Monday, October 22, 2012

Breastfeeding and the pump

The hardest part of breastfeeding once you get into a routine and learn your child's cues is finding time to pump.

It's the hardest thing for me these days.
I have to force myself to wake up or to physically get the pump ready to pump.

My son is going through a growth spurt too so I'm trying to pump but it's been difficult.
Small steps I keep telling me.

I did it for #1. I can do it for #2.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Happy Birthday to my gentle giant

Today my son turned 1 year old.

Honestly from his first moment of life in this world I felt he had an
older soul that his age. Developmentally he appears to be hitting his
milestones as usual (aside from knowing my name at the age of 4 mths)
but there has been something about him that seems older.

His birthday was a purposeful quiet affair.

The one request from my husband was a cake for DS. Since DD's 1st
birthday, I have always made a mini cake for our kids. It's their very
own special cake.

My request was a family photo and my own birthday present. (More on that later.)

I took my traditional birthday hour photo of him. He was crying at the
time this year. Inside I thought of how I will not be able to keep
this tradition up when he goes to school. A little piece of my cried
at the thought.

DD said DS was crying because he wanted his balloon present. DD wanted
her present to DS to be helium balloons so we planned for her to go to
the party shop after school to pick some up with her Dad. Honestly, I
think she was pretty proud and felt like a great big sister.
The pictures from my husband of her holding onto the balloons tightly
through the windy street shows it.

DS loved the balloons and had a jolly time swatting them.
DD was uber adorable. When she came home with the balloons she said
she wanted to let the free float. I explained we should tie them to
the chairs. She became concerned and said,"but then DS will float
away!"  DH & I explained that as long as the object holding the
balloons is heavier I would be ok.

When it as cake time it was my own personal version of Young Frankenstein.
During a solo rendition of Happy Birthday (DH & DD went silent.) DS
decides to attempt to grab the fire.
My son is going to have some weird sensory memories to the Happy birthday song.

Once that was settled, my daughter ran to the kitchen and returned
with a spoon and said she wanted to feed DS. Feed she did. One
spoonful to DS. Two to herself. Watching DS follow the spoon with his
mouth open was hysterical. After the second time he started grunting
and when that didn't stop DD he started swatting her with his mitts.


At the end of the night with bellies filled with sugar fee apple cake,
the kids went to bed and Mom grabbed a bottle of {insert beer} and
started work on kindergarten admissions. That's right. Parenting does
not allot time for rest. Forget about Halloween. Our next big to do is
kindergarten admissions.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Work Life Balance


Can you not have the computer around the kids for today only?
If I can get this done, then I won't have to have the computer around the kids.

I just want him to focus on the kids. He does most of the time but since his funk, he hasn't focused his attention on them.

If I push him, I'm afraid he'll drop back in the funk. If I don't I hear my kid say, "Daddy is on the computer."

I had parents that worked very hard to provide the best they could for us. I appreciate it. I want the best but also know how important it is to focus on the children and to give them the time they need.
Parenting is such a balancing act and I know it continues throughout.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Just once, may I come home to a clean home.


After a very long day at work, I always come home to a freaking cyclone aftermath.
I'm ok with this as I understand spending time with the kids is more important than keeping the house in a semi-livable state.

What really pisses me off though is how after the kids are asleep, I'm the only one cleaning up.

Listen, I understand the day has been long but it's been long for me too.

In in some magical way, I've been able to find the toothpaste by the front door and the wipes under the dining room table.

I have no idea how to broach this subject because his un-diagnosed ADHD will only inhibit me from cleaning up in a timely manner.

So I suck it up and I do as much tidying up as possible quietly to avoid waking everyone up and as quickly as possible so I can do the things I planned/need to do before one of the kidlets wake up.

In all honesty, it's one of the main reasons why I'm reluctant to move to a bigger place. I can barely keep up with the freaking post-aftermath cleanup by myself.