Cold, cloth and sucking thumbs

Cloth really is cool!

It is a beautiful, cold as balls day here in Alaska. Last night it was -25 at out house. We live on the East side of Anchorage so we get the joys of having the Chugach Mountains at our back door, the remote, quiet and enchanting Russian Jack park just steps from our front door and temperatures that are usually 10 degrees colder than the rest of Anchorage. The colder temps are due to cold pockets of air rushing down the mountains and sitting on top of the East side. With all this said, I love Alaska and can't imagine being anywhere else. Read here one lady's perspective on a lifetime of this type of weather.

If you are cold and stuck inside, check out this webcam of a black bear, named Jewel, in her den who is due to give birth any day now....very cool.

Also check out my amazing friend, Martina's blog here. She has a great blog post about cloth diapers. We are so different, which I love, because we both bring new things to our friendship and that is what makes the cookie crumble. Her post on cloth diapers is so informative, it has numbers and all that. You see numbers and I don't play well (despite the fact I worked in finance for 2 years). Also I am not trying to be all hippy, crunchy you gotta do cloth, earth mama on ya. Really I am not. I can be a little crunchy and but I have gotten rid of all my old tie dyes I swear. I just remember when I was researching cloth diapers woman's blog helped me so much and gave me the confidence and knowledge to wrap that little bum in some reusable cloth. The cool thing about her blog is she isn't crunchy at all, and she has rocked the cloth, as Mama Bex says, easy peasy. So check it out if your interested in cloth.

And finally for some thumb sucking. I just don't get to see baby enough now I am back at school. Her bedtime is 5:30 and she doesn't wake until around 7, just as I am out the door. I know I can't complain because I remember the oh my god can I sleep just for an hour nights. But I miss her face!

So this morning as I was being loud and trying to get her to wake on her own so I could steal a kiss before going to work I heard this sound, coming from her room. I stomped, I mean tip toed in and there she was sucking away on her thumb. This is a big step since she has never liked a pacifier. I have read this means she is really learning to comfort herself. Whatever it means it was so cute, and hopefully she stops before we develop huge dental bills in the future. I had to wake her, kiss, cuddle and then pass her off to hubby.

Cheers

J

A love affair

A few pictures snapped with my iphone over the weekend...

Ocoee bites her lower lip all the time. I have a habit of doing this when I am nervous or concentrating really hard.

Here is Ocoee at the brewery, she looks like a real 'ol G with her hat all gansta.

It has been in negative temperatures all weekend so we spent a lot of time cuddled up and just hanging around the house. On Saturday we went out for a redo of hubby's birthday since he spent his actually birthday last week tossing his cookies due to a stomach bug. Yuck, poor guy.

Everyone has recovered so we went to Midnight Sun, an amazing local brewery, had a late lunch, and spent a little time at Title Wave, a nice local bookstore. Ocoee was along for the ride and slept right through both events. She seems to be catching up on sleep on the weekend and not sleeping much at daycare. Hopefully when we switch to the new place on Jan. 30th, she will sleep better. The infant room is smaller and much cozier.

The point of this post is our love affair with this little bambino. It is totally in the fresh in love stage. Where we stare at her lovingly and ask each other every few minutes..did you see that. Oh, look what she can do now.

It is crazy. Everything she does we ooh and ahh over. She is the center of our world and we are totally happy with that.

I know, I know, a day will come when we are happy to hand her over to someone else to hold, just for a break. When her rolling over and grabbing her books won't amaze us. But for now, we are totally smitten, in that barf, I can't watch way that people who are freshly in love are.

Ocoee, darling, we just adore you to pieces.

Ok I will stop being sappy now :)

Cheers

Janelle

How to raise them right

A moose walking down our street

My delightful office roomie and I were talking about parenting and he mentioned. "That is why you have to raise them right."

To which I replied, "Is there a book on how to do that?"

But of course there isn't....I checked Amazon.

So instead I am reading other mothers blogs, listening to advice, and following my gut and heart with Ocoee.

Today this tidbit stood out to me.

Allow feelings, Limit behavior.

Yea that makes sense to me. As in yea monkeys are cool, I wish we could have one too, but No you can't swing from the banister railing like a monkey, too dangerous. Want to go look for a moose in the park instead.

Happy 3 day weekend.

Cheers

Janelle

MLK day...yes I am happy to be off work but there is a bigger reason here

Monday is Martin Luther King Day. I have often just been happy to have this day off work, and yes I am still happy to have another day with my family, we all know how precious these days are.

I do want to stop and take a moment to remember what MLK stood for, fought for and died for. We are all humans. We all have fears and joys, hopes, dreams and people who love us. No matter our color, creed, sexual orientation, or religion.

There is a cool lesson a teacher I know does. She shows two students two eggs. One brown and one white. The spend time discussing how different they look on the outside (I had to comment one looked more "organic" than the other). Then the teacher cracks the eggs.

Inside they look the same. Yep. We all bleed the same essentially. Good lesson. I hope I will take the time to teach my little one these important lessons. And in a hippy inspired, idealist way I hope we all teach our kids this and then imagine how much better the world can be....

I know, I know- I am getting off my soapbox and heading back to the couch to snuggle with my little one now. Check out our new photo shoot on the Photo shoots with Ocoee tab at the top of the page. Pheesh she is adorable!

Cheers

J

Things you do, little bug bear

Ocoee rocking her pink skulls outfit.

My main desire with this blog is to have a record of our little baby and all the wonderful firsts that we are expereincing. Family, friends and followers also get to share these with me and I get a chance to be write and express myself...all positive things in my book.

Here are things that are changing and new about Ocoee.

She has developed new ranges in her sounds and chats a lot. Hubby has been home with her for the last 3 days working from home and as he said, "She is awake 12 hours a day and is making noises 11 1/2 of those." Really I don't know where she gets it...hehe.

She looks down now. For ever she has looked up. This is why she loved ceiling fans and lights. But now she looks down. She loves our clothes, blankets and her feet are particularly interesting to her.

She rolls, rolls, rolls. You are never quite sure what corner of the crib you will find her in. Most nights she sleeps on her belly, no matter how many times you flip her to her back. She has great head control now though so we aren't as stressed about this as we were.

She is beginning to look at the dogs and understand that they are living things...this is just beginning.

Cheers

J

Snow, snow, snow!

Our mailbox is buried!

Here in Alaska we are used to snow. I have friends who build elaborate families of snowmen, have plows attached to the front of their trucks and I personally have trained Brodie to eat snow in an attempt to keep our back deck clear....seriously he loves the stuff.

But this is getting ridiculous. We are already past our average of 72 inches. Towns like Cordova are buried deep. Nome has to get a Russian tanker to break ice to deliver fuel and they are not sure if even it will get through.

To top it all of we have had 1 snow day to date.

Today to the south of the city and north in the valley there are blizzard warnings, 28 inches of snow expected. UGH!

I love, love, love Alaska. But this much snow on top of so little light is getting to me. But, alas, I am an optimist. We are gaining about 5 minutes of light a day. I have new cross country skis to enjoy all this snow with. I actually snuck a ski in Sunday and had a great time. It was hard work with the trails not groomed yet, but the beauty and stillness of all the white nestled up against birch and spruce trees was calming and majestic....until Guiness spotted a moose and proceeded to chase her....poor moose.

Sickness update: Hubby is working from home and staying with baby. Both he and baby seem to be on the up and up and I myself, feel mucho better. I was able to get 12 hours of sleep last night. I am a firm believer that sleep and water cures most ailments and today this is looking very true.

Cheers

J

Sick

Baby came home with a bit of a bug after 4 days in daycare. These germs exploded and hubby had a really rough night. I did my best to nurse them both. At work now and feeling like I got hit with a truck....but baby seems to be doing better. YUCK!

Daycares are germ factories!

Sniff, Sniff
J