Learning As I Go

Spring has sprung! It is suddenly 70 degrees and sunny around here. Perfect weather in my mind. I could easily take 365 days just like the one we are having. Warm enough not to need shoes and get a little sun on your face, but still cool enough to wear skinny jeans and a simple top which is pretty much my uniform these days. And, I might mention, that Pippa has now entered the stage where she likes to dress herself. And clearly, her too-too is one of her favorite items. At least I managed to get her to wear something that sort of goes with it. Though, I have to admit she usually does a pretty good job picking out her entire outfit. Things don't often match, but at least she picks pants, a shirt, and a sweater. Another current favorite are her leg warmers. Very chic.

What better way to take advantage of the great weather than packing a picnic and heading to the park. We had a great time there and now that both of my busy kids are sleeping away in their beds, I can sit back and say I'm glad we went. Though, I've learned a few valuable lessons for next time. And here they are:

When taking two small, very active, children to the park alone for multiple hours...

1. Take a stroller. If for no other reason than to carry the diaper bag, picnic basket, water proof blanket, and coats. And, yes, I brought coats. Just in case. I've made the mistake before of thinking it was warmer than it actually was and having to withstand the condescending looks from other mother's who thought my children were about to die from exposure. Not that I care one iota, but like the boy scouts always say, be prepared. Another good reason to have a stroller handy, I realized, is because Lincoln does not do quite so good at eating roasted squash fries while crawling all over the blanket, and grass, and me, and his sister. Containing that ball of excitement would have been helpful.

2. Pee before you leave the house. Though, if I had a stroller, I suppose it wouldn't have been an issue.

3. Wear comfortable shoes, preferably something that will allow you to run across the massive field to catch Pippa, who does not want to leave, and then run back to where you dumped your baby and all the bags (all of which could have been safe and secure in a stroller!). This way you wont have to worry about breaking your ankle from wearing notoriously unstable clogs. (Though, they are offally cute.)


4. Put hand sanitizer in the picnic basket. This way when you remember half way through lunch that you didn't wash anyone's hands you can casually bring it out and act like it's the second time you've done it during the meal, thereby appeasing the mommy mafia who surely is watching and taking notes. (I know my husband is rolling his eyes and thinking it's all in my head, but I assure it's not. They really are watching.)

So, some valuable lessons learned and a great time had by all. And now, my friends, it's time for my nap!

Baby Led What?

Baby Led Weaning. Never heard of it? I'm not surprised. It's a concept I stumbled across when I started making baby food for Pippa. It's a style of starting a baby on solids that basically skips the pureed stage of the game and jumps straight to table food. The thought is two fold: First, babies should learn to chew before they learn to swallow which isn't possible if you are shoving pureed food in their mouth for them. And, second, that when babies are allowed to control how much food they eat they are less apt to get in the habit of over eating. I found it all very interesting when Pippa was a baby and incorporated some of the concepts into her diet, like giving finger foods at a young age. I think it's good for development and we noticed that Pippa became very good with her fine motor skills early and is not a very picky eater now. But I didn't jump head first into it. I liked the idea of making baby food and everything everyone tells you has to do with purees and cereal, etc.

Well, true to Lincoln's personality, he had a different plan. He sure does like to do things his own way. I started solids in the form of purees at about 6 months and you'd think I was trying to kill him, what with the gagging and retching and all. He'd see the spoon coming and clamp his mouth shut tighter than Fort Knox. I figured he just wasn't ready yet and took a break for a couple of weeks. But it never got any better and we were both getting frustrated. Then I had the idea to just give him some of the steamed peas I was about to puree and see what happened. Wouldn't you know it, he ate every single one he managed to get his little hands on (which was quite a few, to my surprise)! He loved it! He wanted nothing to do with the spoon with the very same pureed peas on it, though. So, I ditched the mush and ordered the official Baby Led Weaning book. And there has been no looking back. I cannot believe how quickly he took to it and how much food he eats already! He eats 3 meals a day plus snacks and dropped one milk feeding. He basically eats when and what we do. I do have to make slight alterations to our food, obviously, to make it safe for him but it's a lot easier to do that than make baby food! Yes, it's messy. For sure. But that doesn't bother me.

Now we have real family meal times where everyone (i.e. me) gets to eat at the same time. Sto and I sit around the table and really feel the weight of our bounty. It's a wonderful thing when both your kids are happy and thriving....and covered in food.

One Crunchy Mama

It's funny how motherhood effects us. I'm thinking specifically of how it gets you thinking about our environment and what our kids get exposed to on a daily basis and how to make things safer, more natural, and less toxic. I've always been pretty green but when I had Pippa I took it to another level. We bought cloth diapers, I started making my own cleaning products from vinegar and essential oils, started eating even more organic and local, etc. I even recently tried to get all the members of my crew to take cod liver oil. It's supposed to be THE superfood! I even bought the peppermint flavored one with 'KIDS!' written on it. And Pippa even took a spoonful happily....the first time. And never again. It's seriously disgusting. No amount of peppermint or orange or strawberry flavoring is going to mask that fishiness!

And now, in case I wasn't crunchy enough, my latest obsession is raw milk. I've been doing a lot of reading about it's health benefits and found a good source for it locally so I decided to give it a try. It helps that our nanny has been drinking it for a while now and recommended it. And it's really good! Why raw milk, you ask? Well, to sum it up, it's just plain better for you. Pasteurizing milk destroys a lot of what is good about the milk in the first place. Not to mention, milk from big dairy farms comes from cows that are fed poor quality animal feed instead of grass, pumped full of hormones to force them to lactate at unnaturally high levels which ultimately gives them mastitis, so of course, then they need lots of antibiotics too. Gross. I take my milk the way nature intended to be, thank you very much.

We don't drink much milk in the first place. But let me tell you, it makes fantastic yogurt! And I've been straining my yogurt through a cheese cloth for a few hours to get it really nice and thick the way Greek yogurt is. De-freaking-lish. And I just got an ice cream maker and gave it a whirl with the raw milk. It wasn't the greatest because it doesn't have as much fat as the recipe calls for but still good. (Did you know that commercial ice cream has a sort of antifreeze in it? Why must they ruin everything with chemicals!!!)

So with all this homemade stuff, organic everything, recycled everything, cloth diapers, homemade cleaning products, glass instead of plastic, natural child birth, home birth, and breastfeeding, I think I've become what they call a crunchy mama. And while I don't think that outwardly I appear to be the natural nut that I am (I hope), I don't think you have to talk to me for very long to figure it out. I realize many people would consider me to be sort of crazy, but I accept that. I can laugh at myself. And the ability to laugh at yourself is what keeps you grounded.

To The Mattresses

I've been sort of MIA lately, if you haven't noticed. I fell off the face of the earth. Retreated into my cave. I went to the mattresses. I hunkered down for a war. Well, maybe not a war, but a few battles anyway. For the last several weeks my household has been struggling with sickness, teething, and severe lack of sleep. I don't have a problem admitting it was a little rough, and while we aren't completely out of the woods yet, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So now that I've well exceeded my allotted number cliche's for this post I'll try to sum up what's been going on. It all started this fall, really, when Lincoln started getting cold after cold. I expected him to get sick more often that Pippa did at that age, of course. I am realistic and definitely not a germaphobic parent. But when he got his 6th cold at 5 months old I'd had enough! But everyone was telling me not to worry about it. Just think, they'd say, he won't get sick when he starts kindergarten. You're just building his immunity, they'd say. And yes, there is truth to that but something just seemed out of balance to me. So I heard about a homeopathic pediatrician I decided to give it a go. Couldn't hurt, right? It was a long, two hour visit but I walked away from there feeling like someone had heard my concerns and I wasn't crazy! I walked out of the office with a battle plan and a diaper bag full of natural remedies.

And it looks like they are really working because I was basically sick for the entire month of January. Pippa and Sto got sick too, but Lincoln hasn't! I even had to take antibiotics for strep throat. What adult gets strep throat?! I was not pleased to expose Lincoln to amoxicillin and he did end up getting a hive-like diaper rash followed by a yeasty diaper one. Great. As if he wasn't grumpy enough simply from his gassy tummy and constant teething. Two weeks later I got severely sick again and was worried I was going to need yet another antibiotic? I basically started freaking out. I hadn't taken antibiotics in 10 years and suddenly I needed 2 in one month? I was so concerned for Lincoln that I was going to attempt to pump 7 days worth of milk in 24 hours and supplement him with formula if I had to. And, to top it off, none of my usual sitters were around to help out. I was sick as a dog, coughing with almost every breath (and really in need of a steroid but because of the breast feeding that was out too), and totally sleep deprived coughing all night and Lincoln still getting up at least twice a night. Lincoln also chose to stop napping during all of this. He would only fall asleep for 20 minutes twice a day if I was lucky. Clearly he needed to sleep more and if I didn't also have Pippa to take care of, I probably could have gotten him to fall back asleep in my arms...except that I would inevitably have a coughing fit and wake him up.

So what do you do when you are drowning? You call you mom, that's what you do. And she came. And it all got better. Of course, the next day I started feeling better and new I was over the worst of it and didn't end up needing any more antibiotics, thankfully. But it was still really good to have her and Levi there to help out. And I was able to nap!

So for the last couple of weeks we have all been relatively healthy. I have a cabinet full of natural immune boosters to help. And I break out the hand sanitizer so often that my new nanny made a nontoxic one for me. (Sweet!) (Well, vinegary actually. But still great!) Lincoln started napping a little better, too. Though now he's cutting his 6th tooth in the last 2 months so he's back to crappy cat naps for a while. I'm still far more tired than I think I should be but I'm dealing. Oh yeah, did I mention that I've been trying to study for my NP certification exam? That's been slower going than I'd like but it's at least a step in the right direction.

So now that I've gotten all that mess out of the way, I'll try to get back to posting more regularly and write about funny, cute stuff. Here is a cute picture to tide you over.

Christmas Craziness

This year we decided to travel up to visit my parents for the Christmas holiday. They all have come down to see us multiple times since Lincoln was born so we felt like we kind of owed them. But that's a 5 1/2 hour car trip on a good day, so needless to say I was dreading it with a 2 year old and a 5 1/2 month old who generally hates the car. Hates the car? I thought babies were supposed to love the car?! Yeah, no. Not Lincoln. But, all in all the travel went pretty well. We managed to only stop twice on the way up, largely due to the portable DVD player we got to entertain Pippa. And entertained she was! And Lincoln was easily entertained in between naps if I would pop back there for a while. I felt like a little monkey going back and forth between the front seat and the back seat scrunched between the two car seats. I had an emotional moment at one point when I let Lincoln chew on one of my fingers and realize he'd cut a tooth and a second was on the way! I swear I checked the day before! I felt silly for getting choked up, but he's just growing so fast. I wasn't expecting teeth yet. The way home was shaping up to be even better. We made it half way until making a stop and it looked like we had the rest of the trip in the bag until we hit some construction traffic at the same time Lincoln had a major poop blow out in his car seat. Nice.

Since we were able to spend a few days there we had time to catch up with a bunch of good peeps that we don't get to see nearly enough. Dinner with Maggie and Jeremy was a blast. And the fact that it started with a delicious dragon fruit martini had nothing to do with it! Then, on Christmas Eve, a bunch of the cousins got together. I was really excited to have the opportunity to catch up with a bunch of people I don't see nearly enough of. I even tried not to talk about the kids all night....but they kept asking. Ok, stop twisting my arm. I'll tell you another cute thing Pippa did the other day. (Wink)

Christmas morning was fun for everyone. We instituted one of my family's traditions where the kids wake up to their stocking, full of presents, at the end of their bed. Or, in Pippa's case, at the end of the pack n play. We eagerly went in to get her up and found her amongst tissue paper and stickers in her 'special bed'. The day was starting out right. Then we all get dressed in our Christmas finest and headed over to my parents' house for present opening and brunch. By the end of the day we were all very full and the house was littered with wrapping paper and toys. Sure signs of a good holiday! We even managed to snap a family photo or two. And it was especially nice to be able to include my brotha-from-anotha-motha, Evan, this year too.



The following weekend we got together with Sto's side of the family at home. This is when the true Christmas morning chaos happens. They came over with piles of gifts. Pippa had so many to open, she actually started to get bored! (I'm sure that will never happen again!) It was like a wrapping paper bomb went off in our living room. But, true to form, my mother in-law had every scrapped picked up, every box broken down, and every bow collected to use again next year.  We seemed to get a lot of electronic toys this year, something I'm not a huge fan of as you know. But I'll put them in a closet and I'm sure I will be thankful for them sometime in the future. Like the next long car ride!

Pinterest = Inspiration

I have recently joined Pinterest. If you don't know what that is...get with the program! Just kidding. But seriously, it's pretty cool. It's an on-line community where you can gather ideas and links for just about anything. I've been getting a lot of great home decorating tips and DIY ideas. I find it very inspiring. Now, as I've stated before, I'm not a very crafty person. But I want to be. Not sure I'll ever be at the level of cutting glass with nail polish remover or anything, but I do get inspired to try new stuff. And I want to be one of those cool DIY people, not a corny one. So you are all welcome to hold me accountable and let me know when I'm loosing my perspective...if I haven't already.

I have a running list of things I want to accomplish and am slowly ticking them off. The owl hanging art (yes, I called it art) was the first. Now I'm moving onto our play room. I have a big shelving unit that I don't quite know what to do with. I want it to look pretty while serving to store toys and other kid gear. I decided to find storage containers that are different shapes and sizes but that blend with each other. I think I'm getting there but it's not quite done yet.  I found a wide, wire basket that fit the bill but it was not enclosed and I didn't want to necessarily see the mess within. So, being the newly crafty DIYer that I am, I wove ribbon threw it and even broke out my glue gun for the first time since I was a kid. (My mom would be proud!) I think it turned out pretty well, though I'm sure I won't be selling any of them on etsy any time soon.

Next up: a reading nook.

A Year In Review: 2011

Crap. I must have blinked. Why didn't someone tell me not to blink?! This year went by so fast it's almost not fair.  Just last Christmas Pippa was not quite walking and Lincoln was just little blob making me nauseous. So much has happened in this year it's hard to know where to start. We said goodbye to my Grandma Fran unexpectedly and we miss her very much. But we know she has been watching over us taking pleasure in her grand kids. Other memorable events include surviving Hurricane Irene (and the subsequent basement repairs!) and a great Myrtle Beach vacation with Ben's family.

And, of course, we welcomed Lincoln Fredrick Poblete into our world on July 7th. He's been unpredictable from the start, deciding to stay put 5 days past his due date and then arriving in a whirl wind, 1 hour and 15 minute labor. We planned to have him at home and it turned out to be the best decision we could have made! Those first few weeks are a little foggy for me but now we are loving life with a happy, smiley baby who's current favorite activity is flapping his arms up and down like a baby penguin trying to fly. He's also working hard on his bathroom humor, a trait that is apparently genetically written into the male species. The other day we were having some nice, snugly, one-on-one time when he let rip a huge bunch of gas. He apparently thought this was a riot because he spent the next 10 minutes mimicking the sound, all the while with a 'look what I can do' expression on his face. He loves to give baby kisses to anyone whose face gets within range and thinks his Ate Pippa is totally hysterical.

Pippa is a doing great also. It amazes me to see how much she's grown over 12 short months. She has gone from being a baby to a kid. A crawler to a walker. And a definite talker! She loves having a brother around and is very 'helpful' with him. Since she is extremely verbal and repeats a lot of the things I say to him, it's hysterical to hear the things that come our of her mouth. It's common for her say something like, 'What are you doing, baby boy?' or 'Don't cry, honey.' or 'Don't gag yourself, baby!' (Lincoln seems to like to shove his entire hand down his throat.) It was also the year of a bunch of firsts for Pippa. Her first hair cut, her first dentist visit, her first sushi, and her first music class. She loves music class! She has most of the songs from class memorized and we will often hear her singing them to herself while she's in bed. Her second birthday party was a total blast and now she is primed and ready to go for Christmas morning. She even picked out all sorts of random gifts for her Ninongs and Ninangs. (i.e. God parents, i.e. Sto's brothers and sisters.)

Sto's practice has been going very well, keeping him busy but not too busy. We are expecting another surgeon to be added to the practice this next year which will alleviate some of the burden of being on call and therefore make vacationing a little easier. We love vacationing with family and hope to do more of it in 2012. Other plans for the up coming year include me going back to work part time. Pippa should be starting preschool at some point, and we will be celebrating another 1st birthday! Who knows what else the next year will bring us but I am so lucky to be in it with and absolutely wonderful husband and father. I am so full of gratitude for being surrounded by so much love and heap blessings upon blessings upon Sto, Pippa, Lincoln, and all my family and friends. I love you all. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!