Showing posts with label the Little Wum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the Little Wum. Show all posts
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Let me pick my jaw up from the floor so I can post about this...
My little girl actually asked for a nap for the first time ever today. Sure, it was all non-verbal communication - toddling into the bedroom, vocally complaining that I wasn't in there, coming to the living room to find me, holding her arms up with an emphatic "dah!" to ask to be picked up, pointing to the bedroom from the vantage point of my arms, pointing to the bed, and then when put down, signing milk and rubbing her eyes. However, coming from a baby who I generally have to fight with to get to nap, the above sequence (so deliberately enacted) is nothing short of remarkable. I momentarily thought I'd wandered into some weird alternate universe, but no; just my baby, slowly growing up day by day.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Win some, lose some..
It is still very, very busy in our household, and hence still very, very quiet in my blog realm. I'm starting to make some "back to school" type modifications (not that anyone in our house is back to school, but as fall sets in , a greater sense of order and stability seems to go along with it, which I associate with "school time"). One of these changes is getting dinner on the table by 6:30 instead of 7, and then LW in bed by 8:30 instead of 9+. I'm hoping to push bedtime back even earlier once daylight savings rolls around, but for now we'll take what we can get :)
Anyway, I don't have time (surprise, surprise - but I promise I will again someday! Blogging is about fifth on my to-do-list each day and I just never quite get there) for a long post. But I thought I'd share a couple of this week's wins and also losses:
First, in the category of losses, fails, or "things I hate":
1) The lawnmower starting up outside and prematurely waking LW from a nap. It happens at least once a week, I have no control over it, and it makes me want to kick something.
2) Hot sticky weather that makes it almost impossible to get LW to nap in the first place, and shortens her already short span of patience. I'm convinced that being overheated is contributing to her new found problem behaviors of scratching and biting (me, and also herself... poor little girl has started biting her *own* fingers when she gets frustrated. It is kind of heartbreaking to see)
3) The grand finale of "fails" for the week, and of things I hate, or that make me want to kick something: last night I went into our bedroom to a t-shirt after putting LW down for bed. I obviously didn't want to turn on the light, so I wandered around in the pitch black. I went to bend to reach the bottom shelf of my bureau.. unfortunately not realizing that I'd left the second to top drawer open, which I hit, full force, with my mouth. BAM instant punctured, fat lip. Today I am sporting the "tattooed lipstick/collagen implant" look, very naturally.
4) A bonus fail for the week - I was working on making a plaid skirt for the fall, perfectly matched the plaids only to not take into account that the pattern, which had multiple seams, was going to make weird chevrons in obvious and unintentional places. I'm not very happy with the result.
However, the week hasn't been a total loss:
1) I managed to complete a guest post that I needed to submit by Sept 1st, and was even happy with it.
2) I've been putting my crockpot to good use, to try to have less hassle at dinnertime, which has mostly been a success. I need to find better recipes, but it is definitely easier to fix things early in the day and then just eat dinner, rather than cooking for an hour, then eating, then all the cleanup.
3) We have actually managed to have dinner at the desired time all week, which has left time for an after dinner walk (instituted as a habit last week, when my cousin was visiting, and a tradition that we'll hopefully keep up until the weather gets prohibitively cold; LW gets all excited as soon as we ask her if she wants to go for a walk).
4) Bonus win for the week: managing to find the time to sit down and write this post. Yay for finally knocking off that fifth thing on the to-do-list!
Crock-pot recipes, anyone? Or advice on how to soothe frustrated toddlers?
Anyway, I don't have time (surprise, surprise - but I promise I will again someday! Blogging is about fifth on my to-do-list each day and I just never quite get there) for a long post. But I thought I'd share a couple of this week's wins and also losses:
First, in the category of losses, fails, or "things I hate":
1) The lawnmower starting up outside and prematurely waking LW from a nap. It happens at least once a week, I have no control over it, and it makes me want to kick something.
2) Hot sticky weather that makes it almost impossible to get LW to nap in the first place, and shortens her already short span of patience. I'm convinced that being overheated is contributing to her new found problem behaviors of scratching and biting (me, and also herself... poor little girl has started biting her *own* fingers when she gets frustrated. It is kind of heartbreaking to see)
3) The grand finale of "fails" for the week, and of things I hate, or that make me want to kick something: last night I went into our bedroom to a t-shirt after putting LW down for bed. I obviously didn't want to turn on the light, so I wandered around in the pitch black. I went to bend to reach the bottom shelf of my bureau.. unfortunately not realizing that I'd left the second to top drawer open, which I hit, full force, with my mouth. BAM instant punctured, fat lip. Today I am sporting the "tattooed lipstick/collagen implant" look, very naturally.
4) A bonus fail for the week - I was working on making a plaid skirt for the fall, perfectly matched the plaids only to not take into account that the pattern, which had multiple seams, was going to make weird chevrons in obvious and unintentional places. I'm not very happy with the result.
However, the week hasn't been a total loss:
1) I managed to complete a guest post that I needed to submit by Sept 1st, and was even happy with it.
2) I've been putting my crockpot to good use, to try to have less hassle at dinnertime, which has mostly been a success. I need to find better recipes, but it is definitely easier to fix things early in the day and then just eat dinner, rather than cooking for an hour, then eating, then all the cleanup.
3) We have actually managed to have dinner at the desired time all week, which has left time for an after dinner walk (instituted as a habit last week, when my cousin was visiting, and a tradition that we'll hopefully keep up until the weather gets prohibitively cold; LW gets all excited as soon as we ask her if she wants to go for a walk).
4) Bonus win for the week: managing to find the time to sit down and write this post. Yay for finally knocking off that fifth thing on the to-do-list!
Crock-pot recipes, anyone? Or advice on how to soothe frustrated toddlers?
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Ups, Downs, and All Arounds..
My apologies for being so "quiet" lately. Life has been crazy - sometimes crazy good, sometimes crazy bad, and it's been hard to find a moment to do laundry (hence three loads are sitting on my basement floor) much less sit down to construct a coherent post.
First, the "down": I had to take my 13 month old to the dentist yesterday. Jim and I used to joke years ago that if we ever got married, our kids would be doomed - we both had so many problems with cavities and such - and evidently (dentally?) it's not so much of a joke when it actually happens. LW has two cavities behind her front middle teeth, and now it's a race to try and find a second opinion as far as what to do about them. Dentist #1 was brusque, uninformative, performed a sealing procedure without asking or explaining first, and is insisting that we night wean (and preferably stop feeding on demand in the daytime as well). Of course, as I know from previous experience, dentists really would be most happy if they could get all their patients to be fed via stomach tube and never have anything touch their teeth... Anyway, that is the current crisis of our days. I really don't want to night wean her yet, as she's still nursing 3-4 times a night, receives quite a lot of calories that way, and it gets us all the maximum amount of shut-eye. SO.. prayers, please, for healing and also for us to find a decent dentist who is willing to work with the whole baby, not just focusing exclusively on her teeth (side note - this has been a bad year for this particular topic; we had to shell $2500 out of pocket in March when Jim had a dental abscess, so this came as a particularly annoying blow).
The literal "up": LW is standing up on her own (as in, in the middle of the floor, without anything to pull up on), and taking a few steps from there! Her toddle-waddle is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. She is pushing "further up and further in," in the form of climbing everything (chairs, couches, people) in sight. She's also beginning to master more words (like "bath"), and every day becomes more like a little toddler-person rather than a baby.
Also literally "up": the garden is entering into its full glory:
We recently harvested the first of the tomatoes and peas:
They are *super* tasty. I had forgotten how good a cherry tomato or snap pea straight off the vine can taste. My buds have gotten used to the bland store bought stuff.
The peas are actually kind of funny, because when we left for 4th of July weekend, there was one bud about to bloom; when we returned, the whole tops of the bushes were covered, and the next morning, there were full pea pods waiting to be harvested.
This might, of course, have something to do with the "all around": the all encompassing heat wave we've been experiencing. Remember this post? It's even hotter than that now, and ridiculously high humidity levels as well. Yesterday, I gave in, and let Jim put the AC in the bedroom window (being mistress of frugality, it has to be seriously hot for me to allow the use of the AC). It was worth it, though, for the three of us to actually get a good night's sleep.
In one other piece of "all around" news - our BG's are working great! She hasn't been any redder than she ever was in the disposables in weeks, and we've got a good wash/dry routine down. The only problem is that with this hot weather, she's been running around in her diaper, and has now figured out how to open the Velcro tabs. I'm super excited about not spending all that $$ on the disposables anymore (although, technically, it'll take 6+ months to recoup the investment in the BG's). We're still using one sposie at night - any suggestions for good overnight solutions? She might be OK overnight, I just haven't dared risk it yet. That being said, she pretty routinely leaks out of the disposable at night anyway...
Oh, and the other "up" piece of news: we're looking at a house that we actually really like, which might even be in our price range! 5.5 acres of a land, an older farmhouse that needs some renovations but would be livable until we were able to do so, and only about 30 min from where Jim works (not ideal, but better than it could be). God willing, we're hoping to move on to the house inspector step, after taking one more look at it.
Now... time for that laundry :)
First, the "down": I had to take my 13 month old to the dentist yesterday. Jim and I used to joke years ago that if we ever got married, our kids would be doomed - we both had so many problems with cavities and such - and evidently (dentally?) it's not so much of a joke when it actually happens. LW has two cavities behind her front middle teeth, and now it's a race to try and find a second opinion as far as what to do about them. Dentist #1 was brusque, uninformative, performed a sealing procedure without asking or explaining first, and is insisting that we night wean (and preferably stop feeding on demand in the daytime as well). Of course, as I know from previous experience, dentists really would be most happy if they could get all their patients to be fed via stomach tube and never have anything touch their teeth... Anyway, that is the current crisis of our days. I really don't want to night wean her yet, as she's still nursing 3-4 times a night, receives quite a lot of calories that way, and it gets us all the maximum amount of shut-eye. SO.. prayers, please, for healing and also for us to find a decent dentist who is willing to work with the whole baby, not just focusing exclusively on her teeth (side note - this has been a bad year for this particular topic; we had to shell $2500 out of pocket in March when Jim had a dental abscess, so this came as a particularly annoying blow).
The literal "up": LW is standing up on her own (as in, in the middle of the floor, without anything to pull up on), and taking a few steps from there! Her toddle-waddle is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. She is pushing "further up and further in," in the form of climbing everything (chairs, couches, people) in sight. She's also beginning to master more words (like "bath"), and every day becomes more like a little toddler-person rather than a baby.
Also literally "up": the garden is entering into its full glory:
We recently harvested the first of the tomatoes and peas:
They are *super* tasty. I had forgotten how good a cherry tomato or snap pea straight off the vine can taste. My buds have gotten used to the bland store bought stuff.
The peas are actually kind of funny, because when we left for 4th of July weekend, there was one bud about to bloom; when we returned, the whole tops of the bushes were covered, and the next morning, there were full pea pods waiting to be harvested.
This might, of course, have something to do with the "all around": the all encompassing heat wave we've been experiencing. Remember this post? It's even hotter than that now, and ridiculously high humidity levels as well. Yesterday, I gave in, and let Jim put the AC in the bedroom window (being mistress of frugality, it has to be seriously hot for me to allow the use of the AC). It was worth it, though, for the three of us to actually get a good night's sleep.
In one other piece of "all around" news - our BG's are working great! She hasn't been any redder than she ever was in the disposables in weeks, and we've got a good wash/dry routine down. The only problem is that with this hot weather, she's been running around in her diaper, and has now figured out how to open the Velcro tabs. I'm super excited about not spending all that $$ on the disposables anymore (although, technically, it'll take 6+ months to recoup the investment in the BG's). We're still using one sposie at night - any suggestions for good overnight solutions? She might be OK overnight, I just haven't dared risk it yet. That being said, she pretty routinely leaks out of the disposable at night anyway...
Oh, and the other "up" piece of news: we're looking at a house that we actually really like, which might even be in our price range! 5.5 acres of a land, an older farmhouse that needs some renovations but would be livable until we were able to do so, and only about 30 min from where Jim works (not ideal, but better than it could be). God willing, we're hoping to move on to the house inspector step, after taking one more look at it.
Now... time for that laundry :)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Welcome to Toddlerhood?
I heard that particular, unmistakeable, and ominous sound for the first time today:
"Sploosh." *pause* "Sploosh." *pause* "Sploosh."
Yes, LW snuck into the bathroom while I was working (oops, forgot to shut the door), and was methodically throwing all her bath toys into the toilet.
I wish I could say that it would be the first and last time I'd ever hear that sound, but I'm too much of a realist for that.
"Sploosh." *pause* "Sploosh." *pause* "Sploosh."
Yes, LW snuck into the bathroom while I was working (oops, forgot to shut the door), and was methodically throwing all her bath toys into the toilet.
I wish I could say that it would be the first and last time I'd ever hear that sound, but I'm too much of a realist for that.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Celebrating 365 days with the little Wum :)
"Making the decision to have a child–it’s momentous.
A year ago, today, this -It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone
and then she grew...
and grew...
and grew some more...
and now our infant is officially a toddler :) (she celebrated by learning how to climb onto the couch by herself)
It's amazing to me how she still looks like the same baby, and yet not at all. How she has grown so slowly, and yet so fast...
Anyway. A quick run down of lessons learned in the last year:
1) Best things about having a baby:
- Baby feet
- Baby snuggles
- Baby smiles
- Having a tangible, visible purpose for everything I do in a day
- Oxytocin
- An even more indissoluble bond between my husband and I
- Having someone to sing made up silly songs to
- Having a reason to go back and revisit baby books, childhood books, childhood joys
- Learning patience, flexibility
- Learning a thousand times over how to separate what matters from what doesn't
- Another soul in the world
- Introducing a child to the love of God!
2) Hard things about having a baby:
- Less time with husband
- Less sleep
- The rubber meets the road as far as growing in holiness through the marital vocation
- Transitions, changes, adjustments
- Cleaning the floor seemingly hundreds of times a day
- Trying to figure out when to shower
- The awful, sick to your stomach feeling when your baby gets hurt
The good outweighs the hard a million times over, and I feel so blessed to have a wonderful husband, a wonderful daughter, and the flexibility to be able to make a home for and with them. God has been so good - we can't wait to see what else He has in store for us, and most especially for LW!
"You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable." - Khalil Gibran
Monday, May 31, 2010
A year ago tonight...
I made my husband a sandwich for work the next day. I was a week overdue with the little Wum, and he told me he wasn't going to need it since I was going to have her the next day. I scoffed, but then my water broke at 1:30 am... he brought the sandwich with him to the delivery room (much to the envy of our midwife at about 6 am!).
Yesterday we celebrated LW's 1st birthday with both our families and a few friends. My camera battery died after about three shots, so this is all I have, but more to come when my dad sends me the photos from his camera :)
Here's the cake I made - sort of a hard luck cake, I made a double recipe, which turned out to not make enough layers, so I made another double recipe, and then had one layer too many. Then, the day turned humid which created some problems with the icing. But I think it turned out pretty well (especially considering I had to mix everything by hand, since I don't have a mixer - whipping icing by hand is a *tough* job!).
and then the big moment...
No picture of her blowing it out, as she immediately reached for the flame, and whoosh, Jim blew it out.
But she did very much seem to enjoy gnoshing down a huge slice of birthday cake :)
Anyway, the cake tasted great (it was a perfect first birthday cake - loaded with sweet potato, and even the cream cheese frosting was sort of "healthy") and received rave reviews, and LW received some great presents that have been keeping her quite busy. We've been taking today to really relax after the hectic weekend (cleaning before, cleaning up after, and a sugar-high almost one-year old), but I've been reflecting on a year with a little one, and will write something more meaningful for her real birthday tomorrow.
Happy Memorial Day, everyone! Prayers for all our beloved deceased, and for all who have lost someone, especially those who have lost military family or friends.
Yesterday we celebrated LW's 1st birthday with both our families and a few friends. My camera battery died after about three shots, so this is all I have, but more to come when my dad sends me the photos from his camera :)
Here's the cake I made - sort of a hard luck cake, I made a double recipe, which turned out to not make enough layers, so I made another double recipe, and then had one layer too many. Then, the day turned humid which created some problems with the icing. But I think it turned out pretty well (especially considering I had to mix everything by hand, since I don't have a mixer - whipping icing by hand is a *tough* job!).
and then the big moment...
But she did very much seem to enjoy gnoshing down a huge slice of birthday cake :)
Anyway, the cake tasted great (it was a perfect first birthday cake - loaded with sweet potato, and even the cream cheese frosting was sort of "healthy") and received rave reviews, and LW received some great presents that have been keeping her quite busy. We've been taking today to really relax after the hectic weekend (cleaning before, cleaning up after, and a sugar-high almost one-year old), but I've been reflecting on a year with a little one, and will write something more meaningful for her real birthday tomorrow.
Happy Memorial Day, everyone! Prayers for all our beloved deceased, and for all who have lost someone, especially those who have lost military family or friends.
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