Crabby Mama

Book: Family Tree
Author: Barbara Delinsky

Question Due: September 14th

All Questions Listed: September 15th/16th

Post Date: September 21st

How the book tour works:

(1) leave a comment or send me an email (angelleg453@yahoo.com) saying that you’re interested in participating.

(2) I will keep adding to this list of participants so people will know who is participating and where to go to read other reviews on “post day” (September 21st). You can add yourself to the list up until September 14th.

(3) read Family Tree by September 14th (about 4 weeks from Tour #3’s post date).

(4) create a single question that would kick off a discussion (in other words, any question that leads to more than a “yes” or “no” answer where someone can express their opinion) and email it to me on September 14th (or any time beforehand).

(5) on September 15th/16th, I will post the list of possible questions. Everyone will choose 3 questions off the list and answer them in a blog entry (if we only have 3 participants, we’ll all be answering the same questions. If there are more questions, we’ll have more variation on the blog entries because people will choose to answer different questions).

(6) on September 21st, everyone will post their entry. I will post my answers too and a reminder that it’s post day so people can go around and read the entries and comment (start a discussion back and forth in the comments section).

I want you all to know that I have already read this book, but I wanted to share it with all of you because it was SO good. It really lends itself to a good discussion so I can’t wait to hear and answer your questions about it. Please consider participating, this book is very good.

Man, I just read Erica’s My Favorite Time of Day post and I was tagged! So now I have to blog about my favorite time of day.

Is this horrible? Right now my favorite time of day is right after we put Leah down for bed at night. Either we have time to play and interact with just Erin OR Erin is sleeping and we have time to just relax. Is it bad that my favorite time of day is without my kid(s)?

I stole this from Christine. Apparently they both look like both of us.

1. Where did you meet your husband? I saw him for the first time at our wintergaurd dress rehearsal,, I met him at a guard show, but only for a minute

2. What was the first thing you said to your husband? Who remembers these things?

3. Where was your first date? I went to his house, then we rented Muppets from Space to watch there, then I stayed over to watch Simpsons, I didn’t want to leave

4. Where was your first kiss? In my living room on our first Valentine’s Day (a day early)

5. Did you have a long or short engagement? We were engaged for 11 months.

6. Where did you get engaged? At a park in the gazebo, Mike played a “Will you marry me?” song he wrote on his guitar.

7. Where were you married? Holiday Inn Harbourside at Indian Rocks Beach, FL

8. How did the reception go? It was just about the most fun I have EVER had!!!

9. How was the honeymoon? We went to Bora Bora and stayed at the Club Med there. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

If you read this and have not already responded, YOU are tagged!

We saw the doctor today and Erin has grown up a bit. She is now 7lb 15 oz after dropping to 6lb 10 oz two days after birth. I know Mike blogged about going to the hospital to have her bilirubin checked awhile back. I was pretty scared at the time. They had to do a heel prick to get the blood. I was having flashbacks to the first time I witnessed that with Leah and it was awful. They couldn’t get the blood to flow and she was SCREAMING in my arms. I was sobbing and my tears were pouring all over her face. It took forever. So I was afraid this time, but the lab tech was awesome and Erin actually FELL ASLEEP while they were taking her blood. Her levels turned out to be within acceptable limits and by that Friday her weight was back up to 7lb 1oz. So it turned out okay in the end.

I also want to address Mike’s blog about my dream. I know it sounded wacky that I was so upset about Erin turning into an animal. But let me explain my reasoning. It wasn’t the turning into an animal that freaked me out. In the dream I was screaming over and over (good thing I don’t talk in my sleep or I would have woken the entire house up) “She was never our child” and THAT is what killed me. I thought I had lost her. She was not mine. I realized in that moment that I love her more than anything. She belongs to me in reality. It was an important moment that makes me feel good now that I look back on it. But at the time, I was terrified of losing her. Hey, don’t judge me.

Anyway, things are going well here. Erin is nursing well and for the most part sleeping well. I am feeling very good, so good I am surprised when I think that I had a baby 2 weeks ago (today actually). When I was pregnant, I couldn’t remember when my belly wasn’t huge and hard. Now I can’t remember having a pregnant belly. How easily we forget. Anyway Leah is GREAT with Erin, wanting to hold her all the time. Mike is such a help, he took a shift last night with Erin, THEN got Leah all ready for school in the morning.

Well, I gotta go to bed while I can. Can’t wait to see some of you in Florida in October!

I was just reading my birth club board on BabyCenter.com. There was a thread by second time moms about how their first child seemed to grow up just in the time the mom was in the hospital. I realized that is exactly how I feel about Leah! She seemed to become taller, weigh more, and be even more verbal when I came home than before. Even big and pregnant, I could still hold her and she wasn’t overly heavy. Now after holding Erin all the time, Leah feels TOO heavy for me to carry. I feel bad that I can’t hold her as much.

Yesterday we were at the playground and Mike was holding Leah and spinning around and around. When he put her down, she was super dizzy and seemed upset by it. I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to the car. Her body stretched from my shoulder to my knees!!! Where did my baby go?

On a cutie note, Nana asked Leah if she wanted to come listen to Erin cooing. Leah said to Daddy, “We are going to listen to Baby Erin cocooning!”

Congratulations to Keri and Keith on the arrival of Corgan Alexander Donald yesterday evening at 8:03pm! I was following the blog closely until I went to bed at 9pm with fever and chills.

Yes, folks, I have mastitis. The area is not all that painful, just a little tender. But the fever and chills gave it away. This morning my dr called in an antibiotic for me, so I will be back to normal shortly. Advil is also a miracle drug, it gave me relief throughout the night so I could actually sleep some.

On another note, Erin grunts SO loud in her sleep. It wakes me up, but she sleeps right through it. It sounds like an old man grunting to stand up. Also I am struggling with getting her to wake up enough to eat much. Usually I can only get her to eat on one side before she falls back to sleep. And sometimes she only eats for less than 10 minutes. How can she possibly be getting enough food? I think I will make an appt with the lactation room at my hospital for next week and get their opinion on the whole thing.

Best wishes to Keri & Keith on beginning this new phase of their family!

So I have to confess that the thing I was scared of most was putting Leah down for a nap with no help. Today my mom left to go back to Florida (Boo) and Mike’s mom arrived at the same time. He went to do the drop off and pick up right before Leah’s naptime so I was left to do it by myself. Thankfully Erin was eating when they left, so she was finished by the time I had to put Leah down. We went upstairs and sat in Leah’s new chair. As you can see by the pictures on our website, I can hold Erin on one side and Leah on the other and read her stories. I was able to do that, get her into bed and rub her back as usual. Then I came downstairs and put Erin in the pack-n-play because she had dozed off while I was reading. Since then I have done some dishes and eaten my lunch. And now I am on the computer in a quiet house! I am so excited I can’t see straight! Ahhh, now for some relaxation…

Things here are going pretty well. Erin is sleeping 3-4 hours at a time at night. Breastfeeding is finally getting easier. It only took a week this time, when it took a whole month with Leah. I am relieved because I was terrified of going through that pain for an entire month. So onward and upward.

Yesterday we took the girls and went to Dave & Buster’s for Bryan’s birthday. I know many people think we are crazy for taking a newborn out. But we are not the type to sit around and we want to start off how we mean to go on. She slept almost the entire time we were gone. I nursed her there sitting on the floor of the bowling alley. I used Keri’s present, a L’oved Baby nursing shawl. Erin is just learning and I really have to watch to get her situated. So I had to have my mom hold the shawl out so I could see in. It was really dark in the shawl so it was kind of a comedy getting all set up. It worked well once we got latched on. So I am looking forward to more opportunities to learn how to use it.

Tonight we bathed the girls together. My mom was nervous about it but it went fine. We put Erin’s bath mat in the big tub and tried to keep Leah from splashing so much. She did well. We dressed them together in Leah’s room and read them stories together. We got Leah a reading chair today and it looks so cute in her room. Anyway it was so much fun doing those things as a family.

I will leave you with a few pics of the sisters.

1. J.K. Rowling demonstrates an impressive ability to integrate symbolism throughout her books. Even in her epilogue, James and Albus Severus, Potter’s children, continue the teasing/taunting relationship that is indicative of the people for whom they were named. Therefore, in keeping with the theme of symbolism, if you were a character in Harry Potter, what animal would be your patronus and why? This is a tough one. Right now my patronus would be a female kangaroo because I have my baby in my pouch often now. (Hey, they said your patronus could change with the circumstances of your life.)

4. What do you think Bellatrix Lestrange’s relationship was with Voldemort? I do not think Voldemort thought of her in any way other than an especially powerful minion. He took advantage of the fact that she had feelings for him. He was able to give her certain jobs because of her certain loyalty, but I think he knew she was crazy and was always a little careful not to let her in too far.

6. Do you think Dumbledore should have revealed all of the facts to Harry earlier? If so, at what point was he ready to hear everything? Even after reading all of the books, I still find myself irritated that Dumbledore waited so long to tell Harry everything (first the Horcruxes, then the Deathly Hallows). I think after hearing the prophecy would have been a good time to reveal the whole story. Harry had already faced Voldemort and several times by then. He may have been able to do more about finding the Horcruxes at Hogwarts while he was still there.

So far only Kelly in NC had posted her answers. C’mon ladies. Leave me a comment here whenyou have posted and I will link to your post.