Everyday is a Holiday

Saturday night, Amelie learned how to scream. Not scream-your-head-off scream, just turn-up-the-volume scream. Thankfully, it's not all the time, just when I lay her down to sleep and she's not sleepy enough. It's actually pretty funny.

For the last couple weeks, Amelie has been staring longingly at us when we eat in front of her. Sunday it occured to us that we could give her some water to see how she likes it (we want to wait till she's 6 months to try cereal). Well, she LOVES to drink water. She grabs the cup and brings it to her mouth again before she even swallows the previous sip. Once in awhile she gets too big of a sip and looks like she's been dunked underwater. So-o-o cute.

Today we went to two local thrift stores for their President's Day Sale (50% off everything) in hopes of finding some good wooden toys and maybe some clothes for Chris and I. We got to the first store at 10am, and it was already picked over. Both stores were SO busy, it was like the mall the day after Thanksgiving. Yuck. We'll never do that again. The good news is that we scored a cool dinosaur wooden puzzle, a Radio Flyer-style wagon for Amelie to pull her doll in someday, some wooden blocks to add to the collection, and some other random toys. Chris found a Mastering Spanish tape series, and we got some clothes for ourselves. Not a bad haul.

I'm starting up a business, finally. I have had so many ideas in the last 10-or-so years, and seen quite a few of them come to fruition... for other people. So it's time to gather up my skirt and make something happen. As soon as I get a patent, I'll tell you what it is. :) But it's coming along, and the patent is the next step. So far I've done research on my industry, gotten together some organizational tools for my ideas, and contacted small business owners to see if they'd mentor me on any level. I've gotten a response from 2 of the 3 people. One gave me some resources, and one said she's love to talk to me this week. Woo-hoo!

And you thought I was excited before!

Yes, the organic bedding got me excited. But after getting our taxes done... now I am REALLY excited! Thanks to Amelie, we are getting all but $18 back from last year's taxes! I think I want to have a kid every year... Soon the government will be paying us to have kids.

oops!

I forgot to mention that I did not write the Dr. Seuss poem. It was sent to me, and the sender doesn't know the author. I can't take credit.

Woo-hoo!

I'm pretty sure nobody else will be as excited about this as me, but you have to hear about it anyway: I just found a huge clearance on organic bedding and bath stuff! Spiegel.com has Under the Canopy products for 50% off. This comes at a perfect time... I just recently realized that we spend 1/3 of our lives sleeping (God-willing), and we should try to go organic with our bedding (food was first) so we aren't smashing our faces into chemicals and man-made garbage for 8 hours every night. And here comes this lovely sale on organic stuff, and you should see the colors... oooh, pinch me. I'm off to figure out if we can afford it right now. Please, please, please...

Dr. Seuss for nursing moms

Would you nurse her in the park?
Would you nurse him in the dark?
Would you nurse him with a Boppy?
And when your boobs are feeling floppy?
I would nurse him in the park
I would nurse her in the dark
I'd nurse with or without a Boppy
Floppy boobs will never stop me
Can you nurse with your seat belt on?
Can you nurse from dusk till dawn?
Though she may pinch me, bite me, pull,
I will nurse her `till she's full!
Can you nurse and make some soup?
Can you nurse and feed the group?
It makes her healthy strong and smart,
Mommy's milk is the best start!
Would you nurse him at the game?
Would you nurse her in the rain?
In front of those who dare complain?
I would nurse him at the game.
I would nurse her in the rain.
As for those who protest lactation,
I have the perfect explanation.
Mommy's milk is tailor made
It's the perfect food, you need no aid.
Some may scoff and some may wriggle,
Avert their eyes or even giggle.
To those who can be cruel and rude,
Remind them breast's the perfect food!
I would never scoff or giggle,
Roll my eyes or even wiggle!
I would not be so crass or crude,
I KNOW that this milk's the perfect food!
We make the amount we need
The perfect temp for every feed.
There's no compare to milk from breast
The perfect food, above the rest.
Those nursing smiles are oh so sweet,
Mommy's milk is such a treat.
Human milk just can't be beat.
I will nurse, in any case,
On the street or in your face.
I will not let my baby cry,
I'll meet her needs, I'll always try.
It's not about what's good for you,
It's best for babies, through and through.
I will nurse her in my home,
I will nurse her when I roam.
Leave me be lads and ma'am.
I will nurse her, Mom I am.

A peek into february so far

From the top...

Hangin' out with dad.

Cute smile.

We dressed her as a dork so she'd really feel like a part of the family.

Chris went nuts and made sushi for some friends. It's one of his many talents.

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that

Well, we are miserable again, but this time it's due to teething! I wish babes didn't have to get them (for selfish reasons: breastfeeding and the crabbiness), but it's a necessary evil. Amelie has been so fussy recently, probably to teach me to not get too comfortable with her usual pleasantness. I am learning patience and gentleness, along with a hefty dose of longsuffering. Chris has been a big help in my staying sane, and taken a bigger part in babycare. Not to imply that he wasn't involved before. He was, but he is more now.

If you care to check it out, I have changed the link "Amelie's registry" to "Our Shopping Mall." It's the same site, but I've updated it to include links to all the sites I like that carry organic stuff, along with my commentary on each site. If you buy organic stuff, I've done the hard part and sought out the good sites for you.

Let me bore you for a second: today I went to Once Upon a Child to buy some denim for Amelie (one organic piece I am not willing to buy: $40 jeans are not in my budget, no matter how much I sell on Craigslist!). I found a cute skirt for her (Oh, I forgot to mention I want to find stuff to fit over her gargantuan cloth diapers), size 18m, that is supposed to go to her knees, I imagine. Well, it's mid-calf. Funny. And then I found jeans, also 18m, which fit over the dipes, and I got them home, only to discover that they are capris! The funny thing (to me) is that they are so huge in the butt, b/c they are for a big kid, but they are short enough for her b/c they're capris! Now I know what to look for.

On a more personal note: we have been recently re-convicted of how we honor the sabbath. When we talked to a friend about it, he wisely replied, "if you don't think you should be doing it here on Sunday, then you probably shouldn't do it at all." Hmm. Good point. So now, we are trying to examine everything we do under that microscope, within reason (there are neutral things we feel there's nothing wrong with doing any other day, but doesn't really honor God on Sunday). I'm just excited that we are being re-convicted about this. :) Another thing worth saying, is that God has been blessing us so much recently. He always does, but we have been noticing it so much more in the last month or so. We are ahead on our bills, which is rare, and Chris has a verbal agreement with his boss that he will be the head server at the new restaurant later this year. He'll be in charge of training all the new servers. (Pray for the trainees!)

Pictures to follow...

You Know You're A Parent When...#3

...Everything becomes a song.

I don't want to tell you how many verses we have made up for The Wheels On The Bus. I could serenade you for twenty minutes non-stop.Also, any and everything is possible to make into a song, the sillier and more nonsensical the better. How about songs of lettuce and bubblegum, or songs of spittle and sunshine? It reaaly doesn't matter to Amelie as long as you're singing it, she's happy. Por exemplo : The moths on the bus go flutter, flutter, flutter...flutter, flutter, flutter.. stuck in peanut butter ( you can finish the song in your head and good luck getting it out of there ).

By Chris

January highlights

This is the third time I've tried posting these pics, and it finally worked! Hooray! :)

This is the newest of Amelie's concentrating faces.

"...the better to see you with!"

Buds

"What stinks? Oh, I know..."

Buds 2

Whiney Girls

This is what we wake up to!

Ugly Suckling

"Could we have some privacy, please?"

The Original Concentrating Face

Details, details...

Chris had it mostly right. We did get about 3 hours of sleep, on and off, before we called the midwives to come over. But it felt like 1 hour. It was hard to sleep through the contractions, and we were excited, too. The other minor detail that he had wrong was that I wanted to push while I was in the tub. When Kim heard that, she said, "we can't have a baby in the close quarters of the bathroom, you'd better come into the bedroom." I was so sad to get out of the tub. Anyways, he remembers a lot of stuff that I don't, so I guess together we could make up the whole story pretty well (not "make up," but you know... "complete"). Luckily we have a 6 or so hour video of most of it, so we don't have to remember all the details.

Amelie : A Daughter Is Born ( By Chris )

First of all I don't blog very much, so forgive me if this rambles all over the place. I'd like to recount the birth of our daughter Amelie. I remember talking to Mimi and Steve Schirber at the Porch on Sunday night after they had their baby. Mimi said that she was two weeks early and that "it" could happen at any time for us. We laughed and said "yeah right" little did we know how prophetic of a statement Mimi made to us. That night I was giving Kati her nightly massage and she said something along the lines of "I feel something wet on the pillow" she was sitting on. "I think my water just broke" she said. No way I thought, we're two weeks early. Sure enough her water had broken and we were struck with disbelief, excitement, fear, you name it we felt it all at the same time. We called our midwives ( it was around 12:30 a.m.) and asked what we should do, even though we knew what to do from our Bradley classes. They told us to try to get as much sleep as we could. We slept for about an hour as I recall. Kati was woken by the contractions getting closer together. At that point we called the midwives back and told them they should probably get ready to come over. We also called Cerah and Lisa and told them what was going on as well. Cerah was the first to arrive and we were all so excited that we were finally going to meet our child for the first time. We were so anxious to see if it was a boy or a girl since we didn't find out earlier. Kim And Kathy ( midwives ) arrived around 4:30 a.m. and started to setup for our home birth. Kati was in early labor for a good majority of the morning. She was talkative, even laughing between contractions with all of us. As the morning faded she started to get serious and wanted to labor in the bed. Cerah and I helped her through her contractions by massaging her feet/ back/legs. We had originally planned on having a water birth but since Amelie was early we didn't have time to make that happen. So Kati decided to go through 2nd stage and transition in the bathtub. Kati was in the tub for awhile, I don't recall how long, I remember pouring a huge bowl of water over her stomach time and time again, nonstop for at least 45 mins. She said it really helped her to make it through transition. One of the cool things about going through the Bradley classes was learning about all the different stages of labor Kati would be going through so that I knew what to do to comfort her at a given stage and what she was feeling at the time. Without that knowledge I could see being scared and/or freaked out about the whole birth process. After ??? time in the tub Kati wanted to go back to the bed. This was sometime around 11:30a.m. - 12:00 p.m. After about half hour of laboring back in the bed Kati said she felt like pushing. The midwives said to give it a try and see how it felt. Our midwives were so....beyond words, they were the most amazing people to have at the birth of our child. They have delivered so many babies together and were so knowledgable that they put us at ease and I'm sure that added to the peace of mind we both had about them being there for our birth.They checked Kati and siad that there was a small piece of her cervix that the baby had not passed by yet. We later found out why, Amelie's hand was up at the side of her face and the cervix was getting caught on that hand. They held back Kati's cervix while she pushed and voila! Amelie was free to be born. (See next post for the exciting conclusion of our daughters birth. I have to go get ready for work now )

I counted my chicks!

As you know, I am selling stuff so I can buy stuff for Amelie (I volunteered while we were pregnant to pay for all baby stuff so Chris wouldn't have a bigger financial burden). Anyways... someone was supposed to buy a piece of furniture today for $50, so I decided to go shopping and I spent the money before I had it. Oops! The buyer got in a car accident today and decided she shouldn't spend frivolously. So my 50 chicks are no more. Lesson learned.

On a lighter, nay: happier, note... I figured out 2 reasons for Amelie's frequent night-waking. One, she was too hot. We had started using a vaporizer in the room to humidify. Well, it makes our room into a sauna, and the poor babe was fully pajama-ed every night. The second reason is my fault also: since we are on the same sleep cycles (from sleeping together), we sleep lightly at the same time. When Amelie would fuss even the tiniest bit while she was adjusting her position, I would already be awake and take it as a sign she would fully wake up soon and hook her up before she cried. Well, as it turns out, she wasn't going to wake up most of those times. She was probably as annoyed at having to eat so often as I was at having to feed her! Now we're back to the 2-3 feedings in her 12 hours of sleep. Yay!

Recent developments: Amelie is getting much better with her hands, and she's almost sitting up and rolling over (she tries hard at both!). Her newest "word" is "Bvvvvvv." She's also learning how to blow raspberries and bubbles, and to suck on her bottom lip. The other day I told her I love her, which she politely responded to by sticking out her tongue and spitting at me. She rarely laughes, though. I suspect she is thoroughly bored with me.

Tata for now!