Practical Schmatical

I've talked about before how sometimes function trumps fashion because it's just not practical for mom-performance.
And sometimes I'm a total hypocrite.
I just felt like my brown tall wedges were *perfect* for my outfit.

So I wore them.
Everything was totally fine until I went to Trader Joes after picking up Emberly. It was crowded, so I opted to just carry Bauer, run thru and get my groceries and run out. Well, my groceries were kind of heavy. And as soon as I reached out to grab Emberly's hand before crossing the street, I knew that I had tipped the scale balanced so delicately on these skyscraper shoes. But it was too late. Fortunately, a tiny bit of skinned knee and embarrassment were the only consequence.
Lesson: get a freaking cart, or wear more practical shoes.

{i still think the wedges are cuter, but the sandals aren't bad...}

Where did that come from

Today I was going to hand Bauer his sippy cup when I said, "Here's your gulp-gulp!"
Hmmm.
What is a gulp-gulp, you ask? Years ago when she could barely talk, Emberly saw this episode of the Wiggles where they sang a song, "Gulp, gulp, drink some water, gulp, gulp, drink some water, because it's good for you!" And from then on, she decided her sippy cup was a "gulp-gulp." She seriously just stopped saying barely over a year ago. It popped right out of my mouth, yet immediately felt foreign.
I asked Emberly if she remembered. "Yeah, that was funny," she said smiling. Then her face immediately dropped and she resumed coloring. See, she can't waste too much time humoring motherly reminiscence.

Stereotypical

This weekend my husband said something that he's said many times: that my sense of humor is "white." [insert eye-roll here] Because black people can never be witty. I think that's terrible and I got into a discussion about it with him and a cousin and wanted to share my conclusion on my blog. He's not the only person that makes comments like that by any means, but it's my best example. This day and age, why does black = hood? Why do we want to keep ourselves backed into that niche, and try to put down and take away black identity from anyone who steps at all outside of that?
I remember when I first went away to a college with a small, intimate black community and I was teased for using words that apparently a lot of people didn't know and being so "proper," another way of saying, "white." Which, whatever, I've been biracial my entire life and grew up in a primarily white community; I'm pretty much at peace with the fact that I'll simply never be black "enough" for some people. But I think some the self-maintained 'criteria' is pretty negative, sad and ridiculous. My identity is much broader and more inclusive than that.

Edited to Add: anyone catch the web redemption on last night's Tosh? Timely. LOL

Tomorning

I'm sure everyone's toddler/preschooler makes up words based on prefixes, suffixes, etc. of words they already know. My favorites of Emberly's are "tomorning" and "tolater." Which, seriously, why aren't they words?
And maybe by tomorning I'll can remember a whole list of words that she should be submitting to Webster.
Made-up words are way cuter than 4-going-on-14 speak at least. For sure.

We be Vogue-in'

Me and my churren went to Archie's for Thai food with a friend in town from Omaha. Emberly was feeling special in her dress and new sparkly converse sneaks and wanted to vogue for mommy's blog. And then of course in crawled Bubba. Why not?

Breastfeeding the Second Time Around

Welcome Carnival of Breastfeeding visitors!!
Over at Blacktating (link removed as blog has since been taken down), I discovered that this month's "Carnival of Breastfeeding" is about subsequent nursing experiences. Which, coincidentally, I've been thinking about lately. Nursing Bauer has been essentially the same as nursing Emberly and yet different.
There were additional challenges having a preschooler to care for simultaneously (she's inevitably hungry or into something as soon as I would sit down to nurse), but the actual nursing is/was a breeze, thankfully. I also started sending him to daycare and going out a bit sans baby much sooner than I did with my daughter so pumping was a slightly more prominent pain in my butt (so excited to not have to do it on his daycare day after a mere 6 more weeks! I really feel for the breastfeeding mamas that work full time away from their babies!).
The nursing acrobatics and hair pulling and pinching and pushing phases are the same. Occasional soreness and engorgement, the same.
But, Bauer is much less attached to nursing. He rarely falls asleep nursing yet that was the only way Emberly would go to sleep 98% of the time. Nursing was the cure-all for anything and everything that bothered Emberly. Bauer is just as satisfied with being held and rocked usually. And Bauer has been very interested in solids since we started offering them in his 7th month, where as Emberly nursed every 2hrs hours well after 1 and wasn't too into food until she had several teeth. Bauer has slept for 12hr stretches at night without nursing several times and sleeps 6+hrs regularly. His sister held on to nursing even after my milk dried up while I was pregnant with him for a few weeks before relenting and weaning herself just before she turned 3. I predict that Bauer will wean himself between 18 and 24mo.
While I loved the nursing relationship when Emberly was little, I frequently would burn out and look forward to weaning. Something would always change (either my perspective or her habits) just when I would think maybe I wouldn't make it. I feel a little guilty admitting it, but I cherish and appreciate Bauer as a nursling more because he is so much less needy about it. I melt when he falls asleep nursing. I love laying in bed nursing in the early morning hours with him. I'm getting a little teary-eyed now just thinking about him all growed-up. Everything happens too fast, with every baby.

More Carnival Participants:
Elita @ Blacktating: Second Time's The Charm {removed, blog taken down}
Tanya @ the motherwear blog: http://breastfeeding.blog.motherwear.com/2011/06/-reasons-why-its-usually-easier-the-second-time-around.html

Takisha@ Reporter2Mother: http://reporter2mother.blogspot.com/2011/06/lessons-learned.html

Sarah @ Good Enough Mummy: http://goodenoughmummy.typepad.com/good_enough_mum/2011/06/carnival-of-breastfeeding-the-second-time-around.html

Barbara @ Three Girl Pile Up: http://threegirlpileup.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/totally-different-and-completely-the-same/

Sbelle @ Treasured Belle: http://treasuredbelle.blogspot.com/2011/06/tandem-nursing.html

Christine @ Christine's Contemplations: http://christinescontemplations.blogspot.com/2011/05/carnival-of-breastfeeding-nursing.html

Zoie @ Touchstonez: http://touchstonez.com/2011/06/13/once-more-with-feeling/

Anne @ Dou-la-la: http://dou-la-la.blogspot.com/2011/06/once-more-with-feeling-contemplating.html

He loves me!

On this Memorial Day, several consecutive hours of sleep (woohoo) found me awake pretty early. And then the kids drowsily made it downstairs by 6:30. But big sister fell back to sleep on the couch and little bubba has pulled himself to standing in front of me and is babbling his heart out. It's all quite unintelligible, but from the expression on his face, I'm certain that he's telling me all the ways he loves me. Yep, certain.