New Dog - New Tricks (10 months!)

This 10-month-old puppy learned a new trick this weekend...

I sat on the couch in hysterics yesterday as she yanked down the neck of my shirt... took a gander around, grabbed the edge of my bra and peeked inside....

"NIPPLE!" you could see it register in her brain, and she lunged for it, open-mouthed...


Weight: 16-6.5oz (we got weighed on the 12th - can't remember if I posted, but daycare called that day around noon saying she'd woken up from her nap with a 102.6 fever (taken under arm, which supposedly still needs a degree added to be accurate, so 102.5-103.5) and so I grabbed her, and went to the doctor where we discovered girl's first ear infections.  YUP plural - one in each ear... we just finished our 10 days of antibiotics this weekend!))

Height:(last measured at 9m - 27.5")

Eating: Everything still - except the Stage 3 chicken noodle stuff... lol won't eat it past a few bites... but loves her yogurt and banana in the morning.  Has gotten the hang of the sippy cups (she bites mostly, but can take down 2oz of milk FAST!) and gets her whole milk from there during the day (still nurses twice daily: morning as we get ready and right before bed)
I basically only send Stage 3 baby foods as a backup to daycare - she loves the food they prepare and offer - chicken lo mein last week! The baby food is for days like today - lunch is quesadillas which aren't so baby friendly...
We're also (still!) finishing up the freezer stash - I send a bag maybe twice a week, they mix it still (I think lol) with cow's milk... I definitely think she gets majority WCM at daycare, but whatev's - that means the BM lasts longer I guess.... just three bags left in the freezer!!!
Her favorite food may be cut up grapes and strawberries! (and her puffs... it could be mid-meltdown, but you shake the puffs container and she is hypnotized!)
** (I sent 3.5oz to a jewelry-gal, excitedly awaiting a necklace and some other pieces she's doing for free, as a "tester" for some new styles and metals she got!!!) 

Sleep: She's pretty much on one nap now (ugh) which is usually 1.5-2 hours, except yesterday when she only napped for under an hour... blugh
But as I said with Button, I guess I can't complain about naps when she sleeps 12 hours every night (basically without fail...)

Wearing: Size 3 diapers... we tried a 6M sleeper (Momma's in denial when it comes to cleaning out the drawers of clothes that are too small... she's ten months now!!) and it was basically a boat-neck/off-the-shoulder lol
so, 9M clothes - and even those pants can be a bit too short... ack!
(I just got a lot of 30+ pieces of 12M girl stuff off of Mercari for $20! so it's not like she doesn't have clothes to fit her... lol)

LOVES: being tossed in the air (lol), her brother's toys, and baths (she will positively DANCE in anticipation while standing at the edge of the bathtub watching it fill...)

HATES : having her (her brother's) toys ripped away by big brother...

Milestone: We discovered "piggies" (pigtails - see above picture on left!) and now need to stock up on those teeny little elastics!

 ALSO! she started walking with her (Button's old) walker this past weekend!

 E casually set her up with it (why didn't we try before now?) and she just started cruising around!!


We also had a tooth break through earlier this month! That sucker is the hardest thing to try and snag a picture of! Here's my best peek:

The next tooth, the other bottom one, has mounded up under the gums... hers seem to take forever to actually cut through, but once they're through - man they take off!

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Daddy was away on a business trip from Thursday morning until Sunday, so we had crazy mornings in bed:

We did some lazy breakfast-for-dinner meals (where Mommy ate out of the frying pan, while standing up... this was Friday night and I was beat after a full work-week! and yes, that is spilled pepper... the plug fell out of the bottom of the shaker, and I didn't get around to cleaning it until the next morning!)

We also hosted a baby play/craft-date this weekend: Two friends and their boys came over to make "Bum-kins" (ok and drink and do some mommy-socializing... =P )

(What are "Bum-kins" you say?) 

With our finished little Bum-kins:

The kids all had fun, rotating between the bouncer, the travel highchair, and the floor...
While the dogs all tortured the babies (wouldn't stop licking their faces!), Button did great playing gently with them all!

The aftermath in the lower right picture... (this did not include the orange paint and newspaper we cleaned up before eating dinner!)

The kids were both exhausted by the time we were alone again (Button had skipped a nap, Ms. Mack basically only had about 45m worth....) so they were both down for the count by 8pm (YES!)

I was able to clean up and get the house back to decent shape...

Good thing, because Daddy arrived home Sunday morning around 7:45 (after a long night flying red-eye from the West Coast!)

We all had breakfast together, then he dragged himself to bed while I graciously took the kids with me food shopping...

When we returned, the dogs caused enough of a ruckus barking that they woke him up... so we finished off the beautiful day with a nice walk down our dead-end street...

You'd think it was 30 degrees outside from the way we bundled them up (Button took his hat off for the picture)
It was only in the 50's... lol

Philosophical Friday - Alternate Universes

If you happen to be a baby-loss mom reading the blog, please don't read this... I don't want it to be misinterpreted, or misunderstood for something other than gratitude being expressed - but even that will probably leave a sour taste - being grateful that it didn't happen to me...
But I feel like I've been thinking about this for awhile, and I feel a little dramatic and silly about it, but I want to get it out and into ink (a typed screen anyway)...

so.
You've been forewarned, I guess... 



This past spring, I discovered that a mom from my "birth month board" for Ms. Mack (Dec 2015) had delivered her daughter stillborn...

Late last summer and fall, months and weeks before our EDDs, a slew of December moms ooh'd and aah'd over a beautiful nursery she designed for her daughter - custom-made and hand-painted dresser the shining glory that she had spent hours on... we chimed in about matching fabrics and colors.

Yet less than a week after we welcomed Ms. Mack to the world, she was having to push her still daughter out...


I believe there will forever be a divide between baby-loss moms and non... between pregnancy-loss moms and non... I think that there's a divide even between even PG- and baby-loss moms...

I do not know what it's like to deliver a quiet baby... but having been living in the "alternate universe" of "Bad Things That Happen" ever since finding out our first baby's heart beat stopped around 12weeks gestation, I do know that These Bad Things can happen to anyone - that in another alternate universe, I could be planning annual memorials instead of birthdays...

Am I in the blissful alternate universe of Birthday-Planning because - well, not because I went to the doctor anyway despite feeling silly, but because - really, I got lucky?

Not to get all existential, but - well, I know shit happens.

And I can't help but think and realize how easily I could be the one preparing for the second-to-worst 2 months of my life - a round of holidays without a piece of my heart, only to lead up to the one year anniversary...

What separates us, besides a chance wrapping/tangling of an umbilical cord? Besides a freak infection? Besides any of the hundreds of causes of stillbirth??



One thing I've thought about a lot - Button was (double) footling-breach... not life-threatening (not in this day and age) but definitely something that could have become dangerous during a vaginal delivery.  So a c-section was scheduled...
Then, there came a point that I was suspicious of my water leaking.  Dr. Google said that risk of infection becomes very high 24 hours after the amniotic sac breaks... and so I started counting on my hands and calculated - I was about 60 hours from a scheduled c-section...
I felt silly calling the next morning, because then the nurse told me the doctor advised going to L&D to get checked... and the whole time I'm driving to the hospital, I'm thinking of a friend's similar story - after all that, she'd peed herself... They're going to tell me I'm the crazy neurotic first-time mom (maybe more neurotic because  -"First-Time-Mom with Second-Pregnancy")

Yet...

Something made me call... something in my head was saying, it's just not worth it to play that game.  Feel silly... Call the doctor, have them strip you down to a hospital gown and then let you get dressed again and return to work...
((and we all know where this went... a cervical check after a time of regular contractions presented the doctor with "a foot... oh that's a foot, right there!"))

Alternate Universes - I imagine that there's just a thin, not-quite-visible shimmery film that separates parallel stories, branches where life veers off...


Like a Universe where, instead of taking advantage and going in to L&D two days early with Ms. Mack, I went back home and continued experiencing contractions - until a uterine rupture (a risk after prior c-sections, and a fear I had that influenced my decision re: a VBAC.  Yes, it's a teeny chance of happening, less than or around 1%... But I've been there before, falling into the 0.5-1.5% of women who experience a miscarriage after detecting a healthy heartbeat at 8-9 weeks gestation...)

ADDED: oh my GOSH how did I forget about Ms. Mack's bad first APGAR of 5?! and the fact she needed "resuscitation" according to our hospital bill! Another fork into another Universe... 

It's another alternate life that I feel like I can see, a glint & glimmer here and there, especially as I follow the fellow Dec 2015 mom and her mourning...


anyways.  Enough philosophical waxing... that's what I've been thinking about from time to time...

And if you're a BLM that made it this far, I'm sorry if you read the above as, Maybe if you had gone in a day earlier, you could be in The Alternate  Universe too! because I have a feeling you blame yourself enough - even though YOU ARE NOT TO BLAME.

*~*~*~*~*~*

We're on day two (out of four) of E being out of town - got out of the house on time this morning (YAY! It helped that today's PJ day at daycare... Button had to put dry ones one (wet the bed THROUGH his nighttime diaper) but I just kept Ms. Mack in her clean sleeper! WIN!) and we should have a quiet evening tonight - maybe we'll stop by the ice cream parlor right after daycare for a rare treat!

Tomorrow is my TribeTime - a bunch of moms and babies are coming over for a playdate/craft day! We'll be inside due to inclimate weather, let's see how messy we can get the living room and house ;)

(AND OMG today, in my Universe, Ms. Mack is 10 months!! Coming up next a 10-month check-in... for a little smush-ball I'm thankful for every day that I have the chance to post about...)

Working Mom Guilt?

actually, no... (Do I feel guilt over not BFing Button as well as I did Ms. Mack? yes... but another story, for another day...)

Recently a coworker asked me if I was still taking Wednesdays off (which I got to do for a few months after returning from maternity leave)... while I reminisced at how nice it was to have those days off with my girlie, I honestly responded, "no - and it's ok, I don't mind being back to work FULL full-time..."


::double-take:: right??

While I would just adore the extra day to get shit done around the house (laundry, putting away the clean clothes that have piled up 3 loads high at the foot of my bed?!) I honestly don't mind working 5 days a week... (Of course, realize that on average, I'm off once every two weeks or so - kids' illnesses or doctor appointments, for which I take the whole day, or my doctor/dentist/dermatologist/ophthalmologist appointments...)


But again, why am I ok being away from my kids for 40 hours a week?!

While motherhood definitely defines who I am, it only defines PART of who I am as a person.

I'm also an avid reader, a crafter (hello crochet!), a pianist, and hobby-photographer.

I enjoy listening to music and having drinks with my girlfriends!

I am still a person, and believe that I can be a better mother if I take care of myself first - mostly mentally.  (I was going to say physically too, but I guess I can mother just as well even when my eyebrows are woofing because I haven't had time for a wax salon visit... true story.)

I was thinking all of this as I read a favorite blog of mine, Enjoying The Small Things by Kelle Hampton... Her recent "10 Ways To Get Your Mom-Mojo Back" (yay for catchy click-able titles!) screamed for me to read, and the two most important take-aways I wanted to note:


Get away FROM the kids. Ironic, yes, but it works.  You need to breathe for yourself before you can breathe life into motherhood, so get out the door and go find a coffee shop.  A bookstore. A TJ Maxx, a Whole Foods, a pottery class, a sushi joint, a hotel.  Be by yourself. Journal. Harmlessly gossip.  I can leave my house on a Saturday morning for my “Hour of Power” thinking I might never come back, and every time I pull back in my driveway after some time alone, my heart soars at the site of my kids running to greet me.

My get-away is my work day (do I need it every day?  ..... sometimes! lol)
And when I walk into the daycare and Ms. Mack spots my face for the first time... oh those smiles...

(I'll be that horrible mother of two, where all of her photos are of her baby, and almost none of my first born...) but nearly every day, Button sees me and Ms. Mack through his room's window, and I can hear his "Mommy Mommy Mommy Mommy!" start before I've come around the corner and through the door....

But the get-aways, no matter how long, short, or frequent, are important... because then, when we do THIS, it is that much sweeter:
2. Get away WITH the kids.   We’re on a little staycation right now, and I can’t tell you how great it’s been to be away and not have laundry or cleaning or e-mails to keep me busy.  Our job is simply to HAVE FUN, and it makes me appreciate these little kid days so much. 

So, tomorrow E heads out of town (across country actually!) until Sunday morning, and I've penciled in and booked a few close mom-friends and their babies for an epic-Going-With-No-Plan playdate on Saturday. What time?

Whatever time they want to come. lol

We'll take a field-trip to the post office Saturday morning, because there's a postal worker who wants to buy a Cincher (my new business! OMG! if you buy/wear LuLaRoe, you need one of these! They're custom-made!
and if you sell LuLaRoe, you need to offer these to your VIP customers! (Bulk discounts available!)
Give code BuggyList15 for 15% off your order!  

And  then the day is our oyster... I think we're gonna paint some tushes and make these cute little Butt-kins with our friends!

Playing House: A Day In The Life

The other night at dinner, I felt all philosophical and turned and asked E, "Does it ever feel like we're just "playing house" - like, do you look at other parents of two kids and think, man - two kids! such adults! and not feel like that's us?! We have two kids?!"

I see in my head the title: Working Mother of Two.

And feel like it describes someone else!

To see just how true this title is, here's yesterday - a snapshot into our lives at Chez Buggy...

E- 34yo computer programmer / firefighter / hockey player (a bit contradicotry, eh?)

MrsBuggy- 31yo Financier / Avid Pinner

Button- 3yo with a rampant distaste for all jeans

Ms. Mack- 9.5mo in the cling-to-mommy phase

Rocco- 10.5yo "first born" (doggie)

Zoey- 5yo brat that constantly licks floors.  everywhere. (doggie)

It's Wednesday (October 5th), only half-way through the week, and this is the day we will get OUT of the HOUSE.  ON... TIME.

7:00 my alarm goes off - for the first time.  And I hit snooze. for the first time...

7:10 alarm goes off again, snooze gets hit again...

7:20 (lather, rinse repeat - alarm, snooze)

7:26 Button's voice comes through the monitor - my last alarm to go off for the morning - saying, "I need to go peepee on the BIG POTTEEEE!"

7:28 E rolls out of bed and goes to open Button's door (has a child safety knob thing on the inside, but we've started leaving it cracked overnight so he can get up in the morning and go potty on his own.  see above. it's not happening... lol)
E also changes Ms. Mack (bless the man)

7:30 I peruse through facebook (yes) as I slowly wake up myself. (Showered the night before, no rush this morning!)
E gets Button his ritual bowl of cereal (which he has to eat in the bathroom while E showers)

7:41 While E is showering, I finally get out of bed, throw on some clothes and get some make-up on...

7:55 E heads downstairs to get the dogs outside, so I brush Button's teeth (and mine - I remembered mine today!) and then send him downstairs because E is back inside and making breakfast for the humans...

8:01 Ms. Mack is fussing fiercely on the floor of the nursery, having seen me flitting around, so I nurse her and then get her dressed.

8:25 She and I walk down the stairs to find Button still eating breakfast.  I park her in the highchair with a tray full of puffs so I can pack my pump bag (membranes, flanges, bottles and breakfast!) and her food for daycare (almost forget the breast milk!)

8:45 Somehow the fights over socks/shoes/jacket delay us, but we finally get out of the house... 15 minutes late. -_-

8:58 I finally leave daycare after chatting with Ms. Mack's provider about which cup works best, and yes - it's fine to give her some of the regular lunch they provide (pizza!)

9:02 I have to stop at the post-office to mail off two items I sold on e-bay the day before (damn me and my "will ship next business day!" promise...)

9:07 Also have to stop at the bank to make deposits for work, am finally on my way in!

9:20 As I'm walking into work, I realize I left my nursing cover at home. again. (I use the cover while pumping because, well - I pump in the administrator's office.  While we meet about finances...) 
I will have to pump during the time the admin will be at lunch (which means delaying MY lunch 20 minutes...)

9:45 I finish up my morning perusal of yahoo news, facebook, emails, etc and finally settle in to actual work



(and through these missing hours, as Rihanna says, "Work work work work work")



1:05p It's time to pump - so I go to admin's office, ending up BSing with her for a few minutes, waiting for her to go to lunch so I can have solitude in which to whip out the boobs...

when in a pinch, a backwards cardi also works!

(just in case admin barged back in)

((as she did the day before... -_- ))

1:30 LUNCH TIME! Crab cakes. pizza. CHEESE CAKE yum


(more mindless work)


4:46 It's finally almost time to go - I message E to see what he wants for dinner (he tells me flank steak) - good, he has to grill, lets me off the hook a bit

4:59 I bounce from work - there's "Back-To-School-Night" at daycare tonight for Button, so I have to skip my hot yoga (grrr) but first have to rush home and take care of house&home

5:15 After herding and collecting, I sign the kids out of daycare (they report Ms. Mack ate half a piece of pizza! in addition to her baby food!)

5:40 We finally settle in at home: dogs have been taken out and fed, but wait - of course the neighborhood kid is out on his scooter with his dad (skateboarder) and Button wants to go play...
I decide that I'll get the steak out later to defrost and marinade...

6:00 finally get back in the house
(neighborDad and son went for one last "run" up and down the street, and Button wanted to go with (running on his short-but-adorable 3-y-o legs). I said we needed to go inside, that he wouldn't be able to keep up with the boys, then Button did the "I feel like I'm going to cry, but I'm not. I feel like it, but I won't cry..." pout (the most ADORABLE thing ever)

6:18 sit down to feed Ms. Mack (mozarella cheese, sweet potato puffs, a container of  Turkey&AutumnVeggies)

6:27 E messages me that he JUST got out of a meeting (he's usually pulling up at this point...) and that he is on his way home... even though I have Back-To-School night at 6:45 -_-

6:30 I decide that it will be too late for Button to eat by the time E's home and has the steak cooked, so I start boiling water for his ravioli.

6:47 E walks in the door, I basically say, "Raviolis are boiling for Button, steak's on the counter marinading marinating" (marinading? t or d?!) and run out the door with Ms. Mack (because god forbid he is home alone with the two of them. lol)

6:59 arrive at daycare, the girl at the front door (knows us well) offers to take Ms. Mack for the evening - yes!
I walk into Button's classroom (with another mom who was running late. solidarity!) in the middle of the teachers' presentation

7:15 Joking with a fellow mom as we're sitting at the eensy-teeny chairs, making - something out of toothpicks, marshmallows, pretzel sticks, and gum drops - something about STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) being taught at preschool...
the two of us laugh when another mom asks if it's ok that she goes around and takes pictures of every. piece. of art. by her kid. on the walls... (judgemental? yes. whatever) we turn to each other at the same time and say, "must be her first kid!" ((the boy in Button's class is my friendMom's fourth! lol))

7:29 We're done, so I take a loop to find Ms. Mack - she's being fawned over by a few moms at the front door, but she spots me and starts the moan/groan/whine to be cuddled close - I don't blame her, it's also bedtime and girl is tired...

7:34 we walk in the door back home (I love how close our daycare is!) and I am intending on bringing Ms. Mack straight up to bed, but I sit down instead to eat my luke-warm steak, and then E (saint, for now) takes both kids for a bath...

7:48 I wrap a naked Ms. Mack in a towel and bring her upstairs to lotion up, get in PJs, and nurse...

8:01 she's snoring, so I lay her down in the crib - she stays down!

8:15 Button is ready for bed, and has shockingly agreed to let Mommy tuck him in (such a Daddy's boy...) so after E brushes his teeth and gets him PJ'd, we creep into the nursery (it's shared with Ms Mack) and settle in for a few songs.  And then he can't find his remote (for his moon) and neither can I, and too damn bad, we'll find it tomorrow...

8:25 I'm coming down the stairs, and am shocked. Button is quiet and Ms. Mack didn't wake back up! I grab a load of sheets and towels (which had to be REwashed twice after stinking in the wash machine for days) from the dryer - but get distracted by two things to sell on Mercari (kind of like ebay, but no fees! at least until Oct. 18th1) so I snap pictures and get both items listed...
I debate listing a bunch of Ms. Mack's small baby clothes, but decide that's for another night...

8:45 Instead, I head back out to get the sheets and towels folded.
Then I throw together what I can for the next day - Ms. Mack's other sippy cup (one of two of a certain kind that she likes/works the best for her right now) is somehow dirty in the dishwasher, even though I washed them both by hand the previous night... So I wash it, along with a few other dishes in the sink...

9:15 Time to finally relax... I grab the last two pumpkin cookies and some mint M&Ms, my Nook, and a glass of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey on ice.  (YUP.)

10:15 My eyes start to seriously droop, and I have had to re-read a paragraph twice... time to head upstairs to bed!
Teeth brushed, face washed, Good night y'all!



**Apparently when I saw this on another blog to copy, they were taking part in a big link-up!

If you're interested in cataloguing a day in YOUR life and want to link up, check it out here!

Trucking into Fall... (and 9 Months!)

we're here.

always busy (as the daycare director said to me the other day, "You guys are always running off to somewhere!"

yup.

Recently we ran off to Ms. Mack's 9 month appointment...

Weight: 16bs3oz  
don't ask me percentile. Doctor was all, "she's right on her curve! around 25th - 26th!" and yet when I look on their portal, it looks like she plummeted to below 10th?! who knows. her BMI has continually gone up! and we got some chunky thighs! she's just my petite delicate flower ;)

Height: 27.5"
according to in-office chart, right at 50th percentile!

Eating: everything!  We've started to up the table food (cut up sausage, vegetables, etc) and this past weekend introduced cow's milk! she's still nursing morning and night, but I'm weaning off the pump at work this week - OMFG I CANNOT WAIT!!! counting down the sessions....
She gets a bottle at daycare (just one!) and cups of milk (for now BM, mixing with WCM) with "meals."

Sleep: man did we luck out with our two kiddos... she sleeps 12 hours a night (I know... I can't believe it either...) basically without fail... her naps on the other hand are hit-or-miss... a structured day-care day she naps usually once for 1-1.5 hours.  (Once she napped for 2 hours!) Otherwise, she has 2- 45minute naps - once around 11am, and another around 4pm. (Goes to bed arounnd 7:30 - thankfully sleeps through big brother's shenannigans at 8:30!)

Wearing: I think we're officially moving up to size 3 diapers (mostly because we finally ran out of 2's - I think she could have moved up a few weeks ago... lol)
Definitely needs 9 months for length (sleepers, pants) 6M-9M for onesies...

LOVES: her big brother! she lets him grab and pull her hands, get in her face, take her toys - wait, no she cries at that... =P
And he has taken to calling her my endearment, "Baby Guhl" ::swoon::

HATES : hm not much... she's a pretty chill happy girl most of the time!

Milestone: WE'RE OFFICIALLY CRAWLING!! By Thursday/Friday last week, we were on the move! It's a cute, herky-jerky knees-in-the-air crawl right now, but each time she gets better and better!

We also went to the BabiesRUs big trade-in event (brought our old carseat to trade-in for 30% off a brand-new one! BRU runs it to help keep expired and un-safe carseats off the market!)

I won't lie - I got a little emotional (UGH must be the hormones shifting from weaning off the pump...) when it came time to take her toys off the old carseat and hand it over... I mean - this carseat brought both my babies home from the hospital!!!

But big girl got her new big car seat...

We've also been getting ready for Halloween - costumes ready!

(not Ms. Mack in either picture - but these are the costumes for the year!)
Yes, we have two... the strawberry I found at Carter's way back last winter for clearance, and the owl was a hand-me down we recently received!
(I also have about 4-5 "outfits" and Halloween tops - we'll have to start wearing two weeks before!

And I think we'll be making Button a pirate this year - a quick shred and stain job on a plain T-shirt should give us a good start... (stain with tea bags or used coffee grinds!)

(When you ask him, after hearing Little Sister is going to be a strawberry, he says he wants to be a blueberry... we'll be going with pirate... lol)

I mean - we're talking about the kid that won't let Daddy poop in peace...

Sad here that Daddy wouldn't let him in the bathroom... LOL

And the same kid who likes to try on Mommys shoes... another LOL

at least they matched the PJs!!

So, here we go - the kick-off of holidays (which quickly snowball us past 2016! AGH!) speaking of, we've started planning Ms. Mack's 1st Birthday Party.... 

WHAT?!?!?