Categories
Family & Friends Music Ryan

Weekend Review- Jazz Band and Chili

On Friday night, Ryan and I went to hear a Dixieland Jazz band at a local art gallery. My dad met us there for a while, and it was fun. 

There was a clarinet, a banjo, and a bass.  It took Ryan about half an hour to feel comfortable there, and then he was unstoppable.  He got out of his chair and was dancing up a storm.  He was clapping after the solos, and saying “yeah,” after the band was done playing a song.  We got to walk up to the instruments while the band was on break and look at them very closely.  There were a lot of older people there, who commented to me how much Ryan seemed to be enjoying himself, and several people asked me where he learned to dance so well, and how he learned to keep a beat to the music. 

Well, the dancing, I think you either know how to groove or you don’t, (I know he doesn’t get that from his father or myself), and as for keeping the beat, I have to credit his Music Together class. 

There was a refreshment table there with cookies and punch, and he got his first taste of punch, which he really liked. 

On Saturday night, my dad had my siblings, aunt, and cousins over for some homemade chili, and chili rellenos, which are always delicious.  Ryan immediately made a beeline for the toys and didn’t look up for an hour, until Grandpa asked if anyone wanted cheesecake.  Without missing a beat, Ryan jumped up and said, “I do!” and ran to the kitchen.

Cole was really fussy and wouldn’t let anyone hold him- except for me.  We were thinking he had seperation anxiety, but today he woke up with a nasty, hacking, cough, so he probably didn’t feel well and was getting sick.  Poor little guy.  He doesn’t have any other symptoms, so I hope this doesn’t develop into anything more serious.

Today, we got a few things organized and I went grocery shopping.  I actually planned out my own menu for the week, because I haven’t joined Relish yet, and I was too lazy to turn on the computer and do it, so I just made my own this week. 

Joe’s parents got some new recliners and asked us if we wanted their old ones, which we took.  They are La-Z-y Boys; one is navy blue and one is tan.  They are really comfortable.  We have them in our living room right now, and even though it is crowded in there, with all of the boys’ toys, these will be nice to sit on to read, and also when we eventually get a bigger house, they will be nice in a den or a rec-room. 🙂

Categories
Cole Household

Three-In-One Week

I lost three outfits for Cole this week.  No, I didn’t misplace them, they completely wore out. 

They were footed one-pieces, like this, which I really like.  

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Cole seems to move around really well  in them, and since no socks seem to fit him right now, these were great, since they had the built in footies. 

One outfit was a blue print with dogs by Carter’s.  One of the toes in the foot gave out, and by the end of the day, Cole’s entire foot was sticking out of it.  The second one-piece was a gray Old Navy one, with a polo collar.  This was a hand me down from Ryan, and I guess it couldn’t take anymore crawling, because at the end of the day, there was a hole in the knee.  The last outfit, was also by Old Navy, and it was gray, blue, and yellow stripes, and Cole’s toe poked out of it today, and again by the end of the day, the entire foot was a hole.

So I went from having about six of these down to three.   I don’t think I’ll get any replacements, since they only seem to go up to 12 months, and all three of these outfits were 9 months.  Whoever said you can use baby clothes over and over again, didn’t account for active, growing, crawling, babies.  

Categories
Attachment Parenting Breastfeeding Cole Mothering Pregnancy & Birth

My Cole

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Cole was born at the end of May, 2006.  From almost the start of my pregnancy with him, I thought he was a girl, mainly because I felt the opposite with him than when I was pregnant with Ryan.  We didn’t find out ahead of time, so I was really surprised when he was born and the nurses told me he was a boy.  Joe had thought he was a boy, so he wasn’t as surprised.

We had only decided on a boy’s name on the drive to the hospital- we had a few names we had been floating around, but decided on Cole, if we happened to have a boy.

I was absolutely in love the second I laid eyes on my sweet Cole.  I was so very happy that I was able to have a vaginal birth with him, because I had a c-section with Ryan (he was breech and never turned.) The c-section was the worse experience of my life, but I’ll save that for another post.  I felt so powerful and alive after Cole was born, even though it was the hardest thing I had ever done.  I was in labor for 40+ hours with him, and slept about an hour total, so I was completely exhausted, but the thought of having to have another c-section, if I didn’t keep working, kept me going.  I’ll post Cole’s birth story here at another time too.

Almost immediately, I knew Cole was very different than Ryan.  For one thing, he didn’t want to be put down, and wanted to nurse non-stop.  After not sleeping for 46 hours, by the time he had been born, I knew I needed some rest that first night, so after nursing him to sleep, we asked the nurses to take him for a while, so Joe and I could sleep.  The hospital we had Cole at, is very baby friendly and the nurses actually hold the baby- they don’t put them in a nursery- in fact they don’t even have a nursery there, and they only keep the baby until they start showing signs that they need to nurse, so I felt confident in letting the nurses hold him until he wanted to nurse again.

Two hours later, they brought Cole back to me (it was around midnight), and those two hours of sleep seemed like heaven.  Cole started to nurse, and he nursed, and nursed, and nursed, and nursed.  By 4 pm that afternoon, he was still nursing and he would scream if I set him down, even to change his diaper, or even if he was asleep; he would wake up immediately as soon as he was out of my arms. I didn’t think too much of it at the time.

A week later, he still screamed every time I put him down and I was beginning to realize that I had a “high needs” baby on my hands.  I really dislike that term, so I decided to call him my “cuddle-bug”, and “extra attention” baby.  After reading about these types of babies on the Dr. Sears website, I decided I needed to tune into what Cole was trying to tell me, and go with it. 

It has been hard at times, but he has rewarded us so many times over.  He has the best personality, and his smile can just melt my heart in a moment.  He can be completely upset, crying, and mad, one second, and as soon as you pick him up, he is all smiles.  I also get rewarded with that giant toothy, gummy smile every morning when he wakes up.  He actually doesn’t cry when he wakes up; he just looks around and when he sees me, he just breaks out his smile.  He has challenged me in ways I never thought I could take, and some days I didn’t think I was going to make it, but it also seems like the love I get back from him is double what the challenges are.

He seems to be a mama’s boy 100% right now, in that he is just now letting Joe hold him and cuddle him more.  He really didn’t allow Joe to cuddle with him very much- he definitely preferred me.  My mom, (Nana), and Joe’s mom, were life-savers for me those first few weeks, in helping me with Cole and Ryan.  My mom came out for a short visit and got Cole to take a pacifier which was a much needed break for me, being the human pacifier to him, and he would allow her to hold him, so I would be able to have a few moments with Ryan, or grab a shower.  Joe’s mom and dad were great in taking care of Ryan for me and giving him extra love and attention when I couldn’t.

So now as Cole is approaching his ninth month, he is still very specific on what he needs and wants, but he’s “chilling” out a bit too.  As he is eating more solids, he doesn’t need to nurse as much for food as well as comfort, but he will still track me down, crawling with tears running down his face, if he has decided he needs to be nursed that second.

Sleep is still a challenge for us because he wants to be nursed all night, even though he isn’t hungry- he just craves that human contact. Still, when I think about how fast this time goes, I know it won’t be very long before I am wondering where his baby days went, and be wishing he still wanted me to hold him all night. 

I am so glad he is who he is, and I would not trade him for a second.  He is the sweetest, and most lovable baby, I could ever dream of having.  I love him so much, it makes me get tears in my eyes thinking about him.  I hope in the future, he will not lose the intensity that he has, because that is what makes him my Cole.

(The picture at the top was Cole at 6 months, and the picture below, I took today.)

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Categories
Music Ryan

Feuding (Dueling) Banjos

I am going to take Ryan to a dixieland jazz band on Friday night at a local gallery, and thought I would show Ryan some clips of a jazz band, so he would know what to expect, so tonight we were searching and watching some music clips on YouTube.

I actually found some good ones, and well, a three-year old’s mind jumps from one thing to another, and he saw a banjo in one of the clips and one clip led to another and before I knew it, we were watching Feuding Banjos (most people know this song as Dueling Banjos, but Feuding Banjos is the original name of the song), from…the movie gulp- Deliverance.   (clicking on this link will only send you to the music clip that we watched.)

I don’t know why I didn’t just scroll down to find a band playing the song, I guess I just clicked on the first one I saw and Ryan loved the guitar and the boy playing the banjo in it.  Uh, I have never seen the entire movie- only bits and pieces here and there on TV, and I have no desire to see it- and that certainly isn’t a movie for a child, nevertheless.

But Ryan loved the banjo and the guitar, and he was clapping his hands, and even Cole was bouncing around to the music. The song is actually a very technical and challenging piece of music, and the banjo (despite it’s stereotype) is one of the MOST difficult instruments to play, let alone master.  I think it is pretty cool when people can play the banjo really well.

Anyway, back to the clip- the boy in the movie, wasn’t really playing the banjo- it was Eric Weissberg, according to You Tube posts and Wikipedia.

So after this is all done, I pop my head in the living room, and this is what I see:

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My little boy tells me he is the boy on the computer, and he is playing his banjo (a plastic golf club).  (If this picture doesn’t make sense to you, go back above and click on the link to Deliverance, the music clip we watched, and look at the boy playing the banjo- Ryan was mimicing him.)

So on one hand I want to laugh because this is just as about sweet and innocent as you can get, and on the other hand it kind of creeps me out too- oh well, I guess that is what I get for not thinking about it, before I showed him the clip.

However, here is another link to a band named, Groundpig, playing  Feuding Banjos, if you want to hear the song but don’t want to open the Deliverance can of worms. 

Okay, I think I have written enough about this, and I never thought I would be spending this much time writing about Deliverance.  I think I need to go take a shower, because I have the creepys.  🙂

Categories
Cooking Household

What’s For Dinner?

Ah- the question almost every mother, wife, home-maker, or person “in charge” of fixing dinner hates to think about or hear. 

I am very excited to have found a website that will e-mail you a menu with a main and a side dish, shopping list, and recipes every week.  A mom on a parenting group board that I belong to, recommended them.  It is called Relish and I have only used the free trial menu, but have been very impressed.  You can cook up to 5 meals a week, and the neat thing is they code each meal with a letter, so if you only want to make 4 meals, or there is meal you don’t want to try, you just cross off the shopping list all the items that correspond to that letter. 

Their shopping list was VERY organized, and in my local store, all the ingredients were actually categorized correctly with Relish’s list.  They list all the produce, baking goods, meat, etc. on the list and keep it all to one page.  I was a bit skeptical but I tried it last week. I was in and out of the store in 45 minutes, and spent what I usually do, when I would just wander the aisles with no menu in mind.  For the final test, the food has to taste good and not take forever to prepare.

Well, they passed those tests too.  The first night we had Soy and Ginger Flank Steak with Asian Spinach Salad.  We had enough for left-overs, so we had that the next night too.  Then I made Creamy Chicken Pot Pies with Ambrosia Salad.  We had left-overs again, and tonight I made Spinach Lasagna Roll-ups with a Garden Salad.  There was one recipe I didn’t want to make, and I haven’t made the last one yet.  All of these are under the trial menu.

The meals are generally healthy and follow the prep and cook time very close, with most the meals under 30 minutes to cook; even with my two boys in the kitchen and underfoot.  I also love that you can easily tailor the recipes for your particular tastes.  One of the menus I haven’t made yet is Mu Shu Chicken Wraps and it called for chicken thighs.  Since we don’t eat dark meat, I just bought the same amount of breast tenders.  You could also sub. vegies or tofu for meat, chicken for fish, and vice-versa. 

We also want to try more vegetarian dishes and this is a great way for us to get started.  The Spinach Lasagna looks very good, and I plan to take it to a mom’s-night-out potluck I am going to tomorrow. 

So I am sold and plan to sign up.  It costs $7 a month, which I believe will more than pay for itself in saved time for me wondering the grocery store, trying to think of something for dinner, and hopefully we won’t have to resort to going out to eat so much when I can’t think of anything for dinner.  When we do go out, we usually spend at least $15, so if this prevents us from doing it once a month, we have already saved some money. 

One of my friends told me either Good Housekeeping, or Better Homes and Gardens does the same thing, but I haven’t checked that out for myself yet.  She said she also didn’t think they categorized everything so well for you either, but it may be worth looking into if you want to try something like this free, before you buy a membership.