From a mother to her son.

Well it's been awhile. But I decided to do this entry on a touchy topic, in which every one has their own opinions and I guess their own choice.

So here it goes, why I chose NOT to circumcise my son.

I had been going back and forth with this the whole time I was pregnant. I talked to my husband, other moms, my mom, my husbands mom, my sister in laws. Everyone you could think of, oh and the doctor(at the time, I had so many doctors my head was spinning). Finally by the time I was like 28 weeks I had decided to just go ahead and do it. His dad is, it's what you see in Health class, blah blah blah. 

So we had a big move coming, being military you generally have lots of those. Once we moved and I changed doctors yet again, and I decided after my first round with military doctors, I didn't want it. I decided to go to a Birthing Center. I would have delivered in a tub, with a midwife and my mom and husband by my side, if it wasn't for Jakey's change of plans. Meconium in my amniotic fluid. No water birth, no birthing center. Last minute mad dash to find a hospital to take me. 

Turns out fate knows exactly what she's doing. Jakey had to be in the NICU. After seeing my little baby hooked up to everything, wires, oxygen, getting poked and prodded, I had had enough. I walked in one time to see another little boy getting circumcised right there in the NICU. I looked at him and looked at my little buy and couldn't do it. Although no one at the hospital ever asked me if I wanted it done, or any mention of it at all. For which I am thankful.

In all my research about pros and cons, I saw a video, a guy put it together(oh and I am totally opposed to the idea that they can remember the pain once they are adults, ridiculous), it was about life and time, when we are 50 years old, 15 minutes isn't that long to us, because we have lived 50 years and 15 minutes in relation to our whole life isn't that much. But think about when you are 5 and you get a time out, if you were to be in time out for 15 minutes it is going to take forever, because in relation to your life it's a longer amount of time at that age. SO now think about this little baby that is a day, maybe two old. Think about him getting taken away from his mother to this place with these strange people, to get strapped down to this cold table, maybe getting a local, maybe not(it is not practiced in all hospitals) to get a part of his body removed. An elective cosmetic change. 

I can tell you as a mother of an unaltered little boy, it is no more work, there isn't anything special I have to do, but I can sit here and know, with all the things my little guy went through in the first few days of his life, I didn't put him through more than he had to go through. 

Now as I am on my birth board on a parenting website, and all these moms are having to deal with Penial Adhesion I am glad, something is growing back together that should have been like that from the start. And they are having to, over the course of weeks, to pull it down and put some sort of gel on it to keep it from sticking. I don't have to do a single thing, until he gets older, to teach him how to wash himself, which you have to teach every child. 

I am not trying to make anyone feel bad who chooses to have this done, it is your choice, you are the parent. I am not judging anyone who chooses to have this done, but I just want you to think about it before you choose. Don't just choose because "he will look like his dad". Choose because you are educated about the subject.

LARK wooden whale.

So here is a little blog for my Mamasita friend.

This is a Whale pully toy. It was purchased by my lovely Aunt at LARK toys in Minnesota(they do have online shopping). Here is their website! For those moms who love wooden toys, these are great. They are semi-expensive. For this pull toy it was 30 dollars. The other ones were a couple dollars cheaper.

They have some great stuff on their website so check them out. It is all hand made :)

Fun Stuff.

So let's start off by saying my son prefers a good box to any toy, and seems to like shoes better then stuffed animals. That being said, there are a handful of toys that he absolutely loves. Now I'm not one of those mom's that is super picky about the toys he plays with, I know a few of those mom's and they are awesome, I just am not one of them. I think at this age they are going to be creative no matter what, and Jakey can't keep his attention on anything for too long anyway. So I have to find what I can to keep him busy.So toy number 1. This is actually a multi-purpose toy, it doubles as the best teether I have found.

This teether has different textures on all of it's nubs. It's VERY easy for baby to hold onto, and it twists, so when their busy little hands are all over, it moves too. I love this teether! And so does Jakey.

Number 2. 

Is kind of a toy I guess, Jakey does play with it, but it's a book. 

I love this book most because it is interactive, on each page there is a different texture, the cat has fur, there is a scarecrow that has burlap on it, a ghost who has a silky texture, and so on. Plus Jakey loves it when I say "Woof woof". He also talks to Biscuit while I'm reading, which is pretty cute.

(these next things are products, not toys, but I enjoy them just as much as Jakey enjoys his toys)

First off, we have Dr. Brown's bottles.

I guess there is a good and bad to these bottles, while I love them and they seem to do exactly what they say and reduce the gas with positive pressure, they are also a pain in the butt to clean. If you don't have all the right tools to clean each piece you feel like they aren't getting clean enough. I have found myself using a Q-tip in a pinch. So if you don't mind a little extra work then these are the bottles for you. I still like them and we still use them, just be wary if you don't want to spend 30 minutes at the sink cleaning 4 bottles. 

Second thing we have, is a baby food maker from Babies R Us. PLEASE don't waste your money on the Baby Bullet, for you 4 payments of 19.95. Out of control expensive. This works just as well and comes with  storage cups that have pictures of what you might want to put in them and labels for dating.

We got all of it for like 60 dollars.

If you are into making your own food this is the way to go. Plus no waiting, go to the store and buy it.

Alrighty, if you have a son like mine, who seems to be abnormally large, he's 20lbs already, and you have found the cute little travel system you bought just isn't working out anymore, get a pop up stroller( I believe they are called umbrella strollers) and a "big" kid car seat.

I can see the pros and cons to having that infant car seat and not having it. On the many nights that we had to go for a car ride to get that fussy little boy to sleep, it was nice, just pop it out, and take him upstairs, we could even leave him in the car seat if we wanted to. However, for the money that was spent on that, and what we later had to spend on new car seat we bought and new stroller(because lets face it those damn travel systems are HUGE, and if you don't have a HUGE trunk, it might not work when you decide to go grocery shopping. We now have a convertible car seat and one of those little strollers. If you are going to spend the money on a travel system, you might as well buy the car seat(infant) by itself, and buy one of these to go along with it.

You get a less bulky stroller that still holds your infant seat. It's going to run you about 70 dollars at Babies R Us. 

I personally like having our car seat and the stroller we have now. 

(Stroller)

Now the thing I love about this stroller by The First Years is it has storage, and it's small. It has storage underneath, and up top. Up top has 4 cup/bottle holders, a zipper pouch, and mesh on the front to tuck in other things. I like it better then the travel stroller we had.

End Part 1.

Makani (wind)

(Pali Lookout, so gorgeous, and insanely windy)

You have to feel lucky when you can wake up and take a drive and this becomes your view. 

I can honestly say I must be one of the luckiest people out there, I have the most wonderful husband anyone could ask for, who also happens to be the most amazing Daddy and little boy could ask for. I live on a beautiful island, and I am with the 2 best boys anyone could ever want.

The last couple days have been sight seeing, Jake is on house hunting leave, and since we've found a house, the rest is fun. 

I can't believe this is my life, years ago I would never have imagined anything close to this. I thought I would still be in Rockford, not that that would be a bad thing, but after awhile it gets old. 

I have always been the traveling kind of girl, I would just pick up and drive to Chicago whenever I could. Or road trip to Indiana to see my cousin. So this type of lifestyle suites me. 

One sad thing that happened today, my poor little Jakey yanked my straightener off of the sink while I was parting my hair, and burned the back of his arm. It's not too bad, just a little triangle, but enough to scare us all and make him scream.

I am already starting to get sick of this hotel, I want a kitchen, with all the fixin's and my TV and my couch and my bed(although the mattress pad they have on this one is VERY nice), it's the things you never thought you'd miss. 

What else did we see today?? We drove out to Ford Island, which is where they shot Pearl Harbor, The Movie. We saw the tower from which they shot down some planes, and the USS Missouri. Very crazy to be this close to so much history. Probably going to see the Arizona at some point while Jake is on leave.

I will honestly probably cry a lot. I get very weepy at military stuff. I am so proud of my husband for all he does. And everyone else who is serving our country.

One of my other goals is to find a photographer here in Oahu to do 6 month pictures and family pictures at the beach or something. 

Aloha!

Hakuna Mutata.

ʻohana

1. nvs. Family, relative, kin group; related. ʻOhana holoʻokoʻa, ʻohana nui, extended family, clan.

We have experienced a lot in the past couple weeks. I would like to quote it as being an "Offly big adventure"-Peter Pan. He wasn't referring to what I am talking about, but still. 

In the past two weeks many things have happened. My Ohana and I have moved from San Diego to Honolulu, we visited family, we experienced a loss(my families dog, we had her for years, since I was in 5th grade.), a gain(my sister in law is pregnant), and sadness, as we leave our families behind and start our new Navy adventure in Hawaii.

Jakey has also made big strides in these two weeks. He crawls(rather fast), he pulls himself into a standing position(while holding something), and he can sit up by himself. Recently his crawling has reached new heights as he can now over come obstacles...lucky us.

He is getting so big so fast. We weighed him the other day, 20 pounds. Where did my little 6 pound guy go??

In his short little life he has experienced a handful (or 2) of plane rides, 2 homes, 3 if you count our short stay in Rockford, which I would because we are using that as our address for now, 3 different time zones, and all his little milestones.

So, we went home for Labor day weekend. Jake's brother was coming into town and we wanted to surprise everyone by showing up too. For Jake's family it was the first time meeting Jakey, and for my sisters as well.

It was nice. I was starting to get home sick. I tried not to let it get the best of me, but it was really nice to be there.

Then we flew back to San Diego to get ready for our Great Big Adventure to Hawaii. We had to clean the house out(aka get rid of tons of crap that had piled up), have the movers come to pack it all away, stay in a hotel till our flight to Rockford, drop our car off to be shipped across the ocean(still isn't here), and keep a baby on a schedule(somewhat).

All the stuff in San Diego wasn't so bad. The hotel was okay, the one we are currently in is ten times better, not sure if it has anything to do with the location...

Rockford was the hardest, you have to try and divide your time when you are married, between both of your families, to give them equal chances to see you and your children, should you have any.

That to me is the hardest thing to do, how do you divide your time, and keep everyone happy. You end up feeling slight guilt when you have to leave and know you are taking time away from everyone. Whether we did a good job or not I am not sure, I can only hope we did.

That being said it is EXCEPTIONALLY hard to keep a baby on a schedule when so many people have differing schedules and you are trying to maintain that equality. 

Leaving was a sad day, you know how long you are going to be gone, and how long it will be till people can MAYBE come visit, but you can't help but be completely excited for all of the new things that are going to happen.

Last time we moved(to San Diego) I was 30 weeks pregnant, driving in a moving truck across the country, this time I have an almost 6 month old, cutting teeth, who is very active...hmm...which one was a more enjoyable trip.

I'll keep you guessing for just a moment longer.

Last trip, 3 days, driving through mountains, nothing-ness, and snow.

This trip, 2 days, flying with my husband and son.

(You may be leaning one way at this point)

Last trip, swollen feet, long hours, MANY bathroom breaks.

This trip, crying baby, long hours, many bathroom accidents.

(Still leaning in one direction?)

Last trip, just the two of us.

This trip, the three of us.

The results are in, I would rather travel pregnant, driving a 16' truck across country, then travel on a plane over 2 days with a teething 6 month  old who screams for 3 out of the 5 hour flight.

But hey, that's just me.

SO, we arrived here yesterday. It is amazing, one of the Petty Officers above Jake(who was actually one off his instructors in C School) picked us up from the airport. He got us leis. We finally checked into our hotel and just hung out for awhile. 

Jake's doing his paper work today, and I'm going to try and pick up a rental car and go to the housing office.

Jakey is awake from his nap, so I better get going.

Next up, how this little boy is going to adjust to a 5 hour difference in time....results should be interesting.

Little steps are often the hardest to make, but crawling is where it all starts.

So for the first time today Jakey actually managed a real crawl. Moving knees and hands. It was such a happy moment. He will be 5 months old on September 7th.

The first thoughts that come to mind are pride, love and dear God I have to go buy a baby gate.

So far his mobility has taken him to turn off the Xbox in the middle of Jake's game, all the way over to see me on the other side of the room, and mostly towards cell phones, remotes and game controllers. We are entering the very interesting and entertaining moments of any baby's life. I am so glad Jake is here to see all of these things so far.

Anyway, just a short one for today.

On this day August 30th, 2011, Jacque Louis Pariseau II made his first real crawl.

6 degrees.

So today whilst doing my hair, I was thinking about how funny it is that you can be in a completely new place with people you've never met, and come to find out, they know somebody who you know.

For instance, I met my husband while at work, he had started the year before me. Obviously I met his family, including his brother.

(Bare with me, there is a point)

I went to middle and High school with a girl named Kim, so I have known her for years.

Years later I marry Jake. And Pierre becomes my brother in law.

Jake joined the Navy.

We moved to Waukegan(Great Lakes), IL.

I joined a website called Navy for Moms, where I met Kristie. We talked online, and she was from Texas, moving to IL to be with her husband who joined the Navy.

I offered to let her stay with us while she was waiting to sign the papers for her apartments(the same ones we lived in).

Kristie knows a girl named Rachel, they were roommates in college.

Rachel is currently my brother in laws girlfriend, and also went to church with Kim for many years.

I find it funny how I can randomly meet a girl, who's college roommate ends up dating my brother in law and knowing one of my high school/middle school friends.

They always tell us the world his huge, even the United States are huge, but sometimes they seem so small.

Anyway, Jakey is starting to be very mobile. He is actually moving in a forward motion, rather then perpetually going backwards. Any day know, I'm just waiting, he is going to make his move, and I know that move will lead him right to the stairs...lol.

I love watching him learn and grow.