I am having a bad case of writer’s block this week. All of the things that I want to talk about are too short to dedicate an entire post to. So here is what’s on my mind…
I still can’t seem to figure out how to include a video in a post. I have gone to help boards, downloaded plugins only to find that I have no idea where they went, uploaded plugins that I was able to find and still nothing works. I’ll keep trying. It’s not like I have a really interesting video, now it’s just the principle of the matter that I want to be able to do it. Just in case.
While working on posting a video I uploaded our little AirCrib spot to YouTube. Immediately I had two subscribers. For some reason that just creeps me out. Why would people subscribe to what pretty much constitutes a commercial? I did receive a great comment though. Comments rock. Hint, hint…
Usually I love wrapping Christmas presents but this year I just can’t get into it. Maybe because each evening is spent feeding, playing with, and then putting Miles to bed. Followed be feeding myself, walking the dog, cleaning up the hundreds of dishes from Miles’ lunchbox, and then packing the next day’s meal. Then I have to shower (my husband is now training for the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon and he seems to think that morning is the best time to train - I won’t tell you how I feel about that…) and then it’s past my bedtime. This weekend I will have to get to it, just in time for all of the gifts to be unwrapped.
Miles woke up yesterday sounding something like a cross between a turkey and an alien. He seems to understand what he is saying because he goes on and on and on. How can he just wake up one morning with a new skill? What goes on in that little head of his while sleeping?
I haven’t been to the gym much lately because I just seem to be busy. This is not the time of year to be skipping out on the gym. Oh well, I’m still enjoying my gourmet peanut butter cup washed down with a nice eggnog latte. I’m serious!
And finally, I don’t know what to get for our babysitter for Christmas. She has only sat a few times but she is going to start sitting for us on a regular basis so that we can have a date night (yay!). My husband wants to support local businesses so I have to get her something local. She has a baby but I would like to get something for her and not her child as she is the one babysitting for us, not the baby. And of course it has to be special. Oh - and I need to have it by tomorrow night because she is sitting for us then. I can’t take the pressure!
That’s it for my random ramblings today. Have a happy holiday!
470 calories in an eggnog latte - 350 calories burned at the gym = 120 calories of eggnog latte that will end up on my abdominal rolls. Damn!
I just schlepped across the back parking lot through snow and slush to go the gym. I then spent 3o minutes on the treadmill running 3 miles (with some warm up and cool down walking in there), did 20 sit ups (I know, wimpy but I was short on time), and stretched. Then I had to shower and trudge back through the snow and wind to the office. I should be proud of myself and feeling really good but truthfully I am bummed. I am bummed because after all of that, I still did not work off enough calories to earn my much cherished and dreamed about eggnog latte.
I wait all year for the six weeks that Starbucks offers the coveted eggnog latte. For those of you not familiar with this little concoction from heaven, it is espresso with steamed eggnog and a sprinkle of spicy nutmeg. I can tolerate eggnog on its own somewhat but am not a huge fan. But eggnog with coffee has turned out to be a whole different story.
This past weekend I tried and tried to fit an eggnog latte into my plans but each time my plans were foiled. First I was going to get one and sip on it as I leisurely shopped my way through the grocery store. Instead I had to run through the store throwing items into the cart so that I could shop and pick up lunch before my husband ate Miles from lack of alternative food choices. With my plans thwarted for Saturday I decided that we could stop at the Bucks on the way to a birthday celebration for Miles and his friends (they are all within one week of each other). I forgot to factor into those plans the simple fact that I am always late and there was no way in hell that we had time to stop for anything, red lights included. So my plan for today is to convince my coworker that he wants Starbucks too and that he also wants to get out of the office for a little while to go there. I’ll let you know if this one actually comes to fruition.
So here I sit in my car in the parking lot at work while Miles takes a much needed snooze in his carseat. Why am I sitting in my car in the parking lot at work while Miles takes a much needed snooze in his carseat? Because these days I will do anything, ANYTHING to get that kid some much needed sleep.
We traveled to my in laws’ house for Thanksgiving where we had a wonderful time. The only issue that we had was in getting Miles to sleep past 4 AM and trying to find time for him to get some good naps. Because my in laws live in the central time zone and we live in the eastern time zone I decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle to convert Miles’ internal clock from eastern to central time and then back again in four days. We had just recovered from daylight savings and I did not want to go through that again. I tried to be understanding when Miles woke up at 3:50 AM but even when I converted the time to eastern time (4:50 AM) it was still not an acceptable hour to be up. Miles didn’t care. At 5:00 AM we finally emerged from the bedroom, Miles victorious and me battle scarred, and had breakfast. He did take a nap later but only for about an hour. Each morning he slept a little later but the damage was done.
Back on the daycare front we have another sleep issue going on. They have switched from a two nap per day schedule to only one. Miles’ classmates (”friends” as the daycare likes to call them) are all within about 4 months of age of one another but Miles is the youngest. Some of the friends were ready to switch to one nap per day and some weren’t. Miles is one of the unlucky ones who was not ready. The poor kid is exhausted when I pick him up. I am very thankful that he is only there three days a week so the other four he is able to catch up on his sleep.
This morning Miles woke up at 4:50 and would not go back to sleep. I almost had him asleep a couple of times but he never gave in and settled down. I could tell that he needed more sleep because while I was trying to get ready for work Miles was very clingy and whiny, not his usual chipper self. As soon as I strapped him in the car seat his eyes rolled back in his head and he was out. How could I let him sleep for the ten minute ride to daycare/work and then make him get up for another four hours? I just couldn’t do it. So I pulled into work, parked the car, and fired up my laptop. Miles is still sleeping and I have had to run the extension cord out to my car because my laptop battery died. It is starting to get a little chilly too (don’t worry, Miles has a warm blanket over him) but I’ll be damned if I am going to wake that kid up.
This morning I could hear the wind howling and sleet hitting our windows as I lay snug and warm in bed from 4:30 until 5:30. Why was I awake enough to hear such noises? Because the dog was shaking in fear and letting out sad little whines every few minutes (he hates the wind) and Miles kept dropping his pacifier as he tried to go back to sleep post pajama change. Yesterday the news predicted a wintry mix of weather for today but I didn’t believe them. I love snow and so I try not to get too excited when they predict it because nine times out of ten we get nothing. When I finally got out of bed (at 7!) and looked outside, this is what I saw:
A winter wonderland! This is perfect for getting into the mood for the upcoming holidays.
Our new web store went live yesterday! Check it out. We have some very cool products perfect for making the holiday travel easier. I am going to put some to the test on Thursday when we fly to the in laws. I will let you know how it goes (the products and travel that is, the in laws are always wonderful).
Happy Thanksgiving!
It finally happened. I am no longer pumping on the job. When I first started this blog I was hiding away in a spare office pumping three times a day. That is a lot of pumping. I never thought that I would see the day when I no longer had to lug that awful black bag in with me every day. Yes, it was the right thing to do and I am very proud of myself for sticking with it. But the freedom now is incredible! I no longer have to schedule meetings around my milk schedule or worry that I am going to leak through my shirt. The downside is that the girls are shrinking.
So my question is, do I have to rename this blog now? I am kind of attached to the name and since it might ring true again some day can’t I just keep it? We joke in the office now that it signifies the pumping of all of the AirCribs but that should come to an end soon too. Maybe I can bring some weights in and pump iron.
I am having a problem with the flow of our daily routine at home. Actually, I am not having the problem, Miles is. His timing on poopy diapers is completely throwing me off. The instances of nonconformance happen first thing in the morning and then again in the evening.
Every morning after I scoop Miles out of his crib I promptly change his very wet and heavy diaper. Then we go downstairs and he happily plays while I make coffee and prepare his breakfast. The plan is that after breakfast I take Miles back upstairs and get him dressed for the day. However, being the excellent multitasker that he is, Miles doesn’t just happily play while I prepare his breakfast. He now plays AND fills his diaper with some lovely smelling goodies. So the dilemma is, do I make him sit in crap and eat his breakfast or do I take him upstairs first and change him? I do need to explain that changing him is now the equivilant of catching a wild animal. I chase him all over the changing table trying desperately to clean him up before he sits his dirty bum down on something clean or stick his foot in the dirty diaper. I really dread it. And I don’t want to put his clean clothes on before breakfast because they will instantly be dirty. Bibs really don’t work well in our house.
The same things happens at the end of the day. Miles eats his dinner (not sitting in crap) and then gets to play until bath time. Well, lately he has taken to filling his diaper about 20 minutes before bath time. Do I let him play in a dirty diaper until bath time? I could just put a clean diaper on him until bath time but then do I put that diaper back on him after the bath (it just feels wrong) or do I throw a perfectly good diaper away?
As soon as I figure out a plan that works Miles will change his schedule and none of this will matter. So my plan is to wait him out - but do I do it with him in a poopy diaper or not?
I don’t think that I have used the alarm clock since Miles was born. He wakes us up in plenty of time to get ready for work, in fact lately it has been so painfully early that I feel like half the day is gone by the time I stroll into work.
This week everything changed. I overslept two days in a row. Two days. Which means that I was late to work two days in a row. Not a huge deal around these parts since everyone at the office is so cool. But it is a huge deal in our house. A very joyous huge deal. That means that Miles is not only back to sleeping through the night (except for the 4 AM feeding that he still insists on) but he is sleeping past the 5 o’clock mark! My husband has been out of town all week so he has not had the pleasure of this new milestone. On second thought, the getting up early thing didn’t really bother him to begin with because he didn’t get up early. I did.
So tonight I will be setting my alarm clock just like old times. I sure do hope that I remember how to do it.
I’m not sure if I have mentioned this already but we are in the process of setting up a web store to sell innovative juvenile products. It will be a good way to sell our products (starting with the AirCrib) and for me to get a discount on other cool products to support other companies with unique ideas. I have become the self appointed buyer which is like a dream come true! I have always thought that being a buyer would be so cool. You get to find neat new products and try them out. Now I realize that it isn’t all fun and games, that you have to find products that other people will like too. So hopefully my taste is not too unique and others will purchase what I bought. We have a really great line up of products that we found at the ABC Show last month. I will also be reviewing each product here so you can read about why I like each piece so much.
We have sold and shipped an AirCrib! Actually we have quite a few orders in hand and lots more in the works since our debut at the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas. But we shipped our first non-sample AirCrib this week! Now if only we had some more I could actually start shipping against our other orders…
Life in our household is back to sane again. Last week was probably the worst week that I have had in a very long time. Miles was in and out of daycare due to some “uncontainable” bowel movements. Apparently an intestinal bug traveled its way around his class and kids were in and out all week. Fortunately he seemed to feel fine, unfortunately it was not the best week for me to miss work. My mom and husband were able to fill in some to help out. We managed to make it through and I spent the weekend in a drunken stupor just relaxing with no schedule or agenda. By Sunday I was finally feeling human again and ready for the week to start.
My life is completely crazy right now and if only I could get a decent nights sleep then I might be alright. Miles was sick last week with a fever so I kept him home from daycare. Because work is so busy right now that meant that I got even further behind. I’m not complaining, if my baby is sick then my numero uno priority is to take care of him but life outside of our family doesn’t slow down one bit while we are on the sick wagon.
Then we went away for the weekend to a wedding on Cape Cod. The wedding was fantastic and I had a blast dancing the night away. We hired a sitter through an agency and she was wonderful. So wonderful that I stayed out a whole hour later then I had planned. That still meant that I was in bed by 10:15. How lame am I? Miles was a party animal, he was up all night. Not really but it sure felt like we were back in the newborn days. He finally got up for good at 4:45. I had taken the care to rent us a condo rather than a hotel room so that we would have room to take care of Miles. That morning the condo was full of hungover wastoids trying to sleep off the wedding bliss that they had felt the night before. So Miles and I were stuck in the bedroom where our own hungover wastoid (my husband, his father) was trying to catch some zzzzs.
I thought that was an early morning but that was nothing compared to Sunday morning. On Sunday morning Miles woke up at 3:45 and between screams thought that it was a good time to play. That morning we were staying at our friends’ house and their 2 year old was in the next room. Not cool to wake up the neighbors Miles, not cool. So we cut our visit short, packed up the car, and headed home at 5 AM. Miles slept for the entire three plus hour trip. And we all took a nice two hour nap at home that afternoon.
The night waking has not ceased upon our return to home. And he was kicked out of daycare for having the squirts. He can’t return until Wednesday.
And through all of this I am scrambling like mad to get our really cool press kits out the door. So dear editors, please take pity on me and publish something, SOMETHING about the AirCrib. Please.
