My Flying Monkey

As soon as my Monkey was able to join the school swim team in 2nd grade, we were there.  She had a great year and looked forward to that extra bit of activity and fun in the water even though the summer had ended and the next year she couldn’t wait to do it all again.

During the summer between 3rd and 4th grades, we noticed a little post in the corner of our church bulletin notifying parents and children in our parish that there would be a regional cross country team starting at the end of the summer.  Monkey was sort of interested but TV and video games had started to sink their teeth in….the main reason I was very interested – lol!

So on a sweltering Saturday morning in early August, I took my not-yet-4th-grader to a local track to check it out.  She was less than impressed and after her first real run around the track, she’d had enough.  I thought she did great considering she had never run like that before, but she made a beeline for the car and I said goodbye to the coaches with a “Well, maybe we’ll see you again….” but not really expecting to.

The first real practice was scheduled for Tuesday evening, but I just decided to let it go.  I figured if I kept pushing it, she’d go and hate it and it’d be all my fault and swimming would surely follow suit.  I was more than a little surprised when I noticed Monkey lacing up her sneakers on that Tuesday night and rolling her eyes at me when I asked where she was going – “Don’t I have cross country practice tonight, Mom?”  Of course you do!!

For the first month of practice, Monkey told all three of the coaches that she was only going to do this for a week…a month…..until school starts…….then “Maybe I’ll see what it’s like to run in a meet….”

She ran her first 3K meet in just over 25 minutes.

At the end of the season last year – her second year as a Novice – she ran that same 3K course in just under 16 minutes 🙂

Today, we officially started a new season – her 3rd year running .  Monkey is a Minor now and, though she still runs 3K, it is a much more difficult course that includes a crazy-steep hill.  To be perfectly honest, I didn’t expect to see her anywhere near the finish line until at least the 23 minute mark.

She finished at 19:51.

My amazing, flying Monkey 🙂

How do your kids amaze you?

Wordless Wednesday – Two Month Check-up!

Two month check-up today!! 24.25 inches and 10.75 pounds!!! (That's up more than 4 pounds and 4 inches from birth 😉

Two Months Old!

Awww, Mama I blinked - take it again....

Sisters :-)

My girls, hanging out on a Sunday morning watching Phineas & Ferb :^)

Adventures in Pumping

Okay…..so apparently I have a plugged duct. Yeah, it sucks as much as everyone says 😛

It doesn’t really surprise me….I started back to work last Thursday and have been pumping every day, twice a day….even been bringing home a little more every day but with not being able to just nurse on demand…..

After my first pumping break on Thursday, I noticed that even though I was able to get a good bit of milk from my right breast, it still felt a little tender when I was done….it didn’t get any better and when I woke up on Friday morning it was pretty painful. I fed BabyFrog, put her back to bed and pumped off the rest as I had been doing all week….but there was still a nice wedge that wouldn’t budge :-

So, when I got to work……I improvised.

Wordless Wednesday – Irony

My pumping station at work....yeah, I carry the pump in a Gerber sling bag and keep the milk in a Similac cooler....and I think that's pretty damn funny right there ;^)

BabyWearing

Okay, so I was reading this post over at Hobo Mama’s and I started writing a comment….on my phone…….and it was too long to post there…..so rather than scrap the whole story, I figured I’d elaborate on it a bit over here and give you a rough idea of where I fit in – or don’t – when it comes to babywearing.

With my first-born, I decided that I absolutely loathed the infant car seat carrier for getting her from place to place….it was beyond awkward to carry, awful on my back and just felt…….kind of weird, like I was keeping her at a distance.  So, a well meaning family member bought us a Fisher Price harness type carrier…..yeah, that was even *worse* on my back and there was no kind of support for Monkey.

Monkey is starting 6th grade tomorrow and this past weekend, DH discovered that carrier in the basement of our mountain house…..we brought it home, thinking he could give it a shot eventually – I have lower back problems, but he has upper back and neck issues so he might be okay with it….either way, BabyFrog is still too small for it, I think…..again, no support.

So, I’m new to this whole babywearing thing….like I said, didn’t really happen with my oldest.  But again, I hate that damn car seat carrier!  I didn’t even want to buy one this time so we got this car seat instead. We do have one with a carrier, but that’s the back-up cat seat in DH’s car…..the seat in my car stays put.

Now, we live in an apartment and it’s a pretty good walk and an elevator ride from my car to our front door. So I wanted an easy way to get BabyFrog from the car to our apartment without having to break out the coach or something…..so when I was pregnant, I started looking at carriers again and loooooved how much they’ve evolved in 11 years.  But I was still not sure it’d be right for me so I went with something……uhhh….inexpensive to test it out.  I’m still not sure on the terminology, but it’s maybe a pouch-sling?  peanut shell?  I dunno……this one:

Me wearing BabyFrog and still trying to keep my hair out of my face - quite possibly my most favorite pic of me in a long time :^)

I adore this sling, it’s just perfect, sits just right on me and BabyFrog seems to find it comfy.  But now I’m dying to try other types – like this one or this one…..the Moby and other carriers like it make me a little nervous (because I can’t tie my shoes so they stay tied) so I might go for the mei tai first.

Now, this sling is just awesome for both of us. It keeps my BabyFrog exactly where I want her to be – and where she wants to be! – and to be perfectly honest, I think I may be developing an addiction. But knowing that I’d be heading back to work, I couldn’t keep her in it with me all the time.  Fortunately, my husband is a WAHD so it wasn’t going to be a total upheaval for her when I started back last week but we spent a good bit of time during my maternity leave getting her used to being in the sling with my husband, as well as in the swing and bouncy seats we have for her.

I’m always wary of these devices because you always see so many people that just plop their kids in them and abandon them for hours on end but around here they are a necessary evil.  I started out easy with both of them and would have them right next to me while I wrote out thank you cards and birth announcements or would have her in the doorway of the kitchen while I was getting dinner ready, talking to her as I went along…..someone – either DH, monkey or myself –  was always with her.

So far, so good and now that she’s getting settled into a routine during the day, I *can* wear her all night if I want to – and after a day at my job, that’s pretty much all I want to do when I get home!

So Lauren’s post mentioned some attempts to drag babywearing into the mainstream by including it in certain advertising campaigns.  I’m not really able to comment on this because…..well, I don’t see much in the way of print advertising – DH is the coupon guru around here…..and we don’t have a conventional TV set up.  We don’t have cable because I won’t support the monopoly that is Comcast anymore and we can’t have a dish – apartment rules.  Most of our TV is internet based and pretty much only shows ads for GoDaddy, eHarmony and Orbitz……we do have an antenna for local TV but if any city were decidedly NOT into natural parenting, it’s Philly….at least in the Northeast, where I live….maybe in Center City there are some granola eaters somewhere.

I would, however, like to mention something incredible that I’ve witnessed. Now, I know that BabyFrog is the cutest baby in the entire world, as was her big sister. And I’ve been with other people walking around with their babies all the time. But whenever we’re out with BabyFrog in the sling, people are fascinated!  Complete strangers come over to us to make a big fuss over the beautiful baby in the sling. Young and old, both men and women, people have actually gone out of their way to come see the baby and not once has anyone had a disparaging remark about the sling – most of the older people remark that they wish they’d had something like that when they had young children.  How content she seems, how easy it must make things for me and how wonderful for the baby to be able to be close to me like that without having to be juggled around. How right they are!

Now and then, behind the “Oh, what a gorgeous baby and what a clever way for you to carry her around!” I get the feeling that there’s a “I’d never use anything like that, but, hey – more power to ya!” that doesn’t get verbalized. But ya know what….that’s okay because I know those people are going to go home and say to a family member or friend “Today I saw a chick in a Queen t-shirt and she had the sweetest baby in the world today and – get this – she was carrying that baby around right next to her heart in a sling that criss-crossed that clever lady’s back…..don’t that just beat all?!?” and that friend or family member will think “Hmmm….a sling…..what a great idea!” and then that person will go buy one and have strangers walking up to them to talk about their baby in the sling and the message will spread.

After all, it’s not really like it’s something new….wearing your baby is just the way its done in a lot of places and has been for centuries…….maybe as our world gets smaller, it will catch on and just be the way it is – sure, it wouldn’t be such an awesomely exclusive group of people wearing their babies, but there’d be generations of happy well adjusted babies out there 😉

……or maybe babywearing doll accessories will cause a big stir, too – lol!!

The First Fair

BabyFrog and DH out on the deck at our mountain house :^)