September 29, 2007 at 8:09 pm (family)
Tags: baby stuff, BS, food, kids, naps, shopping, sleep
Last night wasn’t much fun. Sophie didn’t really go to sleep for the night til around 12:30 am, she was up and down all evening. The night didn’t go as bad as it seems like it should have but then my son woke up my husband at 7 am!!! And of course would not go back to sleep. He has been sleeping in a regular bed all week and I don’t think he’s tolerating it well. I think I am going to put him back in the crib just so we can get better sleep. I will have to find other solutions for Sophie, like just putting my bed on the floor. Will is so awful to deal with when he hasn’t had enough sleep.
Today I went to Meijer (big box store, like a super Wal Mart but nicer) to get our weekly groceries. Saturday afternoon is a bad time to shop. It was packed. And of course people tend to congregate around the free samples and then they run into people they know so they stand there and talk and block up the aisle. It’s the same at the deli. I purchased some reusable shopping bags and used them for the first time. They have had self-check outs there for a while but only for 12 items or less, and now they’ve added some large cart self check outs. Of course I always pick the slowest line possible and stood there for a long time. Finally it was my turn and since I had a week’s worth of groceries, I filled up the little belt thingy and once I had it all paid for, I then had to bag it up. (I love the shopping bags by the way!) As I was bagging, the people behind me started checking their order and sending their groceries down the belt! HELLO PEOPLE!!!! I am STILL USING THIS THING… do you mind? So they confused the Meijer worker by putting their stuff on this little shelflet thingy instead of sending it down the belt by my stuff… ANYWAY I got my bags packed and got out of there! They ought to give me 10% off my order for wading through the BS AND using my own bags!
The shopping bags are cool because what would have used up probably 8 flimsy plastic bags fit nicely into only 4 of my shopping bags, that I get to use again next time. And if I don’t use the self-check out, I’ll piss off the cashier for sure!
Now my little crazy is fussing because she took naps today in 35 minute increments, had 3 of them, the last one was maybe an hour. She is crabby. I have discovered it has not taken me long to build up a caffeine tolerance, I used to only be able to drink 1/2 cup of regular and before I got jittery and now I can have two huge mugs of it and barely feel a thing. In fact sometimes I need the second cup to function. Giving that up is SO not an option right now. If I can’t get enough uninterrupted sleep, something has got to give.
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September 26, 2007 at 5:10 pm (kids)
Tags: babies, breastfeeding, craziness, motherhood, parenting, sleep, the moon
There is something to the word lunatic. The past few days, my kids have been freaks!! Last night Sophie was up and down all night, like every 1 1/2 hours, but she didn’t always want to nurse, and let me know this by biting me. She was very restless! And, the past couple of nights, Will has spent the night in the double bed in his room, in preparation for getting him his own bed and “big boy” room. He has been going to bed late and getting up WAY earlier than usual. This morning, he was not being careful and poked her a couple of times (no lasting damage but it made her cry) and by 11 am I just wanted a good, stiff drink! When it’s only 11 am and your day is already THAT bad, you KNOW it’s a bad day! And when we went to my friend Carolynn’s today for playgroup, he kept fighting with her son who is only a month younger. For some reason, there are always some “issues” between the two of them! One is playing and it gets too rough, or the other one doesn’t understand the other’s way of “playing” at that moment. Both of them are pretty intense kids, and although it’s not always this way, it can be at times!
So later on things got better but then we came home, I fed both of them and put them both to bed. Great, you say! Liz FINALLY gets a good break! WRONG!!! In the past hour and 20 minutes, I’ve had to run back to get Sophie back to sleep twice! (She only had 1/2 hour nap this morning after FREAKING OUT for longer than that because she was SO tired she could hardly stand it!)
I just need today to be over. I think it will be soon because I think I hear one of them now.
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September 23, 2007 at 12:49 pm (baby stuff)
Tags: babies
Looks like the co-sleeper isn’t safe anymore!
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September 20, 2007 at 8:27 am (La Leche League, baby stuff, breastfeeding, coffee, cooking, food, kids, sleep)
I am going to a LLL enrichment meeting today on craniosacral therapy. I really don’t know much about it, but from what I understand, it can help a baby who is having trouble breastfeeding or even sleeping. Sometimes birth is hard on the neck and spine, and things can be gently eased back into place and it can help quite a bit. So I’ll try to pass along some info about it later, should be interesting!
The meeting is at 11 am and we’ll have lunch/playgroup after that. My son likes to play with her son a lot, he’s probably the only kid I know who loves trains more than mine! He has a table with lots of tracks and different trains and they have a blast together. I need to bring something for the potluck lunch and I don’t know whether I should make hummus or fruit salad. I have a lot of fruit right now that should be used, and it would make a really nice salad (simple, but nice). Hummus would be much less labor intensive (throw it all in the blender), BUT, my Muslim friend married to the Tunisian, is probably going to bring some traditional Tunisian food (or hummus, she said she makes that too), and I always feel a little bit intimidated… my hummus is kind of my own recipe and I didn’t grow up eating it, nor do I live with someone who grew up eating it! But, it’s tasty and healthy and I am sure she would like it anyway, so I shouldn’t let that dissuade me.
On the sleep front, for the past two nights, Sophie has done very well. She still nurses about every 2 hours at night but she is HUNGRY, she really eats well and goes on and on… and I’m laying there, like, “Come ON!!!” and finally she unlatches and flops to her back, all passed out… I think if I get to her before she is really awake, that’s the key to getting her back to sleep quickly. She had food again the past few days and it doesn’t seem to hurt her when she poops anymore, so I think we are going to step that up a little too. She really loves food, and she can feed it to herself (sometimes with help), so I think it’s time to start introducing a little more. Solids didn’t help my son’s sleep at all but one can only hope… he was only nursing about 1-2 times per NIGHT at this age, rather than every 2 hours!
She woke me up early and I actually got to sleep by 11 pm so I feel pretty good (after a good cup of Lebanese coffee!) and I have the time to actually make something for my lunch contribution. I think I am leaning more toward the fruit salad. It is going to be warm today and that always tastes good when it’s warm.
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September 18, 2007 at 12:31 pm (blogging)
I am absolutely amazed that people have looked at my blog almost 2,000 times! My counter, at the time of this entry, says 1,999 hits. I didn’t think ANYONE would read this! I’m not that interesting!
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September 16, 2007 at 3:53 pm (home construction, house problems)
Water has been the bane of our existence in this house! We have always had water problems… from leaks to issues with our well water (hard and stinky and needs lots of filtering)… we tore up a bathroom that had so much water damage from leaky tiles for 30 years that we had to replace multiple studs and even part of the subfloor. Now, there is a leak in the kitchen. Clane had to take part of the cabinets apart to get to it because the original builders couldn’t manage to run the drain pipe straight to its outlet. He found a right angle pipe that was loose, in fact it wasn’t even glued down, it was just sitting there!
We had talked about redoing our kitchen since we moved in almost 9 years ago but we haven’t… he asked me, did I want the cabinet ripped up or the basement, I told him, well if we rip up the cabinet, let’s just replace all of it and redo our kitchen like we’ve wanted to! It turns out he was able to find the pipe just by undoing the lazy susan cabinet but it’s so nasty and gross that I don’t want to put it back in! I’m sure if I rearrange things I can find homes for all the stuff that used to be in it.
So, I’m sure we won’t be redoing the kitchen (unfortunately) but you never know… I sure would love to!
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September 15, 2007 at 6:35 pm (Finnish language, Friends, Islam, La Leche League, Middle East, family, food)
Today I had a chance to go to our local Middle Eastern market (Yasmeen’s on Bay Rd. in Saginaw) with only one child, so I took the opportunity! As I walked in, I saw the sign on the door that it is Ramadan right now. I’d forgotten about that, I know it comes at different times of the year but I can never remember when exactly. There were a few other people shopping there, picking up food for the end of today’s fast at sunset. There was a lady there wearing Hijab, she was with her husband and they were both speaking Arabic with the owner. It was delightful to hear, I grew up hearing Finnish spoken everywhere but I’ve been away from that now for so many years, I forgot how nice it is to hear people conversing in a language other than my own. The Hijab-wearing lady and I started talking, I didn’t ask her where she was from as her accent was heavy, but she was admiring Sophie and I told Sophie about the pretty flowers on her shirt and the pretty scarf on her head. We talked about Ramadan a bit and her kids and grand kids, then I found out she lives in Midland. Actually just about 10 minutes from me!
Then, earlier in the week, I met another lady who has been at Saginaw’s LLL meetings, she is Muslim too, married to a Tunisian man. She was very sweet and we enjoyed visiting, she is having her first baby in November and I hope to be able to spend more time with her, maybe she can teach me how to cook!
I had blogged a while back that I need some Arab friends, I am hoping that by continuing to focus on that, (and maybe shopping at Yasmeens when I can) that I will make some… I know not all Muslims are Arab but all the Muslim women I’ve met have just been very sweet and it would be wonderful to meet more and continue learning about this very misunderstood faith. I’m not really sure why, but I feel so very happy when I am around Muslims and Arabs… I just am! To me, the language is beautiful and the food is SO good, the music is great too, I can’t think of anything about it I don’t like!
I tried some new foods today – Lebneh (yogurt cheese, it’s like eating cream… YUM!) and this pickled thyme called zaatar. I was warned that the zaatar was very strong and a little goes a long way, but that it is really good on a pita with lebneh, tomatoes and olives. Well I opened the jar and took a pinch, popped it in my mouth and WHEW!!!!! He was NOT kidding!!! I don’t think it was meant to be eaten alone… I’m sure when it’s with other foods it’s really good but it was VERY overwhelming to eat by itself! WOW! I also bought this baked pudding stuff, not sure what it is exactly but it looked good… the translation of the directions on the back was interesting too! 
So if you are Muslim and happen to come across this blog, may you have a very blessed Ramadan… and if you live in the Tri Cities area and have small children like mine, get ahold of me because I’d love to get together!
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September 13, 2007 at 5:27 pm (BS, baby stuff, breastfeeding, family, kids, labor, mono, motherhood, sickness, sleep)
Sophie has decided she is going to be up for 1-2 hours again at night. She wakes up to nurse, then is ready to play. She is really close to crawling, so that’s her “excuse” for now… (sorry I still don’t believe she is manipulating me… weren’t you ever on the verge of a huge breakthrough and it kept you up at night? I’ve been!) but in any case, it’s thrown me into survival mode. I have lowered my expectations even more, my job now is to keep the kids fed and dry, keep them from hurting each other or themselves, feed myself, and that’s about it. If I manage to get a load of laundry done or get the dishes done, cool. If not, tough shit. And my son watches a ton of TV. Don’t like it? Too damn bad. I AM SURVIVING. I had someone ask me recently how I could get through mono with a baby and a 2 year old, and I told her, I had to, I had no choice. People say they will help you but when it comes down to it, it’s really on their convenience. (I mean, I help people when it’s convenient for me, right? I don’t just drop everything to rush to someone? Well, unless they got in an accident on our road and someone was here to watch the kids…) SO HEAR THIS: I made it through mono because what else am I going to do? Quit and go home? I made it through mono the same way I made it through 50+ hour labors… YOU HAVE NO CHOICE.
I love my children but this is not the time to attempt to live an ideal life.
And to think I was smug enough to believe that I’d done my time with my son who was a horrible sleeper, so the universe owed me a good sleeper??
Oh, by the way, my friends at Sleep Is For The Weak inspired me to post this.
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September 11, 2007 at 9:11 pm (9-11, BS, Middle East)
When I see all the footage from 6 years ago, I still cannot fathom that this happened. Maybe it’s because I live too far from NYC or Washington, and my life, other than the general feeling of being afraid and angry like most all of us, it just feels so surreal. The worst part is that I don’t think we are any better off, despite all the studies, the 9-11 Commission Report (which I read while pregnant with my son), all of the recommendations… so far I have yet to see many of them in place. We are not improving our relationship with the Middle East (LOVELY people there by the way… every person I’ve ever met from the region has been SO nice, just really sweet), we haven’t participated in peace talks between Israel and Palestine in years, we are killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of our own soldiers, and for what? We aren’t any better off. My life has changed so dramatically since 6 years ago yet it feels like we are no safer, we aren’t on any better terms with anyone, the economy (at least here in Michgan) SUCKS, issues like health care and getting a fair (read: like other first world countries) amount of leave when you have a baby, “family” values… it all sucks. It’s all about making a big buck here and if it’s not making anyone a big buck, forget it.
Sorry but I just feel like more people hate Americans now and I can’t do anything about it.
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September 10, 2007 at 3:05 pm (La Leche League, baby stuff, cooking, family, food, kids, music, sleep, weather)
Today it’s overcast, about 60 degrees and probably going to rain later. Good day for chicken soup. My lovely Sophie decided to take 1/2 hour nap just now so she’ll get to come to the kitchen with me while I cook. She gave me exactly enough time to get Will lunch and down for his nap, and not a second more!!
My chicken soup will consist of: carrots, celery, onion, maybe a bit of garlic, water, chicken, chicken soup base and noodles from a package. It won’t be much of anything fancy but it always tastes good! My husband has a cold now too so hopefully he’ll enjoy it as well. I’ll top that off with a loaf of bread made from frozen dough. It’s homemade bread, cheating style!
We bought a wooden swing set and this weekend, got the thing home. It took up every inch of room on the trailer and now we have to set it up. Two of the beams are supposed to go 2 feet underground but I don’t think we’re going to do it exactly that way. Will is excited but his slide is just laying in the grass! Hopefully this week we can get it all set up. It doesn’t look like it should take much, but that’s what I thought when we first brought the trailer there to try to take it home! We wound up leaving the trailer and coming back for it in a couple of days because it was getting dark.
I haven’t been to a LLL meeting other than our own so tonight I’m going to the meeting in Saginaw. I tried to go last month but the kids were sick. They start at 6:30 so I shouldn’t be getting home really late. I need to go pick up my produce order from our co-op first though, then I’ll head to the meeting. Clane is going to let me know if he’ll be home early or if I should bring Will to his work. Hopefully he will call me soon so I know what to do.
Well I should go start cooking… fortunately I just mopped the kitchen floor so maybe Sophie can play down there while I’m working. She will probably start getting really crabby about 20 minutes from now because she refuses to nap. I suppose she’ll crash in the car seat on the way to town… especially if I put Frank Sinatra on really loud. She really likes him!
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