Spring NE RU - Saturday June 28th 2008 - Part 2

Yeah, Celeste, you looked great!

As a normally short haired person, I know how you feel, Celeste. I try to grow mine out and get it down to chin length every few winters. The rest of the time, I can't get it short enough soon enough. (Then I resent having to pay a hair dresser. If I were a guy, it would cost $8!)

60,000,000 years ago I had very long, very curly hair - think Amy's hair on my face. I used to cut it myself. Very cost effective.

I spent many many years SITTING on my hair it was that long.
Then I became a Mother of 5......HELLO SHORT & SASSY!!!

Gee, mine never got that long; it grew more out than down. Motherhood definitely helps clarify the short vs. long decision!

When I used to carry DS around in a backpack carrier, he'd grab my hair. Immediately, I never wore earrings again, and shaved my head. Yup! I SHAVED it! I kept it that way until DS turned two and he was too heavy to carry on my back. So, mine wasn't as long or curly as yours, but I'll bet it was shorter! He he!

Do you have any pictures?!

Ha ha David!

Harper, I never carried my kids on my back, always on my front. Facing me when they were tiny, facing out as of about 6 mos old. We had a big backpack thing for my XH to carry them on his back but for whatever reason he never really used it. . .

Both my kids weren't too crazy about those carriers, I ended up with really huge biceps.

I'm with you Jen. I thought that's what hips were for!

Ahh, but I always needed at least one hand to steer the wheelchair. I carried my baby brother on my hip though, I know egg-zactly what you mean!

No pictures I care to post. Sorry Dave.

When DS was little, I was living in the city, and had to walk everywhere and take the subway. Struggling in and out of shop doors, through narrow aisles and up and down subway stairs was a pain with a stroller. The backpack was great for that. I did have a sling style carrier for when he was younger. The sling was great. I could nurse him and carry him at the same time. He could face forward, inward, lay down, or straddle my hip when he got bigger. He was such a clingy baby too. No wonder he loved the sling!

Nursing him and carrying him at the same time? Mine never latched on quite that firmly, but then, you couldn't nurse from my kind of front pack, and my MDs all seemed to be against nursing, anyway. (What a funny idea that seems, in the 1990s, MDs against nursing?) Let's instead say they were intent on the girls gaining weight.

Any lasting ill effects of clinginess, Harper?

He loves me dearly.

I was willing to starve him before switching to the bottle. He finally ate and ate well.

#1 was half bottle half formula until we were on a long plane flight and she liked me better. (Ha ha ha!) Afterward I thought I had been a pushover, I should have stood my ground with the MD. My whole second pregnancy I planned how she was going to be 0% bottle, 100% Mom.

#2 was literally slipping off the weight charts - she was discharged (at 48 hours old) at 4 lbs. 15 oz. and at 6 weeks (maybe 4 maybe 8, I can't remember) she was still 4 lbs. 15 oz. I said but she's not hungry, she's not waking up to eat, she's not crying, and the MD said stick a bottle in her mouth. Her brain is about to not develop. It didn't help that I broke my ankle when she was four days old and had to spend ten hours in the ER not drinking. In case I had to have surgery. Which I did, twice! Everyone I knew who was nursing at the time (2 or 3 other women) all either expressed milk to give her or nursed her while I couldn't. She never really was a good nurser even with women who were leaking milk (it was her fault, not!) and her father totally did not get that it was important or might make a difference about anything. I was trying to do half formula and half nursed but he was supposed to bring her to me for the nursing ones and with my foot in a cast, at that point I couldn't carry her around, she had to be brought to me. So as he wasn't on board with the program, she got weaned at maybe four or five months old.

Now she's overweight and has bad asthma and allergies. #1 outgrew her asthma and has manageable allergies. I'm blaming the Ex.

I started out feeling the same as you, Harper, I was willing to let #1 find her own pace for gaining weight. MD intimidated me and I allowed myself to be intimidated. #2 I held out much longer and worked much harder (pumped, apparatus to teach her to nurse, etc. ?) but they scared me with their charts about her brain and her flat line, not that she wasn't gaining enough weight fast enough, but that she was barely holding her own!

Ah, but now #1 is off to college and #2 a straight A student! All's well that ends well. I'm still a little sad, I guess. And boy are we a long way from RU #2!!!

That would've scared me into giving the baby a bottle too, Carrie. Don't feel bad. My siblings and I never had a drop of breast milk and we're all okay. That was in the 60's, too!

I found another hummingbird cake recipe that used a lot less oil..... I just added a cup and a half of coconut to this recipe ...first time trying it today... wish me luck

http://www.joyofbaking.com/HummingbirdCake.html

Oh, please let us know, Allison! Looks yummy, though.

well the part of the cake I had to level off after baking... was real good with the icing... just had to try it... couldn't wait for tonight

:)

Looking at the pic makes me want to go make 1 right now. YUMMMMMM

Let me know how it turns out. I'll let Mom know.
There are lots of variations of the cake.
Mom doesn't remember where she got the one she uses.

Nancy

it came out perfect.... now I wish I tried your cake when I was at Kassia's .... I can't compare the two ... but with 40 people at this party yesterday it was gone before I knew it.... I was goofing on everyone asking what kind of cake it was... and told them well first you pull the wings and feathers off

LOL

and Nancy there are tons of versions of the cake... I looked for the closest one... even with just adding the coconut the moisture was perfect... and I actually got a compliment on the frosting... so thanks for sharing your family cake... it's staying in my cake section with the red velvet cake my friends mom used to make us when we were kids

now that's a recipe that made me dizzy... such a short explanation how to put everything together.... so I looked that one up too... and found one very close to hers .... I made the cake for my friends family the Christmas after she passed... I cried when the brother emailed me and said it was like she was here having that flavor again.. and thanked me for reminding the family of the good days they spent together.... none of them could believe I remembered having that cake since it has been so long since she made one... but it proved to me the power of cooking

Taste and smell are very strong memory cues, don't you think?

yes I do

I'm glad everyon liked the cake, Allison.
Whenever Mom makes it, it always goes F-A-S-T!

You're right about memory cues, Carrie.
I have Santolina growing in a pot.
I bought it about 3 years ago. When I got a whiff of the fragrance in the garden center, It reminded me of my Great-Aunt Edna, who I adored. She always had sachets in her dresser drawers. The Santolina brought that memory back - although Mom thinks the sachets were actually lavendar. LOL!

Nancy

I think smell is very primal. I remember once being hit the memories of an old flame. I couldn't understand why or make sense of the intensity of the feeling. Then I figured out someone was wearing the same scent she wore.

I agree, Dave, with your statement about the emotional intensity that a scent can unleash. A while ago I caught a whiff of my grandfather's aftershave--was it Aqua Velva?--and was instantly transported back to those summer vacations when we grandkids used to visit for family reunions. It was so immediate: I was THERE, in the house where my mom grew up--that I hadn't visited for 50 years.

it is amazing

I was cutting back yarrow, and all of a sudden I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that my gardening grandmother, whom I never had a conversation about flowers with and who never told me thing one about which plant was which, but who had lovely perennial borders in Maine, had yarrow in them. I knew because of the smell of the foliage. Not the look of the flowers!!!

It's amazing!
We all smell!

Some of us use deodrant! :)

Some men have hardly any sense of smell, I've found. ^_^

If they don't smell, they are harder to find.

I have no sense of smell at all. I can remember what some things smell like, but I can't smell a thing.

I heard smell and taste are connected, is that true?

Among some couples...

Yes, Nance, that's why if your nose is stuffed up everything tastes like cardboard and if a kid has to eat something nasty (his vegetables, for instance) he'll hold his nose to make the taste less objectionable.

Hey, welcome back Victor. How was Maine?

If I remember, you only "taste" bitter, sweet, salt and sour. The rest of what we call taste is from our smell.

Victor, where in Maine where you?

All I can taste is sour, sweet, salt, and spices ex. hot. The only thing I go on is my memory. I cant smell nothing either. Its been like 7 years. It is so pitiful that I put the dogs in the car and took them to where my husband works. He walked up to the car and stood back. One of the dogs got it by a skunk, yes I had the windows rolled up and never knew it. I was the talk for a few days.

My mother lost her taste and smell. She did not smoke. So is it passed down? I think it is a vitamin thing.