If you want to see any of the piano playing blog articles I’ve written for my new job, you can go to this link. I’m not going to type it out completely, because then this blog would be linked to that one, but it would be easy enough to cut and paste.
www(dot)learnpianoathome(dot)wordpress(dot)com
The articles that I’ve written should be available on the main site soon!
I shamelessly stole some of my favorite pictures off of the groom’s facebook. Here they are!
What a cool hanger!
So...Melissa kept stalking my Anthony-belly
I got "frustrated" with Melissa trying to take pictures of my belly. Apparently, I should have let her take just one more...
What a gorgeous shot of her dress, no?
Yeah, Biola girls. We're hot (actually, the junior bridesmaid does NOT go to Biola, fyi)
These pictures were taken on the hillside Elise used to play on as a child!
Breathtaking, no? If this doesn't convince someone that a good photographer is worth the money, I don't know what will!
The closest they got to seeing each other before the ceremony
cue: bridesmaids enter
Father of the Bride
Entering the church as the music starts to play...
If G looks tired, that's cause he was. He didn't nap at ALL that day!
Saying vows
I love how joyful Elise is!
Bridal Party Recession
The two most important men in my life 🙂
Some of the bridal party
Hmmm...I think Melissa was stalking G?
Yup. Officially stalking! 🙂
This face is why I LOVE Elise!
Sweet moment
And this is why I love them as a couple!
What a gorgeous and unique ring! One of my favorites, ever
This picture is so that I will forever remember that I was pregnant at the wedding...as if I could forget! And, yes, I traded my heels for Uggs the second we left the church 🙂
I’ve been meaning to record what G eats in a day, just so that I have something to look back on when Snowcone/Anthony reaches this age. Obviously, every kid is different with a different appetite, but it would be, at the very least, fun to compare someday!
Breakfast:
The moment I get G out of his crib, I slightly warm up a 10 oz. bottle of organic whole milk. We only give him organic because of rBST (a growth hormone given to cows) and antibiotics (gives to cows after the infections caused by rBST). While he drinks it, I bring him to bed with me for some extra snuggles and snooze time.
In his high chair, he gets 1 cup of dry cheerios, usually organic, to limit exposure to GEIs (genetically engineered ingredients), although his grains aren’t 100% organic all of the time. We just try to do the best we can, since we don’t know how his body will react.
Snack:
For his mid-morning snack (about an hour after breakfast) he ALWAYS eats a banana, sliced up and self fed. It’s gotten to the point where if I forget to give it to him, he walks up to the bananas on the counter and says, “please? please?” until I stop what I’m doing and get it ready.
Lately, I’ve been pairing his banana with an avocado. Yes, this kid eats one banana and one avocado in a sitting.
We don’t buy organic for either of these. The peels are thick enough that I am comfortable buying regular, and on a limited budget like ours, we have to pick and choose. In a perfect world?….maybe.
Lunch:
I like to pair something iron-enriched with something full of vitamin C. If this kid is anything like me, he will tend towards anemia his whole life, so I want to make sure he gets lots of iron (and, since he doesn’t like meat at this current juncture!….). I wait to give him this until it’s been a few hours since his morning bottle– calcium gets in the way of iron absorption. So far, it’s worked– the pediatrician said that his iron levels were fantastic.
My favorite pairing is applesauce with iron-enriched oatmeal.
We always keep these two things on hand, because they are super easy and quick, especially if we’re running out the door. Both are very reasonably priced (I can get a jar of the organic applesauce for only 50 cents more than a normal jar of Motts. Definitely worth the extra $2/month).
Afternoon snack:
We often do dairy in the afternoon, more out of lack of time to prepare anything else. It’s also easy to have “to-go” yogurt on hand. We buy either Trader Joe’s greek yogurt or “Yo-Baby” organic yogurt from Stonyfield Farms. I usually steam a handful of frozen organic berries (I’m sick of buying fresh organic produce– it goes bad sooo super fast! For now, I’ve been freezing it immediately) and add them to the mix.
Often, he also gets a piece of Havarti cheese (he LOVES Havarti…) and a few more cheerios.
Dinner:
Dinner takes the most preparation and effort out of any of his meals. If we’ve failed to get any of the major food groups throughout the day (usually veggies and meat, since he despises both), we try to get those in.
Usually, he eats 1 hardboiled or scrambled egg. He will ONLY eat his egg scrambled if I make it super dry (aka, no milk) with lots of pepper and cheese. Don’t ask me why! Sometimes, if I’ve just made a batch of Lentil soup, we’ll give him a big bowl of that (although his poo is sooo nasty the next day…!)
He also gets 1 cup of peas and carrots. Other than sweet potatoes, these are the only veggies he will eat. Case in point, after one bite of broccoli tonight, he threw the rest down to Claire.
If we’re eating something when he’s eating (his dinner is often at around 5pm, since he goes to bed between 6-7pm, so sometimes we haven’t even finished MAKING dinner for ourselves yet!) he gets a serving. Sometimes it’s Annie’s Mac and Cheese (okay, it OFTEN is…he takes advantage of his momma’s preggo cravings), sometimes it’s something spicy that Jesse’s made.
Bedtime Snack:
Right before we brush G’s teeth, we give him 6-8 more oz. of whole milk. If we’re on the way home from a basketball game or someone’s house, he always gets this while sitting in the car. If we’re at home, one of us rocks him.
Overall, we aim for things with as high of a fat (good fat, that is) content as we can, since his brain is growing so fast right now and needs all the fat it can get. We try to limit the pesticides whenever possible for the same reason. We hardly do any juice– at most, he gets 2-3 oz. every other day, watered waaaay down (30/70). He has access to his water filled sippy cup all day long, since he gets super thirsty with all of his basketball playing 🙂
I want to try making smoothies for him, as I’d like to mix in things like broccoli and spinach, since they are also high in iron. Perhaps I could sneak some blended tofu in there? He also LOVES corn on the cob, but it’s so “carb-y” that we don’t give it to him very often.
Any suggestions for how to get more protein and veggies in his diet?
A friend on Facebook alerted me to the fact that Target had put their Ameda breastmilk storage bags on clearance. Normally, they are $12.99 for a pack of 20, but they are currently $3.88! I bought 3 packs– if I use all of them in the first few months with Anthony, I will consider that a REALLY good thing!
I also picked up these two items. The shampoo, in particular, I’m really excited about.
All of these were things I needed to stock up on in these last 10 weeks. Yay, Target!
Wonder why I’m sore?
Exhibit #1: A mere 7 days ago
Exhibit #2: Now
See a difference?
Also, hear that noise? It’s the sound of my hips being crushed by Mr. Ginormo-baby in here. I wonder how he’s so big, and yet so active. I count hours a day of constant activity. Last night, Janelle was watching my belly from across the couch, and started cracking up, it was moving so much. Jesse said it looked like someone “jumping on a water bed”. Great analogy, actually, if by water bed you mean MY BLADDER.
Remember when i said that I was in a wedding back in December? Remember when I said that the bride and groom were absolutely and obviously madly in love?
See for yourself! They will take your breath away! I’m so proud of what a great job Melissa did on the pictures!
Please be in prayer for a family who has been deeply on my heart since yesterday when I found out the whole story. Two of our new friends here in California (who we go to church with, but shall remain nameless, other than that) just had their second baby exactly a month ago. It took them just a few weeks to discover that he was not nursing well (odd, because she breastfed her first child until she was nearly 3 years old, only stopping because she got pregnant again). It wasn’t that he wasn’t latching properly– he just didn’t seem to want to eat.
They went to their first pediatrician, the Dr./midwife who delivered the baby. They went to a lactation consultant. Finally, they were referred to a different pediatrician.
What this second pediatrician figured out, after a few tests, was that the baby boy was severely dehydrated from not getting enough milk. He was transferred immediately to the hospital and put on IV fluids. He was then sent down to Children’s Hospital in LA for further tests.
What they discovered is that his kidneys never fully developed in utero (and yes, he was full-term, made it to over 40 weeks). As a result, they are not ridding his little body of toxins like they are supposed to. Instead of being 4.5-5.5 cm, as in a healthy, normal infant, they were 3.3 cm. He didn’t want to eat, simply because he was feeling so crummy.
What this means is that he is going to need a kidney transplant, as soon as he is ready. Luckily, as the dad explained to me, kidneys can be provided by the parents. Even though the kidneys are adult-sized at first, they shrink to the normal kiddie-size after a little while, then grow with the child.
Finding this out yesterday just made me feel so sad/awed by these parents. Once you give up a kidney, you are very limited in what you can do and participate in. This father is a martial arts expert– it’s his favorite past-time, one that he practices daily and has already taught to his 3 year old daughter. After the transplant, he will probably never practice again.
Then again, he didn’t even have to say it– it’s a complete no-brainer. I know that I would give my liver, kidneys, or heart up to Gregory in an instant, no matter what the implications would be for me, if it meant that he could live. There’s just no doubt whatsoever.
But it is still so sad. And hard for the time being. This mother now has to pump in order to feed the baby 24-7, all in order to monitor how many ounces he is getting in each feeding, to make sure he “makes it” until old enough for his kidney transplant. I did that for just a few weeks, in order to regain my milk supply when Gregory was 5.5 months old, and it was hard. I can’t imagine looking down the road at 12 months+ of that, but I know this mom, and it goes against every fiber in her body to do anything different.
So, please please pray for this little guy, barely a month old. They have no family to speak of (his family lives overseas, and she’s estranged from hers), so they can only rely on their friends and church family. This mother and I have discussed financial hardships and how to live on really really tight one-income budgets (she doesn’t work), so I know that even just their 1 week long stay at the hospital in LA took a toll on their already tight finances.
Or so I wish.
My brain is sooo tired. In the last 24 hours (in addition to grading all of my student’s term papers and essay finals), I’ve reviewed 20 chapters of my old Wheelock Latin Book, copying down and memorizing forms, hundreds of verbs, irregular pronouns, etc….
That many chapters takes a high schooler 4 years to complete (at least, it did at St. Peter’s). It took us 5 weeks to complete in a very rigorous summer-term class at UD (where we did 8 hours of homework a night).
Granted, it’s review for me, so it comes easier. They say that remembering a language you used to be fluent in is like remembering how to ride a bicycle.
Maybe it’s because I’m 3 years and 2 pregnancies later, but it feels more like riding a bicycle in the fog…with the wrong prescription of glasses on. I feel as though I used to remember these forms, conjugations, once upon a time, but they’re just a hair’s breath out of reach.
But I must press on. My Latin Comp test is only 4 weeks away and I’ll need to be translate any of 500 lines from the Aeneid Book 6. He will also pull out 20+ words for me to do a complete analysis of.
Just fyi, my writing is probably going to really stink for a while. Whenever I am thoroughly immersed in Latin, my sentence syntax becomes alllll messed up. I had this problem as a young elementary student. The moment I learned Latin, I forgot how to phrase things properly in English. I even started adding letters onto the end of words instead of putting them into the correct place in the sentence.
And now…time to memorize those passive endings…fitting, as I often feel like this is happening “to” me, instead of doing it in the active voice.
I’ve been scouring Craigslist for a Little Tikes basketball hoop for G. Yesterday, I finally found one on Craigslist for $8, not a block away from where I grew up in Templeton.
This morning was G’s first interaction with the new hoop, since he was asleep by the time we got home. After about 5 minutes of watching Janelle, he finally got the idea.
I mentioned “Momastery” on my blog roll last week. Today, she reposted a brilliant article she wrote for the Huffington post about the vehement debate between stay-at-home moms and working moms, and how the debate is counter-productive at best. It’s very well put and completely right on.
Also, she totally had my vote when she mentioned Jim Carey’s movie, “Liar Liar” 🙂
Mommy Guilt is like that scene from “Liar Liar” in which Jim Carrey enters a bathroom, throws himself against the walls, slams his head into the toilet, and rubs soap into his eyes. When a confused observer asks what on Earth he’s doing he says, “I WAS KICKIN’ MY ASS! DO YA MIND?”
I understand the act of kicking one’s own ass. I do it all the time.
What I don’t understand is why some ladies insist on making everything worse by kicking each other’s asses.
Slow For The Cone Zone 