I took Luke in to get a couple of shots today and while we were in the waiting room, I noticed a woman who was clutching her toddler like her life depended on it. The toddler, for his part, was doing his best to wiggle out of her lap. After a few minutes, she moved over next to me and pointed out to her child the fact that Luke was sitting so nicely on my lap. The child was not impressed & continued his quest to go play with the waiting room toys. Naturally, I was very curious about this little interaction, so I eavesdropped (although I'm not sure it can be called eavesdropping since she was sitting all of 18 inches away from me).
Woman: Stay still, Baby. Look, see the little baby? He's staying still.
Toddler: Toys.
Woman: No, no. Look, can you sit with Mama?
Toddler: Toys!
Woman: No, those are dirty. They have germs.
Toddler: Toyyys!
Woman: The toys are dirty, sweetie. They could make you sick.
Toddler: Tooooyyyyyyssss!
Woman: You don't want to be sick, do you? Remember when you had a cold? You couldn't breathe and that wasn't any fun, was it?
Toddler: Toooyyyyssss, Toooyyyysss, Tooooyyyysss!!!
This went on for a while, with the woman's explanations about germs and illness becoming increasingly detailed (at one point, she actually used the term "Mucus membrane") and the toddler's exclamations becoming increasingly...um...insistent. Luke and I soon got called to the exam room, but when we were done, I decided to stop at the restroom before heading home. And because the Universe knows just how much I love a healthy dose of irony, guess who I found swishing his hands around in the toilet water...
Monday, August 17, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
The Evils of Juice?
Luke has had a really good nursing day today (thank you, bad-tasting-herbs!), which means that I've had hours and hours of computer time, so I thought it would be fun to just start on CNN's front page and follow links that sounded interesting. As a result of this little game, I now have more knowledge than I ever though possible about animal cruelty, the eating habits of koala bears, and choosing the right houseplant for your family. And also? Did you know that the American Academy of Pediatrics has a Committee that met to discuss the "Use and Misuse of Fruit Juice in Pediatrics?" And also, there were 18 people on the committee, plus "liaisons" from various health-related organizations both in the U.S. and from Canada, as well as "Additional staff." And they came up with 9 conclusions and 9 recommendations. About fruit juice. And one of the conclusions was that "fruit drinks" are not the same as "fruit juice."
And reading all that has now made me really thirsty for some apple juice.
And reading all that has now made me really thirsty for some apple juice.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Mommy and Me
There's this business near us that calls itself a "baby spa" and when I was pregnant, I vowed to avoid ever entering it at any cost. Of course, I now go there twice a week--once for a breastfeeding support group and once for a Mommy and Baby Yoga class. Yes, that's right. I just said "Mommy and Baby Yoga class." I'll wait while you roll your eyes discreetly.
See, here's the thing. When I was pregnant and busily mocking stay-at-home moms who did dumb things like enroll in Mommy and Baby classes, what I didn't realize is that staying home with a person who can't talk? Yeah, it's kind of...tedious. I'm not going to say it's boring because as it happens, I can entertain myself for HOURS just looking at the kid and marveling at how he sighs...and breathes...and twitches his eyes in a weird, zombie-like fashion. But at some point, you have to get up and leave the house, if only because if ever you get pulled over for driving on the wrong side of the road, you cannot say "I'm sorry, Officer, but I haven't left the house in EIGHT YEARS and have therefore forgotten everything about the outside world."
And since there aren't all that many places to go in the 100 degree weather with a 3-month-old, the baby spa was the obvious (read: ONLY) choice. Now, this baby spa is run by a woman and her mother, both of whom seem like very nice people. Except. I'm a little bit worried that the mother might try to steal Luke. Why, you ask? Because of conversations like this:
Her: Oh, that baby is so cute!
Me: Thanks!
Her: No, I really mean it. He's beautiful.
Me: Thanks.
Her: I'm not even kidding. Just adorable.
Me: Um. Okay. Thank you.
After that went on for a couple of minutes, I decided that perhaps I should end the conversation, so I put Luke in the sling so we could go get some lunch.
Her: Oh, that sling is too small for him!
Me: Well, he likes it actually.
Her: Aww, poor thing. Hey, do you want me to hold him while you go to the bathroom?
Me: Uh...no...I don't need to go to the bathroom, actually. I was just going to go get lunch around the corner.
Her: Oh! Well, I'll keep him for you while you go eat!
Me: Haha! Ah, that's okay...I'll just take him with me...thanks...
And of course, Luke, who usually hates strangers and frowns at them mightily, decided that he LOVES this woman and spent the entire conversation grinning and cooing and being generally charming and very kidnap-able.
See, here's the thing. When I was pregnant and busily mocking stay-at-home moms who did dumb things like enroll in Mommy and Baby classes, what I didn't realize is that staying home with a person who can't talk? Yeah, it's kind of...tedious. I'm not going to say it's boring because as it happens, I can entertain myself for HOURS just looking at the kid and marveling at how he sighs...and breathes...and twitches his eyes in a weird, zombie-like fashion. But at some point, you have to get up and leave the house, if only because if ever you get pulled over for driving on the wrong side of the road, you cannot say "I'm sorry, Officer, but I haven't left the house in EIGHT YEARS and have therefore forgotten everything about the outside world."
And since there aren't all that many places to go in the 100 degree weather with a 3-month-old, the baby spa was the obvious (read: ONLY) choice. Now, this baby spa is run by a woman and her mother, both of whom seem like very nice people. Except. I'm a little bit worried that the mother might try to steal Luke. Why, you ask? Because of conversations like this:
Her: Oh, that baby is so cute!
Me: Thanks!
Her: No, I really mean it. He's beautiful.
Me: Thanks.
Her: I'm not even kidding. Just adorable.
Me: Um. Okay. Thank you.
After that went on for a couple of minutes, I decided that perhaps I should end the conversation, so I put Luke in the sling so we could go get some lunch.
Her: Oh, that sling is too small for him!
Me: Well, he likes it actually.
Her: Aww, poor thing. Hey, do you want me to hold him while you go to the bathroom?
Me: Uh...no...I don't need to go to the bathroom, actually. I was just going to go get lunch around the corner.
Her: Oh! Well, I'll keep him for you while you go eat!
Me: Haha! Ah, that's okay...I'll just take him with me...thanks...
And of course, Luke, who usually hates strangers and frowns at them mightily, decided that he LOVES this woman and spent the entire conversation grinning and cooing and being generally charming and very kidnap-able.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
A Full Turnaround
Since Luke hit the big 0-3 last Friday, we decided to go get his 3 month pictures taken on Saturday. Now. I should preface this whole post by saying that McMoose? Definitely not into pictures. In fact, other than engagement and wedding pictures, I can count on one hand the number of pictures I have of the two of us since we started dating FOUR YEARS AGO. And apparently, his memories of childhood are tarnished by the fact that every once in a while, his parents "forced" him to put on a sailor suit and sit through family portraits. Oh, the cruelty.
So of course, he was very much against the whole 3 month portrait thing. I believe he used all of the following arguments:
1. NO ONE gets portraits of their babies.
2. ALL portraits suck.
3. He could take pictures that look just as good as any of those portrait studios.
4. Sailor suits are awful.
5. Oh, the unbearable expense.
6. Did he mention the awful, terrible, dreadfulness of portraits? And the fact that they suck out innocent babies' souls? Did I WANT to be left with a soul-less baby?
Somehow, we managed to navigate through two full days of grousing about the portraits and on Saturday morning, we both put on black shirts, picked out some cute outfits for the baby and off we went. And then? Something magical happened. The photographer came and took the pictures and went off to pick out the good ones for us to preview and McMoose FELL IN LOVE with the portraits. In fact, I think the portraits might very well have temporarily sucked out HIS soul because he went from "Portraits are awful and expensive and just no damn good" to "Hey, let's get the $300 package."
(As it happened, I retained full ownership of both my soul and my common sense and we left the store having spent WAY less than $300.)
((How much do you want to bet that arguments 1-6 will resurface when it's time for the kid's 6 month pictures?))
(((Luke didn't wear a sailor suit, but he DID wear a romper with a picture of a crab on it. Does that count?)))
So of course, he was very much against the whole 3 month portrait thing. I believe he used all of the following arguments:
1. NO ONE gets portraits of their babies.
2. ALL portraits suck.
3. He could take pictures that look just as good as any of those portrait studios.
4. Sailor suits are awful.
5. Oh, the unbearable expense.
6. Did he mention the awful, terrible, dreadfulness of portraits? And the fact that they suck out innocent babies' souls? Did I WANT to be left with a soul-less baby?
Somehow, we managed to navigate through two full days of grousing about the portraits and on Saturday morning, we both put on black shirts, picked out some cute outfits for the baby and off we went. And then? Something magical happened. The photographer came and took the pictures and went off to pick out the good ones for us to preview and McMoose FELL IN LOVE with the portraits. In fact, I think the portraits might very well have temporarily sucked out HIS soul because he went from "Portraits are awful and expensive and just no damn good" to "Hey, let's get the $300 package."
(As it happened, I retained full ownership of both my soul and my common sense and we left the store having spent WAY less than $300.)
((How much do you want to bet that arguments 1-6 will resurface when it's time for the kid's 6 month pictures?))
(((Luke didn't wear a sailor suit, but he DID wear a romper with a picture of a crab on it. Does that count?)))
Friday, August 7, 2009
3 Months!
Luke turns three months today...and as you can see, he's wide-eyed in disbelief:
He has decided that rolling over is for babies, so he's going to work on walking instead:
He's also experimenting with facial hair:
He spends his days just hangin' around:
All this growing is tiring though!
He has decided that rolling over is for babies, so he's going to work on walking instead:
He's also experimenting with facial hair:
He spends his days just hangin' around:
All this growing is tiring though!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Adventures In Weirdness
Every couple of weeks or so, I like to go through my sitemeter reports to see who has been coming to the blog and for the most part, I recognize people's locations or Internet providers or reference pages, if they clicked into my blog through another site. But sometimes, there are some strange google searches that bring people to my virtual doorstep; things like "gutter flip" (here), and "unicycle + ice" (here), and "Frog police" (here).
So. I'm used to seeing this kind of thing and it no longer surprises me. You know what does surprise me? When I run across a reference page called "Asian Girls on the Internet." That one kinda threw me for a loop. So of course, I had to go see exactly why my blog was listed on that website.
About 99% of this website links to different women's photobucket and flickr accounts. I'm guessing by the title of the site that these women are Asian? I didn't really have the patience or the desire to click any of the links. But finally, after careful searching, I came upon my blog listing! Now, I already knew that there are exactly 3 pictures of me on this blog and all three of them were posted with the express intent of showing off the pregnant belly, so I wasn't sure why a fetish website would link to one of those pictures. But when I clicked on the link, I certainly wasn't expecting to find this.
How did these clowns even know I was Asian from that picture?????? (And also, I no longer mind my link being on that website. Ain't nothin' sexy about a pregnant girl with messy hair, a huge sweater, and a YELLOW SMILEY covering her face. I mean, unless you happen to be the WalMart Rollback man or something...)
So. I'm used to seeing this kind of thing and it no longer surprises me. You know what does surprise me? When I run across a reference page called "Asian Girls on the Internet." That one kinda threw me for a loop. So of course, I had to go see exactly why my blog was listed on that website.
About 99% of this website links to different women's photobucket and flickr accounts. I'm guessing by the title of the site that these women are Asian? I didn't really have the patience or the desire to click any of the links. But finally, after careful searching, I came upon my blog listing! Now, I already knew that there are exactly 3 pictures of me on this blog and all three of them were posted with the express intent of showing off the pregnant belly, so I wasn't sure why a fetish website would link to one of those pictures. But when I clicked on the link, I certainly wasn't expecting to find this.
How did these clowns even know I was Asian from that picture?????? (And also, I no longer mind my link being on that website. Ain't nothin' sexy about a pregnant girl with messy hair, a huge sweater, and a YELLOW SMILEY covering her face. I mean, unless you happen to be the WalMart Rollback man or something...)
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The Possibilities Are Endless
Since my third trimester of pregnancy, I've meant to go to the monthly breastfeeding support groups held by La Leche League, but I kept putting it off for "just one more month" because (a) I'm not so good with new social situations and (b) I was a bit worried of being one of *those* moms. You know. The kind that breastfeed. The kind that use cloth diapers. The kind that co-sleep. The kind that make their own baby food and try to cook with whole foods and maybe even the kind that avoid eating meat.
Except that I do breastfeed and cloth diaper and co-sleep. I'm sure I'll at least try the whole baby food making thing and although I don't currently restrict myself to cooking with whole foods (because dude, I'm just happy when I manage to pull it together for long enough to cook ANYTHING), I did go through a vegetarian phase which ended only because I needed the protein and iron while I was pregnant. So really, by avoiding the meetings, I was only cutting myself off from other, similar minded moms in the area.
When I started having supply problems, I decided that I'd *finally* go to a meeting, and by a most excellent stroke of luck, I got an email from one of the women in my old birth class about attending a meeting today, so I gathered up my courage (and the diaper bag), and off we went.
Can I just say how much I appreciated being in a room full of women and their babies? Not a lot of my friends have children, so I often feel like the odd one out--the one thinking about milk supply and sleeping habits and diaper output, instead of concerts and careers and weekend plans. (Well. I DO think about weekend plans, but they're more along the lines of "this weekend, we can try out the jogging stroller" instead of "this weekend, I will test the limits of my tolerance for jello shots.")
So now, I'm hooked. I'm going to a weekly meeting on Friday. And then? Maybe I'll sign up for a Mommy and Me class. And then? Maybe I'll actually know people who have children! *Gasp!* And maybe we'll get together for play dates and maybe our kids will grow up together and maybe I'll find someone to exercise with and maybe, maybe, maybe....maybe I'm getting just a little bit ahead of myself.
Except that I do breastfeed and cloth diaper and co-sleep. I'm sure I'll at least try the whole baby food making thing and although I don't currently restrict myself to cooking with whole foods (because dude, I'm just happy when I manage to pull it together for long enough to cook ANYTHING), I did go through a vegetarian phase which ended only because I needed the protein and iron while I was pregnant. So really, by avoiding the meetings, I was only cutting myself off from other, similar minded moms in the area.
When I started having supply problems, I decided that I'd *finally* go to a meeting, and by a most excellent stroke of luck, I got an email from one of the women in my old birth class about attending a meeting today, so I gathered up my courage (and the diaper bag), and off we went.
Can I just say how much I appreciated being in a room full of women and their babies? Not a lot of my friends have children, so I often feel like the odd one out--the one thinking about milk supply and sleeping habits and diaper output, instead of concerts and careers and weekend plans. (Well. I DO think about weekend plans, but they're more along the lines of "this weekend, we can try out the jogging stroller" instead of "this weekend, I will test the limits of my tolerance for jello shots.")
So now, I'm hooked. I'm going to a weekly meeting on Friday. And then? Maybe I'll sign up for a Mommy and Me class. And then? Maybe I'll actually know people who have children! *Gasp!* And maybe we'll get together for play dates and maybe our kids will grow up together and maybe I'll find someone to exercise with and maybe, maybe, maybe....maybe I'm getting just a little bit ahead of myself.
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