Random Musings and Updates

Apparently, I am not all that particularly great at this blogging thing.

In the last two months life hasn’t been crazy or anything; just the regular day-to-day. However, the only time I am actually on the computer is at work. Once I’m home I’m playing with a baby, cooking dinner, phinagling a budget, trying to catch up on sleep, and just plain attempting to survive. Unfortunately, all that doesn’t leave much room for trolling around on the computer and once I do sit down there are so many things I want to catch up on.  So here I am, two months later thinking, “Gee, I should update my blog for the skamillions of readers I have.”  I am pretty sure no one missed me.  Oh well.

Baby J has cut her two top teeth making four teeth total (two top, two bottom) and a little biter that is giving my breasts a run for their money (just what my whole two readers want to know).  She is cuter than all get out so the occasional nibbling is worth it.  It is hard to believe that her first birthday is right around the corner!

About the most interesting thing that has happened to us recently is that Baby J took a plane ride to go meet her Uncle who lives outside of Baltimore, MD.  She did great on the plane and we had a great trip that consisted primarily of doing nothing.   However, it was nice to be around other parents who understand trials and tribulations like teething and seperation anxiety.

Possibly more later as I slowly regain my control of my schedule.  I say slowly as it has been nine months and I still haven’t figured it out.  I’ll get there.

I’m here!

We have been incredibly busy at work and not sleeping through the night takes its toll on me when I get home and get Baby J to bed, which is my sad explanation for the enormous amount of time that passes between posts.

There isn’t much going on right now. Baby J had a TERRIBLE cold that she is finally fully over. But I think she is teething…which is reaking havoc on my girls. She cut her two bottom teeth a month and a half ago, but we haven’t seen any pop since. However, since then, she has drooled and been chewing MUCH more than she did prior to cutting the two teeth. It’s an attractive look.

Other news: Baby J started chicken this past weekend. Nothing says Happy First Mother’s Day like “your daughter is officially a carnivore.” She is not a big fan, but if you mix it with enough to distract her, she doesn’t know it’s there yet. We’ll try adjusting amounts as time goes on until she is eating more chicken, but she seemed to like the chicken, applesauce, and rice mixture she had last night.

I had a pureeing weekend this past weekend! I went to the Hartville Marketplace on Saturday morning and got apricots, apples, bananas, chicken, sweet potatoes, eggplant, (lemons for us), and I think that is it. I have decided I LOVE LOVE LOVE the smell of apricots! Those were my favorite to make and they are a beautiful orange sherbety color when they are all baked, peeled, and pureed. I still have some more apples to do, the eggplant, and the sweet potato. I am going to make Baby J some little sweet potato cubes to start finger foods and I found a recipe for no eggs, no sugar teething biscuits that I want to make for her. Wholesome Baby Foods has become my bible, so to speak.

Okay, before I go off to pump, let me make sure you all know how absolutely adorable my Baby J is…because that’s the whole reason you came anyway…right?

 

 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day and enjoys the spring-like weather we are supposed to be having around this time of year!

Happy Easter!

Well, Baby J is sleeping soundly for the moment so I will sieze it and hop on here to wish everyone a Happy Easter! It’s hard to believe just four short days ago we had four inches of snow on the ground! Today it is sunny and beautiful – a little chilly – but beautiful!

Just in case you aren’t in the bunny hopping mood, maybe this will help:

Happy Easter to all!

Why do we assume the worst?

Last night, after getting Baby J to bed, my husband and I fell asleep with the television on. This is rare – usually he heads downstairs to hop on Second Life, his newest computer addiction.

When Baby J woke up at 1:30, I found myself in bed alone in the dark with the fan on (my husband needs the white noise and air motion while he sleeps – it drives me crazy!). I didn’t see the downstairs light on under the door, so I figured he must have just run down to the bathroom.

I feed Baby J and he still hasn’t come back upstairs, so now I’m getting worried. What if he collapsed? What if he slipped, fell, and knocked himself out? What if he left? (Why I would think this, I don’t know…irrational-middle-of-the-night fears appear from nowhere!)

So I head downstairs and there he is, on the computer, doing what he usually does (only in the dark). He got a good laugh out of how scared I was though…he is secretly and evil villain and not my superhero.

Baby J’s First Trip to the Zoo

Prior to ellaborating on the incredible experience we had at the zoo this weekend during our little heat wave, I must first put up this disclaimer. I didn’t know we were going to the zoo – subsequently, I had no camera. I should restate that, I did have my cell phone camera, but I haven’t figured out the SD card for that yet. As soon as I do, I will put on my own pictures from the zoo (although there aren’t many). The two pictures included in this post are from the Akron Zoo Website.

That being said, Baby J went to the zoo this weekend!  Of course, I went with her, along with Grandma and her cousin, Adrienne.

Adrienne at her First Birthday Party

Now mind you, when you’re five months old and traveling around in a comfy bucket seat, you do one thing VERY well…sleep.  So Baby J slept through a good portion of the visit to the zoo (more specifically, she fell asleep on the way there and didn’t wake up until about halfway through).  However, Adrienne was quite entertained by the trip.  She liked the penguins and was a pro at finding the “kitty cats,” particularly the snow leopard that both her aunt and her grandma could not find (leave it to a sixteen month old).  When we got to the tiger exhibit and he turned and yawned (right on the other side of the glass – less than a foot away), Adrienne was a little surprised to see such big teeth on a kitty cat.

The Akron Zoo is a wonderful zoo.  It’s small and, if it weren’t for the hills, would be a nice little walk – nothing that would wear you out too bad.  Throw in a travel system stroller with a fifteen pound baby, the hills kind of wear you out a little bit … or I’m incredibly out of shape!   The best part about the zoo is that, unlike the Detroit Zoo and National Zoo (the only two other zoos I have been too…well, I have been to Belle Isle as well, but that was MUCH different), there are no huge trenches or gigantic empty spaces or rocks between you and the animals.  There is glass…and then animal.  They are RIGHT there.  When the tiger yawned, we could see the little sticky things that cats have on their tongues (ahh…technical terminology – I love it).  Also, while the National Zoo is free, the Detroit Zoo is most definitely not – and the Akron Zoo is MUCH more economically feasible.  Especially since I have a “Do Downtown” card that gets me BOGO entrance fees and parking was only $2 (and wasn’t a mile away from the zoo).

Now the last thing the Akron Zoo has that was just AMAZING is jelly!  Nope, not the grape or strawberry kind, the fish kind. 

I am excited to say this is when Baby J decided to wake up.  Side note: Baby J LOVES fish!  Her Aunt Jennie has a great big fish tank and Baby J just loves to sit and watch the fish.  So you can imagine how excited Mommy was when Baby J was awake to see the jellyfish.  And did she see them!  Her favorites were the ones that looked like they had running Christmas lights in them (which I couldn’t find a picture of).  My favorite was the ones that had “diamond” something in there names.  I don’t remember exactly.  Either way, Baby J got pulled out of her stroller and carried around the exhibit where she smiled and talked to the jellyfish.  We didn’t do the touch tank because both the babies were just too young for that, but maybe later on.

By the way, here are my favorites:

Okay, that was our zoo experience.

On Top of Butt Mountain!

Yay! We’re back in cloth diapers. I have to say a BIG thank you to Sally! Not only did she lend me all of her cloth diapering supplies, but she has also served as my cloth diaper mentor. So a few days ago when I was having issues with MAJOR leakage as Baby J has started sleeping through the night, I emailed her.

Side note: I had tried double diapering, but it just looked so ridiculous and uncomfortable, I was worried it was going to do something to Baby J.

In her reply back, she assured me that double diapering is totally okay. So I did it…and it worked! I even sort of figured out how to kind of flatten out Mount Butt so Baby J isn’t sleeping with all the blood flowing to her head!

By the way, if you were able to get in and get all the way through to put a vote in for Baby J in the picture contest, I appreciate it. If you didn’t, that’s okay too. I was a little disappointed to find out that the site is really nothing more than a spam site. After entering her, I opened my email box to find sixty new emails advertising this or that. What a terrible thing – to use a person’s love of their child to get their email onto a spam list! Grrr! Thanks to those who voted, to those who tried and gave up, and to those who thought about it! Your well wishes are all appreciated.

I made Baby J’s dress for Thanksgiving. And it really came out very nicely (plus I learned some tips for future dressmaking). So I am hoping to make an adorable little dress for Easter. But, I haven’t bought any of the fabric or anything – so at this point, it is just a thought in my head. I did see some super cute fabric at Joann’s the other day and almost bought it, but restrained myself. Someday I will have millions of dollars to spend on nothing but fabric!

*Good News! Good News! Good News!*

I put on a pair of prepregnancy pants this morning that were on the small side of my closet and they fit! It almost gives me the courage to try on my skinny jeans. I am not going to hold my breath on those though. Maybe this weekend….

The saga of the black leather jackets…

Apparently, I am not supposed to own a black leather jacket…or wear it at least. I have now gone through two in less than two weeks.

The story begins post-pregnancy, when the jacket I had wouldn’t stay buttoned closed thanks to the extra baby weight. A friend of mine at work gave me one of her old jackets – a long black leather (although I think it was fake leather) jacket. In the course of wearing it, I ripped a whole in the middle of the back (don’t ask me how), pulled half of one pocket off (I know how that happened – can we say baby bucket seat?), and, the final blow, ripped the zipper pull right off of it. Superhero said I could use his black leather jacket since I maimed my other one. Now the zipper won’t stay zipped. Blah!

In other news, I have a PartyLite meeting tonight and I am supposed to be getting a HUGE amount of gift certificates. I have some items picked out and I will get to see the new summer line tonight, so that might pick out a few more. Then the rest will wait until the Christmas catalog in August (oooo…I’m so excited!). I will have to show you all what I get.

Baby J is doing great! I love her smiles in the morning – it’s the best way to haul your butt out of bed at 6 am. She has a cold, so she hasn’t been sleeping well (gosh the first winter has been SO fun). She woke up at 5:30am this morning, so we cuddled until 6.

Anyways, I should get to work. What I wouldn’t give to be a stay at home mom.

For Baby J’s College Fund!

I have entered Baby J in a photo contest in which she could win $2,500! Please do me a big favor and CLICK ON THIS LINK TO VOTE. We really appreciate it. Thank you. The picture with the most votes at the end of the month wins…so pass the link on to friends and family. We really appreciate it!

It has been awhile!

Alright, so I have been gone for quite awhile.  Mail has picked up at work and once I’m home, I spend time with Baby J.  She is getting to the point where there is a new thing everyday.  She can pull her hands together and this amazes her.  She is very ticklish, especially on her tummy.  She will laugh, giggle, and squeal when you tickle her little buddha belly and, let me tell you, that is the best sound in the whole world.

Of course, the more amazing she gets, the more I want to be home with her.  Separation anxiety is killing me.  Fortunately, I am still breast feeding and get to pump three times a day at work.  Getting to take that break and do that gives me a little bit of  link to her.  To tell you the truth, even when it is the middle of the night and I am so tired I can’t even stay awake through the feeding, I really enjoy breastfeeding.  It isn’t because of all the great benefits, although those are nice, and not because it is free, although that is a hugeperk.  It is when she is lying there eating and her hand reaches up to grab something and she finds one of my fingers.  Or, when I cough and she stops and gives me this look like I just interupted something very important (she already has ‘tude…lol).  I’m sure you all are probably getting tired of listening to me talk about Baby J…I’ll change the subject.

I have changed somethings around.  I started a specifically craft blog…formam921.wordpress.com…it will be focused on what I am doing for the shop and also the Race for the Cure which I plan on participating in this year.  Hopefully, I will be able to really start picking some production up.  I have lots of ideas and have started mapping them out, so pretty soon, I should be able to figure out my schedule enough to work in some craft time.

The other new news is that I have gotten into freelance writing.  I got my first assignment today.  I am quite excited about it and will be working on research for that.

I don’t know how they do it.

The parents out there who have very ill children – I just don’t know how they do it. Jorja has a cold and has been very congested and coughing the last couple of days. We’ve been doing everything we can and she is getting better, but the last couple of days feeling so helpless has been unbearable. I cannot imagine how it will be when it is something worse than a cold.

In other news, I’m 25 tomorrow. Not really ready for that. My loving 37 year old husband doesn’t want to hear anything about my fear of officially being 1/4 of a century old. Of course, everyone at work is significantly older than me as well, so I have no comiserating parties. It really hit me the other day when I was filling out a questionaire and it asked my age and then listed off age brackets – 19-24, 25-30. I’m in a whole new age bracket! Woah…