Help!

Where is the film strip icon on my blogger? How am I supposed to load videos on this thing without it???

Oh, Mummy. You're so silly...

My good friend (YAY!) has finally graduated and got herself a degree in *GASP!* Education (what is this world coming to!? Jusssst kidddding). Anywho, to celebrate, we went out to lunch with the graduate herself, the grad's boyfriend, another good friend (who needs to now have a baby, ahem), and the grad's mummy (If I named them all, would you know who I'm talking about? And if you know who I'm talking about, then you already know so...). It was great, but it felt like it ended on such an abrupt manner. For me it did anyway. So since she was having a few drinks later that night, I thought, "Hm, maybe I can do this! Mayyyybe I can leave the baby asleep for the night with her daddy and go OUT!". Yaaaa-okay. I probably got there about 8:30, 8:40-ish. Had half a Heineken, a glass of water, played some games on my friend's boyfriend's iPhone (stupid AT&T) in between conversations when I wasn't staring at my own phone for a response to my 15th "Is she okay? Is she still sleeping?" text message to the hub or staring at my Squirmy's pictures for the umpteenth time, I gave up on my night out, walked over to CVS to pick up a few things and was home by a quarter past 10. (Almost) 2 hours away from home for me is a long time. Does it count even if I spent 10 minutes of that driving to and from, another 10 minutes at CVS because the line was so stinking long, and a few more at 7-Eleven to pick up a Cola Slurpee? I don't know, but while I was very happy to congratulate my friend in her big fat achievement, I can't say I was all that excited (sorry~) to be there because I was so jittery about leaving Squirmy. I came home to find my baby sleeping in her crib - in the exact same position I left her in *BIG SIGH*. I'm just not cut out for it.

Everyyyything ends up in her mouth these days. I spend a super duper amount of time just cleaning/washing everything she touches, it's unreal... She also spends a great deal of time on her tummy these days. I know I'm the mommy and it just isn't proper to ooh and ahh about my own kid, but I.dun.care. She is mine and she is cute, darnit, and I can say so if I want to. 

Oh-So-Perfect

When I'm watching her, the rest of this not-so-perfect world drifts away and she fills all the little nooks and crannies and makes it oh so perfect.

The look of her slowly drifting off to sleep night after night makes my heart smile and break at the same time. There are very few things in this world that can make you feel this way.

On a far more depressing note, all those who reside in or near flushing, please be careful. These are the things you come across to read when it's 2:30AM and unable to sleep

Recycled Food?

Does anyone buy those packaged salads? I do. Earthbound Farm Organic Mixed Herbs. I buy these because I refuse to buy basil, chives, some other little prickly green stuff, and whatever else they put in there, separately. They come in bunches and I find it a pain to buy a "flower bunch" of different types of herbs that I'll eat again never because you just don't use THAT much of any herb in two servings of salad. Not to mention having to buy a head of lettuce, red leaf lettuce, arugula, etc, separately as well. It just isn't worth it to wash every single leaf on every bunch of herb along with the lettuce, the arugula, and.... yeah, nooooo thanks very much. I made (am making) grilled chicken salad for dinner. Has anyone ever noticed that on some of the covers of the packaged salads they sell, it reads "Pre-washed" and "This product has been made of recycled bottles". First of all, even if the contents have been pre-washed, if the containers haven't been (which I'm sure they do not do), is it really all so clean to have it labeled "pre-washed" as though it were to smell almost lemony clean? Secondly, I don't want to eat straight out of any container that "has been made of recycled bottles". What type of bottles exactly, and who the heck has been drinking out of them? Just a random thought I had while making dinner. I don't know what makes me think of these things. I just do. On a different note, everyday I notice how big my baby is getting, and I want to hold on to every yesterday just a little longer while still delightedly curious as to what type of person she will gradually grow into.

She had carrots for lunch. Those little orange spots on her cute white onesie is proof:

Everything these days ends up in her mouth. I bought this new toy for her, and it makes me crazy because it sings "You Are My Sunshine" over and over and over and over every time she presses the nose of the little flower looking face (I don't know why I thought it was such a marvelous idea at the time), but she loves it:

She needs new toys. She's been quite bored with all her little hangy toys:

She's getting so big, my baby.............................................

No No

This is why the TV is almost never on in this house unless she's sleeping, and it's also probably why so many stay-at-home moms (and dads) go stir crazy:

Many parents think TV is educational 29% of parents who took part in a survey of 1,000 American families published in 2007 said they let their infants watch TV because they thought it was ‘good for their brains’. But claims made by manufacturers are not substantiated by peer-reviewed medical papers and industry studies.TV can delay language development Watching TV programs or DVDs aimed at infants can actually delay language development, according to a number of studies. For example, a 2008 Thai study published in Acta Paediatrica found that if children under 12 months watched TV for more than two hours a day they were six times more likely to have delayed language skills. Another study found that children who watched baby DVDs between seven and 16 months knew fewer words than children who did not. Children learn better from us Infants as young as 14 months will imitate what they see on a TV screen, but they learn better from live presentations. For example, one study found that children learnt Mandarin Chinese better from a native speaker than they did from a video of the same speaker. TV is associated with attention, reading and memory deficits A study of 1,300 children conducted by the author and colleagues in 2004 found a modest association between TV viewing before the age of 3 and attention problems at the age of 7, after a wide range of other factors were ruled out. In another study, the author and colleagues looked at the effects of early TV viewing on cognitive development at school age. They found that children who had watched a lot of TV in their early years did not perform as well when they underwent tests to check their reading and memory skills. Parents use it as time off More than one parent in five who took part in another study said that they got their infants to watch TV when they needed time to themselves. This, says the author, is an understandable and realistic need, but not one that should be actively promoted.

Why TV is bad for kids

Why does TV have such a negative effect on children of this age? “We believe that one reason is the fact that it exposes children to flashing lights, scene changes, quick edits and auditory cuts which may be over stimulating to developing brains,” says Professor Christakis. “TV also replaces other more important and appropriate activities like playing or interacting with parents.”

There have been concerns about infants viewing TV for the last four decades but it has only been in recent years that studies have provided the data to back up those concerns.

“The explosion in infant TV viewing and the potential risks associated with it raise several important policy implications,” concludes Professor Christakis. “First and foremost, the lack of regulation related to claims made by people promoting programs and DVDs aimed at infants is problematic. Educational claims should, and can, be based on scientific data. Despite this, the names of the products and the testimonials they use often convince parents that TV viewing has a positive impact on their infants.

“Secondly, parents need to be better informed about what activities really do promote healthy development in young children. This may provide some defense against the aggressive marketing techniques being employed.

“Last, but not least, more resources need to be made available to fund critical research related to the effects of media on young children.”

I've always wondered about the "My Baby Can Read" dvd programs. And while the concept of it sounds like an ideal strategy, I've always heard that TV interrupts a child's concentration and that any baby under the age of 2 or 3, should not be aware of what the TV is. Good thing I listened.

My little....

Pie.

We (and I'm sure you do too!) pay a great deal of money to have up to a thousand channels. We probably watch maybe 5 to 8 channels back and around of the 1000 we have. It's quite sad actually. I think there was more to watch when cable didn't exist and all we had were channels 2, 4, 5, 9 and 11 and had to move the antenna around for a clear view or wrap aluminum foil on the edges to keep the antenna steady. Go figure.

Help me, Mummy!

I put her down for the night, or so I thought I did. Somehow, she ended up on her belly, foot stuck in the rail and was yelling to get free. When I walked in to see why she was yelling her little lungs out, I had to make a dash for the camera.

That's her yelling (probably wondering why mummy is wayyyy over there instead of helping):

Fun Days

As she gets bigger, she gets a little more demanding, but it's still fun times. She laughs and giggles, she rolls and spins, she can roll over on her belly and yell at me because she can't roll herself back. She sleeps with her feet sticking out of the crib rails and wakes up where her feet were when I put her down or does faceplants in her sleep and makes me crazy by sleeping face down. She eats baby cereal and wears a lot of it too. Eats peas and carrots and babbles and leaves an unbelievable amount of laundry for me at the end of everyday. There is no mistaking her for a boy where her personality is concerned. She cries when something scares her, she coos softly, she shrieks when she gets upset, doesn't like crowds, loud noises and smiles with her eyes. Everyday there is something new.

I bought her a bumbo chair. It supposedly teaches her how to sit, but she's not really buying it...:

That's her "huh??" face. I see it throughout the day any time she is unfamiliar with something I do or make her do:

Look what Jean eemo bought! It's apparently a head piece with pigtails on them.......:

Be Careful, Mama!

I went to buybuybaby today for Leah's first full sized stroller. Yay! She has a new ride. Bumbleride Flyer! I love it. It's the lightest full-sized stroller at 19lbs and the handlebar is switchable so she can face outwards or face me.

Anyway, the story behind buying this stroller is something not so yay. Back to strolling around buybuybaby. This woman walks up to us, takes one look at Leah and goes "She's a fat baby! Oh, she's fat!". Then almost as an afterthought which annoyed me beyond belief was "I love fat babies". In my head I was saying "probably because you're so fat" or something to that effect and I could have sworn it was in my mind, but then she gives me the nastiest glare, and now I can't figure out if I may have actually said it out loud?!? I'm not really one to do/say something like that. It's true that I'm blunt and direct, but I do not have outbursts like that with strangers. Who DOES that??? I basically scampered off, mortified to say the least, and walked to the opposite end of the store. Everytime I thought I caught a glimpse of fat lady, I'd move the other way. It took forever getting out of that store with all the things that I needed while trying avoid the woman I just royally insulted. Oy. Maybe it's the antibiotics and the painkillers. I think I'm losing it. I obviously am not well.

On more important news, my Leah is officially in size 2 dipeys. She's getting so big! She's passed all the cereal tasting and she's currently eating peas. She does not like them one bit, but it's hilarious because she'll eat it. She'll cry and yell the whole time, but still she eats them. I don't think she knows to spit it back out? Poor baby. I don't feed her anything I, myself, haven't tasted first, and I have to agree with Squirmy. If someone tried feeding me that gunk, I would be crying and yelling too. I don't think I'm going to torture her too much with the peas. I think we'll be trying carrots tomorrow.

This is her, "oh gross" face: 

And, this is her favorite trick these days:

(The good pictures are always caught on a crappy camera phone)

Ridiculousness

The people who made calendars? The teachers that teach children that a month=4 weeks? I would like to one day punch them in the face - right along with all state employees and customer service reps who transfer your call a half a dozen times to keep you on hold for 10 minutes at a time to finally disconnect you without ever having answered a single question you had for them. There goes one hour of your life you are never getting back - I digress.

Starting VERY early on, children (namely, myself, dunno 'bout you folks) are taught that there are 7 days in one week and 4 weeks in one month. As you get older, you learn by paychecks that there are 52 weeks in one year. So far, I've been okay with that.

THENNNNN, I get pregnant, become a mom, and guess what? It's ALL bogus! Here's why. Up to about 3 months (of pregnancy age and baby age), you go by how many weeks your pregnanacy and/or baby is, yes? Well, I did. Any time someone asked, I replied, "oh I'm 7 weeks pregnant" or "oh, she's 10 weeks old" and so on. At some point, the counting of the weeks stop because, well, it.just.does. Anyhoot, here is my complaint with the stupid calendar system. In actuality, a month has 4.333 weeks (average); NOT 4! I hate you, Mister-or-Missus-Kindergarten-First-Second-grade-teacher for not advising me of this then (when do you learn the days and weeks anyway?). My point is, because I'm supposed to, I'll go by the date of the month and stop having my phone count the weeks for me. I just wanted to make a point somewhere that not only is this inaccurate, but I really think they should have thought it through better! Or maybe it's the teachers' faults for actually going along with "children, there are 7 days in one week, and 4 weeks in one month"? If I knew then what I know now, I'd have yelled across the room "You're lying, teacher!!!" to have myself sent to the corner with a letter home to my parents telling them how disruptive I was in class and then I would get sent to the corner again by my parents AFTER they smack me around some with a ladle or a slipper or something else close at hand (by the way, my neighbors tell me this -the notes home from school?- are done by email now - how cool is that?). My thoughts for the day. You can tell me I have too much time on my hands, but if you're reading this, you mustn't have anything better to do with your time, do ya??? And yes, really, I have given it a lot of thought and yes, small, stupid things sometimes irk me. Am I counting weird? Yes. My point is, I was taught that 4 weeks = 1 month. That. Is. Not. The. Case.

This (below), is my heart. And that (above) is what I do when my heart is sleeping because i.feel.like.it.

What?!? No Sick Days?!?!

So I've been slacking. It's because I don't get sick days and I have been moping around the house like a robot. A robot on cocktails of meds. Mommies do not have the luxury to get sick so, all the mommies out there? DON'T. GET. SICK! Anyway, here's an update of what my Squirmy has been up to while mommy's been zoned out. She laughs. A LOT. She giggles and I love it best. She also spins. She's starting to sleep with her face planted into the mattress since she's learned to roll over onto her belly, and I'm worried that her nose is going to get completely flattened. I spend a lot of time staring at the baby monitor because I'm afraid of her sucking in too much of her own carbon dioxide and suffocate. I've read heaploads on "how to prevent your baby from sleeping face down" and apparently, once they learn to roll themselves over, there IS no preventing this so I just keep one eye open at all times even in my sleep. She also started solids. She loves oatmeal best. So far she's tried white rice, brown rice and oatmeal. The first two tries, she ended up with most of it in her fist, hair, face and clothes, but in the last couple of days, she's been eating really well so she's been eating three square meals like us big peoples - breakfast, lunch and dinner - and 3 very small (2-4oz) bottles in between. I guess they would be considered her snack. Anyway, here are some of her latest doings: