Link Love Archive

There are tons of sites about baby wearing and a bazillion slings, wraps, and carriers. Though I bought a jogger type of stroller for all day outings, I knew that I wanted to carry my baby for shorter outings like trips to the grocery store, so I bought a Karma Baby Carrier Sling online while I was pregnant. I did use it, but over all that before baby purchase was a mistake. It didn’t fit us well and I wound up using it only on our few restaurant outings. I had her in my lap while I ate and the sling simply kept her from rolling off. It was wholly uncomfortable to walk around with her in the sling because I wound up walking as if I was pregnant again. My sling wasn’t adjustable at all because all the slings with tie, wrap, hoop ring adjustments looked like one needed to be a Navy Seal knot tying expert to use and I suck ass at knot tying.

My baby shower doubled as Kurt’s birthday party and he received a Snuglie baby carrier made by Evenflo. It didn’t fit him at all. I found it comfortable for short periods, but it was difficult for me to get Sophia in and out of it. Sophia didn’t like it especially when I tried facing her out, but I used it for my grocery trips until she was big enough to sit in a grocery cart on her own with a cover. It wasn’t comfortable at all when she was old enough to sit on her own, so I stopped using it.

At that point I stared using an simple umbrella stroller for quick shopping needs at places without shopping carts, but then I found the Ergo baby carrier. Something about it made me think, “This is the one”, but because the other two products didn’t work out, I wanted to try this one on in person. I went to their site and found a retailer near me. It turned out that the place I chose was also a chiropractor’s office. Talk about a great endorsement. They let me try on the Ergo and helped me fit it right. I was sold. It’s an awesome carrier and well worth the price.

Infants cannot be carried front facing with the Ergo, but Sophia never liked that anyway. She prefers to face me and know that I’m right there. An infant insert can be purchased for use with newborns which sort of turns the Ergo into a sort of sling. Older babies can be worn on the hip or on the back, which makes the Ergo last into toddler hood. I LOVE my Ergo! It’s so comfortable and for me it’s so much easier than a stroller that I use it for all day outings. It’s awesome. Did I mention that I love it?

Last night Kurt and I were watching one of George Carlin’s old comedy acts. I’ve seen them all before. I’m a huge fan of Uncle George and was in a odd daze for a couple days after his death. Kurt thought that he had found an act that we hadn’t seen yet, but it turned out he simply didn’t rate it on Netflix. It didn’t matter. I love Carlin. I may not laugh at every bit like I used to, but I appreciate and enjoy it just the same. The comedy bit we heard last night had the seven dirty words skit plus three add on words and an informative history of the word fuck. It turns out, according to Uncle George, that the word fuck in old English originally mean to hit something as with a stick. It has somehow morphed into a sexual word. Some people combine sex and violence as Uncle George acknowledges, but it seems odd to marry the two with one word, unless describing a specific act. Towards the end of his fuck tirade he says,

“The person who thought up the slogan, ‘Make Love, Not War,’ . . . his job was over that day. He could’ve retired at that moment. If it would’ve been me, I would’ve walked away. So long, I’m goin’ to the beach. You guys work it out.”

“Now I have a slogan, too. It’s not as euphonious. It doesn’t roll off the tongue. It’s ‘Make Fuck, Not Kill.’ Substitute the word ‘fuck’ for the word ‘kill’ in all of our writings. I’d love to see it. Just for awhile. Just for a year or so. And we would change.”

He gives some examples of the switched words like, “my horse broke his leg, guess I have to fuck him now”.

Another comedian I like to watch is Jeff Dunham. He’s a ventriloquist with several puppets. My favorite is Achmed the Dead Terrorist. Achmed is easily upset by audiences that laugh at jokes told about him and will say, “Silence! I kill you!” Except that it sounds like, “I keel you!” which is what we currently yell at our cat when he sits just outside our wide-open bedroom door and meows incessantly. Thanks to the two comedians, we’ve decided it might be more effective if we yell, “Silence! I fuck you!” as our threat to the cat.

We also decided that instead of yelling, “I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you” when we’re upset at each other or the cat we shall kill and then fuck. It seems only humane.

“I’m not eating peppers anymore.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I have heartburn and my stomach hurts like hell.”
I flash my sad puppy face at him.
“It’s not your fault.”
“But I’m going to make Pozole tomorrow.”
He quickly switches gears, “I find it interesting you’re trying to kill me after telling you I’m getting a raise.”

Flash Fiction Friday is hosted by g-man. You may also visit Flash Fiction Friday 55’s, a blog dedicated to hosting 55 Flash Fiction Friday posts.

Sophia took a late nap on Halloween, so she was still sleeping when Kurtie came home early. She woke up at four and we promptly fed and changed her and placed her in the Lobster costume. Not fully awake yet we took her to the neighbor’s house to show off her costume. She got a box of animal crackers. Then we took her to my pregnant friend’s house. She wasn’t home. I dumped more baby stuff off on her hubby. Sophia was still either in a sleepy like daze or she just woke up on the wrong side of the crib because when we arrived at our final kiddie trick-or-treat party she was not happy. Though we don’t visit often she had been to this friends’ house before, so the faces were familiar though some of them were wearing a lot more hair than usual (think 60’s hippy costume with a fro-wig on a normally follicly challenged though not totally bald person). Sophia clung to me for about an hour, crying every time I tried to put her down, until I finally removed the baby growth from my hip by putting her in her alternate Little Devil costume (red toddler sweat suit with attached horns and tail) and played with her in their toy area. She played with our friends’ four year-old son and cheered right up in the quieter area without the creepy adults. She also showed our hostess how well she can toddle across a room now.

Around seven we went trick-or-treating in the cul-de-sac and then piled into our own cars with all the proper car seats to a very little kid-friendly Halloween enthusiastic neighborhood. These people really go all out. Many had their garage doors open with a huge Halloween set up or sat on their porch or steps to hand out candy. Cop cars rolled through with their lights on handing out glowing bracelets and treats. After a couple houses, Sophia seemed to get the idea and would point to the porch of the next house as we approached. She never did take her own candy out of the bowls but she seemed to like this game.

We didn’t get any pictures that night so we took these on Sunday:

Most women have probably heard that if you want to breastfeed that you shouldn’t wash your nipples for the last few weeks of pregnancy, but many probably don’t know why. I always thought it was because soap might clog the pours, but it’s actually because of the drying effects of soap. You might notice little pimple-like bumps around the areola, the dark area around the nipple; those bumps secrete oil that helps lubricate the area. It also fights bacteria and adjusts the ph balance. Yes, it really does fight bacteria all on it’s own and all natural like. No soap needed.

Personally, I found it difficult to take a shower and not get some soap on that area, so what I did was use a little dab of Lansinoh after most showers. Consider it pre-treating the area. I’ve run into several sites that answer a question I never thought to ask, “Should I try to toughen up my nipples for breastfeeding?” For the love of perky nipples, mygod, oh hell no! Your nipples are going to be thoroughly abused by you bouncing baby toothless wonder. Breastfeeding really shouldn’t hurt, if it does, it’s most likely because the baby isn’t positioned correctly or doesn’t have a proper latch. After a few days of breastfeeding, your nipples will be sore just from the shear attention they’re getting. The tenderness will likely last several weeks. Cracked bleeding nipples don’t sound like fun applying Lansinoh after each feeding helps keep nipples from drying out.

Lansinoh means lan (lanolin) sin (without) oh (alcohol). Lansinoh is pure medical grade lanolin. Nothing is added, no preservatives or anything, and it is refined to the point that even people with wool/lanolin allergies should be able to use Lansinoh. If you have had a reaction to other wool or lanolin products, no need to make your boobs break out in a rash making you look like you have nipples all over, put a dab of Lansinoh on your forearm and cover with a band aid for 24 hours.

You can request a free sample of Lansinoh by emailing customerservice at lansinoh dot com.

From the Lansinoh UK site:

LANSINOH does not have to be removed prior to breastfeeding thus eliminating further handling of already damaged tissue. LANSINOH is completely natural, non-toxic and contains no preservatives, BHT (Butyl Hydroxy Toulene), fragrance, or additives of any kind.

LANSINOH is hypoallergenic and will not irritate even sensitive skin. It has only one
ingredient – ultra purified lanolin.

LANSINOH is not chemically bleached, unlike paler lanolin’s and products which contain white beeswax and white paraffin.

LANSINOH does not alter the pH balance of the skin, thus preserving nature’s own protective acid mantle.

LANSINOH has little taste or odor to bother the baby. However, many other products used on nipples do have an offensive taste, smell or aftertaste and you can test for this by rubbing the product into the back of your hand and licking it off.

LANSINOH is the only medical grade lanolin formulated specifically for use on damaged nipples and backed by extensive clinical and laboratory testing. No other lanolin’s for nipple care have
this backing.

LANSINOH is bacteriostatic. LANSINOH was independently tested on a 30 and a 60 day USP Challenge for bacterial growth. Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger and Escherichia coli were deliberately introduced to LANSINOH and in each case the bacteria failed to multiply. Unbroken skin is the best barrier to infection. Because LANSINOH promotes faster healing, it may prevent some secondary infections.

LANSINOH does not clog pores or milk ducts nor does it interfere with lactation in any way. Unlike products which contain oils and paraffin derivatives, LANSINOH is a natural ester, like our own skin sebum, and it is completely absorbed within minutes of application.

LANSINOH has a complete Certificate of Analysis available for every batch of LANSINOH.

LANSINOH provides a semi-occlusive moisture barrier that slows the evaporation of the body’s internal moisture while allowing oxygen transfer to occur. When the proper moisture balance has been regained, the fissure will resolve because the delicate tissue has been rehydrated from within. This is nature’s moisturizing process.

Other uses for Lansinoh:

1. Use it as lip balm.
2. Help heal minor cuts, burns and skin abrasions including dry winter cuticles and chapped cheeks.
3. It’s a little expensive as a lotion but you can use it to moisturize dry and itchy skin on elbows, knees and heels.
4. Soothe itchy stretch marks.
5. Prevent and treat diaper rash. They have a special product for preventing and treating diaper rash, but I used their original plain lanolin on Sophia and it works well for her.
6. Replenish the lanolin in wool diaper covers and wool nursing pads.

Recently I discovered that Costco sells Foster Farms chicken in their usual huge packs, but within that pack are individually sealed two-person portions. We’ve been eating a TON of chicken. And Kurt and I are both a little chickened out, cheesy pun intended.

I hope G-man from Mr. Knowitall doesn’t mind that I totally stole his all-in-one-dish pork steak with apples, stuffing, and squash recipe. Actually, I made some changes of my own, of course. It came out AWESOME! First thing Kurt said was, “keep this one on the list!” Because I like to keep things as close to original natural not-from-a-box form as possible I made G-man’s very simple recipe a tad more complex.

Ingredients:

• One bag (15oz) of stuffing bread cubes
• One celery rib
• Half of a small onion
• One small apple
• One can of chicken broth or less
• One or two can(s) of apple pie filling with NO ADDED SUGAR
• Two or four pork steaks
• One spaghetti squash (You can use any kind of squash)
• Salt and pepper

Directions:
Dump your bread cubs in a mixing dish. Add to your mixing dish chopped up celery, onion, apple, and mix in chicken broth. I used a whole can of chicken broth and with the juices from everything else in the baking dish, the stuffing lost its cubed bread form, so a whole can isn’t necessary. Salt, pepper and otherwise season to taste; I usually use fresh thyme in my dressing/stuffing.

I used an enamel coated cast iron pot, but you can use any oven safe deep dish with a cover or with tin foil. This recipe ain’t rocket science. Dump one or two cans of apple pie filling in your baking dish then cover the apple pie filling with seasoned (salt and pepper or whatever to your taste) pork steaks. Then add the stuffing from the mixing bowl. Cut the squash in half or quarters and set on top of the dressing with the skins side up.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour and half to two hours. I served the pork steaks with the apple filling on top, but the filling can also top the squash for a sweetener instead of using brown sugar.

Wednesday morning I awoke to the sounds of hand clapping, babbling, happy shrikes, and little pajama traction feet rubbing and stomping against the wall.  It lasted from two in the morning until four.  I was not amused.  Hopefully she’ll sleep in.  Not a chance!  Maybe she’ll take a long nap.  DENIED!  Oh, you little shit.

“Go vote now. It will make you feel big and strong.” - Bob Schieffer’s Mother

McCain voted 20 times against funding alternative energy sources. Drill baby drill they say. Yet no one mentions that it would take six to ten years of infrastructure building before a single drop is produced. They also neglect to say that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil isn’t enough to bring independence from foreign oil.

Study: ANWR oil would have little impact
Heavy reliance on foreign imports would continue, agency finds
updated 6:45 p.m. PT, Tues., March. 16, 2004

The report, issued by the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, said that if Congress gave the go-ahead to pump oil from Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the crude could begin flowing by 2013 and reach a peak of 876,000 barrels a day by 2025.

But even at peak production, the EIA analysis said, the United States would still have to import two-thirds of its oil, as opposed to an expected 70 percent if the refuge’s oil remained off the market.

Flash Fiction Friday is hosted by g-man. You may also visit Flash Fiction Friday 55’s, a blog dedicated to hosting 55 Flash Fiction Friday posts.

During the Vice Presidential debate Palin said, “As mayor, every year I was in office I did reduce taxes.” Personal taxes were lowered, but recently adopted sales tax raised another half a percent. She hired people with low spending in mind, allowing police to charge rape victims for evidence tests, lessening the burden on taxpayers.

Flash Fiction Friday is hosted by g-man. You may also visit Flash Fiction Friday 55’s, a blog dedicated to hosting 55 Flash Fiction Friday posts.