Vlog: Mama Mia!

Here's last week's vlog adventure!!!!

love and vlogs- Shirley

Wordless-ish Wednesday

Well, not really wordless.... but freakin' hilarious!!!!

I bought this pacifier on Amazon.com.  Totally worth it!

-Shirley

Shark Bites

This weekend among a day trip to hike at Big Sur, a visit the Carmel by the Sea, a temper tantrum in a restaurant where a woman asked if Diego was going to do that the whole time because is was "disrupting the quiet", and having Diego's cousin over on Sunday and the two running amuck around the entire house, I think all the stimulation helped Diego.  By the end of Sunday he added a new word to his vocabulary.  He was asking me for "Chuck" on the Ipad.

"Chuck?  Who's Chuck?"

Diego only responded with: "Chuck."

"Chuck?" ........(thinking, processing, thinking).  "Ohhhhhh!  Shark!  I thought you said Chuck." 

So now I've given his his toy shark a first name:  Chuck.  Chuck the shark.

I wish I could've channeled Chuck and bit that woman's head off in the restaurant, but I stayed cool.  So how was your weekend?

- Chuck Shirley

 

Hi!

You know how They say that a mother never gets a moment to herself?  Not even to go to the bathroom?  Well - yeah I'm one of those moms who doesn't close the bathroom door if she's home alone with the kiddos.  In fact, there are days when I'm home "alone" and there's a tough decision to be made.

Do I stay stinky until Dada gets home, or do I go for it and take a quick shower?

Yeah, these are real life decisions you'll have to make as a mom.  On this particular day, I decided the stink couldn't wait and I desperately needed to hop in for the quickest shower possible.  Little did I know, I'd have a roomie in the bathroom who would sneak quietly in while my back was turned, open the shower door, and loudly proclaim, "Hi!".  <--- He's been perfecting his use of the word Hi.

Yeah - I never get a moment to myself - Shirley

Still Vloggin...

I love blogging, but I'm a vlogger at heart.  But I've been out of it since my family trip to Cancun.  But this is me, trying to get back in.  Fun times with my kiddos.....

-Shirley

8 months!

The other day as I reached my house, I realized I had drifted off into thought and wonder for maybe 15 minutes while driving home from my parents' house.  It was one of those moments when you snap back to regular consciousness while driving and think to yourself, "Oh my!  How did I get all the way over here already?  Did I really just drive all the way here?"

It's a 15 minute drive from my parents' house.  15 minutes!  The two smaller organisms in the car had been quiet enough to allow me to drift off into thought for 15 minutes.  Not a peep was made.  Not a cry, or a giggle, or a moan.  Complete silence!  This means that at 8 months, Mateo is FINALLY a good car baby! It's so refreshing to know that the worst (in terms of car rides) is now over! 

Other Tater Tidbits

• You said "Mama"!  You said "Mama"!  You said "Mama"!
• You've been going to sleep earlier around 7:30 or 8 pm.  But you still wake up at least once in the night at 3am.
• You pretty much hold your own bottle, so every morning I give it to you while you're laying in your crib and it allows me to have more time to get ready in the mornings
• I started giving you Gerber puff treats and it's fun to watch your hand/eye coordination.  The puffs don't always make it in your mouth though.
• You're not crawling yet, but according to my notes your brother started after two weeks of completing 8 months, tick-tock!
• Grandma scoffed when I tried to give your brother a mohawk, but she thinks a mohawk rather suits your face frame

Mama's 8-mos Tidbits

• Still no luck on the increased lactation front.  It's actually gone down from producing 8oz. a day to 6 oz.  I'm feeling like it's almost time to call it quits.
• I finally bit the bullet and bought a video monitor for the nursury, and I'm so glad I finally did.
• My hair continues to be cooperative regarding frizziness, but oh my it is soooo thin :(

Olympic Redemption

I reached my Olympic moment yesterday (sorry - my house has Olympic fever right now - how about yours?).  Like an Olympic athlete, I have been working hard for years as a mother.  One of the gold medals I was vying for was in the sport of saying "mama" before "dada".  Like Lolo Jones, I was on track for the gold the first time around, but was eventually robbed by the glitz and glamour of Dada. So I kept up my regimen in hopes I'd fare better the second time around.

This is where Lolo's and my Olympic story diverges.  I pity Lolo's story and appreciate that mine turned out differently. 

Diego, Mateo, and I were sitting on the couch.  Diego was silently playing on his Kindle Fire when out of nowhere, Mateo said "Mama" clear as day.  I looked to 2 year old Diego for some kind of acknowledgment since he was my only witness.  The toothy smile that appeared on Diego's face in the seconds after my Olympic moment was validity enough.  Then his smile turned into giggles, and finally he spoke up.  "Brother, mama!" he said and laughed.  It was weird for the both of us.  This little chunk has been in our lives for just about 8 months now and hasn't spoken a word.  So Diego and I had a blast hearing his brother take on a new human trait. 

I can now retire from this sport, a gold medal winner.   In yo' face, Dada!

Reveling in my motherhood moment of glory- Shirley

Family Video Vault: Cancun

The answer is over a month.

The question is how long does it take this working mom to make time to go through hours of family vacation footage and pick out the best 10 minutes?

Click below if you dare, but you'll probably never get those 10 minutes back!!!

Missing the sun and sand - Shirley

Fashion Friday 08/03/2012

Happy Fashion Friday!!!!  Man am I tired.  I don't want to think about outfits this weekend, but we're having a party at our house tomorrow.  So maybe next week there'll be a little something on here other that what I wore to work!

Hope you have a fashionable weekend! - Shirley

I just love the feeling of being securely strapped in.  That's why my clothes are often tight and my boots are even tighter!

Um yeah - totally slacking on my laundry so I was forced to look presentable at work!  LOL.

I'm still totally in love with this shirt, and paired with my worn-out knee-high boots  and one of my fave necklaces, and I was totally comfy-cozy this day.

Month in Phone Pics- July 2012 Recap

Goodbye July!!!

Diego gets a lesson in static electricity; A girl could get used to Tater holding his own bottle and sitting on his own!; the boys have a play date; I have a crafting date with myself and make an awesome growth chart; I find my lost slippers in the backyard (if you're a dog owner you know my plight!)

My hair has been cooperating, but lactation has not. 

I'm being overpaid how much?!!!!  I'm so depressed, I go shopping. 

Mateo tries the sandbox on for size while his non-sand-loving big brother would rather play with the dog door.

Another benefit to Mateo sitting, I can bathe them together and save time!  The landscaping goats come back behind our yard - Qori guards the fence.  Simultaneous milk drinking and delicious naps and crackers. 

And that's what my July was like! 

How was yours? - Shirley

Baby Noms

Since I've been struggling with milk production, I thought I'd make myself feel better with this post and toot my own horn when it came to homemade baby food.  Whereas I can't control how much milk my body can produce, I CAN control how healthy the nom noms are that I feed my baby!

I never had a deep mindset to only feed my baby homemade food, but that's how the dice rolled in the end.  Honestly, as a new mom 2 years ago I flirted with the baby food aisle.  It was so tempting as a working mom to just buy a few jars (which I did).  But what I found was that it was so easy to make homemade baby food, that those jars just ended up collecting dust in our pantry.  At one point, I had to throw out ten jars because they had reached their expiration.

Since we typically have veggies with dinner, I usually set some aside (pre-seasoning or spices) and then I either boil or steam the veggies and run them through the Magic Bullet (Sometimes I add a fruit in the mix).  That's it!

So even though my baby is only getting 8 oz of mother's milk a day, I feel great in knowing that he receives a very healthy, homemade, organic meal at home (and boy has this boy taken to the art of eating!).

I was making Cream of Asparagus and set aside some boiled asparagus, spinach (switched out for leeks this particular day), and quinoa (bought at Costco - I sneak a little of that stuff in everything to kick up the health factor).  Ran it through the Magic bullet and had a happy baby!

Pump it up?

Pump it up?  Not quite.  I'm sad to report that despite my latest efforts to pump up my pumping and stimulate an increased milk production, no such thing has happened. (sad face)  My milk production has pretty much plateaued to where I pump throughout the entire day and still only produce about 8 oz for Mateo. 

What have I done better?  I scheduled an additional daily pumping session on the Mother's Room calendar at work. Although I'm usually done in 10 minutes, I stay pumping the entire 30 minutes even when there is no more supply.  I've also been drinking more liquids.

What could I do better? (and here's where the "but's" come in...)  I could probably change my diet and try to eat more things that are known to help increase supply.  I could probably pump in the middle of the night after Mateo wakes up around 3am (but I'm dog tired!).  I could probably try to stay on the pump for an hour instead of a half hour (but the Mother's room schedule is for 30 mins at a time, at home my pump (I have 2) is super loud and like I really have a WHOLE hour to be a slave hooked up to the pump while my effervescent boys are traipsing around the house. 

It's funny now that I've been trying to increase my time at the mother's room at work, the other mothers have come out of the woodwork.  Before I had any milk supply problems, I only ran into one mother in a very awkward situation.  But other than that it was silence and crickets.

Now that I have this problem, it's as if the moms want to see who this low-lactation producer is.  I don't know about your workplace, but at mine we observe the 10 minute rule.  If someone is usurping your conference room, it is customary to allow them 10 minutes into your hour to GET OUT!  Same goes for people who are late to meetings.  There have been times when I've reached the mother's room to find the "Occupied" sign.  I've allowed 10 mins before even knocking, only to find that the room was empty and the last mom forgot to change the sign.

But when the role was reversed, I had a mom come and knock on my door 5 minutes BEFORE her scheduled time was due.  I still had 5 good minutes people!  Then there was a mom who asked to come in before I started pumping because she wanted to get her milk (it was 4pm on Friday so I understood).  And then there was another mother who emailed me to see if we could switch spots on calendar because she had a conflict.

Where were all these mothers coming from?!  I had been using this room for 3 months and never was there this much traffic.

Back to my point, all the extra pumping and mom encounters have not helped my supply.  It's really grueling and very difficult to keep up when there are no results.  When you choose to exclusively pump, it's not something that you just happen to keep up after a month.  No, this stuff takes dedication and perseverance and right now I've been feeling like "What's the point?  I should just let myself dry up!"  But at the end of the day, when I see at least 8 oz in Mateo's hands, I think to myself : 'it's better than nothing.  It's for Mateo.  You should really just keep going.  You've made it this far.'

So that what I'm doing; Just keeping on... - Shirley