Ahhh Nostalgia

Little man actually plays with toys. Yep - he's to the glorious age of singing, playing, eating and laughing. 7 months is a great time! It's so crazy to watch his little facial expressions and almost hear his mind working as he stares at toys as he turns them over in his hands - or as he pounds on the sound buttons of his exersaucer. He grabs at pages of books, shakes rattles and pulls hair. I love everything except the hair pulling - and even that I'm beginning to love because I know it's a phase that will be gone soon enough.

I was starting to look for a few little things for him that I knew were CLASSICS that I had - and that I'd seen with many other families back in the day.

One of these is a shape sorter. Something to jam shaped blocks into the right shaped holes. The one I remember was great - but I figured they were long gone. WRONG! They still make them. Mine was red and blue - but I found a fun green and yellow one! Look! This is a purchase I HAVE to make.

Another - a telephone. Don't all little ones need a fake phone? I guess more realistic for kids now would be cell phones. (This theory in practice - my niece at about age 1 knew how to hold her fake cell phone hands-free between her shoulder and ear just from watching my sister and brother-in-law). I wanted a phone like the one I remember - you could pull it along the floor and the phone had eyes in the front that moved up and down. Yeah - they still make that too!! Okay it's a rotary phone and kids now don't even know what those are - but who cares - it's adorable!

There are so many others that I was thrilled to find are still being made new or are available through the glory of ebay. I love nostalgia!

Jon & Kate Plus Hate

Is anyone else tired of the freaking circus around Jon & Kate Plus 8?

Okay - I didn't start out watching the show in the beginning, but after so many people told me how cute it was, I started catching it when I could. It was cute. The kids are cute as little Asian buttons. It was interesting, even more now as a mom, to see a set of parents with 6 kids of the same age at once. The show, after the first two hour specials, was just about a mom and dad and how they made it through the day to day life with a BUNCH of kids in a regular house with regular jobs and regular expectations.
Starting early in last year's season - and even before that - it became about this reality show family who had 8 kids and went on tons of paid-for vacations to fabulous places and chances for attractions to get their location featured. Then it got WORSE and became about a famous family who got to move into a million plus dollar home and have their house renovated to be more green, and the mom's book tour and more vacation-hopping. It just wasn't innocent anymore.
FINE I still watched - but I wasn't as into it. And the imbalanced couple got more and more tension between them, and their relationship with each other and even their kids seemed more and more forced.

Now there's all this about how Jon cheated, and how Kate maybe cheated and why and where and when and how. People say that she drove him to it, he says he's just friends with these other women, she has come to appear as a monster woman who can't keep a nanny, let alone her family even talking to her.

I'm not going to get on a soapbox to share my personal feelings here. I will say I think it's all a bit ridiculous at this point. I feel bad for the kids, 9 year old twins and 5 year old sextuplets know what's going on. But I can't help but think this could all be one big ploy for media attention...which would have worked. They're on every magazine and tabloid and entertainment website and probably had the highest rated show last night with their season opener where they "faced each other for the first time". PLEASE! She's a bag and he's an idiot - and they have 8 kids stuck in the middle now.

I Googled Kate Gosselin and came across a blog...Gosselin's Without Pity. It's a message-board style blog where anyone can post opinions, etc and then the comment-train starts. I came across this because apparently Kate's sister-in-law posted a blog revealing all of Kate's secret evils. It was an interesting post, and it's interesting to see other people's posts and comments - but it's not well laid out or organized. Worth a look sometime if you have any interest in the show whatsoever...

Sadly - even though I'm sick of what has become of this show, I will probably still tune in when I can. It's like seeing a bad car accident that you just can't look away from. This too is bound for a crash.

Still A Sicky

It's day #5 and he's still sick.
Yes, his fevers aren't going up as high (although yesterday he went up to 104) but he didn't seem to be getting any better - so I called the doctor's office this morning and they asked me to bring him back in. One $25 copay later, and "keep doing what you're doing" was all I got from the same freaking doctor we had to see the other day. Boo.
The rest of today he hasn't felt feverish but has been a cranky, crying, whining, angry mess. This is NOT my child at all. He was even on a breast embargo - and that's not him either. I'm hoping this all fades soon.

I feel so bad for babies when they are sick (especially mine!). I'm reminded of an episode of my favorite show EVER - The Gilmore Girls. Lorelai is crying because of many things, but mostly because her dog is sick and she didn't know why and couldn't help him. All she could do was curl up in a blanket next to him. She said something to the effect of watching a lot of TV being the only positive part of being sick...and he can't even do that. That's EXACTLY how I feel for D. Here's the clip - she says it so much better than me. (I can't believe YouTube had this one!). Basically it's just hard seeing someone so helpless be sick :(

He Sleeps Through the Night...with a Fever

Yep - the first time D sleeps through the night since he was about 2 1/2 months old (and by this I mean 6 hours) and it's all because he's had a 103 degree fever.

So I'm home today with sickie - and we just got back from the doctor. We had to see a different physician because our pediatrician is out on Wednesdays - and I don't like this guy - we've seen him before - but whatever. Anyway, D has an ear infection in one ear, and still has a fever 20 some hours later. We were sent home with Amoxicillan (which I'm allergic to, I hope he's not) and orders to alternate Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours that his fever continues. Poor little man has been basically just sleeping since last night at about 7:30. He gets up to nurse but that's about it.

It's hard seeing my boy not himself. He's not smiley or laughing or even wanting to eat much. I hope he gets back to this guy soon...


(all taken earlier this week - before the illness set in)

Shut it

The first question everyone asks you when you have a baby is "Is he sleeping?". My answer is always "no, he's still up about 3 times a night but it's fine".

Here's what most people follow with "Oh you've got to let him cry it out" or "I can't believe you allow that". Even my doctor who asked at his 6 month appointment said we could let him holler for 20 minutes - and when I said I couldn't do that he said something to the effect of that being my problem. My babysitter's husband told me to get some earplugs. Some co-workers think I'm not teaching him how to sleep or something. People are SO opinionated about this.

REALLY? Am I asking you to get up with him? Did I tell you that you shouldn't have let your kid cry it out? NO. This is my decision. I cannot and will not let D cry it out. He goes right back down, and most of the time he's legitimately eating when he gets up...or has just practicing his new skill of creeping in his sleep and wants to alert someone that it woke him up. He's the happiest kid in the rest of the time, so if he is upset in his bed...that means he needs something and damn it I'm going to provide it. I have read up on all the parenting decisions we've made - and made the decisions for a reason. They are not for everyone - but they are for my kid.

Okay - claws retracted. I'm just saying - this is my current pet peeve. Apparently mom's get pet peeves.

PS - all of you who have comments about how I have him still in the bedroom with us will be thrilled to hear that he's going to try sleeping in his crib this weekend...but let's be serious...I'll probably be on the floor next to him for the first few nights. Let the comments begin...

What Day is Today?

Today is Mudder's Day!

Yep - I'm experiencing my first Mother's Day. You probably all know that I'm not one that gets excited about these kinds of "holidays" - but Mother's Day and Father's Day have always been the exception in my book. I like that we celebrate mom's and dad's. It's nice now that I am one too!

You may be confused about my opening line. This is a shout out to one of the corniest/cheesiest shows of all time Full House. And, ADMIT IT - you watched it! Everyone watched it...it was TGIF for crying out loud. However, looking back, I can't believe I watched it as much as I did. Especially now knowing that John Stamos thought it was so ridiculous, and so did Bob Saget who is and was a RAUNCHY stand-up comic. It was a stretch for them...but hey it worked, and it as a great decision for them.
In one episode in the later years - Uncle Jesse teaches his twins (don't get me started here) a song to sing to Rebecca for Mother's Day. For some reason I've always sang that song ANY TIME someone says "what day is today?". Ask my office-mate. I do it all the time, and she's never even seen this part before but now she does it!
So here it is (part of it, not the best part but hey). Love it up people.

In this clip the kids couldn't wait until the next day to give their mom their present. Much like that, my husband can never wait for gifts. So as I got ready to go up for bed - Dain hands me a card and a box. He never can wait for the actual day. The card was hilarious - and the box had a gift certificate for me to get my hair cut. I had told him awhile ago that it has been since early in my pregnancy that I got a haircut. There's even enough for me to get another salon/spa service along with it. A wonderful first Mother's Day gift and something I would not have done for myself. He always amazes me. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful husband and baby...even a baby who still wakes himself up 3 times a night.

So Happy Mother's Day to all mommies. Sing this little song to yourself, or picture John Stamos and the two annoying kids singing to you...you deserve it.

Big Man Stuff

Look out - D is growing out of things right and left...and I'm not just talking about clothes!

His infant/bucket car seat has become a bit snug due to his giant size...so we ordered new convertible car seats (they face backwards until he's old enough - then turn to face front). The downside? We no longer can carry him in that seat in and out of places and stores. He has to be put in and out of the car like every other person. This is bad because this kid sleeps...HARD...in the car. I'm going to have to wake him every time we get out now :( And he's not quite ready to sit up in shopping carts. Oh well - starting probably next week - we'll see!

Last weekend and early this week we tried out some "big boy" items:
Swings in the park


The stroller with the "big boy" seat in


Even spike hairdos! (We already have him rock a mohawk fairly regularly, however)


All this and still not sleeping - but I love every waking minute!

Peas & Carrots & Sweet Potatoes, Oh My

D's little menu has expanded, and he's still loving every spoonful!

Last weekend we tried carrots - which were a hit. They are a little "thinner" than the peas, and D's getting a little more grabby with the spoon now that this meal thing is happening nightly, and so the carrots were all over my little man's face. It was adorable.

Tonight we added Sweet Potatoes to the mix. He LOVED them. I started the meal with the 2nd half of a jar of organic peas, then introduced the sweet potatoes. That really perked him up!

On a related note - due to my blog I was contacted by a rep from HappyBaby Organic Baby food. They are an amazing company - the company that makes the cereal that I listed in my "Great Food Debate" blog. The rep even sent me coupons to try out all their products. I'm excited. AND - I will do a product review once we've tried them. I even will have a prize to offer to a lucky reader. Hooray for the power of technology.

Power of Motherhood

Here's a great news piece I had e-mailed to me...it shows the power of motherhood. It's an undeniable force that carries through every species.