T and B rode the metro today. I asked T about it and he was pretty cute, but I forgot what he said when I finally got him near the computer so I could 'write' it down. By then he was less cooperative, but this is what T said about the ride (perhaps more to come later):
B elaborated a bit. They rode from near our house to downtown and B's office and back. B encouraged T to to stand on the seat to look out. He said that T was interested, but got a little scared when the train was elevated way over the cars. They brought Cloud along for the ride and T clutched him round the neck the whole time. They got a bunch of smiles and the suggestion to ride down to the airport to watch the planes as well.went to the station
the floor had pretty colors
the train was yucky
M:: why was the train yucky?
cause it had reindeer pooping on it and the conductor said get off the trian were going to poop on you and I'm going to poop on you and they reindeer went away yeah, and yeah said the conductor that's what the metro train said.
M:: what did you think of the station?
it was yucky.
M:: why?
there were reindeer there and they pooped on the floor
got off the train.
M:: what did you think of daddy's office?
i saw Walter. He didn't grow. [Walter is a coworker of B's]
I have had four friends (two of them coworkers) have children since late October. All four have had C-sections with only one of those planned. That friend was denied a VBAC by her doctor. The other three were all first time births and all were emergency C-sections. I keep wondering about these C-sections. Were they really needed? Would these friends and/or their babies died in years past? I can only think so.
How fragile is life. In so many ways.
I mentioned these C's to B last night and he first spouted off about the prevalence of planned C's, then about how overweight and out of shape we are and how that might be the cause. I mentioned one of the friends though and she is/was in good shape and not overweight.
One friend's BP had risen incredibly high when she'd gone in for a stress test on her then three day overdue baby. She had her C-section eight hours later. Another friend had her water break and had been in labor, was even close to completly dialted when she had hers. The last friend had hers when her baby was four days overdue and it was determined her baby was too big for her pelvis. Can you imagine in 'olden times' (as I used to say as a child playing pretend) how this would have gone? Scary, sad.
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I hate statistics, but I find statistic type things fascinating. I like 'random' connections, similarities and differences in a group. So after I wrote the above I learned of two more births by friends. One was vaginal, the other I don't know but am guessing might have been a C-section as well. The v-birth was an 8 pound 2 oz baby, the other over 9 pounds! 9 lbs. 6 oz. or something. Out of all six births five were over eight pounds with one being over nine, the other baby was six and half pounds. There were three boys and three girls, and all three boys names start with an A! The girls are C, P, and S in birth order. Two babies were born on December 29, one of Dec 11, on on the 12th, and the other two in October and November.
I have an igoogle page that I look at periodically over the day. It has various news feeds (NPR, BBC, Associated Press...) and some tools like a calculator, calendar, and dictionary. I also have feeds from People.com and ETonline. I like a little Hollywood dish. Except, sometimes it is so ridiculous, and it makes me feel bad for the celebrities. Like right now, one of the 'stories': "HTV: Tori Spelling's Parking Ticket: Tori Spelling gets a surprise when she arrives at her car. The hot mama, looking svelte after having her second baby in June, handles the situation with grace, plucking a parking ticket off the windshield of her SUV with a smile." Can you imagine being her? I think she really likes some of this - she has a reality show - but come on! Leave the woman alone! We don't need to know that she can pull a parking ticket off the front of her car!
For a little less than a month T has been sitting on the potty before getting in the bath tub. A little over 50% of the time the little guy is successful in having 'something come out.' On these times it is very exciting as we clap and say, "yeah!"
We have not been able to get T to sit on the potty much at other times, and he has yet to put poop in the potty - even with promises of a smoothie from Smoothie King if he will do it. We were quite close the other day with T even telling each of us which kind of smoothie we were each going to have - Strawberry for him and Daddy and one for Mommy too - but in the end it was a not to be. Happily T didn't seem too upset.
Last night as I was undressing T for a very late bath (it was already 7pm when he should have been getting out of the bath) I asked if he wanted to sit on the potty or not. "Yes, I feel like I have to pee-pee!" So up he went, and sure enough he put pee-pee in the potty. I was so excited he told me that the felt like he had to go. We have talked about that a bit and I guess it has sunk in.
Well this morning he followed up that bit with telling B that he wanted to go potty before he got dressed, and again success! This is one of a very few times he has said he wanted to sit on the potty and the first time he has done it before school. Baby steps, baby steps, but it really might not be that much longer (in relative terms) before he is wearing the underwear he says he wears (T will say as we are pulling off his diaper, "I don't wear diapers anymore, I wear underwear.")
I've worn the red (and purple) shoes with jeans and skirts already. I wore them on a walk, to church, and to work. The fun brown and beige clogs I've worn to work. I bought the clogs with three women in mind: My sister Sally, my work friend Rachael, and a cool looking woman at Anthropologie who I think might have also purchased the red shoes and who also has a 2 1/2 year old (and a 11 month old) and who was wearing among other cool things, some neat clogs. Rachael, when she saw mine, said, "I would buy those!" I can imagine Sally saying the same.
- From Craftzine
- Eat! Craft! Live! posted these yummy looking apple date coffeecake muffins.
- Chocolate Crackle Cookies from Epicurious.
- The Small Object posted instructions for a coffee cup sleeve. One of the commenters said that Starbucks is now giving a discount if you bring your own. Hmm.
- she also posted about this interesting game, this sugar scrub recipe, and this molasses ginger cookie recipe that is like my family recipe but with butter instead of Crisco.
- I wasn't able to pull off knitting a baby blanket, so I don't know that I can do a sweater, but f.pea says this is an easy baby sweater, and it certainly looks cute and cuddly.
- Creativeadoration has a round up of great 2009 calendars to purchase. Some are PDF's for printing, and printing, and printing...
- Interesting interesting are these boots made from fused plastic bags!
- From Apartment Therapy Ohdeedoh
- Kristen's So Big Growth chart - I could adapt this for T, only need to find the vinylish fabric to write on.
- Modular storage at Ikea - Treby style, from comments to the Target Itso entry.
- Alphabet posters - this one is good for an upcoming birthday if it can ship in time (though really too expensive.)
- Let Me Color, a blog with coloring pages. Good source for applique as suggested by this entry for upcycled clothing.
- I periodically pop over to Cooking for Monkeys as I'm fascinated with the bento lunches she does for her monkey and monkey friends. Today I saw a post on Ohdeedoh with tons of bento toddler lunch ideas and sources. Well worth looking at the comments and links for inspiration and information.
- Apartment Therepy (all blogs associated with) has been running a Homies 2008: Best of the home design blogs contest. Here is the list of nominations in the children's section.
- Look at this great paper wreath from Green {Goody} via Inhabitots.
- Another via Inhabitots - these 'constructive eating utensils' that T would so love! At Great Green Baby.
- Ohdeedoh has a wonderful round-up or round-ups, including these great growth charts and DIY play kitchens.
- From Cool Mom Picks
- Pure and Little organics shop for kids.
- One Stop Modern, pricey, but cool.
- Nice 2009 printable calendar from LittleBrownPen's shop - see also for more wonderful printable designs.
- From Other
- How to ground and centerhttp://www.wikihow.com/Ground-and-Center from Wiki How.
- Wisecraft posted these yummy looking ginger crinkle cookies, and sweet thoughts of holiday laziness that I love: "...and general laziness to attend to. I forgot how good I was at that last part." See here for the post.
- Soule Mama (of course) also posted lovely thoughts of in between holiday nothingness. Sweet photos (of course) in these holiday posts as well.
- How About Orange included more links to gift tags: Martha Stewart, this collection at Tipnut, these fab ones from SugarLoop, and these stickers from Lotta Bruhn.
- Tipnut looks like an awesome resource! Freebie calendar downloads, winter handcreme receipes, and so much more on todays home page! Here's a link for an easy neck sock.
- Design Mom posted some sibling gift ideas I like, including this flower headband that I just might make for myself!
