January 2005 Mommies - Come on in! :)

[lorbo]

i'm just a little upset...i should be getting stuff done around the house and i sit on the computer...even though i complain about the house-rotten cycle going on here.

i found out today that the health insurance company denied my appeal on the copay for James' hospitalization. they claim he was admitted on 1/18 and we're responsible for the first five days of his NICU stay. nevermind that in our insurance book it says that the newborn's care is ZERO and the child is covered under the mother's insurance plan for the first 31 days. spoke to my DH about it and he says we're not paying it and we'll take it as far as we've taken the u/s matter-which is being decided by the mediator from the insurance department this month. i would so like to get another plan...but the other plan in my DH's company is also from this company.

James is once again clingy...i'm not sure if it's teething, but he's not eating like he used to...he'll eat our food, but isn't in to the jarred food anymore...and i've got too much jarred food to forget about it!!!! i had bloodwork done yesterday to try to explain why i'm so tired anymore. DD asked me why the tech was drawing blood, and i said to figure out if mommy's medication needs to be upped or if i'm just tired because of my kids. the tech laughed at that. off to relieve the husband of the kids-i've been on here for awhile.

[Jenzen01]

Gabe is 10 months today!

Quick picture post of my pumpkin boy:

http://images.snapfish.com/344%3C%3B42723232%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E2328%3D%3B%3B5%3D3 %3A%3A%3D4976%3B9b28334423%3D3232%3C74%3A%3C%3A458 nu0mrj

http://images.snapfish.com/344%3C%3B42723232%7Ffp64%3Dot%3E2328%3D%3B%3B5%3D3 %3A%3A%3D4976%3B9b28334423%3D3232%3C74%3A%3C%3A448 nu0mrj

[Jenzen01]

OK, one more. :)

http://images.snapfish.com/344%3C%3B42723232%7Ffp7%3Enu%3D3237%3E%3A%3C4%3E2% 3B9%3E3%3A67%3A%3Ba37425332%3E2323%3B83%3B%3B%3B63 7ot1lsi

[lokahi]

Happy 10 months Gabe :)
Looks like he had fun at the pumpkin patch!

Enjoy your weekend! We *might* go to the pumpkin patch on Sunday.

[lawyerwifemom]

Oh Jen, he is so handsome! I love how that shock of hair hangs down his forehead. Very baby James Dean.

Happy 10 months!

[marchfamily]

Happy 10 Months Gabe! I love the first picture!

[twinnyme]

Great pictures, Jen! I especially love the third one - I don't know, he just looks like such a big boy in it to me.

Lori - I'm sorry to hearing about your continuing insurance annoyances. I hope everything gets worked out.

Lokahi - Have fun at the pumpkin patch tomorrow if you go! We'll probably go next weekend, when my sister/her husband and son are here. We're also going to go to the Children's Museum in Boston then. I am sure Becca will LOVE that and can't wait to go! Today is her daycare Halloween party- her first opportunity to wear her costume. Then tomorrow the town is having a "Safe Halloween" at a local playground (though it's supposed to pour so we'll see if it happens after all).

QOTD: How do you bathe your DC now? We have a tubside bath seat - this one:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B0000D9SR8.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

which has worked very well for a couple of months now. But now Becca is trying to climb up / pull up on the side and climb out. So I'm not sure where to go next. I've started transitioning her to sitting in the tub itself for a couple of minutes (out of the bath seat) at the end of each bath. Does your DC sit by him/herself in the bath now?

[AusAshMommy]

Ashley goes right into the tub these days...I've been bathing her with Austin lately (to cut down on time and water bill cost) and it's working well. You could try just putting her in the tub and get a non-slip bath mat. That always worked well for Austin and we may invest in a new one for Ashley now that she's bathing in the big tub...

[lawyerwifemom]

We use the Euro bathtub for both Rachel and Wyatt. It is a great tub that is still big enough for Rachel but takes just a moment to fill up--unlike the whole oversized bathtub we have in our master. Both will fit in it together but that is disaster since they want to "cuddle" and climb on each other. Someone would drown if we weren't right there! But both now bath by themselves. We have a glass shower right next to the bathtub and so the kids can be in the bath tub and we can watch them as we shower (it is literally one step from shower to reach the child). We just started Wyatt on this last week and so far, he's doing well though of course he needs constant attention!!

Here is the tub
http://store.babycenter.com/MEDIA/ProductCatalog/16031_104068_hg.jpg

It's $24.95 at babycenter

[twinnyme]

Thanks, Lara & Heather. I think rather than invest in another tub (we've had two now, plus a foam mat that we used for a while when she was still a laying-down baby mostly) I will continue to try to transition her to sit on her own in the tub - but with much less water than I usually put in and with me right there. Of course, she's also tried to stand both times I've put her in the tub outside of the seat :rolleyes: so we're working on learning that the bathtub is only for sitting not standing. So a non-slip mat would be a good idea - and of course she went straight for the tub dispenser so I'm going to get a cute cover for that, too. I really need to get a picture of her trying to climb out of the seat, though - it's hysterical!

Although, I have to say that:

But both now bath by themselves.

is tempting me to get the Eurotub. That's amazing!

[alisong]

We have this tub:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00004D3EU.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

I wish we had it earlier! We're currently using it like the bath seat you've got, Melissa. Felix can't get out of it, and will play happily for 20 minutes with minimal attention from us. My main complaint is that it takes up so much room when we're not using it. We haven't found a good way to store it.

Gorgeous pictures, Jen! Are you the photographer? Happy 10 months to Gabe!

Felix turned 9 months yesterday. I didn't get around to weighing/measuring him this month, but I'd guess he's around 22 pounds and 29 inches. Very few of the 6-12 month clothes still fit. :(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/nostriliza/273a889e.jpg

[twinnyme]

Thanks, Ali - and everyone for the great ideas. Bathtime (like everything else) will be changing around here. And may I just say how amazingly different all our babies are? Becca JUST got into 6-12 month clothes, and Felix has already outgrown them?? Great photo, by the way!

Fun Saturday night here - DH is at a work event so I spent a while downloading all my photos of Becca to CD so that maybe our computer will work a little more quickly. I think the 50+ folders I had of her photos may have been slowing it down just a tad.... :D But it was fun and nostalgic to look through them, and now I have them on CD.

Anyway, speaking of photos.... We had Becca's daycare Halloween party today and it was a lot of fun. Here are a couple of photos.

we got a "tattoo" of a ghost on her cheek
[photo deleted 11-6]

"walking" in the indoor gym
[photo deleted 11-6]

[lawyerwifemom]

Oh Melissa! That CD thing is a must do around here and I never seem to get around to it!! My computer is going to crash before I do. How long did it take you to fill up a CD approximately. Maybe if I know what kind of time I am looking at I can make myself do it!!

Ali, we store the Eurotub in our bathtub--but really the kids are the only ones who use it since we take showers 99% of the time.

Great picture of Felix! Wyatt is also 29 inches but about 20 lbs. 6-12 still fits him. In fact, most Gymboree 6-12 pants are still too big for him (long and a little loose in the waist)

[twinnyme]

Oh Melissa! That CD thing is a must do around here and I never seem to get around to it!! My computer is going to crash before I do. How long did it take you to fill up a CD approximately. Maybe if I know what kind of time I am looking at I can make myself do it!!

I'd say about an hour - and it takes about 2-3 minutes per CD, so I did other things in between. Little things, obviously! :) But it wasn't too bad - though I had been dreading it. But when DH told me that our virus scan, which usually takes 1/2 hour, was taking more than an hour, I figured it was time! (especially since I work from home part-time now, and need my computer to be up to snuff). My next step is going to be to buy a photo album that has room for CD's, something like this one:

http://store1.yimg.com/I/herrington-catalog_1867_3056367

from Herrington Catalog. The wave of the future!

[marchfamily]

Melissa - Good for you! I've been meaning to put E's pictures on CD for quite some time. I worry the computer will crash and we'll lose everything. I love Becca's halloween pictures! She still looks like a doll!

Look at Felix peeking in the toy box!

[Jenzen01]

Hi all,

Wow. I got behind on the posts over the weekend.

As for bathing, we just put Gabe in the regular tub. I've been doing that since he was about 6 months old. Sometimes, he wants to stand too much, so we end up making bathtime very short because I get exhausted. :)

Thanks for the photo compliments. Lawyerwifemom - It's just a hobby. I've been thinking about doing some stuff on the side, however.

marchfamily - cute picture, as always. E's eyes always stand out in her pictures.

twinnyme - how fun that your daycare had a party! our local library has one tomorrow night, and debating if i should take gabe. it's sort of at an inconvenient time.

Oh, Gabe is going as a frog. We got an extra costume from someone at work whose little guy didn't fit in it.

And, Gabe is walking better. He can go across the living room now without falling. I am amazed at how quickly he picked up on this. He just keeps getting better each day.

ttfn,
Jen

[alisong]

Heather - I guess that's the difference an extra two pounds makes! Actually, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we cloth diaper - whenever Felix is in a sposie, his pants are falling down. ;)

Amanda - How much remodeling are you doing? How are you coping with baby and remodel? We have a whole section of our bedroom that's a construction project, so we haven't even let Felix on the floor of our/his room! We did just get around to installing safety plates on the outlets (careful viewers might have noticed an outlet hanging out of the wall in a previous photo - that's not adult-proof, let alone baby-proof!).

Gorgeous photo at the pumpkin patch! Jen's right, E's eyes always look amazing.

Melissa - Becca looks awfully cute in her Halloween costume. :D

QOTD - What are your plans for Halloween?

There's a Halloween party in our town on Halloween afternoon, so we'll probably check that out (conveniently, Monday is one of my days off). Then we'll take Felix around to see the neighbors. My sister and boyfriend want to come over and hand out candy as they don't get many kids in their neighborhood and want to borrow ours. Fine with me!

[AusAshMommy]

Halloween ~ Wednesday night we're taking Austin and Ashley to something called Safe Harvest at my Alma Mater. They have games and whatnot from 6:30 - 8:00 then from 8:00 - 9:00 there's trick or treating in the dorms. Then on Monday night we'll be Trick or Treating here at home...

[twinnyme]

QOTD - well, I've already sort of said, but hey, what's another reason to post? :) My sister, BIL, and nephew (2 y.o.) are coming on Friday for the weekend. They will be heading back to NY on Tuesday. On Saturday we have no plans - very low key. Sunday we will go to a pumpkin farm in my town and then to the town's "Safe Halloween" at a playground/recreation area in town. I have no idea what this is like, but it was rescheduled from yesterday because of rain. Monday we're going to the Children's Museum in Boston for the day, then we'll "trick-or-treat" in our townhouse complex and also give out candy when we get back. My nephew is going to be Buzz Lightyear from the movie TOY STORY.

our local library has one tomorrow night, and debating if i should take gabe. it's sort of at an inconvenient time.

Talk about an inconvenient time - I just checked our library and their Halloween party is Friday at 10:00 a.m. Guess they want a certain demographic at that party, I'd say! I'm sorry the time is inconvenient for you; hopefully you can still make it.

Amanda - beautiful photo of E. She has gorgeous eyes! I'm so glad we're getting to see all these great photos of her lately!!

Btw, I already cross-posted this to the HR thread and to the WOHM thread, but I have a dilemma I'd love everyone's thoughts on:

The short version is that another position at the university I'm at now part-time has opened up, and it is right up my alley. #1 it's advising, #2 it's advising health-care students (I worked in the health sciences college at my previous university, full time as an advisor), #3 it's particularly advising undecided health-care students (I worked with our specifically undecided freshmen at my previous university; I was their advisor), and #4 it's more part-time than what I'm doing now - which means a slightly higher salary (it's salary not hourly as I'm doing now) and benefits, which are great (it's a public university). But I've only been at this position for 3 months and, so, I don't know how I feel about applying as an internal candidate. I guess I'm afraid it could get ugly. (The longer version is in the other threads.) Btw, I came across this completely accidentally - I never buy the local Sunday paper (I ususally get the Boston Globe), but I was looking this weekend for Halloween ideas for when my sister's here, and I came across this ad on the first page of the help wanteds - the university is close to where I live, so it's very local and a big employer of this area, so the ad was pretty predominant. Any thoughts about whether or not to go for it??

[SaphirimalMei]

Melissa - I say go for it! Sure, nobody wants to burn bridges, but if it would be better for you and your family...you'd do well to go after the new position. Sounds like a good fit career-wise. Good luck with your decision :)

As for me, I have told the boss that my last day will be on 4/14/06. After that I will be a SAHM! :eek: There is no way we can afford daycare for two (as it will be almost 2000/month) and we would be going into debt each month considering our other financial obligations, but even with no daycare expense we will still be falling short on our monthly budget by $600-$700. So I will be working nights and weekends to make up the funds. Once Jilly is 3, we'll have to reassess our situation as she will be going to Preschool/Montessori/Reggio Emilia. Dear god I will be so BUSY for the next few years!!!! I am really freaked out.

bathing: Still bathing jilly in her baby bath. She doesnt really fit very well, but it's the best we can do. The bathtub/shower has 2 sliding glass doors with a metal track on the rim that makes bathing her in the tub VERY inconvenient and painful...for me.

halloween: no plans, but Jilly will wear her costume to daycare :)



Loving all the adorable pics! I can't believe how big our kiddos are getting! I was looking at Jilly's baby pics on Friday night and sniffling over how little she was...dang hormones :p

[AusAshMommy]

Melissa ~ I second Marisa's comments, go for it if it'll be better for you career wise

Marisa ~ Holy COW!!! SAHM! Your way braver than I am...I make up the bulk of our income so we can't lose it, but I can feel your pain, we're paying nearly $1200/mos in daycare and we go into the negative every week trying to make ends meet...and now that I'm not Bfing anymore we're also buying formula and I dang near forgot how pricey that stuff is...so it's super tight right now...I feel ya!

***********
Ok so updates on us, it's been ages I know...well it's been decided we're moving to Wilmington, NC in April. We are now collecting moving quotes and watching the real estate market. I suggested to Jimmy this morning that perhaps we look into a 6mos lease in an apartment just until we get settled and get the lay of the land before we go buying. He didn't agree...but I might just push it. I am doubtful w/our cruddy credit and no money saved that we'd be able to buy a place because we don't have one to sell...

Ashley is crawling on all fours and pulling herself up on just about everything! She's starting to try and cruise the furniture but it's not 100% just yet.

Austin has been a royal handful lately, we spend 99% of our weekends fighting with him and him in time-out. I think he's bored, and he's frustrated w/Ashley's nap schedule because it interfere's with any possible activities. Not having a playgroup or girlfriends in the area we are very limited to what we can do. I really do have to find some constructive ideas of things for him to do. He gets frustrated in turn and melts into a bawling crying puddle of mess...and it's almost impossible to pull him out of it...without more crying ensuing...so I have no clue what to do.

As for BFing, like I mentioned above we've stopped. I gave it my all for 9.5 mos, but with each AF my supply dropped an ounce or more and would not recover. So Ashley is now entirely on formula and doing surprisingly well with it. We'd been supplementing for about two mos now anyways, so she was used to getting it. It's been a shock to our financials to have include formula in our weekly shopping trips.

Jimmy is back in Millwork (windows and doors) and therefore we've been spending a lot of time w/him at work and me home alone...thus the reasons for the above w/Austin...and he's looking into the electrical dept manager, which is going to mean even more time alone. I have thought about a mother's helper, but I'm not sure if you have to pay them and if so, how much...

So that's where we are now...nothing else to report!

[twinnyme]

Lara - I'm sorry things have been crazy with Austin and with Jimmy working so much. I know the feeling. DH has been working crazy hours (got home at 11 last night) and it'll pretty much be this way until Nov. 15th and then again from late January through April (tax season). Like Marisa I will be VERY busy for the next few months and years!!

I have a prototype ready for our holiday card.... I used Microsoft Office Publisher, saved it as a jpeg, and uploaded it to Shutterfly, where I plan to print it. I'm going to get one copy sent to me to see how it looks (I still have some tweaking to do first - I think it's too much red/green and want to play around more and the bottom is cutting off for some reason), then upload the real photos if it's the way we want to go. We'll use the monthly panda photos of Becca, January through November, and then the middle photo will be a family photo that's more Christmas-y (that we'll take this weekend). I'm excited! I know it's not perfect but I'm not an expert graphic designer. I just think people will appreciate the photos....

[photo deleted 11-6]

[AusAshMommy]

Melissa ~ Ah well it's the life of a retail wife...what can I do?? I know Austin's just bing bonging off the walls here lately...I can't explain it!

Yeah I was gonna suggest a pic in the middle where you could see Becca's cute little face! :D

*********
Got my Week 3 update from Mr. B pulling a good "A" 34 out of a possible 36 points...lost one point on my paper for formatting and one on a quiz (missed two questions)...but otherwise doing good!

Class is driving me nuts but there's two more weeks left of this one then I hope into the next one!

Tomorrow ngiht is Safe Harvest @ Hood and I'm meeting some of my fellow HoodMoms before Trick or Treating, soo excited!!!

[twinnyme]

Yeah I was gonna suggest a pic in the middle where you could see Becca's cute little face!

Absolutely!! And the photos around the perimeter will be closer-up; those photos are just there for placement as I was working on the layout. Thanks for the feedback!

And as a CPA/tax accountant wife, I hear you about being a retail wife! :)

[AusAshMommy]

Melissa ~ Ok I figured as much, looks good though!!!

LOL!!! yeah tis a lonely one! I need a playgroup or something but none of them meet @ night...

[SaphirimalMei]

What about Tech Support Supervisor's Wives? :p Anymore, DH is getting home so late he barely gets to see Jilly since she is usually in bed by then...

Love the Xmas card...so cute!

Boss...gotta go! :eek:

[SaphirimalMei]

Ok...back.
Shame on me, being online at work. I'm just so bored though...

Lara - I am dreading those trying toddler tantrums. I'm getting a taste of tantrum right now with jilly and it's already driving my nutso. I'm in major trouble :p Good luck on your move! How exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. I think now is a good time to do it since the kiddos arent school-age and wont have to deal with the stresses of leaving friends behind. Congrats on your A!

Melissa - It's bad enough with Phil working 7:30a-8 or 8:30pm, I would be so bummed if he didnt even get home til 11!!!! Course I'm in bed by 9:30 cuz my preggo ass would die if I went to bed any later than that. Our only saving grace is that they havent put him on salary yet so he does get paid overtime.

[lokahi]

bath-Andrew is still using his baby bath tub.

Halloween-
We will carve the pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. We had SO much fun! Elton loved pulling the red wagon, hay ride (tractor) and pony ride :)
There's a Parent & Child "Fall Fling" for Elton's speech therapy on Saturday 10/29. He will wear his fire fighter costume.
Then on Halloween night we will trick-or-treat around the neighborhood.


{pic deleted}

[AusAshMommy]

Marisa ~ You can gripe too! Wives of Men who work long odd hours support group! LOL!!! Mine's getting ready to move into Dept MGR, I'll never see him now! OY!

Yeah that is part of the reason we've decided to go now...because they aren't in school yet...not attachments of anykind...it's gonna be stressful, but so well worth it!

Lokahi ~ Such cuties!!! Andrew certainly is getting big!!! Austin was beside himself @ the pumpkin patch, didn't know WHAT to do w/himself!!

[twinnyme]

Melissa - It's bad enough with Phil working 7:30a-8 or 8:30pm, I would be so bummed if he didnt even get home til 11!!!! Course I'm in bed by 9:30....

Well, 11 is unusual - it's more often between 7-8. But even then, Becca is 99% of the time in bed (usual bedtime is 6:45 sometimes earlier sometimes later; yesterday she took a nap from 3:45 to 5:45 then woke, played, ate, went to bed at 7:15. I try not to let her nap that late but we had a rough nap day....) Anyway, needless to say, I savor our weekends with DH - both for Becca's sake and mine. (And on weeknights, I kind of want her in bed early if DH is going to be late all the time; otherwise, I'd be very stressed, I think. I'm usually in bed by 9:30-10:00, too, these days, and I don't even have pregnancy as an excuse!!) We had a VERY nice weekend this past weekend, very low-key and got a lot done around the house, too - a nice prelude to what I'm sure will be (happy) chaos this coming weekend! :)

I LOVE the pumpkin photos!!! There's one moms thread that I sometimes lurk in that has TONS of pumpkin photos - I think it's the Nov. 2004 one (I started looking at it to see previews of what's coming with Becca, and I'm hooked now - the babies there are so cute, too).

Lokahi - did you bring your own wagon to the pumpkin patch? What a great idea!! And it makes for a great photo, too!

I need a playgroup or something but none of them meet @ night...

Lara - did you ever start one? I remember you asking about this here and in another thread a while ago.... I thought of doing something like this this weekend at the daycare party. They have a HUGE indoor gym there, and it was so much fun to be in it with Becca. And since we live right across the street, I would LOVE to offer to the owners that I would be happy to volunteer host a moms/parents get-together/playgroup once a week there - at night or on the weekend. But I don't know about liability - if they'd go for it. But I guess I'm thinking of the upcoming winter and how nice it would be to be inside in a big gym like that!

[AusAshMommy]

Melissa ~ I am working on it as we speak...but right now it's the start-up capital that I need to open a place...I figure get my MBA then I can start something...

I've joined MomsinMD group on MSN so I am hoping to make some connections there as well!

[Lizzie Beth]

Hey, yall. I'm still here, but lurking... I've been hit with the depression from h-e-double hockey sticks, and when that hits, I pretty much drop off any and all social contact possible. I think a trial at work pretty much set it off, but once it gets going, I literally cannot concentrate on anything more than the absolute basics of life. BLEH!!!! :(

But I am now seeing two doctors for it, meds, the whole nine yards. It's been a problem for me for several years, off and on - the last time was when I was a few months PG w/ my girl. So now I officially know that motherhood does not endow you with any special chemicals to ward off any and all depression. But at any rate, I'm tired of going through this every few months or so, so I'm hoping that aggressive treatment will get me off this stinkin' rollercoaster for good.

Sorry to drop such a downer, but I don't want to lose touch with you girls with no explanation whatsoever... And everybody's kiddos are gorgeous, as usual!!! I have no idea what we're going to do for Halloween.. I ordered a cute costume way back when, but I don't think we're going anywhere. Maybe I should look into doing something this weekend.

Susie is trying like heck to figure out a reliable means of locomotion, but so far her results have been a backwards sliding crawl, which usually results in her getting her legs stuck under the couch. Poor kid! :rolleyes: She seems to be more of a vocal kid right now, making a desperate "Ca" sound every time she sees one of the cats. I'm pretty sure that will end up being her trigger to start walking, because the cats like to walk just out of range.. And they may actually play with her once she stops grabbing fistfuls of fur. Right now they sort of do a Muhammad Ali thing with her, dodging just close enough for a sniff or a rub, but not so long as to let her get her greedy little paws on a tail. But they love to play with her toys once she's safe in bed. :D

[twinnyme]

Lizzie Beth - It is SO good to hear from you. I've been wondering how you were doing and was even thinking of PM'ing you to see if everything was okay. I check Susie's blog every once in a while, and since there haven't been any updates, I was a little worried. But I'm so glad you're doing okay, even if you've been going through a lot. I just want you to know - and I won't go into details because I'm sure it took a lot for you to post and I don't want to overshadow that - that I have sought treatment/therapy myself lately. I have seen a therapist 5-6 times in the last few months, and am considering taking medication, too (but want to talk to my mom in person about it first, and that may not happen until Christmas; I believe she's suffered with depression for years, though it's *NEVER* been talked about in my family). Anyway, I'm sorry that you're going through a tough time.

but I don't want to lose touch with you girls with no explanation whatsoever...

Please try to stay in touch even if it's only every once in a while - and lurk away! :)

And they may actually play with her once she stops grabbing fistfuls of fur.

LOL. Can I just say that Becca laughs hysterically every time another baby is crying at daycare?? They say she does it all the time. :rolleyes: Too funny. And also laughs whenever I bend down and she can see the top of my head/my hair - I think it's because she then tries to GRAB it!! We're working on that, but at the daycare Halloween party she tried to grab another baby's hair... I'm going to experiment with my sister's hair this weekend. :) OTOH, yesterday while in her bath, she kept handing me her toys so sweetly - I instinctively started reinforcing the "sharing" idea, saying, "Oh, thank you for sharing that with me. So nice of you!" things like that.

Please take care of yourself, Lizzie Beth - and everyone! Good night.

[twinnyme]

Well, it looks as though I may have stopped the thread cold with my revealing post.... So here's a lighthearted post - I have an updated Christmas card to show, with more close-up photos of Becca.... What do you think?

[photo deleted 11-6]

Note that the photo in the upper right will be changed to a similar panda photo.... that we will take on Nov. 14th (or maybe we'll cheat and do it a couple of days earlier so we can get the cards done sooner). And the middle one will again be a Christmas-y one of the whole family, that hopefully we'll take this weekend.

[Jenzen01]

Hi ladies.

Well, it's definitely late-fall here. Lots and lots of leaves have already fallen, and we're getting frost every morning. Looks like we'll get a break this weekend with a little Indian Summer weather ... highs are supposed to be in the 60s.

I took Gabe to a costume party at the library the other night. He was a frog. We didn't stay long, but it was fun to see all the kids dressed up. Gabe was more interested in eating pumpkin stems. I put him down by the pile of pumpkins, and he entertained himself the whole time we were there. I ran into some moms from my new moms group and had to tell them I lost the baby. This was hard, because two of them are due the same time I would have been.

Lizzie Beth - Take care of yourself. I'm sorry you're going through this. Please lurk away, and don't lose touch with us.

AusAshMommy - Ugh. I'm dreading those temper tantrums, too.

Jen

[SaphirimalMei]

Well, it looks as though I may have stopped the thread cold with my revealing post.... Ug! Dont even think that! (although I did succeed in stopping my LJ cold with a very revealing post, so I understand why you would think that.) I think that on these boards (but it was more so with WC) theres a lot of pressure to always look on the bright side of life and not talk about the bad stuff. I went through a really rough patch awhile back and almost disappeared from posting. My most recent low point was when I burst into hysterical tears at the OBs office when she asked if I was under any stress lately. Um...yeah.

So, in effect, Melissa & Lizzie Dont feel you have to be a total ray of sunshine just to post, specially not around me :p I may not know exactly what either of you are going though, but I definitely have an idea.

SOs in breif...
Jen - we're having lovely weather out here too. I'm definitely enjoying it while I can. we'll have no leaves left on the trees in about a week. sounds like a cute halloween party, but I'm sorry you had to relive the m/c with the new mom's group ladies, especially since they are pg. that's so hard :(

Melissa - I love the card :D I had totally intended to take jilly's pic with the same stuffed animal each month, but I fell down on the job. bad me! Those shots are adorable!!! Becca laughs hysterically every time another baby is crying at daycareJilly laughs hysterically when I say "No" to her...I am in so much trouble!!!!

Lizzie - legs stuck under the couchSounds sooo familiar. Jilly was the exact same way. She'd get herself stuck and get so pissed about it. Susie will be going forward before you know it. I'm so glad you are getting the help you need. I hope they'll be able to get you off that coaster soon :)

[alisong]

Stopping by reeeeeeely quickly - Felix has been sick for the past three days with a fever, so I've been a little preoccupied. I think he's doing better now; his temp was normal this morning. We've also had an injury prone week - black eye on Saturday (fell backwards while holding a toy) and a bloody nose last night. Ugh. I think we need to put a crash helmet on him for the next couple of years.

Lizzie Beth - I'm sorry things have been tough lately, but thanks for stopping by and letting us know how you are.

[AusAshMommy]

Hey Everyone ~ Hope all is well with everyone...from the posts I see we're all hanging in as best as we can!

Melissa ~ Please don't even begin to think that!!! :D Love the new card, too cute! Your soo good about taking that Panda pic every month...I wished I had done the same thing w/both of my kids...but to no avail! LOL!!!

Jen ~ Ugh...sorry :( I can only offer cyber hugs {{{HUGS}}}

Just be prepared to turn a deaf ear when he starts wailing like that...it's the only way to get through the tantrums. To a kid, those are a means to detract attention away from the problem and on them so that you'll cave just to get them quiet...but w/Austin that backfires 80% of the time and causes even further meltdowns...

Marisa ~ Sorry your under soo much stress right now...I feel ya though!

Ali ~ Get better soon little man! :D

**********
Well a little update on us, I've been chatting with a loan officer in NC about our credit situation and such. Well she emailed me back today and said as it stands we can't be approved for anything, but if we are able to knock down some things then we can be approved for up to $175K @ 7% APR for 30 yrs! SO yay! The things that are standing out most are my two student loans (total sum approx $15K) and my car (bal = $8K approx) and two smaller bills under $400/ea...so if we're able to scrape some of that off, we'll be good! I also told her that we have NOTHING in savings right now and I'm not willing to even consider touching my 401K...she realizes that and can work with us on a 1st time buyers program! So we may actually be able to purchase our 1st home when we move to NC!!! YAY!! I am soo thrilled!

We took Austin to Safe Harvest lastnight @ my Alma Mater...he had a BLAST!!! Ate some candy and did some trick-or-treating. Got the hang of it real quick and was racing off ahead of us, we had to go chasing after him more often than not. But he had fun nonetheless, I was happy. By the time we left all of us were zonked and tired. Ironically though neither one of them fell asleep on the way home lastnight...wierd huh? Though they both crashed when we put them down right after walking in the door and both were still out cold this morning, we had to wake them up...

Apparently though when Jimmy went in to wake Austin he immediately said "I want Mommy" and after he was done getting him dressed Austin went "I want Mommy!" AWWWW I love my kid! :D Even though I want to strangle him when he's acting out! :D

Anyhew, that's enough from us...TTFN!

[twinnyme]

Marisa - thanks for your post! I appreciate it. I do think we tend to err on the positive side on the boards, which of course isn't a bad thing, but it's nice to be able to say negative things, too. We have such a supportive group! On the positive side, I received my first freelance check in the mail last night. VERY exciting! I invoice at the end of each month, so I'll be sending in a (larger) invoice very soon now, and then we'll have a regular cycle of freelance payments coming in, which is nice.

And as for the word "no"? Well, Becca also laughs at that - and if I say it more firmly, she just smiles/laughs harder. I think I'm also in trouble. :eek:

Glad you like the card - my favorite photos of her are the ones in the first 3 months in the sleep sacks - it's funny that she's in three different colors, that wasn't planned. (Those first 3 months hardly anyTHING was planned!)

Lara - that's great about the possible loan. Congratulations! There are so many no-money-down, 1st time homebuyers programs out there, it's great you're doing some legwork to find out what is possible. Good luck putting it all together! And it sounds like Austin had a great time at SafeHarvest - bet he wasn't throwing any tantrums or being bored when he was running all around, huh?!

Ali - sorry Felix is so sick, and accident-prone lately. Wow, a black eye and bloody nose, he's definitely a hard player, huh? Poor thing! Becca has a bruise on her nose right now, and we got our first accident report from daycare last week - apparently she was holding on to the exersaucer and fell. They applied ice for 5 minutes. I wasn't very worried; it happens all the time at home!

Jen - I'm sorry that the library party was bittersweet. That must have been hard. That's great that Gabe can entertain himself so well, though! What an independent little boy. We're still working on that with Becca. It's freezing here, too - I definitely have to haul out my winter coat and accessories this weekend. But Halloween itself is supposed to be pretty nice - 65 - though who knows how the forecast will change over the weekend??

Well, I'd better get off now! Glad to see I didn't stop things completely - that people were just busy.... :)

[lorbo]

talking about troublesome twos...i left DH to deal with DD...i thought i did enough by nursing James to sleep and putting him to bed, then i went to bed-i did not sleep a whole lot yesterday, because i was supposed to have an orthopedic appt and didn't know when it was, where it was, etc. the kids were screaming, i had a headache, i had to walk away from the whole situation and ended up taking James to bed, and then going to bed. i awoke this morning at oh, about 4am to my DD screaming at DH that she wanted her mommy, etc. i got up very exhausted and had to listen to her beg me to sleep with her, let me sleep in your bed, etc. it's been explained to me why...DH was watching Invasion and noticed her sitting there-she had been there to see one of the "monsters" in the water. DH told her to go back to bed and she said there's a monster in the water. Ugh, we have been trying to tell her monsters aren't real and it's just not working and on top of this, she sees this show-give me a break!!! James is in to everything, he gets up and sometimes figures out how to get down, those times he doesn't, he screams until i get him on the floor. did i say he had his 9 month appt? he's 18 lb 9oz, 28 inches-that's a 2 inch spurt since last month-and COMPLETELY HEALTHY!!! his doctor said he was probably ok in August, but we consider him completely recovered from the anemia now. he told me to not worry about RSV, that he's a big boy and he'll be fine. we're to start giving finger foods-my DH called him a mooch last night. he started with a egg yolk yesterday and loved it. we're going to get yobaby yogurt and start giving him even more food. the thought of Christmas shopping with the two is giving me the willies!!!

[AusAshMommy]

Melissa ~ Yeah that's what I understand, this gal is going to help match us w/the right program when the time comes...

Lorbo ~ Oy sounds like one of your days equates to one of ours, I feel ya! Hang in there...here's to hoping it all gets better sooner rather than later. I hear 3 is even worst...

With me on NOT looking forward to it???????

[lawyerwifemom]

Hello everyone!

Aliglad to hear Felix is feeling better. Sorry about the bumps and bruises though! Wyatt has a fat lip right now from the coffee table. He got blood all over one of my favorite shirts. But he barely cried and didn't slow down. Ugh.

Laragood news re NC! I'm glad to hear you are wearing your kiddos out before they wear you out. Good strategy.

LoriYeah for completely healthy! Rachel too has been waking up alot lately with "bad" dreams. She keeps asking to watch CSI with me. Uh . . .NO.

Melissa and Lizzie I'm sorry you are feeling blue. My SIL, who has 8 kids and is a born to be a mom kind of woman, says she often feels like crawling in a hole and bawling at some point in the early months. I hope you each find something that works for you.

Jen I'm so sorry that situation brought up painful feelings for you. My neighbor recently suffered a m/c at about 10 weeks and I am feeling a little apprehensive about telling her I am pregnant. There doesn't seem to be any good solution.

Marisa Are you enjoying this gorgeous weather???

All is well here though I am about to start searching for a full time nanny to replace the one we've had since Rachel was 10 weeks. She is starting student teaching in January. I work from home so I need someone about 35-40 hours a week. I really hate interviewing.

[Jenzen01]

Anyone else still have a kid who wakes up at night?

I can't handle this anymore. Am I being unrealistic? Shouldn't he be sleeping through the night?

[lokahi]

Lara- Glad you guys had fun at the pumpkin patch. Any pics to share?

Melissa- DH got the wagon from Wal-mart before we went to the pumpkin patch. I'm SO glad we got it :) otherwise I don't know how we would carry 2 boys and pumpkins.

Jenzen01
Anyone else still have a kid who wakes up at night?

(((hugs)))
Andrew's bedtime is 8-8:30 p.m. He wake up in the middle of the night or early morning. Wednesday & Thursday morning he was up at 3-4 a.m. =/
I miss him sleeping through the night. What gives? Growth spurth?

QOTD:
How long does your babe nap?

[Jenzen01]

naps - Gabe takes two naps at daycare that range from 45 minutes to two hours. I'd say they average an hour. When he's at home on the weekends, some of his naps are two hours or more. I think he gets disrupted less at home.

[marchfamily]

A feeble attempt at catching up -

Lizzie - Glad you have checked in. Thinking about you!
Jen - my heart broke for you thinking about the library visit...

Someone asked about baby/remodeling - E could really care less. We're 2 months into it and I don't think she really notices. We moved her room upstairs until the downstairs is complete. She can nap through the noise.

STTN - E goes to bed between 6:30-7pm. She wakes around 1am and again starting at 4am. We don't go in unless it sounds serious. I get her up for the morning between 5:30-6am. I figure she wakes, chats and goes back to sleep at least 2-4 times per night.

Naps - 2 hours in the morning. 1.5 hours in the early afternoon. Late afternoon quick naps are hit and miss (usually 30-45 min). I think she's dropping this last one for good.

Waving to everyone else.... I'm woefully behind on proper shout outs...sorry!

[marchfamily]

Another QOTD - Its been asked before, but what's on your holiday list for you bebe? Getting lots of family pressure to come up with a list.....

[lawyerwifemom]

Wyatt goes to bed between 7-7:30. He usually wakes somewhere between 2 and 4 and I feed him in my bed while dozing. He goes back to his bed to sleep till about 5:30-6, I nurse him again and then he is usually up for the day about 7. He still seems to need the middle of the night feeding but we have been having DH go to him to try to settle him with out eating. It works only about 25% of the time and he usually is awake again within an hour wanting to eat. The 5:30-6 feeding is usually just my attempt to sleep longer because I think he thinks that's when morning should start!

He has slept all through the night maybe 5 times. And we were awake wondering what was wrong with him! I expect that in the next 2 months or so, he will start being more consistent (that's what R did anyway and he is a better sleeper than her)

He naps for about an hour at 9 and about 1.5-2 hours at 1.

[AusAshMommy]

Lokahi ~ Yeah but they are in my 35mm camera...:(

QOTD:

Ashley is still a 2 nap a day baby...can't get around that...one 2.5 in the morning and one 1.5-2.0 in the afternoon and it's down for the night no later than 7, STTN like a champ!

[twinnyme]

QOTD#1 - STTN/naps - Becca sleeps through the night beautifully, typically 6:45 - 5:30/6:30, sometimes 7 to 7. But that's only been back to normal for about 2 weeks; before that she was getting up once in the night, I think teething, though still no teeth have appeared.... She does seem to wake in the night and talk to herself or play a little but doesn't want to eat (thank god).

As for naps, I don't know what on earth has happened, but it's been terrible lately, and we've barely budged from the house until today (when I'm home with her), so I don't know what's going on. Unfortunately, she's only been napping twice a day about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes each time, at daycare and at home. For a while, she was napping 8-10 and 12-2 (for about three weeks) when at home and still doing okay at daycare, but it's deteriorated lately and I don't know why. I can only guess she wants to be up and about now that she's more mobile. But today I got her to nap 8-10 and then unfortunately we had to go out in the afternoon and her second nap was 3:30-4:00 in the car. But now that I've seen her nap 8-10 I'm going to work on the 8-10 and 12-2 schedule again (which, typically, is the 9 and 1 schedule, but since she gets up so early it seems to be 8 and 12). I HAVE to get her back on track napwise. It's tough when I'm home with her otherwise and of course I don't think it's good for her. I think I was misreading her signals again. This week, I was seriously consideirng dropping her to one nap since she seemed to be doing it herself but then I re-read the appropriate section in Weissbluth (Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child) and have determined to get her back on track napwise. If it doesn't work, I'm going to start working on her sleeping 12-2:30 because that's when she'll nap in the toddler room at daycare.

I can't believe how well Ashley, Wyatt, and E nap!!! That must be so nice! Jen - I'm sorry Gabe's nightwaking habits are still going strong - I'm sure that can get very tiring and frustrating.

QOTD#2: Holiday wish list. Well, here's ours (from the Word document I'm keeping; I don't send this to people, but when they ask I tell them some ideas from it. I also have a Wish List for her on Amazon but again I'm not telling people that - just if they stumble across it or ask):

• Snowsuit/mittens/hat
• Walker
• Bath toys
• Stocking with little toys (personalized) - Ornament, Peek-a-Blocks (set of 6) - this will be from us
• Books, books, books
• Clothes
• Computer keyboard
• Swim stuff for next year (float, etc.)
• Little People toys - for pretend play
• Baby boom box & CD's
• Appropriate-aged art supplies (Aquadoodle)

[lorbo]

i don't know if i should post this...wondering if i'll jinx myself!! James sleeps from 9:30-10pm to 7am, i hit the monitor-fisher price sound and lights and most times he'll go back to sleep until 10-10:30-mommy likes that very much-especially when i come home from work real late, or i'm real wound up from work and go to bed real late. Brooke is the problem sleeper and i always worry that her drama queen screaming is going to wake James.

as far as naps, he does two a day-usually noonish and late afternoon-his noonish nap is an hour to two hours, the late afternoon is about an hour.

Christmas presents-i'm wondering if i've bought too much and have to actually look at what i've bought. i have 3 little tikes bath toys-not sure who will get what(i figure both will use them), fisher price rollaround treehouse, fisher price peekablock hippo, lots of books, pajamas and clothes, a truck that i may or may not give him, maybe birthday, maybe next christmas. i know there's more, but i can't think right now.

[alisong]

QOTD (sleep) - Ignoring this horrible week, nighttime sleep is pretty good. Generally 7-6, with the occasional easy to solve wakeup around 4 or 5. We haven't really addressed forcing Felix to get himself back to sleep because he still sleeps in the same room as us, and it's frankly just easier to get up and pop the paci back in. That usually does the trick.

Naps have been improving. We're now on a fairly consistent schedule of 9:30 - 11:30 (give or take a half hour on each end) and 2:30 - 4:30. I've been making a big effort to be home for the second nap, as napping out and about just wasn't cutting it.

[twinnyme]

Quick question: How long are they supposed to be sleeping in a 24-hour period now (on average)?

I ask because I've read 13-14 hours a day at this point (down from 16 or so) and that's why I think sometimes we struggle with the naps - because she pretty much consistently sleep 11/12 hours a night so if she sleeps only 2 hours total per nap she's on target. But she does seem tired sometimes and, so, I'm kind of going back to the 2-hour-awake window now. Anyway, does anyone know what is recommended at 9 months?

[asilversun]

Hi everyone! I feel terrible that it's been so long since I last posted, but I do read along. My computer time is so limited these days (thanks to Eli's sleeping habits, which I'll get into in more detail below :rolleyes: ). As always, I love the pictures and love hearing about everyone's stats. I'll try to do some shout-outs and hopefully I remember everything...

Melissa - I'm loving the holiday card! You're so good that you remembered to take that shot every month. I have most months of Eli with his teddy bear but somehow I just plum forgot in other months. I figure I'll tell people I meant to do that just to mix things up a bit. ;) What did you decide to do about the job? That's a really tough call. I'd probably play it safe while trying to figure out if I could put out any feelers - just in case.

Marisa - Congratulations on your decision to be a SAHM! I'm loving the change, though it is an adjustment. You mentioned a while back that your bathtub has the metal ridge and it's painful for you. We have this:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000645CY.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000645CY/002-0736815-8361643?v=glance) Maybe it would help?

Lara - Congratulations on the decision to move! That's so exciting. We're thinking about finding a town we're more excited about in the next six months or so. We like where we are, but we want to love it, if you know what I mean. And that's great news about the loan, and it's wonderful you've found someone who's able to work with you like that. It really sounds like it's all going to work out great. I can't wait until you start posting pictures from your real estate adventures!

Lizzie Beth - I'm sorry you've been feeling so down. I'm glad you're optimistic for the future, though. Hopefully all the happy baby faces in here make you smile. :)

Ali - We've got injuries in this household, too. Eli had a black eye for a little while after he clocked himself with the edge of the trash can. So far no blood - knock on wood - but I'm sure it's not too far off. It's hard to find that balance between protecting them and letting them explore on their own.

Lorbo - I'm so glad the check up went well! That's the best feeling, isn't it?

Jen and Lokahi - I've got lots to say about sleep. See below...

Holiday wish list - A computer keyboard is a great idea, Melissa. I've just been unplugging mine from my laptop so Eli could play. I'm sure a kid-friendly one would buy me a lot more time. Right now I'm just thinking bath toys and some kind of magnets for the fridge. There are also a few CDs that I think he'd enjoy. Other than that, I don't really know. Between consignment shops and my MIL, he's pretty well set for toys.

Sleep - Oy. It continues to be a challenge. I mentioned in my last post (weeks ago) that we had an appointment with Dr. Ferber. He's local here in Boston, so we figured why not go to the expert, right? We saw him about four weeks ago and our lives haven't been the same since. We told him our sob story (Eli had slept through the night maybe six or seven times, and his naps were consistently 30 minutes, to the point that you could set your watch by it). He listened and then said, "This is an easy one." According to Ferber, we were trying to make Eli sleep too much. He says that most sleep charts are wrong about how much sleep nine month old babies need. Eli should only be sleeping a total of 12 hours in a 24 hour period. (That answers your question, Melissa. At least according to one expert.)

We had been putting Eli down at 6:30 or 7:00, and often spent a couple of hours in and out of his room trying to get him into a sound sleep. He would consistently wake up at least twice during the night and need our attention, and then he'd be up for the day between 6:30 and 7:00 the next morning. And, as I said, his naps were short, and there were three or four of them. Ferber's basic point was that Eli simply wasn't tired enough to sleep through the night or to take longer naps. So, he told us to keep him up until 9:00pm and wake him at 6:00am. We had to cut back to two naps, 90 minutes max each (we should be so lucky!).

The first couple of weeks were horrid. We were setting an alarm to get up in the pitch black and then dragging Eli out of his crib and out of a sound sleep. We could barely keep him awake between naps (which stayed solidly at 30 minutes each) - he even fell asleep in the middle of bouncing in his Johnny Jumper. The kid was tired. We talked to Ferber on the phone and he said we could add back some sleep, and we took it a little further than he intended us to. He said add it back in 15 minute increments but we decided just to let him sleep in. It seemed insane to us to wake a sleeping baby, so we decided not to. Eli's bedtime is now 8:30, and he tends to sleep until 7:30 or 8:00 each morning (waking at about 5:00 to nurse and then go back to sleep). His two naps are still 30 minutes each. Ferber said they'd lengthen eventually, but we just weren't willing to put Eli through what we'd need to in order to get there, so we gave up.

Eli didn't start sleeping through the night all on his own. We did have to incorporate a little bit of "Ferberization" to get there, but it really was only a little, and we're actually starting to see some results. He's slept through the night for the last three out of four nights, and for us that's HUGE. I think it's a combination of expecting less sleep out of him and also helping learn how to self-soothe by letting him cry more than we had.

I think the biggest challenge for me in all of it was the fact that Ferber's advice goes completely against so much of what I've read about "sleep begets sleep." But at this point I'm not questioning it because the kid is sleeping better. So Jen, I don't know if that helps you at all, but at least it's another perspective. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Oh, and the other challenge is that the later bedtime and the continued 30 minute naps (and there are only two of them now) means that I have very little time to myself these days. I use his naps to shower and eat, and then after he goes to bed I try to clean the house a little. We have another appointment in a couple of weeks and my first question will be, "When will he start sleeping more?!"

Sorry this post is so long. I finally had some time to post and felt like all of this might be relevant. I'd love to be able to post more often and I'll try, but I never know what the day will hold for me.

I can't leave without posting a couple pics of the little one...

http://jarsky.com/karenfiles/pumpkin.jpg

http://jarsky.com/photos/images/eli/pictures/IMG_1735.jpg

He's happy, healthy, and in the 50th percentile for just about everything. He's crawling, pulling up, and cruising, and finally started to babble a bit. He was quiet for a long time, but we got our first "da da" the other day. Now if we could just get that "mama"...

[lawyerwifemom]

Hi Karen! Good to see you around here. I'm glad Eli is sleeping so well at night anyway!

Wyatt has more teeth! He now has three on the bottom and two on top (although one of the top ones is barely out). I didn't even notice the third bottom tooth until this morning and it is almost all the way out! I almost wonder if it grew in overnight.

We're off to the zoo and dim sum in Denver today. Then this evening we have a neighborhood Halloween party. Rachel is a fairy princess (Gymboree) and Wyatt is the oatmeal bear from Baby Center. It was Rachel's costume for her first Halloween too. He hates the hood!
http://store.babycenter.com/MEDIA/ProductCatalog/25046_100854_hg.jpg

Happy weekend everyone.

[twinnyme]

Well, we just got back from the pumpkin farm, where it was SNOWING!!! Yes, it is snowing today in Massachusetts - but we went anyway. It was a small one and we're between Becca's and my nephew's naps so we went only for about 1/2 hour. But Becca and Zachary both rode the pony and we got some cute pumpkin photos - but note the winter coat, scarf, hat and hood! Crazy! :eek:

My sister is feeding Becca right now and hopefully she'll go to sleep again. She napped this morning from 9:40 to 12:00 and now my nephew is napping from 2:00 to 4:00 so we only had a small window - but we both support the other's nap efforts 110% so it works out well.

Anyway, dropping off a pumpkin photo! :)

[photo deleted 10-6]

ETA: I'm back because I forgot to say hi to Karen and to thank her for the info on # of sleep hours. Still snowing here!

[lokahi]

Cute pumpkin patch pictures :)

THANK YOU ALL for sharing your child's bed & nap schedule!

Andrew is sensitive to sound and may nap from 30-45 min. Elton went to the beach with the in-laws on Friday. I'm lucky b/c Andrew nap longer- 1 hr in the morning and 2 hrs in the afternoon!!!

Have a safe & happy Halloween!

{pic deleted}

[AusAshMommy]

Just wanted to drop off the newest pics of the kids:

We went over to my parents house today for a playdate w/Jasmine again...

*will be deleted in a few days*

*Deleted for Security Purposes*

*LOVE the way Dad captured this pic!*

[AusAshMommy]

A few More...

*Pics Deleted for Security Reasons*

That's all she wrote...

[Jenzen01]

Hello, everyone.

Thanks for all the sleep discussion ... It makes me feel better to see that others are still struggling.

Gabe has actually been doing very well the past few days. I had a breakthrough last week. Instead of feeding him, I tried to soothe him with rocking and singing, etc. He fought me for a while, but eventually calmed down and went back to sleep. I think I was up there for about a half an hour. I did the same thing the next night, but with less fighting. And then, he slept through the night and got up at 6:30 to eat. Wow. I think I just needed to have some patience with him. Feeding him takes less time (I'm back in bed within 10 minutes), but it's a habit I need to break. So, all in all, I'm happy with how things have gone the past week. Hopefully, this trend will continue.

Naps are still really good on our end. He slept for 2.5 hours yesterday afternoon. Wow. I had the house cleaned and got to watch TV for a while.

Great pics, everyone. I'll have to post some after they're developed.

That's all from here.

Jen

[romansluv]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
This is our babies first halloween!! Hope it's a good one!

Isaac is gonna be a dragon and we found a matching costume for our chihuahua as well so we will have two dragons! VERY CUTE! Will post pics tomorrow.

[SaphirimalMei]

just a quick post to drop off a pic of my little lambie!
happy halloween!!!!

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5ce10b3127cce94bba723966700000016108Actmbhy1btI

p.s. I have a pic thats still on the digicam that is HILARIOUS. jilly doesnt like her costume and i caught a pic of her cranking it up :p i'll post it asap

[lawyerwifemom]

Happy Halloween! We are about to head out for TOT (just around the neighborhood)

Good news on my new pg--I saw the heartbeat on US today!! I was a little (well very) worried because I had a small amount of bright red spotting on Saturday afternoon--enough to wipe a few times and then nothing more. So I had bloodwork yesterday (hcg was very good) and went in for an us today. And there was the little heart beating away! My ob said the spotting was probably a "inconsequential subchorionic hemorrage" related to implantation and that she is not overyly concerned about miscarriage at this point (of course never say never but the risk is vastly diminished once the heartbeat is seen). So I am SOO relieved! I never had spotting of ANY kind with my prior two pgs and I really feel like I am pushing my luck to have 3 healthy pregnancies, ya know?!

I did get a Rhogam shot though since I am rh negative, just in case there was any mixing of maternal/fetal cells. As Lorbo knows all too well, that is potentially very dangerous and I wanted to be safe than sorry.


Off to TOT. I hope everyone has a great time tonight!

[lorbo]

Yea Heather and yep yep yep on that rhogam-dropping off pics of my superman and little elephant.

*will delete in a few days*

[twinnyme]

Heather - I'm glad to hear that all is okay with your spotting and that the baby seems fine! That must have been worrisome since you haven't had spotting before.

Loving all the Halloween photos. Here's one for me to drop off! (It's not the best one, but that's DH on the left and my sister in the middle.) My nephew was Buzz Lightyear.

[photo deleted 10-6]

My nephew (Zachary) was SO cute. My sister had taught him to say "trick-or-treat," "Happy Halloween," and "thank you." (He just turned 2.) He rattled off his spiel great most times, forgetting parts of it sometimes. He also said "go Halloween" a lot when he wanted to move to the next house. And when he wanted to go home he said "Becca-Boo's house." :D

Here's another cute one of Zachary and Becca:

[photo deleted 10-6]

Zachary is kissing Becca here! The Children's Museum was an absolute blast. We were there from 10 to 4!!! A whole day.... Becca took a couple of catnaps (one in the car and one in the stroller) so she did great!

I'm missing my sister and nephew already. :(

[Jenzen01]

Just dropping some pictures off ...

Heather - Glad to hear the spotting was nothing.

Gabe at the Halloween library event:
http://images.snapfish.com/3453%3A%3A7523232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2328%3D%3B%3B5%3D3 %3A%3A%3D%3A%3B7758b28342423%3D3232%3C9854769%3Bnu 0mrj

Walking! (excuse the focus. They're harder to get on film when they're moving)

http://images.snapfish.com/3453%3A%3A7523232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2328%3D%3B%3B5%3D3 %3A%3A%3D%3A%3B7758b28342423%3D3232%3C98547695nu0m rj
http://images.snapfish.com/3453%3A%3A7523232%7Ffp64%3Dot%3E2328%3D%3B%3B5%3D3 %3A%3A%3D%3A%3B7758b28342423%3D3232%3C9854792%3Cnu 0mrj

And, Gabe with his toy basket:
http://images.snapfish.com/3453%3A%3A7523232%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E2328%3D%3B%3B5%3D3 %3A%3A%3D%3A%3B7758b28342423%3D3232%3C98547943nu0m rj

[lawyerwifemom]

Great costumes and pics! Wyatt enjoyed hanging out and watching everyone last night. It was Rachel's first year to really get Halloween (we were in Australia last year but she was only 20 months so I think she wouldn't have been that into it anyway). We are Halloweened out though! Boo at the Zoo, party at the neighbors, Treatsylvannia at the Farm (a working farm/petting zoo) and then TOT!

Thanks for the good wishes and the kind words everyone! I have to admit that I remain a little tiny bit worried, but I know there isn't much of anything I can do so I will just hope that it really was nothing.

[lokahi]

Cute costumes! I have ideas for next Halloween.

****
Andrew has a nasty diaper rash :( I've been doing what the Ped advised- soaking in water w/ baking soda; airing out / nekkid time; and Destin cream. I still need to try cloth diapers.

It got me thinking....
What diapers & wipes does your babe use?
[I read somewhere that Huggies are designed more for boys and Pampers are designed more for girls.]

[AusAshMommy]

Lokahi ~ We use a combo of both pamper and huggies, we have pamper dipes and wipes here at home w/huggies diapers and pampers wipes @ daycare...just depends on what's on sale and what I have a coupon for...

As for Diaper Rash, desitin is the best and A&D cream as well...poor baby hope he feels better soon!

[twinnyme]

Lokahi ~ We use a combo of both pamper and huggies, we have pamper dipes and wipes here at home w/huggies diapers and pampers wipes @ daycare...just depends on what's on sale and what I have a coupon for...

Exactly the same here! I'm the queen of the coupons these days, though Marisa recently gave me a great tip about buying diapers in bulk at good prices on Amazon!

I'm up at 5:00 because although I slept beautifully until 4:30, I couldn't any longer and decided to draft my cover letter for the job I mentioned last week. I think I've decided to go for it, though I'm nervous about it....

[SaphirimalMei]

diapers: papmers cruisers. VERY happy with these. only 2 blowouts/leaks ever.
diaper rash cream: I make my own salve. I call it Wee One's Bum Balm. Works like a charm if I do say so myself. I give it to all my pals who've had babies and they swear by it :D

heres a couple more piccies

loving the green beans
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5cf23b3127cce94a9d01babd300000015108Actmbhy1btI

"enjoying" her first holiday card from grandma
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5cf23b3127cce94a9d0f02a0800000015108Actmbhy1btI

happy lamb
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5cf23b3127cce94a9d019abd100000016108Actmbhy1btI

royally pissed off lamb
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5cf23b3127cce94a9d0a1ab6900000016108Actmbhy1btI

[twinnyme]

Marisa - I love the "from happy to royally pissed" photo montage of Jilly! :) And we have a very similar photo of Becca eating her first Halloween card from Grandma - too funny.

[AusAshMommy]

Melissa ~ Good Luck w/the Job!!! Crossing my fingers for ya for an interview!

Marisa ~ LOL @ Jilly...the transformation from Happy to Pissed can be a matter of seconds in little ones! She's too cute!! :D

************
Just thought ya'll would get some giggles out of some Austin antics, we'll start w/Saturday afternoon @ my parents place...

He and Jasmine were jumping off of the couch in her living room, and he was going "3-2-1, Takeoff" jumping then proceeding to take a bow! Then that evening he was taking Ashley's soft rattle and bonking himself in the head, being overly dramatic about it and then dropping to the floor pretending to be unconscious, then getting up and taking a bow. LOL!!!

Friday evening, he didn't want to take a bath, so eventually he gave in and yelled "FINE" and stomped off up the steps (just like Jimmy does when he has to cave in, LOL!!)

And his newest thing that cracks me up all the time is when we're talking and repeating ourselves numerous times, he'll look at us and go "Ok ok ok geez" it's too cute!!!!

Just wanted to share those with ya'll!!!

Ashley on the other hand has mastered waving "Hi" and "Bye" and she'll blow kisses. She also has mastered saying "Hi!" WOW!!!!

Enjoy!

[Jenzen01]

Morning, all.

Laura - Funny Austin stories. I can imagine it only gets crazier and crazier, huh?

Marisa - love the lambie pictures ... she's gonna thank you some day when you pull that one out at her high school graduation party. :)

Ugh. We had a traumatic night. First, I picked Gabe up at daycare and found out that he had a "walking accident," as the daycare worker called it. He had tripped over a toy and hit the changing table, which resulted in a swollen lip and several cut on his chin. I'm sure there's a cut inside his mouth, but he won't let me in there. Then, later in the evening, he fell on his truck and hit his head, which resulted in a good 15 minutes of screaming. Then, as I was nursing him before bedtime, he bit me ... hard. I yelled, he started crying and screaming, and then he wouldn't nurse because I had scared him so badly. I finally got him calmed down and he took the breast, but geez, what a night. We were happy when he finalll went down.

That's all from here,
Jen

[AusAshMommy]

Jen ~ Yes it does! Just you wait, Gabe'll have you guys in stitches before long!

Sorry about your traumatic night...we've had several of those recently...I feel for ya!

[twinnyme]

Lara - great Austin stories, thanks for sharing. They gave me a good laugh this morning! And Ashley saying "hi" - WOW is right!! That's great. Becca waved hi/bye frantically this morning to some of her daycare friends.... but it's only the second or so time she's done it.

Jen - wow, Gabe (and you) had a really rough day yesterday. Poor thing. I hope he feels better today.

Just wanted to share a funny story, too - you know how sometimes we laugh at our DC - when they do something funny that we KNOW we're not supposed to laugh at (so as not to encourage the behavior) but just can't help it? Well, my sister told me that my nephew now can tell sometimes when his parents are doing that, and he gets very upset. So they're trying really, really hard now to not do it as much.

I can't remember if we've had a QOTD about this topic yet, but what are you planning, if anything yet, for your DC's first birthday?

I was thinking of doing two separate ones - one in NYC since we'll be there over Christmas for almost a week and my whole family is there and one in MA for DH's family and just do small ones. But now I'm rethinking it and considering one big one - later in January, so it's not too much traveling for my family around the holidays. There is a Children's Museum in NH (not the one we went to this weekend) that has parties for $225 for 90 minutes - exclusive use of the museum, favors, one activity (I'd probably choose face painting), birthday cake and apple juice, paper goods and birthday candles - for 15 kids, adults are free, and it's only $5 per extra child (though I don't think we'd have any). This seems like a great deal to me, and not that expensive. We'd probably get some sandwiches, too, or something, but that wouldn't be that expensive. I just think for the 1st birthday I want everyone to be there at once.... I have to talk with DH about it, though, but it shouldn't blow our budget. It would have to be on a Sunday at 11-12:30 though, and the date (1/29) is available. So that's what I'm now thinking....

[AusAshMommy]

Melissa ~ Yup...Antoinette works with her everyday on it, and she's got it down pat! Heck she can even say Ante sometimes...go figure!

Good Idea for a B-Day party!

Ashley's will be in the beginning of Jan, probably the 2nd week or so, on a Sat/Sun afternoon after Nap...2 hrs or so with our friends @ home, like Austin's was. As for him, we'll probably have a party with all of his daycare buddies the weekend after his B-day...nothing too big...

[lawyerwifemom]

Jen! Ugh on the traumatic day. Poor Gabe with the bumps and bruises. He's got things to do!! From all I've read and my own experience, you did exactly the right thing yelling when he bit you. Even though it kind of scared him at the moment, you have probably helped stop that behaviour.

Love the irate Jilly pic!

Cute Austin stories Lara! This is just the best age! (Well they are all pretty great, but 2.5 is just precious )

Diapers: We use Pampers cruisers and are mostly happy with them. Wyatt still has the occasional blowout whether he's in a 3 or 4 though. We have had nothing but bad experiences with Huggies on both R and W and I will not buy them. Wipes are just the bulk wipes from Sam's Club.

QOTD We will likely do a neighborhood family party for Wyatt the weekend after his actual birthday since it is on a Wednesday. We did the same for Rachel and it was fun, casual and easy. I think my dad and sister will be in town to help my sister move in with us about that time too. For Rachel's first birthday we had a balloon lady come and she was a big hit with all the kids. I might consider a face painter or magician or something. But no clown!

For Rachel, we will likely have her first non neighborhood, friend party at a indoor play place called Fit for Fun. They have lots of foam mats and things to climb on. Her birthday is Feb 11 so the party will likely be on that day itself since it is a Saturday.

[SaphirimalMei]

Yes, jilly can still go from zero to cranked in nothing flat and she's had a lot of days lately like Jen described with Gabe. She's been pulling herself up a lot and freaking out cuz she cant figure out how to get down, getting frustrated and flopping down and bonking her head. That will trigger a little tantrum in which she'll flop herself backwards and bonk her head again. I swear that if this child escapes early childhood without self-inflicted brain damage it'll be a miracle!

Jen - I'm totally pulling out that picture at a socially crippling time. It's my parental right. :p

Sounds like Austin is getting a little sassy, Lara! Thats funny that he stomps off saying "Fine!" like Jimm. Ashley's really learning a whole bunch of stuff at once! Thats so great! Jilly says "dad". Very truncated little syllable...."dad!" It's so cute!

Melissa - sounds like a great idea for Becca's bday! That would be fun for the kiddos AND the adults :D

Jilly's 1st B-day: I'm not sure we'll do anything major as she'll not remember it. Prolly just invite the grandparents and auntie sara, make Jilly a cake and let her go for it...and take lots of embarassing frosting covered jilly pics :p (We only have two friends with kids. Two boys who are 2 & 4 and a boy who's almost 10.)

[twinnyme]

I'm not sure we'll do anything major as she'll not remember it.

Hmm, good point - especially since this is our philosophy for Christmas.... Everyone's ideas for parties sound great. I love the balloon lady idea!

I would LOVE to have a neighborhood party at home, but, unfortunately, our house is too small to have a real party there, and we do have a lot of family and friends with kids - I've counted 12 kids so far and I think I may be forgetting some. We did do her baptism at the house, but that was in the (rented) common room, and took a LOT of work (renting tables, food, decorating, cleaning up, etc.). My sister made a good point that January 16(a Monday) is Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, so that's a good weekend to plan it for travel (though I'm not sure that everyone from NY would come, of course so we might do a cake there, too, for a handful of friends and extended family).

Still some thinking and deciding to do....

[Jenzen01]

Birthday - We're planning a get-together with close family on Dec. 18. And, like SaphirmaiMei said, lots of embarrassing photos of a cake-smeared Gabe. Nothing fancy, although I'm planning on doing a Gabe trivia game to see how well his aunts and uncles know him. (What's his middle name? When did he get his first tooth? How old was he when he started crawling? How long did I push? ... you get the picture.)

Diapers - Pampers Cruisers. We only have a few leaks on overnight diapers. I buy wipes in bulk at Sam's.

[marchfamily]

Hello all! As usual...terribly behind with SO. All the kiddos are just adorable! Next we'll be posting pictures of 1st bday parties and holiday pictures! My, my, how one year flies!!

Surviving over in my land. I have horrible m/s and have lost 5 pounds this week. I'm on Zofran, but still getting sick all day/night.

E is still making no attempts of waving, clapping, saying mama, hi, bye or moving from the sitting or stomach position. Getting jealous of all the development going on with the little ones. Guess she's moving at her own pace (I wonder where she gets that from ;) ).

QOTD/Dipes,Wipes - We like Kirkland (stage 3) the best (Costco). We bought Pampers Cruisers the last time, but think they have a very strong smell (kind of baby powder/chemical'ish)...but that could be us. We buy wipes in bulk too. My favorites are Huggies Natural wipes.

[marchfamily]

Oops, forgot the other QOTD...

QOTD/Bday parties - I'm on the fence on this one. I don't want to do an extremely big hoo-ha. But, was thinking about having an open house the weekend after E's bday (Jan 14th) and have people stop in for cake and drinks. Our house is SERIOUSLY tiny, so I don't know how we'd fit more than 8-10 people there?

[lorbo]

QOTDs-we use pampers and huggies interchangably-huggies is always the bigger size and pampers-well, i prefer pampers cruisers-loved them with DD-i miss the swaddlers-they are the best. as far as wipes-usually huggies-ultra soft or i really like the shea butter ones.

birthday party-we'll have a family party-it'll be largish-but that's my family-don't have to worry about DH's family-it'll be MIL, FIL, SIL and BIL pretty much-if we invite more people, i'm just doing the cake and appetizers-i want it to be bigger for James and DD as well-her last birthday was very intimate, being that i had just been released from the hospital, James was in the NICU, and it was a blizzard here-suffice it to say, her party involved me, daddy and Brooke-then we had an easter gathering where everybody sang happy birthday for her.

[alisong]

Ugh, so behind... That's the trouble with my new "no CC or LJ at work unless I'm pumping" policy - I can read what people post just fine, but never get around to typing! If it makes any difference, I think about posting. ;)

QOTD: We're still using cloth here. A couple of months ago we switched from using a service to washing our own FuzziBunz. Don't know why we didn't do this sooner! (Okay, honestly, it was probably fear of laundry. But that's really not a valid point as our nanny does practically all our laundry.) We do go through about a package of sposies per size, and for that I just get whatever's on sale. We also use cloth wipes - they're sooo much better than the disposible wipes!

Birthday party - I think we're having a joint party with Felix's best friend Toby (son of WC's truth, if you remember her). Not sure where yet - probably her house, as ours is such a disaster. :( I guess we need to start thinking about organizing it soon, huh? We'll also be doing something small in Australia before we leave (a couple of weeks before his actual birthday).

Loving all the Halloween photos! Here are a couple of Froggy Felix:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5ce10b3127cce954bcec4470600000015108Aat2rdyzbM_

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5ce10b3127cce954bce11c6e300000015108Aat2rdyzbM_

[lokahi]

Andrew's diaper rash is drying up/clearing.

Today is DH's b-day. I got him a brown jacket from Old Navy for his Miami conference next week. I also got him two Aloha shirts for work. Marc loved the Snoopy card and Elton's color drawings (bus, fire truck & pumpkin). I made french toast for breakfast. Marc's co-workers are treating a dim sum lunch. And I'm making mochiko chicken for dinner.

We're celebrating with friends at the new E & O Trading Co. restaurant this weekend.

* * * * * *
alisong- Cute frog! That's great it has a zipper. Andrew had the monkey from Old Navy. Poor guy hate it! It was difficult to get in/out because of the Velcro and it was too hot!

birthday-
Ideally, I want to celebrate both Elton and Andrew's birthdays. However, it's only a week a part- Elton's 01/10 and Andrew's 01/16. I think it's best to have 1 big party at home. We will cateer Chinese food. We will probably have a combo of Fire truck (Elton) and Ocean (Andrew) theme. We can get an ice-cream cake from Baskin Robbins courtesy of my mom. We will have birthday hats & noise makers. Ice-cream cake maybe too much so I'm not sure about the goodie bags. Weather permitting, so big ? on the pinyata.

[brklyn]

I just found this thread...is it too late to join?

My name is Brooke and my husband and I welcomed out first child on January 17th, 2005. Her name is Mia Rose and I can't believe she is going to be ONE in just a couple of months! Here is a picture of our little princess:

http://images.snapfish.com/3454478323232%7Ffp64%3Dot%3E232%3A%3D94%3B%3D577%3 DXROQDF%3E2323%3B7956%3A452ot1lsi

[brklyn]

I don't have any photos developed yet of Mia in her Halloween costume but I do have a couple of her in her Halloween outfit that she wore to a party.

http://images.snapfish.com/345447%3B923232%7Ffp64%3Dot%3E232%3A%3D94%3B%3D577 %3DXROQDF%3E2323%3B%3B%3A37%3B76%3Bot1lsi

http://images.snapfish.com/345447%3B923232%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E232%3A%3D94%3B%3D577 %3DXROQDF%3E2323%3B%3B%3A37%3B775ot1lsi

[twinnyme]

Welcome, Brooke and Mia!! Is your "Brklyn" name derived from your first name or are you also from Brooklyn? (I'm from Queens originally; just curious.) I see you're in Kansas City now....

Anyway, Mia is very cute in her costume/outfit. Here is a photo of Becca in the Halloween outfit she wore during the day, too.

[deleted photo 11-28]

Oh, and everyone - Booeyj2 posted in another thread info about a video-sharing website that I'm now using to send videos to my mother and sisters of Becca. I LOVE it and wanted to pass it on in case anyone else is interested. It is FREE - stores 50 MB (which allowed me to upload 5 videos, about 10 minutes total) - in beta stage now, so I don't know if it will be free forever. Check it out. Here she is riding a pony at the pumpkin farm Halloween weekend:

[video deleted 11-28]

And one of her crawling:

[video deleted 11-28]

She just started crawling on hands and knees (rather than the army crawl) more consistently this week - I'd say it's now 50-50. We went to a Christmas fair at my in-laws church yesterday while DH had to work :( - had a lot of fun and everyone raved about how adorable she is. That made me very proud - and Nana and Papa had a ball carrying her around getting compliments! :D (And mama had a ball letting anyone and everyone carry her so that she could have a cup of coffee in peace!)

My inlaws have invited my parents for Thanksgiving (so nice of them, especially since they would have to share Becca - but they see her so much and they are very sensitive to the fact that my parents rarely see her). My sisters are both going away for Thanksgiving so my parents would be alone. But my mother has to work the Friday after Thanksgiving so she's not sure they can make it. She's going to try to trade with someone (but that's a tough date to do that). They've been concentrating on getting the maximum number of days off at Christmas - they should be off for the full 6 days we'll be there. My sisters will both be there for Christmas, too, so it's working out nicely that way - I was hoping they'd choose to stay home this year so that we could all be together. My mother said my father wanted to jump on a plane this weekend to see Becca because they feel like they're missing so much. That's why I love the video-sharing website so much. It's not a replacement, of course, but it does help.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

ETA: one more photo! This is from the museum last weekend. It was inspired by a photo Karen posted of Eli.

[photo deleted 11-28]

I'll try not to bombard you all with video as much as I do photos!

[SaphirimalMei]

Brooke - good to see you over here :) Mia is so cute!!! She looks so much like my beautiful niece, Madelyn.

Melissa - Those video clips are great! My grandparents would totally get a kick out of it! Becca's crawling so well! She must be very psyched about being mobile :D Her little wave is priceless...

~~~~~~~

Yesterday i totally childproofed the upstairs (our main level w/ living room, kitchen & bath) 100% and it feels SO GOOD. I had done a decent job of it when jilly first became mobile, but hadnt completed the job til now. It's such a relief to have it done, lemme tell you. I'm also cleaning out all the cupbords and the linen closet. Maybe I'm nesting??? I'm not usually this neat or organized :p

[brklyn]

twinnyme- Let me first say that your little girl is so cute! I use Brklyn as my "name" because that is what my husband used to call me when we were dating...I'm not sure why he did but I thought it was sweet. My real name is Brooke Anne and I have lived in KC all my life :) .

SaphirimalMei- Thank you, I think she's pretty cute myself :p

Here is another recent picture of Mia in her "Princess" onsie that I just love.

http://images.snapfish.com/3454553923232%7Ffp43%3Dot%3E232%3A%3D94%3B%3D577%3 DXROQDF%3E2323%3B%3B%3A37%3B776ot1lsi

[AusAshMommy]

Brklyn ~ Welcome to the Jan '05 Mommies!

I'm Lara, please call me such...not to keen on using screen names...

Anyhew, I am married to Jimmy and am Mom to Austin (2.5) and Ashley (10 Mos).

Mia is adorable! Love the bow on her hair! Where did you get it? Did ya make it??? Ashley is semi-bald like Mia and I sometimes need something like that for her!

Anyhew, nice to "meet" ya! TTFN!

[brklyn]

Lara - Aren't those bows great! There are a couple of boutiques here in KC that sell them but I have also found a website called www.bloomingbows.com that sells them too for a reasonable price. The good thing is that they have free Shipping to anywhere in the Unites States. I have been really happy with all of the bows I have bought from them especially her Monogrammed bow. Here is a picture of Mia wearing it when she was around 3 mos old.

http://images.snapfish.com/34545%3A%3B523232%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E232%3A%3D94%3B%3D5 77%3DXROQDF%3E2323855543559ot1lsi

And here she is wearing a yellow organza one I bought from them:

http://images.snapfish.com/34545%3A%3B523232%7Ffp64%3Dot%3E232%3A%3D94%3B%3D5 77%3DXROQDF%3E232385553%3B995ot1lsi

[twinnyme]

Hi everyone!

Brooke - those are very cute photos of Mia. I love all her bows - thanks for the suggestions of where to get some. I'm always looking for more hair accessories for her! I LOVE the monogrammed one; what a cute idea.

Marisa - yeah, the videos are GREAT! Everyone is enjoying them very much. She's so quick these days, though, that it's sometimes hard to get a good video! Luckily, the shorter the better in terms of uploading and how many I can post to the site. And good for you for childproofing - that must be a huge relief. We are behind on that and it makes me very nervous; I put up a couple of gates this morning, but we really need to make it more definite.

We went to a combination 2nd birthday/christening for a brother-sister yesterday. It was a lot of fun - a TON of kids there - now that she's so mobile, it's much harder to keep her occupied during solemn ceremonies, though! But I fed her tiny, tiny pieces of chicken, bread, and cake. She's not really into baby food/solids these days, which makes me think she's teething up a storm again (but still no teeth).

We're thinking of taking a trip in Feb. (Becca and I) to see my parents at their Florida apartment while DH is in tax season - and to give my parents quality time with Becca. I've been searching for all the threads on flying with babies - and found quite a few - but does anyone here have any tips for flying with a baby? I can't decide whether to get one or two seats; I'm thinking two, but I don't want to use up ALL our miles and that basically would. We need to take another trip to Florida in July for a wedding....

[marchfamily]

Quick pop-in to say welcome to Mia and Brooke!

[SaphirimalMei]

Melissa - I doubt that even at a year old Becca'd spend enough time out of your lap to justify the expense of an extra seat. I would, however, try to get seated in the bulkhead seats if they're available to give her a little wiggle room. We're flying for thxgvng and I'm nervous about how Jilly will take it since she's never flown before. Maybe after that I'll have more tips :)

[twinnyme]

Melissa - I doubt that even at a year old Becca'd spend enough time out of your lap to justify the expense of an extra seat. I would, however, try to get seated in the bulkhead seats if they're available to give her a little wiggle room. We're flying for thxgvng and I'm nervous about how Jilly will take it since she's never flown before. Maybe after that I'll have more tips :)

I hope that's the case. My sister recommended getting her her own seat (she's flown a few times with her almost-3-year-old son) but I just don't want to justify it in our budget right now. Of course, I also don't want to disturb everyone around me! She definitely wants to be mobile ALL the time now and wriggles out of our arms constantly. I did see the tip about the bulkhead on the threads I found.... I'll definitely have to ask about that. It's only about a 3-hour flight, so how bad can it be? :rolleyes: How far/number of hours are you flying for Thanksgiving? I'll definitely look forward to hearing about your experience!

Good news - I possibly picked up a new job. Just got off the phone with someone about it - it's a friend's brother; she recommended me as she is on maternity leave with a newborn (1.5 weeks) right now. It's perfect because I'm in a lull right now and was getting worried. The two jobs I currently have are both in a holding pattern while we await final paperwork approval and for the schedules to be created, so although I picked up exactly the number of hours in October that I needed from them (in the first two weeks, so that I was able to enjoy the second two weeks completely stress-free), I'm thrilled to have another possible job - not only because it fills in this lull but also because I get experience doing new things. And it also helps me to keep on a schedule with Becca - I don't want to enjoy too many weeks of "lull" - I may get too used to it. :) I guess somehow things work out! Just the up and down life of a freelancer.... Yay! AND the best part - got the email, called him back, and he called back all within the two-hour window of Becca's nap. Now I'm going to go celebrate with some Halloween chocolate....

[alisong]

Brooke - Welcome! Mia is adorable, such a little girl (every so often I have girl envy ;) ).

Melissa - I'll be interested in your and Marisa's plane travel experiences! I flew with Felix when he was 3 months, but I have a feeling it will be entirely different with an almost 1 year old. We're going to Australia for Christmas, which is a long 14 hour flight at the best of times. Felix didn't have a seat for our previous travel (or our upcoming travel), but the gate and flight attendants were soooo nice about ensuring that if there was a spare seat on the plane, it was next to me. Any idea how full the flights you'll be on might be? The only problem with bulkhead seating is that they're often the first to fill up, so you'll be less likely to have a spare seat than if you were in the back of the plane. I think we'll take a portable DVD player, and use whatever means necessary to keep Felix relatively happy. Fortunately there will be four of us (me, DH, stepson, and my sister), so we'll be able to pass him around.

Congrats on the new job!

For those who celebrate Christmas, have you purchased a stocking for your DC? I'm currently researching the options - I think I'd like a knitted stocking (for maximum bulgability), but with the name knitted in rather than embroidered on. Some ideas:

http://www.annieswoolens.com/Art/glamPers2-1.jpg

http://www.angoravalley.com/rockinghorse2_small.jpg

Not knitted, but I do like the red with white snowflakes:

http://a451.g.akamai.net/7/451/1713/0001/image1.styleinamerica.com/pbecimgs/images/products/200543/0006/img100m.jpg

[Lizzie Beth]

Welcome, brklyn!! Mia is seriously cute. I love the bows, too.. My daughter Susannah has very little hair, but pulls everything off her head immediately. So we're going with the "GI Jane" look for now.. ;)

Good luck with the flying, Twinny, we did better when DD had her own seat, but she's pretty keen on the carseat - I know Becca really doesn't share that opinion.

Cute stockings, Ali, my Aunt gave us knitted ones (she has somebody local make them) and she's giving us a new one for Susannah this year. I guess this year I'll actually have to find a spot to put them up!!

[twinnyme]

Thanks, Lizzie Beth - she actually does pretty well in the car - sleeps a lot and lately just kind of zones out looking out the window. DH says she gets her ability to space-out from him. :D She used to get VERY upset when she was initially strapped in but now that I think of it that has stopped, too (thank goodness).

Ali - I definitely want to get a personalized stocking for Becca. In fact, that will be our "big" (and only) gift to her - with small gifts inside. I bought a couple of board books, some hair accessories, a CD, and I'll get a couple of bath toys.... I'm sure she's going to be spoiled crazy by everyone else. Anyway, I've been researching options - and there are two threads on this subject in the Gift Ideas forum, under "Nov-Dec" - with lots of suggestions. I don't know if there are any knit ones particularly, but you might want to look at those.

[lawyerwifemom]

Hi everyone! I just wanted to pop in and respond to the travel questions. I have flown with babies alot (Rachel has been on about 30 flights (including Australia and Scotland) and Wyatt 4). I'll try "bullets" but will be happy to expand on anything if you want specific info. This is disorganized sorry.

Schedule a flight around nap time if you can. Also, I personally liked to split up longer flights (4 hours or more) with a layover so I could change diapers on a real changing table and let the baby move around a bit. (some but not all lavatories have a lame excuse for a changing table. use the toilet seat cover in a pinch. take an extra blanket for protection from the cover or to catch blow outs if you are unluckly enough to get one during flight!)

Many airports have family restrooms which are a single room--with a changing table, sink and toilet--that your stroller will fit in. Marisa Denver has these. They are right next to the women's room usually and have a marked door.

Security: EVERYTHING has to go through. The carseat must be laid face down on the belt (watch the straps). Baby must be out of the bjorn and bjorn goes through. Stroller goes on the belt. Your shoes too. You carry the baby through the md with you. The first time I flew with R we got 2nd screened and they patted down her diaper:rolleyes: . That said, DO NOT feel rushed or stressed at security. You are not holding up the line. You are taking care of two people.

Check in all your bags with the skycap!!! I cannot stress this one enough. It is a sanity saver. You just dump all your bags with the curbside guy, he gives you your boarding passes, you tip him a couple bucks per bag and you get to pass up all the poor people waiting for an hour in the check in line and go straight to security.

If you are nursing, you are golden on the plane--my kids would nurse and conk out for an hour or two. I purposefully didn't wean Rachel until after our trip to Scotland because this works so well. I'm sure a bottle will help too-especially on take off and decent. Decent seems to be harder for most babes for some reason.

Bulk head seats are great. You are not allowed to have a small child in an exit row (must be 15yo)

If you have someone with you, bring your carseat even if you don't buy an extra seat (I never bought a seat until R was 2 and only a few times was an empty seat not available). If there is an empty seat, the gate agent will likely let you have it (ask!!!!). If not, you can gate check the seat. Also, two things about seating: The carseat has to go by the window so that it doesn't block exit from row. Also, if you have a lap child, you will be put in a row that has an extra oxygen mask for the infant. Some rows don't.

Tie a ribbon or string to toys that your child can play with in your lap. Tie the other end to your bjorn or belt or the traytable. Otherwise, you will be chasing the toys all over the plane.

Bring things that are new to them. If you wrap them with paper, they may be distracted by that. Playdoh, crayons, books, portable DVD player!! are all great on the plane. Shakers or noisy toys are not appreciated by your neighbors.

Get up and walk around often. The baby will get admiring glances and will love the attention. Also, it will be harder for people to glare at you when the baby cries once they've smiled at the baby!!! And it makes the flight go faster somehow.

Full sized strollers in my opinion are needless bulk. I always just used the bjorn or let R run around and burn off energy. You can gate check a stroller though. When I travel alone with R and W I put him in the bjorn and her in the umbrella stroller and that worked great. (although as he gets heavier, it is not as easy on the back!)

You have to take the baby out of the bjorn on take off. Crush concerns apparently, although it is not logical to me.

Try to take as little with you on the plane as possible. A few snacks and toys and at least one diaper more than you estimate you will need. I have had frantic parents ask me for one because they ran out!!

If you are flying internationally, your baby MUST have a passport. A birth cert is not good enough (except to Canada and Mexico).

Wow this is long. I hope some of this helped.

[twinnyme]

Schedule a flight around nap time if you can.

Check in all your bags with the skycap!!! I cannot stress this one enough.

Bulk head seats are great.

(I never bought a seat until R was 2 and only a few times was an empty seat not available). If there is an empty seat, the gate agent will likely let you have it (ask!!!!).

Tie a ribbon or string to toys that your child can play with in your lap. Tie the other end to your bjorn or belt or the traytable. Otherwise, you will be chasing the toys all over the plane.

Bring things that are new to them. If you wrap them with paper, they may be distracted by that. Playdoh, crayons, books, portable DVD player!! are all great on the plane. Shakers or noisy toys are not appreciated by your neighbors.

Get up and walk around often. The baby will get admiring glances and will love the attention. Also, it will be harder for people to glare at you when the baby cries once they've smiled at the baby!!! And it makes the flight go faster somehow.

Try to take as little with you on the plane as possible.

Wow this is long. I hope some of this helped.

Thanks so much, Heather! This is all incredibly helpful. I think between your great tips and the tips in the other threads, I'm actually going to - geek that I am - create a checklist for myself to prepare. I definitely plan to take as little as possible. Since my parents have their own apartment where we're going and two previous grandchildren who have visited, they have most of what we need already there - stroller, pac n play, etc. They also take very little luggage with them, so my sister suggested bringing a suitcase at Christmas for them to take with them when they fly down, then just carrying very light stuff myself. Great idea!

I also love the idea about bringing new toys. I think my sister did that when she took my nephew to Paris. One new toy per hour. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the paper idea; Becca is just getting into paper now and I so rarely let her have it so it'll be a real treat on the plane (if I don't let her play too much with it now!). And the idea about stringing the toys to the tray table - fabulous! :)

I do have a question about walking around though - you said to do it as much as you can. With the flight being only about 3.5 hours and probably a plane with just one aisle, I'm not sure I can do that. What with the food cart going up and down the aisle and all, plus no movement during takeoff and landing - but I'll try my best. Great point about it being much harder for people to glare once they've smiled at your baby! Very smart relationship point.

I think I'm going to take the risk and just get one seat. :)

Thanks again for taking the time to write out all your tips. May I suggest your cross-posting them to the other thread about "tips about flying"? I'm sure everyone would appreciate them!

[lawyerwifemom]

Glad I could be of some help Melissa!

If you are lucky, Becca will sleep for an hour or hour and a half of the flight. Rachel usually conked out near the beginning of the flight (have a magazine with in arms reach before she falls asleep or you will be staring at the ceiling while she sleeps for fear of waking her!) so the cart was done when she woke up. Just get up an wander around as much as you can. Some flights that may not be much but it really does help.

I haven't seen that other thread. I am happy to cross post if you think it might be welcome!

Heather

[marchfamily]

I officially started Christmas shopping today. I picked this up for E since she loves our cell phones.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00022F0WE.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[lorbo]

i need to stop christmas shopping for both kids!!!! gotta start with shopping for family members other than my kids. i accidently found 2 things that my DH bought me-bad bad bad...but he knows i check his account for blockbuster info and my points info:confused: although i am in search of a shopping cart cover-being that i'm so paranoid about James getting sick this winter.

James seems to be heavier to me! and i've been notified just now he's got a poo poo diaper-via Brookie...so i'll go.

[AusAshMommy]

Lorbo ~ I haven't even begun thinking about X-Mas shopping...LOL!! Your way ahead of the game for me!

Anyhew...I've seen those shopping cart cover things on BRU's website...try there...

I am clueless what we're getting either child...Austin seems really attached to a set of Aiden's wood blocks, so we might for a set of this this X-Mas...Ashley sticks everything in her mouth still, so we'll probably go for some clothes w/peak a blocks and an ornament in her stocking...

[Jenzen01]

Gabe has sprouted another tooth. We're on No. 7, with No. 8 soon to make an appearance.

I'm having wine tonight. That's it. I've had it for the week. I'm about as tense and stress-tired as I can get. Blegh ...

Anywho, just wanted to bump us up. I've been lurking a lot, just haven't posted ...

BTW, welcome brkyln!

Oh, alisong, I'm looking at stockings, too. I really like the Pottery Barn ones. My daycare advisor just mentioned today that I should stay away from knit because stuff pokes through. She also said not to get them too big because that means you have more to fill. :0

And while I'm at, here's my Gabe update ... He has had more bumps and bruises in the past week than I want to think about. Seriously, he needs a crash helmet. The walking is coming along fine, and it's about all he does now. He also started waving and clapping.

ttfn,
Jen

[SaphirimalMei]

Not much to report, but I'm just dropping by to say "Yo". Jilly's got her 9 month checkup tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll have more to report tomorrow :D

I'm not x-mas shopping til I absolutely have to. The very though fills me with dread. Ug!

[twinnyme]

Not much to report here, either, but hi everyone.

Jen - Becca's taking a ton of falls and bumps lately, too. It's really worrying me, but I'm watching her as close as I can when I'm with her. We really need to finish childproofing. I think I'll be joining you in a glass of wine tonight. Cheers! :)

Amanda - cute cell phone for E.

Xmas shopping - I've kind of stalled out, but need to get back on it. I feel like Thanksgiving will be here any minute now, and then it's a roller coaster after that.

Becca and I are going to CT on Saturday to meet up with my sisters and nephews. I can't wait! But the house is a mess and I don't know when we'll have time to clean it up - tomorrow I've got to work on that editing project. Oh, well.

[Lizzie Beth]

Houston, we have crawling. :D

And pink eye. :(

And two emerging top front teeth. :rolleyes:

Although it's nice that I have tomorrow off, it's shaping up to be a long day.

[marchfamily]

Teeth - E got her fourth bottom tooth this week. While she was laughing, I finally got a looksy on the top to see that her first 2 top teeth are on their way too. This kid gets teeth in bunches.

E had her first cold this week. She was up all night Monday (as were mom and dad). She's feeling much better this week but still has a runny nose (good luck taking care of that) and a bit of a cough. She's a trooper!

[AusAshMommy]

Ashley is cutting her top two FINALLY! She's had her bottom two since she was 7 months old...

Otherwise doing well!

[Jenzen01]

Shoe question ... I need hard-soled shoes and boots for Gabe. Any suggestions? I love the Robeez for inside daycare, and I just ordered another pair. With winter coming, I'm debating if I even need hard-soled shoes. Thoughts?

[twinnyme]

I'd love recommendations on shoes, too, as I'm debating this myself. I thought that babies weren't supposed to wear shoes full-time before they can walk fully on their own (that's what I have read) but when my sister was here she asked why I didn't have Becca wear shoes a couple of times when we went outside (and she'd be in the stroller or high chair or whatever most of the time, not walking). We also use the soft shoes for indoors and I'm not sure if I'm going to buy outdoor ones except to 1) keep her feet warmer and 2) look cute! But if she starts to walk when we go somewhere, I'm thinking I should switch to the soft shoes until she can walk completely on her own.

Does this make sense? Thoughts? What is everyone else doing re: shoes?

[lorbo]

i'