Kicks and Giggles

We are back!  It is so nice to be home and sleep in our own bed.  Chloe was so excited to be home last night she just kept smiling and laughing at nothing.  Anyway, it was a good Christmas.  Chloe had fun with Chessie (my sister’s dog) and Kaytlyn (Brian’s sisters daughter).  We spent time with family and did a little shopping.  Chloe also graced us with her first word well we were down.  She has been saying mamamamamamamama for quite a while but while we were there, she actually said mama a couple times.  It was most obvious when she was crying and would say it in the middle of her crying.

Chloe also had her first trip to the hospital.  On Christmas day she began running a fever.  For the next 24 hours it ranged between 100.5 and 103.  She also was hardly eating.  She drank about 15 oz and ate a bit of strawberries and bananas.  After 24 hours, we took her in to the Moose Jaw Emergency room, since our doctor was in another province and walk-ins in MJ aren’t open on boxing day.  Anyway, after an examination, they determined that it looked like a throat infection, but because Brian had spent the day with a friend who has mono a couple days earlier, they tested her for mono.  I swear, that was the hardest thing I have ever done.  They wrapped her up in a blanket and one nurse held her down while the other one took her blood.  She just looked at me and screamed.  I wanted so bad to pick her up and hold her and make it better, but I couldn’t, so I just stood there and cried.  As soon as they were done I held her tight.  Fortunately, she did not have mono, so they gave us a prescription for some antibiotics and told us to get some pedialyte because she wasn’t eating.  For the rest of the week, she was quite the mama’s girl.  I couldn’t put her down and if I gave her to somebody else, she tended to cry.  (Not always, but a good chunk of the time). 

Her fever has come down now and she is eating okay now, although she is not back on solids yet as she is still not taking enough formula.  She is also off schedule because of all the business of the holidays, so we are going to stay home with her and get her back on schedule and completely better.  I would load some pictures, but it takes too long and Chloe is upstairs sleeping and my monitor is dead and I can’t find the charger, so I need to be upstairs where she is before she wakes up.  Hopefully I did not leave the charger in Moose Jaw and I will be able to load some pictures later.

We leave tomorrow.  We are going to Regina/Moose Jaw for Christmas and will be leaving sometime tomorrow, probably around lunch.  I still have tonnes to do and keep thinking, “I can do it Friday morning.”  I still have to pack for myself and Chloe, possibly Brian if he doesn’t do it himself tonight and tomorrow morning.  (I’m not allowed to pack for him anymore since I did it when we went camping shortly after we were married and packed him all dark t-shirts).  I would like to sweep and vaccum and I know I have to finish cleaning the kitchen, emptying garbages and other basics you do before you go away for a while.  I have time right now and could be doing some of it, but I am not.  Instead I am goofing off on the computer and will probably go read a book when I am done.  I know that the likelihood of me having time to do everything I need to do is not very high, as Chloe will probably be problematic, just because I need her to be good.  If I wasn’t already carrying a blimp on my stomach, I would probably be able to put her in her snugli and get on with my day, but I do have a blimp, so I will have to figure out something else.  Perhaps I will stick her in her booster seat and she can pig out on Nutrios and Puffs.  Oh well.  All of the sudden, Brian will be home from work tomorrow and we will leave, whether I am ready or not.

We will be leaving shortly for holidays so we decided that Chloe would open her presents this weekend.  She opened them on Saturday.  Other than enjoying ripping the paper, she didn’t seem to care, although she did enjoy the toys underneath, (although it seems that nothing is as entertaining as the sound system).  While we were doing that I was thinking of the lack of Christmas traditions that we have as a family.  I am not saying there are none.  At my parents there are traditions and at Brian’s parents there are also traditions.  We just don’t have any for our own little family.  Right now it doesn’t really matter, but as Chloe gets older and this new little one joins our family, I would like to start some of our own little Christmas traditions.  Even if we go home every year, I think it would still be nice to have some traditions that our little family could take part in together.  I plan to do a gingerbread house with Chloe next year and make sugar cookies.  Other than that, I don’t know.  Anyone have good traditions that they want to share that work well with small children and that aren’t necessary for it to be Christmas Day/Eve for them to work?  ex: My cousins used to get pajamas every Christmas eve that they would open, wear to bed and be wearing for Christmas the next morning.  Obviously that wouldn’t work.

Also, here is Chloe’s Christmas Picture

Here is a link to an entertaining song about Christmas and being politically correct

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoV4aVmbW4Y&feature=related

I am completely done my Christmas shopping and have been done for a while now.  I spent a total of about $35 on Chloe.  This included two toys and a book.  I was reading a parents forum the other day and the question was “What is your child getting for Christmas?”  The children these parents were talking about were in the age range of 1-3.  Many of the parents had spent more than $200 on their children and the grandparents were also spending around that range.  That means these 2 year old children were getting upwards of $600 worth of Christmas presents.  In my opinion, that is crazy, especially at that age.  They are changing so fast that they will lose interest in the toys very quickly or they will end up with way too many toys and not be able to focus on any.  Half the toys will end up in garage sales or landfills after being played with 8 times.  Besides, does a child really need all those toys anyway?  I know Chloe is a little younger than the children the forum was talking about, but her current favourite toys are, her brush, empty boxes, a stuffed duck magnet from the fridge, and an empty can of formula that she uses as a drum. (and the Christmas tree and the stereo, but she is technically not allowed to touch those).  I think that at Christmas, people tend to go overboard and spend way too much money on things that are not really necessary and will never be fully enjoyed.  I know as she gets older, I may end up spending more on her at Christmas, but I hope to never spend in excess of $200.  That is way too much money spent on a child who you can find entertaining and developmentally appropriate toys for that cost under $20.

And for those who come just for pictures,

She crawls around with this duck in her mouth like a cat with its kitten.

Her hair is actually long enough for me to put it in barrettes like this!!  Also, check out those teeth!

My Christmas Turkey!

Peeking under the Christmas Tree.

First, I would like to start off by clarifying yesterday’s post.  I realize I was rather stereotypical lumping all feminists into one camp.  I am aware that I was referring to the extremists and should have been more specific.  I am also aware that there are feminists out there who truly believe that a woman can do whatever she wants, from staying at home to running a company.  In fact I believe that I am partially in that category.  Anyway, enough with that.

I always assumed that the second time I got pregnant, it would be very similar to the first.  This could not be farther from the truth.  With Chloe, I was sick every morning and every 3 or so evenings from about week 6 – week 14 and then every couple mornings until about week 20.  With this one, I have been sick 3 times.  With Chloe, I broke out so bad that I had to switch back to the face wash I had used in high school.  With this one, my face is about normal.  With Chloe, my hair was falling out in clumps.  With this one, I am losing almost no hair.  With Chloe I had no heartburn until my third trimester.  This time it has hit with a vengeance and I have already gone through half a bottle of tums.  It is just so surprising to me how incredibly different that it can be.  I have been told that this means we are having a boy.  We will have to wait and see.  We find out in January.

This weekend I watched Mona Lisa Smile.  I quite enjoy it.  There is one part particularly, that I think sums up how I feel.  Joan Bradwyn (played by Julia Stiles) has been accepted into Yale Law School.  The time in 1954 so it is very unusual for a woman to be educated.  Her art history professor, Katherine Watson (played by Julia Roberts) is very encouraging of this and goes to Joan’s house the day after Joan has eloped and discovers that Joan has chosen not to go to law school at all.  The following is the conversation that they have:

Joan Brandwyn: It was my choice… not to go. He would have supported it.
Katherine Watson: But you don’t have to choose.
Joan Brandwyn: No, I have to. I want a home; I want a family, that’s not something I’ll sacrifice.
Katherine Watson: No-one’s asking you to sacrifice that, Joan, I just want you to understand you can do both.
Joan Brandwyn: Do you think I’ll wake up one morning and regret not being a lawyer?
Katherine Watson: Yes, I’m afraid that you will.
Joan Brandwyn: Not as much as I regret not having a family, not being there to raise them. I know exactly what I’m doing and it doesn’t make me any less smart.
[Katherine looks down]
Joan Brandwyn: This must seem terrible to you.
Katherine Watson: I didn’t say that.
Joan Brandwyn: Sure you did. You always do. You stand in class and tell us to look beyond the image, but you don’t. To you a housewife is someone who sold her soul for a center hall colonial. She has no depth, no intellect, no interests. You’re the one who said I could do anything I wanted. This is what I want.
Katherine Watson: [hugs Joan] Congratulations. Be happy.

Mona Lisa Smile, Columbia Pictures Coorparation, 2003.

I have added the bold.  I think in today’s society, women are expected to work outside the home.  I have no problem with that.  If that is what a woman wants to do, then I think she should be able to.  Many women, however, believe that a woman who does not work outside the home is “letting down the team.”  Linda Hirshman, a prominent feminist thinker, stated “an educated, competent adult’s place is in the office” during an appearance on Good Morning America in 2006.  “Hirshman asserts that women who give themselves to mothering undermine the status of all women and threaten the emergence of an egalitarian civilization.”  She believes that “housekeeping and child-rearing are not interesting and should not be socially validated.”

I know that this is a common sentiment among many feminist women.  They say that women can do anything they want to do, yet women who choose to stay at home with their children are looked down upon and judged.  They are assumed to be boring or unintelligent.  Women do not understand when they ask another woman “What are you going to do with your life?” and the other woman answers, “I’m going to be a wife and mother.”  They reply with, “but what are you going to DO?”

I wonder why people assume you can only look after children if you are unintelligent.  I also found this stereotype when I was working in daycare.  People would find out that I am actually quite smart and would ask me, “Why do you work here?”  Isn’t it a good thing that we have intelligent people raising and looking after our children?  Just because a woman is smart, it doesn’t mean she has to work in business, commerce, law, medicine, or politics (although we could use a few more smart people there).  If we have do not have intelligent people raising and looking after our children we end up with 6 year old children who say “my want lunch”, “Chloe wants juice” or “fustrated.”  The first five years are so important in a child’s development and greatly shapes who they will become, (another blog, another day) so why shouldn’t we have intelligent people looking after those first five years? 

Feminists say a woman can do whatever she chooses, but if she chooses to stay at home, they say she is hurting “the cause.”  I wonder what more this cause is going for.  As far as I am aware of, there is nothing that my husband can do that I can’t.

A website with a commentary on Linda Hirschman’s Good Morning America appearance, where my quotes are from.

http://www.albertmohler.com/commentary_print.php?cdate=2006-02-24

In about 6.5 months, this girl,

is going to be a big sister to this bump.

They will be 15 months apart.  I will be busy.

Well, I am pretty much done decorating.  I am still waiting for some candles to come in so I can switch out my colours and am trying to find somewhere to hang my stockings so they won’t be pulled down.  I also have to redo my nativity scene daily, as it is attacked by a giant every day, especially baby Jesus, his manger and Mary. 

This year, I finally convinced Brian to buy a fake tree.  (My in-laws are shaking their heads in horror).  We decided that we were tired of cleaning up pine needles or taking an hour and a half to just get the tree up, without decorations.  I also was worried about Chloe eating the pine needles as she gets into everything.  I know lots of people have real trees with small children, but I just feel safer this way.  I also hate decorating the real tree because it is very pokey and hurts my hands.  It also makes me stuffy, but I refuse to not have a tree, so I have just dealt with it in previous years.

I also decided that this year, I would not put every single decoration that I had on the tree, partially because I was a tiny bit worried about Chloe and the glass balls, but mostly because I have so many that the tree looks overdone and kind of tacky.  Anyway, I put up only our icicles, 3 sets of 5 themed mini ornaments and a few special ones, such as “Our first Christmas,”  “Baby’s First Christmas” and a couple other ones that I liked.  It ended up that I really like the result and I think the tree looks really good, not overdone or tacky at all.  It was also a lot quicker to set up, and will also be quicker to take down.  Here’s a picture.  Check out the angel on top.  My sister made it.  Isn’t she amazing??

And the “giant” attacking the Nativity scene

Now I need to start baking.  Yum!

For those who requested Pics:

“Helping” fold the laundry.

Standing on the sub.  (Notice the lovely scratch above her eye)

Escaping after her bath.  Look out floor, there is no diaper!

Watching TV.  She really likes Bob and Larry and is quite attentive for the intro, but after it’s over, she’s off again and into more mischief.

The Tupperware Cupboard!!!

She likes Coke almost as much as her Daddy.

The mirror and shoes.  Her two favourite toys.