Fine, all right, I'll do some grats. Because I'm feeling ungrateful about my nursing grizzly bear who takes 1.5 hrs to fall asleep, and because I completed the epic journey from my house in TX to my parents' house in WI today and just need to focus on the good, little things, instead of all the things that made today hard.

1. watching my 20 month old take off running when we finally got out of the car, into the still wet from rain, still lightly drizzling early evening light of the acreage of my parents' luscious back yard.

2. this honey vodka from my parents' liquor cabinet tastes divine

3. my 4 yr old fell asleep before her brother

4. 20 month old was pleased as punch to pee like a big boy in the gas station potty (well as much a big boy as you can be when mommy is holding you business-side tilted over the toilet) It was like pouring water from a watering can!

5. the little joys of cheap wrapped presents doled out to children over the course of a long flight and equally long car ride

6. leaving a love note for dh (who is not on vacation with us) on top of the coffee machine where he'll find it tonight

7. getting 3 weeks to relax and explore

Since when did nursing start to feel more like enabling? Somehow over the past few months, nursing the now 20 month old has become more of a battle of wills, more physically challenging, and less enjoyable. I vaguely remember hitting this mark in the late teen months with the first child. She was weaned by 2.25. This little monkey seems more addicted to it than the previous one. With the first one, it was all so sweet and peaceful. She loved it, gently and tenderly. But my son seems more like he's addicted to it. He clambers up and kind of roughly pulls my shirt down or up, often screeching loudly in the process. Then he does somersaults, hangs off of me, does cartwheels, walks and kicks his feet up the wall, kicks me in the neck... you get the picture. I'm having strong urges to wean, yet this would be totally disastrous to him and the only sense of relative calm he enjoys throughout the day. Sigh. I know I can't deny him now. But by 2 I will surely start to cut him off. I'm definitely not made for nursing the 2-3 year old. That's as far as I'm willing to go. That is all... just wanted to whine a little about my commitment

What kinds of snacks do you all keep around for your partner? I'm so sick of the whining, "there's no food in the house!" when I've got a half full pantry and a fridge full of possibilities. So to dh baby carrots dipped in almond butter, or baked spinach nuggets do not make a good snack. Some things that he likes: ritz crackers with Cheeze Whiz, string cheese, jalapeno poppers, cashews. Think of this as a challenge to come up with snacks for a large toddler, lol. Are there any appetizers, think classic American, not necessarily healthy, that I could premake and keep in some refrigerated tupperware? Thanks for your help,

Create and post your own Obamicon, mamas!

Hooray momentous day!

My local kids clothing resale store just sent out this message:

BREAKING NEWS:

We are SAFE!! The CPSC has just announced new clarification regarding the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

I know there's been a shoutout for this before, but I didn't have my store up yet. I got some stuff going just before the holidays; two of my favorite necklaces that I made that never sold and the two silk screen designs that we make that people in Austin just cannot seem to get enough of; The Godchild and Give Peas a Chance. Can we have one more roundup of mamas with Etsy stores here? Please post your links.
new EtsyNameSpace.Mini(6143551, 'shop','thumbnail',1,4).renderIframe();

They are 1 and 4 now! I'm going to start working full time in January, but still need to find a job and childcare. I'm still in a band and lovin it. Mini update, I know, but I'm pumping and it's too hard to type.

I haven't posted in forever, but I was just telling someone how I've been "on" here for over 4 years and I got nostalgic. I don't have a big diatribe on one single subject, but for anyone wondering what's up with moi

1. been going to co-op preschool with 9 month old R and 3 y. 10m M, and we love this new source of mama, toddler, and baby friends. The nicest group of parents with relatively the same parenting goals as me. We'll do this for at least another year, if not two. meets Tuesdays for class and Thursdays for field trip

http://www.thebirthsurvey.com
If you have a moment, let your voice be heard about your birth experience. These people are very thorough in their questioning, it's a great project whose aim is to improve the birthing experience for mothers.

Okay, I made it 4 weeks, technically. But today I have 3 birthday parties and I didn't want to avoid cake that many times in a row. I've been really active lately, but I was shocked to discover yesterday morning that my total weight loss for the past 4 weeks is 10 lbs. That's like 2-3 lbs a week. It really inspires me to keep the diet going just as it is. However, I know I need to put a few key things back in: bread & probably mayo for sandwiches, an occasional sugar treat, cereals, butter for my mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs.

I'm such a stickler! My only cheat seriously is so minor, get this: I took one tiny sip of my daughter's root beer. That's it! I'm such a confessor that I feel compelled to mention this.

Notable things from my diet so far:
I've learned that there are good tasting options out there that don't have added sugars: peanut butter and jams, mainly, but also things like soy milk and almond milk. When I leave this diet, there's no reason to buy those things with extra sugar added.

I thought I was getting bored with my food options (and I kind of am with the lunch & snack options, if anyone has any to recommend). But dinners have been pretty cool. I just had to pop in with this recipe I found online that fit what was left in my pantry, and my diet. We just had it for dinner and it was so amazing and yummy. Turns out coconut milk is such an amazing thing to cook with! I'm gonna have to make it more a part of my diet. Anyway, here's the Brazilian Chicken Coconut Curry, a mish-mash of two different online recipes.

Brazilian Chicken Coconut Curry

INGREDIENTS

Yay, I made it one week.
I don't truly feel any different yet. I've heard that dairy takes like 2 weeks to really get out of the system, so we'll see where I am midmonth. I'm still mucousy from the cold I got a month ago, I expected that to go away faster this week but it didn't.
My biggest challenge has been

We went swimming yesterday, so that was my exercise. DS is so great in the pool, just leaning back in his floatie, chewing on a foam horsie the whole time, like he's one of those relaxed mellow babies. he is such a little hellcat at home, especially around the food table, he just can't stand to sit and watch us eat, even if he's being fed. So far my diet hasn't changed him much, he's still cranky and not sleeping through the night or anything. He's actually not pooping much lately either, I wonder what's up with that.

I'm too distracted by the toddler right now to remember anything about the impact this is making. I just want to say that I don't miss dairy, bread, and sugar as much as I thought I would by this point. I never realized how much of my diet is already heavy in the other things, so I don't ever feel *hungry* like oh no what am I going to eat now. So that's cool. I think I also do have an increase in energy; I've been able to clean more after the kids are in bed, and I still have that feeling of inner lightness, inner clarity; as though the dairy & sugar were kind of sludging up my insides. I'm also digging plain coffee now! The thought of putting cream and sugar in makes it seem kind of syrupy and yucky.

Well I messed up. At the grocery store the baby was starting to get crazy bc I wasn't moving when reading all the waffle boxes, and I accidentally picked up the one that was not gluten free. ugh. so I accidentally had a couple of organic whole grain waffles this morning. I realized before I ate them (after they baked in the toaster oven) but I wasn't about to waste such a specialty buy. I did the double jogging stroller trip to the park again so I'm feeling good Weight at 150 today, that's 2 lbs. less than a few days ago!

I seem to be hitting a wall with the sugar. Cookies are looking mighty good to me. Unfortunately I just fine-read the label on the cranberry juice I've been drinking and it turns out to have sugar. I could have sworn it said 100% juice I did however go grocery shopping today and got some gluten and dairy free products, unsweetened or lowest sugar available: frozen gf waffles, the Perky's O's cereal and another brown rice cereal, some almond and soy milks, soy yogurt, gf bread machine mix, rice cakes, gf rice pasta.

Ok you notice caffeine is off. Yesterday was really hard and I realized it was because of the caffeine. I really need Go Juice (as my friend calls it) if I'm going to not eat the other three things and still take care of my kids well. It seemed like it was easy to avoid the others but silly to not drink my one little cup of coffee, especially since it's my only source of caffeine and it's not something I abuse or overuse.

I can't believe it's already hard. And it's all because of the coffee. I have a wicked head ache. I can't believe missing one stupid cup of coffee can give you withdrawal symptoms!

For breakfast I had honeydew and cantelope, with raspberry tea. Then I had a whole bunch of snacks:
peanuts, veggie booty, 2 hard boiled eggs, a May's gluten-free fruit n nut bar, pistachios, and an apple.

I also want to keep track of my weight this month. I'm starting off at 152.

I've had a nice day of baking choc chip cookies and eating as many as I can, and treating myself to a whole mexican coke (made with real sugar instead of hfcs). The coffee with cream and sugar was extra good this morning. Tomorrow will be interesting!

I'm going to try to eat sugar, gluten, dairy, and caffeine free for the month of June. Starting this Sunday. I'm going to try to blog about the whole experience, how it effects me, my nursling 6 month old, and the family, and anything else.

Can I take out pumped milk from the freezer and thaw
it on the counter? I've only ever thawed in the fridge
for 24 hours. But tonight I have band rehearsal in 2
hours and I accidently put last night's pumped bottle in
the freezer instead of the fridge. I just now realized
this and pulled a bottle out onto the counter. Will it
even thaw in 3 hours? I just tried pumping but only 2
oz. came out and he drinks at least 4 at bedtime.

Thanks!

here's my little guy and his cute voice

yup my littlest one is now eating solids, and he loves it!

"I'm gonna let him check it out."
"It'll fall on the floor"
"I"ll catch it!"
"Oops"

I wish dh would say,"I'm taking the kids for a few hours. You go get a pedicure, then go to a cafe and get a beer or tea and do some writing for a while. I've already taken milk out of the freezer for the baby last night so I can feed him while you're gone. Go." That is all. Is it too much to ask if I just tell him that's what I want? Or should I hope for a surprise something like that? What do you want and do you think you're gonna get it?

Ok, is this a boy thing or simply a high-energy child thing: whenever R nurses to sleep at night, he seems like an amped up little octopus; his feet are bicycling like crazy pushing at my legs, my stomach, his upper arm is wildly clutching, pulling my shirt, slapping my chest, he's breathing all heavy like he's running a marathon, smacking. Sometimes he latches off then latches on like he's a piggie rooting in the mud. It's so boisterous and frantic. Anyone have a baby that nursed like this?