Resolutions

I've always been someone to make New Years Resolutions. For years it was the typical and less-than-concrete "Lose weight." Occasionally others joined the mix. I accomplished said resolutions with varying levels of success. For 2010, I decided to abandon my typical resolution in favor of something more measurable. I vowed to clean the entire house every week and cook dinner at least 3 times a week. Unfortunately (exclusively when it comes to my resolutions, of course), I found out I was pregnant on December 31, 2009. My morning sickness kicked in early January, and that, coupled with the exhaustion of first tri, caused me to abandon my resolutions pretty quickly. Then between bed rest and having an infant, the rest of 2010 was pretty much a bust as far as my resolutions went. So in 2011, I vowed the same, plus to find ways to save money. I made up a schedule for my cleaning, started couponing, and dusted off my cookbooks. And despite starting back in school, in general, I stuck to my resolutions. Yes, there were weeks that the house wasn't completely cleaned or that I only cooked once or twice, but there were also weeks of deep cleaning and cooking every single night, so I'm counting it as a win.

So now we're hours away from 2012. I feel good about my resolutions for the past year, so it's time to come up with some new ones. Here's what I have so far:

1) Floss every day

OK, so this one is pretty tame, but it's also important. And I cannot remember a time when I flossed more than once a week, usually more like once a month. Gross. But after my last dental appointment a few weeks ago, I decided to make it a habit (not due to any negative feedback from the dentist but just because it provided me a clean slate), and I've flossed every evening since. Making it a resolution will just bulk up my resolve to not let a day pass.

2) Meal-plan

This goes right along with couponing and shopping sales, as well as with my resolution from last year. Since I'll be taking 3 classes next semester, I can see cooking from scratch going by the wayside unless I make a conscious effort to have the meals planned in advance. This will also make shopping deals easier and help me make better use of pantry staples and freezer meals. I started this a couple of weeks ago, and it's worked well for us so far!

3) Lose weight

OK, here's that abstract one again. But I do have a more definite plan, which I'll go into in an upcoming post. And just like the others, I haven't waited until the New Year to get started. Since May, I've lost about 30 lbs. That may not sound like much, but since breastfeeding moms aren't supposed to lose more than a pound a week (or else risk compromising their milk supply), that's actually fairly decent. I'm below my pre-pregnancy weight, and I have concrete goals for the coming year.

4) Do more fun projects (with or without Ethan)

I'm not exactly sure what this is going to look like yet, but I envision accomplishing at least one craft project a month. It would also be neat to make cooking a joint project with Ethan whenever possible, especially once he's a little older. I feel like a lot of days (and weeks) just blend into one another, especially when school work eats up what little free time I have, so making this a priority will be good for me.

That's what I've come up with so far. Do you have any New Years Resolutions? What is your plan for accomplishing them?

Merry Christmas!

It's been a wonderful day! Ethan slept late, we opened presents, and then Ethan played all day. He was so excited with his new toys that he couldn't quite settle down for a morning nap, so he got lots of good playing in! I finished cleaning the house, cooked dinner, and even had some time left over to play with my new toys: a new sewing machine and a Cricut. It was a very crafty Christmas for me! I don't have enough time to do too much detail, so I'll leave you with a couple of videos and pictures. Unfortunately we didn't get any good pictures of Ethan's favorite present: a Radio Flyer Sport Coupe from Grandmama and Grandpapa. Since it was too big to wrap, we made the mistake of just putting it under the tree. Yeah, Ethan wanted nothing to do with opening presents because he just wanted to play in his new car! We did get some video, though, so I'll try to post one or two later.

We set up the tree and presents on Christmas Eve after Ethan went to bed, so he was quite surprised when he came downstairs this morning:

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!

Good Day/Bad Day

It's been a mixed day. Ethan woke up at 5:15 this morning, screaming his head off. I couldn't even nurse him back to sleep, so I finally gave up at 6. He was fairly happy this morning, despite almost 2 hours less sleep than usual, but I was admittedly grumpy. After his morning nap, we headed south to do some final Christmas shopping for the in-laws, go to Fresh Market, and go downtown to the sheriff's office to apply for a concealed weapons license (back story on this to come in another post about our past two weekends). In short, a lot of time in the car and not a lot of running around time for Ethan. By the time we got home, it was past 2, we hadn't eaten lunch, and we were all a bit worse for wear.

After a quick lunch, I left to go to Harris Teeter to see if Ethan would finally agree to nap in his crib if he realized Mommy wasn't an option. He's been refusing to sleep in his crib during the day since Sunday, probably because he spent most of Saturday away from me and has been clingy ever since. I was gone for almost an hour, and I could hear him screaming before I even got inside the house. So I dropped my bags, ran upstairs with the wrap, and he was asleep within 5 minutes.

By this point, it's 4 PM, I'm hungry from not eating enough from lunch, and I'm just worn out from a long day. SOOO I cracked open a $6 pint of gourmet ice cream that I got for free. Whoever said you can't eat your feelings was full of it. I felt much better after I ate about half of it. Ethan woke up screaming after about 40 minutes, but I nursed him back to sleep and he slept for almost another hour, waking just before 6. He was ridiculously clingy all night, but I still managed to fix dinner, eat dinner, and snap the following picture of the day's grocery purchases:


Thanks to coupons, I only paid $2.30 for everything above. The picture makes me exceptionally happy, which is probably sad, but I don't really care.

Before bed, we put up the personalized growth chart that came in the mail today. It's a fabric decal that has reusable adhesive so it can be moved when Ethan graduates to his big-boy room. It retails for $29, but I had a coupon code that allowed me to only pay shipping. It matches the room perfectly! Pictures to come later, perhaps.

Ethan screamed for a minute or two when I put him down, which he doesn't usually do at night, but after his fussiness all day, I wasn't exactly surprised. He's been asleep for almost an hour now, so I can only hope he'll sleep better tonight.

It's been a bit of a rough day, but there have been small happinesses that made it bearable and even enjoyable at times. And, really, I guess that's all you can ask for.

Fifteen Month Appointment

We finally had Ethan's 15-month appointment today. It was pushed back since we were later going in for his 12 month one, and the weekend pushed us back further, so that's why it was almost a week after the fact. Let's begin with his stats:

Length: 32" (just above 75th percentile)
Weight: 22 lbs. 12 oz. (just above 25th percentile)
Head Circumference: 47.5 cm (60th percentile)

So he slowed down some on his growth, gained some in his weight, and stayed about the same for his head circ. He's back up to where he's been for his weight curve, and the doctor said he looks great!

The rest of the appointment was fairly uneventful. Ethan was much more shy than usual and fussed some about being examined, which could have been because he had to be awakened from his morning nap in order to get there in time. I asked the doctor about Ethan's picky eating habits, and the doctor said it's totally normal and that if Ethan decides to skip a meal here and there because he refuses to eat what is served, it's not going to hurt him. I don't think I'm quite ready to do that yet, so I may stay a short-order cook for the time being, but it's nice to have the reassurance. Apparently growth really starts to slow down starting between 15-18 months so being less hungry + toddler pickiness = stubborn toddler refusing to eat.

He did his usual wailing at the moment of the shots but was totally fine as soon as I got him in my arms. Unfortunately, this round has left him feeling rather poorly. It seemed to hit just in time for his afternoon nap, so after a failed attempt at getting him in the crib, he ended up asleep in the wrap again. When he woke up, he was crying unless he was nursing (even just switching between breasts), so I finally caved to giving him some Ibuprofen, which thankfully seems to have helped some as he's currently at least quiet in the nursery, if not already asleep. Hopefully the reaction will pass quickly, and he'll be back to normal tomorrow!

Won't You Be My Neighbor

We have been so blessed with our neighborhood. We have the sort of neighbors you see in old timey movies, the kind you can't imagine would still exist today. Now, no one has ever asked to borrow a cup of sugar, but I have received calls for an onion and aluminum foil. Mostly, they are just incredibly considerate and willing to spoil Ethan rotten.

I've mentioned our next-door neighbors before as they have two little boys around Ethan's age. Our neighbors right across the street also go to our church and were the first ones to bring a meal by when I was initially put on bed rest. They never let a holiday pass by without a treat for Ethan and often come bring a little gift when they come to visit just because. Their teenage son watches our cats and goats when we go out of town, and the mom has watched Ethan on a couple of occasions when our sitter left us in a bind and I needed to get to class. We try to get together regularly just to visit, and we come to one another with our problems, despite the probably 20+ year age gap.

Another neighbor's teenage daughter also has watched our goats for us, and she and her mom rounded up the goats when Ryan made an escape shortly after we got them. They've also called to warn us when they spotted snakes, etc. in the neighborhood. They are a great example of neighbors looking out for one another.

At the end of the street are two houses, one owned by a British couple that home schools their four kids and the other by a couple that keep their granddaughters every weekday afternoon. Both are always around and willing to help out. The British mom provided much encouragement during our early weight-gain woes. The other couple is also big on surprise treats, for both Ethan and us. Upon learning that we didn't have many Christmas decorations for our tree, they dropped by two big boxes of theirs. This year, they brought us some more ornaments and a hand-knitted hat for Ethan.

There are three other neighbors we don't know quite as well, but they have all shown acts of kindness at various points, and I know I could come to any of them in a jam.

The closeness of our neighborhood is very evident around the holidays. Almost everyone bakes treats for everyone in the neighborhood and goes door-to-door delivering them. We didn't receive any our first year since we'd only moved in a few months beforehand and didn't really know anyone well yet. We didn't make any last year because we didn't know the tradition. This year I'm ready. I've painted some Stonyfield yogurt containers green, decorated the lids with holiday messages in red sharpie, and this weekend I'll be making cookies and buckeyes to distribute on Sunday evening.

It's one of many little things that remind me we are so very lucky to live where we do!

Christmas Deals 2011

It's been a while since I posted about couponing, so I figured I'd do a bragging post about the deals I found for Ethan's Christmas gifts. Last year, I was very proud to have gotten him just over $100 of gifts for less than $10. This year, I paid more out of pocket, but I got him about $120 worth of gifts for just over $25. So let's break the deals down in general terms:

- Toy from Barnes & Noble: Retailed for $34 but used 40% off coupon on top of 10% membership discount
- Book from Barnes & Noble: Retailed for $9 but used 50% off coupon on top of 10% membership discount
- Book from Cokesbury: Retailed for $8 and used $10 coupon to buy it plus two reusable shopping bags, totally free!
- Six toys from SmartMomma, a local baby goods store: Retailed for about $70 but all toys were 20% off during Black Friday weekend. Plus we went on Small Business Saturday and registered two separate AmEx cards, doing two separate transactions, for a total of $50 in credit on our next statements. Total cost? $5.60.

In addition, I used a LivingSocial voucher for Whole Foods to get treats for his stocking totally free (since the groceries I was buying anyway used up the paid value of the voucher).

So we were able to fill the space under the tree and his stocking for less than the retail cost of the first toy we bought him. I'm pretty pleased with myself, especially since I didn't expect to do as well as last year since I had less time to research deals due to school.

Edited to add: As an added bonus, I made $30 in November by filling out a TV diary sent to me by a survey company, so that alone took care of all our Christmas shopping for Ethan costs! Not too shabby!

Did anyone else find any good holiday deals they want to brag about?

First Day of Break

To celebrate my first day of winter break, Ethan and I didn't leave the house today except to go for a walk around the neighborhood. We just enjoyed cuddling up together, playing, crafting, and cooking. After Ethan woke up from his morning nap, I made my first Pinterest craft: A Christmas card wreath. I'm not as happy as I thought I would be with how it turned out, but at least the Christmas cards we receive are now out of the reach of little hands.

Ethan decided he wanted to nurse basically non-stop from about 11:30 to 1:30, so we just did a lot of cuddling and playing between nursing mini-sessions. During his afternoon nap, I fixed myself lunch, cleaned the kitchen and dining room, did some laundry and general tidying, and then just relaxed. I sat down on the couch when I expected him to wake up any minute, and he surprised me by sleeping an extra 45 minutes! Not that I'm complaining about having some down time =)

After nursing and a snack, Ethan played while I fixed this for dinner, along with some brown rice. I also fixed tomorrow night's dinner, since it has to marinate overnight and then can just go in the oven with the leftover brown rice as a side. Which means tomorrow night, all I have left to fix is a veggie.

It was the perfect balance of relaxation and productivity. And I look forward to many more days like it in the coming weeks!

Fifteen Months

Dear Ethan,

To be blunt, it's been a much better month! There has been much less screaming, less illness, and a lot more fun! And it all traces back to one thing: Communication! This month has shown huge strides in your ability to let us know what you want. From signing to talking, your vocabulary exploded this month. You sign every time for "more" (which basically means "I want" now), "eat," "hungry," "drink," "nurse," and "outside," and you're picking up signs readily now, which means I need to study up to add more to your repertoire. You're also talking a lot more. Almost daily, you say "Mama," "Dada," "Bye-bye," "Kitty," and "Book." This month you've also added "Doggy," "On," "Off," "Hi," "Belly," and "Bellybutton" to your common words. The last one is my favorite because it's always accompanied with you lifting up your shirt and pointing to it! It's so much fun to listen to you talk to us, and I know it makes you happier to be able to tell us what you want.

Unfortunately, you still don't often know what you want to eat. I've almost given up on getting you to eat balanced meals in favor of just finding something you'll eat. As a result, while you get a lot of fruit, some yogurt, some vegetables, and some meat each week, a big portion of your diet comes in the form of cereal, organic "goldfish," and organic graham cracker snacks. I still can't figure out why you won't eat any meat I cook but will eat certain meats from restaurants. Surely my cooking isn't THAT bad! Hopefully we'll get past this picky toddler phase quickly, as it's starting to test my patience.

You're still taking two naps a day, though each one is down to about 1.25 hours. I miss those 2+ hour naps, but maybe we'll get them back once you finally decide to drop down to one nap a day. I never thought I'd want you to sleep less, but when all of your little friends dropped their morning nap months ago, it makes it really hard to schedule any play dates!

And we finally have time for play dates since today marked the end of the semester for Mommy! That means almost a month (and maybe more than a month depending on whether or not my Monday class is making up for MLK) of no school work, no classes, nothing to distract me from playtime with my little munchkin! That doesn't mean the next month won't be busy, though! We've got Christmas, then a trip to Atlanta, which means a lot of family time and seeing relatives who haven't seen you since you were 3 months old! My how you've changed since then! And I know that by the time I'm writing another letter to you, you will have changed even more. But what will never change is just how much we love you and how precious you are.

Love,
Mommy

The Santa Menace

We never took Ethan to see Santa last year. He was only 3 months old, and it just seemed like a waste of time and money to go to the mall. By the time I found out about the free pictures with Santa in our little town, the dates had already passed. So this year, I knew I wanted to go see the downtown Santa. On Dec. 3rd, we headed out before Ethan's morning nap, only to find out later that Santa wouldn't arrive for a couple more hours. Determined to see Santa that weekend, we ventured out to the mall the following night. Unfortunately, the lowest picture price was $27 and personal cameras were prohibited, so we quickly changed our minds. Ethan and I stood off to the side and watched other kids greet Santa, though, and Ethan was entranced by the lights and decorations. We wandered the mall for a little while, and when we passed by Santa again, the line had disappeared, so we decided to go ahead and see him, even if we didn't end up getting any pictures.

As we waited for Santa to finish up with the one kid already in his lap, Ethan grinned and laughed for the girl taking pictures. She even commented, "Oh, you're going to be easy!" We approached the Santa throne, sat Ethan on his lap, and almost immediately were greeted with "WAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!" There was no screaming or struggling to get away. He just sat there, pouty lip extended, wailing (it was absolutely adorable, actually). I tried to sit with him, but if Santa so much as looked at him, he started crying again. Ethan + Santa =/= BFFs.

Despite this less than successful introduction to Santa, we planned on going to see the downtown Santa this past weekend, since we could at least get some pictures, and maybe this Santa would be nicer (mall Santa was a bit of a jerk). This is the result:


This time it was full-on screaming and struggling to get away. He calmed down a little bit for the family picture, but he's still one unhappy baby.

Mother-of-the-year confession? I laugh my ass off every time I look at these pictures. Sure he's probably been traumatized, but these pictures are blackmail gold for the teen years!

The Grass Is Always Greener...

I remember when Ethan was younger, I longed for him to be just a bit older. Then, I figured, he could entertain himself and wouldn't need such constant attention. Once he's one, surely I'll be able to get more done. HA! Hahahahahahahaha!!!

True, he can entertain himself, but what I didn't realize is that his form of entertainment is finding new ways to try to break his neck or choke on small objects. Whereas at 4 months, I could sit him on a quilt with a toy and work on a paper, now the only way I can get any school work done is if he's asleep or being watched by someone else. Otherwise, every other sentence would be stopped by having to track him down, either because of a loud crash or because he's just too quiet... and, as you other moms know, the latter is by far worse 90% of the time!

I try to console myself by saying surely in a few months or at most a year he'll have developed some sense of right and wrong, safe and unsafe. But in the back of my mind I know that age will only bring more mischief to get into...


On a more positive note, yesterday I capped off my week of productivity by writing one of my final projects, basically start to finish. I'd gotten a slight start on it earlier in the week (like a page), but after Ethan's post-morning-nap nursing, he went off with Daddy to run errands, and I got to work. 5 hours later, stopping only to nurse, eat a quick lunch, and get him down for a nap, I had 30 pages! And after Ethan went to bed last night, I did a final revision before sending it off. It's amazing what you can get done with 6 hours of basically baby-free time! Now I just have one more final project (for my pass/fail class) and a final exam to cram for, and I'm done until January!

My Definition of Productivity

I'm not sure that this definition of "productivity" would fly for a non-SAHM-to-a-toddler-while-also-in-grad-school, but this week cannot be described as anything other than productive, in my opinion. First a brief catch-up from the past couple of weeks:

Just after getting over the stomach virus, Ethan caught my cold. It wasn't TOO bad, and it was over after a few days. On the 20th, I was leading worship at church, so Ethan was going to sit with his daddy the whole time. As I kissed him goodbye, I noticed that his nose was running, but I figured it must be allergies or something random like that because SURELY my kid wasn't getting another cold, less than two days after I packed up the humidifier from the last one. By that evening, he was completely stopped up and had a fever. So I spent the night with him in the guest room, trying to get him to sleep as his fever soared to 103.3 at its highest. Not fun. But thankfully he only had 36 hours of fever, and that was the only all-nighter for me. I did come down with his cold, complete with fever, a couple of days later, but we were both feeling better in time for Thanksgiving, for which I cooked a complete feast, even though it was just the three of us. Ethan flattered me by putting his toddler pickiness aside long enough to try a bite of everything:


So between caring for a sick toddler, being sick myself, and preparing for Thanksgiving, blogging was about the furthest thing from my mind. I have posts in my head for toddler breastfeeding, a photo tutorial on making longies from a thrift store sweater, and other fun things, but for now, back to the original topic of this post.

In the past week, I have:
- Gone to my last week of class for the semester
- Started one of my final projects
- Deep cleaned the refrigerator, which included taking EVERYTHING out, scrubbing all the shelves and drawers, washing the walls, etc.
- Semi-deep cleaned the dishwasher, which included scrubbing everywhere that food could build-up (but not taking the shelves out because they get cleaned every time it runs) and running a vinegar cycle
- All of my usual weekly cleaning
- All of my usual laundry, including diapers every other day and including my monthly diaper stripping routine
- Preparing dinner each night according to my weekly meal plan (a new habit I'm trying to get in to avoid last-minute-dinner-headaches)
- Fixing a few extra meals for the freezer
- Going to student health for my yearly physical
- Going to the dentist for my (12-months overdue...) semi-annual cleaning
- Researching and purchasing a chest freezer since our side-by-side is overflowing with frozen produce from the CSA, meat from stocking up when it's on sale, freezer meals both made and purchased, and my breastmilk stash

Again, this may not seem like much, but imagine doing all of this while watching a toddler who just this week discovered he can climb on bookcases, take DVDs out of cases and try to eat them, climb on coffee tables, climb out of play pens (are we sensing a climbing trend here?), and who throws a screaming tantrum any time you try to stop him from doing any of these activities. Then add hour-long meals and snacks since he also decided he doesn't want to eat ANYTHING you offer him the first 100 times. Then see how much you get done and what you consider to count as productivity =)

It's been a good week. Now I just need to hammer out these final projects and study for a final, and then I can "relax." But that's a definition for another day.

To Tide You Over...

It's been a busy couple of weeks between toddler colds, final papers, and day-to-day stuff, so the blog has been neglected once again. So until I have time for a real update, enjoy this video I shot this morning:

Breastfeeding a Toddler

It's been a while since I talked about this, and extended breastfeeding has been on my mind due to the frequency with which it's come up lately, even while I'm in class of all places! In the near future, I will write about the practicalities of breastfeeding a toddler and how our nursing relationship has changed over the past few months. But for now, I just want to get up on my soap box and talk about public perceptions of extended breastfeeding.

In the US, most women who are still breastfeeding stop once their child turns one. This is in part due to the AAP recommendation, and its arbitrariness baffles me. As a result, women who choose to continue to nurse their children past the age of one are the target of additional scrutiny and questioning. "When are you going to wean?" becomes the default question when someone learns you are still breastfeeding. Nursing in public becomes more awkward because you can feel people staring and wondering how old your kid is. And heaven forbid you continue to nurse through toddlerhood and the preschool years. Then breastfeeding ceases to be a way to nourish and bond with your child and becomes something "gross." If you mention a child nursing at the age of five, as has come up in both of my classes this term (not brought up by me, even!), you are met with disbelief and disgust. Why does the US have such a screwed up opinion of breastfeeding? Is it because breasts have become so sexualized that we've forgotten their natural function?

When someone asks me about weaning or makes a derogatory remark about extended breastfeeding, I usually respond with three facts:
- The World Heath Organization recommends breastfeeding for a MINIMUM of two years.
- The average age at weaning worldwide is 4.7 years old.
- In most of the world, children wean between the ages of 3 and 7 years old.

We in the US are not the norm. It makes me wonder what the average age of weaning would be if we excluded the US from the statistics. Women who choose to breastfeed their children past the age of one, and even to the age of five, are in good company. They are not freaks. They are not "breastfeeding nuts." They just want to give their children the best they can and continue the incredible bond that is formed through nursing.

Now, it would be hypocritical of me to judge others for judging extended breastfeeding since I once did the exact same thing. But, with some education and experience, I changed my mind. And now I can only hope to change the minds of others.

The other day, we were out for dinner, and Ethan needed to nurse. As I fed him, I began to wonder when I should stop nursing him in public. I mean, I'd never seen anyone else nursing a toddler in public. And then it hit me. That's exactly why I should continue to nurse in public. Because as long as extended breastfeeding is kept behind closed doors, it will continue to be "gross" and "just wrong." Maybe I'll never change anyone's mind about extended breastfeeding. But maybe, just maybe, a woman will see me nursing my toddler son or overhear me quoting the above statistics and realize that it's normal and natural to nurse your child as long as he or she wants. And maybe she won't feel pressured to stop nursing after that first birthday. And maybe others will see her or hear her talk about nursing her toddler. And maybe someday extended breastfeeding will be seen for all of its positive, natural benefits instead of being an act of shame. And that possibility is worth all the dirty stares and derogatory comments.

Fourteen Months

Dear Ethan,

Usually this is the part where I talk about how quickly the past month has flown by, but to be honest, this month seemed to last forever. Maybe it was because you spent a good part of it sick. Maybe it's because you have been working on your tantrum-throwing skills to the point that you'd put any two-year-old to shame. Whatever the cause, your turning thirteen months seems like forever ago. And yet I still am amazed at how big you've gotten!

After a month of screaming and whining, this past week you've finally remembered you can sign to tell us what you want, even though we've been reminding you all along. You still haven't expanded your vocabulary any more, but you are such a friendly little guy, waving at every passing car and babbling to complete strangers in your own baby language. While you've been screaming a lot this month, you've also been laughing a lot. You laugh whenever anyone else laughs. You laugh when you're excited, be it about a toy, getting cereal, or nursing. You laugh when we tell you you're silly. You laugh for seemingly no reason at all. And you understand so much. You can fetch just about anything we ask for. You point or look at whatever we're talking about. If I ask you if you want to go for a walk, you run to the door. If I ask if you want a snack, you run to the pantry. I just wish you could figure out how to initiate telling us what you want, without screaming, that is!

In addition to seemingly understanding everything, you're also finally eating everything. While you still have definite likes and dislikes, there is no food that I'm afraid you won't be able to handle. Unfortunately, this has turned you into a snack-stealer, "sharing" all the snacks our friends bring at LLL meetings, but thankfully their mommies don't mind and I always bring snacks to share, too. It seems like just yesterday I was lamenting your inability to eat table foods, and now you stuff your face with whatever you can get your hands on.

You've learned some new tricks to get into trouble lately, too. From opening doors to climbing on couches, you are my little daredevil. Thankfully, you've also figured out how to safely get down from couches and beds, as well as how to climb down stairs, but we don't trust you enough to do so unattended yet. Not all your new tricks are mischievous, however. You've also figured out how to do the shape sorter, though it still takes you a little while, and anything rectangular you get your hands on immediately becomes a phone for you to babble into.

While there have been times this month where Mommy was absolutely desperate for a break, you still just bring us so much joy, and we love you so very much! Hopefully this next month will see increased communication, as well as less illness, and we'll be back to the days flying by in no time.

Love,
Mommy

We're in Trouble Now...

Since a family emergency caused our sitter to cancel too late for me to find a replacement, I had to miss class today. And it's a good thing I did because Ethan discovered a new way to get into mischief:

He can open doors.

He has to stand on his tip-toes, and it sometimes takes him a couple of attempts, but there is now nothing keeping him in or out of a room. He knows he's something, too, because he giggles maniacally the entire time.

I see a Target run in our future for tomorrow...

Baby's First Stomach Virus

As I mentioned in the last post, there has been blogging silence for good reason! We just finally emerged from beneath the awful cloud that was Ethan's first stomach virus. It came out of nowhere. Sunday the 23rd he was laughing, playing, totally normal. He was a bit fussy when I put him down, but I attributed it to teething. He woke up and cried a couple of times but went back down. Then at around 11:30, he woke up screaming.

::Warning: The following is pretty detailed, so any emetaphobes should probably not read this. For some reason, I just feel the need to record it all for posterity. Perhaps to show Ethan some day to make him see what all his mommy had to do for him!::

I went into the nursery and immediately noticed his legs sticking through the slats of the crib. Poor baby, I thought. He's stuck! But a few steps closer revealed this to be just the beginning of his problem. Not only was he stuck so that he couldn't move, his face was stuck in a puddle of puke. I grabbed him up, stripped him down, and called for reinforcements. Since he hadn't shown any signs of being sick, we concluded that he must have been so upset about his legs being stuck that he made himself vomit, right? Sheets changed, new pajamas, back in bed. And then he began heaving again. I grabbed him just in time for him to puke on my shoulder instead of the crib. We ran to the bathroom where he proceeded to vomit every 5-10 minutes. Finally, Ethan and I settled into the guest room with a towel for a pillow and a Cool Whip container for a puke bucket. After a final puke at 12:30, he passed out in my arms. He woke up once an hour to puke and went back to sleep, though by 2:30, it was mostly just dry heaving and bile. In short, it was an awful night.

He woke up around 6:30, happy as could be. He spent the day playing, nursing, and drinking whatever Pedialyte I could get down his throat (he HATES it!!!). I was feeling pretty good that we had gotten through the worst of it. He even slept somewhat decently that night. On Tuesday, we began adding back a few solids, ever so slowly. Mostly just some cereal and toast. I also began giving him expressed breast milk from my freezer stash since he absolutely refused Pedialyte, even in popsicle form! He was much more sluggish and whiny than the previous day and just didn't seem to feel well. He didn't nap much, and around 6, he was extremely tired. I was doing my best to keep him awake so his daddy could tell him goodnight. He began fussing and, out of nowhere, he vomited up all he'd eaten, all over me and all over the floor. And we were right back where we started. I felt so dejected, so helpless, and so worried that I'd done something wrong to make him sick again.

While he didn't throw up again that night, he also didn't want to sleep alone, so we spent most of the night in the guest room again, nursing and cuddling. And the next day, we started over with the nursing and breast milk. On Thursday, with great trepidation, I added back solids again. And he kept them down! By Friday, he was eating more and seemed to be in better spirits. And by Saturday, his diet was totally normal. However, today has been the first day he didn't have a diarrhea blowout, so he still wasn't 100% (and even now, it's a bit softer than usual).

So even though the worst of it lasted less than a week and the whole thing only lasted a week and a half, I can absolutely say this was worse than the newborn period. Not only did I get basically no sleep, I was constantly worried I was doing something to make him worse. He spent a lot of time whining and crying, which began to get on my last nerve due to the sleep deprivation. He was so high-needs, in fact, that I ate basically nothing from Monday-Thursday, and I lost 6 lbs. in the first 3 days just because I never had time to eat. By Thursday, my sanity was hanging by a thread. I missed all my classes, I had very limited adult interaction, and for most of the day and night, I was totally on my own with a baby I couldn't figure out how to care for. It was hell. And it about broke me.

And now? I'm considering constructing a bubble so that we never have to go through this again.

Happy Halloween!

There has been blogging silence for a very good reason, but until I have time for that post, here's a glimpse into Halloween at the Marks Griffin household:

A Moment to Remember

This morning, I asked Ethan if he wanted to go take a walk. He grinned, ran and got the ring sling from the chair I'd put it on, and brought it to me, beaming. As I took it and prepared to put it on, he began giggling maniacally, bouncing at the knees in excitement. Once it was on, he grinned and lifted his arms up to me. And once I put him into the ring sling, he snuggled against me.

I've known all along that Ethan loves to be worn just based on how it calms him down and how he snuggles into me. But this was such a sweet affirmation and one I really needed after a bit of a rough week.

From Office to Office/Playroom to Playroom/Office

I love our house. It's open, light, and has plenty of room for a growing family. One of my favorite rooms is the loft:


When we moved in, we designated that as our office area, which was great since it meant we didn't have to give up a bedroom. After Ethan was born, it still remained largely an office, but gradually some of his things began to creep in as I sought a way to keep him entertained while I did school work. First it was just a couple of toys. Then we moved the Jumperoo in. Finally, I bought a piece of furniture with cubbies for toy storage. And up until recently, this sufficed to make for a mixed-use office/playroom.

However, I only have about a year left in school, so my need for a designated office will not be as acute. And Ethan's toy stash is growing. And I really wanted him to have a train table to play with, but we didn't really have any room for it. After some brainstorming, we came up with a redesign to convert the loft into a playroom/office, and we FINALLY finished it this weekend! So, without further ado, here are the before and after pics:

Before:


After:

The sofa bed is the cats' new favorite hangout, but once you brush the cat fur off, it makes for a nice place to sit and work or play with Ethan.

A close-up of the train table Ethan's daddy made him. He put four drawers in so we have storage for Ethan's train set, wooden blocks, and any other toys/supplies in years to come!

The original bookcases were from Target, but he made cabinet doors and put them over the lower three shelves to provide baby-safe storage for office supplies! We had one of them in the office originally, but the other was sitting empty in the guest room so we pulled it in. The structure inbetween the bookcases is our original filing cabinet/printer storage, and our black and white laser is behind the upper doors. The only thing that might still possibly be changed is the relocation of the records or a replacement of the record table.

The office portion of the playroom/office, plus the original toy storage from when it was an office/playroom

A close up of the office section. We sawed our original table (which was actually a dining room table) in half and mounted it to the wall. It fit PERFECTLY in this space! All of the cables, router, modem, etc. are secured underneath so there aren't wires hanging out.


And finally, just for fun, the playroom/office from Ethan's view:

I couldn't be more thrilled with how it turned out, and I look forward to many years spent playing and working there!

State Fair!

Today was a first for all three of us as we ventured to our first state fair. It was a lot of fun (though I'm still sad I couldn't track down the cupcakes-that-look-like-hot-dogs that were on the news all week or the apple cider slushies that I've heard so much about)! We ventured down after Ethan's morning nap, I wrapped him on my back, and away we went! We lasted about 2.5 hours before we needed to head back for Ethan's afternoon nap. Unfortunately, that was just enough time to give Ethan a touch of sunburn on his cheeks and nose, leaving me feeling like an awful mommy! So far, he doesn't seem any worse for wear, though. Anyway, on to the pictures:

Our first stop was at the petting zoo

Ethan then went on his first merry-go-round. I tried to get him excited about it...

But he remained pretty blank throughout.

Then we grabbed seats to wait for the pig races. I'd read online to get there at least 30 minutes early, so we got there 40 minutes early only to find the stands were already full! Ethan needed to eat, so I sat down on the gravel to nurse him. Apparently, the sight of an apparent single mother (Daddy was off getting lunch for us) nursing an infant on the ground elicited enough sympathy that some people made room for us to sit, so we wound up with seats after all!

Ethan got a taste of funnel cake. You can't see it as well in this picture, but he had a paste of powdered sugar on his lips!

Pot-bellied pigs!

Billy goats!

Ethan decided he was cuter than the racing animals so he insisted he be the focus of the picture instead.

After the races were over, we just walked around the midway. Maybe next year Ethan will be big enough to enjoy the Ferris Wheel!

Toddler-wearing?

As some of you may already know, it's International Babywearing Week (yay!!!) so I figured I should do an update on our babywearing practices now that Ethan is a toddler and is constantly on the move. When I think back to wearing him in those early days, I realize that so much has changed and yet not a lot has changed at all! Being worn still comforts him. He still likes cuddling into my chest. Babywearing still allows me to get things done around the house and with schoolwork. And it still puts him to sleep. I don't wear him quite as much, perhaps, but I still wear him any time we're running errands, for our daily walks around the neighborhood, and sometimes around the house if he needs to cuddle but I need to be hands-free.

I remember defending my choice to let Ethan nap in the wrap past the 2 month "recommended" cut-off by saying I would make him stop eventually. I mean, he wouldn't still be one and napping in the wrap, right? Heh. The main difference is now I don't feel the need to defend it. Ethan does take his afternoon nap in the crib for consistency since I have to leave during his nap two days a week, but he will continue to take his morning nap in the wrap until he drops it. It's our morning non-nursing cuddle time, and there's no way I'm giving it up as long as he wants it! It also forces me to be still for a while since he stirs more easily now, so it makes me take the time to relax and just enjoy him.


So what am I carrying him in nowadays? The Moby is long gone, of course. He takes his morning nap in the Amazonas woven wrap, but that's about all we use that wrap for now, unless I'm putting him on my back in a Double Hammock. The ring sling is still my go-to for quick errands and often for our walks. My (semi-)new Girasol woven wrap (aka Glace), which is featured in all these pictures, is my go-to for longer errands (like grocery shopping) and for our walks, though I've been known to use it for quick errands too since I love it oh so much! The Ergo lives in the car trunk just in case I forget to grab one of the others on my way out the door. And the mei tai is currently living in my closet since I'm just not reaching for it as much lately.

Isn't he getting heavy? Maybe, but I don't really notice it. The funny thing is that I DO notice how heavy he's gotten if I'm carrying him in my arms for any distance, but in a carrier, his weight is distributed evenly enough that it doesn't bother me at all.


Am I worried carrying him still will make him lazy or delay him developmentally? Well, he walked at 9 months, despite being carried a good portion of his life to that point. I'm not concerned. Sometimes even big kids need to ride. Would it phase you at all to see a one-year-old in a stroller? So why should it bother you to see one in a carrier?

While I know babywearing may not feature as prominently in our daily lives as the months go on, I will continue to wear Ethan as long as he wants because it's just one more way for us to bond. It makes my life easier, which makes me a happier mom, which makes him a happier toddler. And at the end of the day, that's all I can really ask for!

Thirteen Months

Dear Ethan,

I hadn't planned to continue to write you each month after you turned one, but you are still changing and growing so much that I have to record all you're doing. This month has seen several steps forward and some steps back, and I think we've almost ended up back where we started in some regards. For about a week, you were sleeping in every morning, sometimes sleeping for over 12 straight hours! Then, all of a sudden, you reverted back to waking between 6:15 and 6:30. I think it's because you're teething again (molars!), but maybe you just like to keep us guessing. In the wake of my going back to school, you began fighting your afternoon nap horribly, as mentioned in previous posts, but I think we're finally back to normal since you are only fussing a few seconds now, if that. Your appetite also seemed to pick up for a few weeks and you seemed more willing to try new things. Now, again perhaps due to the teething, you're refusing almost everything and are also rebelling against your high chair, preferring to eat while you play and roam. You definitely keep your mommy and daddy on their toes!

You are learning so quickly! You cuddle with your stuffed animals and your cats, laying your head on them while you reach your arms around to hug. You hug, cuddle, and kiss on demand. You stack the rings of your ring stacker, you put together your MegaBloks, you even are figuring out your shape sorter! You are a master manipulator, running to us and hugging our legs as you bury your face in our knees if we tell you "No." You've even mastered the fake cry, covering your eyes with your hands and making "boo hoo" noises before peering out with a huge grin. This mimicking, while adorable, could be dangerous if we don't watch what we say and do around you!

You babble and make noises almost constantly, but you still are very reserved in using your words. It's been weeks since we heard "night night," you still won't say "bye bye" for mommy and daddy, and you don't seem interested in expanding your vocabulary. But you understand so much! If I don't know where you put your sippy cup, I just have to ask you to bring mommy your milk, and you're off, searching until you find it and then running it back to me with a grin. If I don't want to go get the block you threw during clean-up time, I just ask you to bring it to me, and you do. I don't know how long this obedience thing is going to last, so I'm taking full advantage while I can!

This next month may see your first new teeth in months if any of your molars decide to break through. This weekend will also be your (and our) first trip to the State Fair. And it'll be your first Halloween that we actually dress you up and show you off. But mostly, it'll be another month where I realize just how blessed I am to have you as my son.

Love,
Mommy

Mommy Must Haves: The Later Months

It's time for the (semi-)final installment of my Mommy Must Haves, my series on my must-have baby gear for the first year. You can read the Early Months (0-4mo) here and the Middle Months (4-8mo) here. Since most of the must-have gear was purchased prior to these last months, this edition will be slightly more abstract in nature =)

Must Haves:

1) Ring Sling (specifically a Sleeping Baby Productions Slingified BBslen Wrap Ring Sling in Passionfruit)


C'mon, you had to see this one coming, right? While I still use my woven on a daily basis and the Ergo whenever I'm running to the store, the ring sling has become my go-to for short tasks (like when Ethan's refusing to be set down when I need to wash bottles), walks around the neighborhood, and even quick errands. Since he started walking at 9 months and loves to get down and run around, I needed something I could quickly pop him in and out of but that didn't leave me holding onto a bulky carrier while he played. I've already talked a lot about ring slings in my intro to babywearing, so I'll wrap this up by saying I wish I'd had this earlier, and it's my new must-have carrier for older babies/toddlers.

2) Baby Gates (specifically the KidCo Gateway and Safeway gates)


After Ethan crawled 1/4 of the way down the stairs when his daddy was supposed to be watching him (but was actually playing a game on the computer), I quickly researched baby gates and ordered these from Amazon. They were fairly easy to install (though they have both been reinstalled to fix things I didn't think of when I hastily put them up), and they do the job without being too complex to figure out. Ethan loves throwing balls through the slats of the one at the top of the stairs and hanging onto the one at the bottom of the stairs, so they double as toys (though I doubt the manufacturer would recommend this usage). With an active baby, gates are CRUCIAL!

3) Push Toys/Walkers (specifically Chicco Toys Play 'N Ride Train)


I hadn't originally planned on including toys in these lists, but, honestly, there wasn't as much new gear for these months, and Ethan LOVED his walker. Plus, I think it really helped him with his coordination for learning to walk. If you'll recall, he was pretty good at cruising around with it from the beginning, as seen here, and his first steps were taken to reach the train, as reenacted here. And it also helped him learn opposites like "open" vs. "closed" and "in" vs. "out" as seen here. Even months after he learned to walk, he still loves pushing it around, putting toys into the seat, and playing with all the buttons and levers. He hasn't quite figured out riding on it, yet, but our 3-year-old neighbor loves doing that when he visits, so I'm sure it will continue to grow with him. My only complaint is that the backrest/handle comes out extremely easily so Ethan often yanks it out and throws it, but he has trouble getting it back in by himself so then he gets frustrated.

4) Puffs (specifically HAPPYBABY Organic Puffs)


Again, we're low on gear for these months, but I don't know what we would have done without puffs. They were a great first finger food and provided reassurance that my child could indeed eat table foods, despite all the evidence otherwise. We still had a rough initial start with puffs, but he soon had it down like a pro, as you'll see here. While they aren't extremely nutritious, they got him used to chewing and are a great thing to have in the diaper bag. For a couple of months until he was able to eat off our plates, we would keep him busy with puffs if we went out to eat. Even now, I'll dole out some puffs at a restaurant while we're waiting for our food to come. Both times I've flown with him, puffs have been key to a happy baby (as seen in the photo above). And if he's in a mood where he's refusing all the food I offer, I know I can always count on him to scarf down some puffs so he's at least not quite as hungry. I know some people never even bother with them, but puffs will always have a place on our shelves when there's a baby in the house!

5) A sharp eye and a sense of humor


From years of playing with and working with babies, I've always said my favorite age is 6-9 months. And while I still have loved the months since then, I think this was foreshadowing my having a walker at 9 months and all the mischief he can get into! I seriously cannot take my eyes off him for a moment or else he's trying to climb on top of tables, finding inedibles to eat, or yanking the cat's tail. Is it any wonder the house hasn't been this dirty since he was a newborn? In all seriousness, these months are a lot of fun, but if your child is anything like mine, you'd better keep on your toes!

Such a little boy!

Ethan has turned into such a little boy lately. He puts his MegaBloks together to build towers. He stacks and knocks over his wooden blocks. He hugs his stuffed animals. And he crawls around on the floor pushing a toy car.



Nothing warms my heart like him!

Learning to use the spoon

The past few days, Ethan has finally started to rebel slightly against being spoonfed. At first I thought he just didn't want any more of whatever he was eating. Then he reached for the spoon and began feeding himself, with a little guidance from mom when eating more liquidy things like yogurt. This morning, he wanted some of my oatmeal, and it's thick enough to stick to the spoon so he ate all by himself! I managed to grab our new video camera to capture one spoonful:

Atlanta Adventures: Flying Solo Edition

So two weeks ago, Ethan and I prepared to head to Atlanta, my first time flying with Ethan by myself. It got off to a rocky start since we ended up leaving Saturday morning instead of Friday evening after my flight was delayed 4 hours, which would have gotten us in 3 hours after Ethan's bedtime. But we finally made it, and Ethan did great on the flight down, nursing and sleeping the whole time.

On Saturday, we just enjoyed spending time with Grandmama and Grandpapa:





On Sunday, a college friend, Mary Helen, came over to play with her son, Damian. You can read all about them at her blog, Pup and Tot. No, seriously, click on over there. I'll wait. Damian is quite the cutie, and Ethan enjoyed flirting with Mary Helen:






On Monday, we were supposed to get together with a friend of mine from elementary school and her daughter, but my friend woke up feeling poorly and didn't want to expose Ethan. It all worked out, though, because instead we got to have lunch with a friend from jr. high/high school and her boyfriend. She's expecting her first baby in November, so it was a lot of fun to catch up and talk babies!

That afternoon, we headed over to my cousin's house to play with her daughter, who is only 3.5 weeks younger than Ethan. She's not really mobile yet, so my cousin hasn't really babyproofed. Ethan tried to explore every inch of her house, so now my cousin knows what she has to look forward to, at least =)







On Tuesday, we headed to Newnan to have lunch with my dad's mother. Ethan was in a bit of an odd mood so he did a lot of glaring, and we didn't get very great pictures as a result. That evening, after a struggle of a nap, we had dinner with my mom's mother, who had come to town for a dr.'s appointment. It was so wonderful to see the great-grandparents, though I wish we had more time to visit and got better pictures!



On Wednesday, we had our final meals and prepared to head back home. After some anxiety due to seat-switching, everything got worked out, and Ethan spent the flight playing, nursing, and eating dinner. As we began our descent, he spied a man a few rows back who began playing peek-a-boo with him. I held him firmly in my lap as he peered over the seat and ducked back down, grinning and giggling away. Then, out of nowhere, the flight attendant sprang out of her jump seat and began yelling at me to put my seatbelt around Ethan! I explained to her that wasn't possible (no way would the belt fit around both of us), but she kept shouting at me and insisting. I told her I couldn't, and she sat back down, shaking her head at me and glaring. I tried to get Ethan to sit down in my lap, but he burst into tears and began screaming since he wanted to keep playing. After about 15 seconds of screaming, I relented, and he joyfully sprang back up to resume his game. The flight attendant continued to glare and shake her head. I tried to talk to her as we got off the plane, but she ignored me. Needless to say, this put a bit of a damper on the flight home, but I felt a bit better a few days later after sending Delta a complaint (no final word back, yet, but they did give me an extra 3500 SkyMiles as an apology).

All in all, it was a great trip, and I was sorry to return to class. However, Ethan was thrilled to get back to his daddy, as was I! Thanks again to Grandmama and Grandpapa for making our visit so wonderful!