Dutch Tanner, 9 months

Dear Dutch, 

You are 9 months old and I felt like I should write you a letter.  You, my son, are a dear sweet little boy.  You are very active and very happy.  

As of right now, you love two things in this mortal existence.  1.  Your mom and everything that that entails.  and 2. your sippy cup or bottle of water.  With either of those two things in your grasp, you are a happy boy.  

You like your sister, particularly when she shares her water bottle with you and when she leads you into dangerous situations which you know will get mom's goat.  You recognize and acknowledge your daddy.  Dad is almost always good for a laugh, and sometimes great to cuddle with when mom is otherwise occupied.  

You hate being put to bed.  I can't think of a time past 1 month of age when you were laid down to bed, still awake, that you did not protest.  You have also given me very few full nights of sleep.  But I love you anyway and I do secretly treasure our 3am breastfeeding and cuddle fest.  

You have two bottom teeth, which has contributed to making you have a very very soggy neckline.  

You crawl like a champ, you're going on your third month on those hands and knees of yours.  You have also (almost) mastered a bear crawl when out on unfriendly ground (grass and concrete).  You love cruising and you are going to be a toddler any minute now.    Too soon my son, too soon.

We call you Dutchy-boy most of the time.  You like it.  You're also our little Dutcharoo, you love to jump jump jump.

We love you and we are so glad you joined our family.  

Modest is hottest, and a new detest for The Today Show

While getting ready this morning at the gym, The Today Show was on the TV., the topic peeked my interest as they were talking about  N.J. Middle School Principal is not allowing girls to wear strapless dresses to their annual 8th grade dance.  The headline was "No Straps, No Dance" he says that the strapless dresses are not appropriate for young girls and are distracting to the hormonal boys.
My thought was WOW Good for him!! How refreshing to hear that someone is standing up for modesty in some way.  In a world that is drastically declining in morals, it's always nice to hear that someone is trying to keep kids a little more pure and innocent.  I do not look forward to the battle that I will be facing when teaching my little girl to dress modestly despite of fashions, trends, what her friends are wearing, etc...In fact I hope that my daughter is easier on me than I was on my parents.
Well, Hoda and Kathie Lee did not share my same sentiments, Hoda first very sarcastically questioned how it would be any better to be strapless than have some itsy tiny piece of fabric going over the shoulders, and Kathie Lee said something to the effect that she has noticed how very short formal dresses have become and what the kids should do is cut their dress off so that it barely covers their bottoms and use that fabric to cover their shoulders.
Seriously ladies?  You really think it's better to encourage girls to go out clothed in as little as possible? They even dared to declare that among the same styles (strapless, short) that there's a difference between classy and trashy.  My question is how?  What or when is it different?  The amount of sparkles? Buttons? The shoes that accompany the dress? Hairstyle?
Well, I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I have mine, and my daughter will not where strapless dress, or shirts for that matter, ever (not with my permission at least) because the bottom line is that it's not modest and I want her to learn to respect herself and know that she doesn't have to look sexy to be beautiful.
Again, I applaud you Mr. Principal for trying to defend modesty in some way (if that's what you were doing, at least let me at least imagine that was your motive).

taking advantage

We all have been guilty of milking sympathy when a wound isn't so bad.  

Children especially seem to like to keep crying when it doesn't really hurt anymore just because they're getting some attention. 

But I'll admit, that sometimes when Gracie gets hurt and she comes crying to me, I'll be the one who's milking it just so that she'll keep cuddling with me, even though she and I both know she's not hurt anymore.  I just want more snuggles.  

I think I just accidently admitted that I like it when my daughter gets (mildly) hurt. 

ready stop!

There's a little trend going on Facebook that I find incredibly obnoxious.  Sorry (but not really sorry) if you do or have done this...
Person asks a question (ie where's the best place to get a haircut?) and ends with.. "Ready, GO!"
As if we're all just chomping at the bit, scraping at the start line, begging for you to ask your question so that we can all race to be the first one to answer.

It's pretentious
It's annoying
Please stop.

No one likes to be rushed into anything, and no one likes to be told what to do, especially when it's something they would already do on their own, I think that's why I find this trend so distasteful.  I'll answer your question if I have an answer, but when I'm told to hurry up and GO, then I tend to think you're full of yourself and I'm no longer interested in helping.

Maybe it's just me and maybe I'm about to lose some friends because I just told you that you're bugging me. Either way, please stop.


Grievance aired.

no love lost

We've all read those posts from parents saying that their sweet child told mommy that she looked pretty, or she's a princess, or so cute, beautiful etc..

here's a little conversation I had with my daughter...

While coming home from the gym we ran into our mail lady who commented, Sabrina you look really good.  (thanks mail lady :) )  

When we came in the house Gracie said, "mommy, she say you look cute?"  

Mom-  Yes Gracie, she said i look cute

Gracie - (eye roll) "Eghh.."

thanks for being honest dear daughter. 

Teaching failure.

In church today I was trying to teach Gracie to (at least) whisper if she was going to talk.  We had this conversation:

Gracie:  Mommy Mommy blah blah blah
Me:  Gracie please whisper
Gracie: No - blah blah blah
Me: Gracie, look around the room, all the people are being quiet and they only whisper when they talk because we're trying to be reverent and listen to that lady up front. Do you see her talking up at the front?
Gracie: Yes, blah blah
Me: Well, we need to be quiet and reverent so everyone can listen to her, ok?
Gracie:  RUFF RUFF RUFF, Mommy I'm RUFFING!  Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff

This week

We took Gracie to the ER for the 2nd time this month.  Luckily we have a children's hospital close enough that we go there, and they know how to work with kids and calm her down enough to do what they need to.    Can't complain about that.
1st time, Sprained ankle.
2nd time Croup - when they told us she had croup we rejoiced, not the usual reaction from most parents but it's better than asthma which is what we were afraid she might have.

Gracie has started a new game that I do not love, she calls it Grasshopper and she jumps over her brother when he's lying on the floor.  I don't know when she's ever seen or learned about a grasshopper, but I think that part is cute, the jumping over her brother is scary and I try to stop her every time.

I found some icky stuff in Dutch's mouth.  He has figured out that he can suck on his toes. The icky in his mouth was the lint from his socks.  When you suck on toes, sometimes you get the jam too.  Toe-Jam, yum.

Looks like I'm going to have to get Gracie a jump rope, another thing that I don't know how or where she learned, but she started trying to use our power cords as jump ropes (and she knew to call it a jump rope).  Power cords, not the safest toy.

At Dutch's 4 month appointment we discovered that he's not the chubster that we thought he was, he's dropped from the 50th percentile in weight and height to the 25th, his head was always 25th, and still is.  He's perfectly proportionate, but on the small side.  Baby boy doesn't like to finish his cream.