Long story short, my Google searches for nursing bridesmaid dresses brought me to an awesome breastfeeding fashion blog Milkfriendly.  Let me first say, this chick is amazing.  She actually manages to make boobie-accessible clothing look good.  Damn good.  Definitely worth checking out. 

And, Milkfriendly’s writer, Maryam, is also the co-owner and co-founder of Green Your Air, a company that sells houseplants that help clean your house of nasty toxins and such.  Our houses are filled with all sorts of toxins – paint fumes, cheap wood furniture, and cleaning products, all that can off gas very dangerous chemicals into our indoor air.  The Green Your Air website offers more in-depth information and the scientific research behind this idea, which you can find here.

Oh, and I did I mention that the containers are adorable?  They would make a nice gift…hmmm, maybe for a future engagement party I will be invited to?  I especially like their baby gift idea – a mini plant in either a pink or blue planter.  Both my friend Kari and my sister-in-law Sam are pregnant with their third baby (and due about the same time!), and honestly, isn’t it hard to buy something for the experienced mom?  I mean, they already own all the necessities, and unless the baby is of a different gender (Kari has all boys and Sam has all girls), clothes are superfluous.  But I love the idea of a cute plant that actually does baby good.

If you’re interested in buying a plant, you can use the code MILKFRIENDLY until January 22nd to get 25% off.  Enjoy!

Update: Hello readers!  You can also use the code MARYD25 until January 22nd to get 25% off your plants as well!

Interestingly, tonight I nursed Frankie around 8:00 (a little early for us, but he didn’t nap long), and when I brought him upstairs, he woke up and sort of rolled around in the crib a bit.  I tried rubbing his back and humming this little hum song from Kimya Dawson that I love, and then resorted to rocking him and humming and rubbing.  He wasn’t asleep, but I was getting tired and started thinking, hmmm, maybe it’s Daddy’s turn now?  So I laid him down, and, lo and behold, he curled up and has been sleeping soundly for about an hour.  Is this the path to self-soothing?  We’ll see how it goes.

Repeat after me: he will be weaned before college.  He will be weaned before college.  He will be weaned before college.  (Note: this saying also works well by replacing weaned with sleep through the night/co-sleeping/potty trained/feeding himself/hurling himself to the floor in fits of temper.  That last one might happen during college).

After the chaos of Christmas and traveling to Chicago and trying to see as many family and friends as possible and traveling back to Springfield and unpacking and trying to the little guy back onto some sort of sleep routine (aren’t you tired just reading all that?), coming back home and settling into 2012 feels refreshing.  But also inspiring.  This is it.  This is the year.  The year we get our acts together.  The year where everything has a place.  The year where I can actually find my SS card without shedding a tear at the piles of a paperwork.

So new year’s resolution #2: Get organized. 

And, lest I remind my readers (hi Mom!) of the purpose of this blog, new year’s resolution #3 is be greener.  We are already a shade greener than the majority of people – we recycle, we cloth diaper, I reuse containers.  You know, the easy stuff.  But there are some things that I think we could do much, much better.  Like more diy, eating more organic (or, rather, find room in our budget for more organic), and just in general being even more conscious of our actions.

And because I’m so anal retentive, I made cute little lists my year o’ organizing and year o’ greening:

The plan is to tackle one thing at a time.  A problem I always have is that I get an idea in my head, go full speed ahead with it, get majorly burnt out, and then nothing happens.  So this time around, I’m trying to do one thing a month: organize and declutter one room at a time, add one thing organic to our diet, and make one thing from scratch.  It looks so simple on paper, right?  Of course, now that I’ve announced this whole plan to the internet world, I have to follow through.  Crap.

As I mentioned before, we had Early Intervention come out and evaluate Frankie.  You know that nagging feeling in the back of your head that tells you something is amiss?  Well, I listened to that voice.  Turns out that our little guy is Mr. Sensitivity, in that he does have a few developmental delays (mostly speech and a little cognitive) that, the theory is, are due to his hyper sensitivity to his surroundings.  In other words, he gets so worked up over large crowds, change, and his environment in general that it prohibits him from learning as quickly as other kids.

What does this mean for Frankie?  He gets one-on-one time with a speech, developmental, and occupational therapists.  What does this mean for Mommie?  That I get some feedback and some tips for how to deal with a hyper-sensitive little guy who easily has complete meltdowns in front of people.  I’m really looking forward to the sessions; rather than think, oh no there’s something wrong with my baby, I have the attitude of YES!  It’s not just in  my head!  He really does need the extra help!

Hopefully this will help us get through the holidays.  I know that people mean well when they want to see Frankie, but seriously, you need to get out of my kid’s face – he doesn’t like it!  Can’t you see he’s arching backwards away from you?  Parties are rough like that.  He clings to me, and generally wants nothing to do with our relatives.  And of course, I sit there and wonder how many of them are thinking what a bad/enabler/martyr/overprotective mother I am.

So anyways…I just wanted to vent about that.  Maybe no one’s looking at me and my kid.  Or maybe I should just not give a shit.

Me: What do you want to have for dinner?

Hubby: I thought we were having chili.

Me: Yeah, but I didn’t take the meat out until this morning, and it’s still all hard and frozen, so it’s not ready, and we have that speech therapist for Frankie coming at 6:00, so our schedule is really tight. So maybe just throw in that pizza?

Hubby: (smiling) So, are you telling me that you took out the meat and it’s still hard, and so it’s going to be tight?

Me: (silent, and then) Yes.

Literally every single time that I tell my husband that I’m taking out the meat for dinner tomorrow, he snickers. The man’s mind is in a constant state of perversion. But he makes me laugh.

Honey, this is why I married you.

But these turned out nice.  Cute, no?  Frankie looks a little stoned, but that’s better than screaming bloody murder.

So far, he’s been evaluated by a physical therapist, a developmental therapist, and a speech therapist, and it does appear that he has a slight delay, since he’s not talking yet and has some sensory issues (certain noises and situations easily upset him).  So we’re going to be seening these therapists once a week or so.  It actually made me feel BETTER to think that it’s not just me, and that he is a little more sensitive than other kids.  You know that nagging feeling in the back of your head that tells you something’s not right?  Well, I had that feeling.  Mother’s intuition, I suppose.  Does this mean that something’s wrong with Frankie?  Not at all – according to the therapists, he is perfectly healthy and has no physical problems, but he may need a little extra attention and a “push” in the right direction.  His sensory issues make him more stressed out than normal, which means he’s more focused on that stress than on exploring and learning.  But that’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a little nurturing and extra attention.

Anyhoo, here’s the funny part: after he saw the physical therapist for an evaluation, he started walking.  May I remind you that before this, he refused to walk, even when holding both of our hands?  And after this woman played games with him for an hour, he started walking all over the place holding onto ONE hand.  And after doing that for about two weeks, all of a sudden this past Saturday, he just took off.  The woman has the magic touch, I tell ya.

He thinks walking is hilarious!  He laughs almost the whole time while doing it.  And while he stills falls down and sometimes still wants to hold our hand, I can tell that each day he is getting stronger and stronger.  I’m so proud of my little guy!  See, I told you that he’s totally healthy, but that stubborn streak of his means that he won’t do something until he good and ready, darn it!

Here’s a video we took of Frankie’s first steps from this past Saturday. Please ignore my annoying, high pitched voice.  Do I really sound like that?

Frankie learns to walk! from Mary DiMaggio on Vimeo.

Friday:

• Vacuum up our house (since it’s all nasty and such) - DONE!
• Grocery shopping – Waited until Sunday (which was WAY too crowded, but DONE!)
• Finish washing and fold up cloth diapers to make it through the weekend - ummm, they’re still unfolded.  drag.
• Dinner date with hubby (well, sort of a date, since Frankie’s coming with) - a delicious and fatty meal of a cheeseburger & beer at TGIFridays. yum!

Saturday:

• Go through Christmas gifts already purchased and make up Christmas shopping list - half done – need to make a decisive shopping list 
• Take cute family picture for Christmas cards – didn’t happen, but…
• Order Christmas cards! - DONE! used a pic from Sept, which I’ll post soon
• Listen to Christmas music online while doing these activities, and ignore complaints from anyone that it’s not even Thanksgiving yet.  It’s Christmastime in my world, people! sadly, between football games and chasing after Frankie, this didn’t happen

Sunday:

• Take Frankie out for some family time – a walk, indoor play area, or something - we took Frankie to the mall and he had tons of fun in the play area and on the carousal
• Try to wake up hubby and Frankie on time to try (TRY!) to attend church.  One more time: Try! - sorry Jesus, but this didn’t happen
• Buy weekly newspaper and organize coupons - bought the paper, but no organizing occurred.  Coupons still in a random pile on my desk.

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Our weekend is wide open, which means I need to fill it up!  Our good friends Paul and Erin were supposed to come and visit, but unfortunately their darling baby girl Leah got sick a couple of days ago.    Feel better, Leah!

So, how should I spend the weekend?

Friday:

• Vacuum up our house (since it’s all nasty and such)
• Grocery shopping
• Finish washing and fold up cloth diapers to make it through the weekend
• Dinner date with hubby (well, sort of a date, since Frankie’s coming with)

Saturday:

• Go through Christmas gifts already purchased and make up Christmas shopping list
• Take cute family picture for Christmas cards
• Order Christmas cards!
• Listen to Christmas music online while doing these activities, and ignore complaints from anyone that it’s not even Thanksgiving yet.  It’s Christmastime in my world, people!

Sunday:

• Take Frankie out for some family time – a walk, indoor play area, or something
• Try to wake up hubby and Frankie on time to try (TRY!) to attend church.  One more time: Try!
• Buy weekly newspaper and organize coupons

What are you doing this weekend?

Saturday Night Live – Cooking with the Anal Rententive Chef – Video – http://www.nbc.com.

In any case, the wonders of the internet have shown me that there are others like me out there, other who delight in list making, cleaning, organizing, reorganizing, labeling and relabeling, and then sitting back, admiring these tasks.  I’m not a cook, I’m not a sewer, I’m a cleaner and organizer.  Yup, the tasks that most people hate.  (Luckily, Hubby doesn’t mind cooking, but he’s terrible at the cleaning part.  Seriously, your marriage will be much happier if you can find someone who prefers to cook while you clean, or clean while you cook.  And that’s your marriage therapy lesson for the day).

Anyways, the problem I’ve found since I started staying home is that I AM the Anal Retentive Chef: I want to do things JUST SO, and I get easily sidetracked into meaningless chores.  Like, I need to fold the laundry, but instead I put Frankie’s toys away for the 20th time that day.  Or I won’t let myself vacuum until the room is decluttered, which WILL NEVER HAPPEN.

But then I found the Fly Lady’s website, and she has seriously changed my perspective.  (She’s widely popular online, so please forgive me if I act like I found something new.  I was homeschooled and I never had cable growing up, so I don’t know about things like trends or popularity or how to be cool).  It’s a whole website devoted to cleaning and scheduling your time – see, I told you that there’s other sick people out there.  And while I don’t like everything she does, she has some basic ideas that I like, like having a morning and evening routine, writing everything down, and only spending 15 minutes a day organizing/decluttering/etc.  And her biggest message is that little steps will eventually help you get your house in order, and not to let yourself feel like you’re constantly behind. 

Am I the only person out there that can’t relax in clutter?  I hate clutter and messes, and they make anxious.  There.  I said it.  I know this makes me uncool (not that the whole homeschooling thing already didn’t do that).  I know this is far from the I’m-too-cool-to-clean, I-have-better-things-to-do attitude that, trust me, I am envious of, but that’s not me.  I want order.  I want labels.  I want everything in its place.  Of course, I never feel like I have that because I’VE MOVED ONCE A YEAR FOR THE PAST DECADE!  ONCE A YEAR!  Do you know what that’s like for anal retentive people?

Well, back to the Fly Lady.  I went through her website, and like I said, I don’t follow everything that she does, but I do like the idea of the routines and only spending 15 a day on cleaning/organizing.  I know it sounds strange, but it’s actually quite liberating to know that once the routine is done, and once the 15 minutes are up, YOU’RE DONE for the day.

Here’s the little routine I came up with.  Granted, many days only some things happen, and sometimes none of it happens, thanks to a certain little toddler who won’t let me sleep.  But it’s what I strive for, and I think it’s totally feasible.  The things marked in italics are the steps that I currently find a hard time working in.

Morning Routine:

• Make bed immediately
• Get dressed, wash face, and fix my hair
• Wipe down bathroom
• Change Frankie’s diaper and get him dressed for the day
• Bring a load of laundry downstairs
• Breakfast and coffee with Frankie

Afternoon Routine / The Mad Scramble During Naptime

• Empty dishwasher from the night before
• Wash dishes from breakfast and lunch
• Toss the laundry into the dryer (or into the wash if not already)
• Write a blog post
• Fold laundry and put away
• 15 minutes of decluttering or organizing, according to FlyLady zones

Before Bed Routine

• Kitchen: wash dishes, run dishwasher, clean counters, and sweep floor
• Think about dinner for tomorrow (i.e. take out any meat to defrost)
• Living Room: general pickup
• Think about activities tomorrow: pack diaper bag, find keys and wallet, make grocery list, etc.
• Lay out clothes for tomorrow for me and for Frankie
• Wipe down downstairs bathroom
• Take a shower

It’s really not THAT bad of a list - seriously, you should see some of the lists that I used to come up with.  God Himself would take one look at the list and tell me that even He rested every now and then.  What I like about the Fly Lady’s approach is that it’s simple, straightforward, and thinking ahead.  Such as, planning your day the night before?  Genius!  Getting dressed first thing in the morning and not lying around in your pajamas until 2 pm?  Brilliant! 

Feeding your inner OCD? Surprisingly comforting.