i should be sleeping but...

I had to tell you that I taught my son to turn the lights off (he thought it was hilarious)!  And he figured out how to use his index finger to flip through pictures on my iPhone.

These must be signs...he's obviously a genius.

 Last Friday

Today

Ok, good night!

hello again

OMG!  If this blog weren't about my kid I would change the name to The Blog of Shame.  But that seems inappropriate to describe my Squirtjoy!  

We are loving life here.  Squirt is walking, refusing to eat baby food, and learning a million new things everyday!  I can't wait for him to talk.  There is a definite change in his speech pattern but no words yet.  I'm thinking it's going to be a while still.  We'll just have to love the crazy faces and noises in the meantime.  Maybe when he learns to talk he'll also learn to listen!

Unfortunately, George and I have been super busy the last couple of months (hence the hiatus), but Squirt is resilient.  He comes to hug us every night when we get home, gives us a huge smile and wipes snot all over our clothes.  He is completely amazing.

I can't wait for a break from school so I can focus more on my family.  But in the meantime, when we have family time I dedicate my whole focus to them.  It was hard at first, because my mind goes a mile a minute.  But I've gotten pretty good at ignoring homework...and dishes...and bills so I can put all my energy into my energetic boys!

This is what we focused on today...

summertime...

...and the livin's easy!

This has been a fantastic weekend!  Even with the rain, the weather has been all wonderful and summery.  Warm in the day, cool in the evening.  It's just perfect!  And I'm so glad we had this amazing weekend, because school is going to start again and life is going to get crazy again very soon.

Here's what we've been up to this weekend (obsessing over Instagram is a given!)!

Yesterday we went to the food carts!  I'd heard about them from a few friends but let me tell you, it's all I want to do now!  Delish!

Today we went to the park!  Let me just tell you about the parks around our house...there is no ONE good park.  Each has something to offer, but unfortunately they can't all be in the same place.  The one in our neighborhood has baby swings, but they're the bad kind.  The one to the left of our house has slides but no baby swings.  The one to the right of our house has the good baby swings, and a rock climbing wall, but no slides!  I mean, come on people!  We visited the rock climbing park today.  Clearly, fun was had by all!

I was just complaining that I felt like summer was almost over and we hadn't had any fun family weekends.  Then this weekend happened!  Thank you, it was memorable! 

catch-up

Blogging is hard, yo.  I'm just gonna go ahead and add it to the list of things I'm bad at!  Want to know what I'm good at?  Being overtired, overscheduled, and waaaaay too anxious!  Yeah, adulthood fail!

My baby, though...is freaking awesome!  Ha!  George said when people ask him about the baby he tries not to be that parent that goes on and on and on about how great their kid is!!!  It's a good rule while out in public, but since I'm sitting on my couch here, I'm not afraid to tell you that my kid is killing it!

So two Tuesdays ago I noticed that he was finally able to get into a sitting position on his own.  Just overnight he could suddenly do it, and he was really practicing!  The next day I got down on the ground to play with him and he casually went from sitting, to all fours, and then took four little crawl-steps before plopping down on his belly.  For about 5 seconds I didn't realize what he had done and then I was so excited I wanted to cry.  I was looking around our living room to see if anyone else saw...but I was the only one home!!!  Basically, it was amazing!

Now there is no containing him!  There is no more belly crawl.  Today I actually found him up on the first step, so we will be getting a second gate now!  He's also pulling himself up on the coffee table and will use it to walk all around to get to his toys (or the remote, or my glass, or anything else he feels he can put in his mouth).  He basically doesn't want to play with his toys unless I put them on the coffee table!

We're also trying to introduce some new foods, since he has a tooth coming in!  But he's having a hard time with the different textures!  The faces he makes though are priceless!  

Ok, enough bragging about my baby!  Let's get to the good stuff...pictures!

Enjoying some cherries!

a tale of two boobs

***Warning: this post is about boobs.  Specifically...my boobs.

Apparently, only one of my boobs can read.

I sent the ladies a very official memo stating that my Squirtkiddo and I were done breastfeeding, but only Lefty got the message.  Righty seems to be under the impression that we're still trying to feed a 6 month old boy who's the size of a one year old!

She is wrong.

She is killing me.

I am officially LopsidedMama.  I mean seriously, try not to stare...because it's obvious!

But for real, experienced mothers, help this mama out!  I don't know what to do about this predicament!  Do I relieve the pressure?  (Because I'm getting more painful, and lopsided, by the minute.)  Or do I give her some tough love and just let her work it out on her own?  Help me!!!

And...here's a video in which my child is entertained by his own hand.  This actually happens alot.  Hmmm.

dr. nonsense

People!  Blogger just made my day!  (I'm pathetic, let's not dwell on it.)  No but really, I just clicked some box and now I have a mobile version of this site!!!  Rock on!

And I swear I'm trying to do something about this horrible header.  It's terrible.  But what's worse, is the amount of time I spend trying to figure out what to change it to, and how to do it.  Grrrr.

Ok, here's the stats on my munchkin from our SIX MONTH visit:
Weight: 19 lb. 7 oz.
Height: 28 5/8 inches
Head: huge
Number of shots: 2
Time (in seconds) spent crying after shots: 7
Hours spent at office for routine well child visit: 2
Mama's mood when finally leaving said well child visit: priceless...no I'm joking, I was livid!

So, I'm contemplating a new pediatrician.  Seriously, our appointment was a 10:30 am and they were already that far behind.  We waited for an hour, in the room.  When I told George that, he apparently couldn't hear me and said you waited for an hour in the waiting room?  Negative, we waited in the room.  I would have been less annoyed waiting in the waiting room.  Nope, instead we could hear the PedDevil in the hall and could only pray that we were next.  Which we weren't...for an hour!

Also, try entertaining your child in that environment for an hour.  I mean, yes, he does love the paper on the exam table.  He loves smacking it, and ripping it, and shaking it, and even eating it.  But it's freaking paper, even babies can't be entertained by paper for an hour.  And yes, I brought toys with me.  But he's six months old, his attention span only lasts like 3 minutes.

George has a theory that pediatricians are what's wrong with this world and I'm beginning to think so too.  (No offense pediatrons.  Also, if you're say, marrying a pediatrician, don't mention this post to him...you know who you are!)  My pediatrician told me to boil my water before giving it to Squirt.  Seriously?  Seriously.  No, but what?  Yeah, that's what she said, because he could get a parasite.  Damn it, we could all get a parasite!  I would like to see the data on the number of parasites obtained by infants from the city water in this Hippie Kingdom/town we live in.  And, she wasn't joking.  In fact she looked at me like what kind of mother are you, not boiling your water?  George told me I should tell her we live on a farm and she what she says then.  Annoying.  Boil the water...insane.

(I will say that AK's Dr. PedsFiance told me that if it doesn't make sense I shouldn't do it.  So he seems like a special kind of pediatrician/normal person/keeper!)

For the record, it does make me feel like a bad patient, to think about switching doctors.  I mean, she's just trying to tell me what she thinks I should do to make my kiddo big and strong.  If I were her I'd be annoyed by me.  I'd be all why do I waste my breath if she's not going to listen?  But at the same time, I feel like some of her advice is impractical (hence this rant).  And I don't want to be "doctor shopping" but shouldn't I want a Dr. that I "click" with?  What's a mama to do?

Good God, I'm getting all excited again so I'd better shut up.  But let's all look at pictures of my baby now to feel better.  That always works for me!

 

 

mama: 1, parenting: 1,000,000. at least i got one!

Ok, I'm gonna ignore the fact that I haven't posted in, well, forever! And instead, I'm gonna tell you about this book I read!  Yeah, I am.

I've read a ton of parenting books, because guess what???  Parenting is stressful!  And I am type-A.  And I would prefer a step-by-step guide to parenting, instead of the each-child-is-different-do-what-feels-right guide to parenting.  Puke.

The most recent book I read was about sleep.  Ahhhhh sleep.  We have since mastered the nighttime sleeping, and I will take credit personally for that one.  That was all me, no books!  Psst, that was your cue to tell me how awesome I am.  Or even better, tell my husband how awesome I am.

Back to the topic now, I was recently perusing Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby.  And by perusing, I mean jumping about 20 pages at a time because I couldn't stand to hear the same thing over and over and over.  But then I finally got to the good part...

According to Dr. Weissbluth, there are two methods for putting your baby to bed at night.  Apparently, there are completely different methods for putting your baby down for daytime naps...of course, duh!  So these night time methods, which are creatively named Method A and Method B, were ha...wait for it...larious!

Method A: Let your baby cry-it-out so they can learn to self-soothe and have healthy sleep habits.

OR

Method B: Go to your baby when he cries and be the worst parent ever.

The book does make a point to mention that neither method is right or wrong.  Yeah right.

In Dr. Weissbluth's defense, the personal stories in the book were helpful, showing how parents moved from Method B to Method A.  We did that too and now our Squirtbaby is sleeping very soundly through the night.  And I didn't even need a book to tell me that!

Make a note:  One parenting success for me...and it only took 5 months...rock on!

Now...please try to ignore the fact that these pictures make my poor child's eyes look seriously caddy-wompass (haha)!

conversations with, I mean, about, breast pumps

The second day we came home from the hospital with Squirt a visiting nurse came to our house.  She was awesome, by the way, as nurses tend to be.  But my current point is that she helped me select the perfect breast shield for my breast pump.  And I've been having conversations with my breast pump ever since.

At first it was saying, LetDownLetDownLetDown.  Now that we have a more mature relationship (i.e. since I crank up the suction and therefore my pump is dying) it says, Let Doooowwwwn...Let Doooowwwwn...Let Doooowwwwn.  George and I laugh about this all the time but I figured we were just being a little sleep deprived! WRONG!  

At work today some of my new mama friends, Thelma and Louise (did you know those aren't their real names?), and I were having a good laugh at the secret language of the pump.  Thelma said her sister asked if her pump was talking to her yet.  She thought this was a strange question.  But me and Louise assured her that if it hadn't whispered in her ear yet, it would soon.  Interestingly enough, Louise's says different things to her.  Maybe there's a perfect pump out there for each lactating mama!

Somehow this reminded me of my dad.  He says funny things.  For instance, if I said "The other day I was talking to myself and...", he would say "Just as long as you're not answering yourself!"    It made me think...if my pump is talking to me, what does it mean if I start talking back to it? (That felt like a weird Carrie Bradshaw type moment, whatevs.)

And now...pictures of the boob-monster!

ayo, i'm tired of using technology

Did you notice my new blog banner?  You can't miss it...it's a giant picture of my kid's head!  I have created and recreated about 27 new blog banners.  And I'm still not satisfied.

Hence, I hate technology.  (Seriously, I'm sure my iPhone is good for more than the calendar and calculator functions, but I wouldn't really know about that now would I?  I can't even figure out iTunes, so...)

Anyway, I know what I want to do for my banner but I just can't seem to figure it out.  Although, I will cut myself a little slack.  I mean, if I had more time I'm sure I could get it.  But until then, I will keep making and remaking blog banners.

By the by, I feel eating pizza right now.

Also, did you know that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under two do not watch TV at all?  Like, AT. ALL?  As in, none.  Or, nada, if you will.

I'm not proposing that I plop my perfect son in front of the television for any period of time, but...it's baseball season, peeps.  There is no way that my SquirtSlugger is going to make it all the way to freaking October without watching a significant amount of baseball...George is making sure of that.

Unrelated, we're going to the pediatrician tomorrow for our four month check up.  George gave explicit instructions that I feed the SquirtBabe alot before we go so he can make weight!  When we went two weeks ago when he was sick, his weight was only in the 78th percentile, which is apparently unacceptable for the daddy in this house.  We'll have to see how that goes, hopefully he can bulk up by then!  Maybe I can convince him not to poop until we get back, that should add a bunch of weight!

baby got back

My baby's got back.  Yeah, we should just call him Sir Eats-a-lot.

Seriously, he will not stop eating.  It's been a very long, loud weekend with him getting cranky every 60-90 minutes.  Mama's exhausted from all this feeding, kiddo!  I mean I feel bad about it, he's eating more than I can make, but we're gonna have to come up with some sort of plan here Squirtbuddy!

In all seriousness, I think he's getting ready for another growth spurt.  We're going to the pediatrician in a few weeks so we'll get an official weight then.  According to the scale here at Fort Squirt he's about 16.5 lbs.  To put that in perspective, the oldest kid in his daycare class can walk and he's the same size as the Squirtdogg!

I mean, check out the cheeks on this kid!

In other Squirt news, he's getting so good at reaching and grabbing.  Unfortunately, that means he's getting really good at grabbing my hair...and he doesn't know "no"...but, we're working on that. 

In the last few days he's also gotten noticeably better at holding things.  Which means that at dinner the other night, Daddy gave him a knife to hold on to.  Apparently, that was a better choice than the fork that was also available! 

The Bumbo is also getting more use now.  Whereas before it was the Leaning Tower of Squirt, he now has much better control of his abs and back so he's sitting up a lot straighter!  I think he's going to be sitting up by himself soon.  I'm sure that will mean he no longer has any use for me, but good for him!

Finally, after taking a very scientific and official poll, it was determined that Squirt is very advanced for his age.  Here is the Mommy Evidence to prove it!

Don't be jealous...they can't all be Dr. McDrooly!

there's been a development

Wait...have I told you that I have the cutest baby ever?  Well, I do, so there!

In terms of the aforementioned development, it's a doozy!  After 13 and 2/7 weeks of my Squirtbaby looking like the spitting image of his mama, I think he has decided he's done with that.  The consensus seems to be indicating that Squirt The Great is now looking more like the man in his life, namely one George McDaddy!

How exciting is this!  I, for one, am pleased as punch!  While I have always wanted to know what I would look like if I were a man (sense the sarcasm), having a little manbaby that looks like my favorite husband is quite possibly the best thing ever!  In fact, it makes me feel pretty darn proud!  Since I clearly did all the baby work myself (poor me) I will now take credit for creating the most handsome little boy ever seen.

*****

Other updates this week include: 

- survival of our second week of daycare

- recovery from his first cold is going nicely

- turning over from back to front like it's his job

- baby sized efforts to grab at things

- and a possible giggle sighting!

Have a great weekend!  Pray for springtime!

there's a booger in the sugar, no it-snot

We're sick.  And by "we," I mean all of us.  And by all of us, I mean gross.

First Squirt got a cold.  Well, he got a cold that sounded like croup.  I mean, way to freak out a new mom.  I know that croup is actually nothing, but that barking cough will scary you for sure!

So my little Squirtman was actually doing quite well with his cold...probably from all the hugs and kisses from mommy and daddy.  You know...the hugs and kisses that then got us sick...way sicker than him.  Rock on!  

I haven't been sick like this for three years.  And George didn't go to work today for the first time ever!  We went to bed at 8:30 last night (I don't think I've gone to bed at 8:30 since 1989) hoping that a good night's rest would help us get over the hump.  Yeah, no.  We were both so sick we couldn't even sleep.  

Thank goodness we're feeling at least a little better today.  Hopefully that will mean work for both of us tomorrow.  Because I do not want to have to call in to work (for the first time) in my second week back!  That would just be poor form!

Here's a few pictures of the boy, after his post-blow-out bath (thanks Daddy, I was working...haha).  Hope you're week is off to a better start than ours!

(s)he said "gleeba"

No, Squirt is not talking.  Yes, that was a Friends reference.  Maybe, he will be a scientist.

The point is that Squirt is the smartest child alive!  Can you believe it?  Believe it!

At daycare this week I was super anxious (I know, it's so unlike me!).  I was worried he was eating too much and not sleeping enough.  Then, by the end of the week, I was worried that he wasn't eating enough and sleeping too much.  I know, classic new mom stuff.  But the highlight of my daycare week was picking him up yesterday and realizing that he had vastly increased his intellectual capacity in a matter of hours.

For instance...I saw him roll over from back to front for the first time!  George "claims" he saw him to it earlier in the week but I vote that if the mama doesn't see it, it doesn't count!  Also, he held onto his toys for the first time!  Like, with his little baby fingers! And, he grabbed his toes for the first time (also with his little fingers)!  Do you see, genius!

Unrelated, we got some baby pictures taken today; the budget friendly kind of course.  They turned out pretty good, obviously, since my baby is awesome!  We can't wait to get them and show everyone, so get excited!

Finally, I would like to thank my internet friend natthefatrat for introducing me to instagram on iPhone.  It is awesome and my new favorite way to waste time!  Have a good weekend friends!

beer me

Last night, when I was trying to go to sleep, I asked God to beer me strength.

And you know what?  He beered it!  He beered it up real good!

Good thing too, because today was Day 1 of daycare.  And...success! 

The drop off went much better than expected.  I know this may sound totally out of character for me, but I was running late this morning.  (I think the morning routine is going to take some getting used to.) But I think my tardiness actually paid off this time.  Since I was running late I didn't have too much time to dwell on my sadness.  I actually arrived to the daycare in plenty of time, it was then that I thought oh my God, how am I going to be able to do this?

Right about the time I thought I was going to lose it another mother came in to drop her infant off.  She said hello, dropped the baby gear, and said goodbye.  It was then that I thought I can do this!  So I did.  And work was so hectic that I didn't have too much time to think about it.  But, I have never been so excited to leave work in my whole life!

Work, on the other hand, was a showcase for my stupidity.  My goal for today was to not make an ass of myself.  It actually wasn't that bad, I was just seriously slow.  And if I can get personal for a minute, pumping at work sucks!  First I have to go to the pumping room, then pump, then put the milk away, and then put the pump away, etc., etc., etc.  Good thing I love this kid!!!

I gotta go stare at my kid now.  Maybe someone will beer me a burrito later!  Happy Monday peeps!