Real Housewife of Toddler County

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The Return Of The Teething Monster

Nicholas has been cutting four molars one right after another starting about two months ago. Baby drool EVERYWHERE! Gross. I was on my knees nightly begging the baby gods to please hurry this process along and make it quick. Once again I think I got more than I bargained for, which I suppose aught to teach me not to pray to false gods lol. Teething sure is hurrying along. He's got the four molars mostly in but guess what. Apparently the baby gods decided to send the tooth fairy/teething monster BACK to our house to deliver MORE teeth. zomg! Today I was checking on the status of our molar acquisitions and noticed that there are four MORE teeth just barely poking through. Ugh, no wonder the drooling hasn't stopped (and in fact has increased!). Nooooo!!! Looks like we're working on the teeth between the four front teeth and the molars. Wonderful. I have noticed for a couple of days now that Nicholas has been biting on his thumb in a weird way. I realize today he isn't biting his fingers, he's using his fingers to feel his gums. He's nothing if not curious and I'm sure they are a bit sore. He's been a good boy about it though. I guess since he's been cutting teeth for more than two months now he's maybe just gotten used to to? He's is likely to be slightly fussy here and there but NOTHING like what he used to be like when teething. He's also eating like a champ for the most part. Today he ate almost a whole apple and man the boy can tear him up some chicken. No worries! I am thinking now that perhaps the runny nose may have been another gift from the tooth fairy (gosh, when does she start bringing $$ on her visits??) and he was not really sick. I was very concerned that he was getting sick this weekend but aside from two days of being a little stuffy and one day with a fever and the grumpies he's been fine. Just a slightly runny nose every once in a while. I think the new teeth may also have brought him new stores of energy! What is the tooth fairy putting in these things?? He's been a hyper little bugger lately running around screaming (the happy kind of screaming) at the top of his lungs and smiling and laughing. Imagine my shock to find new teeth beginning to poke through today. That is very out of character for teething toddler of doom - AKA Nicholas. I won't complain though, except about the baby drool which is just GROSS. I am happy that he is happy and I hope he stays that way. I honestly don't have any great teething remedies up my sleeve b/c nothing except Tylenol seems to help him. He won't chew on frozen rags, I'm frighten of gels stuff on the gums, and his doctor says not to give him those little teething tablets. *shrugs* Ok. At least lately he hasn't seemed to need anything at all and maybe the baby gods aren't really picking on me after all. They at least seem to have some compassion for a poor baby and aren't making this process any more uncomfortable than need be even though they have doubled the teething workload.  For that I thank them. For the tooth fairy... you're still on my list bitch. Beware.... :)

Real Momma's Don't Lable Themselves

Sometimes a momma just can't win. She isn't mainstream enough and gets judged harshly for her beliefs in breast feeding, cloth diapering, or her position on various sleep training techniques. So she calls herself crunchy, or natural, or green.  Then one day she isn't natural enough because in she doesn't fall in line with a group who feels they have a divine right to judge mainstream mothers. She finds herself  either to attached for the mainstream or not attached enough for the natural crunch.  Yesterday I found out I was not pro-breastfeeding enough. OMG, can you imagine somebody saying such a thing to me? TO ME??????? No, really STOP laughing, I am perfectly serious. :P It's a case of not being enough for one group and being to much for another and it really gave me pause and got me thinking.

 Every mother no matter what style of parenting she attempts to adhere to is going to eventually HAVE to make it her own and adapt it to her lifestyle, personal set of beliefs, and unique needs. Otherwise they risk falling into the trap of becoming a slave not to their children but to the idea of *insert parenting label here* It's ridiculous. Simply put you have to be comfortable in your own skin. Nobody can tell you how to do that or what you should be comfortable with. Some things you will see or hear and think OMG, that's ridiculous! Other things will intrigue you, some may even inspire you. Be inspired if you will, but FUCK the label. Don't aspire to parent your children the way another mother you know does, or the way your family wishes you would, or the way a book/blog/forum tells you that you should. Do what is in your child's best interest and do it the best way you can.

For the situation from yesterday, it is not necessarily in your baby's best interest to nurse in public, it doesn't harm or help either way. In fact it doesn't matter at all how or where your baby nurses. The important thing is that they are receiving mother's milk. Duh! Applaud THAT not where they are nursing, and don't get pissy when somebody expresses their own (very well informed) belief on the subject either. I believe in live and let live and try your best not to bother or negatively impact others. What I choose to do with my own personal life and my own son does not have anything at all to do with you. If you don't like some of my parenting choices well bite me.... if you dare. Open yourself up to engage in debates in a way that allows you to be free from emotion and accepting of differing view points. You never know, if you stop being preaching and judgmental for two whole seconds you might just learn something. I don't have to agree with what you do and you don't have to agree with what I do. That's fine.  A real momma does it her way so long as her way isn't going to harm her child. A real momma doesn't allow herself to be labeled nor does she limit herself with a label. News flash, I don't know if you've noticed or not but I haven't seen anyone walking around sporting 1st place ribbons or gold medals for natural birth, home births, attachment parenting, cloth diapering, or even public breastfeeding. Yet some mothers continue to try and put their ideal up on a pedestal and are quick to judge or speak down to other mothers who can't or don't want to measure up. They call these ideals "brave" as in "the brave who will nurse their children anytime anywhere and at any age". K, you go ahead and do your thing in a shopping cart at a WalMart, but don't expect me to follow suit just because you are "brave" and you think I am not. Bold and brave are not the same thing by the way, and I'll let you examine that for yourself. I have a sense of modesty, excuse me for that, and don't feel like whipping the girls out in the middle of a shopping trip if I don't have to and expose more of my body and needed to complete the task. Nursing is perfectly acceptable and natural act. Public nudity... well maybe not so much and the woman in the photo being discussed was in my opinionated opinion slightly over exposed. I can understand how she ended up as a boob on the people of WalMart  website. I didn't say it was right to make fun of her I just said I can understand how it happened that she was there and why some of the comments where what they were. Sorry, if you get your panties in a twist over that. Grow up. I thought it was less than appropriate from my point of view which speaks to what I would personally be comfortable doing, not judging somebody else for the difference in their own personal comfort level. I am supportive of a mother's right to nurse in public, just because I don't exercise that right the same way this woman did doesn't make me less than somebody else who does. I pretty much always nursed Nicholas in a car, or other private-ish place and the same applied for pumping. I was also most comfortable if I was almost completely covered though I never actually used a nursing cover. I simply didn't expose more of myself than was absolutely necessary.  Everyone is entitled to express their opinion. Go for it in fact.  Don't be so surprised though when there is more than one opinion on your chosen subject. You need to be tolerant of that fact.

My whole point is this; I am not an attachment parent, though I believe in, often promote, and apply the concepts of attachment parenting to my personal life. I am not a baby wearer though I have and still do wear my son when it is mutually desired. I also use a stroller *gasp*. I am not a green or crunchy mother either. My own person style is green in color but you have to remember just how many shades of green there are.  I adapt as many green living concepts into my daily life as I am able to at this time. Some people go a lot further than I am even willing to go and I am glad for them, but they still aren't getting a cookie from me for it. I relate well to many "crunchy" mothers but I won't call myself that either and it isn't just because I can't stand that particular term (makes me think of dirty underwear - sorry ladies, I obviously don't understand where that came from). Apparently as with being green there are different textures of crunch. I find myself often not crunchy enough. So who am I as a parent? I am a REAL MOMMA! I do my own research, ask my own questions, tell my own stories, and I make my own choices because I have a mind of my OWN. This is the only label I will accept and I hope others can follow suit or keep their lips zipped. Don't be what anyone else wants you to be, I certainly won't.  Just be real and most importantly own your reality! Forget everyone else and their opinions. Glean what real knowledge you can from them, be open to ideas, engage in friendly debate on occasion, but do it on your own terms and decide for yourself what is best. Always reserve judgment of a situation or idea until you are completely education on ALL sides of the debate on it. I won't buy into a label unless it's Prada, Armani, or Versace. If you choose to then so be it but judge others for not measuring up at your own risk. You might just find YOURSELF the one who doesn't measure up to somebody else. After all, there is always a bigger fish.... and beware Real Mommas WON'T take your bullshit.

Lets make a baby

Yes, I have turned the page in the book that is my life and entered into the exciting and sometimes complex world of TTC, which stands for Trying to Conceive. We are working on baby number two. We were excited to try for a baby way back before Nicholas came along, however just didn't happen.Turns out that we weren't REALLY trying, there was so much more to this project that I had dreamed of. A year later I said screw this and decided I would rather have a new puppy. Enter our silver standard poodle Saleen. 8 weeks after she came home, guesssss what.... SURPRISE!  Baby on the way lol :) This time we decided to plan a little better and not really knowing where to start I logged onto a website called Baby Center and joined their getting pregnant forum. WOW, was I ever in for a surprise (not to mention quite the emotional roller coaster ride but that's a whole different post I'm afraid). I learned what it meant to be REALLY trying to have a baby lol. I quickly discovered that just doing the baby dance is sometimes not all that it takes to make a baby. These ladies are incredibly in touch with their bodies and know things about themselves I didn't even think was possible to know. They temp, and chart, and observe CM (a abbreviation I won't explain for the faint of heart) and examine themselves regularly to note the position and condition of their reproductive self. They keep track of all this on various websites and even know when and how to test long before a missed period. Truly a fascinating world. Even when they manage to get pregnant most of them stay on the forum to help newbies, like myself, learn the ways of the TTC force.

Months ago I purchased a basal thermometer in an attempt to explore Natural Family Planning. Said thermometer has been sitting on my night stand still in it's unopened package. Charting my temps just seemed complicated and to be honest I was a bit of a wuss when it came to relying on such a method for birth control. The more I read the more I realized that timing is everything and knowing WHEN to dance is almost as important as actually doing the dance. This would also be true of trying to prevent conception. I learned tons of techniques that I was previously unaware of and soon found myself totally immersed in a fascinating world where people know themselves so completely it would shock you and they are totally free in sharing their observations with you. They will also freely help you figure out your own chart and learn all the wonderful things that they know. They seem to have their own language as well. You almost need a lingo cheat sheet in order to understand what you are reading at times but not to fear you learn very quickly. In fact I posted a status on my personal facebook profile that quickly generated a response from those in the know. My best friend however had to ask what in the world I was talking about when I said I was 14 DPO and I was going to POAS that night. Then later that evening I was able to post that I had done the POAS thing and O.M.G it was BFP, (even though it didn't stay that way). Only people in the know would understand those statements. Only people in the know understand what I mean when I say we didn't have sticky dust as well. It's so fascinating really how people can come together and just create their own little world and work together and support each other in this TTC journey. The support I have found both educational and emotional has been surprising and no drama, at all ! We are all to centered on our mission for petty drama.

So this month we are going to attempt charting. I have opened the basal thermometer and have it under my pillow. I have an account, per instructions given via the getting pregnant group, on fertility friend.com to help me keep track of what my temps are and other observations about my body which I will leave to the imagination (or to those "in the know"). I am perhaps to clinical and find myself looking at this as a giant science project. It's fascinating lol and I can't help it. I don't care really if I actually get pregnant, in fact perhaps I should not as Nicholas is a handful. I am not sure I can handle two of them. However I can't help being interesting in learning something new about myself and will proceed with at least the charting even if I don't end up dancing. I'm like a kid in a candy store given the opportunity to learn new things.

So I guess we'll just wait and see. We've got one month officially under our belts and that was a success. Now we'll get more specific in our ovulation charting and see what happens. I am engaged in an imaginary race with a family member, we'll see who wins :p Hehe, stand back, I'm going to try science! :)

Reading Wars - Victory is OURS!

I think it is safe to say Reading Wars has been won :) Nicholas has become so attached to story time that trying to put him to bed for a nap or for the night without a book first is a perilous task indeed. Not only that but the whole point of reading wars was to promote verbal development. I have to say it might just be working. We have noticed a change in the way Nicholas babbles. It's very interesting actually. It isn't so much that he sounds more conversational, though he often does, but more that his babbling is reminiscent of the cadence of a book that rhymes or a poem. He has several books that where the story line rhymes and the particular verbal cadence that one has when reading such a book is now appearing in Nicholas' various forms of babbling. He is also becoming more apt to babble back and forth with you. For instance I pointed out a dog in a book the other day and he looked back over his shoulder at me and made a sound that sounded a lot like dog. I'm not running to the rooftop to shout to the world that his first word was dog but I will admit that it was pretty close. Almost as exciting as that is the fact that we have a new new trick that developed over the past week. We have a stash of books in the living room some of which I've intentionally put there and some he has swiped from his bedroom. Lately he's been going and grabbing books and running to me with them. If I take the book from him he will often try to climb up on the couch and sit next to me while we read the book. Sometimes he just stands there while we look at it together. He LOVE LOVE LOVES a baby faces book about learning to eat. We got it from the doctor when he was 6 months old. I often touch various points on his face while reading the book as it talks about where food ends up when you're just learning to eat. Now he gets a HUGE grin on his face when we get to the page where a little girl has food on her nose and usually the touching of his nose earns me a giggle. Another favorite book is The Going To Bed Book. We read it every single night before bed, it's the last book we read before turning out the light and singing out bedtime song. Since we read it so much I have notice a lot of his babbling most closely resembles the rhyming cadence of this particular book. We're also big fans of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, God Made Puppies (which was actually a book of MINE when I was little), and The Very Busy Spider. A new Baby Einstein book about colors is one of the ones he brings to me most often while we are playing in the living room. It is so adorable when he does that and to watch him focus on the photos on the pages is super duper adorable. We have also noticed that we're hearing momma and dadda more and more often in amongst his babbling. Every once in a while he seems to be saying it TO one of us rather than just babbling it. We don't always get a clear mama or dada but rather ma ma ma and da da da. We're still signing as well even though many many people believe that signing actually delays speak. I don't care. I'd rather give him the tools to communicate however he chooses than try and force him to talk right this second. Our most often used sign is "eat", followed closely by "all done". Those are pretty much the only two he uses but he's begun pointing a lot. I think we might be getting closer to more understandable communication. Hoping we'll have real words by the time we go back to the doctor in two months. If not, I will be able to say with absolute certainty that it isn't from lack of reading or talking with him. I think since he's been such a good boy this week he deserves to go to the book store and pick out a couple new book. Ahhh, who am I kidding, I missed the Ragababe opening today and just want to feel like I bought him SOMETHING since he isn't going to be getting a new diaper lol. Meh, who cares, I'm sure he'll enjoy new books and frankly so will I. If I had to read the Where's My Puppy? one more time I might go insane. We definitely need new material!!

Starting A Veggie "Garden"

So I know it's already June, (gosh where did spring go???) and I'm a little late to the party but Nicholas and I are starting our own little veggie garden. Now see we have a whole little fenced off section in an out of the way corner of the yard that has been a garden before. It was supposed to be a garden again this year. Welll...... the chickens and the duck are living in there at the moment so bummer, no in ground veggie gardening for us. Over memorial day though Old Time Pottery had a FANTASTIC sale and in amongst the items that were on sale were bunches and bunches of clay pots..... for under two bucks a piece. Not little tiny clay pots either, the nice useful 12 inch ones that are going to end up being really useful. :) We bought a bunch of them along with a bunch of smaller ones and they have been sitting on the back porch for about a week now. My mother gifted me with some dirt and I was all set. Except for the plants. Well last weekend I suddenly remembered that I had a Walmart gift card that I had received for Christmas and YAY off to wally world we went to look at veggies. To be honest, the selection was pretty sad lol. A bunch of the same kinds of plants I'm afraid and apparently tomatoes are the MOST popular b/c that is what they had the most of. A lot of the peat pots were pretty died out and the specimens wilted and dying. Bummer. Oh well. I bought several anyway.  Mostly I got the four packs of things like squash and various peppers b/c those were the cheapest and since they were all looking pretty sad I decided I would rather spend less and get more sad looking plants than spend more for less and risk some of them actually dying. We packed up our haul and ended up not having to spend any extra money for the plant. You've gotta love a gift card right? Because walmart had NO good looking herbs we also went to Lowe's which is right across the street to look. They must have been awaiting a shipment b/c they didn't have herbs either but they did have a poor dying four pack of spaghetti squash. When we took it up to the register my husband pointed out that it was dying and they sold it to us for just $ .50. Can't beat that!

I took advantage of nap time a couple of days later to plant our new container garden in the pots we purchased the weekend before. Everything except the tomatoes found a home in the pots. The tomatoes ended up in the flower bed up front where there are ironically no flowers b/c none of the seeds I planted this spring sprouted. I have just the worst luck with seeds lol. Anyway everything else is right off the back porch organized neatly which makes me happy.  So far everything is doing well. Some of the spaghetti squash plants don't look like they are going to make it but two of them, which are sharing one pot for now, seem to be recovering with good soil and plenty of water.  The tomatoes up from are also doing very very well.  It's even rained a time or two since we've planted the veggies which helps a TON since it's been soooooooooo dry here over the spring. I really cannot wait until we start getting good veggies in a few weeks. We've planted, several different peppers, tomatoes, egg plant, two types of squash, zucchini, and we have a strawberry plant that hubby and I have had since we got married that loaded with berries already. I am hoping to get more herbs, hopefully somebody will have some in stock soon, to add to the rosemary and mint that grows like crazy in our front yard. Maybe I will be able to look into canning and preserving some of the veggies for the winter. Not sure if we'll get enough this year with just what is in the pots but you never know I guess. Next year for sure I will try it! Maybe next year I will be able to plant a baby food garden for a new little Johnson, ya never know about that either :D

Now I just have to make sure to keep these guys away from the new plants and we'll be all set :D Hopefully they'll be to busy laying eggs soon :P 

Happy gardening!!