Elmer's, Fishy and a Monkey, too

We took a trip to Target on Saturday to get some diapers, Halloween candy, a hand soap refill, and a second paintbrush for Vi to share with Dylan on Tuesdays. This was Vi's first planned diaper-free outing.

We found the diapers easily, then went on a hunt for the hand soap we like. Vi was walking in front of the cart, practically shouting "Where ARE you, soap? Where ARE you?" The people behind us were either laughing with me or at me - I'm not sure.

Even with very limited exposure to candy, Vi was right on top of this part of shopping. Grabbing Mike & Ikes, Junior Mints and Nerds. We peeked at the costumes for a minute, but she really wasn't into it. I was still, at this point in the weekend, thinking that Vi didn't "get" Halloween and we wouldn't be doing much in the way of dress-up.

Arts & Crafts. I found the paint brushes, Vi grabbed tempera paint and tried to hoist it into the cart, and I picked out a jumbo pack of construction paper. This is one of those aisles in the store where I can really go wild and have to tame myself. Next, Vi was holding some Elmer's glue, saying, "Wanna make a school bus?" Hours of shapes and glueing and painting and drawing were dancing in my mind, so of COURSE I wanted to make a school bus. We now have a whole bin of arts & crafts STUFF which is keeping Vi so entertained and engaged (and away from the TV.) Those $15 have really revolutionized our evenings. (Duh, Lindsay, DUH. Going back to the basics is usually the answer...)

Also on Saturday we drove up to Bath with Granddaddy to visit the YMCA where he works out. Anyone who knows my dad knows that he keeps diligent records of his workouts, tallying cumulative pounds for each session. "I did about 47,000 pounds today." The Y has a pool with family swim time, and Dad had 2 free guest passes. Vi starts swimming lessons with Mumsy on the 31st, and had never been in a pool before. So, off we went to introduce Vi to chorine, echos, and floating. Was I nervous? Yes. Was she? Apparently NOT.

Vi took to the water like she had been in a pool every day of her life. We got there just as a swimming class was ending, and all of the kids were climbing out of the pool, taking off back-pack floatation devices. Vi walked right over to the basket and grabbed one, and tried to put it on herself. We walked into the pool, down the stairs, and started swimming. She wanted to jump into the water, to blow bubbles in the water, to go under completely, to kick, to paddle, and, most impressively, to swim by her "shelsh." (I manna sim my myshelsh!!) We had a blast, and she is so excited to go back to the pool again soon. We are lucky to live across the street from the community pool in our town, so we can drop into family swim once in a while.

Sunday evening, as I was putting her to bed and talking about the day, I started to talk about Halloween. I don't want to get all the way to this Saturday and find out that she "gets it," and be totally unprepared, so I figured I would start explaining to her what her buddies at school might already be talking about. I told her she could dress up if she wanted, and she could be a clown, a kitty-ca--"I MANNA BE A MONKEY," she interrupted me to say.

"A monkey?" I ask, smiling at the way her personality is shining through in this sweet moment.

Nodding, she says, "Yeah, a monkey. Oo-oo, ah-ah. And you be a bee, and Daddy be a horse. No, Daddy a bee, and you a monkey."

"I'm a monk--" I start.

"NO! I a monkey first," she explains.

"Can I be a mommy monkey, and you be my baby monkey? And, I'll carry you on my back through the jungle?"

"Uh-huh. Oo-oo, ah-ah." And then she pointed at her bed, ready for sleep.

I immediately get on craigslist and facebook, looking for a monkey to borrow or a cheap monkey to buy. My sister's facebook status, within minutes, is asking her friends the same question: anyone have a 3T monkey costume to lend? And, by morning, her friend (well, my friend, too!) has one on its way to us.

When Vi woke up, I asked her to tell Dan what she wants to be for Halloween. She said, "An elephant."

Of course. An elephant.

Don't worry - by bedtime last night, when I asked her again, she was back to the monkey. Oo-oo, ah-ah.

A Licensed Arborist

Dan and I have an ongoing inside joke, which I will share with you, internet.

Dan and I are both total know-it-alls. Whenever Dan is instructing me on how to do something, or revealing a Thoroughly Interesting Factoid (ie how to wash a dish, the origin of the cedar waxwing, the toxic or non-toxic qualities of a substance), he refers to the fact that he KNOWS this because he is a licensed arborist. They taught it to him during his arborist studies. While he was in arborist school. Studying arborism.

Of course, he is NOT a licensed arborist, but I think the joke originated when he was telling me something about killing or not killing a tree...I don't remember, really, but it is now a way for me to diffuse the situation when he is getting on his soapbox. We end up laughing and he usually butts out. It's a good thing, indeed.

Today started with a phone call from a real licensed arborist - a friend of a friend - asking if Dan could come help him out today. Casual Labor? Will work for money!

So, Dan is getting real-life tree-working experience today.

I'm totally screwed.

:-)

My apologies to Kristin...

...and to the rest of you tired of seeing diaper ads!

One of my ongoing writing topics is going to be money-saving tips. This one is about diapers!

There are lots of schools of thought on diapering. Some look at it strictly from an economic perspective (Target brand or whatever's on sale at Sam's club), some look at it as an environmental issue (cloth diapers only: it's the cheapest route, and there are, like, billions of disposable diapers added to landfills every year. Check out this article )

For us, I kind of wanted to do cloth diapers, but I knew it wasn't feasible for us. Number one, we are always strapped for time. Number two, I wasn't jazzed about cleaning them myself, and I knew Dan was WAY less than jazzed about having the cleaned on the premesis. For those of you who know Dan, you also know what a complete understatement that is. Love that germaphobe of mine. :-) This would necessitate a cloth diaper service, which I knew we couldn't afford.

Therfore, we defaulted to disposables. We used the Pampers Swaddlers for the first month or so - these fit so well! We tried the Target brand, which was surprisingly good. Once Vi grew enough, we switched to Seventh Generation. They are chlorine-free and hypo-allergenic. We switched back to the Pampers for about a week, and Vi developed a horrible diaper rash. It wasn't like the usual diaper rash, but rather, every where the diaper touched her skin turned magenta. It got me thinking...isn't it really toxic to mix chlorine and amonia? What's the ingredient that whitens the diaper materials? And what's the ingredient in urine? Huh. Maybe, just maybe, this isn't good for delicate baby skin. Huh. We switched back to Seventh Generation and quickly started looking for the least expensive way to buy them. Here's what we found.

Babies R Us, in our town, has the cheapest in-store price (not counting any coupons or special sales going on elsewhere.)

Diapers.com offers a discount card. It's about $30 for a one-year membership, and it gets you a discount on the Seventh Generation diapers ONLY. We bought one immediately, and it paid for itself within two months. I've been ordering from Diapers.com for over a year now, and I have to say, I love it. I go online, I reorder a case of diapers and a case of wipes, and in two or three days, they arrive on my doorstep. We've had to make two emergency diaper purchases at the store since we started ordering online. One of the potential pitfalls of ordering a case (four packages) is that the kid might outgrow that size before you've used them all up. This happened to us only once, with about 10 diapers to spare. We just gave them to the daycare center to have as extras for the other kids.

A close friend of mine uses Amazon to buy her diapers. I guess they have a subscription service, where the user signs up for regular deliveries of the diapers (for example, "always ship me a case of diapers once every three weeks). The price was significantly lower than on Diapers.com, but there's the "regular deliveries" piece. I'm not a big fan of having someone else in control of when I place my order - I like to do it myself. But I think we will switch to Amazon for the next month or so because of the savings. I'll just have to do some research on the frequency of my orders with Diapers.com to see what interval I should set up.

There you have it! That's all I know about ordering diapers. I welcome any comments or other suggestions.

Oh, and Kristin, I can't wait to have some Sangria on a nude Meditterranean beach with you, then retire to our villa for some gourmet cuisine which we will prepare using German cutlery, and we will eat it seated at our gorgeous, custom wooden furniture. (See? I takes cares of yous.)

Christmas and December 2008 in review...

It's hard to believe the year is almost over. I do believe 2008 has been one of the most challenging and rewarding years of my life (so far.) I'm sure I'll have to take some "time to reflect" before New Year's Eve. For now, though, here's what we did in the past couple of weeks.



Many of you know that Maine was hit hard with an ice storm recently. We were without electricity for just over 24 hours at our house, but family members were without power for 3 and 4 days. Others in the state suffered for almost a week!



We heat our home with oil...our, I should say heatED. This summer Dan refurbished the boat and sold it, making enough money to install a chimney, hearth and wood-burning stove, plus buy enough wood for this winter and possibly next. The installation has been a struggle to say the least. We had a contractor lined up to do the whole project - he had great references, a good price, and Dan really liked him. He showed up with rusty, used parts that were not even the right size to meet code. There was no negotiating to happen with this guy, so he left and wouldn't return our calls. Thank goodness we hadn't given him any money. It was another month before we had someone else lined up, and he was a total administrative nightmare...he wrote down our information as Stan Welch, and kept getting our street name and family names mixed up...I actually told him that I was Stan's wife at one point...ha! When it was all said and done, he did a great job in little time for a great price.



Dan decided to build the hearth himself, which was a big leap of faith for me. Half-way through that piece of the project, our neighbor offered some advice, training, and help. In the end, he built the entire hearth in exchange for driveway snow-blowing for the winter! What a deal. The hearth was useable but not beautiful JUST in time for our power outtage, so we were toasty warm. We cooked on the stove, heated up water for baths, and dried hand-washed clothes on racks in the living room. We felt like frontier-folk. We were *almost* sad when the power returned.

Popps decided to do his physical rehab here in Maine, so he arrived shortly after Thanksgiving to a nursing home about 20 minutes North of us. We've been visiting him a lot, and he's been making great progress. He's using a walker and a wheelchair, doing his exercises, and seems to have made peace with his PT after a rocky start. He's hoping to return to NY soon.

Vi has had an action-packed month. Between OMT for last month's ear infection, eczema, and a tummy bug, she's been in and out of the doctors' offices too many times to count. Her ears are all cleared up, and she started a growth spurt just after a four-day BRAT diet. The eczema still hasn't cleared up, so we visited the homeopathic doctor last week. She thinks that it's not an allergy, but a wrecked gut...from the antibiotics last month for her ear infection and the tummy bug. She is helping us cure this from the inside out with Cod Liver Oil, ProBiotics, and a homepathic remedy for her general constitution to help her immune system get balanced. Plus, she's having us eliminate dairy and soy for a bit, just to help along the process. (Goat and Buffalo are fine...we're sticking with Goat's milk, since Buffalo milk sounds revolting and wrong.)

New words that she's trying out: help, hot, down, cup, sit, ball, eyeball and all gone. All gone is a good one - it comes out sounding like the Law & Order chime - Ga-gong!

Her "receptive" language is still thriving - she seems to understand more than we realize. She is also using her signs as much as ever. New signs include train and rabbit. She can point to her body parts, too, so we're singing a lot of "head, shoulders, knees and toes" lately. We've been asking her lots of questions and trying to improve her ability to constructively use all of these tools. So, lots of fun stories are to come, including:

My brother's family was in town for the holiday, and poor baby Addie has started teething. There was a lot of crying in the past couple of days. (Which made Dan and me realize that a baby's cry is loudest to the baby's parents. Funny what perspective does.) Recently, Addie gave up the pacifier/Nuk/binky/bubba. I asked Vi if Addie had told her what she needed. (I sort of think the little ones actually understand each other...any research to prove that? I'd love to read it.) Vi nodded her head and said, "Yeh." I asked her, "What does baby Addie need?" Vi responded, enthusiastically and unprompted, "Bubba!"

This is one of those stories that's hard to tell without sounding judgemental, so I want to be clear that Addie's doing great without the bubba, does not need one, and I'm not suggesting they try to give her one! The Bub is one of those areas each parent has to make their own choices about, and I know how much I dislike uninvited advice. JD and I were comiserating about strangers giving us advice in public...so strange. That's the easy advice to shirk. Intra-family advice is harder because the advisors are witnesses to your choices. It can be hard to not take it personally, when parenting methods are not the same. I know we have different rules about bubbas and TV than my sister's family, and that sleep and slings are big differences between me and my brother's family...but you know what? It doesn't matter. I mean, of course it matters that one parents mindfully and makes these decisions with the overall health of all the family members being a priority, but it doesn't matter that we do it differently. These kids are all growing up loved and taken care of, with a great big family that loves them. That's all that matters.

Another word that Vi definitely understands is "scream." If you say the word, she willingly demonstrates. How can such little lungs make so much noise?

Christmas was great. We did our usual multi-family run-around - three families in one day. Vi got lots of new books, a table & chairs set, an emperor penguin, clothes, shoes, and money for college. I got clothes, a Kitchenaid mixer, slippers, and lots of sleep. Dan got a leather jacket, books, iTunes gift cards, and gift certificates for shoes and a wood-carrier. We got money for our oil bill, too, which is great...we'll have hardly spent any of our own money on oil this year! With a bunch of gift certificates combined, we also got a new camera. (RIP our Sony.)

My sister was here with her kids, and we got to go sledding, watch Prince Caspian, play with the electric train, draw and decorate cookies. The kids all did some disco-diva dancing at my dad's house that evening. I am hoping we have some video to post, because it was pretty hilarious. There will definitely be lots of great pictures coming from Noelle.

And, today, it's back to work. Just a 3-day work week for me, so I should really be plowing through my to-dos rather than writing in my diary...

Happy New Year to all of you!

P.S. 8 days until Birthday.

Talking!

We've joked for a while that when Vi starts talking, she'd be using full sentences. It might not be more than one word at a time, but today Vi decided to start using multiple words:

1) Mama
2) Dada
3) Cheese
4) Boo
5) Clap



We were doing a round of "Who's that?" which is usually a pointing game, when Vi announced that I am Mama and Dan is Dada. Later in the day, we were taking pictures with Auntie Boo, and when asked to smile & say "cheese," Vi complied. The later "Who's that?" game included Boo, and Vi repeated the name. Throughout the day, when babbling to herself and clapping, Vi kept saying something that sounded like "clap, clap, clap."

So, here we go...she'll be saying "Merry Christmas" to you all this year, I'm sure. :-)

Released from the vault...

From Las Vegas, November, 2007:

Eew, grody.

Vi likes black olives.



Pictures of olives on little fingers to come...I don't need to say how freakin' cute that is, do I?



(That almost makes it OK for her to like them.)

Fun on the Slide (or the Slalsh)

A limerick for Vi, composed by my good friend, Kristin, of dishwasher loading fame:


VIG-o-la HIG-o-la BAD-en-hop WALSH
Went to the playground and slid down a SLALSH.
A "SLALSH" is a slide
That's funnest to ride
With VIG-o-la HIG-o-la BAD-en-hop WALSH.



Kristin visited us this summer, and accompanied us on one of Vi's first trips to the playground. She also fed me and did my dishes. Kristin is my oldest friend, and never fails to impress me with her compassion, empathy, common sense, kindness, silliness, and intelligence. She also is a great shutterbug:

Still snickering...

Dan said the funniest thing last night.

He said, "George Bush is smarter than Sarah Palin."

I mean, really. I never imagined a day that we could finish the sentence "George Bush is smarter than __________" with anything other than "a pile of bricks."

Amusing quotes

I love quotes. (And witty bumper stickers.) On my iGoogle home page, I have a "Quotes of the Day" section. Here are today's, because they tickled me:


There's always somebody who is paid too much, and taxed too little - and it's always somebody else. - Cullen Hightower

Football is a mistake. It combines the two worst elements of American life. Violence and committee meetings. - George F. Will

The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it. - Dudley Moore

Long time, no write!

It's been a very long time since I had a spare moment, and chose to use it writing here. So much has happened!

Vi is crawling and cruising (for you laypeople - that means pulling herself up into standing, and sort of walking around while holding onto furniture). She is babbling, still. As you can see below, she is pointing. At everything. All the time. Sometimes, she points up with both hands, then cocks her head to the side and shrugs. Talk about cute!! When she's crawling away from me, I say, "Excuse me, Miss?" and she stops, turns, giggles, then continues along her way. As if to say, "Yeah? You talkin' to me? Talk to my taillights, 'cuz I'm outta here." She still emits a loud, crystal-shattering shriek whenever Mitten saunters into eyesight. (She also made this noise at an airline stewardess mid-flight. Almost made her spill my tomato juice.)

We drove to Westwood, MA for a bridal shower two weeks ago. Vi slept the entire way there and back, and was great at the party. She oohed and aahed as Haley opened her gifts. She flipped through her ABC board book. One of the games at the shower was for the bride to answer 'trivia' questions about the groom. One question was "what book is Jared currently reading?" The correct answer was, "He's not reading anything right now." Someone piped up and said, "That baby's reading more than your fiance'!" Okay...you had to be there. Funnier in the moment.

She really IS reading a lot...if you put a pile of toys and a pile of books in front of her, she will paw through the books first.

One thing she's not doing is sleeping well. Not napping for me during the day (she napped for a brand-new babysitter the other day, but for me? No.) and certainly not sleeping through the night. Not "sleeping like a baby" at all. Whoever came up with that phrase is an idiot. We've tried the go-to-sleep routine. We've tried the let-her-cry for just-a-minute routine. We've tried keeping her in bed. She just won't give us a real pattern to follow, or try to adapt! When one starts to emerge, so do four new teeth, so she's up in pain. Or she'll get a cold. Or a vaccination. I know how tired I am - I haven't had more than a dozen full nights of sleep in 18 months! She must be pretty tired, too. Not sure where she gets all of her giggling and crawling energy from.

She's eating a lot, too. Avocado, carrots, potatoes. Pears, apples, blueberries. Oatmeal, barley, rice. Bread, Pirate's Booty, Cheerios. She has days when she insists on self-feeding, and others when the spoon can't get from mouth to bowl to mouth fast enough. She has six teeth - four on top, two on the bottom. Her toothy grin keeps getting cuter. She was "kissing" Dan last night (this involves a lot of drool and a slimy baby tongue on your cheek) and decided to chomp down on his cheek. He has a big red mark from it! And yes, I'm still breastfeeding. No injuries to report.

Grammy (my mom) is back to feeling herself, and has been coming to watch Vi twice a week for the past couple of weeks. She'll continue doing one day a week, and may stick to two if she wants to. Vi crawls towards her, screeching and smiling, every time she arrives.

Other family news:

Dad had a 1.6 cm kidney stone lithotripsied-out two weeks ago. Suddenly his back doesn't hurt anymore. :-)

Steph is showing and glowing, as she should be! I forget how beautiful a pregnant woman can be!
They'll be moving back to NYC after the baby comes - JD first, for work, then Steph to follow.

Ben has started T-Ball, and Noelle is the coach. (Co-coaching with Mr. McHotty.)

Noelle broke/sprained her foot the other day.

I broke a toe the next day in sympathy.

Dan is super-busy with work again. It's that time of year - he works in retail, for a marine supplier. His weeks have gone from a standard 45 hours to about 60+ hours. He doesn't get paid overtime, and there are days when he leaves so early and gets home so late that he doesn't see Vi at all. I know it's a good job, but it seems like other people would do this "paying your dues" thing for a couple of years to get ahead...and we just keep paying and paying and paying, and getting further behind. And we miss him. It's hard being a single mom for a few hours each day - I can't imagine doing it full-time.

After a long search full of FRUIT LOOPS, LUNATICS, and FLAKES...we finally found a mother's helper/babysitter to come watch Vi on my work-at-home days. She's got a great attitude, is super-helpful, has great instincts with Vi, and Vi loves her. Feet-kicking, screeching and pointing when she arrives. :-)
Work has finally levelled off for me...funny how childcare has helped me get caught up, eh?

Spring is finally here - the lilacs are in bloom, my tulips are all up (well, the ones that remain after the squirrel pillaging), the sun is shining..! Springtime in Maine is the best. We got our inaugural ice cream cone a couple of weeks ago. It's so nice to get out, too. Even a quick stroll around the block, or just sitting on a blanket in the grass, is such a much-needed change of pace. Summer will be here soon, and it's a busy one. We have four weddings (well, 3 weddings and one Civil Union) to attend, seven family birthdays, one anniversary, several friends' and babies' birthdays, lots of fish to catch, squash to grill, weeds to pull, and grass-stains to get. I'm dying to get Vi into a pool somewhere, too. She has a couple of swim suits already...yes, I'll post some pictures. :-)

She's still asleep, so I should really be getting some work done, some laundry folded, some dishes washed...something.

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Looking forward to seeing some of you as you come to Maine this summer!!!

Authorship of photos

Just to be clear, any photos of me and Vi were not taken by me, and credit should be given where credit is due.

So, thank you, anonymous and humble photographers in my life. Thank you.

CRAZIEST BUSIEST WEEK OF OUR LIVES...so far

Last week was so insane at work for both of us, so I didn't have time to post the 27 week update. Here it is:

How your baby's growing: Your baby is really starting to fill up your uterus. This week she weighs almost 2 pounds and is about 14.4 inches long with her legs extended. She can now open and close her eyes, and she sleeps and wakes at regular intervals. She may suck her fingers, and although her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with assistance — if she were to be born prematurely. Chalk up any rhythmic movement you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and isn't bothersome to her, so enjoy the tickle. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. Wonder what she's thinking?

This is your brain....this is your brain while pregnant

Hippie vs. Shopaholic - My Gift Registry

Gift registries are a funny thing. Very American, consumerist, yet, I'm finding, a lot of fun for the shopaholic in me!

It reminds me of the annual autumnal arrival of the Big Book from Sears. My brothers, sister and me would spread it out on the floor and lay down on the family room carpet to stare with delight at the Christmas possibilities. And, we would make our lists for Santa. Our lists for Santa definitely rivalled our lists for Grandpa, who could not share affection properly, so he would shop instead.

I like to think that I could live simply, with few possessions. That I'm not greedy. That I won't spoil my child. (And, that I won't ever stub my toes on piles of plastic toys.)

And then I start clicking "Add to my registry" like I'm pulling the arm on a slot machine. Not that I'm proud of this...really, I'm a hippie at heart. But, we're in this money-saving, "how are we going to live?! We must get our finances in order!" mode right now. So, reliving the Big Book experience is just enough like shopping to keep me from whipping out my credit card to buy rattles and booties and Pooh.

The things I put on the list are a combination of "must-haves" and "like-to-haves." Diapers, blankets, bibs, a mattress...these things are, in my mind, must-haves. I do remind myself that children have been put down to bed in a dresser drawer, transported in a car without a car seat, swaddled in whatever fabric is available...and survived perfectly well. The other voice in me says: SIDS, SUVs, Dust Mites. So, I'me taking advantage of a lot of hand-me-downs from my sister, re-using some pieces from my own infancy, and trying to include organic fabrics as often as possible.

"Like-to-haves" is another issue entirely. Many of you know that one of my favorite jobs ever was working at a small, independent toy store which specialized in early childhood education. We had THE BEST toys for babies and toddlers. I enjoyed this product line so much that I created a thorough business plan to start a baby-gear store of my own. (That may still happen someday...who knows? I'm just not sure if I'll get my MBA, CPA certification, become a doula or go to law school first, though...but that's another topic for another day.)

So, you'll see a lot of rattles, playmats, gyms, crib toys, and other developmentally-sound stuff.

Along with Penguin Bowling and a Green Monster Mobile.

I certainly don't expect to receive everything on the list...but just for a few hours, it was really fun to feel like I was on my belly in the family room one more time. Because, not only can I not lay on my belly anymore, but Sears stopped sending out their Big Book years ago.

Comments are open (as always) - What do YOU think about Gift Registries? Creating them for yourself, using them to shop for a loved one?