Officially Unemployed

Or as I prefer to think of it: employed full time as Matilda's mom. I gave notice at work today, as I was to return to work in two weeks. It is a strange feeling. I am of course really excited to be able to stay home with Matilda, and feel privileged that we can do that for our family. However, I will also miss my work, I really enjoyed it. I liked my co-workers, I liked the clients, I enjoyed the daily challenges, and I will miss the stimulation. Most of my staff got teary today as I told them which made it even harder; they were a wonderful bunch of people to work with everyday.

Salary.com has an interesting piece on stay-at-home moms and estimated that a fair wage for the typical stay-at-home mom would be well over $90,000 for executing all of her daily tasks. This is not including overtime, which could bump my new salary up by around $25,000. They used the chart below to calculate this figure. Looking at all the components of my new job it seems as though I will still be building skills on my resume!

Mom jobs

Job title	Annual salary
Child Day Care Worker	$20,259
Teacher	$44,824
Taxi Driver	$27,346
Facilities Manager	$73,239
Short-order Cook	$27,477
Laundry Attendant	$17,917
Janitor	$22,440
Counselor	$27,638
CEO	$545,268
Administrative Assistant III	$37,143
Accounting Clerk III	$34,842
Licensed Practical Nurse	$38,111
Plumber I	$33,155
Automotive Mechanic I	$30,725
Cake Decorator	$21,340

Jobs listed in order from largest to smallest component of a stay-at-home mom's job. All salaries are national averages. Source: Salary.com, 2004.

Party All Night

Taken at 3:39 a.m. last night

Matilda had one of her rare night wakings last night. I think she decided it was time to party. She was so smiley and happy it was too funny. She woke up screaming like she was hurt or something but as soon as we picked her up and turned the light on she was all smiles. I took a while changing her (due to some unforeseen peeing on the table) and Tim came in to see what was taking so long. As he showed up she let out a funny new squawk as if to say "wow, you're up too, what a coincidence!"

Build Your Own Meal

So the RD portion of this website has been severely neglected as the Mama part seems to take priority for now. However, I did find a fun interactive website where you can build a meal that I thought I would share. The choice for each meal is somewhat limited but it is still fun and gives you a sense of what's on your plate. It will also then give you a nutritional breakdown of the meal: calories, fat, sodium, etc.

Long Weekend

Matilda and I were spoiled with Tim home for four days over the holiday weekend.

We all did lots of relaxing and caught up on sleep.....













Played a bit......




















and smiled lots!!





















Matilda is smiling so much now and laughing even more each day. She is such a joy to have around and keeps us quite entertained. It seemed really hard for Tim to leave for work today after four days together. Matilda and I miss him too. What we really need is a benefactor so we can both stay home and enjoy the little miss full time! Any takers?

Three Years

Today is my three-year wedding anniversary with my husband Tim. While that is traditionally the year of leather I will choose to skip that option and try to rectify a wrong from last years' present. For our anniversary last year I gifted Tim with a Dessert of the Month. This gift worked out really well combining my love of cooking with his love of eating - good times were had by all involved. However, there were some questions as to the adequacy of the December dessert. I made this, without the amazing Brown Sugar Brandy Sauce. Before we start the new year I have made both cake and sauce today in an effort to start the year with a clean slate.

Happy Anniversary Tim, thanks for another great year.

Soggy Cow

Matilda has reached the stage where everything goes into the mouth. While her hands seem to be a favorite item for sucking, the plush purple cow is a close second. Cow has gone quite rapidly from soft and fluffy to rather soggy and crusty around the edges. However, Slashfood has brought to my attention a rather nice replacement for Matilda's current beefy companion in case we need to replace him.

Life Lesson # 327

• When you poop in the tub it will severely cut short your bathing experience.
  

Matilda has gone from hating baths to loving them. So much so that she now protests when we take her out too soon. Imagine then, how unhappy she was this morning to discover that after a nice relaxing poop she was promptly removed from the tub. I am not quite sure how to convey to her that in order to continue enjoying her bath she cannot exercise her bowels.

The Little Critic

So Matilda must be a natural born film critic, no surprise considering her father. She agreed with the critics and much preferred An Inconvenient Truth to Friends With Money. Mommie & Me went very smoothly this time and I got to watch about 95 of the 100 minutes. Al Gore was a very persuasive, clear speaker and even had some great jokes. My only quarrel is that it should be classified in the horror genre, not documentary.

World Cup Junkie

Matilda and I have been watching way too much tv since Friday. The RD Mama household got cable in order to participate with the rest of the world in watching several games a day for the next few weeks. It is hard to get much of anything done when you watch 4 1/2 hours of soccer a day. However, if you start at 6 a.m. it does lead to more napping in the afternoons! Matilda has been wearing her soccer ant onesie to get into the World Cup spirit.
She likes this ant best, since he wears number 10 like all the best players on each team: Rosicky, Ronaldinho,Totti, Zidane, and all her other favorites.
I like the referee Ant waving his red card best of all!

Bob, The Other Man

I have to admit that I am falling madly in love with my new running partner, B.O.B. This is not to say anything negative about my previous running partners. Sarah and Tim and all the others I have had over the years have been wonderful. In fact, they could all keep their end of the conversation up way better than Bob. However, aside from this small fault, Bob is wonderful. Bob is my new crush and he has so many nice qualities. Bob calms Matilda effortlessly and lets her nap while we jog.

Bob has a nice view for me while we jog.

Bob has fancy shocks for a smooth ride. And Bob is a Sport Utility Something so I feel like I can keep up with the other mothers and their snazzy SU Somethings at Mommie and Me.

I am in love with Bob. Don't tell Tim.

Breastfeeding Humor Never Gets Old Around Here

Now that you can witness the power of breastmilk working on our own little chubster, I thought you might feel the need to make a more public statement on breastfeeding. Tim voted for "that's my baby's lunch you're staring at..." and I am getting him a "Why wouldn't I want to see more breasts in public?" bumper sticker.

Or you might simply be curious about your legal rights associated with breastfeeding. My favorite perk in California is the excusal from jury duty. I am quite curious about Missouri's law and would like to know who gets to define what is discrete enough..... nipple out for 10 seconds, 30 seconds, whole boob out? Who's to say?

Strangers

"Awww, she's so cute! Can I carry her?" -a teenage-ish gal shopping

Carry her where you might wonder?? We opted not to find out and declined her generous offer of relieving Tim of his 12-pound load.

"Does she know you?" -an elderly woman waiting at a bus stop

I think she probably meant does she recognize me yet, but I like to imagine it the other way. No, she doesn't know me; she just walked up and strapped herself onto the front of a stranger.

Hopefully (if the strangers can keep up their end of the deal) this will be an ongoing series of unusual comments. Babies make people do funny things.

The Happy Spitter

We have ourselves a spitter. Initially we were very disturbed by the amount that M spits up, however, the pediatrician assured us not to worry. Dr. Kramer said that there are two types of spitters: happy spitters and problem spitter. The happy spitter gains weight and is not bothered by their spitting, whereas the problem spitter gains poorly or get upset when they spit up. It is clear from the photo what type we have.

I like the way my Breastfeeding Answer Book states it: "in a healthy baby, spitting is a laundry problem, not a medical problem." Laundry is definitely a problem, and convincing M it is better for us to wipe the goop off her face. She gets more upset by the wiping than the actual process of spitting up.

704

When first presented with this enormous box of wipes from the generous Wilson family at our baby shower we wondered out loud about how long they would last....... well folks, now we have an answer.

One month, exactly.

We started using wipes when M turned one month and Saturday when she turned two months we returned to Costco to restock. Let's just say that is a lot of butt wiping!