Babyproofing!?

Marely is crawling and a whole new world has opened to her. It has opened a whole new world for Mom and Dad too. It certainly has become a challenge. The days of being able to walk out of the room to switch a load of laundry or to walk out to the mail box for a quick second are GONE. It's wonderful to see her find something in the house that is fascinating to her. A whole world of discovery! But, it's time to set the boundaries in place. She loves the knobs on the stereo, she loves the dirt in the plants and her all time favorite is the toilet. All of which are NOs. I hate seeing her little face fall when she discovers something thrilling and we have to say NO. I do take the time and show her that NO item but also explain that it belongs to Mommy and Daddy and when she is older she will be able play with it too but for now it's a NO then I redirect her to a YES. I have been struggling with these NO items but I have come to realize that life is about boundaries. I, as a parent must set boundaries for her the rest of her life! This is just the beginning.
It's also about keeping my Bugalicious safe. I have discovered that no matter how much you baby proof there are still dangers that lurk. We discovered one that sent us racing to the Dr's office one day with a bloody mouth. I felt awful, the guilt was overwhelming. Marley was fine. I, probably over reacted a little but when it's your child and blood is gushing from her mouth....
I always said I would never use a play pen, well now her pack n play is set up between the kitchen and the living room. It follows a growing list of things that I said I would never do BEFORE I became a parent. I now live by the words "Never say never".
So in light of these new challenges I had to write a song. I am borrowing the tune and have changed the lyrics to "Janie's Got a Gun" by Aerosmith.

Marley's on the Run

Marley's on the run

Moms world has come undone

What did that baby do

She fell down and went boom

They say that Marley was a wanderin'

Mom found her cryin' on the floor

Marley says Mom I'm crawlin'

I'm headed for the bathroom door

Baby proofin' works but not for everythin'

Marley's on the run

Moms world has come undone

What did that baby do

She fell down and went boom

Ok I know it's terrible. Marley has a serious goof ball for a Mother but it's my blogger page and I can do whatever I want.

Marley is 9 months old today

I just can't believe how time is flying! I never understood why parents were so infatuated with their children until the day Marley was born. I have also realized that I have never loved like I love her. Of course I love my husband, my parents, my friends but the love that I have for my daughter consumes every cell in my body and it just grows more intense with each day.

She started crawling the last Friday in May. She has discovered a whole new world now that she is very mobile. Although it is challenging for both Mom and Dad it is fascinating to watch her become consumed at a wall or a closed door or even a dog hair that is lying on the living room carpet. One of her favorite areas is the sliding glass door. She loves to look outside and play with the curtain that hangs. When she started crawling some rules had to come into place. The stereo and the tv are a NO. The remote, the phone and the plants are a NO. It's tough to watch that happy face when she discovers a No thing just fall. We redirect her to something that is a YES and her face lights up again. She understands the word NO now. She is so amazing, when Mom or Dad tell her NO she gives us that sad look but will more times than not crawl away and find YES. She is so smart and I am so proud of her!

A typical day in this world with Marley begins between 6-7 a.m. I hear her little wake up noises and get her. There is a single bed in the nursery and I lay down with her and we snuggle as she slowly wakes up. We kiss, hug, play itsy bitsy spider then she sits up and crawls across the bed and I catch her right before she topples onto the floor. Hubby and I had a cold a couple of weeks ago and spent 2 weeks coughing. Marley decided that coughing is a fun thing to imitate. One morning as I was lying in bed with her I had a cough attack. She looked at me very seriously and coughed. She had her head on one pillow and mine was on the other. We stared at each other, she would cough and I would cough. This little game must have gone on for 5 minutes. Between coughs we laughed and laughed. I had joyful tears streaming down my face.

When we are finished with our snuggle session. I take her downstairs put her in her play pen and proceed to make her bottle and my coffee. When both drinks are ready I take her to the couch and help her with her bottle. She's very good with feeding herself a bottle but she prefers that I hold her morning and evening bottles. I sip my coffee, she drinks her bottle and we watch the news together.

When Marley was about 5 months old I took her to her changing table to change her diaper. She looked at me square in the face and said "OWWWW". It was the first time she had ever made a noise like that. I laughed and said "OWWWW" back to her. She looked at me with a puzzled look on her face and then did it again, "OWWWW". It is still our game. I can look at her and say "Marley can you say "OWWW"? Nine times out of ten she'll do it and we will go back and forth. There are times that she will stare down customers in a store and when they look her way she'll say "OWWWW". It makes the other customer laugh. No doubt. I've had people come up to me and say that she is the cutest baby they have ever seen. My response is, "I know".

We have a 3 foot deep inflatable pool that we set up in our back yard. We introduced the pool to Marley last weekend. She had a look of bewilderment on her face. Although the water temp was 83 degrees it felt a little chilly. Once she got used to the temperature and the toy frogs and toy skate fish she had a blast! Last night Dad took her into the pool with him. A friend of ours bought Marley an infant inner tube. We put her inside of the tube and with Dad's guidance she floated and floated for 1/2 an hour. The two of them had so much fun. Dad had a great time swimming under Marley and popping up right in front of her. Marley thought the game was great! Dad also showed her how much fun it is to put your face in the water and blow bubbles. Marley, as well as she could with the inner tube, put the side of her face in. We have decided that the next swim session we will start with the inner tube then take her out and see if she may be interested in putting her own face in. Pictures of last nights swim session will be posted very soon to Marley's website.

Wow! Today is a day for blogging for me. I guess I had a lot to get out. I should cut myself off and get on with my day. More Marley updates soon.

Children and nutrition

My friend, Vikingzen blogged about a fabulous topic. The title is Political Fluff. She discusses the junk that is served to our children in schools. She comes from a similar background that I do, junk food was not a staple in our homes growing up.

It astounds me how many parents buy into the junk food commercials aimed at children and think that if they buy the crap it's actually healthy for their kids. For example a brand name lemon-lime soda's commercial shows people harvesting plants that resemble carrots but instead of the carrot at the end of the plant it has a can of this brand of soda. It's great marketing but a terrible image, one that is sending a very bad message.

When I found out I was pregnant last year I started reading labels. I decided that everything I put in my body was going to be something that was beneficial to my baby. I was astounded with the crap that is put in our foods! One of my pregnancy cravings was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. As I was choosing which brand of jam/jelly I discovered that all the jam/jellies out there have high fructose corn syrup! I realized that there is nothing beneficial about high fructose corn syrup. Thankfully I found a brand of jam that was all natural. On the same grocery trip I decided that I needed granola bars. A pregnant woman must eat! I was shocked as I was reading the label to find that darn ingredient again, high fructose corn syrup. So I decided to wage a war against that ingredient. I did some research and found that high fructose corn syrup may be one of the causes of obesity in our country. What I discovered is fructose releases the hormone leptin. Leptin regulates our storage of fat and regulates our metabolism. So, obese people have built up a resistance to leptin. A very informative article about high fructose corn syrup can be found http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12058364/.

I'm going a little of track from Vikingzen's blog. I agree with her 2 cents that parents should be held accountable of the foods their children eat. I recently discovered a statistic that is astonishing, 25-30% of toddlers in our country do not eat a single fruit or vegetable in 1 day. My question is, what are they eating? All I can think of is that there has to be a lack of education in this country. There is a frame of mind out there that Vikingzen and I will never understand.

So there it is. I could blog for hours on this subject but have decided to stop here.

Freegan

I came across the term Freegan yesterday and was intrigued. The word comes from free and vegan. Freegans spend their time dumpster hopping for other people's trash. It's amazing what they have found, laptops, muffins still in their wrappers, shoes, expensive watches that were not broken, the list goes on and on. More information about Freegans can be found at www.freegan.info. They state that it is a site that is dedictated to revealing human over consumption and waste.

Although I believe in their concept I also feel that they are radical. There needs to be more of an education. A concept that we can sell to the American public. Our society makes me ill with all the trash we produce. For years I have been calling the U.S. The Swiffer Wet Jet Society, just use it and throw it away! Convenient yes but a WRONG attitude. Every time I walk into a Walmart I look at all the shelves that are packed with stuff and am horrified with the reality that all that stuff will end up in a landfill one day. Where did our society go wrong?

This Swiffer Wet Jet mentality has not been around that long. As I was growing up my Grandmother would always talk about waste not want not. I live by those words. I truly believe that our current gas crisis is just the beginning of having to revert back to the days and the values of our grandparents. Conservation is the key to continue a good standard of living.

The Freegans have a great movement and great ideas. I feel that they are fanatical which really won't help their cause. I honestly don't think I could go dumpster diving but would be all for trying to figure out a way to distribute the goods that do not need to be thrown away. So before you toss something into your trash can, stop and think...think if you could wash it and reuse it or see if someone else may be able to use it. There are plenty of ways to keep waste out of our landfills. Sell it at a yardsale, donate it to the Salvation Army, Yahoo Groups has Freecycle, see if there is a Freecycle Group in your area.

Let's keep our planet at a standard that our children will be able to enjoy!

What a week!

Last Monday started a week of an emotional roller coaster. Monday we received horrible news that hubby's Aunt and Cousin were killed in a car accident. This news came a few days after the Indonesian earthquake. Hubby's brother and wife decided to move there for a year and thankfully are fine but a little shaken (no pun intended) although their hotel is uninhabitable. The rest of the week was spent feeling numb and offering many condolensces to all hubby's family. The only shining star was our little Bugalicious. We e-mailed happy baby Bug pictures to hubby's Dad, who lost his sister and his neice. I believe the pictures did make him smile a bit. It's hard not to have your heart melt when you see a super happy baby. There is something about a baby that makes the world feel right even though the world is crashing down all around you.
On Saturday a miracle happened, Bugalicious' cousin was born. Although she is in the NICU and her parents are sleep deprived and on edge, she is going to be fine and will be home with her Mommy and Daddy this weekend.
Just as I was getting the feeling that the world was going back to normal our van broke down on our way to the southern beaches on Sunday. My only thought was "oh geez, here we go again". There we are broken down on the side of the road with our Bugalicious. Thankfully we called some friends that lived a few minutes away who rescued the Bug and her Mom. Poor Dad spent the day on the phone with insurance company trying to get the van towed. No thanks to the insurance company the van was finally towed back to our house 5 hours later! The plus side, Mom and Bug spent the day on the beach with friends, the bad side, poor Dad spent the day stranded on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck.
Today is 6-6-06. The Devil's day and to top it off it is also Bugalicious' Dad's 36th birthday. Although I am only slightly supersticious, I do have an uneasy feeling. Where is Dad today? On a boat fishing for flounder (Yum!). What could go wrong today, besides the fact I woke up with a nasty head cold? Who knows. My thoughts of course are that I married and had a child with the devil (our joke today, teehee) or my devil won't catch any flounder. Time will tell.

Marley has a cousin! Maya Grace, she was born at 4:20 a.m. I can't get over my excitement that I am an Aunt and my brother is a Dad!

The man under the sea

My Dad and his girlfriend were visiting last week. We decided to spend an afternoon at the local aquarium. I love this aquarium! For a small town aquarium they do a fabulous job. Marley loves seeing the fishies and her favorite, the Otter room, she recognizes them thanks to her Baby Einstein dvd.
This visit to the aquarium was spectacular as usual. As with all aquariums there is a big monstrous fish tank with the sharks-Yikes! We arrived in time to witness the end of feeding time. I strolled Marley to the big tank just as the men with the food, all dolled up in their scuba gear were swimming towards the exit. One caught sight of Marley and swam to the front and waved at her. My little bugalicious had a look of awe, I'm sure she was thinking, now that's the wierdest fish I've ever seen or maybe Sponge Bob really does exist!

They grow up so fast!

My father was in town with his girlfriend Carole this past week. As they were getting ready to leave little miss bugalicious began to crawl! What a major milestone and I am so glad that her Grandfather and Carole were able to witness the major event. Maybe Mom will be able to finally lose those few extra pounds chasing her Bug around the house!!!!

The insanity of Motherhood

So, I am currently working part time for a catering company. We have2 uniforms 1)white polo/khakis for casual events 2)black pants and tuxedo shirt for formal. I have a pair of brown shoes to wear with the casual outfit and black for the formal.
I had a crazy hectic day today. About 10 minutes before I had to be out the door I got on mapquest to get directions to tonights catering gig. In the midst of trying to get the directions my 7month old started crying, well she left me a surprise in her diaper.At this point I have 3 minutes to run out the door and I still don't know how to get there. So, I am feeling a little frantic because I also had a couple of other things to do before I left. So, I figured that I would stop at a gas station and ask for directions. Finally I'm ready, I grab my wallet my cell and put on my shoes and run out the door.I was busy setting things up for the evenings catered event and my feet caught my eye. I stopped, I looked down and noticed I had 1 brown shoe and 1 black shoe on!

Baby and signing

Oh my goodness Marley understands! I am just so impressed with her. I have been using sign language with a few of our daily activities. Today, Marley and I had to go to Super Wally World to pick up some formula. When we got home I brought her inside and put her in her bouncy seat so I could bring in the purchases. She started wailing. I knew and she knew it was time for a bottle. So, I looked at her and said Marley, Mom's getting your formula so she can make your bottle and I did the sign for milk. She looked at my hand and giggled and settled down! There was no mistake that she understood. I am just so proud of my bugalicious!!!!!!!! What a smart cookie.

Solid Food

Rule of thumb:
- Always start with a single grain rice cereal. Marley ate rice cereal once for the first week, twice a day for the second week then three times a day for the third week. Mix the rice cereal with breast milk or formula. Not only will it taste better and be a familiar taste but it's a good way to add extra nutrients.

-Start with yellow solid foods. They have the least chance of an allergic reaction. Some experts recommend starting vegetables instead of fruit. Unfortunately there are more yellow fruits than vegetables. Stick with the one food for at least 4 days to see if they have an allergic reaction. Always introduce inthe morning so your not running to the ER in the middle of the night of there is an allergic reaction.

Marley's introduction to solids: (Introdced Saturday to Saturday so Dad could witness her reaction.

When I can I make her baby food. I have made organic peas and grean beans. In all my research I have discovered a coupe of pros and cons. Ready made baby food; the produce is selected from fields where the soil has very little nitrates. When you make your own even organic vegetables and fruits are not going to be tested for levels of nitrates. I still feel that organic is better because I believe that pesticides have to be much worse. It's a question that is still up in the air from all the experts, even Marley's doctor.
Whenyou make baby food. Use a food processor NOT a blender. It's so much faster and easier. Steam the hell out of the food (don't boil, boiling takes away alot of nutrients). I found you can get more peas than grean beans from a 10 oz. pack. I guess green beans naturally hold more water. The cost of using organic frozen vegetables vs. buying Gerber non-organic is the same, at least at my local grocery store.

Week 1-3- Rice cereal
Week 4- Pears (because she was constipated, which cleared up the constipation). She LOVED them.
Week 5-Peas. Not such a big fan, so I mixed a little in with some rice cereal so she could get used to the taste. They are still not her favorite but she'll eat them.
Week 6-Squash. She died and went to heaven! Loves them, loves them.
Week 7-Avocado. HATED IT. I would not recommend. I even tried mixing the avocados with rice cereal, it still did not work. So, I waited a couple of days and went to
Green beans- Same reaction as the squash. LOVED THEM.
Week 8-Apple sauce-YUM!!!!! I bought a jar from the health food store. Less expensive and I can enjoy some too!
Week 9-Sweet potatoes- YUM! Marley was given the go ahead by her Dr. to eat turkey or chicken! That should be fun. Her Dr. also said to start promoting self feeding and suggested a sippy cup with water and Gerber makes veggie or fruit puffs that dissolve in the mouth very quickly. I can't wait it will be fun!
Week 10-Bananas-Yummy!

Diapers: cloth vs disposable

We are all aware of the cost and the impact that disposable diapers has on the environment. Believe it or not cloth diapers are just as easy as disposable. When I found out I was pregnant I decided that I really wanted to use cloth diapers. I also knew that I hate doing laundry. So, I started my research. I was AMAZED at how many different types of cloth diapers are out there. I chose one that is an all-in-one diaper. It resembles a disposable and is easy to put on like a disposable. As for the extra laundry...I realized it wasn't doing laundry I hated, I hate folding! I keep a basket under the changing table and as soon as the diapers are dry I toss them into the basket. Voila! Easy to reach and very convenient. To find out about the wonderful world of cloth diapers type in "cloth diapers" into any search engine and you will find all the information and different types that are available.
After my daughter was born I realized that I could do one more step by saving money and the environment. So, I eliminated diaper wipes. I bought a large pack of wash cloths and store them, moistened, in a plastic disposable wipes container. I found that they work so much better than the wipes and I wash them with diapers.
Not only has this saved me in literally hundreds of dollars but I also never have to worry about running out of diapers. I love them.

Tips:

-Wash the cloth diapers twice. Once on the soak cycle and the second on the regular cycle.
-Use very little detergent but a lot of vinegar for both cycles . The vinegar eliminates all residual odor.
-Use fleece diapers. Very absorbent and easy to shake of the poopies so you won't have to dunk the diaper in the toilet.