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Feb
6
Dylan’s birthday started off on an ominous note with a cough-triggered puking episode — thankfully I had my Barf Radar on high and whisked him into the kitchen and over the sink just in time, having learned from the night before that a baby who coughs in just the right sort of way then looks deeply unhappy and contemplative for a few moments before smacking his lips and starting to whine needs to be picked up and ferried away from all fabric-covered surfaces IMMEDIATELY, like at LIGHT SPEED, instead of standing there like a dumbass staring at him wondering what’s wrong only to figure it out at the last second and in carrying him mid-barf from the room end up with stomach contents (PUREED CARROTS OMG) sprayed not just in one repulsive-but-dealable puddle, but in a long horrendous streak from one end of the carpet to the other and even on the WALL and in the OUTLET COVERS, dear GOD, and by the way if any of you have any tips for getting the stubborn remnants of barf-stain out of a cream-colored carpet I sure would appreciate any advice on that — and he was kind of extra clingy during the day and I thought the festivities might get scrapped in favor of a jaunty trip to the pediatrician’s office, but he rallied by late afternoon and we had a little family party in his honor.
While Riley, JB and I were enjoying Dylan’s cupcakes as the birthday boy contentedly sucked on a bottle, I realized that he’s a little behind the curve in the types of foods he’ll eat. The child has one hell of a gag reflex (see also: coughing, Streak Of Horror, etc), always has, and we’ve learned the hard way that finger foods get sent right back up and onto the highchair tray, if you know what I mean. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, really, but I remember at least offering Riley a cupcake, while I didn’t even consider giving any to Gaggy McHorkerton.
Eh, whatever. It’s not like Riley ate his, either, since he was so freaking SUSPICIOUS of them, despite the fact that I baked them myself — mini carrot cakes with cream cheese frosting! — using heart-shaped cupcake holders for the love of god.
In comparison, I purchased Dylan’s from Amazon’s grocery service. Oh ho HO yes, store-bought, same-day-ordered, and chock full of unhealthy ingredients. It’s not like I haven’t learned a thing or two in the last few years.
Man, don’t both kids just look THRILLED on their big day? First birthdays, sheesh. Really, parents should just hire a babysitter and go out on their own to celebrate having survived twelve straight months of INGRATITUDE.
Among the small collection of gifts Dylan received, he got a couple pairs of fleecy snuggly pajamas, which we forced him to model right away:
These are the exact sort of pajamas that, when Riley sleeps in them, have a pancake-syrup smell to them in the mornings. Dylan’s mostly smell like milk-drool, but Riley’s definitely get this Mrs. Butterworth’s aroma, and when I mentioned the Syrup Phenomenon to JB he was all, what whaaat, bitch you crazy. When I mentioned it on Twitter, however, I heard from like ten people who were all DUDE MY KID’S PAJAMAS SMELL LIKE SYRUP TOO, so that just goes to show that Twitter is more awesomer than husbands, so there.
Lastly! I feel kind of awkward mentioning this since I know most of us are cutting back on spending, but just in case, I signed up for a horrible-sounding event in March where I’m going to try and hike up 69 flights of stairs, like on purpose, what the fuck, and all the fundraising proceeds benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. (The LLS honor patient is Caleb Thorstein, whom you can read a bit about here.) If you’d like to sponsor me (click the “Support Linda” button under the photo), I would be totally honored.
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62 Responses to “Cupcakes, pajamas, stairs”
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Loving, Lately
JR Watkins Vanilla is my new favorite body lotion. Love the smell, love the way it feels, love the awesome label design.
I may have mentioned it once or twice, but Breaking Bad is the best thing that has ever happened to television EVER. You should watch it right now.
Bob Book Series
Riley has honestly learned to read as a result of these little box sets. Cannot recommend enough.
This applesauce bread from Allrecipes is superfast, supereasy, and the kids love it (I leave out the spices).
Your leukemia & Lymphona Society page doesn’t have a working donate link – at least not that I can find. Help !
I work in the building that event is being held in. For a few brief moments one day I thought “I should really do that” and then I realized that I could also stick sharp pointy implements into my eye sockets but that doesn’t mean I should. I will happily sponser you though and will click there in a moment. Good luck!!
Janet: it wasn’t clear, that’s for sure — you have to click the “Support Linda” button under the photo. I added that info to the post, thanks!
My daughter doesn’t wear the fleece footy PJ’s anymore but the smelled like syrup when she did. I thought I was crazy. :)
I walked two marathons for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of my mother. It is a fantastic organization and they offer well-run events.
I hope Dylan is feeling better. I have nothing to offer on the barfy carpet, sorry; but I do know that baking soda eventually gets the smell out.
Ah, nothing better than birthday puke! May I highly recommend Tech Stain Remover (try Ace hardware). It got ground in green sprinkles out of my cream carpet. Don’t be over-zealous though – I dripped it elsewhere, and that spot is REALLY clean. Or faded, I’m not sure.
Great picture of the PJ modeler! By the way, that syruping thing…I think it’s from their leaky diapers. Never noticed it with my daughter, but with the two boys, different story. They boys just seemed to naturally leak more at night anyhow. But my kids were tummy sleepers so of course the little boy pee would end up in the front, soaking their tummies and crib sheets, etc. After noticing repeated mornings (ok, probably repeated weeks, maybe months) I switched to Huggies Overnight diapers. Not only do we no longer have any obvious overnight leaking but the syrupy smell on their PJ’s…GONE!
I don’t have kids yet, but I distinctly remember a purple nightgown from when I was a kid that always smelled like maple syrup! Had to be about 25 years ago. Not footie pajamas, but still. That’s an odd but apparently common phenomenon!
Oh – and let me add that they didn’t soak through all of the time, but I sort of tied the smell from the soaking nights to the ones where they would wake up dry. So maybe only a little bit leaked out? I dunno… Just a thought. Maybe I’m the crazy bitch?! (Don’t answer that!)
My kid smells like syrup in the morning, too… and often strawberries. She’s a delicious breakfast treat. :)
My little one smells like syrup too… syrup that has two main ingredients: sweat and pee.
You look like Chloe Sevigny in the second photo – and I totally mean that as a compliment :)
OMG I am so not crazy now…I thought I was the only one that smelled the “syrup” smell!
I think every child I’ve encountered in pajamas usually smells like syrup. And, unless I’m going crazy, I can recall my OWN pajamas smelling like that.
Try Spot Shot Carpet and Stain Remover…..works great and has always gotten EVERY stain out of our cream colored carpets!!
All 3 kids PJ’s smelled like syrup–husband never noticed however. Glad I am not the only one who has noticed.
Love the footie pj’s. My girls don’t smell like syrup in the mornings but I do love their just-out-of-bed snuffliness. And try Spot Shot on the stain…it’s gotten out crazy stains for us, usually made by the cats. And dogs. And babies. Maybe it’ll work on the orange stains. It stinks so don’t use too much, but spray it and let it sit for awhile. Then try rubbing the spot. Hope that helps!
Ha! Suspicious-of-First-Birthday-Cake is my daughter’s middle name! No crowd-pleasing face-dives into icing heaven. I’ve got evidence of my own here: http://mytwo.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/catching-up-part-ii-skylers-1st-birthday/
If only they knew that someday, cakes would be a sin, and to just enjoy it now while they can and nobody will care how pudgy they are as a result!
We made an unfortunate child-proofing mistake when my 5 year old was a toddler which resulted in a huge red wine stain on our cream colored carpet. Oxiclean liquid stain remover sprayed directly on the carpet, a little scrubbing with a wet (white) cloth, and it was gone. Got rid of the wine smell, too. Not sure about puked up carrot.
I second the Oxyclean – magic.
I always thought the syrupy smell was from the footies in the pj’s. Not sure why but somehow that seemed to make it?
The fifty bajllion steps you are climbing? So cool!
Oh the maple syrup pjs! So true!
Also, my son could not eat a damn thing either without horking. He used to live on yogurt, but it had to be the smooth kind, if there was the tiniest piece of fruit in there he would choke and puke.
Happy B-day again little D!
First, I tried to donate and it kept erroring out after I put in my credit card number. I tried three times and I couldnt get it to go through.
Second, I noticed my son would smell that syrup-sorta-smell when he would have a little pee accident in the middle of the night, not wake up, and sleep in it. (Ok, how gross is that?) When the accidents stopped, the syrup smell did too. Weird, huh?
Get that baby a piano! Look at those fingies!
I can’t believe Dylan is one already! So damn cute!
After 4 kids, two of which were also gaggers, I now use Zep spray rug cleaner. Works Wonders! I get mine at Home Depot. Good luck!
Re: HAIRMERGENCY: Yes! Kerastase leave-in conditioner. I’m not sure of its exact name but it’s probably a “volumizing” product (almost all my hair care products promise more volume) and it comes in a squat little pale orange tub and costs a FORTUNE and is my favorite hair-care product in the universe. (I have fine limp hair and it makes my hair bouncy! and shiny!) You used to be able to get it at Gene Juarez but they might have stopped carrying it. I actually (don’t be too grossed out) have sometimes just LEFT IT IN MY HAIR ALL DAY and, uh, went about my business pretending I was not walking around with a headful of conditioner and, ahem, while my head might have been a little, uh, FRAGRANT, my hair actually looked pretty righteous with that stuff in it.
Having your own carpet cleaner with oral pyrotechnic children running around is an absolute necessity.
One of the best buys we ever made.
My daughter was highly suspicious of her first birthday cake, too. In which case I say, more for me!
I also have my own carpet cleaner. We just have a small one, but it’s worth its weight in gold.
The oxyclean works. Follow up with a carpet shampooer but filled with boiling hot water and no soap. It worked for red wine on a light beige carpet.
Love the pictures of your family.
Best carpet cleaner ever: Folex. Find it at the big orange. You can use it on other things too like furniture.
Happy birthday, kiddo! I guess I shouldn’t admit my envy; the only thing my kids smell like first thing in the morning is pee.
Please add Charlie to the hated-his-first-birthday roster:
http://www.alittlepregnant.com/alittlepregnant/2005/11/charlies_best_b.html
My little guy turned one in January and we got him the same pj’s! My piggie did a face plant into his cupcake though :)
My baby’s (1 year) jammies also smell like pancake syrup.
My dog’s feet smell like corn chips.
Both odor phenoms I will never understand.
PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Ha! I surprised my husband on our daughter’s first birthday with a babysitter and we went out for sushi to celebrate keeping the baby alive one year as well as not getting divorced. Will do the same with #2!
(Not that I am totally cold-hearted, I should add. These were back in the days when she went to sleep at 7 p.m. anyway.)
Where did the Jammies come from? I can’t find any with feet for my little one.
I noticed the pancake syrup smell on the jammies so often that I spent waaaaay too much time googling it…especially since it was most often in peed in pajamas. Hence my useless knowledge of “Maple Syrup Urine Disease.” Apparently not to be confused with “Toddler who slept in footie pajames and now smells like Breakfast,” which is obviously much much more common.
I clicked over to see who the “honor patient” was and I was totally unprepared to find a picture of a child. I cannot imagine what that family has gone through.
Going to donate now.
Yup, that smell is definitely a little warmed-up, dried-out overnight pee. My girls get it on their feetie PJs. We use Huggies Overnights too, but sometimes BabyB still has a little leakage. I tend not to be offended by it, because it doesn’t smell like outright stinky pee. Just a little syrupy. So sometimes those PJs get worn another night. Is that wrong??
Pee. Syrup = pee in mommyworld. Bleh.
1) Have you tried that Woolite Rug stick? I want to, but haven’t had the need (read- energy to go buy it)
2) 2 children, 1 diaper, 1 pull-up at night= lots of syrup footies around our house. My husband can’t smell it.
I got to sleep in one Saturday, and woke up pissed at my husband for feeding our boy pancakes as I slept, as the boy is very allergic to eggs. He hadn’t, but hadn’t taken off the night-time pull-up either. I earned my bitch of the day award before I even got out of bed.
I saw that Twitter thing and totally agree. TOTALLY.
My second is just as serious as Riley was, but just as gaggy/pukey as Dylan is.
My oldest still smells like syrup – maybe it’s the body chemistry or something. He’s been potty trained for a while, so I don’t think it’s pee.
Good luck with the fundraising!
I second (or third or twelfth?) the maple syrup smell with the fleece feetie jammies. I thought I was crazy! So good to hear that it’s a universal thing. Ha!
OMG I had no idea the fuzzy sleepers caused maple syrup smell!!!! I freaked when this happened w/ our first bc i had just read something in the GD What to Expect the First Year about Maple Syrup Urine Disease…we called the dr., were referred to a specialist at Children’s Hospital, saw a genetic counselor, etc. All was fine but it would have been AWESOME to have known others had this issue…and had healthy kids.
The climb won’t be as bad as you imagine. I did a CN Tower stair climb one year in less than 25 minutes and you’re way more fit than I. That climb is 1,776 stairs.
Interestingly, when I worked as a Hospice chaplain I also found that our diabetes/kidney related floor at the hospital always smelled like maple syrup. A nurse told me it was related to blood sugar and urine.
When my baby boy smelled maple syrupy I was convinced he had diabetes…
Now I know, that, well…it’s just pee doing its thing…
Whoops, meant to say “hospital chaplain.” I’m actually a Hospice chaplain now…not that it really matters but dammit, I’m a stickler for accuracy!
Christen, I worried about the same thing! When a person has keto-acidosis (I think?) they have sweet breath, or smell fruity. The first time I smelled the footie jammie/syrup thing I freaked out. I’m so glad I’m not the only one with a little medical background that thought that same thing!
For your carpet stain troubles: Oxyclean. As in the: the annoying Billy Mays commercial Oxyclean product. It is truly an amazing cleaning detergent. It never fails.
Weird about the syrup smell … last week I didn’t shower before work one morning, and I kept getting a whiff of something sweet all day. What the hell is that?
OK, so now that I went back and read the comments I am worried that I have a bedwetting problem that has eluded my notice for 34 years.
my son- who is now 25- always had that maple syrup smell. i didn’t think about it other than stinky pee. then i read a mystery about a serial killer who had maple syrup urine disorder. i mentioned it to his doctor who laughed it off.
it’s a real thing. you can read more about it here:
http://www.msud-support.org/intro.htm
i don’t think my son is a serial killer- YET! if he is, he is awfully good at hiding the bodies!
Well I am more than a little terrified. I was reading a nice b-day recap. I recounted the hilarious syrup story to my husband who claimed it’s real(based on babysitting his nephew). now I see links to syrup piss disease websites. Is that link a joke?
Happy belated birthday to Dylan! Sorry, no carpet remedies to offer, I am pathetically inept about stain removal.
I hope Dylan is feeling better. My little girl was coming down with a sore throat Friday night, but we had plans to road-trip to some amazing aquarium and we took the kids anyway. She was fine today, tonight she complained her ear hurts, so now I’m feeling all guilty that we took them. But, if you look at our photos, she is happy as a clam! Ah. Mommy guilt.
Okay, so now I want to run downstairs and put my two-yr-old in his fleece jammies just so that I can check him for a syrup smell in the morning. Your suggestion that parents leave the kids home with a sitter and celebrate surviving is awesome! Happy Birthday, Dylan!
Dude, you know what I just thought of while looking at the pictures of your kids making skruntchy faces and wearing ridiculous pajamas, I don’t think we’ve ever seen any embarrassing pictures of you looking like a dork when you were a little kid. (not that your kids are looking like dorks now, they are actually adorable, but I don’t want to see a picture of you looking adorable as a little girl, I want to see one of you looking like a total dork) What’s up with that? I don’t catch every single post or anything, so it’s possible I missed one, but I kind of feel … I feel like a poor kid who just discovered that every other kid in school has a TV. I was ok with it until I realized I was missing out. Your tireless blog posts rife with transparent honesty can not make up for this sudden lack of comedic history. Why have you held out? Is it because you are evil? Or perhaps is it because you are the opposite of good?
I just told five year old twin girls about it and they are sniffling and tearing up now. Oh, oh, look at that, now they are crying. You just made a little blond angel cry, and her freaky identical sister who some people consider a girl, but has not been proven to have a soul. (jury’s out on twins) I’m pretty sure this is why God made your baby barf on your carpet.
Lastly, some advice about the carpets. I have found, and I do get rid of stains professionally, (not really) that the best thing to use is fire, followed by cream colored spray paint. (the fire gets rid of the stink) If that doesn’t suit you, you could try some of that professional grade carpet cleaner. Not the shit you get at a grocery store, the stuff with a warning label you get at Lowes or the Home Depot. the stuff that probably kills fish and destroys the ozone and may or may not register on a Geiger counter. Mix it with some water, let it soak for a few minutes, and then shop-vac the living hell out of it. We use a normal carpet cleaner machine with that industrial strength stuff and it usually gets out even red clay tracks, which is what NC is made of. I’ll ask at work though, cause my work buddy used to clean carpets professionally, so he knows more than me. (remember, warning labels are good. grocery store chemicals are for pussies with dirty carpets)
OH GOD YES the syrup! My husband compares it to “wet bacon” but I am convinced it smells like syrup! WHAT is that? The pjs certainly smell fresh and clean when we put the Little Dude to bed… I am highly suspicious.
Okay, how inappropriate is it for me to say my cats smell like syrup? Haven’t noticed that smell on DS, but he does do the pee-through some mornings…in that same pair of footie jammies, no less!
Also meant to add, my DS also has the same hair-trigger gag reflex can self-induce vomiting when upset in under 60 seconds that will make CIO a method NEVER used in this house. He also eats retardedly. We ate a lot of freeze-dried fruit in very small pieces to start. Reminding him to CHEW seemed to be the key.
Chem Dry is the best carpet cleaner ever. It’s a parent’s best friend!
As the organizer of the Big Climb I’d like to thank you for mentioning our event in your blog. It’s nice to know that some people have also commented on it. Anyway, glad to have you on board and looking forward to meeting you in person perhaps on race day!
Your kids are So. Freakin’. Cute! The footie PJ’s! They KILL me!
That is all.
This totally makes me think I should follow you on Twitter because my son also has the syrup smell in his footie pajamas and my husband also though I was crazy.
As for the “Twitter is way awesomer than husbands” subject, that is also a topic I often think I could write about with some veracity.
(@Rachael above, I get what your husband says about the “wet bacon” smell — to me it’s kind of like a combination syrup and bacon fat odor. Which is just one more example of how I am very weird.)
Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) is a metabolism disorder passed down through families in which the body cannot break down certain parts of proteins. Urine in persons with this condition smells like maple syrup.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000373.htm
The feeding difficulties fit, too. Can’t hurt to check with your pediatrician.