Tales of Me and the Husband

Parker-love.

While I do tend to be of the please-make-time-stop mindset when it comes to Parker and my overwhelming desire to keep him sweet and small and rockable and nurseable and smooshable and cuddleable… well, there are benefits to him getting older.  Namely this: he can actually show you love.  Because he wants to!  And folks, it’s downright scrumptious.
We’re sort of, loosely (very loosely… too loosely?  Whatever.), sleep training over here.  Trying to cut out some of the middle of the night nursings and extend time spent in his own crib.  It’s baby steps.  I’m not sure who’s less ready to quit the co-sleeping, me or Parker?  (Might be me.)  Who’s most ready?  Probably Steve.  But, he’s really nice and patient about it and we love him for it.  
Where was I?  So, he can show you love because he wants to show you love and gosh, does it feel good.  The other night I brought him into bed.  It was probably 3 am or so when he woke up.  He settled right back down, wrapped his soft little arm around my neck, and went right back to sleep.  Did you read that?  He wrapped his arm around my neck!  
I died and went to heaven right there on the spot.

Stocking your natural first-aid kit, volume 1.

Well, now I’ve gone and done it.  A series!  Volume 1 implies there’s more volumes to come!  It’s true.  (I hope you’re not rolling your eyes right now.  Are you??).  Bear with me!  I know some of you love the homeopathy stuff while others of you could probably care less.  It won’t be a weekly thing or even a monthly thing.  It’ll be more of a “whenever there’s information good enough to share” sort of thing.  This stuff won’t be specifically directed towards kids’ health but it will certainly be useful there, as well as for the adults.  
Why am I doing this?  Firstly, it’s something I’m crazy passionate about.  Secondly, I think there’s just not enough information out there about alternative ways to treat things.  Ways that are good for you, just as good (and sometimes better) than the standard practices, and ways without some unrelated damage being inflicted (i.e. yeast infections coming after rounds of antibiotics!).  Thirdly (and lastly!), I don’t want to wait UNTIL illness strikes to run out to the various stores collecting supplies.  Parker got his first ear infection while we were up at the lake  (and I didn’t realize it!  For shame!).  He also had a pretty high temperature and I couldn’t decide whether teething was the woeful source, whether he caught some other bug, whether the lake gave him a disease (naturally!), or… you get the point.  (I think roseola was the culprit, but that’s beside the point.)  I was helpless.  I knew fevers were the body’s way of fighting things and that there is good in letting them run their course, but yet the number freaked me out and I wanted, of course, to pump him full of Children’s Tylenol to bring it down and fast.  Maybe if I had done more of my research, had other things on hand… I’d have felt more confident in a decision, any decision, in getting him well.
You get what I’m saying?
So, that’s where this idea came about.  And a really, really important note: I am not a doctor.  I know this, you know this.  I don’t claim to be.  I’m just a woman, a Mom, a wife who’s interested in alternative healthcare.  With that said, there is a place (this bears repeating: there is a place!) for your normal Western medicine.  I am not attempting to do away with it, but just suggest that perhaps we use it too flippantly when something else might be better.
That’s it.  Won’t you come along?
volume 1.
An onion.  
Most likely, you have these on hand.  When Parker got an ear infection, he was crazy clingy, not himself, and pretty miserable.  There is a lot of evidence that both garlic and onion can work well, and fast, at getting rid of ear infections.  Once I knew he had one, I started on it immediately and it was gone in two days.  I don’t know how far into the ear infection we already were, though, so I can’t tell you if it was nearing its end with or without the onion, but nevertheless, it seemed to work.  My friend Rita (hi Rita!) swears by them for her kids and it totally seemed to work with Parker.  
Remove the skin, cut the onion, and chop it very fine or put it in a food processor (that’s what I did).
Put a few tablespoons the pulp into a pan and warm it on the stove (not the microwave!) on low.  Get it just to lukewarm, put some of the onion juice in a dropper, and put a few drops in infected ear.  Massage the ear on the outside.  Repeat a few times a day until it goes away.  Enjoy the fact that your child (or you?) smells like a sub shop.
And there you have it.  An alternative to antibiotics (and seriously consider tapping into some of the research on antibiotics… it gets ugly!  Use ’em when you have to — otherwise, skip it!).
So, there’s volume 1.  Mostly painless?
And please!  If you’ve got a resource or have written about this stuff on your own blog, share it in the comments.  I’d love to take a look.

Bedroom inspiration.

If our bedroom was to show up in the archives of Design Sponge or Apartment Therapy, it’d definitely fall into the “Before” category.  Problem is I have nearly zero motivation to get us to the “After.”  There’s nothing so problematic about it.  The bed is really beautiful.  It’s an awesome sleigh-bed with a leather headboard.  It was here when I came along and I have no dreams of doing away with it.  The furniture is well-made but old and not totally my taste.  I purchased the bedding and I really love it (but still would love to swap it out for other beddings that catch my eye…  what is that about bedding?).  And I have nothing, like nothing, hanging on the walls.  I have so many pictures, two pieces of gallery wrapped canvases already done, frames, and ideas galore but yet I don’t put anything up.  I lack the skill, courage, gumption (or something?) that it takes to hammer those nails to the wall.  I don’t want to commit.  What if I change my mind?  Spackle, sanding, primer, paint. That’s a lot of steps to fix my errors!  So, the bedroom remains, well, boring (the decorating anyway.  Yes, I did just get cheeky there.).  Here’s a few pictures, though, that have me inspired and make me think that it’s not too many steps to making the bedroom a bit more inviting.  Some more pillows.  Some nightstand organization.  Lowlight.  Flowers.  Pictures on the wall.  
I think I can do it?

{ image credit: 1 // 2 // 3 }

TGIF (& other shows).

I know it’s not Friday.  I’m referring to the TGIF of our youth.  You know, the one that consisted of Family Matters, Step by Step, Full House… and, well, it seems I can’t place which the fourth was.  But, the line-up was always changing, wasn’t it?  Second Noah was there for a time (which, I loved.  Do you remember that show?  With a young James Marsden!).  Hanging with Mr. Cooper, am I right?  Sabrina the Teenage Witch (eh, I was never entirely impressed with Melissa Joan Hart) and I’m pretty sure even Dinosaurs made the cut for a little while.  
I was born in ’84.  So, by the early to mid 90’s, I was allowed to watch a few TV shows.  I remember looking forward all week long to TGIF.  And from, 8-10 was it?, you could be sure to find me in front of the TV.  Laura and Urkel (or URK-el if he’d gone through his “cool machine”), Cody who lived in the trailer on the driveway in Step by Step, Stephanie and DJ and how every, EVERY, episode of Full House always ended with some sweet resolution and a cheesy, dubbed in, “Awwww!”  

Four shows!  Back to back!  It was an event!  An event of grandeur, I tell you!  Call up any of my friends between 8 and 10 o’clock and they’d have been doing the same thing.  Everyone watched TGIF.    TV doesn’t seem to be an event anymore.  Or at least, not an event that parents and kids alike can enjoy (Cosby Show, anyone??  I tell you what… nobody doesn’t like Cosby Show.  Is there an equivalent today?  No.).  And it didn’t stop there.  How about, my very favorite, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.  Sully might as well have been a god.  I was in love.  Little Bridget only had eyes for Sully (that crush was matched when my Leo one began!)  And I was certain that Jane Seymour was the most beautiful woman to have ever lived.
After Dr. Quinn came Chuck Norris Walker Texas Ranger.  (In case you’re wondering, I’m linking ya’ll straaaaaight to those show intros.  You are welcome.)  Did you watch that one too?  Man.  Memory lane!  It’s something else!  Chuck Norris was the man.  Shootin’ people, kickin’ them down in one foul swoop.  Like a Western Jackie Chan!  
Well, I could go on.  Alf!  Early Edition (Coach Taylor, what what!)!  The one with the girl who’s a robot who’s name escapes me at the moment!  Under the Umbrella Tree!  Baywatch!  Fraggle Rock!  Which ones am I missing?  Shout ’em out!  Memory lane, let’s go!
But I won’t go on (anymore, anyway).  I will say, however, like so many things of our youth, TV was better then too, wasn’t it?  Oooor I had very little discretion.  Either way, I miss some of those shows.  
Can we get a Dr. Quinn reunion show going?  Where are those people anyway?

One last hurrah on the lake.

 
Steve has been dying to have another go at the lake this season (and even though I say ‘last hurrah,’ we’re really hoping for one… or two more.  As long as there’s no “Iceberg, right ahead!” moments, we’re good.).  The warm weather has been quickly escaping us.  We decided to go this past Sunday when sun was forecasted, despite the chilly temperatures (high of 65).  When on the water, it felt even chillier, but we arrived prepped with hats, sweaters, and tons of blankets.  Show us what you got, lake.
The day was perfect.  I mean, perfect.  We brought lunch and drinks and enjoyed them in a quiet spot between two islands.  Parker fell asleep on me while docked and stayed that way for over an hour.  The sun didn’t stop shining the whole day.  We stopped in Meredith for a bite to eat in the evening before returning home.
The day got me straight out of that funk I mentioned yesterday.  You can’t stay depressed when you’re on the lake, looking at blue and green rolling on for days.  While the water moves about around you, the trees begin to change in the distance, the sun moves across the sky, all reminding you that you’re not so big.  Funk, be gone.   
What I’m wearing: sweater // shoes 

this weekend.

this weekend i was in a funk.
this weekend we went to the beach early one morning.
this weekend i didn’t get out of my pajamas for the entire saturday.
this weekend steve made french toast.  (it was good.  i’ll keep him.)
this weekend steve and i got in some stupid tiffs.  (we’re fine now.)
this weekend i did no laundry, but needed to.
this weekend i got bummed that there’s no future fun planned.  know what i mean?
this weekend i was desperate for parker to sleep through the night without nursing.  (i know.)
this weekend i started reading this and really like it so far.  (anyone else read it?)
this weekend i backed up my photos (and it took forreeverrr).
this weekend it felt even more like fall and for the first time i was thinking, “wait, summer.  not so fast!”

this weekend i laughed out loud at the comment thread that accompanied this photo.
this weekend the lake got me out of my funk.  (i’ll love you forever, lake winnipesaukee.)

this weekend when we drove to the beach i took the picture above and thought, “it’s pretty here.”

how was your weekend?

a song.

it’s just so good.
but ask me to sing along to it?
cannot be done.

Parker at (almost) 14 months.

I don’t want to rush it along.  He’s not 14 months yet.  But we’re approaching it, and quickly too.  This time of year seems to fly by.  Summer is escorted out so quickly by us bloggers, isn’t it?  Pumpkin bread and pumpkin lattes and fall fashion posts, boom.  It happens fast even though the days are still delivering 80-something degree temperatures at times.  Changing of seasons.  It’s exciting.  It’s new.  I get it.

Nevertheless, he’s almost 14 months.  13 and a half.  Which is crazy.  You’re hard-pressed to find any suitable onesie, besides pajamas, that still fits these babies-not-yet-toddlers (But, I did.  And it’s here.  You’re welcome.).  And, what better to remind you that they’re still so little and new than sticking them in a onesie?  You can’t place them anywhere, turn around, and expect that they’ll still be there kicking their legs wildly in the air when you turn back around.  You can’t put them down for a diaper change without pinning them as they arch their soft little backs, contort their mouths, and let out a wicked scream.  (But Parker, we do this every day, multiple times a day.  Will you ever just go with it?  The answer: probably not.)  You can’t leave a room unsuspectingly anymore.  They know.  And they’re mad about it too.

No, you can’t do those things.  But you can laugh with them.  And it’s the purest sweetness.  It’s monkey see, monkey do around these parts.  He sticks out his tongue and shakes his head, I stick out my tongue and shake my head.  And we laugh.  I stamp my feet, and he stamps his feet.  We laugh some more.  You can hold their hands and walk places while they wear the proudest of smiles on their face.  “On two feet!  Just like you guys!”  You can read stories together and, you can be pretty sure, they understand a lot of it.  You can share food and watch as they discover what’s in their mouths with such concentration.  You can watch the baby chub disappear, seemingly overnight, as they move about, never stopping, until sleep.  This one, I so wish, would slow down.  I’m going to miss those rubberband-like wrists when they depart for good.

They are changing all the time.  As Mom to one of these little people, the change is so expected that it’s a constant.  Naps change, moods change (thanks teething!), appetites change.  In one fluid motion, they’re bigger and stronger, funnier and faster.  It’s happening all the time.

I’m trying to soak in every last bit.

lately.

weather’s getting cooler and i find myself spending more time in the kitchen making cozy meals and getting excited to light cranberry spice candles come nighttime.  
the change of season is upon us and it feels nice.

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