JOB HELP!!!

I debated about posting this, but thought I should take advantage of the possible connections fellow bloggers could provide me :)

As you know, I am starting a new job in June with the same company I currently work for. This is because my current position's contract will expire the end of August and a new school probably will not be located....especially with the economy and me wanting to stay part-time. This all seems okay, except that I really love my current job, the new job will pay less, and my childcare situation may be changing to where I don't have the current luxury I have now. Because of this, I am REALLY trying to find that "perfect" job where I can work primarily from home OR in the mornings/weekends outside of the home for part-time hours that pays well enough AND would give me FMLA benefits for when we decide to have another child. I have had so many ideas fly through my head, but nothing has really seemed to work. I really am not wanting to put Eli into daycare until he is older and with the idea of trying for our second child within the next year, that also puts a damper on the childcare idea (money wise & the fact I don't want to put an infant in daycare....although I know many moms do and they are just fine :). I've also considered the fact that I may have to go back to work full-time, which I don't want to do. With my commitment to attachment style parenting, the idea of being away from my children 9-10 hours a day really scares me. I think if we decided I needed to work full-time for financial reasons, the perfect job would allow me to work some hours from home at my leisure (mornings & weekends when Eric is home), some in the office, and some where I schedule my own appointments so I could arrange childcare at my convenience. Part-time would have the same flexibilty, but of course less hours & less money. I'm just trying to think of all possibilities that would allow me to be home more than the average 8-5 job.

Anyway, if anyone knows of a job that pays well, is either part-time with make my own schedule hours or full-time with primarily from home hours or morning/weekends, PLEASE let me know. FYI: My bachelor's is in Elementary Education and my master's is in Social Work. THANK YOU!!!!

Fun, family & snowstorm!

Hello fellow bloggers! This week our activities have included attending a Parents As Teachers activity, had a visit from our parent educator, family in town, a birthday brunch, and a snowstorm! Let's get to it.....

Eli continues to enjoy his "football" aka Mr. Potato Head. This week I showed Eli that his monkey could also wear the glasses:

Very cute boy with his Royals hat (shaking the coffee can that holds his Tadoodles):

I'm so happy Eli has "daddy time" in the mornings. Eli loves his daddy & is very bonded & attached to him. Daddy is very fun & loving & helps Eli learn each day. Here's video of some of their fun:



Eli has become one of those toddlers I read about who don't enjoy being in their high chair as much as they used to and prefer to eat on the run. Well, I guess he does get most of his nutrition while in the high chair, but breakfast & snacks are usually "roaming" meals. Dr. Sears says that this is normal, and that parents have to be flexible and accommodate a toddler's desire to always be on the move. Part of this is due to him finding the below activity fun:





On Tuesday evening, we attended a Parents As Teachers activity around "The Grouchy Ladybug". We met up with Callie, Cheryl, Callie's dad, Tori & Jack. Eli didn't really care for any of the crafts and only seemed to enjoy the activity of hitting ladybug balloons with paper plate rackets. I didn't take any pictures, but Eli's girlfriend did. Check it out! Our parent educator, Katie, visited us on Thursday and gave us info about helping Eli become a better listener & music ideas. She continues to be impressed with his verbal abilities and also how loving he is. He had no problem sitting by her on the couch and playing with a book she brought while telling her words he knew. It was very cute. This is her last visit for the year, but we will probably see her over the summer at different activities.

My sister, Holly, and brother-in-law, Chris, came into town this weekend to visit and help celebrate Grandma Bidney's birthday. Being they are from Iowa, where it snows much more, they brought a lovely March (almost April!!) snowstorm. There were times during the storm that the snowflakes were HUGE and almost had white out conditions!:

Because of the snowstorm, we stayed indoors on Saturday. Eli got creative with entertaining us and wore Grandma's hat around:

We played with every toy & activity Eli had to help us from getting bored (& him from wanting to go "otside"). Aunt Holly thought Play-Doh was fun:




We also enjoyed "sticker time" where Eli is getting better & better at figuring out how to get the stickers off his fingers and on the paper:



This morning we had brunch to celebrate Grandma Bidney's birthday (her birthday is actually tomorrow). I'm always a little hesitant about taking Eli places where he will be expected to "behave" (I use that term loosely) for about an hour or longer. We were sure to have books, his DoodlePro, snacks, and the restaurant had crayons, so he did awesome! He didn't fuss the entire time until the end, and enjoyed some eggs, bacon, and toast with us. He also would break out into a little groove to the 50's & 60's music that was playing....too cute. Here is a picture of Eli with his aunt & uncle before they left:

Before Aunt Holly left, Eli wanted to try carrying her purse....

....but decided it was too heavy and needed to be emptied:

This week we don't have too much planned. Tomorrow is Grandma Bidney's birthday (as said earlier) and Eli (and myself) are so thankful she is such a great grandma to Eli. Eli has such a wonderful relationship with her and I hope that even after she stops watching Eli (whenever that may be) that they remain close. We love you Grandma!

As for the rest of the week, Toddler Town on Wednesday and a playdate on Friday. Unfortuantely, the weather isn't supposed to be the greatest, so probably no park time this week :( Eli will attend his first Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday which should be a lot of fun.....here's hoping the weather cooperates!! Have a great week.....and hope for no more snow!!

P.S. Through my blog surfing, I found a couple of families who are asking for prayers for their little boys. My heart always goes out to families experiencing difficult times due to sickness/diagnoses of their children. When I visit these blogs, and read their stories, I am reminded how blessed I am to have a healthy little boy. I have attached their buttons to our blog if you are interested in reading their stories and praying for them, too.

Fun times on Spring Break!

This week I was on spring break and only worked 1 day for a couple of hours so I had a lot of Eli time :) I tried to come up with some more creative activities to do with Eli, so I googled and found some fun ideas that include (in case anyone else needed some ideas): pretend play with stuffed animals/puppets, play-doh, painting, cutting out & gluing shapes, numbers, letters, etc. and making a "What I Know" book, looking at photo albums, coloring, blowing bubbles, finger painting with food, putting stickers on paper, cutting sponges into shapes and helping clean, dress up (yes, boys can dress up too!), doing rhyming songs with actions, putting objects in a variety of containers for the noise and visual aspects, and taking nature walks. We managed to do a few of these ideas and some others...enjoy!

One morning while daddy was making Eli's breakfast, Eli found the kleenex box (that is usually out of reach) and had some fun:

Eli actually wore his hat a couple of times we went outside this week. He really needs to wear one to protect his little noggin from the sun (he has my fair skin) and keep the sun from his eyes as I don't see him liking sunglasses anytime soon. Here he is modeling it at home:

Eli enjoys sitting on the couch (or "coch" as Eli says) like a big boy but quite often must be reminded that he can only sit and not stand. He can be quite the stinker about standing which I repeatedly tell him this is unsafe and to sit. He then says "sit?!" and continues to stand. I then sit him down and he gets back up on the couch and stands and says "sit?". He's such a little stinker sometimes!

On Friday we attended my friend from grad school, Cheryl's, La Leche League Toddler playdate. She lives in the Brookside area so we don't attend meetings that way but met some new mommies & toddlers. Cheryl's little girl is named Lainey and she will soon be 2. Eli had fun exploring her house and all the fun things she has. I guess Lainey is good about staying out of things like plants, not breaking pottery, etc., so their house has a lot of things we could never have out at our house. Eli did pretty good and would just "pet" the plants and point at the pottery :) Here's a cute picture of the two (don't worry, Callie, she's just a friend ;):

Eli got a Sit-n-Spin from Aunt Sarah & Aunt Stephanie for Christmas but just now has figured out how it works:

Eli ALSO got a Mr. Potato Head from his aunts and mommy just now decided Eli was ready to play with it. He really likes all the pieces and calls it a "football" which is really cute because it does look like one!

The glasses for Mr. Potato Head are a kid favorite, but since Mr. Potato Head is much smaller than he used to be, so are the glasses. I remember loving trying to wear the glasses and as soon as Eli saw them, he thought the same thing. Unfortunately they don't fit very well on his face.....

.....but they fit perfect on his neck!

Eli continues to love the cats and chase them around numerous times a day. Shadow won't let him touch him very often but Mocha is warming up to him. In fact I would say she is TOO accepting of his love and will let him pull her hair, legs, ears, etc. and just meow and try to get away, but not really "escape" when she should. Eli has a few scratches on his hands because of this. Eli continues to try to get Mocha and Shadow in their "safe zone" on the stairs as you can see below:

One of the activities we did do this week was work with Play-Doh. Eli still doesn't really understand what it is, as he just kinda throws it around and pokes at it with his fingers. We got some animal cutters to use with the Play-Doh today and he seemed to have fun doing this:

Also today, we bought a booster seat for Eli so he can sit at the table to do fun activities such as Play-Doh. He LOVES it and he had the biggest smile on his face when he sat in it for the first time today. Here he is playing with his new chair:

We also played with bubbles. Eli loved dipping the wand in the bubbles and trying to blow, but he hasn't been able to blow hard enough yet. He makes the sound, but not enough air behind it :) He carried around the wand for almost the whole time we were outside:

He continued to ask for "bubbes" after coming inside so we said he could play with them at bath time. He has an amazing memory, which is wonderful, but sometimes it's not so great because he remembers EVERYTHING we do that he really loves and asks to do it several times a day. He knows where I "hide" the crayons and paper, that Baby Einstein DVDS are on top of the DVD player, the tent is in the guest room, etc., etc. so when he starts chiming "cower?" and goes to the side of the couch I know he wants to color. Can't put anything past this kiddo:

We also went to the park numerous times, made a shapes book, and colored in coloring books. I'll let you know what other activities we do from my google list....and please let us know of fun ideas you know of!

I added some new words this week to Eli's word list: couch, remote, sirens and puffs (Gerber Puffs). I know there are more as he seems to surprise me with knowing what something is called which really shows how much of a sponge he continues to be as he understands what we say, and each week more and more comes back out out his little mouth! Eli always stops when he hears sirens and says "siens"? and today woke up from his nap doing just this and immediately went to the window to see what was going on. They were too far away to see but he was very interested none the less. Another funny thing is that Eli for some reason says "fokee" for coffee no matter how many times we try to get him to say it correctly.

I'm back to school this week and we hope to meet up with some friends at least by Friday to "play". We hope to attend an activity at the community center on Tuesday around the book "The Grouchy Ladybug" and our parent educator visits us on Thursday. Aunt Holly & Uncle Chris will be here this weekend which we look forward to! AND Eli turns 19 months on the 25th! That's all for now!

Sorry for the delay :)

Hello all! So sorry for the delay this week. Sunday I loaded all the video & pics but started to feel a little icky, so I went to bed. Monday I had other things to tend to and last night I went to La Leche League meeting. So, here we are on Wednesday and just now posting for LAST week. Enjoy!

Last week started with a fun playdate with our breastfeeding friends on Monday morning. We had fun and the hostess had a great idea of asking every mommy to bring multiple copies of a picture of their child to make photo albums for the kiddos. This way the little ones can look at the albums at home and learn names easier. I didn't bring my camera to the playdate so you'll just have to take my word that it was fun :)

Monday afternoon I went to my second chiropractor appointment. I started to see the same chiropractor that Eli does to help level out my hips and help with my scoliosis. She does a specialized technique called Blair Upper Cervical that does a number of things one of which is level out my hips over time. My right hip is higher than my left by about 5 degrees which after adjusting my C1, leveled out. As with chiropractic treatment, the key is to retrain your muscles to ALLOW your spine to be adjusted and stay that way, so I have to go twice a week and then will drop to weekly, twice a month, monthly, etc. I've been very happy with the results and immediately was surprised by how different I felt after just one adjustment. I have always known I wanted to get chiropractic treatment, but wasn't ready to make the "commitment" until now. As I've said in previous posts, getting this treatment will be helpful for my future pregnancy and help baby #2 not be so smashed in my pelvis with my level hips. Plus I won't have as much of the back and pelvic pain during pregnancy. Woohoo!!

Thursday I had an interview for a position within the same agency I am currently and will start this new position in June. I wish I could stay on my current job, but it doesn't look like it will work out. The new job is considered PRN and pays less :(, so it isn't my "dream" job, but it's something! The nice things about the job, though, is I make my own schedule and pretty much work from my home as "base". I'll keep you updated with any other job news!

Also on Thursday, I attended the consignment sale I had been posting about but wasn't successful in finding any outdoor equipment. I'll be checking Craigslist and garage sales to see what I can find there. On Saturday I went to lunch with my support group friends Tori & Cheryl minus the babies so that was really nice. We'll have to do this more often!

Here are some fun pics & videos from the week!

Eli LOVES to look out the window. Here he is loving the window and giving it kisses :)

One of the many towers we build each week with Eli's blocks....as he says "whoa!":

At the consignment sale I did find an aquadoodle. Eli loves it!:

We've been trying to help Eli drink more water during the day as he can get picky. We have started to give him a variety of cups to see if that helps:

Eli & daddy have fun in the mornings together. Here they are enjoying some time outside. They look like deer caught in headlights!:

Riding in the wagon is fun (until we get some more fun things to play on back there!):

Eli enjoying his snack of grapes. He does so much better these days at not throwing around bowls that have food in it. Before I could never give him an open bowl with food without it ending up all over!:

Eli enjoying his tent:

Mommy felt bad that he had no one his size to play with him in the tent so I threw all his stuffed animals in there with him. He spent a good 10 minutes arranging them in different piles:

On Sunday, we had the Smith & Brown families over for a cookout. Eli had a blast (besides getting a little fussy from all the chaos of the evening :) because he loves to be around older kids. The Smiths have 7 year old Maly, 5 year old Alison, and 22 month old Pari (I think I got the ages right!) and the Browns have 8 month old Kalani. Eli at one point decided to just come over and sit on Maly's lap (the 7 year old)....too cute:

The kids had a great time raking leaves and playing in the back yard....Eric still owes the girls some cash for their labor :)

Here's video of the kids enjoying the leaf piles:

Pari & Kalani taking a ride in Eli's "agon":

Eli also enjoyed climbing all over Kevin (Kalani's daddy) as though he was HIS daddy!

Also this week, Eli learned how to make a new face:

Eli continues to LOVE to learn and we continue to be amazed at his little brain! This week I heard him say "tutle" for turtle and he uses "dink" now for drink instead of just saying cup. He now asks for "Eintein" several times a day (Baby Einstein DVDs) and just LOVES to participate in saying the words, colors, shapes, numbers, etc. during each video. He truely loves the DVDs and they really have helped foster his desire to learn. It will be fun this spring/summer to visit places like the zoo where he can see many of the scenes he sees on these DVDs in real life. He already points out things like trees, moon, birds, dogs, swings, etc. when we are outside and other items like balls, candles, clocks, chairs, etc. when out at stores. He's an active little boy both mentally & physically and this spring/summer should be so much fun!! We try to take every opportunity we can to keep his brain active through reading, coloring, puzzles, etc. while at home but now that he is at the age he can participate & appreciate places in the community (& the weather will start to cooperate more!), we look forward to future field trips :) Here's video of him doing his numbers:

Eli has been fighting a little nasal snottiness last week and some this week. Thankfully no cough but yucky snot nonetheless :( Eli acts as though he is being tortured when he use the nasal aspirator so I HATE it when he has a stuffy/runny nose. He can be quite dramatic about it. Also due to his slight illness, he has lovely mucousy poo-poos (TMI, I know :) which has put any potty learning on hold. No rush for this, though, so it's okay to take a breather :)

I'm currently on spring break but still have to work a 4 hours (still awesome!). I also have had chiropractor appointments and an interview so I haven't been completely at home full-time. I've enjoyed my time so far, though, being home with Eli. He can be so funny sometimes and I can really tell he understands what we are saying, even if he can't express fully yet himself. He can follow simple commands and really seems to understand most of what we say and ask of him. I have been really making more of an effort of talking to him about what we are doing and our plans for the day so he is aware. It helps with transitions! A funny little story: I wanted to take Eli to the park so I talked to him about it and had him get his shoes and get ready to go. He understands all of this and when we say it's time to go or get in the he goes right to the gate at the stairs. When we say outside he goes to the back door. So I had the gate open & was waiting for him to come hold my hand so he could walk down the stairs. He immediately went to the back door & was holding onto the door knob. I kept telling him he needed to come to me so we could go down the stairs, get in the car, and drive to the park to swing and slide. I know he understood what I was saying but he still insisted on whining at the back door and saying "otside!" He finally got impatient with me and came over and grabbed my hand and began to drag me to the door! He's never done this before & it just cracked me up because he was saying (in his own way) "No, mom, we are going outside in the back yard now and THEN we will go to the park!!". So we did and it all worked out fine. Eli will DEFINITELY be the kind of kid where choices will have to be given so he feels in control of his day!

Hope everyone has a great week!!

He made a poo-poo in the potty!

Hello all! We have some exciting news to announce: Eli poo-pooed in his potty chair TWICE and pee-peed once! I know we have a long ways to go to complete potty learning, but at least I know he is willing to go in the chair! I bought the potty chair and stool on Thursday and on Friday decided that before his bath, I would sit him on the potty chair to see if he would go (the 2 times he has peed on the floor was right before bath). It just happened to be that he was showing signs of poo-pooing (grunting, secluding himself, etc.) and I asked if he wanted to poo-poo and I sat him on the chair. I gave him a book and although he stood up several times, I just gently sat him back down and he poo-pooed! I instantly clapped and said "Eli, you poo-pooed in the potty!" and then we flushed the poo-poo and washed hands. Here's my "altered" picture of the event:

Here he is practicing washing his hands on a different day:

Here he is practicing sitting and reading his book with a diaper on:

He poo-pooed again this morning and also pee-peed, which was a little bit messy, but we'll have to practice the process of pee-peeing :) We also have been reading few potty books: "Everyone Poops" by Taro Gami, "Once Upon a Potty" by Alona Frankel, and "You Can Go to the Potty" by Dr. Sears. We just plan to expose him to the process (sitting, reading, washing hands) a couple times a day and if we catch him about to poop, then strip him down and have him poop on the potty. As it gets warmer, we'll probably have him be naked more and in cloth diapers occasionally to help him feel when he has peed. We'll just take it slow and see how it goes!!

This week we went to the park with daddy and had a fun time. Warmer weather will soon be here to stay and we can go outside and to the park a lot more often....can't wait! Here are pictures of the time at the park and a video of Eli swinging....he loves it!:

Now a run down of some things from the week:

1) Eli loves to climb up on the couch. I've been working on helping him understand he can only sit on the couch and not stand. Here he is practicing his sitting:

And he now wants to sit on the kitchen chairs, too:

2) When Eli gets upset and has a "fit", he now says "ohh! ohh!" while he is rolling around on the ground. It sounds too funny.

3) When we ask Eli if he is ok after falling or doing something that may hurt him, he responds by saying "ok?"

4) Eli has mastered the art of opening doors. We need to buy more of the knob covers soon.

5) We bought Eli a "Snack-Trap" for his snacks a couple months ago and at first he didn't really use it correctly. Now he does a great job and he can carry around his snacks with him all day!

6) Eli's bump and cut is looking SO much better this week. He still has a little bump but only time will tell if it will go away fully. Our chiropractor said that some calcium may have formed there as a protective measure which would result in a permanent bump. Hopefully not, but it would be small if it did.

7) Eli got his 3rd haircut this weekend.

8) Eli did AWESOME while we ran errands on Saturday. No fits! I did a lot of pre-teaching by talking to him about what we were going to do and when we were going to leave. Although he doesn't understand everything I am saying, I think it helps. I also was sure to have snacks and his water. Yay!

9) Eli's new words for the week: cow, "gir"=girl, phone, knee, house, pen, "yewow"=yellow, "geen"=green.

10) The only lightswitch in the house he can reach is in the living room. He figured this out today:

We have a lot going on this week. Monday we have a playdate with our bf friends, Tuesday is Aunt Holly & Uncle Chris' 2nd Anniversary (congrats!) and Chery's birthday, Friday I go to the dentist, Saturday I am going to lunch with a couple of friends and Sunday some friends are coming over for a playdate! The following week I am on spring break and only have to work 2 days....woohoo!! Hope everyone has a great week!

P.S. If anyone knows of a great part-time or work from home job, let me know! My job may not exist at the end of August and I am looking in case that happens. I want to stay part-time and would love to find something that I could do at home, but that may not be a possibility. I've applied for a few social work jobs, so we'll see what happens! Thanks!

Parenting Post #4: Breastfeeding/Feeding

If you’ve been reading my blog since Eli’s birth, you know what a challenge breastfeeding was for us. I never realized how difficult breastfeeding could be until little Eli entered the world. I felt that I was educated about breastfeeding and knew some of the issues that could occur as I attended a breastfeeding class and started going to La Leche League meetings. Majority of my friends breastfed, I was breastfed, so I knew it could be done and was dedicated to make it work. That being said, there were MANY times I wanted to give up. I often wondered how something so “natural” could be so difficult.

According to API, “Feeding a child involves more than providing nutrients; it is an act of love.” This statement could be no truer about the importance of breastfeeding in attachment parenting. I believe that in our society, we have lost the true purpose of breastfeeding. If you ask moms, I think most would agree with the importance of breastfeeding, but unfortunately, many of these moms are only looking at the nutritional value, and not how nursing aids and fosters in the emotional bonding between mother and child. API says “The newborn's rooting, sucking, and crying reflexes evolved to ensure the close proximity of a mother or other caregiver that the baby can depend on to meet her intense needs. The more parents learn to identify and meet their baby's needs, the more securely attached the parent-child bond becomes.” You often hear expectant moms say “Yes, I plan to breastfeed, but probably for only a few months.” Or moms might say “I breastfed but quit at 6 months because it’s no longer nutritionally necessary after that.” While I respect a mom’s decision about breastfeeding, I am often saddened how our society pushes women to wean our children too early. Moms often feel pressure to hide nursing and somehow feel ashamed that they are providing love and nutrition to their baby. While many moms start breastfeeding, it seems that as baby gets older, bottle feeding becomes the norm. I believe due to moms feeling breastfeeding is too difficult (nursing in public, pressure from spouse and family to use bottles so THEY can feed baby, the fact that breastfed babies do not meet society expectations of sleeping through the night, etc.).

As I have said before, La Leche League and my hospital lactation group saved our breastfeeding relationship. I also utilized kellymom often for nursing questions and support. The research and facts about the vital importance of nursing is vast, and I could easily write a thesis with this information. Some facts that I find so interesting about nursing, and what keeps us nursing to this day are as follows:

1. Babies who are breastfed get sick less often due to molecules and cells found in human breast milk. I find this to be true for Eli. He has had 1 bad illness of Bronchilitis with an ear infection but all of his other bouts of illness have been colds. I was just thinking the other day that Eli has not been sick for quite awhile. This benefit to breastfeeding is worth it’s weight in gold….less doctor visits and a happy baby! While many moms know about this advantage, many think the immunities built in the first months are all that is necessary. But according to this article, a child’s immunity is not fully built until at least age 5-thus a reason to continue breastfeeding until age 2….and beyond! Plus, because breastfed babies/toddlers get sick less often, moms miss less work….which is an advantage to employers! Did you ALSO know that when mom gets sick, mom’s body knows to make immunities in her breastmilk to help baby not get sick? Pretty amazing!
2. Breastfeeding is a great source of birth control….plus it delays the start of menstruation! I did not start my period back until Eli was 15 months old….how awesome is that! Breastfeeding is not 100% birth control but according to this article, if certain conditions are met, is about 98%!
3. Breastfeeding moms have a reduced rate of breast and ovarian cancer. This one speaks for itself!
4. Breastfeeding is a wonderful comforting tool for boo-boo’s and for overall bad moods! I can melt Eli’s boo-boo’s and frustration or tantrums with a simple “Eli, milk?” It’s awesome!
5. Another big reason for me to love breastfeeding is that it filled in nutritional gaps when Eli was not taking well to solids and now if he has a not so great day of eating solids. Eli didn’t take well to eating solids until he was around 11 months. Because I was still nursing, he didn’t lose any weight and my milk had enough fat in it that the pediatrician was not at all concerned about his delay in solids. This made me feel SO relieved as I knew that Eli could take his time for when HE was ready to eat solids. In addition there was no rush to start cow’s milk, which can lead to allergies or just overall digestive issues if introduced too early. Eli didn’t start drinking cow’s milk (well, he did have cheese starting around 13 months or so) until he was 16 months old. In addition, the few times Eli was sick, he would cut back on eating much but I knew that nursing would take care of him nutritionally and would also provide the needed comfort. Breastfeeding has provided me with peace of mind in this area for sure!!
6. Some other random facts are:

-that breastfeeding has been shown to reduce the tendency of child abuse as the mother is more in tune to babies cues and the rate of post partum depression is greatly lessened.

-breastfeeding helps babies deal better with vaccinations especially when nursing during the shot

-breastfeeding lowers the likelihood of childhood obesity primarily due to babies/toddlers learning to eat when they are hungry and have portion control

-breastfeeding reduces the risk of SIDS

Extended nursing has been wonderful for us. I know it’s not a choice for every mom, but I have been so happy that we have chosen to continue our nursing relationship. I hope to allow Eli to self wean as much as possible. Here are some facts about nursing toddlers that I found too awesome…..did you know that:

* In the second year (12-23 months), 448 mL of breastmilk provides:

-29% of energy requirements

-43% of protein requirements

-36% of calcium requirements

-75% of vitamin A requirements

-76% of folate requirements

-94% of vitamin B₁₂ requirements

-60% of vitamin C requirements (kellymom.com)

*Extensive research on the relationship between cognitive achievement (IQ scores, grades in school) and breastfeeding has shown the greatest gains for those children breastfed the longest. (kellymom.com)

*According to Sally Kneidel in "Nursing Beyond One Year" (New Beginnings, Vol. 6 No. 4, July-August 1990, pp. 99-103.):

"Research reports on the psychological aspects of nursing are scarce. One study that dealt specifically with babies nursed longer than a year showed a significant link between the duration of nursing and mothers' and teachers' ratings of social adjustment in six- to eight-year-old children (Ferguson et al, 1987). In the words of the researchers, 'There are statistically significant tendencies for conduct disorder scores to decline with increasing duration of breastfeeding.'" (kellymom.com)

Here are few wonderful articles about the benefits and experiences of nursing toddlers:

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-benefits.html

http://www.llli.org/NB/NBMarApr04p54.html

API continues to discuss the importance of “nurturing through feeding” even beyond breastfeeding. They talk about watching baby for signs of solid readiness and not going strictly by age, introducing solids slowly to reduce allergens, following baby’s cues of hunger and how much they want to eat, using meal time as a time for connection, offering a variety of healthy foods, and not using food for reward or punishment. They also discuss the importance of gentle and as much as possible, baby-led weaning. For Eli, I was initially concerned about his delay in starting solids but after researching and talking with other attachment parenting moms, I discovered that a child led approach to eating is the best. I read a book, My Child Won’t Eat-Carols Gonzalez, that also helped ease my mind. The author talks about how starting solids need not be rushed and in fact a delay in starting solids is best overall for baby. The book also gave an international view of the issue as he is a Brazilian pediatrician. Dr. Sears and kellymom also has some wonderful info about starting solids.

I can attest to the benefits of making sure baby is ready for solids. Eli is really an awesome eater now and likes a variety of foods. Don’t get me wrong, he has his favorites and definitely foods he dislikes, but overall he has a very healthy attitude about eating. I can only hope this continues and that as a family we can make meal time a time for bonding and connection!

I can’t close this parenting post without saying that breastfeeding hasn’t been all positive. There are issues I have dealt with such as cracked nipples, engorgement, clogged ducts (thankfully only once!), the difficulty of pumping at work, and the fact that many breastfed babies don’t sleep through the night. BUT, every day, every week, every month I re-evaluate and remind myself how important the commitment to breastfeeding is for Eli. I will look back and realize that this precious time was all too short. I’ll end with this quote that sums up the beautiful act of breastfeeding: “After the miracle of having a baby grow inside me and giving birth, nursing is another awe inspiring miracle of nature. It is the gift of my whole being: nourishment, health, love, and comfort -- all packed into one precious moment we share -- mother and baby. What other moment could be so complete!” (LLL)

Ups & downs!

This week has had it's ups and downs.... but thankfully we had a mix so it wasn't all bad!! Here's how our week went....day by day :)

Monday: The week started innocent enough with a fun visit to Toddler Town! No pictures, but fun nonetheless as we met up with Callie, Brody and Cheryl! Oh wait, I forgot, Eli did get jumped on by a little girl in the ball pit....that wasn't very fun!

Tuesday: On Tuesdays I work in the morning so we had the afternoon to go to the park. It was a nice day and Eli LOVES swinging. Here's some cute pictures:

Eli has a school bus toy and he likes to play with it at home. He also likes to see the school bus go by our house. While at the park, Eli saw the school bus and started running towards it. Thankfully the park is quite a ways away from the road. Once the bus left, he just stood there and watched it leave:

When we got home, I thought it would be funny to put him in his jumperoo for old times sake:

Eli also figured out how to stack his shoes on his dump truck....very talented!:

Eli loves to practice going up and down the stairs....here he is having a conversation about this experience with daddy while mommy was at work:

Now for the bad part on Tuesday. On the way home from work (he works 12-9pm), Eric hit a deer. Thankfully he is okay and he was able to immediately pull off at a gas station and check the damage and drive home. Here's the damage:

The car is currently in the shop and should be fixed in a couple of weeks (if not sooner). Oh, and the deer didn't make it :(

Wednesday: Nothing major happened on Wednesday....thankfully! We did miss out on Music with Mar due to having to deal with car stuff :(

Thursday: Eli had his craniosacral appointment in the morning which went well.

Friday: Eli had his 18 month well check Friday morning and he is a healthy boy! He had one vaccination which he hated, but otherwise was a good visit. Here are his stats:

Weight: 26 lbs. 3 oz. (50-75th%)
Height: 33 1/2 in. (75-90th%)
Head: 19 5/8 in. (90-95th%)

Eli showed off his letter recognition and she was very impressed. I also asked her opinion of potty training due to him identifying when he poops and she said with his excellent language abilities that we could start to introduce him to the potty chair and the process. I'm doing some research now about it and it looks like 18 months is a great age to start if they are showing signs of readiness.

After Eli's nap, we went to Target with Grandma Bidney (I took the day off because he was feeling needy after his shot). I made the grave mistake of not putting him into the cart until AFTER we got into Target because he wanted nothing to do with the cart. He thrashed his body around to the point that I swore I was going to drop him on his head while I tried to put him in the cart. So, I let him help me push the cart, which seemed fine, until he started to throw fits if we didn't go the way HE wanted to go. Let's just say we were in Target a total of about 15 minutes and everyone there knew Eli was there! He continued to just drop to the ground and almost smack his head on the ground numerous times anytime I tried to redirect him so I gave up and asked my mom to pay for the stuff we got and I picked him up as he thrashed around and took him to the car. AHHHH!!!! Once in the car he was fine and thought it was fun to play with the light on the ceiling. I said to him "Eli, mommy is NOT happy with you!" and he just looked at me like "what did I do?". We will have to have a better game plan for future store visits that is for sure!!

Later Friday evening Eli's Aunt Sarah and Aunt Stephanie came down from Iowa for a visit. Eli was shy at first only standing next to me but then became quickly re-aquainted after about 10 minutes. Here's a picture of Eli's aunties reading him a bed time story:

Saturday: Saturday we woke up to snow and mommy decided to not brave the white stuff and stayed home instead of going to the craniosacral seminar.

This seemed all good until Eli decided to take a dive into the corner of the wall in our room after tripping over daddy's shoes. Eli's forhead IMMEDIATELY swelled up with a nice cut. It looked terrible as it was about 2 inches long vertically and a 1/4 inch wide-it looked like a black and blue tumor! He was VERY upset and wouldn't stop touching it and it just seemed to get bigger and bigger. He hated the ice pack and I decided to call the doctor (who has urgent care hours on Saturdays) and they said to bring him in. I was thankfully able to settle him down and nurse him and he was better for the car ride. The doc said it looked okay and he didn't need steri strips or anything. All his vitals were fine and the swelling started to go down. We were probably more scared and concerned than needed but it looked so terrible! We are deligently putting Neosporin on it to help reduce the chances of a scar but I'm sure he'll have a faint one. I know....many more to come!! The coincidence was the last time I rushed him to the doctor it was also a yucky snowy day! Here's a picture of his boo-boo that evening:

Counting trains is fun!

Sunday: Aunt Sarah had not yet met Cousin Chloe so Emily, Josh, Mallory & Chloe came over for a yummy breakfast prepared by Eric (and some yummy donuts brought by the Suttons). This way the kiddos could play and we could talk easier then in a restaurant. Eli and Mallory played well together (they are about 15 months apart) but I can see Eli is starting to get a little possessive of things he has or wants. He kinda whines when he wants a toy another child has and pulls away if another child wants what he has. Oh boy, here we go! Teaching sharing is so hard as they don't understand it well enough yet but you want them to share and be nice to others! Here's some cute pictures from the morning:

Here's a picture of how much better his boo-boo looked on Sunday. Today it is a little more at the blue & yellow bruise stage (which always looks bad) and it is still raised but so much better:

Aunt Sarah & Aunt Stephanie left mid afternoon and we did our usual Sunday activities (grocery shopping and weekly food prep for Eli). It was fun to see Eli's aunties and I'm sure they enjoyed our low key lifestyle (no going out for us!!) :) We hope to see Aunt Holly & Uncle Chris at the end of the month....weehee!

This last week Eli learned the words wall, "fower"=flower, "jewo"=jello, snow and "pane"=plane. Eli continues to amaze us with how he identifies letters and shapes in the most abstract of places. We had Starbucks this weekend and he kept tracing the lid and saying "circle" over and over. He says "v" when he sees the tongs in the kitchen and when looking out at tree branches. He usually catches us off guard and we have no idea what he is talking about and then when we look around, we see what he is saying!

So, as you can see, we had our share of ups & downs this week. Hopefully this week will have more ups :) We hope to attend Toddler Town on Friday and have a playdate with a college friend on Saturday. We look forward to another 1-2 days of warm weather (to melt all the snow!) later in the week.