Sunday, May 31, 2009

OK, Maybe One Story...

Pumpkin just told me that I couldn't have a bath. I need to get little first. "Mommy, 'ou not have a bath. 'Ou need to get little."

Yesterday, she told me I couldn't ride in the shopping cart with her- I needed to get little first.

It makes sense. We tell her she can't do some things until she gets big. So it is only fair that there be some things we can't do until we get little.

Keeping Us Humble

I was planning to write up a post or two this weekend about our recent trip to Oregon. That is not going to happen. It has been a remarkably unsuccessful weekend, in which we learned that if I don't get enough sleep at night I will spend the entire next day sleeping or trying to find a way to sleep and that the schedule flexibility Pumpkin showed on the trip does not extend to days at home.

So tonight, Pumpkin and I are both tired and a bit prone to mood swings, Hubby is frustrated and still trying to cross things off our to do list, and I think I should clean my desk rather than spend much time blogging. The trip story will have to wait!

Monday, May 25, 2009

Another Good Trip

I posted some travel lessons after our first real vacation with Pumpkin, taken when she was almost 16 months old. I didn't post any tips after our trip to Kaua'i when Pumpkin was almost 21 months old, but I think the main lesson learned on that trip was that if you start out the trip with a tummy bug, it is probably not going to be the idyllic family get-together you envisioned. However, despite the tummy bug, that vacation went pretty well. We have just returned from a very good trip to Oregon with Pumpkin, who is now almost 26 month old. I think I may now declare that Pumpkin is a good little traveler. She takes after her Daddy on that one- I love to travel, but I actually tend towards a certain amount of grumpiness about the actual travel process. Pumpkin, on the other hand, loves going on airplanes and also did pretty well on the car trip portions of our vacation.

I'll come back and write a trip story about Oregon later this week. I definitely need to do that, since I forgot my travel journal, and so do not have any notes from the trip. I like to write things down so that I don't forget the little things that really make the vacation.

Tonight, though, I'll just update my travel lessons from that earlier post. First, the things we got right:

1. We planned the driving portions of the trip to roughly coincide with Pumpkin's naptime. This means that we only drove about 2 hours per day. Pumpkin usually only napped for about an hour of that. At first, this made me very nervous, since she usually takes a good 2 hour nap. She did fine with the shorter naps, though, and also did fine with looking out the window telling us what she saw when she was awake. ("Oh! I see trees!" or "I see train!")

2. We came home yesterday, which gave us today (Memorial Day) to catch up on our errands and to let me catch up on my rest. We would have loved to have one more day in Portland, but I think the recovery day at home was more important.

3. We bought some of Pumpkin's favorite snacks once we got to Oregon. Many a delayed meal was saved by Goldfish ("I wan' fishies").

4. Brewpubs are great places for family meals. They are noisy enough that no one will notice your toddler's natural enthusiasm, they always have kids menus, and they usually have good beer to help keep the parents mellow (or in our case, keep the Daddy happy, since Mommy is pregnant).

Some things we didn't get so right:

1. I wrote in the original travel lessons post that we should have looked up the location of playgrounds before the trip. Well, I did that this time, but discovered that just looking them up isn't enough. We should have printed maps to the playgrounds, or at least we should have written down locations. My memory is not what it used to be, Hubby's has never been good, and hotel personnel are surprisingly bad at giving directions to playgrounds. I actually have some ideas kicking around in my head about how to make it easier for traveling families to find playgrounds. Maybe I'll have time to do something with those ideas someday!

2. It is worth the extra money and effort to find a two room suite everywhere you stay, unless you want to go to bed when your toddler does. We had suites at a couple of our stops, and those were definitely the better nights for us.

3. Even our "leak-proof" sippy cup leaked milk on the plane ride up. On the way back, we just asked for milk from the flight attendant. That worked much better.

4. Frequent brewpub trips (see item #4 on the things we got right list) are really frustrating if you are a pregnant beer lover. Even if you are a pregnant beer lover who can't stand the thought of alcohol- with both this pregnancy and my first one, I completely lost the desire to actually drink once I got pregnant. However, I learned on this trip that I can still miss the idea of a nice, relaxing beer.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Envy

Oh, to be two, when the discovery that you own not one, but TWO pink binkies provides several minutes of pure joy.

I can't help but wonder what the equivalent discovery in the adult world would be?

Monday, May 11, 2009

Belated Mother's Day Thoughts

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Hubby taught Pumpkin to say "Happy Mother's Day", which was very cute. We went to the beach, where Pumpkin and her Daddy and her aunt chased the waves. Pumpkin didn't test her luck- as soon as the wave started coming toward her, she would run away, yelling "Run away! Run away!" (Our own little budding Monty Python fan.) Then Hubby and Pumpkin took turns burying each others' feet in the sand. Pumpkin would watch her feet disappear and ask "where (Pumpkin's) feet go?" and then she'd pull them out of the sand, shrieking with laughter, and say "Here they are!" I dug in the sand a bit with Pumpkin, too, and even took a (short) turn chasing waves.

After the beach, we had a nice lunch out and then Pumpkin and I both took naps. All and all, a very nice day.

At the end of the day, I had some time to read some blogs. I saw a comment on one of Moxie's post from someone at a blog called Help A Mother Out. They are running a donation drive right now to get people to send diapers and basic hygiene supplies to organizations that work with mothers who need some help. They've set up Amazon wish lists for the organizations, and you can go and choose some diapers or wipes or what not and send them directly to the organization in question.

The site highlights the fact that government programs don't help these women with diapers, and points out that without a good supply of diapers, you can't send your kid to day care. The thought of a baby sitting around in a dirty diaper because his parents can't afford a clean one breaks my heart. Pumpkin isn't that prone to diaper rash, but she does get one if she stays in a dirty diaper for long at all and it is clearly very painful.

Hubby and I are currently arguing over the most cost effective way to donate some diapers and wipes to one of the relevant local organizations here in San Diego. I encourage everyone to find a way to do the same. If your husband isn't prone to over-analyzing the impact of shipping on your donation (and yes, I pointed out we could choose Super Saver shipping), you can donate via the Amazon Wishlists on Help A Mother Out.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Zenbit; Industrial Birds


















Location:
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Date:
January 23, 2006

Friday, May 08, 2009

Another Breastfeeding Post

Alanna, who is setting up a blog to help share women's breastfeeding experiences, asked me to write a post about my experience. She wanted me to talk in particular about my experience as a breastfeeding mother who went back to work relatively early (when Pumpkin was 3 months old), and therefore, my experiences with pumping. As I mentioned not long ago, my experience with pumping was apparently much better than that of some prominent journalists... but anyway, you can go read my breastfeeding story on the blog.

The Breastfeeding Experience blog is still a beta site right now. Alanna plans to go live with the final site on Mother's Day (which is, wow, this Sunday). I'll come back and update the links as appropriate.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Short Observations

1. Drinking 16 ounces of water starting two hours before the ultrasound appointment was a lot easier to take the first time around. I was GRUMPY by the time I got to the appointment.

2. I was inordinately relieved to find that I actually craved chocolate today, for the first time since I got pregnant with baby #2. Luckily, my co-worker had given me a chocolate bar labeled "Emergency Chocolate" for Christmas. I had been saving it for a particularly bad day, but decided it would be just the thing for my afternoon snack today. Rationally, I know it would be better if I could stand to face most vegetables again, but the return of chocolate to the menu makes me far happier than the return of carrots would.

Real posts coming soon. Hubby and I are almost back to our standard level of behind-ness on our chores, which is a marked improvement from the awe-inducing behind-ness of the past few weeks.