A Bunch of Random Stuff in Search of a Uniting Theme and a Post

Well, we're not going to get that uniting theme. Not gonna get it here. Not gonna get it today.

I'm a whole lot less interesting when my life is swimming along. All the angst makes for good blogging. Oh well. I'll take happy and boring over stressed and interesting any day.

So, Mr. Long-Suffering did not have Lyme Disease nor did he have Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Whatever he had was knocked out by the antibiotics though, so that is good. However, he had some wonky test results come back, so he had more blood tests done, additional wonky results, and just had a liver ultrasound today. Results back next week while we're on "vacation". With today's modern conveniences like answering machines and cell phones, we'll get the results on Monday, I imagine. I don't anticipate there being anything wrong, but am intrigued by the idea that I have a designated driver while on "vacation" since he is forbidden from drinking while awaiting test results.

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Let's talk about Pop Songs About Infertility: I come up with 3, no 4.
Ace of Base "All That She Wants (is another baby)"
"All I Want to Do (is make love to you)" by uhhh, whoever that was back in the totally 80s...Heart
Dixie Chicks had one or two songs about infertility and the post-baby body. can't remember the songs, but you get the drift.
Oh, and Kellie Coffey "I Would Die For That" (a song a don't know but read about on Celebrity Baby Blog and the title alone tells me that it must be partly true)

Anyway, I think there should be more and we should come up with titles like "I've Been Working on the Transfer" and "This Little Piggie Went to Cornell" or "One Little, Two Little, Three-Celled Embryos".

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The nanny thing is going nicely. She was on vacation this week but we had a fill-in nanny. We got Mrs. Marie's sister, Mrs. Ginger to be our fill-in, and it was great.

Except both Mrs. Marie and Mrs. Ginger are not engineers. And load the dishwasher like not engineers. Which is totally a nitpicky thing and I would never ever mention it to either of them. But Mr. Long-Suffering and I are engineers, and my superpower is loading the dishwasher to maximum capacity for greater efficiency and water savings. Mr. Long-Suffering actually asked me yesterday if this is what living with normal people is like and then told me that he WAS SO GLAD HE MARRIED ME. Because of my dishwasher loading abilities. It was oddly the sweetest thing he has said to me - ever.

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During the high fevers, Mr. L-S broke out with 8 cold sores on one half of his upper lip. He's prone to them ayway (Chuckles and I do not get them). Wednesday, Bobo woke up with one giant cold sore. Ick. Poor baby. Destined to be like his father...intolerant of the heat, burns in the sun, and gets cold sores.

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Right now, I am trying to decide whether to send my 5-year old, Chuckles, to all-day Kindergarten in the fall or half-day (and homeschool in the afternoon with Mrs. Marie while Bobo is napping). He just finished a year of all-day kindergarten at a private school (where he was apparently at the top of his class despite being a year younger than most kids). He's on the young side of 5 for kindergarten this fall anyway with a May birthday and a cut-off at the end of June, so skipping ahead to first grade is competely out of the question (plus new school, transitions, etc...I'm just not ready for it). The decision feels both make-or-break and completley inconsequential in the grand scheme at the same time. And to complicate matters, all-day kindergarten at the public school costs $1800 but I already put a $200 deposit on it before I had the nanny thing lined up.

So, in summation, I have a nanny who I will pay regardless of the number of children she watches. I have the opportunity for full-day kindergarten for which I must pay. My kid reads and already did a year of full-day kindergarten. And he's only a kid once. My guess is that the kids in the half-day kindergarten class have at least one stay-at-home parent (or maybe a grandparent). There are four K-classes: one half-day class and three full-day. Discuss pros and cons.
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Kids know when they’re hungry and when they are full.

They will eat as much as they need (barring any sort of feeding issue, which your kids probably does not have if he or she is growing and thriving).

For obesity prevention: we need to teach kids to listen to their bodies and only eat as much as they need and only eat when they are truly hungry. So, we don’t force them to sit at the table and eat, we don’t say you have to eat three more bites before you can go (until they are 5 and say they have room for ice cream but not peas), you don’t have to finish this plate of food or this jar of baby food. Our job as parents is to offer healthy meals and snacks. Their job is to eat it (or not).

Over the course of a single day, a child’s diet may not be complete, but over the course of a week, if you keep offering healthy meals and snacks, a child will consume the nutrients he needs.

Just as you have hungry days and days when food just doesn’t sound good, so do children. A child in a growth spurt may eat an entire can of green beans and three plates of pasta with meatballs. A child in a low growing pattern might only eat three rotini, no green beans, and two bites of peach. And that’s OK. Kids know when they’re hungry and as long as they are given healthy choices and a chance to sit quietly and eat, they’ll do it. Kids, of course, won’t necessarily come right to the table to eat if they are interested in what they’re doing (playing) but if you can break them away and get them to a quiet table, if they are hungry, they will eat.

Children might not eat when teething or sick. When sick, it can become difficult to eat because of a sore throat or because chewing and swallowing requires that they close their mouths (which if stuffy, they might be using to breathe). When teething, they might just want to mouth or chew on the food and not swallow it. Post nasal drip might leave their stomachs a little upset so food doesn’t sound good.

Children are naturally afraid of new foods. It’s a defense mechanism against being poisoned from when we were cavemen. A child may need to see the same food (asparagus) 10x or more before he’ll eat it. Sometimes, a child will just put the food in his mouth and then spit it out. Sometimes, a child will love it one day, and the next notsomuch.

Offer veggies first at the meal on the tray before offering the carbs to increase veggie consumption. If they are hungry, they’ll eat the veggies since they are present. Then, you can offer the meats and carbs. Give foods fun names so kids will like they like “Super Eye Carrots” and “Baby Trees” or “Power Peas” or “Big Muscles Meat”.

Offer dip and ketchup to increase healthy food consumption and make it fun. You might not like tartar sauce on salmon, but a kid might (and yes, my kids like salmon burgers from Costco). You might not like an organic Angus beef hot dog with ranch dressing, but a kid might. You might not like a soy hot dog, but my kids do. I don’t care for ketchup on my broccoli, but I know someone who does. And I know someone else who can’t live without mustard.

If a child never knows that white bread exists, he won’t resist wheat bread.