Illness and vitamins

Sorry, I got a touch of whatever is floating around and was out sick for a little bit. Hit it hard with vitamins and such and really seems to have lasted only one day.

I am going to rant a little bit about recent news I have seen about vitamins (specifically antioxidants) not being as good for you as thought.

I know, from personal experience, this is total bunk. While not a regular vitamin taker I do take them whenever I am not feeling well and 99% of the time, it handles it.

Another point is my mother, who does many things wrong in taking care of herself, one thing she does right are the vitamins. She had eczema and totally handled it with vitamins (one of the Bs) for example.

I am not a doctor nor a scientist, but my personal experience:
* my mom as above
* my hubby who takes HUGE amounts of vits and can work on little sleep and be okay
* my sister who is an athlete and takes her vits
* myself and handling illness

I would say that whoever is doing these studies, might have a vested interest somewhere else.

Blankies and teddies

The classic thing you hear is that babies/toddlers have a favorite blanket or teddy bear that they take everywhere with them. It comforts them and they like to fall asleep with it.

MLO has a pillow.

The story goes when she was very small moving her down into her bassinet or crib would wake her up and she would scream bloody murder. My hubby came up with the bright idea to put her on a pillow and then move the pillow into her final resting place.

This was great and helped me sleep (especially in the beginning when there were few chances to do so).

We used a pretty flat pillow (one that you would otherwise throw away, because for an adult it does nothing). We had a set of matching pillowcases that became that pillow's mark (this way we could change the pillowcase to be washed but the pillow wouldn't have appeared to change).

Her whole body laid flat on it and as I said, it worked great.

Now a days, she loves that pillow. Her feet dangle off the bottom of it and she doesn't fit anymore, but you bring out that pillow and she lays down on it. She likes to have it over her too. It is her blanky (just a pillow).

I didn't even realize that this would happen, though if I had taken the time then to think about it, I would have realized we would create a reliance on it.

Oh well, it is still really cute and if it helps her fall asleep, I am all for it.

Girl Scout Cookies

One of the great things about having a little girl is that she can join the girl scouts and mommy dearest will buy all the girl scout cookies I can get my hands on.

Until that day, you can go here and find out where to get them if you are as addicted to them as I am :)

Stuffed animals in cages

New game with MLO:

She finds a stuffed animal and we throw it in her crib. Then the stuffed animals head gets pulled through the bars.

She runs around her room (and the rest of the house) collecting up all the stuffed animals she can find and we do this to each.

Her crib becomes a wall of stuffed animal heads. She thinks it is SOOOO funny.

After we have gotten all the stuffed animals in her crib, she then pulls each one out (some are impossible to do this with and mommy helps her cheat by pulling them from behind and then MLO gets to pull them off the top where mommy puts them).

Then each stuffed animal gets returned to where she found it (I don't know how she remembers where she found it, but somehow she does).

Once all the stuffed animals are out of their cage, the whole thing starts all over again.

The whole time, MLO is laughing (sometimes so hard she falls down when she is running to put some large stuffed animal away and she can't stop giggling).

Moving from highchair to booster seat

MLO hates the highchair and likes to sit in the grown-up chairs and eat (even though she can't really see what is on the table). Well, sometimes she stands on the grown-up chairs and eats.

She puts up with the highchair for a little bit but eventually refuses to eat anything and just holds her arms out to you. She is very stubborn about this (unfortunately both my hubby and I have a very stubborn side which we seemed to have passed on to her).

So I ordered this booster seat, seemed like it would be great as we can take it places, plus it ties down to the chair. She doesn't have to be stuck behind the tray and we can just sit her in it and she can be in the grown-up chair and sit at the table.

Well, I got it yesterday and set it up before dinner last night.

My, what a happy little girl!!

While she didn't make it all the way through the meal, she did eat pretty much everything, herself, from her seat.

This morning before work, she wanted to sit in the chair and drink out of her sippy cup. Not once, but three times.

She points at my chair and waits for me to sit down and then picks up her cup and drinks out of it.

When she was done with her drink she started trying to climb down (next trick) and I helped her.

The progression of growing up, my oh my.

Flute

My hubby plays the flute. So anything mentioning flute catches my attention.

This isn't my hubby - but very impressive:

New Words

MLO's vocabulary is increasing by the day. She has a new word almost every single day.

Recent ones:
Uh-oh (when she spilled something)
Wow
Music (pronounced mooo-si)
Fish (pronounced fsh)
Down
More (pronounced mo)
Done
Kitty (pronounced kiii)

I love every second of it!!

Relaxing Weekend

I hope everyone's weekend was as relaxing as mine was. I didn't have to go anywhere or do anything in particular.

While I wouldn't want this every weekend (because then I would get bored) it was nice this once.

MLO went and saw grandma on Saturday and I got to run around and leisurely pick up some items I needed (and a few I didn't need but you understand).

Sunday was the family hanging out and listening to showtunes and dancing. MLO loves to sway and dance to music (her dancing is spinning around and around in a circle until her feet fall out from under her).

She can now say the word "music" and says it often because she just loves listening to music. I must say - I must have done something right.

For me the best part was: I got to pick up my book!!!

Before MLO was born I was a huge reader. I would just read and read and read and read and read and well you get the idea.

I have been on the same book since before MLO was born! Now, it isn't a small book (the last book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series - 800+ pages), but before MLO, I would have read that thing in a month easily.

17 months later - I am on page 550. So yesterday while MLO was napping I got to read. Wow, I miss reading. It is so fun to go somewhere else for a little while (even if it makes you cry and for those who have read the book - WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE!!!!!!).

I am going to try to get more time for myself and my book, without missing out on any of MLO's growing up.

Posting daily

So all the blog recommendations I have read said I need to post daily. Just sometimes life swoops in and takes me away with it and I don't get a chance.

Might explain why I haven't become the most popular blogger in the world (since my subjects are so interesting and I am sure EVERYONE wants to read it).

So, yes, yesterday was one of those days and I just couldn't find a minute. Not that I am free and relaxed now, I just felt obligated to at least say hi to you all.

HI!!!

Valentines was fabulous and hubby even went and picked MLO up without me and let me crawl into bed (for sleep) after our activities were over.

Yesterday night was just me and MLO because hubby had to work late (didn't come home until midnight).

We had a great time with pasta and quesadilla's for dinner (strange combo, I know, but they both have cheese).

Her monkey chased her around the house, she ran around me in circles, the ponies got to run along all the furniture, she rocked in her rocking chair to her favorite CD, we watched Smallville and Grey's Anatomy together (well she fell asleep in my lap during Grey's Anatomy) and then the night was peaceful.

Except I couldn't fall asleep last night. The last time I looked at the clock it said 2am and I hadn't slept. I was tired, but my mind was racing.

I am one of those people who avoid taking "things" for simple ailments – don't do Tylenol or sleep medicines. I do natural things instead.

So, maybe tonight I will have hubby hit me over the head with a mallet. humph.

Holidays and growing babies

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!

So tonight MLO is going to grandma's so hubby and I can have some fun. Yes - that kind of fun :)

Going to have a nice dinner in a nice resturant and then come home and just have the two of us here.

This will be interesting because MLO is majorly teething right now.

She seems to be trying to grow them all at once (instead of the slow progression that some babies do). She did two stints of four teeth at once and now it looks like she is trying to do another set of at least three (that I have been able to count so far).

She is a little cranky and just wants to be held and rocked (by me preferably). She only wants to nurse which makes it hard for me to work sometimes.

She slept almost 14 hours last night (not that I did, no, I did the oh so smart thing and stayed up working and then woke up early).

On the bright side: she is wearing this new dress I bought her and she loves spinning in circles and having the skirt spin with her. This lasts for about two minutes and then she needs more hugs.

So grandma will be having fun tonight - luckily she raised three kids herself so she has some experience :)

Hats

When MLO was really little she hated to wear hats. Any hat would be meet with tears and when she could yank them off her head herself, she would do so immediately.

People would buy her the cutest hats and I would resort to putting them on her stuffed animals (which she thought was hilarious).

Her favorite stuffed animal to dress up is her monkey. It is one of those long limbed ones with velcro on the hands. I think this monkey has worn every piece of clothing MLO has owned over the last six months (certainly hope the monkey is a girl).

Well over the weekend we were dressing up monkey in some of MLO's overalls. I put MLO's baseball cap on the monkey and MLO started laughing. She then grabbed it off the monkey and put it on her head.

To say the least I was astonished.

It was a little big for her and the rim kept falling in her eyes which she didn't like. So I changed it around so the rim was in the back.

She loved it!!

She had to go show daddy and then walked around the house with the baseball cap.

Guess the rule of no hats for MLO has just changed :)

I am still here

Just crazy busy.

Took MLO for her check-up today which went well. She is perfect (we knew that but nice to hear the doctor say so). She is good weight and actually off the chart height wise (for her age).

Yes, the thoughts I was having just the other day weren't off - she is getting tall!!

During the doctor's visit she was a perfect little angel. Though she didn't care for the things in her ears - she put up with it all quite well. The doctor recently had a baby (little boy - currently 6 months old) so we shared stories.

We also had an interesting discussion on vaccinations/immunizations.

Though I am sure many may be shocked to hear this - I haven't given my daughter any. She is in perfect health and stays at home with me and her nanny.

Did you know that they put Mercury in the vaccination shots they give children? There is on going research which shining the light on the fact that Autism can be a result of vaccinations and they say it is in the mercury.

Sorry - too scary for me. Especially when she has only had a slight flu twice and otherwise is perfect at every check-up.

Now, when older this may change. Apparently (per my doctor) when the child is older, the body is more able to deal with shots and these chemicals that are put in their bodies. She has never heard a story of a child over 2 developing autism because of shots.

So, once they pass that threshold you are safer.

This all made me feel better about my choice not to immunize her yet - to wait until she is older and her body has gotten stronger and more able to deal with such things.

Little disclaimer so I don't get anyone in trouble: I am not a doctor and this is my personal views and understanding - go over this with a trained person :)

Silly things to do on the Internet

Try...

Games:
I got 35 after a few tries - addictive
Papa Louie: When Pizzas Attack!
Smacky

Places to check out:
Digg
StumbleUpon

Blog tools:
MyBlogLog
BrandMyBlog
Technorati to add yourself
PayU2Blog

MLO is growing

Yesterday MLO didn't just reach up onto the dinning room table to grab something, she actually stood on her toes and looked over the edge.

When did that happen?

Since I see her everyday I guess I miss the little details of her growing. The nanny says every time she sees her again on Monday (after the weekend) she seems so much bigger.

Well this little one also almost opened the front door yesterday. Have to keep an eye on that one and start locking the door at all times so she doesn't decide to go running out.

She also can open all the dresser drawers and pull out all her clothes (and mommy and daddy's clothes from our dresser).

She loves to practice sitting on chairs (that are so tall she can't put her feet on the ground) and jumping off them. Attempting to land squarely on her feet.

The playground visits are full of attempts to climb up backwards on the slide and the frustration of not being able to get to the top.

She wants to help cook to, or at least play with the items on the stove since mommy is using them.

Yes - my days are very full :)

Update - silly lawyers and breastfeeding

Jennifer posted on her blog:
"I have received an apology from Steve Murphy, the CEO of the National Pork Board and we are currently working toward a resolution."

She thanked everyone for the help in making this issue very well known :)

Note see here if you missed first post. Or you can visit Jennifer's blog at http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/

Schedules

It is very interesting what happens to two married people who both consult and have a 16 month old daughter. We are working to make sure we have enough money around for anything.

We go a long time without seeing each other.

Hubby finally had a night at home with us (we seems to be running about one night a week at home with the family). However he had slept two hours the night before and just kept falling asleep.

MLO had fun jumping on him when he was asleep and waking him up. She would wait until his eyes had closed, hear a faint little snore and then jump!!

Luckly hubby stayed in a good mood about it and would grab her and tickle her back (probably why she kept doing it).

At least she found a way to play with daddy when he was too tired for anything else.

At the end of the night (after I put MLO to bed) I had to drag him to the bedroom and put him to bed also.

Silly lawyers and breastfeeding

To the gentlemen readers (because I know there are so many of you) - I won't be offended if you skip this post :)

I am pro breastfeeding and breastfeed my daughter (still am) and plan to do the same with any more I have.

A very interesting project was done by Jennifer Laycock who started a business to get funding for milk banks. She made funny T-shirts to promote breastfeeding and the money that was made went to these chairties. One of the the shirts said "the other white milk".

The legal counsel for The National Pork Board sent her a letter stating that they were prepared to sue her if she didn't bow to their demands.

The demand is that the phrase "the other white milk" violates their trademark on the phrase "the other white meat." She has to remove the shirt from her site and any other sites she knows of, destroy any shirts that exist with the logo and demand that at no point in the future use the phrase in a commercially profitable way.

On Jennifer's blog she says: "Apparently the National Pork Board is worried that someone might come to my breastfeeding blog, check out the shirts and worry that when I say "white milk" what I really mean is "thick and juicy, straight from the hog PORK." Come on now, be honest...were you confused?"

The actual letter also states:

"In addition, your use of this slogan also tarnishes the good reputation of the National Pork Board's mark in light of your apparent attempt to promote the use of breastmilk beyond merely for infant consumption, such as with the following slogans on your website in close proximity to the slogan "The Other White Milk." "Dairy Diva," "Nursing, Nature's Own Breast Enhancement," "Eat at Mom's, fast-fresh-from the breast," and "My Milk is the Breast."

This is so silly and stupid. Can't believe it really. Jennifer doesn't really care that much about the shirt - it would be okay with her not to use it again. But there is the principal of the thing.

So Jennifer is wondering: Anyone know a good pro bono lawyer that's sympathetic to the breastfeeding cause?

You can find out more at: http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/