Into the Fray

Everyone told me how fast it would go.  I believed them, too, but it didn't prepare my for what I am about to say:

 My baby boy is about to turn a year old.

 So I'm sitting here with my head spinning and stars in front of my eyes, wondering where on earth the time went.  And it makes me realize that he is going to grow up so much faster than I can imagine.  You know, I already worry about the time arriving when he will need to test his independence.  When he needs to go off and do his own thing and become his own person, I wonder how I will react.  I will either resist and smother him and make him resent me because he is my baby, dammit, or I'll be all loving and gracious and like, "Okay, dear, I'm here if you need me."  I'd like to think that I have enough time to figure it out, but obviously I don't.  By the time we wake up tomorrow he might be in high school.

 So, last year we were downtown at some summer celebration or another, walking around with the kid in the Baby Bjorn, people watching and enjoying the weather (and oh my, doesn't that just sound heavenly right now?), and I saw a boy of about middle school age tell his parents that he was going to go hang out with his friends.  He was one of those kids I don't know how to describe now even though I myself was on the fringe of it back in the day - baggy pants, chain wallet, black shirt and a cap, you know the type.  They exchanged words like, "I'll be at so-n-so's house" and "Be home by blahblahblah" and then the mom told him to give her a kiss, and he did - smooched her right on the lips - and turned around and went on his way.  And you know what?  It was glorious!  There!  THERE!  THERE is a teenage boy who will still kiss his mom!  THERE IS HOPE!!!!

In a couple of weeks my son will be 11 months old, which means he's almost a year old, which means I have no excuse for still carrying around these extra pounds.

 A little back story:  I joined Weight Watchers in the fall of 2004.  I sure took my sweet time, but two and a half years later I had successfully taken off over 50 pounds.  I was so happy that I'd finally reached my goal weight, and so amazed that it was even possible.  And then, about three months later, I got pregnant.

I don't think I did too bad during the pregnancy - I gained 37 pounds, and considering how many times I ate at Burger King during the second trimester, I was more than happy with that.  But here we are, nearly 11 months later, and I've still got 15-20 pounds hanging around.  I admit that I haven't been as motivated, organized or determined to lose it as I'd like to be.  I haven't gone back to Weight Watchers meetings, I haven't made the time to exercise, and I've been giving in to the devil on my shoulder way too often.  What's the deal?  I wish I knew.  It seems like the things that worked for me the first time around aren't working now, and I don't have the time and/or motivation to try other things.  Part of me feels like, eh, this seems to be the weight my body is comfortable with, maybe this is where it's meant to stay, but the rest of me feels like, no way - I reached that elusive number once, and I'm going to do it again.

 I'm not going to turn this into a weight-loss blog; the world already has enough of those.  But I guess I hope that if I put it out there, get it on paper and acknowledge my struggle, maybe it'll help motivate me a little bit.  But I'd also love to hear from you, Milwaukee Moms:  What was your pregnancy/post-partum weight experience like?  Were you able to take if off?  What techniques did you use?  How has your body changed since you became a mom?

We have had a slow-moving bathtub drain since the spring.  During our showers we'd end up standing in a couple inches of water.  We tried everything - Dran-o and Liquid Plumber, bleach, boiling water, a plunger, a plastic zip-it thing and a hand held snake.  Nothing worked.  Every couple of weeks we'd have a conversation that went kind of like this:

"We should call a plumber."
"Yeah, we really should."
And that would be it.

 So I was perusing Yahoo! Answers one day to see what others had to say about slow bathtub drains (and, oh, how I love Yahoo! Answers).  Someone mentioned this thing called Kleer Drain, so I looked it up.  Kleer Drain uses a CO2 cartridge to shoot a blast of air down the pipe, clearing out the clog.  It sounded too easy, but I looked up consumer reviews, and people were raving about it.  So I picked one up at Home Depot for about $25.

The package looks kinda complicated (at least it did to me), but it's really not.  It only took a few minutes to put it together and install one of the four CO2 cartridges.  I was so excited.  I put a few inches of water in the tub, put duct tape over the overflow thing, pressed the end of the Kleer Drain apparatus over the drain to get a good seal, and pushed down on the handles.

 And nothing happened.

 There were a few bubbles from the drain and an exhaust-y kind of smell from the cartridge, but I knew right away that it didn't work.  My heart sank.  I pictured myself using the other three CO2 cartridges, accepting defeat, and continuing to put off calling a plumber.  I half-heartedly unscrewed the cap, took out the old cartridge and put in a new one.  Went back to the tub, got a good seal, pressed down, and....  Bubbles!  Exhaust-y smell!  SUCCESS!  The water in the tub drained in record time.  The drain works better than the day we moved in now, and I am one happy homeowner who doesn't have to call a plumber.

I love this thing!
Check out www.kleerdrain.com if you've been avoiding calling a plumber, too.

I recently went to Solly's for the first time.  I might get a big "duh" here, but that place is not child-friendly at all.  I was warned before we went that it is small inside, so I knew that our group of six adults and two children would probably not be able to eat together.  It doesn't help that we went during lunch on a Saturday.  They do have a sizable waiting area, so that was good.  As we sat there I couldn't help redesigning the place in my head, because it seems like they could have accomodated more people if things were arranged a little differently.  Anyway, I took our son to the bathroom to change him, but they had no baby changing station (though I think there would be room for one), so I changed him on the bathroom floor.  When we were seated we were lucky enough that three of our group got to sit together at the counter, and the other three (and the two kids) at the one table they have next to the waiting area.  When I asked about a high chair I got a "No, sorry,"  so I went out to the car and got Henry's infant car seat for him to sit in.  (We switched to a convertible car seat last week, so that wouldn't even be an option now.)  I ordered a cheeseburger, fries and a hot fudge shake.  Apparently it was a good thing that I sat at the lone table, because my friends who sat at the counter said they could see the blocks of butter by the grill and watch just how much the cooks were using on each order, and that it was a little disturbing.  I'm more in the 'you can't have too much butter' camp, though, so maybe I wouldn't have been bothered by it. Our food arrived, and the (in)famous butter burger was pretty good, but I can't say it was worth almost $5.00.  And the small plate of crinkle cut fries was - What?  Really? - an extra $2.50.  The shake, also pricey at $4.50, was so delicious it was worth every penny, and so large that I couldn't even finish it.  And my friend said that her onion rings were really good.  Overall, I thought that Solly's was overcrowded, overpriced, and overrated.  But I know that it's a beloved Milwaukee institution, and I will probably give it another shot sometime.  Maybe when Henry's old enough not to need a dang high chair.  It would be awfully hard to hold a kid and eat a butter burger at the same time.

It was so gorgeous outside today!  I didn't even realize it until about 3:00 when I needed a break from work, and when I got outside I really regretted not playing hooky.  What a perfect day to not go to work - it was warm and it was sunny and it was Friday. And you never know which day is going to be the last really nice day of the year.  Today just might have been it.

My son was born in late January, and I don't know about anybody else, but to me February 2008 felt like The Longest Month Ever Since The Beginning Of Time.  It was so snowy and cold, and I would sit on the sofa with this newborn, and we were trying to get to know each other, and I swear my whole maternity leave felt like one episode of Dr. Phil after another, and I would just think about how I couldn't wait for summer so we could be outside and take walks and hang out in the yard.  And now, in a flash, we have trees that are bare already and the first reports of snow flurries.  How did that happen?  It's like I blinked my eyes and my kid was nine months old and the summer was over.

 Well, I guess we can't do anything about it now; it's going to get colder.  One thing I am looking forward to is getting cozy on the bed with the husband and the kid and two cats and a pile of blankets.  I figure I have one more free winter before I will be forced to, *gasp*, go outside and play in the snow.  The horror!

 Man, I really, really wish I had called in sick today!

Well, I suppose it's a rite of passage.  The First Accident.  It has to happen sometime, right?  That doesn't change the fact that I am a total idiot.

 I was enjoying a nice trip to Door County, helping my brother-in-law pack up some stuff in their rented motor home.  Henry (my son) was hanging out on the bed - it was one of those tables that transforms into a bed.  I had just fininshed changing him.  I turned around for a second and then I heard a thud, a moment of silence, and then a scream.  Oh, my god.  I turned back to him and he was face down on the floor.  The thoughts that ran through my head between the time I heard him fall and when I picked him up... I was so scared.  I picked him up and turned him around, half expecting to see something out of a horror movie.  Nothing.  He was crying hysterically, but he seemed to be more scared than anything.  I took him outside and distracted him with some pretty leaves and he was done crying.  It doesn't change the fact that I am a total idiot.

 It's the Number One Rule, isn't it?  If your baby is anywhere he could fall - on the bed, on the changing table... Keep A Hand On Him At All Times.  It doesn't matter that I was standing right there.  Babies usually don't look all that mobile, but they can move faster than The Infected in 28 Days Later.  As soon as I picked him up I started crying, too, and my brother-in-law was trying to calm me down.  Since my back was to him (because I am a total idiot) I didn't see the fall, but my brother-in-law said that he mainly fell on his side and then hit his head.  I kept saying, "But this is the first time this has happened!" and, "I don't even know where there's an Emergency Room in Door County!"  And he gently says, "Ang, he only fell a foot and a half" and "They're like little rubber bands at that age."  This is a guy whose 4-year-old recently had five staples put in his head, so he's certainly familiar with kid accidents.  So overall, I was more upset than the baby was, but I think we both recovered okay.

 Milwaukee Moms, if you're out there, I'd love for you to comment and tell me about your own TFA.  It would make me feel a lot better.  (But of course it wouldn't excuse the fact that I am certainly an idiot.)

I grew up in a smallish town up north, then went to college in Green Bay.  Soon after I graduated I moved to Milwaukee, and I remember driving down Wisconsin Avenue one night and saying out loud to myself, "I live in Milwaukee!"  That might make people laugh, but seriously, it felt very exciting and surreal.

That was over nine years ago now, and I'm still excited to live here.  There have been so many changes and developments.  Of course, the Milwaukee Art Museum expansion.  Shortly after moving here I was walking around down there with a friend who had moved here at the same time, and a woman was attempting to explain to us what it was going to look like when it was done, and we had to just do the nod and smile.  "Wings?  Uh, yeah, sounds cool."  It was hard to image the finished product, which is, of course, awesome.  And I love how lively the downtown has become.  Even though it's not personally a regular destination, it's great that downtown Milwaukee has a night life now.  And can I take this opportunity to mention how fabulous the new Marquette Interchange looks?

My point is, I'm proud to live here.  Amongst my own changes and developments I bought a house in Stallis with a guy I'm still crazy about after almost 12 years, and we had a kid.  And now I'm proud to be raising my son here, too.  It's funny because sometimes when I'm out and about I hear somebody say that Milwaukee's too small or, OMG, it's soooo boring here.  I'd like them to ship them up to my home town for a while.  (Though northern Wisconsin certainly has its merits, and I always feel nostalgic when I go back up there.)  It's going to be so fun to show my son around as he gets older.  The zoo, the art and public museums, Discovery World, Betty Brinn, Organ Piper Pizza Palace, etc....  He's definitely going to have a different childhood from mine.  Not better or worse, just different.  I grew up running around in the woods, and he's going to be a city kid.  I hope he feels as lucky to live here as I do.