Boy Noises

I'm starting to worry for my son. Not because of anything he's doing, but of what I can't do. I can't make boy noises. For example:

We brought home a toy school bus from Aunt Jenn's the other day. When Daddy came home, he asked me if anyone had made noises with it. Ummmmm, no. I hadn't even thought of it. So Daddy spent a few minutes showing Jack how the bus could sound like a bus/racecar as it drove around the family room. It was like a whole new toy for him. Why hadn't I thought of that??

It was then that I realized that I may not be the best mommy-to-a-boy after all. How can I raise a boy to play like a boy when I don't know how to make boy noises? And I'm not exaggerating. I stink at racecar noises. I can't do plane noises. And I REALLY lack any skill to make gun noises. These are all very important noises for little boys to know how to do. Since I'm the one who is home all day with him, he gets most of his education from me. And I can safely say he’s not getting a good education in making noises while I’m around.

Thank goodness for Daddy!! He's an expert noise maker*. He has impressed me with boy noises ever since we were dating. (My favorite happens to be his shotgun noise, which he makes as we're driving along and see a groundhog, deer, or goose that needs to be 'hunted'.**) I knew when I found him, that I'd found a great Daddy-to-a-boy. I can only hope that he can undo all the horrible noises Jack has to hear throughout the day.

*Now, stop thinking of all the other boy noises that we DON’T like to hear. I’m not talking about bad boy noises. I’m keeping it completely innocent here, people!

**sorry if this offended any non-hunters out there. Really, I think he just enjoys making that shotgun sound, so any chance he gets, he does it.

I'm "Crunchy"

The other night, Hubby and I were invited to dinner by one of his co-workers. It was such a nice invitation to come out to the country and enjoy a casual evening with new (to me) friends. They had a great home, yummy food, and CUTE kiddos! I enjoyed the visit especially with this co-worker’s wife, because she and I had a lot of similarities. She used to be a teacher (taught kindergarten for 7 years) and then became a stay-at-home-mom when her daughter was born three years ago. She could completely relate with my sadness from not going back to my classroom this year for the first time. The other big connection for us was our love of our laptops and the internet. We both feel like we need our connections online. And both of our husbands don’t understand this at all! So, needless to say, we bonded.

During the evening, we shared our baby and parenting stories. I think mom’s can go on for HOURS talking about our kids and their stories. While we were sharing, she said to me “you’re crunchy!” It was not meant to offend me, and it was said in jest mostly. But it got me to thinking. For those of you who don’t know, ‘crunchy’ refers to being ‘granola’ or ‘hippy’ or an earth-lovin’, organic-eatin’, tree-hugger.

Am I crunchy? Let’s see.

1. I use cloth diapers on my son. I love how cute they are. That’s one of the main reasons I use them. They also keep Jack from getting rashes, and they hardly ever leak. And they’re saving us money.



2. I breastfeed. I used formula for one week when Jack was born, and I was waiting for my milk to come in. Since then, we nursed for every meal until we started solid food. And we don’t use bottles much, since I’m staying at home and don’t have need for bottles very often. I have my home-made cover (Hooter Hider) for when I am out in public and need to feed Jack. I’m also getting pretty good at feeding him in the van. This has saved us a ton of money.



3. I make my son’s baby food. I never realized how easy it was. I can make sure he’s not getting any unnecessary sugar or ‘other’ ingredients that aren’t good for him at this age. I’m hoping it’s saving us money.



4. I’ve only purchased one toy for my son. He has toys, but they’re from family and friends. All of his toys from me are containers and boxes. He LOVES the empty oats round containers. This is definitely saving us money.



5. I use a ring sling. It seemed like it would last us longer than a baby carrier, since they only last through a certain weight. As long as I can carry his weight, I can use this sling for years. I bought it for 50% less than the original price. So that saved us a bit of money.



6. We got rid of cable. Jack doesn’t need to watch TV yet. And it’s another distraction during the day that I just don’t need. (The internet is enough) This is definitely saving us money.


7. I meal plan and make sure we eat at home almost all the time. I grocery shop every Monday to get what I need for that week’s meals. Since we rarely eat out anymore, I think we’ve saved money on food.

So, do you think I’m crunchy? I’m thinking I’m more thrifty than crunchy, but you can be the judge. I do own a tye-dye shirt.

A Few Missed Moments

***This is my first time ever linking to any blog carnival. This is a learning process for me. To my friends and family who do not know what a blog carnival is, just check out the link and you'll see at the end of that post, a lot of links. Those are other bloggers who are sharing their stories in the same way.

Last week I did NOT turn around and say out loud, “How did you get over there?” to my 7 month old son who just learned how to army crawl. Nope, not me! I was NOT reading through my list of blogs while he was making his longest distance yet with this new army crawl. It seems I may need to schedule a different time to check up on my blogs, and I may need to start baby-proofing a little better.

I did NOT ask my husband, “Did he just cruise around that big toy by himself?” and miss yet another Growth Chart Moment. This time I was not on my computer, but I was texting a friend at the time. I see a trend, do you?

I did NOT almost cry when the internet went out after a lightning bolt struck our house (not really, but it was REALLY close!) and the technician on the phone said it’d be THREE DAYS before someone could come out. I don’t know how to survive without the internet anymore. My husband said “we’ll have to go back to how we used to do things.” I gently reminded him that we didn’t used to share photos and videos of our son online.

My son does NOT scream his head off when we leave him alone with anyone for any amount of time right now. My sister did NOT have to drive him to the park, sit with him, and drive him back to meet me after my dentist appointment all while Jack cried the ENTIRE time.

My husband did NOT take me to the Newport Aquarium in KY for our anniversary last week. We decided it was going to have to be a family anniversary day, since Jack is so little, and we can’t leave him with anyone for any amount of time right now. Jack did NOT cry all the way home. I guess he was sick of being in the car.

And finally, I really did not start a new school year with a new set of students in my newly set up classroom. And because that really didn’t happen, I felt a little sad. It’s been 27 years of gearing up for school to start in August. This year I am staying home with my son. I’m not sure anyone really understands this sadness. I hear a lot of “I wish it were me!” But for me, being a teacher, and being in a classroom with students was where I belonged. I had a place to fit in. I knew my place in the world. Now, as a stay-at-home-mom, I feel like I’m floating in the world without a place to belong. I no longer have a set of friends just down the hall. Though I’m looking forward to the joys of raising my son, I still feel a little sadness about leaving my now ‘past life’ behind.

Boozle -vs- Buddy SMACKDOWN!

The other day, we took Jack’s monthly progression photo.

It all started out just fine. Then, my spirited son decided to give Buddy Bear a quick slap on the back of the head.

Buddy didn’t really like that. It seemed that Buddy Bear said something not-so-nice about Jack after the little slap. Jack looked at me as if to say, “Mom! Did you hear that??!” I had to remind him that he had just slapped Buddy on the back of the head.

The next thing I know, these two good friends are going at each other like there’s no tomorrow. No matter how many times you tell these kids that serious fights can start out as just a friendly punch or slap, they never learn. Oh wait! That's what I said for 9 years to my 6th graders. Old habits die hard. It’s hard to say who had the upper hand, but it’s safe to say they were both holding their own for a while. They were each trying to put the hurt on the other.

Eventually, my son did gain the upper hand (we aren’t raising a sissy here!), and he took control of Buddy Bear, winning this photo shoot-turned-wrestling match by biting Buddy’s ear and body slamming him. That’s my boy!

And the two decided that they’d rather be friends than fight.

I’m sure that’s a friendly pat on the back, right? My son couldn’t possibly be an instigator, right?

It's Official

I think I can now say that Jack is crawling. It's more like an army crawl right now, and he doesn't get very far very fast, but he does get to where he wants to go now! He's not aware that he can army crawl yet. When he sees something he wants, he bounces and leans forward, but doesn't want to fall to his belly yet. He hasn't caught on that if he falls to his belly, he will then be able to crawl to the desired toy. I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

The onset of my son crawling means I'm going to start crawling too - to baby proof the house. Although I could do it the lazy-mom's way. When he gets into something he's not supposed to get into, I'll know I have to move it up. Until then, everything stays as-is. I'm currently trying to do SOME baby proofing. We'll see how well I can look at my home with fresh, baby eyes.

ABCs

Jack is never going to learn his ABCs.

His highchair came equipped with a lot of toys, one of which says the alphabet or counts to ten if you push their corresponding buttons. Here is what you get when a 6 month old pushes the buttons:

You can see how distraught he is about this alphabet and counting confusion.

I have my work cut out for me in regards to teaching him his ABC's and 123's!

Ummmm

What happened to my son?? Who stole him and replaced him with this even MORE perfect baby today?

I hate to blog about it, because I am officially jinxing myself, but I have to share.

JACK SLEPT FOR10 HOURS STRAIGHT!!!!!!!!!! I got a total of 7 hours of UNINTERRUPTED sleep last night.

Just when you think you have them figured out....

Again, My son hates to sleep!!

Have I mentioned that my son hates to sleep? It doesn’t matter if he’s in my arms, Hubby’s lap, or his crib. He will SCREAM when he feels himself falling asleep. Here is another installment of “My son hates to sleep!”

Yesterday was a good day. He had two decent, but not great naps. By around 7:00pm he was exhausted and ready for bed. We did the usual routine, sans the books. After the diaper change, he was too worked up to settle down for bedtime books, so we went straight to the nursing. He fell asleep peacefully while nursing, and the transition to the crib was flawless. He was out for the count. On with my evening chores I went.

Within the first hour, he was up. He screamed until I came to ‘rescue’ him from his bedtime misery. I rocked him back to sleep in just a few minutes.

The second hour brought the same scenario. He screamed until I ‘rescued’ him again by rocking him to sleep. Two times I can handle.

The third hour brought the same scenario yet again. I wasn’t as patient in my ‘rescuing’, but it went the same way – rocked back to sleep. All three times it seemed all he wanted was to be in my arms. He didn’t seem to be in pain from teeth, or discomfort from gas. Each time he easily fell back to sleep when he was with me.

The FOURTH time in three hours, I finally decided I’d had enough. I was worried that I was going to be up every hour all through the night, and I definitely didn’t want that. On my way to his room, I closed our bedroom door (so Hubby might possibly get some sleep) and then the nursery door behind me. I knew it was going to be a loud evening.

The next two hours were touch and go. Of course it started out with tears. He screamed because I wasn’t picking him up this time. I patted him, and kept a hand on him, which he eventually pushed away. Have I mentioned that he’s like a horse when he’s annoyed about being in his crib? Yes, he kicks the bed like a horse stomping the ground. After a half hour of crying, he finally took a pacifier. I’m pretty sure he fell completely asleep in 5 minutes, but he felt it, didn’t like it, and woke up with a vengeance.

I let him sit up for a while, since he’d been crying for more than 30 minutes, and I figured he had some gas bubbles in his little belly. While he was sitting up, he first tried to fall asleep – his head slumped over his chest, leaning on the side of the crib. Next he screamed, because he realized he wasn’t getting picked up out of his crib. And then he decided to smile and play. He found out that he could reach the crib rail, look over the edge of the crib, and chew on the rail. He was actually very cute.

*this picture is blury because there was barely any light, and I didn't want to use the flash. The shutter had to stay open for a while to let all the light in, so any movement made it blury.

I sang “Jesus Loves Me” about 200 times, all while he was crying. I sat in the chair where he couldn’t see me for a while, thinking that may work.

In the end, I think he just gave up finally. I was patting or rubbing his belly, he rolled over onto his side (always a good sign) and fell asleep. I crept quietly down the hall to my bedroom, where I turned the monitor on. I was assuming he would wake up in a few seconds and we’d have to start the whole process over again. Finally, my body relaxed, my eyelids drooped (more than they already were), and I breathed a sigh of relief. He was asleep. Hubby was asleep. I was asleep. All was right with the world!

Three hours later, he woke up crying. I nursed him right back to sleep. One fight a night is enough for me!