Just some videos to perk up a Friday. TGIF! Jake has been in Little Rock doing his Army thing since Wednesday and took Spencer down to visit my grandparents while he worked. They'll be home in 2 days; I can't wait!
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
No One Cries Alone In Jack's Presence
Maternity leave officially came to a close today. I am so grateful to my wonderful boss and co-workers that made it possible for me to take a full 4 months off work to tend to my new babe.
I'm a firm believer that one of the biggest reasons breastfeeding rates are so dismal is because women in this country aren't granted decent maternity benefits. If I was Canadian, I'd be getting 60% of my pay for a full year. (Well, I probably wouldn't as I only worked part time, but you get the drift.) That is amazing! As a veteran pumper (with Spencer), I know first hand how bad it sucks (pun intended, ha!) to not only have to set aside time to pump, but then you actually have to feed the baby and wash all the bottles and pump parts. It is super time consuming. And to top it off, some women don't respond to a pump very well so it is possible that, upon returning to work, their supply will drop off dramatically.
But, I digress. This blog topic is not supposed to be about the US's craptastic maternity benefits.
It is, however, about my first day back to work.
I am so fortunate to work at a place where I can bring my kids. Spencer spent all of last school year with me as his teacher and will be moving up to the 4 year old room this year. For my return, I made a deal with my boss that moves me from working with 3 year olds all day to working in the baby room.
This is a huge plus for me and Jack alike. I don't have to swap classes with anyone when he's hungry and I certainly don't have to worry about pumping. He still gets to hang out with mommy all day and can still pretty much nurse as much as he wants, when he wants.
However, for one baby in class, today was a very bad day.
Cole is one of the sweetest babies you'll ever know. He just turned one and is usually a barrel of smiles and giggles. His mother, Kibbin, has worked in the baby room since he was a newborn, so he is used to being with her all day. All the pleasures that Jack is now enjoying used to be Cole's.
Kibbin has relocated to the 3 year old room now. She has another son who is 3 and she'll be spending this year with him. But this is very black news indeed for Mr. Cole.
Cole spent most of today in tears. There was nothing I could do. I wasn't his mommy and that's what the poor guy wanted. If he couldn't have mommy, nothing else would do. He decided that he would just lay on me and cry, cry, and cry some more. As I held him, he cried. If I put him down, he cried harder. Maybe some food would help? More tears ensued. I could not make him happy.
Jack was dazed and confused by this noise, to be sure. He is actually pretty sensitive to noise and is a VERY light sleeper. I feel terrible at the number of times a day I have to "shush" Spencer (I'll contribute to his therapy bill for that, I'm sure), but Jack wakes up at some of the smallest sounds you can imagine.
So when poor Cole realized his mommy was gone, GONE!, he started to cry. And in response, Jack started to cry. Liam even cried a little, but sweet little Lucy managed to maintain her composure through it all. Thank goodness for Lucy.
When Cole would stop crying for a minute, so would Jack. But when Cole started back up, so would Jack. At one point during the morning, I had Cole straddling my left leg with his head on my chest and Jack straddling my right leg with his head on my chest. They both fell asleep that way, I wish I'd have had a camera.
I managed to get Jack into a bouncer w/o waking him up, but the minute Cole's body touched the crib sheets he was awake and forlorn once again. And so was Jack.
We went on like this until around 11:30. Cole finally zonked out and Jack, after a very fretful nursing session, did the same. And they both slept, along with Lucy, for quite a while. I took Liam with me out into the hall to have lunch and a break.
Jack missed his morning nap due to all the chaos and spent about 2 hours asleep in the swing. Cole woke up after a little over an hour and, since the 3 year olds were napping, got some quality snuggle time with mommy in the hall.
Really, it was a good day. Hopefully Cole will be a bit more used to me by next week and we won't have so much sadness in our little part of the world. That's my goal: less sadness, more sleep. ;-)
I'm a firm believer that one of the biggest reasons breastfeeding rates are so dismal is because women in this country aren't granted decent maternity benefits. If I was Canadian, I'd be getting 60% of my pay for a full year. (Well, I probably wouldn't as I only worked part time, but you get the drift.) That is amazing! As a veteran pumper (with Spencer), I know first hand how bad it sucks (pun intended, ha!) to not only have to set aside time to pump, but then you actually have to feed the baby and wash all the bottles and pump parts. It is super time consuming. And to top it off, some women don't respond to a pump very well so it is possible that, upon returning to work, their supply will drop off dramatically.
But, I digress. This blog topic is not supposed to be about the US's craptastic maternity benefits.
It is, however, about my first day back to work.
I am so fortunate to work at a place where I can bring my kids. Spencer spent all of last school year with me as his teacher and will be moving up to the 4 year old room this year. For my return, I made a deal with my boss that moves me from working with 3 year olds all day to working in the baby room.
This is a huge plus for me and Jack alike. I don't have to swap classes with anyone when he's hungry and I certainly don't have to worry about pumping. He still gets to hang out with mommy all day and can still pretty much nurse as much as he wants, when he wants.
However, for one baby in class, today was a very bad day.
Cole is one of the sweetest babies you'll ever know. He just turned one and is usually a barrel of smiles and giggles. His mother, Kibbin, has worked in the baby room since he was a newborn, so he is used to being with her all day. All the pleasures that Jack is now enjoying used to be Cole's.
Kibbin has relocated to the 3 year old room now. She has another son who is 3 and she'll be spending this year with him. But this is very black news indeed for Mr. Cole.
Cole spent most of today in tears. There was nothing I could do. I wasn't his mommy and that's what the poor guy wanted. If he couldn't have mommy, nothing else would do. He decided that he would just lay on me and cry, cry, and cry some more. As I held him, he cried. If I put him down, he cried harder. Maybe some food would help? More tears ensued. I could not make him happy.
Jack was dazed and confused by this noise, to be sure. He is actually pretty sensitive to noise and is a VERY light sleeper. I feel terrible at the number of times a day I have to "shush" Spencer (I'll contribute to his therapy bill for that, I'm sure), but Jack wakes up at some of the smallest sounds you can imagine.
So when poor Cole realized his mommy was gone, GONE!, he started to cry. And in response, Jack started to cry. Liam even cried a little, but sweet little Lucy managed to maintain her composure through it all. Thank goodness for Lucy.
When Cole would stop crying for a minute, so would Jack. But when Cole started back up, so would Jack. At one point during the morning, I had Cole straddling my left leg with his head on my chest and Jack straddling my right leg with his head on my chest. They both fell asleep that way, I wish I'd have had a camera.
I managed to get Jack into a bouncer w/o waking him up, but the minute Cole's body touched the crib sheets he was awake and forlorn once again. And so was Jack.
We went on like this until around 11:30. Cole finally zonked out and Jack, after a very fretful nursing session, did the same. And they both slept, along with Lucy, for quite a while. I took Liam with me out into the hall to have lunch and a break.
Jack missed his morning nap due to all the chaos and spent about 2 hours asleep in the swing. Cole woke up after a little over an hour and, since the 3 year olds were napping, got some quality snuggle time with mommy in the hall.
Really, it was a good day. Hopefully Cole will be a bit more used to me by next week and we won't have so much sadness in our little part of the world. That's my goal: less sadness, more sleep. ;-)
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
No Poo
And it isn't what it sounds like! ;-)
I stumbled across a thread on one of the forums I frequent about doing no poo (AKA not using shampoo). I was only mildly intrigued at first, but as I continued to read about various experiences with this method I became very interested. The women who do this method swear that their hair is so much nicer and easier to manage. Goodness knows I could use some easy to manage hair, especially dealing with it in the southern summers. The humidity brings havoc to my hair, making it stick up in about 800 different directions. There is nothing I've discovered, so far, that can tame it. I figured this was worth a shot.
I looked up a bunch of different no poo sites to see what the recommendations were. Most people do a "wash" with baking soda and water and then "condition" with vinegar and something that smells good to cover the vinegar scent (vanilla and cinnamon were what I went with).
So yesterday I mixed up two different bowls of stuff and headed for the shower. (As a side note, you should really not mix with cold water. Quite the shock when you pour it on your head.)
I put the baking soda mixture on my hair, massaging it into the roots, and left it for a few minutes. After rinsing (another aside, don't let that mixture run into your mouth. Yuck.) that out, I put the vinegar mixture on. After rinsing it off, I could actually tell that my hair had been conditioned, although it certainly didn't feel like it would with a commercial conditioner.
The real test was going to be drying and flat ironing it. But, remarkably, I couldn't tell a difference once my hair was all done.
The no pooers say that it takes your hair several days to scale back oil production. Apparently, commercial shampoos strip the natural oils from your hair so your body goes into oil super drive. I haven't noticed an overabundance of oil yet, but I'm on the lookout.
So today is day 3 of no poo. After a few weeks I hope to have pictures.
(And, yes, Jake thinks I'm crazy. I told him I'd buy him a bottle of Pert Plus. LOL)
I stumbled across a thread on one of the forums I frequent about doing no poo (AKA not using shampoo). I was only mildly intrigued at first, but as I continued to read about various experiences with this method I became very interested. The women who do this method swear that their hair is so much nicer and easier to manage. Goodness knows I could use some easy to manage hair, especially dealing with it in the southern summers. The humidity brings havoc to my hair, making it stick up in about 800 different directions. There is nothing I've discovered, so far, that can tame it. I figured this was worth a shot.
I looked up a bunch of different no poo sites to see what the recommendations were. Most people do a "wash" with baking soda and water and then "condition" with vinegar and something that smells good to cover the vinegar scent (vanilla and cinnamon were what I went with).
So yesterday I mixed up two different bowls of stuff and headed for the shower. (As a side note, you should really not mix with cold water. Quite the shock when you pour it on your head.)
I put the baking soda mixture on my hair, massaging it into the roots, and left it for a few minutes. After rinsing (another aside, don't let that mixture run into your mouth. Yuck.) that out, I put the vinegar mixture on. After rinsing it off, I could actually tell that my hair had been conditioned, although it certainly didn't feel like it would with a commercial conditioner.
The real test was going to be drying and flat ironing it. But, remarkably, I couldn't tell a difference once my hair was all done.
The no pooers say that it takes your hair several days to scale back oil production. Apparently, commercial shampoos strip the natural oils from your hair so your body goes into oil super drive. I haven't noticed an overabundance of oil yet, but I'm on the lookout.
So today is day 3 of no poo. After a few weeks I hope to have pictures.
(And, yes, Jake thinks I'm crazy. I told him I'd buy him a bottle of Pert Plus. LOL)
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Happy Anniversary to Me!
6 years ago today, at the ripe old age of 20, I married my best friend.
Jake graduated from basic training the day that we invaded Iraq and, even though he was a reservist, I knew eventually he'd probably be pulled to go. Jake kind of wanted to wait to get married, but I told him I wouldn't "shack up" with him beyond the summer.
"Marry me this summer, or I'm going to book a dorm room."
I guess he loved me enough that he didn't want me all of a quarter mile away at the dorms. And, seriously, who are we kidding? I would've never been able to stay in a dorm while he had a cozy apartment within walking distance of campus.
It has been a wild ride of a marriage, I'll tell you that much. We have been through some crazy stuff! But I wouldn't have it any other way.
Jake graduated from basic training the day that we invaded Iraq and, even though he was a reservist, I knew eventually he'd probably be pulled to go. Jake kind of wanted to wait to get married, but I told him I wouldn't "shack up" with him beyond the summer.
"Marry me this summer, or I'm going to book a dorm room."
I guess he loved me enough that he didn't want me all of a quarter mile away at the dorms. And, seriously, who are we kidding? I would've never been able to stay in a dorm while he had a cozy apartment within walking distance of campus.
It has been a wild ride of a marriage, I'll tell you that much. We have been through some crazy stuff! But I wouldn't have it any other way.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Ch-ch-ch-changes!
I spent most of this morning scouring the interwebs for a new blog layout. I started out looking for someone to do a custom layout, but those get really expensive pretty quickly. Turns out there are quite a few free layouts ripe for the picking, you just have to sort through 1.7 million of them until you find the one you like.
I'm not totally pleased with this one, mainly b/c of the nice advertising stripe across the top. Of course, I get it. If you pick up something for free, expect it to be stamped with an ad for the person who created it. But I still don't like the location.
If this layout proves hard to read or something, please comment and let me know. I don't want anyone suing me for damages b/c they got eye strain.
I'm not totally pleased with this one, mainly b/c of the nice advertising stripe across the top. Of course, I get it. If you pick up something for free, expect it to be stamped with an ad for the person who created it. But I still don't like the location.
If this layout proves hard to read or something, please comment and let me know. I don't want anyone suing me for damages b/c they got eye strain.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
A Woman Obsessed
For a long time, I thought it was beneath me. Something teenagers were doing. I thought I wouldn't like it, or that it wouldn't interest me.
But I slipped. I slipped, and the obsession took hold. And it turns out, there are a lot of adults who are totally into it. Who waste their days thinking about it. Who read blogs talking about it.
Yes, everyone, I am a Twi-hard.
What is a Twi-hard, you ask? Well, its very simple. I have fallen prey to the saga they call Twilight. Never read it? Unless you want the obsession to take you over as well, stay far away.
I've become a total fan girl. I have 4 Twilight blogs that I check daily, although none of the authors "know" me (I did email one today about something *shame*). Multiple times a day I check newmoonmovie.org, which houses information on the next Twilight movie, New Moon. If poor Jake thinks we won't be schlepping to the movie theater opening weekend in November, he is sadly mistaken.
I find myself wanting to buy shirts with witty Twilight sayings or pictures of the cast on them. I actually bought Jack a Twilight diaper last week. A $34 Twilight diaper. ONE diaper. And now I don't want him to use it b/c it will get ruined! Where's the logic in that! Its a diaper! You can certainly bet that I'd have been stalking the Twilight set with other Twi-hards if I happened to be in Vancouver during filming.
In all honesty, I pretty much do the same thing with all things Harry Potter. When Spencer was a baby, he had Harry Potter longies and I intend to make some for Jack this winter as well. But I don't know if I'll be able to resist also buying the boys "Twilight Orphan" t-shirts to go along with all the Gryffindor stuff.
So, now I leave you. I feel better now that I'm "out." Jack is asleep and I'm re-reading Twilight for the 3rd time.
But I slipped. I slipped, and the obsession took hold. And it turns out, there are a lot of adults who are totally into it. Who waste their days thinking about it. Who read blogs talking about it.
Yes, everyone, I am a Twi-hard.
What is a Twi-hard, you ask? Well, its very simple. I have fallen prey to the saga they call Twilight. Never read it? Unless you want the obsession to take you over as well, stay far away.
I've become a total fan girl. I have 4 Twilight blogs that I check daily, although none of the authors "know" me (I did email one today about something *shame*). Multiple times a day I check newmoonmovie.org, which houses information on the next Twilight movie, New Moon. If poor Jake thinks we won't be schlepping to the movie theater opening weekend in November, he is sadly mistaken.
I find myself wanting to buy shirts with witty Twilight sayings or pictures of the cast on them. I actually bought Jack a Twilight diaper last week. A $34 Twilight diaper. ONE diaper. And now I don't want him to use it b/c it will get ruined! Where's the logic in that! Its a diaper! You can certainly bet that I'd have been stalking the Twilight set with other Twi-hards if I happened to be in Vancouver during filming.
In all honesty, I pretty much do the same thing with all things Harry Potter. When Spencer was a baby, he had Harry Potter longies and I intend to make some for Jack this winter as well. But I don't know if I'll be able to resist also buying the boys "Twilight Orphan" t-shirts to go along with all the Gryffindor stuff.
So, now I leave you. I feel better now that I'm "out." Jack is asleep and I'm re-reading Twilight for the 3rd time.
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