Earrings and when to do them....

You can't even see them, but Miley's ears are pierced in this photo. I picked the cute little pearls and I pray that they stay in tact for at least five years.

When to get ears pierced was an enigma for me. Why do some moms wait and others do it at birth?I wanted to interview moms on my first girl, because what I WANTED to do was to get her ears pierced at the beginning. But.......I waited. Not sure why. I guess I thought beginning piercing was a cultural thing and maybe white moms weren't supposed to do it. Well...I've changed my tune. The thing is, if you only have the all American one boy and one girl family...well, you have time to dab their ears morning and night and rotate them and all of the to-do items one has "to-do" with newly pierced ears (for six weeks OR MORE). But after waiting for six years, Mackenzie FINALLY got hers pierced, and the piercing was just the beginning of a long ear "treatment" session that involved me treating them at first, then she couldn't wait for me to get everyone to bed before swabbing her ears, so she did it, then she spilled the ear treatment stuff, then we went on vacation and I forgot the leftover of the spilled stuff and had to come up with my own idea (you don't use alchohol anymore), then I decided on butt wipes because they come in a convenient can of 50 and are already doused with witch hazel (which is a nice astringent), but she forgot to wipe her ears and then they got infected, then I had to get involved again...do you get the drift????????? I think the whole ordeal went on at least 6 months, I'm not kidding. We were travelling so much and that's what would put a ringer in the healing process.....with Miley, I'm changing her diaper, I'm swabbing her ears, that's it.

If you're poppin' out babies like a river rat, you have to have a better plan than that. I have to strategize every move I make, every turn, every groove, every prayer, so that it maximizes my time and minimizes my efforts and ear piercing later....is....for the birds. I'll never do that again. If I have six more girls, the closer it happens to birth, the better, as far as I'm concerned. Miley cried for 45 seconds per ear. It would have been 45 seconds total, but the second lady wasn't at my favorite ear-piercing place to do the second ear at the same time (that was AWESOME last time, plus, Danette was with me, that was fun), but I didn't care. We were getting Miley's ears pierced today and I took all five kids with me and some cheetos and Mackenzie got a couple of photos and Miley got her certificate of bravery and we left Merle Norman on 1604 without breaking anything in the store. Whew! What a relief. And, she looks so feminine and pretty with her little pearls in. I love it. It makes me want to comb her hair and do the bow thing (i'm sort of a tomboy).

I know I'm not the typical mom. I know I need to stop and smell the roses and enjoy the moment a lot more than I do, but really, ear piercing is just not one of those sentimental moments for me. My memories of ear piercing were that I wanted my ears pierced SO BADLY all of my life and the answer was always no...until my parents got divorced and then I ran to the mall within 24 hours and did what I always had wanted to do anyway. Then, I wore the biggest earrings I physically could find for at least four years. Well, maybe I'm still doing that. ANYWAY, I guess that's why ear piercing is an enigma to me. Why the white mom waits....still not sure. Trying to find a good reason for it, but I've decided to let some of the hispanic out and just do it. And it feels good.

Feeding Time

For anyone new to the blog, I am a mom of five kids. The oldest child is now seven, the youngest is 6 months old. I was originally just going to blog my pregnancy and birth on the fifth baby, which I did, but now I am blogging "after the birth". If you are pregnant, you can go through some of the older blogs for "what to do's and how to's"

The above photo is of Miley, my six month old. Last time I weighed her she was 19 lbs. and she is a "hunk" of a baby. She started getting hungry around 4 months of age. Some of the first signs are-not sleeping through the night (my first biggie), and staring lovingly at your food and becoming very interested with your chewing habits. Also, they will try to take food out of your mouth. I was going to be "very good" on this one and only feed her bland food for the first year, but I can't help it, if I'm eating sushi, I give some to her. So, she's had: mashed potatoes, green beans, cooked carrots, beef stroganoff, some seaweed fishy soup they serve at the sushi place, bananas, mashed avocados, and mashed soft boiled egg yolk. Oh, plus, some squashed pinto beans, chicken tortilla soup, and a chip. Is that bad? At least I've just given her water to drink, oh, and a little emergen c, and some sweet green tea. Oh well. She ate blandly for one week at least. I keep thinking I need to do some rice cereal, I just haven't gotten around to that one. She's just SO hungry at mealtimes, that if I have forgotten to bring the avocado "container", I give her what we are eating.

I have an awesome baby food maker on my kitchenaid mixer. It's just and attachment that makes the food super soft and baby foodish, but with five kids in tow, I'm just trying to remember the diapers when we leave the house. I will say, her lunch today was flavorful, but dinner tonight was salt free and bland and she still ate it all up. Praise God.

I'm sure there is something particular you are supposed to do when you start feeding the baby, but I did that with my first child and probably the second, and then lost all "reading control". All of the books I had read on feeding time just slipped out of my mind and I began to wing it. My third and fourth children eat very very well. There's very little they won't eat, including olives and super garlicky caesar salad.

There's one tempting item at the buffet or out to eat that I REALLY try to NOT give. And it's the EASIEST one TO give. Rolls. Lots and lots of rolls. I have had real candida issues in the past and yeasty rolls, bread, is always the culprit. Signs of yeast or candida include: skin issues (eczema, spotty skin on the face, cradle cap, and itchy skin) and sometimes thrush when they are younger. I have written on this twice before, so look in the archives for what to do on this, but I'm finding some children are SUPER sensitive to white flour or to too much wheat too quickly, so this is my one feeding line I dance around quite lightly.

The little silicone bowl behine Miley is the bowl I use. She eats about 1.5 tablespoons now, but started with one bite on the first time in her seat. She really choked the first two times and I just slapped her back a couple of times but kept at it. I have skipped one day of feeding in the last three or four weeks and she woke up in the night that night, so I'm doing it more out of wanting to sleep through the night than anything else.

She REALLY opposed it the first week or two. She choked, she spit, she blew bubbles and then suddenly, she chewed. I prayed over her, spoke over her, put on my ipod, whatever I could do to get through the feeding sessions and then when she actually chewed, I wanted to take some video. It has been the highlight of 2010 so far. Now, if Michael would potty train, that would take the highlights of my life to a whole new level.