Boy Trouble

Baby *Bri has three older cousins and we're in the middle of a wild family visit. Tonight, her oldest cousin *Indiana Jones (6 years old) played a little joke on his younger brother, *Percy (2 years old). After all four kiddos had been put to bed, Indy decided it would be funny to make Percy wet his pants. So he stuck a sippy cup down his brother's pajama pants while Percy was standing in the pack n' play. All of the adults were downstairs talking about boring things while this occurred.

Indy's excited squeals of laughter, instantly brought his Daddy running up to the kids' room. He frantically called his wife to come upstairs and survey the damage. Percy's sheets were soaked and his pants were dripping wet. Both boys just thought this was hilarious! Of course, with three play pens in use around this zoo house, there's a shortage of clean sheets immediately available. The adults downstairs exchanged worried glances, as we listened to the scene unfolding.

My sister-in-law sleuthed out that the sippy cup had caused the accident, but could not find it in the play yard. We were relieved to hear her laughter, echoing down the hallway, when she finally discovered the Holy Grail tucked in Percy's PJ's! "How did Percy's cup get down his pants?" she giggled from the doorway. Little Indy just flashed her a sly grin.

It seems that the kiddos are on a constant crusade for fun around here. It's an adventure just to be around them!



PS: * In case you haven't noticed, I don't do real names on this site. My sister-in-law would never let her husband name her child Indiana Jones. Or Hans Solo. Or Darth Vader. Although, my brother-in-law just might have asked her at one point or another. He is a big fan of George Lucas.

New Trick

Not so sure about this sippy cup thing!

Getting a handle on the subject.

Close up!

Deep thoughts: It's like a toy that has food inside!

What happens when it's empty, Mama?

Well, now that we're covered in apple juice, it's time to take a bath!

Can we do this again tomorrow?

Eight Months Young

My little Bridoodle is growing up so fast! I can't believe that she's almost a year old. She's at my favorite baby age, right now. I want to videotape every moment, because I know it's about to fly away. So here are 8 special things to remember for her 8 month birthday.

1. She is just starting to grasp the concept of a sippy cup (pun intended). Today, she drank apple juice almost by herself. She holds one side of the sippy cup and I pick up the other side. It has taken a lot of practice, so far. We practice at the end of the meal, when she isn't starving, because I don't want her to get too frustrated. Even still, she cries for me to pick up the sippy cup for her, and I have to wait for her to try for herself.

2. Moving is the new thing at daycare. All the other kids are doing it! So she's starting to scoot around on her tummy a little bit. She can't go too far without getting tired, but she wants to move around so bad! It's really precious when she scrunches up her legs and her face at the same time. She looks so determined to crawl.

3. She loves to say "Dada!" but she doesn't quite know what it means. And when we say it back, she will repeat it with a big smile on her face. She can't wait to have a conversation. I think she's going to be a big talker, pretty soon.

4. On the changing table, squirming is the new thing. She wants to look behind her and she wants to throw her feet off of the side of the table. I learned a trick from my sister-in-law a couple of years ago when Bri's cousin Matt was going through this. We take the lid off of the wipe box and she plays with it while I change her. You just have to make sure there aren't any flecks of poo on there because all toys go into Bri's mouth. Yuck!

5. The girl knows no fear and no limit to her reach. She will throw all of her weight into getting what she wants, so you have to be careful not to let her dive out of your arms when you hold her. So far, we've caught her every time. Although, she has come a little too close to the floor for my comfort. Yesterday, in the bathroom, I caught her in mid-air after she tried to reach out for her bath toys.

6. One of her favorite new tricks is the lap stand. If you hold her up to your eye level, then she will support most of her weight, while standing on your lap. This results in a very happy squeal of laughter and usually some dancing. She loves to stand up!

7. Bath time is play time! She loves her bath toys. Someone got us a Baby Einstein book that floats and she loves to chew on it after I read it to her. She loves it when her Daddy sings the rubber ducky song. She gets all excited and starts splashing around. Her favorite toys, by far, have to be the stackable rubber boxes that my mom got for her. They squirt water or when empty, float around. She loves to try to catch them and gum them up. (Yes, we're still teething! There will be a huge press release when that first tooth cracks through.)



8. She loves to eat ... eat ... eat! Applesauce and bananas. And peas and squash and carrots. And oatmeal or rice cereal. She loves to sit in her high chair because she knows that food is on the way! While she waits for her food, she tries to grab the cherries that I painted on the high chair. It makes me feel like such a great artist! She eats three meals of solid food each day and also takes three bottles of milk and lately we've added sippy cups of juice to the mix too! She's getting to be a chunky monkey.

When we first had Bri, life became so hard, even though she was really an easy baby. It made me wonder why people are crazy enough to have more than one child. But as she grows up (and I forget those awful first few weeks), I've started to hunger for more children. She makes my heart swell like the Grinch's heart at the end of my favorite Dr. Seuss book. With so much love for someone so tiny, how can you not want to have more kids?

Counting those chickens before they hatch

After school today, I went shopping for a new minivan. (Insert girly squeal of excitement here). I must say that I have not been so happy, since before our car was smashed to smithereens on Saturday. At first I was pretty disappointed with the selection. I was starting to think I'd have to settle for something ho-drum and bare basics. But then, right as I was thinking about moving on to another pre-owned dealership, our wonderful salesman found a much better minivan that could be squeezed into our price range.

It was heavenly to drive and the clicker will open the side doors and the trunk! How cool is that? There were a few flaws that kept my feet on the ground. Tomorrow we're taking it over to an independent mechanic shop for a pre-purchase inspection. If all goes well, and if our moolah comes through from the insurance company, then we'll have a Mommy-mobile by the weekend.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I have a feeling that there are too many ifs in that sentence!

Messiness in Moderation

The lovely ladies at our daycare have passed on a few helpful tricks for keeping Bridoodle neat and clean. In fact, I believe that in their minds, on a perfect day, they wouldn't have any messes to clean up at all. Shocking, huh?

They would be dismayed to see how Bri has her dinner each night. It is quite normal to find her finger painting with mashed peas or putting gobs of squash in her hair. When I shared this thought, with one hand on the doorknob, as I was leaving the daycare, both of the ladies stopped what they were doing and stared at me. I could see the utter horror etched on their faces. It made me stop and think.

You see, I believe, although I've never voiced it until now, that babies learn a lot from messiness. I love watching Bri study the consistency of the food she eats. I let her explore warm, cold; smooth, mushy; and sticky or watery things all the time. She's absorbing the world. And I think it's natural to let her enjoy the messy sides of life too.

Now I don't just let her explore any old thing! Of course, I wouldn't let her play with something that would hurt her. But I figure, since I'm about to give her a bath anyway, it's okay if she grabs the spoon and flings peas into her hair. It's fun to watch her discover the way that feels. And it's okay if her clothes have a few stains on them. After all, she won't even be able to wear them anymore in a few weeks!

I've found that on the nights where I'm in a hurry and I don't want her to make a mess, we both end up unhappy and frustrated. The extra five minutes I spend cleaning up around the kitchen doesn't even compare to the fun I get from watching her squeal with laughter as she spreads cold pear mush all over her tray. What can I say? I just think it's fun!

Bri baby says...

So I was sitting at the computer, reading my Google reader, with Bri sitting on my lap. She was occupied by trying to throw an empty plastic cup off of the table. As she threw her chubby hands in the air towards the cup she muttered some of her regular syllables.

"Blu bluh bluh... da dah dah... bluh blah," she gurgled while focusing intently on the orange cup.

"Mmm hmm...," I replied, absent-mindedly as I scrolled throught blogs I had already read. "Dada. Very good."

"Bluh bluh blah .... ma ma.... guh guh," she continued.

"Mama. Mm hmm... wait a minute. Did you just say Mama? You just said Mama!" I jumped up squealing, and Bri was enraptured. She grinned ear to ear. I twirled her around in pure glee.

It was a priceless moment. One of those perfect, Hallmark card kind. It was beautiful and I'm still glowing! She said Mama!

Night Time Routine ... Works For Me

Not too long ago, I was a brand new Mama desperate for a whole night's sleep. I remember the bleary eyes and the utter exhaustion. I learned quickly that in order to get enough sleep I needed to go to bed as early as possible. So we started going to bed at 8pm and getting up throughout the night. When 6 am rolled around we found ourselves lucky to have had 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Sleep came in chunks. And that was okay. When Bri had her four month check up, the doctor told us to start thinking about solid foods. Our daycare workers gave us one excellent tip for introducing solid foods - always use a spoon. Apparently one of the toddlers never transitioned to solids because his parents put his cereal in his bottles at a very young age. He refused to take the spoon when he got older.

When Bri was five and a half months old we finally started feeding her rice cereal every night. And we quickly fell into a fabulous night time routine. We feed her a solid meal at 6:30pm (now she's eating cereal, fruits and vegetables). Then she takes a bath. And we put her to bed by 8pm. Sometimes earlier! If she fusses for more than fifteen minutes in bed then I give her a bottle too. That always knocks her out. She sleeps until 7 am! It's amazing!

We have time to ourselves in the evening AND we have time to get ready for work in the morning. I love the night time routine! It definitely works for me!

For more WFMW tips visit:

Bri's Words

For the last few months, Bri has been cooing and laughing. But recently she has repeated a few words over and over (and over.) Her favorite word, by far, is Hey. She says it with all sorts of intonations. Mostly, though, she sounds like Eeyore.
Her second favorite word is Dada. And the first time she said Dada her Daddy was actually in the room. She has not figured out that certain words apply to certain people/objects yet. But she can say Dada on cue if we prompt her.
Most recently, she said Gaga for the first time. It was last Thursday, when we went home for a visit with my in-laws. The amazing part of the story, is that she was sitting in Gaga's lap at the time. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with our family, Gaga is my Hubster's grandmother. And all of the grandkids, most of whom are older than we are, still call her Gaga to this day. Although, my Hubby was slightly embarrassed the first time he introduced me to her. Anyway, she was absolutely thrilled, as you can imagine, when Bri said Gaga while sitting in her lap! It was pretty neat!

Poop Explosion

Poor little Bri has been so fussy today. I could tell she was really constipated. This morning I made sure that I mentioned that to the ladies at the daycare. They told me that they would feed her prunes for lunch.

Wow! The prunes sure did work. She was fussy for most of the evening. I fed her and gave her a bath. Then she jumped in her doorway jumper while I read my book and her Daddy watched TV. Eventually, Hubbsy turned around and sniffed the air.

"Do you smell that?" he asked hesitantly. I looked up from my book. Then we both looked down at our very happy child. Sure enough there was brown mush running down the side of her legs.

Unfortunately, I had just put her in a very cute pair of footie pajamas. Only these are not the kind that zip up or button down the front. They're the kind that you pull over the baby's head and button around the bottom.

Yum! So we got the scissors out and literally cut the PJ's off of her. It was so disgusting. We had to take turns to keep from gagging. We got the munchkin cleaned up and she was happy as a lark.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my Hubby? It's so good to have him home!!!

Self Confidence

Lately, my confidence has been faltering in certain arenas. Mostly in the arena of self-appearance. Now normally, I am quite vain. I will freely admit that. There are far more mirrors hanging in my house than you would expect. And despite my claim that I placed them there for the purpose of making our tiny house feel a little more spacious, I do tend to use them to check my reflection frequently.

The problem is that I am becoming more and more dissatisfied with what I see in those mirrors.

When I look back over the course of my pregnancy and all of the preparations that I made to become a mother, I realize that I was totally unprepared for how my image of myself would change. It was a gradual change. A shifting of perspective. Somewhere within those trimesters it became really difficult to see myself as a vibrant, sexy woman again. And even now, as I carry my precious seventeen pound bundle around in my arms instead of on my stomach, I still have a hard time finding that confidence again.

It goes so much deeper than a simple haircut or flattering outfit. I'm sure it's all in my head, but it's very hard to articulate exactly what I see differently. Help, me out here. Am I crazy? Has this happened to you? How did you regain your confidence?

I have confidence in sunshine ... I have confidence in rain ... I have confidence that spring will come again... ~The Sound of Music~

Music and Lyrics

I'm sitting here in front of the computer typing while Bri uses my arms as armrests and gleefully plays with the mouse buttons. Forgive me if there are a few typos!

My life could honestly be a Broadway musical these days.

I've discovered that my students will behave if I threaten them with my singing. So I've been bursting out in random song throughout the day. (Picture cheesy melodramatic versions of "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic). They cover their ears while begging for forgiveness. I'm so mean!

After school this week I've been staying for flagline practice. We have over 80 girls lined up to audition at the end of the week. They've been working on their two routines. The captains chose the music so my musical week has a little R&B mixed in too!

And at home, I've taken to singing to the Brimeister when I need my hands free. She is quite content to sit in her bouncy seat and listen to my renditions of favorite hymns and the occasional country song. She gets really excited when I look her in the eye and sing to her. It's really sweet.

In my free time (insert sarcastic grin), I've been thinking about an idea for Bible Study curriculum. I want to write it myself. Each week would focus on the lyrics of a different song. Specifically, we would pull out the roots of contemporary Christian songs. I want to choose a different style each week. The main focus will be the words. Not so much the tune. I know certain songs will be preferred by each person and hopefully we will tackle at least one favorite for each person. I think I'll begin the Bible Study with a bowl of potato salad and a printout of this post from Jeana at Days to Come!

No going back now...

The Brimeister has been eating her mushy cereal really well for a week or so now. I stopped giving it to her last Wednesday night (mostly because we ran out of clean little bowls and I didn't feel like doing the dishes).

Lord have mercy! We haven't slept through the night since then. That very night she woke up more than usual, but lately it seems like she's awake more than she's asleep! So we started feeding the cereal to her again a few days ago. And here are a few tricks I've learned with all of this cereal feeding.

1. Big cries are great for shoveling bites in that little mouth.
2. Coughing mouths do not need more mush.
3. Should you forget to heed #2, you will get your face splattered with mush.
4. There's a good reason why your parents never let you eat food on the carpet.

Last night I only slept two consecutive hours. I got about five more hours of frequently interrupted sleep. It's been rough. I'm really hoping that her little tummy will feel full all night tonight. I can't take much more of this!

Bri baby knows her name!

Yesterday was a marathon shopping day. I was looking for the oh-so-elusive bathtub seat for babies. Bri has outgrown her infant tub lengthwise, but still can't sit up well enough for a big girl bath.
She really enjoyed playing in her new seat. She likes to splash and kick her feet.


While I was washing her hair tonight she was focused intently on the water beside her seat. I needed her to look up so that I could rinse the shampoo out. I tried holding the ducky up and making funny sounds. Finally I just said her name. And she looked right up at me! It was so special! So far she's continued to respond every time we say her name too! Pretty cool!

BPA - What's a mom to do?

As a college senior, in Ecology class, I had to read Taking Back Our Stolen Future. It's a Green Peace book dealing with the exposure of animals to the chemicals found in PVC plastics. These everyday plastics were commonly found polluting lake ecosystems in the Northern USA. The animals exposed to them had all sorts of strange birth defects. The documented evidence was chilling. They found that these hormone mimicking chemicals were released in even higher quantities when plastic products are microwaved.

Since then, I've learned about another component of plastics, Bisphenol A (BPA), that mimics the estrogen hormone. BPA is a common ingredient in baby bottles. Microwaving the bottles increases the amount of BPA that leaches into the formula. According to Wikipedia's article on BPA, an "NIH-sponsored panel in the U.S. determined that there was 'some concern' about BPA's effect on fetal and infant brain and behavior.^[18]"

The article also quotes Dr. Maida Galvez, a pediatrician studying BPA, who recommends parents stay away from bottles containing the chemical and says, "We know the animal studies raise concerns, but there aren't human studies showing effects yet ... so, when we don't have the evidence, what we recommend is that parents try to err on the side of caution."^[21]

Here's another terrifying quote from the Wikipedia article.

Infants fed with liquid infant formula have among the highest exposures of anyone eating canned foods. Infants fed canned formula with polycarbonate bottles can consume quantities of bisphenol A up to 13 µg/kg/day,^[23] while the most sensitive animal studies show effects at much lower concentrations. Debate continues on what is the safe limit of this compound.

It is my understanding that powdered infant formula has not been tested for BPA and that the safest bottles to use are glass bottles. The next best thing would be the Playtex drop-in bottles.

According to an Environmental Working Group article published in Dec 2007, "BPA levels in powdered formula sold in the United States haven’t been tested, but this formula is diluted with water before being fed to babies, and thus poses less risk to babies."

According to Playtex "The [Nurser] system uses disposable liners made of polyethylene (a type of plastic that does not contain BPA)- in both Drop Ins liners and rolled liners. So, the only contact between baby and the food is through the nipple and the liners, which are both BPA- free."

Without question, breastfeeding is the safest way to feed your baby. When that is not an option, the EWG has made a list of recommendations to help moms.

For a list of bottles containing BPA click here.
For more information about how to protect your family from BPA click here.

I can't stand morons ...

Yeah, yeah. Happy Valentine's Day to you too. I'm a little grumpy after surviving the marathon virus that's been keeping our family sick for the past week. So I'm a little paranoid when it comes to taking Bri out in public. When we went through the checkout at the store today I purposefully turned the carseat around on top of the buggy so that nosy neighbors wouldn't stick their hands in her face. As I was fishing for exact change, I was shocked and frustrated to see the clerk reach out across the lane so that he could tickle my baby on the hand.

You can imagine my speechless fury when I glanced up to see a single droplet of clear snot hanging off of his nose. Who knows what will be making us sick now?

the difference between spit-up and vomit

Our house has turned into a quarantined area over the weekend and I've become both a pediatric nurse and a patient. Yesterday, the baby vomited no less than eight times! Most of the vomiting occurred while I was holding her which resulted in many outfit changes for the both of us. Since I've become a resident expert on the differences between spitting-up and vomiting, I thought I might offer an education to those less fortunate than myself in this important area.

Spitting-up occurs on a daily basis in our house. In fact, it happens so frequently that it has become barely a blip on the radar. I find myself frequently swiping it off my clothes and dabbing them dry. No big deal. We've taken to adorning darling little Bri with a bib so that her clothes are rarely soiled by the post-bottle dribble. It usually looks like she spilled a little bit of cottage cheese on her bib. Then the bib is whisked away and Voila! no more messiness.

Vomiting, however, does not happen so frequently. In the past, these experiences occurred only once in a blue moon and tended to be embarrassing because she has had a knack for emptying her stomach contents around guests. Yesterday, however, she set a new puking record for herself with an amazing 8 upchucks in 14 hours. (Please, God, don't let her ever break that particular record again.) Now, I like to use the word vomit rather than spit-up here because watching her hurl was like watching someone pour half a gallon of sour milk out of a jug. Forgive me for being graphic. It's important, those of you preparing to have children, that you have a clear picture of what I'm describing. Because when you find yourself dripping with hot sour milk, don't tell me that I didn't warn you. Most likely you'll gag (I did). But then, hopefully, your heart will swell with love and pity for your poor darling and you'll take care of her. Because that's your job as a mom.

And then you'll start researching vasectomies.

teething ... I think ...

I'm not an expert when it comes to child rearing. So even though it's not backwards edition day, I'd love your advice on taking care of a teething four month old.

In fact you could say I'm pretty much a novice. So I'm not 100% sure but I think my Brimeister may be teething. She's been drooling her way out of her clothes for the past week or so. And everything she can get in her mouth gets slobbered on. But even more importantly, her tongue has been riveted to the top of her mouth this evening. She's been keeping it over one specific spot on the right side. I'm betting a tooth will pop out of there soon. Got any advice for a newbie mom?

For more Works for me Wednesday tips visit Rocks In My Dryer

dreams and dreamers

A few days ago the strangest thing happened. The Hubster put our Bridoodle down to sleep at 10pm and she didn't wake us up all night! At 5:45 in the morning, I startled awake and leapt out of bed. I couldn't believe that she had slept through not one but TWO night feedings. My heart was hammering in my chest. I sprinted over to her; fearful that she may have stopped breathing in the night.
Instead I found her snoring away in her pack n' play as snug as a bug in a rug. (Sorry for the rhyming, I'm a little delirious with all of this sleep!)

Meanwhile, my heart rate was slowing back down to normal. I crawled back in bed and lay there a little shaken up. After the initial shock wore off, it was replaced by a tinge of sadness. This is the first tiny step of independence, but there will be many more. My baby girl is growing up!
When I imagined what it would be like to sleep through the night again, I never saw this coming. In my sleep fantasy, (if you're laughing at that phrase then just wait until you have a baby ...) anyway, in my sleep fantasy I would wake up with sunlight streaming through the windows and birds singing outside. And then I would twirl around in my nightgown and probably sing a song from Cinderella. The point is ... I never dreamed that the first real night of sleep that I've had in six months would be a SCARY experience!

No sleep...

The baby and I did not sleep much last night. So, I went into work for an hour and got things ready for a substitute. I knew that by the end of the day I would not have enough patience for my wild kids. It's a strange feeling to be here without Bri. I'm almost always with her unless I'm at school. Everything seems so quiet and peaceful and restful and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

Our beautiful nursery...

My fabulous mother-in-law designed these curtains and put them up for us while I was in the hospital on a Ptocin drip (it didn't take her the whole 36 hours though!)
Cutie pie outfits that we received for Christmas. I can't wait for Bri to grow into them.


This changing table was built to go on top of Bri's dresser by my fabulous father-in-law. Isn't it amazing? It's counter top height so that I don't have to bend over to change her. And it has just the right amount of storage space for shoes and pacifiers and diapers.

I have the best in-laws ever!!!