Mothers Day/Birthday

As you all know, May 8th was Mothers Day.  A slightly lesser known fact is that it was also my birthday.  Some in my family will know that historically when Mothers Day and my birthday collide, I tend to have pretty bad days.  Suffice it to say, I've spent more than one MD/BDay in the emergency room.

So leading up to May 8th this year there was the obligatory banter from my family wondering if I was nervous/ planning to spend the day indoors/ going to wrap myself in bubble wrap/ etc. (Not to mention a a small amount of actual anxiety)  However as the day drew to a close, it appeared that I would avoid the curse this year...then we had dinner.

Admittedly, what happened at dinner could have just been a coincidence, and as I'm not an authority on curses, hexes, or witchcraft generally, I admit that I don't know if it's possible for such a plague to express itself in another person.  If it is, it appears that this year I ported my BDay misfortune to my poor mother-in-law.

We just sat down to a nice MD/BDay dinner when Marilyn took her first bite of steak (which I prepared no less) and began having a strange hiccup-type sound in her throat.  She took a drink of water to try and stop the noise which apparently only lodged the obstruction deeper at which point she began choking in earnest.

All I could think of as I quickly stood up and walked around the table was that while I had learned the Heimlich in Boy Scouts many years ago, I had never actually had to administer the maneuver.  I was pretty sure the most likely outcome was that I was going to break Marilyn's ribs and still not solve the problem.  I executed the technique to the best of my recollection, gave my mother-in-law a couple of good jerks, and viola', out popped the culprit and breathing returned to normal.  It was a scary couple of moments, but I'm happy to report that Marilyn is OK. 

So as I said, I'm not sure if this little episode can be blamed on the aforementioned curse, but it does seem like an eerie coincidence. 

On another note, I gave my mother-in-law the gift of life for Mothers Day.  What did you get yours?

Ten Months Old!

Our darling baby is now ten months old.  What a fun age!  She's been a busy girl the past month.  Her biggest accomplishment ... crawling!  She started crawling Easter weekend and hasn't looked back.  That kitty food was just too tempting.  Since then, we've all had to be on our toes {Bella hasn't moved so fast in years!}.

Some other exciting highlights include ...

Playing hostess to all kinds of guests {mommy's college roommate, Cherice, Auntie Melissa, Uncle Adam, and The Nanny}.  Beach, restaurants, road trip to San Diego.  Pulling to standing {complete with the most darling little bite marks in all the furniture}.  Gym class with Mommy.  Finger foods!  Signing "bird" and "more".  Celebrating Mommy and Daddy's birthdays.  Swaying back and forth when playing "Tick Tock".  Mischief!  Pointing at everyone and everything.  Tap dancing {sitting on the floor and shaking her feet like there's gum stuck to them}.  Cries "bee, bee, wee, wee" when she's upset or frustrated.  When asked, pointing to Mommy or Daddy's nose.