Author Archives: metamegan

>Rolling, Rolling, Rolling Part 2

>Tuesday the daycare poured out a bottle of Jack’s milk because they tried feeding it to him and he fell asleep. When he woke up the milk had expired. I have milk issues people! You can’t just feed the milk to other babies or pour it down the sink! I furiously turned to the internets for backup, but the internets seem to think that the milk needed to be poured out or else it would be spoiled. This never happened when Dave stayed home with Luke! Oh, yeah, he probably did not concern himself with milk storage guidelines and that was fine with everyone.

I left work at 3:15 to nurse Jack. Another baby was being fed when I got there, and I kid you not, the bottle had 10 ounces in it. I struggle to eek out three 4.5-5.5 ounce bottles a day. 10 ounces? Are you kidding me? It turns out there is this stuff called formula. All the babies drink it. All the babies except Jack that is, which may be why they don’t realize I’ll have a minor heart attack if they waste any milk. Long story short, I am awesome.

But the point is, after I fed Jack, the oldest kid in the infant room, who is anxiously awaiting a space in the toddler room, kept coming over and putting a big cube on Jack’s lap. Then Jack pushed it off, then the kid put it back and I realized: It’s time to start teaching this kid to play ball!

So, after dinner Jack sat on my lap, and Luke rolled us a ball. Jack picked it up, and threw it back. It was the greatest thing ever! Except when Luke got tired of rolling and felt the need to toss it so it landed exactly on Jack’s legs where he’d have an easy time picking it up. OK, that was fine, but when Luke missed it got a little worrisome. Luke was also constantly correcting my method of teaching Jack to roll a ball. I finally said, “Do you know how to roll a ball? Who do you think taught you? Yeah, that’s right, I did. I know how to teach someone to roll a ball. Do not question my methods.” Then when Jack spit out the pacifier in favor of gumming the ball, it was all over. You know, for someone who has had everything he ever wanted all to himself for 5 years, Luke isn’t that great about sharing his toys. Oh. Yeah. Got it. It’s only gonna get worse, kid.

>Halfway There

>It’s Wednesday! Halfway through the week, halfway through Dave’s business trip to Dayton (miss you honey), but most importantly, halfway through my Deadwood fast. With Dave out of town, I’m not watching any episodes until his return (because I am nice). Attempts at work to strike up a conversation about Deadwood has led to dead ends. (And not because the show went off the air some time ago.) Conversations have gone like this: “never heard of it.” and “I like westerns as much as I like outer space”. Which, on the surface, seems to mean, “I’ve never experienced it, please tell me all about it, I bet it’s fascinating. But really, it means, stop talking to me about Deadwood. So it was very exciting to have this dinnertime discussion with Luke. (Names have been changed to protect the, the, well, innocent doesn’t seem quite right.)
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Luke: Montgomery said he has seen every movie.
Me: Really?
Luke: Yes, Montgomery said he has seen Return to the Jedi. And I asked him if he had seen the Pod Races and he said, “Yup!” and I asked him if he had seen the Clone Wars and he said, “Yup.” and I asked him if he had seen some other movies and he said, “Yup.”
Me: Well, sounds like he has seem a lot of movies.
Luke: Then I asked him if he had seen Deadwood and he said, “Yup. There’s a giant in it.” Is there a giant in Deadwood?
Me: Nope, no giant. And I guarantee you that Montgomery has not seen Deadwood.
*****************************************************

So yea! I got to discuss Deadwood. AND I was able finally prove that Montgomery makes up stories. This has been a battle since Luke’s first loose tooth, when Montgomery said, “Oh. I have 10 loose teeth.” And “The tooth fairy isn’t real.” Darn that Montgomery!!!

>Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

>As you can see in the milestone section, Jack recently started rolling from his back to his stomach. Dave noticed it Thursday or Friday when Jack rolled off the jiminy. Crazy! He moved a foot! Time for the gates to go up. I noticed Friday when I was doing the dinner dishes and Jack really started yelling. He hates tummy time and I usually cave after about 30 seconds and flip him back over to his back. I was very strict about the frequency and length of Luke’s tummy time and he was crawling at 6 months. I’m not going to make that mistake again. So when Jack started yelling on Friday, I stopped doing the dishes and helped him back onto his back. By the time I got back to the sink and got my hands wet again, he was back on his tummy and he was yelling. At this point I decided it might be time for some tough love. (Consistency is the key to parenting.) He can roll over from front to back, he just needed to remember how. “It’s OK, Jack! Just roll over silly boy!” Sigh. Fine. I went back to help him roll over because I thought the dog might be blocking his progress. Well, that was part of the problem.

“Wah wah wah! I hate being on my tummy!”

“But I appear to be stuck!”

And if you think that consciously trying to delay my son’s crawling is an example of bad parenting, what do you think when I see he is struggling to roll over and can’t because he is straddling the jiminy and my first thought is, “Wait! Where’s the camera?”

It’s OK, the camera was right there.

>Man of Many Hats

>On Saturday we walked to breakfast and it was sunny and sort of warm. After breakfast it was sort of windy and cooler. On the way to the farmers market it appeared as if we were entering a rain cloud, but really, it was hail. I guess we missed the snow. We waited in the car for 3 minutes until the sun came out and Jack and Luke and I hit the farmers market. When we got home it was warm again, but still sweatshirt weather. Then it was tee-shirt weather, then back to sweatshirt weather. And do you know what kind of weather that is? It’s bonnet weather. Yes, bonnet weather.

When I was pregnant with Luke, and on bed rest, a really nice co-worker made us dinner once or twice a week. She was so nice that I invited her to my baby shower. In addition to a touch of pre-term labor, I was also afflicted with that other pregnancy thing. You know the one. Where you think everyone is as excited about your pregnancy as you are? Yeah. Poor lady. Anyway, she knitted a very beautiful yellow sweater, with a matching bonnet. I thought a bonnet was an odd choice for a baby boy, but she explained it this way, “It may seem old fashioned, but boys can wear bonnets too.”

And I have to say, Jack wore the heck out of that bonnet on Saturday.
Do I like this bonnet?

No, I love this bonnet!

Here is Luke, not a fan of the bonnet!

And here are some of the other hats/ensembles that Jack rocked on Saturday.
Here he is in a sweater that was maybe my brother’s, or maybe mine or my sister’s. No one knows. Also, his Boulder hippie hat.

And here is his Yosemite Sam look. He says, “Put me back in my bonnet!”

>Happy Mother’s Day

>
A year ago today, after months and years, and a harrowing first trimester, we announced to the world that we were expecting another baby. That was a very happy Mother’s Day for me. Not as happy as today, of course, since I have had 6 months with one little miracle, and 5 years with the other. Thank you family for another Happy Mother’s Day! I am so lucky.

I was not as lucky with my Mother’s Day gift ordering, which I proudly announced had been completely taken care of last Monday! Moms, your gift will be late. But for a preview, please click here. (Hint – don’t order any yet.)

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!

>Shaking My Fists at the Heavens Part 2

>
I had to shake my fists at the Gods on Wednesday, not once, not twice, but thrice.
Wednesday had been proclaimed “Picnic at the Park Day” so I packed a picnic and Jack and I headed to the Southern Sun for a growler of beer. I felt sort of weird carrying out a jug of beer in one arm and a baby in the other, but why? Jack and I headed to daycare to get Luke and then straight to the park. And I brought other parents along with me, “Come to the park! I have a growler of beer!” (Aside, what is the law in this case? Having a beer with your picnic at the park? Legal? Illegal? Legal but sort of unseemly? I consulted two experts and these were the answers I got:

1.) Who cares?
2.) Of course it’s legal. That’s why we always see homeless people there.

But back to the story of my wholesome family picnic. We got to the park and Luke took off to play with friends. I put Jack in the stroller with the sling, some blankets, fleece jackets and sweatshirts. (It was raining and cold.) And I carried my awesome new picnic basket (Thanks Aunt Nancy!) over my arm and then I think I grabbed the cooler with that same arm and made one trip with all my stuff. I met up with friends and excitedly removed the lid from the cooler and said, “Oh no! Noooooooooooo!” while shaking my fist at the heavens because the cooler was filled to the brim with foam. If I was as good a housekeeper as my picnicking friend, I suppose we could have just dipped our cups in, but as it was, I accepted an offer of babysitting and went back to the bar. Short story long, they refilled the growler, but the service was less friendly than at the grocery store earlier that day. And I spend the same amount of money in both places each week! (Kidding.)

The third time I had to shake my fist at the heavens was later when I was telling Dave the story.

And then a fourth time yesterday when I discovered my mothers day gift orders appear to be lost. But I’ll spare you that boring story!

I didn’t take any pictures at the picnic, so this one is from a few days ago.

>Self Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

>On Monday I ordered some mothers day stuff online and then left my credit card on my desk. Then on the way home I stopped at the bank and put my bank card and cash in the pocket of my jeans as I left. Tuesday I noticed my credit card on my desk and thought, “What a terrible place for my credit card!” So I put it in the pocket of my (different pair) of jeans.

This morning Jack and I headed to the grocery store and as I was getting in the car I hit my head. Hard. Why were we going to the grocery on Wednesday when Wednesday is clearly laundry day and not grocery day? Well because I needed stain stick, because the stain stick I have fell behind the dryer, and when I asked Dave to get it for me, he suggested that I add stain stick to my grocery list. I also needed some yummy bread for our picnic at the park this evening. And yes, I know it is raining, but I have picnic on the park on the agenda for this evening and the agenda cannot be changed.

I think I was still a little woozy from my head injury when we arrived at the grocery store, and I decided that I couldn’t bear to lug the car seat around with me so I should just put Jack in the sling. But the sling was at home, so I decided to carry him, as that would prevent me from getting anything that wasn’t on the list. Like a donut. Minutes later, in the self checkout, with a baby on my hip, wallet in hand, stain stick in Jack’s hands and a loaf of bread balanced on my knee, I remembered that my credit card, bank card, and cash were in the other two pairs of jeans that I own. I did the only thing that was really possible in that sort of situation. I leaned my head back to look up at the heavens and said, “Oh Nooooo! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” As I remember it, I may have even shaken a fist at the Gods, but that doesn’t really seem possible because my hands were sort of full. A nice King Soopers self checkout clerk came over to see what the problem was. I explained that I didn’t have any money. Then I looked in my wallet, “Oh! I have 2 dollars!” He said, “Let me have those two dollars and we’ll see how far that gets you and then I’ll see what I can do.” I needed another $2.5o or so and then I remembered that I had gotten a roll of quarters for the campground showers at Fruita, and then took only one shower, so I had a 16 quarters too. I just shook a bunch of change into his hand and he fed it all into the self checkout until the bill was paid.

And then he put the stain stick and bread into a bag and I said, “Thanks so much! But I don’t need a bag, I gave up grocery store bags as a new years resolution. It’s one of the many ways I like to make my life complicated. But thanks so much.” And then I made Jack carry the stain stick to the car.

(In retrospect, I now wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t come up with the money. An I.O.U? Free stain stick? Would I have had to bag groceries for 10 minutes until I worked off the cost?)

>Working 9 to 5

>
We are slogging through the Milk Memos in the lactation room, and I had planned to give a copy to a friend at the daycare with a 3 week old who doesn’t want to go back to work. But the more I read it, the more I am not so sure she’ll be convinced. I am starting to think it is a good book full of useful tips for women who have made the decision to be back at work. And all views of how you might feel once you have returned are represented, so you can find someone to sympathize with, but the main point of view is how tragic it is to leave your baby. So much so that I was starting to feel guilty because I don’t feel that way.

This morning Jack was so cute when I was getting ready that I felt a tiny twinge. But he was still pretty darn cute when I picked him up too. I wonder if my flexible schedule is the reason that I don’t feel like going back to work is the worst decision ever. I used to think that only women who were curing cancer or helping the needy should work. Somehow I got past that. The world needs databases administered by women!

But just because I feel like this today, doesn’t mean I will tomorrow. Tomorrow I might think, “Wah wah wah. I want to be home all day with my baby.” Or I might think, “I wish I was nursing my baby in the bath.” Or “I think I’ll sweeten my coffee with some breast milk.” Wait, what? No I would never think those second two things, those are from the book.

Part of the issue here is that my local circle of working-outside-the-home mommies is very small. In basically includes my lactation room buddy and people I know from the daycare. So calling all role models! Why is working-outside-the-home the right thing for you?

>Weekend Recap

>

“Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we’re going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don’t know, I don’t know if we’ll have enough time.” OK, it was one of those weekends, but we had fun. I actually fed Jack this morning at 6am and the next thing it was 9:45 and the boys were home from the first trip of the day to Home Depot and they had a latte for me. I don’t think I have slept that late in years. (Of course I fed Jack at 11pm and 6am, but I feel very lucky.)

We took a lot of pictures this weekend and posed for a lot of pictures this weekend. I can’t wait to see how they all turned out. We gardened and painted at the daycare work day and then gardened all weekend at home too. The school Luke will attend in the fall has a community garden, and I came just short of volunteering to help out. But I thought, “Ugh I have to work in the daycare garden. I’ll just wait until next year to work in the kindergarten garden. But then I remembered that Jack will be at the daycare for another 5 years so I might as well volunteer now and figure out how to manage.

Segue to big news! Luke had kindergarten orientation on Friday. I think I was more nervous than he was. I had to describe Luke and I tried to describe him in an accurate, non-bragging manner. I said, “He likes to be outside; biking, hiking, and skiing. He also likes to build things and read books. But he doesn’t know how to read, but you know what I mean.” I felt very proud of myself when other parents were naming each individual word that their child can spell, but also sort of dishonest when one of the parents said their child was into “all things that fight, like knights, pirates and star wars.” Oops, I forgot about that sort of thing. But we both liked the teachers and the school so I think it is going to be great. The photo of Luke and I was from our big day.

>Da da da da AAAA Da Da

>I have spent this week trying to capture Jack’s babbling on video, but it’s been complicated. If he sees the camera he just stops talking and stares. Also, if I am talking to him, he stops talking and stares. So this leaves me with two options. I can pretend to ignore him and secretly aim the camera at him and hope to record the video without looking when he starts to babble. This has resulted in a 2 second video of my lap while I say, “What, it’s just starting now! I missed the whole thing?!” Or I can get someone else to try to get him to talk while I hover in the background. This has resulted in a video of Luke saying, “Jacky’s tummy looks like Mommy’s.” and then I can’t turn the camera off fast enough.

But I got a couple good ones at dinner tonight. Jack was getting sort of frustrated by this point, so his babbling is on the screechy side, but still so cute.

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-1153219832777339232&hl=en