time

Buddha is getting older, therefor napping less and demanding more attention. Thor is getting as much attention as I can spare while still making sure Hermes gets his share. With all this attention being passes around the Pantheon, my blogging is sufferring. I will post when I can, but cannot make promisses as to the regularity.

best laid plans...

I had every intention of taking the Pantheon out today to allow them to blow off extra steam. Thor is revelling in his new found freedoms, and Hermes, true to his name, just wants to run. Also, I think Buddha would like some fresh air and looking at the tree colors. The weather people have been saying that it would rain today, but not untill this evening...I believed them. I am now looking out my window at one hell of a thunderstorm. At least I closed up the van this time.

Dr Strangetalk, or How I learned to stop worrying and love the Telletubbies

It is no small secret that I loathe the Telletubbies. They are annoying, kind of frightenning, and I thought they didn't teach children anything.
Enter this morning. Thor is watching TV, Telletubbies come on, and before I get a chance to run over and change the channell, he is TALKING TO THE TV!!!! He sat in rapt attention for 25 minutes. When the Telletubbies would say "Hello!" and wave, he would say "Hello" and wave, when they would cover their mouths and go "Oh oh!" he would, when they said "Goodbye" he said "Goodbye", if they did a littledance and sang, he would do a little dance, and the words he didn't sing, he would humm. I still don't know how I feel about the Telletubbies, but they are able to get through to Thor and have him talking for the better part of half an hoyr, and then, continue using the words for the rest of the day. Also, the screaming and shrieking is less frequent, he also can say "Love you" now. How can I disagree with that.

Blog posting...on a stick!

It's almost time for the MN State Fair. I haven't been in years, largely because I was working during the week and working Ren Fest on the weekends. I remember loving the state fair when I would go with friends in my teens, largely because it gave us a really large area in which to missbehave. I also love the food. No where can you get so much deep fried food on a stick! I have lived in a few other states, and have friends from all over the country, and from what I can tell, we in MN are pretty unique with how big our state fair is for us. I haven't quite decided yet if I'm going this year, but if I do, I will keep a record of everything on a stick that I encounter, and a log of how much I eat...promise.

Swell, plus, new blog-names for the boys!

Littleman, as I have stated many times before, is most certainly not little. At two months shy of two years, he dwarfs many a three year old. He is also extremely strong for his age. He is very good at communicating with people, but not so much at talking, more facial expressions, various noises, and the dreaded shriek. Myself and others have realized he is actually very bright, he understands a goodly portion of what is said to him, and follows directions well, at least when it suits him to do so. In order to coax him into using words more, or at least to move his lips when he speaks, I have begun ignoring the shrieks and screams, and speaking like a very clearly enunciating, broken record. This is paying off! Last night I got 'Cookie', 'HELLoooooo', 'Cup!', 'Yellow', 'Green' and 'Frog!GEEE' added to his repertoire of words that already include - baby; howdee, yeehaw, hiYA!, and Buddha's name, plus momma, poppa, dada, dadapoppadada, EIEIO, brother, and bottle. Not as many words as our pediatrician would like, but still good. Since littleman isn't little, and seems to be a man of action as opposed to a man of words, and because I could see him hurling a large double headed hammer named Mjollner rather nicely, his new blog name will now be Thor!

Bigguy, though older than Thor by a good three years, is oddly enough, not big! He is a little monkey boy who is always climbing and running and jumping and exploring and learning. He is very fine of features, and as I know I have stated here before, has eyelashes to kill for. Everyday, he continues to amaze me by speaking more and more like a little adult, as opposed to a five year old boy. He is devestatingly intelligent and knows it, he also knows enough to have figured out that playing dumb sometimes might be the way to go. He is bery good at getting his point across, and, especially for his age, surpisingly good at relaying messages from one person to another. His favorite passtimes are speaking for his brothers, running wild, playing jokes on people, playing on the computer, learning foriegn languages, and quote him "just being me". I think for these and many more reasons, he will now be called Hermes

Buddha is still Buddha, when one has attained enlightenment, that is that. He stopped crying long enough immediately after his immunizations to smile at the nurse who administered them. He was upset about his teething, until lo and behold! He can chew on his fist or toys, and no more pain! He is generally the happiest, most peaceful baby I have ever seen, and there is something very calming and soothing about his eyes. Eyes which fluctuate between light grey, light blue, bright blue, deep blue, dark blue, and a very dark grey-sometimes in a ten minute period! Hubby says they are Titanium, the Dr says they are gunmetal. My spiritual friends say they are old and wise and serene. So Buddha he stays.

Hubby and I, well, we keep our names.

Beware the Rabid Mommies

I, like all mothers, have moments where I doudbt I know what the hell I am doing, while at the same time being confident that what I am doing is the best thing. I know that I am raising my children the best way I know how, and with the exception of keeping the house as clean as it should be, am doing the right things for them. The key here is that it is right for ME AND MY CHILDREN! Rarely will I tell someone else they are raising their kids wrong. I fully understand that my way isn't the right way for everybody, and is down right the wrong way for a few, I deal with this. If someone asks me for parrenting advice, I let them know that this is what worked for me, but there is no guarentee that it will work for them. Example-out of my three kids, I can count on the fingers on one, maybe both hands, the things that have worked for two, let alone all three of them. Children are suppossed to thrive off of a routine, Littleman does, Bigguy fights it at all cost, so obviously I could not tell another mommie that the routine I use with Littleman is the best there is and if she doesn't use it she is WRONG!!!!! Also, kids devoelop differently, something that is very obvious in Littleman. At 22 months of age, he is very bright, but doesn't talk often. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong, he just doesn't talk. But...but...but...if he's not taaaaalking, how am I ever gonna get him into a goooood pree schooool. I don't plan on him going to preschool till right before kindergarten, and I am most certainly not gonna go on a quest for a preschool that will guarentee him access into Harvard. (Some mommies think this is the worst thing you can do to your child, you know, not have them in the right preschool, fer chrissakes!)
Rabbid mommies are the mommies who their way is the only right way. The tend to be wealthy, or extremely religious, or extremely 'cause"bent somehow (ei-only organic everything), or a combination of the three. I would love to feed my kids only organics, hire a private tutor to teach them everything they will learn in kindergarten and first grade by the time they are four so that their first two years of school are constant tedium, and limit their group of friends based solely on what their parents beliefs are, really, but here in the land of lower middle class suburbia, I do what I think is right from minute to minute- All you want to eat is peanut butter (jif-not organic) and honey on toast, but if I give it to you, you'll drink milk? Okay! Protien and dairy wins! You want to stay up till 9:30 at night, wake up when I do at 6 in the morning, and than nap before dinner? Are you alert during the day and getting the requisite number of hours of sleep? Awesome, you go for it! You want to play under the kitchen sink...no, not gonna happen (make note to get new baby locks.) Wanna help Momma give Buddha a bottle, because he is only four months old and momma is weaning him, Fabulous, see how he smiles at his big brothers when they do this! I don't care if in some countries they nurse till the kid is four, I don't care if you and all your friends are nursing your kids till they are one, I am doing what is best for me and my family. So you can have your kids in bed by eight, never give them soda, never let them play in the mud, jump on a bed, run around like idiots, and wear clothes that do not match. These are my kids, and we're doing what works for us. Oh, and the youngest two...they wear DISPOSABLE DAIPERS..BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!

inhale, exhale, smile, repeat

I am currently sitting at my computer desk, basking in breeze coming through the window. The weather outside this morning is perfect. The house is opened up, all the fresh air is coming in, all the stale air is going out. Screw spring cleaning, spring cleaning has nothing on a late-summer airing-out.

new nipples

After trying to give Buddha a bottle last night using pretty much every type of nipple in the house, and watching how he took the bottle (or didn't), I decided that maybe the problem wasn't that he wouldn't take a bottle of formula, but that, after being breast fed for four months, he wouldn't take the style of bottle we had. Since I had to go out for milk, I figured I would look into some different bottle make and moddles. After browsing the aisle for what seemed a rediculously long time, I found the evenflo Elan. I never thought I would buy a bottle that had a car-like name, but it's the only one I picked up, and I am glad I did. It is a wide bottle, which makes mixing formula easier, it vents air in at the nipple, to keep the fluid flowing, and vents air OUT the bottom, which really keeps babe's from getting gassy tummy aches. The nipple is silicone, the prefferred artificial nipple choice of most nursing mom's, it is a slightly firmer silicone at the tip, which is a little longer than what you would find on other bottles, and the base of the nipple is very soft, flexible, and has a few little bumpies on it. Basically, it is the most breast-like bottle nipple I have ever seen.

When I got home from dropping Hubby off at work this morning, I made Buddha a four ounce bottle, figuring that once again, three or so would go to waste. I would have made two ounces, but I purchased the nine ouncer instead of the six ouncer, I think maybe it was a choice based on color options. Anywho, after a very small initial fuss, Buddha latched right on to the bottle, sucked most of it right down, got angry when I took it away to burp him, then happilly finished. He had very little gas or spit-up, and is now peacefully napping.
I am so pleased I finally found something that works for me. I can now start gently weaning, like I want to, knowing it won't be a constant up-hill battle, knowing that I will not be getting the angry, pouty face every time I attempt to give him a bottle, and knowing, feeling, again, that I am not a bad mommy for doing this. Everything will be all right.

Who knew that one bottle, of the right variety, would do so much.