Continued: Things I've Learned about Motherhood

1. Unsolicited advice doesn't end. Or get less annoying.
2. I get all sorts of weird reactions about Lucan's appearance. "Wow. He doesn't look very Asian." I'm just not sure how to react to these things.
3. Breastfeeding. Some people think it's weird that I'm still doing it. Other people think it's just plain weird.
4. People who like to "encourage" by saying "Oh, it only goes down hill from here..." Thanks for the uber-helpful comments people!
5. We are willing to make a payment to daycare every month that is comparable to our mortgage payment. Who would have thought.
6. I totally think that Lucan's bowel movements are an acceptable topic of conversation. Because of past poop issues and constipation, I feel compelled to encourage and cheer Lucan on when he's trying to poop and then share this with the general public :)
7. There are right reasons and wrong reasons for wanting to be a stay-at-home mom. The right reasons include wanting to be your child's primary caregiver and because you can't imagine missing their day to day life. The WRONG reasons include wanting to get more household tasks done during the day or because society dictates that "good" moms are stay-at-home moms. This topic really irritates me, so if you want an earful, just ask how I really feel about it.
8. As organized as I try to be, sometimes I am just going to drop the ball. For example, a couple of months back Lance signed us up for treats for Sunday School without my knowledge. He did mention it to me in passing, but I forgot. As a result, 20 minutes before church started, we made a panicked run to Wal-Mart for wax doughnuts.
9. Comparisions will drive you crazy. Really, they will. I live a life where over a dozen of my friends have had babies in the past year. If I start comparing Lucan's development or their lives to my own, I start getting a little bit whiny. Or a case of the Jones. As in "keeping up with the Joneses."
10. It's okay to say no. I work fulltime. I have a husband taking night classes two nights a week. I have a baby who wants to be loved. I admit though, I am still working on saying no. I felt totally guilty for not volunteering to head up a couple of different committees at church.
11. Unless you want to hear about Lucan, my life is less "interesting." Meaning, we don't go out to fun, trendy restaurants. We aren't going to concerts, movies, or sporting events. I'm spending less time in the kitchen, but researching more ways to maximize my crockpot. I don't have the time to do massive projects. Do you want to hear about Lucan's poops instead?

12. People still ask really stupid questions. Like "do you just automatically know what to do once you take your baby home?"
13. I admit that our baby is really great. But I think that all moms, for the most part, think that.
14. I view the common cold like malaria. If you have a cold, you deserve to be locked in an isolation chamber. Stay away from me and my child!
15. My child is different than yours, my parenting techniques are different than yours. Lucan is on a schedule, we do not co-sleep, Lucan has never taken a pacifier, no do not believe in rocking him to sleep. And that's okay. Yes, I may think that you could do a few things differently, but that does not give me license to tell you that. Unless you ask for advice. Then all bets are off.
16. Each stage of Lucan's life, I think is more fun than the last stage. I wonder when that wears off. But right now, I'm really enjoying it!


To my friends who are new moms or will be a new mom: motherhood is a life changer. It will stretch you in ways you didn't think possible (and I'm not talking about stretch marks either!) and force your life to revolve around an 8 lb bundle.

Pride & Prejudice & Jane Eyre as children's books?!?

I don't understand. How do you condense Jane Eyre into a children's book?

Especially an illustrated one? Do you leave out the part where Bertha Rochester stabs her brother with a knife, tries to burn Mr. Rochester in his bed, or finally succeeds in burning the top story of the mansion down in its entirety? Or do you just gloss over the whole wife is a raving lunatic locked in the attic? Or maybe you just leave out the whole polygamy part ...



Here's the item description:

Cultivate a love for classic literature with this sweet set of two books. Inspired by Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, this darling duo is designed to help little ones learn to count with the help of two timeless tales.

Includes Little Miss Austen: Pride & Prejudice and Little Miss Bronte: Jane Eyre
Written by Jennifer Adams
Board book / 22 pages
Recommended for newborns to age three years

Don't get me wrong, I love Jane Eyre, I list it as one of my favorites. But it's a little twisted for a children's book, especially ages newborn to three years old.
If you are interested in purchasing these two books and letting me know how they've been made age appropriate, they are on sale for $11.99 at zuily today!

Outdated pictures

These pictures were taken some time ago. Obviously as we've had the world's mildest winter and the world's earliest spring. But I think these pictures are fun.

My mom bought Lucan a snow suit. Truth be told, he didn't need it. But he is darn cute in it!





I had a hard time keeping his hat above his eyes. Lucan didn't like it when his hat slipped down over his eyes and would shake his head back and forth, just making the situation worse.

I think the idea behind this picture was "snow angel."

Instead I got "flailing baby who was upset about being abandoned in the snow by a camera wielding mom."

In this last picture, Lucan has given up and accepted that being the firstborn means having to endure silly photo opportunities.

Champagne tastes

I have champagne tastes on a beer budget. Wait, I take that back. Not even a beer budget. More like a lukewarm, tap water budget.

Take this bag for instance. It's beautiful. It's the Coach Bleecker Legacy Leather Weekend Tote. It retails at $598. It costs just a little less than a month's worth of daycare. Which is our second highest bill after our mortgage.

I can almost imagine the soft, buttery feel of the leather. It would be the perfect work bag, schleping my planner, receipts to submit for reimbursement, my Kindle Fire, a magazine and my makeup bag. Professional and polished. So if anyone comes into a sudden windfall, you know where to find me.

One of my favorite games to play is read a magazine article, pick my favorite item featured in the article, and then see if I've picked the most expensive option there. Usually I can hit it spot on. It's a gift I have.

Nicole and I had a good conversation the other day about consignment shopping. One of my favorite consignment stores in Des Moines is Worn. It only carries current, high end designers. I purchased some of my favorite things there. Nicole also mentioned two other stores: Restyle on 7662 Hickman Rd. in Windsor Heights and the Repeat Boutique on 3913 Ingersoll Ave in Des Moines.

How do you sate your champagne tastes on a tap water budget?

Poison

This is Lucan's face as I try to feed him Apple Strawberry Puffs. Obviously they are poison.



It must be the rough texture that he is so against.


I must be the meanest mommy in the entire world.

Lucan: 9 months old

If there is a word to categorize Lucan's growth and development this month, it would be inquisitiveness. As Lucan has become more aware of his world, he has become more curious about his surroundings. In this instance, curiosity killed the cat. But not literally. Poor Fire, he doesn't get much peace with Lucan around. Lu is chattering and laughing and is constant pursuit of Fire. Lu lu just wants to give Fi Fie a little love. In the form of pulling handfuls of hair.

Fire isn't the only thing that Lucan is curious about. Lucan has also taken to spending much time in front of the entertainment center cabinets. Open the door, close the door, open the door, close the door, open the door, slam the door shut. He's also discovered that he possesses the ability to take DVDs out too! Lance is going to need to figure out the childproof door pulls ASAP. I suppose that's not as bad as this morning when I found Lucan pulling out ant bait from the microwave cabinet.

In addition, Lucan also has discovered my camera lens. Oh goody.

• Lu Lu, skip to my Lu. He makes my heart melt with his sweet smiles, his patience and his exuberance for life.


• At his 9 month appointment, he weighed 20.5 pounds. I think he would have weighed more, but his mid-month bout with an ear infection hindered progress. This puts you in the 50th percentile for weight.


• He is a long boy. I need to double check, but he was in the 70th percentile for height/length. Hopefully this means he won't be short like his momma :)


• Lucan continues to have a ginormous head. Just like his daddy. Lu's head size is in the 90th percentile. Shocking.


• The nurse called Lucan lazy. It ticked me off. Yes, Lucan doesn't feed himself, hold his own bottle, crawl, or wave goodbye. He just doesn't want to. Leave him alone.


• We survived Lucan's first ear infection. All in all, Lucan took it in stride. Much better than I did. I've never seen so much green snot for one little baby. Lucan loved amoxicillin. It must taste good to him, which I find bizarre.


• Lucan has done a couple of art projects at daycare, namely finger painting. Tracy says it goes well, however Lucan does want to try and eat the paint on occasion... The art now proudly adorns our fridge. My mom never put my art or tests up, so I'm making that change early on!


• His bottom two teeth are fully in, but the top two have broke through and are working their way down. Lucan does really well with teething, just a lot more drooly than normal.


• Lucan's favorite food are pears. I'm still making all of his baby food. I will readily admit, it's somewhat of a hassle. But it's really good for L, so I'm in it for the long haul. He's eating a variety of foods: sweet potatoes, squash, peas, spinach, applesauce, avocado, bananas, peaches, mangoes, oatmeal and rice cereal. We've also given him bites of pork roast, steak, chicken, and Lance's idea, not mine - bacon. I also tried to feed L a tiny bit of chicken tetrazini, but he wasn't impressed. We've also given Lucan plain cheerios and some apple/strawberry cereal puffs. He's not a fan of the texture.


• We are still nursing, but Lucan is more interested in his solid foods. I've frozen enough breast milk for kingdom come. I'm not kidding either. Lance thinks I should try and sell some off.


• We need to start babyproofing. L is getting into electrical cords and is pretty mobile, despite not crawling. He loves the remote and my cell phone. Oh and how he gets upset when I take them away from him. He knows he's not supposed to have them, but that doesn't stop him.


• L is still taking about 3 naps a day, anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and 45 minutes. L is just a great sleeper overall. He will sleep an average of 10 to 12 hours each night.


• Speaking of sleeping, Lucan is never in the same place as where I lay him down. I think that he must get really excited at some point and then he flops himself about like a fish. The pediatrician said that I could start putting a loose blanket on him at night. But I think this excites him even more because I can hear him banging his legs against his mattress when I first lay him down. Basically, a blanket gets Lucan really wound up. It's the small things in life folks!


• Mobility issues. No, he's not really crawling. He rolls and pivots very well. But forward motion, not so much. In the past couple of days L has made strides in getting closer to crawling. His idea of crawling is pretty similar to a thirsty man crawling through the desert for a drop of water.


• He got to meet his Great Grandma Ganfield for the first time this past month. They got along pretty well, but L was a little cranky and wasn't really in the mood for smiles or cuddles.

This is Lance and Lucan's latest game. It involves Lance laying his head down on Lucan's high chair and Lucan trying to pop Lance's head off.




I guess it's pretty fun. It must be, it elicits lots of laughter.




Lucan is pretty proud of being able to balance on his tush and raise both legs into the air.




"Mom, I'm cute. You just can't help but love me."

29 - The Year of Glory

Hi friends!

I don't do many recaps, but here's a quick one for those who were inquiring about my birthday.

Being an only child, I believe that I'm not limited to a birthday but more of a birthday-month :) I had several little birthday celebrations starting with the day off on Tuesday, lunch with Nicole at La Mie, dinner out with Lance at Flying Mango, more eating out with our respective familys this last weekend and lots of facebook messages, texts and birthday cards. It's lovely to feel loved on your birthday :)

And for those of you who were wondering, Lance did a good when it came to responding to my birthday letter. I did get a breakfast sandwich and we did got out to dinner. Lance went a different avenue and got us tickets to see Idina Menzel perform here in June. I'm definitely more excited to see her than Lance is. But then again, it's not a surprise. He's not the one singing showtunes at the top of his lungs in the car with the windows rolled down. Apparently none of the cool kids are do this :) I'm so totally going to embarass Lucan when he's older.

Speaking of Lucan, the best birthday present I got was a homemade card from Lucan that was in my lunchbox. We have a tradition of homemade cards in our family. Lance made one from him, but I wasn't expecting one from my sweet lil' babe!

Isn't that precious?

Year 29 is going to be a big year as once I reach the age of 30, I have to have my life figured out. I need to make a will, get additional life insurance, figure out what I want to be when I grow up, and basically be responsible. I suppose this will also mean less frivolity.

Hmm... being a grown-up doesn't sound like much fun. It's a good thing that Lance and I are saving for a big vacation as a reward for becoming adults. We've been saving for this vacation for the past 3.5 years. We've toyed with the idea of going back to Hawaii, going on a cruise, or doing a wine tasting tour of California. Basically, we want a vacation that involves food and relaxation. Minus Lucan. Yep, that's our idea of a good time!

Large Heads

Lance loves this photo with both of them in matching Dekalb Seed Corn hats.
It demonstrates how large of heads my boys have. Both hats are adult sized stocking hats, but the one on Lance's head is older and has been stretched out from previous wear. The hat on Lucan's head is also adult sized, but newer and not stretched out. We haven't pinned the hat back to make it fit on Lucan's head, it just naturally fits. Lucan was born with a 90th percentile head. It shows.