My Blog

10/9/05: I decided to jump on the blog bandwagon. I have been a member of an online mommies' group since I was pregnant with William. I joined a discussion group of women who were due the same month as me, and several years later, a group of about twenty of us are still chatting via email. We range in age from early twenties to late thirties, and live anywhere from Florida to California to Michigan to Canada. Any time I have a parenting problem or need a product recommendation or just a word of advice, I consult them. They are such great women and I've never met any of them face to face. A couple of the women have blogs, and it inspired me. I also bring this up because we periodically do "updates" on our November '02 babies as well as our other babies, and when I get the motivation I might copy and paste some of my William updates to my blog. Not today though. :)

I've been doing a lot of sewing lately, especially baby carriers. Whenever I start doing something creative, I can easily get addicted to it. I probably have 12 different baby carriers now, and only two of them were commercially made. I've even joined an internet forum with other women who like to make baby carriers. Grant is asleep in my latest creation as I type this: a black floral flocked stretch twill pouch. It is adorable. I have enough of the fabric left to make another mei tai carrier with it. Don't ask me what I'm going to do with it, but I have a great time making them, and Grant has a great time testing them out.

Speaking of Grant, this second baby stuff is a breeze! I am so much more relaxed with Grant, and as a result I am able to enjoy him so much more. Plus he's just an awesome baby. I'm still thinking his eyes are going to be brown, but for now they're still greyish. Lulu loves him... he takes a bottle of breastmilk from her very well (William was a nightmare with a bottle). He still grunts a lot, earning him the nickname "Gruntin' Grant" from Lulu.

William was sick this morning, sweating and vomiting. He seems okay now and has held down his breakfast so far (knock on wood). His little imagination is really taking off lately. He likes to pretend he's a superhero, or pretend he's going to work or to the store. He knows all of his capital and lowercase letters now, along with what sound(s) each one makes. He knows all his colors (and has for probably a year). In fact, he knew his capital letters a year ago because I was doing a wooden alphabet puzzle with him every night and he learned them quickly that way. Lulu works with him a lot, and so do I. We did some tracing worksheets the other night. He really loves doing "schoolwork".

I brought both kids out to watch daddy at softball practice yesterday. William was shy as usual but still trying to connect with others by handing them stickers and such. He gets so many compliments on his eyes. Grant slept in the pouch the whole time.

You know, I'm thinking that the secret to having a blog that people will actually read is to keep it short. I'll end here for now.

Momentous occasion in our household today - William pooped on the potty for the first time! We haven't been rushing him with potty training, but I encouraged him today to sit on it at the usual time he does his business, and he did it. What a guy!

I went to the gym but my huge lactating breasts are preventing me from running, even when I wear a sports bra. So I'm forced to order the Enell, a darn expensive (well, for me) torture looking device that is supposed to make it possible for me to run again. *sigh*

I am the luckiest woman in the world. I have married my soul mate, and have two incredible children. William is so smart, sweet, sensitive, loving, expressive, and beautiful. Grant is such a good baby, loves life, is happy to be wherever he is, and I just love them both. Okay, enough of that.

There is like a six month minimum waiting period to get an Enell sports bra. Apparently, since Oprah recommended it, people are ordering them left and right. That sucks. I wonder if duct tape would do it (just kidding!).

I'm doing a LOT of juvenile offender evaluations these days, which I enjoy. I write them up while wearing Grant in either a mei tai or pouch sling or while nursing with him on the Boppy pillow. Speaking of Boppy pillows, William is on their "Boppy Babies" page. See if you can guess which one he is. I'm very slowly amassing hours toward licensure. Maybe I'll get licensed one of these years!

I'm having fun making Grant's Elvis costume for Halloween. We bought William a Spiderman costume and he has been wearing it around the house lately crouching down like Spiderman and shooting pretend webs at us. He doesn't seem to understand about Halloween yet but it will be a real treat for him to see all that candy at one time! I think we'll let him eat the candy that night and then get rid of the rest.

I have been at the computer so much typing up evaluations that my eyes are about to pop out. My daycare provider, Lulu, is on vacation next week, and Roy is out of town on Tuesday, so it will be hectic around here next week. I will have to do two interviews somehow. Shannon has volunteered to watch the kids during her lunchbreak while I go to my interviews. What a great friend! I don't know when I'll ever write them up, but I'll figure it out.

Lulu's on vacation this week. This stay-at-home mom thing is hard! I'm such a wimp!

William started gymnastics yesterday. It was so cute. He did the balance beam, jumping jacks, forward rolls, jumping off tall stuff, swinging from the chinup pole, and some other fun things. He was shy at first but warmed up pretty quickly. I carried Grant in the baby carrier during it all.

Geez, I'm not sure this blog thing is doable... I can't seem to keep up with it!

Gymnastics is going well. It's taking William a while to get completely comfortable, but he really looks forward to it every week and enjoys it.

We had William's birthday party this weekend. He was so adorable and such a gracious host. His temper tantrums have cooled off this past week, which I am happy about. I brought cupcakes to his daycare on his actual birthday (Monday).

Another thing I have been working on are instructions for a baby carrier I created. It's an asian baby carrier (a "mei tai"), but with a removable center panel so that you can change the look of it to match your outfit, mood, whatever. I know I'm crazy, but it was fun making it and fun putting the instructions together. I hope some moms out there make one and love it as much as I love mine!

Grant is still the best baby. He's three months already and is a happy, sweet, attentive, mostly non-crying little angel. He's asleep in my lap as I type this.

I've been keeping very busy with my two jobs, two kids, gymnastics, sewing, and all the other little things that add up to a lot! We've decided to spend Thanksgiving at Jenne and Claudio's new house. They have relatives coming in from New Orleans. A lot of them are physicians and did not evacuate during hurricanes Katrina and Rita, so I'll be interested to hear their stories. I hope they're not too tired of talking about it!

Grant laughed for the first time two days ago. Well, he laughed at Lulu's a week or two ago, but I don't count that. It was very cute but I can't seem to get him to do it again! He has been spending some time in the exersaucer lately and seems to like it. Such a sweet baby.

This morning as Grant was taking his morning nap and daddy was still asleep, William and I spent some time in his room playing. It's amazing how many different activities you can do with a handful of colored wooden beads. We sorted them, we counted them, we made jewelry by stringing them onto long pipe cleaners, we did patterns (blue, red, blue, what comes next?), we did addition and subtraction. It was a lot of fun and educational too... what more could a mom ask for?

I'm in the middle of redecorating my office. I ordered a piece of furniture I found on clearance. It's a console table actually but I will use it as a credenza. If I like it I am going to order a computer desk to match it. It is risky to order furniture online but my mother has ordered from this place before and it's nice furniture for the price.

Thanksgiving Day. I have so many things to be thankful for... I'll start with the beautiful little cooing bundle that I have in my pouch right now. Grant is just the sweetest baby. I have to share a couple of funny things before I forget to write them down. When he was a newborn, and up until just a few weeks ago, he'd be flailing his arms and legs around like babies do, and of course babies have that grasp reflex that causes them to grab hold of anything they touch. Well, in his flailing he would end up touching his hair, the grasp reflex would kick in, and he'd be pulling his own hair out and wailing. I have had to rescue him from himself many times in that situation.

He recently discovered that those flailing arms belong to him, so he is spending quite a bit of time lately trying to gain control over these fascinating appendages he has. His hands usually end up in his mouth, and he has been gagging himself. I have found him several times in a predicament where he is shoving one hand into his mouth with the other hand and gagging at the same time, apparently not realizing he is doing it to himself. It's quite amusing seeing him with his little furrowed brow wondering who's choking him.

William has made great potty training strides in the past week. He agreed to wear his Spider-man and Spongebob underwear after much pleading on our part. He has had a few accidents but he is definitely at the point of no return. I'm so proud of him. He helped Daddy stack wood last night and was such a big helper. He has also been asking me a lot to draw him words using dotted lines so that he can trace them. I got so exhausted doing it that I finally went online in search of a dotted line font so that I could make words on the computer that he can trace. I was pleased to find a dotted line font... for free! Of course I am thankful for my firstborn as well - he is truly a pleasure.

I'm thankful that my mother is feeling a bit better these days. Mom, Dad, Jenni, Lynn, and all their kids are spending Thanksgiving together at Mom and Dad's today. I hope they have a nice visit.

I finally got around to framing my doctoral diploma today. Roy's parents sent me some money as a graduation gift back in April that I had earmarked for a diploma frame. I got a mahogany frame with a garnet and gold double mat with a sepia photo of the Westcott building that was taken by a phenomenal local photographer, Russell Grace. I am so proud of that piece of paper - it took many years of very hard work to get. So I'm thankful for that too.

Grant has been able to roll from his tummy to his back since birth, but now, as of three months of age, he can roll from back to tummy. Amazing baby.

Went to the Festival of Lights with Shannon and her kids last night. We were going to do the 3K Jingle Bell Run, but we were late so we jumped in for the last 100 yards or so. We got our workout carrying Grant and pushing William through the masses though! We all went to the zoo today and had a great time.

I'm very tired lately because Grant has been waking up a lot. William has been waking during the night too, come to think of it. I'm gaining weight again and I don't like it at all, but with two kids and two jobs it's very difficult to find time to exercise. Plus I deal with stress by eating sugar, which is a horrible habit. Woe is me.

Grant had some organic fresh banana last night. First food! It's a little early in my opinion to be giving him food, but something in me told me it was the right time. I haven't given him any food today other than breast milk, and don't know if I will yet. I know, I'm a weird mom. He's 15 pounds now by the way... I weighed him today.

William is making great strides with potty training. He's more and more of a daddy's boy and wants to do everything that Roy does. What pressure! Luckily Roy has been watching himself lately.

Since I last wrote, we have been to Virginia and North Carolina to visit Roy's family, I saw Raleigh for the first time in person, and we had Christmas. I'll have to do a more thorough update later, but at least I got a bunch of new photos up!

Happy new year! Grant is up on all fours rocking already. I can't believe my baby is about to crawl. He's still only 4 months old! Still have not started him on food yet; he had banana at four months and tried cereal on Christmas Day (he didn't like it!).

William has been having fun learning to ride his new big boy bicycle. He is a ham for the camera and is turning into quite the boisterous little boy! His gymnastics teacher wants to move him up to the four year old class next week. We'll see how that goes.

I've been busy working, sewing new baby carriers (latest obsession), and being a mom. I am teaching again this spring; classes start next week. I will then have THREE jobs (paying ones, anyway): my consultant job with the state government, therapy/evaluations under a private practice, and teaching. I like talking about psychology, though, so teaching is fun for me.

New years' resolutions... well, I always resolve to exercise more, and I'll resolve yet again this year, if I can find the time to do it!

I have to send off my beloved Nikon D70 for repair. I am not happy about being without a camera for a few weeks... I mean, how will I document that my children exist during this time? (only half kidding here... as soon as I boxed up the camera, Grant discovered his toes and is now grabbing them all the time)

Grant can now sit up by himself supporting himself with one hand on the floor. How in the world is he growing so fast?

I remember when William was going through all of these exact same milestones, and I couldn't imagine him as a little boy... but look at William now. He does gymnastics, he knows his vowels, he can tell me when his feelings are hurt, he can tell me what is happening in a movie. What a big boy he is.

Roy has been growing a full beard for the first time, and I have to say it's darn sexy! That is one good looking man I have. He is such a loving father and a great husband. He's been busy this week painting the deck in addition to his other regular cooking and cleaning activities. What a great guy.

So my wonderful friend Shannon loaned me her camera since mine is in the hospital, and it is a good thing because it seems that in the space of a day, Grant can now sit up without assistance! Geez, where did the time go? Where did my newborn baby boy go? He is also sucking on his toes from time to time, and still up on all fours rocking. I got some photos and video of all of this for those moments after he goes off to college that I want to torture myself into an empty nest depression.

William is now saying "three" instead of "free" when you ask him his age. Lulu has been working on that with him, telling him to bite his tongue when he says "th" sounds. It's so cute because sometimes he'll tell me, "Mommy, bite your tongue!" Sometimes when I tell William it's time to do something, like take a bath, if he is not agreeable to it at that moment he'll respond, "Nooooo, that's not a good plan!"

My brother-in-law passed on today. Roy's beloved brother David had a massive stroke two days ago and was taken off his ventilator today, my brave and loving husband by his side. I've never been more in love with my husband than I am today.

David was a Vietnam veteran. He took care of Roy's elderly mother around the clock for his last years. Here are a couple of photos of him.

Roy came home late Sunday night. He has been so brave. He has handled this with such grace and humbleness (is that a word?) and I am so proud that he is my husband.

Of all his brother's belongings, Roy asked his mother for permission to take David's military medals with him, and she was happy to give them to him. He probably didn't need to ask her permission, as David was taking care of Mom, not the other way around, but I thought it was very respectful of him to ask her anyway.

There will be a service for David's local friends this weekend I think, but Roy wants to wait until his Dad passes and we will have a joint family service on Cape Hatteras, where they frequently fished growing up.

Yesterday I took the kids to daycare and then came home from work at like 11 AM to be with Roy. He just talked and talked and talked, and I just listened. It turns out that he got some closure with David when we visited last month. After the kids and I went to bed, Roy stayed up smoking cigars with David on the last night we were there, and the two of them told each other what they really appreciated about each other. He said it's the kind of conversation most people wish they'd had with their loved one after they die. There were some tears, but mostly he is handling this very well.

In other news, Grant had sweet potatoes for the first time today. He's been eating bananas and organic rice cereal for a week or two, which he likes. He seemed to really like the sweet potatoes. He's also scooting... not quite officially crawling yet, but he can make his way over to something that he wants. William is back in gymnastics this month, but as of February I'm moving him up to the 4-5 year olds' class. He's fully potty trained now (has been for a while, but no accidents in probably a month... knock on wood) and is just growing up before my very eyes. He can hold a conversation on the phone now too!

William can write many of his letters now, and is doing a great job! I'm so amazed at what he can do. He's still in gymnastics and will be moved up to the 4 year old class next week.

Grant is crawling commando-style now. I have no idea how he is almost six months old already.

My 3 year, 3 month old boy is writing his name! I can't believe how fast he is growing up.

Both of the boys have colds, making this the first illness for Grant... speaking of which, my baby boy is 6 months old today! Waaahhhhh... how in the world did this happen?

Grant is a crawling machine! He fusses like crazy when I put him down or leave the room. He's not spoiled - he's reached a new developmental milestone (or at least that's what I keep telling myself). It's nice to be worshipped by an amazingly adorable little baby! Still no teeth, but he can stand supporting himself and can almost pull himself up to standing!

William is still writing his name and is turning into a little school-aged boy right before my eyes. He has been helping his daddy with the yard work and can use the cordless leaf blower (adult version!) all by himself. He still loves Spongebob and I watch it with him every day. I know every single episode now (but I know nothing about current events). I'm not proud of this fact, but I'm also not a psycho TV-phobe either who thinks that my child is going to turn into a slug if he watches some TV every day. I watched lots of TV as a kid, went to public school, ate refined sugar, and somehow got a Ph.D. despite all of those horrible influences in my life!

Roy defends his dissertation prospectus in two weeks. I'm so proud of him. He was so helpful when I was writing my dissertation and I feel badly that I can't help him as much as he helped me. He'll do great though.

It's been a month since my last update! William is not only writing his name, but is writing his numbers and phonograms and is just learning exponentially every day! He's been watching "Finding Nemo" every night lately. He is a beautiful, sweet boy. He and his daddy are in the pool right now as I type this.

Grant is crawling very well now and pulling up on everything. He finally cut a tooth last week. Even though he's not biting me, my breasts feel very much like they feel the first week of breastfeeding a newborn because the tooth naturally rubs when he nurses. From experience, I know that it won't hurt for very much longer. I'm SO tired of pumping during the week, but I press on. What I go through to keep my kids healthy!

Roy successfully completed his prospectus defense, and just submitted his request to the IRB to use human subjects in his study. Things are moving along for him!

I met with one of my former doctoral committee professors last week who is very interested in continuing the research I did on my dissertation. He wants to take my instrument to publication and wanted me to be involved. I had to turn him down - I simply do not have room in my life right now to be a part of that! If I had a clone of myself, sure. But regardless, he is making a journal article out of my dissertation for me and will be submitting it for publication soon with me as first author without doing any work, so I can't complain about that! I am just thrilled that someone is interested in continuing my research - I still believe in the model, I just don't have the time to stick with it. With my luck, they'll get rich off my instrument and I'll be regretting backing out!

Mother's Day 2006: Let me just tell you all that I have THE most wonderful husband. He let me sleep in this morning, and then when I woke up I was presented with flowers, a new DVD, a magazine subscription, and a hand written poem. He then hosted a Mother's Day cookout. We had three other couples over who each have two children, so we had quite a crowd. We all had a great time and Roy did all the planning, cooking, serving, hosting, and cleaning. I promised him that I would not hold him to this standard every year! Here are the photos.

I haven't been doing much blogging lately, but I have put up some entries on my MySpace page.