Mother-son Videos

Oh, the things we give up in order to be mothers: our bodies sleep travel casual sex indiscriminate spending time to read spa days with the girls casual sex Well, here is one more thing that I have to say good bye to at least for now. Share

My opinion, blah, blah, blah. My viewpoint, blah, blah, blah. I m sick of me! Let s hear what Rex thinks. Share

I also thought of titling this Why Nursing Is Easier. It shows what is going on at mealtimes. I still nurse, but am trying to feed him finger feeds and such three times a day, per doctors orders. As I write this I m so toast. Kind of ran out of places to get Rex down for bed in our current home. It s late, and I haven t even tried to then get Vivien down. I want to eat something first. I ll write more when I m not exhausted and my back doesn t hurt. Oy. Share

One of the things that my kids and me most love to do is sit in our hammock in our back yard. The hammock was a present from their babysitter from her home country of Bolivia. The hammock holder was a house warming present from my mom for when we moved into our home (the one we had to sell.) Funny enough, in our newer domicile the yard is much smaller, but it has great shade. So in the afternoon we sit there under the dappled light. Vivien likes playing there and cuddling. It relaxes Rex before his nap. It s a place of sharing special moments with my kids. Like this one. Share

Author: Monica Kulling (on JOMB) Illustrator: Bill Slavin Published: 2009 Tundra Books (on JOMB) ISBN: 9780887768811 Rome wasn t built in a day and neither was the compact camera. This sprightly tale of curiosity and determination puts the spotlight on the inventive young man who made photographers of all of us, one improvement at a time. On this date, September 4, in 1888, George Eastman registered the trademark Kodak. You can learn more here. Other books mentioned: One Beetle Too Many — The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin Neo Leo (the Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci) The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

Author: Katia Novet Saint-Lot (on JOMB) Illustrator: Dimitrea Tokunbo (on JOMB) Published: 2008 Tilbury House (on JOMB) ISBN: 9780884482987 Earth toned images of bustling Nigerian swelter contrast with the book-bound allure of a world of frost and snow in this tale of a young boy pondering the pros and cons of literacy. More books and reading on JOMB: Perfect Man Show; Don’t Tell: Secrets of Writing The Story of the Search for the Story The Storytelling Princess The Story Blanket Give A Goat Too Many Books Silent Music (A Story of Baghdad) Dear Deer: A Book of Homophones Fire Up With Reading! The Incredible Book Eating Boy Ruby’s Wish No English Library Lion Max’s Words HOTLINE VOICES: Author/Illustrator, Mark Mitchell, describes the beauty of the book Tsunami! (by Kimiko Kajikawa and Ed Young). We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.

There was a time when I handed someone something and I said, Here is your camera. It really was one. Now it s a phone. There was a time when I said, I m in the mood for a kabob!  I meant it.  But actually I mean a turkey wrap. I use to say, Sure, a jog sounds great.  But I mean lying on my back on the couch. My brain is not working that well. I know it s cause I m just so tired. In this article they list the symptoms of sleep deprivation. It says some people need 9 hours of sleep. I haven t sleep like that in over 5 years.  I m happy with 6. The problem with this article and others I searched for is there was nothing about how one (a mom, a solider, a shift worker) can ever really function well without sleep cause they can t. And if I didn t fold my socks together when they come out of the dryer I would be dressing like a 3 year old. And not in the cute way. Share

My cute little bunny. I just had a check up, and the doctor said he will ease up on the spitting up when he can sit up. (Now read that sentence again with a Jesse Jackson inflection) Ahem! Share

As Rex is further from my womb this particular affliction is getting a tad better, but it still exists. It s interesting how when one becomes a mother one sees danger everywhere.  The cracks in the sidewalk, a busy intersection, Hannah Montana.  I don t know if men get the same affliction.  My husband would throw our kids up to catch them if I didn t threaten to have a stroke when he did so. Share

name="flashvars" value="init=http://blip.tv/play/gedU+4ppAA%2Em4v" /> As Rex is further from my womb this particular affliction is getting a tad better, but it still exists. It s interesting how when one becomes a mother one sees danger everywhere.  The cracks in the sidewalk, a busy intersection, Hannah Montana.  I don t know if men get the same affliction.  My husband would throw our kids up to catch them if I didn t threaten to have a stroke when he did so. Share

Babies are babies. My daughter didn t gravitate to pink till she was in pre-school. And while my son has a masculine cast to his face, he looks a lot like Vivien did at his age. Now, since he is an easier baby than Vivien, does that mean years from now she will be yelling she has to have a new dress for school while he quietly watches sports and belches on the couch? I ll have to wait and see. But for now people say things like, Oh, a son, boys LOVE their moms. My daughter loves me, thank you very much. Or the gal who said to me, Wait till you have your boy.  I m so in love with my son. (She had two daughters.) What is this, Sophie s choice? Share

The way Rex is sort of flopped over my wrist here will not make me look like mother of the year. Nursing pads are needed, but I am sure when i am well past my childbearing years (2 months from now), they will have refined the product. Share

Another adjustment from one kid to more; nursing can be a different operation. Please note my guest director for this shoot. Share

Hmm, this shows a tad more breast than I had realized, oh well!  I don t have CGI to place a burning fuselage there instead. This vid underscores that constant yin yang you have as a parent. You are adorable. (Shut up.) You are the best thing I ve ever done. But can you not whine? Now I know there is a God. Is that poo on my carpet? Share

Well, we are wrapping up Madoff Week here on Cool Mom. Our money being stolen caused one behavioral change in me: how I reacted to Vivien getting furniture or rugs dirty. Before I would be like, Oh, Vivien, you need to be more careful. The first week after we found out the trajectory of our lives was up for grabs, I practically cried if she spilled on my couch, Vivien, this cost mommy a lot of money (when she had it).  Please no more food near my couch. (I started calling everything mine, taking it all personally). Then I realized that having a 3 year old and wanting to preserve furniture that I could no longer afford to replace was setting us up for failure. So, this was my temporary solution. A little later, the couch you see was loaded up and sits in my mother in law s spare room. I had two couches; now I only have room for one. And there is NO eating on it. The good thing about a small house is Vivien can see the TV from our dining room and the computer and the toaster you get the picture. Share

This has been the hardest blog post for me to do. When I vlogged about my miscarriage that was challenging, but this has other layers to it. By revealing about how we were robbed, how we are part of possibly the largest financial fraud in US History, I am not only disclosing my own life, but the life of my family. I didn t blog about this before for many reasons. Chief was absolute shock. Then, it was too painful to discuss except with very close friends. I still have some friends I haven t told. Sometimes it exhausts me too much to do so. Then when I wanted to blog about it, my husband didn t want me too. I think like anyone who has either been in mourning or been the victim of a crime there are the stages you go through. For me this was both. We were robbed. Someone sits in jail right now because of what has happened to us and thousands of others. And it has altered the trajectory of my life. Many assumptions that I made are no longer valid. To have a secure retirement gave me a buoyancy I no longer possess. I would like that back. I also didn t want to blog about it if it was just for me to vent. I didn t start this online adventure to be a Dear Diary, but I have been touched by comments that some of you have made on this site about your own struggles with the economy. So, I thought maybe by doing this we could help each other through a historical low. One of my initial reactions when we heard that our money was gone was to beat myself up and my husband. We should have been more diversified ( we were, but not enough), we should have done this or that. And it did help when we realized that we were not part of a small fund like we had been led to believe, but a world wide one where people more savvy or richer than us were also robbed. Mort Zuckerman, Kevin Bacon, Steven Spielberg. And also better people than us, Elie Wiesel (who steals from Holocaust survivors?!)  I also started to hear from friends and neighbors how they too thought they might need to sell their house or move in with relatives, and it was for other reasons than our own, a real estate deal gone south, unemployment. So, going forward I m in a sense catching you all up with what I have been personally struggling with for the last 6 months. There is so much to say about this. But I m still going to have some funny blogs and funny videos, because my whole life comedy has meant a great deal to me. It is healing (remind me to tell you about doing improv for chronic pain patients), and it has dictated my entire career to me. And like the saying goes, tragedy plus time equals comedy. Have you heard about the pregnant lady who found out she had been robbed? Ah, yeah, not funny yet. Share

Everyone says that when you are pregnant, people will rub your belly and say disgusting things. Yes, during this last pregnancy, I did get tired of being asked by strange men at the grocery store if I was carrying 8 babies. You are so funny I forgot to laugh! But in general, the old Armenian lady telling me to cover my big belly, strangers guessing if I was carrying a boy or a girl, or friends kissing my tummy didn t bother me that much. But a stranger kissing my infant? That s another story . Share

Before Rex s illness, I was pretty easygoing when it came to germs and my child. Now do they make hand sanitizer showers? Share

Since it is Earth Day, I have to be honest. I do turn off lights or try not to turn them on. I unplug things that aren t in use (except for big guzzlers like the computer and TV cause I think it will all explode if I try to undo it and have to hire someone to restart it all). I buy locally, unless I m really craving some fruit in the winter that they grow in Chile and jet up here). I have an electric car (but it s not that safe, so we rarely drive it), and we have dialed down the sprinklers. I take reusable bags to the grocery store (when I remember). Hmm, guess I could do better. And this vid is about another green flaw of mine. What are you doing that s green?  Or not? Share