Pet Peeve!

                                                                                                       

I hate the way the fashion industry/marketers/society expects me to dress my sweet baby girl.  They want me to dress her like a grown up.  They want me to put her in skin-tight leggings and spaghetti straps and even in little bikinis!  They want me to invite the world to view her body as a showpiece, as something to be looked at and admired.  They want me to put her in clothing that forces people to objectify her as a specimen for examination to be judged and sorted into some societal category of acceptance. I hate the way they do not do this to baby boy clothing.  Baby boy clothing, cut with generous backsides and legs and cut with room for undershirts and socks. 

I  hate the way the expect me to just be ok with this, as a mother and a fellow woman. I hate the way society is seemingly "forcing" me to encourage my daughter to subscribe to their objectification of her body by simply assuming I will dress her in the manner they dictate. I also hate the way that I sometimes succumb and put my daughter in outfits similar to those I described in my above rant and how it always makes me feel so hypocritical when I do this.  Isn't there time enough when my daughter gets older to be shaped to care about how she looks to other people in certain outfits?  Shouldn't that be something that comes with early adolescence and not now, not when she is not even 1 year old?

 

Urban Cowbaby Update

Urban Cowbaby will be 10  months old on April 20.  Yes, I said 10 months!  It's nearly impossible to believe so much time has gone by from when she joined us in the outside world.  Already, even though she's still so little, I'm beginning to get a bit nostalgic for her tiny baby days and wishing I had done more to make better memories of it.  (SIGH)  So, you wonder what she's up to at 10 months?  Here it is, folks, an update of Urban Cowbaby's current talents;

- around 9 months she started saying Hi & waving hello!  It's adorable and it's especially adorable when you leave the room for only a second because when you come back into the room she lights up and says HI! & waves.  Her Hi is actually very soft and kind-of drawn-out - like, Hi-iii (but with a breathy quality to it)

- she stands for short periods of time without supporting herself with her hands

- she signs "all done" and "more"

- she loves, loves, loves to play "Pat-A-Cake"

- she enjoys dunking her face into the bath water over and over

- we play a little game where she pats both her hands on the floor in front of her, we do it back, and we "volley" the floor pats for minutes at a time

- her face simply explodes with light when her brother plays with her

- she takes naps by herself in her crib, twice a day

- she prefers finger food to puree food and prefers non-green food to other colors

- she blows raspberries on us; any time she has access to bare skin, she blows a raspberry on you!  LOL
She still has a lot less hair than her brother did at this stage in life but she makes up for it with the adorable little pudge rolls she has that he never did.  Her hair is a very light brown with a very red-cast to it.  Her eyes are a very deep, smokey blue and are simply stunning.  I keep trying to get a good picture to capture the color but seem to miss the mark every time.  She has 8 teeth.  She has a dimple on her right cheek that shows up far more frequently than Little Man's dimple did/does.  I was in love with her the day she arrived but with each passing day, month, phase of growth I fall more and more in love with her.

Genius? Nah.

I cannot tell you how many times I interact with Little Man and think, "wow, he's a genius!"  Case in point: The other day he was telling me about being an astronaut and how there is no gravity in his rocketship.  Wha? Ok, I know he doesn't know what gravity is so conceptually, it falls a little short but he knows that gravity is something and there isn't any in space!  Hello, genius much?  Don't worry folks, I'm quickly crash-landed back to earth and reminded he isn't a genius when the very next day he stands, literally, 4 inches from his potty seat & proceeds to pee his pants and pee all over the floor - all the while calling upstairs to me (where I'm changing Urban Cowbaby's diaper) "Mama, I'm peeing my pants!"  (SIGH)

Speaking of Urban Cowbaby, she's officially crawling now and seems to have simultaneously taught herself to cruise furniture, too.  Eep!  She's not just mobile, she's horizontally & laterally mobile!  Double trouble!  Add to that her super-adventerous, exploratory nature (so unlike Little Man was) and we have a lot of head bumps, chewed paper, illegal toy chewing, etc.  Good thing she's so damned cute and is fairly easy-going because it lessens the stress of managing her mobility while also managing Little Man's play. 

She also learned to do all of the following within 1week: crawl, cruise, wave, clap, and blow raspberries.  Whew.  She should be exhausted but her 2 newest teeth have kept her (and us) up at nights and she seems to scoff at the idea of naps unless we work really hard at it.  We, as parents, wholly believe in and selfishly appreciate naps, though, so we really do work hard to get her to regularly nap.  On good days, I can even get her nap at the same time as Little Man which allows me a bit of time to clean or do laundry or read or whatever.

Urban Cowboy has begun training for his next major running endeavor.  He's going to run an Ultra-Marathon in September.  What is that, you ask?  He's going to run for 24 hours (straight) and the idea is to run the most possible miles in that amount of time.  Yes, I did marry a crazy man.

Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding Myths - DeBunked (again!)

http://blog.nurturedchild.ca/index.php/2011/01/30/the-truth-behind-common-breastfeeding-myths/

Little Man's Conversation

The Little Man is an awesome conversationalist!  He loves to give us moment-by-moment commentary of what's going on around us.  He loves to tell us about all of his imaginings like climbing onto fire trucks with elephants and with monkeys on the ceilings.  Lately, he's been into pretending he's the UPS man and likes to load his truck (our stairs) with packages (various household items and toys) for delivery.  He's an excellent delivery person and even accepts returns.  ;-)

I want to share his 2 best Quotes of 2011:

1. We bring Urban Cowbaby home from the hospital and Little Man checks her out and then says, "She's nice, put her in the closet."

2. We are at a family Christmas party where Santa makes an annual appearance and Little Man has not been a fan of Santa since birth.  Little Man is crying and very upset and keeps repeating, "Santa, Go Away! ... Leave Presents (sob, sniffle, cling) Go away, Santa.  ... Leave Presents."

Pacifier Check-In

Note: Urban Cowbaby is no longer a baby so his new blog name is Little Man and his baby sister is now going to be referred to as Urban Cowbaby.

We accidentally broke Little Man's pacifer habit.  He was only using it for naps and nighttime and we had intentions of pulling the plug by Christmas.  Being the responsible parents that we are we somehow managed to forget to pack his pacifier when we went on vacation to FL for a week.  Oops.  Turns out our initial panic was completely unfounded because Little Man only asked for it 2 or 3 times before he was completely over it.  Bye-bye pacifier!  Next up? Diapers.

At the same time we broke one pacifier habit, we started another.  Urban Cowbaby did not take a pacifier until she was 3mo and even now she's very picky about when she'll accept it.  With this kid, we're reserving it for sleep time only and car time.  Unfortunately, Urban Cowbaby did not like the car much before our trip but after 22 hours in the car she absolutely HATES it.  Now that we're home, every time we get her in her carseat she has a fit and cries and cries and cries.  It's awful.  Little Man hated the car for awhile, too, and I hope she grows out of this sooner than later because the crying makes for stressful driving!

Sticking to it...

Parenting seems to be an ever evolving process and everyone chooses different methods, often directed by the babies being parented.  Here is a short list of a few things that worked really, really well for us last time (both physically and emotionally) that I don't plan to change for this UCB2:
1- Breastfeeding.  It worked for us.  Once Urban Cowbaby & I got the hang of things it not only worked but we both loved it.  I nursed Urban Cowbaby for 18 months and would like to be able to nurse UCB2 at least that long, too.
2- Co-Sleeping.  It started as a survival method and morphed into a true pleasure.  I loved having Urban Cowbaby so close to me all the time, especially when I returned to work.  I loved how easy it made nighttime nursing sessions.  I especially loved waking up in the morning and seeing my sweet little boy's face before seeing anyone or anything else.  (Sorry Urban Cowboy, our son has trumped you there!)
3- Cloth diapering.  It is so easy.  I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love our cloth diapering habits and primary system (Kissaluvs with Thirsties covers).  I could go on and on and on about my perceived benefits of cloth diapering and about saving the world through cloth diapering but I said this would be short so just know this: our family loves it.
4- Pacifers.  Look, I don't love them.  I'm not looking forward to the weaning process.  But, in all honesty, considering who my kid was and his needs, they helped us.  And, as my mother-in-law points out, no college or job application is going to inquire how long someone had a pacifer before they gave it up.  That said, if UCB2 gives us signs that he/she needs that comfort, I'm not going to deny them.
5- Baby Wearing.  Life is "easy" if you're wearing your kid and have your hands "free" to do stuff.  Additionally, the closeness you and your child feel when he/she is being worn is amazing!  They are always close to you, are comforted by the sound of your heartbeat and the smell of your skin.  Plus, wearing your baby makes certain things like grocery shopping or festivals/fairs so much easier.  We have 2 styles - a sling/pouch and a mei tai.
Many of you may disagree with our style or just recognize that it doesn't work for you and your family.  That's cool, I'm not asking you to adopt any of our parenting practices or choices.  I just like to share what works for us. 
P.S. I have approximately one week to go before UCB2 arrives ...

Graham Crackers RECIPE - Finally!

So, in the fall...or was it summer...I posted about the Graham Crackers I made and how delicious they were and how much Urban Cowbaby enjoyed snacking on them...I promised the recipe and never remembered to post it!  Oops!  But, today I was craving them and now I have a fully functioning kitchen again so the itch to cook is very strong and I brought up the recipe for review...that's when I remembered I had forgotten to share it all those months ago!  Here it is:

Whole Wheat Honey Graham Crackers


2 ¼ cups whole wheat flour


½ cup sugar


1 t. baking powder


½ t. baking soda


½ t. salt


¼ t. cinnamon


4 T. honey


¼ c. water


1 t. vanilla


1 stick butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Melt stick of butter in a pan on the stove. Set aside.

3. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon

4. Add the liquids: honey, water, vanilla and melted butter.

5. Stir well until a nice ball of dough is formed.

6. Cut two pieces of Parchment paper the size of the cookie sheet.

7. Lay one piece of parchment paper on the cookie sheet.

8. Place the ball of dough on the parchment paper.

9. Lay the other piece of parchment paper on top of the ball of dough. Squish dough down a little with your fist.

10. Use the rolling pin to roll the dough between the pieces of parchment paper. Roll until the dough covers the whole cookie sheet

11. Remove the top piece of parchment paper. Cut rolled dough into 2 inch squares, or cut shapes with cookie cutters, being sure to separate the shapes from the surrounding dough a little.

12. Bake in oven for 18 minutes.

13. Turn oven off, but leave crackers in the oven to get crisp.

14. Remove from oven after 30 minutes to one hour. Break graham crackers apart.

15. Store in a air tight container.

18 months and the TOP TEN

Happy Christmas, everyone!

Have you been wondering about Urban Cowbaby's latest accomplishments?  No?  Well, I'll tell you anyway...heehee  Here's the top 10 of what he's been up to lately:

1) officially taught himself to climb up on couches/chairs - including dining room chairs - nothing is safe anymore!  LOL

2) he pretends to feed his little stuffed/play friends and it's too cute

3) when he's playing with the little people house at the G'Rents he makes water noises while he pretends one of the people is taking a bath or washing their hands

4) he desperately wants to wash his hands like a big boy!  It's time for a little stool in the bathroom. 

5) he repeats (or tries) most everything we say!  If we weren't already being careful, we certainly have to be careful now!

6) he is learning manners and signs please/thank you - right now, he largely has to be prompted but we're trying to steer him away from the "I want" "gimme, gimme" that he seemed to naturally start doing.  He can't be as demanding as me, right!  LOL

7) he almost hops (he thinks he's hopping but he's a fraction of second away from actually executing a proper hop)

8) he's started to throw temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way :-(  Boo.

9) he is in a daddy phase and wants to be with him all the time - it's adorable!  Plus, daddy makes him laugh the best and longest!

10) when we turn down a certain street that takes us to the closest set of G'Rents, he knows where we are/where we're headed and starts yelling Yea! and clapping and says, over and over, Opa! Opa! (German for Grandpa)

Brand Name Poop

One truth and tired cliche about parenting is the fact that you will engage in an almost daily conversation with your partner and/or child's caregiver about your kid's poop.  Daily poop conversations are both thrilling and intellectually stimulating.  (insert sarcasm here)  And the conversation goes something like this: Parent1 "Did the kid poop today?" Parent 2 "Yep and ... insert poop details here" Parent 1 "Really, was there a lot?" and it goes on and etc.  Why the hell am I sharing this with you?  Well, because I can't resist telling you a funny story about the kid and his poop today (a few posts ago I mentioned this blog was morphing into the Urban Cowbaby showcase, right?).
Somehow one of us (the parents) accidentally left a pack of mini-Butterfinger candy bars in a location (the kitchen table) where Urban Cowbaby could use the corner of the newspaper to pull the candy bars closer to himself and into his little baby hands.  I was making his lunch and prior to realizing he had the Butterfingers he had been playing with an advert from the newspaper so the crinkling of paper wasn't something I was unprepared to hear.  A few moments go by and I realize the crinkle of paper has ceased and Urban Cowbaby is standing still with his back to me.  I leave his lunch preparations to check out what he's into and see he has chocolate all over his face and hands and has stuffed a candy bar, wrapper and all, into his mouth!  Oh no!  So, I quickly remove the Buttefingers from his reach and take away the wrapper but he absolutely will NOT let me take the actual candy bits out of his mouth (smart kid, really).  Ok, at this point I think it's funny because it wasn't his fault the Butterfingers were left someplace he could potentially access them.  Here's where the poop comes in ... I tell Urban Cowboy today about yesterday's Butterfinger incident and we laughed about it and moved on ... until Urban Cowboy changes Urban Cowbaby's diaper this evening where he discovered an intact, logo visible, piece of a Butterfinger wrapper!  Bwahahahaha!  So, it's a damn good thing I had told him about it and wasn't trying to keep the kid's candy consumption a secret because my kid pooped out a piece of incriminating evidence - literally!  My kid pooped out Brand Name Poop!  It's hilarious!

When You're Feeling Down

Last week, Urban Cowboy and I had the unfortunate luck to each get sick with colds.  Each time one of us would start to get better, the other would get worse and I think we were just passing it back and forth for a few days.  I think we've almost kicked it, though, and if we could just convince Urban Cowbaby that sleeping through the night is a good thing, I think we could kick the colds right out of our house!  The lack of sleep, however, is holding us back from getting healthy as quickly as we want.  And, speaking of Urban Cowbaby and sleeping ... what's up with that?!?!  Before we left for England the kid was sleeping through the night and we were all pretty happy.  It was wonderful, actually, to sleep a straight 7-8 hours after 13 months of not doing so.  But then we went to England and he decided he wanted to regress a bit while we were there but we, stupidly, were confident it was a just a symptom of being in a new place and time zone and he would go back to "normal" when we returned.  Well, we've been back for a month now and we have not slept through the night once.  Ugh.  In fact, he's increased the the number of times he wakes up!  We're very tired and very frustrated.  However, every day Urban Cowbaby does something so ridiculously cute, funny, or smart that I can't help but forget about the sleeplessness until he wakes up at 1:00am and then I'm, like, oh yeah - this sucks.  Example of how smart he is?  We've been using a very unsophisticated method to keep him from going up the stairs to the 2nd floor and within the last 2 weeks he's demonstrated that he's been a) watching us and b) practicing because he can now maneuver our system out of his way to climb the stairs.  Also, he's currently the proud owner of about 10 words: mama, ga-ga (Daddy), ga-ma (Grandma), moo, neigh, baa, up, hi, yea!, more, woof, and I think I'm missing a few -  not to mention the signs he's still using/learning.  Finally, the kid is just too damn cute.  His kisses and hugs and cuddles are too adorable and the way he brings us books to read to him in our laps and his excitement at learning how to make funny little lizard noises are all too cute for me to really hold a grudge about the sleeplessness.  I feel like such a cliche, honestly, because before he was born I thought it was all just a bunch of bs when moms would say their kid's cuteness outweighed their negative habits/actions but now I'm a mom and Urban Cowbaby's a walking/talking cutie and I find myself buying into the bs!  Oh, how the mighty fall .... LOL  So, anyway, if you've read this far - thanks for "listening" and if you could maybe just send a bit of positive sleep energy our way, we'd be very appreciative.  Happy Monday.
** Note about the above pic: I was feeling sentimental and decided to post an old-school reminder of how it used to be ... this pic was a rare moment when he was a) sleeping and b) sleeping by himself - two things that didn't happen often or enough prior to his 1st birthday.  SO, basically, a reminder that it could always be worse!  LOL

A little note

Dear Baby,

Your daddy and I are so excited to meet you and want to get to know you!
I think I may have mistakenly made too nice of a home for you in there because you are clearly very comfortable staying where you are. Unfortunately, your mama is not as comfortable as you are and would like for us to share space in a new way.
If you come out, your daddy and I promise to do whatever we can to make your world as comfortable for you on the outside as it was in.
Please come out to play...

Love,

Mama