reflections

Aug 282008
 
Dear Little Pumpkin,

This morning you discovered you could see your reflection in your high chair tray.  You were thrilled to pieces, and were singing happy songs to your reflection.  Mommy was thrilled, not only to see you happy, but to see you eating half the third cup of rice cereal I made you!  Because yesterday all you ate other than your bottles was four bites of rice cereal for Mommy and five fishy crackers for Daddy.

You aren’t feeling so well right now.  First you caught Daddy’s cold and gave it to Mommy.  Then when you were almost better from that, you got Nanna’s flu.  I was so proud of you, though, because even though your tummy hurt so much you had diarrhea, you did it in the potty chair!  Mommy’s little girl is getting so big.

Last night you had a fever of 101.1.  This morning it was down to 99.8.  But we didn’t have a very good night.  You slept for three different two-hour stretches.  But we were up lots of hours in between times.  You were so hot.  And yet you wanted to snuggle up with Mommy, which only made you warmer.  Sometimes you wanted a bottle, sometimes you didn’t.  You just plain didn’t feel good.  You tried so hard to be good, but we could tell by your eyes how badly you felt.

God gives mommies strength for nights like that, though.  The times when you’ve been up just once in the night I’ve wondered how in the world I did it when you were a tiny baby and got up every two and a half hours.  But last night I remembered.  I don’t do it on my own.  God props my eyes open with Heavenly toothpicks and helps Mommy think clearly to do things like strip you down to just your diaper and lightest pj’s.  Things she wouldn’t normally think of in the really tired state she was in.

You’re not feeling well still this morning, but you’re having a nice little nap, so that will help.  And I’m glad you ate some more solid foods.  I was wondering if you were going to just go back to the bottle!  I wish Mommy could pump enough for you to only drink Mommy’s milk.  I s’pose it would help if I drank at least the amount of water that I want to make into breastmilk!  As your daddy says, you’re never going to hear the end of this when you get older, making Mommy pump your milk instead of drinking it straight from the source.

Daddy saw the nurse who helped with your delivery at our store yesterday.  When you were born, she had just found out she had breast cancer.  She’s in the middle of a lot of treatments, and has surgery on Friday.  But Daddy said she just has the sweetest attitude.  She’s a very nice Christian lady.  I’m glad she was still able to work when you were born.  And by the time you have more brothers or sisters, we’re praying she’ll be feeling all healthy and will be back at the hospital to help deliver them.  But since we don’t know when that will be, hopefully she’ll come in our store again and you can see her!

Aww, I hear you waking up.  Sounds like you need some Mommy snuggles, and maybe some more num-nums.  Mommy doesn’t get much done with you feeling this way, but I don’t mind.  You and Daddy are my most important priorities.  And the one good thing about you being sick is all the snuggles you give us!  Normally you’re such a busy little girl you don’t have time for snuggling, let alone being tired enough to fall asleep on my shoulder.  Daddy and I love it when you snuggle down into our chest.  You’re such a sweet pumpkin and we love you so much.

With lots of love to my poor sick pumpkin,
Mommy

“Why I Like…” (by Ruth Ann)

Aug 222008
 

Why I Like Being 9 Months Old
  • I have (almost) seven teeth to bite into things like cheese and cantaloupe and avocado and organic animal cookies.
  • I only have to take two naps a day, because I sleep ten hours (most) every night.
  • I can keep my balance while I reach for the toys I threw too far.
  • I can roll over onto my tummy, to peek out of my crib and see what Dad and Mom are up to.
  • I get to help Mom and Aunt Marlys cook. I have my own set of bowls, a spatula and measuring cup.
  • I can drink out of big girl cups.
  • I get to sit in the grass and help Mommy hang clothes out on the line. I rearrange the clothespins for her, and pull the small clothes out of the holes in the laundry basket.
  • I have another second cousin. I can’t wait to meet Braedon Alan this winter. And by then I’m going to have two more second cousins! What fun.
Why I Like Going Potty on the Potty Chair
  • It’s a lot more comfortable than sitting in a messy diaper.
  • Daddy doesn’t talk so much about the diaper money coming out of my allowance.
  • My potty chair makes fun noises when I bang on it.
  • It’s fascinating to watch the laundry spin around in the washing machine.
  • I can mop up the bathroom floor for Mom while I sit on the potty chair.
Why I Like Drinking Mommy’s Milk from a Bottle
  • I can hold Daddy or Mommy while I have my meal (but I still prefer Mom).
  • I can sit, stand, sleep, or even ride in the car while I eat.
  • I can see everything going on around me much better (Mom so got in the way!).
  • I can take as long as I want to eat, because even if Mom has to do something else I still can hold my bottle!
  • I can be a big girl when I want and hold my bottle, but I can still pretend to be a baby girl again and need to snuggle up with Mom while I eat.
  • Because everybody knows the best glass of milk is ice cold, straight out of the refrigerator.
  • I’ve been such a good child for my parents so far I had to do something to make life a little difficult so they wouldn’t expect perfection for the next 18 years!
  • There are better fresh-squeezed things in life than just orange juice.
Why I Like It When We Have Colds
  • Mommy’s throat hurts, too, so she feeds me whenever I want in the night.
  • Daddy wants to sleep so I get to eat whenever I get up in the night.
  • Mommy feels sorry for me and I get to snuggle with her whenever I’m sad and can’t go to sleep.
  • I think it’s the funniest thing in the world when Dad and Mom blow their noses (of course they do it just for my entertainment–I mean, they could use my handy-dandy nose suction thingie!).
Why I Like Being Me
  • I’m the only person under 16 at my church, so I’m the center of attention, especially when I sing during the sermon.
  • I’m the first grandchild on Mommy’s side of the family. So I’m perfect. (And impossible to spoil.)
  • I’m the only grandchild close-by to Papa and Nanna’s, so I get to spend lots of time playing with them. (They still understand that I’m perfect, too.)
  • Papa and Nanna grow organic vegetables just for me to eat. I like their cantaloupe, but I wish they would grow cheese instead. It’s the same color, and a lot nicer to chew.
  • I have a Daddy who reads books to me and lets me look at his car magazines and listen to his baseball games with him.
  • I’m cute and everybody knows it.

notes to self

Aug 222008
 
  • If you have a late-night thought to delete a certain sentence in a political op-ed piece, don’t neglect to delete it.
  • If you are so stuffed up you can’t smell, taste your child’s food before you feed it to them.
  • When your child has gobbled up half their food in a hurry and then suddenly won’t let the spoon near their face, and you begin to detect a hint of sour milk, put two and two together.
  • Mixing fruit with yogurt is the best way to make rice cereal go sour overnight.
  • Don’t stop taking Vitamin C because you’re starting to feel better.
  • Don’t forget about drinking water when the temperature suddenly drops 30 degrees.
  • Drinking water is a necessity when pumping breastmilk.
  • Drinking water is a necessity when sick.
  • Don’t blow your nose with your child in your lap.
  • Children like to suck on pieces of Kleenex they have obtained unobserved.
  • Don’t always write in bullet points.

sun through the clouds

Aug 202008
 
It sprinkled much of the night last night. Sometimes it poured, sometimes it was a soft patter. It cleared the muggy air nicely. And there’s not quite so much smoke in the air. Now it’s cloudy and cool, with some sun peeking through the clouds. What a nice break after 110 degree temperatures over the weekend.

And now it’s many hours later, during another of Pumpkin’s naps. I have French Baguette dough is rising, and am looking through recipe books to decide which cream of broccoli soup recipe to make for dinner. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m making French Baguettes instead of Sourdough French Bread because…I killed my starter again. I took it out of the fridge yesterday morning, and when I went to mix it up last night it was pink and smelled nasty. Merritt pronounced it very pink indeed. Time to get more starter from my mom-in-law… And oh yes, we’re having ham with that dinner menu. Last night’s dinner inadvertantly was void of meat. It was Mexican Panbread with tomato sauce, grated chocolate, all sorts of peppers and onions, and cheese…but it had no meat. Such things must not be!

Thanks for all your kind emails… We’re finally feeling better, I think. At least, we are at the beginning of the day. I have no voice today, though. And quite the cough. Pumpkin woke up at 3 a.m. and I fed her, because if her throat felt anything like mine did from sleeping with the mouth open…it wasn’t pleasant. We’re having issues with going to sleep at night–it takes her several hours of eating, refusing the bottle (breast milk or formula, doesn’t matter), crying when she’s put to bed, refusing the bottle, until finally she’s tired enough to settle down and eat and get a full tummy. When she’s full, she snuggles up on top of Mommy, smiles, and is asleep before I get her to the crib. Oh well, we’ll get it figured out again. Teeth and colds have messed up our routine. Interestingly enough, my mom looked at my baby book, and I did the same thing, getting in all my teeth on the right before I got my left teeth–must be hereditary? I, too, was small in the pounds area as a baby. It seems the sticky note with those details has flown away, but as I recall I was close to 16 pounds at 6 months, 17 pounds at 9 months, and 19 pounds at a year. Punkin was 14 pounds at 7 months, and from putting her on the scale at the store today, it looks like we’re closing in on 15 pounds again at a day short of 9 months! Okay, so she’s smaller than I was. But we’re working on it! She loves cheese and yogurt, but wasn’t so wild about the way Mommy had cooked the chicken. “Not so much pepper, Mom!” was the way I interpreted the expressions. And at least with using some formula, I don’t feel pressured to pump X amount of milk. Which leads to less stress which leads to more ounces pumped overall. But some days there’s just not time for pumping, when we’re running thither and yon and at other people’s houses. And oh yeah, there’s no way to discreetly express milk, so it doesn’t work at the store, either.

I always hang out laundry before it rains. It never fails. But a load and a half are drying under the cover, and with this wind I’m optimistic that the half load out on the big clothesline might be dry before the next rain comes through. Catching it before it does is the trick.

The fair is this weekend. It will be Pumpkin’s first. I was “great with child” last year, as I well remember. And the year before, Merritt was in a wheelchair. We never seem to have it easy getting around at the fair!

Time to check on the baguettes and choose that recipe…

ahhh, cloudy skies

Aug 192008
 

Ruthie and I are sitting on Katie’s couch, waiting for pictures to upload to Costco. (Their new website is terribly slow. But they gave me fifty free prints. So I’m not complaining too much.)  So as I train my daughter not to help me type, I thought I’d update you on how we’re doin’ at the little pink house.

Reed and Mel and Sterling left today, Marlys’ “friend” David yesterday. We all miss them…some miss some more than others. ;) Photos forthcoming–if the others ever upload to Costco.

Dad and Mom and Bill are pretty much the only ones who aren’t sick. I’m feeling maybe a little better. But my head still feels twice its size, and my stuffy nose is hanging around with the cough. Merritt’s finally pretty much better, and Ruth has just a bit of a stuffy nose left. Merritt and I decided even though it’s nice to be able to share the misery, it’s better if we’re not both sick at the same time–that way at least the dishes get done!

Ruthie slept better last night. She drank the four ounces I’d pumped, then she cried and cried. I finally got out the formula, and gave her four more ounces. She slept until 8 a.m. I think I’m going to pump all I can, and then add formula. Like the doctor said, normally you’d figure she’d nurse when she got hungry enough–but with her losing weight we don’t want to wait that long. And as much as I want to just give her breast milk, it’s more important right now for her to put on weight. So I’ll give her all I can pump, and then feed her formula until she won’t take any more.

It’s been a scorcher of a week, bu the clouds rolled in last night and it’s beautiful, breezy, and even a tad rainy out. We’re loving the change in weather!

who’s NOT sick?

Aug 182008
 
Summer colds are just the pits. The number of people who do not have the cold is dwindling to a very small percentage. I feel rather miserable. It could be due to the only five hours of sleep last night, and even less the night before… Pumpkin is finally feeling better, just doing lots of sleeping (during the day) and not much eating.

I took her to the doctor this morning… She’s down to 14 pounds, 8 ounces. Only 8 ounces more than she was two months ago. Almost 8 ounces less than she was before she stopped nursing. That puts her into the 5th percentile for her age. Our assignment for the month is to gain weight, lots of it. Otherwise we have to go back and see the doctor again. And this is speaking of my daughter who has only chewed on the bottle nipple all day long, drinking maybe 2 ounces of milk since morning, and half a dozen bites of pear and cereal. And this is written at 4 p.m.

I think we’re getting in another tooth. And I think I’d really like to sleep tonight. Oops, gotta blow my nose…

the sun’s shinin’

Aug 152008
 
Just popping in to say hello…  We’re holding steady, got the routine of pumping and all figured out, and Pumpkin has been sleeping really well at night, until last night when she woke up at 1 a.m. with the stuffiest of noses…  Poor thing.  She slept with Mommy for a while, but by 3 was feeling better enough to be in her own bed.  Has lots of sneezes and a very runny nose today, but is cheerful in spite of it all.  Merritt’s already to the cough, so it’s a short cold.  And thanks to all the kissing, I seem to have gotten enough of my husband’s antibodies to beat the cold.  It’s hot and busy around here, but we’re doing good.  Drinking lots of coffee and water…!

sighs and sunshine

Aug 122008
 
I’m thinking of opening a dairy, folks.  All-natural breast milk.  The only problem is, someone drinks each ounce before I have time to bottle and label it…  I tried tricking her yesterday.  Holding the bottle right next to me, but putting my nipple in her mouth instead of the bottle.  Oh that did not go over well!  Each time I tried it she either got mad or cried like I’d terribly offended her.  I think she likes the way the nipple straight out of the refrigerator feels on her gums.  It’s not that she doesn’t like my milk.  (Well, she doesn’t care for the way I add water to it to stretch it…)  I’m just praying it’s a “nursing strike” that will end soon.  Otherwise I’ll feel like I’ve switched to a career as a dairyman’s wife. 

We’re all a little low on sleep around here.  Someone was up from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. this morning.  And her daddy has a nasty cold.  He was just finally over the last cold he caught from Tom and Megan’s family.  But Meg called Monday morning and the water worked when the city hooked it up.  Yay!  My husband is amazing.

I sat outside in the sunshine this morning, painting my toenails while my pumpkin napped.  Sometimes it’s good to take a few deep breaths and sit in the sunshine.  Especially when one climbs into bed the night before practically in tears over everything…  Being stressed doesn’t really help with the whole milk flow thing, either. 

But here we are, another day, another mealtime.  At least our clothes are finally un-packed and put away, and the laundry’s done.  Except for those two last items I need to get off the line. 

I love being a mom.  Some days are just harder than others.  Must be time for more chocolate and sunshine…

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