A Mompreneur’s Chronicle Of Life With Her Boys

Thank You Mr. President

Nov 24 2009

When I went to get the mail this weekend, a small greeting card sized envelope caught my eye in the pile. First it had a hand written address, not very often these days do you get hand written addresses, especially in handwriting you don’t recognize. Second it was address to William. It had been my experience that most 8 month olds don’t get very much mail (most 4 year olds don’t either). So I was intrigued. Then I looked closer at the envelope.

The return address was “The White House Washington, DC 20500”. Now I was really wondering what this was. I couldn’t get from the mailbox into the house fast enough to find out.

I opened the envelope to find a note from the President and First Lady, welcoming William to the world. Written on White House imprinted stationary with the presidential seal embossed in the paper, it said. “Welcome to the world! Your arrival is a cause for great celebration for your proud family. We wish you a long and happy life filled with chances to learn, ideas to explore, people to love, and dreams to fulfill. Sincerely, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama (their signatures)”

WOW! was all I could say. Jim comes around the corner as says “What?” I handed him the envelope first and then the note. He said we have to frame this. I am planning to frame it and put it in Will’s room.

Political affiliations aside this is really cool. I know that Barack and Michelle Obama had very little to do with the actual mailing of this card, but they have to know that it is happening. This is something that he will have for the rest of his life. I do feel compelled to say that we did not receive a note after Jack was born.

People will probably ask how they knew he was born. My guess is they got the list from the Social Security Administration when we filed for his Social Security Number. Or someone arranged for it and didn’t tell us. Either way, I don’t really care.

So, thank you Mr. President and the First Lady, Will appreciates his note.

Filed Under: cool stuff, family, William Tagged With: 1 Comment

Fingers are for feeding

Nov 20 2009

This week we had our appointment with Robin Glass, Will’s feeding specialist. We haven’t seen her since early October, so I was interested to get her perspective on how Will was doing with his solids. He is very interested in food, just not really into using the spoon. He will pick up anything that I put on his tray and taste it. Some stays in and some comes out, but he is very enthusiastic about it. With the spoon, he will open his mouth a few times, but not really close around it to remove the food. He does much better when I put food on my finger and put it in his mouth.

Robin confirmed that it is not uncommon (double negative, sorry) for some babies to decide that finger foods are more to their liking and loose the spoon early. Will does much better with foods that are thicker, (not the thin baby food purees) keeping the food in his mouth and moving it around to chew it. We actually tried turning the spoon over and putting it in his mouth and using the handle, which he did much better. I guess he just has to do it his way.

Overall, she was very happy with his progress. We still need to work on his chewing technique and his pincher pick-up, but those will come. He is so enthusiastic and willing to try most anything, his skills just don’t match his will yet. I am going to give him fork-mashed or lightly ground foods, instead of purees and soft finger foods to pick up. Everything will be easy for him to “chew” and get to the size he can swallow.

It is fun to watch him eat. He is a full contact eater, enjoying food every possible way, in his mouth, up his nose, in his hair and ears. He will even work to recycle some off his bib if he runs out of stuff on his tray. I am going to try to find some things for Thanksgiving that he can have, maybe some mashed potatoes without dairy and some pumpkin (without the pie).

At the end Robin said that we don’t need to come back to see her unless we have a question. Great! She is such a wonderful person, it will be sad not to see her, but exciting to get good news from doctors over there.

P.S. I have a freezer full of organic baby food purees, if anyone wants them, please let me know.

Filed Under: GI, William Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment

Having a hard day

Nov 12 2009

Will is having a hard day. He is cranky, not eating very much and generally unhappy. He fusses and cries if you are holding him or if he is on his own. It makes it really easy for me.

We all have hard days, but those days for a baby are even more difficult because they can’t tell you what is wrong. I know his system is off. He has had loose poops for the last few days. He seems to have a bit more phlegm than normal. Then there are his two front teeth that just will not finish coming through completely. They have been working on it for almost a month now. Finish already!

Or is all of this him going through a development growth spurt. I know babies go through these and they will be really cranky for ~5 days. Then they just go back to normal humor, but they may be doing something new.

He hasn’t been wanting to eat much off the spoon for the last week. He is very interested in picking the things up from his tray. I am not sure if this is because he isn’t feeling great, his teeth bothering him or if he has decided that pureed food just isn’t good enough anymore.

I wish I could figure out how to help him other than just giving him Motrin and trying to find the one thing that will keep him happy for that moment. It sure would be nice if babies could talk. Wouldn’t that make our lives simpler.

Filed Under: family, parenting, William Tagged With: , , 1 Comment

H1N1 flu vaccine

Nov 03 2009

Jim and I had an interesting discussion last week about the H1N1 vaccine and the government. We both felt like the government (CDC, FDA and whoever else is involved in the flu vaccines) has really laid an egg this year (No pun intended.) They have gotten the whole country panicked about H1N1, but they haven’t been able to supply the vaccine to fill the need they have created. At the same time there are conflicting news reports about how mild or severe this flu actually is. I felt that it is extremely irresponsible to cause this situation and then leave us to deal with it. As a parent what do you do.

Over the weekend people where lining up at 3 a.m. for vaccinations at Snohomish County clinics and I am sure that is happening across the county. They interviewed one woman who had been to clinics in 2 other counties the previous weeks, getting turned away at those because of lack of supply. So she got her 2 kids up at 3 a.m. and was standing in line for 6 hours in the cold and rain to get them vaccinated. She didn’t even get to have a shot because she isn’t in the high risk category. This is ridiculous. We are just doing what they have told us to do, get our kids vaccinated.

Luckily we happen to have an appointment at our pediatricians office last week and they had just gotten some vaccine in, so both boys were able to get vaccinated. If we hadn’t been so lucky, we would have been among those people on Saturday morning waiting in the cold.

This whole process has been so poorly managed, from the start with the news reports of the inital outbreak (I remember a quote from the CDC chairman saying “People will die.” Even if that is true you don’t say that in a news conference) to the distribution to the counties and clinics. King County has been so secretive about their supply you don’t even know if they have it.

It shouldn’t be this hard to do the right thing. We were lucky to have been in the right place at the right time for the first dose, who knows what we will have to do to get the 2nd dose like we are supposed to. This isn’t even for Jim and I, who know what we will have to do to get our vaccinations.

Lastly I want to share some valuable info I found about the safety of the vaccine. I have heard a lot of people saying how it hasn’t been tested and is it safe. It is manufactured exactly the same as the regular vaccine. So if you believe that the regular seasonal flu shot is safe, then believe this one is too. There was an article in the Seattle Times a couple weeks ago about how the vaccine is produced. I couldn’t find that one, but here is a NY Times article that is good as well.

I hope that if you choose to vaccinate you are able to find it and don’t have to stand in line for 6 hours in the cold to do so.

Filed Under: family, parenting, rants Tagged With: Leave a Comment

Buzz and Woody’s Halloween

Nov 02 2009

Buzz and Woody This year for Halloween Jack requested a Buzz Lightyear (from Toy Story) costume. So that determined our theme. Since Will doesn’t have an opinion yet he got to be Woody and we attempted to make Mulligan the Slinky Dog. Mulligan always dresses up too; she is a very good sport.

Once the costumes have been decided I get to work making them. This year wasn’t to hard. My sister helped me figure out how to make Buzz’s wings, the hardest part of the costume. Jack was very happy with the final product. Yes I did make the purple headsock too.

Buzz For Woody, I only had to make his cow print vest, bandana bib and belt buckle. I tried to find a plain yellow onesie to paint the stripes on, but couldn’t so this was the closest I could get. The only things he didn’t have were cowboy boots and a hat, but he wouldn’t have kept them on anyway.

Mulligan’s costume proved to be the most difficult and ultimately unsuccessful (which is why there are no photos of her.) We attempted to wrap her with speaker cord and I made her long ears. Neither would stay in place, so we gave up. Next year her costume will be better.

I think next year we (Jim and I) will need to dress up too. I wanted to make us some costumes this year, but ran out of time. We didn’t have a party to attend, so it didn’t matter anyway.Buzz's back

We hit the neighborhood for Trick or Treating with our neighbors who have a son Jack’s age. All the neighbors look forward to seeing the boys and our street has just enough houses. The adults take their treats (adult beverages) and the kids get theirs as we go.

Happy Halloween! Hope you had a haunting good time.

Filed Under: family, Jackson, photos, traditions, William Tagged With: , Leave a Comment