Have you seen those late night commercials for Your Baby Can Read? I watched, went to their website, and quickly decided that I wasn’t going to buy their product, but it did give me the idea. I mean I already do sign language cards when I remember to, so why not word cards?
So I made these flash cards. I have been showing Olivia these for two weeks at least every other day, and she likes LOVES them. I can tell because she giggles, smiles, laughs, squeals, and “BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BA”s to them every time I show them to her. On the back of all these flashcards are pictures of the word:
…and she gives the same reaction to either the word or the picture. It’s just adorable to see her react. I don’t show them for very long and (because they aren’t laminated, yet) she doesn’t get to hold the cards.
Works for me! You can check out this week’s Works For Me Wednesday for more tips and tricks.
I am the worst grocery shopper on a budget. It’s official. I always go when I’m hungry. I buy too many pudding cups, Oreo cookies, cereal, chips and dips, and don’t buy enough food food. I am always short on things for actual meals just a few days after a grocery trip. Why is that? I suck, and I want to have to get organized very quickly. We can’t afford my bad shopping habits any more so, out of necessity, I am going to improve.
If any of you have any suggestions or ideas for me PLEASE share them. Thanks. What I am going to do right now is take a notebook and dedicate it to meal planning with recipes included so I don’t miss any ingredients. I hope that helps for now.
My little daughter Olivia is 6 months old. She turned 6 months old on Monday, actually. Half a year! I am so proud of her! She is able to sit like a pro, she rolls from front to back and back to front like she’s been doing it for months, and she crawls like a beginner, lol. She’s super funny, too. Her little BIG personality is more and more evident every day. She holds back her laughter when we tickle her, for instance. I really don’t know why she does that, but I know she’s ticklish because sometimes she just cracks up. Other times, though, a little giggle slips but she tries hard to hold it in. I really don’t know what’s up with that, but I think it’s funny. Since she was 2 months old we knew she had a good poker face, and she’s just keeping that going, I guess. She’s super cute. So pretty, and so chubby! She is totally squishable, kissable, huggable, lovable, all the good -ables, she’s it. She got all the 6-month shots on Monday at her checkup appointment. I opted not to give her the flu shot or the swine flu shot. Me too, I’m not getting them for me. Ian and I decided against. We think we’ll be fine. Here are some Olivia stats:
At birth: Saturday, May 2, 2009 10:43am
Height: 21 inches
Weight: 7 lbs. 11 oz.
Age today: 6 months and 3 days
Height: 27 inches
Weight: 20 lbs. 9 oz.
My little baby girl is not the itsy bitsy tiny baby that she was when she was born. I am so so proud of her. She is motivated, EVERYthing is so interesting to her. She doesn’t just sit and let time go by. She is always examining something, studying something, or SOMEthing. She is awesome. I am so so happy to be her mom. It is both very exciting and weirdly sad that she is growing up… I find myself once in a while (like when I sit and think about it, like now) missing her as a little tiny totally helpless baby, but I can’t WAIT ’till she’s walking, running, jumping, helping me cook, doing chores (lol), helping teach her (future) brothers and sisters, making friends on her own, being independent, starting (home)school… There are just so many things to look forward to, and yes, it is absolutely true that time goes by too fast. I love her, and I love nursing her, and I love playing with her, and I love trying to color with her, and I love exercising her, and I love holding her, and lying next to her at night while she sleeps, and I love the look on her daddy’s face when he gets home from work and asks to see his baby. I love her beautiful gorgeous smile. I love the look she gets when she looks in the mirror every time, just a huge giggly smile. I love her smirk, and her poker face. I know she’s ticklish, I swear she just holds the laughter in. I’ll have to help loosen her up eventually. I love that all her grandparents and aunts and uncles love her so much. I love holding her. I think that best of all I love that I am with her almost all the time. I love it. And I love her. And I love her daddy, and her daddy loves her, too.
<pictures from her 6-month photo session with me will be added soon>
I read on this blog the story of Inés Ramírez Pérez who lives in Rio de Tela, Oaxaca, Mexico, a rural town with no immediate access to medical care.What happened is that she went into labor with her 9th child and after twelve hours of very intense labor and little progress, and fearing that this child would die during labor and be stillborn like the one before, she performed a self-cesarean. Both Inés and her baby lived.
Inés only speaks Zapoteco and very little Spanish. She said about what happened, “I couldn’t stop the pain, if my baby died, then I decided that I would have to die, too. But if he lived and grew up, I would watch him grow, I thought God would save both our our lives.”¹
Honestly, that to me is a huge demonstration of immense love and faith. I really cried when I read her story. She did an incredible thing to give her baby the best chance of survival. Every mother wants the best thing for her baby and ultimately will do anything within reason to get it. For Inés performing a self-cesarean was within reason. Incredibly risky as it is, she did what she had to do and I have no doubt that she was guided by God. Good for her. I am so happy that she succeeded.
An article was written in the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics about this with more details. Click the image for the full article.
…and watch this video. If you don’t understand Spanish leave me a comment and I will translate the video for you. It’s worth it.
¹ translated by me from here: “Ya no podía pararme el dolor, si mi bebé moriría, entonces decidí que yo tendría que morir también. Pero si el crecería, yo lo vería crecer, pensé que Dios salvaría ambas vidas.”
That’s National Novel Writing Month to you. NaNoWriMo started in 1999 in the San Francisco Bay area with 22 people (according to Wiki) but it’s pretty big now. I mean I know about it. So today was day one and I wrote a paragraph, but the goal is 50,000 words by November 30. That averages to 1,667 words per day. So I’m a lot short for the day, hopefully I’ll catch up and do it! This is a huge and daunting goal. But I’m going to try.
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo?
