The MAGIC Book!

I have found it! More valuable than gold: my baby's book has real, honest-to-goodness magical powers! :) Well, okay, that may be a stretch, but for the time that this book keeps my Buhba busy, you would think that it really did have magical powers. Seriously, how many toys (or books, none-the-less) can you say will keep a (hauling aka) quick-crawling, nine-month-old still for 5-10 minute increments??!??!?! This cute little Sesame Street Halloween book (with flaps) was given to us by my mom on our last trip to visit her in September, and since then, we've read it several times a day! Buhba loves it so much that he will seek it out when he's playing on his own, and sit and turn the pages and flaps by himself - seriously for up to 5-10 minutes! (It's amazing how much you can get done in that time when you're not constantly saying, "NO! Don't touch that!" or "No, don't eat the dog food!") Not to mention the fact that it has survived so much "love" from a nine-month-old - MAGIC, I'm telling you! :)  

You know You're a Mommy When...

You know you're a mommy when you look in the mirror and realize that birds aren't the only things going south for the winter, but some "key" parts of your body are also following the migration patterns...if only it was just for the winter, and things would perk up in the spring!!! :)

That Bites! LITERALLY!

I have been MIA for a while, but with good reason: I now have a baby who All OVER THE PLACE! :) In August, Buhba started the "roll-where-you-want-to-go" stage, test-driving crawling occasionally; and at the beginning of September, he just started doing it; currently, he's no longer crawling, but hauling (which is my new term for very speedy crawling!) and now there's NO stopping him! I love watching him explore his environment, but of course, NOTHING is safe now. Our poor dog is having anxiety because Buhba always seems to get to the dog's dish and mix the food with the water. We may have a chef in the future! :) Anyway, as all of you veterans know, chasing a mobile baby is a full-time job in itself, so please excuse my lack of blogging!

Along with the new mode of transportation, Buhba also got two, new shiny teeth at the end of September. And boy, I've had a few incidents where I have been VERY, and I mean VERY aware of his new pearly whites! On one occasion he was irritated when I was nursing him, so he bit down...HARD! EWWW! My first instinct was to flick him, which I did, and later felt bad about (don't call the authorities, I don't abuse my child!!!). This didn't help anyway, but only made a game of it, because then he looked at me, laughed, and did it again! I pulled him off and after a few minutes latched him back on. Big Mistake! At my poor nipple's expense, he continued this bitting and laughing game, so we were DONE for the afternoon! For some reason, it hasn't happened since (knock on wood!), but we'll see how it goes from here on out. My goal is to make it to his birthday (just his first birthday, none after that!), but if he keeps taking chunks off my feeders, there may not be anything left to feed him with! :)

Ode to "Third-Day Hair"

Oh Third-Day Hair...how I appreciate you. While some may turn up their noses at you, and think that you carry the stigma of laziness and uncleanliness, I however, realize that you are the official hairdo of busy, hard-working mommies.  I turn to you when time does not permit me to wash my hair, blow dry my hair, and style my hair (after three days), because I'm late for a meeting, trying to rush out the door, and it's more important that my little boy looks cute. You may be third string on the hair line up, Third-Day Hair, but teamed up with baby powder to make my look less oily, it is you that I count on to pull my "I'm a mom, so I don't have the time to do my hair" look together. While we met for a period of time back in my college days, it has been in the last eight months that I have really come to know your qualities, and how you help to make my life as a mommy just a little easier. (Please tell your kin, "fourth-day hair" and "fifth-day hair," and even "sixth day hair," that it's not that I don't appreciate them, because I do, but it's just not as socially acceptable, and while I won't say that I haven't met them, I try to draw the line (even if it means going to bed at 2am) so that I can avoid them.) And that's why I appreciate Third-Day Hair...

Mango Smoothies for Buhba

Those of you who know me, know that I am NOT a little domestic mommy. I hate, repeat HATE to cook, and I'm not so good at being crafty, and such. However, since I'm doing my best to be frugal, I decided to take a stab at making my own baby food. So far, over the last few months, I've done really well with pears, yams, bananas, and carrots (if I do say so myself!). Tonight I tried a new recipe, and made several weeks worth of "mango smoothie" for my Buhba (inspite of my last post about orange foods!). I actually copied Gerber, which I like to do a lot. I will buy one or two of their jars, and test them to see if Buhba likes them before I go to all of the trouble of making them. (Fortunately, he's not really disliked any food yet!) Anyway, the ingredients in this mango smoothie had of course mangos, but also apple juice. So, I got a bag of frozen mangos, and unsweetened apple juice and pureed it in my blender to a smoothie consistency. After that, I poured it into ice cube trays and froze it. After it's solid, I put the cubes into zipper bags, and when it's time for Bubha to eat, I take two-three cube out and defrost them (NOT heat them) in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Ta-Da! For the same amount of money as two servings of store-brand baby food, I made several weeks worth! Look at me, I'm growing up! Ha Ha!

My Son: Future Oompa-Lumpa?

I read recently about a condition called, "carotenemia," which is a condition in which a child's skin starts to take on a yellow/orange tone. This is due to feeding your child too many yellow and orange foods. (I'm not making this up!) Since then, I've been in a panic, because I've been VERY aware that the majority of foods which Buhba eats are yellow or orange (mostly the latter). Blame it on my choice of colors, or the lack of baby foods that appear in colors other than yellow or orange; but most of the time, Buhba's diet consists of yams/sweet potatoes, peaches, carrots, squash, mangos, pears, apple sauce, and other items in this pigment family. I've been trying very hard to expand our options, but seriously, other than green beans and peas, what options do I have? I'm open for suggestions - and soon, because I'm concerned that one morning, I'm going to wake up to an Ooompa-Lumpa, singing witty little songs about chocolate factories, instead of my sweet little boy! :)

Treasure EVERY Moment!

I think that sometimes as mommies, we get into shark mode: we just keep going through the motions in order to survive the stressful days. I know that there are days where I think, "okay, if I can just make it to 1pm" and try to find something to distract Buhba while I get work done. Then it's "okay, if I can just make it to 3pm..." and I don't take advantage of the time that I have to be a mom to such a wonderful little spirit. Last night, I read the blog of a young family who's eight-month-old son is losing the fight to cancer, and the time that they have left with him is quickly running out. I don't remember the last time that I cried so hard while reading the tender, heart-breaking words that these young parents wrote to inform people on their son's deteriorating condition. As the mother of a seven-month old, (heck as a mother, period), my heart just breaks for this family! I can't even think about losing Buhba! I vowed last night that I would stop just going through the motions, and appreciate EVERY SINGLE minute that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with my son; and start to welcome and embrace the responsibilities and challenges that come with this calling.  Today, when Buhba started screaming in Walmart, I let out a sigh of frustration, but quickly thought to myself, I'll bet that this poor mother who is losing her child would welcome a fussy baby in Walmart! So, I quickly picked up Buhba and held him close to me for the rest of the trip. I guess my point is that we just never know what life will bring, so my goal is to not take this time with my son and husband for granted ever again - no more shark mode - I'm going to treasure every moment!