Team Mitchell & Crew

Today Scotty and I visited the school where I work. I have been there 11 years and realized today, just how much I care about that building and the people in it, and how much I am cared for and thought of. Upon arriving, you could here people running and squealing that I was there. Now granted, they were squealing for the opportunity to hold a new baby, but some of that might have been cuz they were glad to see me. People went on and on about how cute he was and that they missed seeing me. Scotty got passed around all over the place from room to room and person to person. I even lost him at one point when Andrea disappeared into "Club Ed" with him. I had a chance to see my friends and to hear about their semester thus far.

I realize how fortunate I am to work at a place that not only do I look forward to being in, people are friendly and loving in a way that mirrors a sense of familyness. I turly have a sense of well-being with this school. Today I got to see people I have worked with for 11 years, people that have worked with 1-2 years, parents whom I met this year and families that have had a chain of siblings at CME since I started in 1998. Everyone of these people asked me about big Scott, Lainie, life as a Mom, etc. These are the poeple I am in Book Club with, spend hours at PD's with, go to game nights and girl's nights with and miss oobles and oobles in the summer. We are lucky to have people like this in our lives. I know many of these people follow me on here, so to each of you I say thank you. We are blessed to know you!!!

I woke up today to my three Valentine's cooking me breakfast. My family is fabulous and very considerate of me....particularly on holidays. Today's surprise were heart shaped pancakes. Scott bought Lainie a pancake mold when she was little and every so often, Lainie and Scott cook breakfast together and bring it to me. Today they included Scotty, as much as you can include an infant. Today was a nice treat. Although Scott had to work today, he is planning a surprise supper here at home. I have seen the remnants of strawberries and blueberries, steamed shrimp and baked potatoes that he might be using in tonight's dinner (all of which are on both mine and Lainie's top 10 favorite foods). I was also asked to play Cupid and find him our white tablecloth, cloth napkins and candles so that he can complete his surprise for all of us. (This makes sense, only I know where they are and all...) With a new little one and the economy the way it is, we are going to have an "at-home family Valentine's Day." Honestly, these are my favorite kind. To pass the while during the day today, Lainie and I have been watching musicals together (so far: The Sound of Music and Annie) and are cooking Valentine pinwheel cookies and snuggling with Scotty while reading prince and princess books together. This is love. Happy Valentine's Day!

Update world!!! I found a pair of jeans! They are Levi's 512's from Dillards in a size 14 long. The 14 will do, because they fit, they are comfortable and hopefully, because of the smidge of Lycra in them will even fit fairly well when I succeed at making it back to an official 12 (or beyond - gasp!)

For my queasy readers...stop here.

Let's just say that I am attempting to feed the new boy the good old fashion way. I am breast feeding. It's a slow process, literally. He eats and eats, and snuggles, and sleeps and still wants more, meanwhile an hour and a half has passed during this process. Imagine doing this and when he finally finishes, it's time to start over. Needless to say, I borrowed a pump, a heavy duty one.

Thank you Lori! So for a month I have been pumping as often I can / remember / make myself / am sitting down long enough too. (For the up and going kind of a Mom, this can be tough.) I am smart enough not to start on level 5 because it pulls me at mach speed. But all this time, something still felt wrong, painful wrong. I just thought it was the whole process since I tried unsuccessfully with Lainie.

When I say wrong, I mean like toe curling wrong. Sometimes bleeding. Open flesh. Like really sore. So at this point, the original way took a long time and the fake way hurt. Aside from formula costing so much $$$, I still find myself in the grey zone for stopping all together.

So good news. While beginning the process today (did I mention you are supposed to do this anywhere from 8-12 times in the beginning to make it all roll right?) I notice this little white dial with raised lettering. The lettering is hard to read on the white dial, but it looks like the word MAX. Max? I don't really like that word when associated with my chest area. (Middle school tittie twisters come to mind.) I turn it down. The MAX suction turns to normal suction, then to (dare I say) GENTLE tugging. I wait. I wonder. It works! Ahhhh. This is doable.

Lesson to learn here: Experiment! Turn dials! Don't suffer! Ask someone!

After a stretch of morning cluster feedings, I finally broke away for a teeny-weeny bit of me time. By me time, I mean enough seconds to pee, grab a drink and perhaps even change my clothing from the night before. I wasn't asking for much, but still.
I set him down in the crib all drowsy and drunk-like. Men are so cute that way! As I stepped back he fell into what appeared to be a nap-like trance. I thought, "gold mine." And ran down the hall to take a shower (forget pee and snack!)
Lather, lather, shave, shave, rinse rinse...I wash, dry and dress with no noises coming from the babies room. All gracious, I might even press my luck and fold some laundry. Super quick I begin, only 1/8th of the way into it, he starts crying. Well screaming, actually.
I step in to soothe. Poor baby, I say. Continued screaming. Are you hungry again/still? Screaming and crying continue. Onto the living room comfy chair to eat. Off we go.
I take the bottle we were working on 21 minutes ago and put it to lips. Smacking lips, gnawing hands....appearing hungry. I set it in mouth. Trigger gag reflex (how?), he pushes it out and then pukes all across me. Hair, shoulder, shirt, pants, lap. (They were my cute yoga pants that I have to keep myself from wearing multiple days in a week....dag-gum and THEY WERE CLEAN! sniff sniff.)
He's wet, I'm wet and I'm now no longer clean. I clean him head to toe. I spot clean myself (including changing full set of clothes) and the day continues on from here.
My light grey Old Navy pants I'm now wearing are not as cute nor as comfortable...but hey....little man is no longer crying. Go us!!!

I am simply sying to wear jeans again. I am well aware that it might be months to even years before I wear the jeans that are currently in my closet. You don't realize how "small" (I use that word loosely and within a relative context here) you are until you put on a few pounds...i.e. eat too much, have a baby, stop exercising....hell - pick a reason.

Anyway, I have been trying on my jeans since the first week Scotty was born. The first week, they would shimmy up my legs but when they get to my butt all just stops. That doesn't even take into account the new stomach I own. Now, I can wear them with the wonderful Bella Band Andrea lent me while I was prenant. There is just something scary about relying on lycra to keep you and all of the chub from busting out from the privacy of your clothing. I used it one day last week. It helped the urge, but it's not the same.

Ironically, I've never really even been a blue jean fan. I've always been too tall (did I know they sold Lee Riders in a Tall variety??...not until 2005.) I mention the Lee brand, because I am also a cheap-skate. Jenn turned me on to the jeans at Old Navy and The Gap when Julie and I realized on day in the copy room that all we owned were "mom jeans" and this was late 2006. Now, I want to be back in denim. After watching so many episodes of What Not To Wear, I'm seeing I need to lose the flare leg and go with the dark wash wide leg. So not only do I miss my jeans, my jeans are not even satisfactory anymore.

So it boils down to this.

Wanted

• Jeans that fit Mom butt
• Must be longs
• Must be roomy all the way down the leg from the widest part of my body
• Must be something smaller than a 14 (swore in 2002 that with Weight Watchers as my witness, I would be a 12 or smaller permanently.)
• Must show up soon. Yoga pants are about to be scissored and Maternity pants are going out the window.
• Contact: delusional Momma to 10lb. 3oz. boy born 4 weeks ago.

Please hurry!

Well, not exactly. They were playing husband and wife.

Lainie and another little guy friend her age.
At first we hear nothing. Never a good sign when children are involved. We tip toe down the stairs to peek around the corner. Watching from a far, we see 2 little kids, spooning together on the couch downstairs. Arms intertwined, covered in a blanket. Then they roll over. She is now cradled in his arms, with this huge smile on her face. (Honestly, I hope Scott and I look that cute while sleeping, but still.) Then all of a sudden, she disappears under the cover. You can hear her say, come under here and kiss me. Then he disappears. Parents gasp. He says, loudly (and probably proudly), "Lainie, I can see your underwear." Uh, what?

Kids it's time to play upstairs. Two heads dart from under a blanket and catch us looking at them. "We like it down here better" (of course they do.) Nope it's community time, come on upstairs.

Meanwhile, Mom #1 (other mom) sits with kids while Mom #2 (me) searches internet for "is playing doctor / husband-wife as a preschooler normal?" on Google.

Apparently it is. Curiosity / pretending, etc. all part of the same deal. It is also very clearly time for the "that is and that is not appropriate" converstation to broaden its horizon a little bit further. Anybody wanna come over and help me lead this conversation. Anyone?

I'm going to try to start this up again! Hope to not disappoint. A great many things have happened in the last 8 months, including the birth of hoss-man = Scotty Mitchell on 1/9. Lots of things to share out, so we'll start with today's wonderful event!!
Lainie got a bike for Christmas. It was the $29 "day after Thanksgiving special" from WalMart that BIL Rick nearly stomped people flat trying to get. It's a 20 in variety that's blue with white trim and little flowers.
It has training wheels that Scott and Rick put on the night before Christmas. That they put on too high after actually following the directions. For nearly a month, Lainie has tried to ride bikes the few warm days we've had and falls off ever 7 inches because the training wheels caused her to lean over too far.
Anyway, Scott fixed them last night, knowing that the weather was going to change this weekend. Thank you thank you Scott!
So today, Lainie and I loaded up the stroller and the bike in the white truck (my Mustang is on a break for a while. 2 kids in cute car appear kinda aquished at this time.) and headed over to the GRC track right at school's end. Lainie got to ride on a flat surface for over an hour. She was spooked a little by the 400 highschoolers that make their way across the track (highschool kids dress scary sometimes...ohhh), but otherwise, the new training wheel location worked perfectly. I was very proud of her and the balance she is working on. You never realize how many motions are involved in riding a bike, until you try to teach someone else how to do it. Beautiful day. Very proud of Lainie!!