Neatness, etc.

Hubby & I HAVE to have a neat house. That's just the way we are, we can't function without that. People who knew that about us kept joking that that would change once that little J was here. I remember in the beginning they would joke & ask how the house was & I would tell them it was still neat & they'd tell me to just wait 'til he's mobile. Well he's fully mobile now & has been since January & we're still very neat & tidy. I'm not trying to brag or put down anyone who doesn't do the same, but it bothers me that people attack us for being this way & they want so badly to see us fail. It just doesn't seem very nice to me.

Due to financial reasons (economy, yada yada yada) little J didn't have many toys, up until last weekend when we had his first bday party & received tons of toys as presents.

We had also received a gift card & check for little J & the day after the party I asked hubby if we could go & use them to get a toy chest. Hubby was thrilled with that idea & it's working really great for us.

I let him have 2-3 toys out of the toy chest at a time & he always goes over to the toy chest & looks in when he's bored with what he has & wants something different. He always has access to his books & small toys, they are not in the toy chest. And his 3 big toys (ride & stride lion, the toy that stands on legs--I don't know what it's called, & a big ball) are also always available, it's just the in between stuff that we are limiting. I think it's also good because it teaches him to put things away when he's tired of them in order to get something else.

And as soon as he goes down for a nap or at bedtime or if we're leaving the house everything is picked up & put back in it's place, & it doesn't even take 5 minutes to do it.

I do house cleaning about once a week (usually on Fridays), dusting, mopping, vacuuming, bathrooms, kitchen, etc. I don't always do all of them every week usually, but I'll do at least half of them each week & trade off & then it all gets done at least every other week. Although sometimes I am able to do all of them every week, usually the bathrooms & sometimes all of it. But that's just the actual cleaning part of it. Tidying things up we just do as we go, never put it off 'til later to let it build up. That's just the way we are.

I'll admit that at times it's hard to get in the kitchen & make food, but I do always manage to have food made when the kids & hubby are home, even though it may be a challenge. I have yet to fail completely at this, even on Thursdays when I make really big & often complicated meals for our family night.

In addition to neatness, I also see & hear a lot of moms who let themselves go physically after having a baby. This has yet to happen as well for me. I still workout at least several times each week (just like I did before I had a baby), I have never yet missed a daily shower & still wear makeup every single day. Occasionally I skip blow drying my hair for a day, but I used to do that before I had a baby as well & it isn't very often.

So basically I'm still waiting for that time to come when I just absolutely can't maintain things as they are/have been. And those people who are wanting to see that day come are just gonna keep on saying that it is still coming, but hubby insists that it never will knowing me & how I am.

12 month (1 year) updates

And so the big day is here! Little J is now 1 year old. I'm not even sure what category he is in now--he's certainly not an "infant" now but yet I don't think they are considered "toddlers" until the age of 2 (I might be wrong about this though). We've recently been visiting various churches, looking for a new home church. One of them named this age group "waddlers" (it was wigglers for 0-11 months, waddlers for 1, & toddlers for 2-3 I believe). I thought this was VERY appropriate & cute & so was the wigglers as J has always been a major wiggle worm.

So he has really stopped growing for the past couple of months. His weight is still 23.2 lbs, which puts him in the 50-75%. His length (or height now that he's walking) is still 30", which puts him in the 50%. And his head circumference is still 19", which puts him in the 90% (a big brain apparently, I think that's a good thing, a very good thing!). :)

So in the last couple of weeks little J has gone completely off of baby bottles & onto sippy cups. I am so proud of him, no complaints at all. When the sippy cups are really full he does pretty well at doing it by himself, but as they go down he starts to struggle, so I still help him with them quite often, but I am pleased that he is off the bottle & at least doing it himself part of the time--I feel like we are finally making progress. I never thought it was going to be this easy. And I kept reading stuff that recommended having them off the bottle completely before they turn 1 & I never thought it would happen, but it did.

He's down to about 3 sippy cups daily. And he usually eats 3 meals daily, although occasionally there's a fourth meal in there. Usually 2 of the sippy cups are goat milk & 1 is goat milk kefir each day. Once in a while I offer him juice, but not very often. And I always have a sippy with water in it available to him at all times. Since he's drinking less milk now I would think he might need more fluids & he likes water (just like mom!). This also gives him plenty of opportunity to practice with the sippy, having it available all the time like that.

At some point I will start to work on the pacifier. I will probably limit it to naps & bedtime only at first & then to bedtime & then no more. I don't want to start that right now, since we just did the bottle to sippy transition, I don't want to overwhelm him. And also since he has the chicken pox right now I feel like he needs more comforting, which he definitely gets from the pacifier. But overall he's really not that attached to his pacifier, I don't think it'll be a tough habit to break. I had really thought the bottle would be a big struggle & am shocked to find that it's not at all. He had seemed so attached to his bottle.

So he's still wearing size 18 month clothes, with the exception of his PJs, those are 24 months--his growth seems to be slowing down or pausing, but he still has a long torso like mom & dad.

He is walking on his own daily now, short little bursts at a time. I am sure this will continue to increase & he will be walking more & more as time goes on.

He is VERY vocal now. He has a little variety of noises that he enjoys doing--sometimes I will start a noise & he will copy me & sometimes he will start the noise & I will copy him. He REALLY enjoys this game. And he also doesn't cry nearly as much, it's more of a deliberate attempt to verbalize now. You can hear that he is saying the same "word" over & over as he calls out to us or the dog or whoever/whatever.

He is very possessive of his toys & stuff. He doesn't like me reading his books. He often holds things out to people as if he's going to give it to them, but he refuses to let go of it, almost as if he's teasing them. I guess I have my work cut out for teaching him about sharing & being generous & blessing others. Although I sometimes wonder if when I'm holding his book & reading it out loud, if maybe he doesn't understand that & he thinks I'm talking to (& giving attention to) the book & so maybe he's just jealous of the attention the book is getting......he is definitely more possessive of books than other toys. That could possibly be what's going on.

Last night hubby & I gave him his bday present, the ride & stride lion from Fisher Price. On his birthday hubby got home from work after little J went to sleep for the night, so we had to wait. He seems to like it, but he's not quite as excited about it as I had expected him to be. I think the more he experiments with it the more he may come to like it.....maybe.........

That's all the updates I can think of for now.........

Vaccines

This is most definitely a hot topic. I have kept my opinion quiet (with the exception of those who ask me), but now that my son has the chicken pox the fact that I am not vaccinating my son is out in the open.

I always heard comments on both sides of the fence, but before becoming pregnant I never took the time to decide which side of the fence I was on. Once I was pregnant I knew I had to make a decision.

Now I certainly am not a "know it all" type of person, although my mother keeps making comments that leave me to believe that this is what she thinks of me. I try to keep an open mind, I LOVE doing research &, being a nurse, medical research is right up my alley so to speak. But of course not everything can be proven beyond a shadow of doubt. And so when it comes to those areas you really have to trust your instincts.

And that's so true with a lot of parenting issues. You just have to trust your instincts, don't always wait until you can prove things 100% or you most likely will end up having some major regrets.

I've said it before & I'll say it again: I have never felt anything so powerful as the instinct to protect my child from harm. It is an amazing thing & nothing I have ever felt prior to having my son. I have always felt protective of my family & loved ones, especially with medical stuff. I want to be there for them helping them understand & helping them make decisions & letting the docs know that they better be on their best behavior, but of course I don't step in & do this unless I am asked or welcomed. And this isn't quite the same as my drive to protect my son from harm.

As I was trying to decide for myself (well, for little J really) my cousin shared with me the most valuable piece of info in making this decision in my opinion. It is this: either decision is based on fear, so what do you fear most? the possible harm of the vaccine or the possible harm from the disease? That may not be word for word how she put it, but that was the jist of it & that helped me sum it all up & make my decision.

As a nurse A LOT of people ask me for my opinion on vaccines. Prior to being pregnant & doing all this research I always told people I honestly wasn't educated enough to give an opinion on either side of the fence & that was the truth. And now that I have my son I share with people what my cousin shared with me & I also remind them that only THEY can make this decision. I am in no way judging people for vaccinating their kids & I am not trying to sway people to not vaccinate their kids. It is entirely a personal choice. (although I have to say that the chicken pox vaccine really irritates me & just seems so pointless--you only have to get chicken pox ONCE in your life & we all used to do this & now suddenly everyone is so scared of chicken pox, just doesn't make sense to me)

But let me get to the bottom line. There are two major deciding factors for me.

1) Pharmaceutical companies just don't care about people. All they care about is making money. How many instances have we had where medications &/or vaccines are pulled off the market or recalled because they are hurting people? I am absolutely convinced that they KNOW it's going to hurt people (or at least SUSPECT, based on their studies & trials) but they want to make as much money as they can prior to it getting pulled.

2) I am not a true conspiracy theory kind of person, but I do believe, WITH ALL MY HEART, that there is a hidden agenda with vaccines. I don't know what that agenda might be & I certainly can't prove it. But based on experiences as a nurse as well as research, & also based on instincts I truly believe this with all my heart & absolutely cannot in good conscience vaccinate my son because of this.

So those two reasons really narrow it down, that's really my bottom line as to my decison. But like I said before, I do not judge others for vaccinating & I'm not gonna try to convince people to not vaccinate their kids. It's a personal choice that we all must make. I just wanted to share my reasons for anyone who might be trying to understand now that my decision is out in the open.