Geek in Heels - Page 49

Mar 31, 2012 • In Baby, Motherhood, Personal

Why, Yes. I Do Feel Like an Asshat!

As stated in my last post, this past week has been a whirlwind of sh*tstorms. Suffice it to say that the past few days have probably have been my most trying as a mother of two. Maybe I’ll write about the events that transpired in a future post, but there is a chance that I may need to erase from my memory banks these occurrences and my resulting feelings and reactions from them — and leaving them written out on a public blog may not be the best way to go about accomplishing this goal.

I have recently re-read Tina Fey’s Bossypants because it is a quick and funny read that does not require much thinking. I laughed out loud as I read the below passage:

I learned how long a morning can be. If you’re at work at 5:30 A.M., five hours go by and it is 10:30 in the morning. (I didn’t experience that again until I had a newborn baby. It does make you feel like an asshat for all those college years when you slept until 12:45.)

My mother told me yesterday that my life will never be as comfortable as it was when I was in college. I disagree, because I hated school and I hate being dependent on others — even my own parents at that young age — for money. For me, it was better when we were DINKs (double income, no kids), because at least we could sleep in on weekends and our combined income which supported two people was more than what J’s single income now supports for four.

But having less (in time, money, and other luxuries) does make me so much more appreciative of the little things; I am so much more thankful for what I do have, as well as what I had. For instance, I can’t believe I used to b*tch about getting “only” 5 hours of sleep the night before. Or spending $700 for a wallet and not batting an eye when a $100 handbag seems like such a luxury now. Continue reading »

Mommy’s Diapers

After a visit to the grocery store to stock up on feminine supplies, I had my back turned for 5 seconds while taking Aerin’s jacket off and Claire got ahold of my box of Always Overnights with Wings.

(The rule of thumb with toddlers is that they will cause the most mischief when you have your back turned for 2-5 seconds — no more, no less. Like last night, when Claire tried to get into the tub by herself during bath time and FELL IN HEAD FIRST into the almost-full, soapy tub with all her clothes still on and her stuffed giraffe in her hands. Trying to calm down a hysterically crying toddler — a soaking wet, hysterically crying toddler, while she clutches her dripping-wet, now-weighing-5-pounds stuffed animal in her arms, was the highlight of the week.)

Claire’s personality is like mine in that she has trouble letting things go. As such, I have found that if she becomes fascinated by something she shouldn’t be playing with — like my menstrual supplies — it is better for me to show her how BORING and UNEXCITING the object in question is so that her curiosity will be satisfied and I will not have to deal with a tantrum when I eventually take it away.

So per my usual fashion, I unwrapped one of the pads and showed her what it is, flipping it front to back so that she could examine it, saying stuff like, “Oh, this is not fun. It’s so white and plain! Mommy’s bored with it already. Mommy’s going to go play with that toy over there now.”

And because she is such a bright, curious girl, I like to tell her what the objects are for, too. So in this case —

“These are mommy’s diapers. Just like the diapers that you and your little sister wear…”

I was planning to go on by saying, “But yours are so much prettier! This is nothing special.” when I saw a lightbulb switch on in her head.

And she immediately grabbed the pad from me and stuck it on my butt.

I wish I could have taken a picture of me standing there, mouth hanging open with a pad stuck to the butt of my pants, but before I could make a move she ripped it off and stuck it on her butt. And, as expected, she left to go check herself out in the mirror.

I did, however, manage to get a very blurry shot of her coming out of her room, the pad in question now in her hands:

Unless we’re going out, I usually keep the girls in the PJs the entire day.
(The grocery store doesn’t count, because I walk there and we go practically
every day.) Don’t judge — they’re too young to care and it cuts down on
laundry as well as the need to buy more clothes.

P.S. — I will return to my regular blogging schedule next week. This week has just been…a whirlwind of sh*tstorms.

Migraines

I have been forced to take a short break from blogging due to the horrible migraines I have been experiencing in the past couple of days. I am almost certain that my migraines are hormonal, as I have never gotten one before I got pregnant but regularly suffered them through both pregnancies. And now that I am no longer pregnant, I only get them when I am PMSing.

(Apparently, hormones can play a big role in headaches and migraines. I know this because the interwebz has told me so.)

My migraines — like practically all other physical ailments — are exacerbated by fatigue and lack of sleep. And hey, guess what! I have a 4-month-old and a 17-month-old and I think that the last time I got a good night’s sleep was when I was still pregnant with Claire!

From past experience, the best way to deal with my migraines is to lie in a quiet, dark room with a cold towel over my eyes. Obviously I can’t do this in my current situation, so I just keep popping my Butalbital-APAP-Caffeine pills because they help me to at least get through the day.

I can’t remember the last time I this anxious to get my period.

P.S. — Today is the last day to enter my “My Little Geek” ABC Book Giveaway!

Sleep-Training Aerin

I am by no means an expert on baby sleep, but the (very) general sleep pattern that my girls seemed to have followed is:

0 to 2 months old: sleeps most of the day, but also wakes up often. She is still getting used to being outside of the womb.
2 to 4 months old: the sleepy newborn stage. She is finally used to the outside world and is “resting” from the trauma of birth. (Did you know that oftentimes, being born is much more difficult than giving birth? Think about how traumatizing it must be for the little guys!)
4 months onward: sleep goes to crap again, otherwise known as the 4-month sleep regression. She is starting to discover the world and is simply overwhelmed.

We sleep-trained Claire at 4.5 months because not only were we, as her parents, dead-tired and cranky, she was also miserable from the lack of sleep. Getting her from waking up 5-6x per night to 3x a night took about a week, and getting her to nap more than 20-30 minutes at a time took about two months. I used Dr. Weissbluth’s extinction method in both cases, and while sleep-training was one of the toughest things I did as a parent, I also believe that it was also one of the most worthwhile — Claire is such a happier child when she is well-rested!

With Aerin being a more laid-back, happier baby who slept better than Claire from the get-go, we had been hoping that we wouldn’t need to sleep-train her. And as she neared 4 months of age, I kept my fingers crossed that she would skip the dreaded 4-month sleep regression (as some babies do)…

But no such luck. Aerin’s sleep regression hit a couple of weeks before she turned 4 months old, and it progressively got worse. At one point, she was waking up every hour! She also seemed to have the same trouble that Claire had with naps, waking up just 20-30 minutes into her nap just as the deeper, more restful sleep cycle begins. Continue reading »

If “Super Mario Bros” Was Remade

What if the classic Nintendo game “Super Mario Bros” was remade today — or even just re-released according to today’s new gaming trends?

Reverent Sundays: “The Intolerance of Tolerance”

Welcome to today’s installment of Reverent Sundays, where I write about an aspect of my faith. This can deal with recent books I have read on Christianity, my thoughts on religion and current issues, as well as particular messages I find touching and/or powerful. I am aware that most of my readers are not religious, and that is fine — you are more than welcome to not read these posts if they make you uncomfortable, enrage you, or bore you to tears. I am open to debates and discussions in the comments section as long as everyone remains respectful. Enjoy!

“Tolerance” — being one of today’s most popular buzzwords — is used in some of the most deeply and passionately defended beliefs in the political, religious, sociological, and philosophical arena. In our culture and society, being “tolerant” is revered as a ; it is something for which we all should strive, and those who are deemed “intolerant” are quickly shunned and ridiculed, sometimes even ostracized by the population.

Last month, I read about a book titled The Intolerance of Tolerance by Professor of New Testament and renowned Christian author D.A. Carson. And the central premise of the book is this:

In a society obsessed with tolerance, we are actually not tolerant at all.

Because in order to claim tolerance, we have had to re-define the word, and doing so has put us on a thin patch of ice.

According to Carson, the old meaning of tolerance presupposed disagreement. One person expresses a belief and another disagrees with him while still holding fast to his own. In other words, he accepts that other beliefs exist outside of his own.

Contrary to the old tolerance, today’s version of tolerance actually accepts all differing views. That is to say, we have gone from accepting the existence of other views to believing that we need to accept all differing views. And if you think about it, there is no way that we can do this without rejecting the notion of absolute truth!

To go on even further, not only does this concept open the door as widely to pedophiles as it does to philanthropists, it subtly closes the door to all of those whom it professes to be tolerating: it rejects all those who believe that there is a truth.

So what does this mean for Christians like us who believe in an absolute truth? Because the new tolerance concludes that there can be no tolerance for people who do not agree with the contemporary usage of the term, we are called intolerant. Even if we hold steadfast to the old definition of tolerance and say, “I will tolerate you even though I believe that you are wrong, sinful even,” we are in danger of being labeled intolerant and bigoted. Hence, this new tolerance is inherently intolerant.

The Intolerance of Tolerance is not a light read, to be sure. But it raises some very good points, questions, and challenges for Christians living in a secular world. Carson spends much of the book building a logical case against the new tolerance, that it is inconsistent, incoherent, and, ironically, intolerant. He also looks at tolerance from a historical standpoint and goes on to suggesting ways Christians can adopt if we wish to combat the new tolerance in a biblical manner.

In short, the Christ follower must adhere to the objective truth found in the scriptures despite living in a climate where religious relativism is the accepted norm.

On a more personal note, I used to have a friend who liked to say, “I believe myself to be a very tolerant person. But I am intolerant of intolerance.” I remember thinking to myself whenever he said that, ‘No, you’re just intolerant of anyone who disagrees with you!’ I would love to send him a copy of this book if I could track him down. 🙂

Dollar Store Stickers

I love that there is a dollar store within walking distance to our home, because it is a great place to find cheap sources of entertainment for Claire (e.g., helium balloons).

Earlier this week, I purchased a package of hearts stickers (pink GIRLY hearts that Claire herself chose…what else did you expect from her?) and she’s been having a ball with them. This morning, I even caught her lying on her stomach, carefully placing each sticker in an unused scrapbook I had given her. I so wanted to get a picture, but she predictably stopped what she was doing as soon as she saw me coming towards her with a camera.

The good news is that an hour later, I was able to get this shot:

When she had become bored of putting stickers on plain ol’ paper, I had taken one and put it on her giraffe’s nose…and she cracked up. I then put one on my nose, and she motioned for me to put one on her face too. She immediately ran to the mirror, made her ham face, returned to me to ask for another.

This continued with each sticker until her face was covered in them. When she finally decided that she had enough stickers on her face, she pranced around and struck multiple poses in front of the mirror like she was the most gorgeous creature in existence. 🙄

I can’t wait until she starts experimenting with makeup.

A Compilation of Claire’s Recent Funnies

The Nail Clipper:

Claire hates, hates, HATES getting her toenails clipped. She’s okay with us clipping her fingernails, but she has a strong aversion to our clipping her toenails…she’ll even start crying when she sees us clipping Aerin’s toenails! (I’ve tried clipping my own in front of her, making it seem like it was THE most fun and exciting thing in the world, but she still hates it. If anyone has any advice on this front, I’d love to hear it.)

The other day, I noticed that a few of her toenails were getting too long so I knew that we needed to take care of them. As expected, Claire bawled her eyes out and continued to sniff long after I was done. Since I was busy trying to cheer her up after the event, I failed to put away the nail clipper properly…and as soon as Claire felt better she got ahold of it. And before I could get it back from her, she began to shove the clipper between the couch cushions! The little booger was trying to hide it away so that I wouldn’t be able to use it in the future!

Her Stuffed Giraffe:

Earlier this week I caught Claire taking our Baby Bjorn (being small for her age, Aerin is not quite big enough to comfortably fit in the Pognae yet) out of its usual resting place. Curious to see what she would do with it, I sat back and left her alone. She struggled with it for quite some time, and only when she began to drag it to the full-length mirror in her room, picking up her giraffe on the way, did I realize that she was trying to wear her giraffe with the Baby Bjorn just as she sees me do with Aerin!

And yesterday, she placed her giraffe on the bouncer and insisted that we strap it in, just as we do with Aerin. Once it was securely strapped in, she turned on the music and vibration — once again, just like we do with Aerin. Continue reading »

If “The Hunger Games” Movie Was Made By Famous Directors…

My most-anticipated movie of the year will be released tomorrow! I wasn’t sure if I would be able to watch the movie while it was still out in theaters (I still feel uncomfortable leaving J all alone to watch Claire and Aerin…I know he can do it, but I prefer that he has help!), but my mother insisted on coming over Sunday afternoon to help J watch the girls while I go have a movie date with my sister. 😀 Having helpful, supportive family rocks!

In honor of Suzanne Collins’s bestselling-book-turned-blockbuster-movie, Entertainment Weekly has compiled a series of mock movie poster depicting what the movies would look like if they were directed by famous directors. They’re pretty hilarious, if I do say so myself, and I know that my readers will appreciate them too. Enjoy!

David Fincher:

Bloggy Thursdays: How to Track Visitors on Your WordPress Site

Welcome to this installment of Bloggy Thursdays, where I share with my fellow bloggers tips and tutorials to maximize and better your blog. While I do not consider myself an expert, I do like to think that after 10+ years of blogging — in addition to my technical knowledge — I know more than the average blogger when it comes to making your blog more appealing to readers.

Do you have any comments, questions, or topics you’d like to see covered here? Please send me a message via my contact form. Enjoy!

Today’s Bloggy Thursdays is in response to a question from Carol, who asked:

Hola, Jenny! I was wondering, what WordPress Stats plugin do you suggest?

As you can expect, there are numerous plugins available that will help you stay on top of your blog’s stats. I myself use three different methods — two of which are WordPress plugins — to track the visitors to my site, and I use them all for different purposes.

The first is the Jetpack by WordPress.com plugin, which is the same tracking engine used by WordPress.com sites. (Formerly, the WordPress.com Stats plugin was packaged on its own, but the stats feature is now bundled with Jetpack, which includes social media options, backup and security, spelling and grammar, and more — which were previously only available to WordPress.com users.)

The main advantage offered by Jetpack’s Site Stats is that it is seamlessly integrated within your Dashboard. I can see a short summary of stats on my Dashboard’s front page, or if I want more details, I can click on “Jetpack” -> “Site Stats” on WordPress’ left-hand menu to get a more in-depth picture of my visitors, traffic sources, incoming links, and outgoing links. As such, I like to use Site Stats for a quick overview of my visitors.

What the Jetpack Site Stats widget looks like on my WordPress Dashboard.
I see this every time I log into my site — AWESOME for a quick glance!

Why, Yes. I Do Feel Like an Asshat!

You may also like:

Mommy’s Diapers

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Migraines

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Sleep-Training Aerin

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If “Super Mario Bros” Was Remade

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Reverent Sundays: “The Intolerance of Tolerance”

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Dollar Store Stickers

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A Compilation of Claire’s Recent Funnies

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If “The Hunger Games” Movie Was Made By Famous Directors…

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Bloggy Thursdays: How to Track Visitors on Your WordPress Site

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