Where's the Parenting Manual?

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Last night during dinner. We’re on Time Out #lostcount. Jesse is in his TO spot in front of a glass-front bookcase. Beau and I are in the kitchen - he can see Jesse, I cannot. B: “He’s licking the glass.” What I heard might have been that, but could have been “looking in the glass.” I turned to see Jesse licking the glass and faced back to the front, l…aughing. B: “He’s kissing the glass now.”

And behind me I heard what sounded like a passionate make-out - heavy breathing and moans. I busted out laughing. And then the timer went off. B: “Go hug your mother.” Evil man.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

remember the fiasco of the too large Crocs? Now we have the fiasco of two pairs of better fitting Crocs to replace!

I bought a pair of navy blue Crocs on my way home from work last night. Marmie bought a pair of orange (woo!) Crocs for Jesse’s birthday (which is Saturday).

I’ll just keep the blue pair for Molly for when her feet fit in them - I know that Jesse probably wore them all day today, sans socks. And the tags were tossed into the trash. There’s no way I can return them in good conscience.

And I should have called my mother before I made the impulse purchase.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Jesse has a pathological love of his Walmart cheapo fake Crocs. Despite the fact that his toes are crunched painfully (I can only assume) because they are too small, he insists on wearing them still. Prior to Christmas we were only letting him wear them around the house, like slippers.

Aside: He has an equal pathological hatred for socks. We have no idea where it came from, but it is a battle nearly to the death to get them on his feet. We compromise and only require them when we know he’s going outside, since it’s winter and we seem to be in The New Ice Age.

Anyway, I put a pair of real Crocs on his wishlist for Christmas - orange, because it’s his favorite color. You may have seen the pictures of him wearing the shoes while also astride his orange bike.

We noticed that his feet seemed awfully close to overlapping the heel, so I dug out this size chart that I had printed so that we could actually measure the boy’s foot. It seemed silly to keep guessing at his foot size, clearly we weren’t keeping up with his growth. He obediently laid his foot on the sheet and his toe hit the line at size 11.

Wha?!

The shiny new Crocs are 8/9. Oy vey.

I promptly hopped on the computer to find larger shoes for the kid. There are no orange Crocs to be had in his size. And then I noticed the fleece-lined versions, which seemed a better way to go with his socks phobia. I read that it was wise to get the next size up if opting for the fleece lined shoes, to accommodate socks. Knowing that there would be days when we insisted on socks, this is what I ordered. In brown - his beloveds are brown with an orange stripe.

They arrived yesterday and they are HUGE! He came down to the basement with them on and he looked Bozo. It was obvious that they were way too big - even with socks. There’s easily one full inch at the heel and when I felt for his toes, there was about that much empty space there, too.

Ah, comedy of errors.

Aside: Beau bought mittens for the kid last week. He carefully measured the boy’s hand to make sure he bought the right size. Like me, he opted for the next size up since his hands measured .25” less than the minimum of that size (medium). They are enormous. So he’ll be set for shoes and mittens next winter, at least. *sigh*

We figure his feet are probably size 10. So now the question, do I bother to order a pair of size 10 Crocs for him, too?

Friday, December 11, 2009

Wow, my last post was on November 30th? That’s just sad. Ye olde blogge is sorely neglected.

Is anyone still checking in?

Here’s a load of random stuff from the past couple of weeks:

1. Watched Night at the Museum 2 - not as good as the first, we laughed in places probably not intended to be funny. Hank Azaria was not funny. 2.5 stars out of 5. Next up: Julie & Julia. Amy Adams, yet again, in all of her perkiness.

2. We have beef. A large quantity of it. It looks very good - nice and lean. We managed to screw up in our order of the cuts wanted, which resulted in a lot of ground beef, but that was our fault. The first to be eaten will be t-bone steaks on Monday or Tuesday.

3. Jesse is entering the challenging 3s. I loved 2. He’s just shy of 3 and there are times when I wonder if he’ll make it to 4. The problem is his insatiable curiosity and intelligence. My fear is that he will figure out how to dismantle the DVD player (or something similar). Yesterday he decided to decorate his room with Boudreaux’s Butt Paste. I won’t go into further details, except that attempts at clean up involved Orange Glo furniture polish. I’ll be breaking out the OxiClean tomorrow. Truthfully, I haven’t had a chance to investigate the whole situation yet because I haven’t been in his room in daylight since it happened.

4. Traffic is killing me this week - it took me 2 hours to get from work to our church last night, which is actually closer than if I had gone home. I had band practice, so I had to be there.  Got no dinner and I didn’t get home until after 10pm. If Beau hadn’t brought the kids to the pot luck lunch at work I wouldn’t have seen either of them at all yesterday. Boo.

5. Why is December so freakin’ busy? I have worship team this weekend. Then next weekend I have a worship arts team Christmas party at our pastor’s house on Saturday night (with the departure of our worship leader in the spring, we’ve been lead by a team of folks in the interim. Supposedly we’re supposed to hear the vision at this party. I have heard bits and pieces from various staff that trouble me.) On Sunday night my small group ladies are having a Christmas pot luck. I’m not sure if we’ll then have our regular Monday night meeting or not, but I know the plan was to be finished with the Meyer book before Christmas, so I think we well.

6. On the Meyer book, I have mixed feelings about it. The general principles are good and the encouragement to go to Scripture is well needed and excellent. However, I have issues with a few of the things she has said - not major theological things, but things that could be taken wrong if out of context.

7. Still no word on a date for my transition to the new job. It’s beyond frustrating. I’m sure my stuff is sitting on some drone’s desk waiting for action, while said drone is out on his/her use-or-lose leave.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Woke up cranky again this morning - at 3am when Molly woke up crying. I was baffled because she hasn’t woken up in the middle of the night for a few weeks now. So I went in to see what was up and still couldn’t figure it out.

I changed her diaper - twice. She managed to wet the new one as I was attaching the sticky strips. All while she was still crying.

I walked with her - crying. I sat and tried to rock her - crying. I felt for teeth - no sign of anything, but still crying. And then I tried to nurse her - that ratcheted up the crying several notches.

At that point I put her in the crib to see about getting a bottle when Beau stumbled out of our room. He went to hold her while I made a 2 oz bottle. She grabbed at it in desperation and gulped it down pretty quickly. And then started crying as soon as it was empty and looking at the bottle as if it had betrayed her. So I went to make 2 more ounces, which she gulped down equally quickly. She started to cry again, but I burped her and then she started to rub her sleepy eyes. She was sound asleep by 3:30am.

But I was wide awake so I’ve been up since 3am. I’m armed with several teas today - both for the caffeine that I think I’ll need, but also for the warmth on this chilly, rainy day and for my diet.

Friday, August 28, 2009

I didn’t do well with the pumping this week and we ended up one bottle short for Molly Ann today. I was hoping that Beau could stretch the 2 bottles we had for her through the day, but that didn’t work. He just fed her the last bottle a little while ago.

I can’t leave work early and we don’t want to dip into the freezer stash because of the supply issue that I’m still trying to fix. So because my husband rocks, he’s bringing MA to me later so that I can feed her.

How awesome is that?

Thursday, August 27, 2009

As is usually the case, Jesse came home with a cold after spending the weekend at all three services at church. He started the snot on Tuesday. Beau started feeling poorly yesterday. Poor little Molly Ann was super snotty and snorty when I fed her overnight and worse this morning. And not to be left out, I woke up with the tickle in my throat that warns of the cold in me, too.

What makes it harder is that I’m on worship team this weekend. So I have band practice tonight. And then I’ll be at church from about 3:30pm to 6:30pm on Saturday and then from about 8am - 1pm on Sunday. Beau and kids will pretty much hang at home so as not to share their germs with the other kids. This means I’ll have to pump while at church both days in order to replace the bottles that would have been saved for Tuesday that MA will consume over the weekend instead. I’m kind of hoping that MA will be on the mend enough that I can take her with me on Sunday so that I can nurse her instead of pumping. We’ll just have to pray and see, I guess.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

When my sister was up here a couple of weeks ago we were talking parenting stuff and she called me a “granola mom.” Initially I was a bit offended, but then I realized that I am, sort of, so I wear the badge with honor. I’m a good mom.

What makes me chuckle is that how the two of us ended up as mothers is not how we envisioned it when we were much younger. Jaynee swore she would never marry or have kids. She loved kids, but didn’t want any of her own - her plan was to teach or something like that. I never wanted anything more than to be a wife and mother.

Fast forward to our mid-late 20s when Jaynee got married. I was still single and mostly content with my marital status, but I did still hope to get married sooner rather than later. My biological clock was ticking louder as I approached 30. Anyway, she was married for 5 years before they started to have children. I was spinster Aunt Jen. And Jaynee was (and still is) a good mom to her kids, but she’s the super laid back and cool mom. Her house is where the kids will want to hang out in their neighborhood.

I was nearer to my 40th birthday by the time I met and married Beau. I was 2 months shy of that milestone birthday when Jesse was born. Now, two years later, we have Molly Ann, too.

Motherhood is not what I imagined it to be (it’s harder), and me as Mom is not how I pictured either. I thought I’d Ferberize my babies into sleeping. The reality is that there is no way I could do the Ferber method. I’m not completely of the Sears co-sleep method either, but somewhere in between.

I never thought much about feeding methods until Jaynee decided to formula feed her babies. I realized that I wanted to breastfeed any babies I had, or at least to try. With Jesse I tried to breastfeed, but circumstances and my ignorance on certain things about breastfeeding meant that it didn’t work out as I had hoped, so he was mostly formula fed with some breast feeding for the first 4 months and then exclusively formula fed for the rest of that first year. What I have since learned through my breast feeding with Molly Ann is that I probably could have exclusively breast fed Jesse, but it would have taken a lot more work than I was probably ready to do or handle. But I’m not making that mistake with Molly Ann, for a number of reasons, chief among them being the cost of formula. So I’m working hard at keeping my milk production up and while it is frustrating and stressful, I think it’s totally worth it.

I love the time I spend with Molly Ann when I feed her. I regret that I lost out on some of that with Jesse. I feel that I’m way more in tune with MA than I ever was with Jesse. Of course, some of that may be merely knowing more about what to do with a baby since she’s the second one, but I’m convinced that a lot of it is from having her physically attached to me for hours each day. The down side is that Beau doesn’t have the same connection with her, so he’s more challenged when I’m at work. With Jesse, he had an easier time because he was the primary food giver. I do see that as a huge down side.

Anyway, I say all this to say that I am much more the hands on mother than I ever thought I’d be. I can’t apologize for that because I like that I’m that kind of mom. Actually, I think Beau is that kind of dad, too. Granola parenting works in our family, although I don’t think we’re true granola parents otherwise our kids would be sleeping with us in the family bed, right?

Friday, July 31, 2009

There are a couple of new updates at Ticklish Giggles.

Monday, July 27, 2009

We survived a 4-day weekend without Daddy. It was a near thing at times.

Saturday went well enough, capped by church and dinner out with my parents.

Sunday was super long as I watched the clock all day, waiting for the time to depart to the airport to pick up Beau. He made it home on time and safely and I’m eternally grateful to the Lord for keeping him and us safe while he was away.

I am also eternally grateful for the days alone with my kids. I think I especially benefited from that time with Jesse since I don’t really get to spend as much one-on-one time with him because of Molly Ann. I came to appreciate what a sweet, tender, generous, polite, hilarious, wicked smart, adorable little boy my son is. He is a credit to his dad, really.

Friday, July 24, 2009

I posted yesterday before the landlord arrived to replace the front door and to paint the front of the house. He had called at 12:50pm. He and his son arrived at 4pm. That’s a long commute. */smirk* They were here for about 3 hours and Jesse was in hog heaven. They were greatly amused by his ramblings about screwdrivers, hammers, banging, and the like. And they were very patient with his ramblings. He pretty much parked himself right at the door and watched everything they did to take the old one out and put the new one in.

No painting was done.

They said they’d be back in the morning, but not too early because they like to work out. I wouldn’t guess that by looking at their incredibly buff and tanned chests, arms, and legs. Morning to him means noon, apparently. I managed to get the kids fed and down for afternoon naps before they started work - Jesse will miss out today, but I’m OK with that and I think the guys are OK with that, too. Anyway, they’re back today to finish the door (the locks needed tweaking and the weather stripping, too) and to paint both the house and the door.

I’ve moved the plans to visit At Play Cafe to tomorrow when they have another session of Messy Art class. I figure to let Jesse play and paint and then I’ll bring him home for lunch, a bath (if needed), and nap, and then we’ll go to church in the evening. Marmie said something about dinner after church, which I’m game to do - I will be happy for adult conversation after three days with just the kids.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

It’s lunchtime in the Speaks house and so far it’s been a full morning as single parent.

We went for a walk - I pulled Jesse in his red wagon and wore Molly Ann. We paused for some playground time during the circuit.

There followed some coloring/drawing with Jesse while Molly Ann napped. Then a quick snack just as Molly Ann woke up.

I fed Molly Ann while Jesse watched some Schoolhouse Rock with me. He seemed intrigued - at least he stayed in the room.

Then when I worked on getting Molly Ann down for her next nap, I put Jesse into his room to play. When she quit the battle against the sleep she desperately wanted, I went in to find him in his tent and ready for his own nap. OK, but I’m a bit alarmed at the thought of no afternoon nap because that part of the day is when he gets the most rowdy.

Lunch was ravioli and he ate enough for two adults. Given that breakfast was ignored, I think he was hungry.

Now we’re waiting for the landlord to arrive - he’s installing our new front door (finally) and also painting the front of the townhouse. Jesse will enjoy watching that, I’m sure.

Molly Ann is sleeping again already after her lunch, too.

So far, so good…

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

I posted on Facebook that I needed ideas for keeping Jesse occupied while Beau is away this weekend. A friend posted a link to At Play Cafe.

After poking around their website and a quick phone call to get clarification on a couple of questions**, I have decided that we are definitely going on Friday afternoon. We’re going for the Messy Art session because it’s free, although they charge $8 to enter the doors. So I figure to get there early enough to let Jesse play in their play area while we wait for the art session. While he’s being creative, I’ll feed Molly Ann. Then we’ll head home.

I want to talk to Beau about some of the classes they offer. They cost a bit (although the fees seem reasonable), but they look like awesome ways to channel some of Jesse’s curiosity and energy.

** 1. Q: How messy is the Messy Art ? A: As messy as your kid makes it.

  2. Q: Is there a place where I can nurse my infant? A: I can use their office or their sofa section in the back.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Accidental parenting makes for cranky baby and sleep deprivation.

[UPDATE]: More here...

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

There’s a new post at WC.

Did I mention the other day that parenting is hard?