I remembered my password!

I am back! after years of either not being able to post or having forgotten my password to get to my blog!  I missed you bloggy blog blog! 

I am now a mom to 4 (FOUR!!!) great kids and still madly in love with my Beloved Husband. Happily settled down into domesticity with a 7 bedroom house that was once a public school building, kids, cat, dog, lizard, and hopefully in the next week or two I will hear if I am eligible to be a breastfeeding peer counselor through my local WIC office.

My kids are now 14 (15 day after Christmas), 11,  3 (4 in January) and 15months. Boy, girl, boy, girl, how awesome is that!

Anyway, the littlest one just woke from her nap, so I am hitting publish.  it is so good to be back!

Up Up and Away...

Lizzardbits is officially, at this very moment, up in an airplane, skidding over fluffy clouds, admiring the land and water from her skyrise view in the sky.

(Hello, Hillbilly Duhn, guest blogging here!!)

I can't tell you how excited that I am, to finally have my best friend back in the States again. Sure, sure, it will still be awhile before I get to actually lay eyes on her, or hug her silly. But, just knowing that she's back with her kids and family again, warms my heart.

So, here's to Lizzardbits, M and Alex, wishing them a safe journey and all the warm and fuzzies that go with floating hearts and the excitement of a family being reunited. I wish them all the luck in the world and even shed a few tears of happiness for them. I love them all. (my extended family that I adopted way back in the day!!)

I LOVE YOU K. Have a safe and wonderful homecomming!!

Ahhh SLEEP! sort of...

After nearly 11 months of waking to nurse Alex every 1-2 hours, these last 2 weeks he's been sleeping in 3-4 hour stretches, ahhhh, HOWEVER, last night and the night before he slept through the night! From 10pm to 6am and 10pm to 4am, 8 and 6 hours! (5 hour stretches are considered through the night)---Now if *I* could only retrain my sleep rhythms to his again and *I'll* be sleeping through the night--I still wake up every 2-3 hours to check on him and make sure that he's OK on his mat on the floor next to me (we have a too small mattress to fully family bed, so we put our mattress on the floor and Alex has a mat and blankets next to me)

He still morning nurses for 1-2 hours, where we cuddle-nurse in our bed, and we both doze for a bit, which helps me to eek out those precious minutes of sleep, but it is a light sleep and not one that I could handle overnight.

Sad news for me, I have a major dip in my supply, and am taking fenugreek like it is going out of style, I need to get back in the habit of morning oatmeal again. One great side effect of fenugreek that I forgot that I liked was that I smell like maple syrup.

He's not ready to quit breastfeeding and neither am I, so if oatmeal and fenugreek and nurse-a-thons don't work, I am thinking of trying the dom route, but that is last ditch I think.

So anyway sleep and boobies, there you go, great thoughts for the day!

update on Alex

Update to the ambulance post--Alex has a risidual cough now, and is drooling, but otherwise he is as rambunctious and lively as ever--and walking more and more!

The Sirens on the Ambulance go WooWoo Woooo

My baby is sick. His breathing WAS extremely shallow and labored. He was coughing snotty and miserable, but it was the breathing that had us concerned. We called an ambulance and we went to the hospital with him. Well we didn't go under sirens; the driver was a very smooth yet swift driver. In the ambulance he was given a nebulizer treatment that made breathing soooo much easier for him. He was seen at the hospital and was given the diagnosis of bronculitis and thus his breathing as it was. It is viral so we just wait it out and do vick's vapor rub and baby ibuprofen to make him as comfy as possible.

His naps and general sleeping have been craptastic and my brain is shutting down from tiredness.

BUT, he is breathing better and I am typing one handed whilst holding him as he naps and nurses at the same time. Poor kiddo, and poor parents.

this is part of why I blew it with no mo nablopomo, but there are other things going on. just to reassure you though--M and I are still goofy madly in love and we are fine :)

bed calls, love to you, oh loyal blog readers :)

Motrin no Mo', Wear Your Baby Proudly for International Babywearing Week!

Thanks to a babywearing group I belong to near where my folks' live, I was alerted to a craptacular intelligence insulting advertizement by Motrin and directed to Moms who wear their babies. Ugh, *sarcastic note here* I am sooooo gah-laaaaaad that Motrin was there to swoop in to relieve the pain in the neck, shoulders, and back from my "schwing". I am sooooo glad that you called me on being "trendy". blech!

If you search on youtube I am sure that you will find the motrin ad and the HUGE backlash of pissed off PARENTS that wear their babies and children. Twitter is in an uproar, nay the Internet is in an uproar!

This "trendy" way of taking care of babies and young children has been around since parents' wore leathers and cleverly figured out a way to put their baby back on their body with the realization that baby was very portable when baby was in utero, baby can be portable outside of the womb. They did this out of practicality, not some desire to fit in to the "trendy crowd". As it was then, is now today, babies are tied on mothers, fathers, grandparents, guardians and other carers around the WORLD. The "western" world has just started getting its' collective head out of its' bum-hole and realized just because non-western countries do things differently isn't wrong, just different and that western society can and IS learning that babywearing is beneficial other than transportation.

Babywearing promotes a bonding between baby and parents, helps extend and increase successful breastfeeding, helps baby's physical, mental and emotional growth, and surprisingly to the naysayers, promotes the much western idealized characteristic of independence! There are many other benifits that are too numerous to put here in my mini-rant, but those are a few to give you an idea of good this "trendy" thing is :)

here are 2 places to go to learn more about babywearing.
http://www.mamatoto.org/
http://www.thebabywearer.com/

As for me and my house, we will continue to babywear!

I love this picture of the moon. I took it from the top deck of a double decker on 11-11-08 on the 11 bus.


And who doesn't love a happy baby playing on his own and being sweet? Awwww!

Alex says:

/ m0 nhhjnn ttrrgyr 000 m ...]0
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000y08hhkjyu52251 45

I was going to blog a long meaningful blog, but as I sat down to write alex wanted to type so I let him. He was so happy and filled with joy to do what I do. I wish you could hear him laugh.

Also, he still walks for food, lol


/[htrtvg;.,ye.;y.lye';./p tygujhnmn ygtygn x

Five things I miss about America

At Noble Savage, she wrote a post that sings to this American expat's heart. It also smacks of a top 5 list a la High Fidelity

Here is her list that she did expand on, but you will need to go to her blog to read expansions:
1.My family and friends
2. Wide open spaces
3. Autumn
4. Good, affordable food
5. That wondrous, zany American outlook on life

Mine actually follows closely:

1. I miss Miss MISS my family and friends. Although I call my mom just about every weekday, and my Hillbilly Duhn several times a week, hugging phones is NOTHING like hugging the real live human being on the other end of the line. I crave the day we all are reunited.

2. Driving. I love driving long distances and driving at night. I have been driving since I was 12 mminus the year between moving from the acreage and drivers Ed and the 2 years I have been in the UK making it 17 years in total I have been driving and loving it. I am such a car buff and as much as I am trying to be eco-friendly, I just can not stop loving cars, driving and driving long straight wide roads. Motor oil runs in these veins.

3. American food. I like an indian take away now and again, fish and chips and the tradional English sunday roast, but gosh darn it I want me a valasic dill pickle without any sugar, a corn dog, a miller genuine draft, a root beer float that doesn't cost $3 a can to make, as well as flavored coffees that you don't have to go to a specialty tea shop to buy, and tex mex foods. I would love an apple and a pumpkin pie, and a bone-in wood smoked ham. (I am hungry now, lol)

4. Halloween. Halloween is my fah-vorite holiday evah! I look forwards to Halloween like a little kid looks forwards to his birthday. Where I am at Halloween is barely celebrated and is more of a time where people hide away from trouble youth "yobs and hoodies", lock their doors, turn off their lights and pretend to not be home. Well crap, no wonder the youth are pissy, the candy that they sell to give out sucks. "Here have a packet of pink and white marshmallows!" bleeeh. So as another Halloween passed by like a much anticipated birthday that no one could be bothered to remember--I yearn for a fun filled Halloween with all the kids next year back in the USA.

5. Hearing my own Accent. Something about being able to not translate things in my head from British to American and back again is so nice. A trunk is a trunk, not a boot. Chips are chips, not fries, and toe-may-toe not toe-maah-oh for tomato.

I am going to be cheeky and put a sixth because it is actually a tie between number 5 and this one.
6. Affordable clothing that fits Plus size. I needn't say more than that.

Alex loves the BIG kitties--edited-Now with promised pictures!

I love this picture as it looks like Alex is trying to eat the antler.






Today we went to a drive through it type safari park, and there were several enclosures with Lions, Lionesses both yellow and white, Tigers both yellow and white, and Cheetahs and Alex love Love LOVED them. He slapped the car window and hollered "kitty, kitty!" We'll have to upload our pictures to the pc so you can see how happy the little dude was. (btw, yes he was out of his carseat to snap the pictures, and travel around the parks but we didn't go any faster than three [3] mph)


As you can now see he loved it :D

9 months old!

Yesterday, Alex hit the nine month mark, sheesh-where did that baby go that I was counting his age in day or weeks? Anyway, speaking of counting, I got to count out 9 seconds for the time that Alex stood without holding on to anything except crackers. Standing alone! Already! He's going to be my early walker, I think.

He also is sticking his tongue out! I know that sounds a bit silly but with his mild tongue tie, sticking his tongue out is a major accomplishment.

He's quite giggly and laughs a lot as of late and I love it! This is the super cute baby stage I think. He is also more into returning hugs and kisses--awww.

He is really into eating solids, which is a bit bittersweet for me, as I loved being the only form of nurishment for him, but now he's going longer in between nursing some days, so instead of 1 1/2 to 2 hours of nursing he'll go 2-3 to even 4 hours! Wow! He drinks water and juice from sippie cups all by himself, and I'll give him crackers or foods off of my plate and he feeds himself. I did similar for his sister and didn't spoon feed her, I just gave her finger foods so she could feed herself, easy! With Z I started solids early, gave him rice cereal in his formula bottle (so he'd sleep through the night--Doh!) spoonfed him pureed baby food, and he turned out to be thee pickiest eater evah! L loves her food of all sorts, perhaps because she was free to take her time to enjoy food and textures both in her mouth and smeared all over herself. I am hoping that Alex follows suit in his sister's footsteps and enjoys food. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this has a name now--Baby Led Weaning. It wasn't until a few months ago that I knew that BLW even had a label/name.

Separation Anxiety

Yesterday Alex went to daycare for an hour and a half. I had been dreading it for several days, as the longest I have been away from him is 45 minutes whilst I went to the Doctor's office for a blood draw. At that time, he stayed with his Daddy, and I think that they ended up napping. But yesterday, he was at a proper daycare with--Strangers. I fretted and worried about how he'd do without me there, if he'd cry inconsolably, reach for me with big tears in his eyes with that "don't go, Mommy!" look in his eyes. As a stay at home mom I was hoping that it would be a very very long time before I had him in daycare, and it was nearly 9 months that we made it, and as previous experience (Z was only 6 WEEKS old when I returned to work and he went into daycare) two days shy of nine months old is purty-derned gud.

I was in the same building, in fact no further than a floor and phone call away. I was sitting in a class with other mothers, and they too, had young babies and children downstairs. The phone would ring and each of us would wait with baited breath to see if our child needed us. One by one 4 mothers were called down to tend to their child's needs. Not I. Nope, Alex didn't need me.

After the class was over, I wents downstairs to pick Alex up, and he had been the "star" baby. He explored, and played, and ate some banana, drank some apple juice, and generally had a great time laughing and playing and doing his own thing. All that fret fret worry fret fret was for naught.

It has been said time and time again that Attachment Parenting philosophies and practices help children become sure-footed and quite independant, and I have to say that anecdotally, with my children, it definately has gone that way. With Z, although I wouldn't spank him, other parenting techniques I did were quite harsh, and I was never really "there" with him. I love him, dearly dearly do I love him, but my ways with him weren't always so loving, and my patience with him was short, and that mixed in with him having ODD and ADHD, well it wasn't a good time for any of us. He was clingy, he had bad bad separation anxiety when I dropped him off at daycares, grandparents' or with his father, and he was quite introverted, and he developed a slight speech impediment. With L, I was "there" with her, more focused on her needs, gentler, more patient. She became very sure of herself, and rarely would we have separation anxiety. She is a happy little girl who makes friends easily and can entertain herself (even when she's not supposed to, or to the detriment of other's eardrums, but hey! she's joyful!) Alex is following happily, noisily, inquisitively in L's footsteps! Anxiety Schmangxiety--bah! I was the only anxious one in this mother and baby team!

Oh and my class? I am going to be a breastfeeding peer supporter! Yay! Lactivism in a truely asked for and positive way!

He Speaks!

Along with his four shiny new teeth (that makes 6 total) Alex officially said his first word on Wednesday evening---Kitty, and yesterday he said Daddy. He's been babbling da da da and ti ti ti but now he's attached meaning to his noises. He still hasn't signed anything, but he understands his favorites when we sign them to him. We also makes sure we sign Kitty when he sees or says kitty and same for Daddy. No signs of ma ma ma yet, but that's ok, my elder two said Mama first.

Here is Betty--the kitty

Happy 8th Birthday Miss Lil!

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

Wow! It feels like Fall today! Cold, grey, rainy--Oh wait! that was thee ENTIRE British summer this year, minus one week in July, and then the 3 last official days of summer. It was one extended Spring into Fall--makes it ?Sprall? ?Fring? Sprumn? Autuing? Well whatever one calls it, for the most part it was cold grey and rainy.

So, although never a huge fan of Autumn, as in my mind Autumn is quickly followed by that fiend-winter, I do like the cooler days after hot and humid Midwest summers. I love the smell of harvest time on my grandparents Iowa farm and the crinkley sound of dried corn leaves and the smell of coffee and ham sandwiches on buns for the adults helping harvest the crops. I love the multi-colored leaf piles, and carving pumpkins, and thinking out what I want to be and helping my kids decide and dress up for Halloween (my ALL TIME FAH-VORITE holiday). This year, I am hoping with all. that. I. am. that M and I are able to return to the States to be a part of these wonderful smells, and sensations. I want ALL of us, M, Z, L, A and I to dress up as a family and go out trick-or-treating. For now, we wait.....

While we are waiting, how about some Babylove :)






Mmmm I loves me some pudgey Baby piggies!

Picture post-In which we take a nap, chase Betty, go to the park, & stroll through a cemetery

1. nap time for all

2. Angelic sleeping baby-awww!

3. Sleepy Betty

4. Alex loves the Kitty Kitty

5. And he's coming to get her!

6. Psst! watch out Betty!

7. Run Betty! Run!

8. At the park, with his Grr Rawr Grr butt on, Alex crawls away to some mischief

9. He's found Daddy's keys. Wow he looks golden in the warm rays of the sun!

10. Seriously playing

11. Look at that concentration!

12. While young mister is concentrating, Mommy and Daddy steal a smooch or two--awww!

13. Here he comes--"Break it up you two!" he says.

14. After playing at the park, we stroll through an old cemetery so I can take some photographs

15. I love these old Celtic crosses

16. Detail of the center of the cross

17. Cool looking trick of sunlight glinting of the camera lens gives this detail a smokey other worldy look.

18. Out of all the graves, this one and a smaller one near by had these beautiful flowers.

19. Better picture of the flowers

20. Stone angel with a fist of ?judgement? ?fury? Interesting pose for a memorial statue

21. She has such an odd expression for such a wrathful looking pose

22. I just love how this picture turned out.