A day in the life..

To commemorate Kaiden turning seven months as of yesterday, I thought we would do what my fellow mommy-bloggers are doing and give you an open window into our (somewhat) daily life and the routine we have implemented.. or rather the one Kaiden makes us go by.

We start off early at 8:00 AM. He still hasn't mastered sleeping throughout the entire night, and still whines (not cries!) for a bottle mid-night, so we are a little lazy for the first couple of minutes getting out of bed. We religiously watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny on Disney Junior while we play with a few toys. For a not-even-seven-month-old he has an incredible attention span.

By the time we change diapers, spend time playing with Sophie and our Bug-a-loop and hang out in the crib it's 10:30am! Into the living room to get him some breakfast. Today his breakfast of choice (not his choice yet, unfortunately!) is a Heinz Baby : Farley's Biscuits (original, he hates banana) which he loves because he tries to be so independent already. Anything he can eat on his own if great in his books! His biscuit and a 4oz bottle of formula later and he's ready to go for a nap so Mommy can start her day!

His naps sometimes last thirty minutes and span to sometimes two hours, either way it's the time I get to myself to check emails, browse Facebook, eat breakfast and tend to any other household chores that have to get done. How someone so small accumulates so much laundry, I will never know, and outside for a few minutes to water his plant! Back in, it's 12:00PM and Kaiden is awake.He is such a "meat and potatoes" man as my mother calls it. You can offer him other vegetables, he will taste it begrudgingly. Fruit, he will squinch up his face as soon as the sweetness (or sourness) hits his taste buds. Give my child any potato or meat puree and he'll eat the legs off the table. I'm sure that's not a figure of speech if he could walk. Today we are making organic sweet potatoes in our Magic Bullet (because our As Seen On TV store exchanges magic bullets for baby bullets in a week!)

We eat our lunch together because he definitely tries to mimic me at this point. Mommy eats, Kaiden eats. Mommy eats, Kaiden eats! Then we take a little stroll outside (only because today isn't too unbearable of a hot day) where Kaiden is stopped plenty of times by people claiming he's "so beautiful!".

Back inside, at which point his Nanny is home from her work day and spends time with him until his Poppy also gets home from work and they take him out for yet again, another walk. Time to change him again, he got dirty eating lunch without a bib, whoops! ?Now I have time to finish any laundry, text some friends and start cooking dinner (if it's my night, which tonight happens to be.) Ranch crusted pork chops, Cesar salad and ranch&bacon roasted potatoes.

He's back and now it's reading time. He loves to sit in his Mega Splash Exersaucer or his Baby Einstein Jumperoo and listen to me talk to him, play peek-a-boo, or read him books after books. Sometimes he turns his head like he is retaining the information and staring at my thoughtfully, and I laugh behind the book as to not interrupt his concentration.

We spend a few minutes eating more food (chicken and mixed vegetables) in his highchair, sit down for a quick bottle and rest awhile before it's 9:00PM and it's bath time.

My son loves, loves, loves, loves the bathtub. I'm quite sure if I left him in it all day he would be pleased. He splashes around, laughs, lays back and sucks on a facecloth constantly. He is SUCH a happy baby in the first place, but in the tub he's even more amusing.

And then we are off to bed where we co-sleep (whether with myself or his grandma, depending on who's less tired) and sing him songs of love and good fortune, and he finally rests his little head to lay down at 10:30 - 11:00 PM.

Biracial Sensitivity!

I'm a huge fan of reading my own writing at times, especially those memories of when I was "with child". It allows me to recall a time that is a dim light at the end of a tunnel at this point - thoughts, questions, concerns, the whole lot. This will come to play in a few short minutes.

Recently a friend of mine who frequents the baby-gaga.com website to chat with fellow mommy and mommy-to-be's informed me of a pregnant lady who posted a question about bi-racial babies and what her child would perhaps look like. Word of mouth, the feedback was horrendous. People calling her everything under the sun because of this simple question.

To some degree, I understand why it would seem like a slap in a face to different races or mothers in general. Why does it matter what colour your child will be, what features will be more dominant, and so on. At the same time (back to those written down accounts!) I can recall my curiosity. I can remember wondering if he'll be dark or light, the shape of his nose, the texture of his hair, etc. In the long run I knew it wouldn't matter, and I knew I could look at a million babies with the same ethnicity and that would never amount to what my baby would look like.

I just really don't understand why people would turn curiosity into a monsterous thing. She wasn't going to disown her baby if it came out more dark or more light than she wanted, if it had big ears, or small eyes. Why is this world so full of hatred and assumptions?

Simply put, I love my bi-racial little angel. If anything his colour enhances his appearance, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Now I am off to post a picture of him in response to this girl's post. Always showing some love!

Ow, needles.

Another one of those days that are unbearable in the eyes of a mother - the dreaded doctor appointment, complete with a weigh-in (He's HOW big?!) and two needles directly into both thighs.

If someone asked me if I was a strong as a person, I would absolutely nod my head in agreement. Ask me if I'm strong as a mother, I would have to hang my head. I cannot, cannot, cannot be the one to hold my son down while the doctor pokes and prods him. I'm not sure if it has to do with my own phobia of needles or what it actually is.. perhaps I just refuse to be the person who pins him down (even though it is for his own good) to receive these needles. Enter grandmother!

The point of this post is to talk about needles, however. A friend of my mother has an [almost]one year old daughter, which came as a surprise after having a sixteen year old and this being completely random and unplanned. Whatever, "blessing in disguise" and all that entails.

With the exception of her first (maybe second?) set of shots, her daughter has not even gone to the doctor for as much as a checkup. To me, this is an absolute no-no, so I gasped in shock when I was told and questioned "why".

Apparently said mother (who's teenage son has already had these shots years ago, obviously) had taken her daughter to receive her shots, and afterwards she was very unresponsive. Unhappy, sad, wouldn't make noises, wouldn't laugh, etc. Luckily my son is "as strong as an ox" we like to say, and I have not even had to deal with the slightest bit of a fever after shots, just a little bit of crankiness and irritation. Point being, she now read into needles supposedly causing autism (apparently this was one case of a doctor giving his own vaccines in England years and years and years ago) so she refuses to let her daughter get them.

Out of curiosity, I asked my doctor today about the seriousness of these shots and "a family friend not getting them for her daughter". He stared at me so seriously and informed me "if public health finds out about it, the daughter can be taken away.. she won't be admitted into schools when she's older, and if something horrible (god forbid) happens, the parents can be charged with negligent homicide". I nodded my head, and told him I would pass on the information.

I know it's not drastic, I understand exactly the seriousness.. but as a mother I can only question why you would put yourself or more importantly, your child into that situation.

You yourself have claimed the needles never harmed you, your older child has had them.. he's fine. Many people around you have had them, their children, their children.. I don't understand why it doesn't click.

We are off for a nap, contemplating why some people are the way they are.

The good news is my big boy is happy, healthy, vaccinated and a whopping 20 pounds at 6 months of age. My little chub <3