Time Flies

A year has gone by since I first joined this club of parenthood.  A day that I will never forget as one of the most amazing, terrifying, and the brink of a life forever changed.  Looking back on moments where I thought they were lasting an eternity; as those long late afternoons  sitting on the exercise ball (again), waiting for my husband to get home. Nights where I felt as though I never slept.  All those trips in the car with the screaming accompaniment.  There are were times that simply flew by; such as when he first smiled at us, cuddling with me after nursing in the early mornings, and the day that I fell hopelessly in love with him. Yet, I cant remember what it is like for him NOT to be mobile.  Those first four months were tough, enormous with self-doubt, blurry from the lack of sleep, and swollen with pride in the small accomplishments.  Once there was a rhythm created, my son and I's days began to just revolve around one another, both of us growing and learning from one another.  I feel a bit wistful thinking of how much he and I have both changed in the past year as well as how much change the future holds.  Becoming a parent is truly a learning experience that I am so very happy have survived the first year of.

October 29, 2010

Happy 1st Birthday to my sweet baby boy!

Creativity May Run in the Family

My mom is crafty.  Not conniving and witchery, no she can turn a gunny sack into a cute table cloth AND curtains in a matter of days.  I have that gene somewhere in my being, usually it is punked out by my impatience.  Yet here comes Halloween, one of my most stressful holidays in that I can never figure what to be, nor have the patience to sort through my curiosity to come up with something creative.  I think I've worn the same old pair of devil horns for the past 8 years.  Now I am responsible for my child's costume on this most sanctified of events for children.  Geez, and I thought picking out a name was difficult! I know I have years of costumes ahead of me, so I need to enjoy this while it is ultimately still my decision.  My son has always had a soft spot for the turtle decor in his room, so this was naturally a no-brainer for me. Yet, you cannot go and pick up a turtle costume at your local all in one store and I am sure that there are some super pricey ones online. I bypassed all this mess and went straight to the homemade route.  After some researching on the internet, I found a cute idea on someone else's blog and went with it.  
Here is part one and I will post the finished 'product' on the big day.  Have to say that being crafty was easy, quite inexpensive, and {whisper} fun....

Ladies Man

Watch out girls.... He certainly is starting early! 
I just love how gentle and sweet he is. Momma's boy.

Sign of the Times

After almost 6 months, my son finally communicated with me by means of his hands rather than the ever present uhh uhh.  A friend of ours gave us a book or sign language long before he was born and I stuck it on the shelf with the other mindless pieces of spine that are designed to assist in parenting.  I eventually pulled it out once he began to eat solids, solely because I thought it was the "right" thing to do.  Plus it seemed that it would be helpful to get a grip on if he wanted more to eat or drink. We hit the sign language with a gusto, feeling like a monotonous ASL teacher, over pronouncing the word more. All the while clapping the tips of our fingers together over and over.  The poor child probably thinks that anything that is placed on his highchair is a 'more'. I can certainly see where he gets his lack of full attention from, as the luster of sign language waxed and waned as the weeks went on as there were no results.  I realize now that my son lacked the hand coordination not the intellect in grasping the concept. He may not have the hand signal perfect, but he is definitely letting us know what he wants. And lord knows this child always wants MORE food!  

Germaphobia

Here is the case; apparently my son has had a case of diarrhea for a couple days now.  Gross right? I am sure you are stopping your reading now as this already seems to be heading down a path that cannot be good. Believe me, coming from the germaphobe that I am, I do not wish to further this imagery, so I will be gentle. 
 I may digress first to give some background on myself; my name is Anne and I am terrified of illness.  My husband comes home with a cold, and I alienate him for at least four days.  If I catch wind that anyone has thrown up in my vicinity, I will promptly hand sanitize every 10-20 minutes and go to bed each and every night knowing that I will wake with the symptoms. One of my biggest fears (yes really) of becoming a parent is dealing with a sick child.  I just know that I will be the one to get puked on, and then all I will be able to focus on will be how many surfaces do I need to sanitize as my poor child lies in a miserable heap.  I shudder to even think of this.  How on earth I survived as a teacher in elementary school is beyond me.  Must have been the 4 plus bottles of sanitizer I had around.

Look what I can do!

Mobility came with its fair share of fears on my part as well as a lion's share of fun!  I do miss those days where I could plop him down on something and he would STAY there; needless to say, diaper changes have taken on a whole new element.  You have to keep him from rolling away, from trying to reach and grab his poopy self, and as soon as you get one leg in the pants, the other damn leg pops out. I find that when I get frustrated with it I must make a growling noise as he looks at me and makes the same frustrated growl back.  How can you stay  upset then?
Lord knows that chasing him all day does really wear me out. BUT.....it sure is fun to be active with this little guy!

Cruisin Around the Coffee table

Stairmaster

Monkeyin' Around with momma

Whats Bakin?

As a part of my new position in life, I am working on my baking skills since I have more time on my hands. I have never had the patience for baking.  Making cookies would go something like this: I would either eat most of the dough beforehand, open the oven about 15 times to get a good whiff causing the cookies to fall, and then try to scrape the cookies off the tray before they are ready and they end up in a sad heap.  My ever so sweet husband would gobble them up no matter how awful they were. I swore off baking and used the store packaged kind for a long time.  Pregnancy hit and I had a new found love for baked goods. So much so I thought I was pregnant with a girl due to the influx of my sweet tooth.  
Today I tried this recipe out since it was a fall-like day and I was having a craving for chocolate.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/george-duran/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies-recipe/index.html?soc=share
Next time, I'd add a bit more seasoning, like pumpkin pie spice to bring out the pumpkin flavor. 
YUM!

If You Ain't First,You're Last!

I thought I was YEARS away from competing with other parents.  This day and age is all about the overindulgence of our children with extravagant birthday parties, cars when they turn 10, and a never ending hall pass to disobey any other adult that is not their parent.  I am a looong way from that game. Or so I thought.  My son is on the brink of turning one.  I am as stay at home mom who needs a social outlet for us both.  Great! How about some swim lessons on the local base for a month in the summer?  NOT! Apparently they filled up the August class back in January when the sign ups began and I was number 31 on the wait list. I should have signed him up the day he was born.  Alright, how about storytime at the local library. That used to be free and fun if I remember.  Oh, I'm sorry, the fall session is full and this class fills up fast.  I could show up early and stalk the class and see if someone no-shows as a means of getting him in.  Really?!  So I actually asked the woman in charge when the sign ups for the winter session began and how I could best my chances of getting him in.  I felt low, like I have begun this downward slide into parenthood where my 3 year old has an entire circus at his birthday party. It struck me, is this what it takes to get your child the best? Hell, I'm not even trying to get him into the A list school, its dinky swim lessons and free library story time!  Do I have years of scratching out other mom's eyes and brown-nosing with those in the know ahead of me?  Maybe I am naive as any new mom and just thought that there are a plethora of opportunities for my child and that I would have an easy pick down any such avenue. I am just looking for cheap ways to get out of the house at this point so I cannot imagine what the future holds for soccer games and piano lessons.  I know that we are on the move as a family by the time he is school aged, I better get a fortune teller to help me get him into the best schools.       

Say that again?

In my other life I was a teacher. Days of yore spent teaching children how to read, write, and develop a love of math. (ha!)  Now fast forward to my current life where I have just one student and the pressure is to teach greater than when I was at a private school!  I had always thought that language acquisition was a skill that just naturally came to us as we are surrounded by a world that is rich in vocabulary.  When my students came to me, they knew how to speak,yet not always properly (lie-berry for library still kills me) but grasping the basic skills of conversation.  
We are working on raising a bilingual child, whereas I am thinking it may border a third installment of language called gibberish.  For a long while now he has been stuck on monosyllabic sounds and a constant sound of mmmm; that the pitch of which is determined by his ever fluctuating moods.  So, here I am with an 11 month old trying desperately to get him to say 'mama' and he looks me square in the face and beams at me as he says 'dada'! Argh another knife in the gut and more points for the daddy side.  I know that he is learning words from us, hopefully not the kind that I tend to speak whilst driving, as he is recognizing the words that I say.  Is it too early to start spelling?  I cannot ask if my husband wants a glass of milk or I will get the mmmmm sound of the demanding sort.  And those little dissolveable puffs in the plastic containers? He is NUTS for them and even if he just ate a full lunch will freak out if you ask him if he wants some puffs.  Now that I know that he understands the words I am saying, how the hell do I get on the same page?  A couple weeks ago I was taking him up for his bath and I know he repeated the word 'baa' back to me, wherein I totally got excited and finally felt that I had gotten through and that we could finally discuss in depth these late night crying fits.  Did he say it again? As that is the test of understanding a concept.  Sure, he said baa again but this time it was when he wanted to go outside. Wrong context. Of course the mother AND the teacher in me are sliding into our overcoat of guilt in thinking that maybe we aren't practicing enough, maybe there is a problem (definitely not!), do I need to create more diverse lesson plans? Sometimes I get on the internet to see what the land of google thinks about certain topics of parenting, but I have learned not to take these pages as doctrine.  I am happy to say that the books we read, my constant gabbing to my son, and games we play are setting him up to be quite the motormouth, as soon as I can understand what he is saying. 
All and all his language acquisition is really blooming.  Even as the past week has gone on, more sounds or shall I say words are starting to form, as well as a fun pterodactyl sound that he likes to emit when I tell him no.