I was blessed to grow up with a mother who was always very health-concious. Because of her, I have always sought the latest research on healthy living and try to incorporate my knowledge into my diet. And in a world where everyone is so busy, it can be easy to just eat conveniently. I too am a busy woman but have learned some easy ways to make my diet as healthy as possible without a lot of extra time and energy. Here are some simple ways you can do so.  

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Lots of Color—When adding fruits and vegetables into your diet, choose as many different colors as you can. A variety of color will ensure that you include a range of vitamins into your diet, add incredible flavor into your food, and frankly, just add beauty to your food and brighten your mood. Have fun with color, and be experimental. You’d be surprised by the delicious combinations you could come up with. I came up with a great recipe for crab pasta salad with this in mind. Multi-grain penne pasta, mayonnaise (good options are olive oil-based, Veganaise, or regular mayo with no high fructose corn syrup), sliced red and yellow bell peppers, shredded orange carrots, chopped green cilantro, diced green celery, diced green onions,  diced sharp cheddar cheese, imitation crab, and dried red cranberries or purple raisins.

• Red fruits and veggies are great for lowering blood pressure and killing free radicals, preventing cancer. It includes nutrients such as lycopene, ellagic acid, Quercetin, and Hesperidin.
• Green fruits and vegetables are also excellent at fighting cancer-causing free radicals, improving digestion, ensuring vision health, and strengthening your immune system. They include nutrients like calcium, beta-carotine, vitamin C, and chlorophyl.
• Yellow and orange fruits and vegetables are excellent produce to help strengthen bones, develop collagen, lower cholesterol, and improve prostrate health. They include flavanoids, potassium and vitamin C.
• Purple fruits and vegetables improve mineral and calcium absorption, are anti-carcinogenic with anti-oxidants, and fight inflammation. They include less commonly known but vital nutrients such as ellagic acid, resveratrol, and quercetin.

Check out this link for more information on adding color to your diet: http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/foods/fn595w.htm

So go ahead and do something different like making salsa with red strawberries or yellow mangos, throwing in some sliced plums in your salad or using purple cabbage in your fish tacos, maybe add some diced pineapple, red cherry tomatoes, and green apples into your chicken salad sandwich. Your body and your tongue will thank you. 🙂

Read labels. You will be surprised how much of our condiments and foods have unhealthy additives to our foods like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and harmful color dyes like yellow number 5. These ingredients have been linked with diabetes, obesity, and ADHD-like symptoms. And you don’t have to go to expensive health food stores to find healthy options. While these ingredients can pop up in ketchup, mayonnaise, peanut butter, yogurt, barbecue and teriyaki sauce, I have found healthy options at decent prices even at affordable markets like Walmart. And remember, the higher the ingredient is on the list, the greater the amount of it sits in the jar.

For more information on the dangers of high fructose corn syrup check out: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-fructose-corn-syrup/AN01588. For information on yellow number 5: http://www.livestrong.com/article/370945-health-effects-of-yellow-5-food-coloring/ and hydrogenated oil http://www.naturalnews.com/024694_oil_food_oils.html.

Enjoy the right Fats: Fat is absolutely necessary for energy, digestion, vitamin absorption, and even maintaining healthy body weight! You just need to know which are the good ones to use and how much. Firstly, get rid of your vegetable or corn oils and never look at them again. These oils are extremely dangerous when heated and will produce cancer causing free radicals. Second, instead cook with coconut or olive oil or even real butter. These are all safe at high temperatures and even have added nutrients that are beneficial.  I just recently discovered the benefits of cooking with coconut oil and am amazed. Even better, it tastes amazing! Coconut oil is rich in saturated fatty acids like Capric Acid and Lauric Acid which raises your body’s High Density Lipoproteins , lowers bad Cholesterol, boosts immunity and regenerates cells. Coconut oil also increases your metabolism so will actually help you shed weight. It can also be used on your dry skin and hair and stays solid at room temperature so you can store it in your cupboard and use less of it than other oils. Other good oils include Olive oil , which is a monounsaturated fat that lowers the amounts of low-density lipoproteins, lowers cholesterol, improves, and maintains blood sugar levels.  Next, watch those hydrogenated oils in your jarred and boxed foods. If you can, minimize your use of boxed foods as much as possible and instead prepare the food yourself. If you must eat prepared or boxed foods, I recomend buying those from stores that specialize in selling choices without all the processed ingredients and hydrogenated oils—I like Fresh and Easy, Henry’s stores, and Trader Joes. About 25-30 percent of the calories in your diet should be made of healthy fats for optimum health. That is of course not in addition to the unhealthy fats you get from fast food, processed meals, and junk snacks like chips. So keep those to special occasions. I have found that most of the time when I’m craving fatty foods, it most often because I’ve waited oto long to eat and really need protein. To prevent fat cravings like this—eat some healthy trailmix or some low-fat cottage cheese for a snack between meals. The fats and proteins in these foods will help curb your cravings later.

Check out this link for more information on the benefits of olive oil: http://www.all-about-olive-oil.com/benefits-of-olive-oil-7-reasons, coconut oil: http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/uses-of-coconut-oil-in-cooking.html. Or read about them all in this article: http://www.truthaboutabs.com/unhealthy-vs-healthy-cooking-oils.html

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Cut down on your sugar and fructose intake. People often think they are doing their bodies well by eating fruit-flavored yogurt, drinking juice, and eating fruit. But even these can pack excessive amounts of sugar into your daily intake. Some tricks I have done to help minimize my sugar and fructose intake: 1)–read labels and buy options without if available. 2) Be aware of yogurt! While they do contain bacteria such as acidophilus which is essential to digestive health, it is best to avoid flavored ones completely and instead buy plain yogurt and then sweeten it yourself. I will pack a 4-oz dish of yogurt in my lunch and sweeten it with a teaspoon of sugar or a tablespoon of berries, blended smooth. It sweetens it just fine and uses only a fraction of the sugar or most often, high-fructose corn syrup found in most flavored yogurt. 3) Be aware of the amounts of fructose in fruits and limit yourself to just two servings of fruit a day. Believe it or not, even fructose in excessive amounts is linked to diabetes, ADHD symptoms, and obesity. Here is a very informative link to an article on the dangers of a diet high in fructose and even includes a chart with fruit and the amount of fructose in those types of fruit. Believe it or not, it varies significantly! Check it out at http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/06/19/richard-johnson-interview-may-18-2010.aspx. 4) Cut down your soda intake! Soda is diabetes in a cup, and if you drink soda often, most likely a number of your ailments are due to just that habit alone. If switching to just water is too much for you to follow through with switch your soda out for a sparkling mineral water and add a squeeze of lime and perhaps sweeten it with some agave. Agave has fructose in it, but much less than that which you would find in a typical soda.

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Change it up— Don’t get caught up eating the same ten dishes or making your salads the same way every time. Vary up your diet with different combinations and try fruits and vegetables you haven’t tried before. Make it fun. Studies show that eating the same foods over and over again can actually lead your body to develop allergies to it. Also–adding variation will ensure you get a broader range of vitamins in your system. You can vary your fruits and veggies by buying them in season and even save money by purchasing them at farmer’s markets in your area. I can walk out of a farmer’s market with two grocery bags packed with produce for under 20 dollars. If you run out of ideas, grab a cookbook from a bookstore that emphases healthy but delicious meals or look for ideas via the internet. I subscribed for a year or so to Cooking Light magazine and got many great ideas through it.

Hope you enjoyed these tips! I’d love to hear from you on your thoughts and ideas!

Jameson loves his feet!

It is amazing how fast Jameson is growing. We are officially out of the hardest months of infancy and they were really not hard at all. Jameson is such a laid back little guy, it has an easy-going ride for the most part these last few months.

He discovered his voice about a month ago and since then loves Loves LOVES to talk. The kid just babbles and coos and he loves to do it loud! Owen and I just explode with love for him when he gets into one of his stories and Kanan is always asking us, “What is he saying?” I make up funny summaries of his stories and thoughts and often make Jameson appear overly confident and independent. I’ll tell Kanan that JJ is saying, “I don’t need adults to help me out. I can do everything by myself. I can walk, I can run, and I can even fly!” Kanan then laughs and says, “no you can’t Jameson! You are just a baby!” It is adorable. Often times, Kanan will just cover JJ with kisses and look up at me and say, “I like having a baby in our family, Momma.” Me too Kanan. Me too. And Jameson just adores his big brother as well. He is all smiles when Kanan talks or looks at him. I love seeing the two of them loving each other. Yesterday, we were all sitting down at the dinner table, including Jameson, who sits in his high chair and watches us eat. As we were eating, I just looked around the table at my two sons and my wonderful husband and tears just welled up in my eyes. I told them all how happy I was to be with my boys and what a blessing they all were in my life. It was a sappy, perfect moment.

One of Jameson’s newest discoveries have been his legs and feet. He discovered them earlier last week. I noticed when he was laying in his little bouncy seat and was lifting his left leg uuuuuupppp and doooowwwnn, uuuupppp and doooowwwwnnn. The entire time, watching it very intently. Then a couple of days ago, he started grabbing his feet. I must say, there is not much cuter then a chubby little bubba grabbing his feet. I’d have to say, all he has to do next is suck on one of his little toes and he will hit the top of cuteness in my opinion. 🙂 Today, Owen and I took him to the grocery store, and he held his little feet the entire time. We got lots of smiles and comments over this. One lady stared at him so long, it sort of got awkward for me. Okay lady, I know he is cute, but…..

He was supposed to have his two-month well check a month ago, but our doctor’s office couldn’t get him in until this week. (I know….we are changing doctors. Between that and the rude receptionist, we are over it. The doctor is great, but everything else about his office is ridiculous). Anyway, Owen took him in this week and the doctor said he is so healthy he is boring. Haha. Good one Doc! Jameson weighed in at 14 lbs and 4 ounces. He is in the 75th percentile for his weight. And he is in the 95th percentile for height. Owen didn’t recall exactly what length he was, but he is obviously on the longer side for his age. 🙂

He is pretty much sleeping through the night. He started the night before I went back to work. What a sweety, helping me out like that! So we are on week three now with sleeping through the night. We only had two nights during this time where he woke up once in the middle of the night. Otherwise, we put him down around 730. I pull him out of bed around 1030 to feed him again before I, myself, go to sleep. He barely wakes up and goes easily back down. And then he is out until I wake him up at 5:45 AM to feed him again before I leave for work. I could just let him sleep, but I cherish that quiet time with him in the morning. I get to see him and spend time with him and it also helps me maintain my milk supply.

He has transitioned pretty well with me going back to work. Honestly, I think I have a harder time then he does. He does go through a day or two every week where he doesn’t eat very well while I’m at work, but it doesn’t seem to make him fussy with me and he makes up for it when I get home. And he still sleeps well at night. Still, there are other days where he eats so much while I’m at work, as much as 7 ounces in a feeding!

On the downside, there is some signs that he may be having some sort of intolerance to something I am eating, so I’m trying to figure out what it is. It doesn’t seem to make him fussy or irritable at all, but he shows the signs in other ways. I did just recently find out that I am allergic to cows milk, and so that could be it because I do eat a lot of dairy. I’m not sure if my allergy could affect my milk or if he may have inherited the allergy, but its worth a shot at looking into. I love to guzzle a tall glass of cows milk at dinner and I eat cheese like a giant mouse. I also eat yogurt and cottage cheese. So I’m switching to Goat, Almond, and Soy milk as alternatives and going to cut down the cheese to see what happens. The protein in milk occurs the most in the milk and much less in cheese and yogurt. So I’m hoping I don’t have to go that extreme. We shall see! 🙂

Overall Jameson is a wonderful blessing to this family. I have only had him in my life for three months and I honestly cannot imagine life without him now. He is an absolute joy and I want him to stay a sweet little baby forever.

I cannot help but be righteously angry about the growing and changing belief system of our country. I am a teacher and currently teaching 11th grade American Literature. I teach this class using a historical lens and so we start off by reading literature of Native Americans and that of Colonial America, including those of Puritans. On my last assignment, we read a poem by the Puritan,  Anne Bradstreet entitled “Here Follow Some Verses Upon the Burning of our House, July 10, 1666.” In the poem she uses a few different elements that students are required to learn by our state standards: allusion, plain style, and inversion. Because she is a Puritan, what do you think she makes allusions to in her poem? Yes, the bible. Given that I cannot expect my students can just identify biblical allusions right off the bat due to the diversity of beliefs in public school students, the only way I could possibly see if my students could identify allusion was to provide them a handout with the bible verses of which she alludes to. They were required to read the poem and identify the lines in the poem where she alludes to these verses.

This morning I get an email from my VP. Apparently, one of my students complained to the administration that I was having them “read the bible” in my class. The email asked me to report to administration to discuss how I was using the bible in my class.

In American History, we see our beliefs and values change as they are addressed through various literary movements such as Puritanism, Romanticism, Realism, Modernism, and Post-Modernism. Am I supposed to teach Puritanism and have us just ignore what they allude to in their literature or mention what they believe in? Would we understand what they were writing about or understand the foundations of our country? I had a student a few days ago in my first period class innocently ask, “Why are we talking about God and the bible in this class? Isn’t this public school?” He didn’t seem angry or anything, perhaps he was just curious. And he isn’t the only one as I got from the email. Furthermore last year I had a student in one of my classes raise her hand and say she was very uncomfortable about discussing God or the bible in the class for the exact reasons. I could tell she honestly felt that we were breaking some sort of rule. I explained to her and the class why were discussing it. That I was not imposing the Puritan beliefs onto them and that eventually as we get to the point in American History when God is no longer a figure to be widely valued, that we will not be discussing it any longer. That seemed to make a difference. But this year, apparently my answer did not suffice. Someone needed to double-check.

Is this where we are at? Do our youth actually believe that we are no longer allowed to even discuss what our forefathers believed because what they believed may be offensive?

So when I talk about some Native American beliefs in worshiping the sun and the land and their belief in life being a circle, that is okay, but if I dare talk about what Puritans believe, I am wrong? When I have my ninth graders notice the allusions that Homer makes to Greek polytheistic mythology, that is okay, but I am not allowed to mention Christian literature when discussing American beliefs in Colonial America?

Now in defense of my school administration, I know that when I explain to them the assignment they will agree that I did not break any rules. I myself, vented to my colleagues and they too agreed that I did nothing wrong. But that does not clear me of my irritation and concern. It doesn’t matter if my colleagues know I am right or even if administration understands and confirms that I am not breaking any rules; this still reflects the beliefs our youth. And these youth are getting these beliefs from somebody. Blame it on the media. Blame it on their parents. Regardless—-they will be the ones running this country in the future. And what this tells me is that my husband is probably right when he made the joke last night that there will be a time in the future when our history classes will simply summarize American History from Colonial America to the late 1800’s as simply “The Dark Ages” in one lecture. And then really begin the classes a couple of days later in the 1960’s when we became “enlightened.”

Mom and Jameson in the hospital

It has been two weeks since Jameson came into our lives and I am just now finding time to be able to make a post about him. Having surgery, taking care of a baby, and recovering from surgery while also being a wife and a mother of an energetic 4-year-old is hard work!! Phew!

Owen wrote a beautiful piece about Jameson’s birth and created a funny and entertaining video as well. I’ll start this update where Owen left off.

Jameson and I stayed in the hospital from Thursday through Sunday. We had the option to leave on Monday but I was ready to leave. The hospital staff were starting to get on my nerves and I was starting to get bored being trapped in my room all day. The nurses I had at the beginning of our stay were great. They were attentive, funny, encouraging, and helpful. But the last two days there I had two nurses who I just couldn’t connect with. One was a nice lady from the Philippines, and a Christian as well. But she just wouldn’t leave me alone. She’d hover around me when I was trying to breastfeed; she’d fill me with worry every time she noticed the baby spit up or when she discovered the baby had lost more than 8% of his body weight. She’d take forever to come when I paged her, would forget to give me my pain killers. And her helper, the other nurse never understood what I requested over the intercom. I’d ask for water and she’d bring the lactation consultant. I’d ask for the lactation consultant and she’d bring me water. I asked for pineapple juice and sprite once. And then after that she kept bringing that to me double fisted when I asked for water. It is almost funny now that I think about it. But let me tell you, there was this moment on Saturday when I was miserable from pain and my nurse had still not arrived after I paged her. Jameson had pooed himself and so I got up to change him. As I was changing him, the lactation consultant arrived and started talking to me about his latch—-a problem we were having and one that I will get into more later, but needless to say was stressing me out. As she spoke to me, he pooed again all over the changing bad. It was dripping! I looked in the drawer—no more wipes. The lactation consultant squealed and said she’d go get more. I’m holding Jameson up under his armpits and just watching the poop drip down all over his blanket and the changing pad. Then he peed all over me. The lactation consultant returned with wipes. I wiped him up and then as soon as I put his clothes back on, he spit up his entire lunch all over himself. Right at this moment the nurse arrived, but without any pain killers. She wanted to let me know that she told the pediatrician that Jameson had lost 8% of his body weight, so he was coming to talk to me. I asked her if she had my meds. She looked at me with surprise. “Oh,” she said, “I forgot.” Honestly, I had to breathe very deeply that moment. I was ready to start balling I was so mad and frustrated. It was at that moment I thought, I need to get out of here.

Jameson watching Dad edit videos

We’ve been really blessed by our friends and family since Jameson has arrived. Many came to visit us in the hospital. And since we’ve come home, we havent had to cook one meal. Every night one of our friends arrives with a meal. My friend Julie set up a calendar and invited all of my friends from church to log in to it. They each sign up on the calendar to bring a meal to us. I’m not sure how long it will last, but it has been so appreciated! With my Cesarian, it really takes a lot out of me to be standing a lot cooking. And if it were left to Owen to cook every night, we’d be eating chips and cookies—Owen’s favorite foods. So its been helpful to us all. We’ve had pot roast, taco pie, enchiladas, chicken parmesan, Paneras, KFC, grilled chicken and veggies, and desserts. Praise God for good friends!

Kanan (aka Iron Man) taking care of his little brother JJ

As for my surgery, I’m still hurting, but I am able to get out here and there. I sometimes over do it, which is why I think I’m still hurting, but who knows—maybe its normal to still be hurting two weeks in. Regardless, I’m thankful for my pain killers and I’m thankful for the couch. My husband has also been really good about helping me with Kanan and running to the grocery store for milk or to the pharmacy for my refill. He has also been really busy trying to build his businesses and freelance work in order to bring some income into our home. He wants so much for us to be able to rent a house with a backyard. Me too. 🙂 And this morning he greeted me with a beautiful picture on my bathroom mirror. Cut-out flowers, sun, and birds made from construction paper and a love note. *sighs* Yes, I love my family. 🙂

Jameson doing "tummy time" for the first time

So—Jameson’s latch. Yeah, we’ve had a hard time. He’d clamp on to me really hard. It would hurt! And at first I thought I just needed to get used to it, but by day 3 I was so sore and on the borderline of starting to bleed and blister. The lactation consultants came in and tried to help me position him better, but it only helped a little. After sticking their fingers in his mouth and analyzing his tongue, they determined what was making nursing so difficult. Jameson’s palate was high and arched and he has a little tongue tie. You know that flap of skin that connects your tongue to the bottom of your mouth? Well his connects pretty well which sort of prevents his tongue from sticking out far—sort of necessary in the whole getting milk out of mom’s boobs activity. So, one of the consultants gave me a shield to use as I let my you-know-whats heal and in the meantime to try a football hold and to try to be patient with Jameson as I pull his jaw down and try to get him to loosen up. Apparently he clamped in order to make up for his tongue to push my you-know-whats up to the roof of his mouth where the contact helps bring the milk out and triggers him to swallow.

JJ is passed out on Mom's lap

So anyway, we went home and things got better for a couple of days as I used the shield. Except on day 5–he started getting fussy in the evenings. I thought for sure it was just the foreshadow of a witching hour with him. On day 6 it happened again. The following day he got circumcised and so slept a lot that afternoon. He nursed, but his nursing seemed to take longer. That night I decided I wouldn’t use the shields anymore as I seemed to not be hurting as much. But the following day, all Jameson wanted to do was sleep. I had to wake him up to feed. He’d nurse for like 45 minutes but I didn’t hear him swallowing anymore or see milk in the corners of his mouth. And if he was awake, which was only briefly, he was fussy and wanted to nurse again. That night he didn’t wake up to nurse again and then still slept when I put him to my breast. I got scared. Just then, like a God-send, a lactation consultant called to ask me how breastfeeding was going. I immediately started crying and told her what was happening. She informed me that it looked like my milk supply had dropped. I was instructed to start pumping, supplementing, and going in for another consultation to see how much he was getting. Oh my gosh, I felt like such a terrible my mother. My baby was starving! I immediately made him a bottle of formula and my two girlfriends Lael and Carmen helped me use one of those tube things to get him to feed and to help stimulate my milk supply. He guzzled three ounces and then was awake and bright-eyed for the first time that day! We immediately set to work. I started guzzling water, eating tons, feeding Jameson every hour and a half to help him catch up on his calories, which he happily accepted. I pumped after every feeding the rest of the night and into the morning. I visited the consultant the following day and she helped me position Jameson correctly in a football hold in order to help get more tissue to his high palated mouth. We weighed him before and after his 45 minute feeding. He got an ounce and a half. And that was after my milk supply had gone up from pumping all night and drinking water. And he had a better latch due to the consultant’s help. That means he was getting much less the prior days. Poor baby. He is supposed to be drinking 3 ounces a feeding right now. So I supplemented with formula again and here we are. It is now Wednesday—one week later and my milk supply is finally getting better. I just fed Jameson for the first time without needing to supplement. I don’t know how much he got, but he didn’t seem hungry after the feeding like he normally does. I’m so happy! But I am not going to expect to solve this problem. If by God’s will, it is solved, wonderful. But if not, I have gone through the cycle of grieving and have come to accept that I may have to always supplement with formula. And when I go back to work, I may have to go completely to formula because working won’t help the already existing poor supply. But I am hopeful. We shall see. As for Jameson’s palate and tongue—we are doing palate massages to try and bring it down and I already notice a difference. And hopefully we can work around the tongue, but if it continues to pose an issue, we can have it clipped. We shall see. And of course, pray.

Jameson loves his Auntie Barb

He is now napping next to me as I write this. I love the way his eyes dart back and forth as he dreams. He is chubbing up and happy, which makes me happy. He looks like Owen but with my brother’s forehead. His hairline looks like Owen’s as well. He also does something that his dad does all the time—runs his tongue back and forth along his lower teeth/gumline. So cute!!!

Jameson has since acquired a few nicknames. He is also JJ, Little bug, and monkey. JJ has a really easy-going temperament. He cries only when he is hungry, wants a change of scenery or position, or has a dirty diaper. Also if he wants to sleep in my arms or nurse but Owen and I are talking loudly. I know Colic is supposed to kick in around 2 weeks of age, so we shall see if this easy-going baby stays this way. I pray so.

Two weeks old today!!

Kanan is doing pretty well during the transition. He always asks if Jameson loves him. He is often very concerned over Jameson. He monitors me feeding him, bathing him, and changing him and often comments or admonishes me if he thinks Jameson is unhappy in anyway.Still, he is having to deal with being stuck in the house a lot. Given my recovery from surgery, I tend to stay inside a lot and we live in an upstairs apartment. During the week it’s not so bad because Kanan gets a lot of sunshine and running  around time while at school, but on the weekends its been harder on him. We did take him to the park both Saturday and Sunday to help get him some outside time and release some energy. Owen has also been really good about boxing with him in the evenings (one of Kanan’s favorite pastimes). He is also having to adjust to sharing the attention with his brother. Last night for example, I was trying to read a book on sharks to Kanan before bed while holding Jameson. We had just checked it out at the library yesterday afternoon and Kanan was really excited about reading up on Makos. Yet Jameson kept fussing so I’d have to stop reading and try to attend to his needs. Kanan started getting really frustrated and went to bed grumpy. But he woke up happy this morning. I read him more of his book and cuddled with him on the couch before he went to school. He is off to his dads this afternoon and we won’t see him again until Sunday. I miss the little guy already.

This whole experience thus far makes me want to cling to my little family forever. I love my husband and my sons so much. And I love the rest of my family so much—my sister and brother, my mom, stepmom, grandma, cousins, etc. And I miss my dad a lot. I wish he were here. I wish he could see this little boy we named after him.

We all head out this weekend to watch my brother get married to his wonderful girlfriend Megan and the mother of his child, Peyton. Then next week, we leave for Utah to visit Owen’s family and to introduce them to the baby. When we return, more family will be coming out to visit us. And then its a summer and fall filled with baby showers, and more weddings. What a year. A year of life. A year of death. And a year of marriages and family.

Our Darn Cat---loves to sleep anywhere but where she should be.

Today, I was sitting in my glider, rubbing my belly and contemplating taking a nap when I realize, I haven’t seen the cat in a while. Hmmm….I think. Could be trouble. So I go looking for her. When I enter our room for the second time after no success with the rest of the house, I hear some movement and a meow, turn to my right and there she is. All relaxed at the bottom of my hamper. That darn cat. I grab my camera and take a picture. She poses for me by lying on her back and teasing me with her fluffy belly. She is pretty darn cute. And given she has already been in trouble with me a lot the last couple of days and the hamper is empty, I let her stay there and walk away, rolling my eyes and laughing. We have a love/hate relationship–more like she loves me and I love her sometimes, but often times just can’t stand her. Yet I’d totally cry if she got lost or killed. I think…..

Let me explain.

Firstly–she is a whiner. She whines all the time. And since I don’t understand Cat, I don’t know what she is whining about. Sometimes, it’s simply to do with her food, water, or litter box, but sometimes I just cant’ figure it out.  I’ll check her food bowl and it will be full. I’ll check her water and it will be full. I’ll check her litter box and it will be clean. It would be one thing if her little meow were sweet and quiet. But it sounds like crying. She is a whiner. All. Day. Long.

Second—she comes on to strong when she wants to cuddle. We love to pet our cat, but please kitty, in a civilized way. We want her to lay on our lap or lay beside our laps so we can pet her as we watch a movie or sit at the computer or read a book. But no, that is not what she wants. She will fight us on that. She wants to climb up on our chests and either bury her face in our neck or and stick her face in our face and purr loudly. She will press her face up to us vigorously; she will love bite our necks or our ear lobes or try to nurse on my necklace. It’s too much! So I push her down to my lap only to fight with her as she relentlessly climbs right back up. And if that doesn’t work, she’ll hop onto the couch and climb up the back of it and try to sneak in from behind and sticking her purring mug in my ear.

Third—she is crazy! We actually changed her name after a few months of getting to know her from Guadalupe la Tigre Gris—to instead, La Tigre LOCA! But honestly, we just call her Cat most of the time. When she attacks my feet as I walk across the living room—“get off me Cat!” When she bites my toes as I watch a movie—-“stop it Cat!” When she bites and scratches me for petting her when she is not in the mood (of which she offers no clues beforehand so that we just stay away)—-“no Cat!” Then we pull our hands away to nurse our scratches. This little girl has drawn blood on me a couple of times. Crazy cat. Pfff….Loca!

Next—she has determined that at 6 A.M the entire family should wake up. And she has nominated herself as our alarm clock whether we like it or not. She comes into the room and starts jumping on us. She’ll jump on my stomach, my head, my chest. I’ll throw her off. Then she’ll whine really loud and then jump on Owen. If Kanan has crawled into bed with us that morning (typically he comes in around 530 or so) she will jump on him as well. And if she wakes him up, then she succeeds because he won’t go back to sleep. He’ll be ready for his cereal and play, which means then that I have to get up too. She will try everything, including jumping up on my bedside table and either knocking my water all over my cellphone (she has done this three times already!) or drinking my water! She also knows how much I hate it when she jumps on the baby’s things—so she will jump in the baby’s cradle  and get me to fly out of bed and throw her off. She will jump onto the baby’s changing table and start giving herself a bath until I leap up from the bed or Owen does and yell at her to scat. She will jump up on the hamper and if it isn’t full, it can’t balance her weight and so down it will go. She will jump up on Owen’s dresser and knock off all his books. At some point in this process, we get up and throw her out of the room. But in the meantime, I’m trying to hold back the curses.

Next—she loves to nap anywhere but where she is supposed to nap—on the blanket laid out on the couch. Oh no—never that. I find her everywhere in the house she shouldn’t be and in some places I’m just downright appalled she has discovered. She will nap in the kitchen appliance drawer or below the kitchen sink! How she gets in there I do not know. She is sneaky. Yesterday, I found her in the linen closet down the hall in the top shelf–completely zonked asleep on top of my good bath towels! She’ll sleep in the baby’s crib, the baby’s changing table in Kanan’s room, the baby’s bathtub in the bathroom. I’ve found her quite comfortable on the kitchen table and in Kanan’s dirty laundry basket in his closet. Do we allow this behavior? No way! But she doesn’t care. We have tried just throwing her off and yelling no. We have tried squirting her with a squirt gun. We have tried spankings. We have tried even shooting her with the Nerf Gun foam bullets.

Now our last kitty, Princess Fluffy Pants was not like this at all. She was awesome. She came into the house be pet when she wanted by laying next to us and exposing her belly. She was friendly to everyone and loved her belly being rubbed. She never bit or scratched us. But this cat—the inspiration for this blog, will bite and scratch anyone who touches her belly—and she doesn’t discriminate with age. I’m surprised Kanan still loves her because he has been hurt worse than any of us.  But Princess Fluffy Pants was also allowed outside. Now of course, with that freedom also came her death. She didn’t make it past 9 months of age before she was killed. (Either by a coyote or a cult, we are not sure as we only found one severed half of her by a tree behind our apartment last summer).

So yes, this cat has now lived almost a year—but hasn’t seen much more than the patio—where we allow her to play. We want her to be able to go out and hunt and climb trees and get out her inner loca so she can be tamer in our home, but our apartment complex managment does not allow this. So, we feel bad for her. We wonder if her crazy behavior is due to her being cooped up all day. Of course, her weird cuddling habits are hers alone—she was doing that since the day she fit into our palms and we brought her home. Given this, we haven’t decided we hate her enough to get rid of her. Where would she go anyway? And somehow we love her—she is really pretty. And Kanan just loves her. They are the best of friends and it’s quite entertaining to watch them play together. Hopefully one day we will move to a place where she can be her wild self outside. And yes, while that may lead her face to face with a deadly coyote, so be it. She is an animal. And that risk is worth not having to bleach my kitchen table every time I find her napping on it or shaking out my towels so I can dry my son’s clean body when he steps out of the bathtub without him being covered in cat fuzz. But then again, I’d still turn around probably to find her, bottom and tail poking out from the toilet bowl as she drinks its water instead of from her water bowl. That darn cat.  I love her. But she drives me nuts.

Me with my belly string hanging around my neck

I was so blessed last weekend with a beautiful baby shower, hosted by my good friend Amy. So many wonderful ladies in my life came. We chatted, laughed, ate delicious girl food, played some challenging games, and just celebrated babies. So many of my friends have just recently had babies and brought their snuggly little bums with them. My cousin is pregnant too and of course, she won the contest guessing how big was my belly (haha..I used my belly to help me at my friend Stacey’s shower too!)

Thank you everyone for coming and sharing this joyous time with me. I love you all!