You guys never got to see this...

Here is video of Isaac taking his very first steps at my friend Natasha's house on Cince de Mayo 2008. Compared to the warp speed at which he travels these days, it's funny to see him so wobbly and uncertain.

Home, sweet home

Um, so, you guys... I bought a house. Most of you know that already.

It is a totally awesome house and when finally unpack everything and get some new furniture, I'll post some photos. Or you can just come over and see it.

Here are some videos of Isaac exploring the new pad. Sorry for the poor quality. I don't actually have a video camera; I took these on my Kodak.

Look at what I can do!

Hi, everyone, this is Isaac. I got tired of my mom never posting any of the cool things I do and say on this blog or showing you guys any of my adorable photos, so I've decided to take matters into my own hands and do it myself.

Yes, I know I have perfect grammar and am very adept at spelling. Thank you for noticing. I'm not a bad typist either.

Anyway, I just wanted to show you guys my cool new slide. My friend Sam has one, and he taught me all about how totally awesome it is.

First, you climb up the steps. (Sorry this picture is so blurry. My mother is obviously as terrible at taking photos as she is at posting on this blog.)

Then, you sit at the top of the slide and make sure everyone sees how cute you are before you push yourself off.

Wheeeeeeeeeee! Sliding is great!


Know what else is great? This awesome hat.

Peace out homies,
Isaac

Animal Sounds

I know I haven't posted anything in forever. Isaac being not only mobile but also moving at turbo speed most of the time and getting into absolutely everything has left me with little time to blog. On one hand, I sort of feel like I'm just enjoying the time we have together, rather than trying to record everything, but, on the other hand, I know that there are things he's doing now that I don't want to forget, that I won't remember unless I write them down.

Here's one. A game Isaac likes to play with his mom and grandparents.

Mom: What sound does a dog make?
Isaac: Woof.
Mom: What sound does a tiger make?
Isaac: Grrr.
Mom: What sound does Isaac make?
Isaac: GRRRRRR!

Isaac Update

1. He mastered the stairs last week. We were at Tuesday on the Triangle in Sand Springs, listening to some great blues music, and he had toddled down this grassy hill. He followed the sidewalk to a set of stairs and proceeded to attempt to step up them. He held my hands and raised his little foot to meet each one. Once he made it up the flight of five or six, he turned around and proceeded to head back down. Going down was more difficult, in that he couldn't quite figure it out. He basically just stepped out from one stair to the next, and he would have crashed into them, face first, had he not had such a strong grasp on my fingers. He did that for about 20 minutes straight until I was finally able to distract him with something else.

2. He's also learned to climb up onto the couch. That was another last-week development. Once on the couch, he tried to just simply walk off of it and would have fallen on his face had I not, again, been there to catch him. (See? This mommy thing is pretty important.)

3. He can say Mama, Dada, Nana, dog ("da"), and duck ("duh"). He will occasionally wave hello and goodbye, but typically, when anyone says "Goodbye," he blows kisses. It's almost automatic. Sometimes, he won't even look at you when you tell him bye bye, but he will blow you kisses, even with his back turned.

4. He's also been giving out plenty of real kisses. This began a week ago Saturday (the 13th) when we were leaving my friend Chalyn's garage sale. She told him goodbye, and he leaned over and gave her a kiss. He did the same to Shelly that night, and he's since given kisses to, not only family and friends, but people he's just met for the first time. What a sweet, precious, affectionate little boy.

5. He's got to be going through some kind of developmental milestone or something, because it's been nearly impossible to get him to go to sleep at night. Typically, when he does finally fall asleep, he sleeps all night, but it'll take me anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours just to get him down. No idea what's going on, but I hope it stops soon. Momma needs her rest.

New Gig

Here's the first column for Tulsa Kids. I'll be interested to hear what you all think.

When a good friend told me she planned to use cloth diapers with her second child, I looked at her like she was crazy.

I had the same look on my face when another friend told me about delivering her nine-pound baby without an epidural, and it’s a look I’ve seen many times on the faces of others – directed toward me.

As an expectant first-time mother, I voraciously devoured any pregnancy-, childbirth- and baby-related literature I could get my hands on. That set of books and magazines included the typical, mainstream stuff marketed to and considered a “must read” for new mothers: What to Expect When You’re Expecting, The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy, Parents, etc.

It wasn’t until seven months into my pregnancy, as I watched videos of medicated and unmediated births and practiced deep chest breathing at my hospital-sponsored birthing class, that I started to consider a natural birth – natural meaning without an epidural, not just vaginal.

My class wasn’t geared toward mothers who planned natural births; in fact, when the nurse who taught the class asked how many of the mothers attending planned to have an epidural, all but me raised their hands.
What convinced me, though, was realizing that birth is a natural process and something that my body is completely capable of handling. The nurse explained to us, “The uterus is a smooth muscle, very similar to the heart, and childbirth is a natural function of the uterus. When your heart functions properly and naturally, it doesn’t hurt.”

So, in theory, neither should childbirth.

I’m not going to kid myself or any of you by saying my labor with my son, Isaac (who’s now one), wasn’t painful. But, in discovering that the pain is manageable and by learning techniques to manage the pain, I was able to remove a lot of the fear I had about childbirth and commit to having a natural birth.

From there, I began to question things I had previously read and seek out new information. I discovered Ina May Gaskin, Dr. Sears and Mothering magazine. I began to rethink, not only the way I would deliver my baby, but how I wanted to raise him. Suddenly, I was considering cloth diapers. I was also considering co-sleeping, baby wearing, making Isaac’s baby food and other things I had considered “crazy” before.

The idea of co-sleeping or refusing an epidural seems crazy to people because information about such things and their benefits aren’t widely available. When I began to seek out information, I found plenty of it, but I really had to look. I wish that more mainstream parenting magazines would include more information about natural and holistic parenting practices, especially as their popularity increases.

Luckily, Tulsa Kids is on board, offering this column, designed to offer information about alternative parenting. We’ll present information on such topics as breastfeeding, baby wearing, toys and playing, feeding, pregnancy and more. And we really want to hear from you, so we’ll continue the conversations we start here online at the (column name) blog on Tulsa Kids’ new Web site, www.tulsakids.com. See you there.

Update

I've been working so much, with my full-time job and a bevy of freelance assignments, that I haven't had much time for blogging on this site, but Little Man is growing and developing into an ornery but adorable little fellow.

Since Isaac started taking his first wobbly steps earlier this month, he's become a full-fledged walker. He started last Monday, the 18th, walking all over the house. I was at my parents' house that evening, working in the kitchen with my grandmother, and I stepped out to check on Isaac, whom I'd left playing in the living room, but who had teetered his way into the dining room, coming to find his mama. When I caught him, he squealed with delight. In the course of just one week, he has really learned to balance himself, walking (sometimes nearly running) all over the house.

He's as demanding as ever, and has learned to throw tantrums when he doesn't get his way. If he feels like I'm preventing him from getting or doing something he wants, he head butts or bites me. I'm trying to nip that in the bud now, but sometimes I just have to laugh, because even when he's acting like a total brat, he's just the cutest thing ever.

I'm meeting with a Realtor on June 8 to start looking for a new home for I-Man and me. I've been browsing properties for months, but with Vicki's help, we'll really start looking for the perfect house. I'd like to close in August or September, which would give us plenty of time to get packed and move before the lease is up on our apartment in October.

I'm working with the Community Actions Project's first-time home buyer program, which helps low-income families buy their first home and offers a little bit of down payment assistance. Isaac and I have been saving our pennies, and I already know my credit is good and I shouldn't have a problem getting a loan, so the only thing left now is to find the house!

I also picked up another gig (as if I needed any more work) with Tulsa Kids. A few months ago, I pitched the editor a column on natural parenting but didn't hear back for a while. I continued to check in, and finally she told me she liked the idea but didn't think she had room for another column. So, she asked me to write a feature on the subject, but as we discussed my idea and all of the different aspects of natural and attachment parenting, she agreed that there was just too much information to fit into one feature, and so she agreed to give me a column. I'm excited because I think information like this should be made more readily available by mainstream pubs like TK, and I'm also excited that, once I explained my idea to her, the editor got really excited as well. So, my first column, which is basically just an introduction to me and what I'll be writing about, will come out in the June issue. Also, TK is revamping its Web site, so I'll be blogging there as well, extending the information I provide in the column. I'm super excited, and I'll let you all know when it goes live.