Eat...Sleep...Poop

Whatever happened to that routine? When did she get an opinion, preference, or desires? As I put Annie to bed tonight and she snuggled in with her hands under her bumper pad and her pacifier in her mouth with her fleece blanket up to her neck and her knitted blanket on just her legs I realized... she is not me! She is her own little person. I kissed her on the head and said "it must be fun to be you" :o)

A Necessary Moment in Time

When I was growing up there was a time of year every late spring early summer that I will always remember. It was the time of year when the neighbor was weaning his calves. Our house would be awakened early by the sound of the mother cows muffled bawling from within the barn and the calves strong cry from the pasture just outside as they were newly separated from each other in the weaning process. The sound always broke my heart and the sight of the calves lined up at the gate just outside the barn was so sad. At times like these I can always hear my Grandpas voice saying "its the way of the farm" and so I knew that our farming neighbor was doing what was best for his heard. In those early hours of the morning I knew that for the next few days this would be the sound that I would wake up to, but that the process was a fairly short one and the Calve and Dam would eventually stop bawling and go on with life.

I decided this week that I am ready to ween Annie Girl. Again life as a mother is full of mixed emotions and second guessing decisions that I am making. I have seriously frustrated Joe in the process because he can't keep up with my head or emotions (or gigantic engorged breast size:)
I had heard of people who drop day time feedings and just nurse in the morning and at night for a while to ease the process. So that I what I decided to do. However after a day and a half I decided that was too painful! A friend suggested dropping a feeding a week, but that seemed like it would be a longer process than I was looking for. So yesterday I decided to do every other feeding for a week and then see if I can go to morning and night a little easier. As I fret and worry about this process I have to be reminded how blessed I am that Annie is such an easy baby. She takes a bottle beautifully, she didn't like Similac the one time I tried it so I tried Enfamil and she took it just fine. She hasn't been constipated that I have noticed however she has been acting a little fussy and has a runny nose and her eye (the one with the blocked tear duct) is red. I wondered about the coincidence in the timing of being sick and weaning. I wondered if her immune system was compromised in the process.

Out of curiosity I googled weaning calves because I was curious about the actual process. The article I read actually said that weaning is so hard on the calves that some actually get sick and have to be treated during the process! How interesting!

So my week will consist of questioning, second guessing, wondering, wiping nose, making (stinky) bottles of formula and all the while happy that I am moving on to the next stage and done with the nursing thing for a little while.

With all of that said I have a request. I get coupons in the mail as well as sample canisters of Enfamil. I was wondering if you get the same and if you don't plan on using them if you wouldn't mind setting them aside for me. My bank account would certainly appreciate it!

One More

Try this one, its a mixture of the two, I just cant decide which one I like better, I agree with Susan about the slight creepyness of the sepia one but I did like it better than the other. What do you think about the colored blanket? I am going to have to send the original to Doogie and let him play with it. :o)




What do you think? Which one is better? I cant decide.

Finding Time to Stop and Smell the Roses

I am, and have always been, a big "Stop and smell the roses" kind of gal. I like to deeply revel in the moment and enjoy where I am at in life. I always get up early on vacation so that I can enjoy the day to its fullest potential and each day think about what I did and how I enjoyed it so that my vacation seems to last longer. I try not to look ahead in life but plan for things to the best of my ability keeping in mind the "Lord willing" part :o)
I have to say I think I am pretty good at it too. I enjoyed high school but wouldn't go back. I enjoyed college and dating but wouldn't change anything or wish to go back. I even enjoyed our year long engagement and didn't feel a hurry for the wedding day (for the most part ;o)

Now with Annie I am enjoying her babyhood however she is growing faster than I would like and because its her life and not mine she is the one who decides things like when to move on. She went from all fours to standing unassisted in the blink of an eye. I am sorry but I think I would have rather her not be moving so fast... could someone please help me slow her down?

I do find myself stopping but instead of smelling the roses I usually smell her hair or snuggle her cheeks. I try to enjoy her at each stage she has been in. More often I find myself enjoying her as an only child. None of my future children (Lord willing) will have the opportunity to be an only child and I am seriously glad for that. It is so easy to spoil a child even where there is discipline there is room for spoilage :o) I have TIME to spoil her, I have TIME to sit and hold her on my lap or rock her to sleep before I do laundry or cook dinner. I have TIME to play with her in the 2 inch deep baby pool and take her shopping (I can't imagine trying to shop with any more than one) and one of the most enjoyable of all lately is the TIME to sit on the floor of the shower and sing with her as we soap up her little body over and over and then rinse her off with the wash cloth. She loves the shower and plays on the floor with her rubber duck and wash cloth while I shower and then I sit down and sing the "wash wash song" so quietly and she sings along with me. Then, each time, just like the day before, I dry myself off and then take her into her little hooded towel and wrap her up so tight like I used to when she was first born all the while saying "oooooooh" and she just laughs and laughs every time!! Then when we are all wrapped up after she gets done sucking the water off of my shoulder (your a mom you know the feeling) we look at eachother in the mirror and just smile at one another. I tried to capture the sight in this picture so that I can keep it forever in my memory however its not the greatest picture. She was more interested in the camera than she was the smiling part. I will deffinetly try again but for now you get the idea.

A Proud Mothering Moment

Second generation mothers everywhere would have been proud of me this morning, especially Peg. I have been told before that I am way to laid back to be a first time mom. I appreciate hearing that because I know that I have MANY first mom tendencies. Just ask my sisters, they have admitted to teasing me behind my back which I am ok with because I am confident in my parenting... HAHA!
Who on earth is confident in their parenting?!? Anyway back to this morning... when I dropped Annie off at the gym playroom I realized she didn't have on the required socks! I searched through my first-time-mom-fully-stocked-diaper bag and found one sock and one shoe... so that is what I put on her! I warned all the other children in the room not to make fun of her and before I left I gave her permission to punch anyone who teased her about her footwear :o) The playroom workers appreciated it!

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly : A Review of Holiday World

I went to Holiday World yesterday with Joe, his dad, half brother & brother in law. I determined that I hadn't been to an amusement park in about 10 years and for some reason when I was pregnant I had these very strong desires to ride a roller coaster. Joe went to Holiday World last year for the first time and LOVED it so I thought I would go along this year. Here are my thoughts about the good bad & the ugly review of Holiday World.

The Good

• I thought that it was all about christmas but its not, its all of the holidays and the rides are named things like "Pilgrims Plunge" because it is in the Thanksgiving part of the park!
• I did see Santa which made my mom VERY happy because that is her memory of the park when she was little.
• The average wait for a ride was 25 min, we waited quite a while for the ride that was new this year however were very disappointed in it.
• There are free drinks throughout the park.
• There is a water park that seems bigger than the actual park and it is SO much fun!
• I still love water rides.
• They have a nice centrally located, air conditioned nursing mothers room! We didn't take Annie but I did have to pump a few times.
• They have a wooden roller coaster that beat the pants off the The Beast & the Son Of Beast
  
• They are very family oriented and I would say the majority of the people there were familys with young kids.
  
• I didn't have to watch 14 year olds make out while waiting in line for a ride like you do at KI!!
  

The Bad

• My flip flops got stolen while I was riding water rides and I had to buy a new pair at a gift shop :o(
• I also heard 2 other people complaining about missing shoes and a woman reporting a stolen wallet... I hate stupid punk kid thieves! Where were their parents?
• All of the rides are very short and left me wanting more
• It is over 2 hours away

The Ugly

• We were watching a woman in her 40's ride this ride while we were standing in line. She looked dead when I first saw her, I thought her eyes were rolling back in her head! She kept doing weird things that normally people on this spinning inferno don't do. She was running her fingers through her hair and looked very odd. Then when we rode she rode again with her son and she was directly across from us... This was when I became uncomfortable... no lie she looked like she was getting a little too much pleasure out of this ride if you know what I mean. Joe Nathanael and I could not stop laughing. I had tears running down my face when the ride was finally over! A SERIOUSLY uncomfortable moment in life
• I had to stand in line next to two 15 year old boys who were brushing their teeth with those new little Colgate Wisp toothbrushes. You know the ones that have the toothpaste on them and dont require rinsing or anything...one was teaching the other how to use them... again, akward

Here is what Annie did with Gram & Gramps while Joe and I were playing at Holiday World

Half A Day In The Life Of

I have always wanted to do a picture story of a day in the life of me ever since Melissa did it quite a while ago. Although it wasn't a very typical day and I didn't manage to remember to take pictures past 2:00 in the afternoon :o( So you get Half A Day In The Life Of Me :o) I'll try to do better next time.

Annie Girl finally has enough hair to put a bow in it!

A little breakfast

A morning nap in the swing for a sleepy baby after her bath

While Annie sleeps is when I get all my important work done including a little quite time with The Father

When Annie woke up she enjoyed her meal sitting out here on the swing, unfortunately the pleasant breeze brought along the smell of someone else's choice illegal midmorning recreation

I don't know why I keep trying to feed this kid food

This time she actually shuddered and spit it back out at me, she has never done that before

This reaction is typical, after one bite she turns her head and bites her tongue

A smoothie for lunch comprised of these ingredients was very yummy but didn't hold me over very long, I later stopped at Burger King and had a Whopper Jr (never had one before in my life)

Oh and I almost forgot Annie does "So Big" now!

Off to Dayton International Airport with Kara to pick Kelly up. She has been in NC for the past week with her Marine Benny!

No trip to Dayton is complete without a picture of the ridiculous touchdown Jesus carved out of butter :o)

After getting Kelly at the airport I completely forgot to take any picture whatsoever! However we had a very nice evening. Joe came home and mowed the yard and then we headed out to Rookwood to find some new kakhi pants for him. We ended up finding some nice pants at Old Navy which was great because Joe never shops at Old Navy and they had all their men's clothes half off!!! We stopped by Papa Johns on the way home and picked up a nutritious dinner of peperoni pizza.