VDog Blog

January 3rd, 2010
Tags: Mommy Blogging
Posted in Crackers, Little Man, Photos, Update 28 Comments

My New Year’s Baby turned 3, and on Saturday the 2nd, we had a little party for him.

He started the day wearing Mommy’s necklace.

Ethan "The Little Man"

His best friends came over.

Aidan "The Big Guy"

Chloe "C.C."

He got some help blowing out the candle.

I paid WAY too much for this cake…

…but I guess it was worth it.

While the kids burned off the sugar high by racing around the dining room table…

…I loved up on Baby Odin.

They wrapped up the party by attacking Daddy B (Aidan’s dad) with party favors!

It was pretty much the perfect party.

~~~~~~

Find more weekly winners at Lotus’s place.

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August 2nd, 2009
Tags: Mommy Blogging, Potty Training, Terrible Two's
Posted in Dear..., Little Man, Mommyhood, Update, VDog 10 Comments

Dear Little Man,

I can’t believe how much you have grown in the year since I stopped Mommy Blogging (Let’s face it — I totally let this ship sink. But can you blame me?? You are WAY more work now. You just. don’t. stop. (Moving on.)).

I love that you still say you are “Mama’s baby.” You make sure I know, and Daddy knows, that YOU are MY baby and Daddy’s Big Boy.

You have a smile that will excuse most of your sins. Flashing that grin and trying to win us over to avoid a time-out? Pretty sure you learned that trick from Mama.

One day a few months ago, you told me that you wanted to go pee-pee on the potty. I was compliant, as usual, but VERY surprised when you actually wanted to pull down your pants and diaper and then proceeded to PEE! ON THE POTTY!!! Like, WHOA, dude.

Since then we’ve had our accidents and what are clearly NOT accidents, but you pretty much potty trained yourself at two and a half. Pretty cool, dude. We’re proud and stuff, but it’d be okay if you still wanted to piss in your diapers. But the pooping on the potty thing?? FUCK YES. Thank you sweet baby Jesus.

You are clear about wanting a baby brother and NOT a baby sister. We’re not sure what that says about your relationships with your friends, but we’re hoping you’ll like a baby sister just as well if that’s what you end up with. We’d like to be working on that project, but DANG KID, you could go to bed a little bit earlier, mmkay?? Help a mom out.

You started “toddler school” in June with your best girl friend, CC. At first you hated being left, but now you LOVE it. We even had one of your teachers babysit last night and you were like, “Later dudes!! Get the eff out cuz I gots a hot date with my fave teach!!” and we were all, “Well OKAY THEN!! We’ll LEAVE!! Love ya, bye!!!” So we went out and had a fabulous time.

If I could make a request it would be that you quit the ugly face and whiny voice. That shit is TOTALLY annoying. CAN. NOT. STAND. IT. And don’t try to work that smile on me, baby! NOT WORKING THIS TIME!!

One incarnation of the Ugly Face

No matter what, I love you, my Big Boy. Don’t worry, you’ll always be my Baby.

Love,
Mama V

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June 30th, 2008
Posted in Breastfeeding, Dear..., Little Man, Update 11 Comments

Dear Little Man,

Here are seventeen reflections on your seventeen months, since you turn eighteen months tomorrow. (Where did all the time go, my big boy??)

1) You can now RUN instead of just WALK. Greeeeeaaaatt.

2) You no longer like warm baths and instead prefer lukewarm ones. This is quite the problem for “family bath” time as your Father and I prefer warm baths, thank you very much.

3) You can now eat a whole ear of corn all by yourself. It’s super cute and a great way to shut you up keep you occupied for ten minutes.

4) You are outgrowing your size five shoes, which I thought would *never* happen…I swear those things looked HUGE a few months ago!

5) You say and sign for “more.” However, when you say “more” it sounds like “mo.”

6) You have become a climber. You climb on your toys, on your highchair, on the kitchen stool…anything worth climbing, you climb. It’s great fun for Mom.

7) You have two different personalities now — one with your best girlfriend CC, and one with your best friend Aidan (the Big Guy). With CC you are totally crazy and outgoing, and with Aidan you are more relaxed and mellow.

You have become re-attached to nursing, mostly thanks to our nine day East Coast vacation, where you nursed for 50% of the flight there. Seriously.

9) However you are now able to go to bed without nursing, either with Daddy, Amy, or Grammy. This relieves Mommy greatly.

10) You stacked FIVE BLOCKS!!! on top of each other! I couldn’t believe it! Your fine motor skills are THROUGH THE ROOF!!

11) You now say things with an upswing in your affect. For example, you say “NOooooAH!” It’s really cute and helps Mom keep her cool when you say “No” over and over again.

12) You have finally entered your “No” phase. (Heh.)

13) Amy and CC have introduced you to “Ring around the rosy.” You LOVE it, most of all the DOOOWWWN!! part. It’s pretty much the whole point of the dance and song for you. You are SO cute falling to the ground.

14) While in the double stroller you and CC hold hands. SO precious! (Oooooh, Little Man’s got a GIRLfriend!!)

15) You can now answer my questions about what you want. However, “No” also means “Yes.” A “no” without a facial expression, or with a “no” facial expression means “no.” A “no” with a huge smile means “yes.” You are too cute, mister.

16) You are obsessed with your “Potty Train” DVD and LOVE to say, “choo-choo” but are CLEARLY not anywhere near ready to potty train, even though you can sign “potty” and sit on your potty (fully clothed of course).

17) You keep me guessing every step of the way. Previously you HATED books, and now you LOVE them, with a passion. I don’t “get” you all of the time, kid, but I LOVE YOU. You are totally My Cracker.

I hope you won’t hold it against me that I have not been able to keep you totally up to date on all of your accomplishments. Just try to think of yourself as a second child, like I was, and be thankful for what you DO have. Like all of the photos.

All my love, my big, big, almost eighteen month old boy,

Mama

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April 7th, 2008
Posted in Breastfeeding, Little Man, Mommyhood, Update, VDog 25 Comments

Two weeks since I last posted. Two weeks. I’ve seriously lost my blogging mojo.

I’m having an internal struggle with the nature of blogging. How much do I want to share? If I don’t want to share some special moments, but feel like blogging them is the only way they are going to get recorded, what do I do?

This blog is largely a way for me to record my son’s progress and life and to explore my new role as a mother. I’m terrible at keeping a diary/journal, and haven’t even purchased a physical baby book for the Little Man. Keeping this blog felt like something I could do — occasionally updating to record his milestones and show my friends and family, and myself, how much he has changed over the last year+.

I’ve been selfish lately, wanting to keep these memories all to myself. But I also understand that these memories get lost, and misremembered, when I don’t record them in some way. And I desperately want to remember every detail…they are already starting to fade.

If I had the courage to ignore the fact that much of my extended family reads this blog, I would tell you about more intimate moments, many of them involving my boobs. Not because I think you’d be interested, but because nursing has been such a HUGE part of our relationship, and it’s important for me to remember and record those moments.

I’d like to tell you (preserve the memory for myself) how we’re still nursing, at least four times a day. How I love laying in bed with him in the morning, having a big nurse, both of us closing our eyes and trying to wake up a little more before starting our day. I’d tell you about how he can find the “target” with such ease and grace now, not even needing assistance from me to begin nursing. It truly amazes me how well he takes care of business now. It is such a dramatic departure from what we were doing a year ago, struggling to stop using the nipple shield.

I would tell you how much it amuses me, and makes me proud, strangely enough, that he bobbles my breast in his hands and opens wide, bringing his comfort deftly to his mouth.

I would tell you about how much part of me wants to wean, and part of me is grasping onto every last moment.

I would tell you about how embarrassing it can be when we’re in public and my son is literally ripping my shirt off because he’s upset or tired and wants to nurse. I would also tell you about how sweet it is that he sometimes just wants to put his hand down my shirt, without urgency, for comfort.

*****

I would tell you about how this blogging thing makes me a bit uncomfortable when I see people in real life who I know keep up with the blog. It is funny when people know what is going on with your life even when you haven’t spoken to them in days or months. I guess that’s the nature of blogging though — to share your life. Yes?

It is surprising to me when people DO mention what they’ve seen on the blog, and also when they DON’T. This makes me censor myself.

*****

I would tell you about how I desperately want to use the Little Man’s real name when I talk about him, but feel like that’s really not an option because of how my family feels about this being a public blog. I just really feel like there is a fakeness to my writing when I can’t really talk about “us.” I’m talking about VDog & Little Man, our online personae, rather than Victoria & her son.

I’m considering using a psuedonym, because while perhaps not any less “fake,” it would at least allow my to use a real name, and not just “Little Man.”

He won’t always be a little man.

*****

I would tell you about how busy my son is keeping me, and how much I am enjoying paying attention to him.

I would tell you about how I am spending more time with my husband. I am more present in my evenings with him when I am not trying to blog at the same time.

*****

In short, my life is very full of wonderful things. Making time to blog has just not been important to me lately. I have a lot of topics I WANT to blog about, but part of me is holding back, because a) I don’t have that much time to blog anymore, and b) I am afraid of overstepping familial boundaries for the sake of a funny or personally fulfilling post.

I’m not sure how much of “me” I’m willing to share.

*****

I got my first offer to review something last week. I am excited to be getting an advance copy of The Rookie Mom’s Handbook. I’ll let you know what I think very soon.

*****

We had Little Man’s fifteen month appointment today. He is doing so well. I’ll fill you in on the complete details later.

*****

If after all this, you STILL care about VDog & Little Man, you may want to consider adding me to your reader or signing up for email updates. That way you’ll know when I actually post again. Either that, or, you know, obsessively check back for updates. Whatever works for you.

Best,
V

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February 22nd, 2008
Posted in Breastfeeding, Haiku Friday, Little Man, Mommyhood, Update, VDog 21 Comments

It’s Haiku Friday.

Now that Little Man is taking a sippy cup, the option of starting to wean is there, but I don’t think we’re ready just yet. I feel like this is going to go on forever, but not in a bad, oppressive way, if that makes any sense. It just seems like something we do, and I can’t imagine our life without it.

Yesterday we didn’t nurse immediately after the afternoon nap, as we usually do. Two hours later he was frantic to nurse (he had been drinking water from a sippy in the meantime, so it’s not as if he was thirsty). I’m reading this as “he’s not ready.”

Impostor Mom’s son, Boog, is only a few days older than Little Man. Boog’s interest had been waning, and they had a natural, baby-led weaning experience. That’s what I want for Little Man and myself. It seems far off at this point. I know I’ll be sad when it happens.

Little Man seems to be dropping his morning nap — at least that’s what some of my friends said when I described this week’s naps (or lack thereof).

He’s almost one year corrected age, and fourteen months chronological age. Is this about the time? I want that morning nap!! I usually sleep then, too. I am really tired this week.

Any thoughts on moving naps and holding on to my sanity are welcome.
*
Have a great weekend everybody. I have some SUPER cute pictures of the Little Man for Weekly Winners on Sunday, and I need to thank all of our wonderful March for Babies supporters. See you then!

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February 14th, 2008
Posted in Little Man, Update 9 Comments

For my second Thursday Thirteen ever, I give you Thirteen Things I Love About Little Man Being Thirteen Months Old:

1. He can communicate better. He knows how to sign for nurse, eat, all done and dog. He also barks like a dog, says, “MMMMmmmmm” when he sees a food he likes/wants, and grunts/complains when something isn’t to his liking.

2. He still rests his head on my chest and sucks his thumb when he’s tired and/or just needs mommy. I love this and soak up every second I can get.

3. It’s cute to see him cruising around. All of his age-appropriate (not corrected age) accomplishments truly amaze me.

4. Cruising means SHOES!! Which means shopping for Little Man.

5. His hair is long and super cute:

Hair! from VDog on Vimeo.

6. He is nursing less. While I love the comforting magic and super powers of the boobs, we were still nursing 8-12 times a day at nine months. Now, we’re at probably 6 times a day, with “magical quick nips” here and there. It is RARE that we nurse less than 6 times a day.

7. He can actually play with Sasha (harasses her is more like it) and generally LOVES dogs. He has a love affair with the Norwich Terrier puppy across the street (Hector), and grins, giggles, and squishes up his face when Hector tries to kiss him. Little Man also uses his arm in a “get off me!” kind of way when Hector is getting all up in his grill, which is SUPER CUTE.

Doggy Time from VDog on Vimeo.

8. He now studies things with his eyes and hands/fingers instead of his mouth. This means I can give him my cell phone (oooh…craaaack) without worrying about him flooding the motherboard with drool.

9. He is now in LOOOOOVE with his Daddy.

10. He now has the cutest toothy smile (8 teeth so far!).

11. He can now eat cheese and yogurt!

12. And drink from a sippy cup!! Woot!

13. He’s not a baby, not quite a toddler. Totally cute! I’m holding on to the last semblances of babyhood.

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February 5th, 2008
Posted in Breastfeeding, Little Man, Update, VDog, Videos 11 Comments

Sippy! from VDog on Vimeo.

Little Man has started “fake” eating and drinking, which is super cute. He pulls food out of the air, or an empty paper bag, and pretends to put it in his mouth. It really is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. Problem is that he does it when he thinks no one is watching — when he’s just off in space cadet land by himself. So once he notices me watching him, he gets kinda shy. Thus, no video of that — yet.

I’ve been working on getting Little Man to take a sippy cup from about four months on. He has always regarded it as something to play with and chew on. Now that he is “drinking” from paper cups in the bath tub (actually he does get some bath water some of the time), and generally mimicking our eating and drinking behavior, he has finally learned how to use the sippy like a normal baby. And for that I am grateful.

In other news, we have started daytime weaning much by default. A few “Dad”urdays (Saturdays) with Warrior off and on have made Little Man less intense about the boob during the day.
Little Man has even gone down for a nap two Saturdays in a row without nursing first. (Totally unbelievable to me!) This past Saturday, I was even there with him, and he just didn’t want to nurse. Before OR after his nap. I was SHOCKED!

That’s the news from our neck of the woods! Hope you all are well and thriving.
-VDog

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January 18th, 2008
Posted in Breastfeeding, Elimination Diet, Haiku Friday, Little Man, Mommyhood, Update, VDog 16 Comments

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January 11th, 2008
Posted in Haiku Friday, Little Man, Update 16 Comments

Big head, nice shoulders, skinny body

With his “iPod”

Monitor leads & super cool shirt holding it all on

Since he wasn’t crawling the last time he had a holter study, this was the first time he got this AWESOME shirt to keep the monitor in place. Before they just rubber banded it to his onesie.

I gave him the light-up pen that my phlebotomist gave me when he found out I was pregnant so that I could take the monitor off of him.

All the people in the cardiologist’s office came to say Hi to him, since he was so cute (as always) and was one of the only babies in the office not crying.

I’ll find out next week what the results of the holter study are.

Next week we see the GI doc (more on THAT drama later) to check in about the milk protein allergy issue. Hopefully we’ll be done with that office, too!

Have a great weekend, everyone!!

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December 12th, 2007
Posted in Little Man, Photos, Update 7 Comments

He can’t get up there by himself, but he’s totally obsessed with standing and holding onto the edge. He even makes his way around the perimeter over and over again, stopping along the way for baby squats and hanging off the rail. If he falls down, he complains until you pick him back up and put him on the edge again. Silly Bunny.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday.

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