Plastic is Offensive??

I have a friend who, like me, has recently returned to work and is pumping. She, like me, is only pumping once a day as she only works part time. She e-mailed me yesterday to let me know that she was in shock. She was told by her boss that some of her co-workers were offended or uptight about her pump parts sitting exposed in her cubical. She keeps them separated on a paper towel to dry and since she leaves the office before they are 100% dry, they generally stay that way. Again, in her cubical, not in the break room or even in the pumping room, her own private cubical. So, she was asked to put them away in a drawer or cover them with a box, so others would not be offended.

I am offended for my friend! There is so much to be upset about here!! First, that people (or a person) would even feel offended by little pieces of plastic is somewhat amazing to me. In order to be offended, one would have to look at the pieces of plastic and know what they were used for, then in thinking about what they are used for, thoughts turn to boobies and boobies are bad!!! Boobies are not for feeding and nourishing a child, but for sex and sex is bad!!! By this same logic, people may become offended that she has pictures of her child hanging in her cubical, because the way she got those pictures was to have a child and to have a child, she had to have had... OMG!!! SEX!!! Oh the horror!!!

Then there is the fact that now, she told me she is looking at all her co-workers in a new light - who is hiding behind their smile and their "Good Morning" who was so offended by plastic that they felt the need to complain about it and not even have the courage to talk to my friend directly, but to make her boss talk to her about it. Add to that, the fact that the powers that be, felt it was enough of a complaint that they would rather my friend be offended, than tell this person that they were being silly and totally ridiculous!!

My friend told me that she is offended by clutter and she would like to complain about the people who leave their desks cluttered all the time! She is also offended by the half-naked men on the calendar one women has in her cubical and she is totally offended by the religious sayings and artifacts in another cubical. We laughed about this as it is totally unprofessional to antagonize the situation by stooping to that silly level, but it is crazy to be offended by plastic!

OK, now you may want to stop reading here and not scroll down any further, because I am going to paste in a picture of my friend's pump parts, all assembled and all taken apart so you can judge for yourself how offensive they look. Beware, again, if you scroll down, you are going to see plastic and it is going to make you think about boobies!!!

OK, Last warning!! I mean it!!

REALLY?!?!?!?!

Recipes and Getting Back on the Horse

I spent the day working on laundry and going through the stack of papers containing all the recipes that I have collected over the years. I tossed out the duplicates and ones that I don't use anymore or have never used. I have this stack of papers now that I want to turn into a nice recipe book. The thing is, I can't figure out the best way to do this. They are all different sizes from full sheets to multiple pages to little index cards of varying sizes. I think that I am going to have to type up each one in Word and then print them out. The upside to this is that I can create a table of contents and always be able to find what I am looking for as well as having it saved electronically so I can reprint a page if it gets stained to torn. The downside is the time consuming task of typing them all up!! Any thoughts or ideas??

This recipe project is the last major thing that needs to be organized in the main living area of my house. All the closets and drawers and everything have been gone through and are in order. I just need to maintain them and keep everything clean going forward.

The downstairs is another story and still needs a ton of work, both construction and organization and while I am looking forward to having it done, it is daunting! It's just nice right now to feel like something major is almost complete!

In other news, my sweet daughter seems unfazed by her fall the other day. She was pulling up and walking herself around furniture all day, stretching to reach and getting right back up every time she hit the floor. I love that she is so determined to get where she wants to go and she is not scared to fall and have to try again.

Yesterday a friend came to visit and when Smug-Baby heard the door open, she grabbed my hands and walked really quickly to the stairs to see who was there. She is just such a joy to watch as she learns and tries and grows. I give thanks everyday for having her in my life and being so blessed!

Take a moment today to think about all that you have and all the blessings in your own life. There is so much wonderful out there!!!

Reviews and Falling

I watched The Killers yesterday and I was really hoping it would be good. I was pretty much wrong. The trailer showed some cute and funny stuff, but it seems that those clips were about the only cute and funny parts. The storyline was crap and while Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher had some decent chemistry on screen, their relationship wasn't well developed and so you didn't really feel anything for them and even the side people were kind of silly. The story is basically about this guy and girl who meet and fall in love. He is a government agent who kills people, but when he meets the girl, he decides that he doesn't want to kill anymore and wants to settle down. Jump to three years later and he hears from his old boss and suddenly everyone in his life starts trying to kill him. All their friends and neighbors and co-workers - everyone!! They jump from one life and death fight to another, with Katherine Heigl screaming and not knowing how to hold a gun and not able to follow simple instructions. In one scene, she is using the bathroom (to take a pregnancy test) and the water and a radio are both on. Ashton is fighting for his life on the other side of the bathroom door and she is in there, calling out to him, but fails to turn off the water or the radio - stupid! I wouldn't waste your time watching this movie!

The other thing I did yesterday was look at a few assisted living facilities here locally for my grandfather. He will be coming here from Florida. The first one I looked at was really nice, with a cute outdoor area, and smiling residents. A bunch of them gathered around to make faces and Smug-Baby and she graced them each with a smile. The place seemed clean and they offered lots of activities including, Wii-bowling, readings of the newspaper, movies and popcorn on Saturday's, bingo, Sunday football and daily exercise. The rooms are like a hotel room, with a large living area and a good sized bathroom.

The second place I went to look at, had a distinct smell that hit me as soon as I walked in, like chemical cleaner and flowers. I didn't care for it. Then the women I talked to said that she would not be able to let me take a tour until later in the week, because the lady that did the tours was off that day. This also put me off - there isn't one person in the building who could show me around?? A nurse? A cleaning staff member? No one?? I am talking about giving your company three to five thousand dollars a month, want to show me a little love??? Then I drove around the outside and there is no outdoor space, no flower, benches, fountain, nothing. So, I crossed them off my list.

The last place I went was a small 20-25 resident facility and while there was a small amount of charm due to the ancient age of the building, I was shocked at how bad it was!! The place was cooled by window AC units, the dining room consisted of 4 tables with chipped Formica, the TV rooms had large TV's and old couches in which the stuff was held inside by duct tape. The rooms were large enough for a twin bed and maybe a night table. This facility had a shower room, where all the residents are bathed, I got the feeling like they rounded them all up and hosed them down. it was really disgusting.

By the time I left Smug-Baby had had it with me and cried until we got home. I nursed her while I watched the movie and then she played on the floor. She is pulling herself up on everything now and is walking herself around all the furniture in the room. It is equally amazing and scary to watch her get to the edge of a table or something and reach out with her fingertips for the next surface. I was watching her reach, when her grip slipped and she fell over and bumped her hard against the front of the TV cabinet. I grabbed her and she cried and cried, a red bump forming on the side of her forehead. I got some ice for her bump and nursed her and she soon calmed and soon after that slept. I just held her in my arms while she slept. I felt so guilty about letting her fall, like I should have been watching her most closely. I worried that the bump was bad, causing brain damage. I tried to forgive myself, babies fall and I don't want to be one of those mothers who never lets their baby explore because getting hurt is possible, but my baby was in pain, with a bump on her head and it happened on my watch. Smug-Hub says that he understands and does not blame me, but is still sorry it happened. I know that I would be pissed at him if he let her fall even though I know that I didn't watch her fall or push her or anything. I just feel conflicted. I know I can't protect her from everything and she has to be free to push her limits and fall and get back up and try again, but I want her to always be safe and happy and never in pain. 

Rough Week

Last week was supposed to be the kick off for my getting in shape and eating better. Well, we both ate slightly better than we have been, but both Smug-Baby and Smug-Hub were sick. My poor baby girl was not feeling like being put down and just needed to be rocked in the glider for hours on end. While I am totally happy to be and do what ever she needs, it was hard to watch the week go by and working out not happen, food prep not happen and the house work not happen.

She seems to have gotten mostly better over the weekend and my  hope is that I can get myself back on track today for the rest of the week. I have decided to give Southern Living Mama's advice a try and follow the Home-Ec 101 weekly chore schedule this week and see if it would work for me. I got to thinking about how, when the baby is not feeling up to it, getting 3-4 hours of housework done is impossible, but doing one or two things each of those days when she was napping would have been better for me. So, I'm going to give it a shot. I am also going to make a daily chore list for Smug-Hub that he can try to do in the mornings when he is at home and I'm working. This should help him pick up after himself and create less work for me!

The whole month of September has been fairly mild. There have been several days where we have turned off the AC and opened the windows as fall seemed to be in the air. Then this last week, while my poor baby was feeling so sick, the weather turned super hot and humid again. It was 93 one day and 95 the next and wouldn't you know, the AC stopped working! It got up to 87 one day and 89 the next, in my house - even with all the windows open and the fan blowing.

Smug-Baby and I just sat in the hot house, sweating and lethargic. She was feeling bad and just wanted to be held and you hot sticky little body against mine made me even hotter. The AC guy came on Friday afternoon to fix it and it took several hours for the house to cool back down, also its going to be a hefty bill, but I am sure glad to have it fixed and be sleeping in comfort again!!

So, all in all, I did what I had to do last week to help my sweet girl feel better and survive the heat. This week, I am getting back on track and focusing on small items each day, rather than trying to do everything all at once. This is seeming to result in nothing getting done properly!

Today, I will focus on the laundry, preparing food for the week, a wipe down of the kitchen and making the list for Smug-Hub. I also got The Killers from Netflix and I would like to relax some and watch that - mixing the work with the fun - I like it!!

Smug-Baby at 7 Months

My sweet and darling girl is now fully 7 months old and I can't believe how the time has flown by. She is such a joy to spend my days with and I love her more than I even thought it was possible to love someone.

At 7 months she has begun to say "da da da da" which Smug-Hub takes to mean Daddy and is thrilled! When I make "ma ma ma ma" sounds at her she only smiles and laughs and does not care to repeat my words.

She has learned to play pat-a-cake (or as we say it "patty-cake") by clapping her hands together and will even sometimes make a "take take" sound. I am convinced that while the "da da da" and the "how" sounds are like words to us, this "take" sound is the first sound that she is associating with an action. She knows that this sound goes with this action. It is very cool to watch.

She is commando crawling all over the house. She was in the living room the other day and I was washing dishes. I looked around to check on her and she was in the dining room, then for a few minutes she was in the kitchen before heading down the hall to explore her bedroom. It is funny, the two bedrooms are right across from each other, but she chooses her bedroom (which she has never slept in or even taken a nap in). It is brighter and gets more sun than our bedroom. Yesterday, she crawled into her bedroom, rolled onto her back and entertained herself for a while by clapping her hands together and making cute noises (talking to herself).

She watches us eat very closely. She watches us pick up a bite, follows it to our mouths, watching us chew and swallow and follows the fork back to the plate. She is also very intensely watching us when we brush our teeth, we are not sure why this is so interesting but to her it is.

I have started to wipe her mouth with a cold wet cloth at night to "brush" her teeth too as she now has her two front bottom teeth. they are so cute and still really small. I have been unable to get a picture of them because every time I pull her chin down to open her mouth and get a look at them, she sticks out her tongue!

I started watching Eureka on the SyFy and she totally loves the opening theme music. No matter what she is doing, when that music starts she stops and looks at the TV until the song is over. She actually really likes the Warehouse 13 music too, so I wonder if they are composed by the same person (people).

She still loves the ice water glass and has taken to sticking her face in the glass at the top and will even drink some of the water and eat some of the ice. We make sure that the ice is very, very small so she won't choke and/or it would melt before causing harm.

She still gets excited when her Daddy gets home. She will hear the garage door open and close, then she will look expectantly at the stairs, craning her neck in an effort to see him coming. She makes this throaty noise when she sees him that is part laugh and part excited howl and if he doesn't come directly to her and hold her, she will cry with bitter disappointment. Smug-Hub has taken to taking off his badge, sunglasses and shoes before alerting her to his presence so he can get right to the holding!

She seems to love it most when all three of us are together. When we are all able to hang out in bed, like on a weekend, she wakes giggling, turning from first one of us to the other, touching our faces and giving wet kisses! She reaches out for me when Daddy is holding her and then reaches right back for him, so we have started standing really close together, so she is, in effect, in both of our arms at the same time and she loves that! 

The biggest development is walking. That's right, she is walking. She started pulling herself up on our hands and then on furniture and just in the last week or so has been able to get herself up without help. Last night, she pulled herself up on the overturned laundry basket and, holding on, moved herself to the entertainment center and then moved herself across the front of that to her little toy box, where she dropped to her knees and started pulling out and playing with toys. She walks while holding on to things, but she has balanced on her own two feet for a few seconds at a time too. Smug-Hub feels like she will be walking on her own in no time!

How I Celebrated My Anniversary

I didn't. Well, we decided to wait until Friday or Saturday to celebrate because Smug-Hub is suffering from allergies or a head cold and was feeling lousy. I was also feeling slightly sick to my stomach and it was raining, so we decided to stay home and have some play time as a family and make it an early night. We will celebrate later.

Smug-Baby is also suffering, she started sneezing over and over yesterday afternoon and by the evening had developed a runny nose. She woke up about midnight screaming and screaming and I was not able to get her to latch on, so Smug-Hub took her to the rocking chair until she calmed down and fell back asleep. She woke screaming and coughing again at 2 and I took my turn at the rocking chair and she finally did nurse and fall back asleep.

I feel a bit zombie-like this morning, but mostly I am concerned about my sweet girl. She is only 7 months old and she has never been sick before and I don't know what I can do to help ease her symptoms. I know that kids cold medicines have been recalled as of late and I don't know what would be safe, add to that the fact that we get sick because our bodies are fighting to rid itself of something bad and taking something for the symptoms can sometimes lead to a longer illness or more problems in the long run.

I was reading online about a humidifier and VICKS chest rub for babies, so I may stop and get something along those lines to try to help her. She does not feel feverish to me, so I hope that her steady diet of breastmilk will inoculate her enough that this "cold" or whatever will pass quickly.

I spent most of the day yesterday thinking about what I was doing 3 years ago. I looked at the clock at 1:45 and thought back to how I was waiting in the little room in the back of the church for everything to start and I heard my future husband's voice as he greeted our guests and got ready to take his place. I remember breathing easy knowing that he was there and sounded happy and excited.

We have had our rough moments over the last 3 years and the 4 years of dating before that, but it has been just that - moments. We have never fought for longer than a few moments, been angry for longer than a few hours, or held onto something for longer than a day. We know that we love each other and will do anything and everything to make this marriage work and last. We pick our battles and never stop loving each other.

I married my best friend and the greatest man in the universe. I picked the best father for my sweet girl and the best husband ever. We aren't perfect but we are perfect for each other.

Sleep Deprivation

I have been in a haze of exhaustion for the better part of this month and it finally has caught up to me. I feel like yesterday was the worst day and I finally broke. I had a long talk with Smug-Hub about our sleeping habits and arrangements even bringing up the big "D" word. I feel like I was just so crazy from lack of rest that I was talking like a nut job.

Smug-Baby has been forced off her routine for most of this month, starting with the death in my family and the two weeks my MIL was here and she is teething on top of everything else. She is normally a happy and contented baby and this week especially she has not been sleeping well at night and does not want to be put down during the day.

I have tried the wraps and slings to try to get some things done at the house, but she will have none of it. She wants to be held and nursed all day. So, I comply. She needs extra TLC, extra comfort, then it is my job as her mama to make that happen for her.

That being said, the diet and exercise plan has totally gone out the window. She is not happy to play at my feet while I follow an exercise video and doing the video with her in a wrap or sling throws off my balance and I would like to see you try to so squats with an extra 20 pounds strapped to your chest or crunches with a baby tied to your back!!! I haven't had the time or energy to prep the meals like I planned and have been mostly eating cereal all day, because Smug-Baby cries as if her heart is breaking when I put her down to make something to eat or use the bathroom.

I know that she has just taken all that she can take and I need to stop for a moment and focus on nothing but her until she is back on track and feeling better and I am more than totally OK with that, but it is sad to put off my plan for getting in shape again.

I told Smug-Hub about everything that has been going on sleep wise for a while now and I think that he finally heard me, really understood, what I have been dealing with and is going to help make the effort to do his part in helping both the baby and I to sleep better.

So, last night I slept. I woke a few times when Smug-Baby wanted to latch on and switched sides once, but overall I slept. I woke up feeling more human than I have in a long time. I am still tired and still deprived of the amount of sleep that I really need, but for the first time in weeks or maybe even months, I woke up feeling like I was going to live and thrive and be able to be a good mommy and not a zombie!

Here is to tonight being a repeat!! God, I hope tonight is a repeat!!!