Taking the fun out of coloring

Marketers have done it again! Taking the fun out of childhood ...

My mom bought wesley a Disney coloring book because he loves Mickey mouse and coloring. I noticed that the pages were thicker and textured, but no matter. We broke out the crayons and stickers and had a fun time coloring (washable crayons of course - he likes to color on the table as well).

Then I noticed why the pages were different! You're not supposed to use good old fashioned crayons, but a dumb colorless marker ("No Mess!") that changes color as you go across the page. How boring is that?! 1 marker instead of a box of crayons ... No letting you decide what color Goofy is ... No making a mess... Sigh. Childhood is officially dead.

Starting to smile

Right at her 1-month birthday, Claire gave me a big smile and since then she's been giving us some toothless grins that make your heart melt. This ones not a toothless grin, just a grin -- a cute one at that.

Not Eating for Two Anymore

I am on a quest of healthier eating.

I went to the doctor today for my 6 week post partum check and I am 10 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight. That, and the start of the Olympics with all the athletes buff bods, is inciting me to eat better, lose the weight, and tone up. Despite this decision, I still find myself drawn to any recipe with the words bundt, donut, or cake in them.

Nevertheless, I am drawing a doghouse around today's date -- much like my mom and her bowling buddies would do on their scoresheet to turn things around -- and starting tomorrow with a clean slate. Which is much easier to do now since Wesley's leftover birthday cake has been officially eaten... by me.

So here's to finally getting my body back after 2 babies!

Time outs

I saw this article on Mothering.com (which used to be a print magazine, and a fantastic one at that) about time outs and other forms of punishment.

See the article here -- "why I think time outs are as damaging as spanking."

This made me start to think and evaluate what we do with Wesley especially now that he is 2.

At his 18 month appointment, our doctor told me that time outs are the best discipline method suggesting that we put a cheap umbrella stroller in a room (not necessarily in a corner away from us), but that we could belt him in and he wouldn't wriggle out. Punishment time was 1 minute per year -- so 1 minute at 18 months.

I did this for a while but found that Wesley just didn't understand what was going on so I stopped. Once he got to 22 months old, however, we felt he was exhibiting behavior he knew was wrong -- such as hitting and throwing things. So I put one of the dining room chairs in the corner of the room (the way our house is set up its not isolated). When he would hit, I would warn him and the 2nd time he'd go in his "time out chair."

Since Claire's been born, at one point he'd been in his time out chair almost on a daily basis. It became where he would hit me and say, "time out." He wanted it! I said to Matt and we agreed that if he asked for it we wouldn't do it. So the next time it happened and he asked to go in his time out chair I said, "I'm not putting you in your time out chair, I just want you to stop hitting me."

And you know, it worked. I mean he still hits -- he is after all 2 and everything goes in one ear and out the other -- but I didn't have to "punish" him to stop that immediate behavior and I felt less stressed and still in control, I was still getting my message across.

It has been a long time now that I have put Wesley in time out although the chair is still in the corner. And just today, our cat was laying in it and Wesley goes up to him and shoos him down, "das mine time out chair!". Hmmmm... I think I'm going to put in back at the table now.

Landscale plan: Porch demolition

With the baby's birth, things have been slow moving but we finally picked a contractor to do the patio work. When I looked at their references, it turned out that a neighbor used them as well. Now we just need a final meeting to pick material and decide if we need a retaining wall or not.

Our landscape architect seemed to think we did not need a retaining wall, but a few weeks ago we took apart the existing porch and the grade is pretty steep. We can try and level it with dirt but will it eventually erode? That's to be determined.

Here are some pictures of the porch demolition -- that we decided to tackle to save some dinero.

 My strong man!

Another shoddy job ... No wonder the thing was falling apart! They used the wrong nails (or screws or whatever), the screen underneath was in strips (I guess that was cheaper than using a solid piece?!), the bottom beams weren't even attached to the house but just laid on top of each other ... Incredible!

2 years old ...

How time flies ... Happy birthday my sweet little boy!

Birthday!

We had Wesley's 2nd birthday party over the weekend and I am pooped out!

Despite my years as a meeting planner, I realize now that I officially suck at throwing parties. I managed to make the pulled pork and cole slaw ahead of time (although I was shredding it moments before we had to eat), but I didn't have enough forks and my mom had to be in charge of all the decor because I knew it would never get done. I did get a pretty nice cake though, although Matt had to run to the store to buy appetizers the morning of ... of course I can blame the fact that our baby is only 5 weeks old as to the reason this party was thrown together at the last minute but ... well that wouldn't be fair. I'm a big girl and I can admit to being a lousy party planner!

But Wesley had a blast, so I consider it a success!

1 month old

My blog entries these days will most likely be short and sweet. A photo if I'm lucky enough to have it on my phone (I mean, who has time to sit on front of a computer, right?)

Well here's Claire on her 1 month Birthday! Still has her hair!

Successful early nursing

From the time we came home from the hospital, we have been focused on getting Claire to nurse successfully and get back to birth weight. She was 8lb1oz and went down to 7lb6oz.

With Wesley, he went from 8lb9oz to 7lb12oz and was slightly jaundiced so our doctor at thd time made us give him formula to make sure he wzs getting what he needed. I've always felt like that decision set us in a downward spiral when it came to nursing. I was never able to nurse exclusively and thus both breast & formula fed Wesley for 10 weeks when I gave up nursing for formula bottle feeding.

This time things are turning out so differently. First off Claire only lost about 7% of her birth weight and our new doctors encouraged me to keep nursing. I decided to go to our hospital lactation to ensure i was nursing right. I took my mother in law with me and we bonded over ... Well let's just say she saw more than she bargained for. Unfortunatly Claire was still not gaining weight and she put me on a pumping regimen. I just about cried walking out of there ...

The next day I had a doctors appt again and she still weighed 7.6 despite 24 hrs of pumping and supplementing. My doctor told me to stop pumping and nurse every chance I could get.I was thrown for a loop here but she explained a) the baby is a better pump than any pump and b) I will go crazy with a pumping schedule. So I nursed round the clock whenever I heard even a whimper come from Claire and ... 3 days later she was weighed in at 7.8oz! Another 3 days later she weighed 7lb 10.9oz! Finally, at 2weeks4days she made it back to 8lb. I'm so happy now to be exclusively nursing and having a doctor who encourages it.

Just the thought of buying formula and making up bottles encourages me to nurse regardless of the otherwise known benefits. I'm sorry it didn't work with Wesley.