Why I don't shop at Toys R Us

Today Shona and I went to Toys R Us to buy her an outdoor swing. I was reminded of why I don't shop there--they have waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much stuff I want to buy! Seriously, that store is amazing. I'm talking like, a whole aisle of baby soaps, lotions, diaper creams; a whole line of all natural cleaners (totally safe for baby to touch); gorgeous baby clothes and shoes; and then toys...okay, let's not go there. Now I know for sure that I'm NOT going to visit Babies R Us, because that would be double trouble.

Oh yeah, I have a few photos to include...these are some of my favorites so far.

Shona is 6 months old!

Okay, Blogger is refusing to let me rearrange photos. This photo at the top is one that I recently found on my cell phone. I am holding...guess who? It's not Shona. This is Benjamin, when he was about 7 months old. (Rach, correct me if I'm wrong.) I think Shona looks somewhat like him!

And here are some recent photos of Shona (as in, mostly from yesterday). She is now 6 months old!!! [Edited to add: Shona weighs 15 lbs and is 25 in. long.)

The party last night

Last night was Tiph's 20th birthday party. Here are some photos, starting with Caleb and Craig doing "Daddy duty".... ;-) Just kidding.

Yesterday vs. today

Yesterday, I decided I didn't even want to think about "baby food" until Shona is like, a year old.

Today found me making my own baby food. So far we have apples--enough to last until she's 30--and avocado. I'm going to attempt pumpkin next.

Now, I only said I'm MAKING baby food; I didn't say Shona's going to start eating it everyday. But she's certainly showing all the signs of being ready, and last night she ate pears (organic, of course) like a pro and slept amazingly. So much for my plans to EBF for the first 12 months. What am I going to do next??!!

Things not to do during a 2 hour outing

• Honk at another driver, even if they did suddenly back out into the highway, into your lane, while you are traveling at 60 mph. Honking at another driver can result in said driver becoming aggressive. Enough said.
• Dress your baby in summer clothes before leaving the house, hence being caught unprepared when unexpected cool front hits
• Attempt to order $100 prescription at CVS, using invalid discount card. (Pediatrician's fault - the company that issued the discount card has since merged with another company.)
• Stop in at HEB (unwittingly) the day a $76M lottery ticket was sold. This means dodging dozens of news anchors and people with video cameras.
  

It was obviously a lovely outing.

Day at the beach

This was October 17th - Elijah's birthday!! We had a day at the beach with Caleb's parents, and Sharon, Elijah and Noah. It was SO fun! Shona enjoyed it too.

Picnic at the park

Okay, somewhere between October 7 and today, we had a picnic at the park with Caleb's family. (Lately my brain has been hopeless when it comes to remembering dates.) I really, really, really enjoyed it. The weather was fairly cool, so I was able to carry Shona around in the sling without her getting too hot. Mercy brought Luska, and Luska had fun jumping into the lake and fetching things.

Excuse my messy hair!! I can't believe I spent the afternoon looking like that. :-D LOL.

Many thanks to Aunty Rachel for this lovely jacket! It was VERY useful!!

Warning: lots of photos of Shona

Sooo...where did I leave off last time? Oh yes, I posted photos of National Night Out. That was October 6. The next day was my birthday--and let's not get into unnecessary details like, how old I am--but even if (*if*) I got older, it was worth it because I got really special treatment. 1.) Caleb took me out for dinner at the Italian Deli here in town. I really enjoyed it. It was such a cute little place and the food was amazing. 2.) Nat surprised me with a turbo vacuum. Yep, if Nat buys something, it's gotta be turbo. ;-) But hey, it's a pretty powerful vacuum! 3.) Sarah gave me a wicker bench and ottoman (photo is somewhere below), and she and I spent the day repainting it and it looks as good as new. 4.) Caleb bought me a laptop!!! And it's pink! It just arrived yesterday, actually. It has a 500 GB hard drive, so it's just perfect for storing all my millions of pictures. :-P

Okay, here I am on my way to the Italian Deli with Caleb and Shona:

Here is Shona on the way to the restaurant. She looks smug. I think she thought it was her birthday.

Here is the bench and ottoman from Sarah:

Here is a random photo of Shona eating a book. Don't worry, it was a nutritious one.

This is a before and after photo so you can see how Shona scoots around. It's kinda old, though. She scoots a lot more now.

Straight out of the tub, looking very cuddly:



Mommy and Shona - some random day:

Being silly:

Enjoying her jumperoo:

Just being her cute self:





All ready for bed:

"Do you work?"

Why yes, I work. During the night, I get up to feed or soothe my fussing baby (sometimes a dozen times), and during the day I change diapers, bathe, feed and play with my baby, carry her around during most of her waking moments (only way to keep her happy right now), and soothe her to sleep at nap times; plan meals, go grocery shopping, cook; pay bills, reorganize budget, reply to emails; vacuum, mop, clean toilets, scrub floors, wash dishes, pack my husband's lunch for the next day, etc.; wash, dry, and put away laundry; wash, dry and put away diapers; wash, dry and put away baby clothes....the list could go on. I'm pretty sure if I was employed by Molly Maids as a housekeeper, or by Little Happy Smiley Faces Daycare (or whatever) as a childcare worker, or Coastline Accounting Services as a secretary, people would have no problem considering me "employed." So, how about I work for my husband, clean my own house, and take care of my own child? Am I any less "employed"? After all, the definition of employ is something along the lines of "to hire or engage the services of a person or persons" (Dictionary.com).

I was recently asked that question, "So, do you work?" No big deal, right? Well, I have been silently observing an online longstanding debate between working vs. "non-working" women...and I must say, I just don't see how sitting in an office, in front of a computer, working for a boss, is any more special or dignified than me working for my best friend (my husband), in our own home. Besides, you (that's the generic "you") are "just another employee" and if you left your job, chances are, no one would remember you a decade later. On the other hand, if a devoted wife and mother "resigned" her position, there would be some real impact.

This is not a stab at working mothers who have to support their children. This is not a stab at anyone. But I remember all those years that my mother tirelessly devoted to caring for her family, only to have people constantly make remarks like, "So, all you do is stay home with your kids?" "You mean you don't have a job?" "You should do something with yourself." Well I think she DID do something with herself. She lovingly raised 7 children!

Now for a couple quotes from a book I'm reading. If you'd like to know the title of the book, please email me.

"What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow." -- Martin Luther

"Of course, much of the world would agree that being a housekeeper is acceptable as long as you are not caring for your own home; treating men with attentive devotion would also be right as long as the man is the boss in the office and not your husband; caring for children would even been deemed heroic service for which presidential awards could be given as long as the children are someone else's and not your own." -- Dorothy Patterson

The purpose of this post is not to talk about how much stuff I do. All I do is the normal stuff that any mother/wife does, whether she's a working mom or a SAHM...the exception being that a working mom *generally* (though not always) has someone else care for her child while she is at work. My point is, because I choose to stay home and care for my child myself, and you go to work in an office (or wherever) while someone else cares for your child, does not mean you have a real job and I don't.

Rant over. Again, this is not directed at anyone. Mainly just some thoughts I wanted to share (aww, I'm so kind, huh? :-)) after reading the book I mentioned earlier.

It is not my intention to offend anyone; it is not my intention to hurt any feelings; but neither is it my intention to spend my life smiling and saying, "No, I don't work. I'm just a housewife."

Thank you for your time. :-)

National Night Out

These are my photos from National Night Out. Not the greatest pics, but I'm posting them anyway. Our neighborhood was visited by the town's firefighters, EMT's, regular police, police on bikes, and undercover police/detectives/investigators. Five departments!!! Aren't we special. :-) Sorry I didn't manage to get photos of the fire truck or ambulance.

Soooo...

Just a few new pictures. I need to post ones from National Night Out, but I don't know if I'll get that done today or not.

Clothes courtesy of Meemaw (Caleb's mom); legwarmers & headband courtesy of Etsy.com; flower courtesy of Mommy. :-) She was dressed up to go to the store (to get eggs) with Caleb.

Caleb and Shona. She LOVES her daddy!

I love her smile!

"Hmm, this looks tasty..."

"Yep, delicious! Just like I thought."

Your baby's emotional health and development

I've been meaning to post this wee excerpt from something I read about emotional health and development in babies. I really like what it says because it just sums up exactly how I feel about the subject (and maybe cos it also makes me feel justified in being so crazily happy. ;-) But it makes Shona happy...and I don't mind doing ridiculous things to make her laugh. :-))

==================================================================

Be joyful. Joy is the other side of healthy attachment. Breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and slinging are all excellent attachment actions, but they will be nullified if you are not feeling joy while you do them. A mother in Australia became frustrated because in her words, “I did it all. I nursed till they were three. I was always home and never left them, but still they struggle.” I discussed this with her, and she revealed that she had been miserable, anxious, and depressed when the children were young. She was unhappy with the father, and she didn’t feel understood, heard, or loved. She was absent of joy. It’s imperative to find the joy in life because your energy is shared by everyone, especially your baby. If you need to see a counselor, talk to friends, engage in hobbies, or join a mothering group, do it! This time in your baby’s life is far too short for the two of you to not be “in joy” with one another. And what is joy? It’s merely an alive expression of love.

Just some bits of nonsense

So hmm...what shall I say? I have some photos to upload but I don't think I'll get around to doing that today. Shona is napping right now, and she's probably going to wake up any moment.

Today I finished planting all my flowers. Yay!! (I need to take photos of the new flower bed.) Also, I made stuff for National Night Out. Yep, it's that time of year again. We're meeting in the cul de sac at 6 this evening. Last year, I was pregnant...and this time, I have a lovely 5 month old baby. :-)

Yesterday Shona and I did some MEGA shopping - grocery shopping, that is. We went to FOUR different stores in order to get everything we needed. So hopefully I won't have to go back for a long time, because I made a detailed shopping list for each store, and I didn't forget anything! Amazing, huh?

At one of the stores, I spent several minutes explaining to a lady what it means to "buy something online...." She had asked where I got Shona's headband. A little while later, I heard her on the next aisle, "I love that shirt. Now where did you get it?" And then a bit later, "I love that purse. Where did you get it?" And on, and on, and on! Soooo, I dunno if she was just crazy, or if she really liked Shona's headband, and that guy's shirt, and the lady's purse, and that kid's socks, and...well, you get my point. But anyway.

Um, so what else? Caleb has been going to work at 6:30 am, which means he gets home earlier and I get to spend more time with him. It's been nice! Now if only the mosquitoes would go away, maybe we could actually spend some time outside or go to the park or something. Shona currently has a mosquito bite on her arm, her leg and her toe. We try sooooo hard to keep her from getting bit, but they still manage to get to her.

Oh, I made peanut butter cookies today. That was the first time I'd made cookies in...well, let's just say a long time. I've certainly not made any since Shona was born.

Okay, I guess that's everything in my brain right now that's safe to post on Blogger. I don't particularly want to put my home address up here.

Cheers!

Forgot to include these in the previous post

Sleep - or the lack therof

Forgive me for bringing up this topic again. However, if you do not wish to read about it, may I respectfully suggest you go fishing instead?

Shona used to sleep a 5 hour stretch, fairly regularly. Sometimes she even slept 7 hours. Not anymore! And I am really not sure what to do. A couple nights ago, I put Shona to bed around 8:30 p.m. By 2:30 a.m., I'd already had to put her back to sleep 7 times! Every night, she wakes up 3 times within the first hour that I put her to bed. It's usually pretty easy to get her back to sleep those first few times. But at some point during the night (or more like, very early hours of the morning) she's started having screaming fits like she's in a lot of pain. Sometimes they last 40 minutes. It's getting pretty exhausting. So basically, she's gone from sleeping 5 hour stretches to now sleeping no more than 2 hours at a time. I thought it was supposed to get better by now????

Shona, wearing a dress from Aunty Rachel. It *used* to be a lighter color. That is, until I accidentally washed it with something too dark. But it's still really cute, and she still wears it a lot...even though it's getting waaaaaaay to small!

Shona at the beach on Saturday. She loved it!

Hanging out with Daddy. Basically her favorite thing to do!

In the stroller, watching Mommy sweep the driveway:

Going for a walk. Her personality is really starting to show!

Shona in the hammock. Caleb hung this hammock for me, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Shona does too.

Shannon keeping watch.

Shannon. Look at her cheesy grin!

Some of the flowers I'm growing:


Bedtime - Shona in her pajamas:

Shona and Mommy. Does she look like me at all?