Lately, I've been tossing around the idea of watching a child (or children) in my home. I would love to contribute to our household income and I stay home most of the time anyway, so why not make some money while Scout and I are hanging around the house, right? But then I think of all the drawbacks. Scout would be forced to spend every day with another child. Forced to share her mommy, her toys, and her space. Her routine would be altered. I still nurse her down for her naps. How would I go about doing that with another toddler or baby around?

I know all of that happens when a sibling enters the picture. But to me, sharing her daily life with another member of the family is very different than having to share it with some random child. One of the advantages of us waiting a while to have another baby is being able to give Scout all of our attention for the first few years of her life. Opening up our home to another child 5 days a week for 8-9 hours a day kind of cancels that out.

I'm sure she would enjoy having a playmate sometimes, but I would just feel bad that she'd have no choice but to play with this other child day in and day out. Or would she even care?

I know this may sound rude or finicky or whatever, but IF I did decide to open up my home to other children, I would have to like them immensely and get along great with their parents. How awful would it be to get stuck with a super difficult and challenging child and rotten parents that annoy me? I think I am asking too much. The planets would have to align just perfectly for me to end up with the ideal babysitting situation.

Obviously, it seems I have already made my decision. When I "think out loud" about it, it appears to be a bad idea. But then when I think of the money aspect, it really makes a lot of sense. I know that there are probably lots of stay-at-home moms who babysit in their homes. How do they make it work? I'm sure there must be a way to do it, but I'm just not sure how.

Labels: deep thoughts, family, finances, home business

The weather was gorgeous today, so Scout and I spent a lot of time outside. We played in the yard for a while and then went for a walk around the neighborhood. I brought the camera along so I could snap random pics. Yes. I was THAT bored.

Here is Scout just as we were setting out on our journey. She is waving "Hi".



Here is our new-to-us car chillin' in the side yard. It's a '92 Buick somethin'-er-other. It's in decent shape and was FREE. (DH's older sister and husband can't drive anymore due to medical problems, so they gave it to us) It's not the fanciest ride in the world, but hey, it's a lot less embarrassing to drive than MY CAR.


Our freshly mowed lawn.


The town square.




Why do these people need so many satellite dishes? Just sayin'.


Pretty Irises



There is a sidewalk in front of the high school with all the graduates' names engraved in it. At the end of my pregnancy, I'd walk the neighborhood almost every day and when I went down the graduate walk, I used to slow down to peruse the names to get some baby name inspiration. Wow. I see I overlooked some really good ones, like: Wilda Sue, Homer, Mable, Dortha, Verda, and Lowell.



In case you didn't know, it's classy to stick fake flowers in a pot of dirt outside your door.



I don't know if you can read the signs, but this store a block from my house sells jelly beans, canned tuna, porcelaine figurines, satellite t.v. service, computer repair, and cell phone service. Um. What?



And finally, back at the house, we have DH's 80's moped

Labels: my car, my house, outings, random thoughts

DH and I scored free tickets to a local music festival at the last minute on Saturday and decided to go and take Scout with us. (Couldn't pass up an opportunity to see one of my fave bands - Sonic Youth - for free!) My only concern was that we didn't have adequate ear protection for her and I wasn't sure how loud the music would be. So, Matt picked up some ear plugs at a music store and even though they weren't made for kids, we figured they would work (since they are the spongy foamy kind that you can squeeze into even the littlest ear)

When we got to the festival, we ate and then I strapped Scout to my back in the Ergo carrier right after we put the ear plugs in her ears. We found a not-so-crowded spot sort of far away from the stage, but where we could still see really well and we chilled there waiting for Sonic Youth to take the stage. Scout was still in the Ergo.

All of the sudden, Matt said "She's got an ear plug in her mouth!!!" I turned so he could reach her and then he yelled, "Get her out of there!!!" My heart jumped into my throat. I unbuckled the Ergo and he pulled her out. She was choking. She could not breath. Her lips weren't blue yet, but her eyes and mouth were wide open but she wasn't drawing any breath - she was panicking. We were panicking. I told Matt to flip her forward so that she was almost upside down and I pounded on her back HARD with the heel of my hand. The ONLY reason I knew to do that was because she choked briefly on a canned peach chunk not too long ago and it freaked me out enough to look on the internet for info on what to do in that situation. The peach chunk incident was more like she was gagging/coughing....nothing compared to THIS. I swear. I did not think the ear plug was going to come up! It seemed like it took FOREVER, even though I know it probably only took a few seconds.

She finally let out a cry and we lifted her upright. For a second, I still thought she had the ear plug in her mouth, but she didn't. It had come out and was on the ground by Matt's feet. To me, her lips looked a little blue-tinted at that point, but it was hard to tell since it was getting dark out. She seemed a little bit shaken up, but was totally back to her normal happy-go-lucky self within minutes. Matt and I were total wrecks and could not believe what had just happened. What if it would not have come up? I felt like we came so close to losing our precious baby girl that night. It is so crazy how one stupid mistake like that has the potential to change EVERYTHING in an instant. I felt so dumb. Why didn't I think about the possibility of her grabbing them out of her ears? I could just kick myself. For months and months (actually, even before Scout was born) I have been wanting to order some of those noise cancelling headphones that are made especially for kids and toddlers...you know, the kind that ther rock stars' kids wear to concerts. But I just kept putting it off.

Matt said that right before it happened, he was sitting there spacing out, staring at some woman who was dancing all drunk and crazy-like to the music, when he heard that Still Small Voice that said, "look at your daughter". We believe it was the Holy Spirit telling him to look at Scout at that moment. I am so glad he did.

I kept playing the whole thing over in my head the next day and the more I thought about it, the more I knew that there was definitely some divine intervention going on. Whew! It just makes me so thankful that even in our total stupidity and carelessness, God's grace abounds and he is there to guide us.

I know this sounds over-dramatic (and way morbid) but Sunday morning, I woke up thinking that Matt and I could easily be in gut-wrenching, disgustingly painful mourning for the loss of our sweet child, had Matt not seen that she had the ear plug in her mouth. It could have been several minutes before I would've even thought to try to look over my shoulder to check on her. If I would've stopped feeling her moving around in the Ergo, I would've just thought that she had fallen asleep. What if Matt would've been in the bathroom or off getting a drink at a concession stand? No one around us seemed to be paying much attention and it was pretty dark, so I doubt that anyone would've noticed that Scout was choking to death. It makes me sick to think about how things could've turned out. I should probably stop thinking of all the "what ifs"

Labels: deep thoughts, doh, music, outings, spirituality

Scout had a great birthday party on Saturday (Which was on her actual birthday - How cool is that?) Just by some stroke of luck, the whole thing was timed perfectly with her nap schedule, so she woke up nice and refreshed just before it was time to get her dressed for the party. My mom made her a sweet dress out of Hello Kitty print fabric and a pinafore with machine-embroidery. It turned out so cute!



Here's me with my one-year-old!!



Scout seemed to have fun running around with all the "big kids" on the gym mats at my friend's gymnastics studio where we had the party. She chowed down on some Chick-Fi1-A nuggets (We got 2 large nugget trays and had a coupon for buy-one-get-one-free. Woot!) and some fruit salad and pasta salad, and then tore into her cake.

I made a smash cake especially for her out of somewhat healthy ingredients. She gagged on the first taste of icing, which was hilarious because I had just been bragging to the surrounding guests about how I made this delicious healthy cake from scratch for her. She seemed a little reluctant to dig in at first, but then decided it was tasty enough and got a couple of good fistfuls. My favorite was when she turned and looked at the video camera in the midst of the messiness and said, "Hiiiiiieeeeee!" with a giant grin on her face (I need to get hot on uploading that video so you guys can see it) She also liked to lean in and just suck the icing off the corner of the cake.









I didn't think she'd be all that interested in unwrapping gifts, but she really surprised me. She actually seemed excited about it and enjoyed ripping the wrapping paper and tossing tissue paper out of gift bags. She also had fun tossing the once neatly-folded clothes over her shoulder as she grabbed them out of the boxes. (Man-o-man, did she get a TON of clothes!!!! I won't need to buy her any clothes for Summer now!)



I had invited about 30 adults and 12 babies/toddlers to the party, but only about half showed up. Maybe not even half. I'm not sure what the head-count was. (I think more people did show up after I took this pic, though) It was super nice outside that day, so I bet a lot of families were taking advantage of the nice weather and doing things like cooking out and working in the garden. Can't blame them for that. If I would've known it was going to be such a gorgeous day, I would've planned an outdoor party. But we've been having copious amounts of rain around here lately, so I wasn't sure that'd be smart.



All the kiddos that did come seemed to have a blast romping around on the padded floor, trampoline, and big soft ramps and cylinders. It was a great place for a party and we were blessed to get to use the facility for free. My friend who made the gorgeous Hello Kitty cake, insisted on making the cake for FREE! DH does computer work for her and her husband sometimes and she just wanted to bless us back. What a wonderful gift!!






In fact, we really didn't have to pay for much of anything!! My parents and grandma paid for all of the decorations, the table/chair rental, and most of the food. I think the only thing we may have paid for was one nugget tray! We are seriously spoiled. DH's dad said to me, "Good thing she won't remember any of this, because this is one heck of a party! It would be tough to top this with future parties!" He's right. From now on, I'd like to do smaller "family" parties at home (at least until she gets old enough to care)....but I'm sort of glad we went all out for her first birthday. It was really special.

Labels: birthdays, firsts, pics of scout, special occasions

I swear, Scout is determined to make her face look like that of a beaten down prize fighter for her upcoming birthday pictures. Just in the last couple weeks she has scratched & bruised her left temple on a sharp aluminum computer part of some sort, busted her lip on the corner of a book, and tore that little flap of vertical skin that hangs between her top gums and the inside of her lip. Oh yeah, she also hit her forehead on a chair pretty hard yesterday. Poor thing. Walking is dangerous business.

Labels: misc

We're going to pick up the ingredients for Scout's smash cake today while we're out and about. Ever since I started planning Scout's party in my head, I have been giving much consideration to that fun and messy tradition of letting baby tear into her very own cake while friends and family gawk and giggle. I couldn't wrap my head around letting her dive into a sugary cake frosted with grocery store buttercream icing (which mainly consists of partially hydrogenated oils and other nasty things....not to mention the mass amounts of artificial colorings), and just had to come up with an alternative. I wanted a cake that would be a sweet and tasty treat....still indulgent, without being a total shock to her system. Scout doesn't get much in the way of refined sugar in her daily diet and I can't in good conscience let her devour something that will probably end up giving her a tummy ache. I mean, it would be different if I thought she would just play in it like many babies do, but we have a GOOD eater on our hands. She pretty much shovels anything we put in front of her into her mouth frantically like we've never fed her before.

Here is the recipe I plan on using for her very own cake:

Baby's First Birthday Cake (Carrot Cake)
(Makes 1 double-layer 9-inch square cake adapted from "What to Expect")

~ 2 1/2 cups thinly sliced carrots
~ 2 1/2 cups apple juice concentrate (you may use slightly less)
~ 1 1/2 cups raisins
~ Vegetable Spray/Shortening
~ 2 cups whole-wheat flour
~ 1/2 cup vegetable oil
~ 2 whole eggs
~ 4 egg whites
~ 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
~ 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
~ 1/2 cup wheat germ
~ 2 Tbsp low sodium baking powder
~ 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

Prep: Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two 9 inch square cake pans with waxed paper and spray the paper with vegetable spray/shortening.

1. Combine the carrots with 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of the juice concentrate in a medium size saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, covered, until carrots are tender, 15 to 20 mins. Puree in a blender of food processor until smooth.
3. Add the raisins and process until finely chopped. Let mixture cool.
4. Combine the flour, wheat germ, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 1/4 cups juice concentrate, the oil, eggs, egg whites, and vanilla; beat just until well mixed. Fold in the carrot puree and applesauce. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans.
5. Bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 mins. Cool briefly in the pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely. When cool, frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to make the frosting yet, but I know it will involve cream cheese, yogurt, fruit purees, and a small amount of sugar. We recently went to our friends' son's first birthday party and those are the ingredients that were used to make the frosting on his cake (which was delicious, by the way). We're going to have a separate fancily decorated "normal" cake for the guests that will match the party decorations. I may make a few cupcakes with the "healthy" cake batter just in case there are some other parents there that don't want their toddlers eating tons of sugar. You know, other cake Nazis like me.

Labels: birthdays, firsts, food, special occasions

My family is in town and we are having a great time. My mom, step-dad, and grandma are totally spoiling Scout. Yesterday, we went to the mall and they spent a bunch of money on her. She got 2 outfits from Gymb0ree and 2 pairs of shoes from Str1de Rite.

Here is one of her outfits. I *heart* it.






Here is the picture the Str1de Rite employee took of Scout in her first pair of "real" hard-sole shoes. She actually walks quite steadily in them, despite the fact that she is used to Robeez. (I was just holding her hands to keep her still for the picture)



She got a brown and pink pair and a pair of white T-straps. Here are the brown pair. I couldn't find a pic of the white shoes online...



Gotta go - I'm being a rude hostess to my family. LOL :)

Labels: baby gear, clothes, family

My mom, step-dad, and grandma are getting here this Sunday and are staying for 2 weeks. Woohoo! My mom and step-dad have been planning on coming down for Scout's birthday for quite a while now. Then, my grandma started hinting around that she would like to be here for Scout's birthday too, so my mom asked her to come along. I'm really glad she did. My grandma had a big hand in my upbringing and I want her to get to see my daughter as much as possible.

We don't have a lot of extra space, so I had to rearrange the house a little to accomodate all the extra bodies. Our front living area (the room that used to be our dining room and that we now use for my computer desk and Scout's toys) is now a guest bedroom for my grandma. I moved the toys to Scout's bedroom, and now she just drags them out as she plays with them. My mom and step-dad will sleep in our room and DH and I will crash in the family room on the couch and recliner. Sometimes we spend the night in there if we fall asleep watching t.v. anyway, so it won't be that big of an adjustment for us at all. My mom is worried that we won't be comfortable in the family room, but I keep telling her that DH can pretty much sleep anywhere and I actually think the recliner is very comfy and sleep in it all the time.

Labels: family

Here is one of Scout's toys that I find pretty interesting...



Apparently cabbage (or lettuce?) is not worthy of having its own name. And I must've missed the memo that said we're calling corn maize now.

Labels: hee hee, misc, toys

Last night we were hanging out with some childless friends and I was kind of picking up the vibe that one of my friends did not approve of some of my parenting choices. I mean, she wasn't really saying or doing anything too blatant...just some of her expressions made me think that she thinks I'm too much of a softy with Scout. I had attempted to put Scout to bed at 8:30, but it didn't work. I'm sure my friend could hear the screaming and whining and my shushing and singing from the other room, before I gave up and brought Scout back out to play.

My friend: Is it because we're here?
Me: Well, no - not really. Her nose is just so stuffy - she's all snorkly when she lays down and I think she's having a hard time getting comfortable. Also, I think I left the room too fast. She wasn't quite asleep when I tried to sneak out after nursing her, so she saw me and got scared and started screaming.
My friend: {rolling eyes}

Also, when Scout was exploring the room and playing, if she touched something she wasn't really supposed to or headed in a direction where she shouldn't go, my friend would say "no!" really loudly and with authority. She was kind of making a joke out of it - telling me that's how she has to get her kindergarten kids to listen (she's a student teacher) - by annunciating "no" very clearly and signing it at the same time. I guess she thought it was the appropriate thing to do, since she knows we are teaching Scout signs.

I'm just not quite as strict with Scout. Don't get me wrong, I do tell her "no" (seems like I've been having to do that a lot lately) ....but I don't usually raise my voice and if she is not getting into anything dangerous or being purposefully disobedient, I simply redirect her and offer her something else to play with. I try to see the world through her eyes. She is curious and wants to explore. I can't fault her for that. I definitely want to teach her boundaries and make her understand that there are things that she needs to stay away from and refrain from touching for her own good. I don't want to let her do EVERYTHING she wants simply to keep the peace. But I am learning that it is wise to pick my battles.

My friend would seem frustrated with Scout when she was trying to read her a story and Scout would want to grab the book out of her hand or turn the page before she was finished reading a sentence. Also done in a joking manner, but loud and authoritative nonetheless, she would say, "No! I am reading the book. WAIT until I am done." When Scout does the same thing to me, I just turn it into a game and say, "The end!" cheerfully every time she closes the book mid-sentence...and Scout giggles and we have fun.

I don't think my friend realizes that there is a vast difference between kindergarteners and 1-year-olds.

Keep in mind that we are close enough friends that if I felt like she was crossing the line with Scout or if she said something that really bothered me, I wouldn't even hesitate to bring it up. And it would be totally fine and wouldn't ruin our friendship at all because we are very comfortable with eachother.

Her actions didn't necessarily bother me or make me mad....they simply made me realize how much I've had to adjust my thinking since having a child of my own. It made me realize that I've had to eat many, many of the words I said back in my babysitting days.

I used to get irritated with Bob's mom for some of the silliest things and I had a lot of thoughts that began with, "When I have a child he/she will...." or "When I'm a mom, I won't do that, I'll...."

Ha! Man, oh man....have I had to chew up some of those judgmental sentences and gulp them down hard! It is easy for a childless person to say what they would or wouldn't do with their own children. It is easy to want to be strict and merciless with another person's rambuctious toddler when you haven't been the one to nurture and love that child since they were a teeny newborn baby. I may even go so far as to say that I'm not sure I would feel comfortable with anyone who has not had children of their own babysitting Scout on a regular basis. It's not that it bothers me for other people to correct my child....but I would much rather that gentle (but firm) discipline to come from someone who is looking through the eyes of a parent's love. I know if I had it to do all over again, I would've given Bob a lot more hugs and kisses. I would've used his playful curiosity as a tool for learning instead of mainly being annoyed by him getting into everything. I would've been more patient and understanding with both him and his mom. (in my defense, though, I was pregnant, tired, and hormonal, so I'm sure that attributed to my short fuse at least a little bit)

{Sigh} You live and learn, I suppose. Someday, my childless friend will know what it means to be a mother and she will have to munch on a lot of her words as well.

Labels: babysitting, deep thoughts, discipline, friends, griping about people, tough parenting decisions

Okay, I halfway expected this would happen when I let Scout play with a bag of puffed rice cereal, but I needed to keep her occupied for a few minutes so I decided I didn't care about the consequences. It was really old and stale anyway.







Having a dog sure comes in handy sometimes.

Labels: messes, pics of scout, playing

As Promised...



Sorry about the profanity. But it's the only appropriate caption for this picture.
I hope you can forgive me.

Labels: dh, hair

I thought this symbol on the dirty mall food court high chair was interesting:



I assume that it means "No Standing"....but it's strange to me that they use a bowling pin instead of a stick-figure child or something.

***ETA***
I have mommy-brain. Some of my readers informed me that this "bowling pin" could actually be a footprint and I photographed it upside down. {smacking forehead in a very Homer-esque way}

I swear that I didn't used to be this stupid.

Labels: misc