22 month update

February 19th, 2010 § 1

Oh blog. Here we go again with apologies. I’ll skip it for now, but just know that I’ve been focusing my energies elsewhere and that you still have a special place in my heart.

I am so excited because we’ve had some great developments the past few weeks. It all started when I’d finally had enough with constant night nursing. We decided to take measures to night wean Navab for at least half the night. While this experience was painful for a few days, it gradually got better. And an unexpected side effect of this has been 2 HUGE things: Navab has started using the potty (about half the time) and also has started to fall asleep in her own toddler bed (which is next to our bed).

HUGE, eh!?  The potty thing alone is shocking (and wonderful). It’s not consistent yet and sometimes we’re too late but the fact that she’s interested is great.

The bed thing just came about one night after she finished nursing and was preparing for sleep.  She said, “bed?” and then pointed to her bed.  I was like, okay…let’s go!  And after singing to her for about 30 minutes, she fell asleep there.  A week or so later, she did it again…and then the past 3 nights, she’s also fallen asleep in her bed.  So, I’m guessing now it’s a habit, and it’s here to stay. YES!

We really do love co-sleeping, don’t get me wrong. But I was feeling exhausted from nursing all night and frankly, starting to get resentful that I never occupied my own space–that something was touching me constantly. The famed Sears family always says, “If you resent it, change it!” So, after a few rough nights, we were able to change things.

She eventually still comes into our bed, usually crying for Mommy.  I can’t say I mind–as I said, we do love co-sleeping with our sweet little girl.  A few hours of uninterrupted sleep, though, have been extremely valuable to me.

Another pleasant side effect–though I think some moms might disagree–is that my milk supply has decreased drastically and I’ve been able to cut out pumping at work. FINALLY.  I have been giving her soy milk in her lunch bag (one of the 3 beverages I provide for her each weekday) and it usually comes back untouched. I know she doesn’t like it, but I give it to her anyways so she feels included when the other kids are drinking milk.  I honestly do not feel bad about this–she doesn’t need breastmilk nutritionally and she can have it when she gets home from school, from me.  And honestly, Myk and I don’t believe that any kind of milk really provides a ton of nutritional value to her anymore, so we try to feed her nutrient-dense foods instead.

So anyways, HOORAY!  I’m feeling really good about the direction things are going.

Resolutions, revisited

December 29th, 2009 § 3

Last year I posted my new year’s resolutions. I was dead serious about keeping them, too, so let me tell you how it went.

  • I really did recycle everything possible, down to the paper price tags you rip off new clothing, labels off jars, boarding passes, reciepts, tofu containers, jar lids, aerosol cans…you name it. I rinsed and recycled plastics 1-5 (which is what our recycling center takes). I am not sure if we actually generated less trash considering I never started a compost heap and still threw away a ton of raw food scraps, but I’d like to think I saved a ton of crap from the landfill. Except for our disposable diapers, which really did contribute a ton of crap. Pun intended.
  • I didn’t make a new quilt, but I bought a new sewing machine when my old Singer died. I also attended the International Quilt Festival and made sketches for quilts I hope to at least start in 2010.
  • I painted our dining room, kitchen, and office. I even hung paintings. Yay.
  • I gave my internet business idea a good try, but I came to the sad conclusion a couple of weeks ago that I don’t have the time to invest in such a venture right now. However, I did tackle my secondary idea, one I’ve been kicking around for a while–agreenerlife.org. It’s all about the average consumer making “greener” choices in regular ways and reducing their impact on the Earth. A Greener Life has a twitter account and a website slowly being populated with entries, but I expect to punch it up a notch with a new layout and some other gadgets in the next month. This is the first time I’m really mentioning it publicly anywhere, but I think I’m ready to get the word out (slowly anyways). Feel free to let me know what you think, too: agreenerlife.org(at)gmail.com
  • I took the stairs when I had 3 or less stories to climb and most of the time when I had a manageable amount of stuff to carry and had to descend 7 floors or less. Felt good. And aside from hauling around my toddler, was about the only measurable exercise I got for the entire year.
  • I mostly gave up soda for the year. I think I had <10 of them for all of 2009. I can’t really brag about this though because I really increased my bubble tea consumption to make up for it. C’est la vie. I’ll probably keep it up though as I’m finding most soda too sweet.

So that’s it. I can’t believe the year zoomed by so fast! I will have a new entry up soon with my 2010 goals (or resolutions…whatever). I’ll give you a spoiler, though: it involves joining Carbon Rally!

A final thought: I should have made it a goal last year but I didn’t even think to do it. I unintentionally learned how to cook in 2009. I also adopted a completely plant-based diet. Even though I don’t really get a chance to exercise I feel really great and I’ve managed to not gain weight at all (even with all the baking I’ve been doing…heh). I’m sure part of that is due to breastfeeding, but I’m sure that’s partly due to not consuming a bunch of calories I don’t need from dairy and egg products. More on this later as well!

Crayola

November 29th, 2009 § 3

Navab will, when crayons are present:

  • color in a coloring book.
  • color on herself.
  • color on her table.
  • color on the floor.
  • take a bite out of the crayon and chew.

Thank goodness Crayolas are non-toxic and clean up easily. Let’s hope she doesn’t try this with Sharpies someday.

Thanksgiving Approaches

November 22nd, 2009 § 2

I’ve been absent from this blog, it’s true. Not only am I running after a toddler and attempting to work full time, I’m also cooking and baking up a storm.  I never considered myself one of those “domestic-types” but you know…I should smack myself in the face for even thinking that.  There is something hormonal in women and moms, I’ll guess, that makes us want to take care of our families. Not all women, of course, but I know that I was not this way before and I am this way now and all I can do is just say it’s a miracle. A MERRRACLE!

Anyways, if we are all better by Wednesday, we’ll be heading to Southlake to the Kourosh Kompound for Thanksgiving festivities.  This year, since I’ve been doing so much cooking and baking, we’re going to have a menu planned out in advance and I’m actually going to contribute more than the salad, tortilla chips, or store-bought dessert!  Here’s what I’m thinking:

I actually have really been intrigued with the idea of using seasonal fruits and veggies, so lately I’ve been experimenting with squash, pumpkin, and sweet potato. Sweet potato is such an amazing thing…I also really want to try baking these Vegan Sweet Potato Cupcakes (here’s to hoping I can find some Sweet & Sara vegan marshmallows at Whole Foods) and/or these Vegan Sweet Potato Biscuits. Doesn’t your mouth just water reading the words??!

***

Navab is 19 months old now. Her vocabulary is exploding. She’s putting together sentences by herself. She’s saying “I love you” (I ruvv roo) and giving hugs. I’ve taught her some Baha’i prayers and songs and you know what? SHE MEMORIZED THEM. Navab memorized “Blessed is the Spot” and it’s awesome.  I’ve also been telling her that there’s a special prayer she can say when she’s feeling sad or scared called “The Remover of Difficulties,” and we’re working on that one. I think it’s actually easier to teach her the prayers and songs at this point than trying to teach her how to be still and act reverent when we’re in Baha’i meetings (which is a rare occurrence these days, heh).

Myk is super busy these days. He’s coaching the swim team at his school and he usually leaves before I wake up and doesn’t come home until after 8. He’s working his butt off. I really miss him but I know this is temporary and he’ll be back to normal soon. We’ve recently powwowed (is that a word?) and come up with a 2 year plan for ourselves which, we hope, will increase our happiness and will help us get the most out of our life together.  So, that’s kind of exciting.

Since my personal chef has been gone so much, I actually learned to cook and have been doing a lot of that. I am religiously going through Veganomicon and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, as well as just been looking up random ingredients on Google and seeing what pops up. My favorite sofar has been this bean and barley soup which I heavily modified, but I think that’s the idea. Here’s a fun factoid, too: if you’re breastfeeding, whole grains will really help increase your milk supply. I do not kid!  It’s one of the many reasons to eat healthily while breastfeeding.  I’m hoping to acquire How to Cook Everything Vegetarian as well as Vegan Brunch (because I love brunch…and by the way, Houstonians kind of look at me cluelessly when I comment on the lack of good brunch places here. Seriously, katfish and grits are great and all, but I am a VEGAN. Brunch deserves some vegan love, you know?).

Speaking of breastfeeding somewhere back there…we’re still going strong. I’m pumping once a day at work now and am looking to cut that out in the next couple of months because Navab is only drinking about 3oz of milk during the day, and it seems like giving her soymilk now would be okay. It looks like I’m going to just have to be really dilligent about how long I’m pumping and gradually cut down. I have this problem where I keep getting plugged milk ducts if I wait too long to pump or don’t pump for long enough, so I have to be really careful. Otherwise, the boob sock has to come out and I have to take a sick day from work. That is no joke, too! You really feel like you’re getting the flu or something. Thank God I’ve never gotten Mastitis. Ow ow ow.

I’ve got a couple of sickies in the house right now. We’ve all been passing around the same cold for about 6 weeks now. Mine appears to be very slowly going away, but Navab’s came back with a vengeance a couple of days ago. She’s on the verge of getting pneumonia and she has an ear infection, poor gal. So she’s on antibiotics now and for the most part (everything except for the scary cough) seems to feel fine. Myk also has a rattle in his breathing so I think he’s got the same thing going on. The man needs to go to a doctor, so hopefully that will happen tomorrow. Okay, gotta go take care of the sickies!

But before I go, let me just tell you that we’re having a camera setback right now. The LCD on my point and shoot cracked (and no viewfinder, go fig), my Canon got an ERR 99 (and I need a new shutter mechanism) and the repair will cost more than the camera is worth, and our other camera is also having problems. So, no pictures for now unless they’re from my iPhone.  But I’ll leave you with this one adorable one from Halloween.

Posey

My Loves

November 12th, 2009 § 1

Just Like Dad

Good things

September 24th, 2009 § 2

  • Being able to tell me where it hurts
  • Saying “please” and “thank you”
  • Counting
  • Singing along to the Yo Gabba Gabba! theme song
  • Chowing down on black beans, green beans, raspberries, and exclaiming, “apples!” at the sight of one
  • Assembling puzzles together on the living room floor
  • Chasing and being chased
  • Dancing on request
  • Saying Allah’u'Abha (sounds like “Ab-ha-ha!”)
  • Confidently knowing your name is “Ahb!” (close enough)

We won’t talk about the boredom in shopping carts, fits on the changing table, or refusal to sleep until 10 or 11pm these days. Minor annoyances.  I’m just really enjoying Navab’s toddlerhood right now…these are the days!

This is her camera face

16 month update

August 27th, 2009 § 4

Poor blog, you’re so neglected.  I have good excuses–I’ve got a toddler, I’ve got a job, blah blah. I’m also trying to start some new online ventures and they are taking an immense amount of my mental and physical energy. To boot, I’ve been planning the youth program for Tennessee Baha’i School next weekend, something that I probably could have done easily when I worked at the BNC but now which is much more challenging.

Navab's UniformNavab and I are making the trip to Tennessee on confirmed tickets, so at least we won’t have to stress about flying standby on Labor Day weekend. But Myk isn’t coming with us, which is sad.  He’ll probably have a quiet and fun weekend without us, but he will be seriously missed.  To be honest, I’m feeling pretty nervous about the whole trip on muliple levels. I’m worried the youth are going to think it sucks. I’m worried Navab won’t adjust while she’s there. I’m worried Skype is not going to work and I won’t be able to Oprah-in two of my star speakers.  I hope all of these fears are for naught.

On to other news, I’m about 95% done with my den/office “remodel.”  Our house has a den and a living room and I claimed the den as my office space and a loungey space back when we bought the house. It took me a YEAR to paint it, mostly because Navab woke up every 45 minutes there for a while and I didn’t have any time to do anything. But somehow, I was able to paint that room AND the trim over the course of a few weeks while she slept at night. [Note: Myk and I struck a bargain a while back. I hate working on computer problems and he hates home improvement, so I handle home stuff and he does computer stuff. Problem solved.] I also ripped out a custom desk that was installed in the house and replaced it with just built-in bookshelves. From my point of view, the desk was too tall to function as a place where I would be willing to work for 8 hours (on my work from home days), and it faced…the wall (who wants to look at a wall for that long?). So I removed the desk and had some wood cut to the proper dimensions, installed tracks for new bookshelves and achored the hell out of them into the wall.  Those suckers are not moving. Anyways, it all looks really good. I’ll take pictures.

Navab also started Montessori school after spending the whole summer hanging out at home with her Dada (that’s her up there in her cute uniform).  The first couple of weeks were really rough for us–lots of night waking and general whining, but now she seems to really be thriving!  No more thrashing and crying–I don’t even have to hold her when I walk in the school.  I just hold her little hand and she walks right in. When we pick her up, she’s usually really happy, so something is working well there. She’s also really listening to Myk and I and I can really tell that she’s now comprehending about 90% of what I tell her (maybe more). You know, when I first started taking her to daycare, I felt really guilty–I think part of it was hormones, part of it was being unfamiliar with that pattern of care.  But now, I think she really gets a lot out of her day and is really enjoying herself. I really think this may be the best environment for her at this point in her life. So, no more guilt, and that’s nice.

We’re still breastfeeding (my OB high-fived me when I told her) and that’s going well.  We attempted night-weaning for a while and just about the time we started to hit our stride, I got a plugged duct and had to go back to frequently nursing her at night to keep myself from getting sick(er).  Ever since then, she’s been waking and expecting milk about half the time, the other half we’re able to calm her back to sleep just by being there.  We’re also still co-sleeping and Myk and I are still all about it, its worked really well for us. I can’t tell you whether co-sleeping has anything to do with the frequency of her wakings, but no matter what, I refuse to just listen to her cry and expect her to figure it out on her own. I’d rather help her out now…it’s not like she’s 18 or something, she’s not even 1.5. I feel like I have a long time to go before feeling resentful and annoyed that this child is sharing my sleep.

Everyone (EVERYONE) has told me to enjoy these days, to really savor them, to take lots of pictures and try to remember everything. I’m truly trying to do that to the best of my abilities.  Sometimes it’s hard, but when I step back and realize how precious this time is, I’m truly grateful that things are the way they are.  I also don’t know what I did to deserve such a dedicated, awesome partner in this world, but Myk has truly been shining lately. I’m so proud and lucky to be his wife.

…and hopefully I’ll get better about this blog thing.

Just Another Day

June 21st, 2009 § 5

My goodness it’s been a while since I last posted–I’m sorry! The thing is that I don’t like to blog during work hours, even if it’s lunch, and I don’t like using a computer much when I have Navab time, so that pretty much leaves a very small window.  If I can gather my thoughts in that small window of time, I blog…if not, I let things languish for a month and a half.

I do have a quiet moment right now and I’d like to share with you my weekend.  I am warning you: this is long, potentially boring, and you may thing I’ve lost my mind for writing such a mundane entry.  Okay, you have been warned.

Friday night, Navab and I were invited to a friend’s recently-purchased house near the Galleria, just outside Memorial Park.  The house is gorgeous and it was fun to spend the evening with a few ladies.  Navab, being true to herself, was exploring all the nooks and crannies.  My friend has a couple of cats, so that was a highlight of course (“meow” is a word she states regularly now when asked what sound a cat makes), even though we had to put the cat food in the garage so Navab didn’t dig through it.  She petered out right about the time we were about to watch our chosen chickflick, so I took the gal home and that was that.

Saturday, I let Myk sleep and took Navab out to a sale at my favorite local mommy-related store (where I got her a dress to match some shorts I bought at a previous sale, as well as a sunhat).  After that, we went to this bookstore to find a birthday present for Hana, who’s 3rd b-day party was that evening.  Now, in Houston currently it’s about 4 billion degrees outside every single day and sunny.  It’s apparently never going to rain here ever again. So while I’m reading all these tweets about the Chicago Apocalypse and it raining like crazy in wherever-you-are, it’s probably hot and sunny in Houston.  Just FYI.  Anyways, by the time we go to the bookstore I was very sweaty and already getting tired and Navab was VERY excited to be in a place where she could run around.  I spent most of my time chasing after her. You’d be surprised at how fast toddlers move.  I finally just had to ask a store employee to help me pick something out, even though mentally I was like, “PICK OUT SOMETHING I REALLY DON’T CARE WHAT IT IS.”  Something along those lines.  We left with 3 books and came home and just basked in the glory of air conditioning the rest of the afternoon until it was time to go to the party.

So, we’re on our way to the party, I’m sipping my 2nd bubble tea of the day (it was REALLY hot), and we’re about 1/2way there before I realized I totally forgot the gift!  Shoot!  Myk was nice about it and since we were running early/on time (a la white people style) we stopped at Toys R Us where, instead of my educational gift idea from before, I bought a hot pink Hello Kitty messenger bag with matching wallet.  Hells yeah, if I were 3, I would be all over it!

We went to the party and it was at this place called “It’z.”  It’s one of these places with indoor rollercoasters and arcade games and miles of pizza buffets.  The company was good, but I think I need to visit that place maybe once a decade to remind myself why I don’t frequent those places more than once a decade. What? Okay ignore me. It was fun, I played DDR and skeeball, we were all pooped.

Today: Father’s Day. Called my Dad. Myk was sleeping since he didn’t go to bed last night (he frequently does this and we’ve been married nearly 4 years and it’s never made sense to me). I prepared some “nana” for Navab. We eventually managed to get Myk up so we could go meet up with some friends for dim sum at 11 in Chinatown.  We went out into the 4 million degree heat, my black Mazda3’s a/c battling the almighty sun and losing.  Good thing it wasn’t far.

To make a long story short, we had dim sum then bubble tea, then we all went home and Myk promptly fell asleep again.  But here’s my favorite part.

Navab and I just got to hang out this afternoon, we had girl time.  I recently bought this child-sized table and chair set from IKEA (the SVALA, in case you care) and Navab freakin’ loves it.  She loves to sit at her little table with her little plate with dividers.  She loves to bang on her keyboard there. She will actually even sit there even if there’s nothing in front of her. So she played while I ripped apart this bookshelf/desk thing that was built into our house. The desk was too tall for a standard chair and there were just some design things about it that didn’t really make sense.  That and uh…I accidentally overloaded the existing shelves and yanked the anchors out of the drywall, creating massive holes. So, she played, I did the bookshelf thing.  We went to Home Depot. Came back, I made her some more nana (“nana” is food btw…all food, including banana…she just came up with this on her own), then we went to the pool.

Did the pool thing, came back, took a shower together since that was more efficient, and she must have been pooped because she asked for mimi immediately after drying off. She passed out about 8:30.  I continued to work on my bookshelf project with my new fancy crowbar, and 2.5 hours later, here we are.

Why did I write this long, boring blog entry and then publish it when I previously would have (and maybe should have) just left it as a draft? Because even though nothing out of the ordinary happened, I feel so warm and fuzzy. This has to be one of the happiest times in my life.  I love my husband.  My kid is happy, curious, hilarious, and smart.  My parents and brother are present and supportive. I just feel like my life is so full of so much wonderful stuff. Just had to share.

So, happy Father’s day to Navab’s awesome daddy and to my own awesome Dad, and g’night.

Toddler Days

May 9th, 2009 § 11

My mind is seriously being blown every single day now.  Since Navab has learned how to walk (beginning of March, approx), every day she’s done or said something new.  She’s jabbering all the time now.  Most of the time it’s incomprehensible, but there are some words that she’s saying, such as:

  • dog
  • sock
  • tree
  • no
  • nose (sounds like “no” but she points to our noses)
  • “mee-mee” (milk)
  • mama/mommy
  • dada/daddy
  • banana
  • WOW!

The other day we were in Target.  Out of nowhere, she signed “more” and said “nana.” What?!  More banana?! Since I didn’t even know she could sign, I immediately bought everything I could find banana-related and just reveled in the moment.  I couldn’t be more thrilled.

She’s still eating a lot of pureed foods even though she has 4 teeth (about to get a 5th and a 6th).  The pediatrician even said she should be on table foods at this point.  We’re doing our best transitioning her over to them, but it’s been a challenge.  She will only eat a bite or two of table food, but she’ll gobble up pureed food.  So rather than risk her losing weight or something, we are just transitioning her at a rate she can deal with.  And of course, her favorite food is still breastmilk, so that’s still happening.

Because I guess I’m technically breastfeeding a toddler now, I’m getting a new breed of comments about weaning.  I’ve heard about how she’s a year old, she doesn’t need it, there’s no nutritional value, isn’t she too old, etc.  Here is my comment: no she doesn’t nutritionally “need” it anymore,  but she emotionally needs it more than ever.  Because I work full time, this is a way for us to feel connected and close.  I also don’t think that it’s right to say that babies need to stop breastfeeding cold turkey at one year because each child has different needs.  Some people have kids that sleep through the night at this point, mine does not.  She wakes up 2-4 times each night, and if we didn’t co-sleep and breastfeed, we’d be a family of grumpy walking zombies.  I have full faith that in time she’ll sleep longer and breastfeed less, but seriously–I am not going to be concerned for years, and neither should you.  Okay? Okay.

We took her to the pool today for the 3rd time this summer (it gets to be summer here in like, mid-April).  Myk took her the first 2 times and it did not go well.  He said she acted terrified and was very clingy.  Today, she started out that way, but then really got excited when we went into the baby pool.  She laughed and splashed and was terribly cute in her adorable swimsuit (and matching coverup).  We’ll likely go again tomorrow–gotta take advantage of those HOA fees and use the pool, you know–I’ll be sure to get some pictures.

And one final random note: Star Trek ROCKED!!!!

She’s One

April 23rd, 2009 § 4

First Carousel Ride

This little girl amazes us more and more each day.  She’s changing our lives for the better all the time.  I wish I could recount it all here, but it’s just not happening…we’re seeing it through our own eyes instead of the camera these days.  Maybe I’ll regret it later, but for now it’s working.  Happy birthday, baby girl.

More pics. Follow me on Twitter.

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