Monthly Archives: February 2013

Reese & Her Groceries

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Oh my gosh, this child. Based on the way she stared at us every time we ate, tracking our every bite from plate to mouth, She was probably ready to start solids around month 4.

She’s officially been on solids since a couple days before her 6 months bday. Since then, we’ve recently added in a second feeding, so she eats lunch and dinner with us.

I’ve made most all of her babyfood thus far. {Actually, thats kind of a lie, my sister helped out with that as well and I’ve got a nice stockpile in my freezer courtesy of her garden and food processor. Thanks, Sis!} Since adding in the lunchtime feeding last week, I did buy a few jars just out of sheer ease of packing food for her on the weekdays.

It’s kind of funny to me, I’ve noticed that she’s more of a fan of the homemade stuff than the jarred food. I think it’s a texture thing. She seems to prefer a food that’s a bit more…chunky. Not too chunky, obviously, but it seems like if it were up to her, the straight pureed foods from the jars she could kind of do without.

We started her on avocado, but it seems lately she’s not as much of a fan as she was when we first started this food journey. Right now we’ve got sweet potatoes, squash, pears, the occasional mashed banana and green beans in the rotation. Of course there’s also the barley cereal miked with breast milk.

I’m trying to be better about documenting moments with something other than my iPhone, so I recently took some “real photos” of her chowing down.

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This girl seriously makes my heart melt. I can’t help but smile every time I look at her.

Oh and apparently she’s also going to be quite the little ham…no idea where she gets that from.

When your kid is too sick to go to school on Valentine’s Day…

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You throw them their very own party!

Rylee had been counting down the days to valentines day for over a week. So when she ended up sick with RSV & pneumonia, I knew she’d be missing her school valentines party and I knew she’d be absolutely crushed.

When I broke the news to her on Wednesday morning that she wouldn’t be going to school on valentines day, there may have been tears. (Hers, not mine. She’s a sensitive one.)

I decided right then and there that I wanted to try and make up for it in some way, and so the idea of a surprise valentines party just for her was born.

I had a big plan to get everything prepped while she napped the day away. Instead, she never napped (stupid meds). So while I mixed sugar cookie dough and she asked what I was doing, I lied to her and told her I was making dinner for Andy & me. Then I stayed up late cutting out hearts from pink, red and white paper, baking said cookies and taping red crepe paper to a yard stick. I kept things simple, yet festive.

When I got home from work last night, I sent her to her bedroom with her dad and sister and set to work. I brought in the red heart shaped balloons Grammy got for the girls, all the valentines from her classmates I had picked up from her school, I set out a valentine table runner (literally my only official heart-day decoration), hung the paper hearts and the streamer screen.

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When I called to her that she could come out, her reaction was priceless. She seemed to be in awe over the whole thing. Her favorite part was the streamer screen with hearts taped to it.

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After breakfast for dinner, {I had planned on heart shaped pancakes, but I just didn’t have it in me}, I put Reese to bed and her and her dad played the heart shaped dice game I had put together. She won, for the record.

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After that, we decorated a few sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles.

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Throughout the whole night, she just kept thanking us for throwing her special party. There were hugs…lots of hugs. There were smiles…so many smiles.

I’m a big advocate for kids knowing they’re loved every day of the year, not just on a holiday that’s been overdone in the name of profit, but this year, she deserved a little bit more.

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Mission accomplished.

All I can give her

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After spending over two hours at the doctor office today and finding out that Rylee has RSV and the beginning stages of pneumonia, I couldn’t help but think about my phone call with the triage nurse this morning. Borderline cynical, asking if I needed to even bother bringing her in or if they’d just send us home with nothing they could do.

Throughout our appointment I was asked questions and couldn’t help but feel inadequate when I gave my answers…did she have the flu shot? No. Did we give her the inhaler at all when she was having trouble breathing? To be honest, I forgot we had it. When did first start having trouble breathing? I’m not sure exactly…this morning? So when did she first get her fever? Well, she had one a couple of weeks ago, and that’s when her cough first started…

I listened to my intuition this time and made the call to take her in. But what if I would have called earlier…would we even be dealing with this right now?

She’s lying on the couch, absolutely miserable. Her fever was so high earlier, she was seeing “flashing spots” every time she closed her eyes. All she’s had to eat since Sunday afternoon is a few bites of bagel, a little bit of yogurt, some pears and some pasta. The only thing she’s had today is two blue otter pops.

It breaks my heart to see my babies hurting. To see them helpless.

Sometimes I wonder what the heck I’m doing. Am I making the right decision?

Parenting is easy when you’re speaking in hindsight. When you’re in the moment, you’re just doing your best.

And I need to remember that my best is all I can give her.

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Proud to call them my friends

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I’ve talked about them before…these ladies that live in my phone. We’re each a little crazy. I happen to think we’re all freaking hilarious. Brandy summed our friendship up pretty much perfectly in this post.

Over the last week, they all put themselves out there in different ways and I couldn’t be more proud of each of them.

Brandy wrote a post over on Liberating Working Moms about some of the trials that come with being a pumping working mom and that sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you need to supplement with formula and that’s OK because you’ve given your baby all you could. It’s not an easy thing to put out there because some people get so worked up in the breastmilk vs. formula “debate”, but other working moms struggling with producing enough milk need to know that it’s OK and that they aren’t alone. Anyway, go read it. It’s worth it.

Brandee has been going through some…well…shit. And by shit I mean infertility. It seems like just about everyone has an opinion and/or advice when it comes to baby making…or lack thereof. And while everyone has good intentions at heart, it still sucks. So BdblE (as she’s called in my phone) went ahead and put together some advice for the advice givers. She gives fair warning that her post may offend some, even make people mad, but she had to get those things off her chest and I applaud her for doing so in regard to such a personal, tough topic.

Alicia ended the week on a high. She was recently offered her dream job at her Alma Mater and of course she accepted it! With the happiness of a new job, comes the sadness of leaving the old one. And what I really mean by that is no more #OfficeFashionShow #UrinalEdition photos on my instagram feed. But, that’s ok because we have yet to see what her new bathroom set-up will be AND she put together this awesome video that I can always look back on. Her post quotes Amy Poehler saying “There’s power in looking silly and not caring that you do.” I couldn’t agree more, Higgy. We’re two peas in a weird-ass pod.

These girls mean a lot to me. I’m proud to call them my friends.