Milestones
Since I haven’t blogged in a while I have not mentioned 2 very important events! 2 of my good friends babies turned ONE!!!!! It’s amazing because we were pregnant at the same time, of course they were further along that me. I clearly remember their pregnancies and births and of course the days leading up to and following the births of their babies. And I remember when they were both teeny babies and now they’re ONE!!!!!!
So, Happy Birthday Sophia and Mikey!!!
Another milestone. Today Alexis is 8 months old. I know it’s not a “big one” like 6 months was or 9 months or a year will be. But it seems huge to me. I don’t know why 8 months old sounds like a lot, but it does. It really makes me realize that she is getting bigger and that time is just flying by!!! At 8 months she is now rolling around the floor like a sausage. I have to put pillows bewtween my bed and the floor or she will roll right under it. She is scooting forward. She also rocks on all fours. So if she could combine the scooting and the rocking then she would be crawling, I am just waiting for it to happen any day. She can also stand while holding on to something for a few seconds. She is starting to eat table foods, I give her bits and pieces of my food to expose her to new flavors and textures. She responds to her name and is beginning to remind me of me in her very willful and stubborn personality!! I see some definite temper tantrums in her toddler-hood and lots of arguments in her teen years. She is very independent. She doesn’t want to be held very much anymore, she stretches her legs out and demands to be on the floor so she can be free to explore. I love seeing all these facets of her personality surface!
How can I have another baby?
Ok, no I am not pregnant b/c I’m sure that’s what people will think when they see the title.
Ok, now that we have that squared away. I don’t mean physically have another baby. My pregnancy was relatively smooth and my delivery was quick and easy(ish). What I mean is how can I have another baby when I already have a baby? I know I know…huh? Before I had a baby I always thought that I wanted “kids”. Kids were an abstract term, I didn’t really have a frame of reference. There was no attachment. Now that I have a kid, I can put a name and a face and emotions with that term. At least when it comes to one baby. Now, when I think of having another baby, it’s in the same abstract way that I once thought of any babies? Following along? So, there is no attachment or connection to my as-yet-conceived second child. Although there is to my first born. So, I almost feel resentment or guilt at taking away from her. I feel that I would be dividing my attention, and it doesn’t feel fair to me. She is so important to me and I want to do everything I can for her, so bringing a younger sibling into her life, when she never asked for it just seems like I’m cheating her. I know of course (again abstractly) that I would love this second child as much as I love Alexis and I also know that she would love her little brother or sister. But for right now, I just can’t imagine it. Maybe part of that comes from the fact that I’m an only child and I really enjoyed being an only child!
Some perspective
There is a blog I follow that I found on the Nest Baby sites titled He Will Carry Me. The author, Stacy, was pregnant with a little boy. Early on in the pregnancy her and her husband discovered that the baby had a fatal genetic disorder and would pass away either in utero or shortly after birth. She was given the option to terminate the pregnancy but chose to carry the baby to term. Her blog is basically a diary of her pregnancy and how she got to know her son. Anyway, she had her scheduled c-section this morning and Isaac lived for 16 minutes. If you want to read more, this is the blog .
Just in case anyone needs a reminder to be thankful for what they have. Also, send a prayer, thought, whatever your own way to Stacy and her husband Spencer, I’m sure they need it.
Time to go shopping!!!
I have a ton of unused gift cards from last Christmas. Of course I was pregnant then so I wasn’t going to go buy clothes for my non-pregnant self. Then I refused to buy clothes until I reached my goal weight. I had to buy a few things that fit me so that I could get dressed every day, but not a lot. So now, seven and a half months after Alexis was born I am at my goal weight!! I weigh what I did when I got married and that’s 10 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight. So now I can go spend all that money I have and get some cute things for my trip to Hawaii!!!
Now the trick is to not let myself slowly creep back up!!!!!
My toothbrush is possessed
Last night I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and when I open the bathroom door, I heard this buzzing sound. So I follow the sound to its source and realize its coming from my toothbrush. We have the Crest SpinBrush ones that you turn on and off. I picked it up and it wasn’t on but it was buzzing, so I switched it on and then off and it stopped. Ok. I go back to bed and about 5 minutes later it starts again. I guess since I wasn’t asleep yet, I heard it through the door and Marc heard it too. So he got up to check it out, same thing. So, he took the battery out. I’m going to get a new toothbrush today.
Political Commentary
I know I have totally been slacking on updating my blog. So to ease myself back into blogging, I am going to start with someone else’s words. I am copy and pasting this from the Miami Herald, it’s a column by Carl Hiaasen about Sarah Palin. I know that some of her supporters are asking about feminists and where are they now that it’s a Republican not a Democrat. I just want to clarify that Sarah Palin is about as anti-woman and anti-feminism as you can get. Her decisions to have a career and raise a family is not in question – I think it’s wonderful that a woman can successfully do both. I also so not question her decision to support her teenage daughter – as a mother, I would expect nothing less. Though, I do question her thinking on “abstinence-only” sex education, maybe if her daughter had known about birth control and condoms she would not be in this position. In my opinion having a vagina does not entitle someone to the support of feminists. So, any woman who supported Hillary Clinton will not blindly support Palin b/c the only thing they have in common is their gender and above-mentioned vagina.
Here’s the article by Carl Hiaasen, it’s from the Herald on Sunday 9/28
If Palin were a male candidate . . .
By CARL HIAASEN
The vice presidential debate is set for next Thursday, and millions of voters will be watching to see if moderator Gwen Ifill of PBS behaves herself.
Most journalists are still getting accustomed to the Sarah Rules, as established and enforced by John McCain’s campaign team. The most important is Sarah Rule No. 1: Don’t treat Gov. Palin like a male candidate, or you’ll be accused of character assassination.
Maybe this is why McCain has kept Palin sequestered from the press — not because he’s terrified she’ll pull a Dan Quayle and say something goofy (as she did to Katie Couric), but because he gallantly wants to protect her from all the chauvinist meanies who would ask impertinent questions.
Likewise, the same right-wing gasbags who’ve trashed Hillary Clinton for 16 years have morphed into sensitive souls when it comes to their own hockey-mom candidate. Each unsettling news revelation about Palin is automatically decried as a sexist smear.
If Palin were a male candidate, Democrat or Republican, she’d be taking heat for ducking reporters when the election is only five weeks away. Yet, except for a few grumps, the media have reluctantly accepted the Sarah snub as the new order of things.
In the big debate it will be interesting to see if the rules are followed, or broken.
If Palin were a male candidate, for example, she would again be asked (as Charles Gibson did) why she took credit for killing Alaska’s notorious Bridge to Nowhere, when in fact she supported the $223 million boondoggle until Congress turned against it.
If Palin were a male candidate, she might also be encouraged to discuss why she chose a high-school pal to head Alaska’s Division of Agriculture at a $95,000 salary. Among her flimsy qualifications, the woman, a former real-estate agent, claimed an affection of cows.
If Palin were a male candidate, she’d be asked why she put another childhood friend in charge of a money-losing, state-subsidized creamery that was supposed to shut down until Palin reversed the decision. As The Wall Street Journal reported, the doomed dairy cost Alaskans more than $800,000 in additional losses before it was finally closed.
Explain $17,000 `per diem’
In fact, during her short stint as governor, Palin has appointed several school buddies to well-paying state posts. Her legislative director was in the same junior-high band with Palin. Another old classmate was operating a Mailboxes, Etc. franchise when the governor appointed him head of the state’s economic development office.
If Palin were a male candidate who claimed to be a crusading, cost-cutting reformer, she’d be asked what made her any better than other politicians who hand out fat government jobs to cronies.
Maybe if she were a male candidate, she’d be pressed to explain why she billed the state more than $17,000 as ”per diem” expenses — for 312 nights she spent at her own home.
Palin’s staff told The Washington Post that the governor is entitled to such payments under Alaskan law, but a male candidate would be quickly reminded that even members of Congress don’t receive a per diem allowance for routine home visits.
A male candidate would be asked how he could promote himself as a ”maverick” while dunning taxpayers on his expense accounts.
If Palin were a man, she’d be questioned closely about her professed aversion to pork-barrel government spending, since she has happily pledged $500 million of her state’s money toward a 1,715-mile natural gas pipeline.
Speaking about that as-yet unbuilt project, Palin got on stage at the Wasilla Assembly of God and told churchgoers: ”God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies in getting that gas line built, so pray for that.” As you might imagine, this is a popular clip on YouTube.
A male candidate would be ridiculed — no, make that crucified — for suggesting that the Lord has taken a personal interest in natural-gas extraction. Luckily for Palin, the Sarah Rules censure such commentary as anti-religious.
Imagine if her Democratic opponent, Sen. Joe Biden, had been videotaped while being solemnly blessed against ”every form of witchcraft.” The Republicans would jump on it, running blistering ads to portray Biden as a whack job unfit for the vice presidency.
President Palin?
Wondrously, though, Palin has yet to face any questions about her weird anti-witch inoculation at the hands of one Pastor Thomas Muthee in 2005. It’s sort of creepy to watch, but who knows — maybe this stuff really works for future vice presidents. Maybe Spiro Agnew should have tried it.
Once upon a time, any person who sought the second-highest office in the land could expect to be grilled almost as unsparingly as a presidential candidate. Biden himself has been slammed during campaign interviews, not always unfairly.
Yet the Sarah Rules allow everyone to explain Palin’s words and past actions except Palin herself.
If she were a man, they wouldn’t be praising her for being a hockey dad. They’d be calling her a lightweight who shouldn’t be a hundred heartbeats from the Oval Office, much less one.
Mommyof1's Weblog 