Semi-reluctant emancipation

 Nursing is over.

My baby is moving quickly into toddlerhood and she is no longer all up on my business. And quite honestly, I think it was very much so a mutual decision. (If not more her decision than mine.)

Here are some brief and possibly TMI thoughts regarding this whole year of breastfeeding and pumping and the weaning (hate that name), therefore we're going to call it the, "growing up and moving on" process.

I did it.
In all authentic honesty, I'm proud of myself.

I committed (month by month) to nursing Lila for one year and I did it. I lugged that annoying pump (that I'd like to set on fire at this point) to work and EVERYWHERE. When my supply dwindled around the 8 month point, I pumped EVERY TWO HOURS to keep it up. I'm not asking for any medals here, but between you, me and the lamp post - I'm proud of myself.

The "growing up and moving on" process was really... no big deal.
I read about weaning, how to do it, what to expect, what the signs of disinterest in your baby are, how your boobs will more than likely be painfully uncomfortable... I experienced pretty much none of this. It was as natural to stop breastfeeding as it was to start. (I think that's how I knew it was the right time.)


How did I know it was time to stop?
Several reasons. First, my kid was only nursing twice a day for several hot seconds. (Morning and night) And, she would have had NO problems with just nursing in the morning.  We nursed less and less. She just didn't WANT to do it.

And, let's be honest - I wanted my uptop back. It's literally belonged to someone else in its' most utilitarian form and fashion since I got pregnant back in September/October of 2008. It's now June 2010. My boobs needed to be mine again.

How did we stop?
About a week and a half before her birthday, I stopped pumping altogether; and only nursed in the morning and at night. (IT was HEAVEN.) And, we introduced some whole milk on a trial basis. (Half breast milk, half whole milk). Lila noticed NO difference. So, for the week and a half leading up to her birthday she had frozen breastmilk from our stash and whole milk without a CARE in the world.


We watched for any lactose intolerance or allergies and noticed that she was absolutely fine.

Did Lila seem to notice or care?
No. Not even a little. In face, we retired her baby bottles at the same time. She's drinking water and whole milk solely out of sippy cups. Good bye boobs, good bye bottles. Hello independence.


Has Lila nursed at all since you've "weaned" her.
Eh, once or twice. After our flight from hell (from Cabo to Detroit), she literally nursed for 4 minutes. Bottom line, my uptop doesn't soothe her anymore. Petal, her beloved bunny, does.

My baby is growing up.

Am I sad to stop nursing?
I thought I would be... AND, part of me will always love that bonding time between us... HOWEVER, life just got that much easier!!! I mean, life REALLY got easier. And I really love it that Lila's growing up and moving on and that I am, as well.


Did I feel engorged or uncomfortable when we were going through this process? And, if so - how long did it last?
After recovering from an emergency c-section and experiencing the craziness that happens with that, I'm willing to say that the discomfort of semi-rock-solid breasts is about a .5 on a scale of 1 (no pain) to 10 (extreme discomfort). And, it lasted for like a day or so. Easy-peasy. I think the key is to gradually stop nursing/pumping. GRADUALLY. No cold turkey here.

So, there it is.

The chapter is our lives is effectively closed.

All's well in T-town.

(I can't believe I didn't have a Lila Lunes this week. I'm a bit uncomfortable with it, too...)


We're in Holy Toledo.

Yep. We flew here last Thursday. Got the little lady up at 5:30 a.m. and she didn't SLEEP until 9 p.m. Ohio time. It was INSANITY.

Lila doesn't like to sit still. The plane ride was CHAOS all because I refused to drug my child with benadryl. Let's just say we'll be finding a solution for the plane ride home that more than likely does involve Benadryl. Or crack.

The trip has been GREAT (and busy!) so far! We've seen at least 25 friends and family members. We've been to Mt. Gilead, OH and Columbus, OH. As I type this, the little lady is napping comfortably in the pack and play in her Uncle Bry's office.

We're here for a while and we're doing our best to see everyone AND have a vacation. (I'll be honest, vacation is a pretty big priority for us at this point. We hadn't been back to the States in nearly a year.)

I'll post pictures as soon...

Taking a breather.

And... I'm going to take a few days off from the blog.

(Nope, there's no fishing involved. In fact, I don't know that I've ever fished. Except at the "fish ponds" at festivals.)

I'll be back. Please check back soon.

Oh no. Tell me it isn't so.

That, my friends. Is a bodysuit.

Similar to the bodysuit I was wearing in my high school senior pictures. 

Except I was also wearing overalls and a matching blue pageboy hat.

TOP that.

It's my BFFs's birthday

Dear Tam.

I love ya.

I hope today is WONDERFUL and easy and stress free and FILLED with hugs and kisses from your sweet babies.

I smile when I think about how long we've been friends and how it all started...

I am SO glad you were born, dear friend.

With love,
ky

Some photos from Lila's first birthday...

Enjoy dear friends. Thank you for your gracious and lovely birthday sentiments to Lila and even to Craig and I. (And Ferg!)

You're all so great...

--


--
If you prefer to skip the slideshow and go directly to the pictures, click here.

June is an important month around here.

Happy birthday to the WORLD'S BEST DOG.

Love you Ferginator.

Lila Lunes:Happy Birthday, Sweet Baby

Sweet Lila,

It seems that you haven’t just left dainty smudges all over every reflective surface in our house –  you’ve also left them all over my heart.

When I first met you, Lila – we clicked.

After a somewhat eventful not-as-planned delivery, the doctor held you near me and I remember thinking, “She’s here.”

[insert contented, happy sigh...]

 “She’s here.”

Then when I got to really inspect you – your fingers (your Grandma’s), your toes, your nose (mine!), those eyes (your Grandpa’s), those lips (your Daddy’s)… I truly thought, “There is no more perfect baby than this. Truly. She's perfect.”

And you are.

Now, I suppose that’s what all Mommies think. In fact, my Mom told me that when she was in the hospital after having delivered me she introduced me to her sisters and asked, “Isn’t she beautiful?!?” and they saw the truth: I looked like a spider monkey. But they nodded and said, “Yes, she is.”

(That’s what good sisters do.)

With you? There’s no spider monkey. You were perfect from the get.

They say that there’s really no way that you can ever prepare for parenthood, and as annoying as it is when these sentiments prove to be true, well… it’s true.

The day we took you home I remember thinking. “Ok. Let’s do this. I’m this little lady’s Mommy. He’s her Daddy. That’s her dog. We’re a family. We can do this.”

I think I speak for your Daddy when I say we had no idea that we had the capacity to love someone as much as we love you.

Quite honestly, up until you were born – babies BORED me.

“Yep, oh? She’s sitting up now? Great…”

“Oh, really, she’s eating solid food? That’s awesome…”

“Oh, wow. She sleeps through the night? Fantastic…”

The last thing I ever truthfully wanted to do was to talk about someone else’s baby.

But now I get it…

…because I have you.

In fact, I’ve written updates about your life for the past 52 weeks because that’s how much I like talking about you and because that’s how proud I am of you.

Being your Mommy was worth the wait.
You came into our lives, into my life, at exactly the right momentito.
You showed up when you were supposed to. Not one moment before.

Those first weeks were tough. But I’d do them all over again just to hold you as that little 6.5 lb. swaddled peanut. And smell your baby smell and baby breath.

I’d stay up all hours of the night again just to repeatedly make sure you were breathing.

I’d even take the evenings that I spent pacing and crying right along with you all over again.

You’re worth it. Baby girl, you’re worth it.

Watching you grow has been incredible. You literally have grown faster than a chia pet.

Every time I blink you’ve reached a new milestone – it’s amazing.

And I enjoy you.

I mean, I really like being around you. You’re fun. You make me laugh. And, I think you may end up being a snuggler after all…

Your personality is presenting itself more and more each day and I can’t help but nearly fall out of my chair each time you crinkle that face and give me a giggle.

Oh, Lila.

And then there’s you and your Daddy.

You and your Daddy are quite a pair. Something happened the day you were born. It’s like he was made to be your Daddy; and you were made to be his baby girl. The way he swaddled you and held you like a little, teeny pink football in the hospital melted my heart.

You know whenever you smile at him he shakes his head and says out loud, “It’s too much.” And I think I know what he means.

He means that we love you so much.
You’re too precious to us.
And there are just no words to describe how “full” our lives are now that you’re here.

Lila, being your mommy has been one of the greatest honors of my life.

I wrote a little something to you back when you were still in my belly, before I even knew how cool you’d be.

Dear Lila,

I’m hopeful for what kind of woman you’ll be. I hope you’re strong and courageous with an ability to laugh at yourself and the world when life gets overwhelming. I hope that you draw your strength from your faith.

I hope you’re as calm and knowledgeable and as sensible as your Dad. I hope you’re socially aware, yet not easily swayed by popular opinion. I hope you’re unique and that you value honesty, kindness, sincerity and trustworthiness.

I hope you are happy.

I hope at the end of the each day, you’ll be able to rest your sweet head and be content with who you are. I hope that you find a counterpart, a husband, who loves and treasures you, but most of all is your best friend.

I hope that one day, you’ll be sitting in your bed at 28 weeks pregnant writing to your yet-to-be-born child. It’s the most humbling and blessed gift ever.

I love you so much already.

Your Mommy

--

And Lila, it’s true. You’re the most humbling and blessed gift ever.

Happy, happy birthday Lila. I've never meant it more: I am so glad that you were born.

  ♥
Your Mommy

Formspring Question: How did you meet C?

Through a mutual friend. I saw C's picture, asked to meet him and then he instantaneously fell in love with me and my 1986 bi-colored Toyota Corolla. I, however, played semi-hard-to-get. Still, he wooed me -- leaving all of his contact numbers on my answering machine: His home, his work, his car phone (!!!) his pager... :) Truly though, from the moment we met we just clicked.

ask me whatever you'd like - CLICK HERE!

A fitting number

Dear C.

Can you believe it? Can you believe it's been THIRTEEN YEARS? A baker's dozen years. Sweet.

I could go on and on about how amazing I think you are. You know, all that integrity, kindness, thoughtfulness, resourcefulness... All that REALLY great stuff about you.

But I'll attempt to keep it as short as possible.

I love you. You're the best thing that's ever, EVER happened to me.

Ain't no better man in this world. I guarantee it.

Happy anniversary best friend. I love you to the moon and back.

xoxo
me

P.S. Happy Father's Day. Sorry I couldn't top last year. :)

Ferg Friday

As it turns out, Gil the Gorilla is not only a favorite of Lila's... but he's also a best friend of Ferg who tends to sleep on him after Lila's gone to bed for the night.

I love Ferg.

A little stroll down memory lane...

Thanks to VintageAdBrowser.com and C. for finding this.

Go ahead. Waste some time. :)

I wanted this phone.

We didn't get a family cordless phone until I was a senior in high school.

No kidding. We had a kitchen phone with a phone cord that was 25 feet long.

TELL ME you remember these!!!

I still love Strawberry Shortcake and I can still smell the strawberry breath that my doll would have each time you squeezed her.

(Looking back, that's kind of creepy...)

Never had an easy bake oven.

Always wanted one.

However, I DID have a creepy crawler's oven.

(Thanks Mom.)

This had to have come out right around the Marky Mark/Calvin Klein era.

(I totally had that Shell station lego set. LEGOS are amazing.)

Fun stuff.

Who knew.

 15 Awesome Google services you never knew existed. Article here.

(Nope. Not paid for recommending Google. But would like to be.)

You tell me Thursday.

I'm at a loss.

I'm not sure what to blog about today.

I think it's because my mind is racing about what I may end up writing for Lila's one-year-old post.

So, you tell me. What should I write about.

Any suggestions? Feel free to use the little formspring thingy on the right to ask a question.

FORMSPRING QUESTION: Does Los Cabos have a fall season or is it pretty much balmy there all year 'round?

YES! Los Cabos DOES have a FALL season and it's WONDERFUL. It starts usually the last weekend in October, if you ask me. You wake up and the air smells different and it's no longer 300 million degrees.

ask me whatever you'd like - CLICK HERE!

FORMSPRING QUESTION: Where does Lila go when you have to work at the office?

We're lucky. At this particular moment in time, we work our schedules around one another and work both in the office and at home. I go into the office and Lila's Dad stays with her, or vice versa.

ask me whatever you'd like - CLICK HERE!

Old school.

There are just some things that go together:

• Peanut butter and Jelly
• Macaroni and cheese and peas
• Pizza and pop (Nope, I don't say soda. Midwest, keepin' it real, yo.)
• Cheese and crackers
• Tomato soup and grilled cheese
• Computers and mice

I work on my laptop and I'll tell you what, there's no chance that I can EVER successfully work without my mouse.

My laptop.

My mouse.

(Which, incidentally - is overrated.)

Last week I forgot my mouse at home and had to go home and get it. I honestly felt like I couldn't even USE the machine. Seriously, you might as well have taken the space bar away.

I tell you what, we're such creatures of habit.

That's all.

Famous Chloe.

My niece, Chloe, was recently featured on the regional gymnastics tournament posters, even though she wasn't competing. Can you spot her? She's the one in the white leotard.

Awesome.

SO proud of you, Clo! Wah-who!

Ferg's happy.

Here she is on the way to work today.

She hasn't stopped smiling.

Oh yay! Happy BIRTHday!!!

Guess whose birthday it is?!
It's Mickey D's special day. WAH-who!
--
I can still remember that fateful day when I, the newbie, walked into your office at our place of employment and said, "Hi. I think we're neighbors."

...and so it began... co-workers, neighbors and then friends.

I just love you.
I do.
And I know that C. does, too.
You will forever have a special place in our hearts.
I think I can speak for Craig too when I sincerely say: we are so glad that you were born.

Happy, happy birthday dear friend.

♥
kb&cb (and ferg and lila)

Is it just me?

Is it me or do racerback bras make your shoulders/clavicle HURT?

I mean, I understand that my uptop is incredibly sizable. (heh, heh...)

But seriously, I believe I prefer my bra straps a bit more appropriately spaced out in order to distribute the [sizable] weight more evenly.

Apparently this is what I get for attempting to be classy and hiding my bra straps underneath my beaters.

I have to remember that,  "money can't buy me class, elegance is learned." (Anyone else embarrassed that they knew what those lyrics are from?)

Exciting times here.

June 14th (TODAY) - My sister-in-law Nadja just gave birth to her second daughter, Zofia Nicola. Follow her on twitter here. She's been talking about the baby. :)

June 19th - Lila's first birthday party at my sister's house!

June 20th - Our 13-year anniversary / Craig's Father's Day / Lionel Richie's Birthday

June 21st - Lila's ACTUAL birthday!  (Lila has requested cristal and Jay-Z to celebrate.)

June 22nd - Fergie Lupita's 3rd birthday! (Ferg has requested a Cesar's Gourmet to celebrate.)

...and there's a couple of more super-exciting things happening next week... that I'm choosing to keep private. (Oddly.)

I've got a lot on the old brain. Blogging may suffer. Or it may flourish. You never know with me. Consider this fair warning.

Fun fact: All through high school, every single day, Craig ate two twinkies a day. He's radioactive today because of it.

Lila Lunes:I love this kid.

Enjoying some fish.

So last night as Lila and I were doing our nightly quiet time, she slipped her hand into my closed fist and started moving her little fingers around to tickle me. I laughed... Then she did it again. I laughed more. She did it again. What? She's tickling me now?!

This little sweetie pie has melted my heart.

Here's the thing: I love that we can interact and communicate with her so much more than we ever have been able to before. It makes this whole parenting thing that much cooler.

Moving on...

Q. Does Lila talk a lot?

A. She babbles continuously. The words that we can actually make out are: yay!, er-gie (Fergie), mamamamama and dadadadadadada and yeah.

My favorite? "Good morning, Lila! Did you sleep well?" She responds with, "Yeah."

Lol. What?! Did you seriously just answer, "Yeah"?

Q. Does Lila do any sign language?

A. No. She refuses to. And trust me, it's not for lack of trying on our part. She makes noises instead of signs. Lots and lots of noises. (Just ask anyone who attempts to have a phone conversation with me.) 

She's just got no interest and we choose our battles in this house.

Q. Is Lila walking yet?

A. Still no. She's taken a FEW steps on her own, but she still appears to be quite content crawling everywhere she needs to go. 

Q. Are we preparing for Lila's first birthday party!?

A. YES! We're doing a little shindig at my sister's house this weekend. It's going to be pretty-low key. Barbeque fare, swimming, cupcakes and such. Care to see the invitation? (You can click to make larger.)

Here are some more pics of the little lady...

Who am I?

Un espejo, or a mirror

So after some banter with one of my favorite people in all the world, I've been thinking about who I am. Yes, I do occassionally think about things other than new shoes, new purses and new technology. Tee hee. Occasionally.

Seriously though - since the inception of AOL chat rooms back in the day, the interweb has allowed Creepy McCreepsters from across the globe to be whomever they want to be whilst they're logged on to the alternate reality that is the internet.

You can say what you want to say.  Be who you want to be.

You create that persona, or that avatar of yourself that isn't really you.... but more your target self. (This is like the weight on my license. It's not really my current weight, per se... it's my target weight.)

That said, after some thoughtful review I can safely say that this here blog... is me.

This is exactly who I am.

Quirks and random. Dull sometimes, informative at other times. If I were being honest, I'd tell you that sometimes I re-read my posts and laugh out loud. Because more often times than not I think I'm funny. (Ask C. I'm not lying here.)

The only thing that this blog is not; it's not overwhelmingly controversial. Why? This is not because I don't have strong opinions. On the contrary, it's because this blog, this here TWO PRETZELS is for all intents ad purposes, a SAFE and happy and easy place.

Call me a wuss...

I'm not afraid of ruffling feathers, however for the most part - I prefer for feathers to stay where they belong: on birds.

--

How about you? Do your online "persona" and your real life, to borrow a favorite word from our forefathers, "jive"?

WorkMo: Another reason why I love working in Meh-hee-coe

This cute little gecko was totally trying to make like the wall and blend in in our ladies' restroom at work.

"You can't see me. I'm very still. No, you can't see me."

So cute.


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