Motherhood

Here is a picture from our trip to the community farm. Raffi is sharing some dirt with one of his toddler friends.




Some random thoughts of the last couple of days:

The lows and highs of mothering are interesting. There is the face we where at playdates and social occasions that we are all the best super moms and then you get home and are just exhausted. A couple of nights ago, Raffi was whining for over an hour and not going to sleep. Exhausted and fed up, I just felt like jumping out the window. He did finally go to sleep and so did I.

And then on the other hand, I love the moment when I pick him up and he wraps his arms around my neck. The times he runs towards me when I'm sitting on the floor and tackles me. He always has the greatest grin on his face.

Colds again and being on the farm.

Raffi got another cold. It is such a bummer on so many levels. It basically cancels our playdates for the week, Raffi has a hard time sleeping because his nose is all clogged and so on and so on. But today, we did escape the house and went to a community farm where moms from my yoga group go to help harvest, weed and volunteer. You get to take some of the produce home with you. Today, we picked some broccoli, swiss chard, and spinach.

It was neat to harvest food right from the ground. Being a suburban gal my whole life, I haven't had this opportunity often. So I was giddy. And Raffi ran around, sometimes trampling poor defenseless growing plants. He dug in the dirt and rearranged the sprinklers and basically had a blast. I have a few pics but I haven't downloaded them yet.

I think Raffi's top incisors are finally cut through, because they do not seem to be bothering him as much. He is still chewing on plastic and such. But his whimpering at night has gone away. So that is a good thing.

Lions and Tigers and Astronauts?

1. This past week: Raffi is sleeping through the night. (I nurse him to sleep and for a nap; so 2-3 times a 24 hour period.) Sometimes he does wake up at night, I rub his back and most of the time he goes right back to sleep.

2. Last Friday: I went out for my first mom's night out (after 7pm). It was the first time I'd been out without the baby past 7pm. It is weird driving in the dark. I don't do it that often. It was great. Doug was able to get Raffi down with no problem. Yeh!!!

3. Halloween was tons of fun. Raffi was an astronaut and looked super cute in his so professional looking costume. (Thanks for picking it out Sam!) We went to 2 Halloween playdates (One I dressed up as an Egyptian Mummy...from space) and did a little 10am trick or treating at a local little town main street. I'm looking forward to next year when it will be a little more interactive for him.

4. Mid October: Raffi and I went down to So. Cal for a visit with family and friends. It went well logisitically and Raffi had a great time. He started repeating words more often including: Thank You, Turtle, nite nite, fish, bye bye and other random words which he never repeats.

Reading

Here is another pic of Raffi at the mall's playarea. It is so convientant while I'm shopping to just let him run around a little. And I like the best part, FREE. I'm enjoying the walking Raffi. It is fun to interact with him and watch him play. Doug misses the baby, but I surprisingly don't that much. I love to watch him walk/run with such joy.

The last two days while Raffi has napped, I have been reading a novel. Usually I'm just surfing the internet mindlessly. Today, I even had a glass of wine with my novel. It just feels great to read and really get engrossed in the book. Oh, and the glass of wine certainly helps. The book is Blue Heart Blessed by Susan Meissner. So far, I'm really liking it.

This week was going to be really busy with classes, playdates and birthday parties, but Raffi got a cold a couple of days ago, so that has put the "cancel" to many of our plans. The cold doesn't seem to severe, he is sleeping ok. I'm clenching my teeth again, so I must be sleeping more.
Here is a picture of the chocolate chip cookies I made last Friday. They came out great!

Usual Suspects

I blame summertime on my lack of blogging. I feel quite lazy about it. At night, when he is finally asleep, all the wonderful thoughts I had during the day escape me. But he is currently napping so let me say a little nonsense.

Raffi got a bug last week, which included a 102 fever. Luckily it was only a 24 hour type thing and it went away. The past couple of nights I didn't give him any Tylenol because he didn't have the fever...well he was waking up almost every hour and sometimes twice in a hour. It was a return to the old days where he nursed all the time. Eegags. So into the doctor's office we went today. And as usual it is a sore throat. At least I have something to blame now and back we go on the Tylenol. His weigh WITH clothes was 19lbs 9ous. Which still seems light compared to how he looks. It feels like it will take forever for him to reach 20 lbs! Normally toddlers will not gain as much weight during this time and lean out a bit. Raffi obviously doesn't need to lean out at all.

On other fronts, I purchased and used for the first time a slow cooker. It is a small 2 1/2 quart size: perfect for Doug and I. I made a beef bean chili that came out pretty good. It works great in that earlier in the day I have more free time and raffi is not all crazed; I can prepare all the ingredients. And then later dinner time, when raffi possibly is melting down, we just dish and serve. I hope to use it frequently, i know how these convenience electronics are. You buy them and then not use them. So we shall see how it goes.

Walking and Sleeping (sort of)

My little man is so on a mission. He is walking up a storm. At night, he should be winding down, but no he is doing laps around our living room. Laughing while he walks and cruises away. I have yet to post the video from his bday cake eating and now I have a walking video to add to my "To Post" List. Please forgive me for my tardiness; I'll blame the summer, that is convenient.

Raffi’s sleep schedule is in flux at the moment. I worry about how to go about getting him to sleep, weaning, bed situation, etc. It does take up alot of my energy. I don’t know what to do. He only nurses to sleep, and occasionally will roll over still awake at bedtime and fall asleep on his own. But when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he is in a state of distress and will wake up completely (and usually for an hour, if I don’t nurse him right away.) So here is my prayer:

Lord, please forgive me for taking back this worry and “working” on it. I know I don’t work on it very well and I need to leave it with you. I give it back to you right now. Lord, you are in control. I only need to trust you. Babies and toddlers have been going to sleep for thousands of years by your design before their was 50 different sleep books and baby whispers. Lord, help me to rely and trust in You.