Earth Day Deals!

Several blogs and retailers are offering specials to celebrate Earth Day today!

BABYLEGS:  I just ordered some Babylegs for my little ones and for future gifting needs. There are currently three styles on sale for just $2 per pair! AND $1 from each purchase goes to The Nature Conservancy. I was able to order multiples of two $2 styles and splurged on a pair of their new cool, sun protecting legs for summer. (I hate slathering on chemical sunscreens ALL the time, but my pale kids need sun protection even if we'll be outside for a short time, so we're going to give these a try.) I got free shipping on my order, too! I'm not sure if there was a minimum purchase to get that, but I was pretty happy with that shipping price. You also can save 20% on regularly-priced organic products with coupon code "Organic". (Edited to add: My order shipped an hour and a half after it was confirmed! I'm super-impressed!)



LEAKY B@@B:  The Leaky Boob is doing a special giveaway today! They usually do giveaways on Tuesdays, and have funny posts that breastfeeding (and breastfeeding-friendly) readers will appreciate. If you enter their contest, I'd appreciate it if you mentioned Anne @ The Violet Bee sent you...because then I get extra entries too!


AMAZON:  Amazon always has a "Go Green" shop. Go Green with Amazon.com. They are promoting Earth Day today and the Planet Earth DVD collection is one of today's specials. I LOVE watching that.


I'm sure I'll find more to add, but as it is, I've had to stop and start several times, and I want to get these posted!

They're wearing cute planet-lover shirts, but you can't really see them here...

Computering

We've been busy lately. Here's a random pic to tide you over until I sit down to do some more blogging. I have many photos, thoughts, and deals I want to share!

Walk like a man...

My sweet baby Gator is now walking at least as much as he crawls. He's so proud of himself and fearless in his efforts and I can't help but share his excitement.

A fringe benefit of this acheivement is that he is still a slow, wobbly walker, which is a stark contrast to the turbo crawl he's perfected. I don't have to rush quite as fast to get him away from, say, the cat food dish or his sister's potty chair, unless he drops to a crawl. He'll often notice I'm coming after him and gleefully sprint on all fours.

I know he'll be running on two legs before I know it. I'm trying to enjoy this short-lived wobbly walker phase while it lasts. With my second child, I understand so much better just how fleeting some off these baby stages are. My snuggly mama's boy will be running off on his own adventures soon enough.

Overworked and underpaid

Motherhood is a wonderful thing, but I often feel like my contributions are undervalued. Especially by my co-parent. Monetary income is not the only thing that keeps this household afloat, and replacing my nearly 24-7 availability and round-the-clock child care services would cost more than the hubster makes.

I parent all day, and yes I sometimes get to blog or go on Facebook, but I might be interrupted repeatedly. At the moment, I'm supervising siblings at play and ready to jump in any second if my referee commands aren't respected. My internet time usually happens when I'm nursing a baby or have someone asleep on/next to me and I don't want to risk waking them.

Superdork the dad-man gets spoiled when the babes are young and I'm their sole food source. When they start eating solids, he seems to forget that either one of us is equally capable of feeding them. And he has a major advantage when he does parent. Spending time with Daddy is a special thing and behavior is better when the kids, especially the toddler, are with someone they don't spend most of their waking hours with.

There are some days when I desperately want to do something as simple as use the bathroom without having repeated interruptions. I can tell I'm desperately in need of a break when I do things like go to a doctor's appointment and love having the time to myself.

So, how do I go about negotiating some vacation days from this motherhood job? I'll settle for a real meal break or some personal time on a regular basis.

She's growing up so fast...

Little Miss Violet has a lot of crazy toddler moments and frequently imitates her baby brother, but whether I like it or not, she is growing up. I'm happy about that, for the most part, but I suspect I'll be sending her off to kindergarten in a virtual blink of an eye.

She's wearing panties most of the time now. She's still horribly intimidated by public potties, unless they are low child-size ones, but she has pretty good holding capacity. We're very proud of her, and she's very proud of herself, for her potty capabilities. It wasn't that long ago that we were wondering if she'd ever decide to use the potty instead of a diaper. It's a relief that she is potty training, because it's a prerequisite for preschool in the fall.

And preschool...oh, I was going to do a post on it, but I have such a jumble of emotions about sending my little girl off to school that I might save that for later. We are weighing two preschool options at the moment. One is supposed to be a very good program that is hard to get into, but it seems like it might be a lot of preschool for a three year old. I think she'd enjoy it and my hesitations to send her four days a week are probably more about me than her. If she goes when she's three, she's guaranteed a spot when she's four, and we'd love for her to be in this program when she's four.

We've been weighing pros and cons of both programs, and a lot of the differences between then have advantages and disadvantages to them. I don't have a gut feeling about which would be better for her, maybe because my gut is confused by my brain. We weighed several options for traditional two-day preschool programs and I felt very good about the one we chose. But then my little girl was accepted as a typical peer role model at the public school's integrated preschool. The screening period is very short and I was pleasantly surprised that she impressed them while she was there, because she was in quite a mood before we left home that day. She loves new experiences and interacting with other children, which is why ten hours of preschool a week rather than four might be harder on me than on her.

Not this time.

"Daddy, did you have a baby?"

You've got to love toddler logic. The last time Violet had a parent in the hospital overnight, she had a new baby brother.  She kept wondering if Daddy was going to bring a baby home.

She's been very sweet and concerned about her daddy and is so glad he was home to read a story tonight. She has become such a daddy's girl.

The silly girl last week.

What a crazy weekend

Gator's walking in short spurts and is so proud of himself. His eighth tooth just cut through and is still bothering him. He's been lunging at me and biting as I tried to start this blog. A change of venue was required so I could continue without bite marks all over.

My husband, who almost never gets sick, was up pretty much all night Friday night (and kept me up too). He felt awful. When he was going on 12 hours of misery, we got him some medical help. It was a good thing we did, because he had appendicitis. He went from feeling perfectly fine one day to recovering from surgery less than 24 hours later. The workaholic is off work for a week and on other restrictions. We'll see how this goes...