Teatopia

Not quite the same thing

So I told James tonight that I'm going to become a La Leche League leader. I used to think these people were a bit nuts, but after attending meetings, I really like what this organization stands for. At first he was a bit surprised and expressed concern that this experience might make me end up nursing Olivia into her teens, which I assured him it wouldn't. I just think BF is awesome and I want to help people who need help. End of story. I'm not going to judge anyone who feels it's not for them. I'm not planning on organizing some outrageous nurse-in at some public location. Just want to help women who need help. I'll be a bit like a lactation consultant, but less trained. And, if at some point I wanted to become a LC, being a LLL will give me credits towards becoming one. I start training on Thursday. A current leader is leading me through the process. Should be fun! I love learning new things!

Which leads me to this conversation this evening with the hubby:

Me: I start my training Thursday to become a LLL leader.

James: Why would you want to do that?

Me: Because I want to help people.

James: Yeah, but won't you have to touch their boobs when you try to help them?

Me: Uh, wasn't planning on it.

James: But when you worked with the lactation consultant, she had to touch your boobs to help you.

Me: Well, I guess if I had to so I could help them, I would.

James: I can't imagine that. It would be like if I became a jerk-off consultant and had to touch men.

Me (now annoyed but very amused): It's not even the same thing!

And then we both laughed so hard we couldn't stop. Then...

Me: I am SOOOO blogging this!!!

It was bound to happen

Today, I was driving around a local shopping center on my way to buy another nursing bra when I saw a man and a young woman cross the street. Before it even registered who they were, I found myself stopping my car in the middle of traffic to get a closer look.

Then it hit me who they were: my biological dad and my sister Katie. My mom was with me and she agreed that yes, it was him. Then I saw him get into a sporty car (so like him) and saw his college alumni license plate holder and a Nascar sticker (the man is obsessed with all things that go fast).

I quickly made a u-turn and pulled up behind his car (he wouldn't know me so I didn't care if he saw me). He was in the process of pulling out when he saw my car, so he stopped. I waved him out and out he pulled and drove off. And that was that.

I've been waiting to see him. Not because I wanted to but because I knew I would at some point, this being a small town and all.

Weird, just too weird. I don't know how I felt. My heart was pounding and I felt strange. It did occur to me that this was probably the closest he'd ever get to his only grandchild. Can you imagine if he'd known his daughter, ex-wife, and grand-daughter were the ones waving him to go ahead?

Obviously, after my last post (which I linked to above), I never contacted my sister. It just hasn't felt right. Maybe someday, but for now, maybe our lives are best they way they are.

Telling it like it is

**After this, you're going to know way more about my bathroom habits that you ever needed to know, but you moms out there know exactly what I'm talking about!**

Lately, it feels like I've been stuck in a bit of a rut. I go through stages-- as I think all bloggers do-- when there's so much to say and you're on a roll and then other times you're in a slump. The truth is, Olivia is so much more work lately (gotta love those toddler years!) and at night, I'm just so tired and don't feel like writing. I've even been slacking on my night time prayers and my reading. Just. so. tired. *sigh*

I haven't been posting as many pics lately. I just haven't taken the time to transfer them and upload them, so I thought I'd catch up a bit.

but first--

I know I've mentioned this before, but really, do any of you moms get to go to the bathroom alone? I NEVER get to go alone if James is gone, and even when he's here, he never gives me any peace. A couple nights ago, I got caught sneaking my laptop into the bathroom just to get a few minutes online alone. When it's just me and Olivia home, going to the bathroom is a dreaded task. She pulls the toilet paper off (how do they get off so much so quickly?). She wants to help me wipe (she says "wipe peep" which is what we call her privates-- too cute!) and she won't stop trying to touch me so she can "help". She wants to sit on her little potty, which is great, except she wants me to put her on it, and I'm a bit busy. And it's not like I can put her on it before I sit down, because she wants to get up and sit back down continuously. And half the time she falls trying to get on and off. Then she wants to sit on my lap because she's has an "ooowww!"

This is the latest situation:

See all the candles? Two mins on the john and Olivia brought all these one by one, screaming at me if I didn't "smow" them immediately. My poor feet have suffered so much this week at the wrath of falling Yankee candles!

Really though, she's so much fun. She's obsessed with using forks lately and feeds herself pretty well.

Her hair is so curly now (like her Daddy's) and her eyes are still so blue. She gets so many compliments on her hair and eyes, neither of which are from me. Gotta love her shirt, and that cute cloth diaper!

I still have to post beach pictures, but like I said, it was so humid that our camera kept shutting itself off. Most of the pics are on James's cell phone, which I can't find right now and he's sleeping.

More pics to come!

No wonder I can't get anything done

Olivia has recently gone from being a high maintenance child to being the most high maintenance a child could get (aside from having a serious health issue or something). Those of you who also have high maintenance kids know what I'm talking about. Not all of us do. It makes me feel badly when moms at playgroups remark how much easier their kids are than mine. It happens a lot. Olivia is engergetic, very curious, but also, extremely clingy and all that makes for one tired mama!

Just this morning she has:

BROUGHT ME VARIOUS YANKEE CANDLES ABOUT 50 TIMES, YELLING "SMOW!" at the top of her lungs (smow=smell and is said like ou as in ouch). She even dropped one of my foot while I was trying to put my contacts in.

INSISTED ON FEEDING HERSELF WITH A GROWN-UP SPOON WHILE MAKING THE BIGGEST MESS EVER(I think this is pretty typical at this age). There is food all over my dining room, way beyond the protective mat under her high chair-- protective my big ass because this child chucks everything across the room! There is even food all in the leaves of the house plant. If I try to take the spoon, or re-position the bowl, or do ANYTHING that involves touching her in order to prevent the mess, she screams "OUCH! OUCH! I DO! I DO!"

DUMPED A HOUSE PLANT OVER. I thought I had it high enough up on something that she couldn't dump it. Guess I didn't realize just how tall she's gotten. BTW, I just remembered that I haven't even cleaned up the mess yet.

DUMPED ANOTHER HOUSE PLANT OVER. She's never been interested in this one, but in her effort to drive me completely insane, everything's fair game today. I am so stubborn. I hate having to get rid of my plants because I love them, but otherwise, I'm going to have constant messes.

SHE WON'T EAT ANY REAL FOOD unless she uses the spoon to feed herself (but most of it ends up everywhere but her mouth). She's been on a bit of a hunger strike lately and the only way she'll eat is if it's soup ("poop" as she calls it) and she can feed herself. We all know toddlers are not capable of feeding themselves soup without making a mess.

YET, SHE GOES TO THE FRIDGE A MILLION TIMES A DAY AND BANGS ON IT usually wanting cheese. She'll eat some of it, but I've found that she mostly begs for food to feed to the dogs.

HUNG ON TO MY PANTS LEG preventing me from walking, but she doesn't want to be held.

Why do some people have kids who sit an play quietly by themselves? Do you? I already know some of you don't and know exactly what I'm talking about! :-) Is it all based on personality?

Ok, gotta run. Another candle awaits me. Olivia is pulling my pants leg and screaming "smow". Now I feel guilty for taking 10 mins to blog, but I had to.

Thank goodness this child is so loving an sweet because today I have zero patience. James has been sick and has kept me up the last few nights with his snoring and coughing (poor baby) :-( and everything just feels overwhleming when you're super tired.

You know you're a co-sleeping family when...

your daughter walks by Daddy's office and points yelling "dada" and then you ask her to point out her room and she walks right by her nursery and goes in your room and points to the bed.

I once saw a onesie that said, "I let my parents sleep in my bed." Yep, that about sums it up.

I know at some point we'll have to move her to her own room, but at this point, I just assume wait a bit longer until she understands. Until then, I'll enjoy cuddling with my daughter while she's young enough to still want to. :-)

Need parenting advice!

We seem to already be experiencing the terrible two's. Can this happen to a 16 month old?

Yesterday I had to put Olivia in "time-out" for misbehaving. She keeps knocking over our DVD tower, scraping the wall (which now has ugly marks). I really should've just moved the damn thing, but I'm stubborn and I like it where it is, although it's been moved to safety now. She did it several times, right in front of my face, so I made her sit in the corner for a minute and explained to her that she was being punished.

My mom said she's too young to be punished, I worried the same thing, but she has a great vocabulary and I really think she got it. Well, today confirmed that she did.

This afternoon, she went and pushed over the DVD tower. I told her "NO!" in my sternest voice and told her if she did it again she'd go to time out. Well, she went right over to the tower. I told her again what would happen. She just looked at me, pushed it over, and then went and sat in the corner all by herself, pointing her finger and yelling "No! No!" at herself.

I really believe she was mocking me. She remembered about the time out and knew where to go, even though we'd only done it once. Now what do I do? I moved the DVD tower, but I know she'll find something else to do that she shouldn't. How do I punish her? She seemed unaffected by the time out.

At least she's started saying please. "Pweese mama, cheese?" "Juice, pweese? Pweese?" "Gwapes!!! GWAAAAAPE! Pwwese!" How can I say no when she she's so polite? If only she wasn't so sassy!

Florida and HP 7

We're back from Destin, FL. I'll post the few pictures I have later. My ultra sensitive camera was not happy about all the humidity in the air (it was BAAAADDDD!) and kept telling us "dew detected" and then shutting itself down. Grrr.....

For now, let's talk Harry Potter. Just finished it last night. I feel so depressed now that it's over. Last night, after finishing it, I started to cry as I put a load of laundry in. I guess I'm pretty pathetic (and Aunt Flo is here). Still, I get so involved in what I read. What will I look forward to now? There are very few series that I've fallen in love with, and this was probably my favorite next to the Mark of the Lion trilogy. *sigh*

Sun & sand, here we come!

Tomorrow, we'll be on our way to sunny Florida for the weekend. Can't wait for Olivia to play in the sand. She was only 3 months old the last time we went. Is it sad that I'm looking forward to cooler weather in FLORIDA? Florida is actually cooler than here and we're farther north. The heat index is supposed to be 110 tomorrow. It feels like a sauna here!

Baby Einstein?!?

I haven't blogged about Olivia as much lately (the horror!), so it's time to catch up a bit.

She's at that stage where her vocabulary has exploded. She's like a little sponge! Just this morning, she brought me my chapstick (which I usually keep hidden to keep her from eating it) and she said, "meh-meh (this is what she calls me), shash-tish (chapstick), peeeze? peeze?" So of course, how could I say no? She's using her "polite" words. She says "thank you" too!

And then when we got in the car to go to playgroup at the museum (I hosted it today), she pulled at her straps and whined, "tight! tight!" I didn't even know she knew this word, except that I'll tell James, "you're making it too tight!" That's the problem with these cloth diapers. They are puffy and I've had to adjust all her straps differently. Still, I was excited that she could communicate her discomfort. She's been putting her hands in her mouth and telling me "owwww" too (more teething). I'm so glad to know these things. My mom thinks it's time I potty train her since she also tells me when she poops. She's been holding herself and telling me "tee-tee" but I'm finding that it's usually too late by the time she's told me.

But this takes the cake. This is the unusual one. I'm not even sure what to think of this. Either my child is a freaking genius or this is a huge coincidence. Yet, she's done it a few times. She has doodler thingy that we use to draw pictures all the time. I usually draw a duck and ask her what it is. Lately, we've played this game: I'll tell her what to draw (things she knows), and she scribbles, hands it to me, and claps for herself. There has never been any real resemblence, but I wouldn't expect there to be. She's 15 months. Well, the other day, she handed this to me and said "duck" and clapped. This is what she drew:

I thought there wasn't any way she could be coordinated enough to make a dot for an eye (like I make mine), but then I erased it and asked her to do it again, and the next drawing resembled this one fairly well, and it had an eye. Is it possible? I'd say no, except that she did it 3 times. I'll try to take pictures the next time. She hasn't wanted to draw lately. In fact, all she's done is whine and yell for the last week because of those evil eye teeth! She didn't play with ANY of the kids at playgroup today.

I don't want to brag-- that's totally not the intention here-- but my husband is seriously a genius. He's highly gifted, I won't lie. Almost freakishly so. Sometimes I think he's not completely with the rest of us, and by that, I don't mean that we're not smart, just that he seems like he's in his own world. He's always thinking about things, analizing, and calculating. Quite frankly, it drives me nuts sometimes and we argue over it, but we also laugh about it. :-) I have wondered if the SEVERE epilepsy he had as a child somehow did something to his brain, opened it up somehow, like in "Phenomenon". :-) I want Olivia to be smart, but I don't want her to be one of those freaky genius kids playing chess on TV. I want her to be normal!!! Like me! :-) j/k My husband probably would not have interested me in high school. He was in a different group from me (isn't it all so stupid now?), but by the time I met him, I had grown up. I was fascinated by how smart he was and I found it attractive even. I even found the fact that he wore glasses to be sexy. HAHA! I'm such a dork now. :-) Anyway, sometimes I think Olivia is going to be just like James, and maybe already is.

Anyway, I'm loving cloth! I've been getting so much fluffy mail lately. I look forward to the mail coming every day. Is that sad or what?

Just look how cute!!!

If anyone is interested in using cloth (you're probably thinking NO WAY!), I love it and I've developed a routine/system that's made it easier. I even use cloth at night without leaks. James wasn't on board at first and didn't want the hassle of switching, or for me to spend lots of money, but now he loves it!

More Oilvia pics:

my unhappy girl-- this has been a common look over the last couple weeks. :-(

Her favorite thing: messing with mommy's computer. Oh, and she LOVEs that little chair in the background!

Off to Super Wally World to grocery shop (I hate WM, but it's so much cheaper). I might even pick up some ovulation predictors, just to make sure I am in fact ovulating, just in case we might need to know soon. *wink*

Z Red Tea tastes good to me!

A couple weeks back, Z Red Tea was kind enough to send me a case of their tea in various flavors to try out. Naturally, I was much obliged considering my love of tea. Before even receiving my samples, I was impressed with what I read on the webite. Rooibos is so good for you, and America is just starting to tap into the market of Rooibos and the various products containing it. South Africans have been using it for a number of ailments for years!

I was thrilled to see the case of tea sitting on my porch when I came home one afternoon. As you know, I love getting mail, and tea mail is even better! I immediately grabbed a bottle of Peach Rooibos since it's the newest offered flavor, and I live in the peach state! I loved it! And I loved all the other flavors (raspberry, lemon, and original). It's not as sweet as other bottled teas, like Snapple or Lipton, but I personally prefer it that way. It's healthier.

The rep from Z Teas informed me that Sam's Club now carries these teas, but peach is only currently available in GA (lucky me!)

Thanks Z Teas. I'll be looking to stock-up next time I'm at Sam's!

Happy 5 Years to Us!

Today is our fifth anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been five whole years since I walked down the aisle. Time flies when you're having fun!

I love you, James!

I'm so thankful for you and this amazing little girl we created together!

Does anyone else use cloth?

I am new to the world of cloth diapering and let me tell you, it's downright addicting. I can't really say why, but I have spent so much time on Diaper Swappers lately that I think James may file for divorce any day now. I need to prepare myself for a breakdown when my credit card statement comes in.

Most of what I ordered hasn't come in yet (I'll be in mail heaven over the next week or so) and tonight when I made an organized list of my purchases (I am such a list-maker), I was horrified at how much I bought. I wasn't keeping track. I've bought one of every color, every style, extra liners, covers, you name it!

My reasons for switching over are various. First of all, there's the whole natural aspect to it that I tend to graviate towards these days. I'll admit it, I'm becoming a crunchy mama. I like that I'm not contributing to landfill waste (and b/c we have city water, most of it will be recycled after washing all these diapers). Also, I can use them on another baby, saving us money in the long run, just not this month. Or the next. Olivia has really sensitive skin and has been getting rashes because it's so hot here and the chemicals in the diapers combined with urine just isn't good. And then the girly factor. They are cute cute cute! It's like another accesory! Hey, I have to make up for the fact that this kid won't let me put ANYTHING in her beautiful blond curls. No bows, head-bands, nada.

My pediatrician was impressed with Olivia's cloth, and with the fact that I'm still nursing. She had her check-up yesterday. She's 21 lbs, 12 ounces (25th percentile) and 31 inches (50th). He also said how advanced she is. He asked me if she could say 5 words. I wasn't going to brag, but my mom piped up that we counted 75 the other day off the top of our heads (words that she uses regularly). She's even started to put short sentences together. Hey, family reads this blog. I can brag. :-) She takes after her daddy. James says that I'm smart too (I was in gifted classes), but I had to work at it. James is naturally a genius and much smarter than me. I don't mind admitting it. :-) I made a C in college, and several B's. The horror! James has never had a C in his life. Or a B. Ass-kisser. :-)

Anyway, my husband is tired of hearing about Bum Genius and Fuzzi Bunz and hemp liners. Anyone else wanna talk cloth? Or talk about how I've lost my damn mind?

BTW, I'm not giving up my disposables completely. I'll use them for travel. I'm not going to put a whole pile of crap diapers into someone else's washer. And I'm using disposables at night until I am confident I've mastered cloth and I know she won't leak. Sometimes they just are easier. Right now cloth seems overwhelming, but I hope I'll settle into a routine. If I change my mind, which I hope I won't, I can sell them on Diaper Swappers for a decent price and then I can go get my head examined.

I'll be sure to post pics of Olivia in her cloth as they arrive. I love how puffy her butt looks. I actually saw a shirt today at Babies R Us that said "does this diaper make my butt look big?" but there was something wrong to me about having the word "butt" on my innocent baby's shirt. Really though, she has a total bubble butt. Hey! Like mother like daughter!

And you're going to totally laugh at this. I ordered some washable pee-catcher pads (for my incontinence issues) that I can launder with the diapers. The cost of those Poise thingies is adding up! I told James how proud I was that I was going to save money on pee pads. Had to make him think I'm still semi-responsible before that credit card statement comes. Oh, I'm so bad!