Christening the New Mini

This afternoon we picked up Vivian: Anna’s new Mini. After nearly three hours we were able to drive away in the fiery red sports car. And drive we did. We took Hwy 9 through the Santa Cruz mountains over to Santa Cruz where we had slurpies from Jamba Juice and walked around town.

I got to drive on the way home. Whether it was something she ate or the twisty turns of Hwy 9 we’ll never know, but Molly got pretty sick and vommited all over herself, the car seat and Vivian. Fortunately, Anna had thought ahead and brought a change of clothes. So we got poor Molly cleaned up, changed, and did our best to clean up the car seat. At last we were ready to embark again.

Except a few minutes later, Molly honked again. This time, we were close enough to Saratoga that there really wasn’t anywhere to pull off the road. Plus we had nothing we could change her into. Fortunately, she passed out shortly thereafter — it was already 8:30 pm.

When we got home, and after she had a bath, Molly was much happier and seemed fine. Vivian’s smelling much better now that I’ve cleaner her up a bit. Now all we need to do is wash all the clothing and the cover of the car seat.

I’d say that Vivian has received her introduction to the Watkins family…

More Nicknames Than A Mobster Convention

Poor Molly! She was born into a family of wackos. There is no better evidence (that we can offer without truly incriminating ourselves) than the nicknames we have given our daughter.

Here are some examples:

• The Bean
• The Beanster
• The Sea Monkey
• The Microsite (courtesy of Papou, aka Evan)
• Chewy aka Chewbacca, Wookie (she gnaws on nearly anything)
• Spewy (she drools and occasionally regurgitates)
• Poopsie (due to her exceedingly full diapers)
• Molly Poopins or just Poopins
• Pota-toh, Sweet Potato, Pota-tah, Tater Tot
• Screechy
• Gamera (or really, any critter from the Godzilla movies)
• One-eyed drunken pirate

I am certain there are (and will be) more in the future. Feel free to post your ideas- we’ll most likely use them at one point or another. But keep it clean folks!

Unexpected Holiday

I don’t think it’s any secret that this holiday season hasn’t been what we expected — starting off with the blizzard when we took Molly home from the hospital. We never expected she would suffer from something like Acid Reflux (or whatever it really is that causes her to wake up screaming) and I never expected I’d be feeding my daughter Maalox from an eye-dropper.

I certainly never expected to feel like a failed parent so soon. Nothing makes you feel more helpless than to hold your child while she screams bloody murder for fifteen minutes — all because you have no idea what might be wrong with her. Like many other men, I have this compulsion to fix things, but there’s no fixing Molly. We don’t even know what’s broken.

However, as many have already said, we have a beautiful daughter who we love very much. And if Anna’s own infancy is any guide, Molly will grow out of her problems.

Let’s hope next year brings just as much Joy but without nearly as much frustration and worry…