Bye bye Nursing!

I am happy to announce that I am no longer nursing. There was a time when I thought this day would never come and I feared the separation anxiety James would have over weaning. However we had the best experience you could hope for when weaning.

First off, James is over 2 and when I referred to nursing it was just 1 time a day in the morning. James is an early riser and Adit and I are not, so when James woke up we'd bring him into bed with us, he'd nurse and we'd all sleep. This was a great system until he wasn't getting much milk which lead to continuous switching and pulling, etc. At this point I would get no sleep and he would get little milk. The benefits of this practice weren't working for either of us.

I spoke with Adit about it and suggested that he take care of James in the morning instead of bringing him to bed with us. While he was doing that I'd take a shower so James wouldn't have access to nursing with me. This didn't work so well at first. James cried for me and didn't want to drink milk from his straw cup. I felt awful, but knew it was in his best interest. On about the third day James cried, but accepted milk from the straw cup. From then on we never looked back.

It is such a relief not having to nurse him anymore. I say this because he's big and it used to hurt my back to support him. Also I used to nurse in the car which is a serious back killer, not to mention dangerous. I would nurse when we'd drive home from being out on the weekends, it was occasional, but still difficult. My cousin who's a mom of 2 explained how she nursed her kids in the car, just by sitting on one leg to get enough height to lean over. This was an easy method when James was rear-facing, but so much more complicated when he is forward facing. Wow, the crazy things we do as mothers for our kids. I would have thought I was nuts 5 years ago!

Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you all because I struggled with weaning James, more in the sense of I didn't know how. However this was the most natural way where he basically just forgot about it. I do miss nursing him though, there is no other feeling like knowing that you can instantly comfort your child no matter what the circumstance.

Otherwise things have been going well for us. James is talking non-stop and is a very active toddler. He loves daycare and playing with his friends. He likes being chased by Adit and I and kicking soccer balls around. It's so fun watching how James changes day to day. We are simply enjoying the summer with friends and family and hope you all are enjoying your summer too.

Happy reading!

Rachel

Playing Catch Up!

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the long hiatus, I have so much to share and so little time to do it. So much has happened since March. For one I did the Covenant House Sleep Out, James turned 2, celebrated my birthday in April, and went to Hawaii in May. June is also turning out to be a busy month with multiple family and friend events on the weekends. I'll do some flashback posts to fill you in the past events.

We are all doing great and I have no complaints, well maybe one for this crummy weather. James is fully settled in his daycare. He started this new one in Feb and loves it. He often talks about it friends and teachers. He liked some teachers so much he was talking about them in Hawaii! James is changing everyday and developing his personality, some good and some bad. He loves trucks and cars and now sleeps with them. I end up tip-toeing into him room at night to remove them from his grip. Lol! He talks non-stop now, most of which we can understand. James is a happy kid that enjoys playing and jumping, he never sits still. The only way he calms down is when watching his favorite movie Cars and Cars II. However like may others I assume he gets frustrated sometimes and we get to see some meltdowns. Usually these are pretty quick as distraction is the best cure for it.

As for his diet he is still giving us a difficult time when it comes to eating veggies and fruits. All he wants is meat, fish, rice, corn, etc for dinner. He used to love broccoli, but refuses it now. I'm attempting to bribe him with TV and dessert to eat food and sometimes it works. Many other parents just say that he'll come around and just start eating everything, I'm still waiting for that day. I started baking for James. With the help of my mom we made him a banana bread that had mango and blueberries inside. He loved it! I'm looking for a new recipe to try a carrot cake next. With regard to his dairy allergy, it's pretty much all gone. I'm not sure how he does with yogurt because he doesn't want to try it, but that's the only one that's iffy for him. Believe it or not I'm still nursing him a little, only in the mornings. We bring him to our bed and he nurses and sleeps a little longer with us. The only other time he nurses is when we are putting him to bed when he's not at home. Otherwise he doesn't fall asleep, we are still working on an alternative to this as it's difficult for me. Today we didn't bring him into bed and instead gave him milk which he drank. I think that if we continue doing this he will wean naturally without any trauma for him. Hopefully he'll just forget about it.

Otherwise we have been living in NJ for about 7 months now, I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by. However we are still not settled as we are living in a rental community. We are house hunting and hope to find something in the near future. Work is going really well. I enjoy being here and like my co-workers. It's a fun place to work and great learning environment too. No other big trips planned for the summer. We are just planning to take James to see Thomas the Train and visit Sesame Place at some point. Hope we get good weather for both.

Well I'll try to fill you in as I go and hope you all are doing well too.

Happy reading!

Rachel

 

How Do You Feed a Toddler?

Hi everyone,

I desperately need your advice! For those of you who know James, he's not a fruit eater. He can do veggies, like broccoli, carrots, etc but lately he's not eating veggies either. He basically wants to eat a meat, ie chicken, fish, etc with rice and have a banana or cookies for dessert. This leaves my poor guy constipated and screaming in agony. We give him probiotic drops and mango juice to help keep him regular, but there has got to be a better way. Yesterday I convinced him to eat corn by counting the kernels and got him to eat a mini quiche by calling it cake. Anyone else have any advice on introducing new foods to a visual eater? He just looks at the plate and says no. What should I try?

Please share your feeding tips with me, I am eager to try it and we'll let you know how it goes!

Thanks in advance!

Happy reading!

Rachel

Is Anything Safe? - Must Read for Every Parent!

Hi everyone,

I came across this article after my mom posted it on her Facebook wall. It was called "Child Identity Theft a Growing Trend". This peaked my interest and boy am I glad that I read this. It was actually perfect timing since I recently received James' social security card so I'm going to guard that card for him!

Here are some key points from the article, although I highly recommend you read it!

•Don’t share your child’s Social Security number. When asked for it on school or medical forms, ask whether optional information can be substituted, or whether you can use just the last four SSN digits.
• Tell your children not to place his/her birth date or address on social networking sites.
• Register all family phone numbers on the Do Not Call List.
• Shred sensitive information. Don’t discard pages from bills, credit cards or bank statements with readable information.
• Educate your children on the risks of giving away personal information.

Here's the link: Child Identity Theft a Growing Trend, take a read and share some more pointers if you can think of them.

Happy reading!

Rachel

Phew! My Single Mom Stint is Finally Over!

Adit was away for 2.5 weeks so it was just James and I during the week. I have never been away from him for so long, which is tough on it's own, but even more difficult when you solely have to take care of a toddler. I made arrangements with my boss and she agreed to let me break up my vacation days so that I could leave an hour early everyday to run errands, get groceries, make dinner etc. I was preparing for his departure, but nothing could compare to actually being faced with the situation. I was really scared and nervous wondering if I could do it on my own. I knew that my mom was coming to help me on the weekends, but how would I manage during the week? I was a wreck the night before Adit left and even cried. I had such a rush of emotions that I couldn't control myself. Adit reassured me that I would be fine so I managed to pull myself together and get some sleep.

Adit was there to help me the next morning before he left for Montreal. The morning went by like normal, but I was dreading the evening. I had most of my food prepared because my mom stocked the freezer so initially I wasn't too concerned about meals, but just being able to take care of James. Every night was basically the same, I'd leave work a little early, do my chores, pick James up from daycare, feed him, play with him, bathe and brush his teeth, massage him, dress him, read a million books then put him to sleep. James was pretty good except for eating and brushing his teeth. He had a phase when I thought he didn't want to take a bath, but then I realized that he was just bored and needed more toys, then I couldn't get him out of the tub.

The mornings were a different story, how was I to get myself ready for work and a toddler ready for daycare? I knew that I couldn't shower and allow him to roam around so I showered the night before. Once James woke up I got his milk ready and attempted to start the day unless he wanted to get back into bed and snuggle a little. Then we'd both brush our teeth, or he would eat toothpaste until I was finished and could pin him down and brush his teeth. After that I changed his diaper and dressed him. I would take him downstairs, give him breakfast and put the TV on so he could watch Imagination Movers. James is obsessed with this show so I knew I had about 20 mins to get dressed. I would quickly run upstairs and had my ears open listening for crying, or any sounds of mischief. He was pretty good so I was able to have do intervals of 5 mins of dressing with a 30 second quick check on James. We got into such a routine that I was leaving for work earlier than I was when Adit was here!

The weekends were great, I spent the first one home with my mom. We didn't do much because we were snowed in, but James had a great time with "Gra-ma". The next weekend was President's Day weekend or Family Day weekend for you Ontarians so we went to Manhattan and stayed with my mom. We drove on Sat afternoon during James nap so he slept most of the way, then that evening my brother and cousins came to visit and we had dinner. It was fun, but a late night for James especially since we had big plans to visit the Natural History Museum the next morning. Initially my mom was supposed to come too, but instead she stayed home and started preparing lunch for us when we returned. It was just my brother and I. He is notorious for sleeping in so when I told him we'll leave at 9am, I had my reservations that he might not be ready. Boy did he prove me wrong and he was early so that he could help with James. That was a pleasant surprise. After getting to the museum, James had a field day looking at the exhibits. His favorite by far were the African animals. He kept running and pointing and shouting all the different animal names. Elephant! Lions! Zebra! It was such a pleasure seeing the excitement in his eyes. I just wished Adit could have been there too.

James stated to get sleepy after dancing under the blue whale so we made a B line to the exit. It was about 28 degrees outside so we booted it back to the apartment. James was nice and warm in his stroller and quickly feel asleep. Since we've been in NJ he's only been in the stroller once, so I can see why people don't use it as much in the suburbs. Since James walks everywhere I thought he might not want to be in the stroller, but he ask to go in that day. In any case we headed back to NJ that evening and enjoyed the extra day off before work. My mom was so nice and came back to NJ with me then commuted from here to her job in Manhattan. Her normal commute was about 20 mins, but from NJ it was about an hour and 30 mins. She wanted to make sure James and I were ok and with her help we were. I owe my mom a tremendous thank you for all that she has done. Especially since we have moved to NJ, she comes to see us almost every weekend and is constantly cooking or helping while she is here. So thanks mom, we appreciate all that you do for us!

Before I knew it, I made it through the week and was waiting for Adit to come home on that Friday evening! I was so excited and anxious. The weather was bad on parts of his drive, but luckily he passed those towns earlier on the trip and the weather got better the further south he came so he didn't have to stay overnight on the road. I kept tracking him on Google Latitude to see where he was. It was a blessing and a curse, because I would refresh within minutes at times. In case you don't know about Latitude, with one's permission you can see the satellite location of that person's phone, I think that it's great for families. When James gets his own phone, he will have this. In any case, the last 30 minutes were the worst. James was already fast asleep, so I was just perched at the window waiting. When I saw the car pull up I ran to the door and gave him a big kiss and hug! Finally Adit was home!

I learned a lot about myself and am proud of the way that I managed mostly by myself while Adit was away. I knew that I had a responsibility to James and to myself and that I had no other option rather than doing. I have to hand it to single moms because raising a child is a lot of work, now I know why they say "It takes a village"! Valentine's day occurred while Adit was away and he sent me some beautiful flowers. He also sent a sweet card that I kept in my purse. That note helped me through the rough days and was a sweet reminder that he'd be back soon.

Now our family is back to normal and we are looking forward to the weekend. Hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy the time with your loved ones!

Happy reading!

Rachel

Daycare Change!

James has been at daycare since he was just over 11 months and now he's 22.5 months so he knows the routine. He started his previous daycare in mid November and he left on Jan 31st. Initially we really liked it except for the high price tag and the fact that it didn't have a kitchen. The kitchen was one requirement that I wasn't planning on giving into however I made a sacrifice and allowed him to eat the catered food. The catered food was good as I got to pick his meals daily and they made things like chicken nuggets made with cauliflower to hide the veggies. When I did the tour I was sold on the center itself. It was so spacious and clean, plus there were multiple playrooms for James, along with a huge playground. I call it a playground because there was a slide, sandbox, bike track, and open grassy area. This daycare was well planned out and was NAEYC certified.

After some time there, I realized that it wasn't as great as I thought it was. The teachers were good at teaching the kids, but I didn't find that they were as focused on feeding the children. I say this because they didn't give James any milk or water to drink one day. We inquired about it and there was no acceptable answer. It seemed like everyone was pointing the finger at someone else. This was extremely disappointing and heart breaking because James wasn't able to express himself even though he was thirsty. After much talk with the staff we decided to give them another chance since James was already adjusted there and enjoyed it, but in the back of my mind I was looking for another center. Believe it or not, the same situation happened again! I was horrified, it occurred on the night that I was at a company event so I couldn't yell at everyone there. Adit called me on his drive home and told me about it. I left an urgent message with the site director, however to this day I haven't received a call back.

So the next day I heard nothing from management. I did speak with James' primary teacher because she heard what had happened. I showed her his daily sheet from the prior day that stated that he was given milk and drank it, yet we knew he had none. The reason I know he didn't have any was because we supply the milk and when we picked them up they were full. She kept the daily sheet and brought it to the staff meeting. Upon pickup that day someone from management spoke with me and apologized for what happened to James. She suggested that James will be permanently assigned to one teacher so she can take care of him. I asked what would happen when she's sick, on vacation, etc. They said that they will work on that, we all know what that means. I preferred that James was exposed to everyone and didn't think that I was asking for anything special. After this ordeal I knew we had to leave. I had a another daycare in mind but they didn't have their licencing yet or else James would have been there from day 1. They had an open house after the holidays so we attended and Adit and I really liked it.

The new daycare was a 2 minute drive from home, had a kitchen with homemade food, and webcam access. This was just what we needed so I gave notice at the old center and enrolled James for Feb 1. It's been a couple weeks and James is adjusting well. As they are new, enrollment is low and James is the only permanent child in his class. I thought he'd be lonely sometimes, but he does a lot of interacting with his teacher. Just the other day I heard him counting in spanish to himself and he showed me a heart today. I think we made the right decision, but only time will tell.

Hope your childcare needs are working out for you and that you never have the experience we had.

Happy reading!

Rachel

Best Straw Cup!

I've tried so many different cups that I've lost count and one way or another I have been disappointed by them. I decided to be an educated consumer and canvassed the internet to find a cup that meets my needs.

Here are my needs:
- Cup must not leak ever, and I mean while sealed, while straw is out, while lying on its side.
- The cup must be durable and BPA free.
- The cup should be relatively easy to assemble.
- The cup should have a durable soft straw that kids can easily retrieve liquids from.

I am sure most of you see this as basic needs, but with the caliber of cups out there it's more of a wish list ... or so I thought.

After extensive research the only cup that met my needs was the Tommie Tippee Explora Li'l Sippee Flip Top Cup!  I am so happy with this cup, it has met all of my needs above and hasn't leaked yet! It is a little difficult to disassemble for washing, but still worth it! I bought 4 from Toy's R' Us and I will probably get more in the future! James loves it and it allows for big gulps so that he drinks more water and milk!

If you are looking for a new cup, look no more and try this one out. Hope you like it as much as we do!

Happy reading!

Rachel

Merry Christmas to All!

Hi everyone,

I know you've heard this story before, but I've been super busy so unable to write. So much has happened since I last wrote. For example, I started working again and it's been great. I live an work in NJ so the commute is a breeze and the best part is that work is a 3 minute drive to/from daycare so I'm always close to my little James. I haven't met too many people at work yet besides by immediate team and those sitting near me. However I am optimistic that it'll change since I am not a shy person. :P During my second week the company had their Christmas parties, one in NJ and the other in Manhattan. I attended both, the first one was in NJ and a very corporate affair. They even had amazing prizes and some people won tickets to shows, days off, and even an expense paid trip to Aruba! Unfortunately this wasn't me. The party is NY was what I was most looking forward too as I'd see friends and former coworkers from 5 years ago when I used to work there. This party was awesome, it felt so good seeing familiar faces and catching up with everyone! I had an amazing time and it was a great way to end my second week at work. Starting during the holidays is the way to go as everyone is so happy, there is always food around, and they have casual dress. The only downside is that I couldn't take any time off so no Boxing Day shopping for me.

I've been so busy juggling home and work life that there wasn't much time for Christmas shopping. Thankfully I signed Adit up for Amazon Mom which lets you get free 2-day shipping which is the best. And before you start calling Adit a mom, moms or dads are eligible to sign up for this. The only problem with using Adit's account was that he got an email every time I ordered something so there was no chance of surprising him. My other favorite places to shop for kids gifts were Costco and Marshall's. Costco does extensive research on each toy that they sell for the particular age group so you can almost guarantee that they have the best toys. Marshall's is the best for books and toys too as they are usually marked down 20-50% off retail. Ok, enough about shopping, I'll get to Christmas fun.

It was Christmas weekend and we still didn't take James to see Santa. I've been searching for a decent Santa and felt that I'd have to settle for one at a local mall. I shared my dismay with Adit and we agreed that we should go see Santa at Macy's! We drove to my mom's place in Manhattan on Friday night. We left at James's bedtime so he slept during the whole drive and even during the transfer from car to bed. Since my mom was there to babysit Adit and I decided to take a walk and check out a trendy dessert place. It was nice holding hands again and walking down the street knowing that James was happily asleep with Grandma. This was our first outing, just the two of us since we moved here. After enjoying an amazing dessert we walking around the city and headed home. We passed by so many places that we wanted to check out and thought of more things that we could do with James on future weekends. Then we went to sleep because we had an early morning.

We woke up a little late on Saturday, and by late I mean 7:00am as opposed to 6:00am and we had breakfast and trained it over to Macy's. I heard that the lines at Macy's were insane and that most people waited an average of 90 minutes to see Santa. I knew that this wouldn't work for James as he wouldn't stand inline for that long. This is why we planned to be there at 9am to coincide with the opening. So the strategy was that Adit would make his way up with James while I ran up to the 8th and waited in line. Once I got to the 8th there was barely a line. I waited in it and had to let people go in front of me until he and James got there. We walked though Santaland and James was in awe of all the little Christmas decorations and displays. His favorite were the trains and they even had train tracks circling around a huge tree. When we got to Santa, James was aprehensive about sitting with Santa so Adit held him and in the end I jumped in for a family photo. All in all I think it was a success and the start of a new family tradition for our family.

Before we knew it, it was Christmas eve. We had a turkey dinner with our family and my brother's in laws. It was nice meeting up and sharing some good times. As James had a million presents so we opened some before he went to bed. Moush's parents got him a bouncy horse. James was a little afraid to sit on it at first, then he really warmed up to it and learned to bounce all by himself. He got some serious air! Next he opened Daniel and Moush's gift which was a ride on Thomas the Tank engine train. As he opened it and saw the train on the box he started to get excited and said "choo-choo train". Daniel actually pre-assembled and charged it before wrapping it so it was ready to go! James sat on it and after a short time was moving around the house. The next gift was from my mom, it was a tunnel and tent. We assembled 2/3rds of it and placed it in the dining room. There are little windows on the sides so he enjoyed "hiding" in there as we "looked" for him. Needless to say James was a tired boy, but didn't want to sleep with all those fun toys. Miraculously we got him to sleep, then quickly got ready for Christmas Eve service at the local church. When we stepped outside it was snowing and looked so beautiful out, everything was covered by the time we got home, however the snow didn't last for James to play in.

Now for Christmas morning. James woke up at 6:30 as usual and I entertained him as Adit was still asleep. We came down and woke up Grandma, then Auntie Moush was up, long after was Daniel and Adit. We had some fresh bagels as they were one of the only stores open and began opening gifts. James was a pro unwrapper at this point and opened most of his. What's funny was that after each gift he didn't want to open more, but play with the one he just opened. James got so many toys and we thank everyone who gave him presents, he loved them all. Then around noon we left NJ and headed to my Aunt's home in Queens to exchange gifts there. It was fun watching all the kids open their gifts and watch the excitement in their eyes. After lunch we headed home since I had work the next day.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoyed time with your family!
Here are some pics from that weekend! My brother Daniel took most of the pics, but here are a few that I had.

Happy reading!

Rachel