Tie

What it looks like when my son goes to church.
His bag holds, any toys he packs and his cup of water.
He has recently decided he HAS to wear a tie to church, I guess so he can be like daddy. (Who knew kids became opinionated about they wore as young as two.) We only have one tie that is black, luckily my sister in law thought to give it to me, a year or so ago, long enough ago that I thought what in the heck to do we need a tie for. Which means he has to wear black pants for my own sanity. We have no short sleeve dress shirts, he usually wears polos, so he wears his clip on tie with a polo. I went shopping for slightly dressier sunday clothes a little while ago to go with a tie, but all we found were long sleeved.

Campagin 2008

If you haven't read my blog for more than a few months, you might not know I can be very opinionated about politics. More than opinionated they fascinate me. I love the social sciences, not just political science, psychology, sociology, anything that studies people's behavior. So polsci combined to of my interests, politics and the study of people. (That's why I liked my political theory so much, reading things like Plato's Republic, and Machiavelli's Prince, if it wasn't for my offspring I would have spent more time studying theory, but I didn't have time.) I lately find this election fascinating. I got bored with back in early spring. None of the republicans were worth writing home about, so either Obama or Hillary was going to win. Really how could the republicans fight against either of those. And then everyone dropped out other McCain, and I thought pathetic, republicans got stuck with second string, that's my opinion since McCain already lost a primary. (By the way I am neither democrat or republican, I don't like either party's politics.) Then things got slightly interesting, just because I remember a professor of mine talking about the current way we do primaries is awful for the parties (it changed a couple of decades ago) because the parties members rip apart each other when, they should be building up the party so the public like them. So I found the bitter rivalry between the democrats very interesting. We (my husband and I) thought Hillary would win the primary and pick Obama as a running mate, but even beyond the numbers the primary took too much of a toll for that to happen. I kind of wonder what was going to happened, but part of me had already lost hope in our political climate. My husband didn't believe any of the polls saying McCain actually had a chance against Obama. I didn't really know what to think, I mean I did take Stats so know poll figures mean absolute nothing, anything can be proved with stats. But Obama has seemed to lose some of the fire he had a year ago. Then it all changed! I felt like a giddy sophomore studying at USU again, when Obama picked Joe Biden for a running mate. I sort had stopped paying attention to what was happening, so I was shocked. Someone to counter McCain-- old with military experience. Oh but that giddiness was nothing in comparison to when my husband sent me this article. Oh!! McCain picking a mostly unknown woman, Sarah Palin as a running mate, to counter Obama, young and a minority (female). Who could have guessed politics would get so fun again! Plus someone for drilling in Alaska. (Not that I'm for drilling, I just found it an interesting twist. I'm not really agaisnt drilling, I have no opinion except it won't fix anything.) Not to mention it made me very happy that he didn't pick Romney. Utah newspapers thought this was Romney's big chance. I had just read an article how Gov. Huntsman said it was totally Romney. (I don't like Romney because I don't want people associating my religion with his politics. I'm sure he is good standing in the church, but that doesn't mean I want people to think Mormons=Romney, because it doesn't.) Oh I wonder how things will work out. I can't wait to find out even though I want neither for my president.

Fluff

A few weeks ago my son kept touching the laptop and my husband kept telling him not to, my son was clearly trying to annoy his dad. Finally my husband said whats the matter with you, what do you got in your ears? Fluff! A few minutes later my son came over to me, and pointed to his ears and said fluff. I started laughing so hard.
Today I was trying to give him a kiss, and I said you have such soft baby skin. He said no, pointed to his ears again and said fluff. I just started laughing, and he smiled. I'm assuming he was proud that he remember what his dad told him weeks ago, that he has fluff in his ears. Ha ha, I'm still laughing.

Must Read

One of the blogs I frequent currently is Crabmommy, I love her sarcasm, her wiliness to admit she is not super mommy. That seems to be the current fad in parenting try to prove to other moms how we are super mommy. I am not super mommy, nor do I want to be. She had this interview, at the bottom of her blog, this is how she phrased it, "As many of you know, I've been quite taken by this recently published book, Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting. So I interviewed the author, Hara Estroff Marano (who is also the editor-at-large of Psychology Today), about her thoughts on child- and teen-rearing gone wrong." I started reading it and it was exactly what I need to read. Monday I was freaking out because my son was bored and this must mean I am a bad mom. Remember how unpleasant it was to be bored as a kid, I wanted to save my child from that. My husband in perfect Brentness said if you don't want him to be bored buy cable tv and let him watch it all day. I was horrified, after reading this interview I understood what he meant. Apparently its not bad for children to be bored.

I regard boredom as an important event. It's an aversive, uncomfortable state. People don't like to be in it. The value of aversive states is that the unpleasantness forces people to experiment and/or explore to find things on their own that they do like to do. And so if you're bored you discover something you like and you also gain the mastery of yourself and know you have the ability to handle all kinds of unpleasant situations. So a lot goes on when you're given the opportunity to be bored sometimes.

The interview continues here for part 2 and here for part 3.
Here is some more fascinating information,

To adults play looks like a waste of time. And to kids it's extremely important.
To the point that there are psychologists theorizing that a lot of teenagers diagnosed with attention deficit disorders might actually just be play deprived. There's considerable evidence for it. And I don't think parents are particularly receptive to it. They'd much rather, somehow, give their kid a drug. ...they haven't stimulated that portion of the brain that develops in response to play. They haven't had the experience of regulating themselves through free play, so their circuits of attention are not developed. And we know from studies that attention can be trained. And so play is one of the ways that attention gets trained.

I can't wait to get the book. Thank you public library. (If you want to read the interview in one complete piece, I copied and pasted it to my mom, so I already have it on my email.)

Here is my thing about boredom. I think part of being a parent is wanting to give your child a better life than you had. Well last time I check most people in middle class grew up never wanting. I mean you know sometimes I did want that pair of Gap Long jeans and my mother told me not this month, and well also my parents only spend a $100+ on me at Christmas, not a $1000+ like most kids I went to school with. But I was never hungry I went to college via my parents help. So when I think of how to be a better parent, the only thing I can get rid of is boredom, I'm not going to take away chores, because heck if I want to clean the house all by my lonesome. I already say the same thing as my mom did to my son about the Gap Jeans, except his jeans, was the toy jelly fish at the Michaels, because I'm not about to raise a child that uses credit card debt as a surrogate parent in 20 years. So the only thing I can get rid of boredom. But apparently that is not something good to do for my child. Not that I'm trying to purposely make him bored, but if sometimes he doesn't want to do what I'm doing, and he doesn't want to play with his 50 million toys, then oh well.

To end this was my favorite line which is also how the interview ends. "And knee pads? Knee pads for what? Bike riding? Absurd idea. They actually interfere with agility. Children don't die from scraped knees." Which is the same reason I kept letting my son roll off the couch on purpose. The first 50 times he kept his roll so it didn't hurt, the 51st he didn't and it hurt, has never done it since.

Schedule

This summer my son's bedtime has gone to pot. My son has historically in his life time gone to bed very early. The first summer he was alive he wanted to go to bed at 6:30 for the night, and then would wake up twice to eat and go straight back asleep. The following winter he went down at 5:45 to 6 (it was dark at 4:30-5ish). This summer, he figured out that he doesn't like to go to bed, if the sun is out, and daddy is playing. I am not a mother that likes children in the evening. His bed time got later and later, until he was up until 9:30, and once we moved he started walking up at 7 with his dad. I can't handle that, it wasn't enough sleep, I was fine with the late bed when he was waking up at 9. When my child is whiny most of the day, I immediately calculate how much sleep he is getting. Plus when is naps went from barely 2 hours, to 3 or 4 I knew that was a bad sign. (Although some would say that is a miracle, I disagree if the whole rest of the day is filled with wines.) As I was frantically trying to figure out what to do I remembered a thing I saw in Parent's Magazine. This mom marked on a clock when it wasn't ok for her sons to get out of bed in the morning (her kids were getting up at 4:30 and 5) and when it was ok.
I decided to try a try a variation, last night got a clock, for $3.50 at Wally world. I popped off the plastic cover, and we deocrated it all fancy like. I made sure to put the cover back on because I didn't want moving the hands.
My son picked out the stickers and we made it fun looking. I didn't really want red, I thought the blue would be nice, but I thought about my son, and I knew he would pick red, the only time he picks blue over red is if the blue has Thomas the tank engine on it. I just taped the arrows on, so they can be moved as time goes on. When it starts to get darker early I plan on moving up his bedtime, but now my husband doesn't want him in bed before 9, because he enjoys playing with him. I have been having an equally hard time with naptimes so that got an arrow too. My husband was saying maybe we should take off the minute and the second hand that way it doesn't get confusing which hand has to pointing where. Part of me thought that was a good idea, and part of me doesn't want to confuse my son when he does try to start telling time. I think he is smart enough understand its where the short hand is.
He is so happy and proud of his new clock. We hung it low on the wall so he could see it at eye level. It will also be useful to pratice numbers. (This picture was totally him, I took a picture of the clock and he wanted to see, I asked if he wanted a picture of him with the clock, and he stood there and laughed, because he was so excited.)
(I can't take a picture on a digital camera without image stablization, and when I turn off the flash so there is no glare it often is very blurry.)

Favorite thing

My favorite thing about newborns is the baby nightgowns.

I'm already starting to stock up. I got this one, before I was pregnant. Got two more the other day. That means I know have 5, because Jobo had two. The 3 new ones are unisex, so I kind of want to get a purple one or something girly. I really love the baby nightgowns. I would only put a newborn in them if I had a choice.

Thank goodness Alisa bought some for me the first time I was pregnant.

Look how cute he is in his baby nightgowns.

The saddest thing is its almost impossible to find them beyond 3 months.

Birthday Time!

For my birthday we are going to the Circus!
Now you may ask yourself why a woman turning 24, wants to go to the Circus for her birthday. I can't really explain that, maybe if you asked my husband he could. I always tell him its part of my allure, things like this and christmas, and presents. My birthday is in a month. But my parents fly in that day, so we are going 2 days earlier. My son is excited he keeps saying circus choo choo. I know he won't remember it by the time he is 10, I don't think we are going for him, I think we are going because I never remember going.

Stories from a Sabbath Day

I taught Relief Society on Sunday, first time I've ever taught anyone over 20. I was subbing, it was Teaching for our Times, Testimony by Elder Oaks. It apparently went well, because I had a lot of comments during the lesson, and lots of women came up to me afterward saying they liked it. I was very nervous before it started, which is unusual because I don't get nervous when I give a talk. But my heart was pounding so fast before I started the baby was doing olympics or something in my belly. I had to run out during the practice hymn because her dance moves were too much for my bladder and I didn't think I could make it another 3o minutes, if she was going to keep this up.
Anyway, my son schedule the past few weeks has been during nursery so I had to give my husband a bag with a pull up and wipes in it just in case (and my son refuses to be potty trained during church). My son saw space in a bag unused and decided to pack a few more things for sacrament meeting. One of which being his bear. His bear was by far the favorite sacrament toy. It was so cute to watch him. He was being very sweet to his bear. During the opening hymn, he leaned his hymn book over to the bear so his bear could sing too. His hands looked very uncomfortable with the book, so I moved the bear to his lap, which made my son smile. They sang together. During the prayers, my son helped his bear fold his arms before he could fold his own. The bear sang every hymn with him and folded his arms for all the prayers.
To end the day off I was talking to my son in the evening on the couch. I asked him if I was his friend he said no. I asked him who was his friend? He responsed with an ehhh. I asked him if the kids in nursery were, he said yes, I asked if his nursery teacher was he said yes. I asked if I wasn't his friend who was I? He said mom. I said which is better friends or mom, he said friends. This made my husband laugh, because he knew I was fishing for complements with no avil. I told my son thats the reason I decided to have baby sister, because everyone told me you wouldn't want to be my friend for long. At first I figured by the time he was a teenager he wouldn't want me as a friend, Teresa told me, her 4 year old already had best friends that weren't her, but I wasn't expecting him to drop me before he was 3. A few minutes later we were talking again, I asked him what he did today. He said go to nursery. I asked what he did there, he said color picture, I said what else, he said play with toys. I said what else, he responsed ehh. I said did have a lesson he said yes, I said what was it on houses? He said yes, homes. Then I asked what else, did you sing? He said yes. Normally our conversations don't go like this but it did yesterday, it helped he knew what I was talking about and I knew what answers to expect. Mind you during his answers he pronounces only about half of the letters.

Knight in Shinning Armor

My husband's new job is going well I think. But what do I know, not much, especially when it comes to Linux and MySQL. This week he has been on call. He takes turns with the other guys he works with, so every four weeks, its his week to be on call 24 hours a day. This is his week, even though he is newbie, and is still trying to catch up on the learning curve. Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning, my husband got a call, after an hour and half of sleep. After working all night/early morning, he showered and decided to go into the office at 5 am instead of working in the basement. He left around 2ish that afternoon I think, because he needed sleep. Last night he got another call, luckily it came in around 6ish I think, he left to go into work before 7 am. (Luckily he lives 15 minutes away from his office.) It makes me feel like he is a knight in shinning armor. When I wake up at 8:30 because my son didn't wake up at 7 to see his dad before work, I feel completely indebted to my husband, for the fact I don't work. Nor do we need a second paycheck. I can't comprehend my husband's will power to provide for our family, but boy am I glad he has it. It makes me very grateful I get to stay at home with our kids, which then just makes me feel more indebted to my husband, because back when I had just barely graduated and felt like I was wasting the day at home "doing nothing" my husband was the one that assured me home with my child was really where I wanted to be. Boy was he right, I'm glad he had the foresight to be patient with me until I realized that. I don't know how he does it, working 40+ hours a week, but I am grateful.

Comissioned Works.

My cousin isn't the only who is commissioned to create things. My aunt asked me to make her some nursing cover ups. My husband thinks they should be called booby blockers. Here is the first that I made.

Made 4 in all for her. I used this site as a pattern for hooters hiders, sort of, I don't know what type of boning she used I used the only stuff I could find. By the way, I though 18" of boning was too much, I think I finally used 12-15" by the end.
I think this is the end of my crafting for money. As other people before me have figured out, hobbies aren't as fun when you aren't doing it for fun. Although my husband loves when I sell stuff for whatever reason. These weren't too bad, the worst was when I sold a clock, ahh! I hated the looming deadline over me, even though my aunt didn't give me a deadline, I still felt a looming deadline.

Garage Selling

Saturday we went garage selling and spent a $150. I got another sewing machine. I love old Berninas. It was $65, I'm sure it needs probably at least $70 worth of work, it probably hasn't been touch in years. We got this at an Estate Sale that's why it was so much. And an old abacus for $8, my husband wanted it, I thought it was expensive.

We got this couch for $40. And a nightstand for a guestroom for $3. We don't have a bed, but I do have a nightstand from the 50s. Now we can watch movies on our 22 inch flat screen monitor again, instead of our laptop.

We also bought way too much for my son. A bike for $5, a slide for $5. Some over priced puzzles which I shouldn't have bought I didn't look carefully and they were dirty. I can't believe it, this house is at least twice the size of our last apartment, and it is already filled up. We can't buy anymore stuff, because we won't fit in our house. Although we still need a dishwasher, another desk, another computer (so my husband can work from home), a BBQ grill, and another bed for our guest room. How can we need so much stuff, and already have our house filled? I wanted an IKEA chair downstairs, one for me, and a kid's one for Jobo, but I don't think we have room, it will have to wait until the next house. I have this fear that in the next 5 years we'll have to downgrade, and won't be able to fit. Oh and I need about 2 dressers for all the sewing and other craft stuff I have. I need to downsize on all of that too!

Garage Selling Part 2

I also got a bunch of baby girl clothes from the UK at one sale. They were all a dollar a piece of clothing, that might be a lot for a garage sale, but they look new, and they are European. This one says, I heart Daddy. And its true.

This little tag on the leg, is my favorite, especially with the the bird on the side. The top says, 50% mama 50% papa.

Got some UK onesies, I love it, it says, Mummy's Sweet Heart.

Then these dresses, I pretty much hate the heart buttons on the last one, so maybe I'll change them, spend more on the buttons then I did the dress.

Ungracious

Turns out I am a very ungracious mother. I don't mean to be I just come off that way. People have been telling me for 2 and half years how cute my child is, and I keep responding the wrong way. If I was polite and gracious I would say, thank you very much. But instead, I normally brush his head/move his hair with my hand, and said I know. But not I know, like of course he is, I know, mean can you believe it? Who would ever thought I would have a beautiful child. I said I know, because I can't believe someone else other than me, thinks he is cute. You would think, after 2 and 1/2 years I would get use to people saying he is beautiful, and be able to sound gracious when someone complements him, but I am still caught off guard every time it happens. I never expect people to complement him. Now that he is appears to be a thinking toddler, it has gotten worse. People have started to tell me he is so smart. Well this one, I am always shocked at, so I either say, really? or I know, because he is showing off something I didn't know he could do either, so I'm just as surprised as they are. The other day in church we were sitting next to the elderly couple, and Jo went through an alphabet book, and told his dad every letter of the alphabet. The older man, said he is so smart, and I said I know, sort of giggling, because I was more shocked than the man that he knew the alphabet, last time Jo told me, he only knew about a third of the letters. I'm starting to realize that when someone complements my child, they are complementing me, but in my mind, the complement has nothing to do with me, I didn't have anything to do with my son being smart or beautiful, he was just born that way I guess. I can assure anyone that I am not the one that made him smart. (I know beautiful is girly sounding, but older people always tell me he is beautiful, I guess it use to be normal for boys to be beautiful. Plus I personally do think he is a beautiful child, I don't think beautiful is a female specific term.)

Blitz

I got my hands on Breaking Dawn the other day. I read it in 24 hours, which also included the time I had to eat, sleep, and take care of my child (that included FHE). I didn't read it exceptionally fast for any particular reason other than I knew I wouldn't get much while I was reading it, so I figured I'd might as well put everything else off and blitz it. (Not to mention I didn't think I read that fast, I just didn't do any chores, we got pizza for dinner.) I figure it was less time consuming this way. I was impressed at how well Stephenie Meyer has progressed as an author in these four books. I think she has made vast improvements since Twilight. I liked the last 200 pages, I was impressed with her discussion, of government, choice and other such topics. Not that it was the most amazing discussion ever written in a novel, but that it was in a teen fiction book. I don't know, don't ask questions, I enjoy the book that much is true. Sort of predicable, but they all sort have been. It was sort of weird reading it though, I felt like it was a different book (than the previous 3 in the series) with the same names of characters but not the same characters. Maybe that is just because they grew up, but I think it had to do with how quick they grew up, and how relationships changed because of that. In Harry Potter they grow up, but they are still always students at school, in this book there is a big difference to the point of life Bella is in the first book compared to to this book.
I was surprised at the end, I thought I would be so relieved when the series was over. But some where I read, that Meyer said, Bella and Edward's story is over, but that doesn't mean other characters in the book don't have stories to tell. When it was over, I thought, oooh, is she going to write a story about JB and RCC (I used initials so I would give a spoiler, sorry if that turns out to be spoiler)? Anyway, I enjoyed the book, I don't if it was good enough to read in a day, but I did, it seemed less time invasive then drawing it out over a week. But I did enjoy it, and I told my husband all about it. Then again he did ask questions, which prompted my plot explanations (he read Twilight). My one complaint was that in the other books, I didn't take the horrific opinion of most LDS adults, that the book was too racy to be written by an LDS author. I thought all the moms that were horrified, didn't realize what the heck their teenager daughters had already been exposed to. I saw it has a harmless book, that if parents so wished could be followed by a discussion of these are the morals we have. (Bella was a little more easy than I expect my future daughters to be.) But I thought Meyer went a little far with this book. I had no problem with her writing the story of a girl becoming infatuated with a boy, and her description of them making out, and I did like that Edward would not have sex with her until they were married. I had no problem of their discussion of it in previous books. But I didn't think Meyer need as much reference to their sex life as she included in this book. To me there is a difference about 16 year olds making out (even if it is in a bed, not that I'm condoning that) then a married couple's sex life. Even if she didn't write any details. But maybe now I'm the one turned out to be a prude. Everyone kisses and tells when they are dating, but its improper to discuss your sex life.

Make my day

Since this is rapidly becoming the only journal I keep especially with the move, and everything lost, I have to record things here, that I would normally record other places, with the hope posterity gets saved or something like that. Anyway, my son totally made my day.
I was ticking him, and he of course was laughing when he said, "mom"...[laugh laugh laugh] "stop" I was so proud of him for using words while he was laughing. We have been trying to get him to use words instead of the standard ehhs, since they make no sense to Brent or I. So the fact that he was doing something like laughing, and he used words at the same time, was quite the accomplishment in the opinion of his mother.

Comparisons

It time to compare pregnancies. This was me the other day, I know its not that good of a shot of my belly, but its the best I have for now. I'm 5 months pregnant right now. And feel super little for being pregnant.

This is me 5 months pregnant with my son. Looking back at the pictures I was bigger with my son.

Which is weird, I had to find maternity clothes after 2 months with this baby, and I didn't get any until 4 1/2 month with my son.

Sleeper

After my nap today, I opened the door to check on my son, during his nap. He was sleeping on the floor in front of his door, which means I woke him up. Luckily I open the door slowly. I couldn't tell if it was cute to find a little boy and his blanket sleeping in the doorway or sad. Later I said him why he was sleeping there. I then asked did you try to escape is that why you were there, yes or no? He said yes.

Name

My husband and I decided to tell everyone we are naming our daughter, Bette Milder Huntz---, from Seinfeld. We think it has a nice ring to it, even though thats not what we are naming our baby. It makes us laugh really hard every time we bring it up.

Curtains

My son's room has recently gotten its latest update. New curtains so he doesn't destroy the blinds. I had a hard time finding material I liked, Jobo immediately picked this stuff out, but I didn't know if it was too expensive. We went around the store twice trying to find something unisex but all they had was florals or dark colored stripes. I could have done the stripes if I was having a boy, but they just didn't look unisex. So we stuck with what my son liked and figured it was on sale.

Half of his room is windows. The closet takes up a whole other wall, and then the last wall has the crib next to it.

Here is a close up. I was afraid it wasn't unisex, but my husband said it was and it was a good pick. I figured it had to be, not to mention, it was the one my son wanted. Although he has been known to pick out really girly material just because it has ladybugs on it. Remember red means good bug, black means they bite you. (Now I just have to make the pillow case I didn't make 3 months ago. But first I have do the work my Aunt commissioned me to do.)

He is so happy with his new curtains! Yeah! for mommy' s sewing.

Recent Media

Last week I read Mississippi Jack book 5 in the Jacky Faber Books. I enjoyed it, part of me didn't want to pick it up because I am ready for the series to be over, I feel the same way about Breaking Dawn. I'm a little annoyed that there are 2 more Jacky books. I enjoyed this one. I thought it was a little more PG-13 then the other books, as far as male and female relations goes, but the book wasn't as dark as 3 or 4. The author seemed to be going darker and darker as the series went on, so I was relieved that Mississippi Jack was much more lighthearted humor. I enjoyed it. If you like the other 4, it is good. But I'm ready for her and Jaimy to finally get married.
This past weekend Netflix sent us Penelope was much better than I expected. I thought it was going to be very predictable, but it surprised both my husband and I. I think he enjoyed it. I did, it was very cute, and clean. I don't think I would buy it but it was a good rental, in my opinion. One I could recommend to anyone. Before I watched it I assumed it was sort of a kid's movie, but it had plenty of plot that would go over a kid's head, without any of it dirty. It was nice to watch a movie that fits for multiple levels, without the adult level being dirty jokes.
This week I read The Fool's Path: A Tale from the Lothemain Legacy, apparently it is a fairy tale redone, I didn't recognize the tale until the very end. My mother sent it to me because it was cheap on Amazon used. In the beginning I started reading it to figure out what fairy tale it was, and in the middle I read it to figure out how the first wife gets hooked back up with the main male lead. And in the end I just had to finish it, even though I could already see the ending. I would hardly ever say it was near my favorites, but obviously had to be interesting, because I read it less than a week. I was really intrigued how the story was going to come together, with the main character spreading his seed all over the country side. The book had a tendency to be a little PG-13.

Update

Yesterday evening I asked my son what he wanted to be for Halloween, a dog, a lion, or bumble bee? He immediately he said very enthusiastically, bumble bee. Then went about singing the song.

I'm bringing home my baby bumble bee
Won't my Mommy be so proud of me
I'm bringing home my baby bumble bee -
OUCH!! It stung me!!

I sighed and said I don't want to do a bumble bee. Then right as my husband was about to kiss me, I said I've got it. I'll make the body of the costume, black and yellow striped like a bumble bee. Then make the wings like the PB bug costume. Now I've very excited. Although I do think he would be a cute dog. I don't care if my bug will be incorrect as far as entomology is concerned. I put yellow on the wings instead of orange.

Way Too Early

I have been thinking about Halloween lately. I know its way to early to think about costumes, but I'm pregnant, so I have to plan ahead, because you never know I might feel crappy the whole month of October. Plus I can't work hard core on all the christmas presents I have plans of making if I haven't done the Halloween Costume. My fear is my baby will come early and I won't be able to finish the presents or decorate my house for Christmas.
I thought about doing the Rhino this year again, but I decided against it, the sweat suit still fits so I would only have to reattach the horns and ears, but I think I would be disappointed if I didn't make a new one. (His first halloween he was a dinosaur remember.) This year I decided my son was old enough to help me pick a costume to make, so we went through lots of websites and I asked him yes or no, there were plenty I thought were super cute that he said no to. He said no to a monkey, and to this bug from pottery barn. I kept asking about the bug hoping to get a different response.This is what he liked, a dog, a lion, a bee, and a banana.
Last year my husband wanted me to make a banana suit for my son, but I really have no idea how to sew like that. So I think the dream will be given up again.
The costume at this point will be up to what color sweat suit I can find. I would like to do the pottery barn, dog or bug. But my son doesn't like the bug, so I guess it will probably be the dog, the dog seems easier than the lion, and I don't really want to do a bee. (PS I also love the PB hedgehog and butterfly costume, my son didn't like the hedgehog.)

Justification

The other day I was talking to my sister about potty training. She is probably a year and half away but its never too early for research I guess. After talking I decided I wanted to justify my use of candy on potty training. (Not justify to her, the whole blogging world, I know this post is about 2 months late.)
Fact, I bribed my son with food
Fact, I bribed my son with a pack of fruit snacks to use the potty.
Fact, he very clearly learned in less than a week how to say "fruit snacks, potty treats". Clear enough that his single uncle understood him without anyone telling him. He even sang a songs about it.
I know it is socially taboo to do either of those things now, its bad to bribe with food, it leads to obesity apparently. Its bad to give my child candy in general let alone for a bride.
This is why I did it, because I had seen it work before. (I'll leave the parties innocent, but I had seen it work first hand.) Also my mom told me to do it, I figured I turned out alright so why not. Here is the other reason I quickly realized it was the only thing that worked. I tried not to be socially taboo, he was only going to get a tic tac for BMs and stickers for pee. That didn't work, my son's father and his father before him are trained economists, my son naturally understands economies too well, he LOVES stickers, but it wasn't worth a detour to the potty for him. Fruit Snacks where the only thing that worked.
So we stuck with them for 3 boxes. I had bought more but in a fit of desperation I let my son pick out his potty treats in the store. He picked out life savers and gummy worms. Thats when we downgraded. From a pack of fruit snacks to one gummy worm, two for stinky stuff. He seemed perfectly content with the downgrade. I bought more gummy worms for a while, but then I decided to use my candy stores, which included old easter cadbury eggs (now Teresa is wondering how I had any left over, I can never eat a whole bag.) Then my grandma gave me left over jelly beans, and they became potty treats. Then those got low, so we added M&Ms. Still two months later after potty training and my son still gets an M&M if he goes potty, and two if he if its dirty. (I have only had two accidents during the move, one when I was in the shower, and one when I ignored the yells of "Ma Ma Ma" because we were on different floors, with a tract record like that during high stress I have no desire to abandon the sugar.) I'm sure current child psychology would say that is awful, but heck my son eats less candy now then before he potty trained.
Now he only candy when he goes potty, and before he potty trained I was sick and pregnant in my first trimester so he basically got candy whenever he asked because I felt too crappy to hear him cry. Not to mention, he only goes about 5 times a day, and he doesn't always remember to ask for a treat, so he is probably get maybe 5 grams of sugar a day, probably more like 3. He gets more sugar during breakfast than he does from pottying in the toilet. (I know its terrible my son doesn't eat plain oatmeal, or plain bran for breakfast but its the truth, I don't either, plus I would bet none of you do either.) Normally we eat yogurt for breakfast, and we started buying the more healthy kind but none the less it is not plain. Even when he eats healthy cereal its still has some sort of sugar or honey to make it palatable. Although we rarely buy "sugar cereals."
You may ask why I don't wean him from the potty treats, I've vaguely tried, at least thought about trying. But there is still plenty of times each week, when my son is doing the potty dance, and the only way he is willing to go to the potty is after I say potty treat. Even if he went 20 times a day, like me, I think I would still be ok with the m&ms. I don't think 20 grams of sugar is going to make him diabetic, and I have consciously tried to cut out other sugars from his diet because of the potty training.
As my husband would say its all about incentives. Humans do anything if you give them the right incentive. Adults are no different, although sometimes we require different incentives, there are plenty of times treats work on me too. The other thing I've figured out is the incentives have to be immediately, something in the future after multiple trips to the potty do not work for my son. But I am the same way, if I practiced the piano 4 days a week for a month my mom was going to take me out of ice cream, or buy me a new shirt, really anything I asked. You know how many times I got that incentive? Never, it was too far in the future for me. But I guarantee you, every time my mom told me she would do my dishes if I praticed for a full 30 minutes without interruptions I did it. Apparently my son is the same way. He also needs the potty treats in full view from the toilet, so I place them on a high shelf in plain view. It makes it tricky when we aren't at home, which maybe part of the reason he has a hard time focusing, he keeps craning his neck to find the potty treats.

For Now

This is my son's room for now. I am in the process of making curtains so he doesn't break the blinds, because he is well on his way, as he looks outside at the diggers and trucks in our backyard.

From the first night we moved in my son wanted to sleep in a big boy bed. I'm probably jinxing it but, we have not had any problems. He goes down for naps and bed, with no problem, he never gets out once we finish books. He hasn't gotten up and wandered around in the middle of the night, (which is what I was afraid of, he does that at other people's house when we stay over, it makes for long nights.) He in fact never gets out of bed, until we come in his room, he just stays in his room sucking his thumb with his blanket. Once we open the door he throws his blanket on the pillow and doesn't touch it until after book read the next time. He is being such a champ. This is how I find him most mornings, minus the blinds pulled up.

Here is his dresser. Those roosters my sister sent us for our new house. They are what inspired me to keep the stuff I already have not worry about totally have everything matching.

Especially since all the sheets I have for his bed, are either white or red, or a mixture of both. The bookcase is new. It was our first furniture purchase for the new house. I love that all the wood is the same color in the room.

Getting Girly

This is the first girl thing I've made for my baby. I got the pooh material at DI for $1, and since its blue I wanted to make it girly, so I added the pink blanket satin stuff. I found it challenging to use. I can't turn down cheap classic pooh.

It is kind of a dumb size. Its about 5 inches wider than a stupid store bought receiving blanket that is useful for nothing. I guess store bought receiving blankets are useful if the baby likes swaddling, but my first born only wanted to be swaddled for about 5 days, after that he would fight and cry until he freed himself. I figured this would be a good size to tuck in around the baby in a car seat.
This took me way too long, almost 3 hours, to only machine sew store bought binding. I had issues with the pinning, and then with the machine, and about everything else.

We are ALIVE!

I know I have probably distressed my whole 25 regular viewers by not blogging in a week. But our internet just barely got connected. Here is an update.

My son's favorite perch before we left.

Our new place. We love the front swing.

One of my favorite things in our new place, my pie chest or something. I don't know, it has metal grating on the outside. Since its not in the kitchen, its in the back hallway behind the kitchen, I have a place for all my large appliances. I can now easily access them.

My blender, my popcorn maker, my Bosch, our breadmaker, the griddle, the crockpot.

ps I'm totally indebted to everyone who helped us move, I was totally useless being pregnant, and tired. Especially my two cousins who unpacked my kitchen, and my brother who set up our beds.