One other thing for your reading pleasure: visit me at New England Mamas.
Rolling the Dice
July 29, 2007
FollowSo Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye. .
July 28, 2007
While many of my favorite bloggers continue to party it up at Blogher 2007, I am here packing, packing, packing. Tomorrow, we leave for a week up in Vermont with my family and my babysitter, I mean, my mom. Our dining room is full of bags, boxes and random items. We are staying in a condo which means “bring food”; I think I have enough food for a month.
I may get time to write from up north, because I hear they have the internets way up there too. But, just in case they do not, and just in case you are really itching to read something, I will point out three “old” posts that may give you a better idea of who the enigma called “Fairly Odd Mother” really is. (“Old” is in quotes since I just started this blog last October).
This is my first post. I agonized over it for longer than I did the name of my blog (which I didn’t agonize over at all seeing as my husband thought of it). I think that it sums up a lot about who I am, even now, minus most of the drunkenness.
This is my second post and the first one where someone I did not know personally commented. Daisy, I can’t believe I’ve let you disappear from my life. You don’t know how much your comment meant to me! So, now, you will be added to my Google Reader and stalked by me for life. (j/k about the stalking!). This post is one of the few in which I discuss homeschooling. As September starts to reappear, and I start to panic, expect to see more posts on this subject.
Here is my ‘backstory‘ or whatever you call it. I keep meaning to link it off my front page, so that it can be what people get when you click on “About Me”, but that requires a bit more know-how than I know how.
Hope you all have a lovely week and, if I get inspired, I’ll pop on to talk about our week up north. Cheers!
Happy as a (steamed, dripping in butter) Clam
July 25, 2007
When Jilly was born, we rejoiced at her fat. At 8 pounds & 12 ounces, she wasn’t tipping the scales, but was oh so pudgy, pink and soft. Fairly Odd Father called her his “chubby little bug” in the email to family and friends.
Our chubby little bug
Then a strange thing happened. Her newborn weight melted away, and we started to have concerned ‘weight checks’ at the pediatrician’s office–just like with her older sister. Except, unlike her sister, Jilly nursed like a champ, albeit, a champ who could complete a feeding in under five minutes and be perfectly happy.
I remember being told that she was ‘barely’ on the weight charts. Her older sister, who had weighed less at birth, was always in the 75th percentile; my second child was barely in the 6th.
I convinced myself that nursing wasn’t ‘working’ anymore, what with me pumping four times a day so she’d ‘get enough’; her fighting the breast and me fighting the tears. However, formula did nothing to boost her weight either.
My pediatrician repeatedly told me that I should not worry. My family is made up of string beans; my husband’s family lacks anyone who could be considered overweight.
Who you calling skinny?
Her annual weight checks always surprised me. At one year, she was 17 1/2 pounds (her sister had been 20); at two years, she was 22 pounds (her sister was 28 pounds); at three, 26 pounds (sister = 34 1/2); and at her fourth birthday, she weighed in at a whopping 29 1/2 pounds (sister = (gulp) 40 pounds!). (One thing to note: her sister also had four inches in height over Jilly by the age of four, so big sis is by no means “BIG” sis!).
A tall drink of water next to a half-pint
I received some pretty interesting advice over the years from those who thought we must be doing something wrong to this peanut of ours. Advice ranged from, “give her formula with rice cereal mixed into it” to “cook everything in oil and butter”, to “more cookies!”.
Yes! More cookies, pweez!
I hated the idea of feeding her junk, just for the sake of it (wouldn’t there inevitably be a point in her life when it was no longer good for her food to be dripping in oil, butter and cookies?). Just for the record, we are by no means ‘low fat’, ‘anti-junk food’ fanatics, nor do we ‘count calories’ or any other such thing.
Count calories? Why darling, I’m too busy dodging paparazzi.
So, now Jilly is all of 4 1/2. The story is long from complete, but there is one promising spin to it all. Unlike some of her peers (and her brother), who exist on nothing but pasta, bread, Cheerios and an occassional yogurt drink, Jilly’s diet has become a bit more sophisticated.
To prove my point, in the past few months, she has eaten the following:
Sushi (vegetable and cooked shrimp), dipped in soy sauce, hold the wasabi
Pesto, both the basil kind and one made with arugula
Greek salad made with cucumbers, tomatoes, Feta cheese and Kalamata olives
Spinach Pie
Whopper Jr with Cheese
Half of the largest hot dog you have ever seen
Heaps and heaps of steamed mussels
Tacos piled with salsa, sour cream, lettuce and tomatoes
Green salad with pine nuts and goat cheese
Let’s just say that if I’m eating it, she wants it.
So, eat on, my little girl! Thank your good genes and speedy metabolism.
Now, maybe we can work on your table manners.
