Competimommies - not in my group!

I hate them. Really I do.

That is why I am so happy to be a part of a New Mom's Group that really does not seem to have much or any competition going on. Our group met taking a New Moms class through the Health Center and once the classes ended we started to get together weekly with our babies. I am truly lucky to know this group of women and their kids.

Together we have watched the kids start rolling over, crawl, cruise furniture and for a lucky few walking has already started. Some of us have weaned our babies, while a few continue to breastfeed. We share emails full of tips and ideas; we complain about our kids continually changing food demands and we talk about almost everything. Some girls go running together, some have taken a Strollerobics class and others yet have joined baby gyms and library programs together. About half of us have returned to work and a few others have opted for the summers off (lucky and smart!!). Some had natural childbirths, others had C-sections, one cutie patootie was adopted and we have a set of twins in the group. Some, like LittleMan talk non stop and climb everything in sight, others are quiet and walk all over the place. The children are all so different yet what we all go through daily is very much the same.

Today it was my turn to have the girls and babies over for the afternoon for coffee and fun in the sun. We had quite the turnout! It was great to see some of the babies (which I haven't seen for ages) change and grow up so much! In my own head they were all still little and sitting on the floor, now they crawl, climb and chatter away like little people. A few have drastically changed in the looks department whch really suprised me,

Best of all there was no competition between the Moms, we were all pretty happy checking out what other babies were and were not doing and laughing at their antics.

Is it me, or am I just a really lucky girl to have such a good group of Mom friends?

11 months going on 13 years old

Dearest LittleMan,

You are just over 11 months old now, and I have to admit you are officially a Toddler.

Sure you don't attempt to walk with any regularity, but you are as strong as an Ox and you can pitch little temper-tantrums like a seasoned pro. So far, you have not pitched any fits when we go out (knock on wood), you tend to only get mad when Mamamama won't let you crawl up the stairs or play with Dadadadada's stereo.

You are getting to be a rough and tumble little boy, you are never alarmed when you hurt yourself, and only cry when your pride is injured. This week, you have learned how to crawl on top of the coffee table and sit there to play with toys. You only seem to do this when Mamamama leaves the room to go pee. You are starting to manhandle BuddyLove, when sitting at the window she barks at the cars going by and you go "ooo ooo ooo" and then grab her collar and pull her down from the window like she is in your way. You now give her full frontal hugs and roll with her on the floor. Lately, you are most amused when she is playing fetch; you giggle endlessly at her antics. I can not wait to watch you and the dog grow up together. Someday, she will spend the night snoring in YOUR room.

Yesterday you finally learned how to go both ways on the stairs, now the problem is you never just go strait up them, you go up two then down two, up two the down two. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but since we do need to get upstairs to change your diaper I need to pick you up and that starts a tantrum; which is never pretty but is thankfully short.

Love You More than Chocolate,
Mamamamama

P.S. I know you like to play with doors now, but can you PLEASE stop locking Mamamamama in the pantry?

How I feel some days....

There is a real post coming from me soon, like this weekend I promise.

More funny stuff.....

This parent has some skill, and the kid has some serious patience to let the parents do this all day....



A week or two ago I posted the Pearl the Landloard video. Now here are the out-takes.

Back to the Grind......

So I have finished 2 out of three of my shifts this week. Things at work have gone well, I haven't forgotten how to do things and there were very few changes in the lab to learn. Stuff there never changes, I have been gone a year and some people are still complaining about THE SAME CRAP they did a year ago. I figure at this point they should quit complaining about it, because obviously it is not going to change. The same politics and arguments still exist, which is a little annoying too. Maybe it is my "New Mom" perspective, but I no longer care about that crap. I want to show up, do my job, get my paycheque ($$$$ YAY) and go home to my kid. That's it. I wish others would just chill out and adopt the same attitude.

Politics, it's not just for the government anymore....


LittleMan has spent 2 nights with Grams and is spending tonight with LoudGranny (aka my Mom). Things have gone well, he slept straight through the first night and got up once the second night for a bottle. He has been cranky when he gets dropped off, but I think that is because it is so close to bedtime that he is just tired by then, I am thinking of trying to move bedtime up about 15-20 minutes to accomodate this. Or I can continue dropping him off at the same time, and he should get used to it. I worry a little that Grams holds him or tries to contain him too much, he really likes to go go go all the time and if he doen't run around a lot, he doesn't take a decent nap which makes the rest of the day crap for everyone involved. I think Grams will get the hang of it in no time at all.

It is still hard to leave him at night and go to work, but I am so very happy to be working again and to me it all evens out in the end. I know as a kid I loved spending time and sleeping overnight at my Baba and Gidos home, and I want LittleMan to feel the same way too. I found having a couple photos of him in my daytimer and really spending good time with him during the day when I am awake have helped me transition back to work. Soon, we may be getting a new schedule at work, and being very part time I really do not want to work 3 nights in a row at all (I should only be doing 2 which is easy with a kid) because I find it to be too much for me, and too much to expect from the Grandmothers (granted the rest of my four week rotation is very nice - even just losing one shift alltogether would do for me).

It does get eaiser when they get older - doesn't it?

Letters to my Son

Lion face
Originally uploaded by SleepyNita.

Dearest LittleMan,

Today is a very hard day for your Mamamamama and I am not coping all that well right now. Today I return to work, and a couple days each week I must leave you with LoudGranny or Grandy (when Dadadadada is not home). Now, I feel very good about having you spend more time with the grandparents and I think it will be good for you to spend time with people other then Mamamamama. But, I would be lying if I didn't admit that the thought of not seeing your little sleeping face in the crib at 10pm tonight is totally going to break my heart. I am sure returning to work will be harder on me then you and we will find our rythym soon enough.

This week I was working on the photo wall in our front entrance, and although I wanted an assortment of photos, I found myself ordering prints of you to fill the spaces (who am I kidding? over half the frames are photos of you). You will make that photo wall shine.

Lately you have this new thing that you are doing. You like to get under a chair or table and then tilt your head sideways to look up at whatever is on the bottom side of the chair or table. The look on your face is priceless when you do this, you look like you are really examining what is going on there. Yesterday morning you got over your fear of grass and crawled around our back yard, you also discovered the rocks and like to dig in them. This last week you have slept well too, only getting up once and then sleeping to 7:30 or later in the morning. Some days I have actually got up before you, made coffee, fed BuddyLove, showered and put up the babygates before you even started partying in the crib.

You continue to amaze me each day.

Love you more than chocolate,
Mamamamamama

P.S. I smell poo. Its not me and the dog is outside, so guess who gets his diaper changed?

This idiot thinks it is a horse

watch the clip, I am too tired to blog and too fried to even try. Be back tomorrow.

I think someone screwed up.

20030203-cheerios-wp-640x480
Originally uploaded by SleepyNita.

I was reviewing the Canada Food Guide today making sure LittleMan was getting all his nutrients when I noticed a glaring ommission in the food groups. Listed are:

1. Fruits and Vegetables
2. Grain Products
3. Milk and Milk Alternatives
4. Meat and Meat Alternatives
and of course Oils and Fats.

Let me ask this one simple question:

Why don't cheerios have their very own food group?

Changes....

Dearest Littleman,

I want to tell you about how much you amaze me.

In the past ten months you have grown and changed in ways I never thought or believed possible. You have learned to crawl, attempted walking, can climb stairs at lightning speed and developed an impressive little vocabulary. You know what Monkeys are and really like the one Dadadadadada hung on your wall; and this week you have become attached to a stuffed monkey. Most days you are stubborn, noisy and are in constant motion. It is amazing that you even gain any weight since you move about so much!

In the last 3 days I have noticed something very alarming to me. You are becoming more a little boy, and less a baby. You do little boy things now; taking things apart, climbing stuff you shouldn't, pulling BuddyLove around and digging in the dirt. The things you do provide us with endless entertainment.

Although watching my baby dissapear and turn into a little boy makes me sad, I am excited to watch you become the boy that you will be.

Love you more then chocolate,
mamamamamama

P.S. We understand boys like dirt, but please leave the plants in the house alone O.K?

Reasons I love the USA, but.......

1. Las Vegas
2. Palm Springs
3. San Francisco
4. Target stores; I wish we had target instead of Wal-mart
5. Better shopping
6. Factory Outlet Malls
7. In and Out Burger
8. Better Weather

(This list could go on and on, but the baby only sleeps so long.......)

But it has all gone a little too far when American "Authorities" think that our quarters are intruments of nanotechnology terror....

'Poppy quarter' behind spy coin alert'.

A sample from Yahoo news:

An odd-looking Canadian coin with a bright red flower was the culprit behind a U.S. Defense Department false espionage warning earlier this year about mysterious coin-like objects with radio frequency transmitters, The Associated Press has learned.

The harmless "poppy coin" was so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them. The worried contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology," according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP.

The supposed nano-technology actually was a conventional protective coating the Royal Canadian Mint applied to prevent the poppy's red color from rubbing off. The mint produced nearly 30 million such quarters in 2004 commemorating Canada's 117,000 war dead.

"It did not appear to be electronic (analog) in nature or have a power source," wrote one U.S. contractor, who discovered the coin in the cup holder of a rental car. "Under high power microscope, it appeared to be complex consisting of several layers of clear, but different material, with a wire like mesh suspended on top."

"I thought the whole thing was preposterous, to think you could tag an individual with a coin and think they wouldn't give it away or spend it," said H. Keith Melton, a leading intelligence historian.



Good grief. I understand they are a little worried about terror attacks, but I don't think the Canadian Government or the Royal Canadian Mint is about to open a can of whoop-ass on the United States.

My Celebrity look alikes

I had to keep trying to find a photo that did not compare me to Rosanne Barr 74%......

Battle Royale

Battle Royale
Originally uploaded by SleepyNita.

On one side wearing the thermal carafe and a coffee grinder is the Cuisinart Grind and Brew on the other side with single cup brewing and easy clean up Keurig B60. Who is gonna win?

We take our coffee seriously in this house, especially since this Mommy needs her morning fuel to function. Recently ManToy went and bought a new coffee machine, and I must admit it is pretty damn cool, and NO CLEAN UP to boot!

Our old coffee machine, a Cuisinart Grind and Brew is still one of the best coffee makers I have ever had, but the clean up killed me, those coffee grinds are a real pain to get out of the grinder! So ManToy went and splurged on a Keurig B60 which uses handly little disposable filter cups to make your coffee, one cup at a time on demand!!

OK so I am a little excited about the new coffee maker, but knowing that I don't have to spend 10 minutes a day cleaning the coffee maker makes me more inspired to make that morning cup of joe.

No Makeup Challenge

No Makeup Challenge
Originally uploaded by SleepyNita.

I am going to be brave and take part in the "no Makeup Challenge" put out by Adventures in Babywearing. I really had to go back a couple months to find a photo of me with no make up since I am usually on the other side of the camera.

Now you are getting it.....

Dearest LittleMan,

Mommy would like to commend you on your excellent efforts towards household peace by sleeping in this morning. Finally I got to relax until 7:15am! I feel like I won the lottery or something, which means YOU won the Mommy lottery, I am oh so FRESH, and AWAKE, and ready to CHASE YOU AROUND!!!!! I am also impressed how you fell back asleep at 5am after you woke for a little feeding (which I understand concidering you threw up your dinner at bedtime, so your little tummy must have been pretty empty).

Right now you are in your crib, sleeping. I really love your 2 hour morning naps, they make our day quite nice, you get to sleep and Mommy gets a shower and some cleaning done. It is a great trade-off. I am sorry the stoopid window guy woke you up yesterday 30 minute into your nap, making you a cranky little peanut for the rest of the day.

When Daddy brings my car home we will go for groceries and maybe to Lululemon to get Mommy a pair of crop pants, I think I deserve a treat (1/2 way to losing the baby weight) and I wanted them for a while now. We will be missing out on the picnic with Mom group today since you have been coughing a little, I just want to keep you inside for a day or two until the cough dies down a bit. Daddy is also getting us AIR CONDITIONING today, which means we can truly enjoy the heat this summer knowing we can escape to our nice cool home. Trust me, you will appreciate it!

You are the greatest little man ever.

Love you more than chocolate,
Mamamamama

P.S. BuddyLove thinks you are great and I know you love love love her, but she doesn't like being choked by your chubbly little arms each morning. She is just too sweet to tell you herself. She prefers hugs, kisses, petting and CHEERIOS!!!!