Music To My Ears

It's my "weekend" again, yeah! I am up early again with my son, watching as he intently observes the new colorful rattle I bought him... he is growing up so fast! I told his dad last night I didn't want him to grow up; I want him to stay small forever, or at least for a long time. Not possible, I know. He's just so cute and innocently sweet, I know that this day fifteen years from the the story won't be so similar.. well, we shall see about that, he just might be a mama's boy! :)
At his doctor's appointment he weighed in at 15 lbs and 6 ounces, growing five inches since the day he was born nearly four months ago. He's growing like a weed! He was a trooper for his shots too; His pacifier was definitely his best friend! DJ is absolutely beautiful.

I am sad yet content with my friend Brittany's passing last Saturday. I visited her one last time that morning, and although she did not talk back to me, I still believe that she listened as I spoke to her. I did not like to see her in the condition that she was in. I hope from the bottom of my heart that her passing was truly painless. After six years of sickness, the pain is gone and for that I am grateful. I am thankful to have had her in my life; she made me see things from a different perspective and she has reminded me to be positive and courageous.

And now, on with...

Essential Things Thursday!

1. Music. I think, that for a lot of people, music is an outlet to vent, just like writing is for a good number of bloggers out there. The best thing about it is, any genre of good music can please any ear.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

2. A good salad. Mine? I'll take a Caesar salad any day!

3. Go see "I Love You, Man", featuring Paul Rudd (Knocked Up) & Jason Segal (Forgetting Sarah Marshall). HILARIOUS. I would go see it again in theaters. It is about a man who becomes engaged to the love of his life, and he finds that he has no male friends. This is his quest to finding himself a best man for his wedding.

4. 20 questions. Ever played that game before? If you're bored at work, or taking a 10 minute break from cleaning up the house, go to http://www.20q.net and see if you can outsmart it!

5. "Maybe part of loving is learning to let go." ~From the television show The Wonder Years

dear mother-in-law,...

I hate to be neglectful of my blog.
Too bad my life is just so crazy and busy!

I went back to work this past Monday after being out for three months. They completely changed everything around, from the computer system and how to handle customer accounts, to where I sit (YES! I don't have to sit in the CORNER anymore!), to my supervisor. Whew. I guess I am pleased with the changes overall. It's too bad I still have to work in the first place.

Babies are doing well, DJ will be three months old on the 19th! Daddie's parents are killing me though! To make a long story short, both of his parents don't work due to health issues that prevent them from having the ability (so she says, hmmm..). I have argued my point time & time again on why I think DJ should just go to a baby sitter. If you have health problems, wouldn't that mean you CAN'T watch a child? Isn't that why you are on disability in the first place? I happen to consider taking care of a child as WORK!

I lost the argument of course. Whatever. I say if you want to watch him, then do it, but if I hear one PEEP about how you can't handle it anymore, well, screw you, you messed up, and you better acknowledge that I am right. I am just waiting on when his parents (mostly his dear mother) are gonna start complaining about how difficult it is to watch him. She already started yesterday by bringing up the fact that he spits up after he eats. Her tone of voice was really annoyed, like maybe I should be "fixing" his spit up "problem" and I'm not doing anything about it. Right. The thing I don't understand is, wasn't she a parent herself? Evidently, neither of her two children spit up their milk/formula in their life. She calls it "throw up" instead of "spit up." I guess to make it sound much more horrible than it already is.
I could go on and on about this lady, my god.

I think the thing I've learned though, is that sons fear and respect their mother's more than anything. I can understand that and I do agree, but I think that can only go so far. If a son can't differentiate when his mother is wrong and can't bring it to her attention, then it's obvious that the relationship is not healthy and, well, he doesn't have any balls.

All I can really do now is remind myself that it's not a big deal, and the best thing to get over the situation is to laugh at it. Oh yes, and maybe blog about it, too. And maybe move real far away....? I've heard Texas has some nice land out there...

Here are some site that I have come across ... just to have a laugh...

There is a "How-To" for everything. Here is a very valuable how to..
http://www.ehow.com/how_2069904_keep-from-killing-annoying-inlaws.html
..And how NOT to become an annoying mother-in-law (just because she is, doesn't mean you should be!)
http://www.ehow.com/how_2285728_not-be-annoying-mother-inlaw.html
There are some basic rules to dealing with them. Yes, in-laws can be difficult.
http://life.familyeducation.com/in-laws/family/48061.html
Here is a blog about hellish mother-in-laws..glad I'm not the only one who thinks so!
http://motherinlawhell.com/


Here are my personal, from experience tips on how to deal with or act around your MIL.
1.Lie to her. She made some roast beef? Tell her that it was excellent! DON'T tell her she should have flavored it more. She just might beat you up.
2.Avoid long conversations. She probably doesn't really want to hear what you have to say anyway.
3.Give her as little information as possible. She does not need to know everything about you and your husband's life.
4. NEVER, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER argue in with your husband in front of her. She will butt in, and of course, take his side. Whether he is wrong or not.

Thank god for blogs. Thank you to everyone who listens, and can identify with at least some of what I go through.

Babies-A Realization

So yesterday was my daughter's third birthday. My how time flies, and I don't say that just because most people say that ALL THE TIME, I really am in awe of how incredibly fast Betsy is growing up.In the mean time, my son DJ is rapidly approaching three months. Something I am really excited for, because he is a very colicky baby.

Practically from the time of my son's birth I realized something:I have an entirely different child on my hands. While I was pregnant I was "totally prepared" for everything that was to come from this second child, after all, I've gotten by with my first one, right?

DJ has almost slept through the night since he was one week old. On the other hand, Betsy woke up every other hour for at least the first three months. Waking up every other hour was pretty rough. They always say to nap whenever the baby is sleeping, but that was difficult for me because I have a difficult time sleeping when it's light outside and I was always wanting to do something like cleaning. Betsy never had colic either, nor did she ever use a pacifier.

Colic usually starts around three weeks of age and ends at three months, sometimes not until six or even nine months. If your baby has colic, some symptoms he may be showing are excessive crying (sometimes the crying spree[s] occur at the same time every day) or curling the body up (because he is having gas pains). Some things that you can try to help ease the babies colic is offering a pacifier (my son uses one), pushing on their legs, toward their stomach (this should help release the gas that's inside), or an over-the-counter medicine called "Mylicon", which helps to ease the gas pains.

My son is now nine weeks old, his colic started at about four weeks, and peaked to its highest at six and seven weeks. I know for a fact he is slowly growing out of this colic phase because he eats a bit less than he used to. He would try to scarf down 6 to 8 ounces per feeding every to hours or less! We also changed his baby formula to one that has 1/5 the amount of lactose. He may or may not be lactose intolerant, so we decided that he would probably need a more gentle type of formula. Taking your baby to the doctor about his colic didn't really help, and I'm sure that most people who take their colicky child to see their doctor gets the same type of answer: it will go away over time. Apparently, the number one cure of colic is to be patient.

Colic has been my biggest issue so far. But as I mentioned before, DJ has been going down from his colic episodes and all I can do is look forward to what's next. He is a very good baby otherwise. Honestly, I don't remember Betsy sleeping seven hours straight at night as a two month old!

Ahhhh.... the wonderful joys of parenting!

Here's some websites that I found informative.

From About.com:one of my favorite websites for information:
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/yourbabyweekbyweek/ss/baby_wk_three_4.htm

Colic Facts from Parents.com: http://www.parents.com/baby/care/crying-colic/colic-facts/

One more: http://www.realsavvymoms.com/parenting/article.php?category2=11&article=15