Purge

My Inbox is swallowing me alive. I used to pride myself on having no more emails in my Inbox than I could see on one screen. In the last few weeks, however, it has gotten completely out of control for reasons that are still unclear. I've been filing things away in my "blog to do" folder for that elusive day when I have time to blog. So, I'm just going to purge and link to a lot of things here that you may or may not find interesting. Or may or may not have time to read (I'm voting on "may not" - you won't hurt my feelings). Is it bad that cleaning out my Inbox feels like cleaning up my  house?

So, some reading for your relaxing Labor Day weekend plans at the pool. Wait ... are you doing that? Take me along.

What Should a 4-Year-Old Know: I think this is kind of viral on the Facebook, but was timely for me as I'm trying to restrain myself from worrying about Kindergarten ONE YEAR AWAY. (And also, a few concrete guidelines that help reign in my craziness).

Why I Am The Perfect Mother. God bless "average".

Child Safety: Stranger Danger Warning Needs Updating - I know I've posted about this before, but it is a conversation I need to keep having with Ellen. I like the ideas about teaching safety as a value, just like kindness and honesty and whatever else. Also, adding "Did anything happen today to make you feel uncomfortable?" to your standard questions about the day. And teaching about acceptable strangers.

"If my son wanted to dance, I would kill myself" - can't remember where I came across this, but nice story about celebrating the interests of your children.

Similarly, How Do You Teach The Beauty of Different - good tips.

The Last Time - also went kind of viral, but sweet and tear-inducing. I find myself compulsively documenting Georgia's sweet quirks these days, knowing that in the midst of all these developmental milestones, so many things will fall by the wayside.

How To Teach Kids To Say Sorry - We haven't really used "time out" for Ellen in years. On rare occasion when she is out of control, I do ask her to sit in a chair and calm down before coming back to talk with me. Most of the time, though, we talk things through and I explain why I am upset or frustrated with her behavior and I ask her how she could make a better choice next time. It works pretty well for us. The biggest AHA! I had lately, though, is that for your children to really learn the importance of apologizing, you need to apologize to them when appropriate. Not long ago, I lost my temper with Ellen during crazy-after-work-dinner-hour. I raised my voice and I don't think she expected it and she sulked away to the couch and cried quietly. I felt, in a word, terrible. I sat down for a snuggle and really apologized to her and explained why I had acted that way. Made us both feel better.

My Daughter Went Away to Camp and Changed - I've been very nostalgic for my days at Summer Camp lately. This was a nice article about the importance of activities that belong solely to your children and the happiness that comes with that freedom.

We Need To Talk About Race and How Do You Talk To Kids About Race? - I think a lot of good points here. This is something I fumble through with Ellen in our very homogeneous community. I mostly remember a part of the Nurture Shock book that  talks about the "being blind to color" approach and how it doesn't really work. You need to talk with your children about race and not let them draw their own conclusions. Another area in which I feel ill-equipped to be raising a responsible human being, but I will try my hardest.

Raising Safe Swimmers and Here Comes the Sunscreen (gallery of pics of parents putting sunscreen on kids). Summer's over? How? When?

Well, if you have a kid who started back to school, check this out: Crayola Starts a new Recycling Program

This Morning I Yelled - I've linked to Dash and Bella before, good recipes, great writing

 Great Artist Mom - fun blog by a gal who developed an art program for elementary students. She has good ideas for encouraging artistic behavior, and practical tips on supplies, and nice videos here and there on drawing. A little advanced for Ellen, but she likes to watch me and then color in my drawings. One big take away that we use: "You are the artist of your own paper". I'm trying to get Ellen to not be such a perfectionist with her art ... wonder where she gets that?

Three Huge Mistakes We Make in Leading Kids - Again, I see this so many places, the importance of specific praise for children, not just platitudes.

A reminder to Get In The Picture With Your Kids! We just had our latest round of family pics with our favorite photographer. I wanted to document Georgia as she has changed so much from December, but also to have pictures of me with the girls. I spend most of my days with them, yet have little documentation of that.

I bet you do this anyway - narrate your day to your baby - but this reinforces the importance! The Power of Talking to Your Baby.

Nice series on Slate: How Babies Work - lots of interesting articles on babies, American vs. other, and some science behind infant development and such.

12 times a day

On my days at home, I calculated that I am feeding myself or someone else 12 separate times a day. What the what. Georgia is still nursing 4 times a day and then eats solids 3 times a day, though her "dinner" really stretches from 5-6:30 in spurts to keep her happy while the rest of us eat. Ellen eats the typical 3 meals, and generally 1-2 snacks which I didn't even count. I eat breakfast and lunch somewhere after I've fed both girls, then prep dinner so we can all sit down together for 9 minutes. I need roller skates.

Speaking of roller skates, my "advanced" age and the last pregnancy really did a number on my feet. I feel like a seriously old lady hobbling around all day. I haven't worn heels in almost 5 years and my feet still groan. I finally got some silver Gizeh Birkenstocks because I was trying to avoid a specialist visit and orthotics (told ya - that's an old lady word). I think they are working and - BONUS - it appears that Birkenstocks are all the rage in Paris this summer. Trend. Setter.

Georgia finally dropped her 3rd nap just past 9 months. It makes bedtime much more predictable - she is generally so exhausted she goes straight to sleep - but it also means that her last feeding needs to start at about 6:32pm. If it's 6:40pm she might start melting. It also means that the witching hour of 5:00-6:00pm really requires lots of song and dance to keep G happy. As I tell Ellen (frequently) - "The name of the game is Keep Georgia Happy". It's not that she isn't happy ... in fact, she is generally very happy, but I like to keep the status quo.

And, speaking of beds, one Sunday night I sat Georgia in her bed while I was picking up some things in her room and I just thought, "Huh. She looks like she could just throw herself out of bed, if only she could sit up on her own." I told Erik we needed to move her mattress lower and put it on the to-do list. The next morning I found her sitting up in bed. Mommy instinct. We moved her mattress down that night, and then she was clapping and crawling within 2 days. Spurts in development are amazing.

Back to food, we are on a good mix of spoon foods (fruit and yogurt for breakfast, some kind of veggie for lunch or lentils or cottage cheese, and usually a meat of some kind for dinner) and finger foods. The latest finger foods are string cheese cut up into tiny cubes, frozen mixed veggies or broccoli that I chop up, and random veggies or leftover eggs from our meals during the week. I also got frozen organic blueberries at Whole Foods and they are the little tiny wild blueberries - perfect size for G. Admittedly, I'm a little too OCD to let her mash them all over the place, but she loves them straight out of the freezer and still a little slushy. Also, I got a pack of small whole wheat tortillas at Whole Foods that don't have a lot of weird ingredients and I cut them in fourths and spread them out on a sheet to freeze them individually. I can pull one out, zap it for 10 seconds in the microwave, and then tear it up for her. She eats an unreal amount of food. I also got her to start drinking from a straw. I thought it would be easier for our upcoming trip and just got a Playtex sippy cup with a straw lid. We practiced for a day or two and I could squeeze the cup to get the water to come up through the straw so she knew what was happening. In contrast, it took Ellen a long time to figure out the straw - I think she was older.

And, back to nursing. (My thought patterns are like this all day - scattered scattered scattered). My milk supply continues to drop, but I want to keep nursing G through our vacation as it's just so much easier. I finally had a lightbulb moment and switched the breast shields on my pump back to the smaller size and it has increased my supply - maybe an extra 1-2 ounces each time I pump, which isn't a ton, but certainly something. I gave G her first bottle of formula today at home just as a test to make sure we had a back up for vacation and she sucked it right down - no problem. In fact, she looked so proud of herself laying down and drinking the bottle all by herself. Thanks a lot.

Mission (not) accomplished

Earlier in the month, I posted about starting a new nap regime to match the program at school.

I would like to issue a retraction.

Our Girl is NOT ready for 1 nap, nor are her parents.

I pretty blindly jumped in to the one-nap routine - thought it would take a few days / weeks to get her used to the new plan. She; however, did not agree. Our first weekend was actually quite promising - by the 3rd day on the new schedule, she took one good long nap - equal to or longer than her previous 2 naps combined. We've been on a downhill slope since then, though.

Many days at school she would sleep only 30 or 45 minutes for the whole day. You can imagine how nice our evenings were. When she was home with me, it was almost impossible to keep her entertained from 6 am to noon by myself, and errands were out of the question because she would briefly fall asleep in the car and then refuse to nap in her crib.

I was pretty exasperated after two weeks of this, and expressed my concern to my super-mom friends. They asked why I didn't have her on different school and home schedules?

Why?

Well, because it never occurred to me!

I have read so much about schedules and how children thrive on consistency. I believe it whole-heartedly. I thought I was doing the best thing for her by keeping her on the same schedule all the time.

You know what is better for her? SLEEP. (And a happy mom).

In further discussions, I've found that many of my friends, whose kids are in all kinds of different daycare situations, have different school and home schedules. And beyond that, many kiddos kept 2 naps well past their first birthday.

So, back to the drawing board. We switched back to our 2 nap schedule on Friday and we were all happier. She took 2 good naps, went to bed on time and slept LATE all weekend. Guess we've (you've) solved the early waking problem, too!

Just confirms that sleep is a fickle bitch. When you think you've got it right, think again. Also, goes to show you that your friends often have a lot better perspective on a situation looking in from the outside - listen to them!

I have a Master's degree

I don't write this to say that I am smart.

Rather, to note that I have attended a number of years of school, feel that I have decent skills of logic and reasoning, and should really be able to evaluate a situation thoughtfully and come up with solutions.

My daughter must have a PhD then, because I am beyond bamboozled in trying to elucidate the nuances of her morning wake time.

As I have lamented before, she is an early riser. As in the 5's. We had finally worked through our night waking issue and she was pretty consistently sleeping into the early 6's, which I thought was as much as we could hope for until she was a surly teenager.

Until.

She stayed at Grammy's while we were in Hawaii. I was fearful that she would wake up early for the grandparents, but NOOOOO, she slept late! Several days in a row! And would then go down and take a 2 hour nap! What the what? Who is this clone baby and where is my real baby?

I was pleased, of course, that she was a good girl. I also felt that if she did it there, she could do it at home. Ha. Not long after we got home I began to tinker with her nap schedule (more on that debacle later) and she did extend her wake time until 6:30ish on most days, probably out of sheer exhaustion.

Then, we went to Texas to visit friends. She slept in a pack n' play, in a strange place, and slept late both mornings. Like past 7:15am. I had to check and make sure she wasn't dead. And, of course when we returned home, right back to the 5's. Grrrrr.

The variables, as I see them:
Grammy's room has a crib, is carpeted and very dark. I think it is probably a similar temperature to our home room, and I don't think she runs a humidifier like we do at home.

Friend's room was a pack n' play in an office, not especially dark, carpeted and no humidifier.

Our room has a crib, wood blinds that are closed, hardwood floors and a humidifier set on high.

(Doesn't this sound like some algebra problem? If Tom is older than Annie, and Betty is younger than Steve, what are their ages? GAH!!)

So, short of carpeting our second floor and installing black-out shades, I am at a loss. I can't for the life of me figure out why the humidifier would wake her up since it has been on every day of her life, but I did turn it down last night and she woke at 5:15am.

I do understand that babies aren't like algebra and there isn't always (or never is) an x+y = z solution.

BUT.

The 7:15am wake time is now like some tantalizing fruit hanging low on a branch that I just can't reach. Who can help me?

Have Baby, Will Travel: Take 2

I have a good little girl.

She was very cooperative on our solo flight to Texas to visit friends and she may have just earned herself a few extra gifts from Santa.

I scheduled a short weekend trip to visit college girlfriends and to celebrate a new little Girly. I initially was going to leave our Girly at home, but my girlfriends brainwashed me to think it would be a good idea to bring her. In truth, I did think it would be easier to travel with her now versus in July because we could use the pop-up stroller and would have a car seat waiting on the other end.

I tried to pack very strategically - one carry on, one checked bag, the Maclaren umbrella stroller and ourselves. I remember a friend saying a while back that you wanted to bring the minimum necessary in your carry on so you had full use of your hands. My normal "diaper bag" is a small, open top canvas bag from Lands End, which wouldn't work for this trip. I brought a real diaper bag, with all the pockets, and it worked well. Something that you can carry like a messenger bag, or even a backpack, would be great.

In the carry on: diapers, wipes, spare outfit, snacks, 2 bottles with formula powder (one more than I anticipated needing), 2 small bottles of water, ziploc bags, one toy and one book, food, small disposable plate and plastic knife, itinerary, copy of baby's birth certificate, my wallet and phone.

We were super fortunate to have a spare seat next to us on the way down, but still did OK on the way home with a full flight. Our flights happened to line up pretty well with nap time and she slept almost the whole way each time. We sat on the aisle in case of an emergency diaper change and it gave me a little more elbow room to maneuver.

Security was the only challenging part, and it really wasn't too bad. It does amaze me how little most people offer to help a mom with full hands. The last thing I wanted to do is sit her on the floor, so I juggled pretty well. (Don't we get so good at that?) Dress strategically - slip off shoes for mom and baby, or even better, pack baby's shoes in your carry on. No sweater or jacket unless easy to remove. Declare all liquids so they can inspect them separately. We gate-checked our stroller and had no issues. Remove all cup holders or doo dads from your stroller first - the other couple waiting lost some of their things in the luggage bay abyss under the plane.

I would definitely attempt this again, although clearly it will all be different next time!

What's for dinner? Food.

As I mentioned, Girly decided to go on a spoon/fork strike right after we left for Hawaii. I called my Mom to check in and she said that Girly didn't like any of the food I made for her.

Umm, thanks.

More like she didn't like them served on a spoon. I had an inkling this was coming - we were having a lot of food spitting and batting at the spoon.

So, now I've gone to almost exclusively finger foods and I use a spoon only very occasionally to feed her. I should have her start to practice feeding herself with a spoon, but I'm not quite ready for that level of mess.

Breakfast has been the bigger challenge for me - I used to feed her plain yogurt and a fruit puree every morning. It was fast, easy, and she gobbled it up. I had a recipe for some pretty healthy oatmeal pancakes, so now she gets one of those in the morning, all chopped up. I made a double batch, froze them and can zap one at a time in the microwave - super easy.

Oatmeal Pancakes - 1 recipe, makes 10-12 small pancakes
1 1/2 cups whole oats
1 cup whole milk cottage cheese (small curd)
2 eggs, lightly beaten, or 1 cup Egg Beaters
splash of milk
1-2 Tbs sugar (less for baby)
1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
2 tsp baking powder

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add in wet ingredients and stir together. Puree with a stick blender / immersion blender / blender. It will be very thick and unappetizing looking - can thin a little bit with milk, but it doesn't have to be too thin. I cook them on an electric griddle at about 250 degrees. Use lower heat because they are thick and take longer to cook than your average pancake. Use about 1/4 cup per pancake. Also good with sliced bananas/apples/pears added after the first flip. Cool on a cooling rack, then stack between wax paper in a tupperware container to freeze. This is a version of a Weight Watchers recipe - can make them very low fat for yourself with fat free cottage cheese, egg beaters and Splenda for Baking. Good and filling!
(Note - I'm not really sure about the rule with baked goods and eggs. I know egg whites should be put off until after 12 months, but our Girl has had them before in other foods and was fine. If you are concerned, ask your doctor, of course!)

I don't know if it is good or bad timing to start the finger food phase at the start of Fall/Winter. On the one hand, there are very few fresh/seasonal fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, it is probably easier to pull stuff out of cans and the freezer. And, the seasonal stuff now, like pears, have to be really ripe before she can eat it - takes quite a bit of pre-planning.

I've got cans of peaches, pears, tropical fruit and fruit cocktail in my pantry - all packed in juice. It is surprisingly hard to find fruit packed in juice and not syrup. I just chop up a can or two at a time and leave in the fridge. I also have frozen mangoes in the freezer, which thaw quickly in the microwave and have a good texture. Bananas, of course, always work. Did you know that you can put bananas in the fridge when they get to the perfect eating texture and they will stay that way? The skins get super brown, but the fruit stays good.

As for veggies, frozen peas work great - just thaw a few at a time in the micro. I think only certain veggies taste good frozen - if I'll eat them, I'll make them for her. I have also been chopping up squash and sweet potatoes in a small dice, roasting it, flash freezing it and storing in the freezer. It is a bit tedious, but if you take an hour or so to make a bunch, it lasts forever. Butternut squash seems to be the easiest to chop. I just pull out frozen veggies, cover in water in a ramekin and zap for a minute.

Girly really likes beans - canned black beans, white beans, garbanzo beans, refried beans. I just rinse the beans and store them in a plastic container in the fridge. She eats them cold, cut up if big/firm, and it's easy protein. She also really likes a quesadilla with a whole wheat tortilla, refried beans and shredded cheese. She'll eat half of a small tortilla, all cut up, and I can save the other half for the next day.

As for other dairy, I've stayed away from yogurt and cottage cheese because it is so messy for now with the spitting. Fresh mozzarella is a good option, but goes bad quickly. She also likes string cheese chopped up, or shredded cheese. Whole milk ricotta is good mixed with pasta.

Mixed up pasta with some combination of veggies / cheese / meat / sauce is also good and freezes great.

As for gear, we're starting to use plates - for learning and because the lip of the plate is good leverage for picking up foods. And, good for throwing! The one drawback of the Fast Chair is that it is hard to use a place mat. We are fully past the cute little baby bibs and on to bibs that catch things. So far, I really like the Bumkins and the DexBaby brands. I plan to use one of those easy 3M hooks to hang the bibs up to dry on the side of the cabinet by my sink. If you have a nice kitchen, you may not like the look. Me? With all the bottle paraphernalia and pacifiers, I don't think anyone will notice! The bibs have really helped with the splatter on the floor, but I know you can get cute splat mats. I've also read a tip to use one of those plastic pads that go under office chairs from Office Max, or just plastic sheeting that you can buy by the yard at JoAnn.

More than anything, I strive to get my act together to plan meals that we can eat and that will also provide leftovers for Girly. Alas, the biggest challenge of them all ....

Bracing myself

A new nap regime starts today.

Not really by my choosing - more that she needs to be on a different schedule when she moves up to the Bears room at school. They worked with her the last two days, so I feel obligated to follow through.

In contrast to my prior obsessive planning, I am flying by the seat of my pants on this one. A bit of denial, I think.

And a bit of perspective on the whole thing, I think, as we round the corner on a year of this parenting business. I will read, and tinker with our schedule, and perseverate some, but I now realize it just happens. It's part of the process. It's OK.

We don't live in Arizona

Daylight savings time is upon us.

I heard that this could be a challenge for quite a few of the wee ones. In the spring, our Girl was too little to give a hoot about the whole thing. This time, I thought we might have an issue. I actually considered it about a month ago, and thought I could gradually ease her into the new time. Then, I promptly moved on to other more important things and forgot all about it.

Saturday evening rolled around and I crossed my fingers, hoping for the best. She went down at about her normal time, maybe 15-30 minutes later. She woke up at 5:02am, so really the new shiny time of 4:02am. I gave her a bottle of 3 ounces and put her back in bed. She slept about 2 more hours, so about an hour past her normal. She napped fine that first day at her "normal" times, despite being an hour off.

I had grand plans of using the time change to coerce her into a later bedtime, but that really didn't work. We tried keeping her up about 30 minutes later, and she tolerated it decently, but still got up at the same time in the morning, so was really just missing out on sleep. Punt.

And, two nights later, all is on track. She even slept until 7:15 this morning for no apparent reason.

Delightful!

Success!

We had a great trip to Hawaii.

Really, though, how could we not?

Sun, sand, no diapers and SOUND sleeping. Sign me up!

We missed our Girl terribly. Thank goodness for blogs - I would watch videos of her new tricks. It was really very strange to be without her. Then we got home and I remembered ... oh yeah ... I'm responsible for all of this!

I packed up almost everything we own to take to one grandmother's house and then the other - they were so, so nice to split the childcare duties. I tried to plan for every contingency. (Ha). I typed up A LOT of notes and my mom and mother-in-law were even nice enough to humor me and save any eye-rolling until I left!

I packed up tons of frozen baby food and then Girly promptly decided that she wouldn't eat anything off a spoon or fork. So much for that.

I highly recommend getting away for a trip with your significant other. You'll find yourself in a rut where you only talk about baby stuff and daily life stuff ... it's nice to just remember what it was like to be un-scheduled, do whatever you want and enjoy being together! As I heard once before, having children does not make your life better. It does make your life richer in so many ways, but not easier, or cheaper or less stressful. Take a little break and go back to those days!

Here is what I don't recommend: buying a swimsuit when you are still breastfeeding, planning to wean, and then have totally weaned when that swimsuit needs to be used. I stared forever at the J.Crew sale swimsuits trying to figure out which bikini would work. And then I realized ... bikini? What the hell for? I don't care AT ALL if my stomach is tan. So ... I own the first one piece I've had since summer camp. J.Crew has some really cute ones and they hide a NUMBER of sins.

We also finally got our will, trust, advanced directives, and medical power of attorney for our parents taken care of the day before we left town. It's quite a feeling getting on a plane for 8 hours thinking ....1) thank goodness everything is taken care of in case we die in a crash, and 2) did we jinx this in some way?

This is it - I swear

Are you tired of the breastfeeding and weaning talk? ME TOO.

Just to wrap it all up, I thought I would note those things that I really couldn't have lived without for the last 10 months.

- Medela Freestyle pump, as I've gushed over before
- Extra pump parts and breast shields - makes life so much easier
- Lansinoh milk storage bags. As I've mentioned before, these are less expensive than the Medela bags. Also, now that I am using up my frozen milk, these are for sure the easiest to thaw and transfer to bottles.
- Lilypadz! A little pricey, but SO worth it in my opinion. I've been through 5 sets! I found out pretty quickly that it was annoying to wash and dry one set every day. Two sets work much better - wash and dry one set while you are wearing the other. I just kept a bottle of dish soap by my bathroom sink and scrubbed them up before I showered.
- Gilligan & O'Malley nursing tanks from Target. I liked these the best and they are much less expensive than a lot of others. I have about 8 and I wore them almost every day for months and months and months.

Also ... a few things I've learned or would do differently.
- Weaning was sad in some ways, but the freedom is great. I scheduled a full day of fun shortly after I weaned the Girl and it was the first time I could be away from her all day without pumping. Heaven! Do something special for yourself - you deserve it, whether you breastfed for days, weeks or months.

- Our Girl will eat virtually anything and didn't bat an eye at formula, despite the fact that she hadn't had any from the time we got home from the hospital until about 10 months. I worried about it and wished I would have introduced it earlier. She didn't care, but another babe might.

- Next time, I won't be so crazy about the pumping schedule. I CLEARLY had a good enough milk supply to make it through. It is nice to use up the frozen milk to cut down the formula bill, but was it really worth all that time pumping? Not sure ... and, now I feel obligated to use up all that frozen milk, so it really isn't as simple as scooping powder into a bottle. I'm digging through frozen bricks of breast milk, thawing it the night before, mixing it with formula, on and on. The things we do for our kids ...

- My extended weaning schedule worked really well. I had little to no discomfort with dropping feedings. I thought the first feeding would be easiest to drop and the last ones harder, when it was actually the reverse. I had a lot of fullness and leaking the day or two after I dropped the late afternoon feeding, then never again. My milk supply dropped very quickly and I even moved up our schedule without any issues.

- And, my public service announcement. In my line of work I meet a lot of women who have a family history of breast cancer. If they are of childbearing age, I always tell them to be mindful of any breast lumps or changes while breastfeeding - don't chalk it up to breastfeeding when it might be something else. If a lump or change persists for several weeks, be sure to see your doctor - better safe than sorry. I have noticed several hard lumps since I've weaned the Girl - very likely blocked ducts. I worried a bit and asked my lactation consultant, and have been working them out in the shower under hot water, which is helping. The point is - pay attention to the girls, not just the Girl.

Most importantly - ask questions of anyone you can find! Lactation consultants for the technical stuff, but friends, too. I always marvel that my friends are basically raising my kid, in the sense that I would know NOTHING without them. Use the people who have gone before you - they are the BEST resource!

Farewell

And .... we're done.

This morning was officially (I think) the last time I'll nurse my first baby. I hope there will be others (another) but you never quite know. The experience has been very meaningful, very educational, very frustrating, and very special.

I had planned on yesterday being the last time, but decided on just one more day. Honestly, I think I could continue with "just one more day" for a long time, but all things come to an end. A stuffy nose on her part and a Hawaiian vacation on my part lead me to believe it is the right time. A weekend morning so I could savor our restful time, in bed, in the wee hours of the morning - not the rushed impatience of a work day.

Our Girl is growing up, in some sad ways and in mostly wonderful ways. I delight in her independence and her personality and her assertion of both. There are many things her family provides for her, but there is one thing that only I could provide for her and I'm grateful for the opportunity.


Like a hand and a glove, a sweet baby foot and the crook of a mother's arm often fit so well together ...

Loving These

These are a couple of blogs I've stumbled across recently. They aren't explicitly related to parenting. But, if you consider them in the vein of "making mommy happy", then I think they are.

Ain't No Mom Jeans

Little Green Notebook

Enjoy!

Omnivore

Our Girl is really eating up a storm these days! Despite a little hesitation on her part initially, she now whole-heartedly devours her meals. It brings us both great joy.

She has been eating 3 meals a day since about 7 months of age - now about half a cup of food per meal. I still have trouble finding guidelines about how much she "should" be getting, but she seems satisfied.

We are on to almost all finger foods, although she still gets fruit purees mixed in with her morning yogurt. Mainly because it is much easier for me to thaw 2 cubes of fruit and mix it with yogurt than to chop up a bunch of stuff for her to eat. I'm trying to store up some frozen plums and peaches/nectarines for the Winter months, since apples and pears and bananas get kind of boring.

I really waited to introduce meats until after 9 months, mainly because I thought it would be annoying to prepare and I thought she might not like it. I was wrong on both points.

My first meat attempt was to broil a chicken thigh and shred it very small for her. While it was very simple to cook, the shredding was irritating. I have a major fear of her choking and stringy meat was just too much.

So ... on to other recipes. I found some great ones at Nurture Baby that she really likes. I had a whirlwind weekend of cooking and made the Baby Bolognese, the Gobble Me Up Turkey, Lovely Lentils, Pork Chops and Applesauce and Vegetable Lasagna. She loves it all! And, it truly all tastes good - I would eat any of it.

Since she eats larger portions now, I froze everything in muffin tins. She can eat a whole portion of pasta for a meal, or I'll split the meat between two meals. My mother-in-law gave me a VeggiChop and it works GREAT for meat. I had used it some for fruits when she would eat them a little chunkier, but it shreds meat perfectly in small bites. A blender or cuisinart would puree the food too finely, I think, and she isn't quite ready for very small cubes.

On a related note, I am becoming much more aware of food issues as they relate to children. I love food, I love cooking and it is becoming increasingly important to me to pay attention to what I am eating and where it is coming from. I try to buy local or organic when possible, especially for Girly, and I really try to buy seasonal food (so, sniff sniff, then end of tomatoes and corn and all manners of tasty fruit is right around the corner).

The idea of "school food programs" is especially worrisome to me and something I am learning more about. They aren't all bad, but GOOD is also not a word I would use.

Here are some resources and websites that I find helpful / interesting:
Eat Well Guide: search for local farmers markets and sustainable food resources
Raising Foodies: this is a fun blog from a Dallas-based mom who is trying to get her girls to eat foods that don't come from boxes
School Lunch Talk: good updates on the status of school lunch and related legislation around the country
The Lunch Box: resources for healthy lunches - aiming to create a "tool box" for schools
Slow Food in Schools
Better School Food

Also, if you are at ALL interested in food and/or the environment, you should read The Omnivore's Dilemma. I am way late to the game on this one, but I had been reading about the book forever and finally picked it up. Truly eye-opening. I am by no means perfect when it comes to eating and the food we bring into our home. I have a serious weakness for fast food and french fries. BUT, I am paying attention and that is a good start.

Check it out

The nicest friend volunteered to lend us her daughter's old crib so our Girl would have a place to sleep at Grandmother's house while we are in Hawaii.

(Yes, Hawaii! I know I already gloated, but I'm doing it again. HAWAII!)

There weren't any instructions to put it together, and because I am anal and OCD, I needed some type of picture to show me where the 6 bolts went.

I googled the make and model to find an instruction book, and low and behold, the crib had been recalled this year.

It never would have occurred to me to check for that.

While it probably would have been fine, you just never know. And now, through a pretty simple process, I can get a brand new crib for FREE!

Something ridiculous like only 15-30% of recalled items are ever actually returned/fixed. The system to notify parents is not at all straightforward or comprehensive. YOU are the one who must be vigilant and pay attention.

Especially for the bigger baby gear that gets shared among friends, just do a quick search when the item rotates to your house. You will be protecting your baby and the ones down the line ...

US Consumer Product Safety Commission

The world according to me

My current philosophy of parenting is as follows ....

Equal parts:
1. You are growing up too fast! What happened to my baby?
2. I love this age more than the one before! I am so proud of you!
3. This? What is this? I'll tell you what ... THIS is a pain in my ass.

Perfect Storm

Weaning + Development + ?Growth Spurt + Poor Naps = WHOA.

I'm finding 9 months to be a challenge. I think it is really the first glimpse into the rest of our lives - "constant vigilance" appears to be the theme. Those babies are full of trickery - just when you get past the sleep deprived stumbling and reach a place of relative calm, everything changes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm obviously thrilled that she is exploring and moving as expected, but it does take some getting used to. We finally rearranged all the furniture to make things more Girly-friendly. I'm happier not to have a running dialogue of "No. No. Don't touch that. On your bottom please. No Ma'am. You'll hit your head. That's not for you. Please don't touch that. No."

The weaning is going well. Really, better than expected. I'm also feeling fewer pangs of sadness that breastfeeding is coming to an end, and more excitement that the baby acrobatics, nose-grabbing and hitting me in the face while nursing is coming to an end. She is showing me that she is ready. I am, too.

I set up this prolonged weaning schedule, which has been fine, but may need to be expedited. On the days that I've dropped a feeding, I've usually had to pump once just a little bit for relief, and then the next day has been OK without pumping, and by the third day everything seems normal. One factor that I hadn't considered is that my milk supply also seems to be lower for the remaining feedings. So, this coupled with the baby distraction and acrobatics, makes me really question whether Girly is eating enough.

Exhibit A: Our Gal is waking up early. Early. I think it really started before I was full-on weaning, but she is routinely up in the 4's or 5's, which is just not tolerable. It's not everyday, but more days than not. And, she is screaming and mad, not her happy normal self. This usually indicates hunger, and when I've fed her, she will often go back to sleep, but not always. So, I don't know if this is a growth spurt, or that she isn't getting enough milk, or a sinister combination of both. I do know that I want it to be fixed.

Exhibit B: Naps are sucky these days. My former excellent napper has been ruined by daycare, I think. While she has always napped poorly at school (at least 1-2 hours less than at home), it never affected her home napping schedule. Now, it has. She is too young to go to 1 nap, but some days only takes two 30 minute naps. Not enough for me or her. I really feel that her explosion of developmental milestones is playing a role here: when she used to wake early, she might lay there and talk to herself and fall back asleep. Now, it becomes sitting up and crawling around and general "get me out of here-ness". I'll ride out the storm and hope it passes soon.

I hadn't mentioned the biting before, but should. Yes, biting. She bit me while nursing about a month ago for the first time. YEOWCH! After I hollered out in pain, I gave her a firm "NO!" and smacked her arm. I sat her up and she cried big, fat crocodile tears. Then smiled and giggled. Stink-er! It has happened fewer than 5 times, none of which were pleasant. I watch her mouth really closely and can see when she is about to bite me and I pull her off. I think it is boredom on her part.

Again, not something I'll miss.