Water parks are "funnn"!

Geeky Entrepreneur, Amor Chiquito and I spent two nights at the Six Flags Great Escape Lodge in Queensbury, NY, near Lake George. The hotel and the indoor water park are both in one building. Very convenient and it was a lot of fun.

There were activities for adults, for little ones, and activities that were fun for the entire family.

Here is a link that describes the water park:
http://www.sixflagsgreatescapelodge.com/WWBinformation.asp

Amor Chiquito enjoyed spending time at the toddler pool area. The pool is about a foot deep. There are three toddler slides and two swings in this area.

We spent a fair bit of time in the lazy river. Geeky Entrepreneur and I each sat on inflatable tubes and we took turns holding Ari. It was relaxing for us grownups and Amor Chiquito liked it, so a win win all around!

We also spent time in a 3.5” deep pool. Amor Chiquito saw other kids swimming, so she became interested in learning how to swim. She made some progress! Towards the end, she wanted to swim “all by my own self”!

There were two awesome water slides for grownups. Have I ever mentioned how much Geeky Entrepreneur and I love water slides?! We had a blast! We took turns, one of us with the “baby” and one of us going down the water slide.

There were several water gun type toys near the water slide area. Amor Chiquito had a great deal of fun squirting Daddy every time he walked by making his way to the slide!

The ride down was not bad. The ride back home was not great, but, overall, no big complaints. She is two, after all! She had one meltdown. She was tired, had just come down with a cold, and wanted to see her friends next door. Nothing a boob can’t fix! Yes, I said boob! They are magical; ask Amor Chiquito.

The meltdown in the car made us wonder if it is time for energy drains. Love and Logic, one of our favorite parenting books, talks about how you can tell your child that her actions are draining for you and that she will need to find a way to restore your energy. Nothing crazy or unreasonable. It is about empathy and consequences to our actions, just like the other ideas the book suggests. More on that in a separate post. We need to reread the energy drain chapter.

I think she likes ice cream!

This morning, Amor Chiquito told me that she wanted a milkshake for breakfast. I told her that we were not going out for milkshakes right then. She said we have ice cream and milk at home! I explained that we don’t have milkshakes for breakfast. Of course, she asked “why?” She is very much into asking “why?” lately. More on that on a separate post.

A little while ago, I heard Amor Chiquito talking on her toy cell phone. She was placing an order, completely with details, please, thank you…! She was ordering a strawberry milkshake, in a small cup!

What can I say? I love ice cream and so does my kid!

Oh, and, I agree with Ari: wouldn’t it be cool if you could order ice cream or milk shakes and have them delivered right to your door?! They would melt on the way, I know!

All about our trip to Boston...

Warning: this is a long post. It is more like a diary entry, my attempt to remember some of the fun and beautiful moments I have with my Ari and the wonderful people around us!

Our trip to Boston two weeks ago was eventful, in a good way. Here are a few stories.

Geeky Entrepreneur left for San Francisco before 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Amor Chiquito and I visited our neighbors in the morning. It worked; she was having fun and not thinking too much about how Daddy was in an airplane, far away. I had considered not mentioning the airplane, but I decided against it. I prefer being honest with her and giving/teaching her the tools she needs to cope/manage whatever life throws her way. I am very grateful and we are very blessed that Daddy going on a business trip is one of the most stressful things she has experienced thus far.

Back to the story, around 2:00 p.m., we headed out to Boston. It was a two-hour bus ride. It went well. Amor Chiquito was fascinated. She does not remember being in a “big bus” before. She spent some time on my lap until she felt comfortable and she eventually moved to her seat.

At one point, Ari started telling me about who has which privates and who is a boy or a girl! This was a first. Last I knew, she was confused and thought/wanted to be a boy. I was grateful for all the background noise; I don’t think the other travelers would have been interested in our conversation!

One thing that did not go over so well was using the potty. The motion scared her and she just could not relax or use the potty. I was waiting for her to have an accident any minute. She made it to Boston and she went as soon as we got to the bus station.

This reminds me… Mommy forgot the night diapers! Unbelievable! Fortunately, my friend has a little one and so they shared diapers with us. Ari was ecstatic. She thinks disposables are very cool! What is different than what you have at home is clearly in, didn’t you get the memo?!

We spend the afternoon and the evening with my friend and her little one. The kids quickly felt comfortable playing together. Before we knew it, they were plotting mischief together, chasing each other, looking at each other on the mirror, playing with trains, watering the plants, etc. It was adorable!

Crunchy moment… Yaminette got me to eat a veggie burger. That was most definitely a first! It was horrible! I am never eating one again! That is why I made sure I knew what brand it was. Darn, one point for Yaminette!

Night time went better than I had anticipated. Amor Chiquito did not nap, so she fell asleep quickly. There were a few night wakings, but she went back to sleep easily and quickly.

In the morning, we took the kids to a park. They had a lot of fun.

We then had yummy Indian food for lunch! Indian food buffet, yay Boston! That is one of the few things I like about Boston: you can find whatever food you are in the mood for!

Both kids refused to nap. What a shock! This made me a bit nervous, impending long bus ride and all…

Since they would not nap, we went out for icecream and to another park. Ari went with Yaminette to get icecream and she informed Yaminette that she wanted “pint tawberry i-team pease (pink strawberry icecream please”! She enjoyed her icecream, and so did her and my clothes!

There was tons of sand in the park. My daughter decided she must enjoy the entire sand experience. So she took her shoes and socks off. By the way, she did this everywhere: on the bus, at the bus station, she has done it at restaurants…

After the park, Ari fell asleep in the car, on the way to the bus station. Exactly what I did not want to happen. That kid does not like it one bit if you wake her up! So I carried her for a while. Eventually, she woke up, walked, and did not do what she usually does. No crying for a long time. Thank you, kiddo.

You should have seen us: each carrying one kid, Yaminette with Ari’s car seat, me with a backpack and a diaper bag. I don’t even want to think about carrying all our stuff without help through the maze that is South Station. Traveling as a mama of a little one without a companion is interesting… Quite the workout!

The ride home was not bad at all. We were stuck in traffic for an hour, so it ended up being a 2.5 hour ride. Thomas and Friends kept us company for a portion of it. That is the one reason why I brought my laptop. I am glad I did.

Oh, almost forgot… We got on the bus exactly four minutes before it left. Boston traffic… Never taking the 5:00 p.m. bus again!

One more thing: for quite a while, Amor Chiquito kept asking about “otro mommy (the other mommy)” and about Yaminette’s son. She wanted them “in big bus too.” Once I explained that that was not a choice, she decided she wanted “go back otro mommy house, baby, trains.”!

Overall, the trip was awesome! I have an awesome friend and she has a kid that is cute and funny as can be! So it was worth it, all of it! We are ready to do it again!

Once we got home that evening, Amor Chiquito went to sleep very quickly.

The next morning, things went downhill from there! Amor Chiquito was missing Daddy lots. She did not sleep well. She had circles under her eyes. She cried a fair bit. She was extremely upset any time someone left. Our last night without Geeky Entrepreneur, Amor Chiquito talked my mother into staying over. My mother even slept on our bed. Somehow, it felt strange, but nice.

Saturday morning, Daddy got home around 10:30 and Ari’s world was a much better place! She was in heaven with Daddy and her two balloons! One thing I noticed: for days, each and every time Daddy was leaving the house, she would get anxious and would ask him if he was going in an airplane again. She is fine now. Every now and then, if Geeky Entrepreneur is gone for hours, she asks if he is bringing balloons! No, no such luck!

Fulfilling a friend's request...!

You may or may not have seen a comment from my awesome friend, Yaminette, where she wrote about Sunday and how I should “post something, something, anything”! So here it goes!

Commencement! I did it. I am done. I get my diploma this Sunday! And I get to spend the day with some of my favorite people in the whole wide world: my husband, my daughter, my mother, my mother-in-law, and my amazing and inspiring crunchy friend and her little one, Mr. Free Spirit (I named him that since he was tiny!).

It has been a long road, particularly after the birth of my Amor Chiquito. So I am ecstatic. I have my degree. I am looking for work. I am hoping to find something I would love doing, something that does not require graduate school. Not interested in grad school right now! I won’t say ‘never’. I know better. But I am definitely not interested right now.

Amor Chiquito is going to preschool in the fall and I get to begin my career. Looking forward to the next chapter of my life! In a way, I am in disbelief still. The baby stage is over. She is not a baby anymore. I am in denial! But that is a whole other topic. Maybe I will get to posting about it next year!

There, Yami, are you happy?! Oh, by the way, I am feeding you burgers and hotdogs, the real stuff, on Sunday! Just kidding! Yaminette and I joke about her being vegetarian and my so-called vegetarian in denial state each and every time we get together. It just does not get old!

Self Care Day

We had a night from hell last night! Ok, I grant you, that was quite dramatic, but it was exhausting, that is for sure. Amor Chiquito did not nap yesterday. She fell asleep at 7:15 p.m. She woke up at 11:00 p.m. She woke up again at 12:00 a.m. Again at 1:00 a.m. That time, she was up for about three hours. She woke up soon after I fell asleep, of course. We were up until 4:00 a.m. She got up for the day at 7:30 a.m. Geeky Entrepreneur was gone. So no time for me to catch up on some sleep.

Then, my day got a lot better! My mother offered to take Amor Chiquito for a few hours. I packed a lunch box full of yummy, healthy snacks to try and limit the amount of junk Amor Chiquito would eat while she was with my mother. I love my mommy to pieces, but she is quite the grandma and she sees Ari lots, so I feel it is important to keep an eye on the junk food consumption. Anyways, they were gone before 10:00 a.m.

I decided to channel one of my favorite mama bloggers, Sonya, at mamatrue.com. She just wrote an awesome post the other day about what she does for self care. I decided today would be a self care day!

Today has simply been awesome! I started by taking a long shower. I blow dried my hair. No rush; no worries about how much television Ari was watching or what mischief she might be getting into.

I took my sweet time eating breakfast, with my laptop in front of me, of course!

I exercised. I have been slacking!

I napped. I desperately needed it!

I got to the dishes before they hit the ceiling!

I got some laundry done.

I am now wrapping up by having a quiet lunch and some more computer time before Amor Chiquito shows up.

This self care stuff is awesome! I get to do a little something for me every day. But doing a bunch of things just for me on one day is simply amazing! I feel energized, even though I got about four hours of sleep last night.

The only other thing I would have loved to do but did not get to would be to get together with a friend. That is always tricky because most of my close friends live far away: one in Boston, one in Puerto Rico, and my newest, local friend is about to move away.

Don’t forget to do something nice for you today! You deserve it!

Sonya, thank you for your inspiring posts!

What did she say?!

That is what I am often thinking or saying to Geeky Entrepreneur.

Each and every single day, Amor Chiquito says something that surprises me, makes me laugh very hard, or both. Here are a few of her most recent statements:

We were having dinner. She said: “All done. I go poop.”

She was in the tub. She asked for bubbles. Geeky Entrepreneur said that we don’t have any and that we need to get some at the store. Her response: “Ok, I get it.”

On Thursday, I told Amor Chiquito we would be going to her new school the next day. Her response: “Yaaay, I’m so excited!”

As we were walking out of the school on Friday, “I want go back school!”

My all-time favorite: “I’m sooo happy!” It never gets old.

Another favorite: “Hold you me.”

Yet another one: “No got you me.”

I will love having this and other similar blog entries years from now!

Mommy is re-learning some lessons today!

Amor Chiquito woke up early this morning. It was one of those mornings when you just cannot wake up. I eventually got up because I have a child and so did not have a choice in the matter! I went downstairs to adjust the thermostat. That is when our morning got interesting!

Amor Chiquito was alone for less than a minute. It does not take a long time to go down the stairs, adjust the thermostat, and go back upstairs. Once upstairs, I noticed that she was quiet and that she had closed my bedroom door. Can you spell m-i-s-c-h-i-e-f?! I opened the door. She ran into her room and closed the door. I asked her “what do you have?” No response. Nothing on her hands. I thought “strange, but I guess nothing is going on.” Then I smelled a fruity smell, one I know very well. Tums!

“Ari, are you eating Tums?”

“Yes, mommy.”

“How many did you eat, Ari?”

“Three, mommy.”

She can count and understands one through four, so I believe her. I asked her various times and the answer was always the same.

So, yes, mommy made a mistake. The Tums bottle was not in its usual spot. It was left where the three feet tall child could reach. It was late at night and I was not thinking. The tired woman with heartburn was thinking, not the cautious mother.

I figured Amor Chiquito would be fine and then I remembered my mother-in-law telling me many times that kids could get really sick from eating Tums. I figured it might very well be an old wives tale, but, I admit, I panicked a bit. My neighbor is a mother of three, so I figured she has probably been there, done that. I am glad I did!

We called the poison control line rather than calling the pediatrician. I have noticed that the nurses often think I ought to bring Ari in and, most times, the pediatrician thinks I did not need to come in.

Poison control told us that Amor Chiquito is fine, that she might get a stomach ache if she ate 10-15 Tums. But she did not. So far so good.

The lessons for today:

Keep your medications up high. Remember, they can climb. They have awesome problem solving skills at this age!

Find your local poison control agency’s phone number and add it to your list of contacts.

Preparing Amor Chiquito for Daddy's Trip

Geeky Entrepreneur is self-employed and so the majority of the time he works from home. The last few years, he has not flown anywhere. On Wednesday, he is flying to CA and will be gone for three days. This will be a first for Amor Chiquito. She is used to having Daddy home. She does not interact much with him from nine to six p.m., but she knows he is here, at home. When he is not home, she asks often when he is coming back.

How do we prepare her for this? What are good do’s and don’t’s while he is gone?

Here is what I have been thinking so far:

We will tell her the day before he leaves so that she is not anxious about it for days. Also, he is leaving at five a.m., so there will not be an opportunity for a proper goodbye the day of.

We will not make a big deal of it. For example, I am wondering if we should avoid mentioning that he will be in an airplane. She knows that people who fly in airplanes “go far away.”

I will do my best to get her to understand what a day is. If it seems like she gets that, I will explain that Daddy will be gone for three days. Each day, I will tell her what day we are on.

We are planning on video conferencing once a day. He will be on Pacific time and will have long days. Hopefully it will work.

A friend suggested that when Amor Chiquito talks about Daddy being gone I focus on when he is coming home, that he will be home soon, etc., rather than on how he is gone, she misses him, etc.

I plan on validating her feelings and keeping her occupied as much as possible.

We are going on a little trip ourselves! We are going to Boston to see my awesome friend Yaminette and her little one. I think Amor Chiquito will have fun playing with my friend’s son and his many trains! I am sure she will be fascinated by the big Peterpan bus! She has only been in one once before and she does not remember it. She was seven months.

Inserting rant here… Please do not imply that I should not go on this trip because I am visually impaired and my daughter is two and very active, seriously. I am a capable and cautious mother with a brain. I own a stroller and a backpack harness (what the heck is the correct name for those things?). I know when I need them. My daughter is just as safe as your kid is. By the way, you know what sucks the most? The fact that it is a relative, someone who has known me for 27 years, who said this to me. Rant over!

Back to traveling, I look forward to any thoughts/suggestions.

Breastfeeding and Managing Alergic Reactions

I have been lucky in that the last few years I did not have severe allergic reactions in the spring or my expected spring sinus infection. I have been breastfeeding for 31 months and I was pregnant before that, so I have been avoiding medications as much as possible. I have read that antihistamines might affect a mother’s milk supply, but the research is inconclusive. I was so grateful for not having to deal with this.

This year, I have no idea what has changed. We have been in the same neighborhood for two years, so living in a new area is not it. All I know is that my head feels like two strong hands are squeezing it. I cannot keep track of how many times I sneeze in one day! Needless to say, it is time to do something.

I started by doing some research on the La Leche League website. Unfortunately, that did not lead me to any useful information. That was unusual; the website has been very helpful in the past. For example, I found an article with suggestions for visually impaired mothers and many stories of adoptive breastfeeding moms, among many others.

Back to managing allergic reactions, good old Google is awesome! And so is this website: http://www.kellymom.com/health/meds/cold-remedy.html#decongestants.

I now know which nasal sprays and which antihistamines I can try. Even better, I have a list of crunchy things to try, as my husband puts it! If you are breastfeeding or simply want to try other options before trying medications, here are some suggestions I got from the website mentioned above:

Saline nasal spray. It worked for me when I was pregnant. Don’t put a few drops in your nose. Keep spraying until you start tasting the water.

Boil some water, cover your face with a towel, and breathe the water for five minutes a few times a day. I have not done this, but I have found hot showers to be helpful, so I will try this too.

My favorite, just because I won’t hear the end of it from my husband! Heat some apple cider vinegar in a pot until it begins to steam. Inhale the vapor.

Put a quarter tsp of cayenne pepper in a glass of water and drink it. Not looking forward to it, but one is willing to try many things when she is feeling desperate! Actually, I change my mind. I am having super spicy Indian food tonight! I will tell my husband it is part of my treatment! Should I tell him that chocolate might help make me feel better too?! Just kidding!

If you are in a similar situation, what helps you? What does not? If you tried antihistamines while breastfeeding, did they have an impact on your milk supply?