Stick Figure Saturday ... oh, and my birthday

In honor of my birthday (address provided upon request for gifts), I thought I'd participate in Stick Figure Saturday with Ericka at Alabaster Cow.

That's a party hat, not a dunce cap, by the way.

Head on over to Alabaster Cow and be inspired to unleash your inner artist.  Let her know Mungee sent you.

Happy Hump Day!

I'm thrilled to have so many new friends joining Mungee and Me.  I started the blog to chronicle my TTC journey and pregnancy, to keep track of Mungee's milestones and just share my thoughts in general about life as a mommy.  

It's so good to connect with those who are experiencing the journey of motherhood as well, whether they are in the same place as me or are a seasoned pro.  It helps me tremendously to know that I'm not alone, not the only one who feels elated, exhausted, guilty, giddy, worried and wishful.

Please let me know you stopped by.  And please leave a link for your blog.  Sometimes the links don't show up in your comment profile or Google Friend Connect and I can't find you (picture me with a sad face).

Hope to see you again soon!

Stop by here too:

We've Got One, Are We Done?

Some women just know that they will have more children after their first, regardless of the emotional, mental or physical aftermath.  I am not one of those women.

However, I tend to miss at least one birth control pill a week.  Is it mommy-brain?  Forgetfulness?  Or is my uterus sending me subliminal messages?

Just when I get to the point that I think, "Hmmm, this isn't so bad, I can do this, maybe we will have one more", my ears are pierced with the deafening, hysterical "OMG! The world is going to end if you don't put your nipple in my mouth RIGHT.NOW!" demon cry and I am overcome with anxiety and the desire to run to my midwife's office and scream "OMG! The world is going to end if you don't cut me open and tie off my tubes RIGHT.NOW!"

Yet, every so often, when I feel a gas bubble gurgling, reminding me so much of those earliest of baby flutters, for a fleeting moment, I wonder "what if ..."

How many children do you have?  Do you want more?  Are you "one and done" or thought you were but welcomed another (intentionally or unintentionally)?  What holds you back?  What moves you forward?

Product Review: ChicoBag Produce Stand Collection

We're attempting to be more environmentally conscious in our household. We purchased a new Energy Star High Efficiency washer and dryer, we recycle whenever possible (I'm sure I even try to recycle items that aren't recyclable), and I've replaced my disposable nursing pads with reusable ones.  I also do my best to remember to take reusable tote bags to the grocery store.

According to ChicoBag™, the average number of plastic bags used yearly by Americans is 500.  I moved out of my parents house when I was 18, so let's assume I started doing the majority of my grocery shopping at that time.  Since then, this would mean I've used approximately 7,000 plastic bags (I'm going to assume this also includes retail shopping bags).  Either way ...

:::Shudders:::

Please stop doing the math to try and figure out how old I am.

When it comes to grocery shopping, while I do actually get a few extra uses out of typical single-use plastic bags (bathroom garbage can liners, recyclable rounder-upper, husband smotherer), eventually they wind up in the landfill. The thin, flimsy produce bags, however, don't have much of an afterlife and typically go straight to the trashcan. Mungee's Pa suggests not to use them at all, but I don't want an army of apples rolling around or a head of broccoli getting decapitated in the cart. Luckily, I recently had the chance to put the ChicoBag™ Produce Stand Collection to the test.

Image courtesy of ChicoBag™ 

This collection features three reusable bags, each constructed from a different fabric designed to maintain freshness.  The bags fold compactly, are secured with an attached elastic strap, and can be stored in the included apple pouch, so they're easy to tote around.  The apple pouch features a drawstring and a clip, so you can attach it to your purse, belt loop, or even the grocery cart. I wish the drawstring would close a little tighter around the bags, as I was worried they might slip out.

The generously-sized (16” x 12.5”ish) bags are designed to be paired with specific produce.   I think it would be helpful if the ideal type of produce for each bag was listed on the care label or at least pictured so I would know that I was making the best match, because I certainly didn't remember when I was at the store. I'm sure the proper pairing would become a habit with repeated use.  I bought bananas, avocados, squash, zucchini, onions and peppers and there was more than enough room for everything.















Aside from the mesh bag, the other two bags are not transparent so the produce needs to go on the conveyor belt and scale apart from them, which is a bit inconvenient and begs the question: do I leave it loose in the cart after all or put it in the bag and take it back out when I'm waiting in line?

Overall, I am happy to have found an alternative for those pesky flimsy, landfill-clogging single-use produce bags.  The next time the cashier asks "Paper or plastic?", I'll proudly exclaim "Neither" as I hold up my ChicoBags with a smile.

Win your own Produce Stand Collection by ChicoBag™!
ChicoBag™ is hosting a Produce Stand giveaway and will be selecting 10 winners to receive the new Produce Stand Collection. Please visit ChicoBag's Blog, Bag Monster, to enter. The contest ends June 4, 2010 at noon PST.

Disclosure: ChicoBag™ provided me with the Produce Stand Collection for this review. All opinions expressed are my own. I have received no monetary compensation for this post.

9 Month Letter

 

Dear Mungee,

You turned 9 months old on May 17, 2010.  You've now been an outside baby for as long as you were an inside baby.  You keep growing and letting your personality shine through.  Your hair is really starting to fill in and it might be light brown, but it's still hard to tell.  Your eyes are definitely a deep chocolate brown.  You still look just like your Daddy, but you have your own unique nose.  I've decided you might have my toes, but that's just wishful thinking on my part - there's got to be some of me in you!  I certainly hope you don't get my flat feet though.

 

You love to eat.  You have three meals of solids a day.  In the morning you have multigrain cereal mixed with fruit juice and a fruit puree.  Lunch is usually a vegetable and dinner is a mixed puree "meal".  I'm surprised by some of these meals that you like, because they don't seem very palatable, but I'm glad you aren't picky at this point!  You still nurse in the morning, before and after naps and before night night.

Every once in a while, I try to give you a chunk of cheese, bread or other seemingly tame food, but you haven't gotten the hang of chewing and you usually gag on it.  If we go out to lunch, I still have to feed you purees in the restaurant, which isn't too time consuming, but I will be excited when I can slap at placemat down on the table, toss out some peas, carrots and noodles and we can eat simultaneously.

You are still working on trying to crawl.  You push one knee up underneath your body to try and get going, but this always results in you flipping over.  I think you've recently figured out that is what happens so you resort to rolling to get to your destination. 

You took your first "swimming lesson" and your first bath in the big tub on April 30.  You weren't too keen on the swimming pool at first, but you warmed up to it eventually.  We also introduced you to the baby pool at home and you LOVE to make splashy splashies in it, as well as the tub.

 

 

Your ability to wave has improved.  You're most skilled at waving at the cat or to the baby in the mirror.

 

You clap with excitement when we say "Yaaaaay!"

You're becoming even more vocal, and in the last few days have REALLY discovered your yelling voice.

You suffered from your second ear infection this past month.  This time around it was only in one ear, but it was painful for you nonetheless.  Dr. W decided to treat you with Augmentin, which had the "lovely" side effect of causing you to poop about 6 times a day.  We were so glad when you finished that medicine!  

Your third tooth has come in!  It's the top front right tooth.  I can see about three more on the top that will probably come through within the next month.  At your followup doctor's appointment with Dr. T, she said the top teeth were "loading up".  Yikes!  You're really good about not biting me though.  I hope that trend continues.

About two weeks ago, after your ear infection started to clear up, I spent the whole week working on getting you to nap in your crib.  You seem to be doing well so far, although your naps are shorter than I think they should be.  You've started sleeping through the night again and we are so thankful!  We could handle the night wakings, it was you we were worried about.  I feel like your rest is SO critical to you being in a good mood throughout the day.  You and lack of sleep are not the best of friends!

Your 9 month well-visit is on Wednesday and we'll talk to Dr. T about all kinds of exciting things, including introducing new foods and upcoming expected milestones.  

I really can't believe this time has gone by so quickly.  I was thinking yesterday that just as I'm getting used to being a stay-at-home-mom, it's almost time for me to go back to work.  I wonder how long it will take for me to adjust to being back in the workforce, but more so, if it will be a tough transition for you.  

 

As always, we continue to hope that we are doing the best we can by you and giving you all the love, attention, education, nourishment, confidence, encouragement and care you need to grow and thrive.

Love, Mama and Daddy

Outtakes:

B.Y.O.B. D-Listed Blog Party 2010

Welcome to Mungee and Me!  I'm very excited to be participating in the Bring Your Own Blog D-Listed Blog Party, hosted by D-Listed Mom Blogs.

I'm Mungee's Ma. I get sidetracked a lot.  Mungee's Pa and I made the decision that I would stay home with Mungee for her first year.  I thought I would become all domesticated during this time ... learn how to sew, have a hot dinner waiting for Mungee's Pa every night when he got home from work ... on what planet was I living?

If you like to see pictures of bare pregnant bellies, you will find almost 40 weeks worth of mine throughout the blog.  

Mungee doesn't like to take naps so I'm always really antsy when I blog because she could wake up at any moment - in fact, she just did.  That's why I have a stack of papers next to my laptop with half-baked blog post ideas that I never get to type up.  Unfortunately most of my ideas come to me when I'm showering and have nowhere to write them down.  If this happens to you too and you've found a solution to it, please kindly share your mojo.

Thanks for coming by!  I'd love to visit your blog too, so please let me know you were here.  And let me know if there's anything else you'd like to know about me.  I'm terrible at describing myself.

Must.Stay.Focu ....

I have blogger ADD.  See, I can't even finish the title of this post.

The scene:

• My office.
• Turn on the computer.
• Open Firefox.  Log in to Mungee and Me.  
• Tell myself I am going to write JUST ONE DAMN POST before I check email or read other blogs.
• Check to see if I have any new followers.  Ooo, there's ONE!  Go check out their blog.
• Open Internet Explorer to check Mungee and Me's email (it begins).  Why check email in a different browser?  Because like a fool, I set up this blog under my primary email, which has my name appended to it.  And I have Mungee and Me's email forwarded to this email address, but then if I reply to your email from it, you'll know my REAL NAME and I seek to remain MYSTEEEEERIOUS.
• See emails from blogs to which I've subscribed.  Posts look interesting.  Go read them.
• See emails for giveaways.  Spend way too much time on ridiculous entry methods, including visiting another blog to enter their giveaway in order to get an extra entry on original blog's giveaway.
• See guest posts.  Go read their blogs.
• See a catchy sidebar button.  Click.  Get redirected to an envy-inducing inspiring craft blog.
• Spend 10 minutes ruminating over the fact that I start super-cute DIY projects and don't finish them because I'm afraid one wrong move will ruin the whole thing.  Click red X Follow Me button.  Become a fan on Facebook.  Add to my page's favorites.
• Check my Facebook newsfeed. Look at new photos of friends' babies.  See updates about babies younger than Mungee who are already crawling.  Consider submitting to STFU, Parents. Realize that would be hypocritical.
• Log in to Twitter.  Check to see if anyone has mentioned me (nope, not so much).  Wonder how anyone can keep up.  Wonder how when someone replies to you, you know WTF they are replying to since the original tweet doesn't show up with their reply.
•  Look at clock - two hours have now gone by and I haven't even clicked "New Post" on Mungee and Me.

My ADD is also applicable to cleaning/decluttering my house, but that's a post for another day.

So what do you do to stay focused?  Do you have a system for writing blog posts/reading other blogs/commenting/participating in memes, etc?  Or do you just jump around haphazardly like me?

If it's written down and published, it must be good advice (and Friday Follow!)

I think it's funny that baby books suggest I wait until my child is sleeping to trim her nails so she doesn't wiggle, thereby causing me to nick her and so I don't scare her. First of all, there is no way I'm going to risk waking her up so I can clip the daggers. She's inevitably going to scratch herself, she has, and it will heal.  Second, if I were to follow this advice and she did wake up, I think she'd be pretty scared that I was coming at her with a sharp metal instrument.  Wouldn't you be?

The best clippers I've found were the bonus ones included with bottles of Little Noses Saline Drops.  Why the Little Remedies company makes the connection between liquidizing crusted snot and nail-trimming, I'm not sure.  Oh wait ... babies stick their fingers in their noses ... and a hard booger barrier would be difficult to get through with said finger ... and if the nail on said finger was too long it could scratch the inside of baby's delicate booger-crusted nose ... I am starting to get it.

So what un-advice have you read lately?

Disclosure: Little Remedies has no idea who I am and they didn't prompt me to write this post at all.  But if they find me and want to give me free stuff, that is a-okay.

Once again, lightning fast, the weekend is upon us again and that means it's Friday Follow time.  Head on over to One 2 Try and Midday Escapades to link up.  Happy Following!  And have a great weekend!

Sentimental = Borderline Hoarder?

I know I'm still a few years away from dealing with this problem, but this post on Theta Mom got me thinking about what I'll do with Mungee's masterpieces (ie, handprint Thanksgiving turkeys and macaroni and yarn necklaces) once their volume begins to overtake our 1300-ish square foot home.

Admittedly, I save a lot of ... extraneous memorabilia.  Our fridge is plastered with birth announcements and holiday photo cards, reminders for doctors appointments that have come and gone, a neglected to-do list, etc.  I probably have every card that DH has ever given me.  Heck, I even have cards that I gave him.  I fish them out of the trashcan after he's taken no precautions to disguise the fact that he's thrown them out.  (He should really do that at work, then I'd be none the wiser).  I keep used calendar pages because G-d forbid I forget that I went grocery shopping at Harris Teeter in 2001.

So how do you handle this type of "clutter" in your home?

On an unrelated note, don't forget to stop by Take It From Me for Welcome Wednesday.

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a very happy Mother's Day.  We hosted dinner for our family.  DH grilled lamb and beef kabobs.  My mom made a chicken enchilada ring, corn and black bean salsa, a cake and green jello (which we forgot to eat!)  My aunt brought a salad, Grammy brought chocolate dipped Pringles, and DH's dad brought pasta salad and strawberry shortcake.  We have a LOT of leftovers.

There were 14 of us crammed into a makeshift dining room.  We shoved Mungee's toys to the side of her playroom in order to line up our breakfast nook table, a card table and a banquet table, complete with mismatched chairs and tablecloths.  The actual dining room played host as the buffet where we set up the food.

That's Uncle D and Cousin B watching golf.

The grandparents watching ... golf.  And yes, Grammy is enjoying a beer.

And here's the aftermath ... it was worse than it looks.  DH was a miracle worker, however, and got everything cleaned up pretty quickly!

How did you spend the day?

An Anomoly or a Break for Mommy?

I'm hesitant to say anything for fear that it may have been a fluke, but yesterday, Mungee took two 1.5+ hour naps in her crib and slept through the night.  DH put her to bed (which is spectacular since I've been nursing her to sleep for months) so I could go to the 2nd Annual National Mom's Nite Out at my local mall.

I met up with my mom and we sampled some items from the few vendors who were set up in the center court of the mall.  It was hardly transformed into "mom central" as the event listing had put it.  I had planned on going by myself, which would have wound up being pretty boring, so I'm lucky my mom decided to meet me there.

What trip to the mall would be complete without some retail therapy?  We headed to NY&Company, which is having a 50% off the entire store sale through this weekend.  I tried on several pairs of shorts and some camisoles (mine are all way too short and ride up over my post-baby blump  - bump, lump, whatever you want to call it).  After picking out what I wanted, my mom suggested we ask the cashiers to hold it so I could go check on another size.  She took the clothes to the checkout counter and I went to the front of the store to look for another pair of shorts.  When I came back up to the counter, she was buying my clothes!  "Surprise!  Happy 1st Mother's Day!"  "Thanks Mom!"  To which she replied, "Now let's go get my gift :)"

Mom wanted a new bundt cake pan (boooondt cake - quick, name the movie!), so we went to Williams-Sonoma, where we sampled virgin (boo) sangria and lemon cupcakes.  They had a pretty nice bundt pan, but my mom felt bad about asking for it since it was a little pricey.  I said we'd go look somewhere else and if we didn't find another one she liked we'd come back for that one.  We did wind up finding another one for much less, but it looked and felt like it should cost much less.  Back to Williams-Sonoma for the pricier, yet much better quality pan.

Mom's night out turned out to be a nice night hanging out and bonding with my mom.  It wasn't what I envisioned when I initially asked DH for a break ... it was better. 

On an unrelated note, I found a booger in Mungee's belly button when I was changing her diaper before her morning nap.  I am not even going to try and figure out how that got there.

It's Friday Follow Time!

TGIF and time for another Friday Follow, hosted by One 2 Try, Hearts Make Families and Midday Escapades!  

From the lovely hosts:

"We invite you to join us every Friday to get more blog followers and to follow other interesting blogs.  It is all about sharing and having fun."

Head on over to the hosts' sites and don't forget to check out this Friday Follow's sponsor, Tooth Soap.

I hope this doesn't become a problem ...

Gah!

Yesterday I booked a ticket to New York City!  I'll be going toward the end of June.  I can't believe I will be leaving Mungee for three days.  I am excited and nervous and scared and flustered.  It will be good for me though.  I'll be traveling with my best friend who is going for work.  There will be shopping, a Broadway show, possibly visiting vendors that I used to work with when I was in the corporate retail business and a food show (through my friend's profession).

When did you leave your little one for the first time?  How did it go?  Words of encouragement appreciated!

A Good Day

I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I have been struggling.  Physically.  Mentally.  Emotionally.  I will go into greater detail eventually.  But not right now.  Right now, I want to talk about Friday.  Friday was a good day.

DH came home from work for lunch.  I convinced him to take the rest of the afternoon off work.  We decided to take Mungee to the pool for the first time.  Luckily, our club (community center really, we're not rich or anything) has a heated indoor pool, as it was overcast.  Mungee has been fighting her afternoon nap (what's new?) so she was pretty tired, but after some crying and getting over the initial shock of being in the water, she seemed to enjoy the experience.

 

After we were done swimming, DH took Mungee into the shower to rinse off the chlorine.  He's more comfortable doing stuff like that.  I like really hot water when I shower and I am afraid I would scald her.  This is one of the reasons I wouldn't give her a bath for months, insisting that DH do it.  I didn't know the right temperature for the water.  Sorry, I digress.

We left and Mungee fell asleep in the car almost immediately upon being strapped into the carseat.  I suggested we drive around for a little while and DH asked if I wanted to go grab a beer.  We went to a local German-ish restaurant and enjoyed two-for-one happy hour beers, a giant soft pretzel and beer cheese soup served in a breadbowl.  Mungee woke up eventually and wanted to check out the bar.

We came home after our mid-afternoon snack, fed Mungee her dinner and then gave her a bath in the regular bathtub - another first.  DH said it was so much easier than trying to keep her in her duckie tub.  

Okay Mom, skip this part.  

Seriously, Mom, stop reading.

Okay.

After Mungee was asleep, DH and I had "marital relations".  I mention this because it hasn't happened very often since Mungee was born.  I'm still breastfeeding, hormones are all out of whack, and I rarely ever get the urge to canoodle (yeah, that sounds like a good word for it).  After the canoodling, I asked DH if we could now officially count on two hands the number of times we'd done it since Mungee came along.  He said no, of course.  I don't believe him.  

Our appetites raging, we then decided to fry up some lumpia a.k.a. Filipino crack eggrolls.  We were still hungry after we ate those, so we fixed bowls of cereal and chilled out on the couch.

Days like this make me feel more human.  Normal.  I look forward to more of them.

(I'll add some pictures when I'm not falling out of my chair from fatigue). ETA pictures 5-5-10.