Month: April 2007

Foam Pits, Weekend Musings, Babies, and Linky Love

Published by dee on April 23, 2007

The weekends just never seem to be long enough for me these days. We are always running here and there, doing this and that, and never just staying home. We tried to do a little more of that staying home thing this weekend, but I still feel like we were just so incredibly busy.

Saturday afternoon Zach was invited to a birthday party. The party was held at a gymnastics place and boy was it fun! Zach and his cousins really enjoyed playing in the foam pit, jumping on the trampolines and running around. What I didn’t bargain for was having to join them in the foam pit to keep the little guys from getting buried by the big kids. It was one of the best workouts I’ve had in a long time. Just after getting out from my second round in the pit, I had a little panic attack. I had just lifted Zach up and out of the pit and while I was getting myself out he apparently had jumped back in. I was looking all over the place for him and was starting to freak out when I finally saw his orange shorts peeking out of the foam. He was happy as could be. I was just relieved that he hadn’t run off somewhere. Fortunately he was close enough that I could pull him out without having to go back in myself.

After the party we headed over to a friend’s house to hang out. I was both happy and sad to see him running off with the eight-year-old girls to play. He is finally to the age where I can let him go play with them without hovering over him, but at the same time it is hard for me to just let him go. I still want to protect him and make sure he isn’t putting odd things into his mouth or getting into things he shouldn’t. He thinks it is really cool though. He no longer has to sit around listening to me gab with my friends and instead gets to go play and have fun.

We ended up staying pretty late watching a movie and Zach was wide awake the whole time. I put him on my lap and snuggled up with him hoping he would fall asleep, but it didn’t work until about the last two minutes of the movie. I, of course, fell asleep and missed quite a bit of the show, but Zach watched the whole movie, including some language that he really shouldn’t have been hearing. It wasn’t exactly my best parenting decision ever. I just really wanted him to settle down and go to sleep. I’m just hoping he doesn’t start quoting Jack Black until he is at least in his teens. The way his little mind is soaking things up here lately it wouldn’t surprise me if he picked up a few new terms.

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I won’t be around much tomorrow, because my newest nephew will arrive in the morning via a scheduled c-section. I’ll be spending the day at the hospital with my sister and taking LOTS of pictures. I should have some posted Tuesday night on my Flickr account, but if you are really anxious to take a peek at the boy I’ll try to get a snap with my camera phone earlier in the day. Kids in my family just have to get used to the flash in their faces early on.

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Two of my favorite bloggers are now writing over at 451 Press and you should really go check them out. NSP will be writing all about the city of Houston and Cagey will be tackling the topic of breastfeeding. These ladies are both great writers and I really look forward to reading the new blogs.

It also appears that I will not be writing the KC blog over there. There was a little bit of a mix-up and some miscommunication. I was a little bummed out at first but now I’m ok with it. As my Hubby will attest to, I really don’t need to be taking on any more projects right now anyway.

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Tears

Published by dee on April 20, 2007

Sometimes when I’m watching TV, the emotions just come flying at me. Last night I was thrilled to see a new episode of Grey’s Anatomy. The whole situation with Izzie and the daughter that she gave up had me bawling. Then, seeing the little girl with Leukemia in the hospital bed really turned the faucets on. It got me thinking about what I would do if Zach were ever in that situation. I hate it when he so much as scrapes his knee. The thought of him being terminally ill is just not one I want to have in my mind.

When I finished my TiVo’d episode of Grey’s I got all caught up in the middle of October Road. I’ve really been wanting to watch that one but missed the first couple of episodes so I figured I’ll catch up on dvd later. For some reason I started watching this show mid-episode. Again, there was a little boy in a hospital bed. There was a scene where the mom was talking to him while he slept, telling him how much she loved him and all the things that they liked to do together. It choked me up. I don’t know if it was the mother/son thing or what, but it was all I could do to contain myself watching that scene. Hubby was laughing at me for actually having to grab a tissue, but I just couldn’t stop the waterworks.

It didn’t end there though. My thoughts wandered to all of the kids out there suffering from diseases, injured in car accidents, and on and on. I imagined the pain that the parents must feel seeing their child who is so much a part of themselves lying there helpless. I thought about how lucky I am, that I have never had to experience it. My heart aches for those who have. I thought about how no matter how old your child is, you will always ache when they are hurt, whether it be physical pain or emotional.

Then my thoughts turned to the tragedy at VA Tech. The whole thing seemed very surreal to me at first. I don’t know anyone personally who was affected by it, although some of my online acquaintances were. I suppose I just wanted to block it out because I have a hard time knowing that there are people out there who have no respect for human life. But last night I started thinking about the families and about all of the mothers and fathers who lost a son or daughter due to the actions of one disturbed man. I hurt for them. I cried for them. I cried for myself because I don’t know how I would ever move on if that happened to my family. The reality of the situation finally hit me.

Before I went to bed, I stopped in Zach’s room to tuck his blanket back around him. I looked at my precious boy lying there sleeping and thanked God that he was safe, at least for one night. I know that he will see much pain and sorrow in his lifetime, as every generation before him has. I can only hope that he will be able to reach past the pain and enjoy all of the good stuff life has to offer as well.

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Odds and Ends

Published by dee on April 19, 2007

I’ve been quite busy over the last few days working on new projects and tidying up a few other things. Here’s a list of some of the things I’ve been up to:

I have finally updated my blogroll. There are so many incredible writers out there that it is really hard for me to keep up these days. I’m going to be paring down the blogs in my feed reader so I wanted to make sure that I had the links somewhere else so I don’t lose track of anybody. I’ll still be reading, but maybe just not every day.
I still have a little bit of tweaking to do, but I have officially launched my new knitting site, www.noviceknitting.com. It is basically a place for me to track my knitting projects, patterns I like, and talk about my new hobby. I’m hoping that it will eventually become a resource for other novice knitters. Even if you aren’t into knitting, please stop by and say hi.
451 Press is starting up a set of city blogs and they are going to allow me the pleasure of writing for the Kansas City blog. I don’t have the link for the site yet, but you can rest assured that I’ll be sharing it as soon as I get it. I’m also looking for a couple of local KC bloggers to help me out with the site. If you think you might be interested, let me know. I basically want to focus on local current events (not political!) and things to do around town, although I’m open to suggestions.

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Playing Dr. Mom

Published by dee on April 18, 2007

For some reason Zach seems to be extra clumsy here lately. I’m not sure if it is due to a growth spurt (I had to let out almost three inches on his overall straps this morning!) or if he is just taking after his mom, but he sure has been falling a lot lately. This morning as we were getting ready to leave for day care and work he managed to trip on nothing in the hallway and split his knee open.

A kiss to the "booboo" helped dry the tears up, but since it was bleeding a little further action was necessary. Dr. Mom quickly took over and fixed things up. All it took was a little bit of Neosporin and a Curious George band-aid to make things right in his little world again.

Some days this mommy thing isn’t so bad. Of course I suppose it did help that he actually slept last night.

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Easy Baby Blankets

Published by dee on April 18, 2007

One of my favorite things to make lately is baby blankets. I loved crocheting them so I figured knitting them was the next step. When I first started knitting I started out with hats because they are generally a pretty quick project that I can finish in a day or two. Since I knew my sister was going to be having a baby soon, I decided to see what kind of knitting patterns I could find for a baby blanket. I wasn’t sure I was up for knitting a blanket with my newly learned and still quite clumsy knitting skills but I thought I would give it a try if I could find something that looked simple enough.

I searched and searched my knitting books and the internet and I finally found something I thought I could handle. I discovered the Broken Rib Baby Blanket through Knitting Pattern Central. I adapted the pattern slightly to use some extra chunky yarn and size 17 needles (look at me already changing things when I barely know what I’m doing!). I managed to finish the first blanket in only two weeks knitting in the evenings on weekends when I had spare time. I wasn’t sure how well it would turn out, but it actually looked quite good. My sister loved the blanket and I was very proud of myself for finishing it just in time for her impromptu baby shower.

Since I enjoyed making the first one, I have now started on a second one. It seems like everyone I know is pregnant right now, so I think I’ll be busy for a while!

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Mostly I Blame Myself

Published by dee on April 17, 2007

Just when I think I’ve got this parenting stuff down, Zach goes and mixes it all up again. We’ve been having some struggles over the last few days and he’s quickly wearing me down. I flip back and forth between trying to be the tough parent who doesn’t give in and trying to be the understanding parent that knows he is just searching for comfort.

Saturday night was one of my not-so-wonderful parenting moments. We went out to dinner with my family for my brother-in-law’s birthday. The restaurant was crowded and Zach was more than just a little bit fussy. He settled down long enough to eat some waffle fries that came with our appetizer, but then he got fussy again. He refused to sit in his high chair and was only satisfied to be in my lap. I gave in and let him sit with me until our food came. When the food arrived I figured he would sit back in the high chair while we ate, but I was seriously mistaken. I let him stay on my lap to avoid a tantrum, but it backfired on me. Instead of him calming down, it escalated.

Instead of letting him continue, I chose to remove him from the situation. I picked him up and took him outside where we walked for a few minutes. Then I sat down with my almost 22-month-old son and attempted to have a reasonable conversation with him. I’m not sure why I thought it would work, but I tried to be firm and tell him that we were going to go back in the restaurant and sit down so that we could eat. He was happy and smiling so I figured I would give it a shot.

The minute we walked back into the restaurant he started up again. I tried to get him to cooperate and sit in his high chair so that I could at least eat my meal which only resulted in louder screams and a stiffening little toddler body. I finally gave up, told Hubby to box up my untouched meal, grabbed my stuff and took Zach to the car to wait while the rest of the family ate their dinner.

I was so frustrated with Zach that I strapped him in his car seat, sat down in the driver’s seat, turned some music on, and tried to ignore the pitiful little cries of "Mom, Mom, Mom" coming from his mouth. I was fuming and knew that we both needed some time to calm down a bit before I could turn around.

By the time Hubby and the rest of the family finished their dinner, we had both settled down a bit. Zach was extremely thrilled to see Daddy and Grandma walking to the car. I think he was afraid he would have to spend the rest of the night sitting in the car with his mean mama. We went back over to my sister’s house after that and he was fine, except when I refused to give him any cake. I spent the rest of the night playing with him and trying to make up for being so mean earlier.

The last couple of days have been better except for the fact that he’s been really clingy and he doesn’t want to sleep. Bedtime has become really difficult and he’s been waking up screaming a lot at night. He ends up coming to bed with me so that I can get some sleep and we both wake up tired the next morning. It makes me wonder how I ever dealt with the nightly feedings and diaper changes when he was an infant. Somehow I had more energy then than I do now.

I find myself searching and searching for answers every time a situation like this comes up even though I know there is no likely explanation. I blame it on the molars trying to break through his tender gums. I blame it on his age and his new streak of independence. I blame it on myself for not spending enough time with him. I know that when I make a point to spend quality one-on-one time with him his mood drastically improves. I wonder if he has nightmares or if there is something in his room that is scaring him when he wakes up screaming at night. I wonder if I’ll ever know what makes him break down without a moment’s notice. I wonder what I’m doing wrong and what I can do to make it better. I wonder if this whole parenting gig will ever get any easier.

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