Mommy's Girl

I thought it was supposed be to Daddy's Girl. That's not the case, though, with our little one.

Usually, after Kristie feeds her, I'll take Kenzie downstairs and rock her to sleep (and sleep for a couple hours myself in the process) so Kristie can get some sleep and a break since she spends all day with Kenzie while I'm at work.

However, I'm finding that because of all the time Kenzie spends with her mother, she has become a Mommy's Girl. For when I bring her downstairs, if she isn't already asleep, she tends to wake up. If she realizes that I am holding her -- instead of her mother - oh man, all hell breaks loose.

I have never felt so completely helpless in my life as when I'm holding Kenzie, and I have no way to soothe her cries. I hold her and walk around. Still cries. I sit and cradle her and rock her. Still cries. I try to sing (though, I've realized I may know thousands of songs and the artists who perform them - my ipod library consists of approximately three thousand songs -- but I can't remember a full lyric to save my soul. In fact, I know exactly how Tom Cruise's character feels in War of the Worlds where his daughter is panicking and he attempts to sing her a lullaby, only to realize that he doesn't know any. Instead, he offers her a rendition of "Little Deuce Coup" by the Beach Boys). She cries louder. I hum. Still cries. I sway from side to side. No luck.

However, by this time, Kristie has heard the cries from upstairs and comes to the rescue.

The worst part is, as soon as I hand her over to Kristie, I can count the seconds on one hand that it takes for her to calm down.

Worse yet, even our former babysitter, Rene, is able to soothe her! She was over last night and she immediately had Kenzie calm and nearly asleep. The trick, she said, was to swing her in small figure eights.

Well, I tried that, and it's a crock.

So I guess I'll just have to wait for about four years or so when I can spoil her and turn her into Daddy's Little Girl finally.