, it went straight in the trash, by the way.)

I think one of the biggest mistakes we have made just happened recently.  And I think this one was Ryan's big mistake.  Two weekends ago, Ryan was talking about his week, when it hit him that he hadn't changed a dirty diaper in a while.  He thought and he thought and finally he came to the conclusion that he hadn't changed a dirty diaper in 3 weeks!  3 whole weeks!  That is insane!  (As a side note, my husband is not lazy or neglectful of his daddy duties, but I'm pretty sure he's promised Cameron a new car if he will only have blow-outs when Daddy isn't home.  That's the only logical explanation.  I also find it interesting that try as I might, I can NOT get C to say "dada".  I work with him on it every single day, and he won't do it, yet he comes dangerously close to saying "mama".  This is a problem because at 3am when he wakes up, I want him to say "dada" so Ryan has to be the one that goes to get him.  But that's another blog post entirely...)

Where was I?  Oh yes... 3 weeks.  This was a Friday night when Ryan came to this conclusion, so we made a deal- Ryan would change all of the diapers over the weekend.  That's only fair, right?  Big mistake.  Mama had a little trick up her sleeve.  You see we had been feeding the C-monster bananas, but after this revelation, I decided it was time to try some peaches.  (Moms, you know where this is headed.) 

Sure enough, Ryan didn't get much done that weekend.  He had his hands full!  That Saturday afternoon he took off running with Cameron, holding his arms stretched out and as far away from his body as possible.  I was laughing SO hard at this.  A few minutes later he screamed out "I NEED HEEEELLLLLPPPP!!"  So I ran to his side, where he begged me to "DO something."  So I did.  I got the camera and I started snapping pictures of his priceless face. 

 I feel like this caption should read "That is DISGUSTING"  but I believe, in reality, he was uttering obscenities in my direction for not offering the kind of "help" he'd had in mind.

Pretty sure he won't be making that mistake again.

 

Here's to hoping all of our parenting mistakes are as harmless and comical.