Taking Flight - Preperation for Close Spaces

Holy Cow Moment #:  And I thought I was a pack-rat before having a baby. T-Minus 2 weeks to vacation and a 2.5 hour flight.

What are we doing to prepare for flight with a toddler?  Well to start we are buying several new toys to give her something to distract her.  We are loading ALL of her favorite movies onto the i-pad.  We are trying to get her use to wearing minimouse earphones.  What we are not doing yet is potty training. I think this is obvious why.

We have been asking around to see what the best options are for flying with a wee one.  Some people swear a carseat is the best option, others say no, the empty seat is better.

Pro's to an empty seat -
Place to change diapers
Run around room
A place for all your toys
a place to sprawl incase sleep is a possiblity

Con's -
No good way to constrain the tiny tot
Well-no good way to keep her still

Pro's to a car seat -
One less item to check
A place to harness he tiny butt
It a a familar place, her space

Con's to a car seat -
It's big and bulky
I don't want to carry the thing
It might take up all the "play space" for her

I think in the end we are going to gate check the carseat.  It's free to check why not.

Current check list -
Copy of birth certificate for child - Done
Bags for her carry on items-done
carry on toys - done
Benadryl - done- oh wait it says not to use to make your child sleepy.  Sigh. 

Any tips to flying with kids under teh age of 2?

Glutton for Punishment - Baby Number 2

The word is out – or at least I think it is.  If not it will be now.

 Holy Cow Moment #: Baby number two is on their way.

Did we just sign ourselves up for a world of hurt?   Somedays I think maybe.  When my daughter is running around without stopping for hours and all I can do it pray she crashes early so I can go to bed the idea of 2 is a little intimidating. 

This baby was a small surprise.  Yes we weren’t not trying, but I had been told that it wouldn’t be easy to get pregnant this time around.  Why?  Well thanks to the first pregnancy I now have a few health issues and on top of that I am still nursing – just barely but I am.  Well let me just tell you the doctors are full of poop. 

So here I am due in March, just before my darling toddler’s second birthday.  Will we survive?  I don’t know.  I guess we will since millions of others somehow do it.  Does that really help reassure me?  Not really.  I still feel like I am on an island, alone. 

If I survive the morning-afternoon-evening: okay I am sick all the time. Whatever dopy doctor names it morning sickness should be shot for the misconception that leads to.  Anyway, if I survive that and the new baby survives my toddler trying to take him/her out already by pretending mommy is a trampoline, I suppose we will be okay.

Oh how I wish that a stork really was the way a baby arrived. 

Holy Cow what have we just done? :-)

Family Fiction Contest - I still need your help.

 

It's getting close to the end of voting and I am hoping I can still get a few last minute votes. Please click on the link below and vote a thumbs up, PLEASE.  I always welcome feedback on the story too.  Send a comment to me if you have anything constructive to say.

A Tablespoon of Hope

If you are trying to figure out where this came from see my previous post.
The Holy Cow Moments of being a Mom: I need your support:

I Just Said What?

Holy Cow Moment ?: If anyone were to read my text messages to my husband they'd either think I was kinky or disturbed.

Here are the last few text messages to the hubby:
"we have pee"
"just had a poop. It was thick too."
"just ate 2.5 chickens"
"more pee. Thank God."

So let me say that our daughter has had diarrhea and vomiting for three days. She was becoming severely dehydrated. The above maps out that she is starting to get back to normal,but honestly I never thought I could describe poop-or that I would ever study it. Another conversation had the phrase "she pooped but it was more pudding then solid." Sorry pudding, no offense.

As far as the chickens go, please I live in suburbia. No deep woods oddities here. She ate a couple of nuggets that my husband lovely refers to a simply-chickens.

A little more insight into what parents talk about when one is away and the others trying to keep them informed is fluid intake or dosages. Bu I now see that for what it is...I'm not only into odd fetishes but I'm a drug addict.

"use a syringe"
"try a teaspoon"

I am referring to ways of getting our daughter hydrated when she doesn't want to drink.  But these two phrases alone, to anyone else, would have made someone seriously question us.

Either way the results are the same.  When did this become my life?  

Holy Cow we talk about poop and pee and get excited about it.  Never in my life did I imagine being excited over bodily functions. 

101 Ways: What Our Parents Had that We Do Not

Has anyone had their parents go off on the ‘good old days’.  It seems to me like they are living in the past.  Wishing for the good,  still trying to live like that.  Well the reality is things have changed.  Times are harder.  Money is scarce and we all have to struggle just a little.  But, I feel like this might have made the younger generations accepting of change.  We are stronger and more adaptable.  We are survivors. 

Holy Cow Moment ?:  My child is not the only one making me want to scream.

I find myself wanting to scream at my parents or aunts or grandparents “Yes I hear you. I understand you had it good but move on.”  I think I am a realist.  I can’t get caught up in what I wish things were because they aren’t.  Sure we all look back once in a while.  Of course we all hope for a better future for our kids but you have to learn to live in the now.  You can’t improve by living in the future and you can’t change if you live in the past. 

I only hope that our children can continue fixing the issues we have only started to unearth.  Too bad my poor toddler has no idea that the world lays on her shoulders.  Although, I do think the Lorax helped touch on it a little.  Is it scary that Dr, Seuss is already trying to teach our children that we need to make a change?

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.

Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

The Movie Rotation

In our house we have a rotation of 6 movies.  Winnie the Pooh-The movie, Rio, Tangled, Monsters Inc, Despicable Me and How to Train Your Dragon.  Today though is momentous! We are trying to introduce the <drum roll> The Lorax. 

Holy Cow Moment ?:  When did I become ever so lucky to know EVERY word to EVERY song or line to the popular children’s movies.

I think we are lucky because my daughter knows nothing of the annoying shows that are like kid crack.  The down side to her not knowing of Dora or Diego or something about oddly shaped what’s-it, is that I have to watch the same movies over, and OVER, and OVER, AND OVER again.  I feel like maybe I am adding something new to my character though. 

What is really sad about this whole situation, is once you have watched a movie- no a cartoon too much you start to analyze it. 

Such as in Tangled. Rapunzel says.  “You can tear this tower apart brick by brick and you will never find it.”  She is of course talking about Flin’s satchel.  The statement is a little off.  If he tore the place down brick by brick at some point he would find the satchel… he just would. It’s a fact.

In Rio – ignoring the talking birds.  Who in their right might is going to travel with some crazy bird guy to Rio De Jenerio.  Hasn’t she seen the movie ‘City of God’?  Aside from kidnapping and murder fears, (thank you society for instilling paranoia in me) how did the bird guy find her?  Blue fell off a truck – I doubt that he was registered anywhere.  Or is there a bird registry?

Now in Despicable Me – ignoring… well most of the film since there is no way minions are real, or are they?  Supposedly the minions have families and are getting paid.  So how is it that they suddenly can afford to give up their paychecks to build a rocket…what about their families?

I have a million more questions but then it occurred to me.  I am analyzing a cartoon because by the hundredth time it has run its course on entertainment value and I need to create some kind of new drama.  

Oh the life of a parent. The things we do to make our kids smile – or to shut them up.  Whatever your reason, please join me in the movement to keep our mental sanity and converse with me about something other than cartoons and what color my Childs poop is.

I need your support

As I think it is clear - I like to write.  So I figured what the hey, I will enter a contest for a short story.  The theme was for a Short Short Romance.  Now the stories are posted and voting has begun. 

If you like my story please vote - if you don't ...well i would rather you not :-) Please feel free to post any feedback here on my blog.  I would love to know what you think, good or bad.  This was a big step for me to allow a story to be read by the public but I hope it will be a good experience.

To view my story click here: A Tablespoon of Hope


(If you have any issues here is the direct address - http://www.familyfiction.com/short-stories/create-romance-2012/a-tablespoon-of-hope-1/)