Crazy of the day

Well, spring is here and with it comes my Moms obsession with Hummingbirds. 8 feeders and 30-40 birds swooping around the house. My son is absolutely fascinated by these fast flying, death darts with wings, and thinks he can play with them. Picture 30 hummingbirds swooping around a feeder and a rambunctious 2 yr old running around screaming," I tatch Gams hummbur" It's is really quite entertaining but you know what they say, It's all fun and games until someone looses an eye.

Being sick

I eventually will get to how I handle the illness that come with the children, but I haven't been feeling well so I thought I'd talk about how to deal with the Little ones when you are the one that is sick. There are a few things that I tend to do, the first is I will sleep when he sleeps. I forget about the dishes and laundry and rest as much as possible, this is hard when that is usually the only time for those projects but on or 2 days won't be the end of the world. The other thing that happens in our house is I let our son sleep with me in the mornings, because he tends to sleep longer if he snuggled in the big bed next to me. The last you have to be willing to do is ask for help. In my case I'm home all day with no back up so I will go to my parents house, my mom will watch him so I can take a nap. When my husband gets home from work I will kinda switch off the mommy switch and let him deal with our son for a while. It is impossible to just rest for 2 days but every little bit helps, and if you use a daycare I certainly would not hesitate about taking the kids even if you are home sick. In any case try not to be to grumpy and remember that kids don't know we are sick so deep breaths and play just a little less hard than you would otherwise.

crazy for the day

Since my son is at the age where he learns a new word everyday he always amazes me with what he does with that knowledge. His word last week was upside down which was great when he started to use it. We were at the park and he climbed up the ladder to the monkey bars, slid between the top two steps leaned forward until his head hit the sand and yelled, "Momma look i updide dow." I had to brush away the tears I was laughing so hard.

how active is your child

I often find myself comparing the activity level of my son compared to that of other children. It seems to me that all of my friends that have children have the unreasonably calm quiet children that will play nicely by themselves and sit through church. I on the other hand have a child who will run up down the aisle during a wedding just to see what kind of reaction he can get out of me. He also thrives for the attention that he gets when he refuses to sit down at a restaurant. In most cases he is not really being bothersome in my opinion, he doesn't run up to other peoples tables and cause scenes he just RUNS. I do find that having a very active child does have it's advantages, such as, I am in much better shape from chasing him around all the time. I can take him to large parties and he will gladly go play instead of hanging on me all day, but there are times I swear I'm never taking him out in public again. Every child has a different activity level and every parent needs to adapt to them, because they aren't changing for us.

Crazy for the day

Well toddlers are very active and mine being an Aries is even more so than others so the lack of fear is something I have had to learn to deal with it. At the park near our home we have have a great play area and it has a "rock" climbing wall, well I have told my son over and over not to go Down the wall only up it, so today as he is getting ready to JUMP off of it I walk over to him and tell him to get down before he falls. Well good thing I was half paying attention because all of the sudden he yells "momma got me" and jumps into my arms. Crazy kids.

Dirty Kids

As your child gets older they will will also become more curious of their surroundings, which is great. However with curiosity comes dirt, mud, grass, and who knows what else. If it is around then they will get into it. Mud puddles are great for splashing and for washing their hair and hands....At least in their opinions. A parent must learn that this is going to happen no matter how hard you try to avoid it. I personally enjoy it myself, I figure if they are messy then they were having fun doing what they wanted to do. Yes, I do know that there are times where they cannot get messy and I understand that they need to learn the boundaries but on a day to day, out in the yard or at the park, I say let them be kids and enjoy what kids enjoy, be it eating sand or rolling in the grass. Remember that they only get to be kids once and they shouldn't be taught to fear a mess.

Crazy for the day

I was trying to get my son to lay down and go to sleep one night and he was being very difficult. I had him snuggled in next to me on the recliner and decided to try to sing him a lullaby, which may be more of a form of torture than a soothing song. So anyway I decide Rock a bye Baby as it was always one of his favorites as an infant. well apparently his hearing has improved drastically since infancy and as I got to the part of In the Tree Top, he turns and looks at me and says No Tree Tops Momma, Momma no sing Tree tops. Hmmm, I guess he told me, next time I just turn the radio back on I guess.

how to deal with shots

One of my friends asked a question about her little guy running a fever after shots so I decided, hey why not be the topic of the day.

I have come to realize that the shots hurt you more than they hurt them. Yes most kids will cry and so will most most Moms the first time. About the only thing I can say is hold on tight, they will wiggle, squirm, crawl and move in ways you never thought possible. The first set of shots my son got he actually started to scream so hard he wasn't even making a sound and looked as though he would pass out. I was holding my breath and probably looked like I was going to pass out too.

A few things that I found that help are giving them Tylenol about 1/2 hour before the appointment so the pain isn't as bad afterwards, and hope you have a great Dr. Mine always has her nurse assist and if he needs more than one shot they do it at the same exact time so he doesn't have the chance to wise up to what is going on. After the shots are over I try to keep his little legs moving too, he is old enough now to walk but when he was little I would just play with him and play with his legs so the muscles didn't tighten up.

After shots there is a very good chance they will run a small fever around 100 degrees, ant that is absolutely nothing to worry about. Also not uncommon is for the area around the shot to turn into a red bump for a day or 2. Now if that bump starts to get warm to the touch, turn weird colors or looking like a rash then by all means call your Dr. they may be having a reaction to the vaccine or getting an infection.

I always say there is no reason to over react but you also don't want to under react either, just trust your gut, for some reason it seems to know.

food

As I had said earlier I decided to make all of my own baby food. It really wasn't as much work as a person might think it was. I bought a Magic Bullet and ground everything. I had read many things that said to freeze the food in ice cube trays but I soon realized that my son ate way more than that so I used freezer containers. I also think that it gave him a much wider variety of food than whats available in stores.

One thing I did was started by mixing fruits in with his oatmeal, a little mashed up banana, applesauce, or peaches. then I started with Veggies, which were either ones from my garden or frozen ones that I had cooked up. He loved squash and sweat potatoes, which are super easy because ones they are cooked they are so easy to mash up and freeze. his Dr had recommended feeding him things for a few days in a row to check for allergies so with the freezer containers it would be just about enough for 3 days.

After a month or two of fruits and veggies I simply began to grind up what ever we ate for dinner that night and all leftovers. So he was eating potroast and pork loin by 6 months. I would also make small things of homemade soup just for him and keep them frozen.

I found that this was so much less expensive and with the containers made it very easy for me to take his food anywhere that we went. there were times that I would have to ask a restaurant if they could heat it for me but that was never a problem.

I truly believe that he is a healthier, and less picky eater by having so many options at such a young age. Again I don't think that store bought foods are bad in any way, this was just a personal choice for me.

Crazy for the day

So my wonderful husband was doing yard work yesterday morning so the B-man and myself were outside playing while we watched him work. About the time everything was done it was very close to lunch time, so I decided we all needed to go in. Needless to say the little guy was having NONE OF IT! Once I picked him up kicking and screaming he decided to continue with a full blown tantrum.

Anyway I walked back outside and left him in the house with my husband well after about 30 seconds my husband is screaming for me to come back in the house NOW B-man had a bloody nose. So I run as fast as I can back to the house to find blood streaming out of his nose. I asked what happened and he had hit the door when I walked out and slipped and smashed his face into the door. So then I have to wrestle him down to get it to stop bleeding, which was similar to trying to wrestle a well oiled pig while you are blindfolded. I'm trying to pinch his nose and wipe it while he screams and tries to crawl up the wall in Spider-man fashion. I finally had it mostly stopped so I let him go and he was fine! He had a runny nose already so everytime I wiped snot I got the rest of the dry blood. 10 min after it happened you never would have known if you hadn't been here.

waking up

No matter what time we want them to wake kids will get up when they are ready, which is usually either way too early or way too late.

If you go to bed late they will wake up an hour before you want to, and they will make you late on a pretty regular basis. It is just something you need to learn to deal with. My son for instance has an internal clock of about 7 am, he rarely sleeps later unless he is snuggled in bed by me then maybe I can get 7:30 or an occasional 8. And of course there are the middle of the night screams and wet beds but those are so random that you can't really have a plan of attack for those moments.

What I started doing is to make sure I try to go to sleep very shortly after he does at night if I don't have a ton of stuff to clean up, at least this way I know I can get 8 hours of sleep. As far as getting up late, well I try to be prepared for that. If I know we are going somewhere the next morning, I get all of his clothes ready, and diaper bag packed the night before. Thanks to the internet i can usually have a pretty good idea on the weather so I can plan ahead for changes.

No matter what you do you need to expect the unexpected as much as possible, early up, late up, middle of the night up, you will probably experience them all.

Crazy of the day

Due to the topic for the day I'm going to go back to when B-man was about 16 months old. My Mom and I were out for lunch and he was with us. He was sitting nicely in his high chair and then got "that look" so we sat there for a while so he could finish what he was doing. So when I took him in the restroom to change him I realize that he was SOAKED clear down to his socks. So after I changed him and cleaned him up I go back out to get my mom and look down on floor and see a HUGE wet spot of poo on the floor under his high chair. Well I was so embarrassed by it that I actually told the waitress that he had spit up. It taught me two things that day, One was to pay closer attention to them during those moments and 2 was to never pick anything up off the floor of a restaurant. Gross

messes

So today I was busy with an event for our local rescue squad so my parents had to watch B-man for me, however he did manage to make a huge mess in his pants so I decided that was a great topic for the day.

They are inevitable and will happen at the wort times possible, they will come in many forms, from Poo, to puke, to food and dirt. The trick is to not make the mess any worse while trying to clean it up....Good Luck! One thing id for sure, you are lucky if it happens at home so you can clean it with a bath. However if you are not that lucky here a few tips. Always keep either a washcloth in the diaper bag or buy the disposable wash clothes that already have the soap you just need to wet them. Those are what I prefer just because if you don't have access to a bathroom you hopefully will have a bottle of water so you can still use it.

The 2nd thing to always have is a plastic bag or a diaper bag that comes with a wet clothes bag so you don't have to smell it all the way home. any plastic bag tied tight will work, I don't recommend putting them in the trunk because it will be 10 times worse if you forget them in there.

Lastly NEVER EVER leave the house without at least 1 change of clothing just for these moments. That being said My son has ridden home in a diaper.

Crazy of the day

So I have decided to add a Crazy of the Day, this will be one (at least) crazy moment that my son had for the day. It could be a meltdown something cute he said or did or any other random moment that I deem worth sharing. so Todays Crazy of the day actually happend at 8 O'clock this morning. I needed to get the garbage out before the trash man came so I was taking stuff out of the house and B-man wanted to help as usual, well before I could get a hand on him he had grabbed an empty soda box and headed out the door. Ok honey, set it down and go back in the house. Nope. Throw it at Momma and run as fast as I can across the yard in nothing but my PJ's to my slide sounds like way more fun. So I hurry up and move the garbage can, run accross the yard in nothing but my PJ's wondering what the neighbors are thinking. So yep my morning started out with a barefoot 2yr old running through the wet grass at 8 am. while I chase him around the yard in my PJ's what a sight for all to see. Always something new with a toddler.

The myth

So I have very recently learned that the terrible two's are not a myth that parents use to try to scare us from having sex too young. Since about 18 months my son has had a major attitude but nothing I couldn't control then it was like a light switch at 2. This kid seriously is like the Hulk. He is just a nice calm little gentleman then all of the sudden something sets him off and he turns colors and I'm sure he could tear off his clothes if I let him. So what do I do? Well that depends on each situation.

My son really prefers to be outdoors so sometimes his fits are simply because he would rather not go into the store or restaurant, in which case I have to let him scream it out inside. I know that many people would rather I take him out where he is not bothering them, but I have to teach him that sometimes we have to stay inside. I try to apologize but most people are pretty understanding even you think they are not. Now, in some instances he does have to be taken out to calm down. I have found that in my case he needs to go directly to the car and in his car seat, at least for a few minutes.

I know that I often overreact to the tantrums and fits, and feel people are looking at me like I'm bad parent, I think most parents probably feel this way at some point. I think for me the biggest issue is that people my parents age still look at you with the "that kid needs a good swat on the butt" look, and they don't understand that is not an option. So I just have to remind myself to take a deep breath, give my son a hug, try not to cry in Wal-mart, and finish what I'm doing and go about my day.

The begining

So this is going to be a little bit like LOST for a while until I get caught up there will be some back and forth so now a little back story.

While I was pregnant I decided that I was going to try to be a conventional parent, not get to out of control with worries about what is the right and wrong way to do things but to just do what I felt was right for ME and MY CHILD.
One thing I decided before he was born was not to Breastfeed. I choose to tell people this because it is such a hot topic and feel that women need to know that they have the right to decide for themselves. For me the choice was simple, I worked in a very small office with busy phones and little free time and it was going to make pumping very difficult after my short 6 week leave. I do not have anything against it, and feel women should be able to feed when they need to and not be looked down upon for it.

The second thing I was very insistant on was not using store bought baby foods. Now let me just say this was not a choice I made because I feel those foods are not healthy, I believe they are perfectly fine, I just felt for me it was a better fit. I have access to, and grow a large vegetable garden, as well as feeling it would help free up money and that would come to be a real issue for us later.

The last thing I did before he was born was start reading blogs and became very active on WebMd and their pregnancy boards, there was a great deal of support and ideas available 24 hours a day there, and it actually has become a website I still visit everyday, and a have made some Great friends there.

Step one of being a parent

SO here I am 2 yrs after giving birth and I have now decided it's time to figure out how to be a parent. I have step one down, I had a child. I survived the BABY!!

Now the real fun begins as does a whole different chapter of Parenting. TODDLER YEARS. As I begin this Blog i will go back to the 1st two years and try to explain, or rationalize how I got through them, as I am still in a bit of disbelief myself that I have made it this far.