If I didn’t know any better, I would think that all I did all day long is do laundry and breastfeed. Now lately I’ve been keeping up with the HA forums and read about 10 books, but whenever Erich asks me what I’ve done today, the only things that pop into my head are doing laundry and nursing the baby. Take today for instance, I went to the assisted living place and **drumroll** did the laundry. I did about four loads there while nursing the baby in between each load. Afterwards I came home and nursed the baby to sleep. While she was sleeping, I started our laundry. I’ve done about three loads so far and probably have 3 more plus diapers. (How on earth do we create that much laundry in a week? sheesh.) I also cleaned out the nursery clothes, creating a giant pile of 3-6 month clothes that she finally outgrew. I have the task of sorting the clothes into girl clothes and nuetral clothes and putting them in bins and storing them in her closet. A few weeks back, I sorted the diapers and put newborn diapers in a bottom drawer and current diapers in the top drawer.

So now you know why Tide and Boobs are the only things I can recall doing today.

I’ve had lots on my mind lately. Lots to update about, but of course as I sit down to type I can’t remember a thing I wanted to write down. I have some pictures to post that Allison and Dani wanted to see for that photo project thing. I’ve yet to be able to take a picture of us as a family. It seems I constantly forget and weekends are crazy and that is when the three of us are together.

The furnace guy just left and they will be coming back on Friday to install the new furnace. We are going from a 50%-60% efficient furnace to a 92% efficient furnace with an ultra cool media filter that is supposed to suck 80% of the dust, dust mites, and general crap that is in our air. Of course, the cost of this new furnace is raping breaking me. But it takes money to make money. Then there is that gas leak thing.

The newest electric/water bill came since having our ultra cool super efficient front loading washer. It’s $20 less than last month! We are looking forward to saving even more money with a furnace that isn’t sucking the life out of us too. We will be able to watch how it affects the actual charge of gas, but we won’t feel it since we are on a budget and pay the same amout year round for gas. They will readjust our rate but that won’t be until next summer. We’re hoping that the increase of gas they are predicting really won’t hurt us with the new furnace and that we’ll break even or be a bit better off. We’ll see.

I started this entry to tell you guys what I am doing when I am “working.” I know you guys know that I take care of an elderly couple at an assisted living village place but I thought you might be interested on what I actually do.



**From here on out I will refer to the couple as Jack and Jill to protect the innocent and what not.**



I’m there five days a week now. I generally get there between 7am- 7:30am and leave around 12:30pm. Tuesdays I don’t leave until about 1:30 because Jill gets her hair done. Basically I’m there for Jill, but Jack needs help as well. He can’t remember to take his medicine so I’m there to give him a gentle reminder. He has some real mood issues to say the least. The tiniest thing can set him off. I was told that he has a brain tumor that affects him, but to be honest, I think the mood swings seem more dementia related. So I try to stay away from him as any tiny thing will set him yelling at me. He walks with a cain and I’ve already had a dream that he beat me with it, so I steer clear if you know what I mean. I apparently wear a sign that says, “beat me please” because I’ve been hurt multiple multiple times in nursing home situations.

So I’m mainly there for her. I get her up and take her to the bathroom. I help her dress and brush her teeth and comb her hair. I do her accu check and make her breakfast. I also give her her meds too. After she’s up and eaten and such, I tend to go and tidy the apartment. I make their bed, vacuum, wash dishes, empty trash, and do general tidying. Remember, during this entire time I’ve also got T and Magdalena to tend to. And on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays I have to run T to and from preschool. On Tuesdays, I strip the linens and wash all the sheets and blankets. On the other days, I do other laundry. He has accidents so I try to do a load every day or at least every other since things sometimes get odor-ous. Tuesdays and Fridays I give her a shower which is a bit of a task. And Fridays I set up all of the AM and PM meds for both of them for the next week. I take her to the bathroom upon her request. Every other Thursday she gets her nails done and every Tuesday she gets her hair done. I take them down to lunch then come back and take care of T and Magdalena’s lunch. (Magdalena’s lunch has to be the easiest. heh) I do have some idle time. If Magdalena is asleep than I can do some needlework or read a book.

They have a two bedroom apartment. In the back bedroom there are some toys that Magdalena can play with and a TV. I try to only let T watch educational videos or PBS and Sesame Street and such. I feel bad because she watches entirely to much TV but I try to compromise by never letting her watch TV when we’re at my house. I’m mean and make her play with toys and use her imagination.

Gee, that doesn’t sound like much does it? But I do feel like I’m constantly running while I’m there. Do you have any questions about what I do?

Did laundry. And there is more where that came from… 

Heh. That title makes me laugh.

Julee and Manda asked me about my minishower. For Manda, you can find installation guidelines here. It was really easy to install, though I did have Erich do the installation. What’s the point in having a husband if I have to do those sorts of things myself? I’m really loving the minishower though. It is working well and I think it was a good investment. Rinsing diapers off does remind me a lot of my work in nursing homes using hoppers, but the smell is definitely not as bad and there isn’t AS MUCH of a mess to clean up, thank goodness.

I’ve set up what I fondly refer to as “the poop station.” Our bathroom downstairs is near the the stairs leading to the laundry room. I chose to place the hopper in this bathroom as it is the nearest to the laundry room and we change most poopy diapers down here. And the occasional poopy diaper upstairs, can easily be transported downstairs. I bought a cheap stainless steel trashcan that has the foot push/lid open system to store the diapers in. I’m going to carry wet rinsed off diapers downstairs nightly to keep little kiddies out and such and so there won’t be so many. The poop station seems to really be working well. Just rinse of the diapers and then drop in the can. Wash hands. Repeat. It makes me really happy, and I have to say that my life is REALLY sad when a poop station makes me happy.

Since August began, I haven’t been to Alicia’s house. Now this is a big thing considering I’d previously been going at least weekly. We had fun. We ran errands and waxed our eyebrows. Waxing eyebrows is very barbaric, but very very worth it. I look like I have woman eyebrows again. Let’s all say “Yay for womanly eyebrows!” I also gave myself (with Alicia’s help) a malibu treatment and a deep conditioning. My hair is silky smooth and soft. Heck, if I get into the shower today I’ll look like a super model.

Alicia had her old toys out while I was there. Now, I grew up in a duplex. We lived on one side and Alicia lived with her sister and dad on the other side. Her old toys are toys that I grew up playing with too. And since they were older, they were always very cool and had neater ideas than I could come up with. We had her cabbage patch kids out and Magdalena was very thrilled with one. When we went to pick up Caleb from school, Magdalena was playing with the CP in the carseat. When I peeked back at her, she had fallen asleep holding the CP hand. How cute is that? So, that’s another reason to buy her her own cabbage patch kid. I could let her play with mine, but then what will I play with? I plan on making her a sling for christmas so she can carry her babies around in it. I should probaby make T a sling too, cause she put on my sling and said “look I could carry the baby!”

I convinced Alicia to let her CP kids take a swim in the washer, and they came out really clean. She was all freaked out thinking that their heads would be full of water.

Another big thing that happened yesterday is that Magdalena moved up to a big girl carseat. She outgrew the infant carrier length wise. She turned 7 months old on Saturday. My girl is growing up. **sniff** She weighs about 15lbs and is awesome. While at Alicias house, she sat up from a lying down position. In church on Sunday, she kept pulling herself up to a standing position on the back of the pew. She also has been rocking on all fours for 3 or 4 minutes at a time. She moves her legs, but can’t figure out the balance of moving her hand forward. Eventually, she just lays down and rolls to the desired object. She gets around pretty well that way, and wouldn’t be surprised if she just skipped the whole actual crawling stuff. She still scoots backwards pretty effectively. She’s wearing 3-6 month clothes now and they fit her well, but she still has a lot of room left in them. She is still exclusivly breastfed and there aren’t any plans in the near future to start the solids.

I have lots of plans today, but mainly we are all going to nap and take it easy. T was sick yesterday and M had crappy nap days both Sunday and Monday. And I’m super tired from our bike ride this morning. My concentration today will be on laundry and SLEEP!

It’s been an incredibly long and busy week. Sorry for the lack of posts. The biggest news this last week is that Erich is finished with school! He got two A’s in his last two courses and was already informed he had met all the requirements for graduation! They’ll confirm all of the grades on Sept. 2 and order the diplomas. They are hoping the diplomas will be in by late October! Once they confirm grades, I’ll probably have an open house bbq in honor of my graduate.

The second big thing is that I will be continuing my home care. I’m excited about this because it will bring about extra income that we so desperately need! I already have lots of things lined up to pay such as plates, car insurance, and such things. I also want some new size 2 kissaluvs (well I’ll actually order from the outlet store) but I’m hoping to buy a couple dozen of those. Hopefully we’ll have a nice christmas too.

I’ve been sunning my diapers that are really stained right out of the dryer. It’s been nice to have them taken care of and it’s amazing how quickly the stains dissappear. I’ve also stayed on top of all of the laundry which is so relieving.

I’m sorta staying on top of my house too. It’s hard with everyone coming and going, but I feel like I am getting my act together again. We’ve been enjoying some fresh air outside and have had the window and door open practically all week. I’m loving not running the air conditioner, I can practically feel the money staying in my pocket! ha! We actually had to shut everything a couple times last week because we were cold!

It’s so wild to be so chilly in August. I was thinking back to our wedding day (August 10, 2002). It was about a 100 degrees outside with a heat index of 110 degrees. I was thanking myself that we had found a church and decided against that wedding in the park. My legs were actually sweating underneath my wedding gown IN the air conditioning. I won’t ever forget that.

I must go, the diva is calling. She’s been incredibly clingy this past week or so. I think it is because she is so so so so so close to actually crawling on all fours. She does creep and army crawl backwards. I think she could physically crawl, it’s really just about getting the confidence and the dance of it down. And she doesn’t like staying on her tummy that long so usually just rolls on over to her back etc to get to her destination of choice.

I’m exhausted. I officially have two jobs in addition to the whole Stay At Home Mom business. I went yesterday and today to take care of the couple and it’s a lot of work. Nothing I can’t handle, but with two kids I’m organized baby. And Alicia would be so proud of me, my laundry is all caught up, the dishes are all done, the LR is picked up, and I’ve vacuumed just about every day this week. Even got on the floor TWICE this week and vacuumed all the little nooks and cranies with the attachements.

I’m learning the art of traveling with a baby and a monster four year old. I have a bag packed with toys for her and for M, I have diapers, movies, food, sippy cup (for T), cup for me, purse and my sanity all packed in the trunk of the Vibe with the stroller. Taking the stroller in with me gives me a safe place to put M while I do things like shower old people and take them to the bathroom. Throw in a swim lesson for the day and I practically carry the house with me. We get back and everyone goes down for naps, except me. I start cleaning my house to make sure I don’t get behind. I’m getting used to the schedule though, and I’m thinking that if the 30 day trial goes well and they stay in assisted living that I could probably do this two or three times a week. The $$$ I got today made me feel goooood. Gooood, I tell you.

Tomorrow is a very busy day. LLL meeting, quick run into Walmart for some cheap coke, swim lesson, quick naps, bath for M, and pictures for M. She is so freaking cute these days it makes me want to puke! I’m positive that this time around, the pictures are going to be fabulous with her two tooth grin and her little bottom sitting up all by herself. It makes me giddy how cute she’s going to be. And Erich let me buy her an outfit over the weekend for pictures, a pair of overalls and a pink polo shirt onesie thing. I also have a sundress for an alternate outfit (must remember to iron that stuff TONIGHT) . I’ll have to post a picture. Oh, and I know that I shouldn’t be going to Walmart and drinking cheap Sams Choice coke. I know that caffeine is bad for you and it just keeps me fat. But dangit, I’m working 250 plus hours on top of my official job of SAHM. Don’t I deserve a little addiction?

I’m exhausted.  This weekend was pretty good.  Magdalena and I went up to see Grammy (my mom)  and Grampy with Nana and Pa and enjoyed a steak dinner out.  Yum.    Erich went to his brothers house to help him do a landscaping job.  Instead of coming back with cash, he came back with gravel.  Nice gravel though that I think he’ll be incorporating into the ongoing driveway project. 

Saturday evening we joined our friends at the driven.  We watched “the Bourne Supremacy” and ” Spiderman 2.”  Fun fun, though very very late.  We got home around 2am.  Luckily I had given the diva a bath prior to leaving.  She had also had some motrin because I assumed her teeth were bothering her (and she was running a fever of about a 100 or so).  I hate giving her something when I don’t really know what is bothering her, but I tried nursing, patting, bouncing, swinging (outside which she loves) and nothing helped.  She even cried a bit in the bathtub which is so not like her.  She slept from about 8 till midnight then woke to nurse. 

Sunday I went to get groceries.  I stopped in at Bed Bath and Beyond and bought a stockpot! yay! I’ve wanted a stockpot for a while.  It’s a small one, 8 quarts, but with the mail in rebate and coupon I had, it only cost me $5.  It’s big enough though that I’m having a hard time finding a proper home in the kitchen for it.  I also made a trip to the evil store and Sams Club for some laundry stuff.  Magdalena and I were both exhausted from the numerous in and out of the car routines we had to perform.  We came home and chilled and watched the end of a movie with Erich.  A bit later, Erich and I took the exersaucer out onto the porch and he weed eated the yard while I mowed (we were both watching M).  We then took a gigantic walk on a perfect evening.  The temperatures have cooled off considerably and haven’t really gone above 70 since Saturday.  So it was actually cold on our walk.  It was very odd. 

As of Monday, T is back with us fulltime.  Well, 200 plus hours a month.  It’s exhausting.  She threw a huge fit in the middle of the library (complete with screaming) and screamed even more when I dragged her out of the library and ended our visit early.  I can not stand a 4 year old child screaming in the middle of a library.  We had a long talk about how you listen when adults ask you to do things and that it isn’t appropriate to throw tantrums.  We also talked about how four year old girls getting ready to go to preschool in a few weeks shouldn’t throw tantrums and that is unacceptable behaviour at school.  We were supposed to go to swimming lessons after that (they were cancelled because it wasn’t 70 degrees outside) and that during swim lessons I didn’t want to even see her hesitate when she was asked to do something.  She was perfectly behaved the rest of the day and even asked for seconds at lunch and asked me what kind of macaroni and cheese she was eating because it was deelicious.  She cracks me up.

I also baked some bread over the weekend, cut a cantaloupe, and made PB cookies. I really really need to make some tortillas.  I finished up all the corn tortillas I made last time by making tortilla chips.  I should make the flour tortillas tonight so we can have cheese quesadillas tomorrow for lunch. 

Yesterday I cleaned the LR from top to bottom and dusted lots of stuff that miss the usual go round.  I even climbed on a chair and dusted my fan!  I ran the vacuum, and I swear that there is enough hair in it to make another dog.  I’m seriously going to shave Gracy bald.  It will grow back, I promise.  She looks like an over loved teddy bear.  She really isn’t into people lately.  As Erich said, she acts as if she is bitter and hates the world. 

As if I’m not doing enough around my house and watching T, I have a new part time job starting next week.  I’ll be doing some adult sitting (with Magdalena and T) about 3 times a week from 7am to noon.  It’s going to add about 45 to 50 hours a month to my work schedule and about 400 plus dollars to our income.  We really need this, but I can’t figure out how I’m working about 100 hours more a month than when I had an actual job and making half the money.  It’s depressing.  Alicia said I need to get super organized which is the polite way of saying that I need to get my act together.  I’m really going to have to focus and not lose track of my time or my house is going to slip more than I feel like it already is.   I thought I was supposed to be a SAHM? 

And here is my other dilemma.  I quit my job to stay home with Magdalena.  I’m worried that all this other activity is taking away from her.  So I need to be super focused on her and make sure she gets 150% of the attention that I wanted her to have so I don’t feel like I’m working myself to death and not giving her what she needs. 

So beginning next week I’ll be taking care of 5 other people on an almost daily basis.  I’ll be working 250 hours or so “outside” my home and have to keep my home together and keep my sanity.  I’m thinking blogging may be a bit crazy while I get into the swing of things. 

Sorry, I’ve been super busy lately.  I had T yesterday and we went to the library for storytime.  I was actually running late, but not to worried about it since I always get there early and everyone else is late.  Well, when I got there, she was waiting on us and some other “regulars” to show since it was a small group.  Heck it’s the middle of no where in Indiana, they always have a small crowd.  hahaha.  Anyways, I was able to pick up some books for the girls for the summer reading program and browse some magazines and cookbooks for myself.  Erich has been desperately wanting to see “the Bourne Identity” which he asked the library to order.  They did order it, last year, and it went into circulation.  The problem is that I can NEVER get the damn thing.  It’s always checked out!  And you can’t reserve DVD’s or VHS so that sucks bigtime.  I’ve also been trying to catch “Cheaper By the Dozen” and “Win A Date with Tad Hamiltion.”  (As you can see, I’m not looking for a real movie to make me think!)  We’ve talked about Netflix, but we can’t see spending $22 a month at this moment, but we may try it out in the winter when we can get our money worth.  So where was I?  Oh the library.  Magadalena does really well at the library and everybody drools over my sling and says how gorgeous Magdalena is and how cool the sling is.  Yada yada yada. 

 

She’s at this cool age where she can roll around, yet she can’t crawl away just yet.  (I say just yet because she is terribly close to crawling and when she rolls on to her belly, you can see her surveying the area.  I can almost hear her little brain saying, ” now that would be cool to peak into…”)  So I’ve been taking a blanket and I lay Magdalena down with a quiet toy and get on the computer to search the catalog for my selections of the day.   I try to find a computer that is out of the flow of traffic but where you can see people going about.  Magdalena LOVES this.  She rolls onto her belly and just watches as people check out books and walk in and out of the door.  It’s fun.

 

I have both T and Magdalena enrolled in the summer reading program.  They said I could enroll to, but hell, if I’m reading them books when am I going to fit in books?  The books I like to read are longer books and since I read, oh, five or six pages at a time, I’d never get that many books done in eight weeks.  (Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE to read, it just seems that I can only read in the potty these days since Magdalena demands so much time.  And I generally only go to the potty for an extended period of time once a day! TMI?)  Anyways, with the program they get prizes for every 2 books they read.  They always have these junk toys and books.  You get one prize each time, unless you are a bit behind like us.   I generally get a book for Magdalena and T gets some assorted piece of junk. 

 

I made two loaves of bread yesterday and conquered a mountain of laundry.  Today I made a batch of flour tortillas and a batch of corn tortillas.  I also made spaghetti sauce with pasta and potato soup.  The potato soup left something to be desired.  I had planned to make a batch of PB cookies, but didn’t get to it.  I also had planned to mop the floors downstairs and didn’t get to that.  So I really MUST do that tomorrow along with the cleaning the carpets upstairs. 

 

We had a Dr. Appt on Tuesday.  Magdalena weighs 14lbs 12ounces and is 24 3/4 inches long.  She is doing wonderfully and is way ahead of the developmental milestone chart according to the Doc.  He gave me a hard time about co-sleeping, but didn’t have an answer for me when I asked him how many high schoolers he saw sleeping with their parents still!    He almost jumped out of his chair for joy to hear that she had had no solid food whatsoever.  I’m not sure if we’re ready to start just yet either.  Her tongue ejection reflex is getting better, but she still doesn’t “mooch.”  We’ll see.  Of course, my mother is dying to feed her table food. 

 

I have T tomorrow.  Hopefully it won’t rain.  She’s so funny.  Yesterday I told her that we were going to clean the house and she said “Really!?? Can I help too???”  And if I say, I’m going to wash some diapers she’ll say, “yay!  I want to help!” 

 

I gotta go.  The princess is awake.

I spent this morning lounging around in the bedroom with my beautiful daughter nursing, playing, and watching ER. That’s right folks, no T. She is home with her Mamma who is on summer break. She’ll still be coming on Fridays for the long 14 hour day and summer vaation is only a few weeks. Then she’ll start coming daily again, but preschool starts in August, which lets face it, isn’t that far away. And although I will miss those few extra dollars (yes for 200 hours a month that T spends/spent here, the pay was awful), I’m really enjoying this time with Magdalena who is the cutest and funnest baby lately. (Besides the fact that I can see indentations of teeth on her gums and she appears to be entering into a teething stage and acting like she is in pain at random moments and I.don’t.like.this.stage.)

Anyways, while watching ER this morning, I noticed that everytime they went to a scene where an actor went to his apartment, the actor didn’t do anything. He just turned on the music and made himself a drink and stared out the window while watching the rain. Really now, who does that? Even before I had a baby, I came home and went straight to work on my house. Now granted, the apartment doesn’t have three floors or dogs or husbands for that matter, but I’ve never enjoyed this relaxing recreation. Even in college it seemed I came back to my room and cleaned up. (And I lived in a sorority so I was living with two other girls in the same size dorm room that one occupied in non greek life.)I would run downstairs and start laundry. Pick up (my roomates were self proclaimed slobs, and I was not). I would vaccuum our room and straighten out the daybed before I could sit down and check email then start my homework. Today, I come home and let dogs out. Pick up dog toys. Get Magdalena settled. Run downstairs and start washing diapers. Run upstairs wash dishes. Run downstairs, start more laundry. Run upstairs and tend to Magdalena. Do you see a pattern here? Where does the drink while watching the rain really come into play? Do you guys have time to watch rain? Am I the only one who feels like a dog chasing its own tail?

Moving on, my birthday is in 12 days. (I know this because when I check Chucks blog, they are counting down Laurens due date which is my the fourth of July which happens to be my birthday.) Today is Erichs birthday. Yahoo. I’m wondering if I can bribe my mom into giving me some money for some diapering accessories (I’d like a couple wool covers and about 5 more fleece topped Hemparoos.) and talk someone else into buying me the Baby Book by Dr. Sears. Probably not. Nobody loves you when you aren’t cute anymore. heh.

the most beautiful girl in the world!!!

You can go to this site and see lots of Magdalena! One picture will take you to her fotolog, another will take you to a page where you can see little snippets of her in real life action, and another will take you to her blog. My hubby has been hard at work.

Eventually we hope for a fotolog picture to take you to a gallery type place, but we don’t quite know how to install it as of yet!

Erich is home this week on vacation so I’ll either blog tons, or none at all. It’s nice having him home. Like right now, Magdalena is in his lap not shrieking at me and I’ve browsed nursing apparel websites and folded some laundry and composed this entry without interruption! Yay!

She is chewing on stuff these days. Hardcore chewing. She chomps on my fingers, Mr. Elephant, her own fingers. Everyone insists that she is teething, but she isn’t flailing about and screaming. I don’t feel bumps on her gums. Maybe one spot is a bit “sharp” but I never really felt around there enough to know if it is a change from something before. I find it hard to believe that she is teething so young. Maybe it is denial. I’ll really miss that big gummy grin when those beautiful teeth appear. She’ll be cute then, but I’ll miss those gums. She won’t ever have that gummy grin again (unless she loses her teeth later in life, which still won’t be cute!). Oh well, we’ll see. Maybe she will be one of those wonderful babies that just chew and chew and chew and pop teeth without all that screaming! One can hope right?

We all ventured out to the library this morning. It’s cool outside (well 71 degrees, but compared to ninety and humid it’s cool!) so it was perfect to put her in the stroller with Mr. Elephant and her blanket on walk on over to the book place. Erich checked out Lord of the Rings parts 1 and 2 and is currently watching those. I checked out some Dr. Seuss for Magdalenas daily reading sessions and Monsters INC (I love that movie!) and a Baby Einstein video (to see what all the fuss is about). This particular one speaks in several languages and while I find it rather dull, Magdalena seems to enjoy some of it. (note: do not leave me a comment telling me of the dangers of TV watching. I’ve read the warnings, I’m an educated mom, and I’m not sitting her in front of the ol’ telly 23 hours of the day.)

Anyways, I checked out a book (something like the new moms guide or something, pure crap in it if you ask me) and while looking at this particular section I found this book called “Bottlefeeding without Guilt”. I looked at the back and it said how the book discussed how to store and mix etc etc etc, nutritional facts and cost saving tips for different kinds of formula (cause if you do use formula, you’re gonna be broke apparently) and last but not least… **drum roll**…. THE OVERSELLING OF THE BREAST! That made my blood pressure jump at least a few notches. A) How can you oversell something that is perfection? and B) How many damn commercials do you see on TV telling you breastfeed your baby? NONE! Sure some formula commercials will say “switch between breast and bottle” or in fine print on the TV that not even beyond perfect vision can read “breast is best.” It enraged me I tell you. Bah. I had to get that off my chest. Anyways, we’re off to our lazy lives. Magdalena needs a nap and I still have taped ER reruns from this morning to finish watching. (Yes, Alicia, I know I’m a freak!)

Speaking of Alicia, she is my cousin and she has started up her own blog! So go on over there and give her a little shout out and say “hello!”

When installing Blogger comments, I did not realize that you would have to have a user name to sign in, or you had to post anonymously. I don’t like that feature. So on my list of things to do today, is to switch back to Haloscan.

Today we tried out the hip carry in the Maya Sling. I do these new carrys with Erich home so he can be the extra two hands that are required sometimes when figuring out the new hold. (I’m overly cautious, I wouldn’t want to drop her on her head!) She has superb head control and really has since about two months. We got her on the hip in the sling and went to do dishes. It worked out great. I was able to do the dishes and think that I could probably do laundry like that also. Magdalena LOVES the water. She loves being in it and she loves watching it. So she just watched the water and the suds the entire time. There is an aquatics class for babies 6mos and older offered by the hospital where she was born. I think that would be a fun activity for us and a way to get her in the water early. She’ll be “qualified” in July, so I think we will do that this summer.

In other news, Magdalena is on the verge of sitting up! She is really really working hard on that! With the warm weather we’ve also been doing coverless diapering so it keeps me on my toes a lot more. So we’ve been very busy around here!

I’ve had a major case of the blahs lately. Just can’t seem to shake the darn things, though I seem to be coming around. Magdalena and I have been taking daily walks, which may be helping a bit. My mom bought Magdalena an exersaucer this week. Well actually what happened is I went to see my cousin Alicia and we took Magdalena to Babies R Expensive to see if she would like the exersaucer. The thing is freaking expensive so I wanted reassurance. She did in fact enjoy the thing a ton. So we went to Target and found one cheaper that folds easily (yay we can take it to grammy’s house!) and so I called my mom from there and told her that Magdalena was in love with the exersaucer and how it would make my life SO much easier. (heh) I could hear my stepdad in the back saying “go ahead, you can buy it for her, I don’t care!” So Grammy said yes and M has an exersaucer. She isn’t heavy enough to make the seat sag so she can actually make it “bounce” but she can touch the bottom with her feet and she can rock that thing like crazy. I swear her eye hand coordination has improved DRASTICALLY since buying it. It may just be the curve she is on, but ya know I tell my mom it’s because she bought the exersaucer. **wink wink**

I am getting so much more done. With much more playtime, Magdalena has been taking better naps again. I was able to do a lot of laundry yesterday and clean the carpet in the basement with the steam cleaner and some oxyclean. Those damn dogs took advantage of me but everyone is once again house trained since the arrival of Miss Diva. Erich also tracks down there as the workshop is down there. Nobody said white colored Berber was a good idea, but I didn’t put it in. Anyways, it looks much better, and improves my mood as I go downstairs to do laundry. Yeehaw.

Magdalena within the last week has learned to grab her toes, grab toys and stick them in her mouth, sit with some assistance, and laugh. She has been laughing for several weeks, but this week she has been laughing a lot. As she is getting more interested in toys, life is getting easier to entertain her. She is an exceptional learner, which I add up to all that wonderful breastmilk!

Speaking of breastmilk, Magdalena and I went to our first La Leche League meeting. It was nice to talk to people though I still feel a bit more “crunchy” then these ladies, but it was interaction. And I was able to talk to people and not be embarrassed about having a baby grabbing at my breast a lot. I even latched her on while giving an answer to a question and not feeling nervous that I was going to flash someone.

Magdalena and I went to the library this week. I got a new library card because it had been a while since I used mine. I had been using Erichs because I thought mine had some fines on it. The erase your name if the card hasn’t been used for two years so score on my part! We checked out some books on family nutrition, home organizing, and some parenting magazines which I disagree with about 75% of the stuff in there. Oh well.

Today I received a Mothers Day card from my MIL which shocked the hell out of me! It contained a check for $100 instructing me to buy some diapers! Yee haw! I went straight to the computer and bought a dozen from the Kissaluvs outlet store which has colors! yay! That excited me I tell ya! My mom bought me some flowers for the four boxes we have on the porch. The porch looks great and makes you happy when you walk in the house. Have I ever mentioned that my Mom rocks? I didn’t used to appreciate her as much as I do now. She is really great to Erich and Magdalena and has given Magdalena a TON of stuff that we probably wouldn’t have been able to buy her (like the exersaucer).

We cut some flowers this morning and took them to my Grandma. They were flowers that were already in full bloom and about to die in the next couple of days but I clipped some mint and put that in the vase and they really looked beautiful. We took her out for a muffin and coffee and she seemed to enjoy that and loved the flowers.

We bought buffalo chx pizza for my mothers day present and it rocks. I love that pizza.

We are going to my Moms house tomorrow. Her sister is flying in from Texas tonight and we’ll all celebrate Mothers Day together. The sister that is coming in, is the Mom of my other cousin that had triplets. Remember her? This is the first time she’ll see her triplet grandbabies, so that should be exciting. I’m sure after spending five or so days in that tiny house with the triplets, she may be ready to go home. heh. Though, my aunt did have 10 kids so it may not phase her. (hey, we’re mexican, what do you expect! hahaha) We are going to go on Monday and have pictures taken again of them all so that should be fun. My mom is also going to look for some 0-3 month summer clothes. The summer clothes we have are 3-6 which is still pretty big on my tiny girl. I was beginning to worry about weight gain, but I’ve noticed that Magdalena has grown in length considerably judging by where her feet hit on the carseat, so that makes me feel better.

Erich is telling me that Magdalena is hungry, so that means I must get up. Sorry about the absence of blogging. I’m feeling a lot better so should sit down more often now.

I’ll try this meme and see if it gets me out of the hum drums.

Things I’m grateful for:

1. A beautiful, healthy, happy, smiling baby to brighten my life.

2. A handsome hunk of a husband.

3. Starting the upstairs batheroom redo, even though it’s only 1/2 way done now.

4. Spending time with friends this past weekend.

5. Pretty flowers in the yard.

6. Clean diapers.

7. Laundry started.

8. Dishes clean.

9. Pot roast in the crockpot.

10. Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters on TV all weekend.

I have a migraine. I’m in the early stages, but just the “tap tap tap” of the keyboard is killing me. And it started very suddenly which completely sucks. I had wanted to go to Sears and look at clothes dryers. I have a feeling ours will be dying very shortly. My dad bought it when he was alive and he will be dead 12 years in May. So yeah, it’s coming up on the end of its lifespan. Thank goodness we don’t need a washer. That would be an awful expense (though I would really love a front loader with a second rinse for my dipes.) Erich says we can buy one when we need it. What fun is that? Our kids will be out of diapers if it lasts the “15-20 year” lifespan predicted on washers and dryers. Maybe if I just try to sell the one we have (its sorta new, you can still buy it in the stores) then I could dish out the few extra hundred difference to buy a front loader. Anywho. I’m hoping I still may be able to make it to Sears. (I’m going to figure out what I want then come home and do research and find out if anyone has it cheaper so I can take advantage of the price matching.) I can’t leave yet though, cause the cable guy is coming to install digital. Yes yes yes, I know that I complain that things are tight, but really in my defense, it was cheaper to get digital. When you subscribe to digital they knock $10 off the price of broadband, so it worked out to our advantage. ( I asked the lady if they were just trying to get everyone to switch to digital and she said, “yeah well kinda sorta.”) They did give us three free coupons to buy pay per view movies with. And the price of a pay per view is the same price in the video store. Go figure.

On top of the migraine, I think I have a small case of mastitis. I do believe I’m running a fever too, but I don’t want to check. I contribute this to Magdalena sleeping 9hours last night. I wish that girl would start waking up so I could feed her in the middle of the night. I know that sounds stupid, but my boob hurts and dangit, I spend a majority of my day feeding her (more than I used to) and I just don’t feel like things are getting done. I love her to life, and I don’t mind feeding her, but my house doesn’t run well when I am on the couch all day. So I’m going to take some tylenol and wallow in self pity that I have a migraine until I break down and call someone and see which heavy duty drugs I can take while breastfeeding. I’m also going to try putting a hot washcloth and that breast when she eats again and see if that helps push everything out. **fingers crossed** Okay I should probably eat something. Any ideas on curing mastitis?

I think the remaining part of her cord just fell off. **sniffle** It’s still a bit oozy so we’ll wait on the tub bath for now. Not an exciting day here. Did some laundry and dishes and wifey stuff. Now just waiting for Daddy to come home so we can go to sleep. Well, so I can go to sleep. Magdalena is already asleep, but she’ll want another snack before bedtime I’m sure.

I tend to keep quiet about the choices Erich and I have made mutually for our upcoming arrival and what we want to see done with our family in general. For instance we will be cloth diapering and practicing extended breastfeeding. These choices are both for medical, mental, and financial reasons. There are other things we tend to talk about but that is not the point of this post.

My point was headed towards the fact that I tend to keep quiet at work about these choices. My co-workers find me a bit crazy about the cloth diapering issue. My boss said, ” oh yeah, my sister decided to do that and she only does 450 loads of laundry a day.” My other boss said, “are you one of those nazi breastfeeding freaks?” after I pointed out that breastfed baby poop is much easier to clean in diapers. A question that I had to answer yes to. She wanted to get into a heated debate with me, about how she had to use formula because her son wouldn’t have eaten. She tried to breastfeed, but because of the breast reduction she had done, she couldn’t keep up an adequate supply. A conversation which I just nodded and offered my condolenses. No, it isn’t something I would agree with doing, I don’t want to use formula period. (I try very hard to get rid of all of those samples of formula they keep sending me just in case we do have some issues at the beginning, I won’t be tempted to just give up.) Back to the point, I wouldn’t argue with her. I didn’t really feel like she should have been so defensive because I wasn’t accusing her of anything . I told her that as long as she felt she made the best decisions for her and her family (something of which she said she had) then I applauded her. That’s all we can do as parents, right? Hope that we make the best decision for our situations and our families. Now, I don’t agree with using formula, but it wasn’t my family nor was it my decision. End of discussion.

So last week I’m at lunch with two co-workers. We are talking about choices and in laws and what not but somehow we get to the conversation of breastfeeding. I say that I intend to breastfeed, they ask how long, I say exclusively until she’s 6 months, and I’ll give her table food when she starts to show me she wants to eat some. They ask, “well when do you plan to wean?” I say, “not until about 2yrs, and only then if shes ready and shows me she wants to wean.” So they ask, ” well what do you mean by ‘when she wants to wean’? it’s your decision, it’s your body, and you can’t do it forever.” I say that I believe it will be more of a mutual decision between all of us (Erich, myself, and baby) and we believe she will let us know when she is ready. So this NURSE ( I capitalize this because I couldn’t believe the words I heard come out of this woman who is a registered nurse!), tells the other chick we’re with that it is only medically beneficial to an infant to breastfeed for 6 weeks. And then she goes on to say that she was watching on a TV show about how women who breastfed beyond one year were getting some sort of sexual pleasure from it. I have to wonder silently to myself if she was watching Jerry Springer or some other very educational show but I didn’t say it out loud. This woman and I have aleady had issues about racial comments she has made but that is a different story. Needless to say, I looked like a freak and a pedifile for saying that yes I did plan to nurse beyond one year of age. They didn’t want to know about my educated research, articles, and opinions from leading health experts. They didn’t want to hear about the anesthesiologist who breastfed her last baby until she was 2 because of the benefits her daughter reaps because of the bf’ing. Oh no, they chose to believe the uneducated, racist nurse who watched a Jerry Springer like show and chose to open her stupid mouth.

So this is why I’m so quiet on these topics. I’m tired of looking like a freak. If you so choose, please discuss in the comments.