*~*Holy Moly, they're THREE!! May 2004 Mamas in MAY '07!*~* - Page 3

[orangecanoe]

KK--I don't think we have any policies per se at our fellowship, but when she was less than a year, I did get a bit cranky and emailed the minister because our sanctuary adjoins the social hall with a wall of glass doors and that's where I would go when she got antsy and because it was hot they had them open to the social hall, well C wasn't exactly quiet as a mouse and in a huff the ushers closed them again. : After that they did make a point of installing a changing table and putting out more chairs in the social hall for parents w/ kids, but not much more than that. I have nursed C during a sermon and openly on the floor of the social hall and in the nursery...probably elsewhere as well. I do also wonder about the oldster/youngster divide....I don't see it as much as with people who have school age kids in RE, but with young families who have trouble navigating without more family friendly options---either put the kids in the nursery or sit on the floor of the social hall. Though our minister did just have his first baby so maybe things will change a bit more.


Zoo was fun today....weather beautiful....kids agreeable....traffic minimal....

Any weekend plans? Is miss Katie having a cinco party?? DH is supposed to be repainting our bedroom at some point. I'm taking C to see Elmo's coloring book live or something like that. Last minute impulse purchase after hearing radio ad... :

[mcsarahb]

Happy Friday!

KK, those pics are great. So fun to see the progression.

jstar, looking forward to seeing you and your big belly tomorrow! I'm sorry the other PDX May Mamas can't make it. Hope to see T and L maybe, though, right?

So yeah, tomorrow is Lily's big co-party. I hope the weather cooperates. It should be fun, either way. Balloons, 7-layer dip and chips, and cake should make a good time, right?

Today was fun mama-and-daughter day at the science museum, party store, and fast food. We had a good time.

Silly Lily story: yesterday Lily was sitting on the potty, and said, "Mama, I'm going to sing you a song. It's called, 'What is Made Out of Dried Poop?'" And she proceeded to sing a very repetitive song with exactly those lyrics. Then she asked me what people make out of dried poop. Where do they get these things?! Of course I answered, "Fertilizer!"

Sarah

[Miss Juice]

KK I : your blog. The pics of you and DH are awesome.

Silly Lily : Allison loves to talk about the potty. And she wants me to hang out in the bathroom and chat with her. Cute.

Toddler rant for the day, and request for suggestions: Allison's driving me crazy. She ignores me. It's maddening. I mean, she doesn't even blink when I ask her to do something, or redirect her from some inappropriate activity. No response at all. I know she can hear me, and it's one of those things I file under "developmentally appropriate but highly irritating".

If I have the time, and the free hands (sadly very rare) it helps if I just physically walk her through the requested task - putting on shoes for instance. But I can't always do that. Any ideas? I'm trying to avoid the last resort of screaming like a banshee in frustration.

I bought her a shirt that says "Patience Tester". I don't generally buy clothing with words, but this made me smile.

[elsanne]

Wow, juicy mom, that's a tough one. I wonder if it's her way of getting your attention focused exclusively on her (middle child thang). It sounds highly frustrating and the times Sol has been like that I either yell or threaten. Niiiice techniques, mine. I hope some mamas have ideas, otherwise I'd post o'er GD.

Sarah, the Lily singing about dried poop really, really made me smile. Very stinkin' cute. My little funny is that the other day Sol said, in a voice just like mine, "oh, MAN!" And then, when something happened that kind of sucked, I said, "that sucks", and she repeated it agreeing with me.

[jstar]

isaac keeps saying 'that's cool' and i realize maybe i overuse the phrase just a leeeetle :

we need the patience tester shirt too. getting him dressed in the morning when we really just need to get out the door is making me : : lately. i feel too pregnant to chase and wrestle so i sit and whine and he ignores.

i love that collection of photos of you and your dh kk i love wedding photos too

mmmmm dip! sounds yummy. we're looking forward to the party isaac wants to go right NOW. i'm praying he will nap early because we have another party right afterwards. party marathon!!

happy birthday to miss katie today!!!!!! : i hope she has a lovely FUN day

happy cinco de mayo! doug just went to buy some chorizo for breakfast. i'm staaahhhhhhhvin

[elsanne]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!!

[TurboClaudia]

: : :
: HAPPY
: BIRTHDAY
: KATIE!
: : :

[Sarah'sMama]

You guys rock my socks! :

[fiddlefern]

I'm glad you got some smilie art for Katie's B-day, Sheri.

Well, my spiritual community was founded by war tax resisters, some of whom once laid down in front of a train carrying nuclear material. Most of the founders have done at least some jail time for protesting. So my breastfeeding self is super, super tame. We meet in a living room in a semi-circle, and all I've ever gotten is smiles for breastfeeding the kiddos. However, for years dh and I were some of the youngest members. L was one of the first kids in the community in a long time. Recently, we've had a kid explosion and that is causing friction among those who like to eat the after-service dinner in peace and quiet. Many conversations and special meetings have ensued.

Yipes. I was gonna go to bed early tonight.

Nighty-night!

[Mama Faery]

Ahh, I think I am turning vegan and straightedge!
First the vegan thing; well, we're already going back to vegetarianism, but unfortunately I have chicken in the freezer that needs to get cooked, so the other day, I thawed and cooked some. And had to take a pause to dry-heave in the sink mid-prep, because it grossed me out so much. :Puke It SUCKED! The dinner I made was wonderful, Indian, yum, but damn, mamas, I am a wussy wuss wuss (my new favorite term )!
But then this past weekend (the Rowan-free weekend, which went swimmingly, I must say!) we went out to our local cheeep awesome diner-type-place (called The Rooster Grill; there are figurines and pictures of roosters. EVERYWHERE. Inside! It was totally my type of place! Haha) and I had eggs both days.
And felt super-super GROSS afterwards. Wow. What has happened to my body, I ask you???
Cheese though. I am still down with the Cheese. And milk chocolate. Yup. So not REALLY vegan, but I can see myself eating eggs less and less...

And then, straightedge (if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, a quick definition; no drugs, alcohol, or, technically, promiscuous sex--but I know lots of straightedgers who kind of play a little, ahem, loose with the sex part. ) So we went to a Cinco de Mayo party Saturday night (did I mention Rowan was away?? : : : and I, of course, being the token Mexican, had a few drinks.
And promptly crashed in ALL WAYS the next morning. I was cranky, moody, weepy, and finally DH was like "Dude, hungover much???" But it really *wasn't* that! I didn't get wasted and PHYSICALLY, despite being tired, I wasn't hungover!
My body is insanely sensitive, always has been, but now, it's like I can *feel* every. little. thing. going on in there!! It's weird. It's good for some things (hello libido!) and bad for others (I cannot even tell you about my prementrual-ness, and now, menstrual-ness! Blah) and well, I think I have to not drink! The drug part (legal and ahem...yep) is pretty much over too.
Joe keeps saying I am spending too much time with AFI. But it's not that. I'm just...more aware or something.
And *real* straightedge kids are all high-and-mighty about it. I am SO not. Hehe.
Anyway! You all really needed to know this. Sorry. Just rambling out loud about it.

So Rowan is back!!! We missed him so much, but he had such an awesome time he didn't even want to talk to DH and I when we called him Saturday! He's so glad to be home but he had such a great time (and so did my ILs) that we're already planning on doing this again sometime this summer. ) My FIL joked that they went to McDonald's so many times they got every toy on the menu : but honestly, they took him to an amazing museum in CT, visited some relatives and just basically had fun (MIL even had him helping in the garden! That is awesome!) and Rowan sat at the dinner table last night telling us all about his weekend and OMG mamas, it was SO RAD to hear him tell these stories! I loved it! Heehee. He's such a big boy!
But not such a big boy that he used the POTTY or anything. : We won't even go there. He has NO interest and I am about to rip my hair out in frustration, especially when he has these mega-poops like this morning. Ugh ugh ugh. Ah well.

Our invites for his b-day party came this weekend (shutterfly), and I now have to decide how many to send out. Hmm.
Will he really be three in just a few weeks??? And some of our babes are ALREADY three??? Wow wow wow. : I am so in awe.

Have a wonderful day, mamas! Rowan is being Mr. Cling (of course) so I gots to go.

[elsanne]

Renae, sounds like a great weekend! And hey--you said, "rad"!

That is awesome about getting back in touch with your body and wanting less toxins. I went out to eat with a group of lovely women after a kick-ash private lesson I taught yesterday (dancing, and eating, sans kiddos = 5 star day) and this one woman DOES NOT LIKE SWEETS. I don't get that. I try, oh how I try, but this my favorite place to eat, offers an incredible brownie alamode, I just don't get the "not like sweets" part. Anyway. Who am I kidding? I don't try at all! Except internal chastising!

[KKmama]

Happy birthday (late) Katie!

I'm fairly close to straightedge (99% vegan, never done drugs, hardly ever drink, too many kids to have promiscuous sex ), I guess, except I'm not punk (doesn't that usually go with it, too?). I hear you on feeling it in the body when indulgences happen. Whenever I *do* have a drink, dh usually serves it to me in a Japanese tea cup. For me, I think it's just part of the body being able to tolerate less as I get older. Els, I've gotten better at evaluating my food choices. Honestly, if a dessert is not over the top good, I really don't want it (and I generally can't have it anyway because of the milk and eggs). Salty stuff is more my downfall, anyway.

Your weekend sounded great, Renae.

I think we're just going to have a big blowout playgroup with balloons and dessert for Z's b-day, and then move to a party with invites and presents next year. We'll still have a family thing on the actual day.

I haven't mentioned that Z is mostly in underwear. Having some accidents (more than T did in this transition), but he really wants to wear them.

The reason I asked about church and AP/bf'ing, etc is that it feels weird for me that UUism and APism don't necessarily go hand in hand (and I think they should). I guess that's a topic for the spirituality board. Yesterday morning, I talked to someone who came home from the retreat a bit early, and she said it *was* talked about up there, and that she felt terrible for me. (And that if people had an issue with L, after I had been given the okay to bring her, *they* should have just stayed home.)

Juice, thanks! My only thought re Allison is that the kids and I have talked about how they don't like me to yell (and I don't like them to ignore me). So when I'm repeating myself, I tell them, "I'm asking you nicely." (And I am--I use please, thank you, nice voice, etc.) They have figured out that this is code for "do it now, because Mama is going to yell soon." : An older friend suggested I try *whispering* to get them to listen. I'm so sceptical that I haven't tried it. :

[mcsarahb]

I hope Katie had an awesome day!

Renae, I think you can limit stuff without going straightedge. Why label it? Just follow your body's signals, and do things in moderation. That's what I've been trying to do for the past 10 years...

KK, I never answered you on the BFing thing. I only attended a UU church for a few years, in my teens, so I honestly wasn't really thinking much about these things back then, but in my memory it was pretty darn AP. There were quite a few young kids, though, and it seemed everyone was pretty darn "crunchy," to my mind, that is. I don't specifically remember breastfeeding in the sanctuary, but I do remember cloth diapers and kids in slings, and that's where I first heard of NVC. I definitely think it has to do with the general age composition of the congregation, for sure.

Also, I have tried the whispering thing quite a lot, and Lily gets MAD when I do it. I get down close to her and start to whisper, and a few times she has actually pushed me away or hit me and shouts, "I DON'T WANT TO TALK RIGHT NOW!" I'm at a loss sometimes, too. It seems like in that situation, we often resort to what boil down to threats (stop doing that or I'll take it away), or negative consequences (we take it away), and I don't know how to get around that. Not that we always should get around it - sometimes whatever it is needs to be taken away, or she needs to stop yelling, or whatever. Luckily she usually listens to us in general, but not always.

Anyway. I'm off to the chiropractor, then clinic. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Sarah

[TurboClaudia]

isn't Jacquie in Kansas? where was she? Kansas City? where was the tornado? please check in, Jacquie...

getting ready to send off nana & pop-pop to the airport. marek is going to be heartbroken. not looking terribly forward to the next few days...

~claudia

[orangecanoe]

KK---let me know if you do start a thread over there ...not in a UA violation kinda way , but you kwim! I guess I'm newer UU and all, but it seems to me that they go hand and hand. Related topic....are you starting Z in RE in the fall. They asked if we were interested and I'm not sure it's necessarily worth it just yet for C because of her personality + new babe.

I wouldn't say I'm straight edge....just rather boring. I think the last drinks I consumed were before conceiving C. I would love a nice cold beer, but alas....a couple more years for that as I don't drink during pg/bf. Vegan---ha! Not even. Glad you had a fun weekend, Renae!!

Thinking of you, Jacquie!!

Claudia---*hugs* sorry their time there is coming to an end.

Not much new here....hmmm.....though did get my doula lined up for this birth again....or did I already share that? I'm flaky these days.

[emmalola]

Hey! had a prenatal visit and all is healthy. yay!

quick question- the lentil is driving us bananas with constantly wanting to climb on us. Like we're jungle gyms. So we want to get him some sort of structure that we can put outside for him to play with/on. We don't want to get him one of those gigantic jungle gyms because they always seem to lay dormant save for 25 minutes every third week when someone gets interested in a little swing action. I was looking at waldorf playstands, but those don't seem sturdy enough to have outside for rough boy play. Does anyone have a good alternative to the jungle gym they can suggest?

[orangecanoe]

We have a hand-me down Step2 plastic slide that both girls love. It can also be used as a fort underneath. It was part of a slide/pool set so it's a little bigger than this. We might eventually get a wooden playset next summerish. I know someone who got a great set on freecycle...maybe craigs list? So glad the prenatal went well!!

[orangecanoe]

renae---does rowan have one of these yet??

[elsanne]

She is gonna DIE when she sees that.

[TurboClaudia]

elola: this is the one we have, and marek likes it a lot, especially the "rock climbing" walls on the sides.