Well, Technically, Yes.

Husband: I thought you told me to buy band-aids!

Me: I did.

H: Well there's a huge stack right here!

M: Um ...

H: We didn't need more! These are kind of big, but they would have worked!

M: Eh ...

H: What??

M: Those are nursing pads.

H: ...

M: ...

H: Oh.

M: It's okay, really.

H: Well, they still would have worked--

M: STOP.

I Also Enjoy Long Walks On The Beach.

I'm copping out and doing a survey I found on Sassy Times' blog. :) I've been on the go all week and I needed a way to decompress! So, survey it is!

1. What is your name and do you have any nicknames? Kathryn. My nicknames are Katie and Kate. My friends call me Katie, my family calls me Kate. Nobody calls me Kathryn! :)

2. What color are your socks right now? No socks. I do not like socks.

3. What are you listening to right now? A brownie throwdown with Bobby Flay on TV. It is a good thing there are no brownies in the house right now.

4. What was the last thing that you ate? A piece of dark chocolate.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? If necessary, but I'm less than graceful at it.

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My husband!

7. Last place you went on vacation? Out of country: Aruba

8. What Hobbies do you have? Blogging, photography, reading cardboard books about ducks that quack and wheels on busses that go 'round and 'round.

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Football

10. What is your favorite drink? The Best Drink I've Ever Had: Raspberry Mocha from Nordaggio's. My Favorite Drink On a Regular Basis: Ice water or Dunkin' Donuts coffee with a splash of Italian Creme creamer. YUM.

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes, since I was twelve. As soon as my naturally blonde hair turned brown, my parents gave me the go-ahead to start highlighting it. I'm just a blonde. There's no way around it.

12. Favorite food? Seafood or anything with too many carbs.

13. What is the last movie you watched? P.S. I Love You.

14. Favorite day of the year? This is a tough one. I'm going to have to say that my favorite day is any day I get to wake up and find a snuggly Cub asleep in his crib. Waking up to that beats out any holiday!

15. How do you vent anger? Aggressive cleaning. And exercise.

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? Breyer horses. I have a huge Breyer horse collection.

17. What is your favorite season? Spring. Bring on the promise of summer!

18. Cherries or Blueberries? Blueberries. I kind of hate cherries, unless they are in pie. Or cobbler. Or anything else with a crust and obscene amounts of sugar.

19. What is your occupation right now? I almost wrote "unemployed", but it's by choice, so I guess I have to say "Stay At Home Mom". Or "Homemaker". Both of which crack me up. Or, rather, the stereotype cracks me up. It makes me feel ... old?

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Whatever God call us to next wherever He call us to next.

21. What state (or country for our international bloggers) do you live and what State or Country would you like to live some day? I live in Oklahoma. If I could, I would hoist all of our family and friends here and drag them to the east coast and we would settle there. I need a beach close by.

22. Living arrangements? Baby in belly, husband and son in house. And dog in house.

23. Do you have any pets? Yes, Bailey, a Boston Terrier Pile of Hyperness.

24. What is on the floor of your closet? Too many shoes.

25. What are three of your favorite items at the moment? Our new mattress (SO COMFORTABLE!), my camera, and my car. I use my car all the time and I'm really glad I love it. Honda CRV. Love.

26. What did you do last night? Hung out with small group girls and gave one of them lots of tips on how to style her hair (she asked, don't worry). It was hilarious. I forget how much I love hair stuff. ("It's just as important what you put on your hair before you blow-dry it ...")

27. Any news you want to share? I love Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

28. What do you like on your hamburgers? Cheese, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, mustard, ketchup.

29. Favorite dog breed? Doberman Pinscher.

30. Favorite day of the week? Sunday.

31. How many states have you lived in? Three. (I spent a summer in Vermont, but I'm not sure if that counts ... if it does, then four.)

32. Diamonds or pearls? Pearls, but only when I'm vacuuming. Ha, ha.

33. What is your favorite flower? Alstroemeria. Funny name, beautiful flower. Behold:

34. Favorite meal you have ever had at a restaurant and which restaurant was it? My first ever wienerschnitzel at a pub in Salzburg.

35. What music are you currently listening to? On our iPod in the living room we have Needtobreathe and in our car I have Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama. And Baby Einstein Traveling Melodies.

36. What is one fun thing you are looking forward to in the coming year? Watching Cub meet Naomi.

Part II.

Leslie asked me a good question yesterday on what I thought about keeping your newborn in your room for a little while versus moving the baby to the crib immediately.

Good question!

And ... it really depends on the baby!

And the parents!

Okay, here it goes: You will just know. Sigh. I said it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to give you "that" answer, that blanket answer that covers everything from "When will I know I'm in labor?" to "When will I know I'm done having kids?" You'll just know. Really. Because, the reality is, it's different for each family.

I can tell you what will influence your decision, though, to at least give you a heads-up! Or, rather, I can tell you what influenced our decision.

First of all, I knew I didn't want Cub in our room very long before he was even born. I know that might sound harsh and horrible, but I kind of have this opinion on boundaries and our room being our room and his room being his room ... and I wanted to be able to transition him to his crib sooner rather than later. BUT, "sooner rather than later" is a tad relative in and of itself, so I figured we'd bring him home and go from there.

Like I mentioned in yesterday's post, we put Cub down for naps in his crib from Day 1. The way our house is set up, Cub's nursery is close to the living room, so we could lay him down in his crib and leave the door open and have easier access to him during the day than if he were in our bedroom. Looking back, I'm glad we did that, because Cub never had to adjust to being in his crib--it was already familiar to him, even though his night sleep still occurred in his pack-n-play in our room.

Secondly, I had to decide whether I liked feeding Cub in our room during his middle of the night feedings. And this is where a lot of moms differ, because every mom is different and every mom has different strengths and weaknesses. For me? STARING AT MY SLEEPING HUSBAND WHILE I'M AWAKE TRYING TO FEED A BABY IS A WEAKNESS.

I mean, I'm not bitter. Really. I knew that was part of breastfeeding. But.

(Okay seriously, I wasn't bitter. Because my husband had to get up and go to work while I could at least catch up on sleep during the day. So we did not share in nighttime feedings.)

I just could not feed Cub in our room in the middle of the night! It was too hard for me to stay awake. So, the act of having to get out of bed, walk across our living room to the nursery, pick up Cub, carry him into the living room (back when his feedings were really long, it was easier to do it in front of the TV) was really good for me. It woke me up enough to be coherent. This is a good thing. You have to remember--those first few weeks of breast feeding (should you choose to do so) take a LONG TIME. Also, for me, during those first few weeks, breast feeding literally physically drained my body of energy. So, you can understand why perhaps I couldn't lay in bed and attempt to nurse Cub for an hour next to my snoring husband while the energy is draining from my body. And it's pitch black. And I'm exhausted anyway.

It would have made for two sleeping parents and one hungry baby.

Watching Little House on the Prairie at 2:00am in our living room while nursing Cub was much more successful for me. Plus, there's nothing like watching life in the pioneer days to give you a kick in the pants and realize how easy you have it now. Shoot fire.

So, Cub went to the nursery after five days and we never looked back. And not being in our room did not make him a miserable, grumpy, non-affectionate child. He is the snuggliest of Cubs and my friends even comment on how much they love to hold him. He's a good hugger. So be encouraged that whatever decision you make will be the right one. You will know what works best for you. Some moms love to roll over, grab the baby, feed the baby, put the baby back in the pack-n-play/cradle/co-sleeper, and go back to sleep. And other moms are like me and need to actually get out of bed to stay awake long enough to feed their baby.

And, as far as whether or not you should even get a cradle, that decision is up to you (I saw that in your comment, too). Our pack-n-play came with a bassinet, so we used that. Other people have cradles and love them. It's really up to you. Either will work, and cradles are just so gosh-darn cute, anyway, that you can't go wrong either way. :)

Good luck!

Or We Could All Sleep In The Crib.

As I'm sitting here typing this post, I hear a little Cub babbling over the monitor. He went to bed almost an hour ago, and yet sleep has eluded him thus far and he has chosen to respond by chatting it up with a few stuffed animals in his bed. I'm sure the conversations are thrilling.

A bit one-sided, perhaps, but thrilling nonetheless.

It's really quite nice to realize how much Cub loves his crib. I remember a few days during my first trimester when I just needed an extra break and I could stick Cub in his crib for 30 minutes or so and he'd play contently by himself while I passed out face-first into my bed for a quick snooze. So nice.

But, now we are embarking on a new stage in life. We have a new little one on the way, which means big changes for all of us, but especially for Cub. From the moment Cub came home from the hospital, we put him down for naps in his crib (and bed time in his pack-n-play) and then he moved to the crib for good five days after that. We all slept better then.

Which means, if Naomi follows suit, then Cub will have a new bedmate come June.

So, naturally, it's time for us to consider the next step. We have some options. I am going to list them because writing a paragraph on random sleeping arrangements might seem a bit tedious.

1) Cub in crib, Naomi in pack-n-play

2) Cub in pack-n-play, Naomi in crib

3) Cub in big boy bed, Naomi in crib

Okay. So. Cub will be moving into his big boy room at the end of the month (hopefully). When Naomi is born in June, she will move into his nursery. The crib is wonderfully solid, which makes it a bit tough to take down and take apart and transfer. So, I just assume leave it in the nursery, since Cub will need to phase out of it eventually, anyway. I want to move Cub into his new room sooner than later, simply because I want his big life changes to happen in small increments, rather than "NEW BABY! NEW ROOM! BIG BOY BED! ADJUST!!!!"

That might be a bit rough on the little kid. Not that he wouldn't eventually just deal with it, but, you know. If we can be nice about it, I'd like to be nice about it.

So. If Cub is still too small for his big boy bed, then I plan on setting up the pack-n-play in his new room and letting him sleep in that, so we aren't fighting the big boy bed transition whilst also dealing with the whirlwind of New baby! Toddler! In the same house!

Then we can wait a few weeks while Mommy re-attaches her head and try again.

But, these all might be horrible ideas. Because I've never done this before. Some Moms advise to move toddlers ASAP into their "big" beds before they actually realize what's going on. Then some say to wait until they're almost three. I'd rather try sooner than later, since we have a bun in the oven and that tends to hurry things up a bit.

So. Have any of you Moms out there dealt with this? What advice do you have?

Have a lovely day.

Last Question!

How do you find time to blog every day??

Great question! I love to write. It's my way to de-frazzle after a long day. So, I make it a point to sit down at the computer and write my thoughts every evening after Cub goes to bed. I don't always have fresh thoughts (hence, some stale posts, sorry), but just the act of sitting down and typing away is a huge release for me. Sometimes I share deep thoughts or personal growth, and sometimes I write about finding sippy cups in the Diaper Genie. Whatever the topic, I know that it will help me relax, plus it will help me possibly connect with some other moms out there. Sometimes I have deep thoughts and funny stories all in the same day, so I type them out and schedule them to post later in the week so I don't have several entries in one day.

And it doesn't take me much time to do it--I average 97 wpm! Woot!

Writing is a release ... and writing on a blog is just fun! :)

Have you ever thought about putting ads on your blog? What factors influenced your final decision?

There are a couple reasons why I do not have ads on my blog. Firstly, my blog is more for fun and that's it--I never intend on it growing beyond my small sphere of influence. Secondly, while I know I may have limited control over which ads will run on my blog should I elect to do so, I'm just a bit wary of potentially (indirectly) endorsing something that I do not know everything about. I would really need to know everything about any company that would show up on my blog before accepting money for running that ad on my site. And that is impossible! So, no ads. But, I totally understand why other people run ads and I have no problem with it. It's whatever floats your boat.

(Sorry for the cheesy cliche. But I can already sense a flood of comments disagreeing with my position!)

(Which is fine. We can disagree! As long as we can sit down have some Starbucks afterwards.)

(Speaking of Starbucks, did you read my aforementioned post that included the Starbucks White Hot Chocolate?? YUM! I'm loving it.)

(That's it.)

(Have a lovely day!)