Saturday, April 30, 2005

Excited for writing opps

I was looking at my blog yesterday and decided to click on the next blog in the "blogging mommies" sequence I have at the bottom of this page. Up popped Ann Douglas's blog - The Mother of All Blogs. For those not familiar with her, she's the author of "The mother of all baby books," "The mother of all pregnancy books" and many others.
Well, she's currently working on two new books - one on sleep solutions and one on food solutions - and is in need of parents to interview for both books. I e-mailed her that I was interested in participating in the sleep solutions book and she wrote me back and said it would be great to have me participate and that she thinks I will have a lot of insight to share, etc. :) She's sending out the first set of questions in mid-May.
I'm really excited to be a part of the study. :) Oh, and I'll also get a free copy of the book for my participation. Nice. :)

Another writing opportunity I had was to write a paragraph on my birth experience - specifically feelings involved on becoming a new mother - for a book that's being published to help reassure first-time moms, reduce her fears and help her look forward to a wonderful birth experience.
Here's what I wrote:

It may sound cliché to say there’s no greater joy than
having a baby, but for me that is absolutely true.

As my husband Jody placed our first-born child – a
daughter named Ava (meaning “life”) - onto my chest, I
was overcome with emotion. At long last, here was our
baby! Having had a difficult time getting pregnant, I
dreamt about the day of my child’s birth for a long
time. Though nothing could have prepared me for the
events of that day, the first moment I held her and
gazed onto her beautiful face, everything was right in
the world. Ava was perfection. When she began rooting
around and nursed me for the first time, I felt like
the circle of life had been completed. She looked up
at me with her big dark brown eyes and I felt so
blessed to have her in my life. Yes, Ava had arrived
here on earth and I – finally a mother – was in
heaven.


I'm also considering writing an essay for the "This I Believe" essay project that NPR is doing. I still need to read more about it, but a friend sent me the link and encouraged me to write something, so we'll see. I think it would be very cool to do, especially if they used my essay on the radio.

So that's a little of what I've been up to lately. I'm excited to find some ways to share my thoughts and experiences with others.

And here's my quote for today, which I rather like quite a bit.
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."
-- Ray Bradbury

Friday, April 29, 2005

So strong-willed (just like her mama?)

Oh boy, is my little girl strong-willed. When I have to take something away from her that she shouldn't have or something doesn't go her way, she shakes with frustration (all the while screaming). That's when redirection sure comes in handy. :)

(Don't get me wrong, she's a very happy girl 99% of the time, but when things aren't going her way, ya better look out.)

Anyway, Ava gets very excited to see daddy when he gets home from work and today was no exception. But since a friend was stopping by to drop some things off and he needed to go out and help her, he couldn't hold her upon walking in the door. Well Ava freeeeeeaked out! She wanted her daddy and she wanted him N-O-W. She started yelling and shaking in her booster seat (where she'd been pleasantly snacking on cheese and vegi puffs until this brief meltdown). Eep! She was fine as soon as I took her out of the seat and held her, but my oh my, what fiestiness!

So I said to Jody later, "why does she get so frustrated that she shakes with rage?" To which he replied, "she gets that from her mother." Hmmmm. I guess he's right there, and I should have known as much. I carried her in my womb for 9 months and she's been pretty much attached at the hip (or boob) for the past 10. It was bound to rub off on her a bit. ;)

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Support the bill to trim the fat from public schools

This is a follow-up of sorts to my post titled "Fast food, soda and junk food."
Mothering magazine recently released a call to action to support a bill proposed by Ted Kennedy "aimed at stopping the sale of junk food and soda pop in public schools nationwide. The bill is called the "Prevention of Childhood Obesity Act" (S. 799), and it has several excellent provisions."
To read more about the bill and find out how you can give your support, click here.
The way they've set it up has made it amazingly easy to send emails to your senators urging them to support this bill. It took me less than a minute to complete the form and send off my emails.
If you'd like to see junk food ousted from our children's schools, please take a minute and email your senators and then pass this information on to others.
Thanks. :)

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Cleaning naturally

Since Ava was born I've been starting to make and use some natural cleaning products for our home. I'd never really thought much about it before Ava, but it just doesn't seem safe to me to have a bunch of chemical-laden products in the house anymore. I don't want to worry about her accidently getting into something, not to mention that I don't want her ingesting the cleaners' residue or breathing the fumes either. God knows she'll be exposed to enough polutants in this world without me using them all over our home.

My first natural cleaning creation was an all-purpose scrub made from baking soda, water, dish soap and a few drops of an essential oil (for fragrance). I've been using that for cleaning the bathrooms for a while now, but I realized that I need other products for windows, wood, etc.

It so happens that I recently ran out of Windex, so instead of buying a new bottle I made a mixture of water and vinegar to which I added a couple drops of blue food coloring (all in the Windex bottle) and voila - natural window cleaner! It takes a little more elbow grease to get all of the streaks out, but it works. And I don't have to worry about what Ava is getting in her mouth when she licks the sliding glass door, something she seems to enjoy doing. ;)

Then I made a wood polish using vegetable oil and lemon juice and polished my coffee and end tables, as well as the kitchen table and hutch. It worked really well and I feel a lot better about using it, especially on the coffee table where (again) Ava is often putting her mouth. How long does this oral phase last anyway? :oP

I found those two "recipes" on this website which has a ton of safer alternatives to hazardous household cleaners, as well as natural ways to kill ants or garden pests. It's amazing how many uses there are for things like vinegar and baking soda or borax! Guess it's good that I bought that 10 lb. bag of baking soda from Costco a while back!

I think I'm going to freecycle most or all of our regular household cleaners to get them out of the house. Then I won't have to worry about locking them up or putting them on a high shelf, etc.

Now if only there was a simple, natural way to clear all the clutter from my house, I'd be all set. ;)

Good times, good times

We got back from our trip on Monday, a day later than planned, due to a snow storm in Denver on Sunday. But that was ok by me. It allowed us to spend an extra day with my friend Jennifer. :)

The trip went really, really well. All the babies traveled well and were quite adaptable despite the change to their daily routines. Ava was great on the plane - both ways - and nursed to sleep for most of the flights. When she wasn't sleeping, she enjoyed flirting with other passengers or looking out the window. ;)

The only real bummer of the trip was that Clare, Jen's daughter, caught the flu so she stayed home with daddy and wasn't able to come out with all of us.

It was interesting having 3 little ones in a hotel, and they all spent a lot of time roaming/crawling around on the floor. Thankfully I'm way over my germophobe phase with Ava, or I'm sure I would've been freaking out! I mean, I still thought it was kinda yucky, but what could I do? The girl wanted to explore. hehe.

We all went out to eat a few times (had great BBQ one night at Jen's place) and spent some time walking around downtown Kansas City. I had no idea it was such a pretty and neat little city! It was really green and all of the flowers were in bloom. :)

We're thinking about trying to do a little get-together like this once a year, maybe out this way near Denver next year. :) I was thinking it would be awesome to rent a big house on a beach, in the woods or somewhere one year. We'll see. It was good to see my friends - Jen, Tracy, Janelle and Jeanne - and their babies - Clare, Eddy and Nicole - and I hope we can do it again.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Traveling with a baby

And here I thought it was overwhelming trying to pack for a trip when it was just me, but now that I have a baby it's even moreso! There's soooo much to pack!

Ava and I are flying to Kansas City this weekend to meet up with four of my good friends from high school and three of their babies - three of the women are flying in from Michigan and one lives in that area now. All in all it will be us five women and four babies ranging in age from 8 to 12 months. :)

I went out today and bought a carseat cover so that Ava's seat doesn't get destroyed (since we're checking it as luggage). It only cost $30 and I figure it's a good investment because I know we'll travel and need to check it again.

So that tops my list of things I have to bring for Ava:
carseat
carseat cover
clothes
sun hat
sunscreen
babyfood
spoons, bowls, sippy cup
bibs
washcloths
toys
shampoo/babywash
diapers and wipes
wet bag and trash bag to store dipes in
baby monitor
batteries
stroller
carrier

Not to mention my camera, as well as clothes, shoes and toiletries for me!
It's only a weekend trip, but between the two of us, I have a feeling I'll have no problem filling an entire (large) suitcase.

I'm sure I'll come up with more things to add to the list, but at least that gets me started. I'll be spending tomorrow doing laundry and getting our stuff together. Whew!

Anyway, I'm really excited to be going on this adventure. It's been so long since the five of us got to hang out and the babies have not all been together yet. It will be interesting with four little ones used to different routines, but I know we will manage and we'll all have a good time. :)

Look out Kansas City, here we come!