May 12, 2013

And a happiest of Mother’s Days to you.

Happy Mother’s Day!

To all the mamas, mamas’ mamas, and mamas’ mamas’ mamas, here’s to you. To all the future mamas, step-mamas, preggo mamas, to you, too.

Get that sugar. A2 pulled up by herself the other night!

For birthing out watermelon-sized humans out of our vaginas without meds, with meds, with a cesarian, in emergencies or at home, with midwifes or OBs, with a group of loved ones or just our partners, with siblings helping and watching for the arrival of their lifelong best friend,

For all of the sleepless nights, of a good night having only two or three wakeups for feeding, diaper changes, or cuddlings from nightmares about wanting two pigtails instead of one,

Sitting in a driveway to wait out a carseat nap since we know if we move them they’ll wake up immediately,

For the almost naps while at least one kid is sleeping, for passing out on the couch in a room filled with toy noise, and keeping one eye open while we lay face down on the floor in a makeshift bed,

Taking one for the team – getting gnawed on with a tiny tooth so I could clean yesterday. An almost nap.

For taking 20,ooo photos that might have 20 with us in it,

Making dinner that they won’t eat, making another dinner that they might take a bite of, and hoping that peanut butter is enough to grow a toddler,

For the meals we didn’t get a chance to finish, eaten with one hand, or barely noticed or straight up missed, and the candy and cupcakes eaten while hiding around the corner because we didn’t want to share, and the desserts we only took one bite of because somebody little wanted it more,

And for all the face, hands, butt, and nose wiping, for getting covered in barf multiple times a night, for changing pee-covered sheets and doing mountains of tiny clothes laundry,

For training those kids to sit on a tiny potty, never having a moment alone in the bathroom, for having team dumps (TD’s) for life,

Showering with one or two slippery bodies playing with ducks at our feet while we try to keep our balance,

The kidless hour after all is quiet in the house for blogging, pooping, drinking a beer, or cruising the internet, or more likely, doing the dishes,

I hope your breakfast today is made by little hands who “know how to do that” while not wearing pants so that you get time to blog, watch a show you actually want to watch during the day, and you get those sweet handmade gifts that make you tear up. I hope you get at least a nap, a shower alone, and to do something fun with the fam like flying a kite at a farmer’s market. And I hope you know that you are loved, so you should enjoy all of those chubby cheeks, so go gnaw on them and get as much of their sugar today as possible. Remember, your mother did the same thing, so call that noble woman and if you can, let her get some of your sugar. It’s the law.

EB and Daddy making us all breakfast. At least one of them is wearing pants.

Chef Hubs.

Mustache.

Mmmm-mmmmm! Belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.

What are you doing for Mother’s Day? Or, a better question, what are your people doing for you?

Mama Jells.

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Posted in being special
Tagged being a mother, breakfast, giving birth, humor, love, mother's day, parenting
7 Comments

May 8, 2013

Being on time.

EB going to school on a regular day.

I have been living in Groundhog’s Day for the past month. Every week day we wake up with an alarm (yuck), hurry to eat breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth, pop some pig tails in, battle with actually buckling the seatbelt, and arrive late for school that’s 2.5 minutes away from my house. Every. Single. Day. We are always late.

This is cause for great frustration. When it was get-to-school-whenev’s, Eebs and I would leisurely shower (when we had time for that in the AM), eat slowly, drink our morning bev’s, and pick out something cute to wear. I might even have time to do the dishes while that child ate a bite every 5 minutes while watching Seasame Street. But the days of dilly-dally-ing are over. We have places to be, and play-doh to roll into pancakes. There are globes to spin and ellipses to be sat upon during Gathering. There’s painting, bug week (we took a hornet’s nest in), and Cinco de Mayo festivals with homemade maracas. We are not to be late because in Montessori, the work cycle starts at 8:30am – not 10ish.

After she gets home from school, she wants to practice writing her name. Yay, school!

I have not mastered hurrying a 3 year old. In fact, I think the act of hurrying has spurred what I lovingly call the Effing Threes. We missed the Terrible Two’s somehow, but I think it had a lot to do with how many grandmas were helping out when I had to go to work. Now that I work from home again, and EB’s schedule is more rigid than mine, our fuses have shortened and I have an eye twitch. In class they say, “Clap twice if you can hear me.” I am now using this, and I hear clapping, but no clothes are more quickly pulled on, and bites are not more quickly consumed. Just shouts of, “My listening ears are onnnnnn!” and tears. Oh, the tears.

You might understand why I haven’t documented this thus far. It’s every day. It’s hard. I am mad at myself for not keeping track of A2′s milestones in the process. She’s crawling at the speed of a chihuahua, has a tooth as sharp as a baby shark (ouch, my nipples say), and can sleep all night when she’s not bothered by said tooth. Oh, and she’s constipated. I’ve become a doo-doo doula. Hubs likes the ring of poop midwife. I help her get those poops out, and it’s not pretty. Hello, non-parents! I bet you never thought you’d pull a poop out of another human being. Well, here’s your future.

Taking a quick break from crawling to do some building with Legos,

This weekend: Gram Gram with her smallest babies, A2 and the new pup, Ralphie.

Toof!

The moral of the story today is that something was different today. We were…on time. Unbelievably, and without showers (we pick out battles in this house), and with minor dilly-dallying about the seat belt, we made it to her class by 8:30am sharp. How, you ask? I must confess this won’t work every day. But on the occasional day, when the stars align, use a tutu.

The only way she’ll willingly put on clothes in the morning = Tutu.

About to (not) buckle her seatbelt in her tutu. But then she did…eventually.

That’s my parenting wisdom for the day. Back to living the same day over and over, starting with the evening routine of Eebs swinging while we make dinner, trying to get that child to eat for crying out loud, scrambling for both kids who want to sleep at the same time, and having about an hour to ourselves before being so exhausted we pass out. I’ve been re-watching Alias while nursing A2 for the two hours it takes for EB to fall asleep so I can sneak the baby into the crib. Probably why I haven’t been writing during that time, too. I’m ok with that.

Victorious Jells.

Posted in the kiddos
Tagged Daycare, getting dressed, humor, parenting, poop, school, threes, toddlers, tutu
6 Comments

April 23, 2013

Happy third cupcake to EB!

EB eating a cupcake after knocking apart a cupcake piñata.

It’s taken me until today to recover from EB’s birthday and party over the weekend. Her birthday was on Friday, April 19, and her party was on Sunday. So many wonderful and exhausting things happened. And cheese and rice, I apparently took 651 photos since Friday (not an exaggeration – actual number of photos I’m uploading from my camera as I write).

For the first time, I brought cupcakes for her class to celebrate her birthday with her. She had been too young before and I figured now she would appreciate the attention since she’s still getting to know everyone in class. Hubs, A2 and I arrived just as they finished going through her “Celebration of Life” booklet they had me put together. The night before. After I had already planned on making her a sparkly cupcake birthday shirt. Ugh, mama was up late Thursday night. But doesn’t she look cute? We came in and she was wearing a crown and cape, pleased as punch we were there, and about to devour cupcakes. I’m pretty sure it was her best moment ever.

EB eating cupcakes on her birthday in her new class.

A2 getting pumped.

EB’s big present was a swing set from us, both sets of grandparents, and Aunt L. I found the sturdiest MF-ing swing set that could be delivered to my door. Speaking of that, It probably would’ve been better if I had actually told Amazon to send it to my door and not to Hubs’ parents’ address in the hill country. Oops. Bop Bop was a sweetheart and drove in the heaviest (but surprisingly small) boxes I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching Hubs lug around. The plan was to have it set up in time for Eebs to get home from school but instructions aren’t meant to be read and she watched Daddy try to put it together while I had A2 strapped to me, trying to keep EB busy, and occasionally held stuff in place. Our friends/contractors that are working on the neighbor’s house hopped the fence as they heard our voices raise in both fear and frustration. We ended up pressing pause on the swing set assembly to go eat burgers and ice cream with the neighbors instead. For Austinites, there are only 2-3 restaurants that I know of that have both beer and a playground, and we went to them both over the course of the weekend. The first was Phil’s Ice House/Amy’s Ice Cream on Burnet. Excellent, delicious, fun.

Getting help setting up the swing set.

Saturday morning we woke up, finished the swing set (it’s amazing what a good night’s sleep and perusing the diagrams will do for such a thing) and let our toddler remind us why we hate swing sets. Oh my goodness, the pushing, please push me higher, push me again. I thought this would be an independent activity for her! Oh no, it’s a second job for us. Then we spent the rest of Saturday (thanks to ZB, who took one for the team by swinging the girls all day) until the moment our families came over before the party on Sunday wrangling the back yard. I can’t believe how different the yard looks mowed, and trees and shrubs cut back. I might even consider doing it more often! I look like I wrestled a panther with all these scratches on my arms and face.

The swingset, a clean yard, and Boopba playing with EB and her birthday present from him.

Swiiiiiiing!

Granny pushing her granddaughters on the glider.

Sunday, the big day, was wonderful. I was a stress ball, of course, hoping everything went ok. The fam, including my bro and EB’s cousin, the grandparents, and Aunt L, followed us to the only other kid + adult-friendly place in town, Central Market, which is a grocery store + cafe + playground on Lamar Blvd. I cleaned up my house and it actually stayed that way after the party. Brills. We brought decorations (thanks, Mom!), snacks from other grocery stores (juice boxes, fruit pouches, Teddy Grahams, and of course, goldfish), got supplementary snacks, beer, ice, and free balloons from inside the grocery store, and co-opted a bunch of tables without having to reserve them. If someone wanted an actual meal, they could order it from the cafe. There were even decent bands playing on the deck by the cafe all day. And the kids naturally rotated from the playground to our table to the cupcake piñata to the cupcake decorating, and finally to the kite flying. A wondrous day, I tell you.

EB and her cousin playing on the Central Market playground.

Boopba entertaining the kids again.

EB showing her cupcake piñata to her cousin.

JH helping Eebs with the cupcake piñata. She was very upset she had to tear it open. There’s a side story about the piñata that’s been in our living room for a month from the neighbors that keeps getting moved around when we go out of town. No wonder she was confused that you’re supposed to beat them up!

I love how interested my brother is in this kite EB got from the neighbors. He told me you can’t bring a kite to a park and NOT fly it.

ZB getting the kite started with the girls.

My bro and the girls, flying the kite.

The party watching the spectacle.

Then back home to the swing set, for more pushing. My 3Eebs is living life, still eating leftover homemade cupcakes and cream cheese frosting from Gram Gram. We are still singing Happy Birthday every time we get out another one – maybe because I forgot halfway through EB’s cupcake to sing it? There was so much to organize since everyone got to pick their own flavor, strawberry, vanilla, or chocolate, and spread their own icing and sprinkled their own sprinkles. I was so pumped that EB got to do this in real life instead of on apps on my phone that I stuck 3 candles in her half-eaten lump and she just re-iced and re-sprinkled a couple more times for good measure. Disaster averted.

Everyone decorated their own cupcakes!

I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since that baby was a baby, hot and fresh from the oven. My sweet girl. And now A2 is crawling as of Earth Day! Crawling, laugh-snorting, and swinging. Best 3 years of my life.

Mama Jells.

Posted in the kiddos
Tagged 3rd birthday, Austin, birthday, birthday party, central market, cupcake, humor, kid-friendly restaurants, swing set
8 Comments

April 15, 2013

Guest post: Julie’s Birth Story.

A longtime, dear friend of mine from high school, Ryan, and his lovely wife, Julie, recently became parents. When they found out they were pregnant, Ryan called me because they had talked about Julie wanting a natural birth, so I was happy to tell them every little thing I knew and loved about my experience. Thankfully my tendency to overshare and overwhelm with info didn’t scare them off. She was a gorgeous preggo, who wore that belly really well. With their great attitudes and default for cracking jokes, I knew their birth experience would be a positive one. I was eager to hear how it went, and as a connoisseur of birth stories, Julie knew I wanted to collect and share hers on my blog. Below is the story of Lucy. My notes are in green. –Jells.

————————————————-

Preggers Julie.

I had been preparing for labor the moment I found out I was pregnant. After some serious thought (and internet research) I decided that natural childbirth was the best choice for me. But I knew I would need to be prepared for pain management and find a supportive environment. I chose to have my baby with a midwife group at a hospital and take a hypnobirthing class. After some more thought and discussion my husband, Ryan and I also decided to hire a doula. I truly believe that all these choices are what led to an amazing birth experience for me.

On Monday night I woke up thinking I had wet myself. I knew my water hadn’t broken because it was just a small amount of fluid. So I put on a pad and went back to bed. The next day I called my doula, Jessica and she said that my mucus plug was leaking due to changes in my cervix. This usually means that a woman will go into labor within the next few days. My baby’s due date was still two weeks away, so I was surprised to hear this news. That night I started experiencing something similar to menstrual cramps and lower back pain. I knew that my baby would be coming soon.

That Wednesday morning I went to my boss’s office and explained to him that I was having early signs of labor. I told him that I was sure I’d be here tomorrow and Friday, but that he should be prepared to have a substitute in my classroom soon. I also asked if I could leave at 1:00. He was very supportive and told me I could leave early. All day I had cramps and back pain. My elementary students could see I wasn’t feeling well. I told them that my baby would be coming soon and that I needed them to be on their best behavior because I felt kind of sick. It worked! They were so well behaved. I should tell them I’m sick more often.

When I got home that afternoon I took a shower and had a nap. When I woke up and took another shower. Then I sat down to watch some TV and my water broke. I jumped back into the shower and Ryan called our doula. It was hard for me to determine when I was having contractions. I felt intense back pain in short spurts so I decided that must be the height of the contractions. But I couldn’t quite figure out how long the contractions were lasting or how far apart they were.

Every time I got out of the shower I would leak and my body would naturally tense up to keep it in. I knew that I needed to relax or the contractions would be more painful. So I got back in the bath and begin to use my fists to massage my back during contractions. This made the contractions totally manageable. When Jessica arrived she explained that the back pain meant my baby was posterior. She said that the bath water would slow down labor and suggested I get out and get into some positions to turn the baby.

She had me on my knees on our ottoman with my forearms on the ground. Then I was on hands and knees and then I laid on my right side and then my left side and the whole time she massaged my back. Moving into all these different positions helped keep me busy and the time flew by. While lying on my left side I started to feel an intense downward pressure and a desire to push. At this point she decided it was time to go to the hospital. I rode in the back seat of the car, on my knees with my arms wrapped around the headrest. During contractions I would sway my hips. Every time we hit a bump Ryan would apologize, but I hardly noticed. I stayed focused on my breathing, which had become a weird moaning sound at this point and probably made Ryan even more nervous.

As we rode up the elevator in the hospital Jessica warned me not to be discouraged if I hadn’t dilated too much. She said that that could change quickly. After finally getting to the exam room my midwife turned to Jessica and said, “I could just kill you.” Jessica’s eyes widened and I wondered if that was a good or a bad thing. I had dilated 9 ½ cm! We were shocked. None of us thought I had come so far. I felt relieved and excited that I had gotten to this point so quickly.

I was immediately taken to the delivery room. My mom arrived shortly after I got there. Apparently there were several women delivering that night. My midwife had another patient that was also 9 ½ cm. However, that woman had chosen an epidural and her labor was moving slower than mine.

It was time for me to begin pushing. At first the midwife had me lay on my left side and Jessica held up my leg while I pushed. The midwife said that I needed to push hard in order to get my baby to crown. I had it in my head that I could just breathe through hard labor and let my cervix stretch without pushing in order to prevent tearing. But lying there I felt ready to push as hard as necessary to get this baby out. Eventually I had to lie on my back so that the baby would turn face down. Ryan held up my other leg. The midwife suggested they put up a mirror so I could see my progress. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see what was going on, but they wheeled over the mirror anyways. When I looked up I could see the top of my baby’s head peaking out. I knew I was having a baby, but something about seeing her little head was a surprise. My midwife told me to reach down and touch her head. It felt so soft and fuzzy.

Now it was time for me to push even harder to get her to crown. After two intense pushes I started to feel like giving up. I don’t remember saying it, but Ryan and my mom told me that I said, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” By this time my baby was already crowning. Now my midwife told me to give short pushes. The next thing I knew the midwife told Ryan to reach down and take the baby. Then she told me to reach down and take the baby as well. I didn’t want to change positions, but everyone told me I was done. I opened my eyes and looked down. There she was! My girl was already out and Ryan was holding her up. He placed her on my stomach until we could cut my unusually short umbilical cord. I was able to hold my girl on my chest while the midwife sewed me up and the placenta was out.

The new family: Ryan, Julie, and baby Lucy.

I still can’t quite believe that I had a baby! She came so soon and suddenly. The whole labor experience was very positive for me. I recommend that any woman who wants natural childbirth do two things: hire a doula and take a class for pain management. I felt totally prepared and relatively comfortable during my baby’s birth.

Lucy, brand new.

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Thanks to Julie and Ryan for letting me share their baby with my friends and readers of the Intertron! And way to go, Julie. I love that it was a remarkable experience for you. I feel like we had really similar births with our babies. It was almost word for word how I had EB and how I had A2. I wish I had a doula, though. I loved laboring at home, I loved being in the shower, and I think swaying my hips was a vast improvement to laboring on my back the first time. Good job taking the best route! I remember using a mirror for EB, too, and touching the crowning head was such a magical way to bring me into that moment since I was so in my head to endure the contractions and pushing. That fuzzy head really is so soft.

Sharing Jells.

Posted in Birth Story
Tagged contractions, due date, giving birth, guest post, hospital, hypnobirthing, midwife, pain management
1 Comment

April 12, 2013

Two naps forward, one nap back: Sleep training and deprivation.

EB practicing her “faces” while A2 tries to crawl.

We have a 2-bedroom house, with 4 humans and 2 dogs. Hubs and I share a room (obvs.) and so do the girls. The dogs get the living room. It’s been a fortnight now and we have successfully transitioned the baby into EB’s room at night. Yay! Except A2 isn’t night-weaned yet. I decided two nights ago that we had all lost our minds and somebody needed to find theirs (read: me) so this baby was going to have to learn to soothe herself once and for all during sleeping hours.

For those of you who don’t know, we did the extinction method for EB. Read about that here. At about 5-1/2 months I was being woken up every 45 min and I thought I would strangle someone. I’m back at that point with A2, even though she has a much milder 3 times a night routine. This has taken it’s toll but earned her an extra month of night nursing since I wasn’t crazy until this week. Why the crazy (besides mama being exhausted)?

EB is adjusting to Montessori. This is “different” according to her. And it’s full time.
We have to be at her school by 8:30. This is different for me, and impossible for us. More on this below with The Chart.
A2 is getting less of me since I started working from home again. My attention is divided and she wants someone to hold her for crying out loud.
A2 is teething (ouch. For both of us).
I am transitioning from the pace of SXSW to trying to finish taxes and work at our company.

But all in all, things aren’t bad per say. Just patience is short and EB’s fuse is even shorter. First things first – get this baby to sleep more, longer, and I am a more patient mama. Last night was the 2nd night and how is this baby so much easier than EB was? She’s been doing great, except for the first crying jag at midnight the first night. Now she’s like, cool, I’ll just wake up when the sun comes up. Jeez.

To let A2 cry it out, Eebs has been sleeping in our bed. That means she’s is a chatty chatterbox till 10 pm till she finally passes out, even though the lights had been out for an hour and no one is responding to her kicking them in the face while she flops around. This is why I’m not a good-forever-co-sleeper. Sweet Cheesus, I need some room and I can only deal with so many people snoring next to me.

Too bad we don’t have one of these in our house to wear this child out.

Because she’s been staying up, she’s a maniac in the morning trying to get her out the door in time for school. Yesterday was the disaster of all disasters. There were tears, forced dressings, no-breakfast eating, stanky breath, just get to school for the love of kittens. We were 20 min late. So I came up with The Chart. It’s in the testing phase right now, but I made a list of everything she needs to do in the morning and evening so we can do things in a reasonable amount of time so we can all SLEEP. It’s all about getting more time with eyes close and we are all happier people the next day. EB hits her sister less, enjoys food more, and puts her seatbelt on easier if she is rested. I sit patiently while she is the most independent woman on the planet when I am rested. And A2 just chills the eff out no matter what.

A2 chowing down on her bib.

Here are The Charts. Here’s the link to customize your own for both boys and girls (free/printable). If she does something that she would normally do anyway, but doesn’t throw a fit, she puts a sticker next to the task. Like Wake Up – bam, sticker. Take of the PJ’s – pow, another sticker. You can see how the first day when we retroactively stickered her tasks (to show her how it works and to see how…little…was accomplished without the having of the fits. Today was much easier and she will get to fill in all of the morning stickers when she gets home from school, setting the tone for the evening tasks again. Hopefully. We have a sh-t ton of stickers since my mom is a retired teacher and we can try out this reward system without wasting money. I will think of a more permanent system if it ends up working.

A work in progress – the task charts.

At the end of the week, if she’s gotten enough (we’ll see how much is “enough” as time goes on) stickers, she’ll get some sort of reward of her choosing. I asked what present she wanted yesterday and she said “to get bigger and bigger and bigger” for her birthday, but I think she’s getting her upcoming surprise present and birthday party at Central Market playscape confused with an everyday present. So today her reward will be ice cream and a playground and our present will be a beer while letting her blow off steam. We deserve it.

I also took a morning off from trying to get everything in the world done and ate tacos and drank coffee with GS. She’s great to talk to about crazy-making babies. I think I am a great birth control for her.

GS holding A2 in the sunshine of a beautiful morning. Plus breakfast tacos.

We all gotta stay sane, people. Whatever it takes. And nothing works forever, but something new and different might work right now. I’m pretty sure that’s the secret. Sleep begets patience, patience begets clarity, clarity begets stickers. Do you have ideas for getting kids moving in the morning sans tantrums? I mean, besides bribery, of course.

I see the irony of charting to get babies and charting to get sane babies, BTdubs. It is not lost on me in my exhaustion.

Sleepy Jells.

Posted in Sleep, the kiddos
Tagged baby, co-sleeping, extinction method, humor, kids, parenting, sleep deprivation, sleep training, toddler
17 Comments

April 4, 2013

About guest post requests.

Dear guest bloggers,

Mostly, I’m not interested. I get about 3 emails a day, sometimes more, requesting to do me the honor of writing some generic, non-offensive post with links to something or other. I’ve even gotten the line, “at no cost to you!” Well, DER. I’m not paying for some bland oatmeal, homie. I get that people want to work on their writing career or whatever it is they want on their resume to say that they have an article on my little ol’ blog, but this isn’t Babble or BlogHer. It’s not like I house featured daily bloggers. And I my blog title indicates that I’m the one that’s tired, not that I’m trying to find sleep solutions. Here’s the form letter I get most of the time:

Hi,

I have just been reading some of your latest blog entries on your website http://illsleepwhentheyregrown.com/ and I have some great ideas for articles of my own that would work well for your site.

My company provides unique high quality content, all of which is extensively researched and written by a group of specialist freelance writers. Our top priority is to provide interesting and engaging articles for both you and your readers. We would be extremely interested in building a lasting relationship with you, and work with you on an on-going basis to provide high quality blog posts that complement your site.

The article would be completely free, our writers would include one hyperlink in the body of the article back to our sponsor. This would be to a reputable website, and would be relevant to the article

I would be particularly interested in discussing article topics with you, and I am eager to share my ideas. We want to avoid generic, exhausted topics and to add real value to your site.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts, and hope to work with you soon.

I write about my kids. I write about craft projects. I even write about crap that happens to me on a daily basis. There isn’t really an avenue in which a stranger can chime in on. However, there are two noted exceptions:

I know you (in real or blog life) and I think you’re funny
You had a baby. I’m a sucker for birth stories

Seriously, if you had a baby and want to have me share the story here, I’ll post it. I covet them. And I’ll always say yes if we’ve developed a blog relationship with actual reciprocal comments or emails and getting to know each other and the whatnot. But if this is the first time you’re hitting up my site or I’m not sure what you’re about, move along. Or at least try to make your pitch funny.

I write about babies and hating folding laundry.

Although, I don’t know what I’m complaining about. At least somebody’s wanting to write for me. That says something, I suppose. Why the sass then? I actually did let one guest post sneak through the cracks early on and it was riddled with links for which this gal saw zero dollars. And it was of the not cool variety. Since then it’s been a daily reminder of my naiveté. At least the form letter above told me they wanted to do the links. Maybe this can save the guest-blogger-on-the-hunt that second of copy and pasting my URL in their email and pressing send. A public service, if you will.

Do you get guest blog requests? What do you do about them? Or do you ask to write guest blog posts? I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t even reply (rude, I know).

Blogging Jells.

Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged being crafty, being funny, birth story, blogging, guest blog, humor
20 Comments

April 3, 2013

EB’s new first day.

EB’s first day of Montessori on the way to her new class.

She was a little nervous.

Yesterday was EB’s first day of Montessori, in a new class, with a new teacher. She told me she was scared to go because it was “different.” She’s not yet three and very clearly and maturely told me what has been freaking her out over these last few weeks as we’ve been counting down to this. I dropped her off around 10 am and left to tears-tears-tears. My poor baby. I remember being scared and lonely the first day of class. She visited a number of times over the last month but kept telling me she didn’t want to leave her teachers, but that she wanted to get “bigger and bigger and bigger!”

I like her new teacher. Her old teachers are great and I do love them, but Eebs was now the oldest one in the class. The majority of daily activities include getting everyone to just sit at the same time. Or working on getting the babies not to hit each other. I could have moved her up to another classroom at age 2.5, but I really wanted her on the Montessori tract. This meant keeping her in a classroom she felt comfortable in, even though she had outgrown it, in order to keep from putting her through the trauma of changing classrooms after just 6 months.

By the end of the day she made a new friend!

I picked her up early just in case all this newness was overwhelming. I knew she wouldn’t be, but of course I feared, her crying all damn day. I watched her through the doors in the cafeteria to the bigger playground that was now hers to enjoy (the babies play on the deck with scooting motorcycles and cars). She was having the time of her life! I saw her try for 5 minutes to get onto a swing, then she got off and told a little boy sitting nearby that it was his turn, then he tried for a few minutes to get on while she sat and waited. Oh man, taking turns, her favorite. Especially when she gets to dictate who’s turn it is. She’s a little bossy.

She eventually wandered off to another part of the playscape and this little boy followed. They did everything together! They chatted and helped each other! They slid down the slide together! It was the cutest and made me so happy that we made this change, as scary as it was for all of us. Well, her, but me a little, too. He’s not in Montessori, but he’s in the other 3 year old classroom that goes on the regular school tract. I know she’ll miss her old friends, but they’ll be coming up to Montessori in a few months.

And it turns out she’s in actual school now – I can’t just come in at 10 am because the baby woke up a dillion times in the night. Eebs needs to be at school by 8:30 am. Ugh. But for her, ~~I’ll try~~ I will. That’s so early for me!

After I picked her up, we headed to the grocery store because she loves eating bananas while knocking things off shelves when I’m not looking. My mom called while I was on my way there saying it was about to storm (if you ever want to know what’s happening with the weather, and the worst possible scenario, my mom will know). I flipped my mental coin and decided we needed infant cereal and milk too badly and I’ll just bring an umbrella.

I picked her up earlier than usual so she could go to the grocery store with us. Car carts are a MUST.

Umm…if it’s about to storm 3 inches and you have two kids and cloth grocery bags, you might want to wait on going to the store. That’s a little tidbit from me to you. As I was leaving, other patrons were just shaking their heads at us, telling me they were sorry for us with their eyes. I pulled out my little pink umbrella as the gal working security told me I shouldn’t go out there. I am stubborn. I covered the humans and my groceries got soaked. I left EB in the cart with the umbrella as I tossed the baby in her car seat in the back (toss is a relative term). Then I got soaked as I put the soggy bags in the trunk, EB squealing with delight as she was semi-protected by the umbrella. I grabbed her, carried her while she mostly poked me in the eyes with the umbrella, and shoved the car cart in the cart parking nearby. We got in the car and the girls promptly fell asleep in the 20 minute drive home. Figures.

EB’s first day of school was at age 1.5, half her life ago. Here are the pics of her then. Same turmoil of starting a new class. Same awesome response to a better school.

It's ok, ma; there aren't any cheetos in there

Her first day of the new school (Aug 2011).

And one year from now this one will be starting school, too. Bananas. I sound like my grandmother, but kids grow up so fast.

A2 at 6.5 months old. Sitting up like a champ!

Sidenote – thank you all for the sweet comments from the last post. I will reply soon but I’m supposed to be doing my taxes right now. Don’t tell Hubs.

Mama Jells.

Posted in the kiddos
Tagged changing teachers, day care, humor, kids, mommy, Montessori, parenting, school, toddlers
8 Comments

April 1, 2013

Life is fragile.

I’ve not been around much in this corner of the Intertron. I’ve tried – I’ve thought about posts to write, taken pics of the kiddos for monthly updates (A2 is over 6 months old and sitting up on her own, and EB’s birthday is next month BTdubs), and almost had enough time to feel rested after the close of my job’s seasonal contract. But I’ve been tired. And then sad, so sad.

My girls.

My cousin’s husband passed away last week. Suddenly, unexpectedly, the man she fell in love with departed after 20 some-odd years. He was not visibly ill and seemed to be in good mental and overall health. Then in a few short days, he had a stroke at age 49 (including a few other details I don’t feel at liberty to share because I don’t feel I have the whole story, much less permission to talk about it).

He was young, too young to up and die. I knew him as well as our almost 20-year age difference would allow. He and my cousin married when I was 11 (She is about 9 years older than me). At the time I was into those horribly ugly and probably out of style by then Troll dolls. I hot-glued lace onto a Troll and made a wedding dress and veil, replicating their wedding over and over in my own room. I told her about this for the first time during the viewing at the funeral home.

Imagine this, but jankier.

I got to know him better when Hubs came into the picture because Hubs is a dude, and makes other dudes laugh over a beer. I was vegetarian, didn’t like beer until 2 years ago, and am a liberal, so we all politely didn’t discuss politics at family events, more than the poking fun in the way my cousins like to do. I was used to this and even came to expect it and laugh about it. But then in the more recent years, I got to know who he was as an adult through adult eyes. I cared about him, I loved him, and I knew he and my cousin loved each other.

It was a really hard weekend, to say the least. He had so many friends, and anyone dying young makes me think of Basil. We even stayed with Baz’s brother this weekend for a hub between funeral and family events. Then we made sure to arrange an afternoon to see their mom, so she could meet A2 and see how much EB has grown. It might’ve been the first time for all of us to be able to hang out without the overwhelming sense of pain. We all remind each other of losing Basil, so it’s hard to not talk about him, especially when EB’s middle name is after him. But it was good, and time has finally begun to heal that wound.

Basil’s mom with Hubs and the girls.

I have a fear of losing people I love. I know I’m not the only one – that’s how people develop ticks like turning on a light switch 15 times so someone doesn’t die. I’m not neurotic like that, but I do occasionally wake up in the night in cold sweat and check to make sure everyone’s breathing. I don’t know what I would do if I lost Hubs, or the kids. I’m freaked out about my parents getting older (yes, I know you’re probably going to read this, Mom.) Life is so fragile. And surprising. And random. I try to use that to appreciate each day, each moment, to be fully present, because it’s easy to let my mind wander and think about counting down to upcoming dates (EB’s first day of Montessori tomorrow, or her birthday in a little over 2 weeks), and then all of a sudden the day is over and I’m about to relive another day and another day…maybe. If I’m lucky. And if I’m really lucky, all of my peeps will be in the world another day. That’s all I ask for at night, usually. I thank the universe for all the good stuff and take a moment to appreciate it all, then close my eyes hoping I can press my luck and get it again.

I’m lucky to be in love with my Husband, especially after being together for the last 12 years. I’m lucky to have a great relationship with both of my parents, and both of my in-laws. My family is awesome all around, be it by blood or in-law. I have a great support system and try not to focus on how the branches of my friend tree have changed since kids became a priority for us and not for some. I am lucky to have my own home, my own business, and the luxury to work or not since we live within our means. I’m lucky to have two beautiful baby geniuses that are doing the best they can when life throws emotional curve balls at their parents.

I’m thankful for friends and neighbors.

I’m thankful for smiles.

I’m thankful for all of that, and for you guys, my readers and blog friends, because even though I haven’t been poking around on WP or blog-related stuff much for the last couple of months, I still think about you guys and your ongoing stories. Tell me what you’re thankful for, so we can all appreciate today while we have it.

Pensive Jells.

Posted in Updates
Tagged appreciation, kids, life and death, parenting
11 Comments

March 19, 2013

SXSW 2013 Recap (Pt 2)

Continued from Part 1.

I still had shifts all through Music even though my big time work was done. My favorite thing was handing out tickets to people that won the lottery for Sound City and Green Day. Not because I wanted to see either one, but because I told each and every person they were a winner. I’ve never seen so many happy people, except for the handful of them that wanted to see other shows and were kind of mad to be locked into something. Dummies. I mean, I can understand if their friend or significant other didn’t win, but at least go use that luck on a lottery ticket for money then. Don’t just waste your luck on something you don’t care about!

This year Hubs and I got smart about endurance. If I had to work late, we didn’t stay downtown for the entire day and then not have enough energy to see the band we actually wanted to see. So I napped. Religiously. My mom ended her granny shift when EB came back to town and Hubs’ mom was on duty now, since I actually had someone watching the girls when I was home, naps became possible. We saw !!! (said Check Check Check), LE1F (said Leif), and Vampire Weekend. LE1F was my favorite new artist of 2012. We watched the video below possibly every day during December and EB loves to have dance parties to it before bed. I am chronically star-struck so I didn’t go up to him at the show, but our neighbors share our love of LE1F and JH not only got us to talk to him (where I admitted we show his video to our toddler and he looked slightly disturbed saying he hoped she didn’t understand any of it) but JH also gave him half a dozen hugs. BE and JH are the best dance buddies and neighbors anyone could ask for.

III (check check check) on Rainey Street.

Our picture with LE1F courtesy of JH.

Vampire Weekend. What a show! Short but sweet.

The highlight of the week was a lifelong dream come true. There was a surprise artist that was announced at the last minute – Prince. Yes, the Prince. Hubs and I graduated high school in 1999 so you know it was played at prom and everything else that year. We played Raspberry Baret during our wedding. We request Purple Rain and I make him lift me like Baby from Dirty Dancing at everyone else’s wedding. We entered the SXSW lottery for tickets and I couldn’t believe it, but Hubs won. I was sad, but the panic hadn’t set in that I wasn’t going yet, so of course I told Hubs to go. One of us had to go. Then 24 hours later I realized I entered with my work email, not my personal account. I was bleary-eyed before my next shift and didn’t comprehend what I was even reading. I won, too! The fates wanted us both to go! This is what I meant when I said not to waste your cosmic luck. I could’ve gone to those other shows because other people didn’t pick up their rightfully-won tickets, but I wanted to save it up to win the chance to see it Purple Rain.

Date night at Southbites - food trailers set up downtown.

Date night on our bikes before the show at Southbites – food trailers set up downtown.

Tribe Called Quest reunited to open for Prince. They were great, but I’m sorry, but there is/was no entertainer that comes close to the precision, timing, execution, energy, and flair of that man. He’s getting old, but he came on for 6 encores or something. Hubs and I saw ?uestlove from the Roots come past us after his set with Justin Timberlake at the other secret show, but Prince never stopped encoring so who knows if he ever got to do a DJ set. We left at 2:15 am because I was overwhelmed by this couple dancing next to me and I wanted to punch them in the throat for being so gross so I knew I had hit my limit. Prince played for another 45 min, we heard the next day. Hubs also ran into Talib Kweli in the bathroom and I heard that a bunch of the cast from The Wire were there. I have a blurry picture of Dennis Quaid, too.

Tribe Called Quest

PRINCE!

?uestlove setting up near us.

Sidenote to couples out there: no one wants to see you mugging down. No one. I don’t care how huge your boobs are, I don’t want to see your boyfriend chew on them. I don’t care how long your hair is, I don’t want to be dusted in it by you swinging your locks back and forth and into bystanders drinks. Especially when there is open space next to you and I am pinned against a pole so I can simultaneously use it to see better and not get that far away from Q-tip. I don’t want to be touched by strangers, but I especially don’t want to be touched by strangers who are touching each other! *shudder.*

The moral of this story is that I’m glad I endured through this half-year stint at a really cool company. It might be increasingly stressful (I have a stress rash that I told myself I wasn’t going to mention), but the benefits are many. And I literally couldn’t have done it if the grandmas hadn’t come in alternating shifts every single week since November. Back to working from home, with these kiddos that I’m happily hugging, and glad that I don’t have to hit up the town (or whatever the kids are saying these days) more than a fortnight a year. I don’t know if it was ever in my system, but it’s out of my system now.

I forgive you if you ended up napping in the middle of these posts, too. We all survived, and that’s what’s important.

Recovering Jells.

Posted in DANCE DANCE DANCE, the kiddos
Tagged !!!, ?uestlove, Austin, humor, LE1F, music, Prince, Q-tip, South by Southwest, sxsw, Tribe Called Quest, Vampire Weekend
6 Comments

March 19, 2013

SXSW 2013 Recap (Pt 1)

To even be able to think about writing this recap post I had to take at least a dozen naps. You might need to nap after reading it. What an exhausting couple of months that resulted in the same level of fatigue as having a newborn. I’m tired, but happy, and am here to tell you the story of my two weeks of South By Southwest.

Leading up to the festival, there was a frenzy of getting everything edited and ready to print. My job was copy editor, so I had to look at everything that would be printed for the Interactive part of the festival – I also reworked all of the floor plans of each venue for the program book. Once everything had been checked, rechecked, and re-rechecked, everything was off to the printers and there was an odd calm before the storm. I used that time to do laundry and make my house livable again, especially since both grandmas were about to live with us in shifts for child-wrangling purposes (because they’re awesome and each deserve a large medal.)

Child wrangling in action by Granny.

I worked a few shifts during EDU, the first leg of the festival, but it was fewer hours than I had been working at the office, so it was almost a vacation. I was able to grant two free passes to EDU so I sent EB’s current teacher, whom I love, and her future montessori teacher starting at the beginning of April. This will be a whole post on its own since my big gal is essentially changing grades for the first time. I have heard that both teachers’ minds were blow with educational whatnot, but have yet to talk to either one yet since my life is just starting to settle back down.

At the end of EDU (said as an acronym), Interactive was gearing up. This meant I had to help with load out, load in, and set up of my venue. I was an Interactive Site Coordinator again, as I was last year, and basically put out fires while making sure the programming goes on smoothly, organize my volunteers to help festival goers, and put out fires. Most of my fires were signage related. You wouldn’t believe how big a part of SXSW involves printed signs.

Signage fires.

I worked 12-ish hour days from Thursday, March 8 to Tuesday, March 12. I pumped and saw my frozen stash of breast milk dwindle while my small girl decided to have a growth spurt. Hence the post about first foods right before this one. My thermoelectric cooler was a godsend and I was thankful to have a room to go hide and pump in, with helpful hotel staff making “Do Not Enter” signs for me. If you ever want someone to walk in on you, make a “Do Not Enter” sign. It happened immediately. I have been walked in on in every public place that I have ever had a pump attached to me.

My kingdom. And all went smoothly, I might add.

SD turned 29 during spring break (and every spring break of her life) so she always gets the short end of the birthday stick with either people planning vacations from their week of school or now everything getting dwarfed by SXSW. But we were lucky to have GS and AS organize a night for the birthday gal in the midst of the frenzy.

GS lighting SD’s candles.

Happy cupcake, SD!

Of course things don’t always go according to plan. I told everything in my life to settle down while I did this stint for my job, but EB’s tonsils were like, “Eff you, we want to swell up and get angry.” So poor Eebs had to go to the ER twice with a 104°F fever. My mom was in Austin watching A2 and Eebs was out in the hill country for the weekend. Hubs’ parents took her to the emergency room out there and as soon as the brought her back to town, her fever spiked again, so we took her to Dell Children’s ER. Thankfully her tonsils don’t have to be removed right now, but as of midnight on Monday night of Interactive, I thought I was going to watch my toddler go into emergency surgery. Fun (sarcasm).

EB with a fever, waiting for the doctor by taking selfies.

Once the fever went down, she appreciated the Rube-Goldberg-esque machine on the way out of the hospital. She even said, “Oh, I get it.”

EB got on antibiotics (she also had an ear infection to go with the tonsil infection) and settled down pretty quickly. I went in to work the next day – and mind you, this is right after the time change so I was extra sleep-deprived – and decided I was up for the Interactive closing party because Deadmou5 was playing. Turns out Deadmou5 is only fun if you’re up in the mix but mostly lame way in the back of Stubb’s. I tried being in the mix for a hot minute because Hubs and ZB really wanted to go, but someone had wicked stinky pits, I don’t like being bumped into, and I really wanted to sit down for the rest of my life. It was fun (sans sarcasm) because nobody went to the ER.