March 19th, 2010 by
MommaMina
When I first moved up to the Bay Area I was a single parent to the Meatball who was only six years old. Having moved up here for school, I didn’t have much of a support system to rely on. When I had told the Colonel and Rambo of my decision to uproot myself and the Meatball six hours away, they were very worried. Who would help me? Who would watch the Meatball while I was at school? Who did they know up there that can help? My parents scoured their resources to find anyone they knew. Because according to them, for darn sure, I wasn’t going to get a stranger!
Growing up I never had a babysitter my parents didn’t know already. It was as if the idea of having someone watch your child that was a stranger was the worst thing you could do. The only sitter I ever had was Aling(Ah-ling) Rose. Aling Rose was a kind, older Filipino lady that lived across the street from Read the rest of this entry »
March 19th, 2010 by
Nina
Yesterday was my anniversary. Yes, that’s right! Nine WHOLE years ago we were married by a Celetic Priest on the Aran Islands in Ireland. Romantic, right? It was beautiful. The best day of the whole trip, actually. That is exactly what everyone remembers about it, too, how beautiful the day was. Windy, but beautiful. We made it legal exactly a month later on April 18th. So we have TWO anniversaries and yes, we celebrate both. 
I’m not going to lie, our marriage has been anything but perfect, but we have stuck it out and tried as hard as we could to make it work. There are days when I look at him and think…..”Ugh, you really get on my nerves.” and he looks at me and says…..”Then leave!” LOL! Those are few and far between thought lately. It’s just so much easier to get along and enjoy one another, than it is to argue. And to be honest, we haven’t really argued/fought in ages. It’s just some days I wake up and I don’t like him, or he wake up and thinks I’m a monster. 
Which, let’s tell the truth, Ladies, there is one week out of the month when we are all monsters!! That week is also the week I can’t stand him. That’s married life for ya! BUT! We are married, and we do still love each other very much. Read the rest of this entry »
March 19th, 2010 by
Jess
I love this time of year for thinking of new activities, because there are so many products out there that are egg shaped. Eggs are great for little hands to manipulate and explore. Don’t be surprised if you see egg-themed activities on my blog through the month of April!
In the Easter section of our grocery store, I found these plastic eggs for about $4. They come in a plastic container that the eggs nestle into nicely, and each larger egg has two smaller eggs inside of it. I’m looking for ways to help Jonah with his fine motor skills, as well as his balance. Manipulating these eggs to find the smaller eggs inside, and even just putting them into each slot in the container, is a great way to get Jonah to use his fine motor skills. By putting the container on an elevated surface, where Jonah had to let go of the surface in order to play the game, we worked on his balance at the same time!
Read the rest of this entry »
March 19th, 2010 by
Brittanie
My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a baby in August. They found out on Monday it’s a girl. I’m excited, I really am, but my excitement is so much different than everyone else’s.
I can’t help but add “hopefully” to every statement.
Hopefully in August she’s come home. Hopefully, when I go down for my older brother’s wedding in September, I’ll get to meet her. Hopefully. Hopefully. Hopefully.
I hate it. I really do. I wish I could just be happily expectant like everyone else. I wish I didn’t have that “but maybe not” always lingering in the back of my mind. I would be beyond devastated if something happened to Izzy. I wish and hope and pray that everything ends the way it’s supposed to. But…I can’t expect it to anymore.
March 19th, 2010 by
Babies Peeping Out
The Paper Demon…the evil being that spreads loose papers with important information around my entire house. Stuffed in notebooks, shoved into drawers….the baby’s appointment is on this one…where is that receipt I put down here.
I happen to have a little bit of an addiction to organizing. I’m lazy so often the organization doesn’t stick-but that doesn’t deter me from trying to organize it again. In my wildest dreams I have everything organized so perfectly that my house just cleans itself (I also dream about being able to pack everything into one bag a la The Sword in The Stone…anyone remember that?)
Okay so I happened to find a great method for dealing with most of my loose information paper. Things like magazine articles, handouts from the pediatrician, newspaper articles… Read the rest of this entry »
March 19th, 2010 by
Hope
I haven’t done a healthy summary lately because it seems whenever we get answers, we always end up with more questions. Ava sees Infectious Disease on Thursday for her cyclic fevers/connective tissue disorder. She also battles her usual things like a metabolic disorder, chronic Neutropenia, anemia, hypoglycemia, OSA, GERD, central apnea, breath holding spells, cyanosis, seizures (lessening!), FTT, temors, CP, laryngomalacia, tracheomalacia, hypotonia, wierd rashes, developmental delay, macrocephaly, etc… The newest is subglottic stenosis from her multiple intubations, which is being watched. She’s been intubated 11 times that I can remember off the top of my head. She has at least two more surgeries in the future (foot and airway). We now need to watch the SGS and weigh pros/cons for upcoming procedures.
I’ve heard so many possibilities…. I’d love for some answers. I’d love it! But would a diagnosis change anything that I’m doing? No, it wouldn’t. She’d still be my sweet, beautiful, perfect Read the rest of this entry »
March 19th, 2010 by
Mama Melissa
A few weekends ago I celebrated my anniversary with Michael and although I was initially scheduled to work on the Saturday, I was able to have the day off and enjoy the day with my family. I remember a time when Mike and I could do things without the worry or concern for children but now it seems so bizarre to do things without our children because they are in fact a big part of “us” and sometimes spending time with them seems just so perfect when we are spending some time celebrating each other. We spent the good part of the day doing things with the family, getting some errands done, taking a trip to the park before we dropped them off at Nana’s house and were on our way to watch Tim Burtons interpretation of Alice in Wonderland (totally awesome by the way).
If I’ve learned anything in the years since I’ve met Mike and maybe if I’m looking at a broader spectrum I could say….If I’ve learned anything about life it is that Read the rest of this entry »
March 19th, 2010 by
Mum2Gab&Bean
Yesterday I got a phone call from the administrator at Gaby’s preschool, and it turns out that a place has opened up in the Flintstones part of the preschool - which is the LAST area of preschool before they start school - and they would love Gaby to take the place!!!!!!!!
It’s bittersweet.. when she started out, she was a Muppet Baby… then she went to the Pooh Bears… then she moved on to the other end of the preschool and became a Bananas In Pyjama’s kid…. and now.. *gulp* they want her to move in with the big kids… she’s getting so big, and old and… she really isn’t my baby anymore! Of course it’s also Read the rest of this entry »
March 19th, 2010 by
Jess
This week I made a very large purchase of cloth diapers. Eighteen bum genius! It looks as though we will be having two kids in diapers, at least part time, and it sounded like a good idea to have more one size pocket diapers. This way, if we ever have a baby sitter both kids can have plenty of “easy diapers” to last an entire day. And, because they are one size, rather than packing a couple of each size diaper for outings, I can just take a couple of these and adjust the size to fit whichever child needs to be changed.
And, the price couldn’t be beat. $90 for the whole lot. I’ll do the math for you, that is just $5 per wonderful fluffy diaper. For the same price as a footlong sub, I purchased luxurious soft convenient and practical cloth diapers that can be used over and over and over. To put this into perspective financially, when Jonah was using Read the rest of this entry »
March 18th, 2010 by
Nina
I really love this picture. It’s my daughter, Lolita, holding my finger as tightly as she could for fear of falling. Once she starts walking and wants me to let her go, I’ll want her to hold my hand, so I treasure these moments for as long as I can.
