1 Mother 2 Another

A heads-up for everyone out there who has
nothing better to do on Sunday evening – I’m going to
be on the radio again!


This time I’ll be the guest speaker for the online radio show
for href="http://www.preschoolrockmoms.com">Preschool Rock
Moms. Their discussion this week is on playground
etiquette, and they came across the article series I did on it last
fall and contacted me to give my two cents worth. Here’s the
scoop:


This Sunday, June 3, at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

If you want to listen live, just go to href="http://www.preschoolrockmoms.com">Preschool Rock
Moms and click on the “listen” button.
They’ll redirect you straight to the show, and give
instructions on how you can call in to participate if you should
choose. If you’re not able to listen live, you can go to
their “archives” section and hear the program back at
your leisure.


So tune in and cheer me on! And of course, cheer on Brian,
who’s watching both kids by himself while I do this unless we
can rope Gamma into hanging out then.

Two things:


1. Colic


2. Mastitis


Let the good times roll!

Maddie’s fallen and cut her knee
open a couple of times over the past few weeks – the first
time, as I wrote in a previous entry, was especially traumatic to
her. It was her first encounter with pain that we couldn’t
make go away, and in addition to the terror she felt over the
band-aid we put on her, there was also the panic of unrelenting
pain. So we did what any good parents would do.


We blatantly plied her with gifts in a desperate attempt to
distract her.

We’ve been home for just over a week now, and still enjoying that honeymoon portion of having a newborn – you know, the time when the infant’s simply eating and sleeping all the time.

Also known as the Pre-Colic phase.

The past week’s been pretty great, and no one has enjoyed it more than Madeleine. I’m not sure but that she thinks Baby Sister is something we got just for Madeleine’s pleasure, and she begs to hold her every chance she gets.

I’m getting ahead of myself, though. Let’s go back to the beginning – bringing Cora home.

After my last posting filling you in on Cora’s birth day, I was surprised at how many emails I got saying I left you hanging – what about the big meeting between Maddie and Cora??? I certainly didn’t mean it to come off as a cliffhanger – wait, no, yes, I did.

So, the big day -

Hi everyone!

Cora's Here!

As you can imagine, I'm a bit overwhelmed with everything that's going on right now.  But I wanted to thank you all for your prayers and well-wishes during this amazing time!  I've also had some requests for Cora's birth story, so without giving you too many gory details, here's what happened a few days ago - 

With my 39-week appointment tomorrow and a doctor who won’t let me carry to term because of the VBAC statistics, it’s a pretty safe bet I’ll be having this kid within the next few days. And as excited as I know you are for me, there’s at least a glimmer of a thought running through your head that sounds remarkably like, “Yeah, but what about me, the reader? How will I know you’ve delivered? And most important, how am I going to get my 1M2A fix if you’re in the hospital??”

Don’t worry, already. I’m on top of it.

Saturday, March 10. An unseasonably mild
morning at the park, with the weather finally warming up and people
shedding layers of clothing. Brian, Gamma, Maddie and I are all
playing happily in the park. And then it happens. We hear those
first strains of music that herald the official start of summer
–


The ice cream man has arrived.

As I’ve written about ad nauseum,
Maddie’s got a bit of a shoe shopping issue. As in, she hates
it and won’t take off or try on shoes in the store. So I end
up buying a stack of shoes, bringing them home, and doing a massive
exchange a week later after she’s deigned to try them on.
Good times.


At the same time, I’ve become quite the online shopper
– having a toddler will do that to you. The difficulty here,
of course, is dealing with the returns hassle. No one wants to have
to pay to ship ten pairs of shoes to your house, try them on, then
pay to ship eight pairs back to the seller. Talk about expensive.


Fortunately, I’ve come across a couple of excellent
solutions.

One of the best gifts we were given for Christmas was a family season pass to the New York City zoos. Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Sally, we can get three adults and two kids into any of the five zoos in the New York area, free parking, and unlimited “extra” attractions like carousel rides and butterfly gardens.

I know what you’re thinking – how often do you really get to the zoo? It’s sort of a big production, packing and sunscreening and planning and all. And the answer is –

We just went this past weekend for the fourth time since the beginning of April.

If you don’t subscribe to the CPSC
href="http://www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.asp">automatic emails
notifying you when a product’s been recalled, I encourage you
to sign up today. I get a lot of emails from them about
children’s products and don’t pass most of them on to
you – it’d be almost a full-time blog. But one came
through today that I thought worth passing on.


The Consumer Product Safety Commission and National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration announced a recall today of the Evenflo
Embrace Infant Car Seat/Carriers. They estimate it’s about
450,000 units to come back, which apparently has a handle that can
unexpectedly release, allowing the seat to rotate and the child to
fall to the ground. Almost 700 injuries have been reported,
including skull fractures and concussions, so if you own this
product please check in right away. Here are the contact numbers:


Evenflo Recall Hotline: (800) 490-7497

NHTSA Recall Hotline: (888) 327-4236

CPSC Hotline: (800) 638-2772


And as I said before, if you don’t already, sign up for the
CPSC recall emails. You can choose to have just children’s
recalls sent to you so your mailbox doesn’t get too clogged
up. I think you’ll agree it’s worth it!

It’s that time of year – the
sun comes out, the clothes come off . . . and the sunscreen fights
begin.


Last year Maddie was just a year old, and not able to fight us very
effectively. She submitted with good grace, largely because she
didn’t know she had options, I think. This year, she has no
interest whatsoever in sitting still while we get the sunscreen on
her and is very vocal about it.

Since Maddie and I are both feeling better
(not perfect, but close!), we spent as much of the glorious day
yesterday outside as possible. Park in the morning, backyard all
afternoon, dinner on the patio, and a walk after dinner.


Which brings us to the highlight of Maddie’s day – the
walk was to Baskin Robbins.

As I inch towards 38 weeks and my belly
inches towards Guinness Book worthiness, I sit here, still sick,
still pregnant.


On the upside – while feeling worse Monday morning, a whole
day pretty much in bed made me feel significantly better by the end
of the evening. And Madeleine’s had a slight drip, but
I’m hoping it stops there.


On the downside – I’ve stayed in bed pretty much the
whole day, and haven’t even had the baby yet.

I’m 37 weeks, which is full-term in
anyone’s dictionary. My doctor actually tried to prod me into
labor at my weekly visit on Friday – she had another woman
starting and figured she might as well make a weekend of it, thanks
very much. No go, but it shows how happy she’d be with me
kicking it into gear at any time. We’re ready. Except –


I’m sick.

Maddie’s always been an outdoor kind
of girl – she loves going to the park to play and even enjoys
walking for long distances, which I hear is rare in a toddler. But
just this spring she’s discovering a whole new playground
– our backyard.

Dear Family Members (specifically Gamma,
who’s been hassling me for the last few months that there are
no new photos up on the website for her to show off at work):


I’ve finally updated the photo galleries here at 1M2A, which
means you can now see Maddie in something more recent than a
Christmas shot. To view the newest photos, click on whatever random
photo is currently on your screen. That’ll take you to the
photo gallery. Once in the gallery, no matter what picture
you’ve clicked on you’ll see the last photo listed on
the left – number 241, “window gazing”. The
photos numbered in chronological order, so that’s from the
most recent batch. Clicking on that will take you to the end of the
line and you can browse from there.


Of course, I’ve also updated “Maddie’s
Friends”, mostly with pictures of her and her main hang,
Naomi, so those are worth viewing as well.


So enjoy the new pics and show them around the office to your
heart’s content. Happy now?


Yours truly,


Mommy

As part of my fast and furious “get
as ready as I possibly can for Peanut’s arrival”
campaign, I’ve been going through Maddie’s baby book
and making sure it’s up-to-date, knowing it’ll suffer
from serious neglect once Peanut shows up. Likewise, I started
filling in Peanut’s own book (as much as you can for a baby
who’s not yet here!) and anticipating her arrival.


I remember when I was pregnant with Maddie, I wanted to find the
perfect baby book. Brian had recently re-discovered his little
memory book and was overjoyed to see it wasn’t simply for
newborns: his book went through at least his fifth birthday. So
when we set out to find a memory book for our first baby, we wanted
to find something that didn’t just have a few spaces for
photos and footprints; we wanted something that would be thorough,
with lots of blanks to fill in and plenty of room to grow.