I’m sitting in our house in San Diego, feeling the urge to shhh myself, even though I am quiet except for the sound of typing. Amelia is FINALLY asleep, no thanks to the soothing powers of her momma. This nap was all Ann Margret’s doing. What magic power does Anne Margret have over my daughter and how I can ever thank her for this power? I’m also eating chocolate right now. My mom in her infinite wisdom put a chocolate turkey, a Thanksgiving gift for my daughter, in my travel bag, even after I told her I didn’t want to eat it. My mom said it was in case of a “chocolate emergency.” Today is a chocolate emergency kind of day.
I spent all of last month in Sacramento with my parents, and although I could see Amelia’s sleeping habits getting worse and worse due to all the attention she was commanding, I enjoyed the babysitting help and the extra hour I could sleep in the morning. Amelia enjoyed, well, everything about Sacramento. Now, back in San Diego, she is trying to rediscover her colicky three month old self. She spent the last two hours crying. She hasn’t done that in months (the crying for hours, not the crying in general. She is a crier). I nursed her, rocked her, let her cry as I put laundry away, played with her, took her into public, basically tried everything that once helped calm her. NOTHING WORKED. I knew she wasn’t sick. It was a general “mom you are boring me” or “mom don’t leave me while you pee” type of cry.
While in Sacramento, my dad stumbled upon an unlikely crying cure. He was showing her the musical Bye Bye Birdie and Amelia’s screams turned to giggles when she saw Ann Margret in front of a blue screen, singing the title song. We played that clip hundreds of times up in Sacramento, but Dave and I don’t own the musical here (I actually still have no idea what is happening in the movie because I’ve only seen the musical numbers.). I bought the song off iTunes, hoping it would calm her on the car ride, but the rendition isn’t the same as in the movie.
During Amelia’s screaming fit today, I started to wonder how fast I could find the movie. Would Target or Best Buy have it? What to do? I went to You Tube and typed in Bye Bye Birdie (with one hand because Amelia was on my lap). An image of Ann Marget in a gold dress appeared. Jackpot. I hit play and Amelia immediately starting smiling. Most of the other musical numbers from the movie are also on You Tube. A half hour of hitting repeat and my little angel is napping, probably dreaming of Ann Margret. Perhaps I should be jealous of Miss Margret from the 1960s, but truth be told, I’m wondering where I can find a gold dress and red wig and how long it would take to paint one wall bright blue. Maybe Amelia needs a little Ann Margret in her momma. If you are curious about the exact amazing clip, I embedded the You Tube video below.
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This is the Margret magic:
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I miss my Amelia even with no sleeping! I wonder how long Bye Bye Birdie will last as she gets older!
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