This weekend was a flurry of events (as most of our weekends have become) - 1st birthday party, 30 year birthday party, LOST watching with friends, book club, etc. I love our weekends that are packed with friends and family even though we don't get much done at home - but that is OK!
I just want to thank my husband for letting me have two nights out in a row with no curfew. He rocks the bedtime routine with Landon and encourages me to go out and have a life that includes events just for me (just as I encourage him to do the same).
I feel recharged and ready to face the week because I was able to connect with friends as a person, not as a mommy. I was able to engage in conversations without worrying about my son, because I know my husband has GOT THIS as he puts it.
Thank you.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Something More Than Coincidence
I will take this opportunity while Landon is in his 13th consecutive hour of straight sleep (for the first time in his life, mind you) to check in with this blog.
Much to write about, but most of my thoughts will have to be put off for another day.
However, there is one thing that I have to write about.
I am not much of a believer in coincidences being "fate" or "acts of God" or what have you. However, at book club last night, I brought up my good friend B who passed away in 1999. It was hard for my entire group of friends, and I was especially affected because we had been very close and I had lived with her family for 3 summers while I was in drum corps. Anyway, I don't talk about her very much but I do think of her often. Anyway, last night she came up in the context of another story I was telling. It was nice to say her name and think about her when in the company of friends.
After book club, I dropped C off at her house and drove home by myself. I happened to turn the radio to a country station (I am not a big country fan and have it on my dial for the occasional song that I recognize). It was the CMT country countdown and right as I started listening, they played a song from a new artist called "Lover, Lover." Whoa. B and I had a vast repertoire of songs for all of our car rides and we would sing and laugh and dance in the car. This happened to be one of those songs. "Lover, Lover" was originally recorded by Sonia Dada in the early 90's and it is a great tune - very catchy and easy to sing along to. Hearing this "countrified" version brought back so many memories and I sang at the top of my lungs while speeding down I-25 on the way home. How random that a song that practically nobody has ever heard of just HAPPENED to get remade into a contemporary tune and I just HAPPENED to hear it just 60 minutes after I had talked about my sweet friend.
Again, I don't often attribute those types of situations to "something from above", but I couldn't help but think of B sending a shout out to me from the giant DJ booth in the sky. :)
I miss you, B.
Much to write about, but most of my thoughts will have to be put off for another day.
However, there is one thing that I have to write about.
I am not much of a believer in coincidences being "fate" or "acts of God" or what have you. However, at book club last night, I brought up my good friend B who passed away in 1999. It was hard for my entire group of friends, and I was especially affected because we had been very close and I had lived with her family for 3 summers while I was in drum corps. Anyway, I don't talk about her very much but I do think of her often. Anyway, last night she came up in the context of another story I was telling. It was nice to say her name and think about her when in the company of friends.
After book club, I dropped C off at her house and drove home by myself. I happened to turn the radio to a country station (I am not a big country fan and have it on my dial for the occasional song that I recognize). It was the CMT country countdown and right as I started listening, they played a song from a new artist called "Lover, Lover." Whoa. B and I had a vast repertoire of songs for all of our car rides and we would sing and laugh and dance in the car. This happened to be one of those songs. "Lover, Lover" was originally recorded by Sonia Dada in the early 90's and it is a great tune - very catchy and easy to sing along to. Hearing this "countrified" version brought back so many memories and I sang at the top of my lungs while speeding down I-25 on the way home. How random that a song that practically nobody has ever heard of just HAPPENED to get remade into a contemporary tune and I just HAPPENED to hear it just 60 minutes after I had talked about my sweet friend.
Again, I don't often attribute those types of situations to "something from above", but I couldn't help but think of B sending a shout out to me from the giant DJ booth in the sky. :)
I miss you, B.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Mother Connections
A couple of years ago, I registered myself with a market research company, Fieldwork (http://www.fieldwork.com/). Because I am out of the advertising field, this is one small way for me to feel connected with my career of the past. And the cash in your pocket at the end of each session doesn't hurt either. It is a company that works on behalf of thousands of brands, asking questions to "test subjects" in order to determine product preference, thoughts about products, the feasibility of a new product launch, etc. Before this last week, I had done two focus groups, one on cottage cheese and one on environmentally safe cleaning products.
This past week I was called in to talk about baby nutrition. I talked with 7 other new moms about breastfeeding, bottlefeeding, solid foods, etc. This sounds, especially to non parents, dreadfully dull. And if that was all that we really talked about, it probably would have been. But it was an incredibly insightful 2 1/2 hours.
A lot of bigger picture discussions were brought into play after we had "warmed up" to each other. How our lives are SO much different than our mothers' lives. In good ways and bad. We loved that we all really felt like we had a choice whether to work or stay at home. We liked that products are being designed with baby's safety in mind (i.e. carseats, etc.) But of course, this is a double edged sword as sometimes it seems as if everything is a danger and that we are constantly worried about everything - if I don't provide organic baby food to my child, will that harm him or her in the long run? If I don't have the most expensive scientifically designed carseat, will my child be worse off in a car crash? We are definitely in a society that uses fear to motivate. Working in advertising for 11 years, I know that MANY very effective ad campaigns are fear driven. And mothers, especially first time mothers, are ripe for the picken' in terms of being manipulated by this kind of advertising.
Another thing that was heavily discussed was the fact that we have SO many more choices and so many more ways to get information than our mothers. A great example in my life was the first night Landon came home with us from the hospital. Greg and I were set on my breastfeeding exclusively, so other than sterilizing some bottles, we hadn't really educated ourselves on bottle feeding that much. Since Landon was losing a little more weight than he should have, we had to supplement with formula for a few days. And I was having to pump to get my milk supply up so that we could hopefully exclusively breastfeed in the future. Well, we had no idea what we were doing. How do we warm bottles up? If I pump two separate times, can I combine the bottles? How long can breastmilk be stored? Greg and I were on the computer round the clock looking questions up. This definitely was a good thing, as we were so stressed (and sleep deprived) that having these questions answered seems to us victories, however small. But on the flip side, every question we asked, no matter how black and white it originally seemed, was met with so many different answers depending on what source we looked at. The internet is a beautiful thing, especially during those winter months when Landon was a newborn and swine flu was in full "go" mode and I was more or less confined to the house and I wanted to feel connected to the outside world. But in many ways, the internet causes confusion with the dizzying amount of different answers and different choices out there. As one very eloquent mother put it, "There are so many things (internet included) that are telling mothers how to parent which can be good but at the same time can atrophy a mother's intuition." I have been getting much better at trying to use my intuition when I can - I want to be able to infer what Landon needs because I know him so well. The internet can be a great tool, but it shouldn't be the end all be all.
So, at the end of all this discussion, 8 former strangers talked about staying in touch as a support group. It was great to hear about other mothers' struggles and successes. I learned that I have it EASY when it comes to Landon's feeding after I heard about all the colic, allergy issues and illnesses that have plagued other mothers and their babies. I also felt pretty on track with where we are as a family in terms of Landon's nutrition (i.e. how we are feeding, what we are feeding, how often we are feeding, etc.). I learned (or really just reaffirmed) that I have a rock star husband (I was one of only 2 women whose husband not only goes halvsies on feeding Landon solid foods but also does a lot of the making of the food... OK, who am I kidding, he makes about 90% of it). And I learned that as vital as the internet is, I can do this parenting thing with a little less reliance on it and a little more reliance on myself, my husband, my child and other mothers who have so much knowledge to tap into.
This past week I was called in to talk about baby nutrition. I talked with 7 other new moms about breastfeeding, bottlefeeding, solid foods, etc. This sounds, especially to non parents, dreadfully dull. And if that was all that we really talked about, it probably would have been. But it was an incredibly insightful 2 1/2 hours.
A lot of bigger picture discussions were brought into play after we had "warmed up" to each other. How our lives are SO much different than our mothers' lives. In good ways and bad. We loved that we all really felt like we had a choice whether to work or stay at home. We liked that products are being designed with baby's safety in mind (i.e. carseats, etc.) But of course, this is a double edged sword as sometimes it seems as if everything is a danger and that we are constantly worried about everything - if I don't provide organic baby food to my child, will that harm him or her in the long run? If I don't have the most expensive scientifically designed carseat, will my child be worse off in a car crash? We are definitely in a society that uses fear to motivate. Working in advertising for 11 years, I know that MANY very effective ad campaigns are fear driven. And mothers, especially first time mothers, are ripe for the picken' in terms of being manipulated by this kind of advertising.
Another thing that was heavily discussed was the fact that we have SO many more choices and so many more ways to get information than our mothers. A great example in my life was the first night Landon came home with us from the hospital. Greg and I were set on my breastfeeding exclusively, so other than sterilizing some bottles, we hadn't really educated ourselves on bottle feeding that much. Since Landon was losing a little more weight than he should have, we had to supplement with formula for a few days. And I was having to pump to get my milk supply up so that we could hopefully exclusively breastfeed in the future. Well, we had no idea what we were doing. How do we warm bottles up? If I pump two separate times, can I combine the bottles? How long can breastmilk be stored? Greg and I were on the computer round the clock looking questions up. This definitely was a good thing, as we were so stressed (and sleep deprived) that having these questions answered seems to us victories, however small. But on the flip side, every question we asked, no matter how black and white it originally seemed, was met with so many different answers depending on what source we looked at. The internet is a beautiful thing, especially during those winter months when Landon was a newborn and swine flu was in full "go" mode and I was more or less confined to the house and I wanted to feel connected to the outside world. But in many ways, the internet causes confusion with the dizzying amount of different answers and different choices out there. As one very eloquent mother put it, "There are so many things (internet included) that are telling mothers how to parent which can be good but at the same time can atrophy a mother's intuition." I have been getting much better at trying to use my intuition when I can - I want to be able to infer what Landon needs because I know him so well. The internet can be a great tool, but it shouldn't be the end all be all.
So, at the end of all this discussion, 8 former strangers talked about staying in touch as a support group. It was great to hear about other mothers' struggles and successes. I learned that I have it EASY when it comes to Landon's feeding after I heard about all the colic, allergy issues and illnesses that have plagued other mothers and their babies. I also felt pretty on track with where we are as a family in terms of Landon's nutrition (i.e. how we are feeding, what we are feeding, how often we are feeding, etc.). I learned (or really just reaffirmed) that I have a rock star husband (I was one of only 2 women whose husband not only goes halvsies on feeding Landon solid foods but also does a lot of the making of the food... OK, who am I kidding, he makes about 90% of it). And I learned that as vital as the internet is, I can do this parenting thing with a little less reliance on it and a little more reliance on myself, my husband, my child and other mothers who have so much knowledge to tap into.
Friday, April 9, 2010
4/9/05
So, as I said yesterday, today is our 5 year anniversary - kind of. I remember when we got married - I was sad that we had to reset to zero after having been together for 2 1/2 years. So that is probably why I still remember the date of our first date. And of course it doesn't hurt that it is the anniversary of my close friend's wedding. (Happy Anniversary to C & J today!) Yes, that is right, my first date with Greg was to my close friend's wedding. And I was in the wedding party. And he had to sit at the head table. No pressure. Here is a picture of our first date..... he looks comfortable, yes? I think by this point, alcohol had cured him of any nervousness he may have felt.
My sister was also at this wedding and I remember as the night progressed and the cocktails kept flowing, she wanted to dance with him (should have known that wasn't a good idea), and while they were dancing, she asked him what his intentions toward me were. Now, if you know my sister, you know that she was asking just to embarrass him.... and me! And it worked! But he took it in stride, thank goodness.
My sister was also at this wedding and I remember as the night progressed and the cocktails kept flowing, she wanted to dance with him (should have known that wasn't a good idea), and while they were dancing, she asked him what his intentions toward me were. Now, if you know my sister, you know that she was asking just to embarrass him.... and me! And it worked! But he took it in stride, thank goodness.
So yes, I asked him to be my date to a wedding in which he would have to fly halfway across the country, barely knowing the bride and groom (but he actually knew a lot of people at the wedding because we ran somewhat in the same circle of friends, again long story), sitting at the head table with me. Yikes. I actually had to do a couple of shots before I summoned up the nerve to invite him. I was so worried that he would say no. But he said yes, and the rest is history!
I love you, G. Thanks for skipping classes, turning right, plunging into an uncomfortable situation and handling my sister very well! I hope it was worth it to you! :)
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Forget all your cares so go.... DOWNTOWN!
Greg and I are going out alone at night for the first time since Landon was born! Woohoo! This is actually the third time that both of us have been away from him - the first outing was for Greg's Christmas party (OK, so I guess that was technically our first night out) and the second outing was to see Avatar a couple of months ago, but that was a day outing.
We are going DOWNTOWN and drinking WINE and celebrating a friend's birthday as well as our 5 year anniversary of being a couple.
Thanks to Greg's amazing sister Becky for coming to our rescue to watch Landon tomorrow night. Hopefully her job will be an easy one since we are tucking Landon in before we head out, and he is usually a pretty good sleeper. I can't believe I am leaving the house after 8 to go downtown. That was my MO just a few years ago, but I am now officially a fuddy duddy so I feel all chic and hip that I am going out that late! I might (gasp) wear heels! And a shirt without baby food on it that is actually buttoned right! Oh the excitement! More later!
We are going DOWNTOWN and drinking WINE and celebrating a friend's birthday as well as our 5 year anniversary of being a couple.
Thanks to Greg's amazing sister Becky for coming to our rescue to watch Landon tomorrow night. Hopefully her job will be an easy one since we are tucking Landon in before we head out, and he is usually a pretty good sleeper. I can't believe I am leaving the house after 8 to go downtown. That was my MO just a few years ago, but I am now officially a fuddy duddy so I feel all chic and hip that I am going out that late! I might (gasp) wear heels! And a shirt without baby food on it that is actually buttoned right! Oh the excitement! More later!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The Hills Are Alive....
Life is good.
I get to spend the afternoon with my mama while my dad runs errands. They are in town today and will be heading out to Pennsylvania tomorrow (driving, natch) to spend my Grandma Phyllis's 97th birthday with her. Yep - 97. And she lived on her own until this past October.
We are all (my parents, Greg and Landon and I and my sister and her family) eating dinner out tonight. I never thought I would get this excited about going to Sweet Tomatoes.
The weather this week has definitely improved my overall blah feeling. I am so glad it is spring and can't wait for a few months of nice weather. I have walked to Jill's house twice to spend time with her and her boys, Landon has gone to the park and had his first real swing ride (he loves them - he is very vocal about his excitement, too!).
I have been spending more time with my girlfriends lately which also puts me in a better mood. Amy came over for dinner last night, Andrea came over for dinner a couple weeks ago, I spent the day with Cristy last week and of course I am seeing Jill a lot too. I saw Angela yesterday at Jill's.
There is just something amazing about this time of year - people come out of hiding and everyone's social lives seem to get a kick start. Birds are chirping, I can wear cute pants (why do I feel that all my winter pants are frumpy and all my summer pants are cute?), there just seems to be more to enjoy!
Landon is sleeping SO much better lately. I shouldn't even blog about it because I feel like I will jinx it. He now goes to bed like a champ at 8:30p every night and has been waking up consistenly anywhere from 5a-7a. Then I feed him and he goes back down until about 8a-10a. It is now 10:41 and he is STILL ASLEEP. Like all first time moms, I have checked to make sure he is breathing.
Alright, I will end this Pollyanna post. I am sure my next post I will be pulling my hair out and saying how much life sucks or something. The bipolarity of motherhood.
Happy April, everyone!
I get to spend the afternoon with my mama while my dad runs errands. They are in town today and will be heading out to Pennsylvania tomorrow (driving, natch) to spend my Grandma Phyllis's 97th birthday with her. Yep - 97. And she lived on her own until this past October.
We are all (my parents, Greg and Landon and I and my sister and her family) eating dinner out tonight. I never thought I would get this excited about going to Sweet Tomatoes.
The weather this week has definitely improved my overall blah feeling. I am so glad it is spring and can't wait for a few months of nice weather. I have walked to Jill's house twice to spend time with her and her boys, Landon has gone to the park and had his first real swing ride (he loves them - he is very vocal about his excitement, too!).
I have been spending more time with my girlfriends lately which also puts me in a better mood. Amy came over for dinner last night, Andrea came over for dinner a couple weeks ago, I spent the day with Cristy last week and of course I am seeing Jill a lot too. I saw Angela yesterday at Jill's.
There is just something amazing about this time of year - people come out of hiding and everyone's social lives seem to get a kick start. Birds are chirping, I can wear cute pants (why do I feel that all my winter pants are frumpy and all my summer pants are cute?), there just seems to be more to enjoy!
Landon is sleeping SO much better lately. I shouldn't even blog about it because I feel like I will jinx it. He now goes to bed like a champ at 8:30p every night and has been waking up consistenly anywhere from 5a-7a. Then I feed him and he goes back down until about 8a-10a. It is now 10:41 and he is STILL ASLEEP. Like all first time moms, I have checked to make sure he is breathing.
Alright, I will end this Pollyanna post. I am sure my next post I will be pulling my hair out and saying how much life sucks or something. The bipolarity of motherhood.
Happy April, everyone!
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