My Astronaut and his Waffles.

I may or may not have mentioned here that my son is a picky eater.

For being a "picky" eater he actually eats healthier than any of the rest of our household because of his love for smoothies. Momma makes sure plenty of veggies get hidden in those! And, he picks them himself!

Today, however, is such a good example of his picky behavior that I can't resist sharing.

He loves WAFFLES.

But not just any waffle will do.

If I am not making Hungry Jack waffles fresh in my waffle iron, then they must meet the following requirements:

1. Store brand, Eggo, you name it: doesn't matter. BUT you better not try to offer him any of those Buttermilk or "Plain" ones. Because. YUCK. He'll tell you they aren't waffles.

2. Strawberry or blueberry is currently where it is at. Again, don't test him on this, anything else is not really waffles.

3. Lightly toast his waffles, don't make them too dark or too crunchy. He won't touch it.

4. Add butter. Only a LITTLE bit, and it better be completely melted by the time you set it in front of him. SERIOUSLY.

5. NO syrup. Not even a drop. He is more likely to throw them at you, than eat them, if there is syrup.

6. Cut into nice easy-to-pick-up-with-a-fork bites. Some days he may decline a utensil and use his hands but you run the risk of him not wanting to eat if you don't offer him one.

7. Be ready to make another waffle when his is almost done. Having to wait more tends to leave him uninterested in your efforts to make him more.


He is cute so he gets away with his demands.

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My sister's youngest child, born my nephew, is special. There are plenty of arguements to be made. Every. Single. Child. Is Special. What I mean is... My nephew wants to be my niece.


My NEPHEW
wants to be
my NIECE
and...

I don't care.


Now, before you jump to conclusions or want to hunt me down, I'll explain:

I don't care because:

I will continue to love HER.
I will continue to be proud of HER.
I will fight for HER.
I will fight for HER rights.
As I will fight for everyone's rights.

To me it's a non-issue.

If anyone attacks HER.
Or bullies HER.

They better be ready.

Because I'll fight anyone who says that just because SHE was born with a penis, but feels SHE is truly meant to be FEMALE, she doesn't have the same human rights as everyone else.

I have seen these thoughts and words poured out all over lately and I don't understand what is wrong with people.

When I look at my FRIENDS.
When I look at my FAMILY.
I do not see:

Race.
Gender.
Religion.
Nationality.

I see a HUMAN BEING. And, anyone I call FRIEND or FAMILY is someone I LOVE.

Love does not see labels.

So why should we?

May I have.

We've been struggling to get Tiny Viking to speak in multi-word "sentences" and she does have a growing number of two-word and a tiny set of three-word sentences she will string together but really her opinion seems to be:

"If I can say it in one word, why use more?"

It is hard to argue with the logic she's created but we also know if she hasn't met certain goals by her 3 year well-check we are probably going to be told she needs speech therapy.

It's already been hinted at.

Don't get me wrong I have nothing against it, if that is what she needs. But... a few nights ago she overheard me offering things in the closet to Little Man because he was pointing to items on the shelf and he can't speak enough to tell me what he wants. One of the things I offered him was their foam sword. A few minutes later me and baby brother are now in the living room and Miss Viking is in their room. She was talking to herself and it took me a few moments to realize she was repeating over and over:

"May I have. May I HAVE. May I have?"

I walked into the room to ask what she was saying and she pointed up at the sword and stayed silent, except for that smile. The smile that wins every piece of my heart every. single. time.

I finally coaxed the word sword and the word please out of her so I brought them down. She may have some issues to work on. I don't know. But, I do know she is shy. AND stubborn.

And

Perfect.

Toddler Meals. Because Toddler's are WEIRD.

A quick run down of the first half of our day...

1. Up most of the night before with feverish baby boy, 6 month old shots were not his friend. It took Infant Tylenol, walking, bouncing, swaying, cuddling, tickling, laughing, tears, songs, and two full renditions of "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert W. Service.
2. Thrasher showed up to tear apart out basement (for good reason). By this time tomorrow we will have one VERY waterproofed basement, with a brand spanking new sump pump!
3. Babies and I went to In-laws house to get away from the deafening jack hammering that was about to happen. Lots of playing and cartoon watching. Tiny Viking got her hands in some Play-doh for the first time and had a blast!
4. Pizza was bought for lunch. YUM. 
5. NO homework done, like I had planned... -_-
6. One very long nap for an exhausted little girl.

Then...

I heard Cassie's little feet hit the floor after her nap, followed by a lot of rustling. She walks out to the living room moments later, sweaty bed head, sleepy eyes and BOTH of her purses. Because you can not just have one. Her baby brother is asleep in my arms having just moments before given up the fight to stay awake. She hands me one purse and sets the other onto the ottoman in front of me. She plays with the buttons making her Fisher Price Laugh and Learn My Pretty Learning Purse sing to her. Then turns to take the one back that she had handed me. Pulls out the change purse, sets it aside. Pulls out the butterfly glasses, and puts them on, crooked. Grabs the phone next and tries to press it's fake sticker buttons. This is only one of her MANY phones and this one doesn't even make noise, it is quickly set aside. I fight to get her to turn around for a picture because the whole scene is just TOO adorable for me. She frowned at me because she wanted her compact open, NOT a picture.

Ten minutes into playing she turns around and says, "Eat."

"Are you hungry?" I asked.

"Eat." She said again, nodding her head vigorously.

I spend another 10-15 minutes offering her everything I can think of for dinner. Every offer she responds with, "No." So, I go into the freezer and grab the box of frozen waffles which is one of a small list of always (OK. almost always) a yes. "Cookie!"

"No. Waffles."

"Waffle!"

I toast two waffles, in case one isn't enough and proceed to pull out the extra Hebrew National hot dog I grilled for myself for just this reason last night. She sees what's in the container and immediately wants it, even though she has already turned down hot dogs.

And, that was the start of her weirdest meal, to date (I add this because the skies the limit with this child! She eats almost anything).

1 Hot dog, minus the one bite I managed
1/2 of a Blueberry waffle, with the tiniest drizzle of syrup
Hummus with carrot sticks
Milk



Because. Toddlers.

And, Toddles are WEIRD.

The Tiniest of Babies Are Often The Toughest Warriors

I haven't sat down to type a post here in months. The last few things I did type up are still actually sitting in draft form because they were written to get things down, but I don't feel comfortable sharing those thoughts. At least not yet. Today, however, I saw this pop up on my feed:

Spray Pal

10 hrs · Edited · 

You guys. HLNTV was the first news source to actually contact me for a real interview, so I have to share this because THIS brought tears to my eyes. And it's the #2 story on their site right now!!

Feel free to share this one all over and help ‪#‎makeclothmainstream‬ 

http://www.hlntv.com/video/…/12/12/boy-hears-mom-first-time…

And, I finally have something worth saying again.

I first discovered Spray Pal while pregnant with Tiny Viking. I had researched every aspect of cloth diapering I could think of. I can't remember which number blog or article I was on by the time I found this company, but it's well over a dozen. Someone mentioned the name and said it totally changed their life. I had to know. What WAS it? A poop splatter shield?? WHAT!? Then I read some more about it, including peoples thoughts after using it and I thought their product sounded GENIUS. Which, BTW, it totally freakin' is. I had looked up how much the diapers were going to cost, which led me to realize it wasn't just the same diapers and safety pins my Gramma had used. There were SO many cute prints! It was also... SO incredibly overwhelming trying to decide what type of diaper to try! So... we didn't. It still sounded so costly and how was I going to find the time to clean them? Hah. If I'd known then what I do now I would have started before. I will try to remember to post my journey to Cloth another time. (We still only use it part time but I love it!) 

When Tiny was a few months old, I once more pondered cloth and I Google searched Spray Pal for MORE info, where I stumbled upon a Facebook page. The Cover Photo showed a row the teeniest cloth diapers I had ever seen, outside of a doll aisle. They gradually went up and size until the last had an adorable smiling baby boy in it. "The only point in looking back, is to see how far you've come" reads the image. I followed their page so that if we ever did make the switch I wouldn't forget the name of their company. As they made new posts and I searched through the older ones, I gleaned new/old information about this smiling boy, Ryan, most often mentioned as #minispraypal 2.0. He was a 25 weeker, a micro preemie born at 1 lb 13 oz! And, here I had thought my 5 lb 7.4 oz baby was small, I can't even imagine. One post of theirs really stands out in memory of the first time he sat up on his own in the bath! It was right about the same time Tiny had done the same thing. Which made it really sink in how much of a delay preemies can have, and it really sank in to me how far he'd come.

From then on I didn't just wait to randomly catch posts, from time to time I would just go to the page and see what new was going on. Then I started stalking them on Instagram when I ventured down that particular rabbit hole. There have been many times now that Tiny and Ryan hit the same milestones very close together, sometimes he gets to it first and sometimes she does. I cheer just as enthusiastically at my computer for this boy, as I do in real life for my own babe. 

I cried with the first posts of his getting to do "sprints" off of oxygen and of pulling himself up for the first time. There were the first aided steps and the first surgery attempt for his cochlear implant. His birthday bash looked amazing! There were good news days and there were further delays and finally a second successful surgery! It was most recently "activation day," and I barely slept the night before, I was so excited for THEM! His cochlear implant was turned on and he heard his Mom's voice for the first time. And, giggled!!! The video she posted made me smile, made me laugh and made me cry a lot more! The story has been featured on Huffington Post and PopSugar.com 

If you need a pick me up, all you need is to see the pictures or videos of this Miracle boy rediscovering the world around him. Did I mention he's weaned fully off oxygen during the day? No more tubing to get caught up in! I seriously get so excited for him. I can't wait to keep watching him grow. He is going to do BIG things.

Why is Deadliest Catch SO addicting!?

Pretty busy day at our place. 

My mouth is still hurting pretty bad but I'm taking less and less pain meds again because I hate taking them. 

Cassandra got up about her normal time, daddy wasn't home yet because he did a little grocery shopping on the way home, so I got up with her. We survived our first night sleeping in cloth diapers like a champ!! I was so so so very happy!

She got to enjoy quite a bit of play time with daddy when he came home. I know because I could hear her happily babbling away from down the hall. I snatched her up while he was prepping her breakfast, thinking she would calm down with a little nursing. She was chilly in just her diaper so I cuddled her wrapped in my Nightmare Before Christmas blanket. She wriggled around a lot for a few minutes and then to my surprise she fell asleep.

I didn't need any further prompting to sleep some more myself and boy did it feel great!

Fast forward through her actually eating breakfast and boring chores getting done. Tim went out and loosened up the last garden plot for me! My two kinds of pumpkins and the melons (also two types) are finally in the ground! We'll wait and see what survives. I hope quite a bit!! My pepper plants look amazing, the cauliflower and butternut squash look alright. The tomatoes are a bit iffy. Especially the cherries. So bummed! All fruits and veggies have been planted at least into temporary pots. Next up HOPEFULLY, the side of the house where my flowers are supposed to go. It's frustrating that all my hard work ripping all the grass and weeds out was a total waste.

More on the Tiny Viking front:

She had a few more little naps, was super cranky because of this whole teething nonsense (I do NOT like seeing her so upset). I kept her as occupied as possible letting her play with one of Porky's old drumsticks for a while (sorry Daddy) and even her dumping a whole bin of toys and spreading them all over the living room.

She decided to read to Leo the Bear tonight.

She was flipping pages and shoving them in the bears face. Repeatedly. A little (okay, a LOT) more forceful than when I read to her. But, she has the concept down I think. 

I can't get over how much she loves Leo. She shrieks in excitement every time she sees him. Hugs him close, kisses him, wrestles with him, talks to him and all with the biggest smile on her face. I had been starting to feel a little buyers remorse/guilt over spending money on him. The level of excitement she gets is worth a thousand times more than I spent. So I'm not going to let it bother me any more. 

She likes the 'M' sound and that is OK with me.

As I was just washing my hands, after changing her diaper, I can hear her in the crib "Mmm. Mmmmmm. Mamamamaaama baa ma Mmmmm Maamamama Mmmmmm." I just stood still for a moment taking it all in with a big goofy smile on my face.