For the Family

Teacher Appreciation Week

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We don’t just celebrate teacher appreciation day, we do a whole week. I mean the two women who manage 21 5-6 year olds 5 days a week, all day, and still manage to teach them something—they deserve a whole week.

I consider myself a fairly successful adult and my penchant for learning (life-long) and for reading came from a beautiful, amazing tiny little woman who is now retired but with whom I still stay in touch. She was my first grade teacher and her name was “Miss” Judy. I still remember learning phonics lessons in her class. She made an impact. Many of the children in her class at that small little private school in South Carolina have gone on to become pretty successful adults. Even though I moved away after 2nd grade I still stay in touch with many of them and they are contributing to society in many ways. Let’s not pretend our time with Miss Judy didn’t play a roll in that.

My own baby sister (8 years age difference) is now a first grade teacher, at the school in the very classroom where she attended 1st grade. I could not be more proud. She is 3 years in to teaching and she already has former parents and students stopping her when we are shopping to hug her and thank her. She glows afterwards. She, my mom and I have spent many of our own dollars 💵 and lots of time giving her students special lessons and surprises each year. Having someone who I’m so close with as a teacher deepens my respect for them so much. Sweat, paper-cut blood, tears and a good chunk of her not-big-enough-in-my-opinion salary goes into teaching each of those 19-22 students she has for 8 hours 5 days a week 184days +\- each year so please know to all those teachers out there I appreciate you, I love you for caring, to the two currently teaching my little bit–thank you. Thank you.

Hug a teacher, buy her a bottle of wine or some chocolate or a gift card to get her toes done. She (or he) deserves it.

So here’s what we did–I made print outs on Silhouette studio for the bags (I will try to find a way to post the svg file if anybody is interested) the first day I made “Your the balm” and gave Burt’s Bees lip balm, today is donut day so I bought donuts and put them in pretty white boxes with the donut tags I found here.

Tomorrow I will be making or finding a “thank you for helping my bloom” and giving them each a rose ring that I make (I make jewelry with polymer clay, you can follow me on Instagram at ClayMagnolias or my Facebook page under the same name, I do not have Etsy yet but I do accept PayPal and ship). I have a Youtube channel with tutorials in the works you can find here.

Friday the last day we will be making a teacher supply “cake” and I will post an updated picture when it’s done!

What did you do for teachers appreciation? What impact have teachers made in your life? Your children’s?

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The rare cold day

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We took Little Bit and Lilo on a hike at a state park on New Years Day. I️ haven’t always been an outdoors woman to say the least. I️ mean bugs, snakes (many poisonous around here) and the sun are not exactly in this pale girl’s friend list. I️ am trying to find it more enjoyable especially when the weather assists me in blocking my three aforementioned enemies as in Georgia “Swinter” or the extreme mixture of weather we have between late October and March. I️ mean, y’all, my idea of a great day is curled up in my pjs or yoga pants reading a good book and drinking some hot tea on a “cold” day.

We had decided if the Seattle-style weather subsided on New Year’s Day and the weather was above freezing we would #optoutside with the girls as my husband is very much an outdoor kind of guy and since Ireland I’ve found a bit more of an adventurous side to my soul.

With much difficulty we mustered enough layers to be somewhat warm in the just above freezing temps (it’s the South y’all, I️ didn’t even get to wear a sweater last “winter”) and threw some things in a daypack.

We were pretty much the only people in the park other than employees. I’ve already learned a lot about dressing warmly after this one trip lol. It was frigid. I didn’t have true mittens for the baby and vowed to crochet some as soon as possible. Especially, as I suspect, we will be doing this more often. We hiked down the pioneer trail until the temp started dropping and we decided to turn around. It was amazing but not entirely unsurprising how well Little Bit took to the hike. She found area where the wild boar in the area had been digging, saw hoof prints from deer and the boar along he way. The Moose was an Eagle Scout so had camped at the park before and took her to view the campsites which she thought was awesome. There are few benches along the trail and we stopped and let Little Bit assist Moose in using the campstove to boil water for one of those rehydrated meals to try. It was actually delicious for camping food and the warm slightly spicy meal was welcome to cut through the cold, almost wet chill.

We decided as we made our way back to the car to do this more often during the year as disconnecting from screen time and the more modern world felt good. The connection we made with the girls and with each other on this brief hike left me wanting more. The-not-so-outdoorsy girl in me finding very little room to complain about anything other than her desire for a warm bath.

So as we begin 2018 we start with true family time and have already done a little treasure hunting on Jekyll Island (see next post).

A few of my favorite things—baby items

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So for 6 months and under after two kids some of my favorite baby items include:

Sit Me Up chair—LP (little prisspot) is NOSEY yet clingy. She likes playing in this chair while I pumped, cleaned, folded laundry, took a break.

Knock-off or actual Hakka pump—I still like occasionally and this saves the boobie juice and my shirts/bras.

See my previous pump regarding my Spectra.

My BoB stroller. I’m a BoB-levier now and I should’ve just bought one with my Little Bit as we went through 3-4 strollers any darn way. It is a little bit heavy but it maneuvers like a dream. The almost 6 year old still fits in it if she gets exhausted (like when we were at Disney) and I can still wear the baby. We did but the cup holder thing with the pump and repair kit and it was worth it. The adjustable handles make it worth it as hubby and I are a foot and 1/3 height difference. Just so many little upgrades that are awesome and easy to use. They are expensive and hold their value well for buying used. We bought new because we had Amazon registry for baby and had the coupon at the end.

I had a c-section so baby bath and changing table did (and still) do get used by me. LP is 5 months and I still use her baby seat for the tub. It’s a simple one I got used for $5 though.

I also utilize a playmat a lot and we again bought a used one that could be washed and bleached and was totally worth it.

Medela steam bags for my pump/bottle parts

LP is just now getting big enough but I used lot these for Little Bit as well and saved them. Buggy/highchair cover—as a healthcare provider I worry a lot less about dirt germs than people germs even though I’ve seen people say they were a waste we used ours a lot. A lobster claw highchair—so easy to travel with and use!!! We take our girls with us most places that we go—how else do they know how to behave when they go somewhere new? And because I didn’t want the servers mean-glancing at us I used this and just washed it off in the sink, dried it off briefly and rolled it up into the diaper bag.

This is my favorite nursing cover because I’ve needed a nipple shield with both girls and the pockets are perfect, it folds up well and holds it color in the wash and is relatively comfortable. It’s hot and humid so we only use it when we have to. Mine is a pink peacock color which I can’t find anymore (6 years old)!

I realize a lot of these links are from Amazon but we are Prime members and there is such a thing as Amazon Priming while pumping. I may have ordered many of these things or at least put them on a list at 2-4am while trying to stay awake feeding/pumping.

Things I feel like you should save your money on—

  • bottle warmers
  • sterilizers
  • fancy swings (old school works fine)
  • bassinet (they outgrown them soon, buy simple)
  • baby shoes (we do socks)
  • Baby wipe warmers
  • Bath thermometers (God gave you the best—your hand)
  • Baby pulse ox/heart rate monitors (owlet), they are inaccurate, give too many false alarms and the American Academy of Pediatrics actually recommends AGAINST them and they have not proven to reduce risk of SIDS so save yo’ money.
  • Baby specific blenders/baby food makers unless you don’t have a blender, food processor or magic bullet/nutribullet already. Those work just fine!!

What have your favorite baby items been so far? What do you feel like was a waste of space/money?

Back to Work: Post-Baby Advice

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We were so fortunate to welcome a second little girl into our lives in early May. We were also fortunate enough that despite her spending her first week in the NICU she is a very healthy girl. Everything happens for a reason and it has made me a better provider as I now have more appreciation for parents who’ve been there (generally for much much longer than we were) and for exclusively pumping mommas.

While I’m not a first time mom, this is the first (and last) time returning to work post-baby in my current capacity. I’ve learned so much through both experience and from other moms with both children that I’d like to share in one place what has worked for me in hopes that some other working mom (or working stay at home momma!) may find it useful.

Routine—hahaha! That’s a joke right? Especially if you’re breastfeeding. You can get into a very loose routine but don’t fool yourself in to thinking baby is going to get into a set schedule for the first 3-4 months. Fellow type A mommas—this is ok, let it go or you’ll make yourself miserable by constantly failing to live up to impossible expectations. I pump around the same time everyday regardless of while I was on maternity leave or now that I’m back to work. I pump roughly 2xday at home. If you’re exclusively pumping don’t expect to hit that number for a long time. Just go with the flow, and for goodness sakes try not to go back at 6 weeks if you can manage longer. That’s really soon.

That being said, focus all that energy on trying to prep for the next day/challenge such as organizing your diapers, wipes, changing stations as well as your nest. Yes I used the word nest and I’m not referring to the whole house. The Moose coined this term with the first child in our house and he was referring to my seat that became my breastfeeding and pumping station. With the first I was less organized than with this baby. This time I set up a cheap dollar store basket for all of my pump parts and creams, etc on the end table near my nest.

I started my first week back to work as a “one-day” week where I worked Friday only then the next week went back to my 4 day schedule Tues-Friday. This let me “test the water” so to say on how much breastmilk I needed to leave for the sitter, anything I may need to bring to work the next week, and it was better for me emotionally. I had taken 10 weeks off but it still felt too soon and we certainly weren’t getting much sleep at night (night-time nursing is good for your supply however…).

I have my own office at work so I am fortunate to leave my station set up and ready to rock. Otherwise I would have probably got everything set up and ready sooner.

My work pump station:

I had used a Medela with Little Bit but tried a spectra that I got brand new from Amazon for like $112 or something along those lines. Oh My God! Saved the nips. I didn’t know how much the Medela was killing me! Lol.

I bought a new hands free bra that made it a little faster for me. Previously I just cut holes in Lycra sports bars (cheap from target) and those still work great for home. This portable drying rack that has been good for travel (Disney World trip!). I also find these helpful as we use tommy tippee bottles and I can pump into those with my Medela phlanges and can use those with the spectra with this.

Going back to work has not been easy of course but hopefully I’m learning how to make it work better and will be able to help other mommas as well as show my two little ladies how to rock it as a working mom.

I’ll post more as we go through this journey. I’ll also discuss a little about what I’ve learned about exclusively pumping (when I had to the first weeks) and what I do to save milk for my munchkin.

Update: bought a second spectraand you can check the hours using the above if you decide to as well. I paid $30 for a pump with 3 hours on it. 3 hours ladies. I’m not even an exclusive pumper but I had already put 91 hrs on the Spectra that I bought when she was almost 2 months old.

Airplane Travel with Lil Bit

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I told you I would let you know what worked well for us and what didn’t.

What we’ve tried:

Snacks

  • dried apple, pear and strawberry/banana slices that are in individual serving packs
  • almonds
  • carrots
  • raisins and craisins
  • a cheese stick
  • animal cookie/crackers
  • Cliff Bars

I packed most of her snacks into a plastic, clear “tackle box” that we bought for just this purpose.

Toys

  • Ipad with:
  • Her small pillow
  • Nintendo DS with a few age appropriate games
    • Nintendogs
    • Horsez
    • Cooking Mama (I even like this one)
    • Spyro
    • A few others like Mario and Kirby that she likes to try but can’t really play well
  • Coloring/activity books
  • Highlights High Five magazine x 2 (for younger kids)
  • A few small story books
  • Child headphones
  • A “comfy” animal (stuffed)

I left the tackle box in the fridge on the way to the airport but the dried fruit and cliff bars as well as the bags of crackers and animal cookies were awesome both there and the way home.

The Disney movies and iPad games were life-savers. She slept most of the long flight to Europe but on the way home really needed the iPad. Every 30 mins she was asking if we were there yet :). She did play the Nintendo some but honestly Josh and I used it to play retro nintendo games on there more than she utilized it. The coloring and activity books helped as well while we were actually in Ireland. She colored when she was up while everyone was getting ready and packing.

I don’t feel like we shouldn’t have brought any of the things we did but I maybe think there were some better choices. We also bought a lot of stuff while we were over there because it was way cheaper than we had planned for originally. I had packed an extra travel duffle and we ended up buying a second with wheels there for all of our souvenirs (many).

On Hubby

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Have you just been doing some mundane task say laundry or the dishes and talking to your spouse and realized you absolutely got it right with them for the millionth time? I mean seriously, who else gets your quirky sense of humor and sideways movie/music references like your spouse?

I always tell him that I’d love to be married to me because I’m awesome (jokingly of course… mostly) but truth is I’m very lucky. Do not get it twisted, he’s not perfect but he’s pretty wonderful as a husband and a dad. He’s also the romantic in the relationship. I’m usually the one who struggles to pick a present or choose somewhere to go, he on the other hand seems to have some endless source of awesome surprises at hand. I’m the practical one (to a fault in many cases) and he’s the dreamer.

I feel like while we may have that a bit backwards, we also just…work. In lieu of all that lovey-dovey mush, I’m once again admitting I’m terrible with presents and have been told by the Moose that he didn’t want anything for this past birthday nor does he want anything specific for Father’s Day because we will be out of the county but I can’t help feeling I’d like to do something for him with Lil Bit of course. Any good ideas out there?

Good for the Soul Kinda Weekend

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Friday ended up being a surprise date-night for hubby and I when I called to invite a friend and her daughter to dinner with us and she said yes but then called back and said that her hubby was getting off of work early and didn’t really want to go out so why didn’t she keep Lil Bit and let her play while we went out. This is probably something normal for most folks but we don’t go out much without Lil Bit despite the fact that we know we should. I think we have that duel-working-parents guilt so time not at work should be spent with our child.

Anyways, the stars continued to align and we made excellent timing to a restaurant that my husband had made a reservation which apparently ended up being pointless as we walked right on in, something usually unheard of on a Friday night. I guess the ran or threat of had held everyone off….

Then Saturday baby girl and I made excellent time to go to the local Farmer’s Market, got everything we came for, grass-fed, free-range milk, fresh goat cheese, handmade pastas, and Merlot salt. The weather, normally hot at the time of day we attended the market, was gorgeous. When we came home the rain came down, we spent a lovely evening with my husband, curled on the sofa watching old Disney movies and eating popcorn.

My good fortune continued when the rain had stopped the next day, the three of us headed to do some volunteer work for our local state park. Afterwards we headed to the beach where we thoroughly enjoyed all the beauty and relaxation that pre-tourist season and cloudy weather offer.

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When we’d all had just a little too much sun and not enough food in our bellies, we drove back to civilization and enjoyed another quicker-than-normal meal, it started raining on the way back home but the rough weather held out until we were home and bathed. That night after hubby and I put Lil Bit to bed we heard the whippoorwill crank up outside and opened the backdoor to our own little serenade….I think we just all have to be grateful for small blessings like these. Those moments we hold onto in the weariness of days coming when it’s all we can do to make it through the work day, kick off our shoes and start cooking dinner, caring for kids and albeit crawling into bed. I hope it gets me through this work week before our family mini-vacay. Anyways, here’s hoping your weekend was a good.

New Macbook, new post

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So just thought I’d drop a new post, with my new (to me) Macbook. Woot!

See, my laptop broke awhile back and the desktop, well it’s just not friendly to writing a blog–or comfortable.

I am very excited if you can’t tell and now no longer have an excuse to avoid the blog. So hopefully I can deliver more than one post per month…lol.

So what have I been doing while I’m not on a cool laptop like this one? I’m enjoying mommyhood, working my behind off at work (it’s sick season) and celebrating my 7th wedding anniversary with the Moose. The month of February holds the duel challenge of Valentine’s Day in addition to our anniversary. So I decided to redo and clean our office, a.k.a. the 2nd circle of hell as I’ve referred to it since our “clutter” room became Lil Bit’s room and the office assumed some of said clutter. It now boasts new decor, a home for everything and everything in it’s place and a happy husband I believe. I think he was more surprised at some of the handman-type things I accomplished rather than the tidyness.

My Lil Bit’s ever expanding vocabulary also continues to amaze me. Sitting at the dentist office with me a few weeks ago she became very quite then looks at me with big eyes and says, “I am nervous, I am a little nervous mommy.” The hygienist and this empress stifled laughs as we said, “Why are you nervous baby girl? There’s no need to be nervous.” She looks up and shrugs her shoulders, “I dunno, I am just nervous.” My now 3 year old with her perfect annunciated of multi-syllable words….Good grief the time has flown.

Unfortunately this brief post has also flown and I now have to skitter off to bed as I have a very early morning tomorrow and I think some of the bugs I’ve been exposed to at work are trying to catch me. Have a good night y’all!

=S

A New Year of New Mondays

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Today was our first “Mommy and Lil Bit day” of the new year.

You know how on very rare days you manage to stretch out the minutes and fit everything in that you intended to accomplish into those precious hours? Somehow I managed to do that today and if this is any indication of how the new year will go I am looking forward to living it up. I have about 12 hours or so one day a week to try to pack in as much mommy time as possible and it is a lot of pressure especially if Lil Bit is having a bad day.

I have found in this brief but enlightening journey as a mom of a now 3 year old, that I have set up my idea of being a good mom in such a way that I will never know a guilt-free moment. Now this guilty train of thought is not necessarily in a mindful way, but almost completely subconscious, likely based on my nursing/medical background, pinterest, mothering books and my OWN mother–all of these things adding pressure and driving my already overachieving brain to be the best sort of mom. So much so that I sometimes catch myself being a crappy mom in the process….

Not going to lie, I totally googled “working mom guilt” and after flipping through a few articles I found this. The article is from a few years ago but it feels all to fitting, however she herself seems unable to offer a solution to the problem.

Looking back at my beginnings as a mother, I set my alarm when my infant slept through the night so that I could make sure there was (barely) enough pumped breastmilk to get her through the next night I worked (12 hr night-shifts wreak havoc on your prolactin levels) and cried when I spilled a 2oz bottle the first week I went back to work after pumping–in the breakroom because we did not have a lactation room. I probably would have made more milk and been a better, kinder full-time working, graduate-school-attending mom if I had gotten a good night’s rest instead. I get so preoccupied with how things are supposed to be, trying to find decent prices/coupons on organic food or meal-prepping for the week so that we can eat “cleaner” that I miss an opportunity to play with my child or teach her something new. I KNOW in my heart that it is better to be one-on-one with her and to give her a kind, caring, mother rather than a completely organic and balanced diet and every Barbie for her bless-ed dream house but my head tells me these are things that matter.

After today, where I actually spent the majority of the day WITH my daughter and not just in the same household as her, I remember why I went down to a 4 day work week and I think that this may be why the whole household has been more balanced today. Today also gives me pause and makes me consider an underlying, additional New Years Resolution…to be a mom to the best of my REALISTIC abilities rather than those that I have superimposed on myself. Wish me luck!

Happy New Year/The 2014 Wrap Up

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Every year has it’s ups and downs and while overall 2014 was a fairly good year I’m hoping for my family, and yours of course, that 2015 will be very good to everyone.

So far at the start of 2015 I have 5 pregnant friends, some with their first, others with their 3rd. I’ve already started knitting again to be able to send off baby blankets to the newbie parents and instead of donating some of Little Bit’s baby toys, I’ve set them aside in case some of them have girls.

Work seems to be going okay; I’ve always loved what I actually do but I’m not a fan of office politics and sometimes they make going into work difficult.

Little Bit is growing like a weed. Santa was exceptionally good to her and the Moose and I had to rearrange her room to fit the gigantic Barbie Dreamhouse in there. I think it’s hilarious that she’s also playing with my late1980s/early90s Barbie Camper and some actually Barbies (which are made of significantly higher quality than the newer ones and this bums me out as a mom). Also the old clothing is still in good shape and is also mainly cotton vs nylon hoochie disasters from Target.

The Moose is continuing his mission of fitness and wants 20 inch arms by July. He ended the new year with 18 1/2 inches. All looks the same to me….I am still on/off my fitness plan. I think the universe wishes me to remain short and fluffy as every time I get into a good routine I end up with bronchitis or injury some body part. I’m currently confined to yoga and upper body as I literally tore the medial aspect of my calf muscle playing tennis. Fan-damn-tastic right? Especially in the middle of the holidays where goodies are everywhere. I’ll get back on track though–my mother-in-law and sister-in-law want me to do a Disney Princess 1/2 marathon with them in 2016 so I’ll have to be able to jog/run part of the way to get to take pics with the characters.

Our family and my personal New Year’s Resolutions consist of the following: paying off some debts, saving money for our Eurotrip, and being happy!

I leave you with the pic of Little Bit picking oranges at her Aunt’s house…she ate nine, NINE! oranges on this particular day. 🙂

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