I find that even after Gus goes to bed, I can still hear him. Is that weird? He's in my head all the time and I can hear him chatting, squeeling, and babbling. I wonder if every parent hears their child all the time too.
I don't know where today went. It was such a strange day and I've had a headache all day, so that doesn't help things.
Steve got home after midnight last night (YAY)!! He was able to catch his flight and he said that they actually waited for a bit because there were seven people who were unaccounted for and the pilot didn't want to leave anyone behind due to it being the last flight out for the night. I said it was nice, Steve said that if he was running late, his luck would be that they wouldn't be waiting. Anyway, he got home late and it was good to have him home.
Because he got in so late, he decided to go into work later than usual. He wanted to sleep until at least 9. I would have loved that too... Gus had other plans though. He was up and rearing to go at 7:30. Considering that he slept all through the night (which I was worried about due to only consuming 16 total ounces of formula all day), I was amazed that he got 11 straight hours of sleep.
I got up with him and we went downstairs. We had breakfast and I gave Gus some mango yogurt that he seemed to really like. He also had 1/4 a bagel and then four ounces of formula in the sippy.
DAY 2
Today was the second day of the no-bottle challenge and Gus did great! I'm glad we went cold turkey because we do still have about three weeks to play with if needed. However, he's doing really well so far.
I thought it'd be really hard to not only go from a bottle to a sippy, but also to cut back on the amount of formula, but it's working so far. He's been eating a lot of solids, which is good. Today he had a total of 22 ounces of formula, which is drastic from what he was getting before. I've been really careful to watch him and listen to him to ensure that he's not hungry. That's my biggest fear is that he'd be so hungry, but as I've heard, children will let you know when they're hungry.
So this morning we played downstairs for a while after breakfast and then Steve came down and had to head to work. It sucked to have him leave since I didn't get to talk to him or really see him last night. It honestly feels like it's been a month since I last saw him and spent time with him.
I put Gus down for a nap around 11 and he slept for a little more than an hour. I had hoped to get my announcements to the post office, but it was raining and I thought it could wait until the afternoon when Steve and I were going to head to Honeybaked Ham for our Easter ham. I called them and they gave me a confirmation number and said to come on in and pick up a ham. I was super excited. It's so much cheaper (surprisingly) to get a Honeybaked Ham than one from the store. I compared at Christmas and found that you can go to Honeybaked Ham, give them a coupon (found online) and practically pick the size and price of the ham that you want. I think their hams are the most delicious too.
When Gus got up, we went downstairs and had lunch. He had an entire container of his strawberry-banana fruit and cereal yogurt that he loves so much, and then I made myself a bean burrito with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, cheese, and refried beans. It was delicious! I made a smaller one for Gus. After he ate all of his yogurt, I gave him some cheese and beans on pieces of whole wheat tortilla and he loved it. He ate about 1/4 of a tortilla. I figured that the beans are full of protein so it'd help to fill him up.
After we had lunch we cleaned up and went into the livingroom to play. Gus loves his Nemo color book and we read it a few times.
Around 2ish I decided to put Gus down for his afternoon nap. Right as I put him down, Steve called and said that he'd go and get the ham on his way home and that way we wouldn't have to drag ourselves or Gus out into the rain. He got home and Gus was in the midst of attempting to nap. He had just fallen asleep as Steve sat down at his computer to do the bills. I decided to go take a nap since my head hurt.
It felt like hours, but it had only been about 35 minutes and I woke up to Gus crying. Steve had him downstairs but he wouldn't stop crying. I came down and felt a little better, and realized that not only had I only slept for 35 minutes, but so had Gus. He was upset and I had Steve switch the sippy that he was using.
We have several different cups, but I like the "100% spill-proof" ones for before napping/bed, and then the ones with the chewy rubbery top (Nuby) for other times. They're most like a nipple and easier for Gus to get formula out of them. So Steve switched the cup and it seemed to help.
I started dinner (cheesy chicken and broccoli casserole) and then we watched Glee and Modern Family episodes. We had dinner and then Steve brought Gus up for his bath and bed. He went down without a fight and thus we have completed day two of the no-bottle challenge. :)
So this brings me to a new topic that I'd like to discuss...
For those who know me well, you know that I am a Catholic. I was born and raised Catholic. I went through a period of religious exploration when I was in college and even had a few months of not being sure if I believed in organized religion at all. I've always believed in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. I have also always believed that Mary was immaculately conceived and was put on Earth to birth Jesus, who was also immaculately conceived. I believe in the transubstantiation, and as I got more educated, I realized that these fundamental beliefs are so true to Catholic teachings that I just couldn't see myself as anything but a Catholic or maybe the other one that's like Catholic but allows priests to marry and allows females to be priests (Episcopalian maybe?).
So anyway, I'm not a fanatic and I feel that there are a lot of "problems" with organized religion. I think a lot of what Christ wanted for us is misconstrued and used for a lot of people to judge others. I do not believe that the Bible is the literal word of God... it was written by man and thus (as the game telephone teaches us) has parts that were interpreted incorrectly. I think God made each of us in his or her own image/likeness and all people are beautiful. I also believe that being a homosexual is something that God created and I think all those who hate in the name of God will pay in the end. As my mom has always said, "When we die and stand before God... he/she will be the face of the person we most mistreated on Earth."
So my whole point about this is that today is Good Friday. While people are gearing up for Easter and the Easter Bunny, I had a thought that I had to talk to Steve about tonight. I don't want Gus to see Easter as another Christmas. I want him to really understand and value what Holy Week is. I won't take him for pictures with the Easter Bunny. The bunny won't be coming to our house and delivering goodies... we'll give him an Easter Basket and do an egg hunt, but it's not going to be done by some magical bunny.
I want Gus to really understand the importance of Easter. Mainly, that it's when Christ died on the cross for us. What a gift... the greatest gift to man. I want him to appreciate the significance of this gift, and not think of Easter as just the day when we get candy and eggs.
I think my views on this holiday SIGNIFICANTLY changed after I saw the movie "The Passion of the Christ." It was such a powerful movie and honestly, it changed my life- in some ways that aren't so good, but I won't go there.
When I spent time today praying and thinking about what today means, I couldn't help but look at it differently now that I'm a mother. For the first time, I thought about Mary and how she must have felt watching her son being sacrificed. It was something that she knew was going to happen, but it's one thing to know something is going to happen and being able to push it to the back of your mind and realize it's a future thing, and quite another when it's unfolding before your very eyes.
I thought about her and cried. How sad and terrorfied she must have been as she watched her son being beaten, whipped, spit on, and nailed to a cross to die. She had to have felt helpless and scared, alone, and agony knowing that she couldn't do anything to stop the events that were meant to be. As a mother, I can't even put words to how awful I would feel if anything happened to Gus that I had to stand by and watch him being hurt, and there was nothing I could do to stop his pain.
Obviously, we know how the story ends and it's the reason we celebrate Easter. I'm sure Easter with the bunny makes about as much sense as Christmas with Santa. I don't know why I'm okay with Santa and celebrating with a tree and all the Christmas hoop-la, but Easter is different to me. Maybe it's because as a child, Easter wasn't the hugest deal ever. Sure we had baskets and my parents hid eggs in the house for us to find, but it wasn't as big a deal as Christmas.
Oh well... those are my thoughts on Easter. Oh and I heard something on NPR (I think) about these religious scholars that looked at the timing of the calendar and whatnot and basically they think that the Last Supper didn't happen on Thursday (they say Jesus was most-likely in jail on Thursday), and in fact, it was on Wednesday. Who knew?
Have a good night!!
>^..^<
