Life of Val » babies

Babysitters are people too

Val — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:53:26 +0000

One thing I love about Ethan is that he calls me pretty during some of my most flustered, frizzy-haired, strawberry-stains-on-my-shirt moments. Today when he got home from work (which is at lunch time these days) he said “Hi, cute lady.” I guess my look told him I didn’t feel too cute because he asked me if I was okay. “Yeah, I just want to feel like a person, not a babysitter,” I said. He responded, “Babysitters are people too.”

Despite a little fluster which happens everyday right before Carver and Kennon’s nap time, I have felt very much like a person lately:

A person who runs half marathons (1 2010 goal checked off!)

A person who gets pedicures with her little sister who could go into labor at any moment

A person with a 1 year old who can walk!

A person who gets butterflies when I think about moving in 3 months…

Its Friday and its good to be blogging. If I was going to catch you up, I would tell you about Ethan getting cut to half-time, God abundantly providing for us, Carver’s “cyclical vomiting” for the past 30 days and the calendar I’m making for him, but I won’t. I’m going to go play with my 2 favorite boys.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Almost 1 year!

Val — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:55:14 +0000

I think I should fill you in on some of Carver’s new talents. He now tries to feed himself with a spoon. Although the other parent in this household cringes at the mess, I think its pretty funny and I’m excited he’s taking steps toward more independent eating. Another step he took toward independent nutrition was drinking his first cup of cow’s milk today! I guess that means he has weaned from the lunch time feeding and is now just breastfeeding in the morning (too early-like 5:00 AM) and at night. Surprisingly, I did not feel any physical affects from skipping 1/3 of my daily nursing. Don’t ask me what I’m going to do when we drop that final morning feeding and Carver still wakes up. Maybe I’ll plan to go out of town…

Besides eating, he has made some developmental steps, too! Not literally, though. We’re still waiting for those first walking steps. He can stack blocks, give high-fives and stand alone (though, he’s pretty unsure of his stability). We’ve also turned his car-seat forward and let him try some 1 year old foods like peanut butter and honey. Some cute new things he does are blowing on his food when we blow on it, sticking out his tongue when he smiles and making a puzzled face as he tries to figure out how to whistle. He’s the best.

Differences…

Val — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:52:12 +0000

…between Carver and Kennon

C-falls asleep every morning on our jog (despite Kennon’s efforts to play with him, tell him stories, show him trees and grab his knee; despite my efforts to talk to him, give him toys, keep him awake by making him hold my water bottle, etc)

K-enthusiastically points at every single tree we pass on our morning jog, talks to people we see, bounces his feet on the stroller

C-puts everything in his mouth, including mulch, shoes, dust, toys, books, paper, the playground swing

K-points at everything, including people, trees, leaves, plants, windows, vans, buses, bikes, me

C-naps for 45 min.

K-naps for 2 hours

C-loves to snuggle (he even gives kisses now!)

K-loves to dance

Its crazy how much personality these boys have and they haven’t even tasted their first birthday cakes!

Highs and lows

Val — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:10:42 +0000

6:40 AM- Carver wakes up (much better than the 5:30 wake-up time yesterday).

9:00 AM- Water goes off in our apartment building.

10:30 AM- Carver wakes up early from his nap and we get to spend some one-on-one time together.

11:30 AM- Lunch time, the most stressful time of my day. Kennon shrieks while I try to feed him milk from a bottle, Carver starts crying uncontrollably, I have a melt-down, I call Lindsay (wonderful friend and neighbor who happens to be a pediatric nurse practitioner) and she comes over with a stethoscope (apparently I made it sound like an emergency… it kind of was…to me).

12:00 PM- Sweet Lindsay calms me down and plays with Carver while I feed Kennon and we all go for a walk. Carver, who was straddling Kennon in my stroller designed for only one baby fell asleep with his head on Kennon’s back.

2:10 PM- Carver wakes up five minutes before Kennon goes down for his nap (I think they planned this).

3:00 PM- Amanda comes over, followed by the rest of play group!

6:00 PM- The water (which was supposed to come back on at 5:00) is still not on.

7:45 PM- Carver goes to bed without a bath.

8:00 PM- Some welcome quiet time…

9:00 PM- Ethan comes home!

Free Apple Sauce

Val — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:02:50 +0000

Did you know that apple baby food and unsweetened applesauce have the same ingredient list, but that the baby version is usually at least twice the price per ounce? Most applesauce brands make a 6-pack sold in 3.5 ounce servings, perfect baby proportions.

If that news wasn’t good enough already, and you live near a Publix, or another store that accepts competitor coupons, you’re in luck! Use this manufacturer’s coupon to get $1 off Mott’s and this Food Lion coupon to get another $1 off. Since Mott’s 6-packs are on sale for $1.66 at Publix this week, your applesauce will be free! Some stores even give an overage. Mine doesn’t, but I’m going to print several of the Mott’s coupons (they don’t have a print limit, the FL ones do) and stock up on some extra applesauce for $0.11 a cup!

I love my aunt

Val — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:37:06 +0000

This is a great video of Carver laughing!

Baby’s Room Decorating Tips

Val — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:59:58 +0000

Here are 2 ideas we used for Carver’s room:

For this one, all I did was spray paint letters (from Michael’s) and hot-glue ribbon to the back. Or you can buy pre-made letters from Pottery Barn Kids at an absurd cost.

Instead of a store-bought mobile, I had Ethan hang these paper lanterns above the crib.

What else would I be doing at midnight?

Val — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:56:00 +0000

Can’t sleep.

I was thinking, why not do some sort of fun blog for every day of the week? Who knows if I’ll actually stick with it, but it could be fun. My ideas so far:

Minute Monday: You know how you take “minutes” for a meeting? I’m pretty sure that’s an old school term. Or maybe I just made it up. I used to take minutes for our Young Life team meetings, only it wasn’t on the useful stuff. I would write down all the crazy/funny stuff that was said and do a recap at the end of the meeting. Well, these minutes will describe the Stonerook weekend (which I know you are all dying to hear about by time Monday rolls around).

Teachable Tuesday: I’ll share a craft, recipe or some other idea.

Word Wednesday: That’s a capital W, as in scripture (not the segment on the Colbert Report…although I usually enjoy that, too).

Thrifty Thursday: My favorite deal of the week!

Foto Friday: Most likely, this will be a picture of Carver.

I Think She Had a Baby

Val — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:56:00 +0000

I find myself avoiding all the extensive topics I want to blog about because I know how much time it’ll take. I’m not one of those people that just writes as they think and then…boom! Posted! (Kind of like Michael’s “boom…roasted” from The Office) See, I’ve already edited this first paragraph.

Anyway, instead of some great story or update, I’ll just tell you:

Carver is grabbing everything out of my hands these days. He loves water bottles and cell phones. We’ve started him on solids. Did I already tell you that? He’s tried peas, bananas and carrots. He seems to really like all of them.

We bought tickets to see Harry Potter 6!!! I’m so excited. It comes out midnight of Carver’s half birthday. Any volunteers want to come babysit/spend the night at our house (I think the movie is 3 hours long)? You probably won’t have to do anything and I’ll make you cookies! She doesn’t know it yet, but I’ll try and trick Kari into it.

I have a side ponytail right now.

I’m so relieved with the state of our bedroom. It was becoming the project/junk room and hardly looked like a comfortable place for two newlyweds to relax. Ignoring my list of to-dos on Friday, I cracked down and rearranged. This also involved a lot of dusting and vacuuming as it had been a while. Saturday I tackled my surprisingly large closet that not only contains my clothes, shoes and bags, but all other kinds of random storage. Everything from Christmas decorations to beach towels end up in there because we don’t have the luxury of a linen closet. And honestly, with the 100 degree weather, there was not much else I would have rather done with my weekend. Mmmm, how I love organizing…

Going through my old maternity clothes brought back some fond memories, but who the heck let me buy so many maternity clothes? I had more cute clothes that fit me then than I do now.

Carver’s getting baptized July 5th. Ethan’s afraid I’m going to dress him up “like an angel.” At first I was a little offended by this, but thinking about it now, I’m very amused.

This is the kind of little stuff Lauren and I used to talk about when we worked for AmeriCorps together. I miss you, LC. I also miss working with other adults and kids I can talk with. I saw two old students of mine today. They were at my pool. I think its really funny that little kids have no intention of lowering their voices when they talk about you. I saw the older sister first and said, “Hi, Jane. Do you remember me? I’m Ms. Valerie.” She then turned to her little sister and said, “Erin! Its Ms. Valerie. I think she had a baby!” I was literally 5 feet away from them in the pool.

He’s Got Quite The Social Life

Val — Fri, 08 May 2009 04:34:00 +0000