31 Aug 2007 baby food! and 15 weeks! Grace is 15 weeks today! YAY! She was offered a bottle so far 3 times this week. Last night, away from home, she actually took about an ounce with much less crying than normal. I then nursed her though b/c she was choking and sputtering. She forgets to swallow if it's not pouring down her throat so I might try a sippy. I was recommended to try a nubby one? I guess it has more of a nipple shaped sippy or something. Anyways, we might try that. I've been on a baby food kick this week. I've decided that it will be easier to start making baby foods now rather than waiting until I have two mobile children! This week I had three leftover banana's that were on the last day anyone in our house would even consider eating them so I pureed them up= they made a whole tray! (I puree food and put them in ice cube trays to freeze and then transfer them into plastic freezer bags I mark. Each cube makes one ounce and so you can mix and match and control how many ounces you defrost at a time. Its VERY cheap, more work than the little jars but for me it was SO worth it for Tyler!) I also got peaches and nectarines on sale at walmart so i baked those and did them- 8 fruit gave me 2 full (I mean FULL) trays plus a 4 or so oz tupperware container b/c I only have two trays at this time. I really need to buy more! So this week a friend gave me two gi-normous squash so i'm making those. These suckers took three pans and three hours to bake (one hour each pan). I've got two trays in the freezer, a two quart drink container almost full and still at least half a squash left to puree! I'm trying to add as little water as possible so I have the option to thin with formula or breastmilk in the future so i would easily have twice as much if I thinned it out! I'd really like to get some fresh peas and green beans going next week but we'll see. It only keeps for so long but I want my little girl to have options! So while reading up and reminding myself how to do this, in addition to reading up on potty training I found that now the World Health Organization (WHO) is saying that for babies Bmilk or formula is best for babies up to 6 months and THEN introduce solids. So what are your thoughts? What did you do and why? We started Tyler on cereal between four and five months because he was so huge. At 6 months he was 20 pounds. Grace is barely 14 according to my guess based on weighing myself and then myself holding her. I think we waited a good month before introducing veggies. I really stuck to that "one food per week" rule too so it was a long time before he had enough of a variety to start him on real solids. As I remember it though once he started he took to foods very well and I can only think of a few things he won't eat. Speaking of "Won't Eat" we had a major battle of wills today. He ate his PB&J on whole wheat as if he had not eaten in days (wich is so not true b/c we ate everything in Lori's house last night- i'm sure she had to go shopping today to restock!) and so I gave him the melon I cut for dinner. I didn't give him much and he flat out refused to eat it. After sitting inhis chair for a half hour 'discussing' this with me (while I did my best to ignore him), two time outs, a spanking and my trying to feed him I just put him to bed. Too much craziness and not enough routine the past 2 weeks!! I guess I'd say we both won. He didn't have to eat all the melon but I had control and ultimately - quiet. I really should have made him eat them when he got up b/c when I went into his room to get him up the first thing he said was that he was not hungry and he did not want to eat his melon. I'm chosing to let this battle slide. Gary has aspirations of getting home before 6 so we are going to celebrate by going to McDonalds and then to get diapers. Tyler is literally wearing the last size 6 diaper in the house. I was going to go today, with both kids, but the crabbiness and the squash beat me down. I did play outside with Tyler for over an hour today though which is a major accomplishment for me. I did spend some of that time pulling weeds but we got to use both of Tylers wheelbarrows, rakes and shovels in the process. We also unearthed the sandbox. I washed out the lid and left it open in hopes of attracting some air to dry it out. Yes, wet sand is good, runny water-logged sand is not. It Is Gross. We are taking a break from potty training. It's just too much for this time when Gary is so stressed and has to be gone so much... I will either pick it up again mid-September or drop it altogether until January. Of course in January there is a chance Grace will be crawling and since Tyler never gets (or got) into anything she'll be my child who flushes toys down the toilet and drinks the window cleaner and climbs into the refrigerator... *(Side: just peeked in on Tyler and he found two more diapers. We're safe!)* I know that many will say i'm just being lazy- fine. That's your perogative! I read these stories of kids who train in like one day or one week and I just really want that to be me! I think Tyler's too strong willed for that though! We'll see. Mostly what I need is for Gary and I to sit down and talk about it- just the two of us- and decide what we THE PARENTS want to do. Grace is suddenly a scooting maniac. She does this thing where she plants her feet, arches her back and shoots herself across the floor. She also can turn herself so she's like a little inch worm working her way across the room. SHe never wakes up in the place we put her in the bed. I guess that means it's time to get the cute animals out of there! :) She may also be teething already b/c she doesn't suck her fingers, she chews her fist! She's getting her whole hand in there sometimes! Well, I must move on b/c Tyler is ready for some positive attention. 25 Aug 2007 My Neely Day Ok. Today was a Neely Day. It's a new term I came up with today. My friend Jen Neely (hi jen!) is wonderful- I love her to death- totally admire her- and she's crazy- in all the good ways. She's a stay at home mom of two which we have in common but she has the craziest stories she blogs about! Her husband is in construction so she's a single parent for days, weeks, and months on end. To top it off she's pregnant with thier third and has no air conditioning. Needless to say sometimes she just has those days where things go so crazy off schedule/wrong. She blogs about them pretty regularly and belive me- its' better than a novel. So today I was having a crazy day and in the middle of it, when I couldn't decide whether to laugh, or cry, or scream, the thought occured to me "relax, you're just having a Neely Day!" Last night I was up to 1:00 am for no particular reason... so it all started when Grace woke up at 4 am crying... then 4:30... then 5... then 5:30 when I moved her to the extra baby seat in our room close to the bed. This serves for those times where I just can't stay awake and can also hold the paci in her mouth from bed and at least have my eyes closed and half asleep. (I'm amazed at how many stages of sleep you find there are when you are a mother!) By 5:50 I decided to screw it and just feed her. She wasn't calming down and gary was getting up at 7 to go into work (which was also when I planned to feed her to make the day's schedule of events work) so I didn't want her bothering him too much. He can half-sleep through it but it just wasn't worth it. So I fed her and brought her downstairs where she finally went back to sleep and I slept on the couch. I heard the alarm go off 3 times upstairs and was reminded how long it takes gary to hear it when I'm not there to kick him! This is the alarm clock I've had since at least high school- maybe sooner. In our cell sized dorm room at college I used to have it by my head and I actually could hear the click before the buz somtimes and turn it off before the first buzz sound. That's how light i'm capable of sleeping. So after he came down and left I let myself fall back to sleep. I had him bring down our tiny bathroom clock to set for 8:30 so I could get the troops up and ready to go get the Angel Food at church and also get Tyler ready for his day with Grandma and Grandpa at the cabin. I got up around 8:15 on my own and started straightening up the things I had neglected the night before, got dressed and started some neglected dishes (shame shame- i know). I got Tyler up by 9.... ish got him dressed and packed. And then fed Grace. I called Steph to see when I could bring Tyler over and she said they were running later than expected so they'd get him hopefully around noon. I had until 11:30 to get the food so I was doing great on time. I was half ready, Tyler totally ready, and Grace not even started- but fed. That's more than half done in my opinion. After talking to Stephanie about the house I had an emotional breakdown about the house-renting stuff falling through and called Gary crying while I made Tyler breakfast and then got off the phone and went to get Grace. She had been happy in her seat all this time so I wanted to get her changed and dressed while Tyler played well by himself. As I picked her up i felt wet. i thought she had just peed out of her diaper- nope. She had an explosion. Literally. Poop was out of her diaper- SIDEWAYS in a way that I can't even figure out how it happened. The diaper was barely messy but the seat was covered as was her side- above the diaper. SO I took her up, placed a towel over the changing table pad (i know those things are washable but i'd rather just wash the towel- i'm weird) and tried to change her. She got one hand and both feet into the mess which then smeared it on her oposite leg and there was all the mess on her side so clearly we had to do a bath. So I wrapped her in the towel and put her in the crib, yelled down to Tyler (who miraculously stayed downstiars rather than hanging onto me yabbering questions incesantly) who said "Ok Mommy!". Thank you LORD! Most of the way through the bath Tyler asked to come up and I let him becuse he wanted to "help"- translation 'bother me'. I kept him from throwing "slippery soap" into Graces little bath seat when he suddenly left and yelled "Daddy's home". I said he wasn't- there was no way -and then I heard the door shut. I was scared to DEATH at this point. I've got my arm supporting my baby in the bath seat, my toddler at the top of the steps and an unidentified person just walked through the door- and Gary not scheduled to be home till noon. At the earliest. It was after 10. Tyler kept yelling dady's home daddy's home so it wasn't even like I could run and hide us or anythying so I just yelled "Gary?" and he yelled "Yeah" and kept talking onthe phone- he was on with the realtor. RELIEF!!! So he then came up telling me all the stuff the realtor said while tyler yabberd on about who-knows-what and I got Grace out and lotioned and dressed. I took her downstairs and by now it was well past the 10:00 leaving goal. I got her all buckled and was still talking with Gary when she threw up. This is literally like the 4th time in her life anything has ever come OUT of her mouth. This was the moment the "neely" thought popped into my head. I also said a quick prayer for her because had Gary not been home, or at least in the state, I think I would have had an emotional meltdown. Seriously. If we ever win the lottery I'm sending Jen and her husband on a crusise or something- no kids allowed. They are seriously hero's in my eyes for how they live and make it work and are so happy and have such wonderful children. Plus, as i read today- she cooks and bakes. She's that kind of friend you secretly wish you could hate because she's so stinking perfect but you love her because she accepts you totally as you are and doesn't judge or make you feel horrid about yourself at the same time! So thankfully Gary got her dressed and sat her up in case she was having digestion issues while I went and treated and washed the poop stained clothes from last night, this morning, and the towel and seat cover. He also talked with Tyler. Finally I got myself finished getting ready and we piled into the car. We got to the church at like 11:20. We got back and I had to try to feed Tyler who was being difficult since he ate breakfast so late but I got him to eat some while I washed dishes and gary made himself something. Finally we sent Tyler off with his grandparents in time for me to feed poor Grace again. We then went shopping. I got to go to Joanne's for some scrapbooking stuff and got a baby toy for Grace at Toys R Us. We came home to rest and feed Grace of course. It was so nice to go out without a two year old! :) It was also nice for peole to oogle over Grace wihtout Tyler stealing the show. ;) All in all it wasnt a total disaster, but I now have a new way of dealing when things don't go "right". Just Relax! It's a Neely Day!