The Official New Mom Thread

[Alice28]

OMG---don't even get me started on MIL problems. Mine is being very weird right now and I can't even get into it. Needless to say, she's disappointed my husband a lot for not being there for my kids while he's been gone; she's too mired down in my BIL's problems to see anything else right now.

The Costco pie is SO GOOD. Mom and I bought one 2 weeks ago just to have on hand for a little slice now and then. For only $6, I didn't feel too guilty throwing half of it out.

Molly cut tooth #3 last night. She was also up between 1AM and 5AM. I am a zombie. And lucky me, I forgot to hand DS his lunch box this morning, so I have to drive to the school to get it to him. Hot lunch choices are tuna sandwich, cheese breadsticks or turkey gravy- I can hear him barfing at those choices as I type. I think it's funny how on two of the days it's all his favorites- pizza, nuggets, burgers....but then two of the days it's barf-out choices. They should spread the pizza/nuggets/burgers throughout the week.

But I digress.

Hope the pics go well SL!

I know you will cook a great dinner DisKim. I did Thanksgiving for about 8 years in a row and this year I am happy to give up the honor. Because it's to my mother's (and dad's- he's in charge of the turkey and he does a great job) cooking, can't beat that.

I also have a hard time buying for adults- I only buy for my parents and my MIL- but she is so hard to buy for. Went with the requisite Bath and Body Works basket again. I didn't buy anything for DH as he will be leaving Iraq about that time. We can spoil each other when he gets home.

The kids I spent about $100-120 on each. I don't go overboard, but between me/DH and my parents, and then my MIL and some aunts and uncles, they get PLENTY. There's always a thread here on the DIS every year about how much people spend on their kids, and many people spend $500-1000 per kid! Whoa! I already have to return one of DS's Christmas gifts cause he got it in the mail yesterday as a birthday gift from my Aunt! That shows me for trying to do all my shopping early!

 

[DisneyPhD]

We are cooking Thanksgivng dinner for both my parents and DH family (and brother and sister in law, and heck why not her mother too!) Oh and I forgot Grandmother in law too. It really is the only way I can feel comfortable about having most of it dairy and egg free (and few things we can't, and I just won't eat them) but most we can. However most people can't think outside the box for cooking and my MIL thinks what is a tablespoon of milk in a whole thing of potatos, too much! Just don't use it, use chicken stock instead. Oh well. I don't mind doing the cooking and hosting really.

As far as gifts go both my parents and in laws are not big gift givers. Some how my kids end up getting almost nothing from either of our families. Heck Lily got 5 gifts total for her birthday. Her sister got her a small toy, I got her a toy, my friend, our neighboor and my husbnads co worker. That was it. However she is not hurting for toys in any way shape or form.

In fact my husbands co worker wanted to know what the girls like for Christmas. It made me laugh because her real granparants will most likely end up giving her something I bought and put their name one!

I don't know how much I spend because a lot of it is stuff I got really cheap though out the year and pull out as holidays or reasons come (like you need a flu shot, but I got a treat for you if you do it with out having a fit.) My friend is limiting it to 300 each child. That seems high to me. (but for her putting a limit on gift giving is a good thing.) Of course she does have a family that gives the kids TONS of gifts too.

 

[zalansky]

I am so happy you girls are talking Christmas exchanging with family. I have an issue and would like anyone's input that would like to give it. My sisters' kids are all pretty much grown - their ages are : 22, 20, 19, 19, and 17. (split between 3 sisters) When these kids were about 12 or 13 all sisters asked that we just give cold hard $$$ for b-days and Christmas. I have always obliged. Just 2 years ago, I finally spoke up and said something about sending money still to GROWN children. I am talking $30.00. Not a huge amount of cash, but why am I sending money to a grown person??? They agreed and I stopped sending borthday money except to the 17 year old. It stops when they turn 18 was the agreement! (nevermind I stopped getting anything when I was about ten years old but that's another story) I am sure I was talked about to high heaven for suggesting such a thing. Well, here we are approaching Xmas two years later. I am still sending $30.00 cash to these "kids" for the holidays too, as one sister thought "the kids should still be included in Xmas giving!" I didn't agree but I conceded knowing I'd be talked about some more for lord knows how long.
I told my friend this morning, I am going to tell my sisters that I will be giving a family gift this year. I am not sending these alleged "kids" money anymore! It's ridiculous. I am going to send some kind of basket for the whole family to enjoy for about $50.00. Because as it is, I have to send to my sisters and their kids right now. So I spend anywhere from $100.00 - $150.00 per family. And I am not working right now! Truly it isn't even about the money, it is the proncipal of the thing. I am sending money to New York to these grown children and never get a thank you or anything. Its pointless. What do you ladies think? Am I being too tough? Am I being a Scrooge? If it were a gift exchange I'd be all for it, but sending money is so impersonal to me - and these kids don't give anyone else gifts back in return. I don't know, I am just working myself up about this today since I was just talking to my friend about it and she gave me grief telling me I was nuts for still giving them money.

As for our own children, my DH and I disagree about what to spend. My DH is sometimes bad with money - it burns holes in his pockets - and sometimes I think he feels like the way to our childrens hearts is to buy them material things? I don't get it. But, he spends alot. It's a losing battle there for me I believe I just can't win.

Have a great weekend ladies

 

[Alice28]

Zalansky- that's ridiculous that you are expected to send just cash to your teenage nieces/nephews (sorry, I already can't remember if you said their genders). A gift is a gift- not an order of what you want exactly- esp if it's just cash! It should be up to YOU about what you send, you know? I think a gift basket would be perfectly appropriate. I have to ask, do these sisters send your kids the equivalent of a $30 gift or is it a one way street? I have been down the road with family and gift giving- it can be so silly over something that's supposed to be NICE. (and that part that they don't even send you a thank you totally gripes me).

My example- My cousin and I were close for awhile in our early/mid 20s. She and I are only about 9 months apart in age, and while we are VERY different, we had a lot in common at the time- both got married, had our first children (who were both boys), etc. But she got very weird about coming to see us on holidays. She NEVER offered to make a trip to OR, although plane tix from Sacramento to Portland are often $29 each way. And then on my son's 3rd bday, we were going to be at my parent's house in CA- about a 90 minute drive from her house. I told her 3 months in advance and hoped she could come, cause she was always yapping about how much she missed me. When push came to shove, she didn't come and told my dad when she rsvp'ed, "I don't want to make the drive." I was so hurt and she and I had a HUGE fight about it a few weeks later and she told me, "I don't think Thanksgiving weekend should always have to be about Sam- why should I disrupt my weekend with my family to have to drive for your son's party- it's not like you come to my kids' parties." I was so upset, I was bawling on the phone cause she wasn't getting me at all.....I just said to her, "You aren't getting my point- we ARE family and we have always spent Thanksgiving weekend together before I moved away..."

Long story short, families can get VERY weird about holidays and presents and all that jazz. The next spring she told me not to bother sending her kids birthday gifts (they all have a May birthday) cause she didn't want me having to spend all that money all at once. Which was so stupid because up until that point, we were just sending each other's kids $10 gift cards. I think she just wanted to take a stab at me again.

So again, I think you should just do what you feel comfortable doing. I am sure I have been the topic between many a snark session between my two cousins (they're sisters) and I'm at the point where I DON'T CARE- if they want to be that shallow and selfish, so be it. As my tag says, "live and learn" and I got that tag by sharing this cousin story here on the DIS a couple years ago when it happened.

Good luck! I know it can be so messy. My husband got to the point when he saw me crying about the whole thing again a year after the fact, "LET IT GO! SHE'S a SELFISH B**CH! YOU ARE SO MUCH BETTER THAN HER! STOP LETTING HER GET TO YOU!"

Have I gone on and on long enough! I think so! Sorry for the hijack.My moral of the story for this last year or so has been, "don't sweat the small stuff" and I tend to find myself lecturing people about it! Sorry!

 

[zalansky]

Hijack away, please! It helps to know I am not the only one out there! Well, until recently as in the past 3 years I didn't have kids....my sisters are older than me and I waited till I was in my 30's to have kids. So far, they have spent what they "should" on my son. But his bday is 3 days after Xmas and so I am just waiting for him to get jipped - if that's how you spell it. The things is, even as a teenager I was expected to give these kids gifts and I never missed a birthday or Christmas....even when I was in college. Their kids have never given a gift to me, not one that wasn't bought by their parents and they signed the card anyway. I feel like the kids -if they expect a gift then by all means go out and buy a gift for us. That's why they call it an exchange, right? But it just fires me up to send cash to them, so they can use it to go out drinking or God knows what they're doing this week. If I got a little appreciation I might feel differently...nah, I wouldn't. They're grown! Some have jobs! ARGH, so frustrating, I tell ya.

I know how you feel with your cousin. I have some friends (and sometimes family too) that I feel like I go above and beyond, because that's what you do with family and friends....the old "to have a friend, be a friend." well, I feel like I go out of my way and then like your cousin, they say something foolish like "I don't want to make the drive!" Gee, that must have made you feel special. She could have at least tried to lie, but to come out and say something like that makes you feel like she doesn't appreciate you at all.

Oops - Cam's up, I gotta run, but thanks for the input, I appreciate it!!!

 

[Alice28]

Oh geez- I didn't put two and two together that these kids are GROWN UPS now....I was still thinking they were 17 or so. In my family, which isn't huge, once we were out of high school, we drew names. Even if you were just 18 or 19 (I feel like we started doing this when I was about 19 or 20) you both got a $50 gift and gave a $50 gift. And then when I moved away, and my parents were spending most Christmas's up here, we thought it was kinda weird to be going to all this trouble to buy and send these gifts, when we weren't even spending the holiday together, so then we decided to only buy for the young kids. And now my cousins and I don't really buy for each other's kids....it just seems a little silly because we don't ever see each other anymore, you know? My Aunt and Uncle still by something nice for each of my kids, and my mom and dad buy something nice for my cousin's kids and that's about it.

Yeah- the kicker of my cousin saying, "I don't want to make the drive" is that she added, "Because I'm pregnant and too tired to do it, or I might not feel well, etc." It just so happens we got pregnant with our 2nd children (she had twins) within two weeks of each other and we were both about 6-8 weeks along at that Thanksgiving. DH and I DROVE from Portland to San Jose for that Thanksgiving weekend (which happens to be my son's birthday weekend)- 11 hours with me having to pull over to throw up once because FAMILY was important to me, no matter what the drive. But she couldn't drive the 90 minutes cause she wasn't sure if she would feel good a week beforehand. I mean, I totally get waking up, feeling like ca-ca, or having a headache, etc and not being able to make it. But deciding a week beforehand? Oh, and my favorite part was she told my aunt and uncle, "don't go back to San Jose for his birthday party- spend the weekend with me...I want you here." (My aunt lived in San Jose too- she had driven to Sac for the Thanksgiving day feast and day after shopping with my cousins; but the party was Saturday night). I said to my mother, "If I ever am acting so inconsiderate to someone else, CALL ME on it- don't placate me just because I am your daughter."

Ughhhhh...can you tell it's still a sore spot FIVE years later! My God, I hadn't realized it's already been 5 years. She and I are cordial to each other now, but that's about it. I apologized to her about a year or so after the fact and she ignored me. Some people are strange and I've learned to just let it go. I can only try so hard, you know?

 

[Tasha+Scott]

Hey, all! Well I only have about 20 min. before dh will be home and then we have a full evening ahead of us! We are going to Tupelo so I can get my hair cut (it's getting too long...middle of my back...and it's starting to drive me crazy!), and go to Toys R Us to see if I can find anything for my exchange buddy. I seriously have no idea what to get at this point so I'm hoping inspiration will come WITHOUT me being tempted to buy anything else for Kylie, lol! And I rented a carpet cleaner a little while ago that is due back tomorrow evening so we have to get our carpet done tonight as well. It desperately needs it though. We really just need to recarpet the whole house but since we don't have money to do it right now a carpet cleaner will have to suffice.

Thanksgiving~ We usually go to Scott's grandmother's who lives an hour away at noon. THEN we drive an hour away in the opposite direction to go to my mom's. It's actually a PITA. This year we are changing things up. We are only going to my mom's. Then next year we will go to dh's grandmother's and skip my mom's. We plan to start alternating every year which will relieve some of the stress of it and give us more time to enjoy the company we are with. After we get home that night we plan to put the tree up. I am looking forward to seeing Kylie's reaction to the lights but I am NOT looking forward to trying to keep her out of the tree, lol! Of course she is becoming mobile right before the holidays.

Presents~ When Scott and I first married we were expected to buy for every single member of Scott's family including parents, grandparents, siblings, nephews, nieces, stepsiblings, and spouses. It was ridiculous and that was not even counting who we had to buy for in MY family! Then when more babies started being born they decided to draw names. But we still had to buy for the kids, parents, and grandparents. All it did was cut out buying for siblings and their spouses. Finally they stopped drawing names but still expected parents, grandparents, and kids to receive gifts. Well, last year I was not working and we were of course expecting Kylie so we let his family know we would only be buying for the kids and that was it. And we stuck to our guns and we are again this year. I no longer buy for my family as my mom has told me not to since I have a family of my own now and my brothers are pretty much grown. We are going to give our parents and grandparents a framed photo of Kylie this year though. I think part of the reason it is easy for us to not feel guilty for not buying for everyone is that I was a military brat so I never lived near most of my family and did not buy for cousins and other relatives so I guess I just don't find it necessary to do so now either. For that I am thankful even if that does make me sound cruel. Financially that would just add too much stress since I am no longer working.

zalansky~ Again, I may sound cruel but I just wouldn't buy for the kids anymore and that would be that. If they got upset about that it would be their issue, not yours. They are grown now and you have obviously been more than generous over the years. You have your own family to worry about now. And I think a family gift basket sounds very nice! Oh, and my brother is 22 now and knows I am done buying him gifts now too. When (or should I say IF?) he has kids I will buy for them though.

SL~ Awesome that Lucas has started rolling over! If he is anything like Kylie you won't be able to keep him on his back anymore! Once she started rolling back to tummy she started doing it nonstop and still does but she does roll both ways though. That is why crawling is getting so close for her now (she keeps getting on her hands and knees and either rocks back and forth or crawls backwards but hasn't figured out how to go forward yet)...she is on her stomach a lot which tempts her to crawl!

2sweetangels~ Yuck about the poop! I hope Kylie will skip that phase!!!

J&D~ Good to see you again! Jenna's adorable!

Tamie~ I would be really frustrated over the rash at this point too! I hope the dermatologist will be able to take care of the problem!

Minnesota!~ I hope the ttc goes well and you have no problems this time around!

For those who were asking, justhat was in Hawaii this week. I think she is supposed to get home today. She let me know since she wasn't going to be home when names were PMed for the exchange.

I am so excited that it is almost Thanksgiving! I love the holidays! Oh, dh is home...gotta go! Well, have a great weekend everyone!

 

[Alice28]

I went shopping for my DIS Baby! I went shopping for my DIS Baby! It was hard to keep it around $10! I am not going to mail it out til later next week though.....I'll post when it gets mailed. I need to get one LAST package in the mail for DH---can y'all believe that? I was told by the rear detachment commander to not send anything after 11/15 cause they're not sure if it will get to our soldier if the mail gets at all backed up. Well, I'm taking a chance and mailing it on the 21st or 22nd.

But I can't believe it! My last time of filling out that frigging piece of paper----I have to fill out a customs form every time I mail him something; even though it's to an APO I guess it has to have it since the APO is in Europe. I can't go to the quickie self-mailer machine either- it has to go to a postal employee to stamp it, etc. So, as you can imagine, I dread going to the PO if I have the kids with me. If all goes according to the time line we have so far, we are at I am at 50 days until my man leave Iraq! And it could be 36-44 days if we're lucky. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Can we have a cyber party when it happens? You ladies have been with me since practically the beginning of his deployment, since I think I started the moms to be thread when I was about 3 months into it.

OK- anyway, my brain is buzzing since I was up for 3-4 hours last night with Molly girl....I need to get some sleep! We are heading to the mountains tomorrow to go on some train thing that's supposed to be like the Polar Express. The kids are supposed to dress in the PJs, there will be cookies, cocoa, the story will be read and SANTA will be there at the end. We tried to get tickets for a Sat in Dec but they were already all sold out!

Nightie-night gals!

 

[lissawynn]

I am still sick. Do you all hate me yet for constantly whining? I just can't seem to feel better. I hardly slept last night. I don't know if there was caffeine (sp?) in the cold stuff I took or if I'm just that overtired that I couldn't fall asleep. Whatever. DH ran out to the bank and to get me some Hawaiian Punch. Jimmy is scooting around in his walker. He's happy when he's mobile and I have the living room entryway blocked off so I don't have to chase him.

Does anyone else have a child who purposely bangs his head off stuff. Over the last two weeks or so Jimmy has taken to throwing his head backward. It doesn't matter if someone is holding him or if he's seated in a walker or shopping cart. He just tosses his head back, consequences be damned. I got kind of upset about it, but I kind of figured he'd stop if it hurt too much. Am I underreacting? This being the first baby, I don't know what to expect. My DN used to headbutt when he was about this age. He'd grab your face as if he was going to lean in and kiss you, then BAM, headbutt. Not so much fun.

Since I stared the question about drawing names, I'm telling you all I'm sticking to my guns and only buying for DH's nieces and nephews. He and his sisters go in together each year and buy for his parents. My mom is an only child, so my sisters and I usually buy her something together. We do the same for my dad. The only other gifts I buy are for my sisters (we set a $50 limit), DH (not getting too much this year b/c he really doesn't like getting presents), and my sister's son, James.
I just wish my MIL would have "gotten" it the first time we told her we didin't want to buy other gifts. I think that sometimes she really is that daft.

I have given up a day of shopping to rest. Hope you're all having a good weekend.

Alice28- Have fun with the kids on the train ride. I've heard of something similar about an hour or so away from here. It's something we'll do when Jimmy is older and understand this stuff a little more.

Tasha+Scott - Hope you had fun cleaning your carpets. I'm doing that this weekend before putting up our tree. I broke down about three years ago and bought a Hoover steam vac from HSN. It has more than paid for itself for as often as I've used it.

 

[vald1977]

Robin,
I was just thinking that you must be getting close to the end this morning. We will have a BIG cyber bash when your DH is finally home with you again !!! The train thing sounds so neat. Have fun .

Lisawynn,
Hope you are feeling better soon.

We have a way out of control list of people to buy Christmas presents for. All together it must be around 30 extra people . Believe it or not, that is actually a toned down list from what it was when we first got together. It's nuts (and expensive ).

We are going to my mom's for Thanksgiving this year although I usually host most holidays. TBH, I'd rather have it here but my mom is being a pain in the butt. She's the type that wants to do something then changes her mind a bunch of times and then whines and complains about it the whole time. Much easier to just do it myself.

DH did just fine with the vasectomy. He's a bit sore today and will probably just lie in bed and rest. But overall, it hasn't been too bad according to him. supposedly it's days 2-5 that are the worst so we'll see how those go.

Hope everyone has a great weekend !

 

[Alice28]

Ah....a better night's sleep. Not perfect, but I'll take it. I feel so much better now! Sorry for any grammatical errors in my last post- I was so tired!

I had a friend whose child did the head-banging thing. He grew out of it, but he was/is an exceptionally strong-willed child. I hope for your sake, you don't end up with the same type of will! I think you're right that he will stop doing it when it hurts him, but if he try and does it to you like your nephew did, I think a stern 'no' would be a good thing to say.

I'm glad your DH is doing ok Val; I want my DH to have one sometime next year for sure, but not fair to ask him to do it right off the bat. I will have to go, um, contraceptive shopping soon! Wow! I don't do well on any sort of pill, so it's been awhile since I've had to do this. Although I still haven't had my period- it will most likely be here by the time he's home. I want to say I got it when the boys hit 10-11 months.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a chance to get some rest today and prepare for the holiday week! My DS has the whole week off of school because M & T they are doing conferences, and then the teachers get Weds off as a comp day for the conferences. But my younger DS still has preschool on M and W. His preschool teacher just rubs me the wrong way. I think she's very good at what she does, she just kind of has the personailty I'm not sure I groove with.

 

[lissawynn]

Alice28 - Oh, how I wish I had the rest of the week off! Can I come teach out West?
I had to laugh at your post the other day about your son not wanting to buy lunch. My sister is our school district's food service director. PA just initiated new wellness legislation and she's had to revamp so much of her stuff. She can't sell ANYTHING with sugar as a main ingredient. She could lose her federal funds if she does. Since she was hired 5 years ago, she has turned our lunch program around. Unfortunately, most kids don't sit down to a cooked meal at night and they want grab and go stuff like hot dogs, tacos, pizza, and chicken nuggets. She does offer yummy salads and homemade soups each week for the faculty and staff.

DH took Jimmy and his dad to Cabelas to walk around and look at manly stuff. I never knew what Cabelas was until I met DH. It's this HUGE outdoorsmen/women store with a million things that I never want to see again. It just so happens they don't have a ton of stores, but a few years ago they built one less than 1/2 hour from home. It was so nice of DH to try to give me some time to sleep, but I just can't seem to fall asleep. I think there's speed in my cold medicine or something. The good news is that I think I've lost a few pounds over the last couple of days. That means I can have extra gravy and potaotes on Thursday.

Val - I hope your DH is back up and around really soon. I would love for DH to consider having the big v, but he won't even think of it.

Moms, when did your babies stop wanting jarred foods? Jimmy still loves the fruit, but he has NO interest in any kind of stage 3 dinner. I've tried every kind there is, and he spits it out. It's kind of funny to see, but so frustrating at the same time. He does like what DH and I eat, but when I give him "grown-up" food, I'm worried he's not getting enough to eat. What do I do?

 

[DisneyPhD]

Moms, when did your babies stop wanting jarred foods? Jimmy still loves the fruit, but he has NO interest in any kind of stage 3 dinner. I've tried every kind there is, and he spits it out. It's kind of funny to see, but so frustrating at the same time. He does like what DH and I eat, but when I give him "grown-up" food, I'm worried he's not getting enough to eat. What do I do?

My nurse says that most kids are down with baby food by 12 months (all done) and most kids hate the stage 3 foods. She told me not to bother with them and I didn't (most had dairy in it so I couldn't.)

Lily was on all table foods by 11 months or so, but started them sooner. We didn't start baby food in genral until 6 months so she ate it only for a short while. (good thing it is so expenseive). She has a lot of teeth though.

I worry Lily isn't getting enough to eat too, one of the reasons I am still bfing her since she can have so little. She is picky though, and loves furit so we eat a lot of that. She likes applesause and canned fuirt and her big sister never did. I found some small can's of peachs and mixed furit at cost co and she loves those. We eat one a day at least.

 

[justhat]

I'm back after our week in Hawaii! Of course, we got home last night and I came online to see what I missed so my husband had a good time making fun of me. I still haven't caught up with the 5 or 6 pages of this thread that I missed, but I'll work on that.

Tasha, I got my PM last night, so I'll be shopping for my DIS baby this weekend. I'm going to the DC area DIS meet tomorrow and it's at this huge mall in VA, my favorite mall in the area, so I'll have to get there early to do some shopping.

Alice28, I loved that photo of you and your husband. Can I tell you how great you looked cause I would not have known you were 6 months pregnant! I won't even show anyone photos of me past 6 or 7 months cause I looked so horrible. In fact, I didn't even know it was possible for someone to look as bad as I did. I gained almost 60 pounds (lots and lots of water retention, about 15 pounds-I couldn't wear my rings or shoes past 6 months) so that had a lot to do with it. Even despite the water retention, and the fact that Madison was very big (8 lbs. 4 oz. born 15 days early), a lot of that weight was simply that, added fat. It amazes me that almost all of that weight was gone by 6 weeks cause I seriously thought it would be impossible to lose (of course I've still got about 6 pounds to go almost 21 months later). So no way will any late pregnancy photos of me be released!! Oh, and no kids meals at The Cheesecake Factory annoys me too. They will make some kid items though, like chicken fingers, if you ask. They also do a 'kid plate', but not sure what age that stops. They bring out some sliced bread, bananas, and strawberries when you first sit down for the young ones. We usually just order a plate of black beans for Madison and she's happy with that (plus she gets some Oreo cheesecake to take home!).

Lissawynn, Madison never did any stage 3 dinners in the jarred foods. She'd do the jarred fruits, veggies, and cereals but that was it. Never would eat any of the 'dinners' or mixed foods-always gagged on them and would clamp her mouth shut. Oh, and she didn't eat the jarred meats either. So we just did a jarred fruit and veggie and then started introducing small amounts of table food. I felt that since she'd still eat the jarred stuff at each meal, and was still nursing, the table food was just a bonus, sorta an introduction to eating real food. If you're worried about how much he's eating, just monitor his weight gain. As long as he's staying on track then he's fine. That's what I do with Madison cause she is a very picky eater now (great eater till 15 months or so, now she's very finicky). I always worry that she's not getting enough, but she's staying on her weight and height curves so she's fine. I just try to be sure she gets some sort of fruit and veggie everyday (though that went out the window on our vacation-she basically only ate rice for every meal, everyday) and protein for her is easy cause she is a black bean nut! Oh, that might be a good table food for Jimmy. Beans I mean, cause they're very healthy, small enough that he can pick one up and chew it easily without teeth and Madison loves them. Not sure why, cause they're not that tasty to me, but she can eat half a can a day if we let her.

Oh, and we have the same gift dilemma as many of you guys do. My family is easy-we only buy for kids. I still get my mom something though. Joey's family though does a name exchange for the adults, plus we have to buy for his parents, siblings, niece and nephew in addition to the names we are assigned (and there are 3 of us now so 3 names). So for our family that means we have to get our 3 exchange gifts, then 3 siblings, 1 BIL, 2 parents, niece, and nephew-11 gifts if we do 1 per person. But we can't just get the kids 1 thing each (they're 4 and 2), so it's always way more than 11 items. I got a lot of their stuff already, but still have more left to buy and haven't even found out who are 3 exchangees are. The thing is, this year we're not even going to see his family around Christmas because Joey's got interviews until 12/22 and we leave for Disney on Christmas afternoon so we have to mail the gifts (plus they live in New Orleans so we can't exactly visit there anyway right now). Not a problem to mail them, but why are we participating in an exchange with people we have not seen since last Christmas and won't see again till May (when we go down for Joey's little brother's high school graduation). I mean, they're all extended family (cousins, aunts, etc.) so it's not like we have any contact with them other than when we visit. I'd like to limit it to kids and grandparents within his immediate family too but apparently I'm the only one who wants to do that. The thing is, his sister with the 2 kids does not have much money, so she really shouldn't buy something for me, Joey, and Madison (and she goes way overboard buying all of us stuff). So we told her last year to just get stuff for Madison and we'd just get stuff for her kids, but she would not agree to it. Plus, she pulled Joey's name in the exchange, so she insisted that meant she had to buy him 2 things, 1 cause she got his name and the other cause he's her brother. Ridiculous. Of course, if we did only kids, it would really just exclude 1 sister (who is 30, not married, and no kids) cause his brother is still 17 and the other sister would get stuff for her kids, so I guess that wouldn't work really this year. Next year though when his brother is 18 maybe it will work.

 

[Alice28]

Why, thank you Justhat for the compliment! I have to say, that the part of my body I hate the most when I am not pregnant is my saggy, fat belly. When I'm pregnant, it's nice and taut and I don't gain a lot of weight anywhere else, so I do kinda look halfway decent except for the big red nose!

Was Hawaii so much fun? Which island did you go to? I've been to the Big Island, Maui and Kauai. Our next trip we want to go to Oahu because there are some cheap military hotels we can stay at....but we're not sure when.

Lissawynn- Sam's school is the same way I think about the no sugar. They never offer dessert except for one day a month- they offer birthday cake to celebrate that month's birthdays. Along with the entree choices of the day (there's usually 4), there is a salad bar with fresh fruits and veggies and the kids have to choose two I think. And on days where it's a hot dog or chicken nuggets, there are no fries as a choice- it's good I think & I like when he chooses hot lunch because it's probably a healthier lunch than what I would pack anyway. I'm standard PBJ (cause he has this weird aversion to lunch meat although he LOVES hot dogs, burgers and cooked chicken/turkey...what a weirdo), apple, Gogurt and a small baggie of crackers or chips Mom.


And SURE! Come out West and teach! We'd love to have you here! Except in Oregon, teaching jobs aren't easy to come by sometimes because they're always slashing budgets left and right.

I was going to say something else before I need to sign off and tidy up before we leave.......Oh, the baby food! Yeah, Molly isn't so hot on baby food right now either. She'd rather pick up her own teeny cut up food. She only has 3 teeth, but if I give her just shreds of chicken or teeny pieces of cheese, teeny pieces of meat, and I've been just microwaving some frozen corn/carrots/peas/beans and letting her eat that. Much cheaper than buying baby food! Same with canned peaches/pears or sliced bananas.

Black beans are a great idea! Or any kind of bean really...I'll have to try that. My younger son LOVES beans, but older one won't touch them with a 10 foot pole. Why can't they all just like the same thing?!?!

Yes, I liked the kid's plate at Cheesecake factory too- but the waiter didn't tell us about it when ordering! If we had known we were getting that, we would have just had the kids share something and not order the extra fries as well. That was great! They even brought one for Molly! That dark oat bread was delish! And the small pizza my friend ordered for her 3 year old came with the HUGEST side salad I have ever seen in my life. I told DH that when we go there, we should just order the mini pizza for the kids and he and I could share the salad as an appetizer.

OK- off to tidy up! I wish I could just wave this around and have it be done, like Mary Poppins!

 

[Hillbeans]

Glad to hear that Christmas gift giving isn't just a sore spot with my family and Inlaws only.

Last year was a christmas shopping disaster....no need to rehash all the details but lets just say DH and I went all out last year, spent a lot of money only to be treated like jerks who show off (DH got a very large christmas bonus and we thought we'd buy some nicer things only to be told we tried to show everyone up). Not to worry this year because DH's company is on the verge of huge layoffs and I doubt he'll get any bonus this year so we're giving out tube socks and peanuts this year...ha ha.

Lorretta/Z - I think you've been overly generous. It's tough when one person in the family has "X" amount of children and you've got none. I'm limiting all of the nieces and nephews this year - there are 7 total - the older ones are getting $30 gift cards and the younger ones are getting one or two toys with a $30 limit also. I'll make an exception for my one nephew whom we give $100 to for personal reasons.

I like the idea of a Christmas exchange, but our family isn't really large enough to do it. My close friends and I also don't exchange gifts, we choose to do a night out at dinner or a show instead.

Tammy - i'm so sorry to hear that Tyler still has his rash. I'm glad you made an appt. for the dermatologist. I know if one of my kids had a rash for a few weeks i'd be frustrated and want the darned thing cleared up.

Vald - I hope your husband is feeling better after his surgery.

Justthat - welcome home! I'm so jealous you were in Hawaii...we're hoping to go to Hawaii around our 10 year anniversary mark - only 3.5 years to go!

Lisawynn - my son loved the jarred foods, in fact I gave them to him until he was about 15 months. I figured it was one way to get the vegetables and fruit in him. Congrats on the weight loss - that's wonderful!

Alice28 - I'm glad that Molly's tooth finally came in, and hopefully now for the next few nights you'll get some much needed sleep.

Well, the baby's fussing again, so i've got to run. I'm also packing tonight to get ready for our trip to the Great Wolf Lodge. Talk with you ladies in a few days!

 

[justhat]

I hate the saggy belly too. I feel like I've got everything else under control except for my lower abdominal area and it's killing me!

We went to Oahu and actually stayed next to one of the military hotels, the Hale Koa. My dad always wanted to stay there (he was retired air force), but everytime they went to Hawaii it was with a convention so they stayed in the hotels with the cheap convention rates so the company would pay. We stayed in the Halekulani, which is an okay hotel, but way, way overpriced and I'd never recommend anyone stay there (unless they have they cheap convention rate like us and aren't paying for it anyway). Don't get me wrong, we had a wonderful time, but the hotel was not in the greatest location (all the way at the end and down a few blocks from the main 'strip'), did not really have a beach (it had a very small plot of sand, I mean very, very small-maybe 20 people would fit), the rooms were really small. My husband liked the hotel though cause it wasn't super large like some of the other hotels, but he too thought it was way overpriced. Your sons would probably love Oahu cause there are so many military things to see (and of course we did many of them since I've got a military thing from my father). I'll post some photos once we get them onto the computer.

Oh yeah, I'm excited about the upcoming Gymbo line too if it's gonna be like Whale Watching. Madison has so many things from the Whale Watching line (well, she did, they were all size 3-6 months so she can't wear them anymore). I loved that line and if I can find any digital photos of her in that stuff I'll post it cause they were so cute (we had a crappy camera back then though so not sure I have any).


Llij, I didn't realize you lived so close to me! My husband did his OB rotation at Fairfax Hospital last fall and one of our friends is an OB nurse there. A lot of our friends had babies there over the past 2 years too. John Paul is going to be in great hands there as I know they've got an excellent team of physicians.

 

[2sweetangels]

well I have my baby exchange all boxed up and ready to go, Im thinking Monday I will go to the post office and mail it since sunday it ain't open.

 

[tkyes]

hi all!

Lisawynn - a new Cabela's just opened around here. We had one about 2 hours away, but now they opened one 20 minutes away. My DH and father are in heaven! lol

justthat - welcome back from your trip. It sounds wonderful! I sooo want to visit Hawaii!

hillbeans - have fun on your trip! That's a bummer about your gift giving generosity biting you in the butt. Why do some people have to be so petty? Christmas is not a contest!

Robin - that sounds like a blast with the kids, have fun. Yeah for filling out your paperwork for the last time. Yes, we will have a HUGE cyber party when your DH returns!!! I can't even begin to imagine how excited you are.

I really need to try some new foods on Tyler. I feel like I feed him the same thing every day! I do have a butternut squash I need to cook up. Hopefully he'll like that. I wish fruit was in season. I would love to give him peaches.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is this week! I'm very excited!

talk to you all later.

Tamie

 

[T16GEM]

Hi everyone,
This last few days have been a nightmare with us, Dh has had a cold - and when ever he gets them he gets really grouchy and end up with the most awful cough that you have ever heard. Then on Friday night I was throwing up (TMI sorry!) yesterday I felt so weak that I couldn't be bothered to get dressed, I didn't want to handle Shelby to much incase it was a bug - but I have come to the conclusion that I ate something dodgy while I was out at lunch on Friday. Feeling much better today though so thats good.

When you had your first DS or DD did you worry about leaving them with ANYONE? I mean like even your DH? I think I am just really paranoid about something going wrong and that if I'm not there that she may get into trouble or that the person might do something to endanger her? I hope that I will get over this feeling as she gets bigger. Have you ever felt like this?

Sorry to post such a negative post, it's good having you guys to talk to though.

Gems