April 2005 mams May thread - Page 3

[wombatclay]

Mighty-mama - HUGE hugs to you! That you're cycling is really good news. I mean, that's great! Try not to worry about future kiddos though (I know that's easier said than done)...they've made so many advances in treating cancer and maintaining remission that I'm sure over the next two years the odds will tip even further in your favor.

And considering average US nursing rates, OF COURSE nursing for a full year (plus two days!) is "extended breastfeeding"! Don't you dare feel like you didn't do the absolute best for Noah! You've really truly been an incredible mama and I'm sure that in a few years you'll be an incredible mama to anther munchkin or two. So hang in there and feel better!

[Malva]

I’m happy I found this thread. My son Lucas was born on the 17th of April!

He’s been learning to walk for the last month and just this week is finally almost walking all the time.

He doesn’t talk much yet, his first word was 3 months ago when he yelled : Aya! when his sister Maya entered the room one day. Since then, he’s added mamamama, dada and ba (for bath). With me speaking French to him and everyone else speaking English, it may take him a little longer than normal.

He now has 8 teeth, eats sporadically and for the last while has been more into nursing than into any real food.

I went back to work full-time in January and my dh quit his job to become an official SAHD. Made my return to work guiltless and much easier. I am still a bit jealous of him but I get over it.

[AEZMama]

Jess-so happy you've got AF! What a great sign-just another testament to your strength and positivity throughout!

Clay-happy to hear your brother is back on home turf though it's atrocious the stories I've heard about soldiers coming home. Your brothers is the 2nd I've heard recently that has me . My mom cares for an alzheimer's patient who's daughter just had a ds, the dh is in Iraq was able to come home for the babe's birth. He's coming home at the end of the summer and his big thing to do when he returned is to do inventory on what was taken with the troops and what they have left. HE has to pay for the missing items from his own pocket as he is the leader. Unbelievable!!! My mom said he was already trying to figure out what they would need to sell or how to get a loan to pay for everything. Great compensation for putting your life on the line! Good thing Cheney got that $1million tax return! Ok, time to get off my !

Questions regarding naps-looks like Andrew is transitioning to one per day. Have you found that they sleep better at night? Andrew wakes a few times per night for a bottle so I can get pretty sleep deprived! I'm not too worried b/c my friends son is almost 2 and just recently began sleeping through the night, but I'm just wondering WHEN!

Does anyone have fun plans that they know of for Mother's Day? Happy Mother's Day to all!

OH-in case you haven't been to the activism forum, there's a great new grassroots organization called MomsRising.org that is partnered with MoveOn.org to benefit all the moms out there and to stop the Mommy Wars.

[JustVanessa]

Jess- Wow! Good for you....I agree with a pp though, more important to focus on gettting well, not getting pregnant again
Clay- How crappy that your brother got his medals stolen:

Ursula-Byron has transitioned to one nap as well. But it is longer. He went from 2 one hour naps to 1 2 hour nap. Still getting up 2-3 times a night.
I am working all day on mothers day so dh is taking Byron to visit dh's grama. Whole family will be there. I am just kinda happy that I get to avoid another gathering of dh's family. They drive me bonkers. I am much happier now that dh visits them while I work.
Am I a bad person for that?
I took Byron in the shower for the first time tonight. He thought the falling water was pretty neat.

Malva....always nice to see another Canadian face

Where are you all on the diapering end of things. Still using cloth? I am using disposables with Byron...just easier with the whole daycare thing.

Have a happy weekend ladies!

[speedknitter]

My DH returns from a trip to China tomorrow, I keep getting emails from United telling me the flight is delay, then delayed further, etc. I am starting to get worried...I want him to be HOME! Hopefully we can enjoy a nice quiet Mother's Day.

Welcome Malva! Sounds like Lucas is at about the same stage as my DD. Her walking has just this week become much better. Everyone keeps telling me how awful it is going to be once she starts walking, but I just don't get it. Do you all get that comment a lot, too?

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

[mighty-mama]

Happy Saturday..

It's so nice our group is getting bigger and bigger... Again thanks for the .

Noah is taking two naps he's now almost clockwork. Down around 10:00am and then again at 3:00pm. Although the 3pm nap is making him go to bed around 9:00pm, but that's fine by me, as my favorite show is on re-runs on HBO @8pm. We are still co-sleeping and loving it. He goes down w/ his pacifier and needs to cuddle w/ me and he likes to rub my skin and he falls asleep. I'd like to say he is officially sleeping thru the night with us too. So we're getting good sleep.

I can't believe Mother's Day is tomorrow. I know what Jack/Noah got me, but I don't know what it looks like. It's a silver charm bracelet, with some kind of charm that represents Noah. I hinted to DH that I need a charm to symbolize our marriage for our anniversary in a couple of months and then when I'm free of cancer I'm going to get a pretty breast cancer charm..

Dh joked that he made reservations for dinner at McDonald's tomorrow. I told him that fine, just as long as I have some big diamond earrings in my happy meal box..

[wombatclay]

Happy Mama's Day oh most wonderful April Mamas! I hope everyone has a wonderful day of toddler smiles and happy moments.

Laia and I made handprints and later we're making little plaster prints too. Laia smooshed little purple toddler handprints on a piece of construction paper, then once they dried I traced my handprint around her handprints, then DH traced his handprint around them both...sure the lines overlap here and there, but it's a really nice "family" project. And last year we made itty bitty handprints in a quick set (non-toxic) plaster that we then sent to the grandmothers and great grandmothers. So we're going to do that again this year.

Yesterday we drove down to Albany to pick up some furniture my uncle is giving us. Although Laia is going to be in our bed for a good long while, she now is the proud "owner" of a very cute wrought iron twin sized trundle bed. Perfect for sleep overs and other childhood adventures (like a sibling bed). The bed is more or less brand new (my uncle bought it to fit a specific room and now that he's moving he doesn't have a place for it) and he also gave us the matching desk, chair, bedside table, wall sconce, and table light.

We don't really have a place to put them right now (we're sleeping on the floor of Laia's room after all) but some day she is gonna have one pretty cool room!

Hugs and happy mama's day!

[zaner'smama]

Happy Momma's Day!

I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful, happy and relaxing day!
I've missed you guys but have hardly been online at all lately. My hubs has been doing field work in MI (he's a geologist), so Zane and I have been all over visiting my sister and several friends. It's been lots of fun for both of us, but he's really tired of the car right now!
Anyway, have a great day!
Hugs, Betsy

[mighty-mama]

Happy Mother's Day..

wombat you should've let me know you were coming out my way.... we could've met..

[wombatclay]

mighty-mama-

It was a real "fly by visit". We left Ithaca at 9am with my mom, got to Albany around one and picked up our Budget rental truck), drove just past Defreestville and loaded the truck with the bed, desk, chair, table, and random lamps/rugs/nick nacks of the well dressed room, and were back on the road for Ithaca by 3. We ran into some difficulty on the way home (Mike in the van, mom/Laia/I in the car) so we didn't get back to Ithaca till around 8pm...so it was a loooooong day. I think if I had to sing the wheels on the bus one more time I would have lost it!

That said, the furniture really is just about the fanciest thing in our house right now (my uncle is in his 50's and financially very secure, so this bedroom set probably costs more by itself than the rest of the furniture we own put together) and it was very sweet of him to give it to us since that side of my family is huge....so in the long run the trip was totally worth it.

But I wish we could have hooked up! Hmmmm....Mike's mom lives in Kingston, his dad has an apple farm outside New Paltz (Highland actually), and his sister is in Chappaqua so we're around there a few times a year....maybe next trip!

[Cardinal]

Hi ladies. How are ya'll doing this mother's day? The weather is great here in Little Rock. I took jonathan to the memphis zoo on friday and he loved it!! He is walking everywhere and is very independent these days. He takes 2 naps a day for about 1.5 hours each.
Still not talking though... *sigh*

So whose husband is active duty? My dh is an active duty USAF pilot. We're stationed here at Little Rock AFB. He goes to Iraq every 6 months for 5 months at a time.

[wombatclay]

Cardinal- my dh is a research scientist here in Ithaca, but my little brother is active army with the 172nd out of Wainwright (Fairbanks AK). They've been in Iraq since last summer but in a "mixed blessing" sort of deal my brother is back in the states now (his stryker was hit two weeks ago and he's back in Fairbanks with his wife for reconstructive surgery to his arm).

acj...a boom boom attack...gotta run!

[AEZMama]

HAPPY MAMA'S DAY APRIL '05 MAMAS!!

Hope you all had a wonderful day. Since dh is in the restaurant biz, we will celebrate on Tuesday-his day off. This is the biggest day of the year for him, so he really needed to be there. Andrew & I had a great day together (frankly, they are all wonderful!) and he is really making amazing strides these days and that truly is a gift for me. There's nothing in the world that could be purchased that could give me the gifts he does each day. I snapped the cutest shot of him today kissing himself in the full length mirror! He's also mastered the art of rolling over-torticollis be damned! It's very cute-I count to 3, he rolls over and expects the bells and whistles of applause after that. I repeat-there is nothing in this world that could be purchased that gives me the joy that that little boy brings.

Wow Clay-I want to be in your family! Sounds like you have many giggly sleepovers in your future! I was watching "16 Candles" today and that totally reminded me of sleepovers when I was a kiddo!

Enjoy the rest of your day, Mamas!

[JustVanessa]

I hope you all had a wonderful Mothers Day. I worked all day and dh took Byron out to see his mom and grama. So that was good. Apperently they got some good pics.
Byron is currently playing in my bedroom with the vaccum. Its his new favourite toy.
Gotta run mamas!

[SparklyMoose]

Wombat: Your description of Laia with Thai is just like Gabriel with Ludwig and Lennon. Sometimes he's very sweet with them, including laying his head on them and giving them a hug. We have to watch him really carefully when he's petting them, though, because he does the same "OH MY GOSH CATS ARE SO EXCITING!" thing and starts either pulling or hitting in his excitement. We do a lot of "Pet the kitty gentle" around here. A -lot-.

mighty-mama, I'm glad that things are basically going well for you. My mom was a 9 year survivor, and was diagnosed with a different form of breast cancer this year in what was her remaining breast. She's now going through chemo, too. One thing that's hard on her is that, even though we live fairly close, we don't get together that often (I have a teenage sister with a crazy schedule) and when we do get together, she's not allowed to pick him up. Noah's lucky to have a strong mom!

Gabriel has just about mastered the word "Uh-oh". I say just about because usually you'd think it means that something accidental has happened...not, say, the high chair tray has been thrown on the floor, or a toy or food has been dropped intentionally. It's still pretty funny. He's not walking yet (he's took his first steps on 4/1, and has taken a few random steps here and there, but he's not walking independently really). He does really well walking holding Momma or Daddy's hand, though. And if you try to hold both hands, he lets go of one of them...as independent as he can be! He started throwing temper tantrums when he was about 8 months old if he wasn't getting his way. I wonder where he got his stubborn streak??

We didn't do anything for Mother's Day, as my husband just got a new job, so we're recovering on our bills. We'll probably end up celebrating MD and FD together.

Does anyone else find it difficult to think of their year old child as a toddler and not a baby? To me, mine seems pretty much in between. Not really a baby anymore, but not quite a toddler.

[Cardinal]

Originally Posted by SparklyMoose

Does anyone else find it difficult to think of their year old child as a toddler and not a baby? To me, mine seems pretty much in between. Not really a baby anymore, but not quite a toddler.

So hard to think of him as a toddler! my ds is much more independent ... just in the past week he has taken to running by himself and throwing temper tantrums. he will walk away without even looking back at us. but, I still see him as our baby and call him that all the time. it's hard to pack up all his baby clothes. sniff. it's so bad... i am really hunkering for another baby. my dh isn't too thrilled as he's so happy with ds, but we'll have more.

[mighty-mama]

I hope you had a wonderful mother's day. Dh took me out to Red Lobster. I know there stuff is frozen, but it's sure yummy...

So Noah is finally saying something other than, mama, dada, baba. He's saying ball. He's addicted to them. We brought him into Toys R Us last night and I swear her found every single ball display.. He can even pick up a regulation size basketball and throw it. DH is so proud..

AEZ, I'm so happy to hear about Andrews' daily progress.. He's our little April Miracle Baby..

[wombatclay]

Okay...we just got a gadget called a Bubble Belly and I'm loving it!

Laia is obsessed with bubbles ("buh-bl buh-bl buh-bl!") but she's also pretty fond of tipping over bottles of bubble mix and chewing on the bubble wand. And an hour of blowing bubbles is more than enough to have me swooning from oxygen deprivation. Which isn't so good.

Anyway, for ten dollars at WalMart or Target you can get Bubble Bellies...they look like "cartoon-ish" animals (ours is a pig we've named Olivia but we gave Laia's friend a purple cow one for her 2nd b-day gift) with clear round bellies. You fill them with bubble mix (which you can see in their bellies) and when you squeeze the handle bubbles come out of the animal's mouth. No drips, no spills, no hyperventilation and Laia is happy for hours. It sounds funny but it's one of the best ten dollars I've spent!

[AEZMama]

Glad to hear everyone enjoyed their mamas day! Ugh-what I thought would be a happy belated mamas day for me may end up with us spending the day at the mechanics. I'm hoping it's simply just that the car needs a new battery (it's a similar issue to what we had a few years ago, and it was a simple fix of a new battery)-keep your fingers crossed!

If Andrew's the April Miracle baby, then Jess you are our Miracle Mama! And there's nothing wrong with the Lobster...especially when you don't have access to good fresh seafood. It's a fave with my family in Rochester.

Andrew LOVES bubbles, too! I'll have to get him a bubble belly-he'll flip out! He started a new "game" today by manically (sp?) crawling between me and the mirror. He kisses himself when he gets to the mirror, then turns around and head butts my belly (I sit on the floor). Back & forth for about 15 minutes hysterically giggling! Anyone else have funny games your little ones do?

Cardinal-I have a hard time thinking of Andrew as a toddler. DH always asks when he calls from work, "How's the baby?" So long as Andrew is my only babe, he'll always be my baby.

Take care mamas-can you believe the month is half over? I'm excited because my inlaws are coming in 2 1/2 months and dh is on board to visit my family in Poland in the fall when ticket prices go back down!! I want Andrew to meet his great-grandparents there as they are not in good health and can never travel to the states again. I want him to experience their love before it's too late.

[Avena]

Ah ha! I had a feeling we moved to Toddlers!
Holy Mother, I can't believe we have toddlers!

Hi mamas New & old!!!
I've been away from the internet a while so I'm out of the loop eh?

We've been SOOOOO busy w/ our biz!!! DD is a motor and saying new words everyday! Keys, button, tea, dog,book ..That was this week's new vocab!
Anyone else have a screecher? DD like to scream at the top of her lungs, when she isn't allowed to get dust balls or plants or be moved from the stairs etc...
Spring blessings to all