Saturday, January 24, 2009

On Weaning

For the record, because not enough people talk about this stuff...

I nursed M & B until they were 28 months old. I had thought I'd try for a year, or maybe 18 months, but they really loved to nurse, and it was one of the few times when I could snuggle with both of them and just have a moment of relative peace and quiet. Except for the times they were busy hitting each other or putting their hands on the other kid's side. In the end, I had a business trip as a deadline - though as we were weaning I thought it was entirely possible that they'd make it through my trip and then go right back to nursing.

To wean, I tried cutting out feedings when I could - getting up in the morning and going straight to a cup of milk or breakfast at the table, for example. I also started limiting the time we nursed - agreeing to nurse for the count of 10, for example, or for just 2 minutes. Basically, I started putting limits on the nursing as a way to take back some control.

After we weaned, there were still a couple of times that B asked to nurse, and I was generally able to just offer him a cup of milk instead. One time after my business trip he was insistent, so I finally agreed to let him nurse "for the count of two". He got face to face with my boob, then... nothing. He seemed stumped about what to do next. I guess he forgot how. :) That's when I knew we were really truly done.

Now I need to go bra shopping!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Facebook Etiquette

Okay. I'm over it. Thanks for lending a virtual ear to my sniveling. Today is marginally better, and so I'm just moving on from the angst-ridden to the trivial...

Etiquette Question

If you get a friend request on Facebook from someone you don't immediately recognize, do you:

a) Send them a message asking how you know them
b) Google, baby, G-O-O-G-L-E
c) Reread your high school journal for a reminder
d) Ignore the request indefinitely

Does it change things if you think you might have hooked up with them once, briefly?

Cass and the Terrible Awful No-Good Except-for-that-One-Shining Moment Day

Edited to add: I tried to post this last night, and just as I was finishing up, the battery on my laptop died. It's supposed to give me a 2 minute warning, so I can walk the ten feet to the plug, but apparently not. Went with the rest of the day, I suppose. So, this is yesterday's thoughtstream. Let's see how things go today...

I was looking forward to today, to watching the door open on a new era. To watching the door close, none too gently, on the last 8 years. But life happens, and today was just one of those sucky days. And now I'm just waiting for the *&$^@% day to be over. And that pisses me off.

Item the first. Somehow we forgot about the whole time-difference, East-coast/West-coast thing, and so my answer to "Where were you when Obama became President?" is "I don't know. Maybe changing a diaper? Probably poopy." Bah. When I realized, I sat down and cried. I know in the grand scheme of life, it's not a huge deal, but I really wanted to pause for a minute and just watch. And instead I. Missed. It. And the news coverage seemed lame in comparison.

Item the second. Sick kids. Feeling well enough to be bouncing off the walls and driving me bonkers, but M had a fever last night and school rules are 24 hours fever-free, so... (I do sometimes take one kid and keep one home, but B seemed a bit under, and we just decided to keep them both home.) J was going to stay home with them, and I was set to go to work when..

Item the third. Disaster on the computing front. Catastrophic issue with all the websites we run (several, including one that's the public information for a community group in the midst of a fundraising campaign, like, NOW). So, J got sucked into rebuilding the site and the donation form, and also little things like recreating our email addresses. Good times. Also time-consuming times, so I ended up taking a sick day.

Item the fourth. Good news, this one - my neighbor just had a baby. This morning. She was scheduled to be induced today, but her water broke in the middle of the night and they had a baby before we had a new president, even once you adjust the time zones. Sounds crazy fast to me, but what do I know? Bummer part of this is that I had grand plans for organizing meals for them, and balloons for when they come home, and I just can't get anything else together right now. Not a major issue, just one more thing.

Item the fifth. Did I mention the catastrophic computer failure was not our fault and totally avoidable? Yeah. We've had great experiences with our web hosting company until this blip, but it's not a minor blip. One of the sites? Our (family) baby blog and all of the pictures of the kids we've ever posted. The pictures themselves are backed up, but I'm not sure what it'll take to get them online again. Reminds me that I don't love having everything digital and really need to make printed albums for the kids. How else am I going to pull out their embarrassing naked baby pictures to show their prom dates?

Item the sixth. I don't even understand my numbering scheme here.

7. My kids nap fine at school, but they will not nap in their beds (mattresses on the floor) at home. It worked for about a week but now? No. Today after we gave up on bedroom napping, I took them for a drive to get them to sleep, then parked in the driveway

I just realized it's well after midnight, even on west coast time, so I'm going to put this *&^#%@$ day to rest now. I'm hoping tomorrow is the day I can revel in the hope and optimism that seemed to be the focus of all the Facebook status updates today.

Monday, January 05, 2009

various and sundry

I have a bunch of muckity muck floating around in my head - the typical 2.5 year old twin chaos, sleep suckage, behavior (theirs and mine) and much more - but it's been a while, and I don't want to launch right in to the suckfest as if that's all there is. So instead, I bring you the following:

  • Both kids, but especially M, sometimes say they don't like Daddy because he has a beard. And they like me because I don't. Sometimes they LIKE the beard, though.
  • Also, the thing over his lip is called a "mus-lip"
  • M calls bicycles "bike-a-cils"
  • M has started asking questions, with a slight up-lilt at the end
Back to school today after two weeks of vacation, including a trip to snowed-in Seattle, a dearth of naps, and a mouse in the house. I've never been so excited for a vacation to end.