Tupy Trio

The worst diet in the world.

2010-08-14T12:44:00.004-05:00

WARNING: This posts mentions boobs. So if that weirds you out, turn away now.

After battling yeast diaper rashes for months and months and then finally conquering those, I figured out that I have what the breastfeeding community calls intraductal thrush/yeast. Intraductal meaning it's moved inside my milk ducts. Thrush is normally a term for a yeast overgrowth in the mouth and can be a common breastfeeding problem in children who are nursing. They get the yeast in the mouth which manifests in white patches on their tongue and gums. This is easily transferable to the mother's nipple (yes, I said nipple) because yeast thrives in moist, warm environments and is fed by sugar (of which breast milk has plenty).

This whole battle began just after 3.0 turned a year old and I went through kidney stone surgery and received antibiotics. Now, just as a note to you women out there who might be pregnant and are planning on breastfeeding, a word of advice - DO NOT take unnecessary antibiotics. Avoid them like the plague and question the necessity of them with your doctor before he/she prescribes them to you. The same goes for prescribing them for your child. They are a world of trouble and pain waiting to happen. In my case, I needed them because I was going through surgery but they still effed me up.

Anyway, back on track. After four months of constant pain and waking up for hours in the middle of the night because I could not sleep through it, I made my first call to a lactation consultant. Yes, I'm one of those crazies who is still nursing my 18 month old even though he can walk on his own and eat solid food. If you need me to justify my reasons for that than you haven't done enough research into the benefits of breast milk or the average age of child led weaning. I'm not going to justify my decision, it is what it is. The lactation consultant suggested doing a heavy dose of flucanozole, and oral anti-fungal medication. That helped some but certainly didn't take it away. So I decided to take the next step and cut out all sugar, carbohydrates, dairy and a whole list of other foods from my diet. In case you are wondering here is a list of Foods To Avoid when on this diet. Pretty much everything enjoyable in life, no?

After almost a month of being on this diet I can say that the pain has stopped, I can sleep at night, I feel much healthier and as an added bonus I've lost 6 lbs. We are eating a whole bunch of vegetables that I never would have thought to have picked up before and we've brought experimentation back into our kitchen. 2.0 is having a blast concocting different dishes with all sorts of spices and has now discovered that he looooves fenugreek (a common spice in Indian cuisine). He's totally on board and supportive and is slimming down himself.

The hardest part of this diet, and probably most, is finding a balance between adhering to it and discovering treats that you can allow yourself to have. I'm sure most diets fail because a person eventually gives up on not having a snickers bar or 85% dark chocolate, in my case, and then they buy $50 worth of sweets, put in The Notebook and binge on Hagan Daaz ice cream while bawling their eyes out.

I've been experimenting over the last three weeks with finding my allowable sweet treat. It's come in the form of a delectable truffle ball. It's vegan, raw, gluten free, dairy free, sugar free and completely guilt free. The only questionable ingredient would be the cocoa powder but carob just isn't cutting it for me. bleh.

So here's the recipe base in case you want it. I used a mixture of Stevia and Xylitol for sweeteners. I would highly recommend doing research on these because they both have incredibly low glycemic indexes. Stevia contains virtually no calories because it's made from a leaf. Xylitol has 2/3 the calories of regular sugar, burns much slower, and is actually GOOD for your teeth. And heck no, this kid didn't eat any of these. These are Mama's treats. He gets the frozen blueberries that stain his fingers purple and fruit leathers.

Truffle Balls

2tsp Tahini (I use raw almond butter due to allergy)

1 T Yacon Syrup or you could sub stevia

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

2T coconut

1/2 cup carob powder

2 T + milk alternative (almond is yummy)

Combine all ingredients except milk & carob. Add carob alternatively with milk until consistency of fudge. Roll into balls & roll in coconut. I sometimes add coconut to the mix as well.

Other yummy additions are hemp seed & coconut.

The Wild Rumpus!

2010-08-13T14:36:00.005-05:00

You can't have a bad time when the word rumpus is involved. At least, that's what I told my step-sister Grace when she accompanied us on an adventurous outing to a Minneapolis children's bookstore. Of course, she had been there as a middle schooler so she had a sense of what it was going to be like.

Chickens. Chickens running around freely. Cages lining the walls filled with doves, cockatiels, ferrets, and free roaming cats napping in baskets. A child's delight and a mother's fear. Especially if you are the mother of a toddler who has yet to learn the skill of petting. I was constantly living in fear of two things:

1. My child plucking the chicken and then my being forced to pay for the chicken to go to therapy.

2. My child pulling each and every book off of the shelves and my being forced to stay there for weeks and weeks reorganizing the books back into their doohicky decimal system.

But overall, the Rumpus was a fun place to be and we got to watch 3.0 run around doing his banshee yell, pointing and grunting at all the creatures.

Mo Willems inspired dove (or pigeon).

The 70's chicken with the bell bottoms -

The bookshelves

3.0 informing me that petting a Griffin is way cooler than petting a sleeping cat -

Grace leading 3.0 out the mini door -

Who stole the hummus?

2010-08-03T18:42:00.003-05:00

How do you fit a quarter tub of hummus onto three crackers? I don't know. But somehow the hummus monster has figured out a way. In one week's time we've torn through three containers of various different hummus flavors. This kid is insane.

I'm going to have to start licking his fingers in order to get any hummus around here.

Tip Me Over...

2010-07-21T21:50:00.004-05:00

...and pour me out!

Child o'mine is ooooooobsessed with pouring and dumping things out. All day, every day he converts his normal non-pool/bath toys into mechanisms for pouring or dumping. He's done with his water, he dumps it on the floor. His mega blocks are no longer for stacking but only for the fun of dumping them out of the bag and then making me play 3942 mega-block-pick-up. My favorite game.

But there is nothing quite like the joy of pouring water from the bathtub or kiddie pool from various oddly sized and shaped vessels. Especially when looking like a beach bum comes so naturally.

Special thanks to Grandparents Bruce and Janet for the purchase of the kiddie pool. And special thanks to Grandparents Merry and Roger for the use of the backyard in order to set up said kiddie pool.

Crunchy Granola....Bars.

2010-07-15T18:53:00.009-05:00

We all already know my views on babywearing. I'm fairly outspoken about my views on breastfeeding. My son shared our bed until he was 11 months old. We use cloth diapers (when yeast isn't invading our household).

In internet terminology (mostly nerdy parenting forums) the term "crunchy" or "granola" refers to someone who is natural or a hippie. Now, I'm not one to ascribe to many of the ideologies that came out of the 60's but I do like to do things au naturale whenever possible. You know, except for like not shaving cause yeah, well....eww.

So it shouldn't be of any surprise that my son is wearing a necklace made from Baltic Amber which I purchased from Inspired by Finn (do I get something for plugging their name?) I've put this off for a long time. Mainly for fear of 2.0's reaction to his son wearing a necklace. But these molars are killing me and these things are supposed to have some sort of magical mystical quality that takes away pain. Or some kind of acid that works as an analgesic when in close contact with one's skin. It's probably not a good idea to mention acid and the 1960's in the same post. Either way, parents all over the place are raving about them and how they work and make your baby sleep better and take away teething crankiness, blah blah. And they hooked me with some kind of 30% off discount when you mention them on facebook...I'm a sucker.
What was 2.0's reaction, you ask? The following is taken from a transcript of our txt message conversation after I sent him a picture via phone -

Me: Check out Mozy's new amber necklace.
2.0: What? He's 80's now? Does it have a gold cross too?
Me: And who wore emo silver bean chokers in high school? That would be you.
2.0: Now all he needs is a miniature red Fiaro that he can wash while listening to Van Halen on his boom box.

End Transmission.

Add to the previous list of crunchy qualities and homeopathic teething remedies the fact that I juuuuuust baked homemade granola bars....yeah. Free monogamous love, baby.

Peace!

Oh and sorry this is blurry - he was running at me shouting like a banshee.

The week from hell.

2010-07-04T17:11:00.005-05:00

It's been a long time since I've written here. This topic is so much deeper and so much more painful than anything I've ever spoken of in this space.

Sometimes, during our days there is less being spoken but more being said. There are times of quiet where 2.0 and I just reflect and express our thoughts in glances, the way married couples so often do. Every day the hurt ebbs and flows, gets stronger and then is more tolerable. Two steps forward, one step back. The dance of healing. Getting worse and then getting better.
Pain is pain, no matter if it is emotional or physical it still hurts. No one can take away your physical pain or make a cut heal faster for you. In like manner, no one can bear this burden for us nor make us heal any faster than we will. Time heals all wounds, right?

No matter what it always comes back to the fact that we lost our baby. We lost our baby. A child we tried for and wanted so badly. Come back, little one. Maybe that body just wasn't right for you and you need something stronger. Oh God, please take care of my little one or send him/her back to me.

No matter how little you were, you will always be a part of our family. The pain might fade but the memory never will. We love you,

Your Mum-mum, Da, and big brother.

Sliiiiiiide

2010-05-07T22:45:00.003-05:00

When spring first sprung and we started taking little Marcus to playgrounds he hated the slide. He would cry going down. He would cry sitting on your lap while you went down with him. Along with the cry came this sound that could only be made in the depths of your gut with considerable abdominal tension accompanying; "eeeeeehhhhh!"

He wasn't real fond of the swing either. So when you cut out the slide and the swing that really only leaves you with going up stairs because this 14 month old hasn't mastered walking down them yet. Unless of course you "help" him by holding his hands while he blindly steps off of them and then catching him in his fall. As you can imagine, I couldn't tolerate the monotony that is up and down so I masterfully assimilated him into the love of swing and slide. He still doesn't like a full swing but he enjoys a relaxed and lazy back and forth especially if you place your face close enough so that when he comes forward you bump noses or kiss. That's how we got him to like the swing. Once he was okay with that it seemed like his gut toughened up a bit and it wasn't too long afterward that he enjoyed the slide.

Unfortunately, unforeseen in my mind was the fact that with loving the slide comes....up and down. Because now he's "forgotten" how to climb the stairs and walk to the top of the slide; he needs us to pick him up and plop him at the top. sigh.

What?! I have a blog?

2010-04-15T22:38:00.003-05:00

Say it isn't so?

Okay, so I admit I've been avoiding this. But I've been sort of busy lately. And by sort of I mean I've been busy watching Lost and reading books. Oh, did I mention buying diapers?

So, a couple of weeks ago we went to the Children's museum. It was fun and little 3.0 had a blast at the water works section of it. Who wouldn't? You get to dress up in an apron like a mad scientist and leave the place soaked and smelling like chlorine.

The View From Our Patio

2010-03-26T16:58:00.002-05:00

I caught this the other day as I ran out to the car to grab something. As much as I complain about our north facing apartment not letting in light, we do have an awesome location for viewing sunsets.

Aye!

2010-03-24T16:13:00.003-05:00

I may have mentioned this before but we have our first official word over here in Tupyville. "Hi". Yes, the extroverted son born to two introverted parents blossoms into language with a greeting. He loves his first word so much that he will chase down strangers walking past and shout after them "Aye! Aye!" until they turn around and say hi back.

Of course, "aye" also means "I want" when accompanied with a long arm outstretched for an adult's cell phone, food, or drink.
For an accurate representation of how he approaches people see photo below. He gets this stance and saunters up to someone, stares them down and then exclaims "Aye!" Most of the time it's women who laugh and giggle and chat back with him while expressing his cuteness; and altogether giving 2.0 and I more attention than we would prefer. This has caused a few awkward moments where I've had to divert 3.0 from trying to grab at some other person's cookie at a coffee shop. I guess he's teaching 2.0 and I how to break out of our shells a bit.

Et Tu Brute

2010-03-21T17:53:00.003-05:00

In a fateful aligning of interesting historical factoids we happened to snap this photo on March 15th - the Ides of March. A day set aside in the middle of the month dedicated to worshiping the Roman god Mars.

What does fate have to do with it?

I had no idea we took it on March 15th
The name Marcus derives from Mars meaning "mighty warrior" - Mars was the god of war after all.
And this little way shrine looks awfully Roman, does it not?

Of course, the Ides of March is also historically recorded as the date in which Julius Caesar died. So there is your historical lesson for today, folks.

Another member of the family.

2010-03-18T21:28:00.003-05:00

Chocolate.

Chocolate and I have a strong relationship. So when I got ~~bribed~~ asked to take some promotional photos of chocolates I couldn't refuse. Especially when the payment was the chocolate. So as a favor to a friend we crammed three children (four and under) into our apartment, turned on Star Wars, cooked some food, and snapped some shots.

Here are some of my favorites:

Chocolates by Faith. When she gets a website up and running I will most definitely post a link.

Naptime!

2010-03-13T09:47:00.003-06:00

Yes, folks! We're down to one nap a day!

Now this might sound like bad news to begin with but one nap a day is not bad news. Especially when said nap is two and a half hours long! Do you know how much stuff I can get done in two and a half hours? I've been able to read a book. For pleasure. And it's not Big Rex and Friends.

This might not sound like a big deal to you but it's taken a long time to get wee Marcus 3.0 down from three naps a day to two and now to one. I thought he would never sleep for more than an hour at a time and so he always needed at least two naps a day. It's fairly stressful trying several times a day to coordinate your activities so that your child can sleep. It's much easier to hunker down at home for three hours mid-afternoon and relax while said child sleeps and then go about your day afterwards.

And apparently that child has gotten my sleeping habits because this is what we stumbled upon the other day:

Lucky for you, the weather is crap.

2010-03-11T15:47:00.006-06:00

I'm justifying my absence by the wonderful weather we've been having. I rejoice the day when you can throw your winter coat in the closet and walk outside in just a sweater. It's been like that lately so in order to squelch cabin fever, we've been outside. But with any spring melt comes the spring rain and for just as many days as we had sunshine we now have drizzle. Nobody like drizzle. So here we are now watching all the pretty white snow dissolve into salt and dirt piles sitting atop patches of soggy brown grass.

So we took it inside for a day and went to the Mall of America for our first venture into Lego land. It was pretty uneventful. So instead we decided to let little 3.0 run amok through the mall. He has to walk everywhere now.

And at Rice Park in Saint Paul.

Z is for Zingiber slice...

2010-02-20T13:42:00.006-06:00

Which you ate more than twice

Mixed with pork and white rice
A little soy sauce, sriracha, you've discovered my vice

Ha. I bet you weren't expecting that one, were you? In fact, you're googling Zingiber right now. Well, let me save you the trouble. It's pronounced zin′ji-bĕr. Apparently, it's the scientific name for ginger. It's no surprise to those who know us that we love Asian food. I could eat Vietnamese food at least 4/7 nights a week. Chinese + Hockey = fun night. Thai is probably the number one type of food that Marcus 2.0 and I choose when we want a good conversation and a romantic/nostalgic lunch or dinner.

Our dinnerware is black with red glaze and our silverware is shaped like bamboo for crying out loud! Sriracha, a spicy garlic chile sauce is added to our hamburgers. Get my point? The first meal I ate after giving birth was Pad Thai from my favorite Thai restaurant. After 3.0 was born, we ate the Saigon at least once a week for about a month. Okay, I think I've hammered this home enough.

So it really shouldn't come as a surprise that my little progeny likes to gobble up my rice noodle stir fry. Sriracha included. During my recovery from kidney stone surgery, 2.0 made up some fried rice and according to him and my own mother it had a bite but little 3.0 ate a ton of it. He wouldn't stop pestering 2.0 to give him more.

However, all that taken into account I wasn't expecting my child to tolerate, let alone repeatedly ingest little shavings of fresh ginger last night while we were out with my mom and step-dad at a Chinese Tea House in St. Paul. I figured I would offer it since I know his little palate is pretty advanced. He accepted the offer, and challenged me with giving him more. So I did and he ate it. I mean, fresh ginger is potent here, people! Let alone stuff that's been marinating in soy sauce and rice vinegar. I was quite proud of my little bear but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it so I will have to show off something else.

He's quite adventurous and I'm glad he likes ginger because it's great for soothing an upset stomach and aiding digestion. With all the crazy food he likes to eat, he's going to need it.

Y is for Year

2010-02-09T12:27:00.007-06:00

One completed with lots of courage, a little fear
Seeing accomplishments that make you cheer
Here's to braving the new frontier

"Lesley, you've already talked about this..." Yes, yes, I know. But this is my blog and I get to advance at my own pace and clearly I have not gotten over the fact that my first born is turning one. So, I'm making you dwell on it too.

A long, long pregnancy ago, I promised my sister that I wouldn't refer to my 1.5 year old child as 18 months. Now, if there is one thing I've learned this last year it's that you should not promise silly things about situations in which you have no experience. I've also learned that the reason parents refer to their children's ages in month form is because they are in denial that their child is growing up. Okay, obviously it's just because it's a more accurate way of describing the child's age without being too specific: he's 13 months vs. he's one year one month two days and three hours.

So sis, sorry if I refer to little 3.0 as being 13 months old come March. The real reason I'm bringing this all up again is because I created this little gem. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. It's incredible seeing the changes.

Nurture Baby Naturally

2010-02-02T12:08:00.000-06:00

Nurture Baby Naturally is celebrating their new blog and web address. For those of you into babywearing, healthy and natural ways of raising kids this is a great blog to follow.

X is for X-Ray

2010-01-25T23:06:00.005-06:00

Revealing bad news that day
Thank goodness insurance will pay

For the surgery scheduled without delay

Last Wednesday I went in to see the Urologist. Actually, I saw some Nurse Practitioner guy named Chris who happens to be the kidney stone specialist at Metro Urology. He was a nice guy and seemed concerned and confused as to why a 22 year old female was in his office with a kidney stone and a history of kidney and gall stones (thanks Dad).

We talked over my symptoms, he sent me to have a CT scan and then when I got back from that we talked over my options. The long and short of it is that I'm not willing to sit on a time bomb. I don't want this thing to pass in the middle of the night when 2.0 is at work and I'm home alone with 3.0. He agreed. So surgery is scheduled for February 12th. Not sure what time, yet. I'm not real thrilled but at least I get to pick the time when I'm incapacitated.

Hopefully surgery and recovery will go smoothly. I have a baby to take care of and enjoy.

Here is what 2.0 lovingly calls my Pet Rock:

There is the big white mass right in the middle - that's my spine, to the left of that inside a gray blob is another white dot and that's the stone. It's about 8mm.

W is for Wobble...

2010-01-22T23:10:00.011-06:00

A step, wiggle and hobble

A stagger, topple and waddle
My baby's beginning to toddle.

I blame it on Heather. Heather who, you ask? The wonderfully sweet nurse who was training in Labor and Delivery when 3.0 was born. She had to seek out a measuring tape all because he was too long for the ruler on the scale; and she informed us that our new little prize was 22" long. A loooong baby. She then proclaimed with delight "You gave birth to a toddler!" I smiled at the time. How naive. I had no idea of what he was to become. The monster baby. The near 30 pound 8,9,10,11 month old. It's her fault. Her fault that he was in 18 month clothes at 4 months. Her fault that we had to switch him over to a "big boy" convertible car seat at 5 months. It's all because of Heather that Mrs. Stranger Grandma over there has a grandson twice his age and half his size.

Heather: (by the way, Heather was actually a wonderful nurse and I would be incredible overjoyed if somehow, someway she happened to deliver all my babies)

More and more comments are coming in lately phrased something like, "oh, he looks like such a boy!" or "he looks like a little boy now!" It's not my fault that you can't find baby looking clothes that come in 2T. I guess 2T (which stands for 2 Toddler) are toddler clothes. Who knew? Don't blame me for that boyish mop of hair that sweeps to the side making him look all proper and not-at-all like a baby. *sob* I'm torn. Half of me thinks he looks so charming and half of me wants this long, but little baby back:

March 3rd. Ironically, 3.0's one-year well baby check up is scheduled for March 3rd. His due date. And much like our pediatrician stated, I have a feeling that he will be walking in there on his own. This is her fault. The fact that he took several unassisted steps on several different occasions the last several days. Four weeks from now, my little Bear will be a year old.

This is his last month of true babydom and the best year so far of my life.

V is for Vampire...

2010-01-15T23:01:00.006-06:00

Whose teeth you admire
But they bite through your attire
When your attention is his desire

Ah yes. We've gotten to my favorite stage so far [sarcasm font] - biting. I'm writing this blog in a sly like manner, huddled under a make shift blanket tent in the corner of the room. Why all the secrecy? Well, because if he sees me he will get mad! And we can't have that. Okay, so I'm exaggerating and I'm really just writing this while he's asleep in bed.

So why has it been so long since my last update? Well, that's simply because if I happen to glance at the computer I get "WAHHHH! clunk. chomp!" In respective order that's: complain, headbutt and bite. In short, temper tantrum. So alas, my days have been filled with avoiding the computer when 3.0 is around or sneaking it in when he's in the other room. Because let's face it, no one wants to be bitten by four (yes, we now have four) little baby chompers. While I try to do my best in being consistent with a firm "Don't bite" and redirect, I fear I may have undermined my own efforts in my addiction to nibbling on chubby baby limbs. *sigh* He gets it from me, doesn't he?

All four front teeth now!

U is for Upgrade...

2010-01-07T11:28:00.003-06:00

A tool that will be our aid
So more photos can be displayed
A new camera once we get paid

The full upgrade has yet to be complete; however, I did get a new lens for our camera right now. It's a 50mm 1.8. And it's awesome. Once we get our tax return, our goal is to trade in our rebel xt for a canon 50D. I'm super excited. We will also be getting a wide angle lens. Of course, this is all providing one of our cars doesn't need serious mechanical repair.

So here's to getting better at photography!

Signing Milk

2010-01-05T16:27:00.002-06:00

After one week of doing this he signed milk. I'm not extremely consistent with it but I've been trying to stay up with it. Keep in mind (and I may be bragging here) that some people sign to their children for months and don't receive any responses until 10-12 months, sometimes longer.

He's a smart little bear.

We Pause for a Brief Interuption

2010-01-04T23:36:00.004-06:00

Standby.

I promise I will get back to "U" shortly but this couldn't wait. This is what happens when a baby defeats his high chair. He conquered it and threw up his arms in victory.

Battle Blueberry

T is for Train...

2009-12-30T09:50:00.007-06:00

To direct, form, and teach to refrain

But also a machine as big as a plane
Hooked together like the links of a chain
Or rubbery toys that get caught by the drain

It's been a while. But I've been busy and this one took some thinking. It has a duel aspect to it that I thought I would touch on. The first being one about parenting the second a hobby for those who don't work it and a source of income for our family. There were a few things I knew about before I gave birth to 3.0. Things I knew I wanted to do; mainly, breast feed and get one of those cool sling things that I always saw people wear when I was cashiering at Fresh and Natural Foods - a natural foods store (yes that was the not-so-very-creative name but a great store nonetheless!).

It wasn't until I got my first pouch sling that worked for all of two weeks before 3.0 outgrew it that I started looking into other types of baby carriers. It wasn't until I started researching baby carriers that I found a name to the instinctive style of parenting that I was already gravitating towards. Enter the world of Attachment Parenting. Not invented by, but coined by Dr. William Sears. Yes, he is the baby guru of our generation much like Dr. Spock the Vulcan Mind Meld Doctor...wait a minute, I'm mixing things up here...

Back to reality, Dr. Sears promotes a style of parenting that focuses on more natural tendencies and fosters support for breast feeding, co-sleeping, babywearing, delayed vaccinations, feeding on demand, and limited sleep training. In fact, one of the things I agreed with most was his down to Earth motto "if you resent it, change it." The guy loved being a pediatrician so much that his two sons followed suit and are now also Dr. Searses.

The number one spot on my "Things I've Enjoyed Most About Parenting" list has probably got to me the development of my own parenting style. Our parents have had their shot at parenting and now it's our turn and though we do enjoy advice (when it's solicited *wink*) things have changed a great deal in the last 20 years and now it's our turn to make choices for our family. Every family, parent and child are different. Sure, I can check off most of the points on the AP list as things I agree with, but I'm sure there are some things I am more lax on than other moms and probably some things I adhere to more strictly than those moms, as well. And though 2.0 and I had many, many talks years ago about how "when we have children, what will we do when such and such happens?", it's not until you actually find yourself trudging through the big multicolored McDonald's play-land ball pit that is parenting that you finally have to put those ideas to task. In fact, it's been my goal to start a log of things I swear I will do and things I swear I will never do as a parent. Maybe that will be my next project.

And for those of you sisters who will someday have your own children, please yell at me if I ever do the following:

Tell you 5000 times when you are pregnant how you will never get any sleep once you have the baby (though this is, in fact, true you also get a Keurig coffee maker out of the deal).
Tell you 432 times how my labor and delivery went
Tell you 256 times when I started solids and how I started them
Tell you 134 times how important a bed-time routine is

You will hear this all from strangers at Wal-Mart anyway after they touch your belly without asking your permission so you don't need to hear it from me. It's apparently a natural belief that you are, in fact, the best mother ever to grace the face of the planet so forgive me if that ever seeps out. However, feel free to call me at 12:23 am when you've reached your wits end because I will be up enjoying the limited amount of "alone" time that I get.

Anyway, on to the cute stuff. Trains! Thomas and Percy and whatever that other one is named.

S is for So Much...

2009-12-22T13:20:00.001-06:00

So many things on which to touch

Signing, standing, snow and smiling
So we will focus on the feature that's most beguiling

I had about a bazillion ideas for "s" but few of which I would be able to capture on camera and even fewer that I wanted to set up to be able to catch. So that ruled out snow. As for signing, I'm thinking I'm going to try teaching Marcus 3.0 sign language (I know, I said this about 6 months ago and it didn't go anywhere) so we shall see how long I can keep it up. We started today and he can already make the motion for "milk." Whether he knows what it means is an entirely different story but we will work on it. He's good at mimicking sounds and motions so I'm thinking he should pick up on it pretty quickly.

Last night I was toning the photos for this post and I sent them to 2.0 at work. I got an email back this morning requesting that I look back to mid October's photos of our dear little one. I believe the word used for the difference was "shaggy." So threats of Marcus 3.0's first hair cut are on the horizon. My rule is that he can't get one until he turns one. Why? Because long ago in my babysitting days I recall a certain Scottish father telling me how his little Scottish son was going in for a haircut. I remember frowning because I loved those little Scottish locks. Scottish dad informed me that this momentous event meant that Scottish son was no longer a baby but a boy once he got his haircut. So, since infancy officially ends at a year of age and toddler hood begins we will wait another two months for the first haircut.

As for now we have a shaggy, smiley little squirt. I certainly can't get enough photos of his awesome smile. I figured I would share!

R is for Rucksack

2009-12-20T00:24:00.004-06:00

Tied up on Mama's back

You can't sleep lying down
With all that snot making you drown

9.5 months. I really don't have much to complain about. That's how long it took for Marcus 3.0 to get his first cold. Nine-point-five months. Nine-and-a-half. I think that's pretty terrific, or I would, if I weren't so grumpy about having to deal with a sick baby. It's not his misery that makes me grumpy, that I can handle with a superb amount of compassion. It's the fact that even though he's miserable he won't let me suck the snot out of his nose. Like kid, if you can't breath when you eat then you won't be able to eat.

Not only that, but there is nothing more frustrating than your child just falling asleep only to be woken by a fit of coughing. That nap lasted 20 minutes. It should have been at least 70 more. So I begrudgingly sauntered out of the bedroom lugging and snotty sack of potatoes in my arms and decided this nap was going to be mobile. Who knew, maybe taking a nap in a more upright position would help out. It worked, my day was saved. Of course, he woke up the first second he heard the sound of Dada's voice but that was after a good 90 minuter. At least it allowed me to get my house clean.

So how many of these photos can I take? Well, a billion. Because that smile is the best and you can't argue with that.

I had a before and after photo of our living room to prove that I had cleaned it but I somehow managed to delete it.

Oh and child, I love you but please keep your colds to yourself.

Thanks, Mom.

Q is for Quiet...

2009-12-14T23:57:00.002-06:00

The quickest way of making a mom start a riot

Is by waking her baby full of milk (his standard diet)
So don't ring the doorbell
Don't knock on the door
Or you'll hear an earful of that Mama Bear roar

There is nothing like the blissful moment when you place your sleeping baby into their bed ever so carefully. Every parent has mastered the fluid motion of the crouch, set, and arm slide. All one movement done with no sound and as little disturbing bumps as possible. On most nights when I nurse Marcus to sleep I have to sit up, lunge towards the bottom of the bed (great ab workout by the way!) and then like a gangly feline I gently place one foot on the floor and push off the bed without causing that annoying weight shift that occurs when one body leaves a mattress. I then creep out of the bedroom with a hunched back and lifted hands in the cat burglar pose (it helps, really it does).

Nothing like the moment when you leave the room, successful and free. Nothing like it really. Until you have the moment where someone disturbs your child thereby waking them up (cough your husband and his cousin playing a video game and shouting to each other from different rooms cough).

It's moments like those that call for those sharp snappy comments that come out in the musical term staccato, "You. Just. Woke. The. Baby!"

I'm pretty sure 95% of all attacks on UPS delivery men or Pizza delivery boys are caused by dogs purchased from angry mothers whose babies were woken by the doorbell ring of said deliverers.

Don't shoot the messenger. Unless he wakes your baby.

Here are some sleeping baby photos:

We like to call this one "Too much wodka"

P is for Patience

2009-12-14T16:08:00.007-06:00

Practiced daily like an Olympic sport
Often achieved and as often fallen short
Restraining our anger, teaching our youth
Waiting anxiously for that darn tooth

This post follows two consecutive nights of teething Sheol. Throughout the last nine months I've had only one instance where I felt the helplessness of not being able to comfort my child. The first came when Marcus 3.0 and I were out in Boston for my sister's wedding and everyone went out for dinner. I decided I wanted to kick back and have a Mojito, the first Mojito I've ever had and it was tasty. Sometime during the course of dinner 3.0 got fussy and my gut instinct was to pick him up and nurse him. Full stop. I couldn't. I felt utterly useless at this point even though he was in good hands surrounded by several grandparents. There is nothing like the devastation of having to suppress your instincts, especially when it comes to your child.

Skip ahead to two nights ago. Baby Marcus is trying so hard to cut at least two more teeth. After 2.0 had gone to work, 3.0 started getting a runny nose and a fever. Of course these things only happen when 2.0 goes to work. I put him to bed and throughout the next couple hours he woke up whining and mumbling but unable to nurse because he was so congested. The only thing I could to was sit in bed with him trying to calm him. Last night was an improvement, we both got more than 2 hours of sleep, but it was still uncomfortable.

So far his other bottom tooth has cut through but his upper gums are as swollen as can be with the ghost of a white line trying to break through. At least he's still the happy-go-lucky baby during the day while he plays. Oh, and he's finally grown to have an appreciation of the snot-sucker. At least there is something good about all this.

So here's the first tooth and where that little glint is next to it is where toof #2 is.

O is for Outdoors

2009-12-11T18:40:00.004-06:00

No longer crawling on all fours

Up on Dad's back you go!
Trudging through piles of snow

I'm cheating on this one. We did in fact take a walk the other night along Shepherd road in Saint Paul after it had snowed. I didn't take a picture though. I should have but it was too dark. Marcus 3.0 had a great time despite the chilly (okay, really chilly) weather. He was covered, head to toe, with only a little slit for his eyes to show through. It was cute. After our walk, when we took him off of Marcus 2.0's back, he was nice and toasty warm (I'm throwing that in for you Grandparents who just about had a heart attack at the thought of us taking a walk in the winter).

So back to me cheating: I'm posting a photo of one of our Autumn hikes at Minnehaha.
12q

N is for Nudie...

2009-12-08T21:15:00.005-06:00

An unrestrained booty

A swaying patootie
A diaperless cutie

As an offshoot of the discovery of a naked baby in my living room I thought I would touch on the subject of naked dancing. Yes, naked dancing. Picture this: I just gave Marcus 3.o a bath, set up his whole ensemble of diapering parts and pajamas. No sooner did I lie him on his back and put the diaper underneath his butt than he twisted his torso and kicked his legs underneath him. He was on all fours and sprinting away with his "bear crawl" before I could say "now, wait a second."

He crawls over to his favorite coffee table and pulls himself into a standing position. At this point, Marcus 2.0 had put on some music. It was peppy music full of pop and rhythm. I look up from my exasperated set up of clothing and I see a naked baby swaying his hips.

I'm pretty sure we played the song over and over, while laughing, for a good 20 minutes.

Heck, why make you picture it? Here it is:

M is for Mischief...

2009-12-05T14:50:00.012-06:00

And mischief you create
Wrapped in ribbons of tissue and some of it you ate.
We've locked up all the cupboards and put up a gate
You crawl and grab and tear at an exasperating rate
You are the swirlin' whirlwind in our home as of late

Ahh, to be the mother of a boy. One who craftily unvelcros his diaper when you walk out of the room and then pulls himself to a standing position on the coffee tables so that when you come back into the room there is a standing naked baby smiling at you. A boy who crawls into the bathroom and pulls the roll of toilet paper until it's all piled in a big heap, some dangling from the corners of his mouth. As Marcus 2.0 put it, "He causes a ruckus in one corner of the room and as you go to that corner to clean it up he speed crawls to the other corner of the room and causes a ruckus there." And it's true. It's days like these where you wonder "what on Earth was I thinking?" and you're glad you were in some kind of delusion that day because you wouldn't have it any other way.

I got lots of warnings about this stage but to tell you the truth, it's my favorite so far. I love his mobility and the fact that you can see the little caterpillar baby busting out of his swaddling cocoon and becoming a little toddling butterfly. And to top it off that scale is reading three pounds lighter than it was a week ago. There's something to be said about the whole mom-chasing-after-toddler myth.

Wonder. It's something we all lose with age and the best way of regaining it is to capture it in a snapshot of your child's eyes when they discover they can do something new, like pulling toilet paper off the roll.

The following is the scene I happened upon after emerging from the shower this morning:

L is for LARGE...

2009-12-03T18:57:00.003-06:00

Neither small, nor petite

It's a moose who fills these shoes
And he sure loves to eat

Our nine month well-baby check up went....better than well. Little (big) Marcus 3.0 is doing exceptionally well in both growth and development. He's hitting all the milestones and as our pediatrician stated "I'm sure you'll be walking in here on your own for your next appointment," which happens to be his one year. He reigns as king of the growth charts in the 95th percentile for height and as our pediatrician also stated, "He's making his own curve" for his weight. What do I mean by this? Well take a look for yourselves -
See that gray dot up there on the top? Yeah...that's Marcus. I might be slightly concerned if his height weren't also waaaaay up there but for now it is and I fully expect him to grow more lengthwise than widthwise from here on out. Meanwhile he continues to bear the brunt of all the fat-boy jokes but we're thinking of making him unload the dishwasher from now on and hopefully that will burn some calories.

K is for Kanga

2009-12-01T23:22:00.005-06:00

the Mother of Roo
And a dear friend to Winnie the Pooh
From who, you can see, we've taken our cue
To give little Marcus the best kind of view

Well I suppose we are completely taking our cues from Kanga but quite frankly Marcus outgrew the ability to be worn on the front many many months (or moons) ago. After a long break from babywearing and letting 2.0 do all the work I thought I would take it up again. In theory I'm hoping that doing this will help three-point-oh sleep better at night because he won't be looking to stock pile cuddles. This also commences my attempt to be a more consistent parent/person. Which also brings us to:

Lesley's mothering confession #1 - Up until Monday night, I hadn't ever read Marcus a bedtime story. *gasp*

I'm just not a routine kinda gal and if there is one thing that is suppose to be super-de-duper good for babies, it's routine. Doctor after doctor talks about consistency in discipline, sleep training, daily activities, etc. But when you have to adjust to a 24 hour household it makes routine the bathwater that the baby bathes in and we all know what happens to bathwater. Speaking of baths:

Lesley's mothering confession #2 - I don't bathe him every night (don't gasp at that one, it might smell bad).

I think that's partly why we don't have a routine. Because the nightly bath is kind of, sort of, in most cases, the kick off to the bedtime ritual. If you don't have a nightly bath, what are you suppose to do? It took me 20 weeks (thatsfivemonths) to finally put the baby down for bed at a somewhat decent hour. 20 weeks of parenting and he's finally going to sleep at 10:30pm! Now 20 weeks later I've jumped on the routine bandwagon. Want to hear how bedtime goes in our household? It's something like this:

9-9:30pm: bath, if it suits mom to wash me today (hey now baby Marcus, don't be talking sass! I'm doing it for your own skin's good)

10pm - WWF match double header: Fidgety Fats vs. Meanie Mommy and Clean Linens vs. Slippery Skin

10:15pm - Say goodbye and goodnight to Dada as he heads out for work

10:25pm - Mom puts on Bach for Babies and reads me a bedtime story. Lately it's been that Dinosaur book that makes noise and has all sorts of textures

10:30pm - Tucked in and a big drink of warm milk...and....zzzzz.....

And now you know what life is like in the Tupy household during the quiet hours of the night. And yes, wearing him on my back has been helping him to sleep better...or so I think. All I know is that even in the midst of teething he's been getting better at sleeping longer. We now have a good 4 hours stretch at the beginning of the night. *jinx* I bet he's going to wake up any moment now *reverse jinx*

J is for Joy...

2009-11-29T23:20:00.006-06:00

Or "Pure Joy, that boy!"

As some have been known to state
With a smile not smaller than great
And a twinkle that lights up his eye
It's rare you'll see this little boy cry

Out of all the comments I get about Marcus 3,o the ones I receive most are:
"oh what a big boy" or "I have a grandson half his size" <--- yes, multiple people have said this to us. Yet even more than these I get comments like "What a happy boy!" And it's true. For the most part he is a very happy boy. His moments of overtiredness are more characterized by goofyness or whining and complaining rather than true fussiness. In fact, the most he's been irritated with lately is the fact that I can't seem to get the food to his mouth quick enough. Well, then there is unborn toof #2 but I can't really complain that much about his crankiness during teething because I imagine it's not a very comfortable process. Not to mention, toof #1 popped out of nowhere with no signs or warnings.

But overall we have as more than one person has deemed "the happiest baby ever." I'd like to think so.

I is for I

2009-11-27T15:11:00.002-06:00

Not he, it, they, or she
Not Sally or Tommy or Freddie but ME!

One thing every new mom must learn is that it's nice to have "me" time. There is nothing wrong with you if you want an hour away from your sweet little baby. When Marcus 3.0 was first born I found this time for myself after he went to bed and most nights I still have 30 minutes to an hour that I allow myself to have after he goes to sleep or when he naps. This time is often spent thinking of all the things I could do during my "me" time and therefore usually wasted by not doing any of them. On Marcus 2.0's days off we often spend this time together watching a movie or tv show. I'm pretty sure nap time is naturally built into small, needy children in order for their parents to get a break and keep their own living quarters clean. Or write blogs. Because let's face it, without "me" time, this stuff would never get done.

H is for Heiny

2009-11-22T21:42:00.004-06:00

A butt, soft and shiney
Whose butt cheeks are two
And whose diapers are new

I'm going to have to post pictures tomorrow and inform you all about this letter then too. I have a very tired baby on my hands and I'm sure I'm going to pass out with him. So good night and the rest of this: tomorrow.

Edited to add:

Alright, tomorrow has come! So I've started sewing Marcus 3.0 some diapers. Yes, you can do that. Well last night I needed some more fleece and suede cloth so we ran to JoAnn's. Once we got back I had to give 3.0 a bath and get him ready for bed but the sewing machine was not neglected...2.0 hopped right on and started sewing him a diaper. In fact, he almost finished it by the time he had to go to work. So as of right now he has 3 working homemade diapers and enough fabric to get us up to about 10 or so.

G is for Gwatchum the King of the Gwitches...

2009-11-20T16:44:00.008-06:00

Who likes all the cuddles and loves all the squishes

He feasts on our food and dirties our dishes
He bathes in our tub like a school of fat fishes

If there is one thing I've learned in the time I've known Marcus and his family of origin it's that nicknames evolve. And evolve they do. They've never named a kid a particular name in order to be able to call him by some abbreviated form; instead, they wait for the child's personality to come out and then they create and foster a nickname. What may start out with one word or phrase could eventually, a year later, be some variation of the original word and ten years down the line be something completely different yet. So here is our little boy, named after his father. After several weeks of awkwardly calling him "the baby" we developed our first nickname for him. Baba. It went something like this:

the baby > the babay > da babaaaay (said with a growl) > da baba.

Well, Gwatchum had a much more interesting process of refinement. It all started one day when Marcus 2.0 felt an overwhelming affection for our son which could only be expressed by squishing. Yes, squishing. I've often wondered what Freud would say about our desire to nibble, chew, bite, eat or squish things that we find cute. So one day Marcus 2.0 went up to his immobile little progeny and proclaimed to him "I'm gonna squish ya, kid!" Which then, some several days later, took on a weird Southern fierceness stated as "I'm gon' gwitch ya!" One of us eventually pointed out the fact that our baby was in fact "a gwitch," himself.

So how did we get to Gwatchum? Well, it's the Scottish version, of course! McGwatchum, actually is the full name. So that's the slow and ever changing process of a Tupy nickname.

F is for Falling...

2009-11-19T22:46:00.006-06:00

... and bumping your head

It leaves nasty lumps and blotches of red.
Bouncing is fun but you could end up DEAD!
says Mom, in her brilliance, "Let's lower the bed!"

The props for this one are actually going to have to go out to Marcus 2.0. After a day of bouncing and knocking his head into everything we thought this would be fitting. I think the running count for today is 2 falls, 1 knock in the forehead, 2 face plants into objects and several cushiony landings on his bum. Not only is 3.0 crawling now and pulling up onto his knees but he's starting to not-so-firmly plant his feet on the ground and lift off. His legs are as wobbly as Elvis Presley on stilts. So today our photo is of 3.0's first black eye.

Tonight is our first night bed frame free. Box spring and mattress have been relocated to ground level.

In addition to Marcus' rhyme I've added:

You're making Mom cry cause you've gotten a bruise
But that just what happens when you learn how to cruise.

E is for Evening, a Special Time of Day

2009-11-18T21:02:00.005-06:00

where we like to relax, we chat and we play

we see our son in his element, a goofy little boy
who explores his domain and believes the world is his toy

D is for Dancing to an Upbeat Song

2009-11-17T20:17:00.005-06:00

you crawl and then sit and then bounce right along
to the rhythm and motion and stroke of a beat
to the clapping and singing and tapping of feet

The quality of this video isn't very good as it's taken with my phone since our video camera died on us. It's a super short clip, only 30 seconds but you'll get the idea. This happens whenever music is put on. It's endless hours of entertainment around here.

C is for Crawling and Crawling and Crawling Some More...

2009-11-16T08:26:00.005-06:00

and creating a race track out of our floor

and watch out now, don't shut that door
because our little monster needs to explore!

I'm not one to give into the novelty of desaturating a photo and only allowing certain colors to come through, but I thought this one was cute. And I've already posted this picture before so I had to spice it up anyway.

Edited to add:
Marcus (v2.0) had his own version of this rhyme that went something like this -

C is for calling, calling for eats
awaking from naps
not normally crying
just calling his teets.

This is inspired by the fact that when Marcus 3.0 awakens from his nap he gives out a hearty shout. It's not a cry and it's definitely got a demanding tone to it. It's as if he is mad that his snack is not there waiting for him. Typical man, I tell ya.

B is for Baba, a Scottish Word for Baby...

2009-11-13T22:24:00.000-06:00

...and one nickname for our first born son
a big burly bear who bites with his tooth
who gnaws on round rocks, I'm telling the truth!

A is for Adventure, a Day Filled with Fun

2009-11-13T14:10:00.000-06:00

We've all seen lists that women make of attributes for the man of their dreams. Maybe some of us have made them. These lists usually include things like stability, sense of humor, success, and spontaneity. Why they all start with "s" is beyond me. However, when I first met Marcus I thought he was incredibly stable. Very, very stable. And he is quite stable, indeed, which is good. Over the course of our almost six years of knowing/dating/and now being married I've learned his style of humor and now thoroughly enjoy it. I've seen him succeed and congratulated him. I've just recently come upon the revelation that my husband is very spontaneous. I always scoffed at the notion that women want men who are stable and spontaneous because I've never understood how the two could possibly be compatible in the same body. Apparently it is possible. And although I think my husbands biggest fault is that he will not, simply will not, play board games unless you beg, plead, peer pressure and bribe him I think he's a very fun man to be with.

So with that said, it's not uncommon in our little triad of a family to plan a day of something adventurous. I know adventurous is a big word to live up to, but I think we do a fair good job of it. One of these days usually consists of a pre-planned location, a drive, a picnic or place to eat, and our camera.

So just this Wednesday, the three of us took a drive up the West side of the Mississippi river in Minneapolis on West River Road and down the East side of the river on East River Road in Saint Paul. Our stop was Prospect Park in Minneapolis, home of the Witch's Hat water tower. We got a little lost on the way because, frankly, this park is nearly impossible to find. It's comparable to Enger Tower (nicknamed Anger tower due to the argument that trying to find it caused) in its elusive-ness and the fact that the closer you get to the tower the less able you are to see it.

I know my husband will instill in our son the sense of curiosity to investigate never-before visited places. From building fortresses to exploring in the woods, adventure will always be a part of his life.

26 Days of Inspiration

2009-11-12T16:15:00.000-06:00

Marcus isn't talking yet. I mean, aside from the slough of da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da I hear all day he's obviously much to young to say "real" words. So we most certainly haven't been singing or teaching or writing the ABC's; but he's a child and that long string of English letters fits in with all things child-like.

So with that in mind, I've decided that I'm going to follow along each letter and hunt for fun and imaginative things to share about my life as a mom. Each day I will also try my hardest to take one photograph that exemplifies the topic at hand.

I'm really bad with committing to stuff like this so hopefully I can keep up. Wish me luck and enjoy!

I apologize for that header

2009-11-11T01:08:00.000-06:00

It's ridiculous really. Sorry that the template of this website is trying to overrule my design! argh!

Alas, it's 1 am and I need sleep. Marcus, you're so helping me with this tomorrow.

Adult Conversations

2009-11-10T22:43:00.000-06:00

Remember that time as a kid when your chin was up to the kitchen table? Remember how your parents would sit around said table chatting over a cup of coffee with their friends? And if you were my mom you would share your coffee with your 7 year old daughter. Remember how you yearned to be a part of those conversations but you never really understood what it was they were talking about and you never really had anything to say.

As a kid I used to sit and listen to my mom chat with her best friend for hours. Funny thing is, I couldn't at all remember anything they used to talk about. But now I know! Now that I have my own child, I know what topic it was they spent those hours discussing. Poop! Yes, I said it, poop. Mystery unveiled. All adults with children ever talk about it is poop. Color, texture, smell, frequency and location. Those are the core tenets of the poop philosophy.

Actually, it's a well known fact that the primary topic of conversation among new parents is poop. I'm willing to bet that poop is used most frequently on new mother's facebook statuses.

So there it is. The cat's out of the bag. And the turd....well, we all know what that's out of.

Renovating

2009-11-09T17:12:00.001-06:00

Sorry for the mess! I'm working on a new design.

The Making of a Foodie.

2009-11-08T22:34:00.000-06:00

How you got food in your ear will forever remain a mystery to me. How I knew to check your ear for food...well, we'll just chalk that up to one of those mothering instincts.

My goal is starting solids with Marcus was to skip the spoon. Baby Led Weaning is what the term is and with anything in my adventures in motherhood I follow it...roughly. The idea is to offer your child food when they meet a set of criteria:

The ability to sit unassisted (reached at 6 months of age)
The ability to chew (reached upon the utterance of "da-da" because "da-da" apparantly requires a mashing of gums)
The ability to form the tricky task of the pincer grasp (achieved around 7 months)

By adhering to this list the idea is to offer your baby bite size pieces of food known to the baby-led-weaners as "finger food." Now this isn't the finger food you would find at your Sunday afternoon football party. This is bite sized banana chunks, peach chunks, cheerios, bits of rice, bits of bread, noodles and more.

Now in any goal of parenting there must be an obstacle. For instance, did you know it's nearly impossible for those little, chubby baby fingers which just learned how to pincer to pick up a slippery piece of mango? Or did you know that under the crushing force of the baby pincer that banana is obliterated? Or did you know that yogurt can't be picked up with your fingers?

Wait. Yogurt? But Lesley, I thought babies under a year of age weren't suppose to have cow's milk? Well apparently that only applies to the liquid because not only can they have yogurt they can have bits of soft cheeses like mozzarella or apple-wood smoked cheddar and gouda. Hold on a minute now, who are we feeding? Bill Gates' kids?

As our certified pediatric nurse practitioner told me "Have fun with solids, we often find that we eat better when we start feeding our kids." Well, it will be a while before he gets caviar but let me tell you I never knew a kid would attack you and use you as a jungle gym just to get a piece of mango. In fact, before I looked into it, I didn't know babies could have mango. So, although I feed him mango and yogurt via the spoon the way I see it is he's still using those gums to learn to chew and swallow and hauck up loogies...I mean, food that gets too far back in his throat.

And anyway, when your kid has a yeast rash that will.not.go.away. you have to feed him yogurt. It's got all the gooooood bacteria in it. And by Jove, it had better be mixed with mango.

Every day is an adventure is feeding Marcus because even though we've only been doing this for about two weeks, he's pretty much over bananas. Cheerios are a staple in his diet. Vegetables are about as foreign as tofu and unless it's mango on that spoon he wants to pick the food up himself.

The biggest downfall - no one told me how sickening it is having a diaper bin smell like yogurt.

The last few vacation photos...

2009-11-08T17:07:00.000-06:00

First Family Vacation

2009-11-01T17:09:00.000-06:00

The three of us travelled up to Bluefin Bay in Tofte, MN for our first family vacation. Here is some of what happened.

This was in our room:

Our Family Photo at Caribou Overlook (I'm pretty sure that's what the name of the overlook was.)
This was us issuing our day pass in the Boundary Waters so that if we went missing they would check this "when the ranger got around to it" and they would know we used this trail.
Trekking around Artist Pointe, Grand Marais.

Neat Video

2009-10-08T15:43:00.000-05:00

This shows the different perspectives a baby has when in a stroller as compared to be worn on his/her mom's back. It's slightly annoying because it's in Norwegian but I think if you watch it you will get the gist of it, just make sure to watch in past part II to see the difference. This is part of the reason why I babywear.

Pic-a-nic-ing at Fort Snelling State Park

2009-09-27T23:03:00.000-05:00

The last two days Marcus and I have gone hiking at Fort Snelling State Park. Saturday evening we went with Elly and today it was just Marcus, me and Marcus 3. We packed up our lunches and took a 4 mile hike through the woods ending in a picnic. It was a beautiful day full of threatening clouds brimming with rain, gusty winds, and a bright warm sun to break up the cold. After fearing that the hike would end in soaking sneakers and wet baby hair the sun broke out and shone down on Snelling Lake giving us a great sunset and some nice lighting for photographs.

Marcus wearing his baby. And this hike was brought to you by: Mama By Design Calyx. Try taking a stroller on a rock path - not happening. Or wearing a bjorn - ouch. He carried the baby and I carried our lunches.

Typical boy - he loves getting tossed in the air
Laughing afterwards We're great buds!

Not crawling yet. but....getting oh so close

2009-09-26T17:11:00.000-05:00

Update

2009-09-11T23:08:00.000-05:00

So I've been out of the internet for a week until this past Wednesday. Going along with that Marcus 3 had his 6 month check up (at 6.5 months). He now weighs 25lbs, is 26.25in long, and something about the number 17 for his head circumference. So according to the WHO chart for average breast fed baby growth he's waaaay off the chart except for his itty bitty head but that's okay. I mean 21-22lbs is the 95th percentile for his age. So yeah, do the math.

He also had his very first two shots. The HiB and Pneumoccocal vaccines. I cried like a good first time mom and then promptly told myself to get over it since he was smiling and apparently quite okay. He did get slightly irratable later on that evening everytime we would hold him and grab his legs but that was easily cured by a warm bath and one dose of baby tylenol. I however, managed to contract a sympathy fever that evening which thankfully went away in the middle of the night. So now all is well. We go back next month for DTaP and will continue our once a month routine switching between those two rounds of vaxes.

On the bright side, the new ped is quite nice and took no persuading at all and knew by heart the delayed vax schedule. She suggested that I can start solids if I wish, which I don't cause who wants to deal with those diapers. Maybe by next month he will have that pincer grasp down that i'm waiting for.

No photos yet. But coming soon!

Okay people, this is a big event!

2009-08-26T12:41:00.000-05:00

I'm sure once you get over the first kid syndrome it goes away, but today is Marcus' 6 month whatever-you-callit-sorta-birthday-thing. Somehow we've managed to keep him up and running for half of a year. So just as a reminder of how cute he is I took some photos out in the grass.

Amazing Story - grab the kleenex

2009-08-25T22:32:00.001-05:00

http://drmomma.blogspot.com/2009/08/mothers-last-skin-to-skin-goodbye-saves.html

Family Picnic

2009-08-03T01:47:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday (07/30) we took our first family picnic at Minnehaha Falls! The weather was perfect and we had great fun despite the fact that there were no falls.

Best Sound Ever!

2009-07-27T02:33:00.000-05:00

How to stop a woman from buying cloth diapers...

2009-07-22T00:27:00.000-05:00

Get her into making her own.

STTN

2009-07-20T01:33:00.000-05:00

It's a four letter word, you know.

Well okay, it's not really a word at all. It certainly has yet to grace the presence of my lips. Yes, we're talking about sleeping through the night. And to be honest, I'm getting plenty of sleep. I don't really mind. If there is one thing I've learned it's that well-meaning advice often plants seeds of insecurity in young, new mothers. Although everyone means well, there is a certain unspoken (well...maybe not completely unspoken...some like to shout it) standard that babies should be sleeping for 8 hours without waking.

"Even when the mom herself has no problems with baby nursing at night, she still worries that this is a problem, since American society seem to consider it one." - Kellymom.com

A conversation in the life of a new mother:

Friend: "oh, what a cutie!"
Mom: smiles
Friend: "how old is she?"
Mom: "he is x months/weeks old"
Friend: "wow, he's so big/small"
Mom: "Yep"
Friend: "is he a good baby"
Mom: "yep" *asks self what a bad baby is*
Friend: "is he sleeping through the night?"
Mom: "yep" *nope*
Friend: "well that's good"

now in all honesty, I'm just poking fun. I really don't mind the questions especially since everyone comments on how happy of a baby Marcus is. It really tickles me pink to hear that, especially since the little bear refuses to sleep through the night.

"The act of nursing is not just nourishing; it is nurturing. Keep in mind that these needs are every bit as real as baby's physical ones, and having them met is every bit as needful to baby's overall development. " kellymom.comThings have changed a lot in recent years and I'm really enjoying the discovery of my own parenting style.

He's been workin' on the railroad...like dad.

2009-07-04T21:16:00.000-05:00

The dog days of summer

2009-06-27T21:28:00.000-05:00

and we aren't even into July yet.

We all know high calorie/ high fat is irresistible.

2009-06-18T20:56:00.000-05:00

So here's some tastey morsels to gaze at:

Can we say, Michelin Man?Proof that he plays with toys:The diaper butt:

And those fat cheeks we all like to chew on:

Hitchcock's Got Nothin' On This Kid!

2009-06-17T01:50:00.001-05:00

We've hit the 20 pound mark!

On losing your post partum body

2009-06-14T04:22:00.000-05:00

I've never been real happy with my lack-of-toned-abs or that air-leaking-kind-of-deflated spare tire around my belly which apparently got popped somewhere in the process of giving birth and is now completely deflated. With the joys of motherhood comes the price of dealing with some strange bodily changes.

For instance, no one ever told me that my wash, rinse, no need to repeat hair cleaning routine would now need that repeat.

That said, I was pretty proud of my self controlled, limited weight gain during the growth of the baby that is now "Baba" or more officially Marcus. I luckily lost it all the day I gave birth which felt pretty awesome. I refused to weigh myself during my entire 6 week post partum timespan because although I felt as if I had lost it all, I still couldn't squeeze into those pre-pregnancy jeans.

That first check-up revealed the truth that I had suspected, all the weight was lost. I never gave into believing that whole "breastfeeing makes the weight melt off" myth that some women are overjoyed with and others despise. But apparantly I can fall into the category of the overjoyed. Not to mention I've been wearing Marcus around most days for at least a couple of hours, including a mile long walk that we took the other day. My jazzersize routine of wrapping the baby, playing ABBA and making Bubs fall asleep has got to help with the calorie burning.

I'm currently weighing in at seven pounds lighter than my pre-pregnancy weight, although those pre-pregnancy jeans still don't fit because once again no one ever told me that my hips apparantly would decide to be shape shifters.

Rucking

2009-06-08T01:14:00.001-05:00

That's the way we became the Brady Bunch

2009-05-30T03:16:00.000-05:00

Or Tupy Bunch in this case:
Already 12 weeks (that's 3 months for those of you who haven't been pregnant and had a baby recently and so you aren't in with the hip-ness of measuring time in weeks)

I also have to add that much to Marcus Jr's dismay, Marcus III is looking a little ginger right now. I'm thinking it's going to go away and his hair will get darker as he get's older but Pa is in denial.

Graduamatation

2009-05-18T00:45:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, May 16th I walked the line, and by line I mean that row of arrows taped to the stage informing me where to go across the stage. In the process I stopped and picked up an empty diploma case:
Then I sat down for some more ceremonial stuff and waited for everyone else to walk. Once that was done I snapped some photos with the fam:
That's my sister making her surprise appearance from Boston. Oh, and my dad being a dork in the background. Here is one of me and hubs and bubs:We're such a cute family! :)
And that thing 'round my neck means I graduated with honors - Magna Cum Laude (3.78 gpa)
My mum was off getting food for the after party. We had a Chicago dog feast. All the works and directions on how to make a genuine Chicago dog. They were taaaaaaaastey! While there everyone got to see baby Marcus and get some cuddles in. Here is Alayne and her nephew getting some quality time together. This occasion was the first chance she's gotten to see him.And here is Roger holding Marcus at the party -
If only I would have gotten some of the Robertson clan holding him. Some other time, I suppose. All in all, a very fun day. I'm glad I could share it with some many close friends and family members.

Babywearing

2009-05-13T17:20:00.000-05:00

Being a first time mom comes with all sorts of new surprises. Who knew that you didn't automatically grow another arm so that you had two hands free at all times? Or who would have figured that you would become so good at typing with only one hand? Who knew that your baby would sometimes just want to be held for an extended period of time and even when he falls asleep in your arms he will wake up the moment you put him down because you want to get something accomplished around the house? Who knew you wouldn't be allowed to do that?

Somewhere out there, most likely not in America unless you count the Native Americans, some person long ago decided that they wanted to get something done around their hut. So they killed some unsuspecting animal and took it's skin and wrapped the skin around their body and stuck their little newbie in it. This act allowed said person to sweep out their teepee or abode or what-have-you. As the modern age approached some other smart person decided that it would be cool to look back at those people and do the same thing because they were a very busy person. Enter the modern term and trend: babywearing.

I wanted two hands free too. I mean, who wouldn't? So I purchase a Gyspy Mama Bali Breeze. It's 4.6 meters of hand dyed woven gauze. Very light and breathable. It takes quite a bit of practice to figure out all the different types of wraps but I'm starting out slowly.

I'm still looking forward to getting a ring sling, especially for going out of the house so that I don't have to bring 20 feet worth of cloth with me everywhere. Ring slings are nice since you don't have to wrap/unwrap them every time you use them.

Here's to the new adventures of figuring out motherhood:

Mother's Day #1

2009-05-11T00:41:00.000-05:00

I had a nice relaxing day today. Marcus cooked an awesome dinner of grilled chicken and veggies. We spent the evening together and then he was off to work. Bubs and I cuddled up on the couch as I watched the most recent episode of Lost. Marcus pre-ordered the Sims 3 as my present. I'm super excited for that!

I caught the little bear smiling again on camera. Not only is he smiling now but he will giggle whenever Marcus talks to him.

Interesting article

2009-05-05T22:39:00.000-05:00

Be warned it's pro cosleeping

2 Months Old!

2009-05-05T01:01:00.000-05:00

Taking a walk around Como Lake

First convertible ride
Dad and Bubs having a chat over breakfast and iced coffee

Helping Mom out at school

Lunch at Potbelly's; mmmm.

Here you go Grandpa

2009-04-22T01:07:00.001-05:00

New Diaper Cover

2009-04-16T12:01:00.000-05:00

Due to some leak issues with our Proraps I ordered a Thirsties Diaper cover to see what it was like. I must say, I'm pretty impressed so far. The material is much nicer, softer. Although the little one wasn't too happy about getting his diaper changed at first, he warmed up to them.

The initial pouting

He's getting lots of practice for begging
Please mom I want a puppy!Now that's better.

Diaper King

Bad Church Members

2009-04-15T22:00:00.000-05:00

So some people from my church decided to make us meals twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday) for the month of April in order to help out with having a newborn.

It's been great. We've had a lot of Mexican (and I mean American Mexican - like Ranch Enchiladas and Mexican Manicotti, whatever that is).

However, we've also had homemade cookies, strawberry cake, homemade ice cream cake, and brownies. BAD! Seriously, I just spend the last ten months being fat (read: pregnant) and now you are giving me dessert?! Silly people. Minnesotans are big on dessert. I guess I'm starting to store on the winter pounds already.

I really do plan on getting exercise soon.

Baby Dedication!

2009-04-13T23:00:00.000-05:00

The First and the Last

2009-04-10T17:38:00.001-05:00

Marcus' first Twin's Game - he was pretty upset that they lost ;]

The unclesThe car ride home - gotta love Minneapolis traffic

Alayne - I wish you would have bought one of these in a bigger size. I love this outfit -last time he will wear it though.
"What are you doing mom? I want my nap."

Friends and Family:

2009-04-07T23:40:00.000-05:00

If you wish to follow the blog click on the "follow" button. It will ask you to sign in using one of several different email services. If you don't have any of them just below it says something like "don't have any of these? create a google account" you can sign up with that pretty easily and then you can follow.

I believe I opened up comments to everyone as well so you can always comment even if you don't have an account. Click the comment button and type your comment in. In the menu that asks for a Profile scroll down to name/url and select that. You can type in your name and leave the url blank then push continue and leave your comment.

Thanks and enjoy!

Good News, Bad News

2009-04-06T15:37:00.000-05:00

Bad news first: my car got broken into last night in our driveway. The passenger side door is pretty messed up and the lock is broken. My cd player is gone and all my crap has been rifled with. Now my car smells like nasty cigarettes. Cops are worthless since apparently they have bankers hours and you can't file a report until 8am. I'm pretty sure the longer you wait for these things the less likely they are to come up with anything. Not that I'm hoping they'd find the guy cause that's way too much to ask.

Good news: One the bright side the little one has definitely learned to smile. Marcus (2) and I give him kisses and he smiles. Then he makes a cute face with his lips and one of us will kiss him again and he smiles again. It's the first time we've gotten a repeat smile. So that's pretty sweet.

5 Weeks!

2009-04-06T00:23:00.000-05:00

King of the Diapers

Sitting in the Moon Chair

Dad time

The First Month

2009-03-30T16:00:00.000-05:00

Click on any of the pictures to open a larger version

Check out the fingers - he already knows his number

LegzillaIn the hospital
New Dad, old beard
First day home - in his swingOne of the first nights at home
The famous picture
After his first bath
Big Marcus got a really good photo shoot with some nice lighting
The famous wink

In his boppy

Hello Everyone

2009-03-30T15:37:00.000-05:00

With the arrival of our new little one I figured I would start something where you can independently check up to see what's going on with us. I thought this might help with those who don't get to see us all the time or who might live in other states (of mind, or physically ;] ). I will post some photos so that you can see us as we grow!