Monday, October 19, 2009
Had A Great Weekend
Husband's birthday. Ice cream cake. Dinner with friends. Football watching (does it snow in TN??). Soccer playing. Couch shopping. Made chili. Slept in. Picnic in the park. Only 4 more days till the next weekend!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Dear Loyal Followers,
I am alive. Just busy. But know that I think of you guys every day. Well, not each one of you individually, but all of you, as a collection.
Anyway, just busy with work and being a mom. So you want to know what my typical day is like?
5:30 am - Husband goes to work and I typically am half awake (I'm a sensitive sleeper).
7 am - typical wake up time for El Jefe; if we're lucky, like we have been the last week, he'll either sleep through the night or only wake up 1 or 2 times.
7 - 8 am - keep him in bed with me as long as possible (usually 5-15 minutes), but this usually happens if he wakes up around 6 am, breastfeeds, and then goes back to sleep in bed with me; diaper change; clothing change (?); play with kitties; chase the El Jefe around the living room; MAYBE try to get a load of laundry going; or make the bed (a significant achievement, trust me).
8:30 am - feed the kitties, El Jefe, and me.
8:50 am - do a second attempt at feeding El Jefe, if he didn't finish his food the first time around.
9 am - shower; put El Jefe in the bassinet or in his exersaucer; get ready for work.
9:30 am - breastfeed El Jefe; sometimes he'll fall asleep.
10 am - nanny arrives, tell her what's going on; last few minutes of cuddle time if El Jefe is awake.
10:30 am - 6:30 pm - relax, eat, pump, relax, pump; OR work; actually, work has been quite hectic lately so it hasn't been relaxing.
7 - 10 pm - arrive home; breastfeed El Jefe; (make?) eat dinner; wash pump dishes; play with El Jefe; breastfeed El Jefe, bathe him, feed him, he sacks, maybe watch a little bit of a movie or try to do some stuff on the computer; go to sleep.
On days I'm lucky or work is slow, then I go home around 6 pm and get a little bit more time to do other stuff, like meet up with a friend, go for a walk, go to the store with El Jefe. But generally, that's it. That's life right now. And we are loving it.
Anyway, just busy with work and being a mom. So you want to know what my typical day is like?
5:30 am - Husband goes to work and I typically am half awake (I'm a sensitive sleeper).
7 am - typical wake up time for El Jefe; if we're lucky, like we have been the last week, he'll either sleep through the night or only wake up 1 or 2 times.
7 - 8 am - keep him in bed with me as long as possible (usually 5-15 minutes), but this usually happens if he wakes up around 6 am, breastfeeds, and then goes back to sleep in bed with me; diaper change; clothing change (?); play with kitties; chase the El Jefe around the living room; MAYBE try to get a load of laundry going; or make the bed (a significant achievement, trust me).
8:30 am - feed the kitties, El Jefe, and me.
8:50 am - do a second attempt at feeding El Jefe, if he didn't finish his food the first time around.
9 am - shower; put El Jefe in the bassinet or in his exersaucer; get ready for work.
9:30 am - breastfeed El Jefe; sometimes he'll fall asleep.
10 am - nanny arrives, tell her what's going on; last few minutes of cuddle time if El Jefe is awake.
10:30 am - 6:30 pm - relax, eat, pump, relax, pump; OR work; actually, work has been quite hectic lately so it hasn't been relaxing.
7 - 10 pm - arrive home; breastfeed El Jefe; (make?) eat dinner; wash pump dishes; play with El Jefe; breastfeed El Jefe, bathe him, feed him, he sacks, maybe watch a little bit of a movie or try to do some stuff on the computer; go to sleep.
On days I'm lucky or work is slow, then I go home around 6 pm and get a little bit more time to do other stuff, like meet up with a friend, go for a walk, go to the store with El Jefe. But generally, that's it. That's life right now. And we are loving it.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Thank God
For the past 6 month, my brother has been in jail on DUI charges. At 1:11 am this morning, I got the call from him that he was out. The Peanut and I are about to fly south to see him. I can't wait.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Yes, I am Alive
Yup, I’m still alive. I’ve just been busy. In the past month we went to Orange County, Boston, and started looking for a nanny.
Both trips were fun. We saw loads of family and friends and the Peanut had a wonderful time meeting lots of people. Highlights include:
Splashing in a kiddie pool; hanging out with big kids (the Peanut’s highlight), eating lots of ice cream at Cabot’s in Newton, seeing lots of friends (thank you to those who traveled long distances to see us), going to the Boston aquarium, getting lost trying to drive through the Boston suburbs (fortunately the Peanut slept right through it).
At his 6 month birth anniversary we decided we could no longer call our son Peanut. He was too old. Not only did he no longer look like a Peanut (big head, poufy diaper), but we didn’t want the name to stick. So we’ve been trying out other names that include Calabazita (pumpkin) and El Jefe (the boss). Unfortunately we still tend to call him Peanut or the Fuss.
The nanny interviewing process has been going pretty well. We were happy with our pool of nannies until we realized that we don’t really know any of these people. And how well can you really get to know anyone in less than 1 month? So we are kind of stressed out right now, trying to figure all this out. Before the Peanut was born, I figured I would have no trouble sending him to daycare. And I think the husband felt exactly the same way, until he stayed at home with the Peanut for 10 weeks. My husband fears the nanny will be careless or abandon our child and my fear is that the nanny will kidnap him. We’ve decided to offset our work schedules so that the Peanut is only with a nanny for 6 hours a day, 4 days a week. Most likely nothing will happen, and the nanny will become an integral part of our family and the Peanut’s life. What more could we ask for than a nanny that the Peanut is happy to see? Wish us luck!
Other highlights from the past month include:
First food – rice cereal with breastmilk! We didn’t get any of the funny faces. On the contrary, the Peanut really seemed to enjoy the food. We have gotten some classic faces with pureed carrots, but we don’t have any pictures of that.
We got a backpack carrier which the Peanut really seems to love.
We checked out some horses!
We used the potty (but I’ll only show the Peanut’s picture). Ok, so we are not one of those families that is crazy about one parenting theory over another. For a while there, the Peanut tended to leak his diaper every morning. So instead of waiting for a leak, or trying to do a change midway through the deed, we decided to sit him on the potty. And it worked! Was that too much info? We’ve actually only tried this once. But it was a cute picture!
The Peanut got his first drug rug!
And these baseball hat pictures are adorable!
And of course, priceless.
Since I haven’t posted in a long time, I’m going to make this a long one.
My birthday was last week! This was actually a pretty bad birthday of all the birthday’s I’ve had. It got better as the day neared an end. In the past I have always loved my birthday and I was really looking forward to this birthday. But this birthday all I really wanted to do was go home and sit on the couch and stare at the wall. However, I was stuck at work, with a lot of stressful things going on, until much later than I wanted to. When I finally left work, my parents helped me organize the garage. That actually made me happy. Am I old or just domesticated? We finally ended up going downtown, to partake in the once a month summer festivities (band, farmer’s market, etc.), and had dinner at The Tied House, our local brewpub. Thanks to Will and Christine who joined us. But then, as we were heading home, I felt really sick. It must have been something I ate? Who knows. Fortunately the ill feelings passed quickly.
Oh, 3 weekends ago I went to a soccer camp put on the by the local women’s professional team. It was my first time playing soccer in about 1 year and it was fun. I did roll my ankle but it only took a couple of minutes to get over the pain and back onto the field. There were about 18 women at the camp coached by Tiffeny Millbret and Christine Sinclair. I was probably the most skilled player on the field. But it was a great way for me to get back into the soccer mood. I’ve signed up for a women’s league starting in 1 month. I can’t wait.
Speaking of rolling my ankle...I’ve always been worried about what would happen if we tripped as we were carrying the Peanut. Would we throw the Peanut in the air so that we could free our hands to break our fall? Would we do a move defying the laws of physics and somehow end up under the Peanut to break his fall? Well, the other day I was carrying the Peanut when my foot found a hole in the ground and I rolled my ankle. I heard lots of popping noises. And it hurt. But the Peanut barely moved in my arms. And I watched the husband do a similar thing. He was sitting on the ground and tried to stand up while holding the Peanut, lost his balance, but somehow managed to land back on the ground, in a completely different position, but the Peanut barely moved in space. I guess when you are holding such precious cargo, your body is aware of that and it reacts accordingly.
Well, I had planned on making this post A LOT longer, but to get it finished and published, I'll stop here. At least I got the pics up and that's all anyone cares about anyway.
Both trips were fun. We saw loads of family and friends and the Peanut had a wonderful time meeting lots of people. Highlights include:
Splashing in a kiddie pool; hanging out with big kids (the Peanut’s highlight), eating lots of ice cream at Cabot’s in Newton, seeing lots of friends (thank you to those who traveled long distances to see us), going to the Boston aquarium, getting lost trying to drive through the Boston suburbs (fortunately the Peanut slept right through it).
At his 6 month birth anniversary we decided we could no longer call our son Peanut. He was too old. Not only did he no longer look like a Peanut (big head, poufy diaper), but we didn’t want the name to stick. So we’ve been trying out other names that include Calabazita (pumpkin) and El Jefe (the boss). Unfortunately we still tend to call him Peanut or the Fuss.
The nanny interviewing process has been going pretty well. We were happy with our pool of nannies until we realized that we don’t really know any of these people. And how well can you really get to know anyone in less than 1 month? So we are kind of stressed out right now, trying to figure all this out. Before the Peanut was born, I figured I would have no trouble sending him to daycare. And I think the husband felt exactly the same way, until he stayed at home with the Peanut for 10 weeks. My husband fears the nanny will be careless or abandon our child and my fear is that the nanny will kidnap him. We’ve decided to offset our work schedules so that the Peanut is only with a nanny for 6 hours a day, 4 days a week. Most likely nothing will happen, and the nanny will become an integral part of our family and the Peanut’s life. What more could we ask for than a nanny that the Peanut is happy to see? Wish us luck!
Other highlights from the past month include:
First food – rice cereal with breastmilk! We didn’t get any of the funny faces. On the contrary, the Peanut really seemed to enjoy the food. We have gotten some classic faces with pureed carrots, but we don’t have any pictures of that.
We got a backpack carrier which the Peanut really seems to love.
We checked out some horses!
We used the potty (but I’ll only show the Peanut’s picture). Ok, so we are not one of those families that is crazy about one parenting theory over another. For a while there, the Peanut tended to leak his diaper every morning. So instead of waiting for a leak, or trying to do a change midway through the deed, we decided to sit him on the potty. And it worked! Was that too much info? We’ve actually only tried this once. But it was a cute picture!
The Peanut got his first drug rug!
And these baseball hat pictures are adorable!
And of course, priceless.
Since I haven’t posted in a long time, I’m going to make this a long one.
My birthday was last week! This was actually a pretty bad birthday of all the birthday’s I’ve had. It got better as the day neared an end. In the past I have always loved my birthday and I was really looking forward to this birthday. But this birthday all I really wanted to do was go home and sit on the couch and stare at the wall. However, I was stuck at work, with a lot of stressful things going on, until much later than I wanted to. When I finally left work, my parents helped me organize the garage. That actually made me happy. Am I old or just domesticated? We finally ended up going downtown, to partake in the once a month summer festivities (band, farmer’s market, etc.), and had dinner at The Tied House, our local brewpub. Thanks to Will and Christine who joined us. But then, as we were heading home, I felt really sick. It must have been something I ate? Who knows. Fortunately the ill feelings passed quickly.
Oh, 3 weekends ago I went to a soccer camp put on the by the local women’s professional team. It was my first time playing soccer in about 1 year and it was fun. I did roll my ankle but it only took a couple of minutes to get over the pain and back onto the field. There were about 18 women at the camp coached by Tiffeny Millbret and Christine Sinclair. I was probably the most skilled player on the field. But it was a great way for me to get back into the soccer mood. I’ve signed up for a women’s league starting in 1 month. I can’t wait.
Speaking of rolling my ankle...I’ve always been worried about what would happen if we tripped as we were carrying the Peanut. Would we throw the Peanut in the air so that we could free our hands to break our fall? Would we do a move defying the laws of physics and somehow end up under the Peanut to break his fall? Well, the other day I was carrying the Peanut when my foot found a hole in the ground and I rolled my ankle. I heard lots of popping noises. And it hurt. But the Peanut barely moved in my arms. And I watched the husband do a similar thing. He was sitting on the ground and tried to stand up while holding the Peanut, lost his balance, but somehow managed to land back on the ground, in a completely different position, but the Peanut barely moved in space. I guess when you are holding such precious cargo, your body is aware of that and it reacts accordingly.
Well, I had planned on making this post A LOT longer, but to get it finished and published, I'll stop here. At least I got the pics up and that's all anyone cares about anyway.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Link Roundup
"I want these two hypocrites to apologize to all of my gay and lesbian friends who want to be able to marry the one they love, rather than being scapegoated as threatening traditional marriage. Seriously."
Amen!
I am so glad I was born in a country with good healthcare. And I am fortunate to have access to the healthcare I needed while I was pregnant. There's so much I can say but it's easier for you to just think for yourself:
"Childbirth in Tanzania." (no gory pictures)
"It’s not easy to hear the truth, that your child is indeed different. Some parents do not even hear the doctor’s words: “Your child has superpowers.” It is natural to feel afraid, and even to seek a second opinion. But it is within every parent’s power to handle such an occurrence. Indeed, you will likely come to find your life with a superpowered child an enriching one, in addition to never fearing street toughs again."
Phew! Questions answered. via The Morrissey Chronicles.
"here isn't enough money to go around, and to try to help everyone a little bit—to observe the principle of universality—isn't as cost-effective as helping a few people a lot."
Sometimes the solution isn't fair. via Alkaline Earth.
"And then we dismantled the most ancient of human laws, the law against usury, which had existed in some form in every civilization from the time of the Babylonian Empire to the end of Jimmy Carter's term, and which had been so taken for granted that no one ever even mentioned it to us in law school. That's when we found out what happens when an advanced industrial economy tries to function with no cap at all on interest rates."
Good read on the current economic crisis. via Alkaline Earth.
And finally, here are some pictures. The Peanut absolutely loves his exersaucer. We call it his office since he always looks as if he's working pretty hard and having way too much fun.
Amen!
I am so glad I was born in a country with good healthcare. And I am fortunate to have access to the healthcare I needed while I was pregnant. There's so much I can say but it's easier for you to just think for yourself:
"Childbirth in Tanzania." (no gory pictures)
"It’s not easy to hear the truth, that your child is indeed different. Some parents do not even hear the doctor’s words: “Your child has superpowers.” It is natural to feel afraid, and even to seek a second opinion. But it is within every parent’s power to handle such an occurrence. Indeed, you will likely come to find your life with a superpowered child an enriching one, in addition to never fearing street toughs again."
Phew! Questions answered. via The Morrissey Chronicles.
"here isn't enough money to go around, and to try to help everyone a little bit—to observe the principle of universality—isn't as cost-effective as helping a few people a lot."
Sometimes the solution isn't fair. via Alkaline Earth.
"And then we dismantled the most ancient of human laws, the law against usury, which had existed in some form in every civilization from the time of the Babylonian Empire to the end of Jimmy Carter's term, and which had been so taken for granted that no one ever even mentioned it to us in law school. That's when we found out what happens when an advanced industrial economy tries to function with no cap at all on interest rates."
Good read on the current economic crisis. via Alkaline Earth.
And finally, here are some pictures. The Peanut absolutely loves his exersaucer. We call it his office since he always looks as if he's working pretty hard and having way too much fun.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Some Insights
I finally have made time to read. And now it's my second favorite thing to do. I have read a couple of books already, a couple of mystery thrillers: Coffin Dancer by Jefferey Deaver and Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs. They were both great books and I often stayed up too late to read a few more pages. Now I'm reading a Skeleton Crew by Steven King. I've read The Mist - great story but I didn't like the ending. But as the husband said, there's no better way to end that story. Now I am reading The Monkey, and I'm surprised I haven't had nightmares. Stories about children's toys gone bad really scare me. Always have.
I installed Quicken on my laptop and have started to track our finances beginning in June. I am super excited about this it's almost scary. Maybe I should have been an accountant. I want to track every single penny we spend. Hopefully I won't drive my husband crazy. On the plus side, this will help us decide whether we're financially stable enough to have one of us become a stay-at-home parent.
I'm on Facebook, but not on Twitter. I checked out the twitter page today for the first time, and it really stressed me out. It took me a while to get on Facebook, and now I love it. I'm always thinking of new people to look up. However, I don't think I can handle another online social network application/website/whatever you call it.
The Peanut has woken up only once during the night for 4 of the last 5 nights. Wow! We are excited. I, on the other hand, wake up a lot more, for various reasons. We finally stopped bedsharing and put him back in the bassinet in our room and the first night, much to our surprise, he only woke up once. I woke up 3 times, because I was used to it and I really needed to nurse. But I waited it out and only had to feed once. Monkey was really annoying last night, scratching at the door, and whining to come into our room. We've been kicking the cats out of our room because Monkey and Fattie keep jumping into the Peanut's crib. Monkey is bi-polar and she could easily scratch the Peanut and Fattie is, well, he's almost 30 lbs. So if my body is not waking me up, it's the kitties. But at least it's not the Peanut and that's a good thing.
The husband survived his first day back at work. He's quite bummed that his paternity leave is over. He did an awesome job taking care of the Peanut and I'm so glad that he got to stay at home. I think all daddies should stay at home for a few weeks. And if you live in CA, you can even get paid for some of the leave. I had my concerns when I first went back to work and left the boys alone. I was mostly worried about the Peanut missing me and the husband not knowing how to soothe him. The Peanut did miss me but the husband found his own way to soothe the Peanut and everything worked out. Now I see my husband going through the same emotions that I did when I went back to work.
I installed Quicken on my laptop and have started to track our finances beginning in June. I am super excited about this it's almost scary. Maybe I should have been an accountant. I want to track every single penny we spend. Hopefully I won't drive my husband crazy. On the plus side, this will help us decide whether we're financially stable enough to have one of us become a stay-at-home parent.
I'm on Facebook, but not on Twitter. I checked out the twitter page today for the first time, and it really stressed me out. It took me a while to get on Facebook, and now I love it. I'm always thinking of new people to look up. However, I don't think I can handle another online social network application/website/whatever you call it.
The Peanut has woken up only once during the night for 4 of the last 5 nights. Wow! We are excited. I, on the other hand, wake up a lot more, for various reasons. We finally stopped bedsharing and put him back in the bassinet in our room and the first night, much to our surprise, he only woke up once. I woke up 3 times, because I was used to it and I really needed to nurse. But I waited it out and only had to feed once. Monkey was really annoying last night, scratching at the door, and whining to come into our room. We've been kicking the cats out of our room because Monkey and Fattie keep jumping into the Peanut's crib. Monkey is bi-polar and she could easily scratch the Peanut and Fattie is, well, he's almost 30 lbs. So if my body is not waking me up, it's the kitties. But at least it's not the Peanut and that's a good thing.
The husband survived his first day back at work. He's quite bummed that his paternity leave is over. He did an awesome job taking care of the Peanut and I'm so glad that he got to stay at home. I think all daddies should stay at home for a few weeks. And if you live in CA, you can even get paid for some of the leave. I had my concerns when I first went back to work and left the boys alone. I was mostly worried about the Peanut missing me and the husband not knowing how to soothe him. The Peanut did miss me but the husband found his own way to soothe the Peanut and everything worked out. Now I see my husband going through the same emotions that I did when I went back to work.
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